综合教程第二版4-Unit 4

UNIT 4 A VIEW OF MOUNTAINS

Section One Pre-reading Activities .................................................................................................... 2

I. Audiovisual supplement ......................................................................................................... 2

II. Cultural Background .............................................................................................................. 2

Section Two Global Reading .............................................................................................................. 4

I. General analysis of the text .................................................................................................... 4

II. Structural analysis of the text................................................................................................ 4

III. Rhetorical features of the text ............................................................................................. 4

Section Three Detailed Reading ........................................................................................................ 6

I. Questions ............................................................................................................................... 7

II. Words and Expressions ......................................................................................................... 8

III. Sentences ........................................................................................................................... 11

Section Four Consolidation Activities .............................................................................................. 13

I. Vocabulary ............................................................................................................................ 13

II. Grammar ............................................................................................................................. 15

III. Translation .......................................................................................................................... 17

IV. Exercises for Integrated Skills ............................................................................................. 19

V. Oral Activities ...................................................................................................................... 20

VI. Writing ............................................................................................................................... 20

Section Five Further Enhancement ................................................................................................. 23

I. Text II .................................................................................................................................... 23

II. Memorable quotes .............................................................................................................. 27

Section One Pre-reading Activities

I. Audiovisual supplement

From On Native Soil

Watch the movie clip and answer the following questions.

Questions for discussion

1. Why did Sally Regenhard say that 9/11 was “a shattering of faith”?

Answer: She believed in the system, and now that the system was shattered by the terrorist activity, so she thought the event is faith-shattering.

2. Why did Carol Ashley think that there must be an investigation?

Answer: 3000 people were killed. And the surviving family members had very right to know the truth about the 9/11. So there needed to be an investigation.

3. What do you know about the 9/11 attacks and what influences have the events exert? (Open)

Script:

Policeman: Move back! Move back!

Policeman: Move it! Go back!

Eunice Hanson: I knew we had enemies, naturally, but I always felt pretty safe here. I never, never,

in a million years dreamed that anything like this could happen to us.

Sally Regenhard: We believed in the system and you know, 9/11 was a shattering of faith.

Carol Ashley: 3000 people were killed. It was a mass murder. And there needed to be an

investigation.

Max Cleland: The surviving family members, nobody can deny that they had the ultimate claim to

the truth about 9/11.

II. Cultural Background

1. Atomic Bomb

Atomic bomb or A-bomb is a weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei.

The first atomic bomb was produced at a laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and successfully tested on July 16, 1945. This was the culmination of a large U.S. army program that was part of the Manhattan Project. It began in 1940, two years after the German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission.

On Aug. 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima with an estimated equivalent explosive force of 12,500 tons of TNT, followed three days later by a second, more powerful, bomb on Nagasaki. Both bombs caused widespread death, injury, and destruction, and there is still considerable debate about the need to have used them.

2. Nuclear Weapon

Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction powered by atomic, rather than chemical, processes. Nuclear weapons produce large explosions and hazardous radioactive byproducts by

means of either nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. After World War II, the proliferation of nuclear weapons became an increasing cause of concern throughout the world. At the end of the 20th century the vast majority of such weapons were held by the United States and the former Soviet Union; other countries that possess known nuclear capabilities are the Great Britain, France, China, Pakistan, and India. Israel also has nuclear weapons but has not confirmed that fact publicly; North Korea has conducted a nuclear test explosion but probably does not have a readily deliverable nuclear weapon; and South Africa formerly had a small arsenal. Over a dozen other countries can, or soon could, make nuclear weapons.

3. The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb attack occurred over Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, on August 9, Nagasaki, Japan was bombed. The bombing of Nagasaki was the last major act of World War II and within days, on August 15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered.

In estimating the death toll from the attacks, there are several factors that make it difficult to arrive at reliable figures: inadequacies in the records given the confusion of the times, the many victims who died months or years after the bombing as a result of radiation exposure, and not least, the pressure to either exaggerate or minimize the numbers, depending upon political agenda. That said, it is estimated that by December 1945, as many as 140,000 had died in Hiroshima by the bomb and its associated effects. In Nagasaki, roughly 74,000 people died of the bomb and its aftereffects.

