key to exercise (4)

Active Reading 1 Reading and understanding 2 Choose the best summary of the passage. √ 2 In this passage about the importance of reading, the writer refers to a lot of thinkers and writers who have tried to explain what the experience of reading actually means. The writer also quotes a lot of recent, and not so recent novels which, in his opinion, illustrate the power and range of reading. This is the best summary because it gives the main idea of the passage, and it also shows how and why the writer refers to writers, thinkers and novels. This gives a better idea of the whole passage rather than simply trying to identify one or two ideas. 3 Choose the best answer to the questions. 1 Why are we like Alice in wonderland when we read a book? (c) Because reading opens the door to new experiences. 2 According to the writer, what is the advantage of reading over real life? (b) We can experience variety and difference without going out of the house. 3 What do the seven novels listed in Paragraph 4 have in common? (a) Their titles stimulate imagination. 4 At what moment in our lives do books become important? (c) When we start listening to bedtime stories. 5 What claim did Merton make about the poems of William Blake? (b) They helped him understand the meaning of life. 6 What is meant by a home-run book? (a) A book which is so good you are unable to put it down. Dealing with unfamiliar words 4 Match the words in the box with their definitions. 1 (exclude) 2 (neglect) 3 (cite) 4 (withstand) 5 (normally) 6 (await) 5 Complete the paragraph with the correct form of the words in Activity 4. (1) excluding (2) withstand (3) Normally (4) cite (5) awaited (6) neglect 6 Replace the underlined words with the correct form of the words in the box. 1 (interact) 2 (confront) 3 (likewise) 4 (influential) 5 (induce) 6 (dialect) 7 (mysterious) 7 Answer the questions about the words. 1 (b) confused 2 (a) see or imagine it 3 (b) shouting at them 4 (a) like it a lot 5 (a) very good 6 (a) help understanding 7 (a) trying very hard to get it 8 (b) just a feeling Reading and interpreting 8 Check () the writer’s main purpose in writing the passage. √ 3 To persuade the reader that reading can be a life-changing experience. 9 Work in pairs. Look at the statements from the passage and discuss the questions. 1 … when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. Do you agree with this statement? Is this true of every book? I agree with this up to a point, but it is not true of every book. You may already be very familiar with the world of some particular books. So although you might read them, they wouldn’t take you to a new world. 2 We’ll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from. How can reading be a “painful” experience? In what sense does reading “liberate” us from the real world? It is easy to imagine how reading could be a painful experience for some people: It depends on the book and on the reader’s background and personality. For instance, I can see that a story about bullying might be painful to read if you were bullied when you were a child – it would remind you of the experience of being hurt. Reading can liberate us because in books we can have all sorts of wonderful and interesting experiences which would be impossible for us in the real world. We can travel to distant places or go anywhere in time, we can meet all sorts of people we probably wouldn’t meet anywhere else except in books. 3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. How does this idea contrast with the title of the passage? In what way can a book help us “grow”? The word danger in the title contrasts with this idea in that reading is a safe experience. However, this is not a contradiction because books can affect our lives, and we can grow in our minds with a better understanding and enriched imagination when we meet a wide variety of people and different situations in books. This vicarious experience in reading is a safe way to grow mentally and emotionally. 4 To interact with other people’s lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us. Do you agree? Is fiction really different from other types of writing? Well, I think this is true because in fiction we can interact with the characters, both positively (with characters we can identify with) and negatively (with characters we do not like or admire). But this doesn’t mean that we don’t interact with the writer in non-fiction. Surely all of us have the experience of feeling that we do interact with writers in newspaper or magazine articles and in some non-fiction about science, for example. I suppose it depends on the style of the writing and on the personality of the writer (and of characters in fiction) and on us, as readers. 