Lesson TenThe Richer, the Poorer

Background information A.   Gypsies Roma (people), commonly known as

Gypsies, a traditionally nomadic people found throughout the world. While the term gypsy is often attached to anyone leading a nomadic life, the Roma share a common biological, cultural, and linguistic heritage that sets them apart as a genuine ethnic group. When they first arrived in Europe over 500 years ago, the Roma were called Gypsies in the mistaken belief that they had come from Egypt.

Background informationThe true origins of the Roma remained

a mystery until the late 18th century, when European linguists discovered connections between the Romani language and certain dialects spoken in northwestern India. More recent linguistic and historical studies have confirmed that the Roma originated in India. The world population of Roma is difficult to establish with any certainty.

Background informationEstimates suggest that there are

between approximately 15 and 30 million Roma worldwide. Some 10 million Roma live in Europe, and they make up that continent’s largest minority population. The largest concentrations of Roma are found in the Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe, in central Europe, and in Russia and the other successor republics of USSR.

Background informationSmaller numbers are scattered

throughout western Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas. The Roma are divided into groups sometimes referred to as nations or tribes. These divisions generally reflect historical patterns of settlement in different geographic areas. Although historically renowned as wanderers, the vast majority of modern Roma live in settled communities.

Background informationB.  Lifestyles in America

1. Lost Generation Lost Generation, group of expatriate

American writers residing primarily in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The group never formed a cohesive literary movement, but it consisted of many influential American writers, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder.

Background informationThe group was given its name by the A

merican writer Gertrude Stein, who, in a conversation with Hemingway, used an expression she had heard from a garage manager, une géneration perdue (“a lost generation”), to refer to expatriate Americans bitter about their World War I (1914-1918) experiences and disillusioned with American society. Hemingway later used the phrase as an epigraph for his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926).

Background informationErnest Hemingway Twentieth-century American author

Ernest Hemingway wrote novels and stories that reflected his rich life experiences as a war correspondent, outdoor sportsman, and bullfight enthusiast. His writing style is simple yet vivid, and his characters embody the idea of “grace under pressure.”

Background information2. Beat Generation The beat generation is a group of

American writers of the 1950s whose writing expressed profound dissatisfaction with contemporary American society and endorsed an alternative set of values. The term sometimes is used to refer to those who embraced the ideas of these writers.

Background informationThe Beat Generation's best-known figu

res were writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who met as students at Columbia University in the 1940s, and San Francisco-based poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookstore, in the North Beach section of San Francisco, became a center of Beat culture and remained an enduring symbol of alternative literature into the 1990s. Another center of Beat activity was New York City’s East Village, where Ginsberg made his home.

Background information3. Hippie Hippie, member of a youth movement

of the late 1960s that was characterized by nonviolent anarchy, concern for the environment, and rejection of Western materialism. Also known as flower power, the hippie movement originated in San Francisco. The hippies formed a politically outspoken, antiwar, artistically prolific counterculture in North America and Europe.

Background informationTheir colorful psychedelic style wa

s inspired by drugs such as the hallucinogen Lysergic Acid Diethylamid (LSD). This style emerged in fashion, graphic art, and music by bands such as Love, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Pink Floyd.

Background informationPink Floyd The British rock group Pink Floyd, left

to right, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright, was formed in London, England, in 1965. In 1968 British guitarist David Gilmour joined the band, with Barrett leaving soon after. One of the group’s most successful albums was Dark Side of the Moon, from 1973, which spent 15 years as one of the top 200 albums in the United States.

Background information4. Yuppie Yuppie ---Young Urban Professional

Person ---a young upwardly mobile professional

person; ---someone under 40 who prospered

during the 1980s;Yuppies are thought to be more

conservative than the preceding hippie generation.

       

Background informationDispensing of the social causes of their

more passionate parents (who shed traditional values), yuppies tend to be 9-5 professional workers. Because of this, some people see them as sellouts. Yuppies tend to value material goods (especially trendy new things). In particular this can apply to their stocks, imported automobiles, development houses, and technological gadgets, particularly cell phones.

Background informationUnfortunately, the fast paced pursuit of

these material goods has unintended consequences. Usually in a hurry, they seek convenience goods and services. Being "time poor", their family relations can become difficult to sustain. Maintaining their way of life is mentally exhausting. Sometimes, they will move every few years to where their job goes, straining their family. The fast-paced lifestyle has been termed a rat race.

Text analysis Structure Part One: (para. 1) the two sisters’ c

ontrasting financial conditions in old age

 Part Two: (para. 2-19) recall on every earlier crucial stage of their lives

 Part Three: (Para. 20-34) their reunion in old age and similar opinions they share on life

Writing Technique 1. parody Parody(仿拟） , comic imitation of a

piece of writing.  The term has come to be applied als

o to the comic imitation of history, fiction, scientific writing, or any other prose. The essence of parody is the treatment of a light theme in the style appropriate to a serious work.

