Unit Two The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl

1. Unit Two The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl

2. Get the meaning of the words: • stoically----in a way that seems unaffected by the surrounding changes or age; enduring pain and hardship without complaining. • dissuade----persuade sb. not to v. • persuade sb. into doing • persuade sb. out of doing • dissuade sb. from • Skim the whole text and get the main idea. • In this distressing remembrance, the author recalls the unforgettable, sorrowful experiences of her childhood when she was forced to learn Chinese, which did not interest her.

3. How many parts is the text divided into? • Four parts: Part 1 (para. 1) • Part 2 (para 2----7) • Part 3 (para. 8----11) • Part 4 (para 12----14)

4. Part 1 (para 1) • The Chinese school is still there, which implies that still there are many Chinese children attending Chinese lessons in the school. Although they live abroad, Chinese parents never forget their own culture and their own language and require that their children learn their mother tongue. • Despite the new coat of paint----Although covered with new paint; Although the school was newly painted.

5. The school remains remarkably stoically the same----the school continues to be the same, showing extraordinary resistance to the change of time. (The word “stoically” could be considered as an example of personification, indicating that the school, just like a man, has withstood the test of time without too much obvious change.) • ** This paragraph provides the background of the story.

6. Part 2 (para.2----7) • School Pattern: • Elementary (1----8 grades) • Secondary (9----12 grades) • Chinese: junior high / high school • sneak out; sneak off; sneak away----go quietly and secretly • the empty lot---- the vacant area or the unoccupied land • to hunt ghosts and animal bones----to play kids’ games

7. instead of playing with our fourth-and fifth-grade friends or sneaking out to the empty lot to hunt ghosts and animal bones, my brother and I had to go to Chinese school.---- My brother and I were unable to walk out quietly and secretly, like other children, to the open field to play kids’ games, for we were forced to go to Chinese school. • number a large number of books • amount a large amount of money • no: not a; not any

8. No party shall violate these regulations. • Any party shall not violate these regulations. • dissuade: persuade sb. not to do sth. • dissuade sb. from • persuade sb into doing sth. • persuade sb. out of doing sth. • kick----resist; protest; complain

9. No amount of kicking, screaming, or pleading could dissuade my mother.---- No matter how desperately my brother and I resisted going to the Chinese school, kicking, yelling, or repeatedly begging, we could not make our mother change her mind, because she was determined to get us to learn Chinese, our mother tongue, which had been passed down from generation to generation.

10. Para. 3 • forcefully / forcibly----strongly; powerfully • deposit n. deposit v. • defiant a.----opposing; resisting; disobedient • stern a.----strict; harsh

11. Forcibly, she walked us the seven long, hilly blocks from our home to school, depositing our defiant tearful faces before the stern principal.----From our home to school there are seven long groups of buildings bounded by streets on all sides and erected on hilly slopes. She forced us to walk past these blocks, leaving both of us in front of the grim and serious headmaster, our faces showing rebellious reluctance and wet with tears. • He swayed slightly on his feet

12. Clasp v.----hold tightly in the hand or in one’s arms. • They clasped hands before saying good-bye. • He clasped her to his chest. • twitching hands----hands that were violently jerking. • I recognized him as a repressed maniacal child killer, and knew that if we ever saw his hands we’d .be in big trouble---- In my opinion, the principal was a man who suffered from suppression of emotions and who was so stern and severe that he would be liable to beat up a child. And I knew if we ever saw his twisting hands, we would get severe physical punishment, extreme pain, anxiety and worry, etc.

13. Para. 4 • The room smelled like Chinese medicine, an imported faraway mustiness.---- The room gave off a smell very similar to that of Chinese medicine, a stale, mouldy, and damp smell drifting in from a faraway place. • I favored crisp new scents.---- I preferred fresh smells that were characteristically pleasant. • scent; fragrance; perfume

14. crisp • like the soft French perfume ---- This prepositional phrase provides a vivid example of the writer’s favored scents. It makes the sentence more attractive, more impressive and more emphatic.

15. Para. 5 • begin with • chant----say, talk, repeat monotonously • Para. 6 • Put the first sentence into Chinese: • 作为10岁的孩子，我有许多比象形文字更好的东西要学。要用毛笔从右到左一行一行地苦苦抄写这样的文字。如果要避免墨坨子，又感到握毛笔的方式很别扭。

16. Para. 7 • The language was a source of embarrassment ---- The language caused me to feel self-conscious or ashamed of my racial origin. • more times than not ---- more often than not • pedestrian----dull • public----lacking individualities

17. More times than not, ----Chinese sounded pedestrian, public.------Quite often I had made efforts to escape from the annoyingly loud voice that accompanied me wherever I roamed in the nearby American supermarket outside Chinatown. It was my grandmother following me and talking at the top of her voice. Already over 70 years old, she was physically weak and feeble, but she was able to speak loudly, even more loudly than the loudest of the street vendors. Her temper was coarse, and her Chinese was without any rhythm or pattern or proper way of expression. She spoke Chinese quickly, loudly, and unpleasantly. Her Chinese was quite different from the elegant and romantic French or the graceful, cultured sounds of the American South. Chinese sounded very dull, incapable of arousing imagination or inspiration. It sounded average and commonplace, without any distinctive or noble characteristics.

18. What else was stressed in the Chinese school besides the emphasis on speaking, reading and writing? • Politeness was also emphasized in the school. The lessons always began with an exercise in politeness.

