Ⅰ.
1. Anna Karenina: a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of world literature. It was first published from 1875 to 1877 as a serial in the Russki Vestnik (Russian Messenger). The first complete English translation appeared in 1899.
Anna Karenina contains two main narrative lines. The major story deals with the unhappy marriage of Anna and Aleksei Karenin and with Anna's tragic affair with Count Vronsky. The unhappy domestic life of Anna's brother, Prince Stepan Oblonsky, serves to echo Anna's predicament. In contrast, Tolstoy presents the second plot, dealing with the relationship between Kitty Shchesbatskaya and Konstantin Levin, who marry and pursue lives of homely "family happiness". In his examination of these two different stories, Tolstoy creates a muhitude of episodes of high life in Moscow and St. Peter burg and of country life in the district of Korazinsky. Tolstoy also contrasts the shallowness of Karenin, a public official who moves in a corrupt society, and the serious dedication of the idealistic landowner Levin.
Tolstoy undoubtedly depicted his own nature in the personality of Levin, using this character to voice his observations on philosophy, agronomy, and religion. There is no doubt that Tolstoy drew many of the details of the novel from his own experiences, and the characterizations from his keenstudy of his relatives and friends. Thus he painted from real life the gambling scenes, the horse racing, the death of Levin' s disreputable brother, the hunting episodes, and the quaint naivete of the peasantry.
Although the novel is distinguished for its fine evocation of the old order in Russia, its greatest strength lies in its brilliant characterizations. In his heroine Anna -- a woman of sensitivity and honesty, who also possesses fears and weaknesses -- Tolstoy has drawn one of the most unforgetable characters in all the fiction. All of the major characters, as well as many of lesser importance, are delineated with equal precision. Despite some careless- ness in style and occasional incongruities, Anna Karenina is a masterwork of both social history and fiction.
2. Tolstoy. Count Leo Tolstoy (Russian name Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 1828--1910) is a Russian novelist and philosopher, and is considered one of the world's greatest writers. Of a noble family, he was born in Yasnaya Polyana, his parents restate near Tula. Orphaned at nine, he was brought up by his aunts and privately tutored. At 16 he was sent to the University of Kazan, at which he studied languages and law. His classes bored him and he left without a degree. He returned to his estate in 1849 and made several abortive attempts to aid and educate the serfs there. Tolstoy then began a profligate life in Moscow and St. Peterburg. In 1851 he followed his brother into army service in the Caucasus, where he wrote Childhood (1852). This became the first part of an autobiographical trilogy, which includes Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1857). In 1854 he took part in the defense of Sevastopol, descriptions of which were published in Nekrasov' s journal, the Contemporary, attracting considerable attention for their unvarnished picture of war. He left army service in 1855 and for several years divided his time between his estate and the literary circles of St. Peterburg. His diary of the period reveals his intense dissatisfaction with his libertine existence. He set up a school for peasant children on his estate, emphasizing a spontaneous approach to learning. When his school proved 'impractical, he visited Western Europe and there began to question the bases of modern civilization. In 1862. Tolstoy married Sophia Ardreyevna Bers, a young, well-educated girl who bore him 13 children. His candor concernmg his infidelities and his harsh conception of her wifely duties contributed to the instability of their marrage. During the time he wrote The Cossacks (1863) and his masterpieces War and Peace(1862 1869) and Anna Kareni~za (1873- 1876). War and Peace is a vast prose epic of the Napoleonic invasion of 1812. It illustrates Tolstoy' s view of history as proceeding inexorably to its own ends. a view in which mankind appears as an accidental instrument. This thesis is conveyed by a stream of brilliantly conceived character sand incidents. Anna Karenina, his most popular work, concerns the tragedy of a woman's faith in romantic love. About 1876 the doubts that had beset Tolstoy since youth, fed by his Puritan temperament in conflict with his sensuality gathered force. The result of his painful self-examination was his conversion to the doctrine of Christian love and acceptance of the principle of nonresistance to evil. The steps in his conversion are set forth in his Confession (1897). For the rest of his life Tolstoy dedicated himself to the practice and propagation of his new faith, which he expounded in a series of works, among them A Short Exposition of the Gospels (1881), What I Believe in (1882), What Then Must We Do? (1886), and The Law of Love and the Law of Violence (1908). Tolstoy' s insistence on putting his beliefs into practice and abandoning all earthly goods led to a permanent breach between himself and his wife. His children, with the exception of the youngest daughter, Alexandra, sided with their mother. In 1910, at 83, Tolstoy left home with Alexandra without a specific destination. He caught a chill and died at the railroad stationmaster' s house at Astapovo
Ⅱ.
