Comprehension 理解
Answer these question:
1 What, according to the author, have great art and certain moods of Nature in common?
2 Why does the author feel that it is unwise to attempt to interpret beauty?
Vocabulary 词汇
Refer to the text to see how the following words have been used, then write sentences of your own using these words: rouses (1.1); aesthetic (1.3); realm (1.4); moving(1.4); convey (1.5); indefinable longing (1.11); radiance (1.12); braying (1.12); whimsies (1.13); glimpse the unutterable (1.15); invest with significance (11.15-16).
The paragraph 段落
A Drawing your information from the second paragraph (lines 8-16) write a list of points in note form to answer the following question: How does the author arrive at the conclusion that beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless?
B Read the first paragraph again (lines 1-7)．Then, using the list of points given below, reconstruct the author's argument in your own words as far as possible．Do not refer to the passage until you have finished the exercise:
1 Effect of sunset on a young man: vision of another world．
2 Aesthetic experiences: suggestion of the existence of a world in some way higher than our own.
3 Hint of beauty and serenity we have never known.
4 Impossible to describe: language ill-equipped．
C Write a paragraph of about 200 words on one of the following subjects:
1 What is beautiful to one individual is ugly to another.
2 Beauty does have a meaning: it reflects the grandeur of God．
3 Beauty has no meaning: it should be accepted for what it is.
4 There is no such thing as ‘beauty’．There are merely various phenomena, objects, etc．which we attempt to classify as‘beautiful’, but this is a purely subjective evaluation on our part.
Key structures 关键句型
A Compare the uses of must in these two sentences:
A young man sees a sunset and concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond．(11.1-2)
If beauty means something we must not seek to interpret the meaning．(11.14-15)
In which of the following sentences would it be possible to replace must by has to?
1 I haven't seen Tom for some time; he must be ill.
2 He must advertise for a new secretary, now that Miss Perkins has left.
3 He must stay in bed for at least a week.
4 I'm afraid he must be mistaken.
B Compare the use of it is and there is in these sentences:
It is difficult for any of us to resist the suggestion．(11.2-3)
There is no sky in June so blue..．(1.9)
Supply it or there in the following sentences:
1 ______must have been after one o'clock when I arrived home.
2 ______must have been a large number of accidents over the Christmas holidays.
3 You might be asked to make a speech, but I think ______ is highly unlikely.
4 ______will be difficult to dissuade him now that he has made up his mind．
5 ______will be difficult times ahead．
C Compare these two sentences:
Instead of saying: It is undeniable that all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond．
We can say: That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable．(1.8)
Write these sentences again so that each one begins with That.
1 It is unbelievable that he wrote this story himself.
2 It is astonishing to me that you should believe this to be true.
3 It is quite true that we all feel depressed sometimes.
D Complete the following sentence in any way you wish．Then compare what you have written with the sentence in the passage:
If we glimpse the unutterable,______(1.15)
Special difficulties 难点
A Study the following pairs of words and then write sentences of your own to bring out the difference.
1 unable (1.1)----enable
I'll be unable to see you on Friday.
Money from his grandfather enabled him to further his education in the United States.
2 rouse (1.1)----raise
If we're going to set out so early, you'll have to rouse us at 6 in the morning.
Will those who agree with me please raise their hands?
3 lie (1.2)----lay
Are you going to lie in bed all morning?
Please lay the book open on the desk.
4 indefinable (1.11)----undefined
She felt a sudden indefinable sadness.
The relationship between them was undefined, but she might have been his wife, I'd guess.
5 vulgar (1.11)----common
I wish you wouldn't use such vulgar expressions in your speech.
In this block we have a common responsibility for maintaining the staircase.
B Note the words in italics in the following sentences．Use these words again in sentences of your own, giving each word a different meaning from the one it has in the example:
1 A young man sees a sunset and concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond．(11.1-2)
2 It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence．(11.2-4)
3 And though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty．(1.5)
4 Nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp．(11.15-16)
5 Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.(1.16)
C Note the use of fully in this phrase
‘before it is fully glimpsed’ (1.10)
Write sentences using the following expressions:
fully realize; fully capable; explain fully.
D Write sentences using the following phrases:
catch a glimpse (1.3); in some way (11.4-5); seek to (1.15).
Multiple choice questions 多项选择题
Choose the correct answers to the following questions.
