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UNIT 1
Text A
PRE-READING TASK
Exercise 1
The passage you are going to read is entitled "A Payment Greater Than Money." Try to answer the questions before reading the passage.
1. Which of the following do you think is more important? Make your choice and give your reason.
A. Money
B. Love
C. Friendship
D. Work
2. Guess what kind of payment might be greater than money according to the title of the passage.
Now read the passage and compare the writer's view with yours.
A Payment Greater Than Money
1. When I was 14, I earned money in the summer by mowing lawns, and I got to know people by the flowers I had to remember not to cut down, by the things stuck in the ground on purpose or by the things lost in the grass. I also learned something about my neighbors in Louisville, Ky., by their preferred method of payment: by the job, the month ——or not at all.
2. Mr Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason. One day he had nothing smaller than a fifty. On another he was flat-out of checks; on another he was simply not home when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money, he was a nice enough old guy, always waving or tipping his hat when he'd seen me from a distance. I figured him for a thin retirement check, maybe an injury that kept him from doing his own yardwork. I kept a running total, but didn't worry about the amount too much. Grass was grass, and the little that was Mr Ballou's didn't take long to trim.
3. Then one late afternoon in mid-July I was walking by his house, and he motioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the muted light.
4. "I owe you," Mr Ballou began, "but…"
5. I thought I'd save him the trouble of thinking up a new excuse. "No problem. Don't worry about it."
6. "The bank made a mistake in my account," he continued, ignoring my words. "It will be cleared up in a day or two. In the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment."
7. He gestured toward the walls, and I saw books stacked everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.
8. "Take your time," Mr Ballou encouraged. "Read, borrow, keep. Find something you like. What do you read?"
9. "I don't know." And I didn't. I generally read what I could get from the paperback rack at the drugstore or what I found at home —— magazines, the backs of cereal boxes, comics. The idea of consciously seeking out a special title was new to me, but not without appeal——so I browsed through the piles of books and asked, "You actually read all of these?"
10. Mr Ballou nodded. "This is just what I've kept, the ones worth looking at a second time."
11. "Pick for me then."
12. He raised his eyebrows, cocked his head, regarded me appraisingly as though measuring me for a suit. After a moment, he searched through a stack and handed me a dark-red book, fairly thick.
13. "The Last of the Just," I read. "By Andre Schwarz-Bart. What's it about?"
14. "You tell me," he said. "Next week."
15. I started after supper, sitting outdoors on an uncomfortable kitchen chair. Within a few pages, the yard, the summer, disappeared, and I was plunged into the aching tragedy of the Holocaust, the extraordinary clash of good, represented by one decent man, and evil. The language was elegant, simple, overwhelming. When the evening light finally failed, I moved inside and read all through the night.
16. To this day, 35 years later, I vividly remember the experience. I was astonished by the great power a novel could contain. I lacked the vocabulary to translate my feelings into words, so the next week, when Mr Ballou asked, "Well?" I replied, "It was good."
17. "Keep it then," he said. "Shall I suggest another?"
18. I nodded, and was presented with Margaret Mead's classic study in anthropology, coming of Age in Samoa.
19. To make two long stories short, Mr Ballou never paid me a dime for cutting his grass that year or the next, but, eventually, I would teach anthropology at Dartmouth College. And I learned that summer that reading was not the innocent pastime I had assumed it to be, not a breezy, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock (though I've enjoyed many of those too.) I discovered that a book, if it arrives at the right moment, in the proper season, will change the course of all that follows.
New Words
payment
n. 1. the act of paying 支付，付款
2. sum of money paid 支付的款项
3. reward for something 报偿
mow
v. to cut (grass, etc.)割（草等）
lawn
n. an area of grass 草坪，草地
category
n. 种类
injury
n. harm, damage, wrongful treatment 伤害，不公平的待遇
yardwork
n. 庭院杂务活
trim
v. to make neat, even or tidy by cutting 修剪，整修
muted
a. （颜色、光线等）柔和的，不耀眼的
owe
v. 1. to have to pay 欠
2. to feel grateful 应感激
ignore
v. not to take notice of 不顾，忽视
meantime
n. the time between (two events) 其间
stack
v. to make into a neat pile 堆放
n. an orderly pile of things （一）堆，（一）叠
paperback
n. 平装本
a. 平装的
rack
n. 架子
drugstore
n. （美）（常兼售软饮料、化妆品、杂志等的）药店，杂货店
cereal
n. food made from grain 谷类食物
comic
n. 1. （常作comics）（报刊的）连环漫画栏
2. 连环漫画（册）
seek
v. (sought) to look (for); try to find or get 寻找
appeal
n. 1. power of attraction 吸引力
2. an earnest call for 呼吁，要求
v. 1. to make an earnest request 呼吁，要求
2. to be attractive or interesting (to someone) 有吸引力
browse
v. to read here and there in books 随便翻阅, 浏览
eyebrow
n. (=brow) 眉，眉毛
cock
v. to cause one's head to slope slightly 把头侧向一边
appraisingly
ad. 估量地
uncomfortable
a. not comfortable 不舒适的
plunge
v. to (cause to) feel or be in a state of something （使）陷入
clash
n. an example of opposition or disagreement 不合，冲突
represent
v. to be symbol or example of 代表，表现
elegant
a. 优美，雅致
overwhelming
a. very large or great 势不可挡的
vivid
a. that produces a sharp clear picture in the mind 清晰的
vividly
ad. 清晰地
novel
n. 小说
classic
a. of the highest quality 最佳的，经典的
anthropology
n. 人类学
innocent
a. 1. (of things) harmless 无害的
2. (of people) simple 单纯的
pastime
n. something done to pass one's time in a pleasant way 消遣
breeze
n. 微风
breezy
a. 1. merry, light, and bright in manner 轻松活泼的，愉快的
2. 有微风，通风的
forgettable
a. that can be easily forgotten 易被忘记的，可能被忘的
hammock
n. 吊床
Phrases and Expressions
cut down
砍倒
on purpose
特意，故意
fall into
属于
think up
虚构, 编造，想出
clear up
澄清，解除，解决
in the meantime
与此同时
a down payment
定金，（分期付款的）初付款额
take one's time
不着急，慢慢来
seek out
找出
as though
好像，仿佛
plunge into
使陷入
Proper Names
Louisville
路易（斯）维尔（美国肯塔基州北部城市）
Ky.=Kentucky
肯塔基（美国州名）
Ballou
巴卢（人名）
Andre Schwarz-Bart
安德烈.施瓦茨巴特（人名）
the Holocaust
（第二次世界大战期间纳粹对犹太人的）大屠杀
Margaret Mead
玛格丽特.米德（人名）
Samoa (Islands)
萨摩亚群岛（南太平洋）
Dartmouth College
达特默思学院
Text B
PRE-READING TASK
Exercise 1
Before reading the passage, think over the questions.