1. He left America because he was afraid he might not be able to survive the fury of the color problem there. He wanted to prevent himself from becoming merely a Negro or even just a Negro writer. And he also wanted to find out how his special experience as a Negro could help to connect him with other people instead of dividing him from them.
2. He found himself to be as patriotic as the most patriotic Americans. He was. discriminated against and persecuted in America so he was very eager to leave it. But when he left it he was surprised to find that he loved America as much as any other white Americans.
3. He suffered a kind of nervous breakdown in Europe when he found many of his preconceptions and beliefs to be false and ungrounded. He went to Switzerland to recuperate from his breakdown. Bessie Smith through her beautiful singing of Negro folk music helped him remember and accept his Negro origins.
4. Europe helped to reconcile him to being a Negro. In Europe he realized that he loved America just as any white American did. He found that the origins of the black and white Americans were not so important as the fact that they were both searching for their separate identities. He also realized that Europe had formed both the black and the white Americans and this fact was part of their identity and inheritance. Finally he realized the responsibility of his development rested in his own hands.
5. Europeans have lived with the idea of social status for a long time. European society has always been divided into classes, so people there accept the idea of status very easily and naturally. Whereas in America, a mobile society, a kind of social paranoia exists, because no one is certain what his status in society is. In America everyone thinks he has status and at the same time everyone becomes un- easy as to just what his status is.
6. His contact with people from every station in life and the free uninhibited interchange of views with all types of people helped him to discover "what it means to be an American'. This may happen on the day when an Algerian taxi- driver tells him how it feels to be an Algerian in Paris, or on the day when he catches a glimpse of the tense, intelligent and troubled face of Albert Camus, or on the day when someone asks him to explain Little Rock.
7. In Baldwin's eyes America is a mobile society in which nothing is fixed and in which the individual must fight for his identity. There is rich confusion and tension in American life but America is also a land of unprecedented oppor- tunities and unlimited possibilities
8. American writers should find out the hidden laws and profound assumptions on the part f the people that govern American society . American writers should also try to unite the old vision of Europe and the new vision of America.
Ⅲ.
1. The central thesis of this exposition is the discovery of what it means to be an American, expressed by the title of the essay.
2. No. The thesis doesn’t seem to have been fully developed, for Baldwin appears to be writing on three levels: 1)as an American, 2)as an American writer, and 3)as an American Negro writer. Baldwin discovers in Europe that the American is different from the European and that it is a complex fate to be an American. He also discovers that all Americans -- white or black -- loved their country and were not at home in Europe, that Americans knew more about each other than any European. ever could, and that Europe was part of their identity and part of their inheritance.
3. No. The title of the essay could have been "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American Writer" or "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American Negro Writer". Perhaps the most suitable title or thesis would have been "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American Negro".
4. Yes. The first sentence of this essay is a quotation. Beginning an essay with a quotation lends authority and force to what one intends to say. So, this apt and well-chosen quotation is very effective.
5. Yes, he did succeed. He found he loved America just as much as any other white American. He found that the origins of the black and the white Americans were not so important as the fact that they were searching for their separate identities. Finally he found that Europe had formed both the black and the white Americans, and this fact was part of their identity and inheritance.
6. The paradox is: though American society is more mobile than Europe' s, it is easier for different social and occupational groups to intermix in Europe than in America. It is difficult to intermix in America because everyone think he has status and yet no one is sure just what his status is. In Europe class lines are clear and everyone accepts naturally their social status, so intermixing without much friction is possible.
