Transcript Lesson 4

Lesson 4
Everyday Use
for Your Grandmama
by Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Background Information
• Alice Walker wrote quite a
number of novels, among them
were The Color Purple which won
the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction （普
利策小说奖） and The American
Book Award（美国图书奖）. In
1985, the Color Purple was made
into a movie which won great
fame.
Important & Difficult points
• The comprehension of the whole story
• The understanding of colloquial,
slangy or black English expressions
• The appreciation of the writing
technique
• Cultural difference between
nationalities in the US
Detailed study of the text:
• 1. wavy: having regular curves
–A wavy line has a series of
regular curves along it.
–The wavy lines are meant to
represent water.
• Here in the text the word
describes the marks in wavy
patterns on the clay ground left
by the broom.
Detailed study of the text:
• 2. groove: a long narrow path or
track made in a surface, esp. to
guide the movement of
sth.(here the explanation is not
proper)
• A groove is a wide, deep line cut
into a surface.
• The cupboard door slides open
along the groove it fits into.
Detailed study of the text:
• 3. homely: simple, not grand, (of
people, faces, etc.,) not goodlooking, ugly
• If someone is homely, they are
not very attractive to look at;
used in Am.E.
Detailed study of the text:
• 4. awe: Awe is the feeling of
respect and amazement that you
have when you are faced with
sth. wonderful, frightening or
completely unknown.
• The child stared at him in silent
awe.
Detailed Study of the Text
• Section 1 of part I
• The setting: yard, house
• Maggie: appearance
• Comparison with her sister:
eying her with a mixture of envy
and awe
• Sister has held life in the palm of
one hand
Detailed study of the text
• have made it: if you make it, you are
successful in achieving sth. Difficult,
or in surviving through a very
difficult period.
• I believe I have the talent to make it.
• You are brave and courageous. You
can make it.
Detailed study of the text:
• 5. confront: to face boldly or
threateningly, encounter
• If a problem, task, or difficulty
confronts you, or you are confronted
with it, it is sth. that you cannot
avoid and must deal with
• I was confronted with the task of
designing and building the new
system.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 6. totter: to move in an
unsteady way from side to side
as if about to fall, to walk with
weak unsteady steps
• The old lady tottered down the
stairs.
Detailed study of the text
curse: If you curse, you use rude or
offensive language,usu. because you
are angry about sth.
insult: If sb. insults you, they say sth.
rude to you or offend you by doing or
saying sth. which shows they have a
low opinion of you.
Detailed study of the text:
• embrace: to take and hold
(another or each other) in the
arms as a sign of love, hug
• Smile into each other’s face:
Detailed study of the text
• To smile into each other’s face
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 7. limousine: A limousine is a
large and very comfortable car
• sports car: a low usu. open car
with room for only 2 people for
traveling with high power and
speed
Detailed study of the text:
• 8. Johnny Carson: a talk show
anchorman
• 9. tacky: (Am.E, slang) shabby
Detailed study of the text:
10. overalls: are a single piece of
clothing that combines trousers
and a jacket.
11. hog: pig, esp. a fat one for
eating
Detailed study of the text:
12. sledge hammer: large, heavy
hammer for swinging with
both hands, a large heavy
hammer with a long handle,
used for smashing concrete
• 13. barley: 大麦
Detailed study of the text:
• 14. pancake: a thin, flat circle of
cooked batter (糊状物) made of
milk, flour and eggs. usu. rolled up
or folded and eaten hot with a
sweet or savory filling inside
• Who ever knew a Johnson…the
woman’s family name
Detailed study of the text
• With one foot raised in
flight…with my head turned in
whichever way is farthest from
them: Indirect speech act
meaning ready to escape,
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 15. sidle: walk as if ready to turn
or go the other way
• A man sidled up to me and
asked if I wanted a ticket for the
match.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 16. shuffle: slow dragging walk
• If you shuffle, you walk without
lifting your feet properly off the
ground
• He slipped on his shoes and
shuffled out of the room.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• I was shuffling in my seat.
• cf:
• totter (n.6), sidle(n. 15),
shuffle
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 17. blaze: to burn with a bright
flame
• A wood fire was blazing, but there
was no other light in the room.
