Vocabulary Idioms & Phrases

Reading-Lines 19~52

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Listen to Lines 19~52

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What job did Robert Frost do?

Farming, teaching, and writing poems.

In “The Minor Bird,” which word rhymes with “me”?

Key.

In “The Minor Bird,”which word is closest in meaning to “singing”?

Key.

Frost was a teacher, too. He taught his students how to write poems.

how to write poems.→ how they could write poems.wh- 子句可改成名詞片語 (wh- to V) 的形式 .I learn how I can appreciate a poem.→I learn howto appreciate a poem. He taught me how I could appreciate a poem.→He taught me how toappreciate a poem. Next

Frost was a teacher, too. He taught his students how to write poems.

疑問詞 +to V 的名詞片語可以當主詞、受

詞或補語。主詞： How to read poems is a challenge.受詞： The teacher tried to find out whi

ch poem to read in class.補語： What troubles me is how to enco

urage kids to read poems aloud.

“What should we write about?” they would ask. “Write about something you know well,” he said. “Good writing grows out of having something to say.”

grow out of (= result from; come from) 來自於…；由…產生此動詞片語沒有被動式。The international company grew out of

a small family business. Her love for him grew out of being wit

h him day and night.

Frost had much to say. He always wrote about his own life or things he knew well. In “The Minor Bird,” he wrote about a bird whose song must have bothered him:  

I have wished a bird would fly away,  And not sing by my house all day;Have clapped my hands at him from the door  When it seemed I could bear no more.  

用完成式 have wished ，表示「其長期的心願」。 Have clapped my hands at him from the door /When it seemed I could bear no more. →I have clapped my hands at him to keep him off from the door.

Next

動詞 seem 後可以接 to V 、 (to be) N 、 (to be) Adj 、 that-clau

se ，或是 as if-clause ，皆當作「好像；似乎」解。

He seemed to have been in big trouble.It seems (to be) everyone’s hope that he will

be in a good mood.The speaker in the poem seems (to be) sad.It seems that the bird did not fly off.It seems (as if) the bird will be back soon.

The fault must partly have been in me.  The bird was not to blame for his key.And of course there must be something wrong  In wanting to silence any song.

The fault must partly have been in me./The bird was not to blame for his key. →It must partly have been my fault. The bird was not to blame for his singing.And of course there must be something wrong / In wanting to silence any song. →And indeed something must go wrong when I want to put a stop to any song.

How that bird bothered him! But then Frost thinks again—maybe itwas his fault, not the bird’s.  

感嘆詞 how 可修飾動詞，也可以用來修飾形容詞或其他副詞。How I wish I could be with you now!How beautiful the dress is!How wonderfully she sang!

以破折號引出的句子，來強調作者的看法或結論。

In “The Pasture,” Frost writes of farm jobs: cleaning leaves out of a spring and going to get a calf.

cleaning leaves out of a spring 和 going toget a calf 為 farm jobs 的同位語。

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;  I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away  (and wait to watch the water clear, I may);  I shan’t be gone long.—You come too.

shan’t 為 shall not 的縮寫

I’m going out to fetch the little calf  That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young  It totters when she licks it with her tongue.  I shan’t be gone long .—You come too.

It’s so young/It totters when she licks it with her tongue. →The calf is so young that it totters when its mother licks it with her tongue.

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Through his poems, Frost let his readers share his world. He let us see what he saw; he let us feel what he felt. Perhaps that’s why Frost’s poems are loved by so many.

Reading for main ideas.（　） 1. Robert Frost sang of _______ in his poems.  

(A) birds (B) farmers (C) nature  

C

Reading for main ideas.（　） 2.Frost thought people should write about _____.  

(A) something magical   (B) something they knew

well   (C) something they didn’t

know  

B

Reading for main ideas.（　） 3.Why are Frost’s poems loved by people?  

(A) Because he understood nature well.  

(B) Because he let us feel what he felt and see what he saw.  

(C) Because he told us something about nature that we don’t know.   

B

Topics for Discussion

Discussion 1:

Do you like to read poems? Why or why not?

Yes NoYes. No.Yes.Yes.

Reference answer 1:I like to read poems because poems are full of images and meanings. Sometimes while I read a poem, a beautiful picturemay come out in my mind. Andsometimes poets may let me feel Something different about ordinary things. Poems make the world different when I read them.

Reference answer 2:I don’t like to read poems. That’s because it is hard to understand them.

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