新视野大学英语读写教程第四册unit2预习资料

新视野大学英语读写教程第四册unit2预习资料Unit2 section A
1995 worldwide survey of film critics, Chaplin was voted the greatest actor in movie history. He was the first, and to date the last, person to control every aspect of the filmmaking process.
2.Background information
1.Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
Charlie Chaplin was a British comedy actor, becoming the most famous actor in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and also a notable director. His pr incipal character was “the Tramp”: a vagrant with the refined manners and dignity of a gentleman who wears a tight coat, oversized trousers and shoes, a bowler hat, a bamboo cane, and his signature toothbrush moustache. Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities in the silent film era: He acted in, directed, scripted, produced, and eventually even scored his own films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 70 years, from the British Victorian stage and Music Hall in England as a child performer, almost until his death at the age of 88. He led one of the most remarkable
and colorful lives of the 20th century, from a Dickens-like London childhood to the pinnacle of world fame in the film industry and as a cultural icon. His high-profile public and private life encompassed highs and lows of both adulation and controversy.
2. Monsieur Verdoux
Monsieur Verdoux is a character in
the film entitled the same. He is an unemployed banker. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux is laid-off. To support his family, he periodically heads out of the town, marries wealthy widows and then murders them. This behavior eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.
3. Modern Times
Modern Times is a 1936 film by Charlie Chaplin that has his famous Little Tramp character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression—conditions created, in Chaplin’s view, by the efficiency of modern industrialization. It was written and
directed by Chaplin. The film has been deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
4. The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is a 1925 silent film comedy written, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp role. The Little Tramp ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some rough characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm.
5 The Pawnshop
The Pawnshop is a film in which Charlie plays a shop assistant who competes with his fellow. When he is fired by the pawnbroker and rehired, he nearly destroys everything in the shop and himself.
6. Mack Sennett (1880-1960)
Mack Sennett was an American silent film producer and director, perfected the art of slapstick in his “Keystone” series. During his lifetime he was known as the King of Comedy.
pound Dictation
My first memories of movies are of flickering black and white images of Charlie Chaplin. The revival theatre in my neighborhood played silent movies often. In [S1] _______, it was not a true revival theater. The elderly manager had only silent movies to screen to his small [S2] _________. Still, my parents, grandparents and I gathered each Saturday night to see Chaplin movies such as The Gold Rush. The manager liked this movie and showed it with great [S3] _________ even if he had advertised another movie. I came to know the [S4] ____ of this film very well. Chaplin, of course, played the same [S5] ________, the Tramp, in all his early films. His clothes were [S6] ___________, his hat was torn and his cane was [S7] _________ cricked. He walked like a penguin. He got into trouble and somehow always managed to get out of it. Although my family and I watched the same Chaplin’s short films and silent movies many times, we laughed at his predicaments (穷境,困局) as if we were seeing them for the first time. We were never tired of laughing. Chaplin had a special [S8] ____ for causing laughter. He also composed memorable music for his films. When I was in high school I played his Smile and This Is My Song in a piano recital. [S9]______________________________________
____________________________________________.As the years passed, Chaplin and my family passed with them.
[S10] _____________________________
_______________. He died in 1977. In 1981, a bronze statue of Chaplin standing on the plinth (底座) was unveiled in London’s Leicester Square. [S11]_______________________________________ ________________________________.
4. Structure analysis
The passage is about the life story of a famous figure, Charlie Chaplin. In structure the whole passage is a piece of writing with a central topic supported by different aspects as follows:
Part I (Paras. 1-2)
A general introduction to Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin was born into a poor family but created comic characters of lasting fame. He won more reputation in many other countries than in the land of his birth.
Part II (Paras. 3-6)
Charlie Chaplin’s artistic achievement.This part deals with Chaplin’s success from his famous comedy, the Tramp, to sound movies and his secrets of making great comedies.
Part III (Para. 7-8)
Charlie Chaplin’s emotional life.The collision between his urge to be loved and his fear of being betrayed led to failure in his early marriages, found its way into his comedies, but meanwhile brought him the chance to walk off into the sunset with Oona in reality.
Part IV (Para. 9)
Incident after Charlie Chaplin’s death.After his death, Chaplin’s body was once stolen, but it was the incident that served as a fitting memorial to the great comic of the world fame.
5. summary
Chaplin is a great c omic not only for his own mother country but more for the world. Chaplin’s Tramp was considered a little _____ and thought that he had too much of an eye for the ladies and that his clothes gave him an __________ more like an Italian waiter than anything else. He resisted making a ______ movie until 1936 when he made up a _________ language which sounded like no known nationality. Chaplin achieved great success because he was an immensely _______ man and the kind of comic who used his _______ senses to invent his art as he went along. However, the _______ between the need to be loved and the fear of being _______ resulted in disaster in his ________ life which was shown in his movies. Eventually, life gave Chaplin the stable _________, that is, his marriage with Oona O’Neil. Chaplin died on _________ Day 1977.
6. translation
1. 他愤然离开房间。

