unit 6 the telephone 现代大学英语 第四册
• Short fiction "The Camera" in Homeworks (1996)
Background
Social Background
Location:
Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
Israel and Syria
In those days, there was no real need for a calendar or a watch to keep track of the hours, days, months, and years.
keep track of: to keep oneself informed about a person, situation, etc. cf. lose track of: to fail to remain informed They try hard to keep track of their favorite stars. He loses track of time whenever he surfs the Net.
• (p.22)“I’ll give him a trail to follow,” muttered Rainsford. (L. 8)
v. (voice ~off), it becomes gradually quieter and then stops
• (p.21)…to bring news that would change their lives and deliver them from their aimless existence.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I Part II
Main Idea Sentence Paraphrase Words & Expressions Exercise
W T B R
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Part I (1-10): main idea village life before the installation
Islam 70% Christian 30% Judaism
Independence:
22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under French aSocial Background
The Capital City—Beirut “Paris of the Middle East”
The Telephone
Theme
Unit 6
Text Analysis
Structure
Detailed Analysis
W T
B R
Text Analysis
Theme
• What would be the key words if you want to discuss its theme?
Unit 6 The Telephone
Anwar F. Accawi
The Telephone
Unit 6
W arming up
B ackground
T ext Analysis R einforcement
The Telephone
Unit 6
Questions / Activities Check-on Preview Objectives
Is this all?
Text Analysis
Structure
Part I (1-10)—village life before the installation. P(1-8): what time meant to people in Magadaluna P(9-10): the author’s memory of a draught in his childhood. Part II (11-25)—changes brought to the village by telephone. P11: Transition P(12-18): Installation P(19-25): Changes happening to the village
keep track of a.to remain aware; to keep informed b.to see clearly The retired man reads newspaper every day to keep track of current events. • We leave the call numbers in
A. What did time mean to the people? (paras.1-8)
Questions for comprehension
1. What was the overall picture of Magdaluna? How did the narrator present the picture? 2. What did time mean to the villagers? How did they keep track of time? What did it suggest? 3. What was the general life pattern for the villagers? And what were considered important events?
-- technology, progress, globalization? -- a better life?
Text Analysis
Theme
The advent of the telephone and automobile ("magic carpet of the twentieth century") link Magdaluna to the outside world and gradually destroy its centuries-old tradition of selfsufficiency; the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90) completes the village's "slow and agonizing death." Yet Magdaluna remains alive in Accawi's loving portrait, a gentle recollection of childhood that doubles as a poignant reminder of modernity's sometimes devastating impact. --Wendy Smith
… time didn’t mean much to anybody, except maybe to those who were dying.
The villagers didn’t think time was important until perhaps when they were dying.
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
• Paras. 2 -- 8: Main idea? The villagers used a divine calendar to keep track of time. Any other noted feature(s)? the natural disasters? The tone of the narrator “I” (as a boy)? …
Has been teaching English at the English Language Institute of the Uni. of Tennessee
Anwar F. Accawi
Background
Author
His Works
• Non-Fiction The Boy from the Tower of the Moon (1999)
Warming up
Objectives
• Understand the theme of the story (understand globalization from another • Appreciate the style
perspective tone strongly flavored expressions metaphor, simile, exaggeration…
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
• Para. 1: Topic sentence? Time didn’t mean much to anybody in the secluded village. Any other noted feature(s)? the unchanging cycle of life? a traditional, agricultural society? …
Ethnic divisions:
Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%
Background
Social Background
Languages:
Arabic (official), French (official), Armenian, English
o Religions:
W T B R
Warming up
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Did the title tell you much? What did you expect to read?
现代大学英语4 unit 6 the telephone
Author—Anwar F. Accawi
• When the civil war broke out in Lebanon, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the United States. • Anwar F. Accawi became a teacher of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (诺克斯维尔,当地华人一般简称之为 “诺城”），是美国田纳西州东部的一个城市).
Bell placing the first New York to Chicago telephone call in 1892
A 19th century acoustic 'tin can', or 'lover's' telephone
Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1926 silent film. The singleport design required the user to alternately speak into and then listen through the same hole.
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
Detailed Study
全新版大学英语第四册Unit6
Unit 6T ext A Old Father Time Becomes a T errorIn many ways, the style of this piece is typical of a certain variety of journalism. It is clearly not a new story, but nonetheless belongs within the pages of a newspaper. Such writing finds its home in the editorial or comment section where journalists and others contribute regular or occasional columns reflecting on topical issues.Unlike news stories where reporters are expected to confine themselves to the facts; such columns are intended to give free range to the expression of personal opinion. At the same time, particularly in the more serious papers (and the paper from which this comes, the Financial Times, certainly belongs to this category) the writer is expected display this familiarity with the problem under discussion.This is frequently achieved by employing concession. Thus, here the writer, having outlined the problem of the pressure of time, goes on to concede that not everybody is affected to the same extent. He then details the differences that exist before returning to his more general point and concluding with his solution, another characteristic ingredient of such editorial articles.His general conclusion is hardly new, having been advice offered by philosophers for as back as one cares to go, but gains novelty set against the context to recent technological developments.Although not a news story, the article nevertheless shares with newspaper reporting in general a taste for seeking support from the use of direct quotations from a number of different people. These quotations are provided together with the name of the person and background information on them.These details add human interest and support the argument by reference to the utterances of someone who appear to be in a position to know. As the quotations record spoken rather than written English, the tone of language is often colloquial. The frequent peppering of an article with this type of direct quotation stands in contrast to what is usual in a more purely academic essay.TIntroduction of the Author:•Richard TomkinsTheconsumer industries editor of the Financial Times, where he has been a member of the editorial staff since 1983. He is currently based at the company’s London headquarters, whe re he leads a team of journalists covering the consumer goods sector and writes about consumer trends, Tomkins was born in Walsall, England, in 1952. His formal education ended at the age of seventeen.Before becoming a journalist, he was a casual laborer, a factory worker, a truck driver, a restaurant cashier, a civil servant, and an assistant private secretary to a government minister. He left government service in1978 to hitchhike around the world, and on returning to the U.K. in 1978,joined a local newspaper as a trainee reporter.He joined the Financial Times as a sub-editor(副编辑, 副主编) four years later. In this selection, he discusses the time squeeze that many people are experiencing and offers a way of combating the problem.Part IIPre-questionsPPre-questions1. How does the singer treat his diary? Why? (He treats it as a friend, to whom he can pour out hisinmost feelings.)2. Can we infer what attitude the singer takes towards the pace of life today? (It’s unwise forpeople to be always in a rush, so much so that they don’t have time either for each other or for themselves.)3. Do you keep a diary? What sort of things do you write about?4. What does the singer think about how other people spend their time?Part IIIComprehension Questions1, What did we use to expect from technology?2、In what ways have inventions such as the motorcar and the aircraft affected our life? And whatabout the advent of washing machine?3、What new burdens has technology produced apart from cramming work into our leisure time?4、How fast is information generated today as compared to a couple of centuries ago?5、What is Edward Wilson’s purpose in subscribing to sixty-old journals and magazine?6、What gives rise to our discontent with super abundance?7、Is everyone time-starved today? What percentage of the population is suffering under thestresses and strains of life today?8、What is stress envy, as conceived by Paul Edwards?9、How much free time has the average American gained since the mid-1960s?How are the gainsdistributed between the sexes?10、What is mean t by the “the growth of the work-life debate”?11、What does Godbey mean by saying “It’s the kid in the candy store”?12、For time stress, what remedy does the author offer?Part IV Language Points1. on the go / upon the go:(infml) active or busy [口]在进行活动, 忙碌; 刚要动身; 有醉意Examples:I’ve been on the go all week, preparing my thesis.I was on the go all day and went home at about 10’oclock in the evening.Part IV2. set about：begin（a task）；start（doing sth.）（used in the pattern：set about sth./doing sth.; no passive）开始, 着手; 散布(谣言) ; [口]攻击; [俚]接连殴打, 乱打Example:The school authorities must set about finding solutions to the campus security problems.My mom and I set about clearing up / clearing the table after the guests left. 动手收拾(餐桌)--set about one's work开始工作Part IVPart I*3. eat into:gradually reduce the amount of (sth. valuable); damage or destroy腐蚀; 侵蚀; 消耗; 用掉一部分(eat in在家里吃饭, eat out)Examples:All these car expenses are eating into our savings.Responsibilities at home and work eat into his time.Our holiday travel has eaten into the money we saved.我们的假日旅游耗费了我们积蓄起来的钱。
现代大学英语答案第四册
Lesson One Thinking as a HobbyAnswers:I. I have concluded that there were three grades of thinking since I was a child, while myself could not think at all. The subject of thinking was first brought up to me by my headmaster, in whose study I was shown the statuettes of Venus, leopard and the Thinker, which stands for love, nature and pure thought respectively. I was demanded to learn thinking there. People like Mr. Houghten provided me the image of Grade-three thinking, which is often full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance and hypocrisy. The grade-two thinker tends to find the deficiencies of the others, and may enjoy moments of delight, but it does not make for personal security. A still higher grade of thought demands people set out to find the truth and get it .Though these grade-one thinkers were few, I aspired to become one of them and devised a coherent moral and logical system for living. I stood to lose a great deal for my determination, but finally I dropped my hobby and turned professional in that.II.1 . C2 . C3 . D4 . D5 . C6 .B7 .C 8. D 9 .D 10. D 11. B 12 .D 13 .D 14 .B 15 . C 16 .D 17 .B 18 .D 19 . D 20 .C III. OmittedLesson Two Waiting for the PoliceAnswers:Ⅰ.Oral workⅡ.V ocabulary⒈Choose the right word and put it in the proper form1)earnest/serious serious serious earnest/serious earnest/serious2)make full use of took advantage of take advantage ofmake full use of take advantage of make some use of3)advise advised suggest proposed suggest propose suggest⒉Put the missing word2)will work is are reproduces deplete add3)can move don’t tear skin will never take areⅢ.Grammar workChoose the right expression1)in fact 2)especially at an advanced level2)it was that long ,I am sure 4)of course5)however 6)on the other hand7)I suppose 8)whether invited or notⅣ.Written work (omitted)Ⅴ.Translation1)It is miracle how our company has developed into a multinational in such a short span of time2)The average life span of that country has increased from 42 years to50 years in matter of two decades.3)The conflict between the two countries has spanned more than halfA century4)There are four bridges spanning the river.5)I’m much obliged to you .Without your help, I would never have finished the book.6）No，you are not obliged to go to the party. Y ou don’t have to go if you don’t want to.7）She’s always ready to oblige when people come to her help.8)In the valley is a small lack right between a meadow and a hill. It is aperfect spot for picnic.9)Sitting in that shady spot he soon dozed off.10)He criticized me on the spot when he saw me throw a plastic bag by the roadside.Lesson Three Why Historians DisagreeAnswersI. Oral workII. Vocabulary T est1. Choose the right word and put it in the proper form1) Historic historical2) Limited restricted3) Sensitive sensible2. Reading Comprehension1. P phenomenon2. B strength3. E tropical4. L bringing5. K starvation6. J destructive7. N worth 8. An estimate 9. O strikeIII. Grammar workComplete the following sentences with the most likely answer.1. C2.C3.A4.C5.CLesson Four A Drink in the PassageI. Oral work (omitted)II. Vocabulary T est:1 T ranslate1) into Chinese.