Writing TechniqueThe humor lies in the contrast

between subject matter and the treatment of it.

In parody, the theme and the characters are greatly modified or completely changed, but the style of the original is closely followed in those peculiarities that easily lend themselves to ridicule.

Writing Technique  eg. 1. Familiarity breeds contempt. (old saying )         Quality breeds success.  (ad for Ford

)2. Necessity is the mother of invention. (from Aesop’s Fable )    Failure is the mother of success.  3. A bird in hand is worth two in the wo

ods. (saying)  A job in hand was worth two in the f

uture. (from the text)

Writing Technique4. Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

     How I wonder what you’re!

     Up above the world so high,

     Like a diamond in the sky.       

     (The Star by Jane Taylor) 

     Twinkle, twinkle, little bat,

     How I wonder what you’re at!

     Up above the world you fly

     Like a teatray in the sky.   

   (from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol)

Writing Technique2. synecdoche（提喻）Synecdoche, figurative locution where

by the part is made to stand for the whole, the whole for a part, the species for the genus, and vice versa.

   Thus, in the phrase “50 head of cattle,” “head” is used to mean whole animals, and in the sentence “The president's administration contained the best brains in the country,” “brains” is used to mean intellectually brilliant persons.

Writing Techniqueeg. That Lottie had a doorstep was only

because her boss… doorstep   a house more examples: wheels  car (infml ) engine  a vehicle that pulls a train mind   an intelligent person hand   a person who does physical work big mouth   a person who talks too much

or too loudly; someone who tells secrets loudmouth  a person who talks too much

or too loudly

Writing Technique3. contrasteg. Let both sides explore what problems

unite us instead of laboring those problems which divides us. (John F. Kennedy)

Your knowledge of English “tells” you that certain strings of phonemes are permissible and others are not. (Victoria Franklin)

Difficult Sentences

1) Over the years Bess had lived each day as if there were no other.

   Over the years in spite of her sister’s urge to prepare for her old age, Bess seized every minute to enjoy herself as if she would die the next day.

 

Difficult Sentences

2) Lottie had a bank account that had never grown lean.

   Lottie always had quite a sum of money deposited in the bank.

Difficult Sentences

3) When the dimes began to add up to dollars, she lost her taste for sweets.

   When her savings grew considerably, she was too old to want candy any more.

Difficult Sentences

4) She made her choice easily. A job in hand was worth two in the future.

   She made her choice without the slightest hesitation. To have a promising job now was surely far more worthwhile than college.

Difficult Sentences

5) Two or three times she was halfway persuaded, but to give up a job that paid well for a homemaking job that paid nothing was a risk she was incapable of taking.

    

Difficult Sentences Two or three times, urged by others,

she thought seriously about marrying, but she didn’t because that would mean she had to give up a well-paying job and become a housewife / homemaker who didn’t get paid or all the work she did. This was something she couldn’t make herself accepted.

Difficult Sentences

6) They were often in rags and never in riches.

  They were often poor and never had much money.

Difficult Sentences

7) Very likely she would have dumped them on Lottie’s doorstep.

   If she had had children, she would very probably have left them with Lottie.

 

Difficult Sentences

8) The years, after forty, began to race.

   After one reached forty, one grew old rapidly.

Difficult Sentences

9) Lottie, trapped by the blood tie, knew she would have to send Bess money to bring her home.

  Though she always disproved of Bess’s way of life, she was well aware that as sisters they were closely related. She knew that she would have to help her out by sending money for her journey home.

Difficult Sentences

10) Don’t count the years that left us. At our time of life it’s the days that count.

  Don’t try to figure out how many years we are going to live. At our age, we must live in terms of days, not years, and spend each day joyfully.

Language points1. lean

v. ---rest on sth for support

   ~ against:      a ladder leaning against the wall

    ~ on / upon:   The old man leaned upon his stick.

   lean upon others for guidance

Language pointsa. ---without much flesh / thin and healthy

  a ~ body

     ---containing no or little fat

     ~ beef         ~ meat

    ---small in amount or quantity / not productive

    a ~ diet   a ~ harvest

    a ~ year  a ~ season for good films

Language points

2. worldly   a.

   ---material / not spiritual

~ concerns 世俗的心思  　  ~ distractions世俗的乐趣

    ---sophisticated / practical

    a ~ person 老成持重的人                       a few words of ~ wisdom 人生的经验之谈

Language points

  earthly   a.