Ⅳ.
1. The fate of an American is complicated and hard to understand.
2. They were uneasy and uncomfortable in Europe as I was.
3. They were all trying to find their own special individualities.
4. I don't think I could have accepted in America my Negro status without feeling ashamed.
5. Europe can also have a very frustrating or disabling effect.
6. It is easier in Europe for people of different social groups and occupations to intermingle and have social intercourse.
7. In Europe a good waiter and a good actor are equally proud of their social status and position. They are not jealous of each other and do not live in fear of losing their position.
8. I was born in New York but have lived only in some small areas of the city.
9. The reconsideration of the significance and importance of many things that one had taken for granted in the past can be very painful, though very valuable.
10. The life of a writer really depends on his accepting the fact that no matter where he goes or what he does he will always carry the marks of his origins.
11. American writers live in a mobile society where nothing is fixed, so they do not have a fixed society to describe.
12. Every society is influenced and directed by hidden laws, and by many things deeply felt and taken for granted by the people, though not openly spoken about.
Ⅴ .See the translation of the text.
Ⅵ.
1. identity: the condition or fact of being a specific person or thing ; individuality
2. reconcile: induce (someone) to accept something disagreeable
3. cripple: frustrate, hinder; make unable or unfit to act, function effectively, etc.
4. letters : the profession of a writer vocation: any trade, profession or occupation
5. myth : any fictitous story, or unscientific account, theory, belief, etc.
6. mobile: designating or of a society in which one may advance in social status and in which social groups mingle freely
7. borne in on: (formal English) (of a person affected) made to realize
8. pocket: a small area or group of a specified type
9. terrace: an unroofed, paved area, immediately adjacent to a house, etc.
10, symptom: any circumstance, event, or condition that accompanies something and indicates its existence or occurrence ; sign ; indication
Ⅶ.
1. sputnik (Russian) : an artificial satellite of the earth
2. blitz (German): a sudden, destructive attack, as by air craft or tank
3. de jure (Latin): by right or legal establishment
4. de facto (Latin): existing or being such in actual fact though not by legal establishment
5．panzer(German)：armored
6．Coolie(Hindi)：an unskilled native laborer
7．hara—kiri(Japanese)：ritual suicide by disembowelment
8．judo(Japanese)：a form of Japanese wrestling developed as a sport and as a means of self—defense without the use of weapons
9．avant—garde(French)：the leaders in new 0f unconventional movements
10．discotheque(French)：a nightclub 0r other public place for dancing to recorded popular music
11．solo(Italian)：a musical piece or passage to be played or sung by one person，with or without accompaniment
12．saute(French)：fried(1uickly in a little fat
13．soire。e(French)：a party or gathering in the evening
14．1itchi(lichee)(Chinese)：a Chinese evergreen tree(litchi chinensis)or the fruit of this tree
15．shah(Persian)：a title of the ruler of Iran
16．kolkhoz(Russian)：a collective farm in the Soviet Union
17．apartheid(Afrikaans)：the policy of strict racial segregation and discrimination against the native Negroes and other colored peoples as practiced in South Africa
18．poncho(American Spanish)：a c10ak like a blanket with a hole i11 the middle for the head，worn in Spanish America．
19．strafe(German)：to attack with gunfire，especially to attack(ground positions，troops，etc．)with machine—gun “ire from lowflying aircraft
20．ersatz(German)：substitute or synthetic(the word usually suggests inferior quality)
Ⅷ．
1．complex指的是许多部分复杂地互相联系在一起。因而需要大量的知识和研究才能弄懂它，操纵它，如a complex mechanism. complicated则是指高度复杂的，以致很难分析、解 决和了解的，如“a complicated problem。
2．delusion隐含着一种与现实或事实相反的对某事的信念，它往往产生于一种蒙骗、误觉或者大脑神经不正常，如to have delusions of grandeur。illusion指的是一种错误的感觉，或 是对客观存在的一种错误的解析，如perspective in drawing gives the illusion of depth。
3．intellectual指的是在更高层的知识领域内的一种敏锐的集兴趣和能力于一体的机智，如the intellectual pursuits of scholars。intelligent隐含着一种从经验获得的学习和解析的能力，一种成功地处理新事物的能力，如an intelligent boy。clever强调的是在学习和理解过程中的一种快速，有 时隐含着一种缺乏广度和深度的意思，如a c，lever dog。
4．probable指的是有迹象显示是理所当然和合乎逻辑的，既未得到肯定，也没有得到证明的，如the probable cause of the disease。possible用以修饰那些虽然不大可能，但人们却可以预想其存在、出现或者完成的事物，如a possible solution to the problem。likely指的是某事物具有比possible更大的 可能性，但却没有probable的可信度高，如It is likely to rain.