(1)难以解决的两难困境(2)一本难以看懂的书(3)一个爱交际的女人(4)黑市(5)黑色幽默(6)害群之马2) into English(1)to celebrate its Golden Jubilee(2)to excite admiration(3)to touch the conscience(4)to win the prize(5)to receive a reprimand(6)to omit the words2. Study the difference between the following pairs or groups of words.1)(1)renounce (2)announce (3)renounce (4)denounced2)(1)avoid; prevent (2)prevent (3)avoid (4)averted/ avoided/ preventedIII. Grammar work1. Complete the following sentences with the right from of the verb in the brackets.(1) is (2) are (3)was (4)frightens2. T ranslate the sentences into English.1) Using “It is/ was said/ believed, etc.” to express general beliefs.(1)It’s widely rumored that Linda’s getti ng promoted.(2)It is estimated that the project will cost RMB three billion.(3)It is assumed that the Labor Party will remain in power.(4)It was proposed a few years ago that the president be elected for one term only.2) Paying special attention to subject-verb agreement.(1)The jury is having trouble reaching a verdict.(2)Whenever either of us is in a tight corner, we always come to each other’s help.(3)Statistics are facts obtained from analyzing information given in numbers.(4)Statistics is a branch of mathematics concerned with the study of information that is expressed in numbers.3. Put in appropriate connectives.(1)as , where , that/which, if/ whether, but , if.4. Complete each of the following sentences with the most likely answer.(1) B (2)A(3)ALesson Five Man of the Moment AnswersI. Oral workII. Vocabulary１）ｉｎｔｏＣｈｉｎｅｓｅａ．假日别墅ｂ．著名的电视明星Ｃ．下流语言ｄ．黄色故事ｅ．银行抢劫ｆ．生产双沉玻璃的公司2) Into EnglishA .to trickle down her legsB .to puff like a whaleC .to melt down like snowD .to sum up the sceneE .to do their interviewF . to bear resentment3) Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions or adverbsa.down; up .b. inC. to; by; for d. back; to4)T ell the difference between the following pairs or groups of words.a.tormented/torturedb. torturec. tormenting/torturinga.murmuringb. mutterc. murmuringd. mutteringIII. T ranslatea. W e need to increase our oil import in the coming years to meet the growingDemand for energyb. Our profit has increased by 20% in the past two years.c. The number of privately-owned cars has increased five times (fivefold ) in five years.d. The number of mobile phone owners in our city has increased from 20 thousandto about half a million in less than 5 years.e. S he propped her bike against a tree.Lesson Six Groundless BeliefsAnswersI. Oral Work:（1）They are based on mere tradition, or on somebody’s strong statement without the support of proof unsupported by even the slightest trace of proof.（2）But if they were exchanged when they were infants and brought up in different homes and under different influences, then the staunchest Roman Catholic would be the staunchest Presbyterian, and vice versa. This shows that our beliefs are largely influenced by our surroundings.Ⅱ.V ocabulary1.Translate1) into Chinese(1)非理性因素（2）过去的好日子（3）思想模式（4）陈旧的故事（5）思路（6）鲜明的对比（7）强烈发满足感（8）感情上的联想（9）一场恶吵（10）酸葡萄2) into English（1）to classify propositions (2) to hold an opinion (3) to establish convictions(4) to reverse the process (5) to question the truth (6) to adopt a new belief(7) to demonstrate the contrary (8)to credit the fact (9) to entertain an opinion(10) to acquire wealth2.Put appropriate prepositions or adverbs in the blanks1) out/over 2)on/upon 3)at; about 4)off 5)on; off3.Translate1) We will achieve this result at any cost.2)Our economy began to grow by leaps and bounds as a result of the reform and open policy.3)His repressive policies only resulted in his quick fall.4) Many of our present problems in a way to dispose of nuclear waste.5) The fact that you like somebody may dispose you to like his ideas also.４．Complete the following sentences.1) were brought up in a different country; think and behave like a native of that country.2) will produce ten million kilowatts of power annually.3) that she did not care for office work4)the boy stabbing his own father5) postpone my retirement for another yearⅢ.GrammarComplete the following sentences by translating the Chinese in brackets1) When young 2)unless forbidden 3)If cooked in tomato sauce 4) Once out of trouble 5) When urged2. Complete each of the following sentences with the most likely answer.1)A2)A3)C 4)C/D 5)BLesson Seven Spring SowingAnswersⅠOral W orkⅡVocabulary test1 Show the difference between the following pairs or groups of words1)(1)bosom (2)chest (3)breast (4)breast(5)bosom (6)bosom (7)chest2)(1)scattered (2)spread (3)spread (4)scatterⅢGrammar1)Reading, called, printed, used, refers, presented, be downloaded, used2)Had not passed ,was, was hidden, hung, suspended, walked, holding, worked, leading, came, be seenⅣWritten W orkWrite a short essay of 150-200words commending on the hardships and joys of farmers as described in the story.Hardships and Joys of FarmersThe farmers love the land appreciate and joys of agrarian living and they also have toEndure the hardships the agrarian living. They have strong wistfulness and ardor of the spring, because they are looking forward to the good results achieved from a spring sowing. In the spring, they are experiencing the hardworking, however, on to prove summer, in the autumn, the will get a big harvest. Full of hope, the man try to prove their manhood by plowing the field 10 hours a day to conquer the land . They feel afraid of the earth, the peasant’s slave master that would keep them chained to hard work and poverty all her life until they died and buried in the earth. Once in a while, they want to break the chains on them as peasants. But because of the developing conditions and background of the society then, they can’t choose their own destiny .In order to survive the society, they can but to work in the field day after day, year after year.ⅤTranslation1)Zhuge Liang pretended to be very calm and succeeded in fooling Sima Yi who did notknow that the city was really unguarded.2)If you compare American students with Chinese students, you’ll find some interestingsimilarities and differences.3)Y ou can see that the students are bursting with question.4)Zhan Tianyou was a man of many talents. But he is best remembered as the man who hashelped to design and build China’s first railway line.Lesson Eight Globalization’s Dual PowerAnswers1 . Translateinto Chinese(1). 时髦字眼（2）债券融资（3）跨境兼并与收购额（4）国际收支（盈余）（5）规模经济（6）可怕的前景（7）民众强烈的反应（8）缺少共同的议事日程（9）申请加入（10）推广技术into English（1）national sovereignty （2）trade negotiations(3) ever-declining coasts (4) economic forecasts(5) in one critical respect (6) financial markets(7) an ensuing financial crisis (8) after adjusting for inflation(9) the Institute of International Finance(10) office buildingsII. Note the difference between the following pairs or groups of words:1)(1) surpass (2) exceeded (3) surpassed (4) exceeding (5) surpass (6) exceeding2)(1) threat (2) menace /thereat (3) threats (4) menace /thereat (5) threatIII. Grammar in the ContextComplete with the most likely answer1.D2.B3.C4.A5.CIV. Written worksWrite an essay of about 200words on the topic.What is your understanding of globalization? In what way do you think it will affect your career?In my opinion, Globalization describes the growth in international exchange and interdependence. With growing flows of trade and capital investment there is the possibility of moving beyond an inter-national economy. Each member of the world community becomes more and more integrated and inter-dependent. Globalization also refers to a process of removing government-imposed restrictions on movements between countries in order to create an open, borderless world economy.Of course, Globalization, to a large extent, ensured that China’s economy would develop in a balanced way by keeping pace with the world economy. Increased globalization has brought the world vast investment space in China and thus boosted China’s economic growth. What the globalization brought to us is both opportunity and challenge.will affect my future career too. With the development of economic globalization and international communication, English becomes more and more important .The fast pace of globalization presents huge opportunities for those who participate proactively in this internationalization process. As a English major, I want to take par in this process. I want to be a qualified and excellent interpreter after graduation. Interpreters, like translators are bridges between different cultures. In the context of today’s globalization, their roles are particularly important. Whether a business will succeed or how successful a business will be depends on them to a certain extent. I will do my best to matter English in order to help international businessman work more efficiently.I will be devoted to my study and future career. So globalization will have great effects on my career.V. T ranslate(1)Our company projected an 8% growth rate next year.(2)China is projected to be the world’s workshop in 10 years. But that should not make ussmug.(3)Y ou can project your slides on the wall.(4)He tried to project himself as a strong man in the election campaign.(5)I sometimes try to project myself into the future when I shall become a mother myself.(6)The building of the dam is a multibillion-dollar project.(7)We have a strong team of six people working on this project.(8)I’m greatly relieved to hear the news.(9)One way to relieve your distress is to keep yourself busy.(10)Diogenes would relieve himself by the roadside just like a dog.Lesson Nine The Most Dangerous GameAnswersI. Oral work.II. Vocabulary T est.Put the most appropriate words in the blanks.1)at bay/in check 2)away 3)out4)gave way 5)rolled; on 6)intent7)on; pressed/plunged/forced himself 8)rests9)struck; ran 10)stock 11)straightened12)froze; trigger 13)slid/climbed/tumbled14)replace 15)winding/leadingIII. Grammar workComplete the sentences using a where-clause.1) where you are2) where I can not agree with you3) where there is enough light4)where he came from; where two big rivers joined5)where his house had been/used to be6)where survival of many of its institutions of higher learning depends much onoverseas students7)where we could find the type of person our boss wants8)toward where her children are playing9)where he had gone10)the shop where he bought the medicineIV. Written work“The Most Dangerous Game”was written in 1924. The incidents described in the story take place shortly after World War I and the Russian October Revolution.Zaroff was a Cossack general under the Czarist regime, which had been overthrown.After he flees his country, he spends all of his time hunting.Sanger Rainsford is a well-known American big-game hunter who fought in France during the war and has published works on hunting. Despite the dissimilarities in the backgrounds and personalities of these two men, their conception of hunting is alike. Rainsford thinks that “the world is made up of hunters(and the hunted. Zaroff believes “life is for the strong”.Lesson Ten The TelephoneAnswers:I. Omitted.II. OmittedIV. Quiz1.D2.C3.D4.D5.AV. Written workThe InternetWhen I was a little child in a small village, I never knew what telephone was and what electricity was. At that time, when I wanted to contact with someone I just went to his family or cried out his name to make me heard. Then I went to a small town to study in a middle school a couple years later. In the text book and in the office of my teachers I saw a machine by which talked with somebody. At first I was amazed to see that and I wondered what it was. Through physics textbook, I know it was telephone. Maybe when I was in senior school, about in 1996, I first see computer with my own eyes but not in the picture.After 3 years, I went to a modern city to go to college. There I learned how to operate computer, how to store my own materials in a computer and how to use computer to do something that was difficult for human brain. We can also talked with a friend across oceans and we can search anything that we need, my classmates were crazy about it . That is Internet. But we can not spent too much time on it ,we should use it correctly.。
