发布时间 : 星期一 文章英语4课后习题答案及课文讲解翻译更新完毕开始阅读50968c9d49649b6648d74765
In the American game of baseball, the field of grass is diamond-shaped and has four bases (specific points
marked around the diamond), round which players must run to score points. One team bats (ie team
members take turns to hit the ball and run round the bases) and the members of the other team throw (pitch)
the ball and, when it is has been hit, try to catch it or get it quickly to one of the four bases. If a batting
player can hit the ball hard enough, he can run round all four bases before the other team can get the ball
and thus score maximum points – with a home run. In the passage, a really good book is a home run.
3 Choose the best answer to the questions.
1 Why are we like Alice in wonderland when we read a book? (a) Because, like Alice, we often have accidents. (b) Because reading makes us feel young again.
(c) Because reading opens the door to new experiences. (d) Because books lead us into a dream world.
2 According to the writer, what is the advantage of reading over real life? (a) There is more variety in books than in real life.
(b) We can experience variety and difference without going out of the house. (c) The people we meet in a book are more interesting than real people. (d) It‘s harder to make sense of real life than a book.
3 What do the seven novels listed in Paragraph 4 have in common? (a) Their titles stimulate imagination.
(b) They represent the best writing by British and American novelists. (c) They have become classics.
(d) You can find all of them in any local library.
4 At what moment in our lives do books become important? (a) As soon as we start reading.
(b) When we start buying books to fill our shelves at home. (c) When we start listening to bedtime stories. (d) Only when we are ready for books.
5 What claim did Merton make about the poems of William Blake? (a) They were similar to the works of the Greek writers and thinkers. (b) They helped him understand the meaning of life. (c) They created a sense of confusion.
(d) They taught him a lot about modern culture. 6 What is meant by a home-run book?
(a) A book which is so good you are unable to put it down. (b) A book that the whole family can enjoy.
(c) A children‘s book that is read and appreciated by adults.
(d) A book that hits hard like a home run in the game of baseball.
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Dealing with unfamiliar words
4 Match the words in the box with their definitions.
1 to make someone feel that they do not belong to your group (exclude) 2 to fail to do something that you should do (neglect) 3 to mention something as an example (cite)
4 to be strong enough not to be harmed or destroyed by something (withstand) 5 in most situations or cases (normally) 6 to be about to happen in the future (await)
5 Complete the paragraph with the correct form of the words in Activity 4.
When I lived in Britain, one of my favourite radio programmes was called ―Desert Island Discs‖. The
format was always the same: Guest celebrities were asked to imagine they had been washed ashore on a
desert island, and had to choose nine books – (1) excluding the Bible and Shakespeare, which they were
already provided with – to take with them to the island, to help them (2) withstand the physical and mental
isolation. I sometimes like to think which books I would take. (3) Normally, like most people, I don‘t
have much time for reading, and I could (4) cite dozens of books which I have never read but which I
would like to. It‘s an opportunity I have (5) awaited all my life, in fact. But what would I choose? Mostly
novels, probably, but I wouldn‘t (6) neglect to include a volume or two of poetry. My first choice, I think,
would be Tolstoy‘s War and Peace. I‘ve never read it, but I‘m ready to believe that it is one of the most
marvelous books ever written.
6 Replace the underlined words with the correct form of the words in the box. 1 In a good novel, the writer and reader communicate with each other. (interact) 2 I have to face up to the problem sooner or later. (confront) 3 I read the book in one sitting and Mary did too. (likewise)
4 E. M. Forster was one of the most important and respected British novelists of the 20th century. (influential)
5 Do you believe that a work of literature can actually lead to social changes? (induce)
6 Robert Burns was a great poet who wrote in the language variety spoken in Scotland. (dialect) 7 The Time Traveller’s Wife is the story of a man who has a strange and inexplicable genetic disorder. (mysterious)
7 Answer the questions about the words.
1 If you have had a disconcerting experience, do you feel a bit (a) tired, or (b) confused? 2 If you have a vista of something, can you (a) see or imagine it, or (b) go and visit it? 3 Would you express great wrath by (a) smiling at someone, or (b) shouting at them? 4 If you feel enchanted by a book, do you (a) like it a lot, or (b) not like it at all?
