第四次上课

1.​ Background Information The author Sherwood Anderson (Sep. 13, 1876–March 8, 1941) was a great American writer, the author of 27 works and seven novels. He was also a poet and a playwright, a newspaper editor and a political journalist. Sherwood Anderson was born in Camden（卡姆登）, Ohio, the third of seven children. He left school at the age of 14 and worked at various jobs until 1898. He served in Cuba（古巴） during the Spanish-American War (1898). After the war he went to Chicago, Illinois伊利诺伊州, where he began to write novels and poetry. His work won praise from American writers Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, and Ben Hecht. Noted for his poetic realism, psychological insight, and sense of the tragic, Anderson helped also to establish a simple, consciously naive short-story style. His choice of subject matter and style influenced many American writers who followed him, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner Anderson's talent was not widely recognized until the publication of the collection of his short stories Winesburg, Ohio (1919), which deals with the instinctive, if inarticulate, struggle of ordinary people to assert their individuality in the face of standardization imposed by the machine age Anderson's other works include several novels, short stories, and essays. His autobiographies are Tar, a Midwest Childhood (1926) and Sherwood Anderson's Memoirs (1942). Anderson influenced a younger generation of important writers, including Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck and others. He made his name as a leading naturalistic writer with his masterwork, WINESBURG, OHIO (1919). The Civil War Gone With the Wind The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known by several other names, was a civil war between the United States of America (the "Union") and the Southern slave states of the newly formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office.[1] The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, causing four more Southern states to secede. In the war's first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. In 1862, battles such as Shiloh and Antietam caused massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, which complicated the Confederacy's manpower shortages. In the East, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won a series of victories over Union armies, but Lee's loss at Gettysburg in early July, 1863 proved the turning point. The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by Ulysses S. Grant completed Union control of the Mississippi River. Grant fought bloody battles of attrition with Lee in 1864, forcing Lee to defend the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Union general William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and began his famous March to the Sea, devastating a hundred-mile-wide swath of Georgia. Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war, the deadliest in American history, caused 620,000 soldier deaths[2] and an undetermined number of civilian casualties, ended slavery in the United States, restored the Union by settling the issues of nullification and secession and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war continue to shape contemporary American thought. 2. This is a story about a father told by his son who later became a well-known writer. The author gives a vivid character sketch of his father whom he used to despise but gradually learns to understand and appreciate when he grows up. It is interesting because contrary to the common belief that children always worship their fathers, they sometimes feel the opposite when they are young. The story began when the author described how he used to feel ashamed of his father. When he was a child, he had hoped that his father would be proud, silent and dignified. He had also hoped that his father would be rich and successful. But to his great disappointment, his father was none of these, in fact he was just opposite. He