    ---of this world / not spiritual

      ~ joys            ~ possessions 

Language points

3. errand     n.     ---short journey to take a messa

ge, get or deliver goods, etc.     run ~       be on ~      an ~ of mercy: 雪中送炭    

Language points

  ---journey to bring help to sb who is in distress

      a fool’s ~ : 徒劳无功的差事    ---(be sent / go on) a senseless

or unprofitable/ mission

Language points

4. indulge   v.

  ---allow oneself / sb have whatever one likes or wants

     ~ oneself / sb with sth

     ~ in sth     

Language points

I’m really going to indulge myself tonight with a bottle of champagne.

    ~ in a long hot bath

---satisfy

Will you indulge my curiosity and tell me how much it is?

Language points

indulgent   a.

 ~ parents   ~ teachers

 

  indulgence  n.

   a life of ~         self- ~     

   constant ~ in bad habits

   A cigar after dinner is my only ~.

Language points 5. put /turn /set one’s mind to sth:  give

all one’s attention to         keep one’s mind on sth: continue to p

ay attention togive one’s mind to sth: concentrate on

or give all one’s attention to have sth on one’s mind: worry about

sth

Language pointsbear / keep sth / sb in mind:  rememb

er sth / sbbend one’s mind to sth:  direct one’s t

houghts to sth   bring / call sb / sth to mind:  recall s

b / sth to one’s memory

Language points 6. expand    v.        ---长度、面积或体积等方面的扩张、膨胀，多含有朝四面八方扩展或延伸之义

    He breathed deeply and expands his chest.

    He expanded his operation to include all aspects of the clothing industry.

Language points

 extend    v.  

     ---表示时间、空间或土地等方面的纵向扩展或延续    

    The cold weather extended into March.

   The railway has been extended to the next town.

Language points

spread   v.   

    ---多指事物在时间、距离或面积上的扩大或延伸

   The various dealer’s prices shoe a wide spread.

   There is a tree with a spread of 100 feet.

Language points stretch    v.  

  ---可指身体上的伸展，长度或广度上的增长性，伸缩性

  There is not much stretch in this collar, I can hardly get it over my head.

  She got out of bed and had a very good stretch.

Language points

7. rags   n. --- (pl. of rag) old, worn or torn clothes

   dressed in rags

   from rags to riches

     

   riches   n. ---being rich / wealth

   the riches of Oriental arts

Language points

 chaos   n. ---confusion

   be in chaos

   means   n. ---method

   by all means          by no means

Language points

8. better     

   adv.     

be better off without sb / sth:   ---be happier without sb / sth

   We’d be better off without them as neighbors.                    

    

Language points

be better off doing sth:  ---be wiser

   He’d be better off going to the police about it.

   better late than never

   better safe than sorry

Language points

 n.   

for better (or) for worse:

                    

   for better or worse:

   It’s been done, and, for better or worse, we can’t change it now.

Language points 9. threadbare    a. ---worn thin; shabby    a ~ carpet       a ~ joke

bare-: ---without the usual covering or protection

     

Language points  bareback: a.   adv.  ---on a horse withou

t a saddle  barefaced:  a.  ---(定语） shameless  barefoot(ed):  a. adv. ---without shoes or

stockings  bareheaded:   a. adv. ---not wearing a ha

t  barelegged:     a. adv. ---wearing nothing

on one’s legs

Language points 10. conscience: n.  

     ---person’s awareness of right and wrong with regard to his own thoughts and action

    have a clear / guilty ~

   He has several murders on his conscience（受到良心的谴责） .

   You cannot in all conscience（的确，凭良心） regard that as fair pay.

Language points  conscientious:   a.

   ---careful to do what one ought to do and do it as  well as one can; done with great care and attention

    a ~ worker           a ~ attitude

   This essay is a most ~ piece of work.     

Language points

conscious：   a. ---awake

He was in a coma for days, but now he’s conscious again.

Are you conscious of how people will regard such behavior.

   

Language points

 consciousness:   n.

    class ~ 阶级觉悟    stream of consciousness

Language points

11. onrush: n. ---a strong movement forward

    an onrush of cold air

    

Language points  oncoming:  a.  ---coming      an oncoming event ongoing:  a. ---（定语） continuing t

o exist or progress an ~ program of research onshore:  a ---（定语） blowing fro

m the sea towards the l and    an ~ breeze

Language points

onslaught:  n. ---fierce attack

     an ~ on government housing policies

  on-stage:   a. / adv. ---on the stage

    three actors ~

Language points

12. to kick up one’s heels:  ---to be relaxed and enjoy oneself

    She’s a workholic and doesn’t know how to kick up her heels.

  to kick one’s heels:  ---to have nothing to do while waiting for sb / sth

    We’re just kicking our heels until the next semester begins.