1. Which of the following words can best describe the character of your mother?
A. open
B. frank
C. kind
D. talkative
E. shy
2. Can you give one or two examples to support your choice?
Now read the passage and try to find out what the author thinks of her mother.
My Mother's Desk
1. I'm sitting at my mother's desk, a mahogany secretary with a writing leaf that folds down to reveal rows of cubbyholes and tiny drawers—even a sliding secret compartment. I've loved it since I was just tall enough to see above the leaf as Mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, staring at the ink bottle, pens and smooth white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the most delightful thing in the world.
2. Years later, during her final illness, Mother reserved various items for my sister and brother. "But the desk," she'd repeat, "is for Elizabeth." I sensed Mother communicating with this gift, a communication I'd craved for 50 years.
3. My mother was brought up in the Victorian belief that emotions were private. Nice people said only nice things. I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she expressed it in action. But as a teen-ager I yearned for heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter.
4. They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was "too emotional". She lived "on the surface." She was willing to accept the relationship on these terms. I was not.
5. As years passed and I raised my own family, I loved the equilibrium Mother's visits brought to our home, her sense of humor, the way she sat at the piano and filled the house with music. But still I kept trying to draw from her what she could not give, a sharing of the deep places of her heart.
6. At last I set my feelings down on paper. Only one page, the letter took all day to write. I told Mother I loved her and thanked her for our harmonious home. Forgive me, I wrote, for having been critical. In careful words, I asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive me.
7. I mailed the letter and waited eagerly for her reply. None came.
8. Eagerness turned to disappointment, then resignation and, finally, peace. I couldn't be sure that the letter had even gotten to Mother. I only knew that having written it, I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not. For the last 15 years of her life we enjoyed a relationship on her terms — light, affectionate, cheerful.
9. Now the gift of her desk told me, as she'd never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work.
10. My sister stored the desk until we could pick it up. Then it stayed in our attic for nearly a year while we converted a bedroom into a study.
11. When at last I brought the desk down, it was dusty from months of storage. Lovingly, I polished the drawers and cubbyholes. Pulling out the secret compartment, I found papers inside. A photograph of my father. Family wedding announcements. And a one-page letter, folded and refolded many times.
12. Send me a reply, my letter asks, in any way you choose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.
New Words
mahogany
n. 1. 红木
2. 赤褐色
Secretary
n. 1. 写字桌，上部附有书橱的写字桌
2. 秘书
leaf
n. 1. 活动桌板
2. 叶，叶子
cubbyhole
n. （书桌等的）格架
drawer
n. 抽屉
slide
v. （使）滑动，（使）滑行
sliding
a. 滑动的，滑行的
Compartment
n. one of the parts into which an enclosed space is divided 分隔的空间
crave
v. to have a very strong desire for 渴望得到
emotion
n. any of the strong feelings of the human spirit 情感
yearn
v. to have a strong, loving or sad desire 渴望，向往
gulf
n. 1. a great area of division or difference 不可逾越的鸿沟
2. a large deep stretch of sea 海湾
equilibrium
n. a state of balance 平衡
harmonious
n. 和睦的，融洽的
forgive
v. (forgave, forgiven) to say or feel that one is no longer angry about something 原谅
critical
a. 1. finding fault 爱挑剔的
2. 紧要的，关键性的
eager
a. keen; full of interest or desire 热切的，渴望的
eagerly
ad. in an eager manner 热切地，渴望地
disappoint
v. to fail to fulfill the hopes of a person 使失望
disappointment
n. the state of being disappointed 失望
resign
v. 1. to give up; give up a job or a position 放弃，辞职
2. to accept something one does not like 听任，顺从，屈从
resignation
n. an act of resigning 听任，顺从，屈从
affectionate
n. showing gentle love 温柔亲切的，充满深情的
cheerful
a. pleasant; causing a happy feeling 令人愉快的
attic
n. 阁楼
dusty
a. dry and covered with dust 灰尘覆盖的
lovingly
ad. 精心地，煞费苦心地
announcement
n. a statement saying what has happened or what will happen 宣布，宣告
Phrases and Expressions
fold down
把…翻下
bring up
抚养，教育
yearn for
渴望，向往
set down
写下，记下
turn to
变成，转向
on one's (own) terms
按照（自己的）主张
convert…into
把…改建成…
Proper Names
Elizabeth
伊丽莎白（人名）
Victorian
维多利亚式的
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