Unit 6 Being There 练习答案

Unit 6

Being There

Consolidation Activities

I. Text Comprehension

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

A. To give a brief account of the history of travel.

B. To present a picture of Americans traveling overseas.

C. To e xplain people’s unarticulated desires for travel.

Key: [ C ]

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

1). Travel is a means to escape what we are tired of in the modern world. [ T ]

2). When we travel abroad, we tend to put on a mask so that nobody can recognize us. [ F ]

3). One of the pleasures during your travel is the fact that you can see things you are familiar with. [ F ]

4). According to the author, the various reasons for our travel are the sources for the survival of travel books. [ T ]

5). The classical ruins of antiquity enable some travelers to feel the ecstasy of spoliation. [ F ]

4. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text. 1) When we travel, we are not so much on the alert or less wary of what might happen to us, instead we show keen interest in what happened in the past. We release our desires that have long been suppressed.

2) When we travel, we normally move out to see the exotic world, but now the traveler himself becomes something exotic in the place he visits, and modern travel books may focus on what we have “eliminated or edited out”, just as traditional travel books focus on what is still there.

II. Writing Strategies

Structurally, the essay develops along the thread that begins with an examination of

conventional motivations for traveling, then moves on to a discussion of travel writings that offer useful insights into travelers’ psychology, and ends with a description of an unusual approach some contemporary travelers adopt. Now try to find the cohesive devices the author employs to connect these three sections.

Paragraph 12 serves as a transition from the examination of travelers’ motivations to a discussion of travel books. The first sentence “Because we tr avel for so many reasons —some of them contradictory — travel writing is like a suitcase into which the writer tries to cram everything” establishes a cohesive tie between this and the preceding paragraph. Paragraph 15 indicates the author’s move to the n ext topic. Cohesion is realized by the last sentence, “He underestimated the variousness of our reasons for traveling,” which nicely connects with what the reader will immediately come across in the subsequent paragraph: “There have always been travelers who went to look for the worst ... ”

III. Language Work

1. Explain the underlined part(s) in each sentence in your own words.

1). We’re going to see in Europe everything we have eliminated or edited out of our own culture in the name of convenience ...

→ have removed from; for the sake of

2). ... the lack of money and leisure had all restrained curiosity until the seventeenth century, when under pressure of scientific discoveries, the physical world began to gape open.

→ inhibited; open widely

3). The frenzied shopping of some travelers is an attempt to buy a new life.

→ spending sprees/wild shopping

4). The places we visit are gold-plated by the sun.

→ beautified

5). We cling to the belief that other peoples are more passionate than we are.

→ cherish/adhere to

6). There have always been travelers who went to look for the worst, to find rationalizations for their anxiety or despair ...

→ find reasons or excuses for

7). Why else would Paul Theroux go to South America, which he so obviously detested?

→ For what other reason; disliked

8). Shiva Naipaul’s worst fears were confirmed in Africa ...

→ proved to be well-grounded

9). Graham Greene spent four months traveling in the Liberian jungle as a private penance.