(完整版)现代大学英语精读Book4Unit6课文
Book 4-Unit 5Text AThe TelephoneAnwar F. Accawi1.When I was growing up in Magdaluna, a small Lebanese village in theterraced, rocky mountains east of Sidon, time didn't mean much toanybody, except maybe to those whowere dying. In those days, there was no real need for a calendar or awatch to keep track of the hours, days, months, and years. We knewwhat to do and when to do it, just as the Iraqi geese knew when to flynorth, driven by the hot wind that blew in from the desert. The onlytimepiece we had need of then was the sun. It rose and set, and theseasons rolled by and we sowed seed and harvested and ate and playedand married our cousins and had babies who got whooping cough andchickenpox—and those children who survived grew up and marriedtheir cousins and had babies who got whooping cough and chickenpox.We lived and loved and toiled and died without ever needing to knowwhat year it was, or even the timeof day.2.It wasn't that we had no system for keeping track of time and of the importantevents in ourlives. But ours was a natural or, rather, a divine — calendar, because itwas framed by acts of God: earthquakes and droughts and floods andlocusts and pestilences. Simple as our calendar was, it worked just finefor us.3.Take, for example, the birth date of Teta Im Khalil, the oldestwoman in Magdaluna and all the surrounding villages. When Iasked Grandma, "How old is Teta Im Khalil?"4.Grandma had to think for a moment; then she said, "I've been toldthat Teta was born shortly after the big snow that caused the roof onthe mayor's house to cave in."5."And when was that?" I asked.6."Oh, about the time we had the big earthquake that cracked the wall in the eastroom."7.Well, that was enough for me. You couldn't be more accurate than that, now,could you?8.And that's the way it was in our little village for as far back as anybodycould remember. One of the most unusual of the dates was when awhirlwind struck during which fish and oranges fell from the sky.Incredible as it may sound, the story of the fish and oranges was true,because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told andretold that story untilit was incorporated into Magdaluna's calendar.9.The year of the fish-bearing whirlpool was not the last remarkable year.Many others followed in which strange and wonderful things happened.There was, for instance, the yearof the drought, when the heavens were shut for months and the springfrom which the entire village got its drinking water slowed to a trickle.The spring was about a mile from the village, in a ravine that opened atone end into a small, flat clearing covered with fine gray dust and hard,marble-sized goat droppings. In the year of the drought, that littleclearingwas always packed full of noisy kids with big brown eyes and stickyhands, and their mothers —sinewy, overworked young women withcracked, brown heels. The children ran around playing tag or hide-and-seek while the women talked, shooed flies, and awaited their turns to fillup their jars with drinking water to bring home to their napping menand wet babies. There were days when we had to wait from sunup untillate afternoon just to fill a small clay jar with precious, cool water.10.S ometimes, amid the long wait and the heat and the flies and the smellof goat dung, tempers flared, and the younger women, anxious abouttheir babies, argued over whose turnit was to fill up her jar. And sometimes the arguments escalated intofull-blown, knockdown-dragout fights; the women would grab eachother by the hair and curse and scream and spit and call each othernames that made my ears tingle. We little brown boys who went withour mothers to fetch water loved these fights, because we got to see thewomen's legs and their colored panties as they grappled and rolledaround in the dust. Oncein a while, we got lucky and saw much more, because some of thewomen wore nothing at all under their long dresses. God, how I usedto look forward to those fights. I remember the rush, the excitement,the sun dancing on the dust clouds as a dress ripped and a youngwhite breast was revealed, then quickly hidden. In my calendar, thatyear of drought will always be one of the best years of my childhood.11.B ut, in another way, the year of the drought was also one of the worstof my life, because that was the year that Abu Raja, the retired cook,decided it was time Magdaluna got its own telephone. Every civilizedvillage needed a telephone, he said, and Magdaluna was not going toget anywhere until it had one. A telephone would link us with theoutside world. A fewmen—like the retired Turkish-army drill sergeant, and the vineyard keeper —did all they couldto talk Abu Raja out of having a telephone brought to the village. But they were outshoutedand ignored and finally shunned by the other villagers for resisting progress and trying tokeep a good thing from coming to Magdaluna.12. O ne warm day in early fall, many of the villagers were out in theirfields repairing walls or gathering wood for the winter when the shoutwent out that the telephone-company truckhad arrived at Abu Raja's dikkan, or country store. When the truckcame into view, everybody dropped what they were doing and ran toAbu Raja's house to see what was happening.13.I t did not take long for the whole village to assemble at Abu Raja'sdikkan. Some of the rich villagers walked right into the store andstood at the elbows of the two important-lookingmen from the telephone company, who proceeded with utmost gravity, like priests atCommunion, to wire up the telephone. The poorer villagers stoodoutside and listened carefully to the details relayed to them by the not-so-poor people who stood in the doorway and could see inside.14."The bald man is cutting the blue wire," someone said.15."He is sticking the wire into the hole in the bottom of the black box," someoneelse added.16."The telephone man with the mustache is connecting two pieces ofwire. Now he is twisting the ends together," a third voice chimed in.17.B ecause I was small, I wriggled my way through the dense forest oflegs to get a firsthand look at the action. Breathless, I watched asthe men in blue put together a black machinethat supposedly would make it possible to talk with uncles, aunts, andcousins who lived more than two days' ride away.18.I t was shortly after sunset when the man with the mustache announced thatthe telephonewas ready to use. He explained that all Abu Raja had to do was lift thereceiver, turn the crank on the black box a few times, and wait for anoperator to take his call. Abu Raja grabbed the receiver and turned thecrank forcefully. Within moments, he was talking withhis brother in Beirut. He didn't even have to raise his voice or shout to be heard.19.A nd the telephone, as it turned out, was bad news. With its coming, the face ofthe villagebegan to change. One of the fast effects was the shifting of the village'scenter. Before the telephone's arrival, the men of the village used togather regularly at the house of Im Kaleem, a short, middle-aged widowwith jet-black hair and a raspy voice that could be heard all over thevillage, even when she was only whispering. She was a devout Catholicand also the village whore. The men met at her house to argue aboutpolitics and drink coffee and play cards or backgammon. Im Kaleemwas not a true prostitute, however, because she did not charge for herservices —not even for the coffee and tea that she served the men. Shedid not need the money; her son, who was overseas in Africa, sent hermoney regularly. Im Kaleem loved all the men she entertained, and theyloved her, every one of them. In a way, she was married to all the menin the village. Everybody knew it but nobody objected. Actually I suspect the women did not mind their husbands'visits to Im Kaleem. Oh, theywrung their hands and complained to one another about their men'sunfaithfulness, but secretly they were relieved, because Im Kaleem tooksome of the pressure off them and kept the men outof their hair while they attended to their endless chores. Im Kaleem wasalso a kind of confessor and troubleshooter, talking sense to those menwho were having family problems, especially the younger ones.20.B efore the telephone came to Magdaluna, Im Kaleem's house was bustling atjust about anytime of day, especially at night, when the loud voices of the men talking, laughing, and arguing could be heard in the street below —a reassuring, homey sound. Her house was an island of comfort, an oasis for theweary village men, exhausted from having so little to do.21.B ut it wasn't long before many of those men —the younger onesespecially—started spending more of their days and evenings at AbuRaja's dikkan. There, they would eat and drink and talk and playcheckers and backgammon, and then lean their chairs back against thewall —the signal that they were ready to toss back and forth, like a ball,the latest rumors going around the village. And they were alwayslooking up from their games and drinks and talk to glance at the phonein the corner, as if expecting it to ring any minute and bring news thatwould change their lives and deliver them from their aimless existence.In the meantime,they smoked cheap, hand-rolled cigarettes, dug dirt out from undertheir fingernails with big pocketknives, and drank lukewarm sodasthat they called Kacula, Seffen-Ub, and Bebsi.22. T he telephone was also bad news for me personally. It took away mylucrative business —a source of much-needed income. Before, I used tohang around Im Kaleem's courtyard and play marbles with the otherkids, waiting for some man to call down from a window and askme to run to the store for cigarettes or liquor, or to deliver a message to his wife, such aswhat he wanted for supper. There was always something in it for me: aten or even a twenty-five-piaster piece. On a good day, I ran nine or tenof those errands, which assured a steady supply of marbles that Iusually lost to other boys. But as the days went by fewer and fewer mencame to Im Kaleem's, and more and more congregated at Abu Raja's towait bythe telephone. In the evenings, the laughter and noise of the mentrailed off and finally stopped.23.A t Abu Raja's dikkan, the calls did eventually come, as expected, andmen and women started leaving the village the way a hailstorm begins:first one, then two, then bunches.24.T he army took them. Jobs in the cities lured them. And ships andairplanes carried them to such faraway places as Australia and Braziland New Zealand. My friend Kameel, his cousin Habeeb, and theircousins and my cousins all went away to become ditch diggers andmechanics and butcher-shop boys and deli owners who wore dirtyaprons sixteen hours a day, all looking for a better life than the onethey had left behind. Within a year, only the sick, the old, and themaimed were left in the village. Magdaluna became a skeleton of itsformer self, desolate and forsaken, like the tombs, a place to get away from.25.F inally, the telephone took my family away, too. My father got a callfrom an old army buddy who told him that an oil company in southern Lebanon was hiring interpreters and instructors. My father applied for a job and got it, and we moved to Sidon, where I went to aPresbyterian missionary school and graduated in 1962. Three yearslater, having won a scholarship, I left Lebanon for the United States.Like the others who left Magdaluna before me, I am still looking for that better life. (2121 words)。
现代大学英语精读第四册课文原文
