1、Unit 11. What were the author and his wife doing in Nanjing in the spring of 1987？They were studying arts education in Chinese kindergartens and elementary schools in Nanjing.2. What was their son Benjamin fond of doing during their stay at the Jinling Hotel?Their 18-month-old son Benjamin was fond
2、of trying to place the key into the slot of the key box during their stay at the Jinling Hotel.3. How would Chinese staff members of the hotel respond to Benjamins attempt to place the key into the slot?They would come over to watch Benjami, and then try to teach him how to do it properly.4. Why did
3、 the author decide to work the key-slot anecdote into his discussions with Chinese educators?Because he realized that this anecdote was directly relevant to their assigned tasks in China: to investigate early childhood education and to throw light on Chinese attitudes toward creativity.5. What did h
4、is Chinese colleagues think of the key-slot incident?Most of them displayed the same attitude as the staff at the Jinling Hotel.6. What did the author emphasize in presenting his views about the incident?He emphasized that the most important thing is to teach the child that one can solve a problem e
5、ffectively by oneself.7. What does the author mean by saying this incident was key in more than one sense?He means that this incident pointed to important differences in educational and artistic practices between China and the USA.8. In what way does the author associate the key-slot incident with “
6、teaching by holding his hand“?The manner in which the Chinese staff saw the need to teach the child by guiding his hand is characteristic of a broader attitude to education, one that stands in contrast to the Western preference for leaving the child to explore and learn unaided.9. What examples does
7、 the author give to illustrate childhood education in the arts in China?One example is of children at the age of 5 or 6 painting flowers, fish and animals skillfully and confidently; in a second example, calligraphers 9 and t 0 years old are producing excellent works; and in a third, young artists w
8、ork on perfecting their: craft for several hours a day.10. How do Americans and Chinese differ in their attitudes to creativity?Americans think that unless creativity has been acquired early, it may never emerge, and skills can be picked up later. Chinese think that if skills are not acquired early,
9、 they may never be acquired, and there is no hurry to promote creativity.11. What makes them take different positions on the question of creativity?This is mainly due to the difference in their way of thinking. 12. What suggestion does the author make about seeking a better approach to fostering ski
10、lls and creativity?The author makes the suggestion that we should strike a better balance between the poles of creativity and basic skills.Unit21. What is the Salvation Army? What does a Salvation Army bell ringer do?The Salvation Army is a religious charitable organization. A Salvation Army bell ri
11、nger is a volunteer who helps it collect donations.2. What did the boy ask the writer? What do you think made him raise such a question?The boy asked him: Are you poor? He did it simply out of confusion and curiosity. Obviously he knew nothing about the Salvation Army bell ringer.3. How did the writ
12、er answer? What does the writers answer to the boys question mean?He said, “I have more than some people, but not as much as others.“ This means that he was neither poor nor rich.4. Why did the boys mother scold him?The boys mother scolded him because the question was socially inappropriate, especia
13、lly to a person who looked poor.5. Is the writer poor or not in terms of material possessions? Give facts to support your conclusion.Hs, economically he is poor. He lives in a small basement apartment. He doesnt even have a color TV. He falls into the lowest income category And so on.6. Does the wri
14、ter feel poor? Why or why not?No, the writer does not feel poor. This is because he has enjoyed good health and creativity which he thinks are much more important than material goods.7. In what situation does the writer feel out of place?He feels out of place among people who ate primarily intereste
15、d in material things.8. What did the girl tell him before her visit to his basement apartment? And what happened after?She told him that she was interested in whats on the inside. But after he Wok her to his poorly furnished apartment, she changed her mind completely.9. How ought one to understand s
16、uch “a seemingly abrupt change in her priorities“?It only shows that to her the most important thing was still material goods rather than what she had claimed before.10. Can we infer from the essay what role commercials can play in society?Commercials can put people under pressure to purchase more t
17、han is really necessary.11. Why does the writer say “December is the time of year I feel wealthiest“?Because December is the time for him to work for the Salvation Army as a bell ringer, which gives him a genuine sense of belonging and brings him happiness in helping others.12. How has the boys ques
18、tion affected the writer?The boys question has helped the writer realize that, despite his lack of expensive possessions, he is rich in many other ways and should be thankful for that.Unit41. What did the author do three years ago and what is she doing now?She was a television producer three years a