5 We even understand … that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors. This suggests that people who read are different from people who don’t read. Do you agree? Well, I am not sure. I guess that people who read similar books, fiction or non-fiction, would share some common knowledge, experience and maybe feelings, and they would probably talk about these when they know about each other’s reading habits. But they wouldn’t necessarily have other things in common, except for this particular connection with a certain kind of culture through reading. Maybe people in the street do not share this reading experience, so in this respect they are different, but they may be quite similar and share many cultural experiences in other ways – after all they live in the same place, probably speak the same language. So, I think it’s all a question of what sort of common experiences you are talking about. The more I think about it, the less I agree! 6 From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with books in our adult homes, books define our lives. What do you understand by “books define our lives”? I suppose they would be those books – not many, surely? – which have made a great impact and remain so strong in our memories that they have a function of defining something in our lives. However, I think the writer is exaggerating here. Books are not the only things that define our lives. People, places and special events define our lives too, so books, for some people, have a great influence but for others, maybe very little or no influence at all. We have to remember that some people simply don’t read books. Even some students only read what they have to read, nothing more! 7 We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves. Do you agree that we “live other lives” when reading? Or is this an exaggeration? I agree that we have strong imaginative experiences when we read. Maybe you can call this “living other lives”, but for me, anyway, this simply doesn’t happen very often and when it does happen, it is only for a short time. I think the writer is exaggerating here to make the point that reading is important for our imagination. 8 Books may change your life. Is this a suitable title – and ending – for the passage? Why / Why not? Yes, I think it is OK as a catchy title – it gets our attention, after all, and repeating it at the end makes a kind of coda like the ending of a piece of music which echoes something near the beginning. Also if you look carefully, it does have a note of caution by using may instead of will, so this title isn’t a definite promise, it’s more of an attractive idea that your life may be changed by books, but may be not. Now discuss which of the above statements would have been more effective if backed up by example(s). In fact, it seems that any of them could be more effectively illustrated by examples, but if all of them were to be backed up by examples, the whole passage would be a lot longer and maybe too heavy with examples. If I had to choose just two statements which need supporting examples, I would say No. 3 and No. 6 because the ideas about “growing” through books and books “defining” our lives are too vague without examples. Active Reading 2 Reading and understanding 2 Choose the best answer to the questions. 1 What does Miller consider to have been an advantage during his writing career? (c) To have written without the aid of a library. 2 What did three stars on a book mean in the public library in Miller’s youth? (a) Young people weren’t allowed to read them. 3 Why does Miller hope the star system still exists in public libraries? (c) It makes people interested in reading. 4 Why do people lend books, in Miller’s opinion? (a) Because they feel the need to share their feelings. 5 According to Miller, what should you do when you find a book you want to read? (c) Think about whether you really need to read it. 6 What does Miller especially admire about Blaise Cendrars? (d) He read as well as wrote a lot. Dealing with unfamiliar words 3 Match the words in the box with their definitions. 1 (originality) 2 (classification) 3 (tackle) 4 (enrich) 5 (obstacle) 6 (drown) 7 (idle) 8 (recommendation) 9 (strive) 4 Complete the conversation with the correct form of the words in Activity 3. (1) drowned (2) enriched (3) recommendation (4) strive (5) originality (6) classifications (7) obstacle (8) idle (9) tackled 5 Replace the underlined words with the correct form of the following words. You may need to make other changes. 1 (demoralized) 2 (autobiographical) Henry Miller’s The Books in My Life is, as the name suggests, autobiographical. 