Transcript 幻灯片 1

Unit 2 Happiness Is a Choice
Text A
The Last Chapter
21世纪大学新英语读写译教程 Book II
Part I Lead-in
A. Describe and comment on the following pictures.
B. Questions for Discussion
1. What , in your view, constitutes happiness?
2. Do you think there is some truth in the timehonored proverb “Happiness lies in contentment”?
Part II Cultural notes
The term, fairy tale, is used to describe
something blessed with unusual happiness, as in
“fairy tale ending“ (a happy ending) or ”fairy
tale romance” (though not all fairy tales end
happily). Colloquially, a “fairy tale” or “fairy
story” can also mean any far-fetched story or tall
tale which is a story with unbelievable elements,
related as if it were true and factual and some of
which are exaggerations of actual events.
Every bride and groom embarking on their
married journey long for a happy ending at their
joint destination in spite of everything that could
possibly happen as is reflected in the traditional
wedding vows:
Male
I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded wife. To
have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for
worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health,
to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto
I pledge you my faithfulness.
Female
I, _____, take you ______, to be my wedded husband.
To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better,
for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in
health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part.
And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.
Fairy tales, such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty,
Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, in which the
Prince and his Princess live happily ever after their
wedding without exception, provide base on which for
people in real life to build their hopes and dreams.
However, things do not always turn out the way people
desire. Even a real prince and his princess do not live
up to the expectations people hold so dearly to, a
glimpse of which is caught in the saddest fairy tale of
Lady Diana: how the fairy tale turns into a
heartbreaking tragedy
For the story , visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pimu/1237592530/in/phot
ostream/
Part III Text Organization
Parts
Paragraphs
Main Ideas
1
1
2
2-4
Their romance didn’t last long and seed of difference soon
sprouted.
3
5-6
A party was given to celebrate their 60th wedding
anniversary.
4
7-8
While their memories started to fade, they acted as a team,
helping each other with searches.
5
9
They stubbornly kept separate accounts.
6
10
We took care of the books and chores and cleared the house
of alcohol.
7
11-15
8
16
Their loving reassurances were sweet, touching and
surprising.
Something that had been buried deep was coming up and
taking shape: They loved each other.
Conclusion: they are lucky to have each other.
Part IV Writing Features
The use of metaphors in the essay, the examples of
which are listed below, deserves readers’ attention.
Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in
terms of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech that
constructs an analogy (comparison) between two things
or ideas; the analogy is conveyed by the use of a
metaphorical word in place of some other word. For
example: “Her eyes were glistening jewels”. Metaphor is
or was also occasionally used to denote rhetorical figures
of speech that achieve their effects by means of
association, comparison or resemblance.
Examples:
1. (line 1, para 3 ) Seeds of difference sprouted
almost immediately.
2. (line 1, para 4) … the furious winds did calm
somewhat, but what remained steeled itself into
bright, hard bitterness.
3. (line 5, para 4) It was a miserable duet.
4. (line 1, para 6) The truce was honored.
5. (line 5, para 10) … we cleared the house of alcohol,
the fuel that turned more than one quarrel into a
raging fire.
6. (line 4, para 14) … they lavished on each other
was a brick in this unseen creation, a structure that
reveals itself increasingly as the world ….
Part V Difficult Sentences
1. ( line 4, para 3) To make matters worse,
they owned a business together, and the
everyday frustrations of life at the office
came to roost at home.
To make the situation even more unpleasant
or difficult, they two shared a business, and
the unhappy feelings they had at the office
resulting from their differences caused them
to start quarrels at home.
2. ( line 4, para 4)
The litany was recited
so often, I can reel it off by heart today.
I heard my mother repeat the long list of my
father’s faults so many times that even today
I can say it quickly from memory.
3. ( line 5, para 4) It was a miserable duet.
The quarrel between them made us feel
very sad. A duet literally means a piece of
music for two singers or players. The word
is used here figuratively to mean the quarrel
between the old couple.
4. (line 1, para 8) These crises would have at
one time … you’re just tired.”
In the past these crises would have made them
argue with each other angrily, but now they
worked together, helping each other in looking
for something, giving comfort or sympathy to
each other by saying “Everyone does that” or
“It’s nothing; you’re just tired.”
5. ( line 3, para 10)
Finally — on doctors’
orders — we cleared the house of alcohol,
the fuel that turned more than one quarrel
into a raging fire.
Finally, to follow doctors’ orders, we removed
alcohol from the house. Alcohol had caused
their quarrels to become more fierce.
6. (line I, para 14) I don’t doubt that if my
mother and father magically regained
their old vigor, they’d be back fighting.
I’m sure if my parents, as if by magic,
became vigorous as they used to be, they’d
fight against each other again.
Part VI Language Points
1. a good bet: something that would be useful,
clever or enjoyable to do 最佳选择，最好的决
定
e.g.
Putting your savings in a high-interest account
is a good bet.
Only a few months ago he had looked like a
good bet.
2. captivate: v. to hold the attention of someone
by being extremely interesting, exciting,
charming or attractive 使入迷，吸引
e.g.
I was captivated by her smile.
With her beauty and charm, she captivated
film audiences everywhere.
3. respective: adj. relating or belonging to
each of the individual people or things you
have just mentioned 各自的，分别的
e.g.
We all went back to our respective homes
to wait for news.
The leaders met to discuss the problems
facing their respective countries.
4. launch into: to start saying something or
criticizing something with a lot of energy or
anger（积极地）开始（解说或批评）
e.g.
He launched into a verbal attack on her
handling of the finances.
Don’t just launch into exercise without
warming up first.
5. reel off:
to say a long list of things
quickly and without stopping 一下子说出，
一口气报出
e.g. Jack reeled off a list of names.
