-
EXERCISES 9
________
________________________________
I. Give brief answers to the following
questions, using your own words as much as
possible:
1) Why is Mark
Twain one of America's
best
-
loved
authors?
2) Give a brief
account of Mark Twain's experience before he
became a writer.
3) Why did
the author adopt 'Mark Twain' as his pen
name?
4) When did Mark Twain
become a pilot on a steamboat? How long did he
stay there? What did
he learn there?
What effect did this experience have on his
writing?
5) Why did Twain
leave the river country? What did he do
then?
6) What story did he
write that made him known as
”
?
7)
Why did the book, the Innocents Abroad, become an
instant
best
-
seller?
8) Why is Tom Sawyer as sure to be
studied in American schools today as is the
Declaration of
Independence?
9) Why did Twain become bitter late in
life?
Ⅱ
. Paraphrase:
1) A man who became obsessed with the
frailties of the human race
2) Mark Twain digested the new American
experience before sharing it with the world as
writer
and lecturer.
3) The cast of characters set before
him in his new profession was rich and
varied
--
a
cosmos.
4)
Broke
and
discouraged,
he
accepted
a
job
as
reporter
with
the
Virginia
City
Territorial
Enterprise
5)
Mark Twain began digging his way to regional fame
as a newspaper reporter and humorist.
6)
California all
over
’
'
7) Bitterness
fed on the man who had made the world
laugh.
Ⅲ
. Translate the following
into Chinese:
1)
From
them
all
Mark
Twain
gained
a
keen
perception
of
the
human
race,
of
the
difference
between what
people claim to be and what they really
are.
2)
Tom's
mischievous
daring,
ingenuity,
and
the
sweet
innocence
of
his
affection
for
Becky
Thatcher
are
almost
as
sure
to
be
studied
in
American
schools
today
as
is
the
Declaration
of
Independence.
3) Mark Twain suggested that an
ingredient was missing in the American ambition
when he said:
the shelf
occasionally and renew our edges.
4) In The Mysterious Stranger, he
insisted that man drop his religious illusions and
depend upon
himself, not Providence, to
make a better world.
5)
where they were a mistake and a failure
and foolishness; where they have left no sign that
they
had existed
--
a world which will lament
them a day and forget them forever.
Ⅳ
.
Pick
out
the
compound
nouns
and
compound
adjectives
fry
the
text
and
explain
their
formation.
Ⅴ
. Give the antonyms of the
words listed below:
1)
optimist
2)
savage
3) keen 4) to
rebuff
5) diligently
6) sluggish
7) to acknowledge
8) colossal
9)
tedious
10)
dreary
Ⅵ
. Pick out all the words
and phrases connected with boats and
rivers.
VII. In
this text, a lot of nouns are used as attributes.
Pick them out.
Models: 1)
tramp printer2) steamboat days
VIII. Explain how the
meaning of the following sentences is affected
when the italicized words
are replaced
with the words in brackets. Pay attention to the
shades of meaning of the words.
1)
Indeed,
this
nation's
best
-
loved
author
was
every
bit
as
adventurous,
patriotic,
romantic,
and
humorous as anyone has ever imagined.
(sentimental) (witty)
2 )
Tramp printer, river pilot, Confederate guerrilla,
prospector, starry
-
eyed
optimist, acid
-
tongued
cynic(critic)
3)
Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved dove
stream to the delta country (timber
4)
From
them
all
Mark
Twain
gained
a
keen
perception
of
the
human
race,
of
the
difference
between what people claim to be and
what they really are. (proclaim
oneself)
5)
When
railroads
began
drying
up
the
demand
for
steamboat
pilos
and
the
Civil
War
halted
commerce (need) (stop)
6) Attacks on the city government,
concerning such issues as mistreatment of Chinese,
so angered
officials that he fled to
the gold
-
fields
(ill
-
treatment)
7) It was that population that gave to
California a name for getting up astounding
enterprises... and
a recklessness of
cost or consequences. (results)
8) In the dreary winter of
1864
-
65 in Angels Camp, he
kept a notebook. ( tedious)
9) In New York City the steamship
Quaker City prepared to sail on a pleasure cruise
to Europe and
the Holy Land.
(pleasant)
10)
Twain
was
assigned
to
accompany
them,
as
correspondent
for
a
California
newspaper.
(reporter)
11)
What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we
might be (healthy)
12) He
commented with a crushing sense of despair on
man's final release from earthly struggles
(desperation)
IX. The italicized words are used
metaphorically. Explain their meanings in your own
words and
comment on the suitability of
the metaphors in each case.
1)
Most
Americans
remember
Mark
Twain
as
the
father
of
Huck
Finn's
idyllic
cruise
through
eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's
endless summer of freedom and
adventure.