3 (prodigious; unparalleled) Shakespeare had a prodigious talent as a writer, which is unparalleled in the history of English literature. 4 (enlightenment) 5 (prohibiting) 6 (advantageous) 7 (indubitably) 6 Answer the questions about the words and expressions. 1 (a) personal and secret 2 (a) desire it 3 (a) read or deal with them 4 (b) do without it 5 (a) good at business 6 (b) the same thing 7 (a) in addition to a regular activity Reading and interpreting 7 Answer the questions. 1 What is the first struggle that he has with books? Miller’s first struggle is to obtain books and get his hands on them. 2 Why is it difficult to lay hands on them? The books are always not in the public library because someone has already borrowed them and Miller doesn’t have the money to buy them. 3 What sort of books are prohibited for a young man? Books which are considered to be immoral for a young person to read. 4 What is the best way to be introduced to a book? Through the passionate recommendation of someone who has read the book. 5 What is an unused book lying on a shelf compared with? It is compared with wasted ammunition. This means that it is useless. It is also compared with money because it should be in circulation. 6 Why does Miller suggest resisting your impulses and not opening a book as soon as you get it? He says you should think intensely about the title, author, and imagine what you yourself would have written about it. Then you may decide you don’t need to read it, or, if you do read it, you will read it with more interest and acumen. 8 Work in pairs. Compare the passage with the passage in Active reading (1), and answer the questions. 1 Do the passages have the same purpose? If so, what is it? Yes, they do. Their purpose is to encourage people to read by showing some of the interest and pleasure in books. 2 How different is the advice they give? Passage 1 doesn’t really give advice, though the writer encourages us to explore the variety and differences among books as much as possible and to go to the library, bookshop or our own bookshelves to explore the titles. Passage 2 advises readers not to read as much as possible, but only to read what is really advantageous to us, not to read a book immediately but to think about it for several days and decide if it is necessary to read it. So the two passages are quite different in the ways they encourage reading. 3 Which passage is more personal? Passage 1 uses we and you quite a lot which seems personal but, in fact, there isn’t so much personal voice in the writing. Passage 2 is more personal because the writer, Miller, talks about his experience in youth and you feel that he is giving personal advice from his own life rather than just general advice. And he shows us a way to test his advice. Passage 1 has academic traces, for example, dates are given for some of the writers quoted and for when Fadiman coined the term home-run book. However, Passage 2 doesn’t have this slightly academic feel. 4 Which one is more about the pleasure of reading? Passage 1 seems to have more about the actual pleasure of reading. One reason why Passage 2 has less about the pleasure of reading is that it is an extract from a book, so we would expect pleasure to be discussed in other sections. 5 Which one has a more effective title? At first, I thought the title of Passage 1 was more catchy, more likely to get attention and therefore more effective, but later I thought the title of Passage 2 was better because it has more of an air of mystery. 6 Which one gives the best examples? Passage 1 gives more examples but, except for the reference to Thomas Merton, I felt I wouldn’t particularly want to read the examples from what the writer said about them (actually, there were not many details). Passage 2 gives fewer examples, but I felt I would like to read some of Cendrars’ writing from the way the writer talked about him as a writer. 7 Which one is more persuasive in the arguments it uses? They both have some persuasive points, but in different ways. In Passage 1, I found the idea of a homerun book persuasive. But the idea of not reading everything but rather leaving a book alone for a few days in Passage 2 is also quite persuasive (although I don’t think we could do that with some of the books that we are supposed to read for our university courses). 8 Which one makes you think more about the process of reading, and why? Passage 1 makes me think about reading fiction, about different titles and books that may have an influence, while Passage 2 makes me think about reading deeply and choosing a bit more carefully. So both of these ideas are useful about the general process of reading, but when reading non-fiction I think Passage 2 has more relevant ideas for this process of reading. Language in use word formation: -ous 1 Write the adjectives which describe: 1 (famous) 2 (curious) 3 (envious) 4 (mountainous) 5 (voluminous) infinitive / gerund as the subject of a sentence 2 Complete the sentences using infinitive or gerund as the subject. Usually both forms are possible, but you should be able to justify your choice. 