Lesson 1Thinking as a HobbyWilliam GoldingWhile I was still a boy, I came to the conclusion that there were three grades of thinking;and thatI myself could not think at all.It was the headmaster of my grammar school who first brought the subject of thinkingbefore me.He had somestatuettes in his study. They stood on a high cupboard behind his desk. One was a lady wearing nothing but a bath towel. She seemed frozen in an eternal panic lest the bath towelslip down any farther, and since she had no arms, she was in an unfortunate position to pull the towel up again. Next to her, crouched the statuette of a leopard, ready to spring down at the top drawer of a filing cabinet. Beyond the leopard was a naked, muscular gentleman, who sat, looking down, with his chin on his fist and his elbow on his knee. He seemed utterly miserable.Some time later, I learned about these statuettes. The headmaster had placed them where they would face delinquent children, because they symbolized to him to whole of life. The naked ladywas the Venus. She was Love. She was not worried about the towel. She was just busy being beautiful. The leopard was Nature, and he was being natural. The naked, muscular gentleman was not miserable. He was Rodin's Thinker, an image of pure thought.I had better explain that I was a frequent visitor to the headmaster's study, because of the latest thing I had done or left undone. As we now say, I was not integrated. I was, if anything, disintegrated. Whenever Ifound myself in a penal position before the headmaster's desk, I would sink my head, and writhe one shoe over the other.The headmaster would look at me and say,"What are wegoing to do with you?"Well, what were they going to do with me? I would writhe my shoe some more and staredown atthe worn rug."Look up, boy! Can't you look up?"Then I would look at the cupboard, where the naked lady was frozen in her panic and themuscular gentleman contemplated the hindquarters of the leopard in endless gloom. I had nothing to say to the headmaster. His spectacles caught the light so that you could see nothing human behind them. There was no possibility of communication."Don't you ever think at all?"No, I didn't think, wasn't thinking, couldn't think - I was simply waiting in anguish for theinterview to stop."Then you'd better learn - hadn't you?"On one occasion the headmaster leaped to his feet, reached up and put Rodin's masterpiece onthe desk before me."That's what a man looks like when he's really thinking."Clearly there was something missing in me. Nature had endowed the rest of the human race witha sixth sense and left me out. But like someone born deaf, but bitterly determined to find outabout sound, I watched my teachers to find outabout thought.There was Mr. Houghton. He was always telling me to think. With a modest satisfaction, he would tell that he had thought a bit himself. Then why did he spend so much time drinking? Or was there more sense in drinking than there appeared to be? But if not, and if drinking were in fact ruinous to health - and Mr. Houghton was ruined, there was no doubt about that - why was he always talking about the clean life and the virtues of fresh air?Sometimes, exalted by his own oratory, he would leap from his desk and hustle usoutside into a hideous wind."Now, boys! Deep breaths! Feel it right down inside you - huge draughts of God's good air!"He would stand before us, put his hands on his waist and take a tremendous breath. You couldhear the wind trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments. His bodywould reel with shock and his face go white at the unaccustomed visitation. He would staggerback to his desk and collapse there, useless for the rest of the morning.Mr. Houghton was given to high-minded monologues about the good life, sexless and full of duty. Yet in the middle of one of these monologues, if a girl passed the window, his neck would turn of itself and he would watch her out of sight. In this instance, he seemed to me ruled not by thoughtbut by an invisible and irresistible spring in his nack.His neck was an object of great interest to me. Normally it bulged a bit over his collar.But Mr. Houghton had fought in the First World War alongside both Americans and French, and had cometo a settled detestation of both countries. If either country happened to be prominent in current affairs, no argument could make Mr. Houghton think well of it. He would bang the desk, his neck would bulge still further and go red. "You can say what you like," he would cry, "but I've thought about this - and I know what I think!"Mr. Houghton thought with his neck.This was my introduction to the nature of what is commonly called thought. Through them Idiscovered that thought is often full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance, and hypocrisy. It will lecture on disinterested purity while its neck is being remorselessly twisted toward a skirt. Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen's golf, as honest as most politician's intentions, or as coherent as most books that get written. It is what I came to call grade-three thinking, though more properly, it is feeling, rather than thought.True, often there is a kind of innocence in prejudices, but in those days I viewed grade-three thinking with contempt and mockery. I delighted to confront a pious lady who hated the Germans with the proposition that we should love our enemies. She taught me a great truth in dealing with grade-three thinkers; because of her, I no longer dismiss lightly a mental process which fornine-tenths of the population is the nearest they will ever get to thought. They have immense solidarity. We had better respect them, for we are outnumbered and surrounded. A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs. Man enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill.Grade-two thinking is the detection of contradictions. Grade-two thinkers do not stampede easily, though often they fal linto the other fault and lag behind. Grade-two thinking is a withdrawal,with eyes and ears open. It destroys without having the power to create. It set me watching the crowds cheering His Majesty the King and asking myself what all the fuss was about, without giving me anything positive to put in the place of that heady patriotism. But there were compensations. To hear people justify their habit of hunting foxes by claiming that the foxes like it. To her our Prime Minister talk about the great benefit we conferred on India by jailing people like Nehru and Gandhi. To hear American politicians talk about peace and refuse to join the League of Nations. Yes, there were moments of delight.But I was growing toward adolescence and had to admit that Mr. Houghton was not the only one with an irresistible spring in his neck. I, too, felt the compulsive hand of nature and began to findthat pointing out contradiction could be costly as well as fun. There was Ruth, for example, a serious and attractive girl. I was an atheist at the time. And she was a Methodist. But, alas, instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to convert me, Ruth was foolish enough to open her pretty mouth in argument. She claimed that the Bible was literally inspired. I countered by saying thatthe Catholics believed in the literal inspiration of Saint Jerome's Vulgate, and the two books were different. Argument flagged.At last she remarked that there were an awful lot of Methodists and they couldn't bewrong, could they - not all those millions? That was too easy, said I restively (for the nearer you were to Ruth, the nicer she was to be near to) since there were more Roman Catholics than Methodists anyway; and they couldn't be wrong, could they - not all those hundreds of millions? An awfulflicker of doubt appeared in her eyes. I slid my arm round her waist and murmured that if wewere counting heads, the Buddhists were the boys for my money. She fled. The combination ofmy arm and those countless Buddhists was too much for her.That night her father visited my father and left, red-cheeked and indignant. I was given the thirddegree to find out what had happened. I lost Ruth and gained an undeserved reputation as a potential libertine.Grade-two thinking, though it filled life with fun and excitement, did not make for content. Tofind out the deficiencies of our elders satisfies the young ego but does not make for personal security. It took the swimmer some distance from the shore and left him there, out of his depth.A typical grade-two thinker will say, "What is truth?" There is still a higher grade of thought which says, "What is truth?" and sets out to find it.But these grade-one thinkers were few and far between. They did not visit my grammar school inthe flesh though they were there in books. I aspired to them, because I now saw my hobby as an unsatisfactory thing if it went no further. If you set out to climb a mountain, however high you climb, you have failed if you cannot reach the top.I therefore decided that I would be a grade-one thinker. I was irrelevant at the best of times. Political and religious systems, social customs, loyalties and traditions, they all came tumbling down like so many rotten apples off a tree. I came up in the end with what mustalways remainthe justification for grade-one thinking. I devised a coherent system for living. It was a moral system, which was wholly logical. Of course, as I readily admitted, conversion of the world to my way of thinking might be difficult, since my system did away with a number of trifles, such as big business, centralized government, armies, marriage...It was Ruth all over again. I had some very good friends who stood by me, and still do. But my acquaintances vanished, taking the girls with them. Young people seemed oddly contented withthe world as it was. A young navy officer got as red-necked as Mr. Houghton when I proposed a world without any battleships in it.Had the game gone too far? In those prewar days, I stood to lose a great deal, for the sake of a hobby.Now you are expecting me to describe how I saw the folly of my ways and came back to the warm nest, where prejudices are called loyalties, pointless actions are turned into customs by repetition, where we are content to say we think when all we do is feel.But you would be wrong. I dropped my hobby and turned professional.Lesson 2Waiting for the PoliceI wonder where Mr Wainwright's gone?' said Mrs Mayton.It didn't matter to her in the least where he had gone. All that mattered was that he paid his three guineas a week regularly for board and lodging. But life - and particularly evening life -wasnotoriously dull in her boarding-house, and every now and again one tried to whip up a little interest.`Did he go?' asked Monty Smith.It didn't matter to him, either, but he was as polite as he was pale, and he always did his best to keep any ball rolling.`I thought I heard the front door close,' answered Mrs Mayton. `Perhaps he went out to post a letter,' suggested Miss Wicks, without pausing in her knitting. She had knitted for seventy years,and looked good for another seventy.`Or perhaps it wasn't him at all,' added Bella Randall. Bella was the boarding-house lovely, but no one had taken advantage of the fact. `You mean, it might have been someone else?' inquired Mrs Mayton.`Yes,' agreed Bella.They all considered the alternative earnestly. Mr Calthrop, coming suddenly out of a middle-aged doze, joined in the thinking without any idea what he was thinking.`Perhaps it was Mr Penbury,' said Mrs Mayton, at last. `He's always popping in and out.'But it was not Mr Penbury, for that rather eccentric individual walked into the drawing-room a moment later.His arrival interrupted the conversation, and the company became silent. Penbury always had a chilling effect. He possessed a brain, and since no one understood it when he used it, it was resented. But Mrs Mayton never allowed more than three minutes to go by without a word; andso when the new silence had reached its allotted span, she turned to Penbury and asked:`Was that Mr Wainwnght who went out a little time ago?Penbury looked at her oddly.`What makes you ask that?' he said.`Well, I was just wondering.'`I see,' answered Penbury slowly. The atmosphere seemed to tighten, but Miss Wicks went on knitting. `And are you all wondering?'`We decided perhaps he'd gone out to post a letter,' murmured Bella.`No, Wainwright hasn't gone out to post a letter,' responded Penbury. `He's dead.'The effect was instantaneous. Bella gave a tiny shriek. Mrs Mayton's eyes became two startled glass marbles. Monty Smith opened his mouth and kept it open. Mr Calthrop, in a split second,lost all inclination to doze. Miss Wicks looked definitely interested, though she did not stop knitting. That meant nothing, however. She had promised to knit at her funeral.`Dead?' gasped Mr Calthrop.`Dead,' repeated Penbury. `He is lying on the floor of his room. He is rather a nasty mess.'Monty leapt up, and then sat down again. `You - don't mean . . . ?' he gulped.`That is exactly what I mean,' replied Penbury.There had been,countless silences in Mrs Mayton's drawing-room, but never a silence like this one. Miss Wicks broke it.`Shouldn't the police be sent for?' she suggested.`They already have,' said Penbury. `I phoned the station just before coming into the room.'`How long - that is - when do you expect . . . ?' stammered Monty.`The police? I should say in two or three minutes,' responded Penbury. His voice suddenly shed its cynicism and became practical. `Shall we try and make use of these two or three minutes? Weshall all be questioned, and perhaps we can clear up a little ground before they arrive.'Mr Calthrop looked angry.`But this is nothing to do with any of us, sir!' he exclaimed.