2) The geographic
core, in Twain's early years was the great valley
of the Mississippi River, main
artery
of transportation in the young nation's
heart.
3) The cast of
characters set before him in his new profession
was rich and varied
--
a
cosmos
4) Steamboat decks
teemed not only with the main current of
pioneering humanity, but its flotsam
of
hustlers, gamblers,and thugs as well.
5)
He
went
west
by
stagecoach
and
succumbed
to
the
epidemic
of
glod
and
silver
fever
in
Nevada's Washoe
region.
6) For eight months
he flirted with the colossal wealth available to
the lucky and the persistent,
and was
rebuffed.
7) From the
discouragement of his mining failures, Mark Twain
began digging his way to regional
fame
as a newspaper reporter and humorist.
8) Mark Twain honed and experimented
with his new writing muscles.
X. Besides metaphors and
hyperboles, the writer used many other figures of
speech to make his
writing more vivid
and powerful. Point out the figures used in the
following sentences:
1)
From
them
all
Mark
Twain
gained
a
keen
perception
of
the
human
race,
of
the
difference
between what
people claim to be and what they really
are.
2) He tried soldiering
for two weeks with a motley band of Confederate
guerrillas who diligently
avoided
contact with the enemy.
3)
But for making money, his pen would prove mightier
than his pickax.( )
4)
“
It
was
a
splendid
population
–
for all
the
slow,
sleepy,
sluggish
-
brained
sloths
stayed
at
home
”
( )
5)
recklessness of cost or
consequences
”
(
)
6) Bitterness fed on the
man who had made the world laugh.( )
7) He commented with a crushing sense
of despair on man's final release from earthly
struggles ( )
8) a world
which will lament them a day and forget them
for
-
ever ( )
XI. Make sentences using
the following words in a figurative
sense:
1) heart2) artery3)
current
4) Hotbed5) to dry
up6) to hone
XII.
In
some
places
the
author
uses
hyperboles
(exaggerations
for
effect)
to
emphasize
his
meaning. Try to pick them
out.
Models: 1) eternal
boyhood
2) America laughed
with him.
XIII.
Replace the italicized words and phrases with more
formal words or expressions:
1)
Indeed,
this
nation's
best
-
loved
author
was
every
bit
as
adventurous...
as
anyone
had
ever
imagined. ( )
2)
Broke and discouraged, he accepted a job as
reporter ( )
3) That gave to
California a name for getting up astounding
enterprises ( )
4) and
rushing them through with a magnificent dash and
daring ( )
5)
6)
--
bet
stranger $$50.
7) Casually he
debunked revered artists and art treasures. (
)
8) He insisted that man
drop his religious illusions ( )
ⅩⅣ
.
Translate
the
following
into
English
(using
the
following
words
or
expressions:
to
find
expression in, to shape
... into, to have no choice but, to succumb, not
until, to acquaint ... with,
that's ...
all over, to be obsessed with, to teem with, every
bit as ... as, acquaintance, to sb.’s horror,
to sb. 's satisfaction):
1
）对贫困的担心使他忧虑重重。
2
）洞庭湖盛产鱼虾。
3
）汤姆的聪明丝毫不亚于班上的第一名学生。
4
）我认识他，但我们说不上是朋友。
5
）在压力下，他别无办法，只好离职。
6
）最后他被她说服了，决定改变原计划。
7
）那时许多儿童死于天花。
8
）他发现船舱里进了很多水，十分惊恐。
9
）孩子们考试成绩优异，家长和教师都很满意。
10
）彼得的特点真是如此。
11
）直到半夜医生才做完手术。
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12
）历史课使我对古代文明有所了解。
13
）老作家根据这个民间故事写成了一个电影剧本。
14
）新上演的那出话剧充分表现了中国人民
大无畏的革命精神。
XV.
Topic for oral work
Why does
the writer consider Mark Twain a mirror of
America?
XVI.
Write a summary of the life to Mark Twain within
200 words.
____
____________________________________
习题全解
I .
1)Because his literary works such as
two novels about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are
loved by
Americans, who imagine he was
adventurous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous.
2)
Before
he
became
a
writer,
he
worked
as
a
tramp
printer,
river
pilot,
Confederate
guerrilla,
prospector, and
reporter. He had done varied jobs.
3) He adopted his pen name from the cry
heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms
of
water.
4) He
became a pilot on a steamboat in 1857 and stayed
there for four and a half years. There he
learned a lot about human nature and
gained a keen perception of the human race. This
experience
immensely enriched his
writing.
5) He left the
river country
because the development
of railroad, rendered steamboat pilots less