Text A Let the Light Shine

21 世纪大学新英语读写译教程 Book IIUnit 1 Love Works Miracles

Part I Lead-in

A. Describe and comment on the following pictures.

B. Questions for Discussion

1. What is the power of love?2. Do you happen to know the charitable work of

celebrities, say, Bill Gates or Mother Theresa? What did they do to help those who they may never know?

3. What can we do in our daily life to love each other and let the light shine?

Part II Background Information

Cultural notes:

Pontiac:

a brand of automobiles, produced by General Motors that have been sold in the United States, Canada and Mexico since 1926. Pontiac is marketed as General Motors’ “athletic” brand and specializes in mainstream performance vehicles.

Other car brands:

Ford, BUICK, Lincoln, Chrysler, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Cadillac

Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Nissan and MitsubishiMercedes-benz, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen and Opel Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Bently, Land Rover

Part III Writing Features

This is a piece of narrative writing. It is written in time sequence. It begins with Joe driving on a lonely road on a cold winter day. Then he saw an old lady stranded on the side of the road in need of help. He stopped to help her. In return, he asked the woman to give help to those who needed. The woman offered her help to a waitress in a restaurant. The story has a surprising but meaningful ending: the waitress turned out to be Joe’s wife.

Part IV Difficult Sentences

1.(Line 3, Para 1) … the chill had finally hit home: …

The coldness in winter had made the situation much worse.

2. (Line 1, Para 3) He could go down this road blind, and tell you what was on either side, and with his headlights not working, that came in handy.

Joe was so familiar with the neighborhood that he could tell what was along the road with his eyes closed and this intimate knowledge was very useful especially when the headlights failed to work.

3. (Line 2, Para 6) It was that chill that only fear can put in you.

The clause “that only fear can put in you” is used to modify “that chill”, meaning it was the kind of chill you could only feel when you were frightened.

4. (Line 5, Para 7) She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Here, the author uses negation to emphasize that the lady was so grateful of Joe’s favor to her.

5. (Line 1, Para 11) She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home.

If you grab some food to eat, you manage to get some quickly and eat it. For example, “Let’s grab a bite to eat before we go.”“To take the chill off” here means “to get less cold” or “to get a bit warmer”. The phrase is usually followed by a noun /pronoun, “take the chill off something”, meaning “to make something slightly less cold” .

6. (Line 4, Para 11) The cash register was like the telephone of an out of work actor — it didn’t ring much.

Here, the author uses a simile（明喻） to show that the café didn’t have many customers. Its business was not good.

Part V Language Points

1. community: n. a group of people living together or united by shared interests, religion, etc. 社区，社会，团体

e.g. He’s well-known in the local community.

The local community may depend on the groundwater as a source of drinking water.

2. rage: vi. (on) to continue with great violence or strong emotions 肆虐，猖獗，激烈持续

e.g. The storm raged outside.

The kid was frightened when a thunderstorm was raging on and the light was flashing.

3. chill: n. a feeling of cold 寒冷

e.g. There was a chill in the air this morning. Although September brought a chill in the air,

the job search definitely heated up in this month.

4. hit home: to cause you to fully realize how unpleasant or difficult something is 打中目标，击中要害

e.g. He never has to make a long speech to convince others; his impressive words often hit home.

His criticism really hit home.

5. flurry: n. a sudden sharp rush of wing or rain or light fall of snow 阵风，阵雨，小雪

e.g. Even warm areas may on some rare occasion experience a snow flurry.

A light flurry may not stop them from having a picnic in the park.

6. stranded: adj. in a very unfavorable position or situation, esp. alone （尤指孤独无援时）处于困境的，一筹莫展的

e.g. Most of those interviewed said they would rather have a computer than a telephone

were they to be stranded on a desert island.

Whom you’d like to call first if you were stranded?

7. dim: adj. not giving or having much light 微弱的，模糊的

e.g. The lamp gave out a dim light.

We could see a dim shape in the fog.

8. pull up: to stop a vehicle that you are driving 停止

e.g. I pulled up in front of the house to check what was going on there.

9. approach: v. to come near or nearer (to) in space, time, quality, or quantity 向…靠近

e.g. Have you ever come up with any plan when the summer vacation is approaching?

You could also approach the office staff for the necessary information.

10. depressing: adj. causing sadness or discouragement 使忧伤的，令人沮丧的

e.g. All this may seem rather depressing and hopeless, but the city has some reasons for optimism if the resources are provided.