In both cities, most of the casualties were civilians. The intentional killing of civilians by the Allies of World War II － who claimed that their cause was just—raised moral questions about the just course of the war.

Section Two Global Reading

I. General analysis of the text

Through introducing Yamahata’s pictures, the author aims at bringing to people’s attention what kind of catastrophic consequences nuclear threat may lead to and that the unpredictability of nuclear attack might make any city in the world become the next target. Therefore, the only way to keep this world safe from nuclear peril is for people to take action to dispel nuclear weaponry from the earth.

II. Structural analysis of the text

This argumentative essay describes nuclear destruction through a Japanese photographer’s pictures. The text comprises three parts.

Part I (Paragraph 1): the writer describes the photographs and how a view of mountains in the background of one picture powerfully captures how thoroughly the city was destroyed by the atomic bomb.

Part II (Paragraphs 2 – 3): the author argues that the bombing of Nagasaki is more representative of the nuclear peril threatening the world than that of Hiroshima, because it suggests that nuclear weapons can be used again and threaten everyone, so we need to take action to dispel the nuclear threat from the Earth.

Part III (Paragraph 4): he restates his main idea, i.e. we should not just worry about the nuclear peril but take action to eliminate it to create a safer world.

III. Rhetorical features of the text

In English, information can be organized in various ways. One of the effective ways of emphasizing some information is to put it after the word but in the “(not) A but B” structure. In the text, the author uses this rhetorical device many times. For instance,

The photographs display the fate of a single city, but their meaning is universal ... (Paragraph 2)

Practice:

Pick out some other sentences with the same structure and analyze the effect they achieve.

1) The true measure of the event lies not in what remains but in all that has disappeared. (Paragraph 1)

2) … the challenge is not just to apprehend the nuclear peril but to seize a God-given opportunity to dispel it once and for all. (Paragraph 3)

3) … one showing not what we would lose through our failure but what we would gain by our success. (Paragraph 3)

Apart from the “A but B” sentence structure, we can also find the “A yet B” type:

4) Nagasaki has always been in the shadow of Hiroshima ... Yet the bombing of Nagasaki is in certain respects the fitter symbol of the nuclear danger that still hangs over us. (Paragraph 2)

5) Yamahata’s pictures afford a glimpse of the end of the world. Yet in our day, ... (Paragraph 3)

And we can find a sentence that organizes information in a similar way without the use of the conjunction but or yet:

6) Arriving a half-century century late, they are still news. (Paragraph 2)

Section Three Detailed Reading

A VIEW OF MOUNTAINS

Jonathan Schell

1. On August 9, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Yosuke

Yamahata, a photographer serving in the Japanese army, was dispatched to the destroyed city. The hundred or so pictures he took the next day constitute the fullest photographic record of nuclear destruction in existence. Hiroshima, destroyed three days earlier, had largely escaped the camera’– the effects on a human population of a nuclear weapon only hours after it had been used. Some of Yamahata’s pictures show corpses charred in the peculiar way in which a nuclear fireball chars its victims. They have been burned by light – technically speaking, by the “thermal pulse” － whose colors absorb light in different degrees. One photograph shows a horse twisted under the cart it had been pulling. Another shows a heap of something that once had been a human being hanging over a ledge into a ditch. A third shows a girl who has somehow survived unwounded standing in the open mouth of a bomb shelter and smiling an unearthly smile, shocking us with the sight of ordinary life, which otherwise seems to have been left behind for good in the scenes we are witnessing. Stretching into the distance on all sides are fields of rubble dotted with fires, and, in the background, a view of mountains. We can see the mountains because the city is gone. remains but in all that has disappeared.

