英语泛读教程2-推荐下载

Unit 1 Text 1 The Shadowland of Dreams

I About the author

Alex Haley 1925-1992 American biographer scriptwriter author who became famous with the publication of the novel Roots which traces his ancestry back to Africa and covers seven American generations as they are taken slaves to the United States The book was adapted to television series and woke up an interest in genealogy particularly among African-Americans Alex Haley was born in Ithaca New York His father was a teacher of agriculture The family moved to the small town of Henning Tennessee when Alex Haley was an infant In Henning Haley heard stories from maternal grandmother Cynthia Palmer who traced the family genealogy to Haleys great-great-great-great-grandfather who was an African called Kin-Tay and brought by slave-ship to America Haley did not excel at school or university During World War Two Haley enlisted in the Coast Guard and started to write adventure stories After twenty years of service Haley left the Coast Guard in 1959 to become a full-time writer II Language notes

1 When I left a 20-year-career in the Coast Guard to become a freelance writer I had no prospect at all

当我放弃在海岸警卫队做了二十年的工作而成为一名自由撰稿

人时我的前途渺茫A freelance writer is a writer who earns his money without being in the regular employment of any particular organization

2 It didnt even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom

房子里冷嗖嗖的也没有卫生间就连这也没有什么关系The

that-clause is the real subject standing for the first "it"

3 On the phone was an old acquaintance from the Coast Guard now stationed in San Francisco

打电话来的是一位海岸警卫队供过职的老熟人现在在旧金山

The sentence structure is inverted for the subject is too long

4 He had once lent me a few bucks and liked to egg me about it

他曾经借给我几美元总喜欢喋喋不休地要我还给他Egg here means to encourage strongly or to urge persistently eg I didnt want to accept her offer but Peter kept egging me on

5 From deep inside a bull-headed resolution welled up

我的内心深处升起一个坚强的信念Well up means to flow or start to flow and here well is used as a verb

eg Anger was welling up in him

Blood was welling out from the wound

6 Rumor had it that if a customer ordered steak the singer would dash to a supermarket across the street to buy one

据传如果有客人在餐馆里点了牛排这位歌手会火速跑去街对面

的超市为他买一个

Rumor has it that is a common sentence pattern meaning that people are saying

7 Id be hard pressed to say which means the most to me

我很难说哪一个对我最重要Be hard pressed means to feel it very difficult

Unit 1 Text Isambard Kingdom Brunel

I About the author

Miles Kington is an English humorist and a regular columnist

II About Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsea on 9th April 1806 to an English mother and a French father His father Marc Brunel was a French monarchist whose continuing residence in revolutionary France had made life there somewhat uncomfortable When working in New York Marc