The realization that little has changed over the past 100 years can be quite depressing.

11. twilight: n. the time when day is about to become night; the faint darkish light in the sky during this time 黄昏，暮色

e.g. We stayed outside till twilight.

Almost half of pedestrian injuries at intersections with pedestrian crossings occur in darkness or twilight.

12. grab: v. to eat quickly or sleep for a short time 抢先抓紧，赶紧（吃东西或睡觉）

e.g. Don’t worry, we still have time to grab a bit to eat before the movie.

I’ll grab a sandwich back at the hotel.

13. dingy: adj. (of things and places) dirty and dull or dark in colour 肮脏的，昏暗的

e.g. The building is in a very dingy, industrialised part of the region far away from the city centre.

That quilt is old and dingy now, but I’ll keep it forever because it means something to me — culturally.

14. be on one’s feet standing or walking for a long time without having time to sit down 站立

e.g. She does not like to be a waitress as waitresses have to be on their feet all day long.

15. strain: n. a state in which one is greatly troubled by anxieties and difficulties 极度紧张，负担，压力

e.g. Younger individuals face less strain and responsibility because parents tend to

provide for their needs and wants.

At the time, the couple were both under a lot of strain.

Part VI Practice

A.Translation skills

1. Work, in this small Midwestern community, was almost as slow as his beat-up Pontiac, but he never quit looking.在中西部这个小社区，工作清淡得几乎就像他那辆破旧的庞蒂亚克车慢悠悠的，可是他从没放弃过寻找。

译文中 in this small Midwestern community 放在句首。原句把工作与他那辆车相比较，虽然都是 slow ，但采用了不同的汉语词语：“清淡”、“慢悠悠的”，并在译文中增补了一些词语。

2. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.

她已经想过了所有一切可能发生的可怕事情，假如他要是没有停下车的话。

原文 all the awful things that could have happened在 all后是一个定语从句，在译文中处理为前置的定语。

3. Joe never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him.

乔从没仔细考虑过钱的问题，因为这对他来说并不是干活。

原文是两句，在译文中处理为一个句子。

4. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home.

她进去赶着吃口东西，暖暖身，然后再开完回家的最后一段路程。

原文中含有一个 before引导的时间状语从句，按照汉语的表达习惯处理成“然后再”。

B. Writing techniques

Topic sentence writing A paragraph of an expository essay is usually

supposed to treat one aspect or one idea. The sentence which states the central idea or the focus of the paragraph is called topic sentence.A well-written topic sentence serves two functions. First, it provides the author a way to stay focused on his or her objective. In other words, it affords paragraph unity. Second, it provides the readers the tools to clearly understand what the author is talking about.

Components of the topic sentence

A topic sentence is made up of two parts: a topic and a controlling idea.

e.g. 1) People can avoid burglaries by taking certain precautions.Topic: avoid burglariesControlling idea: by taking certain precautions2)There are several advantages of growing up in a small town.Topic: growing up in a small townControlling idea: several advantages

Topic sentence positioning In general, the topic sentence is placed at the beginning, at the ending and in the middle of the paragraph. Since the topic sentence deals with the paragraph's idea or focus, it is sensible to tell readers what the paragraph is intended to discuss at the very beginning and to follow it with supporting sentences. In this way, the reader can more easily identify the central point that the writer is making. But the position of the topic sentence is never prescriptive, and writers need to be flexible about where to place the topic sentence. In narrative writing, there are usually no topic sentences. The following paragraph is a paragraph with topic sentence at the end:

Every moment of the day the world bombards the human speaker with information and experiences. It clamors for his attention, claws his senses, intrudes into his thoughts. Only a very small portion of this total experience is language yet the speaker must use this small portion to report on all the experiences that exist or ever existed in the totality of the world since time began. Try to think about the stars, a grasshopper, love or hate, pain, anything at all and it must be done in terms of language. There is no other way; thinking is language spoken to oneself. Until language has made sense of experience, that experience is meaningless.

C. Assignment

1. Oral Practice: Suppose you were Joe. You saw the old lady standing out in the cold and you offered to help her. Try to use as many expressions you have learned from the text as possible. You may begin like this:Joe: I’m here to help you ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Joe.

2. Questions for Text B:1) When the author says “great moments

often catch us unaware—beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one”, what does he mean? Illustrate his point with one or two examples.

2) What does the author intend to tell us by this story?

The End