大学英语周记范文30篇
大学英语周记范文30篇
Passage 1
The Road to Happiness
There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income, and who, nevertheless, are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from the animals than we are. Animals live on impulse, and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat, it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis on instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English-speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective, and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it.
A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured, and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism.
Passage 2
Love Is Difficult
It is good to love, but love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us — the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, and is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering or uniting with another person; it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves, may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them, who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves; it is the ultimate, it is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.
Passage 3
Business of Insurance Companies
Insurance companies do two types of business. One is general insurance against various forms of risk, and the other is long-term insurance which is mainly life insurance.
General insurers will agree to pay a person or company a sum of money in the event of something happening or not happening. It’s a big business today. If the project succeeds, shareholders in your company will expect to be paid a dividend. If you ask an insurer to underwrite your project, then he will require a payment in advance, a premium. If the project succeeds, he keeps the premium, but you don’t pay him anything else. Paying a premium to an insurer or underwriter is often cheaper than paying a dividend to shareholders. If fewer dividends are paid to shareholders, then more money can be kept as retention to finance the company’s next project.
Another type of insurance business is the life insurance. It differs basically from general insurance in that it is based not on risk but on certainty — the certainty that each of us will one day die. Life insurance is the basis of pension funds which provide for retirement and guard against other contingencies such as ill-health, but is best seen by the financial economist as a means of collecting many small savings to put together into large investments, in short, as a form of intermediation.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Some people feel sad or depressed during the winter months in northern areas of the world. They may have trouble eating or sleeping. They suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S-A-D.
Victims of S-A-D suffer its effects during the short, dark days of winter. The problems are most severe in the months when there are fewer hours of daylight. When spring arrives, these signs disappear and S-A-D victims feel well again.
The National Mental Health Association reports that S-A-D can affect anyone. The group says young people and women are at the highest risk for the disorder. It says that an estimated 25 percent of the American population suffers from some form of S-A-D. About 5 percent suffer from a severe form of the disorder. Many people in other parts of the world also have the condition.
The idea of health problems linked to a lack of light is not new. Scientists have discussed the issue since the beginning of medicine. More than two-thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates noted that the seasons affect human emotions.
Today, experts do not fully understand S-A-D, and yet they agree that it is a very real disorder.
To treat the disorder, victims of S-A-D do not need to wait until spring. Experts know that placing affected individuals in bright light each day eases the condition. There are other things people can do to ease the problem. They can increase the sunlight in their homes and workplaces and spend more time outdoors in the fresh air during the day.
One study found that walking for an hour in winter sunlight was as effective as spending two-and-one-half hours under bright light indoors.
Passage 5
Success Is a Choice
All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won’t be perfect, we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.
Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic events in your life, these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.
Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self delusion.
But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcame all difficulties during the Civil War to become our arguable greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.
There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.
Passage 6
Is Television a Blessing or a Curse?
It is universally accepted that television is playing an important part in people’s lives. But, there is an ongoing heated discussion as to whether television is a blessing or a curse.
Television keeps one better informed about current affairs, allows one to follow the latest developments in politics and science, and offers a great variety of programs which are both instructive and stimulating. The most distant countries, the strangest customs and the most attractive scenes of nature are brought right into one’s room or household.
However, some people insist that television is a curse rather than a blessing. They argue that it has brought about many serious problems. The major one is its effects on young people. Children are now so used to getting their information and entertainment from television that their literacy as well as physical ability has been greatly weakened. Even worse than that, vulgar commercials and indecent programs may cultivate their bad tastes, distort their view-points towards human life to such a degree that their minds might be corrupted.
To sum up, television has both advantages and disadvantages. What ever effects it has, one point is certain, television in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the use to which it is put that determines its value to society.