2. It took a few seconds for the United States to destroy Nagasaki with the world’s second

atomic bomb, but it took fifty years for Yamahata’s pictures of the event to make the journey back from Nagasaki to the United States. They were shown for the first time in this country in 1995, at the International Center for Photography in New York. Arriving a half-century late, they are still news. The photographs display the fate of a single city, but their meaning is universal, since, in our age of nuclear arms, what happened to Nagasaki in the shadow of Yet the bombing of Nagasaki is in certain respects the fitter symbol of the nuclear danger that still hangs over us. It is proof that, having once used nuclear weapons, we can use them again. It introduces the idea of a series － the series that, with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons remaining in existence, continues to threaten everyone. (The unpredictable, open-ended character of the series is suggested by the fact that the second bomb originally was to be dropped on the city of Kokura, which was spared Nagasaki’s fate only because bad weather protected it from view.) Each picture therefore seemed not so much an image of something that happened a half-century ago as a window cut into the wall of the photography center showing what soon could easily happen to New York. Wherever the exhibit might travel, moreover, the view of threatened

future from these “windows” would be roughly accurate, since, although every intact city is different from every other, all cities that suffer nuclear destruction will look much the same.

3. Yamahata’s pictures afford a glimpse of the end of the world. Yet in our day, when the

challenge is not just to apprehend the nuclear peril but to seize a God-given opportunity to dispel it once and for all－ one showing not what we would lose through our failure but what we would gain by our success. What might that picture be, though? How do you show the opposite of the end of the world? Should it be Nagasaki, intact and alive, before the bomb was dropped － or perhaps the spared city of Kokura? Should it be a child, or a mother and child, or perhaps the Earth itself? None seems adequate, for how can we give a definite form to that which can assume infinite forms, namely, the lives of all human beings, now and in the future? Imagination, faced with either the end of the world or its continuation, must remain incomplete. Only action can satisfy.

4. Once, the arrival in the world of new generations took care of itself. Now, they can come

into existence only if, through an act of faith and collective will, we ensure their right to exist. Performing that act is the greatest of the responsibilities of the generations now alive. The gift of time is the gift of life, forever, if we know how to receive it.

I. Questions

1. Why is a view of mountains provided by a picture so significant that it was chosen as the title of the essay? (Paragraph 1)

Answer: A view of mountains in the distance rather than the wreckage is meant to remind the viewer of the city that was leveled to the ground by the atomic bomb and of the normal life that would have been going on there. This is where the significance of the picture lies.

2. Why are Yamahata’s pictures still news? (Paragraph 2)

Answer: Because it was the first time that Americans had ever seen the pictures since the atomic bombing fifty years ago.

3. In what way(s) is the bombing of Nagasaki the fitter symbol of the nuclear danger? (Paragraph 2)

Answer: The bombing of Nagasaki is regarded as the fitter symbol of the nuclear peril in two respects. First, it is evidence that nuclear weapons can be used again to destroy human civilization. Second, the fact that Nagasaki had not been the originally chosen target of the nuclear attack shows the unpredictability of possible nuclear attacks in the future. That is, every city in the world is liable to nuclear destruction.

4. What is the universal meaning of Yamahata’s photos? (Paragraph 3)

Answer: They were intended to demonstrate the devastating power of nuclear weapons and express an apprehension of the nuclear peril menacing the world.

5. Do Yamahata’s pictures fully express the author’s intention of writing? Why or why not? (Paragraph 3)

Answer: No, it only expresses part of it, because the writer intends not only to express his apprehension of the nuclear threat but, more importantly, to call on the people to take actions to banish forever nuclear weaponry from the Earth.

II. Words and Expressions

Paragraph 1

dispatch: v. send sb. / sth. somewhere, especially for a special purpose

e.g. Even the air force was mobilized to dispatch relief to the quake-stricken area.

The government was preparing to dispatch 4,000 soldiers to search the island.

constitute: v.

a. [linking verb, not in progressive] be considered to be sth.

e.g. Failing to complete the work constitutes a breach of the employment contract.

Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the earth’s atmosphere.

b. if several people or things constitute sth., they are the parts that form it

e.g. We must redefine what constitutes a family.

It is up to the teacher to decide what constitutes satisfactory work.

Practice: Translate the following sentence into English.

