Book 2 unit 4 Cultural Encounters

Unit4 TEXT ⅠCultural Encounters Susan Bassnett1. In what language are you usually surfing at Internet websites?2. What fun do you find on Internet?We live in an age of easy access to the rest of the world. 我们生活在一个交流非常便捷的时代Cheap flights mean that millions of people are able to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet enables us to communicate with the remotest places and the traditional postal services are now referred to almost mockingly as "snail mail." 便宜的机票使得我们可以到那些我们的家长只能幻想的地方去，而网络使得我们可以跟最遥远地方的人们进行交流。

在这种情况下，传统邮政现在被称为蜗牛邮件系统。

When students go off back-packing, they can email their parents from Internet cafes in the Himalayas or from a desert oasis. 当学生们在背包远足的时候，他们可以用E-MAIL从喜马拉雅的网吧或者从沙漠里的绿洲给他们的家长发邮件。

And as for mobile phones—the clicking of text messaging at any hour of the day or night has become familiar to us all. 不管是白天还是晚上，我们也能通过手机来发短信。

Unit 4 Cultural Encounters Susan BassnettWe live in an age of easy access to the rest of the world. Cheap flights mean thatmillions of people are able to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet enables us to communicate with the remotest places and the traditional postal services are now referred to almost mockingly as snail mail. When students go offback-packing, they can email their parents from Internet cafes in the Himalayas or from a desert oasis. And as for mobile phones —the clicking of text messaging at any hour of the day or night has become familiar to us all. Everyone, it seems, provided, of course, they can afford to do so, need never be out of touch.Significantly also, this great global communications revolution is also linked to the expansion of English, which has now become the leading international language. Conferences and business meetings around the globe are held in English, regardless of whether anyone present is a native English speaker. English has simply become the language that facilitates communication, and for many people learning English is an essential stepping stone on the road to success.So why, you may wonder, would anyone have misgivings about all these wonderful developments, and why does the rise of English as a global language cause feelings of uneasiness for some of us? For there are indeed problems with the communications revolution, problems that are not only economic. Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.Different cultures are not simply groups of people who label the world differently; languages give us the means to shape our views of the world and languages are different from one another. We express what we see and feel through language, and because languages are so clearly culture-related, often we find that what we can say in one language cannot be expressed at all in another. The English word homesickness translates into Italian asostalgia, but English has had to borrow that same word todescribe a different state of mind, something that is not quite homesickness and involves a kind of longing. Homesickness and nostalgia put together are almost, but not quite, the Portuguese saudade, an untranslatable word that describes a state of mind that is not despair, angst (English borrowed that from German), sadness or regret, but hovers somewhere in and around all those words.The early Bible translators hit the problem of untranslatability head-on. How do you translate the image of the Lamb of God for a culture in which sheep do not exist? What exactly was the fruit that Eve picked in the Garden of Eden? What was the creature that swallowed Jonah, given that whales are not given to swimming in warm, southern seas? Faced with unsurmountable linguistic problems, translators negotiated the boundaries between languages and came up with a compromise.Compromising is something that speakers of more than one language understand.When there are no words in another language for what you want to say, you makeadjustments and try to approximate. English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the colour spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range, since English hasfour words and Welsh has three. And even where words do exist, compromises still needto be made. The word democracy means completely different things in differentcontexts, and even a word like read which refers to a staple food item made of flourmeans totally different things to different people. The flat breads of Central Asia are along way away from Mother's Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word read has toserve for both.Inevitably, the spread of English means that millions of people are adding anotherlanguage to their own and are learning how to negotiate cultural and linguisticdifferences. This is an essential skill in today's hybrid world, particularly now when theneed for international understanding has rarely been so important. But even as morepeople become multilingual, so native English speakers are losing out, for they arebecoming ever more monolingual, and hence increasingly unaware of the differencesbetween cultures that languages reveal. Communicating in another language involves notonly linguistic skills, but the ability to think differently, to enter into another culture's mentality and shape language accordingly. Millions of people are discovering how tobridge cultures, while the English-speaking world becomes ever more complacent andcuts down on foreign language learning programmes in the mistaken belief that it isenough to know English.World peace in the future depends on intercultural understanding. Those best placedto help that process may not be the ones with the latest technology and state of the artmobile phones, but those with the skills to understand what lies in, under and beyond the words spoken in many different languages.文化冲突我们生活在一个交流非常便捷的时代。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersKey to the ExercisesText comprehensionI.BII.1. T;2. F;3. T;4. T;5. T.III.1. “snail mail”.2. “an essential stepping stone on the road to success”.3. “the profound relationship between language and cultur e that lies at the heart of society”.4. “the means to shape our views of the world”.5. “to negotiate the boundaries between languages and to compromise in translation”.6. “to use linguistic skills, to think differently, to enter into another culture’s m entality and to shape language accordingly”.IV.1. The age we are living provides us with convenient ways to reach any part of the world.2. It seems that everyone is able to always get in touch with anyone else if he or she can afford to.3. is the most important to society.4. This is a fundamental skill in today’s world, where different cultures interact.5. Lots of people are finding ways to interrelate different cultures.Structural analysis of the text1. The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: “Mo st fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.”2. Paragraph 4: The lack of an exact counterpart of the English word “homesickness” in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German.Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range; The word “democracy” means completely different things in different contexts; the flat breads of Central Asiaare a long way away from Mother’s Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word “bread” has to serve for both.VocabularyI. Phrase practice1. provided =as long as 假如，倘若need never be out of touch =can never fail to be reached 从不会失去联系2. regardless of =no matter 不管，不顾3. overlook at our peril =fail to notice at great risk 忽视……的危险或风险4. hovers somewhere in and around all those words =may be described by these words to varying degrees5. hit the problem of untranslatability head-on = were directly confronted with the problem that something in one language cannot be rendered into anotherII.1. stepping stone;2. at their peril;3. serve;4. mentality;5. staple;6. facilitating;7. messaging;8. hybrid.III. Word derivationFill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.1. economy2. accessible3. fundamentally4. homesick5. negotiable6. adjusted7. remoteness8. complacentlyIV.1. D;2. C;3. A;4. D;5. B;6. A;7. B;8. C.V. Synonym / AntonymGive a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the sense it is used.1. Synonym: time, era, epoch2. Synonym: meetings3. Synonym: basic, fundamental4. Antonym: misshape5. Synonym: unavoidably6. Synonym: worry, concern, anxiety7. Antonym: hide, concealVI. PrefixWrite in each space one word that has the same prefix as underlined in the given word.1. unbelievable2. imperfect3. disagreement4. misplace5. malfunction6. enable7. surpass 8. submarineGrammarI. Complete the following sentences with the correct verb forms.1. helps2. hope; are enjoying; sunbathe; go; are going.3. is being.4. is typing5. am not eating.6. am reading7. are always leaving.8. go; belongs; wants; is using.9. is boiling.10. is putting; is rewiring; is building.II. Correct the errors.1. is passing → passes; is shooting → shoots.2. OK.3. are crying.4. OK.5. am knowing → know.6. am gathering → gather.7. work → am working.8. do → are; sneeze → sneezing.III.thank; are dispatching; regret; have; are contacting; hear; enclose/are enclosing; decide; have; are listed; regret; hope; enclose/are enclosing.IV.1. a. The speaker is complaining; b. The speaker gives a fact.2. a. am considering; b. have the opinion.3. a. It suggests a permanent nature; b. It suggests a temporary behaviour.4. a. is taking care of; b. have no objection to.5. a. am waiting for; b. believe.6. a. am waiting for; b. believe.V. Position of adjectivesRewrite the following descriptions putting the adjectives in the correct order.1. a large pair of red woolen socks2. a powerful new white German car3. a small rectangular grey Japanese radio4. a big modern concrete office building5. a medium size French stainless steel saucepan6. a superb medieval rose-shaped stained-glass window7. a prominent triangular red road sign8. a tiny black and white Chinese dogTranslationI.1．因此，你也许会问，为什么还有人会对这些绝妙的发展顾虑重重为什么英语成为世界语言会让一部分人惴惴不安2．不同的文化并不仅仅是给世界贴上不同标签的人群；语言给了我们塑造世界观的工具，而语言又是不一样的。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersSusan BassnettWe live in an age of easy access to the rest of the world. Cheap flights mean that millions of people are able to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet enables us to communicate with the remotest places and the traditional postal services are now referred to almost mockingly as "snail mail." When students go off back-packing, they can email their parents from Internet cafes in the Himalayas or from a desert oasis. And as for mobile phones —the clicking of text messaging at any hour of the day or night has become familiar to us all. Everyone, it seems, provided, of course, they can afford to do so, need never be out of touch.Significantly also, this great global communications revolution is also linked to the expansion of English, which has now become the leading international language. Conferences and business meetings around the globe are held in English, regardless of whether anyone present is a native English speaker. English has simply become the language that facilitates communication, and for many people learning English is an essential stepping stone on the road to success.So why, you may wonder, would anyone have misgivings about all these wonderful developments, and why does the rise of English as a global language cause feelings of uneasiness for some of us? For there are indeed problems with the communications revolution, problems that are not only economic. Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.Different cultures are not simply groups of people who label the world differently; languages give us the means to shape our views of the world and languages are different from one another. We express what we see and feel through language, and because languages are so clearly culture-related, often we find that what we can say in one language cannot be expressed at all in another. The English word "homesickness" translates into Italian as "nostalgia," but English has had to borrow that same word to describe a different state of mind, something that is not quite homesickness and involves a kind of longing. Homesickness and nostalgia put together are almost, but not quite, the Portuguese "saudade," an untranslatable word that describes a state of mind that is not despair, angst (English borrowed that from German), sadness or regret, but hovers somewhere in and around all those words.The early Bible translators hit the problem of untranslatability head-on. How do you translate the image of the Lamb of God for a culture in which sheep do not exist? What exactly was the fruit that Eve picked in the Garden of Eden? What was the creature that swallowed Jonah, given that whales are not given to swimming in warm, southern seas? Faced with unsurmountable linguistic problems, translators negotiated the boundaries between languages and came up with a compromise.Compromising is something that speakers of more than one language understand. When thereare no words in another language for what you want to say, you make adjustments and try to approximate. English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the colour spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range, since English has four words and Welsh has three. And even where words do exist, compromises still need to be made. The word "democracy" means completely different things in different contexts, and even a word like "bread" which refers to a staple food item made of flour means totally different things to different people. The flat breads of Central Asia are a long way away from Mother's Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word "bread" has to serve for both.Inevitably, the spread of English means that millions of people are adding another language to their own and are learning how to negotiate cultural and linguistic differences. This is an essential skill in today's hybrid world, particularly now when the need for international understanding has rarely been so important. But even as more people become multilingual, so native English speakers are losing out, for they are becoming ever more monolingual, and hence increasingly unaware of the differences between cultures that languages reveal. Communicating in another language involves not only linguistic skills, but the ability to think differently, to enter into another culture's mentality and shape language accordingly. Millions of people are discovering how to bridge cultures, while the English-speaking world becomes ever more complacent and cuts down on foreign language learning programmes in the mistaken belief that it is enough to know English.World peace in the future depends on intercultural understanding. Those best placed to help that process may not be the ones with the latest technology and state of the art mobile phones, but those with the skills to understand what lies in, under and beyond the words spoken in many different languages.文化冲突我们生活在一个交流非常便捷的时代。

