《英美散文選讀（二）（第二版）/新基點全國高等院校英語專業(yè)本科系列規(guī)劃教材·人文素養(yǎng)子系列》與《選讀（一）》相比，所選的篇章在語言和內(nèi)容上難度都更大，長度也有所增加。因此，供正式講授的課文一共有十二篇，每篇可用6課時講授（包括講解練習(xí)）。這些篇章均出自英美名家之手，涉及的主題也多種多樣。然而它們共同的特點就是觀點新穎、視角獨特、行文流暢，用詞精巧準(zhǔn)確，論證符合邏輯，因此可供寫作范文之用。每篇課文前均有課前討論的一些名言，與課文內(nèi)容相關(guān)，可引發(fā)學(xué)生對課文主題進行深入思考。課文后練習(xí)的編排與《選讀（一）》體例類似，建議采用《英美散文選讀（二）（第二版）/新基點全國高等院校英語專業(yè)本科系列規(guī)劃教材·人文素養(yǎng)子系列》的教師把重點放在討論課文內(nèi)容和作者寫作技巧的問題上，同時也不要忽略難句釋義練習(xí)。對課文中出現(xiàn)的生詞，建議教師要結(jié)合其使用語境來教，并且注意一詞多義現(xiàn)象。在講解完每一課后，最好能總結(jié)一下要點和思維脈絡(luò)，以使學(xué)生既見“木”又見“林”。
Unit One Knowledge and Wisdom NN
Unit Two Habit
Unit Three The Scientist as Rebel
Unit Four Predictable Crises of Adulthood
Unit Five The Evolution of Good and Bad
Unit Six Faces of the Enemy
Unit Seven Gibbon
Unit Eight Philistines and Philistinism
Unit Nine The American Scholar
Unit Ten A Professional Malaise
Unit Eleven Hebraism and Hellenism
Unit Twelve The Gift of Tongues
Supplementary Reading
Translation of Selected Sentences
The ten years of Gibbon's life in London afford an astonishing spectacle of interacting energies. By what strange power did he succeed in producing a masterpiece of enormous erudition and perfect form， while he was leading the gay life of a man about town， spending his evenings at White's or Boodle's or the Club， attending Parliament， oscillating between his house in Bentineck Street， his country cottage at Hampton Court， and his little establishment at Brighton， spending his summers in Bath or Paris， and even， at odd moments， doing a little work at the Board of Trade， to show that his place was not entirely a sinecure? Such a triumph could only have been achieved by the sweet easonableness of the eighteenth century. "Monsieur Gibbon n'est point mon homme，" said Rousseau. Decidedly ! The prophet of the coming age of sentiment and romance could have nothing in common with such a nature. It was not that the historian was a mere frigid observer of the golden mean - far from it. He was full of fire and feeling. His youth had been at moments riotous - night after night he had reeled hallooing down St. James's Street. Old age did not diminish the natural warmth of his affections; the beautiful letter - a model of its kind - written on the death of his aunt， in his fiftieth year， is a proof of it. But the fire and the feeling were controlled and coordinated. Boswell was a Rousseauite， one of the first of the Romantics， an inveterate sentimentalist and nothing could be more complete than the contrast between his career and Gibbon's. He， too， achieved a glorious triumph; but it was by dint of the sheer force of native genius sserting itself over the extravagance and disorder of an agitated life - a life which， after a desperate struggle， seemed to end at last in darkness and shipwreck.
With Gibbon there was never any struggle: everything came naturally to him - learning and dissipation， industry and indolence， affection and scepticism - in the correct proportions; and he enjoyed himself up to the very end.
3 To complete the picture one must notice another antithesis: the wit， the genius， the massive intellect， were housed in a physical mould that was ridiculous. A little figure， extraordinarily rotund， met the eye， surmounted by a top-heavy head， with a button nose， planted amid a vast expanse of cheek and ear， and chin upon chin rolling downward. Nor was this appearance only; the odd shape reflected something in the inner man. Mr. Gibbon， it was noticed， was always slightly over-dressed; his favourite wear was flowered velvet. He was a little vain， a little pompous; at the first moment one almost laughed; then one forgot everything under the fascination of that even flow of admirably intelligent， exquisitely turned， and most amusing sentences. Among all his other merits this obviously ludicrous egotism took its place. The astonishing creature was able to make a virtue of absurdity.
Without that touch of nature he would have run the risk of being too much of a good thing; as it was there was no such danger; he was preposterous and a human being.
4 It is not difficult to envisage the character and figure; what seems strange， and remote， and hard to grasp is the connection between this individual and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The paradox， indeed， is so complete as to be almost romantic. At a given moment - October 15， 1764 - at a given place - the Capitoline Hill， outside the church of Aracoeli - the impact occurred between the serried centuries of Rome and Edward Gibbon. His life， his work， his fame， his place in the history of civilization， followed from that circumstance. The point of his achievement lay precisely in the extreme improbability of it. The utter incongruity of those combining elements produced the masterpiece - the gigantic ruin of Europe through a thousand years， mirrored in the mind of an eighteenth- century English gentleman.
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