• n. the sudden sharp shooting up of
a flame, a very bright fire
• The fire burned slowly at first, but
soon burst into a blaze.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 18. sweet gum tree: a large
North American tree of the
witch hazel (榛子) family, with
alternate maplelike leaves,
spiny (多刺的) fruit balls, and
flagrant juice
• 美洲金缕梅, 落叶灌木或小乔木. 原产
于北美和亚洲. 其分叉小枝从前用为魔
杖, 这寻找地下水, 故俗称魔杖.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 19. dingy: dirty and faded
• This is the dingiest street of the
town.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 20. raise: to collect together
• raise money for a holiday
• His wife raised the money by
selling her jewellery.
• We’re trying to raise funds to
establish a scholarship.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 21. underneath: (so as to go)
under (sth.)
• The letter was pushed
underneath the door.
• Did you find very much growing
underneath the snow?
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 22. make-believe: a state of
pretending or the things which
are pretended
• She lives in a make-believe
world / a world of make-believe.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• Don’t be afraid of monsters the story is only make-believe.
• The little girl made believe she
was a princess.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 23. shove: to push, esp. in a
rough or careless way
• There was a lot of pushing and
shoving to get on the bus.
• Help me to shove this furniture
aside.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• If you shove sb. or sth., you
push them with a quick, rather,
violent movement.
• He dragged her out to the door
and shoved her into the street.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 24. dimwit: (infml) an ignorant
and stupid person
• dim: faint, not bright
• wit: intelligence, wisdom
• at one’s wit’s end: at the end of
one’s tether
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 25. organdy: (Br. E organdie)
very fine rather stiff cotton
material used esp. for women’s
dresses
• (蝉翼纱, 玻璃纱)
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 26. pump: low shoe that grips the
foot chiefly at the toe and the heel
• 27. stare down any disaster in her
efforts: face up and defeat any
disaster with her efforts
• stare down: two people looking at
each other persistently until one
shifts his eye
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 28. flicker: to move backwards
and forwards unsteadily
• shadows flickered on the wall
• flickering eyelids
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 29. stumble: to stop and /or make
mistakes in speaking or reading
aloud
• to catch the foot on the ground
while moving along and start to fall
• She stumble at/over the long word
• He stumbled and stopped reading.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• cf:
• stammer: to speak or say with
pauses and repeated sounds,
either habitually or because of
excitement, fear, etc. stammerer
• stutter: to speak or say with
difficulty in producing sounds, esp.
habitually holding back the first
consonant.
stutterer
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 30. good-naturedly: naturally
kind, ready to help, to forgive,
not to be angry
• A person or animal that is goodnatured is naturally friendly and
does not easily get angry.
• a good-natured policeman
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 31. mossy:
• moss: any of several types of a
small flat green or yellow
flowerless plant that grows in
a thick furry mass on wet soil,
or on a wet surface
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 32. hook: to catch with or as if
with a hook
• to hook a fish / a rich husband
• hooknose
• Here: to attack with the horn of
the cow
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 33. soothe: to make less angry,
excited or anxious, comfort or
calm, to make less painful
• soothing words
• soothe one’s feelings
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 34. shingle: a small thin piece
of building material (such as
wood) often with one end
thicker than the other for
laying in overlapping rows as a
covering for the roof or sides of
building
II. Detailed study of the text:
• cf: tile; a flat or curved piece of
fired clay, stone, or concrete
used esp. for roofs, floors, or
walls and often for ornamental
work
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 35. porthole: also port, a small
usu. circular window or opening
in a ship for light or air
• 36. shutter: a. one that shuts
• b. movable cover (wooden panel
or iron plate, hinged, or
separate and detachable) for a
window or door, to keep out
light or burglars.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 37. pasture: land where grass
is grown and where cattle feed
on it
• 38. furtive: stealthy, If sb. is
furtive, he / she behaves as if
he / she wants to keep sth.
secret or hidden.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• They suddenly looked furtive
when I got into the room.
• I watched him furtively pencil a
note and slip it between the
pages.
