综合教程第一单元词汇练习

Book I Unit 1

Difficult Sentences

1. There is often a reference to William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens to encourage him even more.

Who are “William Shakespeare” and “Charles Dickens”?

(= Shakespeare is the world’s most popular playwright while Dickens is the greatest English novelist of the 19th century.)

Why are they mentioned in the advertisements?

(= The people who run the advertisements just want to use quotations to support their points.)

2. If it were as easy to learn English as they say, I would have to look for another job, because very few qualified teachers would be needed.

What is the author’s profession?

(= He must be an English teacher whose job is to train qualified English teachers.)

3. …, and it is no use pretending that anyone has discovered a perfect way of teaching English in every possible situation.

What are the meaning and the usage of the phrase “i t is no use …”?

1) The phrase means “i t has no effect …”.

2) Whenever we use this phrase we should always use the V-ing form after it.

More examples:

* It’s no use complaining.

* It’s no use crying over spilt milk, — he’s spent all the money, and there’s nothing you can do about it.)

Translate this part into Chinese.

(= 而且也无需装模作样地声称有什么人已经找到了一个万能的适合所有学习环境的教学方法。)

4. No doubt this is true to a certain extent, but it is not very helpful to students.

What can we learn from the expression “This is true to a certain extent, but …”?

(= We can see the author doesn’t totally agree with the previous statement.

Then, what, in the author’s opinion, is helpful to students?

(= Students should have some good methods in learning English.)

5. Some students go to the opposite extreme and think they can teach themselves at home with dictionaries.

What can we infer from the phrase “go to the opposite extreme”?

(= From this phrase, we can see that the author doesn’t think learning English by using dictionaries only is a good method, either.)

6. But it is wrong to assume that each word in English has a precise equivalent in another language and vice versa.

Translate the sentence into Chinese.

(= 如果你认为英语中的每一个词在另一语言中都有完全对等的词（或反之亦然），那就错了。)

7. If we were parrots or chimpanzees, these methods might be successful.

What can we infer from the sentence?

(= The author uses subjunctive mood here to show he disagrees with behaviorists.)

8. Human beings, un like parrots and chimpanzees, … can relate them to their own lives.

Why does the author compare human beings with parrots and chimpanzees?

(= The author does so in order to tell us human beings speak English because they are interested in it.)

9. It is worth remembering that language is a means of communication.

Pay attention to the usage of the word “worth”.

(= When we use this expression we should always use the V-ing form after the word “worth”, never an infinitive.

More examples:

The book is worth reading/It’s worth reading the book. )

Paraphrase the sentence.

(= It is likely to give a satisfactory or rewarding return for us to keep in mind that language is a way to communicate.)

10. What they listen to and read cannot be a formula.

Translate the sentence into Chinese.

(= 人们所听所读的不应该是程式化的东西。)

W ords and Expressions

1. personal: adj. concerning, belonging to, or for the use of a particular person; private

* My personal view is that the students should be doing more work outside the classroom.

* When I went to her room all her personal belongings had gone.

2. advertisement: n. a picture, short film, song, etc. which tries to persuade people to buy a product or service

* a television/newspaper advertisement for a new car

* They put an advertisement in The Morning News, offering a high salary for the right person.

* The organizers of the concert had taken out a full page advertisement in The New York Times. Collocation:

answer an advertisement 应广告之聘

put an advertisement in/on 在……做广告

run an advertisement 做广告

buy things from/in advertisements 购买广告上宣传的商品

3. claim:

1) vt. state that sth. is true, even though it has not been proved