1 Getting up early in the morning gives me more time to organize the day. To express an everyday activity. 2 To write a best-seller has always been my dream. This is a bit more abstract or a far-away grand idea. 3 Forgetting to take back a library book may not seem serious, but it causes problems for other students. To express a normal activity for many people. 4 To spend a lot of time reading in one’s childhood can bring rewards later in life. Use the more abstract form for an important idea. 5 To be or not to be, that is the question. In Hamlet this can be interpreted as a grand idea, so Shakespeare uses the formal way. If you say, “Being or not being …” it may be more immediate and seems normal. such is / are … 3 Rewrite the sentences using such is / are … 1 Good writing is so powerful that the reader thinks the writer is speaking directly to them. The reader thinks the writer is speaking directly to them. Such is the power of good writing. 2 The novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is so charming that you can’t put it down even for a moment. You can’t put the novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen down even for a moment. Such is the charm of it. 3 Travel is such a pleasure that you may end up living in another country. You may end up living in another country. Such is the pleasure of travel. 4 The sense of confusion in this film is so great that you may feel you want to leave before the end. You may feel you want to leave before the end of this film. Such is the sense of confusion in it. 5 The difficulties of translation are so enormous that much of the meaning is lost. Much of the meaning is lost. Such are the enormous difficulties of translation. if / whether it be … 4 Rewrite the sentences using if / whether it be … 1 Is it the right time to start this kind of project? Ask yourself carefully. Ask yourself carefully if / whether it be the right time to start this kind of project. 2 Is it the first edition of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary? I very much doubt it. I very much doubt if / whether it be the first edition of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary. 3 Is it common knowledge that Arthur Miller thought like this? I’m not sure. I am not sure if / whether it be common knowledge that Arthur Miller thought like this. 4 Is it necessary to produce any documents when making an application? Perhaps we should inquire. Perhaps we should inquire if / whether it be necessary to produce any documents when making an application. 5 Is it the right way to tackle the problem? I doubt it. I doubt if / whether it be the right way to tackle the problem. collocations 5 Read the explanations of the words. Answer the questions. 1 confront This word usually means to deal with a difficult situation. (a) Which are the most important problems we have to confront in today’s world? This could be a long list! I’d say: global warming, pollution, water shortages, extreme weather conditions, local military conflicts, poverty, famine and hunger, unemployment, to name only a few. (b) Were you confronted by anyone asking for something on your way to class today? Not today, but a few days ago I was confronted by someone asking for money – which I didn’t like at all. (c) What’s the biggest crisis you’ve ever been confronted with? The problem that my grandfather is elderly and has Alzheimer’s disease. He needs constant care because he forgets ordinary things. It is difficult for my parents and for me because we all take turns to look after him. I realized what this was really like when I had to look after him for a weekend when my parents were away. 2 idle This word usually means not being used, lazy, or without any real reason or purpose. (a) If someone is idle by nature, what don’t they like doing? They don’t like doing work or other things that they should do. (b) If machinery is idle, what isn’t it doing? The machinery is not being used. (c) If someone picks up a book out of idle curiosity, do they have a strong motivation to read it? Not really, they just have a slight curiosity to see what the book is about, but they have no real interest. (d) If someone makes you an idle threat, do you take it seriously? No, I don’t because I know that the threat has no real purpose. 