was poor because his business failed; his business failed because he was foolish in giving too much credit; he was often idle and spent most of his time showing off and acting like a clown to amuse people. And above all, he was never quiet and serious, talking nonsense all the time, making up stories that everybody knew were untrue. What’s more, he did not seem to have any sense of responsibility and often would disappear for weeks when there was nothing to eat in the family. So as a little boy, the author thought that his father was a failure, a clown, a loafer, and a windbag. He despised his father so much that he even secretly wished he had a different father. The boy did not understand why his father was so popular and had so many friends including some of the most respectable local celebrities, and he could not understand why his mother never complained, but actually seemed to be proud of him. Then one day everything suddenly dawned on him, the day he suddenly “discovered a father”. Why was the day so important for the boy? The father took the boy swimming in the dark. Father and son, completely naked, striking together in the dark. The boy suddenly saw his father as a dignified man, powerful, loving, and ready to face the harsh life. Through the swimming his father seemed to be communicating with him, trying to give him courage and strength. Slowly the boy began to understand that his father was not foolish. He was just too generous and too kind-hearted. He was not a clown. He was just a natural actor, and he loved life and loved people around him. He was popular because everybody knew that he was a nice man and he could “liven up” the dull life of the sleepy little town. Above all, he was not a windbag. He was just a born storyteller, a born writer. Now the son had come to realize that his father was a man with rich imagination and rare talent. Towards the end of the text, the author realized that he himself had become a story writer because of his father’s influence, because he had his father’s genes of literary creation. 3.​ Text Appreciation Para.1 Introduction 1.​ You hear it said that/ fathers want their sons to be /what they feel they cannot themselves be, but I tell you /it also works the other way. 人们常说，作父亲的都希望自己的儿子能成为自己成为不了的那种人，但是对我来说，这话反过来说也对。 It：形式宾语/先行宾语； what: 名词性关系代词 作their sons 的宾语补足语 Work: vi. to function, to operate 起作用，奏效，行得通 The other way (around/round): the opposite of what you have mentioned 相反的，倒过来，以相反方式 2.​ A boy wants something very special from his father. 男孩们都想从父亲那里得到某种特殊的东西。 3.​ I know that as a small boy I wanted my father to be a certain thing he was not, I wanted him to be a proud, silent , dignified（有尊严的）father. 我知道当我还是个小男孩的时候，我希望自己的父亲是一个自重、沉默而又有威严的人。 Dignified：behaving in a calm and serious way even in a difficult situation, which makes people respect 4.​ When I was with other boys and he passed along the street, I wanted to feel a flow of pride. “There he is. That is my father.” 当我和同伴玩时正好他经过，那一刻，我想要的是一种自豪感，“瞧，过来的是我父亲！” Flow: a continuous stream, movement, or supply of sth. 流动，涌动，一连串 Para.2 1.​ But he wasn’t such a one. He couldn’t be. It seemed to me then that he was always showing off. 我父亲不是这种人，他也成为不了这种人，那时在我看来，他总是在卖弄自己。 2.​ Let’s say someone in our town had got up a show. 比如说，镇上有人组织一次演出。 Let’s say：just say/say used when suggesting or supposing that sth. might happen or be true 比如说，假如 Get up: to organize a group of people to do sth. 组织，安排，筹备 3.​ They were always doing it. The druggist would be in it, the shoe store clerk, the horse doctor, and a lot of women and girls. The druggist，the shoe store clerk, the horse doctor, and a lot of women and girls would be in it 他们一伙人总是组织演出，镇上的药剂师，鞋店里的伙计，兽医，还有许多女人和女孩都会参加。 4.​ My father would manage to get the chief comedy part. 父亲总会设法扮演戏中的主要的喜剧角色。 5.​ It was, let’s say, a Civil War play and he was a comic Irish soldier. 比如说，一场关于内战的戏里，他会扮演一名滑稽的爱尔兰士兵。 6.​ He had to do the most absurd（可笑的）things. They thought he was funny, but think he was terrible/ 他得做出一些荒唐的事情，大家觉得他很搞笑，但是我觉得糟糕透顶。 