19、go and now she works as a telecommuter.2. How does the author work nowadays?She submits articles and edits them via emails and communicates with colleagues on Internet mailing lists.3. How does the author manage her daily life?She could almost do anything on the net: she can order food, and manage h
20、er money, love and work.4. What are the symptoms shared by people who live a virtual life?They are separated from the real world and dont like to communicate with people face to face.5. What is the Net critics worst nightmare?The situation in which people who are hooked on the net find themselves fe
21、eling an aversion to outside forms of socializing.6. How does the author behave when she is suddenly confronted with real live humans?She gets overexcited and speaks too much and interrupts.7. How does the author behave on line? Why?She is bad-tempered and easily angered and finds herself attacking
22、everyone in sight.8. How does virtual life affect her relationship with her boyfriends?She often misinterprets his boy friends intensions because of the lack of emotional cues given by their typed dialogue, which leads to a quarrel.9. According to the author, why are co-workers important to a human
23、being?Because a human being relied on co-workers for company.10. What does the author do to restore balance to her life?She forced herself back to the world: she arranges anything to get her out of the house and connected with others.11. Does the author feel happy when she returns to the real world?
24、 Why or why not?No, because she finds being face to face sometimes unbearable.12. What does she do then?She returned to the virtual world.Unit51. Because the pole was set at 17 feet which was three inches higher than his personal best. 2. Because pole-vaulting combines the grace of a gymnast with th
25、e strength of a body builder. 3. His childhood dream was to fly. His mother read him numerous stories about flying when he was growing up. 4. Because he believed in hard work and sweat. His motto: If you want something, work for it! 5. Michaels mother wished he could relax a bit more and be that “fr
26、ee dreaming“ little boy. On one occasion she attempted to talk to him and his father about this, but his dad quickly interrupted, smiled and said, “You want something, work for it!“ 6. He began a very careful training program. 7. He seemed unaware of the fact that he had just beaten his personal bes
27、t by three inches. He was very calm. 8. He began to feel nervous when the bar was set at nine inches higher than his personal best. 9. What his mother had taught him about how to deal with tension or anxiety helped him overcome his nervousness. 10. The singing of some distant birds in flight made hi
28、m associate his final jump with his childhood dream. 11. He could imagine the smile on his mothers face. He thought his father was probably smiling too, even laughing. However, in fact, his father hugged his wife and cried like a baby in her arms. 12. Because he was blind. Unit61. They liked girly t
29、oys such as a miniature kitchen, and Barbies. 2. To convert a gas-guzzling SUV into a hybrid electric vehicle. 3. Because she didnt know anything about cars and was afraid of being cheated by the mechanic. 4. She was craving independence and wanted to live away from home for some time. 5. It helped
30、her earn six engineering credits, which of course made it easier for her to become an engineering major.6. Five years. 7. In her view, if you find a subject is difficult to learn, it does not mean youre not good at it. It just means you have to set your mind and workharder to get good at it. 8. Beca
31、use he had confidence in her abilities believing she could have done better if she had studied more. 9. No, she wasnt always confident. She had moments of panic, worried that as a woman she would be unable to understand thermodynamics. 10. She considers it wrong because it is based on a faulty premi
32、se. 11. It is flexible and more powerful than we imagine. 12. What she means is not to accept others opinions blindly but to use ones own judgment.Unit 71. It has borrowed and is still borrowing massively from other languages. Today it has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words. 2. They d
33、ont like borrowing foreign words. They try to ban words from English. 3. Old English or Anglo-Saxon English. 4. The Germanic tribes brought it to the British Isles in the 5th century. 5. They are usually short and direct. 6. They use words derived from Old English. 7. An English judge in India notic
34、ed that several words in Sanskrit closelyresembled some words in Greek and Latin. A systematic study later revealed the Indo-European parent language. 8. Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, English, etc. 9. There were three languages competing for use in England.10. Words from Greek and Roman classics came into the English language. 11. The great principles of freedom and rights of man were born in England, then the Americans carried them forward. 12. No. English is and has always been the tongue of the common people.There should not be any fence around it to protect its so-called purity.
