备 课 纸 任教课程：《综合英语》（二） 年 月 日
are both true Examples:
He was shocked by the poverty in the midst of affluence. She was a devout Catholic and also the village whore. He is vain about not being vain.
Her house was an oasis for the weary village men, exhausted from having so little to do. All mothers know that they sometimes have to be cruel to be kind. The more we possess, the more we are possessed. No belief is in itself a belief.
3.3 Sentence Paraphrase
1. … time didn’t mean much to anybody, except maybe to those who were dying. The villagers didn’t think time was important until perhaps when they were dying.
2. In those days, there was no real need for a calendar or a watch to keep track of the hours, days, months, and years.
keep track of: to keep oneself informed about a person, situation, etc. cf. lose track of: to fail to remain informed Examples:
They try hard to keep track of their favorite stars. He loses track of time whenever he surfs the Net.
3. Para. 2
But ours was a natural or, rather, a divine-calendar, because it was framed by acts of God: earthquakes and droughts and floods and locusts and pestilences.
… We used natural disasters to keep track of time and of the important events in our lives. This was a natural calendar though it is more accurate to say a divine calendar, for sunrise and sunset, the change of seasons, and earthquakes and droughts and floods and locusts and pestilences were all works of God.
4. Para. 4
… that caused the roof on the mayor’s house to cave in. (of roof or wall) to fall down or inward; to collapse … that caused the mayor’s house roof to collapse.
5. Para. 7
You couldn’t be more accurate than that, now, could you? (spoken) used for giving emphasis to a request, order, or comment
Be careful, now. (order)
Now, what’s going on here? (request) It’s marvelous, now isn’t it? (comment)
6
备 课 纸 任教课程：《综合英语》（二） 年 月 日
6. Para. 8
And that’s the way it was in our little village for as far back as anybody could remember. And that’s how we kept track of the important events in our little village to the extent that/ for as long as the oldest people could remember.
7. … because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told and retold that story until it was incorporated into Magdaluna’s calendar. to save their lives; … until the event became one of the things by which we kept track of the important events in our lives.
This shows, to some extent, the way of thinking of the villagers in those days when honesty prevailed. They trusted honest people and didn’t seek any proof for what had been said about past events.
incorporate sth. (into): to add or include sth. as part of sth. else Examples:
The company decided to incorporate the new feature into their microcomputer.
A number of courses in public relations have been incorporated into our curriculum.
8. There was, for instance, the year of the drought, when the heavens were shut for months and the spring from which the entire village got its drinking water slowed to a trickle. It didn’t rain for months as if the sky were shut tight; Gradually there was only a small amount of water coming slowly out of the spring.
9. to: used for stating what condition or state sb. or sth. is after a change
The ancient temple has been restored to its former glory. The disease has reduced the patient to a bag of bones. 10. Para. 9 their napping men and wet babies
their husbands who were taking a nap and their babies who were breast fed
Cultural Note: Men in Arab countries, especially in the countryside, usually don’t do any housework.
11. Para. 10 And sometimes the arguments escalated into full-blown, knockdown-dragout fights.
in the most complete and developed form; (AmE.) very violent or uncontrolled
And sometimes the arguments became so fierce that the women began to fight violently. 12. Para. 10 … call each other names that made my ears tingle… to abuse them by insulting words
… the words they used when they were quarreling were so offensive that we little boys felt uncomfortable…
13. Para. 10 I remember the rush, the excitement, the sun dancing on the dust clouds as a dress ripped and a young white breast was revealed, then quickly hidden.
Some women were fighting furiously creating dust clouds. The sun was moving quickly on the dust when a young woman’s dress was torn open and her breast exposed. We little boys would rush to steal a glance before it was hidden again. I still remember the excitement I felt at such moments.
14. … Magdaluna was not going to get anywhere until it had one.
7
备 课 纸 任教课程：《综合英语》（二） 年 月 日
… Magdaluna wouldn’t achieve any success without a telephone.
15. to get anywhere/somewhere/nowhere: to make some/no progress or have some/no success
Have you got anywhere in your project?