Comprehension 理解
1 When we have an intense experience of beauty we
a．are tempted to believe it has some kind of meaning
b．want to express the emotion it arouses in us
c．know that it comes from a different realm of existence
d．are open to suggestions
2 According to the writer, language
a．is not powerful enough to describe other-worldly experiences
b．always conveys meaning
c．can convey beauty and serenity
d．has only got one use
3 ______can suggest a world beyond．
a．All forms of art and Nature
b．Only Nature
c．Not only Nature
d．Only great art
4 The writer implies that we would all like to ______.
a．explain the meaning of life
b．explain the meaning of beauty
c．have an explanation of the meaning of life
d．express the inexpressible
Structure 句型
5 A young man sees a sunset and because he______ understand…(1.1)
a．is enabled to
b．can't
c．is incapable to
d．hasn't potential to
6 We are catching a glimpse of a light______ down to us…(11.2-3)
a．which shining
b．that it shines
c．shining
d．to shine
7 And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, they______ convey a hint of beauty.（1.5）
a．still
b．even
c．up to this time
d．always
8 If life ______a vulgar flare…（1.12）
a．hasn't
b．doesn't
c．will not be
d．isn't
Vocabulary词汇
9 A young man is unable to express the emotion it ______ in him. (1.1)
a．is risen
b．raises
c．arises
d．awakens
10 It's difficult to resist the suggestion that we are ______ a light…(11.2-3)
a．briefly seeing
b．viewing
c．examining
d．experiencing
11 In passing it leaves an indefinable ______ and regret. (11.10-11)
a．grief
b．sadness
c．desire
d．sorrow
12 Nor should we invest with ______ that which we cannot grasp. (11.15-16)
a．explanation
b．force
c．power
d．meaning
IF YOU CAN DO THIS TEST GO ON TO PART2
Read the following passage carefully, then do the exercises below: Television is a method of communication. It is about as revolutionary as the invention of printing. Neither printing nor television is in itself an idea, or power, or good or bad. They are simply methods by which ideas and experiences can be communicated faster to more people. It is perhaps because the characteristics of television, which determine what it can best communicate, are so different from those of printing, that professional educationists were reluctant for so long to interest themselves in the newer method.
Printing and television are certainly alike in that both are costly to the producers of the communication and relatively cheap to the receiver. They are both, therefore, mass media which depend upon reaching great numbers. But whereas the printed word, being relatively permanent, can communicate to numbers of like minds over centuries, television is relatively ephemeral and communicates, using both pictures and words, to millions of unlike minds at the same moment in time. Moreover television appeals not only to those who can read but to those who can't.
Professional educationists, accustomed to communication through words, and highly valuing reading and the quality of the like minds reachable through books, saw television, in its early years, not only as a rival for attention but as an enemy of the good. Some ten years ago a friend said to me: ‘We in Oxford may be old fashioned and fuddy-duddy,* but most of us think that television is actively detrimental’. Even that great pioneer of teaching by radio, the late Mary Somerville, had no faith in television.‘It won't last,’ she said to me. ‘It's a flash in the pan.’ And many in the world of education no doubt hoped that this was true.
The situation has now altered. It is clear that television is no flash in the pan. So educationists all over the world are trying to get access to its ‘power’, often by attempting to use traditional methods of academic teaching to inculcate, through television, the ideas and attitudes in which they devotedly believe. But one of the characteristics of television is that it has no power other than that created by the wish of people to watch it. If nobody watches it, then television has no power.
GRACE WYNDHAM GOLDIE Television and Education from The Listener
* old-fashioned.
Comprehension
Answer these questions:
1 Name two qualities which printing and television have in common.
2 Name two ways in which television differs from printing.
3 State two of the objections made by educationists against television.
4 ‘The situation has altered.’ (1.18) Which situation is the author referring to, and how has it altered?
Vocabulary
Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as they are used in the passage: a method of communication (1.1); characteristics (1.3); reluctant (1.5); relatively (1.7); mass media (1.7); ephemeral (1.9);rival (1.14); detrimental (1.15).
Sentence structure
A Combine the following sentences so as to make one complex statement out of each group. Make any changes you think necessary, but do not alter the sense of the original. Do not refer to the passage until you have finished the exercise:
1 They are simply methods. By these methods ideas and experiences can be communicated faster to more people. (11.2-3)
2 The characteristics of television are different from those of printing: The characteristics of television determine what it can best communicate. Because of this, professional educationists were reluctant for so long to interest themselves in the newer method. (11.3-5)
3 Printing and television are certainly alike in one respect. They are costly to the producers of the communication. They are relatively cheap to the receiver.(11.6-7)
4 They are both, therefore, mass media. They depend on-reaching great numbers. (11.7-8)
5 The printed word is relatively permanent. It can communicate to numbers of like minds over centuries. Television is relatively ephemeral. It communicates to millions of unlike minds at the same moment in time. It uses both pictures and words. (11.8-10).
B Supply the missing words in the following. Do not refer to the passage until you have finished the exercise:
1 Professional educationists, accustomed to communication through words, ______ highly valuing reading ______ the quality of the like minds reachable through books, saw television, in its early years, ______ as a rival for attention ______ as an enemy of the good. (11.12-14)
2 So educationists all over the world are trying to get access to its ‘power’, often ______ attempting to use traditional methods of academic teaching ______ inculcate, through television, the ideas and attitudes in ______ they devotedly believe. (11.18-20)
The paragraph
A Which of the following words or phrases would best serve as a title for this passage.
Give reasons for your choice:
Television; Television and Printing; Television and Education; Television as a Mass Medium; Mass Media; the Appeal of Television.
B The following sentences have been taken from the first paragraph (lines 1-5). Arrange them in their correct order. Do not refer to the passage until you have finished the exercise:
1 Television is a method of communication.
2 It is perhaps because the characteristics of television, which determine what it can best communicate, are so different from those of printing, that professional educationists were reluctant for so long to interest themselves in the newer method.
3 It is about as revolutionary as the invention of printing.
4 They are simply methods by which ideas and experiences can be communicated faster to more people.
5 Neither printing nor television is in itself an idea, or power, or good or bad.
C Drawing your information from the second paragraph (lines 6-11) write a list of points in note form to answer the following question: In what ways are television and printing similar to each other, and in what ways do they differ from each other?
D Read the last paragraph again (lines 18-22). Using the list of points given below, reconstruct the author's arguments in your own words as far as possible. Do not refer to the passage until you have finished the exercise:
1 Situation altered.
2 Television has come to stay.
3 Educationists: access to its power.
4 Traditional methods of teaching through television.
5 But television can only have power if people watch it.
E Write a paragraph of about 200 words on one of the following subjects:
1 The use of television in education.
2 How can television enrich our lives?
3 What are the arguments against watching television?