3 tackle This word usually means to challenge someone or something, or to make an attempt to deal with a problem. (a) What are the main issues the government needs to tackle in the near future? Well, I suppose there are several issues which need to be tackled in the near future, including rising prices, unemployment in some places, and some social problems in a few areas. (b) How do you tackle someone about their ideas and opinions? I am inclined to be direct and simply ask them about their ideas and opinions. I think they will tell me honestly if they believe I am really interested in what they think. (c) If you tackle someone in a game of football, what have you managed to do? I have managed to get the ball away from my opponent so that my team can keep the ball. 4 withstand This word usually means to be strong enough not to be harmed or destroyed by something, or to be able to deal with a difficult situation. (a) What sort of defences can withstand a direct attack? To withstand a direct attack well-placed strong defences are needed. (b) What sort of clothes allow you to withstand the cold in winter? To withstand the cold in winter, I need thick, warm clothes. (c) Can you withstand the pressure of having to produce regular assignments on your course? Yes, I can. Actually, our teachers generally give us our assignments at intervals and we usually know well in advance what we should do. So as long as we get on with the work (and don’t leave it until the last minute) the pressure is not too bad and we can manage. 6 Translate the paragraph into Chinese. Indubitably the vast majority of books overlap one another. Few indeed are those which give the impression of originality, either in style or in content. Rare are the unique books – less than 50, perhaps, out of the whole storehouse of literature. In one of his recent autobiographical novels, Blaise Cendrars points out that Rémy de Gourmont, because of his knowledge and awareness of this repetitive quality in books, was able to select and read all that is worthwhile in the entire realm of literature. Cendrars himself – who would suspect it? – is a prodigious reader. He reads most authors in their original tongue. Not only that, but when he likes an author he reads every last book the man has written, as well as his letters and all the books that have been written about him. In our day his case is almost unparalleled, I imagine. For, not only has he read widely and deeply, but he has himself written a great many books. All on the side, as it were. For, if he is anything, Cendrars, he is a man of action, an adventurer and explorer, a man who has known how to “waste” his time royally. He is, in a sense, the Julius Caesar of literature. （☞ 几处倒装句应灵活处理，以体现原文语气。every last book the man has written 意思为 all the books he has written，要注意这段话的逻辑关系。If he is anything, he is a man of …一句中的 if 从句起强调作用， 说明 关于失联党员情况说明岗位说明总经理岗位说明书会计岗位说明书行政主管岗位说明书 他不是一个书生或思想家，而是一个行动家，此处需灵活翻译。） 不容置疑的是，大多数书都互相重复，在文体或内容上让人感到具有独创性的书实在是少之又少。在整个文学库藏中，只有极少数作品——或许不到50本——是独具一格的。在最近出版的一部自传体小说中，布莱斯·桑德拉尔指出，古尔蒙之所以能够选择并通读文学领域中一切值得读的书籍，就是因为他知识渊博，并且了解书的这种重复性。桑德拉尔本人就是一个博览群书的人，没有人会怀疑这一点。他阅读了大部分作家的原作。不仅如此，一旦他喜欢上一个作家，他就会阅读这个作家写的每一本书，包括他的书信以及所有有关他的书籍。我猜想，在当今世界上，几乎没有人能像他一样，不仅读得广、读得精，而且还著述颇丰。可以说这一切都是在业余时间完成的。因为桑德拉尔是一个十足的行动家，一个四处跋涉的冒险家和探险家，一个懂得如何“肆意浪费”时间的人。从某种意义上说，他是文学界的凯撒大帝。 7 Translate the paragraphs into English. 张磊是在毕业工作后才开始意识到读书的乐趣的。反思自己的大学教育时，他感慨不已：他的一些同学都沉浸于从图书馆或书店找到的各种有趣的书籍，而他却只读了一些教科书，其中连一本真正值得一读、让他爱不释手的书都没有。他可以说是被剥夺了通过书了解作家奇妙世界的特权。 如今，他嗜书如命，废寝忘食，好像要把大学期间没机会读的好书全都读一遍。到目前为止他已经利用业余时间读了几百本小说、传记和游记。他意识到书不仅能向他展示一个充满希望的前景，帮他消除现实生活中的压力和疲劳，而且能够帮他澄清一些误解，找到生活的真谛。(reflect on; immerse in; lay hands on; worthwhile; in one sitting; so to speak; vista; withstand) It was not until after he had graduated from university and started to work that Zhang Lei became aware of the pleasure of reading. Reflecting on his undergraduate studies, he lamented that he, unlike some of his classmates who had immersed themselves in various interesting books they were able to lay hands on from the library or bookshops, had only read textbooks, none of which was really worthwhile, or could be read in one sitting. He was deprived of the privilege of gaining access to the writers’ fantastic worlds through the windows their books have opened, so to speak. Now he has become an avid and omnivorous reader. It is as if he wants to read all those marvelous books he hadn’t had a chance to read in his university days. By now, in his spare time, he has read several hundreds of books, including novels, biographies and travel notes. He realizes that books can not only reveal to him the vista of a hopeful future and help him withstand stresses and strains, they can also help him clear up some misconceptions and discover the true meaning of life.__