西海角省（Western Cape）的大部分居民是有色人种。

Colored people constitute a majority of the population in Western Cape.

brand: v. label or mark with or as if with a brand to describe sb. or sth. as a very bad type of person or thing, often unfairly

Collocation: brand sb. as sth.

brand sth. with sth. (often in passive)

e.g. They branded the cattle one by one.

The US administration recently branded him as a war criminal.

Note:

brand: n. a type of product made by a particular company

Practice: Translate the following sentence into English.

我很高兴地告诉您，你们的“永久”牌自行车已成为我方市场上最畅销的商品之一。

I am glad to tell you that your “Forever” bicycle has become one of the best selling brands on our market.

witness: v. see, hear, or know by personal presence and perception

e.g. Only one person witnessed the accident.

The Huangpu River has witnessed the development of Shanghai.

Note:

witness: n. a person who sees sth. happen and is able to describe it to other people

Translation:

警方呼吁这个事故的目击者出来作证。

Police have appealed for witnesses to the accident.

Collocation:

be witness to sth.: [formal] see sth. happen

e.g. We were witness to the worst period in the club’s history.

bear witness to sth.: [formal] show that sth. exists or existed

e.g. Bristol’s grand buildings bear witness to the city’s magnificent past.

dot: v. cover or sprinkle with or as if with dots

e.g. The countryside is dotted with beautiful ancient churches.

We have offices dotted all over the region.

Note:

dot: n. a small round mark, especially one that is printed

Collocation: on the dot: exactly on time or at the exact time mentioned

e.g. Breakfast is served at 8 on the dot. 8点整开早饭。

Paragraph 2-3

come into one’s own: acquire, enter into possession of; become very good, useful, or important in a particular situation

e.g. The serial composers have finally come into their own.

On icy roads, a four-wheel drive vehicle really comes into its own.

in the shadow of:

in the shadow of sb.: receiving little attention because sb. else is better known or more skillful e.g. Tom was a good lawyer, but he was always in the shadow of his famous father.

Living in the shadow of a glamorous sister, Hilda was quiet and shy.

in the shadow of sth.: influenced by sth. bad that has happened or could happen

e.g. The children of the survivors lived their lives in the shadow of the Holocaust.

The organization is trying to protect civil rights in the shadow of terrorism.

cast a shadow over/on sth.: make sth. seem less enjoyable, attractive, or impressive

e.g. The events of September 11 cast a shadow over the celebrations.

stumble: v. walk or go unsteadily

e.g. The room was dark and Stan nearly fell over a chair as he stumbled to the phone. Having drunk half a bottle of whiskey, I stumbled upstairs and into bed.

ruin: v. devastate; reduce to the remains

e.g. The rain absolutely ruined our barbecue.

If the press should find out about this, his marriage, his reputation, and his career would all be ruined.

hang over: If sth. bad is hanging over you, you are worried or anxious about it.

e.g. The threat of nuclear war hangs over mankind.

With the court case hanging over us, we couldn’t enjoy our vacation.

Extension:

hang out (with)

e.g. I don’t really know who she hangs out with.

Where do the youngsters hang out?

spare: v. refrain from harming, punishing or killing

e.g. It will spare him embarrassment if you speak to him about it in private.

Spare us the suspense and tell us who won the first prize!

Collocation:

spare sb. the trouble/difficulty/pain, etc. (of doing sth.): prevent sb. from having to experience sth. difficult or unpleasant

e.g. I wanted to spare them the trouble of buying me a present.

Thankfully she had been spared the ordeal of surgery.

spare no expense/effort to do sth.: work as hard as possible to achieve sth.

e.g. Emergency services have spared no effort to help people whose homes were destroyed by the tornadoes.

No expense was spared in developing the necessary technology.

not so much A as B: used to say that one description of sb. or sth. is less suitable or correct than another

e.g. The details are not so much wrong as they are incomplete.

He is not so much a film star as an artist.

Practice: Translate the following sentences into English.

与其说是海洋分割了这个世界，不如说是统一了这个世界。

The oceans do not so much divide the world as unite it.

(=The oceans do not divide the world so much as unite it.)