`The police will not necessarily accept our word for it,' answered Penbury. `That is why I propose that we consider our alibis in advance. I am not a doctor, but I estimate from my brief examination of the body that it has not been dead more than an hour.Since it is now ten pastnine, and at twenty to eight we saw him leave the dining-room for his bedroom . . .'`How do you know he went to his bedroom?' interrupted Miss Wicks.`Because, having a headache, I followed him upstairs to go to mine for some aspirin, and my room is immediately opposite his,' Penbury explained. `Now, if my assumption is correct, he was killed between ten minutes past eight and ten minutes past nine, so anyone who can prove thathe or she has remained in this room during all that time should have no worry.'He looked around inquiringly.`We've all been out of the room,' Miss Wicks announced for the company.`That is unfortunate,' murmured Penbury.`But so have you!' exclaimed Monty, with nervous aggression.`Yes -so I have,' replied Penbury. `Then let me give my alibi first. At twenty minutes to eight I followed Wainwright up to the second floor. Before going into his room he made an odd remark which - in the circumstances -is worth repeating. "There's somebody in this house who doesn'tlike me very much," he said. "Only one?" I answered. "You're luckier than I am." Then he wentinto his room, and that was the last time I saw him alive. I went into my room. I took two aspirin tablets.Then as my head was still bad, I thought a stroll would be a good idea, and I went out. Ikept out till approximately - nine o'clock. Then I came back. The door you heard closing, Mrs Mayton, was not Wainwright going out. It was me coming in.'`Wait a moment!' ejaculated Bella.`Yes?'`How did you know Mrs Mayton heard the front door close? You weren't here!'Penbury regarded her with interest and respect.`Intelligent,' he murmured.`Now, then, don't take too long thinking of an answer!' glared Mr Calthrop.`I don't need any time at all to think of an answer,' retorted Penbury. `I know because I listened outside the door. But as I say, I came back. I went up to my room.' He paused. `On the floor Ifound a handkerchief. So I went into his room to ask if the handkerchief was his. I found him lyingon the ground near his bed. On his back. Head towards the window. Stabbed through the heart.But no sign of what he'd been stabbed with . . . It looks to me a small wound, but deep. It foundthe spot all right . . . The window was closed and fastened. Whoever did it entered through the door. I left the room and locked the door. I knew no one should go in again till the police andpolice doctor turned up.I came down. The telephone, as you know, is in the dining-room. Most inconvenient. It should be in the hall. Passing the door of this room,I listened, to hear what youall were talking about. Then I went into the dining-room and telephoned the police. And then Ijoined you.'Flushed and emotional, Mrs Mayton challenged him.`Why did you sit here for three minutes without telling us?' she demanded.`I was watching you,' answered Penbury, coolly.`Well, I call that a rotten alibi!' exclaimed Mr Calthrop. `Who's to prove you were out all that time?'`At half past eight I had a cup of coffee at the coffee-stall in Junkers Street,' replied Penbury. `That's over a mile away. It's not proof, I admit, but they know me there, you see, and it may help. Well, who's next?'`I am', said Bella. `I left the room to blow my nose. I went to my room for a handkerchief. Andhere it is!' she concluded, producing it triumphantly.`How long were you out of the room?' pressed Penbury.`Abour five minutes.'`A long time to get a handkerchief.'`Perhaps. But I not only blew my nose, I powdered it.'`That sounds good enough,' admitted Penbury. `Would you oblige next, Mr Calthrop? We all know you walk in your sleep. A week ago you walked into my room, didn't you. Have you lost a handkerchief?'Mr Calthrop glared.`What the devil are you implying?' he exclaimed.`Has Mr Calthrop dozed during the past hour?' pressed Penbury.`Suppose I have?' he cried. `What damned rubbish! Did I leave this room without knowing it, andkill Wainwright for -for no reason at all ?' He swallowed, and calmed down. `I left the room,sir,about twenty minutes ago to fetch the evening paper from the dining-room to do the crossword puzzle!' He tapped it viciously. `Here it is!'Penbury shrugged his shoulders.`I should be the last person to refute such an emphatic statement,' he said, `but let me suggestthat you give the statement to the police with slightly less emphasis, Mr Smith?'Monty Smith had followed the conversation anxiously, and he had his story ready.。
现代大学英语精读第二版第四册unit6讲稿
现代大学英语精读第二版第四册unit6讲稿Cultural Note:Communion(p.153 note 3)Pre-class discussion:1. can you find out whether there is anything about traditional societies that people living in modern societies miss very much?2. talk about how technological inventions have brought about great changes in their life. They can use such examples as the invention of wheel, gunpowder or compass, the discovery of the fire, the construction of the first railway, etc. They might also be interested to predict the possible consequences of such new inventions of e-mail, iPhone, etc.Background:The United States is known to be a country of immigrants. Wave upon wave, people come to this land from practically all parts of the world in the course of history, to escape religious or political persecution or to seek better living conditions. This is the reason for the popular appeal of immigrant literature in the United States. It satisfies people’s nostalgia about thei r past and their descendants’ desire to seek their roots. It also interests people of other ethnic origins in the country to find out how their country came to be such a “melting pot”.Teaching tips: (after class)From the point of view of language and style, this story deserves our close attention particularly on the following points.1. the author’s careful and clever choice of examples for bringing out his key ideas.2. the clever way of hiding significant messages in aseemingly childish narration.3. the clever humorous touches4. the skillful uses of figures of speech5. the clever use of words that give a strong local color6. the skillful way of repeating words and sentence patterns to achieve the effect of describing a traditional society and life where things happen without any change.Analysis of the text:1. Magdaluna: a village that lies in the Lebanon Mountains running parallel to the Mediterranean coastlineEast(west, etc) of: at a distance to the east (west, etc.),Eg. He was born in a small town about 100 kilometers southwest of Hangzhou.The Browns live 150 miles west of London.Sidon: a city on Lebanon’s southern coast, approximately 25 miles south of Beirut. It is one of the country’s largest ports and one of the oldest cities in the Middle East.2. according to this sentence, we can see that the villagers didn’t think time was important until perhaps when they were dying.3. keep track (of): to keep oneself informed about a person, situation, etc.,Eg. They try hard to keep track of all the new developments in the IT industry.The boy has kept track of his favorite sports stars.Compare:Lose track (of): to fail to remain informed,Eg. He loses track of time whenever he surfs the Net.During World War Two, the Chinese couple lost track of their son who was studying in Britain.4. the sentence means: the sun was the only clock or watch we needed at that time.Need: a strong feeling that you want sb/sth or must have sth, Eg. There was a time in the country when you’d be considered a jerk if you passed by somebody in need. (para. 1, unit 8, book 1)Have no need of: to not need,Eg. We have no need of this old desktop now that we’ve bought an up-to-date one.When he found they had no more need of him, he quit.Compare:Need: a situation when sth is necessary or must be done,Eg. As the helicopter arrived, Katie knew that her desperate need to direct her own rescue was over.There’s no need to apologize.5. in the remaining part of the paragraph, the writer summarizes what life was like in his home village when he was a child. The villagers followed the life pattern generation after generation. He uses a series of action verbs to emphasize the unchanging cycle of birth, marriage, toil and death in the small Lebanese village. The paragraph ends with the conclusion that with life as it was, there was no need to keep track of time.The seasons rolled by: the seasons came and went in steady successionRoll by: (of time) to pass, esp. quickly,Eg. The years rolled by, and still they got no news of their son.Those children who survived: this implies that infant mortality rate was highTo understand this sentence, we should know about some cultural note: Intermarriage among cousins is very common insome countries. The practice has come down from ancient times, when people there were mostly nomadic herdsmen who had no permanent settlements and moved with the animals from place to place. There were very few options open to young people in the choice of spouse. Today, this intermarriage is still common because of economic considerations. For poor families, marriage within an extended family saves the trouble of exchanging dowries. When rich people marry their cousins, they don’t worry about that someday their money and property will pass to another family.6. this does not meant that we had no way of knowing what year, or season, or day, or hour it was and of remembering when such important events as births, weddings, death, disasters happened.7. meaning of the sentence: we used natural disasters to keep track of time and of the important events in our lives. This was a natural calendar though it is more accurate to say a diving calendar, for sunrise and sunset, the change of seasons, and earthquakes and droughts and floods and locusts and pestilences were all works of God.8. the sentence means: … this way of keeping track of time and of the important events in our lives served or purpose well enough.Fine: adv. (infml) in a way that is acceptable and good enough,Eg. Don’t worry. He’s doing fine.Things are fine at school this year.9. cave in: (of roof or wall) to fall down or inward; to collapse10. meaning of the sentence: that’s the most accurate answer I could get.Now: (spoken) used for giving emphasis to a request, order or comment,Eg. Be careful, now! (order)Now, what’s going on there? (request)It’s marvelous, now, isn’t it? (comment)11. meaning of the sentence: and that’s how we kept track of the important events in our little village for as long as even the oldest people could remember.Note: here, “as far back as anybody could remember” serves as the object of “for”. 12. meaning of the sentence: … because men who would not lie for any reason or purpose, not even to save their souls …Save their own souls: to save their own livesUntil it was incor porated into Magdaluna’s calendar: until the event became one of the things by which we kept track of the important events in our lives.Incorporate sth (into): to add or include sth as part of sth else, Eg. The company decided to incorporate the new feature into their microcomputer.A number of courses in public relations have been incorporated into our curriculum.13. meaning of the sentence: this is a transitional sentence that begins another part of the essay, which extends to para. 10: the year of the drought, one of the best years in the writer’s childhood.14. the heavens were shut for months: it didn’t rain for months as if the sky were shut tightHeavens: (literary) the skySlowed to a trickle: (the spring) gradually became a slow and thin flow of waterTo: used for stating what condition or state sb or sth is after a change,Eg. The ancient temple has been restored to its former glory.The disease has reduced the patient to a bag of bones.15. *What can you infer from these attributive modifiers about these women?Obviously, because they shouldered much of the household chores, and probably worked in the fields, they were lean and muscular. And they were made to work hard, and because they were barefoot, their heels were cracked and brown.16. meaning of the sentence: their husbands who were takinga nap and their babies who needed to change their nappies because they were all wet with urine.Cultural note:Men in Arab countries, especially in the countryside, usually don’t do any housework.As we read on, we find the men in the village spent the evening somewhere drinking, chatting, and playing games.17. *what did the women sometimes argue about? What made them so irritable?These women hated to be away from home the whole morning and afternoon. They