Unit 1 Key to exercises
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 Paragraph 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 Paragraph 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
black-street hotel that belonged to a friend of her father’s who was in real estate.
5.Refer to Paragraph 8 and 9. She had long before realized the national day
celebration in her country was nothing but mockery for the Black people. As a black girl, she was in that silent agony that characterized all of her childhood summers. Apparently she hated the Fourth of July, but in essence, what agonized her was the racial discrimination and segregation.
6.Refer to Paragraph 16. The waitress dropped her eyes looking very embarrassed.
7.Refer to Paragraph 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 eyes 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
of 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 noticed or sympathized with by my family
members who were similarly angry, though.
Writing strategies
1.Beside Paragraph 2, Paragraph 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 and indignant.
Language work
Ⅰ. Explain the italicized 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 noticed or sympathized with by people feeling 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
Explanation: 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
Explanation: Dampen is to make or become somewhat wet, emphasizing the moist condition that results. In a figurative sense, the word means to depress. Sock 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
Explanation: 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 acknowledgement is extracted from one more or less unwillingly.
1. admit
2. acknowledged
3. acknowledge
4. admitted
agony anguish
Explanation: 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.has decreed
2.agonizing
3.approvingly
4.ensconced
5.flair
6.vulnerability
7.relief
8.avowed
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.Liani 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.
1. The
2. /
3. a
4. A
5. /
6. /
7. /
8. /
9. / 10. an 11. a 12. / 13. the 14. a 15. the 16. a 17. a 18 / 19. the
Ⅵ. Put a word in each blank that is appropriate for the context.
1. black
2. behave
3. mind
4. meant
5. mercy
6. though
7. before
8. worse
9. what 10. experienced Translation
Ⅰ.Translate each of the following sentences in English, using the words or expressions given in the 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.
3.No one can function properly if they are deprived of adequate sleep.
4.He carefully copied my pretense that nothing unusual had occurred.
5.It was scorching outside; all the tourists escaped into the fan-cooled hut.
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将是休戚相关的。自由平等、令人心旷神怡的秋天遥遥无期，黑人正当愤怒
的闷热夏季就不会消失。1963年并不是终结，而是开端。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，直到正义光明的日子的来临。
Topics for discussion
1.As far as the setting is concerned, the most important factors to take into account
are time and place. In the story, the time is the 4th of July, the National Day of the U.S.A., while the place is Washington D.C., its capital city. This essay discloses the racial discrimination against the black people in a country that boasts freedom and equality for all people, white and colored.
2.Yes. A person from a rural area might be looked at which a contemptuous glance.
Female students might have the experience of being discriminated against in their job-hunting. Such things are common and may be caused by factors that are social, psychological, economic, geographical, etc.
Writing practice
These three paragraphs are cited to illustrate good writing.
Paragraph A, having 123 words, is tersely organized to focus on one idea, that the Great Depression had slid to its nadir. This idea is briefly, but effectively supported by several details: the unemployed workers sat idle during daylight; they gathered, talking about their misfortune, trying to seek out the causes of their ill fate, and protesting against the Government.
Paragraph B and C written by the same author deal with changes, changes in sights in Paragraph B and changes in sounds in Paragraph C. when we read the two paragraphs, we feel as if the author were saying to us, “Listen, I’ m going to tell you how the sights of my hometown have changed” for the second paragraph, and “Now I’ll tell you how the sounds have changed” for the third paragraph. The division of the changes into two paragraphs is natural and logical. We readers have the chance to savor the one sort of change before being treated to the other. However, if the two kinds of changes had been jumbled together in a single paragraph, the intensity and concentration would have been totally ruined.
Computer is Our lives
Computers are playing in increasingly important role in our lives. They are widely used in such fields as industry, business, transportation, and education. They have also worked wonders in military families, people use computers to obtain different kinds of information. With the computer, writers write books, musicians compose music, and children receive instruction and play games. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that our lives would be much more difficult without computers. Despite all the benefits, however, computers can never replace the human brain, for it is man that has invented the computer and designed the programs for it.
Listening exercises
Ⅰ. Listen for the main ideas. Listen to the talk once.
B
Ⅱ. Listen for the details. Listen to the talk again.
Task 1
1.T. Refer to Paragraph 1.
2. F. Refer to Paragraph 2. His father’s parents had never been slaves either.
3.T. Refer to Paragraph
4.
4. F. Refer to Paragraph
5. He received the degree from Harvard University.
5.T. Refer to Paragraph
6.
6.T. Refer to Paragraph
7.
7.T. Refer to Paragraph 11.
8. F. Refer to Paragraph 12. It was Du Bois who was active in the Pan-African
movement throughout his life.
9.T. Refer to Paragraph 12.
10.T. Refer to Paragraph 13.
11.F. Refer to Paragraph 16. A federal judge found him not guilty.
12.T. Refer to Paragraph 17.
Task 2
(1)1868
(2)got a doctorate degree of history
(3)1899
(4)Prof. of economics and history
(5)1903
(6)established the Niagara Movement
(7)1909
(8)1934
(9)Atlanta University
(10)returned to The Crisis
(11)1950
(12)1961
(13)died at the age of 95
(14)G hana, West Africa
Script
(1)William Edward Burghardt Du Bois fought for civil rights for black people in the
United States. During the 1920s and 1930s, he was the person most responsible for the changes in conditions for black people in American society. He also was responsible for changes in the way they thought about themselves.
