四、練習答案

Text I

Text Comprehension

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

A. 作者通過引用他自己以及他人的許多經歷說明了美國人很少走路。在文中，他并沒有給出解決這一問題的方法；他僅僅只是在文中最后一段中提了一下：And if that isn’t sad, I don’t know what is. 所以作者寫這篇文章的目的只是告訴讀者美國人很少走路這一事實。

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

1．T

2．T

3．F

4．T

III. Answer the following questions.

Omitted.

IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences.

1．People in the United States tend to drive for every purpose, so much that they have forgotten that they still have legs and about what their legs can do.

2．I admire that I had never realized how poorly equipped our bodies are in the respect.

3．Maybe I was the only person who had ever attempted to cross that intersection on foot.

Structural Analysis

The author develops his ideas by means of example. He cites factual examples: the man he observed outside the post office, his conversation with an acquaintance of his who would drive to the gym to do exercises, his own effort to walk across the street and the commercial district of the pedestrian mall in Laconia. These examples have made his idea more effective and convincing.

Rhetorical features of the text

1．“I confess it had not occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard” (Paragraph 13). (for self-debasement)

2．“An acquaintance of ours was complaining the other day about the difficulty of finding a place to park outside the local gymnasium. She goes there several times a week to walk on a treadmill. The gymnasium is, at most, a six-minute walk from her front door” (Paragraph 10) (for satiric on some ridiculous contradiction in a particular act)

Vocabulary

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

1．pleasant / comfortable, practically

2．very long, (places of) physical exercises

3．was made to realize this

4．decided not to have coffee and instead to go (to the bookstore)

5．held in mind

II. Fill in the blank in each sentence with a word taken from the box in its appropriate form.

1．negotiated

2．debonair

3．dodging

4．notion

5．compact

6．contortion

7．thrive

8．undertaking

III. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.

1．disagreeable

2．eccentricity

3．acquainted

4．ridicule

5．triumphal

6．deficiencies

7．woefully

8．contorted

IV. Fill ill the blank in each sentence with an appropriate phrasal verb or collocation taken from the text.

1．going about

2．going through

3．pops out

4．pace off

5．pulled up

6．dug out

7．stroll up to

8．habituated to

V. Give a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the sense it is used.

1．bustling / exciting

2．old / time-honored

3．depressed / downhearted / low-spirited

4．absurd / ridiculous

5．indifferent / unconcerned

6．infuriating / irritating

7．failure / defeat

8．again

VI. Explain the underlined phrasal verbs in your own words.

1．encountered

2．cause

3．agreed to

4．limited to

5．idling about

6．relied on

7．tolerate

8．deserted / abandoned

Grammar

I. Complete the sentences with the past perfect or the past perfect progressive of the verbs in the brackets.

1．had been talking

2．had been working

3．had worked

4．had been applying

5．had broken

6．had been standing

7．had swallowed

8．had been

II. Complete the following sentences according to the given situation.

1．has been empty

2．had been working for the company

3．had been waiting for me for half an hour

4．had had lunch

5．had left

6．has been living

7．had required the engine

8．had told

III. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense.

had seen, returned, didn’t have, didn’t have, had, done, was, didn’t have, did, left, had, was, decided, picked, went, slammed, felt, had reminded, had searched, found, remembered, were

IV. Complete the following sentences with shall, should, will or would.

1．will

2．shall

3．Should

4．would

5．will

6．shall

7．should

8．should

9．would

10．would

V. Fill in each blank with one of the words and phrases in the box.

1．nowadays

2．ages ago

3．lately, just

4．soon, after a long time

5．immediately, Eventually

6．once

7．recently

8．for weeks

VI. Make sentences of your own after the sentences given below, keeping the italicized parts in your sentences.

1．After standing in the queue for hours, we got good seats.

After talking to you, I always feel better.

After reading the letter, she hurried out of the house.

After working on the difficult math problem, he still couldn’t work out it.

2．You look as if you knew each other.

He lay still as if shot.

He acts as if he were a TV expert.

He felt as if he alone were responsible for what had happened.

