Question

求两篇英语美文,120词左右

Answer 1

Knowledge and Progress
[00:00.42]Passage 7.Knowledge and Progress
[00:03.71]Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?
[00:09.18]Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us
[00:14.76]and is becoming more and more manifest.
[00:17.49]Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality,
[00:23.40]it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.
[00:28.11]Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual
[00:34.23]could be communicated to another by means of speech.
[00:37.85]With the invention of writing,a great advance was made,
[00:41.89]for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.
[00:47.15]Libraries made education possible,and education in its turn added to libraries:
[00:54.36]the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,
[00:58.09]which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.
[01:01.37]All this was comparatively slow until,with the coming of science,
[01:06.40]the tempo was suddenly raised.
[01:08.26]Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.
[01:13.29]The trickle became a stream;
[01:16.14]the stream has now become a torrent.
[01:18.33]Moreover,as soon as new knowledge is acquired,it is now turned to practical account.
[01:24.89]What is called “modern civilization” is not the result of a balanced development of all man’s nature,
[01:31.78]but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.
[01:35.72]The problem now facing humanity is:
[01:39.00]What is going to be done with all this knowledge?
[01:41.85]As is so often pointed out,knowledge is a two-edged weapon
[01:46.77]which can be used equally for good or evil.
[01:50.05]It is now being used indifferently for both.
[01:53.23]Could any spectacle,for instance,be more grimly weird
[01:56.95]than that of gunners using science to shatter men’s bodies while,close at hand,
[02:01.87]surgeons use it to restore them?
[02:03.95]We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge,
[02:10.29]with its ever-increasing power,continues.