四、练习答案

Text I

Text comprehension

I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s purpose.

C

II. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.

1．F We have to read some books either to pass examinations or to acquire information, but it is impossible for us to extract enjoyment. We read with resignation rather than with alacrity. Refer to Paragraph 1.

2．F Some of the masterpieces acknowledged by all the best critics as important ones can no longer be read by any ordinary person with enjoyment. Changing times and changing tastes have robbed them of their savour and it is hard to read them now without an effort of will. Refer to Paragraph 2.

3．T. Refer to Paragraph 3.

4．T Refer to Paragraph 5.

5．F Refer to the last paragraph. The author believes in skipping because skipping enables people to read with profit and pleasure. The truth is that the author himself has never acquired the trick.

III. Answer the following questions.

1．According to the author, people feel obliged to read such books that enable them either to pass examinations or to get information.

2．The author believes that masterpieces are important to readers. However, some of them do not necessarily provide pleasurable reading for today’s readers, because changing times and changing tastes have robbed them of their savour.

3．The author insists that the reader is the final judge of the value of the books he/she reads, because people are different and what means a great deal to one person does not necessarily mean a great deal to others. Besides, even the most eminent critics make blunders.

4．By explaining his own experience, the author hopes to make it clear that it is impossible to formulate one uniformed reading habit for all persons, or for all the occasions.

5．When he mentions the writings from the 18th and 19th centuries, the author tells us that tastes change with the passage of time and therefore it is justifiable to skip but it is important to know how to skip in order to read with profit and pleasure.

IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text.

1．You don’t have to care what the critics say about a book, nor how they praise a book in one voice. All their evaluations do not concern you, unless the book itself interests you.

2．... I read history, essays ... when I finish a day’s work and feel relaxed, but not in the mood to exert too much mental effort.

Writing strategies

1） Sentences of inverted sequence:

a. Normal sequence: We read such books with resignation rather than with alacrity.

Function: To create a closer relation between "books" in this sentence and "them" in the preceding one.

b. Normal sequence: However, they cannot do that unless you enjoy reading them.

Function: To achieve emphasis by putting "that" at the beginning of the sentence.

c. Normal sequence: Now I mean to say nothing of such books as this.

Function: Both to achieve emphasis and to create a closer relation between "this" in the sentence and what has been discussed in the preceding one.

d. Normal sequence: ... but I cannot tell you how you are to learn it...

Function: Both to achieve emphasis and to create a closer relation between "it" in the sentence and “to know how to skip” in the preceding one.

2） The author’s viewpoints involved in his personal experiences:

a. The author’s experience in reading George Eliot’s Adam Bede （Paragraph 2）—to indicate that masterpieces do not necessarily bring enjoyment in reading.

b. Reading certain books makes the author feel the richer （Paragraph 3） —to suggest that what pleases one person does not necessarily please another.

c. The author’s reading habit （Paragraph 5） —to advise people that they need to read according to their own interests.

d. The author’s experience as a bad skipper （Paragraph 6） —to prove that reading could be more enjoyable, if you know how to skip.

Language work

I. Explain the underlined part（s） in each sentence in your own words.

1．read with unresisting acceptance because we know we have to; eagerness

2．later, after these introductory remarks

3．for a long time have generally been accepted as the most important books

4．full of mistakes; famous and respected

5．ease the painful feeling; kill

6．told to

7．warms me up and gets me ready for a whole day’s work

8．ready for; a toilsome / difficult nature

9．have not treated the book in a way that is fair

10．tend to; it might have been equally good if I had never read it （Note: it is a phrase used to mean that another course of action would have an equally good result.）

II. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.