• A woman with furtive look sidled
up to me and asked furtively
whether I had / wanted porn CDs.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 39. hang about: to wait or stay
near a place without purpose
or activity
• 40. washday: also washing day,
the day when clothes are
washed
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 41. impressed with her:
impressed by her manner,
• 42. well-turned: (of a phrase)
carefully formed and pleasantly
expressed
• a well-turned phrase: 恰当的词语
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 43. cute: delightfully pretty
and often small
• If you describe sb. as cute you
mean that you find them
attractive, often in a sexual
way
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 44. scald: to burn with hot
liquid
• He scalded his tongue on /
with the hot coffee
• scalding: boiling or as hot as
boiling
II. Detailed study of the text:
• court: If a man courts a woman,
he pays a lot of attention to
her because he wants to marry
her.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 45. flashy: over-ornamented,
unpleasantly big, bright, etc. and
perhaps not of good quality
Something that is flashy is so
smart, bright and expensive that
you find it unpleasant and
perhaps vulgar
• a flashy sports car / cheap flashy
clothes
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 46. recompose:
• compose: to make (esp. oneself)
calm, quiet, etc.
• Jean was nervous at first but soon
composed herself.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 47. kinky: (esp. of hair) having
kinks
• kink: a backward turn or twist in
hair, a rope, chain, pipe, etc.
• 48. wriggle: to twist from side to
side
• 49. loud: attracting attention by
being unpleasantly colourful
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 50. rope: (of 2 or more mountain
climbers) to be fastened together
with the same rope
• The word here means the plaits
or the pigtails are fastened
together
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 51. gliding: to move noiselessly
in a smooth, continuous
manner, which seems easy and
without effort
• glider: a plane without an
engine
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 52. something of a(n)... : (infml)
rather a(n), a fairly good
•
• If you say that a person or thing
has something of a particular
quality, feeling, etc., you mean
that they have it to some extent.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• He is something of a book collector
/ a liar / a musician.
• I am something of a carpenter
myself, you know.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• make sth. of oneself: be
successful
• He is a clever boy--- I hope
he'll make sth. of himself.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 53. peek: (infml) to look at sth.
quickly, esp. when one should
not
• They caught him peeking
through the hole at what was
going on in the room
II. Detailed study of the text:
• peep: to look at sth. quickly and
secretly
• It’s rude to peep at other people’s
work.
• He took a peep at the back of the
book to find out the answers to the
questions.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• Peek & Peep are not clearly
distinguishable when denoting
to see what is concealed, or
hidden.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• peer: to look very carefully or
hard, esp. as if not able to see
well
• She peered through the mist,
trying to find the right path.
• He peered at me over the top of
his glasses.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 54. stoop: to bend the head
and shoulders forwards and
down
• 55. cower: to bend low and
draw back as from fear, pain,
shame, cold etc.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 56. go through motions with
Maggie’s hand:
• Here “motions” refer to trying
to shake hands with Maggie.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• If you go through the motions, you
say or do sth. that is expected of
you without being very sincere or
serious about it. Or you pretend to
do sth. by making the movements
associated with a particular action.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• The doctor was sure that the man
wasn’t ill, but he went through
the motions of examining him.
• I can go through the motions of
putting imaginary food into my
mouth.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 57. give up on
• If you give up on sth., you
abandon all hope of doing it or
of understanding it
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 57. limp: lacking strength or
stiffness
• n. a way of walking with one foot
dragging unevenly
• v. to walk with an uneven step,
one foot or leg moving less well
than the other
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 58. There you are: I told you so.
• There you are. I knew I was right.
That’s what I expected. I knew
you couldn’t trace it further back.
• There I was not: You are not right.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• crop up: arise, happen or
appear, unexpectedly
• Some difficulties have cropped
up at work so I’ll be late
coming home tonight.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• Literally the sentence in the text
could possibly understood as
follows:
• I was not there before the name
“Dicie” appeared in our family, so
why...
• But “There I was not” is obviously
a quick, short cut answer to “there
you are”.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 59. Model A car: in 1909 Henry
Ford mass-produced 15 million
Model T cars and thus made
automobiles popular in the States.
In 1928 the Model T was
discontinued and replaced by a
new design - the Model A - to
meet the needs for growing
competition in car manufacturing.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• Here he thinks she is quaint,
attractive because it is strange
and something rather old
fashioned
• 60. ream: sl. say it, spit it
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 61. out of the way: not blocking
space for the forward movement
of
• We overcame the difficulty and
managed to pronounce it at last)
• I will move the chair out of your
way.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• He ran through the crowd, pushing
people out of his way.
• Her social life got in the way of her
studies.
• We got the name out of the way: we
finished talking about it, we set the
problem aside.
• When we got topic A out of the way,
we discuss topic B.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 62. trip: If you trip over
something, you knock your foot
against something when you are
walking and lose your balance so
that you fall or nearly fall.
• I tripped and fell...
