2015考研英语作文素材精选 (四)
考研英语作文是一个考察综合运用语言的部分，需要同学们运用逻辑思维下笔成文，因此，考前看一些意义深远、质量好的文章很有必要。以下是2015考研英语作文备考素材精选，请作参考。2015考研英语作文素材精选 (四)
13 Skyscrapers and Environment
In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to
environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely
criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city
often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In
one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office
space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000
kilowatts-enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or
gain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through
a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on
heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to
use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or
gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled
skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring
buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If
fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone
generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-as much as a city the size
of Stanford, Connecticut , which has a population of more than 109, 000.
14 A Rare Fossil Record
The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the
fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers
or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized. Ichthyosaurs had a
higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as
marine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion.
Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of
soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swift currents and
waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial. Given these
factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur
fossils.
The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for
analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales
deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands of specimens of
marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks.
The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is
the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos. Ichthyosaurs
with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small
area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers
of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their
physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One
specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains
the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are
so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry
operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the
fossils. But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how
there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular
place very close to their time of giving birth.
15 The Nobel Academy
For the last 82years, Sweden's Nobel Academy has decided who will receive
the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the
great and the near great to the immortal. But today the Academy is coming under
heavy criticism both from the without and from within. Critics contend that the
selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than
with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself.
According to Ingmar Bjorksten , the cultural editor for one of the country's two
major newspapers, the prize continues to represent "what people call a very
Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes."
The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in
its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary
capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside
influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance
may also be responsible for the Academy's inability to perceive accurately
authentic trends in the literary world.
Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that
the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that
we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If for no other
reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that
accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also
dramatically increases sales of an author's books.
16. the war between Britain and France
In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner of
Europe, as well as in the Middle East, south Africa ,the West Indies, and Latin
America. In reality, however, there was only one major war during this time, the
war between Britain and France. All other battles were ancillary to this larger
conflict, and were often at least partially related to its antagonist' goals and
strategies. France sought total domination of Europe . this goal was obstructed
by British independence and Britain's efforts throughout the continent to thwart
Napoleon; through treaties. Britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concept
to today's NATO) guaranteeing British participation in all major European
conflicts. These two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very
unequal strengths; France was predominant on land, Britain at sea. The French
knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory was
to close all the ports of Europe to British ships. Accordingly, France set out
to overcome Britain by extending its military domination from Moscow t Lisbon,
from Jutland to Calabria. All of this entailed tremendous risk, because France
did not have the military resources to control this much territory and still
protect itself and maintain order at home.
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