Have to: must 7.​ I didn’t see how mother could stand it. She even laughed with the others. 我不知道母亲是怎么受得了他的这种行为，她甚至和大家一块儿哈哈大笑。 Stand: vt. to endure, to bear, to put up with 忍受，忍耐，经受 Para. 3 Or there was a parade, He’d be in that, too, right at the front of it, as Grand Marshal or something, on a white horse hired from a livery（车马出租所）stable. 再比如，有什么游行，他也会参加，而且走在队伍的最前面，骑着租来的白马，打扮成格兰特大元帅或其他人的样子。 hired from a livery（车马出租所）stable: 过去分词作后置定语 marshal[ma’ ʃəｌ]：高级军官，元帅 Livery　table：　（车马出租所） Para. ４　 I remember once when he had done something ridiculous，and right out on Main Street, too. 记得有一次，他做了件什么荒唐事，当时又是在大街上。 Ridiculous：荒唐的，可笑的，荒谬的 I was with some other boys and they were laughing and shouting at him and he was shouting back and having as good a time as they were. 我和其他男孩子们在一起，他们一边笑他一边冲他喊叫，他也冲着他们喊，跟他们一样开心。 I ran down an alley（小巷）back of some stores and there in the Presbyterian Church sheds I had a good long cry. 我沿着商店后面得一条小道跑到长老会的小屋里大哭了一场。　 Good：充分的，完全的，十足的 Para. ５ １．I would be in bed at night and father would come home and bring some men with him. He was a man who was never alone. 有些晚上我已经上床睡觉了，父亲还会带一帮人到家里来。他从不会一个人单独呆在。 ２．Before he went broke, running a ‘harness shop, there were always a lot of men loafing in the shop.　现在分词短语作后置定语 破产以前，他经营一家马具店，总有一大帮人在店里消磨时间 。 Broke：破产的，一文不值的　　 Bankrupt：　　　ｇｏ　bankrupt／Broke Loaf： loaf around /round : to spend time doing nothing, usually when you should be working 游手好闲，虚度光阴 Kipper just loafs around, eating and watching television. Kipper: kids in parents’ pockets eroding retirements savings 腌鱼族/啃老族 ３．He went broke, of course, because he gave too much credit. Credit: 信用，信贷，赊账，学分 后来店铺倒闭了，原因是他给别人赊账太多。 ４．He couldn’t refuse it and I thought he was a fool. 他从不拒绝别人的赊账，我认为他很傻。 Para. 6 1.​ There’d be men I didn’t think would want to be fooling around with him. 还有一些事我没想到愿意和他一起混的人。 Fool around/round (with): to waste time behaving in a silly things that are not important 混日子 The boy were out in the yard, just fooling around. 2.​ There might even be the superintendent（督导）of our schools and a quiet man who ran the hardware store. 包括我们学校的校长还有一个沉默寡言的五金店老板。 Superintendent: 监督者，负责人，校长 hardware store：五金店 3.​ Once I remember there was a white-haired man who was a cashier of the bank. 有一次我记得还有一个银行出纳员。 4.​ It was a wonder to me they’d want to be seen with such a windbag（夸夸其谈的人）. 我不明白他们为什么愿意让别人看到自己和一个夸夸其谈的人在一起。 Windbag: gasbag sb. who talks too much 夸夸其谈的人 5.​ I know now what it was that attracted them. 现在我明白了是什么吸引了他们。 6.​ It was because life in our town, as in all small towns, was at times pretty dull and he livened it up. He made them laugh. He could tell stories. 因为小镇上的生活有时太枯燥了，父亲能让使生活变得有生气，他会讲故事，能让大家开怀大笑。 Liven up: to make sth. more interesting or exciting使活跃，使有生气 The party really livened up when Mattie arrived. Para. 7 If they didn’t come to our house they’d go off, say at night, to where there was a grassy（多草的）place by a creek. They’d cook food there and drink beer and sit about listening to his stories. 晚上如果不来我家，他们就会去河边的草坪，他们会弄点吃的，然后一边喝酒一边坐在那里听他讲故事。 Creek: 小溪，小河 Grassy: covered with grass 多草的 Noun. +y: 有……性质的， 有……的 Dirty, juicy, healthy Para. 8 He was always telling stories about himself. He’d say this or that wonderful thing that had happened to him. It might be something that made him look like a fool. He didn’t care. 他常讲和自己有关的故事。将一些发生在他身上令人羡慕的事情，有些事情让他看起来像个傻瓜，他却不在乎。 Para. 9 1.​ If an Irishman came to our house, right away father would say he was Irish. He’d tell what county in Ireland he was born in. He’d tell things that happened there when he was a boy. 如果一位爱尔兰人到我家里来，父亲马上就会说自己是爱尔兰人，他会告诉对方自己出生在哪个村子，小时候那里发生过什么事情。 2.​ He’d make it seem so real that, if I hadn’t known he was born in southern Ohio, I’d have believed him myself. So…that 他会把一切讲的跟真的似的，我要是不知道他出生在俄亥俄州南部，连我也可能相信他的话。 Para. 10 1. If it was a Scotchman（苏格兰人）, a German or a Swede, the same thing happened. He’d be anything the other man was. 如果换成是苏格兰人，德国人或是瑞典人，他也会编出同样的事情来。对方是什么人，他就是什么人。 2.​ I think they all knew he was lying, but they seemed to like him just the same. 我知道别人明白他说的不是真的，但即便如此，他们看起来仍然喜欢他。 