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5 Is a writer who is supremely talented (a) very good, or (b) quite good at his job?
6 If reading fosters an understanding of certain problems, does it (a) help understanding, or (b) prevent it?
7 If you are desperately trying to get a job, are you (a) trying very hard to get it, or (b) caring little whether you get it or not?
8 Is a sensation (a) a certainty, or (b) just a feeling? Reading and interpreting
8 Check () the writer?s main purpose in writing the passage. 1 To show the reader how to read fiction.
2 To suggest that fiction is more powerful than non-fiction.
√ 3 To persuade the reader that reading can be a life-changing experience. 4 To claim that books provide the meaning to life. 5 To recommend some major novels to read.
9 Work in pairs. Look at the statements from the passage and discuss the questions. 1 … when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. Do you agree with this statement? Is this true of every book?
I agree with this up to a point, but it is not true of every book because with some books you may already be very familiar with the world of those particular books so although you might read them, they
wouldn‘t take you to a new world.
2 We’ll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly
unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from.
How can reading be a ―painful‖ experience? In what sense does reading ―liberate‖ us from the real world?
It is easy to imagine how reading could be a painful experience for some people: It depends on the book
and on the reader‘s background and personality. For instance, I can see that a story about bullying, might
be painful to read if you were bullied when you were a child – it would remind you of the experience of being hurt.
Reading can liberate us because in books we can have all sorts of wonderful and interesting experiences
which would be impossible for us in the real world: we can travel to distant places or go anywhere in
time, we can meet all sorts of people we probably wouldn‘t meet anywhere else except in books. 3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us
with an opportunity to grow.
How does this idea contrast with the title of the passage? In what way can a book help us ―grow‖? The word ―Danger‖ in the title contrasts with this idea that reading is a safe experience. However, this is not a contradiction because experiences that would be dangerous in real life are quite safe when we read about them in books. The author seems to think that we grow in our minds with a
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better understanding and enriched imagination when we meet a wide variety of people and different
situations in books. This vicarious experience in reading is a safe way to grow mentally and emotionally.
4 To interact with other people’s lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only
reading fiction can afford us.
Do you agree? Is fiction really different from other types of writing?
Well, I think this is true because in fiction we do interact with the characters, both positively (with characters we can identify with) and negatively (with characters we do not like or admire). But this doesn‘t mean that we don‘t interact with the writer in non-fiction. Surely all of us have the experience of feeling that we do interact with writers in newspaper or magazine articles and in some kinds of non-fiction which may be about science, for example. I suppose it depends on the style of the writing and on the personality of the writer (and of characters in fiction) and on us, as readers.
5 We even understand … that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than
we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors.
This suggests that people who read are different from people who don‘t read. Do you agree?
Well, I am not sure. I guess that people who read similar books, fiction or non-fiction, would share some
common knowledge, experience and maybe feelings and they would probably talk about these when
they know about each other‘s reading habits. Of course, they wouldn‘t necessarily have other things in
common, just this particular connection with a certain kind of culture through reading. Maybe people in
the street do not have to share this reading experience, so in that respect they are different, but they may
be quite similar and share many cultural experiences in other ways – after all they live in the same place,
probably speak the same language. So, I think it‘s all a question of what sort of common experiences
you are talking about. The more I think about it, the less I agree!
6 From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with
books in our adult homes, books define our lives. What do you understand by ―books define our lives‖?
I suppose they would be those books – not many, surely? – which have made a great impact and remain
so strong in our memories that do have a function of defining something in our lives. However, I think
the author has exaggerated here. Books are not the only things that define our lives. People, places and special events define our lives too, so books are only one part which for some people have a
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