• She tripped over a stone...
II. Detailed study of the text:
• He put each foot down carefully to
avoid tripping up.
• Here: to make a mistake as in a
statement or behavior
• This lawyer always tries to trip
witness up by asking confusing
questions.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 63. salt-lick shelters: shelters
where blocks of rock salt were
kept for cattle to lick
• 66. doctrine: A doctrine is a
principle or belief, or a set of
principles of beliefs, which is
thought by its supporters to be
absolutely true and therefore the
only one acceptable
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 64. style: The style of a particular
person is all the general attitudes,
likes, dislikes, and ways of
behaving that are characteristic of
him or her.
• Raising cattle is not my style: I
am not interested in raising cattle.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 65. gone and married: colloq.
• 66. collard: 宽叶羽衣甘蓝
• 67. go on through the chitlins etc.
• 68. chitlins: also chitlings,
chitterlings: the intestines of
hogs esp. when -prepared as food
II. Detailed study of the text:
69. talk a blue streak: speak very
fast and very much
• 70. rump: the part of an animal at
the back just above the legs.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 71. her hand closed over the
butter dish: A butter dish is a
small rectangular container
which you can simply put your
hand close over
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 72. if I could have: here if means
whether
• 73. churn: a container in which
milk is moved about violently
until it becomes butter , Am.E a
large metal container in which
milk is stored or carried from the
farm (搅乳器, 盛奶罐)
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 74. clabber: (not found in
Longman or Collins) curdle --- to
form into curds, cause to thicken
• 75. whittle: to cut (wood) to a
smaller size by taking off small
thing pieces
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 76. dasher: a devise having
blades for agitating a liquid or
semisolid
• 77. centerpiece: The centerpiece
of a set of things that is greatly
admired is sth. that you show as
the best example of the set
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 78. alcove: an alcove is a small
area in a room which is formed by
one part of a wall being built
further back than the rest of the
wall, a partially enclosed
extension of a room, often
occupied by a bed or by seats, 凹
室
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 79. to do with the dasher: use
the dasher to make sth. artistic
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 80. sink: a depression (part of a
surface lower than the other
parts) in the land surface
• The rain collected in several
depressions on the ground.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 81. rifle: to search through and
steal everything valuable out of a
place
• The thieves rifled his pockets of
all their contents.
• The burglar rifled the safe.
• The bad boy rifled the apple tree.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• Here in the text, the word “rifle”
means to look thorough to see
what to take, and indicates
that Dee was trying to find sth.
she did not deserve.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 82. hung back: be unwilling to
act or move
• The bridge looked so unsafe that
we all hung back in fear.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 83. scrap: small piece, bit
• a scrap of paper
• Scrap of bread were thrown to the
birds.
• There was not a scrap of food left,
we’ve eaten it all.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 84. teeny: teeny weeny: also
teensy weensy (used esp. to
children) very small
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 85. furious: frenzied, angry,
violent
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 86. stump: n. the part of a plant,
(esp. a tree) remaining attached
to the root after the trunk is cut
• v. put an unanswerable question
to, puzzle, perplex
• If something stumps you, you
cannot think of any solution or
answer for it.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• The question has stumped
philosophers since the beginning
of time.
• You’ve go me stumped there.
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 87. snuff: tobacco made into
powered for breathing into the
nose, esp. used in former times
• 88. dopey: [‘doupi] showing
dullness of the mind or feelings
caused or as if caused by alcohol
or a drug, sleepy and unable to
think clearly, stupid
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 89. hangdog: (of an expression on
the face) ashamed, guilty, cowed
• 90. portion: lot, fate, or fortune,
destiny
• Utter disaster was my portion.
• What would be my portion after
graduation?
II. Detailed study of the text:
• 91. heritage: property that
descends to an heir, sth.
transmitted by or from a
acquired predecessor, sth.
possessed as a result of one’s
natural situation or birth
IV. Character Analysis
• Dee:
• She has held life always in the palm of
one hand.
• "No" is a word the world never learned
to say to her.
• She would always look anyone in the eye.
Hesitation was no part of her nature.
• She was determined to share down any
disaster in her efforts.
I. Rhetorical devices:
• Parallelism:
–chin on chest, eyes on ground,
feet in shuffle
• Metaphor:
–She washed us in a river
of...burned us... Pressed us ...to
shove us away
–stare down any disaster in her
efforts...
The end
•Thanks