最新高中课外英语阅读材料(2)

　　高中课外英语阅读材料(三)

　　Rat races into 2008

　　ACCORDING to the traditional Chinese lunar (阴历的) year calendar, the rat starts the 12-year animal cycle. People born in the year of the rat are considered to have qualities such as creativity, honesty, generosity (宽容) and ambition (野心).

　　Yet rats themselves are viewed very differently. Like Chinese, Westerners see rats as dirty, greedy and cowardly (胆小的) animals, but they view mice in a totally different way.

　　Many people view rats as vicious (恶毒的), unclean, parasitic (寄生的) animals that steal food and spread disease. In Europe, rats' bad image (形象) may have started in the 14th-century, when there was an epidemic (瘟疫) called the Black Death that was said to have killed between one-third to two-thirds of Europe's population. Rats were blamed for spreading the disease.

　　You can hardly find any idioms (惯用语) with positive meanings about rats in English. If you "smell a rat" while doing something, it means you start to feel something going wrong. The "rat race" is a term for dirty and cold competition. Describing a person as "rat-like" usually suggests he is unattractive and suspicious (可疑的). Rat is also a slang (俚语) name for criminals, especially traitors (叛徒).

　　In contrast, mice are often regarded as cute and innocent (天真的). Films and TV shows are full of famous mice, black and white, young and old.

　　The mouse chef (厨师) Remy conquered the pickiest mouths in Paris with his fantastic dishes on screen in 2007. Stuart Little, a white mouse, became the most beloved little brother of millions of boys and girls in 1999.

　　Mickey Mouse is an icon of independence, braveness, honesty and optimism, shining on the screen for more than 70 years.

　　"When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity," said Walt Disney, the creator of most famous cartoon figure.

　　Keep an ear to the ground and you may notice the arrival of the year of an animal we Chinese consider to have many good qualities, but Westerners find unlikeable. Hopefully, the the year of the rat will bring you the qualities of Walt Disney's mouse, and none of the unpleasant things Westerners think about rats.