Translation

I. Translate the following sentences into Chinese.

1．我每天都步行到郵局或圖書館或書店，心情特別不錯的時候，路過Rosy Jekes咖啡館會進去喝一杯卡布奇諾。

2．為了避免走路，我們愿意承受反常的扭曲之苦。

3．我肯定，他會慢跑很長的距離，會打壁球，會進行各種各樣有益健康的運動，但我同樣也肯定，他一定是開車去那些運動場所的。

4．當時，這一切顯得多荒唐，多令人惱怒，但過后我意識到，我或許是唯一一個有過步行穿過十字路口想法的人。

II. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in brackets.

1．The university is one of the most venerable institutions of higher education in the world.

2．If one is deficient in practical experience, he call hardly make himself a success with only what he has acquired in class.

3．I felt exasperated by constant interruptions, for I had to finish writing the monograph by the end of this week.

4．He feels that it is ludicrous to write about a contemporary topic in an ancient style.

5．The Bund in Shanghai Was a place where young couples liked to come to coo in the 70’s and the 80’s of the last century.

6．His daughter is very sedate for a girl of about ten, for she likes reading more than playing.

7．The couple strolled hand-in-hand along the country road when the sun in its first splendor steeped the earth.

8．The poet was commonly considered as all eccentric romantic genius when alive.

III. Translate the following passage into Chinese.

大約三年前，我和我妻子對大城市的嘈雜生活感到厭倦，因此，我們決定在一個小鎮落戶，那里安靜、令人感到愉快。現在，我們的生活很好，因為這地方方便，辦點事步行去就行。我經常四處走走，心情好的時候，在星吧咖啡店歇一下，喝杯咖啡，或在洲際戲院停住腳步，看一場戲。但是，有些人似乎不理解我的怪僻行為。我喜歡盡可能地多走路，這是大部分人所不能理解的，因為他們太過于依賴于車子了。有時，這種情況幾乎到了荒唐滑稽的程度，即便只是10分鐘步行的路程，他們仍然喜歡駕車。有時，我在獨自散步，他們會問我是否需要搭他們的車。然而，我認為，車子使腿腳功能退化。在這個社會里，大多數人占據主導地位。我意識到，我或許是唯一主張短距離步行的人，這也就是我不時地遇到  麻煩的原因。比如：許多商店把門前清除干凈，以便讓購物的顧客停車，因為商店關心的是商業成就。

Integrated Skills

I. Dictation.

Recently in the United States, / there has been a debate concerning old drivers. / There have been a series of accidents / committed by elderly drivers / and they have given rise to new debates on the old issue: / how old is too old to drive? / Some people point to statistics / showing that older drivers are safer than teenagers, / at least until they reach seventy-five. / Moreover, elderly drivers are less likely to drive drunk / than other drivers. / However, at least twenty-one states / have special requirements on older drivers: / those over sixty-five and older / are required to renew their driving license every year / and undertake vision tests. / Taking away a license can rob older people of their independence / and force them to rely on others / for trips to the grocery store or doctor’s office. / Some people argue / whether someone continues to drive or not / should be based on performance / not just simply age

II. Fill in each blank ill the passage below with ONE word you think appropriate.

1．more

2．around

3．free

4．leave

5．programs

6．ease

7．it

8．signed

9．environmental

10．handing

11．only

12．With

Text II

Questions for discussion

1．They are likely to notice at once seemingly incongruous opposites about the Manhattan skyline. They may conclude that it is not sensible from either human or aesthetic angle and that it is the result of insane politics, greed, deliberate intention to impress others and megalomania. The ill effects of the result are, in turn, traffic jams, bad ventilation, noise and all the other problems any metropolitan city can hardly avoid.

2．The total effect which is termed as “the Manhattan skyline” is made up of numerous buildings, each competing with all of the others in height, or glamour, or efficiency, or respectability. Though each goes its own way, the skyline as a whole evokes the universal feeling of exaltation and aspiration out of all this irrational, unplanned, and often infuriating chaos. There actually exists an unforeseen unity.

3．It is achieved mainly by means of two elements, namely the gridiron ground plan and the vertical grid of steel cage construction, both of which are composed of simple and infinitely repeatable units. So far as the first element is concerned, the artificial geometric grid imposed upon the land without regard to contours has one important quality of rational simplicity. The second element, the vertical thrust or the motion upward, is, in effect, only a three-dimensional variant of the gridiron street plan.