1．resignation

2．supremacy

3．unanimously

4．eminence

5．applicable

6．miscellany

7．chronology

8．attentively

9．inclination

10．strenuously

III. Fill in the blank（s） in each sentence with a word or phrase taken from the box in its appropriate form.

1．do justice to

2．resigned

3．robbed ... of

4．dip into

5．apply to

6．inclined

7．classed as

8．apt

9．set ... off

10．extracted from

11．stalled off

12．with… equanimity

IV. Explain the meaning of the underlined part in each sentence.

1．a moment which causes great excitement

2．There was so little wind

3．ordered or told

4．visit a doctor

5．likely to

6．pleasure and interest

7．made the alarm bell ring

8．I more disagree than agree

9．read a few pages of the book, not from cover to cover

10．fairness has been achieved

V. Correct the errors in the following passage. The passage contains ten errors, one in each indicated line. In each case, only one word is involved.

（1）language’s→language

（compound noun

concerned = involved）

（2）去掉were or concerned→were

concerned with

（concerned = involved

were concerned with = were about; dealt with）

（3）exploiting→exploited

（main verb, past tense）

（4）sunk→sinking

（present participle）

（5）to

（He does not need to get to the river, but along it.）

（6）evilness→evil

（correct form of noun）

（7）去掉over （the first “over”）

（unnecessary）

（8）去掉for

（unnecessary）

（9）base→basis

（“Base” is more physical.）

（10）present→presence

（noun）

VI. Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE appropriate word.

Translation

I. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words or phrases given in brackets.

1．She accepted the money with alacrity.

2．However, he could extract no satisfaction from the victory, because he found that an innocent boy had been killed in the battle.

3．The experts are not unanimous on this point.

4．They say that well-educated people are apt to hesitate too much before they make important decisions.

5．Despite his promotion to general manager, his desire for power was not assuaged.

6．It’s just another poem on the pain of unrequited love.

7．The novel is not entirely written in a chronological order.

8．You must watch the movie again to do it justice.

9．She did not begin to regain her equanimity till three years after the tragedy.

10．There is still time if you feel inclined to have a cup of coffee.

II. Translate the following passage into Chinese.

我渴望的生活

这一定是世间无数对夫妻的生活写照，这种生活模式给人一种天伦之美。它使人想起一条平静的溪流，蜿蜒畅游过绿茵的草场，浓荫遮蔽，最后注入烟波浩渺的汪洋大海；但是大海太过平静，太过沉默，太过不动声色，你会突然感到莫名的不安。也许这只是我自己的一种怪诞想法，在那样的时代，这想法对我影响很深：我觉得这像大多数人一样的生活，似乎有点儿不对劲。我承认这种生活有社会价值，我也看到了它那井然有序的幸福，但我血液里的冲动却渴望一种更桀骜不驯的旅程。这样的安逸中好像有一种叫我惊惧不安的东西。我的心渴望一种更加惊险的生活。只要生活中还能有变迁——变迁以及不可知的刺激，我愿意踏上怪石嶙峋的山崖，奔赴暗礁满布的海滩。

Text II

I. Answer the following multiple-choice questions.

1．C

2．D

3．B

4．C

5．A

II. Questions for discussion.

1．The canon debate reflects today’s readers’ utilitarian attitude towards reading. They tend to read only those books that are immediately useful to them.

2．No, the author is vehemently against this idea. According to her, “... while we have been arguing so fiercely about which books make the best medicine, the patient has been slipping deeper and deeper into a coma.”（Paragraph 2） She also asserts that “... books are not pills that produce health when ingested in measured doses.” （Paragraph 8） Books themselves are not medicinal, society itself has slipped “deeper and deeper into a coma.”

3．According to the author, reading should be a voluntary activity: “There, parents read books for their own edification and pleasure, and also read to their children ... In school ... the children study certain books together but also have an active reading life of their own.” （Paragraph 3） In short, reading should not be forced on the students by the syllabus or through canonization.

4．According to the author, “... the canon debate is really an argument about what books to cram down the resistant throats of a resentful captive populace of students ...” （Paragraph 8） In other words, this debate is actually about what books should be included in the syllabus to be forced upon students, who resent it but have no choice.