Few US Workers Who Could Telecommute Do So
One-quarter of the U.S. work force could be doing their jobs from home if all those able to telecommute chose to do so, and all those people working from home could translate into annual gasoline savings of $3.9 billion, according to the National Technology Readiness Survey. However, many still select to work at the office. The study found that 2 percent of U.S. workers telecommute full-time and another 9 percent do so part-time. But another 14 percent of workers have the option of telecommuting, or have jobs conductive to the practice but choose not to. “The numbers suggest that many people would rather work at the office even if their job allowed telecommuting,” said Professor P.K. Kannan, of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “That seems to suggest that even if employers were to say tomorrow that everybody had the option of telecommuting and you would save a lot of gas, that’s not going to happen. An hypothesis could be that people still need the ‘face time’ with their bosses. Another thing is people miss the social interaction, just being at home.” And with a median one-way commute of 10 miles and a median one-way commute time of 20 minutes, the daily trip for many workers is not that bad, he added. Of those who can already telecommute, most do so only one, two or three days per week, the study found.
Passage 8
The Wholeness of Life
There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.
Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you have gotten right, you are disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us — not “Be perfect”, but “Be whole”.
If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.
Passage 9
Workplace Friendships
A study into workplace relationships has found having a close friend at work can be a major distraction.
Respondents cited excessive chatting, having too much fun and an inability to separate work from play as contributing to a lack of focus.
“When faced with a work-related problem many people will prioritize their friendship over their responsibilities to their organization, which businesses may find concerning,” said psychologist and Auckland University of Technology lecturer, Dr. Rachel Morrison. “Workplace friendships are like a double-edged sword. The benefits of a friendly workplace can be really positive, but organizations should be aware of the potential difficulties and how to manage friendships at work.”
According to the study, many people were concerned about going “softer” with their friends and being expected to treat them with special privileges.
“People naturally want to make their friends feel special, but this conflicts with organizational practices or norms that are set up around fairness and equality. Difficulty in managing these expectations can create tension in the relationship.”
Respondents also experienced a great deal of anxiety about speaking to close friends about substandard work. A basic rule of friendship is being non-judgmental and accepting your friends weaknesses, but giving critical performance feedback conflicts with this.
“We also found issues related to confidentiality practices, which could mean friends have to refrain from sharing information. This can be really challenging for close friendships that have norms of openness and disclosure,” Dr. Morrison said.
Dr. Morrison said organizations should try to provide friendly environments and encourage workplace friendships, but have policies in place to manage potential difficulties.
Love Your Life
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it or call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the window of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgivings. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn to the old, turn to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Passage 11
Man Is Here for the Sake of Other Men
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, and yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know that man is here for the sake of other men — above all for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort and happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Passage 12
The Ways to Duck out of Work
Want to watch the World Cup in peace without the boss over your shoulder? Simple, con him. A British Internet site offered fans an ingenious range of ways to duck out of work so they can watch games in comfort. The timings of the games, in the early morning or at midday, have posed a dilemma to millions of soccer-mad Britons used to watching games in the evenings or at weekends and desperate to follow England and Ireland’s World Cup progress live. The British government has already urged employers to bow to the inevitable and take a flexible attitude to working hours or set up TV screens. “The last thing we want is the entire workforce taking an announced sickie on the day of a big match,” Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said. But British sports company Umbro was urging fans to take the matter into their own hands. Its Web site www. umbro.com was offering a convincing-looking false sick note signed by a fictitious doctor, F. Albright, to be printed off and taken to work in advance. Alternatively, its “Top Ten Bunk Off Ideas” included such improbable excuses as: “I will be late for work today because I have to pick my uncle up from the train station. He has two bags but only one arm.” For another game, a fan might claim: “My dog ate my car keys. We’re going to hitchhike to the vet.”
The First Calendar
Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record the history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily accumulates. What is more, they will not have to rely solely on the written word. Films, videos, CDs and CD-ROMs are just some of the bewildering amount of information they will have. They will be able, as it were, to see and hear us in action. But the historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from the few scanty clues available.
Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the advent of agriculture, for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.
Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines and symbols which have been engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusks of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age which began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases of the moon. It is, in fact, a primitive type of calendar. It seems that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.
Passage 14
How to Ask for a Raise
One of the most intimidating things to do in the business world is to ask for a raise at your current job. Sometimes, the boss just does not pay you enough money. So what do you do about it? There is a way to request a raise, but you had better be careful when doing that.
The best way to make more money within a company is to be in the direct flow of the cash. Companies will want to keep you around if you have some leverage. Being a direct cause of their profits is a great way to gain some leverage.
One mistake that people always seem to make is that they are never sure exactly how much money to ask for. If you are going to ask for a raise, then you should have some figure in mind of how much more you want. If you are successful in meeting with your boss and making your case, then it will look awful if you sit there with a blank stare as he asks you how much you want. Consider a realistic percentage, but be willing to negotiate in discuss. Do some research and figure out exactly how much folks make in your profession that have had similar experience and success.
Do not ask for a raise based solely upon your personal needs. Instead, concentrate solely on your achievements, merits, and worth concerning the company. By doing this, you will create a professional environment in which you will establish some leverage.
Passage 15
Police and Communities
Few institutions are more important to an urban community than its police, yet there are few subjects historians know so little about. Most of the early academic interests developed among political scientists and sociologists, who usually examined their own contemporary problems with only a nod toward the past. Even the public seemed concerned only during crime waves, periods of blatant corruption, or after a particularly grisly episode. Party regulars and reformers generally viewed the institution from a political perspective; newspapers and magazines — the nineteenth century’s media — emphasized the vivid and spectacular.
Yet urban society has always vested a wide, indeed awesome, responsibility in its police. Not only were they to maintain order, prevent crime, and protect life and property, but historically they were also to fight fires, suppress vice, assist in health services, supervise elections, direct traffic, inspect buildings, and locate truants and runaways. In addition, it was assumed that the police were the special guardians of the citizens’liberties and the community’s tranquility. Of course, the performance never matched expectations. The record contains some success, but mostly failure; some effective leadership, but largely official incompetence and betrayal. The notion of a professional police force in America is a creation of the twentieth century; not until our own time have cities begun to take the steps necessary to produce modern departments.
New York May Never Win Its War on Rats
Video of rats scampering across a New York City restaurant floor may have disturbed viewers worldwide but some experts say the rodents are less dangerous than other creatures drawn to restaurants — humans.
The video broadcast on television a week ago showed rats running wild at a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant just one day after the outlet had passed a city Health Department inspection.
It took a bite out of the share price of parent company Yum Brands Inc. and forced a city Health Department shake-up that removed the inspector who conducted the review from duty and led to 13 more restaurant closures on Thursday.
The owner of the KFC/Taco Bell franchise, ADF Companies, has closed 10 of its restaurants until they pass inspections, and the city closed three other restaurants because of unsanitary conditions or mice, the Health Department said.
Yum Brands on Friday hired an urban pest control expert to review standards at its New York City restaurants.
The Health Department warned that greater threats to public health include restaurant employees who fail to wash their hands or food stored at improper temperatures. One epidemiologist agreed. Still, the incident reinforces New York’s reputation of having a more severe rat problem than other big cities.
New York’s crowded quarters force restaurants to store trash indoors until it can be collected, providing rats with an indoor food source. In addition, New York’s real estate boom means construction is pervasive, scattering rats to a wider geographic area.