在这里所说的爱与其说是一种情感，不如说是对别人的一种行为。

Love as used here is not so much an emotion as it is a behavior toward others.

intact: a. entire, unimpaired

e.g. Despite the bombing, the house was still intact.

He dealt the door a tremendous blow but it remained intact.

Translation:

地震过后，有几栋楼仍然完好无损。

Several buildings were still intact after the earthquake.

这部手机掉下台阶后仍然完好无损。

The cellphone remained intact after being dropped down the stairs.

glimpse: n. a very brief passing look, sight, or view

e.g. I caught a glimpse of the driver of the getaway car, but I doubt I would recognize her if I saw her again.

This biography offers only a few glimpses of his life before he became famous.

apprehend: v.

Note that apprehend is a polysemous word.

a. anticipate (sth.) with uneasiness or fear

e.g. apprehend danger in every sound

apprehend a hot summer

b. arrest sb. for a crime

e.g. The police have so far failed to apprehend the killer.

c. understand or perceive

e.g. Now I begin to apprehend much more fully the power of the natural forces.

Translation:

The police are anxious to apprehend a middle-aged man believed to be armed with a gun. 警察急于逮捕一名确信携有枪支的中年人。

He was slow to apprehend danger.

他没有及时意识到危险。

He can’t apprehend the real nature of change.

他不能理解变革的实质。

peril: n. serious or immediate danger

Collocation: in peril

e.g. I never felt that my life was in peril.

They put their own lives in peril to rescue their friends.

The economy is now in grave peril.

dispel: v. cause to vanish

e.g. In his latest novel, he aims to dispel the myth that real men don’t cry.

I’d like to start the speech by dispelling a few rumors that have been spreading recently.

Translation:

能量饮料能帮助驱除疲劳，恢复体力。

Energy drink helps dispel fatigue and restore physical strength.

Paragraph 4

ensure: v. make sth. certain to happen

e.g. Following the plane crash, the airline is taking further steps to ensure public safety on its

aircraft.

The role of the police is to ensure that the law is obeyed.

Compare:

assure; insure; ensure

Assure, ensure, and insure all mean “to make secure or certain.” Only assure is used with reference to a person in the sense of “to set the mind at rest”: assured the leader of his loyalty. Although ensure and insure are generally interchangeable, only insure is now widely used in American English in the commercial sense of “to guarantee persons or property against risk.” Blank filling:

① Money doesn’t _____ happiness. (ensure)

② I can ____ you of his reliability. (assure)

③ It is advisable to _____ your life against accident. (insure)

III. Sentences

1) It was left to Yamahata to record, methodically — and, as it happens, with a great and simple

artistry — the effects. (Paragraph 1)

Paraphrase:

The responsibility was placed on Yamahata’s shoulders to record the effects systematically and with a great and simple artistry.

2) That absence, even more than wreckage, contains the heart of the matter. (Paragraph 1) Paraphrase:

That vanished city rather than its remains represents the true measure of the event.

3) In the photographs, Nagasaki comes into its own. (Paragraph 2)

Paraphrase:

In the photographs Nagasaki regains its own status.

4) The human imagination had stumbled to exhaustion in the wreckage of the first ruined city without reaching even the outskirts of the second. (Paragraph 2)

Paraphrase:

The human imagination had been exhausted and stopped at the wreckage of the first ruined city and failed to reach even the outskirts of Nagasaki.

5) We seem to need, in addition, some other picture to counterpoise against ruined Nagasaki. (Paragraph 3)

Paraphrase:

Apart from the pictures of Nagasaki we seem to need some other pictures to inspire in us a hope of life to counterbalance the sense of doom suggested by the ruined Nagasaki.

Section Four Consolidation Activities

I. Vocabulary

1. Word Derivation

1) exist v. →existence n. →existing a.

①如果我们不小心保护的话，这种生物可能将不复存在。

If we are not careful, this species may cease to exist.

②我们相信存在外星人。

We believe in the existence of alien intelligence.

③在这一方面，现状不会有所改变。

There will be no change to the existing situation in this regard.