Unit4Cultural EncountersKey to the ExercisesText comprehensionI.BII.1. T。

2. F。

3. T。

4. T。

5. T.III.1. “snail mail”.2. “an essential stepping stone on the road to success”.3. “the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society”.4. “the means to shape our views of the world”.5. “to negotiate the boundaries between languages and to compromise in translation”.6. “to use linguistic skills, to think differently, to enter into another culture’s mentality and to shape language accordingly”.IV.1. The age we are living provides us with convenient ways to reach any part of the world.2. It seems that everyone is able to always get in touch with anyone else if he or she can afford to.3. is the most important to society.4. This is a fundamental skill in today’s world, where different cultures interact.5. Lots of people are finding ways to interrelate different cultures.Structural analysis of the text1. The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: “Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.”2. Paragraph 4: The lack of an exa ct counterpart of the English word “homesickness” in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German.Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersSusan BassnettWe live in an age of easy access to the rest of the world. Cheap flights mean that millions of people are able to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet enables us to communicate with the remotest places and the traditional postal services are now referred to almost mockingly as "snail mail." When students go off back-packing, they can email their parents from Internet cafes in the Himalayas or from a desert oasis. And as for mobile phones —the clicking of text messaging at any hour of the day or night has become familiar to us all. Everyone, it seems, provided, of course, they can afford to do so, need never be out of touch.Significantly also, this great global communications revolution is also linked to the expansion of English, which has now become the leading international language. Conferences and business meetings around the globe are held in English, regardless of whether anyone present is a native English speaker. English has simply become the language that facilitates communication, and for many people learning English is an essential stepping stone on the road to success.So why, you may wonder, would anyone have misgivings aboutall these wonderful developments, and why does the rise of English as a global language cause feelings of uneasiness for some of us? For there are indeed problems with the communications revolution, problems that are not only economic. Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.Different cultures are not simply groups of people who label the world differently; languages give us the means to shape our views of the world and languages are different from one another. We express what we see and feel through language, and because languages are so clearly culture-related, often we find that what we can say in one language cannot be expressed at all in another. The English word "homesickness" translates into Italian as "nostalgia," but English has had to borrow that same word to describe a different state of mind, something that is not quite homesickness and involves a kind of longing. Homesickness and nostalgia put together are almost, but not quite, the Portuguese "saudade," an untranslatable word that describes a state of mind that is not despair, angst (English borrowed that from German), sadness or regret, but hovers somewhere in and around all those words.The early Bible translators hit the problem of untranslatability head-on. How do you translate the image of the Lamb of God for a culture in which sheep do not exist? What exactly was the fruit that Eve picked in the Garden of Eden? What was the creature that swallowed Jonah, given that whales are not given to swimming in warm, southern seas? Faced with unsurmountable linguistic problems, translators negotiated the boundaries between languages and came up with a compromise.Compromising is something that speakers of more than one language understand. When there are no words in another language for what you want to say, you make adjustments and try to approximate. English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the colour spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range, since English has four words and Welsh has three. And even where words do exist, compromises still need to be made. The word "democracy" means completely different things in different contexts, and even a word like "bread" which refers to a staple food item made of flour means totally different things to different people. The flat breads of Central Asia are a long way away from Mother's Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word "bread" has to serve for both.Inevitably, the spread of English means that millions ofpeople are adding another language to their own and are learning how to negotiate cultural and linguistic differences. This is an essential skill in today's hybrid world, particularly now when the need for international understanding has rarely been so important. But even as more people become multilingual, so native English speakers are losing out, for they are becoming ever more monolingual, and hence increasingly unaware of the differences between cultures that languages reveal. Communicating in another language involves not only linguistic skills, but the ability to think differently, to enter into another culture's mentality and shape language accordingly. Millions of people are discovering how to bridge cultures, while the English-speaking world becomes ever more complacent and cuts down on foreign language learning programmes in the mistaken belief that it is enough to know English.World peace in the future depends on intercultural understanding. Those best placed to help that process may not be the ones with the latest technology and state of the art mobile phones, but those with the skills to understand what lies in, under and beyond the words spoken in many different languages.文化冲突我们生活在一个交流非常便捷的时代。

