首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
(1) The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of nature
(1) The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of nature
admin
2017-02-25
91
问题
(1) The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of nature, and a keen relish for the pleasures and employments of the country. This passion seems inherent in them. Even the inhabitants of cities, born and brought up among brick walls and bustling streets, enter with facility into rural habits, and evince a tact for rural occupation. The merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity of the metropolis, where he often displays as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his flower-garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does in the conduct of his business, and the success of a commercial enterprise. Even those less fortunate individuals, who are doomed to pass their lives in the midst of din and traffic, contrive to have something that shall remind them of the green aspect of nature. In the most dark and dingy quarters of the city, the drawing-room window resembles frequently a bank of flowers; every spot capable of vegetation has its grass-plot and flower-bed; and every square its mimic park, laid out with picturesque taste, and gleaming with refreshing verdure.
(2) Those who see the Englishman only in town, are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character. He is either absorbed in business, or distracted by the thousand engagements that dissipate time, thought, and feeling, in this huge metropolis. He has, therefore, too commonly, a look of hurry and abstraction. Wherever he happens to be, he is on the point of going somewhere else; at the moment he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to another; and while paying a friendly visit, he is calculating how he shall economize time so as to pay the other visits allotted to the morning. An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. In their casual and transient meetings, they can but deal briefly in commonplaces. They present but the cold superficies of character—its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow.
(3) It is in the country that the Englishman gives scope to his natural feelings. He breaks loose gladly from the cold formalities and negative civilities of town; throws off his habits of shy reserve, and becomes joyous and free-hearted. He manages to collect round him all the conveniences and elegancies of polite life, and to banish its restraints. His country-seat abounds with every requisite, either for studious retirement, tasteful gratification, or rural exercise. Books, paintings, musk, horses, dogs, and sporting implements of all kinds, are at hand. He puts no constraint, either upon his guests or himself, but, in the true spirit of hospitality, provides the means of enjoyment, and leaves every one to partake according to his inclination.
(4) The taste of the English in the cultivation of land, and in what is called landscape gardening, is unrivalled. They have studied Nature intently, and discovered an exquisite sense of her beautiful forms and harmonious combinations. Those charms which, in other countries, she lavishes in wild solitudes, are here assembled round the haunts of domestic life. They seem to have caught her coy and furtive graces, and spread them, like witchery, about their rural abodes.
(5) Nothing can be more imposing than the magnificence of English park scenery. Vast lawns that extend like sheets of vivid green, with here and there clumps of gigantic trees, heaping up rich piles of foliage. The solemn pomp of groves and woodland glades, with the deer trooping in silent herds across them; the hare, bounding away to the covert; or the pheasant;, suddenly bursting upon the wing. The brook, taught to wind in natural meanderings, or expand into a glassy lake—the sequestered pool, reflecting the quivering trees, with the yellow leaf sleeping on its bosom, and the trout roaming fearlessly about its limpid waters; while some rustic temple, or sylvan statue, grown green and dank with age, gives an air of classic sanctity to the seclusion.
(6) These are but a few of the features of park scenery; but what most delights me, is the creative talent with which the English decorate the unostentatious abodes of middle life. The rudest habitation, the most unpromising and scanty portion of land, in the hands of an Englishman of taste, becomes a little paradise. With a nicely discriminating eye, he seizes at once upon its capabilities, and pictures in his mind the future landscape. The sterile spot grows into loveliness under his hand; and yet the operations of art which produce the effect are scarcely to be perceived. The cherishing and training of some trees; the cautious pruning of others; the nice distribution of flowers and plants of tender and graceful foliage; the introduction of a green slope of velvet turf; the partial opening to a peep of blue distance, or silver gleam of water;-all these are managed with a delicate tact, a pervading yet quiet assiduity, like the magic touchings with which a painter finishes up a favorite picture.