worried about their babies and the household chores waiting for them at home, so they got impatient and argue about who should get her water first. Or course the heat, the flies and the bad smell made them all the more irritable.18. meaning of the sentence: and sometimes the arguments became so fierce that they developed into long and violent fights.Full-blown: in the most complete and developed form,Eg. A full-blown economic crisis19. meaning of the sentence: … the words they used when they were quarreling were such that we little boys felt uncomfortable…Call sb names: to abuse sb by insulting words.20. in the remaining part of the paragraph, the writer, as an adult, recalls and describes humorously the excitement the little boys felt at the chance of seeing the usually unexposed parts of the female body. We smile, as we read this part, at the little boy’s innocent curiosity about what they normally couldn’t see and we find nothing repulsive in the description.To understand the sentence, we should know sth about culture.The traditional robe Arab women wear outdoors is a three-piece garment: a long-sleeved black dress reaching to the heels, a large black shawl to hide the hair and to wear over the shoulders and a black, nontransparent veil to cover the face showing only the eyes. In a few Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, women must wear such a garment when they go out.21. meaning of the sentence: this scene has never been erased from my memory. Some women were fighting so furiously that dust clouds were created. The sun (meaning sunlight) was moving quickly on the dust when a young woman’s dress was torn open and her breast exposed. We little boys would rush to steal a glance before it was hidden again. I still remember the excitement I felt at such moments.22. this is another transitional sentence that begins the main part of the essay: How the telephone changed the way of life of the villagers and marked a turning point in the writer’s life. All the first ten paragraphs serve as an introduction: what life waslike before the telephone came along. Note how the writer opens this section. After concluding that the year of the drought will always be one of the best years of his childhood, he goes on to describe the year as one of the worst in his life, of course, from a child’s point of view, or in the short run. Surely in the long run, the year of the drought would be one of the most important in his life.Decide in this sentence means to conclude.23. meaing of the sentence: … and Magdaluna wouldn’t achieve any success withouta telephone.Get anywhere/somewhere/nowhere: to make some/no progress or have some/no successEg. Have you got anywhere in your project?You’ll surely get somewhere if you persist in it.Compare:Not to get sb anywhere: will not help sb to succeed,Eg. Losing your temper won’t get you anywhere with them.24. meaning of the sentence: a few men… tried hard to persuade Abu Raja to give up the idea of having a telephone installed in the village.Talk sb into/out of (doing) sth: to persuade sb to do/not to do sth,Eg. Finally he talked Xiao Chen into accepting the job.If she wants to do something, no one can talk her out of it.25. outshout: a word made up by the writer, combining the prefix “out” with the verb “shout”, meaning “those for the telephone spoke louder (or more strongly) than the others in their arguments”.Meaning of the sentence: but the majority of the villagerswere for the telephone, and they wouldn’t listen to those few people and finally avoided them for resisting progress.26. meaning of the sentence: … the sound of sb shouting informed people that …The usual idiom is “the word went out”, but here, obviously, the news was shouted across the fields.Go out: to be told to people.27. at sb’s elbow: very close to or beside sbMeaning of the sentence: the paragraph tells us how the whole village gathered at the store to watch the installation of the telephone: the rich stood right beside the men from the telephone company, the not-so-poor people stood in the doorway, the poorer villagers stood outside. This shows that the people in the village were status-conscious.28. when the telephone first came to the village, the boy was curious about it and marveled at the wonderful machine through which people could talk to relatives far away. But later it proved to be a misfortune for the village and for the boy personally. (this is what the boy thought at that time.)29. Para. 19 centers around Im Kaleem, the village whore: her appearance, her character and the role she played in the village. Elicit from the students what they can learn or infer about her from the paragraph.Her appearance: short, middle-aged, black-haired, and speaking in a loud voice which was not very pleasant.*And when we read about her appearance, we may answer the questions: What kind of woman was she? Did she depend on her looks to attract the men in the village? Wherein did her attraction lie? Why doesn’t the writer think, now in retrospect, that the women objected to their men going to Im Kaleem’shouse?Her character: generous, understanding, and sensibleHer role: a kind of confessor, a good listener, a pressure-reliever, and a troubleshooter 黎巴嫩人口主要由阿拉伯人构成（95%），大部分信仰穆斯林，其余为基督徒。
现代大学英语第二版精读4 Unit 6 The telephone Key to Exercises
◆Unit 6 The Telephone Key to Exercises◆Q Do the following exercises.◆1 Translate, paying attention to the use of the bold type.◆这辆二手车买得很便宜。
◆他的讲话被打断/缩短了。
◆在这里建造铁路之前，先要把这里的水抽千。
◆这花瓶擦干净以后看起来就会和新的一样。
◆这房子被刷成了淡绿色。
◆就在那时，门被突然賜开。
◆恐怖分子被枪杀，人质都被释放。
◆在日本，鱼往往是生吃的。
◆这可怜的孩子生下来就失聪，不久又失明了。
◆10.据说在皇陵完工的时候，那些建造皇陵的工人都被活埋在里面。
◆2 Give the corresponding adjectives of the following names of countries.◆1. Iraqi◆2. Pakistani◆3. Yemeni◆4. Lebanese◆5. Danish◆6. Hungarian◆7. Belgian◆8. Argentine◆9. Swedish◆10. Swiss◆11. Norwegian◆12. Polish◆3 Review how these words are formed.◆These are compound adjectives consisting of a noun plus an adjective with the noun serving as a modifier of the adjective. “Jet-black” for example means “as black as jet (a◆hard black material).”◆Vocabulary◆Q Translate the following expressions.◆Into English◆1. crack the walls◆2. save souls◆3. play hide-and-seek◆4. slow to a trickle◆5. grab sb by the hair◆6. call sb names◆7. rip her shirt◆8. reveal the secret◆9. resist progress◆10. c ome into view◆11. gather firewood◆12. talk sb out of doing sth◆13. wriggle one’s way out of the crowd ◆14. run errands◆15. deliver sb from suffering◆16. assure a steady supply◆17. take the pressure off sb◆18. keep him out of one’s hair◆Into Chinese◆梯田◆多岩石的群山◆百日咳◆周围的村庄◆林中的一块空地◆粉尘◆羊粪◆黏糊糊的双手◆精瘦强健的妇女◆旌旗如林◆第一手资料◆漆黑的头发◆一位虔诚的天主教徒◆家务事◆一种让人感到在家般自在的声音◆手卷香烟◆有利可图/十分挣钱的生意◆一家肉铺◆它原来模样的空架子◆一所教会学校◆Q Replace the parts in bold type with appropriate words and expressions from the text.◆1. caved in◆2. charged, lucrative◆3. talk him out of it, resist◆4. an argument, escalating◆5. relayed to/delivered to, assemble/congregate◆6. been reduced to mere skeletons, save/deliver◆7. began to/proceeded to, with utmost gravity◆8. cracked◆9. keep unwanted visitors off your hair◆10. packed with people, wriggle◆K1 Translate the following sentences into English.◆1. Incredible as it may sound, I hear that they charge 40 yuan for a bowl of simple noodles at the airport.◆2. Sun Quan finally talked everybody into agreeing to put Lu Xun, a young scholar, in charge of/commanding this decisive battle.◆3. He was arrested on the charge of smuggling, but in accordance with the law, no citizen can be arrested without evidence.◆4. She dropped the plate on the ground, but it miraculously did not break, without so much as a crack.◆5. I can assure you that if we dig a well deep enough here, we will strike water. So if you guys have no objection, let’s get started.◆6. She takes delight in shifting the tables and chairs in this room so as to give the room a new look.◆7. The focus of our economic development has shifted from the coastal areas in the east to the central and western areas.◆8. He shifted/changed to the highest gear, thus leaving all the other cars far behind.◆9. I maintained that smoking should be forbidden, but he disagreed because he said that the tobacco industry was an important source of government revenue.◆10. The local people raised a strong objection to installing the cable car over that beautiful mountain.◆Q Choose the right word(s) in their proper forms.◆1. assure◆2. assured◆3. reassuring◆4. insured, ensured◆5. ensure, reassured◆6. reassuringly◆2 1. twisted/turned◆3. wring◆4. distorted/twisted◆5. twisted◆6. twisted◆7. wringing◆3 1. gathered/assembled◆2. assembling◆3. gather/collect, gathered/collected◆4. gathering, assembled/gathered, collectors◆5. collect/gather◆6. collect,◆collecting,◆collection◆4 1. crack, break◆2. cracked, tear◆3. tore◆4. split, broke◆5. break, Split◆6. tore/ripped◆7. tom◆5 1. abandoned◆2. abandoned/deserted/forsaken, abandoned/deserted/forsaken◆3. abandon/desert/forsake◆4. desert◆5. forsaken, deserted◆6. abandoned◆1. ignore◆2. neglect◆3. overlook◆4. neglected◆5. ignore◆6. neglecting◆B Point out which of the following sentences contain paradox and which oxymoron.◆1 paradox◆2. paradox◆3. oxymoron◆4. oxymoron◆5. oxymoron◆7. paradox◆8. paradox◆9. oxymoron◆10. paradox◆11. paradox◆12. paradox◆13. paradox◆14. paradox◆15. oxymoron◆16. paradox◆Grammar◆D Learn to use as and though as concessive conjunctions.◆1 Group the patterns of concessive clauses in the following sentences into the categories listed below.◆Ol，2，3,6 ©4,9 ©5,8 ©7,10◆2 Complete the sentences by translating the Chinese in brackets using the patterns of concessive cl^uscs listed in the previous exercise.◆1 • Simple as it is◆2. Much as he loves his children◆3. Try as he might◆4. Trash as it is◆5. Happy and contented as they are in retirement◆6. Hard taskmaster though he appeared to be in the lab◆7. Tempting though it was◆8. Perfect talk show host though he is◆9. Much as I respect him◆10. Proud as they are of their father◆B Learn to use It is/was (high) time (that) sb did sth.◆1 Study the use of It is/was (high) time (that) sb did sth in the following sentences and put each into a category listed below.◆The structure “it is/was (high) time (that)."，，is used to convey two meanings. One is “approximately the right time，” the other being “long past the right time.” For example, “It’s◆time you went to bed” can mean either that “You should have gone to bed much earlier” (often stated with emphasis on the word “time”)，or that “Now is the appropriate time for you to go to bed.” The precise meaning of this term depends on the tone of voice and/or the◆context.◆O 1,3, 6, 7 ©2,4,5, 8◆2 Translate the sentences into English using it is/was (high) time (that) sb did sth.◆1. We've been training for the whole morning. It’s time we took a break and had lunch.◆2. The Johnsons decided that it was high time their 40-year-old son moved out of their house. ◆3. Twenty years have passed, and it’s time we buried the past misunderstandings of our two families.◆4. It’s time we protested publicly and said no to such gender discrimination in this department.◆5. It’s time unions and manage ment sat down and worked out a real solution to the problem.◆6 it h time national leaders took stock of their nation’s resources and worked out realistic plans.◆Q Study the grammatical structure of these involved sentences.◆1 • This is a complex sentence.◆Main clause: the story of the fish and oranges was true Subordinate clauses:◆Adverbial clauses of concession: Incredible as it may sound◆Adverbial clauses of reason: because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told and retold that story until it was incorporated into Magdalene’s calendar Both adverbial clauses modify the predicate verb of the main clause was true.◆In the second clause there are two subordinate clauses:◆1) who would not lie even to save their own souls (a relative clause modifying the subject of the reason clause “men”)◆2) until it was incorporated into Magdalene’s calendar (a time clause modifying its main ve rb “told and retold”）◆2. It is also a complex sentence.◆Main clause: I watched◆Subordinate clause: the rest of the sentence except for the opening word “breathless (This is a time clause)◆Within the subordinate clause:◆Two relative clauses:◆1) “That supposedly would make it possible to talk with uncles, aunts, and cousins,” modifies “a black machine.”◆2) “Who lived more than two days' ride away," modifies “uncles，aunts, and cousins.”◆Q Translate the selection into Chinese.◆然而这个问题仍然没有得到答复。
现代大学英语精读4 第二版 Unit 6 The Telephone讲课讲稿
• (p.22)…or to deliver a message to his wife, such as…
take sth to a place
Warming up Check-on Preview
Translate the following paragraph into English by yourself and then compare with the original.