2. 我没有意识到她将永远离开我了。

3. 整件事都是她编造出来吓她父母的。

4. 你应该提早预订那场音乐会的票。

5. 我们再也不相信他了。

6. 别对我大喊大叫，我不干了！
7. 我希望他们永远不要回来。

8. 不要为此编理由了。

9. 请把贵公司行程电邮给我，以便我预先安排。

10. 自从考试不及格，他对自己的能力失去了信心。

1.He quit the room angrily.
2. I hardly realized she was leaving me for good.
3. She made the whole story up to shock her parents.
4. You should book tickets for the concert well in advance.
5. We’ve lost faith in him.
6.Don’t shout at me. I quit!
7. I hope they’ve gone for good this time!
8.Don’t make an excuse for that.
9.Please e-mail me your plan so that I can arrange in advance.
10.He have lost faith in his ability since he failed in the exam.
Section B
1. run for: try to get elected to a public position 竞选
奥巴马决定参加2008年美国总统的竞选并获得了胜利。

Obama decided to run for 2008 U.S. presicency and won victory.
知识归纳run into 偶然碰见run off 逃走
run out 被用完run over 碾过
run through 穿过run to 达到
run up against 与······相撞
2. top priority high or top place among various things to be done 优先权，优先
重建地震灾区是现在的当务之急。

Top priority should be given to rebuilding the quake-stricken areas.
3.have/gain the upper hand: have the advantage or control over 占优势，占上风；控制
经过数小时的激烈谈判，总统占了上风。

After hours of fierce negotiations, the president had / got the upper hand.
无论何时与儿子发生冲突，她总是占上风，因为惟有她控制着家庭的大部分财产。

When conflicts arose between her and her son, she had the upper hand, for she alone controlled the bulk of the family fortune.
4.tear down: remove or pull down sth. roughly 撕下，扯下
这位领导人的照片在夜晚被他的敌人撕了下来
The photograph of the leader has been torn down in the night by his enemies.
5.in/by contrast: used to emphasize that sth. is clearly different from sth. else 相比之下
过去的5年中他们的经济增长得很快，相比之下，我们的经济反而滑坡了。

Their economy has expanded enormously in the last five years, whereas ours, by/in contrast, has declined.
如果你看到他们的系统，相形之下我们的系统就太过时了。

When you look at their new system, ours seems very old-fashioned by contrast.
6.in earnest: seriously and sincerely 认真地
倒计时早在10月份就正式开始了。

The countdown begins in earnest as early as October.
现在我要比以前更努力地学习英语，每星期要比学生们超前一章。

Now I shall have to study the English language in earnest, keeping one chapter ahead of the students each week.
y out: 1. spread sth. out 摆出，摆开2. plan how sth. should look and arrange it in this way 安排；布置；设计
lay aside 留存lay down 牺牲；制定
lay in 储备，储存lay off (临时)解雇
lay on 提供lay up 储存
他向我展示了如何编排版面。

He showed me how to lay out a printed page.
所有的条款都在合同中列出了。

All the terms and conditions are laid out in the contract.
8.watch over:guard; take care of sb. or sth. 照顾，看管
我去买点吃的，你能帮我照看一下行李吗？
I am going to buy some food. Can you watch over my luggage?
我要找个人在我出差期间帮我照看房子。

I need to find someone to watch over my house when I leave on business.。