Unit 4 Cultural Encounters课文翻译综合教程二嗨，伙计们！今天咱们来聊聊文化碰撞这个话题。

你们知道吗，有时候我们和外国人交流的时候，会因为文化差异而产生一些有趣的误会。

比如说，有一次我在餐厅点了一份炒饭，结果服务员给我上了一碗汤。

我当时就愣住了，心想：“这是怎么回事啊？”后来才知道，原来在他们的文化里，炒饭就是汤的意思。

哈哈，这可真是让人哭笑不得啊！不过，这种文化碰撞也让我们学到了很多东西。

比如说，我们可以从外国人的视角看待问题，发现自己的观念可能有些狭隘。

还有呢，我们可以学会尊重不同的文化，这样才能更好地与人相处。

其实，文化碰撞并不仅仅发生在国际交往中。

在我们日常生活中，也经常会遇到各种各样的文化差异。

比如说，有些人喜欢用筷子吃饭，而有些人则习惯用刀叉。

有些人喜欢喝热水，而有些人则喜欢喝冰水。

这些看似微不足道的小事，其实都反映了不同文化的特色。

我们应该如何应对这些文化差异呢？我们要学会尊重。

每个国家都有自己的历史和传统，我们不能因为别人的做法和我们的不一样就嘲笑他们。

我们要学会沟通。

当我们遇到不明白的事情时，不要猜测别人的意图，而是直接问清楚。

我们要保持开放的心态。

只有这样，我们才能真正地了解和接纳不同的文化。

当然啦，文化碰撞也有它的乐趣所在。

比如说，你可能会发现一些非常有趣的习俗。

比如说，在西班牙，人们在庆祝圣诞节的时候会举行一场盛大的游行，人们会打扮成各种奇怪的角色，如猫女、海盗等。

而在日本，人们会在樱花盛开的季节举行“赏花大会”，大家一起欣赏美丽的樱花。

这些活动不仅让我们感受到了不同文化的魅力，还让我们的生活变得更加丰富多彩。

文化碰撞是我们生活中不可避免的一部分。

我们既要学会应对这些差异，也要学会从中寻找乐趣。

只有这样，我们才能在这个多元化的世界里更好地生存和发展。

今天的分享就到这里啦，希望对你们有所启发。

下次再见啦！。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersKey to the ExercisesText comprehensionI.BII.1. T;2. F;3. T;4. T;5. T.III.1. “snail mail”.2. “an essential stepping stone on the road to success”.3. “the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society”.4. “the means to shape our views of the world”.5. “to negotiate the boundaries between languages and to compromise in translation”.6. “to use linguistic skills, to think differently, to enter into another culture's mentality and to shape language accordingly”.IV.1. The age we are living provides us with convenient ways to reach any part of the world.2. It seems that everyone is able to always get in touch with anyone else if he or she can afford to.3. is the most important to society.4. This is a fundamental skill in today's world, where different cultures interact.5. Lots of people are finding ways to interrelate different cultures.Structural analysis of the text1. The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: “Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.”2. Paragraph 4: The lack of an exact counterpart of the English word “homesickness”in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German.Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range; The word “democracy” means AsiaCentral of breads flat the contexts; different in things different completelyare a long way away from Mother's Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word “bread”has to serve for both.VocabularyI. Phrase practice1. provided =as long as 假如，倘若need never be out of touch =can never fail to be reached 从不会失去联系2. regardless of =no matter 不管，不顾3. overlook at our peril =fail to notice at great risk 忽视……的危险或风险4. hovers somewhere in and around all those words =may be described by these words to varying degrees5. hit the problem of untranslatability head-on = were directly confronted with the problem that something in one language cannot be rendered into anotherII.1. stepping stone;2. at their peril;3. serve;4. mentality;5. staple;6. facilitating;7. messaging;8. hybrid.III. Word derivationFill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.1. economy2. accessible3. fundamentally4. homesick5. negotiable6. adjusted7. remoteness8. complacentlyIV.1. D;2. C;3. A;4. D;5. B;6. A;7. B;8. C.V. Synonym / AntonymGive a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the senseit is used.1. Synonym: time, era, epoch2. Synonym: meetings3. Synonym: basic, fundamental4. Antonym: misshape5. Synonym: unavoidably6. Synonym: worry, concern, anxiety7. Antonym: hide, concealVI. PrefixWrite in each space one word that has the same prefix as underlined in the given word.1. unbelievable2.imperfect3. disagreement4.misplace5. malfunction6. enable7. surpass 8. submarineGrammarI. Complete the following sentences with the correct verb forms.1. helps2. hope; are enjoying; sunbathe; go; are going.3. is being.4. is typing5. am not eating.6. am reading7. are always leaving.8. go; belongs; wants; is using.9. is boiling.10. is putting; is rewiring; is building.II. Correct the errors.1. is passing → passes; is shooting → shoots.2. OK.3. are crying.4. OK.5. am knowing → know.6. am gathering → gather.7. work → am working.8. do → are; sneeze → sneezing.III.thank; are dispatching; regret; have; are contacting; hear; enclose/are enclosing; decide; have; are listed; regret; hope; enclose/are enclosing.IV.1. a. The speaker is complaining; b. The speaker gives a fact.2. a. am considering; b. have the opinion.3. a. It suggests a permanent nature; b. It suggests a temporary behaviour.4. a. is taking care of; b. have no objection to.5. a. am waiting for; b. believe.6. a. am waiting for; b. believe.V. Position of adjectivesRewrite the following descriptions putting the adjectives in the correct order.1. a large pair of red woolen socksa powerful new white German car2.3. a small rectangular grey Japanese radio4. a big modern concrete office building5. a medium size French stainless steel saucepan6. a superb medieval rose-shaped stained-glass window7. a prominent triangular red road sign8. a tiny black and white Chinese dogTranslationI.1．因此，你也许会问，为什么还有人会对这些绝妙的发展顾虑重重？为什么英语成为世界语言会让一部分人惴惴不安？2．不同的文化并不仅仅是给世界贴上不同标签的人群；语言给了我们塑造世界观的工具，而语言又是不一样的。