Just the same: in spite of a particular situation or opinion Thank you all the same. Para. 11 1. A lot of father’s stories were about the Civil War. 父亲讲的故事有很多和内战有关。 2. To hear him tell it/ he’d been in about every battle. He’d known Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and I don’t know how many others. 听他讲，他曾参加过几乎所有的战斗。他说他认识格兰特、谢尔曼、谢里顿，我不知道还有多少是他认识的的人。 To hear him tell it: 做状语 3. He’d been particularly intimate with General Grant so that when Grant went East to take charge of all the armies, he took father along. 他会说自己和格兰特将军的关系非同一般，当年，格兰特将军去东部带兵指挥打仗的时候，把他也一同带去了。 Intimate: having an extremely close friendship 亲密的 n. 知己 Take charge of: take control over sb./ sth. 管理，接管 I soon had to take charge of the department. Para. 12 “I was an orderly（勤务兵）at headquarters and Sam Grant said to me, ‘Irve’ he said, I’m going to take you along with me.” 他会这样说: “我是司令部的一名勤务兵，西姆.格兰特对我说，“厄夫，跟我一起走吧”。 Orderly: adj. 有秩序的，整齐的，值班的； n. 勤务兵，护理员 Headquarter: 总部 Para. 13 1.​ It seems he and Grant used to slip off sometimes and have a quiet drink together. 听上去，他好像常和格兰特一起悄悄走开，出去静静喝酒。 slip off: to leave a place quietly so that other people do not notice you going 悄悄地走，溜走 She just slipped off without telling us. 2.​ He’d tell about the day Lee surrendered and how, when the great moment came, they couldn’t find Grant. 他会将在李投降的那一天，当重大时刻来临的时候，他们找不到格兰特了。 Sur’render： （使）投降，（使）自首 The enemy troops surrendered themselves to the PLA. Para. 14 1.​ “You know,” my father said, “about General Grant’s book, his memoirs（回忆录）. “你们都知道有关将军的回忆录”我父亲说。 memoir ['memwɑ:]: 回忆录；[复数]自传 2.​ You’ve read of how he said he had a headache and how, when he got word that Lee was ready to call it quits, he was suddenly and miraculously（奇迹般地） cured. “你们都在书中读过他当时正犯头痛病，当他得知李将军要投降的消息时，他的头痛就突然神奇地好了”。 Word: news or message Have you had any word from Paul since he went to New York, Call it quits: to stop doing what one is doing 停止做某事 call it a day：此为止，结束；就这样算了吧；心满意足 Mi’raculous：不可思议的，奇迹的 n.’ miracle miracle drug 神药 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom. 犹太人要求神迹，希腊人寻找智慧。 Para. 15 “Huh,” said father. “He was in the woods with me.” “嘿，我父亲说，那时他和我在一起，在树林里呢。 Para. 16 “I was in there with my back against a tree. I had got hold of a bottle of pretty good stuff. 我背靠在一棵大树上，弄到了一瓶好酒。 Get/catch (a) hold of sth.: to find or borrow sth. so that you can use it 得到，获得，找到 It is not easy to get hold of a taxi in the city center. Stuff: n. things, materials or substances when you do not say exactly what they are 东西，物质 Para.17 “They were looking for Grant. He had got off his horse and come into the woods. He found me. He was covered with mud. “他们正在找格兰特，他已经下马到树林里去了，他找到了我， 那时他浑身是土” Be covered with: 1. 盖满，覆满2. 充满(羞愧、慌乱等 Para. 18 “I had the bottle in my hand. What’d I care? The war was over. I knew we had them “我手里拿着酒瓶子，还在乎什么，战争结束了，我知道我们把他们打败了。” licked. Lick: informal ( to defeat or to solve) 打败，克服，超过 Tom licked his opponents at tennis. Para.19 My father said that he was the one who told Grant about Lee. An orderly riding by had told him, because the orderly knew how thick（感情深厚）he was with Grant. 10 Grant was embarrassed. 我父亲说是他告诉格兰特李将军要休战的消息的，这个消息是一个骑马经过的勤务兵告诉他的，因为这个勤务兵知道他和格兰特交情很好。格兰特很是窘迫。 Riding by:作定语 现在分词作后置定语 Ride: vi. /vt. vi. 后接away, across, by, through be thick with: to be very friendly with sb. 友好的，亲密的 Para. 20 “But, Irve, look at me. I’m all covered with mud,” he said to my father. “可是，厄夫，你看我身上都是土“ Para. 21 1. And then, my father said, he and Grant decided to have a drink together. 然后，我父亲说，他和格兰特决定一起喝一杯。 3.​ They took a couple of shots（小口的酒）and then, because he didn’t want Grant to show up drunk before Lee, he smashed the bottle against the tree. 他们只喝了两三口，我父亲就把瓶子朝树上打碎了，因为她不想让格兰特喝的醉醺醺地出现在李将军面前。 Shot：a small amount of a strong alcoholic drink. 一小口，一小杯 Down one’s glass in one shot. 一饮而尽 Show up: turn up, 出现，来到，出席 Did everyone you invited show up. Para. 22 That’s just one of the kind of things he’d tell. Of course the men knew he was lying, but they seemed to like it just the same. 这就是他跟大家分享的故事，当然，大家都知道他是在瞎说，但不管怎样，他们就是喜欢听。