Did the title tell you much? What did you expect to read?
WB TR
Warming up Check-on Preview
Please define the underlined words in each context: • (p.22) In the evening, the laughter and noise of the
men trailed off and finally stopped
v. (voice ~off), it becomes gradually quieter and then stops
• (p.22)“I’ll give him a trail to follow,” muttered Rainsford. (L. 8)
Left for the U.S. when the civil war brokeout in Lebanon
Has been teaching English at the English Language Institute of the Uni. of Tennessee
Anwar F. Accawi
新通用大学英语综合教程第四册听力及答案 Unit 6
Unit 6 AnimalsUnit Goals1. Discuss the benefits of certain pets2. Compare animal characters3. Exchange opinions about the treatment of animals4. Debate animal conservation and animal rights5. Write about keeping petsLesson 1Lead-inTV Documentary: Pecking OrderA. Check the things that make parrots difficult pets, according to the report. They’re temperamental, they’re noisy, they demand attention, they need special care, they’re destructive, they bite.B. Circle the letter of the statement that best summarizes what each person says about parrots as pets.1.a2.b3.aVideo ScriptDiane Sawyer:Millions of people have parrots. That’s a family name that includes all kinds of birds from parakeets（长尾小鹦鹉）to macaws（金刚鹦鹉）to amazons. But many owners don’t understand bird behavior. As we showed you once before, these creatures can be entertaining and talkative, but they can also be, well, flighty(反复无常的) and temperamental(易怒的,喜怒无常的). What does their behavior mean? Perri Peltz has some insights into the mind of your bird.Perri Peltz: They can’t dance…Pet bird in the shower: Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.Perri Peltz:… but some of them can really sing…Pet bird in the shower: We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.Perri Plitz: … and talk.1st pet bird: Hi.2nd pet bird: Are you OK?1st pet bird: Such a good bird!Perri Peltz: It is this amazing ability to communicate with us in our own language along with spectacular(吸引人的) beauty that makes parrots so extraordinary.2nd pet bird: Good girl. Good girl.1st pet bird: God bless you.Perri Peltz: Some say their keen intelligence and ability to bond(与…建立特殊的关系) to humans are the reasons Americans keep more than 15 million parrots as pets. And, according to experts, parrots can be just as smart as your two-to-three-year-old child.3rd pet bird: I’m a smart bird!Perri Peltz: But just as your toddler(刚学走路的小孩) goes through the terrible twos, so can parrots.Lise Mee: No bite.2nd pet bird: No, no. Don’t!4th pet bird: I’m a bad bird!Perri Peltz: In fact, parrot behavior can be a constant source of frustration for many parrot owners. Layne Dicker is a popular lecturer on the bird seminar circuit(演讲圈子). He is staff avian behaviorist at Wilshire Animal Hospital in Santa Monica.Layne Dicker:You have to be willing to learn what you need to know about parrots because they’re not like goldfish. They’re not like dogs. They’re not like cats. They’re wonderful. They ain’t easy.Perri Peltz: I don’t want to put your job down, but what’s the big deal, Layne? They sound like really easy animals to have. They don’t bark, you don’t have to take them out for a walk. I mean, what’s the big deal? Y ou throw a little bit of seed at them.Layne Dicker: They don’t bark, but they scream. They don’t really need to be taken out for a walk, but they need full spectrum light for at least four hours a day. You don’t throw them a handful of seed. They need fresh vegetables every day. Fresh water every time it gets soiled.Perri Peltz: Why is owning a parrot so different than having a pet dog or cat? You see, dogs and cats have been bred for thousands of years to be companion animals. Most parrots have been bred for less than 100 years, so that means parrots bring their own natural instincts into your home. Parrots in the wild live in flocks, so your pet parrot considers you his flock member. He expects to eat with you and interact with you most of the day. When you don’t give him the attention he expects, he may start demanding it by acting out or screaming. Birds can also be destructive. Parrots, especially macaws, will chew anything in their path. What about biting? Parrots don’t bite each other in the wild, but as pets, parrots can bite when they feel threatened, or when they don’t want your fingers in their cage. Or even when they want your undivided attention.Lise Mee: Ah, ah, ah. No, let go. Let go.Perri Peltz: With all the behavior problems, why not just punish a bird?Layne Dicker: If I can tell any parrot owner something about their parrot, it would be make them feel safe and secure. I hear about hitting, squirting with water, screaming at. Anything that makes a parrot feel insecure will break down the level of trust he has with you. And unless a parrot trusts you, all the negative behaviors are just going to get worse. You have to do everything with a parrot in a loving, supportive way. Yes, you’re so good. Yes.Part 2A. According to bird breeder and pet store owner Ruth Hanessian, which facts dopotential pet owners need to know about parrots?They will make noise, they may say things you don’t want them to say, they may behave like very young children.B. Answer the questions about the conure (a type of parrot) at the ParrotEducation and Adoption Center.1. She was kept in a covered cage in a dark room for six years.2. Because she made noise.3. She began pulling out her own feathers.VIDEO SCRIPTPerri Peltz: For the past twenty years, Ruth Hanessian has been a bird breeder and pet store owner in Rockville, Maryland. She’s now written a book called Birds on the Couch: The Bird Shrink’s(精神分析学家) Guide to Keeping Polly from Going Crackers and You Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest)(防止你的鹦鹉和你本人发疯的鸟类精神分析学家手册). If you could put a little red warning label on each parrot cage, what would it say?Ruth Hanessian: I am a bird. I have my own thoughts. I have my own way of expressing myself. I’m verbal. I will make noise. I will see what’s going on in your household and have an opinion about it.1st pet bird: Tarzan. Stop it. You behave yourself.Ruth Hanessian: I will be in charge of your life if you let me be.Perri Peltz: You write, “Will you freak out(烦得要命，吓得要死) if Polly screams during dinner parties? What if she learns to mimic your lovemaking cries and repeats them when your mother-in-law comes for a visit?” Can’t be.Ruth Hanessian: Oh, can be. If you decide to get a bird, you have to watch what you say around it, because they will pick up the things that you really don’t want them to say.1st pet bird: Oh, stop!Perri Peltz: Now, Ruth, you’re pushing it on the next one. Birds can be co-dependents? What are we talking about here?Ruth Hanessian: They get very involved with you, and they get very upset when you’re not there. It’s like having a two-year-old child for the rest of your life.Perri Pletz: And by the way, the rest of their lives can be a very long time. If taken care of properly, the bigger birds can live up to 100 years. And that’s just fine with Connie Pavlinac. She and her husband, Gary, are the proud parents of three birds. And Connie makes sure all of her birds’ needs are taken care of. First, their meals. Connie spends at least an hour and a half each day chopping fruits and vegetables for the older birds. Then mixing formula（配方）for the baby, making sure it’s not too hot, and hand-feeding him. Then another hour and a half sweeping floors and scrubbing and cleaning cages. And twice a week, there are the showers, followed by a fluff dry. And they have emotional needs.5th pet bird: Hi.Connie Pavlinac: Hi. They need to be talked to. They need to be held. They need to be stimulated, so if we talk to them, we entertain them with toys.Perri Peltz: Bonnie Kenk runs Parrot Education and Adoption Center in San Diego. In the last two years, she has taken in more than 100 unwanted birds, including this conure, whose owner couldn’t tolerate her constant screaming and kept her in a covered cage in a dark room for six years. You see, birds become quiet in the dark. With nothing to do and nothing to see, little Audrey turned on herself and started plucking out her own feathers. Bonnie Kenk: It’s really very, very sad that people just don’t… they don’t understand what they’re getting into when they get…when they get a bird. Conures are relatively noisy birds.Perri Peltz:How often, Bonnie, do you see a problem result because of an impulse purchase?Bonnie Kenk: Daily. That’s how we end up with most of our birds.Layne Dicker: Parrots are the worst impulse purchase in the world, and they’re so frequently purchased on impulse because they’re so beautiful and they’re so endearing in pet stores. You need to do your homework before buying a parrot. They are very, very, very smart.6th pet bird: Hello.Layne Dicker: They have very, very long memories.1st pet bird: OK, thank you, bye-bye.Layne Dicker: They’re amazing animals. Good night.7th pet bird: Good night.Layne Dicker: Good night, birds.7th pet bird: Good night.Layne Dicker: Good night.ListeningTalk About Animals in ZoosPart 1A. Sound BitesRead and listen to a conversation between two friends at the zoo.Teaching suggestions:Step 1Have students look at the photo. Ask Where are the people? (at the zoo) Have you ever been to a zoo? Did you like it?Step 2To check comprehension, ask Do Alicia and Ben have similar or different views on zoos? (Different ― Ben likes zoos and Alicia doesn’t.)Language Notes1. coop v. restrict the freedom of someone or something by keeping them in a place that is too small 把某人拘禁起来，把动物关入笼中2. I let you talk me into here. I allow you to persuade me into coming here. 竟然被你说服来这里。
（完整版）现代大学英语精读Book4Unit6课文
