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Mark Twain
---Mirror of America
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Para5
• Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers, gamblers, and thugs as well. • From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are.
• acquaintance 相识可数名词(认识的人； 泛泛之交) • acquaintanceship 相识 • acquainted 有知识的
Life on the Mississippi (1883)
• Life on the Mississippi (1883) describes the history, sights, people, and legends of the steamboats and towns of the Mississippi River region. In the most vivid passages, chapters 4 through 17, Twain recalled his own piloting days. These chapters had originally been published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1875 as "Old Times on the Mississippi."
•.
Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his writing, but he never wrote better than when he wrote of the people a-long the great stream.
Detailed study of the text
• keen:
• a. sharp • b. (with the 5 senses, the mind) good, strong, quick at understanding – My hearing is not as keen as it used to be. – He has a keen brain.
• keen perception: intense insight, understanding or knowledge gained by perceiving (observing)
• • • • a keen bargainer （精于讨价还价的人） a keen eye （敏锐的眼光）
difference between what people claim to be and what they really are.
• The difference between what they preach and what they practice • between what people say and what they do, • between words and deeds • （people often claim to be kind ,generous,honest,whereas in reality ,they are seldom what they say they are)
• Proclaim 指官方宣布重大事件或施政方针
• Claim 指有权或宣称有权得到而公开提出的 要求
Antithesis
• Antithesis is a figure of speech which is a contrast of ideas expressed by parallelism of strongly contrasted words, generally for a tuneful rhythm and wisdom of brevity.对照，对偶 • Speech is silver, silence is golden.雄辩是 银，沉默是金 • There is only one difference between an old man and a young man.
• PARA: Steamboat decks were filled with people of pioneering spirit and also lawless people or social outcasts such as hustlers, gamblers and thugs.
催促；硬挤
• A gambler is someone who gambles regularly, for example in card games or horse racing.可数名词 赌徒；赌棍 • gamble 赌博；投机
• thug: a person who is very violent and rough, esp. a violent criminal, hooligan, villain, or murderous ruffian恶棍；暴徒；强盗
• hustler: a person who tries to earn money or
gain an advantage from any situation they are in, often by using dishonest or illegal method. Now in the U. S. the word means a prostitute, or streetwalker[美俚]妓女
• perception: natural understanding .n
• perceive: realize, notice, see or hear sth. esp. when it is not obvious to other people.v He now perceived his error.
• trade: job, esp. one needing special swledge: recognize the fact, agree to the truth
• acquaint: know, cause to know personally, make familiar with • be acquainted with • I have heard about your friend but I am not acquainted with him • make acquaintance of sb. / make sb's acquaintance结识某人 • Where did you make his acquaintance?
• teem with: to be full of. to
pour in torrent大量地出现，聚集
The water teems with fish
• “the main current” • --- the main stream • the majority of the passengers board the steamboat. • pioneers or people with
• hustle: push (sb) roughly and hurriedly;
jostle; shove The police hustled the thief out of the house and into their van. I was hustled into (making) a hasty decision.
• ，gangster，robber，
• “Flotsam” • ----the wreckage of a ship or its cargo found floating on the sea. • hustlers (streetwalkers), gamblers and thugs (criminals) -----social outcasts. • metaphorically used.
• His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it. • In later life Twain acknowledged that the river had acquainted him with every possible type of human nature
• main current of pioneering humanity: (metaphor) people with pioneering spirit who forms the majority; the main part of them were people with devotion/dedication to open up new areas and prepare ways for others