2) survive v. →survival n.

①适者生存是自然竞争中永恒不变的规律。

That the fittest survive is a constant rule in the nature competition.

②医学的新进展意味着幸存下来的希望更大。

New developments in medicine mean that there is a higher chance of survival.

3) earthly a. →unearthly a. antonym

①在现世的生活中，没有什么是完美无缺的。

In this earthly life, nothing is perfect.

②这工作需要起大早赶头班火车。

The job involved getting up at some unearthly hour to catch the first train.

4) wreck v. →wrecked a. →wreckage n.

①店主向那些恐怖分子行了贿，免得他们来糟蹋店铺。

The shop owner paid off the terrorists so that they would not come to wreck his shop.

②他们搜寻失事的残骸寻找生还者的迹象。

They searched the wreckage for signs of survivors.

③许多人乘救生艇离开遇难的船。

Many people get away from the wrecked ship on a raft.

5) exhaust v. →exhaustive a. →exhaustion n.

①新车会花掉他的收入。

The new car will exhaust his income.

②彻底调查事实后发现情况正好相反。

An exhaustive investigation of the facts proves the contrary.

③医生说他的死因是心脏衰竭。

The doctor said that he died from exhaustion of the heart.

6) apprehend v. →apprehension n. →apprehensive a.

①我担心这个冬天很难过。

I apprehend a hard winter.

②他总是为考试成绩担忧。

He is always apprehensive about the results of the exams.

③那名学生忧心忡忡地在检查室里四处看了看。

The student looked around the examination room with apprehension.

7) continue v. →continuous a. →continuity n.

①我建议，休息一会儿再继续工作。

I propose a short rest before we continue the work.

②听他那连篇空话对我的耐心真是一大考验。

Listening to his continuous and empty chatter really tested my patience.

③我们应该确保燃料供给不中断。

We must ensure continuity of fuel supplies.

8) accurate a. →accuracy n. →inaccurate a. antonym

①他对事件的报道，每个细节都准确无误。

His report of the event was accurate in every detail.

②学习外语要达到流利或精确的程度都是不容易的。

Neither fluency nor accuracy is easy to come by in learning a foreign language.

③你的信息不准确，所以你的结论是错误的。

Your information is inaccurate and your conclusion is therefore wrong.

2. Phrase Practice

1) They thought this relative had come just for a short visit, but it seems he is staying . for good: permanently, without the possibility of change in the future

①他最终打点行装，永远离开了。

He packed his bags and left for good.

②由于缺少现金，总计103张床位被永久取消了。

A total of 103 beds are being closed for good because of a shortage of cash.

2) The root of all these events the feudal system that had existed for thousands of years. lie in: consist or have as a basis

①我们的希望在青年一代。

Our hopes lie in the younger generation.

②他的优势在于解决问题的能力。

His strength lies in problem solving.

3) The two parties have decided to settle the economic disputes between them , in case these matters undermine their further co-operation.

once and for all: completely and finally

①我们只要把所有的水管换掉就可一劳永逸，永远解决水管的问题了!

We can solve our plumbing problems once and for all if we just replace all the pipes!

②他游历了许多地方，现在落叶归根又回到了英国。

He’s travelled a lot but he’s now come back to Britain once and for all.

4) The company has been since 1945. It was established in the war-torn city of

London.

in existence: the state or fact of being

①你是世界上最自私、最没良心的家伙。

You are the most selfish, heartless creature in existence.

②没有人知道这种风俗什么时候开始有的。

No one knows when such a custom first came into existence.

5) , history seems to be impossible to be repeating itself. Otherwise, human beings cannot make any progress at all.

in certain respects: in some ways; in some aspects

①只能在某些方面和某种程度上实现对等。

Equivalence can only be attained in certain respects and to a certain degree.

②这一新产品在有些方面超过同类进口产品。

The new product surpasses in certain respects the imported goods of the similar kind.

3. Synonym/Antonym ’s fate only because bad weather protected it from view. 2. Yet, in our day, when the challenge is not just to apprehend the nuclear God-given opportunity to dispel it once and for all … will look much the same.