Passage 17
Beauty Industry
With a bit of “physical preparation” — artificial breast implants, a nose job and a little trimming of fat from the hips — you too can aspire to be Miss World. So says Venezuela’s latest candidate for the world beauty contest. Andreina Prieto admitted that were it not for the help of cosmetic surgery, she probably would not have made the line-up. The raven-haired 19-year-old was chosen from among 40 other contestants to represent the South American country at the Miss World competition in South Africa. Prieto, wearing a blue bikini, told reporters that prior to entering the competition, she had three separate operations: one to improve the shape of her nose, a liposuction to remove fat from her hips and breast implants. “If it wasn’t for that, I probably wouldn’t be here,” she said. She displayed a brilliant smile, but did not say if that too was the result of surgery. Oil-rich Venezuela takes the beauty industry very seriously and has gained a reputation as a “factory” of international beauty contest winners. Venezuelan women have won five Miss World titles and four Miss Universe crowns. A private company, the Miss Venezuela Organization, specializes in preparing candidates for the Miss World and Miss Universe contests, and spends around $72,000 on each contender, in clothes, diets and, of course, cosmetic surgery.
Passage 18
Population Growth
The growth of population during the past few centuries is no proof that population will continue to grow straight upward toward infinity and doom. On the contrary, demographic history offers evidence that population growth has not been at all constant. According to paleoecologist Edward Deevey, the past million years show three momentous changes. The first, a rapid increase in population around one million B. C., followed the innovations of tool-making and tool-using. But when the new power from the use of tools has been exploited, the rate of world population growth fell and became almost stable.
The next rapid jump in population started perhaps 10,000 years ago, when mankind began to keep herds, plow and plant the earth. Once again when initial productivity gains had been absorbed, the rate of population growth abated.
These two episodes suggest that the third great change, the present rapid growth, which began in the West between 250 and 350 years ago, may also slow down when, or if , technology begins to yield fewer innovations. Of course, the current knowledge revolution may continue without foreseeable end. Either way — contrary to popular belief in constant geometric growth — population can be expected in the long run to adjust to productivity. And when one takes this view, population growth is seen to represent economic progress and human triumph rather than social failure.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie, known, as the king of steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and, in the process, became one of the wealthiest men in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline, when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.
Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. “He who dies rich, dies disgraced, ” he often said.
Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie Mellon University. Other philanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.
Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie’s generosity. His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 libraries in small communities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.
Passage 29
Princess Diana
What was it about Diana, Princess of Wales that brought such huge numbers of people from all walks of life literally to their knees after her death in 1997? What was her special appeal, not just to British subjects but also to people the world over? A late spasm of royalism hardly explains it, even in Britain, for many true British monarchists despised her for cheapening the royal institution by behaving more like a movie star or a pop diva than a princess. To many others, however, that was precisely her attraction.
Diana was beautiful, in a fresh-faced, English, outdoors-girl kind of way. She used her big blue eyes to their fullest advantage, melting the hearts of men and women through an expression of complete vulnerability. Diana’s eyes, like those of Marilyn Monroe, contained an appeal directed not to any individual but to the world at large. Please don’t hurt me, they seemed to say. She often looked as if she were on the verge of tears, in the manner of folk images of the Virgin Mary. Yet she was one of the richest, most glamorous and socially powerful women in the world. This combination of vulnerability and power was perhaps her greatest asset.
Passage 30
A Greek to Remember
Diogenes was a famous Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C., who established the philosophy of cynicism. He often walked about in the daytime holding a lighted lantern, peering around as if he were looking for something. When questioned about his odd behavior, he would reply, “I am searching for an honest man.”
Diogenes held that the good man was self-sufficient and did not require material comforts or wealth. He believed that wealth and possessions constrained humanity’s natural state of freedom. In keeping with his philosophy, he was perfectly satisfied with making his home in a large tub discarded from the temple of Cybele, the goddess of nature. This earthen tub, called a pithos, and formerly been used for holding wine or oil for the sacrifices at the temple.
One day, Alexander the Great, conqueror of half the civilized world, saw Diogenes sitting in this tub in the sunshine. So the king, surrounded by his countries, approached Diogenes and said, “I am Alexander the Great.” The philosopher replied rather contemptuously, “I am Diogenes, the Cynic.” Alexander then asked him if he could help him in any way. “Yes,” shot back Diogenes, “don’t stand between me and the sun.” A surprised Alexander then replied quickly, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
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