課外英語閱讀文章

　　小編今天給大家分享一下課外的一些英語文章，這些文章雖然沒有聯絡到課文知識，但是多看也可以提高大家的寫作水平，有空的同學們可以多看一些一樣的文章，這樣可以有助提高自己的英語寫作能力哦

　　公眾的利益 In the public interest

　　The Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from high-handed or incompetent public officers. The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too.

　　斯堪的納維亞半島各國實行的開明的社會政策，受到全世界的推崇。在瑞典，已逐漸形成了一種完善的制度以保護每個公民不受專橫的和不稱職的政府官員的欺壓。由於這種制度行之有效，已被其他國家採納。

　　The Swedes were the first to recognize that public officials like civil servants, police officers, health inspectors or tax-collectors can make mistakes or act over-zealously in the belief that they are serving the public. As long ago as 1809, the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to safeguard the interest of the individual. A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a person who is suitably qualified to investigate private grievances against the State. The official title of the person is 'Justiteombudsman', but the Swedes commonly refer to him as the 'J. O.' or 'Ombudsman'. The Ombudsman is not subject to political pressure. He investigates complaints large and small that come to him from all levels of society. As complaints must be made in writing, the Ombudsman receives an average of 1, 200 letters a year. He has eight lawyer assistants to help him and he examines every single letter in detail. There is nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work, for his correspondence is open to public inspection. If a citizen's complaint is justified, the Ombudsman will act on his behalf. The action he takes varies according to the nature of the complaint. He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law be altered. The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work. From

　　是瑞典人首先認識到政府工作人員如文職人員、警官、衛生稽查員、稅務人員等等也會犯錯誤或者自以為在為公眾服務而把事情做過了頭。早在1809年，瑞典議會就建立了一個保護公民利益的制度。議會內有一個代表各政黨利益的委員會，由它委派一位稱職的人選專門調查個人對國家的意見。此人官銜為“司法特派員”，但瑞典人一般都管他叫“J.O.”，即“司法特派員”。司法特派員不受任何政治壓力的制約。他聽取社會各階層的各種大小意見，並進行調查。由於意見均需用書面形式提出，司法特派員每年平均收到1，200封信。他有8位律帥做他的助手協助工作，每封信都詳細批閱。司法特派員的工作沒有什麼祕密可言，他的信件是公開的，供公眾監督。如果公民的意見正確，司法特派員便為他伸張正義。司法特派員採取的行動因意見的性質不同而有所不同。他可以善意地批評某位官員，也可以甚至向議會提議修改某項法律。下述事件是司法特派員工作的一個典型例子。

　　A foreigner living in a Swedish village wrote to the Ombudsman complaining that he had been ill-treated by the police, simply because he was a foreigner. The Ombudsman immediately wrote to the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a record of the case. There was nothing in tthe record to show that the foreigner's complaint was justified and the Chief of Police strongly denied the accusation. It was impossible for the Ombudsman to take action, but when he received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village, he immediately sent one of his lawyers to investigate the matter. The lawyer ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners on several occasions. The fact that the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could not be recorded in the official files. It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to check the facts. The policeman in question was severely reprimanded and was informed that if any further complaints were lodged against him, he would be prosecuted. The Ombudsman's prompt action at once put an end to an unpleasant practice which might have gone unnoticed.

　　一個住在瑞典鄉村的外國人寫信給司法特派員，抱怨說他受到警察虐待，原因就是因為他是個外國人。司法特派員立即寫信給當地的警察局長，請他寄送與此事有關的材料。材料中沒有任何文字記載證明外國人所說的情況符合事實，警察局長矢口否認這一指控。司法特派員難以處理。但是，當他又收到住在同一村莊的另一個外國人寫的一封內容類似的投訴信時，他立即派出一位律師前去調查。律師證實有個警察確實多次粗魯地對待外國人。警察歧視外國人的事在官方檔案中不可能加以記載，司法特派員只有派他的代表去核對事實才能瞭解真相。當事的警察受到嚴厲斥責，並被告知，如果再有人投訴他，他將受到起訴。司法特派員及時採取的行動，迅速制止了這一起不愉快的事件，不然這件事可能因未得到人們注意而不了了之。

　　不要傷害蜘蛛 Spare that spider

　　Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.

　　你可能會覺得奇怪，蜘蛛怎麼會是我們的朋友呢?因為它們能消滅那麼多的昆蟲，其中包括一些人類的大敵。要不是人類受一些食蟲動物的保護，昆蟲就會使我們無法在地球上生活下去，昆蟲會吞食我們的全部莊稼，殺死我們的成群的牛羊。我們要十分感謝那些吃昆蟲的鳥和獸，然而把它們所殺死的昆蟲全部加在一起也只相當於蜘蛛所消滅的一小部分。此外，蜘蛛不同於其他食蟲動物，它們絲毫不危害我們和我們的財物。

　　Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.

　　許多人認為蜘蛛是昆蟲，但它們不是昆蟲，甚至與昆蟲毫無關係。人們幾乎一眼就能看出二者的差異，因為蜘蛛都是8條腿，而昆蟲的腿從不超過6條。

　　How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

　　有多少蜘蛛在為我們效力呢?一位研究蜘蛛的權威對英國南部一塊草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次調查。他估計每英畝草坪裡有225萬多隻蜘蛛。這就是說，在一個足球場上約有600萬隻不同種類的蜘蛛。蜘蛛至少有半年忙於吃昆蟲。它們一年中消滅了多少昆蟲，我們簡直無法猜測，它們是吃不飽的動物，不滿意一日三餐。據估計，在英國蜘蛛一年裡所消滅昆蟲的重量超過了這個國家人口的總重量。