四、练习答案

Text I

Text comprehension

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

A

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

1．T Refer to Paragraph 1.

2．F Refer to Paragraph 1. What the author stated in the paragraph is that her sister graduated from high school.

3．F Refer to Paragraph 3. They took a railroad train during the day.

4．F Refer to Paragraph 5. The conditions of the dining car might not be like what the author’s mother had told them. She said so for fear that her kids could have been hurt by the fact that Black people were not allowed into railroad dining cars.

5．F Refer to Paragraph 6. She simply did not go with the other girls in the class because, as the nuns had told her, they would be staying in a hotel which would not rent rooms to blacks.

6．T Refer to Paragraph 12.

7．T Refer to Paragraph 17.

8．F Refer to Paragraph 18. Her father only promised she could type it out on the office typewriter, but whether she managed to send the letter to the president was not mentioned.

III. Answer the following questions.

1．Refer to Paragraph 1. Washington D.C. is known to all for its special position, as capital of the nation. The author, like many children who had never been to Washington D.C. before, could have only learned about it through story-telling, as if it were a place existing in fables.

2．Refer to Paragraphs 3 and 4. A mobile feast implies a large quantity and variety of food in a box including two roasted chickens, packed slices of brown bread and butter, green pepper and carrot sticks, a spice bun and rock-cakes, iced cakes and tea, sweet pickles, dill pickles, and peaches, which were prepared by their mother for them to eat on their way to Washington D.C.

3．Refer to Paragraphs 3, 4, and 5. She must be kind, prudent, responsible, considerate and caring for her family.

4．Refer to Paragraph 7. They lodged in one large room with two double beds, in a back-street hotel that belonged to a friend of her father’s who was in real estate.

5．Refer to Paragraphs 8 and 9. She hated it at first because the physical discomfort caused by to her eye infirmity intensified around that time. Later she came to dislike it still more when she realized the national day celebration in her country was nothing but a mockery for Black people.

6．Refer to Paragraph 16. The waitress dropped her eyes looking very embarrassed.

7．Refer to Paragraphs 17 and 18. Discrimination against the blacks had been a long-established, deep-rooted and widespread practice in the country. Being black simply meant mistreatment. Therefore, the unfair treatment they received at Breyer’s was not surprising at all; as blacks they should have expected this and had no reason to feel shocked and indignant.

8．Refer to Paragraph 19. We can perceive the author’s antagonism from such descriptions as the white waitress, the white counter, the white ice cream, and the white pavement, the white stone monuments, and the white heat in Washington D.C., all of which made her sick to her stomach for the whole rest of that trip. In a word, it was the racial discrimination suggested by the dazzling color, white, that drove the author mad.

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

1．Mother meant to deliberately overlook whatever she did not like and could not change.

2．From June to the end of July school closed for the summer vacation.

3．Literarily, the writer was unable to open wide her eyes due to the dazzling summer sunlight as well as her eye defect. Figuratively, the freedom, equality and democracy all American citizens were allegedly entitled to were simply distorted images in the author’s eye.

4．Mother was bright and father brown, and the three of us girls represented gradations from bright to brown.

5．Inside the Breyer’s, the soda fountain was so dim and the air so cool that the pain in my eyes was wonderfully lessened.

6．My forceful question got no response from my family; they remained silent as if they had done something wrong and shameful walking into Breyer’s.

7．My anger was not going to be echoed by my family members who were similarly angry, though.

Writing strategies

1．Besides Paragraph 2, Paragraphs 6, 8 and 9 contain or involve flashbacks.

2．Here’s one more example of symbolism: “The waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream I never ate in Washington D.C., that summer I left childhood was white, and the white heat and the white pavement and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach for the whole rest of that trip and it wasn’t much of a graduation present after all.” The repeated description of whiteness further reveals the phony democracy of the United States and the false freedom of colored people, which drove our writer mad with indignation.

Language work

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

1．at the beginning of

2．The whole family were already either actually busy making preparations or enjoying the ambience.

3．a large enjoyable meal on the train

4．as if we had never been mistreated for being Black

5．had partially caused

6．was not going to be openly sympathized with by people displaying a similar anger

II. Fill in each blank with one of the two words from each pair in their appropriate forms and note the difference of meaning between them.

Bruise Scar

Note: Both verbs pertain to external physical injury and other sorts of damage. Bruise indicates an injury of the surface flesh, caused by a blow that does not necessarily break the skin and that results in a marked skin; the word can also suggest the tendency to turn black-and-blue from small impacts. Scar refers to the forming of a mark over a healed wound or suggests the doing of damage that will leave a lasting mark.