You’ll surely get somewhere if you persist in it.
Losing your temper won’t get you anywhere with them.
16. But they were outshouted and ignored and finally shunned by the other villagers… those for the telephone were louder (or stronger) than the others in their arguments
But the majority of the villagers were for the telephone, and they wouldn’t listen to those few people who were finally deliberately avoided for resisting progress.
17. … when the loud voices of the men talking, laughing, and arguing could be heard in the street below—a reassuring, homey sound.
a sound that makes you feel less worried and that is in a pleasant way and reminds you of home 18. … the signal that they were ready to toss back and forth, like a ball, the latest rumors going around the village.
… this showed that now they were ready to exchange the latest news.
19. The telephone was also bad news for me personally. It took away my lucrative business—a source of much-needed income. used humorously to exaggerate the boy’s disappointment at his loss
For the boy the coming of the telephone deprived him of the opportunity to earn some money. 20. On a good day, I ran nine or ten of those errands, which assured a steady supply of marbles that I usually lost to other boys. to make sth. certain to happen Example:
Strength and good tactics assured his success at the Asian Games.
When I was lucky, I got nine or ten errands to run a day. With the money I earned I could buy new marbles so that I always had an adequate number to play with, although I usually lost them to other boys.
21. Magdaluna became a skeleton of its former self, desolate and forsaken, like the tombs, a place to get away from.
With the healthy, the young, and the able-bodied all gone, Magdaluna was not what it had been. The house, the streets and the store were there, but they were no longer alive with laughter and the loud voices of the men talking, laughing, and arguing. It became a much-deserted place, a place to escape from, like a graveyard or cemetery.
Part Four Language Study
4.1 Phrases and Expressions
4.1.1 Word list:
1. droppings; fish-bearing; flare; forcefully; forsaken; full-blown; grapple; hailstorm; heel; hide-and-seek; homey; incorporate; jet-black; knockdown 4.1.2 Phrases and expressions list:
1. terraced fields; 2. rocky mountains; 3. whooping cough; 4. surrounding villages; 5. a clearing in
8
备 课 纸 任教课程：《综合英语》（二） 年 月 日
the wood; 6. fine dust; 7. goat droppings; 8. sticky hands; 9. sinewy women; 10. a forest of flags 11. firsthand information; 12. jet-black hair; 13. a devout Catholic; 14. household chores; 15. a reassuring homey sound; 16. hand-rolled cigarettes; 17. lucrative business; 18. a butcher-shop; 19. a skeleton of its former self; 20. a missionary school 4.1.3 Word Building
Jet-black; pitch-dark; pitch-black; crystal-clear; snow-white; sea-green; ice-cold; sky-high; sky-blue
4.2 Grammar
4.2.1 Learn to use as and though as concessive conjunctions. 1. adjective + as/though + sb/sth + link verb 2. noun phrase + though + sb/sth + link verb 3. Much as + subject + verb 4. Try as sb might/could/would
4.2.2 Learn to use It is/was (high) time (that) sb did sth 1. long past the right time for sth, e.g.
It’s high time the children were in bed. The clock has struck midnight. (They should have gone to bed long ago) 2. the appropriate time for sth, e.g.
Abu Raja, the retired cook, decided it was time Magdaluna got its own telephone. (para. 11) (…it was the right time for the village to have its own telephone)
Part Five Extension
5.1 Group discussion
1. Do you think that people’s natural nostalgia should be encouraged? Wouldn’t it make people look backward and therefore become conservative?
2. Can you give examples other than the telephone to show that all important technological and scientific discoveries lead to economic, political, social and cultural changes? 3. Are technological inventions always blessings to us human beings? 5.2 Debating
Topics for debating:
1. Describe the year of the drought the author remembers so fondly. 2. Describe how the telephone came to be installed in the village.
3. Describe how the village’s social center shifted from Im Kaleem’s home to the dikkan. 4. Give a brief character sketch of Im Kaleem.
9
Unit 6 The Telephone教案（综英二）