Unit4CulturalEncountersTeachingplan综合教程⼆Unit 4 Cultural EncountersTeaching PointsBy the end of this unit, students are supposed to1)grasp the idea revealed in the writing and make clear the structure of the wholepassage through an intensive reading of Cultural Encounters.2)comprehend the deductive approach of argumentation development.3)get a list of new words and structures and use them freely in conversation andwriting.4)be aware of the importance and significance of intercultural understanding andempathy.Topics for discussion1)In what language are you usually surfing at Internet websites?2)What fun do you find on Internet?3)Have you ever encounter any intercultural misunderstanding? If have, can you listthe reasons that account for the misunderstandings?Cultural information1. QuotesHuman beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and customs keep them apart.— Confucius2. Cross-cultural Communication StrategiesThe key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge.First, it is essential that people understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication, and make a conscious effort to overcome these problems.Second, it is important to assume that one’s efforts will not always be successful, and adjus t one’s behavior appropriately. Suggestions for heated conflicts is to stop,listen, and think. This helps in cross-cultural communication as well.When things seem to be going badly, stop or slow down and think.Active listening can sometimes be used to check this out — by repeating what one thinks he or she heard, one can confirm that one understands the communication accurately.Often intermediaries who are familiar with both cultures can be helpful in cross-cultural communication situations. They can translate both the substance and the manner of what is said. They may explain the problem, and make appropriate procedural adjustments.Text ICultural EncountersSusan BassnettGlobal ReadingI. Text analysis1.Which sentence is the thesis statement?The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: ―Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.‖/doc/b215940668.htmlpromising, in the author’s view, is a key notion in translation and thus also inintercultural communication. Numerous examples are used to explain this notion.Try to find these examples.Paragraph 4: The lack of an exact counterpart of the English word ―homesickness‖ in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German.Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range; the flat breads of Central Asia area long way away from Mother’s Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word ―bread‖ hasto serve for both.II. Structural analysis1.What type of writing is this essay? And what’s the main strategy the author adopt todevelop the body of the essay?It is a piece of argumentation. Abundant examples are provided to support her argument in the body of the essay.Detailed ReadingParagraphs 1-3Questions:1. What do cheap flights and the Internet mean to people today? (Paragraph 1)Cheap flights mean that millions of people can afford to visit places their parents could only dream about, while the Internet means that numerous people are able to communicate with the remotest places with great ease.2. Exemplify and explain that English has become the most important international language. (Paragraph 2)Conferences and business meetings around the globe are held in English, regardless of whether anyone present is a native English speaker. English has simply become the language that facilitates communication, and for many people learning English is an essential stepping stone on the road to success.Paragraphs 4-7Questions:1. Supply specific examples to prove that language and culture are closely related to each other.(Paragraph 4)Numerous examples show that language and culture are interrelated. Take a look at some English idioms and see how different their Chinese counterparts are:a drop in the ocean 沧海⼀粟to laugh one’s head off 笑掉⼤⽛to shed crocodile tears 猫哭⽼⿏to spend money like water 挥⾦如⼟to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth ⽣长在富贵⼈家2. Explain and illustrate what ―compromising‖and ―the spread of English‖mean. (Paragraph 7)For ―compromising,‖ refer to Paragraph 6 of the text. A s to ―the spread of English,‖ a typical example is the spread of English in China. Compared with other nations, China boasts the largest number of people who have learned or are learning English. Chinese learners of English are learning how to overcome cultural and linguistic differences. In today’s China, the mastery of English has become an important skill which is of great use and value in all walks of life.Paragraph 8Questions:1. According to the writer, what is the great function of intercultural understanding? (Paragraph 8)The writer says, ―World peace in the future depends on intercultural understanding.‖In other words, intercultural understanding will play a most important role in the promotion of world peace in the future.2. Who will probably be most able to help the process of world peace in the future? (Paragraph 8)Those who are most competent to contribute to the process of world peace probably are those who have acquired the skills to understand the literal, implied, figurative, or cultural meanings of the words spoken in many different languages.Text IIDoes Your Body Betray You?Lead-in Questions1.What is body language? What kinds of body language can you think of?2.Can you tell the meanings of some common facial expressions or gestures?Main ideasDoes Your Body Betray you,the title indicates that changes in your body position and movements show what you are feeling or thinking. In fact, three-quarters of the social meaning of a typical two-person exchange is carried by nonverbal cues, though most of the time we are not aware that we are doing it. Nonverbal signals differ from culture to culture at least as much as one language differs from another, and so we