Unit 13 Marriage习题答案综合教程四

Unit 13 Marriage

Key to the Exercises

Text comprehension

I.

II.

Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.

1.

T (Refer to Paragraph 1. The conventional people didn't have the falsely optimistic

expectation

that

marriage

would

be

easy,

which

can

be

seen

from

their

enthusiastic

response to the

2.

F

(Refer

to

Paragraph

2.

It

is

said

that

in

the

nineteenth

century,

the

horrors

of

marriage

were

depicted

especially

cruelly,

but

still

there

were

songs,

though

rare,

occasionally sung about happily married people, which could bring respectful silence to

the drunken husbands. )

3.

F

(Refer

to

Paragraph

4.

It

is

indicated

here

that

the

clergy

would

only

say

that

marriage was made in Heaven, but it wouldn't necessarily end in Heaven, too.)

4. T (Refer to Paragraph 7. Dr. Johnson's quote shows that he believes that marriage is

not something natural for man and woman, so however they try, it is still hardly enough

to keep them together.)

5. T (Refer to Paragraph 8, which tells us that almost everybody seems to have painted

the troubles of marriage in the darkest colours. And it is also mentioned that in modern

times nearly everybody, single or married, is imagined to be unhappy.)

6. T (Refer to Paragraph 9, which argues that, though it is believed that the ostrich can

never

escape

his

pursuers

by

burying

his

head

in

the

sand,

actually

many

of

them

do

survive

by

this

practice.

It

suggests

that

ignoring

the

difficulties

will

be

the

advisable

practice for all the married people.)

III.

Answer the following questions.

1.

Refer to Paragraph 1. By denying the existence of the conventional people as depicted

in Bertrand Russell's quotation who like to pretend that difficulties in regard to marriage

are

a

new

thing,

the

author

intends

to

show

that

everyone

in

this

world

agrees

that

marriage is difficult, from as early as the beginning of human society to the present day.

2.

Refer to Paragraph 2. According to the songs sung in music- halls, marriage was like a

hell

where

the

married

couple

were

constantly

troubled

by

the

wife's

twin

sister

and

mother.

3.

Refer to Paragraphs 2?. The humour in comic papers, songs in music-halls, and plays

and

novels

are

all

examples

to

illustrate

that

horrible

situation

of

marriage.

Then

Decide which of the following best states the author's purpose of writing.

B

quotations of reputed philosophers, writers, scientists and essayists are used to prove that

even the wise painted marriage in the darkest colours.

4.

Refer

to

Paragraphs

5?.

By

people,

the

author

refers

to

philosophers, writers and scientists, who have knowledge, talents and wisdom. What they

thought of marriage could be derived from the essence of human experience.

5.

Refer

to

Paragraph

8.

Since

social

reformers

are

keen

to

maintain

the

positive

development

of

society,

of

which

marriage

and

family

are

the

most

important

building

stones,

they

try

to

convince

people

to

pursue

happiness

in

marriage

by

recommending

changes in their lives; while thinkers and seekers of beauty are more realistic about the

chances

of

achieving

what

one

desires,

and

they

explore

the

essence

of

life

through

meditating over its miseries and difficulties.

6.

Refer

to

Paragraph

9.

The

ostrich,

when

pursued,

hides

its

head

in

the

sand

and

believes

itself

to

be

unseen.

The

logic

in

the

ostrich's

practice

is

that

one

can

avoid

danger or difficulty by refusing to face it. The author hopes that someday a naturalist will

find out the ostrich's logic is valid, so that people can follow this practice by ignoring the

difficulties

in

marriage,

or

pretending

that

they

never

exist.

The

metaphor

is

used

to

propose

that,

to

a

difficulty-conscious

generation who

are

too much burdened

with

the

thought of difficulty, it will be advisable to pretend in its non- existence. Otherwise, they

will never enjoy the rosy side of marriage. If marriage is really both Heaven and Hell, one

will never be in Heaven because of his fear of Hell.

IV.

Explain in your own words the following sentences.

1.

From the way they enthusiastically received the

Punch, we can tell that they adopted a sceptical attitude to marriage.

2.

Although the humor might sound offensively rude, it was readily accepted by people

in the Victorian era.

3.

The

marriage

state,

whether

there

is

love

involved

or

not,

is

a

combination

of

the

happiness and misery we may encounter in life.

Structural analysis of the text

The text falls into three parts: in Part 1 (Paragraph 1), the author, after quoting Russell on

the subject, puts forward his own argument that difficulties in regard to marriage have

been an old issue for centuries. In Part 2 (Paragraphs 2?), the author analyzes the roots of

such difficulties by listing quotations from famous literary works and famous people. In

Part

3

(Paragraphs

8?),

the

author

assigns

the

causes

of

unhappy

marriages

to

the

excessive consciousness of difficulties in human beings, and encourages people to face the

difficulties in marriage bravely.

Rhetorical features of the text

卼

he reputed saying of the henpecked Socrates, ...

Burton is far from encouraging!

Pepys scribbled in his diary ?

The pious Jeremy Taylor was as keenly aware that marriage is not all bliss.

The sentimental and optimistic Steele ?

Dr. Johnson, ?devoted husband though he was, ?

Vocabulary exercises

I.

1.

Explain the underlined part in each sentence in your own words.

inexperienced; unsophisticated; immature

2.

troubled

3.

welcome; response

4.

rude; harsh

5.

calamity; disaster

6.

lengthen in duration

II.

Fill

in

the

blank

in

each

sentence

with

a

word

or

phrase

from

the

box

in

its

appropriate form.

1. standing

2. make answer to

3. under no illusions

4. In regard to

5. beset

6. went home to his heart

7. prolong

8. hitherto

III.

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.

1. comedian

2. exaggeration

3. reputation

7. civilizations

IV.

Choose

the

word

or

phrase

that

can

replace

the

underlined

part

in

each

sentence

without changing its original meaning.

1. D

2. C

5. B

6. A

V.

Give a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the sense

3. A

4. B

7. C

8. D

4. repentant

8. imaginary

5. poker

6. desirous