The old man reeled off the names of his
twenty-two grandchildren.
6. abide by:
to follow a rule, decision, or
instruction 遵守，信守（规则、决定或指
示）
e.g.
Companies wishing to join will have to
abide by a code of conduct.
We have to abide by the rules, whether
we like them or not.
7. hindsight: n. the ability to understand
an event or situation only after it has
happened 后见之明
e.g.
In hindsight, it would have been better to
wait.
With hindsight, I should have seen the
warning signs.
8. lavish on: to give someone a lot, or too
much, of something 非常（或过分）慷慨
地施予，滥施
e.g. She lavishes money on her grandchildren.
The committee lavished praise on the
project.
9. dilemma: n. a situation in which it is very
difficult to decide what to do, because all the
choices seem equally good or equally bad（进
退两难的）困境
e.g. Many single parents struggle with the dilemma
of dividing time between work and children.
With a child on each opposing team, Dad was
faced with a dilemma: which supporters should
he sit with?
10. make the best of things /it:
to make an
unsatisfactory situation as pleasant as
possible 在不利的情况下尽力而为
e.g. We’ll have to spend the night here, so we
might as well make the best of it.
It’s not going to be fun, but we might as well
make the best of it.
11. duet: n.
a piece of music for two
singers or players 二重唱，二重奏
e.g. He now formed two child duets.
She practiced the duets with Jimmy
again.
12. litany: n. a long list of problems, excuses,
etc. 陈述
e.g.
an endless litany of complaints
A part of the Democratic campaign litany
is the claim that Republicans cut spending for
Medicare.
13. mutter: v.
to speak quietly so that
your voice is difficult to hear, often when
complaining about something 含糊不清地
小声说，嘟哝，小声抱怨
e.g. He muttered something about his wife and
left.
“I never want to come here again,” he
muttered to himself.
14. whittle away: to gradually reduce the size or
importance of something 逐渐削弱，逐渐削
减
e.g.
The museum is worried that government
funding will be whittled away.
By the 1990s much of his earnings had been
whittled away.
15. engage in:
to be doing or to become
involved in an activity 从事，忙于
e.g. Only 10% of American adults engage in
regular exercise.
They may want time to travel, study or engage
in leisure activities.
Part VII Practice
A. Translation skills
1. The handsome, well-educated man who came by the
office where she worked looked like a good bet.
这位顺道到她工作办公室来的英俊、受过良好
教育的男子看上去是个挺不错的选择。
原文中有两个定语从句：“man who came by”，
“the office where she worked”在译成汉语时可以
处理为前置定语。也可以调整原句的词语顺序，译为：
那位顺道来她办公室的男子长得英俊，受过良好教育，
看上去是个挺不错的选择。
2. It wasn’t the happiest marriage, but as their 60th
anniversary approached, my sister and I decided to
throw a party.
虽然他们的婚姻算不上是最幸福的，可是在他
们结婚60周年纪念日来临时，我和妹妹还是决
定给他们举行一个聚会。
对这句的翻译，可以采用“顺译法”，
即按原文的顺序译成汉语。按汉语的习惯
表达，加上“虽然”。
3. Added to the frequent house-wide hunts for glasses
and car keys were the groceries left behind on the
counter, notices of bills left unpaid.
他们除了经常满屋里找眼镜，找车钥匙，他们
还把买的食品杂货忘在了柜台上，一张张帐单
忘了去付。
原句的“Added to the frequent house-wide
hunts for glasses and car keys”翻成“他们除了
经常满屋里找眼镜，找车钥匙”，“the groceries
left behind on the counter, notices of bills left
unpaid” 译成“他们还把买的食品杂货忘在了柜台
上，一张张帐单忘了去付”，并增加了主语“他们”。
4. Sharing being unthinkable, they’d devised financial
arrangements so elaborate they could trigger war at
any time.
由于钱财共享对他们来说是绝对无法想象的，他
们想出的钱财管理办法非常复杂，随时都可能引
发战争。
原文中的一个V-ing短语，根据其意义在
汉语中处理为表示原因，原文中so…(that)
（如此……以致于），在译文并没有直接译出，
但其意思已包含在译文之中，而且这样处理更
符合汉语表达习惯。
B. Writing techniques
Writing techniques in this unit aim at clarifying
some commonly used quality criteria for paragraph
writing: unity, coherence and cohesion. Unity
emphasizes the relevance of information in the
paragraph. Students should first learn to tell relevant
ideas from irrelevant ones. An easy way to achieve
this goal is to find out the central idea of the paragraph,
and then study the supporting points and supporting
information against the central idea one by one.
The second criterion is coherence. It emphasizes
that the information, especially the supporting
points, in a paragraph should be arranged in logical
order so that readers can understand them easily.
This logical order may cover a lot. For example,
time order is expected in a story, and space order in
a space description. In expository writing, there
may be further patterns of development, such as
ascending order (from the least important to the
most important points), descending order (from the
most important to the least important points).
The third criterion is cohesion, which requires
various linguist devices to help streamline the
paragraph. These devices may involve the use of
various connecting phrases, the use of pronouns,
and the repetition of a particular word or sentence
pattern. It should be noted that coherence is about
the order of information, while cohesion is about
language usage.
C. Assignment
1. Oral Practice: Try to point out virtues that are
essential to a successful and happy marriage from
your observation of your own parents, friends,
relatives or people from literary works.
2. Questions for Text B:
1) Do you identify yourself with the varying
degrees of importance of the determinants of
happiness claimed by the writer?
2) Do you believe there are factors that possibly
contribute to happiness in addition to the ones
that have found their way into the writer’s list.
Name some of them.
The End