need to realize that knowledge of a foreign language is incomplete unless it extends to the nonverbal signals. So, it is essential to get some knowledge about nonverbal communication. The passage provides us with some commonly-used body language cues and their interpretations through a list of examples.Notes1. body language(Paragraph 1): Body language is communication by means of facial expressions, gestures, postures, and other wordless signals. Body language also includes grooming habits, hair and clothing styles, and such practices as tattooing and body piercing. Body language communicates unspoken information about people’s identity, relationships, and thoughts, as well as moods, motivation, and attitudes. It plays an essential role in all interpersonal relationships, such as childcare, politics, teaching, and public speaking. The scientific study of body language is called kinesics.2. be telling the world a totally different story (Paragraph 1): be meaning entirely different things from what you are saying3. ... however cool and contained you think you’re being, there is a host of little telltale gestures and expressions that give you away ... (Paragraph 2): …however successfully you think you are managing to appear calm and self-controlled, a large number of slight changes in your body position and movements provide evidence about what you are feeling or thinking ...4. ... you’re a bundle of nerves. (Paragraph 4): ... you are feeling very nervous.5. invading your space (Paragraph 5): intruding into your air spaceStudies by experts suggest that man walks around inside a kind of private bubble, which represents the amount of air space he feels he must have between himself and other people. To invade is to affect someone in an unwanted and annoying way.e.g.Does that give you an excuse to invade my privacy?6. keep them at arm’s length(Paragraph 5): avoid developing a relationship with theme.g.If you’re wise, you’ll keep Mrs. Jones at arm’s length. She’s the worst gossip inthe village.7. You want to block out the speaker’s words … (Paragraph 7): You want to stop yourself thinking about what the speaker says …8. in your heart of hearts(Paragraph 8): If you know, feel, or believe something in your heart ofhearts, you are sure about it although you may not admit it.e.g.Claire knew in her heart of hearts that she would never go back there.9. trying to shield her listener from what she’s saying(Paragraph 9): trying to protect herlistener from being hurt by what she’s sayinge.g.Several officials are accused of trying to shield the General from US federalinvestigators.10. rather than (Paragraph 11): instead ofe.g.Rather than squeezing your own oranges, have you tried buying packs of orange juice?11. in a quandary (Paragraph 12): unable to decide what to do about a difficult problemor situatione.g.The city council is in a quandary over whether to raise taxes or not.Questions for discussion1. What does the title of the text mean?2. What does the author mean when he says ―three-quarters of our knowledge about them comes via our eyes rather than our ears‖?3. How can one’s gestures and expressions give him / her away?4. What conclusion can we draw from such instinctive behaviour as fiddling and arm folding?5. What is the main idea of LOVE SIGNS?6. Why doesn’t the author spell out a precise vocabulary of gestures?7. What implications does the study of body language have for learning a foreign language?8. Observe people near you for several days, looking for uses of body language. Try also to be conscious of your own use of body language. What conclusion can you draw?Key to questions for discussion1. Changes in your body position and movements show what you are feeling or thinking.2. Three-quarters of the social meaning of a typical two-person exchange is carried bynonverbal cues.3. All of us communicate with one another nonverbally, as well as with words. Most of the time we are not aware that we are doing it. Body language provides evidence about how the human mind processes information.4. People feel safer behind some kind of physical barrier. If a social situation is in any way threatening, then there is an immediate urge to set up such a barricade.5. When two people look searchingly into each other’s eyes, emotions are heightened andthe relationship becomes more intimate. Therefore, we carefully avoid this, except in appropriate circumstances.6. The author looks for patterns in the context, not for an isolated meaningful gesture.Besides, there are several possible interpretations for a single gesture. For example,when a student in conversation with a professor holds the older man’s eyes a little longer than is usual, it can be a sign of respect and affection rather than a sign of love.7. Nonverbal signals differ from culture to culture at least as much as one language differs from another, and so we need to realize that knowledge of a foreign language is incomplete unless it extends to the nonverbal signals.Memorable QuotesRead the following quotes and analyze the purposes of culture advanced by Matthew Arnold.Guidance: The following quotes are from Culture and Anarchy— a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold. In the book, he advanced that ―Culture ... is a study of perfection‖. He further wrote that: ―It (Culture) seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light ...‖1. Culture has one great passion — the passion for sweetness and light. It has one even yet greater, the passion for making them prevail.— Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) was an English poet.Paraphrase:Part of the essence of culture is the love of beauty and unbiased intelligence. The even more essential part of culture is to make the best ideas — the love of beauty and unbiased intelligence, to be the most common.2. The men of culture are the true apostles of equality.— Matthew Arnold Paraphrase: The men of culture diffuse the best ideas regardless of class.。

