Unit 13

1. Unit 13 Text I Christmas

2. Cultural Background • 1. Christmas • Christmas Dayis the annual festival celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth, held on December 25. On Christmas Eve, children will hang up stockings for Santa Clause to fill with presents. As part of the celebration, each family will set up a Christmas tree, and decorate it with lights and other ornaments. And holly wreath is a ring or circlet of flowers, boughs or leaves hung as a decoration during the holiday and hereby also a symbol of Christmas. • Sunday School • A class held on Sunday to teach children about Christmas.

3. Cultural Background • Hard Times • In the text, it very likely refers to the severe economic depression in the United states in 1893. • Ann Arbor • A city of southeast Michigan, where the University of Michigan is seated. It is known as a research and educational center.

4. Questions for Discussion • 1. What association does the word “Christmas” bring to you? • 2. Christmas is not a legal holiday in China, but do you feel the holiday atmosphere when the day draws near? • 3. How do you see the influence of western culture in China? And in what ways?

5. Main Idea （I） • The text is about how a little boy, who at first had no idea what poverty meant, gradually begins to realize that his family is very poor, how he comes to understand the social and psychological consequences of such a state , and how he grows mature in mind, as it were.

6. Comments on the Text • 1. The story is told in the first person by the child himself. It is informal in style and reflects a child’s thinking and manner of expression. • The writer skillfully selects a chain of events for the story to let the reader himself gradually draw the conclusion as to the underlying reason for the selection. • The forceful use of parallelism is particularly effective.

7. Language Points • 1. clear adj. /adv./vb. The horse jumped clear of the hedge. Stand clear of the rail. He won a clear victory. The highways are clear of snow now. 搭配：a clear conscience 问心无愧 a clear winner 全胜的赢家 clear out离开，逃走 clear of放晴

8. Language Points • distribute vb. distribution n. • The postman distributes the newspapers to every household. • The rumor helped distributing horror around. • The students are distributed into four groups.

9. Language Points 3. reveal vb. He was glad it was to him that she had revealed her secret. Research has revealed him to be a spy. 4. confess vb. After three days’ interrogation, the prisoner confessed himself to be guilty. I have to confess I didn’t believe him at first. He confessed (to) leaving the cigarette on the chair.

10. Language points • 搭配：confess sth./ confess that---/ confess (to) doing sth. 承认（做了）某事； • confess allegiance to--- 向---表忠诚; • make a full confession of 彻底交代 • confession忏悔 • queer adj. (weird) • It’s queer that she never showed up since she moved in. • She has been feeling queer since she came back from the holiday. (感到不舒服）

11. Language points • bewilderment n. • The smart little boy led the enemy into a bewildermentof mountains. • He was found cold and breathless by the riverside, his eyes popping in bewilderment and fear. (困惑和恐惧） • 搭配：a bewilderment of混乱 • in bewilderment困惑、迷乱

12. Language points • have---to oneself完全属于自己 • After so many years, I still have this secret all to myself. I don’t want anybody to know about it. • feel like 摸上去；感觉像是； 想要 When I realized what a stupid mistake I had made, I feel like a fool. This body lotion will make your skin feel like satin. I don’t feel like a drink now.

13. Language points • ebb vb./n • He’s on his sixty, so his strength is slowly ebbing away. • The financial resources of the company have reached a low ebb. • Relations between the two countries are at a low ebb. • 搭配：at a low ebb处于低潮，处于衰退状态； the ebb and flow消长，兴衰，起伏；on the ebb正在衰落

14. Language points • take on sth呈现出；表现出 • These insects can take on the color of their surroundings. • Our city has taken on a new look. • My doctor told me not to take any more work on. (接受）

15. Language points • withdraw (retreat) vb. • He has withdrawn farther and farther into himself. 他变得越来越孤僻。 • The visitors withdrew when the doctor came into the room. • She withdrew from the election due to the scandal.