(7) The residence of people of fortune and refinement in the country, has diffused a degree of taste and elegance in rural economy that descends to the lowest class. The very laborer, with his thatched cottage and narrow slip of ground, attends to their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass-plot before the door, the little flower-bed bordered with snug box, the woodbine trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms about the lattice; the pot of flowers in the window; the holly, providently planted about the house, to cheat winter of its dreariness, and to throw in a semblance of green summer to cheer the fireside; all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind. If ever Love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be the cottage of an English peasant.
(8) The fondness for rural life among the higher classes of the English has had a great and salutary effect upon the national character. I do not know a finer race of men than the English gentlemen. Instead of the softness and effeminacy which characterize the men of rank in most countries, they exhibit a union of elegance and strength, a robustness of frame and freshness of complexion, which I am inclined to attribute to their living so much in the open air, and pursuing so eagerly the invigorating recreations of the country.
In Para. 7, the word "diffuse" means _____.
选项
A、spread
B、scatter
C、disperse
D、inject
答案
A
解析
根据第7段第1句中的that descends to the lowest class及下文描述的“整个乡间也是蔚然成风”,可知diffuse在此处表示“传播”的意思。选项A的spread意为“传开,传播”,与diffuse意思相近,故为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/vZ7O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheheirtotheEnglishthroneisnamedthe______,whichwasinitiatedbyEdwardIin1301.
Language-basedlearningdisabilitiesareproblemswithage-appropriatereading,spelling,and/orwriting.Thisdisorderisnot
Associetychanges,socialvaluesandlinguisticvaluesbegintodiverge.Languagecontainstraditionalvaluesthisiswhichis
Language-basedlearningdisabilitiesareproblemswithage-appropriatereading,spelling,and/orwriting.Thisdisorderisnot
Whenschoolstartseachyear,themostimportantquestiononthemindsofparentsandchildrenis,whowillmyteacherbe?Thec
Thebizarreanticsofsleepwalkershavepuzzledpolice,perplexedscientists,andfascinatedwritersforcenturies.Thereisan
Comparedwiththesystemsinotherindustrializedcountries,theAmericanunemployment-insurance(Ul)schemepayslowerbenefitsf
Whichofthefollowingpropertyoflanguageenableslanguageuserstoovercomethebarrierscausedbytimeandplace?
PASSAGETWO
Languagepervadessociallife.Itistheprincipalvehicleforthetransmissionofculturalknowledge,andtheprimarymeansby
随机试题
某孕妇怀孕24周,被诊断为妊娠子痫,病情较重危及孕妇生命,医生决定给予引产。此医疗处置符合哪项道德原则
甲公司欠银行200万元贷款,现该公司将一部分资产分离出去,成立乙公司。则在公司分立后,应由谁对这笔债务承担清偿责任?()
下列关于土地证书填写方法叙述不正确的是()。
利率提高会导致房地产价格上升,需求加大。()
二氧化氯极不稳定,常以水溶液形式或现场制取使用,试计算50000m3/d规模的水厂,如采用NaClO2与Cl2制取ClO2,平均加气量为1mg/L。计划建造一座40%NaClO2储存量为30天的储液池,该池容积应为()。(溶液相对密度以1计,
建设工程信息分为组织类、管理类、经济类和技术类多种。下列项目信息中,属于经济类信息的是()。
某公司办公楼地上共9层,建筑高度为28m,耐火等级为二级,每层建筑面积为1000m2,设置为一个防火分区,该建筑为“L”形外廊式建筑,“L”形建筑长边为45.6m、短边为22.20m,均采用不燃烧材料装修,办公场所设有计算机、复印机等办公用电子设备。办公楼
公路零担货物运输系指同一货物托运人托运的货物不超过()。
某县政府依据田某的申请作出复议决定,撤销该县车管所对田某车辆的错误登记,责令其在30日内重新登记,但某县车管所拒绝进行重新登记。田某可以采取的措施是()。
下列人员可以被录用为公务员的是:
最新回复
(
0
)