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 t
6、eaching 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 t
7、he 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 wo
8、rk 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 sk
10、ills 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
11、 ringer 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
12、writer 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, espec
13、ially 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
14、writer 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 inte
15、rested 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 under
16、stand such 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
17、more than 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
18、 question 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 y
19、ears ago 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 ma
20、nage her 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 themsel
21、ves feeling 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 atta
22、cking 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
23、human 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
24、world? 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.Becausethepolewassetat17feetwhichwasthreeincheshigherthanhis personal best. 2. Because pole-vaulting combines the grace of a gymnast with the strengt
25、h 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 free dreamin
26、g 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 best by three in
27、ches. 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 him associate h
28、is 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 hiswifeandcriedlikeababyinherarms.12.Becausehewasblind.Unit61. Theylikedgirlytoyssuchasaminiaturekitchen,andB
29、arbies.2.Toconvertagas-guzzlingSUVintoahybridelectricvehicle.3.Becauseshedidntknowanythingaboutcarsandwasafraidofbeingcheatedbythemechanic.4.Shewascravingindependenceandwantedtoliveawayfromhomeforsometime.5.Ithelpedherearnsixengineeringcredits,whichofcoursemadeiteasierforhertobecomeanengineeringmajo
30、r.6.Fiveyears.7.Inherview,ifyoufindasubjectisdifficulttolearn,itdoesnotmeanyourenotgoodatit.Itjustmeansyouhavetosetyourmindandworkhardertogetgoodatit.8.Becausehehadconfidenceinherabilitiesbelievingshecouldhave donebetterifshehadstudiedmore.9.No,shewasntalwaysconfident.Shehadmomentsofpanic,worriedtha
31、tasawomanshewouldbeunabletounderstandthermodynamics.10.Sheconsidersitwrongbecauseitisbasedonafaultypremise.11.Itisflexibleandmorepowerfulthanweimagine.12.Whatshemeansisnottoacceptothersopinionsblindlybuttouseonesownjudgment.Unit 71.Ithasborrowedandisstillborrowingmassivelyfromotherlanguages.Todayith
32、asanestimatedvocabularyofoveronemillionwords.2.Theydontlikeborrowingforeignwords.TheytrytobanwordsfromEnglish.3.OldEnglishorAnglo-SaxonEnglish.4.TheGermanictribesbroughtittotheBritishIslesinthe5thcentury.5.Theyareusuallyshortanddirect.6.TheyusewordsderivedfromOldEnglish.7.AnEnglishjudgeinIndianotice
33、dthatseveralwordsinSanskritcloselyresembledsomewordsinGreekandLatin.AsystematicstudylaterrevealedtheIndo-Europeanparentlanguage.8.Greek,Latin,Sanskrit,English,etc.9.TherewerethreelanguagescompetingforuseinEngland.10.WordsfromGreekandRomanclassicscameintotheEnglishlanguage.11.ThegreatprinciplesoffreedomandrightsofmanwereborninEngland,thentheAmericanscarriedthemforward.12.No.Englishisandhasalwaysbeenthetongueofthecommonpeople.Thereshouldnotbeanyfencearoundittoprotectitsso-calledpurity.