（完整版）现代⼤学英语精读Book4Unit6课⽂Book 4-Unit 5Text AThe TelephoneAnwar F. Accawi1.When I was growing up in Magdaluna, a small Lebanese village in theterraced, rocky mountains east of Sidon, time didn't mean much toanybody, except maybe to those whowere dying. In those days, there was no real need for a calendar or awatch to keep track of the hours, days, months, and years. We knewwhat to do and when to do it, just as the Iraqi geese knew when to flynorth, driven by the hot wind that blew in from the desert. The onlytimepiece we had need of then was the sun. It rose and set, and theseasons rolled by and we sowed seed and harvested and ate and playedand married our cousins and had babies who got whooping cough andchickenpox—and those children who survived grew up and marriedtheir cousins and had babies who got whooping cough and chickenpox.We lived and loved and toiled and died without ever needing to knowwhat year it was, or even the timeof day.2.It wasn't that we had no system for keeping track of time and of the importantevents in ourlives. But ours was a natural or, rather, a divine — calendar, because itwas framed by acts of God: earthquakes and droughts and floods andlocusts and pestilences. Simple as our calendar was, it worked just finefor us.3.Take, for example, the birth date of Teta Im Khalil, the oldestwoman in Magdaluna and all the surrounding villages. When Iasked Grandma, "How old is Teta Im Khalil?"4.Grandma had to think for a moment; then she said, "I've been toldthat Teta was born shortly after the big snow that caused the roof onthe mayor's house to cave in."5."And when was that?" I asked.6."Oh, about the time we had the big earthquake that cracked the wall in the eastroom."7.Well, that was enough for me. You couldn't be more accurate than that, now, could you?8.And that's the way it was in our little village for as far back as anybody could remember. One of the most unusual of the dates was when a whirlwind struck during which fish and oranges fell from the sky.Incredible as it may sound, the story of the fish and oranges was true, because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told andretold that story untilit was incorporated into Magdaluna's calendar.9.The year of the fish-bearing whirlpool was not the last remarkable year. Many others followed in which strange and wonderful things happened. There was, for instance, the yearof the drought, when the heavens were shut for months and the springfrom which the entire village got its drinking water slowed to a trickle.The spring was about a mile from the village, in a ravine that opened atone end into a small, flat clearing covered with fine gray dust and hard, marble-sized goat droppings. In the year of the drought, that littleclearingwas always packed full of noisy kids with big brown eyes and sticky hands, and their mothers —sinewy, overworked young women with cracked, brown heels. The children ran around playing tag or hide-and-seek while the women talked, shooed flies, and awaited their turns to fillup their jars with drinking water to bring home to their napping menand wet babies. There were days when we had to wait from sunup untillate afternoon just to fill a small clay jar with precious, cool water.10.S ometimes, amid the long wait and the heat and the flies and the smellof goat dung, tempers flared, and the younger women, anxious abouttheir babies, argued over whose turnit was to fill up her jar. And sometimes the arguments escalated intofull-blown, knockdown-dragout fights; the women would grab eachother by the hair and curse and scream and spit and call each othernames that made my ears tingle. We little brown boys who went withour mothers to fetch water loved these fights, because we got to see the women's legs and their colored panties as they grappled and rolledaround in the dust. Oncein a while, we got lucky and saw much more, because some of thewomen wore nothing at all under their long dresses. God, how I usedto look forward to those fights. I remember the rush, the excitement,the sun dancing on the dust clouds as a dress ripped and a youngwhite breast was revealed, then quickly hidden. In my calendar, thatyear of drought will always be one of the best years of my childhood.11.B ut, in another way, the year of the drought was also one of the worstof my life, because that was the year that Abu Raja, the retired cook,decided it was time Magdaluna got its own telephone. Every civilizedvillage needed a telephone, he said, and Magdaluna was not going toget anywhere until it had one. A telephone would link us with theoutside world. A fewmen—like the retired Turkish-army drill sergeant, and the vineyard keeper —did all they could to talk Abu Raja out of having a telephone brought to the village. But they were outshouted and ignored and finally shunned by the other villagers for resisting progress and trying to keep a good thing from coming to Magdaluna.12. O ne warm day in early fall, many of the villagers were out in theirfields repairing walls or gathering wood for the winter when the shoutwent out that the telephone-company truckhad arrived at Abu Raja's dikkan, or country store. When the truckcame into view, everybody dropped what they were doing and ran toAbu Raja's house to see what was happening.13.I t did not take long for the whole village to assemble at Abu Raja'sdikkan. Some of the rich villagers walked right into the store andstood at the elbows of the two important-lookingmen from the telephone company, who proceeded with utmost gravity, like priests at Communion, to wire up the telephone. The poorer villagers stoodoutside and listened carefully to the details relayed to them by the not-so-poor people who stood in the doorway and could see inside.14."The bald man is cutting the blue wire," someone said.15."He is sticking the wire into the hole in the bottom of the black box," someoneelse added.16."The telephone man with the mustache is connecting two pieces ofwire. Now he is twisting the ends together," a third voice chimed in.17.B ecause I was small, I wriggled my way through the dense forest oflegs to get a firsthand look at the action. Breathless, I watched asthe men in blue put together a black machinethat supposedly would make it possible to talk with uncles, aunts, andcousins who lived more than two days' ride away.18.I t was shortly after sunset when the man with the mustache announced thatthe telephonewas ready to use. He explained that all Abu Raja had to do was lift thereceiver, turn the crank on the black box a few times, and wait for anoperator to take his call. Abu Raja grabbed the receiver and turned thecrank forcefully. Within moments, he was talking withhis brother in Beirut. He didn't even have to raise his voice or shout to be heard.19.A nd the telephone, as it turned out, was bad news. With its coming, the face ofthe villagebegan to change. One of the fast effects was the shifting of the village'scenter. Before the telephone's arrival, the men of the village used togather regularly at the house of Im Kaleem, a short, middle-aged widowwith jet-black hair and a raspy voice that could be heard all over thevillage, even when she was only whispering. She was a devout Catholicand also the village whore. The men met at her house to argue aboutpolitics and drink coffee and play cards or backgammon. Im Kaleemwas not a true prostitute, however, because she did not charge for herservices —not even for the coffee and tea that she served the men. Shedid not need the money; her son, who was overseas in Africa, sent hermoney regularly. Im Kaleem loved all the men she entertained, and theyloved her, every one of them. In a way, she was married to all the menin the village. Everybody knew it but nobody objected. Actually I suspect the women did not mind their husbands'visits to Im Kaleem. Oh, theywrung their hands and complained to one another about their men'sunfaithfulness, but secretly they were relieved, because Im Kaleem tooksome of the pressure off them and kept the men outof their hair while they attended to their endless chores. Im Kaleem wasalso a kind of confessor and troubleshooter, talking sense to those menwho were having family problems, especially the younger ones.20.B efore the telephone came to Magdaluna, Im Kaleem's house was bustling atjust about anytime of day, especially at night, when the loud voices of the men talking, laughing, and arguing could be heard in the streetbelow —a reassuring, homey sound. Her house was an island of comfort, an oasis for the weary village men, exhausted from having so little to do.21.B ut it wasn't long before many of those men —the younger ones especially—started spending more of their days and evenings at AbuRaja's dikkan. There, they would eat and drink and talk and playcheckers and backgammon, and then lean their chairs back against thewall —the signal that they were ready to toss back and forth, like a ball,the latest rumors going around the village. And they were alwayslooking up from their games and drinks and talk to glance at the phonein the corner, as if expecting it to ring any minute and bring news thatwould change their lives and deliver them from their aimless existence.In the meantime,they smoked cheap, hand-rolled cigarettes, dug dirt out from undertheir fingernails with big pocketknives, and drank lukewarm sodasthat they called Kacula, Seffen-Ub, and Bebsi.22. T he telephone was also bad news for me personally. It took away mylucrative business —a source of much-needed income. Before, I used tohang around Im Kaleem's courtyard and play marbles with the otherkids, waiting for some man to call down from a window and askme to run to the store for cigarettes or liquor, or to deliver a message to his wife, such as what he wanted for supper. There was always something in it for me: aten or even a twenty-five-piaster piece. On a good day, I ran nine or tenof those errands, which assured a steady supply of marbles that Iusually lost to other boys. But as the days went by fewer and fewer mencame to Im Kaleem's, and more and more congregated at Abu Raja's towait bythe telephone. In the evenings, the laughter and noise of the mentrailed off and finally stopped.23.A t Abu Raja's dikkan, the calls did eventually come, as expected, andmen and women started leaving the village the way a hailstorm begins:first one, then two, then bunches.24.T he army took them. Jobs in the cities lured them. And ships andairplanes carried them to such faraway places as Australia and Braziland New Zealand. My friend Kameel, his cousin Habeeb, and theircousins and my cousins all went away to become ditch diggers andmechanics and butcher-shop boys and deli owners who wore dirtyaprons sixteen hours a day, all looking for a better life than the onethey had left behind. Within a year, only the sick, the old, and themaimed were left in the village. Magdaluna became a skeleton of itsformer self, desolate and forsaken, like the tombs, a place to get away from.25.F inally, the telephone took my family away, too. My father got a callfrom an old army buddy who told him that an oil company in southern Lebanon was hiring interpreters and instructors. My father applied for a job and got it, and we moved to Sidon, where I went to aPresbyterian missionary school and graduated in 1962. Three yearslater, having won a scholarship, I left Lebanon for the United States.Like the others who left Magdaluna before me, I am still looking for that better life. (2121 words)。