Ⅸ．
1．major，most important 2．all kinds of；various 3．met face to face with 4．kind of 5．meet(unexpectedly)
6． sad；depressed 7．(a brief)visit or stay 8．wipe out：rub off 9．get to the bottom of 10．food；nourishment
11．inescapable
Ⅹ．
1．All the things he believed and had faith in．all the things that gave him strength and courage to live his life now proved to be misconceptions。to be wrong．
2．A writer，when he discovers his specific identity in Europe，has only just managed to make a breakthrough，to win a small though crucial encounter，in the dangerous and unending struggle whose outcome one cannot yet foresee．
3．displaying his strength to defend himself or to avoid being attacked
4. remains in one of the lowest professions in American society, the writing profession
5. to change his habit
6. An American writer in Europe loses his doubts and fears and suddenly realizes who he is and what he can do. It is like a man suddenly coming out of a dark tunnel to find himself beneath the open sky.
7. spiritual and intellectual nourishment to give him strength to carry on his work
8. In this attempt to unite the vision of Europe and that of America, it is the writer who can exert the strongest force and not the statesman.
Ⅺ.
1. This is a point by point analogy. For definition of analogy, see Lesson 11, Exercise ⅩⅢ.1.
2. The method of development used here is simultaneous comparison. Simultaneous comparison occurs when the writer states the points of similarity together. This type of development is used when you don't want to discuss the likeness in depth~ you therefore go over them in compact form.
3. The method of development used here is alternating comparison. Alternating comparison, as the name suggests, is achieved first by identifying a characteristic of one item in the comparison and following it immediately with a similar characteristic in the other item. This type of comparison is built up in layers, from first one subject, then the other. Alternating comparison is commonly used to stress points of similarity.
Ⅻ. Omitted.
ⅩⅢ.
China' s Youth March On
The Yellow River Bridge of the Beijing-Guangzhou Rail-way, 2,890 metres long, is the longest bridge with multitrack electrified railway in China. It is the first case to under-take electrifying construction on a bridge in the country. Requiring new techniques, involving difficult technology, heavy traffic, and a variety of unsafe factors, the engineering is not an easy job. In January, 1993, the young shock brigade of Xi'an Electrifying Company voluntarily applied for and solely contracted the project.
Thus, the competition began among the brigade members. To begin with, the shock group headed by Lin Yaomin erected the shock brigade flag in the construction site. They didn't go back to have the Spring Festival with their families. Instead, they continued their work in the cold weather of 10 C below zero. The group headed by Wei Chaozheng was so excited at this that they ate and slept in the site, working day and night. Meanwhile, the group headed by Jiang Baoli shouldered the task of transporting all the materials. Jiang even fainted out of overwork. It took the group over one month, to carry with hand and shoulder 350-ton of materials to the bridge. During the project, the whole brigade made every effort to solve technological problems. They even discovered the mistake committed by the designer and helped to improve the plan of structure adjustment.
Thanks to their hard work, at the end of September, 1995,the electrifying transformation of the Yellow River Bridge came to a satisfying close, which saved precious time for an early completion of the electrifying project along the whole Beijing-Guangzhou Railway.
The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American 习题答案/answer
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