2-U n i t4-C u l t u r a l E n c o u n t e r s答案综合教程二Unit 4 Cultural EncountersKey to the ExercisesText comprehensionI.BII.1. T;2. F;3. T;4. T;5. T.III.1. “snail mail”.2. “an essential stepping stone on the road to success”.3. “the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society”.4. “the means to shape our views of the world”.5. “to negotiate the boundaries between languages and to compromise in translation”.6. “to use linguistic skills, to think differently, to enter into another culture’s mentality and to shape language accordingly”.IV.1. The age we are living provides us with convenient ways to reach any part of the world.2. It seems that everyone is able to always get in touch with anyone else if he or she can afford to.3. is the most important to society.4. This is a fundamental skill in today’s world, where different cultures interact.5. Lots of people are finding ways to interrelate different cultures.Structural analysis of the text1. The last sentence of the 3rd paragraph: “Most fundamental is the profound relationship between language and culture that lies at the heart of society and one that we overlook at our peril.”2. Paragraph 4: The lack of an exact counterpart of the English word “homesickness” in other languages such as Italian, Portuguese, and German.Paragraph 5: The problem of untranslatability which the early Bible translators encountered.Paragraph 6: English and Welsh speakers make adjustments regarding the color spectrum in the grey / green / blue / brown range; The word “democracy” means completely different things in different contexts; the flat breads of Central Asia are a long way away from Mot her’s Pride white sliced toasties, yet the word “bread” has to serve for both.VocabularyI. Phrase practice1. provided =as long as 假如，倘若need never be out of touch =can never fail to be reached 从不会失去联系2. regardless of =no matter 不管，不顾3. overlook at our peril =fail to notice at great risk 忽视……的危险或风险4. hovers somewhere in and around all those words =may be described by these words to varying degrees5. hit the problem of untranslatability head-on = were directly confronted with the problem that something in one language cannot be rendered into anotherII.1. stepping stone;2. at their peril;3. serve;4. mentality;5. staple;6. facilitating;7. messaging;8. hybrid.III. Word derivationFill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.1. economy2. accessible3. fundamentally4. homesick5. negotiable6. adjusted7. remoteness8. complacentlyIV.1. D;2. C;3. A;4. D;5. B;6. A;7. B;8. C.V. Synonym / AntonymGive a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the sense it is used.1. Synonym: time, era, epoch2. Synonym: meetings3. Synonym: basic, fundamental4. Antonym: misshape5. Synonym: unavoidably6. Synonym: worry, concern, anxiety7. Antonym: hide, concealVI. PrefixWrite in each space one word that has the same prefix as underlined in the given word. 1. unbelievable 2. imperfect3. disagreement4. misplace5. malfunction6. enable7. surpass 8. submarineGrammarI. Complete the following sentences with the correct verb forms.1. helps2. hope; are enjoying; sunbathe; go; are going.3. is being.4. is typing5. am not eating.6. am reading7. are always leaving.8. go; belongs; wants; is using.9. is boiling.10. is putting; is rewiring; is building.II. Correct the errors.1. is passing → passes; is shooting → shoots.2. OK.3. are crying.4. OK.5. am knowing → know.6. am gathering → gather.7. work → am working.8. do → are; sneeze → sneezing.III.thank; are dispatching; regret; have; are contacting; hear; enclose/are enclosing; decide; have; are listed; regret; hope; enclose/are enclosing.IV.1. a. The speaker is complaining; b. The speaker gives a fact.2. a. am considering; b. have the opinion.3. a. It suggests a permanent nature; b. It suggests a temporary behaviour.4. a. is taking care of; b. have no objection to.5. a. am waiting for; b. believe.6. a. am waiting for; b. believe.V. Position of adjectivesRewrite the following descriptions putting the adjectives in the correct order.1. a large pair of red woolen socks2. a powerful new white German car3. a small rectangular grey Japanese radio4. a big modern concrete office building5. a medium size French stainless steel saucepan6. a superb medieval rose-shaped stained-glass window7. a prominent triangular red road sign8. a tiny black and white Chinese dogTranslationI.1．因此，你也许会问，为什么还有人会对这些绝妙的发展顾虑重重？为什么英语成为世界语言会让一部分人惴惴不安？2．不同的文化并不仅仅是给世界贴上不同标签的人群；语言给了我们塑造世界观的工具，而语言又是不一样的。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersWords and Expressions1.access n.entrance; way in; means of entering o r the right to use or look at somethinge.g. The only means of access to the building is along a muddy track.到达那幢楼的唯一途径是沿着那条泥泞的小路前行。