1．bruise

2．bruised

3．scarred

4．scar

Dampen Soak

Note: Dampen is to make or become somewhat wet, emphasizing the moist condition that results. In a figurative sense, the word means to depress. Soak means to wet thoroughly, implying immersion. To soak something is to place it in liquid and leave it long enough for the liquid to act upon it.

1．soaking

2．dampen

3．soaked

4．dampen

Acknowledge Admit

Note: Both words agree in meaning to accept openly, though with some reluctance, the truth or existence of a fact, condition, etc. Admit is a bold acknowledgment of implication in something one has formerly tended to deny or to equivocate about. Acknowledge is to accept responsibility for something one makes known, and we acknowledge something embarrassing or awkward, and usually not voluntarily; more often, the acknowledgment is extracted from one more or less unwillingly.

1．admit

2．acknowledged

3．acknowledge

4．admitted

Agony Anguish

Note: Both words can refer to intense suffering of the body or mind. Agony represents suffering, the endurance of which calls forth every human resource. Its severity is of such extent that the word is often used to denote the struggle and pain that may precede death. Anguish points to the extremity of grief which so terrifies the spirit as to be insupportable.

1．agony

2．anguish

3．anguish

4．agony

III. Fill in the blank in each sentence with a word or phrase taken from the box, using its appropriate form.

1．The local council has decreed that the hospitals that are not able to reach the service standards should close.

2．When Hamlet murmured “To be, or not to be”, he was faced with an agonizing dilemma.

3．The young mother smiled approvingly at her son who asked to play outdoors.

4．The Prime Minister is now firmly ensconced in Downing Street with a large majority.

5．We need a manager with plenty of flair to run the business in China.

6．It is noticed that quick-minded people suffer no vulnerability to criticism.

7．It was a relief to be outside in the fresh air again after staying weeks-long underground.

8．The government’s avowed commitment to reduce tax has been largely appreciated.

IV. Make a sentence of your own for each of the given words with meanings other than those used in the text. You may change the part of speech of these words.

1．John presented me with the challenge, and I took it up.

2．To open a supermarket demands a large amount of capital.

3．Well, it’s your turn to shuffle the pack and deal the cards.

4．It would be a wise move to check the market first.

5．The results of the test ran counter to expectations.

6．Is there a drop of tea left in the pot?

V. Fill in each blank with a definite, indefinite, or zero article.

VI. Put a word in each blank that is appropriate for the context.

Translation

I. Translate each of the following sentences into English, using the words or expressions given in brackets.

1．I haven’t seen it myself, but it is supposed to be a really good movie.

2．The hostess cut the cheese into bite-size pieces so that it would be more convenient for the guests to eat it.

3．Few people can function properly if they are deprived of adequate sleep.

4．He carefully copied my pretence that nothing unusual had occurred.

5．The first decree he issued after he came into office was that private ownership of guns （should） be banned.

6．I’ve come to see his fabled footwork that people talk so much about.

7．I’m not a teacher proper, since I haven’t been trained, but I’ve had a lot of teaching experience.

8．Students tend to anticipate what questions they will be asked on the examination.

II. Translate the following into Chinese.

如果美国对此时此刻的迫切性视而不见，低估黑人的决心，那么这对美国的命运来说将是致命的。自由平等，心旷神怡的秋天遥遥无期，黑人正当愤怒的闷热夏天就不会消失。1963年并不是终结，而是一个开端。只要黑人得不到公民权益，美国就不可能有安宁和稳定。反抗的旋风会继续撼动这个国家的根基，直到光明和正义来临。

Text II

I. Answer the following multiple-choice questions:

1．D

2．B

3．A

4．D

5．C

II. Questions for discussion:

1．Angelou uses “master’s voice” for symbolic emphasis. It represents the white establishment that unfairly discriminates on the basis of color. This kind of literary technique results in a powerful and poignant story of growing up black in America.

2．“It wouldn’t do for a Black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world.” It was an event that symbolized the ability of black people to compete in a white-dominated world.

3．Yes. The title symbolizes all black people who, despite great adversity and oppression, live with dignity and strength. They learn to survive and to respect themselves in the process. In this essay Angelou seems to be asking for recognition not only of her struggle and identity but of the struggle and identity of all black American women and all black people.

4．Most of the story is written in standard English, but it occasionally includes realistic snatches of regional dialect and black English, which make the language colorful and the tone animated. When Angelou’s voice enters the narrative, her serious tone calls the reader’s attention to her underlying demand for black equality.

5．（略）