19. What things did the writer consider to be more important and more useful than learning Chinese? • She considered the following things to be more important and more useful: doing multiplication tables, naming the satellites of Mars, writing reports on Little Women and Black Beauty. • ** Para.2—6 dynamically and vividly describe the children’s forced walks to the Chinese school, the stern principal, their classroom, the polite formality with which lessons started, etc. • ** Para.7 tells us why the author did not want to learn Chinese.

20. Part 3 (para.8—11) • Para. 8 • In Chinatown, the comings and goings of hundreds of Chinese on their daily tasks sounded chaotic and frenzied.---- In Chinatown, large crowds of Chinese were coming and going with their routine responsibilities in a disorderly, over-excited way.

21. do well----be successful; be prosperous; be making a good recovery from an illness • Mother and baby are doing well. • My, doesn’t she move her lips fast,---- My goodness, doesn’t she speak English fast? • keep up with----keep pace with; catch up with • What do you know about the author’s English proficiency? • She spoke English very fast and very well so that she was able to keep up with the world outside Chinatown.

22. Para. 9 • be fanatic / fanatical about sth.---- be completely obsessed by/with sth. • Be fanatic about keeping fit. • He was especially hard on my mother.---- He treated my mother with severity. • He criticized me for nothing last week. • in exasperation----in rage ; in fury; very angrily • when he tripped over his own tongue, he’d blame it on her,----When he committed a minor error in speech, he would find fault with her.

23. trip on/over • blame sb. for sth. • blame sth. on sb. • He was to blame for her death. • How was the author’s mother’s level of English? • She was not able to speak English well. She spoke pidgin English, and she had trouble pronouncing some words, particularly words with the “r” sound.

24. Para. 10 • What infuriated my mother most was when my brother concerned her on her consonants, especially “r”.---- What made my mother extremely angry was when my brother put her into a difficult or awkward situation by asking her to practice her consonants correctly, in particular, the consonant “r”. • play a cruel joke on sb. • ended up----eventually became the unintended • end up with

25. Para. 11 • I finally was granted a cultural divorce.----Ultimately I was permitted to stop learning Chinese culture. • ** Para. 8—11 specifically and humorously relate the generation gap in the family: between the writer and her grandmother, and between her brother and mother, presenting a sharp contrast in their language competence.

26. Part 4 (para.12—14) • Para. 12 • I thought of myself as multicultural.---- I felt that I had been brought up in a home where Chinese and American culture both had an influence on me. • prefer A to B / like A better than B / enjoy A more than B

27. Para. 13—14 • At last, I was one of you; I wasn’t one of them. Sadly, I still am.---- Finally I assumed that I was one of the Americans and that I was not one of the Chinese. Unfortunately I am, as a matter of fact, still Chinese. • The word “sadly” could be taken as an sarcasm, showing however hard the writer tried, she remained to be a Chinese instead of becoming Americanized. • ** The last part of the narrative text tells us that no matter how hard the writer tried to become Americanized, she remained Chinese.

28. Exercises: • Answer the following questions. • 1. They kicked, screamed and pleaded to show their reluctance to go to Chinese school. • 2. He was a stern, repressed maniacal child killer, probably whipping kids with his twitching hands from time to time. • 3. She hated that smell of the school auditorium while she favored such scents as the soft French perfume that her American teacher wore in public school. She did not like learning the Chinese language, which she thought sounded pedestrian, nor did she like the Chinese calligraphy.

29. 4. Her grandmother was a fragile woman in her seventies, but her voice could cover even the loudest of all street vendors. She told jokes about sex, and spoke quick, loud, unbeautiful Chinese unlike the quiet, lilting romance of French or the gentle refinement of the American south. • 5. He was more radical than the author in his antagonism towards Chinese culture, and in his sad earnest effort to be 100% Americanized.

30. Explain the following sentences: • 1. My brother and I were unable to walk out quietly and secretly, like other children, to the open field to play kids’ games, for we were forced to go to Chinese school. • 2. Our kicking , screaming and pleading could not in the least make our mother change her mind about sending us to Chinese school. • 3. She dragged us by force all the way from our home to school, a long hilly distance of seven blocks, finally leaving us, hostile and tearful in front of the severe headmaster.

31. 4. In Chinatown, large crowds of Chinese were coming and going with their routine responsibilities in a disorderly, overexcited way. • 5. He was very particular about my mother’s English. • 6. Ultimately I was permitted to stop learning Chinese culture. • 7. Finally I assumed that I was one of the Americans and that I was not one of the Chinese. Unfortunately, I am, as a matter of fact, still Chinese.

32. Translate sentences: C--E • 1. Nowadays, some parents are hard on their sons and daughters, asking them to learn English, to learn to play the piano, to learn painting, and to learn many things. • 2. He is determined to give up gambling, so when he sees his former gambling friends, he is more than eager to disassociate himself from their company. • 3. The reporters received a stern warning not to go to the earthquake-stricken area without official permission.

33. 4. Life is tough for parents whose kids fail to keep up in school. • 5. The suspect considered sneaking away, but his family managed to dissuade him. • 6. The cables are all bright yellow to prevent pedestrians from tripping over them. • 7. Infuriated by the decision, he threw up his arms in exasperation. • 8. The paint on the door of his old house has been blotched and striped by years of weathering.

34. Translate a short passage: C---E • While absorbing the essence of a foreign culture, we should not be content with imitation without creation. An obsession with simple imitation will sterilize creation, and as such it will be impossible for us to scale new heights in art and impossible to present to the world excellent works of our own creation. Simple imitation is by no means equivalent to novelty and originality. On the contrary, novelty and originality result from the combination of modern and traditional style, the combination of the distinctive features of foreign countries with those of our own nation, and the combination of artistry and education.