The system has been designed to give the user quick and easy access to the required information.Derivation:accessible a.2. communicate vi. share or exchange feelings, opinions, or information, etc.e.g. He is a shy boy who can’t communicate very well.Derivation:communication n.e.g. The Internet is the best means of communication among several partners at differentlocations.communicative a.3. remote a.distant in space or timee.g. We can see remote stars through a telescope.In the remote future, many new changes will take place.The Beatles carried Liverpool’s fame to the remotest corners of the earth. Derivation:remoteness n.e.g. They found the remoteness of the country a great problem.Comparison: distant, far, remotedistant very far away esp. in distancee.g. She could hear the distant sound of fireworks exploding.far describe something that is not near, or the part of something that is most distant from the centre or from youe.g. The station isn’t far — we could easily walk it.remote describe an area, house or village that is a long way from any towns or cities e.g. He lived in a remote mountain village.This pilgrim came from a very distant place.4. mockingly ad. in a way in which sb. or sth. is made fun ofe.g. Andrienne raised her eyebrows mockingly —“What’s wrong, my dear? Don’t youunderstand?”The boy who was once referred to mockingly as a country boy is now the CEO of a joint venture.5. regardless of without taking account of or worrying aboute.g. I bought the book, regardless of the cost.尽管价钱挺高，我还是买了这本书。

Unit 4 Cultural EncountersTeaching PointsBy the end of this unit, students are supposed to1)grasp the idea revealed in the writing and make clear the structure of the wholepassage through an intensive reading of Cultural Encounters。

2)comprehend the deductive approach of argumentation development。

3)get a list of new words and structures and use them freely in conversation andwriting。

4)be aware of the importance and significance of intercultural understanding andempathy。

Topics for discussion1)In what language are you usually surfing at Internet websites？2)What fun do you find on Internet?3)Have you ever encounter any intercultural misunderstanding？If have，can you listthe reasons that account for the misunderstandings?Cultural information1。

QuotesHuman beings draw close to one another by their common nature，but habits and customs keep them apart。