16. Language points • stretch vb./ n. • The process often stretches out to years, even decades. • You are stretching my patience to the limit. • We drove fast on a stretch of open field. 搭配： at a stretch一口气地，不休息地； be at full stretch极度紧张；竭尽全力 a stretch of road（water，open country）一段道路；一片汪洋； 一片旷野 over a stretch of three months过了三个月

17. Language points • stiff adj. • The acting was stiff and we couldn’t wait for the play to end. （演技僵硬 ） • There will be stiffer penalties for drunken drivers. (更严厉的） • 搭配：a stiff smile牵强的微笑；a stiff price过高的价格；

18. Language points • renunciation n. 放弃，断绝关系 • He made a renunciation of his American citizenship. • She made a renunciation of all his property, which she donated to the Red Cross.

19. Text II • 1. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) • British writer, well-known for his tales of Victorian time. Immensely popular both then and now, both in Britain and else where in the world. His works include “ A Tale of Two Cities”, “Oliver Twist”, “ Great Expectations”, “The Pickwick Papers”.

20. Text II • 2. A Christmas Carol • “Family Christmas” is an excerpt from “A Christmas Carol”. In the novel, three spirits took Scrooge, a stone-hearted stockbroker, to a tour around the city on Christmas Eve, and showed him the warmth and harmony in those poor families, which finally converted him to Christianity. The excerpted text describes the Christmas dinner at Bob Cratchit family, who lived a merry life on very little money

21. Main Idea (II) • The Cratchits is a poor big family yet full of warmth and harmony. On Christmas Eve, Mrs. Cratchit and some of her children prepared the dinner while waiting for other family members. Christmas dinner is of great importance to Christians, featured by goose and pudding, a luxury to the poor. Therefore, every one of the family cherished it so much. They had a wonderful dinner time and felt content with what they could have.

22. Sentence Translation • While Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepans of potatoes, and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob’s private property, conferred upon his son and heir in honor of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable parks. (see next slide) • confer on (upon) 授予， 授给 • They conferred the title of LL.D (法学博士）on him.

23. Sentence Translation • An honorary degree was conferred upon Porter. • 彼得少爷这时候把叉子叉进了锅里的土豆，（他身上的衬衣本来是鲍勃的， 后来为了庆祝圣诞节， 他让儿子继承了这件衣服，）可是衣服太大，衣领都快伸到彼得的嘴里了。穿得那么精神，彼得感到很高兴，心里盼着到热闹的时尚公园里去展示一下自己的亚麻衬衣。

24. Sentence Translation • And now two small Crachits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker’s they had smelled the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalting Master Peter Cratchit to the skies; while he ( not proud, although his collar nearly choked him) blew the fire until the slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled. ( hyperbole and personification)

25. Sentence Translation • 两个小Crachit，一个男孩，一个女孩，　这时冲进来，嚷嚷着在面包店外就闻到了烤鹅的香味，就知道一定是他们家的。两个孩子一边快乐地想象着烤鹅里的鼠尾叶草和洋葱，一边围着桌子蹦蹦跳跳，把彼得少爷捧上了天；而彼得（并不显得骄傲，尽管衣服领子让他几乎喘不过气来）吹着火，直到难煮的土豆沸腾起来，在锅里咕嘟咕嘟地敲着锅盖，好像急切地要跳出来好让主人剥皮。

26. Sentence Translation Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds---a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course; and, in truth, it was something very like it in that house. 家里接下来的热闹景象会让人觉得鹅简直是世界上最珍贵的禽类，这个长着羽毛的家伙让黑天鹅都黯然失色；事实上当时屋里的情景差不多就是这样。

27. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Crathit would have blushed to hint at such a thing. • 每个人都对布丁评论了一番，　但没有人提出或认为对于一个大家庭来讲这个布丁太小了。如果这么说那简直是大逆不道的，哪怕是暗示一下这个意思都会让人脸红。