Antonym: 4. A third shows a girl who has somehow survived unwounded standing in the open mouth of a smile, shocking us with the sight of ordinary life … age of nuclear arms, what happened to Nagasaki can, in a flash, happen to any city in the world. 6. Nagasaki has always been in the shadow of Hiroshima, as if the human imagination had to exhaustion in the wreckage of the first ruined city without reaching even the outskirts of the second. their right to exist.

8. Some of Yamahata’s pictures show corpses charred in the way in which a nuclear fireball chars its victims.

II. Grammar

1) The present tense referring to the past or the future

a. Simple present referring to the past

Occasionally the simple present can be used to describe something that happened in the past. This use of the simple present is usually found with “communication verbs” such as tell, say, hear, learn, write to express the present effect of information received in the past, e.g.:

Alice tells me you’re entering college next year.

I hear poor old Mrs. Smith has lost her son.

Simple present is also used as a device of story-telling and news reporting to create an effect of immediacy and add vividness to the description. This use of the simple present to refer to the past is what we call “historic present”, e.g.:

I was just dozing off in front of the television when my wife rushes in shouting that the kitchen is on fire.

b. Simple present referring to the future

The simple present can also be used to denote future time.

① to represent a FUTURE AS FACT, either because they are determined in advance by calendar or timetable, e.g.:

Tomorrow is Friday.

Next New Year’s Eve falls on Monday.

② when there is a temporal adverbial in the clause, and the aspect of the future is regarded as unchangeable, e.g.:

The train arrives at 8.00 this evening.

There’s a good concert on next week.

③ to signify A PLAN OR ARRANGEMENT regarded as unalterable, e.g.:

We set off for the East Lake this afternoon.

④ in conditional and temporal clauses introduced by if, unless, after, before, as soon as, when,

etc., e.g.:

He will do it if you pay him.

I will let you know as soon as he arrives.

⑤ in some subclauses including the that-clause following I hope, I bet, etc.; the that-clause following such constructions as see to it, make sure, make certain, e.g.:

I hope you have a good time.

I bet it rains tomorrow.

I’ll see ( to it ) / make sure / make certain (that) you don’t get lost.

Practice:

1. The doctor said that I ___ a little overweight. (be)

2. I ____ to drop in on her once and you make such an issue of it. (happen)

3. If it fine tomorrow, we will go to the countryside. (be)

Key: 1. am 2. happen 3. is

2) Comparison

There are three degrees of comparison:

A. higher

e.g. (a) Ann is politer than Michael. (comparative)

(b) Ann is the politest child in the family. (superlative)

B. same

e.g. Ann is as polite as Michael.

C. lower

e.g. (a) Ann is less polite than Michael. (comparative)

(b) Ann is the least polite child in the family. (superlative)

Practice:

Choose the best answer.

1. Bob never does his homework___ Mary. He makes lots of mistakes.

A. so careful as B. as carefully as C. carefully as D. as careful as

2. Now air in our town is ___ than it used to be. Something must be done to it.

A. very good B. much better C. rather than D. even worse

3. I feel ___ better than yesterday.

A. more B. very C. the D. far

4. China has a large population than ____ in the world.

A. all the countries B. every country

C. any country D. any other country

5.This book is ____ on the subject .

A. the much best B. much the best C. very much best D. very the best

6.The sick boy is getting ____ day by day.

A. worse B. bad C. badly C. worst

Keys:

1.B 2.D 3.D 4.D 5.B 6.A

III. Translation

Chinese-English Translation

1. 他们的牛都打上了字母C的烙印，所以很容易辨认。（be branded with）

Explanation:

be branded with: to mark with or as if with a hot iron

Translation:

Their cattle were branded with the letter “C” so that they could be easily identified.

Practice:

①农场主布朗的牛都烙上了字母“B”的印记。

Farmer Brown’s cattle are branded with the letter “B”.

②印有公司标志的背包很畅销。

The bags (that are) branded with the corporate logo sell like hot cake.

