I. Write short notes on: Anna Karenina and Leo Tolstoy.
Ⅱ.Questions on content:
1. Why did the writer leave America?
2. What does the writer mean when he says he found himself to be as American as any Texas G. I. ? Why was he astonished at this?
3. Why did the writer go to Switzerland? How did Bessie Smith help him?
4. How did Europe help him?
5. What does the writer say about "social status" in Europe and America?
6. How does he discover "what it means to be an American?"
7. What does the term "America" mean to Baldwin?
8. What, according to Baldwin, is the task of American writers?
Ⅲ. Questions on appreciation:
1. What is the central thesis? Where is it stated?
2. Is the thesis fully developed? What, according to the writer, does it mean to be an American?
3. Is the title of the essay well chosen? Could you suggest a more fitting title? Give your reasons.
4. Comment on the first sentence of the essay. Is it an effective way of beginning this essay? Give your reasons.
5. In para 2 the writer states: "I wanted to find out in what way the specialness of my experience could be made to connect me with other people instead of dividing me from them." Did he succeed in his quest? What were some of the things he found he had in common with others?
6. What is the paradox mentioned in para 13? How does the writer explain this paradox?
Ⅳ. Paraphrase:
1. It is a complex fate to be an American (para 1)
2. they were no more at home Europe than I was (para 3)
3. We were both searching for our separate identities (para 4)
4. I do not think that I could have made this reconciliation here. (para 8)
5. Europe can be very crippling too (para 9)
6. it is easier to cut across social and occupational lines there than it is here (para 13)
7. A man can be as proud of being a good waiter as of being a good actor, and in neither case feel threatened. (para 14)
8. I was born in New York, but have lived only in pockets of it. (para 17)
9. This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable. (para 18)
10. On this acceptance, literally, the life of a writer depends. (para 22)
11. American writers do not have a fixed society to describ (para 25)
12. Every society is really governed by hidden laws, by unsp ken but profound assumptions on the part of the people (para 27)
Ⅴ. Translate paras 27-29 into Chinese.
Ⅵ. look up the dictionary and explain the meaning of the italiccized words:
1. we were both searching for our separate identities (para 4)
2. she helped to reconcile me to being a "nigger" (para 7)
3. for Europe can be very crippling too (para 9)
4. of intellectual activity, of letters ~ and his choice of a vocation (para 11)
5. that myth of America to which we cling so desperately (para 12)
6. though American society is more mobile than Europe 's (para 13)
7. It was borne in on me (para 16)
8. but have lived only in pockets of it (para 17)
9. he passes a car6 terrace (para 20)
10.the book is more likely to be a symptom of our tension ( para 26)
Ⅶ.Look up the following loan words in the dictionary. Find out from what languages they are borrowed and explain them in simple English:
Model: café(French): a coffeehouse
1. sputnik 11. solo
2. blitz 12. saut6
3. de jure 13. soir6e
4. de facto 14. litchi (lichee)
5. panzer 15. shah
6. coolie 16. kolkhoz
7. hara-kiri 17. apartheid
8. judo 18. poncho
9. avant-garde 19. strafe
10. discotheque 20. ersatz
Ⅷ.Make sentences with the following words, showing the differences between the synonyms:
1. complex, complicated
2. delusion, illusion
3. intellectual, intelligent, clever
4. probable, likely, possible
Ⅸ.Replace the italicized words with simple, everyday words or expressions:
1. and the principal discovery an American writer makes in Europe ( )
2. not even we motley millions who call ourselves Americans ( )
3. by the time we confronted each other on European soil ( )
4. suffered a species of breakdown and was carried off ( )
5. for the artist does not encounter in Europe the same suspicion he encounters here ( )
6. and it did not make me feel melancholy ( )
7. the day to which his entire sojourn has been tending ( )
8. but nothing will efface his origins ( )
9. because Tolstoy was able to fathom, and make us see, the hidden laws ( )
10.He needs sustenance for his journey and the best models he can find. ( )
11. Europe has what we do not have yet, a sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life ( )
Ⅹ. Explain the meaning of the following sentences in plain, nonfigurative language:
1.When it did, I like many a writer before me upon the discovery that his props have all been knocked out from under him, suffered a species of breakdown and was carried off to the mountains of Switzerland.
2.a writer, when he has made his first breakthrough, has simply won a crucial skirmish in a dangerous, unending and unpredictable battle. It is not until he is released from the habit of flexing his muscles and proving that he is just a "regular guy" that he realizes how crippling this habit has been.
4. An American writer fights his way to one of the lowest rungs on the American social ladder by means of pure bullheadedness and indescribable series of odd jobs.
5. He probably has been a "regular fellow" for much of his adult life, and it is not easy for him to step out of that lukewarm bath.
6. It is as though he suddenly came out of a dark tunnel and found himself beneath the open sky.
7. He needs sustenance for his journey and the best models he can find.
8. In this endeavor to wed the vision of the Old World with that of the New, it is the writer, not the statesman, who is our strongest arm.
Ⅵ.Read the following paragraphs and explain the method of de velopment:
1.An overdressed woman is like a circus horse. Just as the circus horse is bedecked with gaudy plumes and fine trappings, so the overdressed woman turns herself out in flashy furs ant tight, shiny dresses. The circus horse is dressed for a performance. In the same way, an overdressed woman intends to display her "beauty" and to dazzle and delight all her spectators. But, just as the circus horse entertains by its novelty, so the overdressed woman amuses the people who watch her -- not by her loveliness or her grace but by her burlesque of real beauty.
2.Both bees and ants demonstrate how insects live in large highly organized colonies. The homes of either of these insects contain separate rooms designed for special purposes whether they be to store food or raise the offspring. Both have queens that have no other task but that of laying eggs. The chief work of the drone bee, like that of the male ant, is to mate with the young queens and then to die soon after mating. The workers of both colonies do all the work, securing food, feeding their queen, and keeping the living quarters clean. From the time each bee or ant is hatched, it seems to know whether it is a worker or a queen and for which task it is responsible: hunting, maintaining order, or nursing the young.
3. Despite centuries of change, human beings still retain many traits of their primitive ancestors. Primitives fought lifelong battles with neighboring tribes. Today, nations are unable or unwilling to avoid wars to resolve conflicts. Primitives proved themselves through their powers as hunters and providers. Today, men and women gain the same kind of recognition by displaying wealth, business acumen, and technological achievements. Primitives feared death and other mysterious happenings; they turned to myths and legends for their answers. People still explain the unknown by resorting to astrology or to a variety of mystics for their answers to life. Really, have we progressed so far from our primitive ancestors during the centuries separating us? Do we now have greater possibility of happiness than they did?
Ⅶ.Topics for oral work:
1.Are Negroes still discriminated against in the United States today? Cite examples.
2. Are there any racial problems in China? Cite examples.
Ⅷ.Write a short composition on:
China's Youth Marches on
The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American 课后习题/EXERCISES 12
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