(2)William Du Bois was the son of free blacks who lived in a northern state. His
mother was Mary Burghardt. His father was Alfred Du Bois. His parents had never been slaves. Nor were their parents. William was born into this free and independent African-American family in 1868 in Great Barrington,
Massachusetts.
(3)William’s mother felt that ability and hard work would lead to success. She urged
him to seek an excellent education. In the early part of the century, it was not easy for most black people to get a good education, but William had a good experience in school. He earned the respect of other students, and he moved quickly through school. It was during those school years that William Du Bois learnt what he later called the secret of his success. His secret, he said, was to go to bed every night at ten o’clock.
(4)After high school, William decided to attend Fisk University, a college for black
students in Nashville,, Tennessee. He thought that going to school in a southern state would help him learn more about the life of most black Americans. Most black people lived in the South in those days. He soon felt the effects of racial prejudice. He found that poor, uneducated white people judged themselves better than he was because they were white and he was black. From that time on, William Du Bois opposed all kinds of racial prejudice. He never missed a chance to express his opinions about race relations.
(5)William Du Bois went to excellent colleges, Harvard University in Boston,
Massachusetts and the University of Berlin in Germany. He received his doctorate degree in history from Harvard in 1895.
(6)His book The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study was published four years later.
It was the first study of a black community in the United States. He became a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in 1897. He remained there until 1910.
(7)William Du Bois had believed that education and knowledge could help solve the
race problem. But racial prejudice in the United States was causing violence.
Mobs of whites killed blacks. Laws provided for separation of the races. Race riots were common. The situation in the country made Mr. Du Bois believe that social change could happen only through protest. Mr. Du Bois’s belief in the need for protest clashed with the ideas of the most influential black leader of the time, Booker T. Washington.
(8)Mr. Washington urged black people to accept unfair treatment for a time. He said
they would improve their condition through hard work and economic gain. He believed that in this way blacks would win the respect of whites.
(9)Mr. Du Bois attacked this way of thinking in his famous book The Souls of Black
Folk. The book was a collection of separate pieces he had written. It was published in 1903. In the very beginning of the The Souls of Black Folk, he expressed the reason he felt the book was important: “Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.”
(10)L ater in the book, Mr. Du Bois explained the struggle blacks, or Negroes as they
were called, then faced in America: “One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro: two souls, two thoughts, two un-reconciled strivings; Two warring ideas in
one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunde r.…He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.”
(11)W.E.B. Du Bois charged that Booker Washington’s plan would not free blacks
from oppression, but would continue it. The dispute between the two leaders divided blacks into two groups—the “conservative” supporters of Mr. Washington and his “extremist”opponents. In 1905. Mr. Du. Bois established the Niagara Movement to oppose Mr. Washington. He and other black leaders called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The organization did not last long. Disputes among its members and a campaign against it by Booker T. Washington kept it from growing. Yet the Niagara Movement led to the creation in 1909 of an organization that would last, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mr. Du Bois became director of research for the organization. He also became editor of the magazine The Crisis.
(12)W.E.B. Du Bois felt that it was good for blacks to be linked through culture and
spirit to the home of their ancestors. Throughout his life he was active in the Pan-African movement. Pan-Africanism was the belief that all people who came from Africa had common interests and should work together in their struggle for freedom. Mr. Du Bois believed black Americans should support independence for African nations that were European colonies. He believed that once African nations were free of European control they could be markets for products and services made by black Americans. He believed that blacks should develop a separate “group economy.” A separate market system, he said, could be a weapon for fighting economic injustice against blacks and for improving their poor living conditions.
(13)M r. Du Bois also called for the development of black literature and art. He urged
the readers of the magazine, The Crisis, to see beauty in black. In 1934, W.E.B.
Du Bois resigned from his position at The Crisis magazine. It was during the severe economic depression in the United States. He charged that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported the interests of successful blacks. He said the organization was not concerned with the problems of poorer blacks.
(14)M r. Du Bois returned to Atlanta University, where he had taught before. He
remained there as a professor for the next ten years. During this period, he wrote about his involvement in both the African and the African-American struggles for freedom.
(15)I n 1944, Mr. Du Bois returned to The Crisis in a research position. Four years
later he left after another disagreement with the organization. He became more and more concerned about politics. He wrote “A s…a citizen of the world as well as the United States of America, I claim the right to know and think and tell the truth as I see it. I believe in Socialism as well as Democracy. I believe in Communism wherever and whenever men are wise and good enough to achieve it.
I despise men and nations, which judge human beings by their color, religious
beliefs or inco me…I hate War.”
(16)I n 1950, W.E.B. Du Bois became an official of the Peace Information Center. The
organization made public the work other nations were doing to support peace in the world. The United States government accused the group of supporting the Soviet Union and charged its officials with acting as foreign agents. A federal judge found Mr. Du Bois not guilty. But most Americans continued to consider him a criminal. He was treated as if he did not exist.
(17)I n 1961, at the age of 93, Mr. Du Bois joined the Communist Party of the United
States. Then he and his second wife moved to Ghana in West Africa. He gave up his American citizenship a year later. He died in Ghana on August 27th, 1963. His death was announced the next day to a huge crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites had gathered for the March on Washington to seek improved civil rights in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois had helped make that march possible.