2. 一场经济危机正威胁着那个国家。（hang over）

Explanation:

hang over: menace, overshadow

Translation:

An economic crisis is hanging over that country.

Practice:

地震过后，成百上千的家庭面临无家可归的威胁。

After the earthquake, the threat of homelessness hangs over hundreds of families.

战争即将爆发，末日的气氛笼罩在小镇上。

As the war is on the verge of outbreak, a sense of doom hung over the town.

3. 他是真正发号施令的人物，但他总是躲在幕后。（in the background）

Explanation:

in the background: behind the main person or thing you are looking at; in a place or situation in which people do not notice you

Translation:

He is the man who really gives the order, but he always remains in the background.

Practice:

①因为汤姆口吃，所以他很安静，不喜欢被别人关注。

Tom was a quiet person who tended to stay in the background as he had a stammer.

②他呆在幕后为了避开公众的注意。

He stayed in the background to escape from the public attention.

4. 你只要一叫，他马上就到。（in a flash）

Explanation:

in a flash: very quickly

Translation:

You just have to call and he’s here in a flash.

Practice:

①时光飞逝，转眼他已经长大了。

Time flies. In a flash, he has already grown up.

②刚才他还很生气呢，一转眼的功夫，脸色马上转晴了。

He was quite angry just now. However, his face turned sunny in a flash.

5. 他们在战争的阴霾下整整生活了17年。（in the shadow of）

Explanation:

in the shadow of: feeling the negative influence of sb. or sth. powerful or famous

Translation:

They have lived in the shadow of war for altogether seventeen years.

Practice:

①刚刚新寡，还没从失去丈夫的阴影中走出来。

She is newly widowed, and still in the shadow of her husband’s death.

②他这个总统一直生活在前任的阴影当中。

He is a president living in the shadow of his predecessor.

IV. Exercises for Integrated Skills

1. Dictation

Nagasaki had never been subjected to large scale bombing / prior to the explosion of the atomic bomb there. / On August 1st, 1945, however, / a number of highly explosive bombs were dropped on the city. / A few of these bombs hit the shipyards and dock areas / in the southwest portion of the city. / Several of the bombs hit the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works / and six bombs landed at the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital, / with three direct hits on buildings there. / While the damage from these few bombs was relatively small, / it created considerable concern in Nagasaki / and a number of people, / principally school children, / were evacuated to rural areas for safety, / thus reducing the population in the city / at the time of the atomic attack.

2. Fill in each blank in the passage with ONE appropriate word.

Hiroshima was the primary target of the first atomic bomb mission. The mission

________ (1) smoothly in every respect. The weather was good, and the crew and

equipment functioned perfectly. ________ (2) every detail, the attack was carried out

exactly as planned, and the bomb performed exactly ________ (3) expected.

The bomb exploded over Hiroshima at 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945. About an hour previously, the Japanese early warning radar net had detected the approach of some American aircraft headed ________ (4) the southern part of Japan. The alert had been given and radio broadcasting stopped in many cities, ________ (5) them Hiroshima. The planes approached the coast at a very high altitude. At nearly 8:00 a.m., the radar operator in Hiroshima determined that the ________ (6) of planes coming in was very small ─ probably not more than three ─ and the air raid alert was lifted. The normal radio broadcast warning was given to the people ________ (7) it might be advisable to go to shelter if B-29s were actually sighted, but no raid was expected beyond some sort of reconnaissance. At 8:15 a.m., the bomb exploded ________ (8) a blinding flash in the sky, and a great rush of air and a loud rumble of noise extended for many miles around the city; the first blast was soon ________ (9) by the sounds of falling buildings and of growing fires, and a great cloud of dust and smoke began to cast a pall of darkness ________

(10) the city.

Keys:

1. went 2. In 3. as 4. for 5. among

6. number 7. that 8. with 9. followed 10. over

1) According to the text, the bomb mission proceeded without any mishaps. Moreover, before the adverb smoothly a verb in past tense should be filled.

2) In detail is an idiomatic expression, meaning “with attention to particulars; thoroughly or meticulously”. For example, she explained her proposal in detail.

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