Unit 1
Reading A
At the beginning of a new term, Jim shares one of his experiences about English writing. Read the text and find out what happened to him.
A WRITING ASSIGNMENT
❖Mrs. Peabody, the English teacher, gave the class a writing assignment.
“W rite something in something in some way related to summer vacation,”
she said. “Be as creative as you can. But,” the teacher added, “make sure you
use proper spelling and grammar.”
❖The night Jim sat at his desk at home and started at a blank sheet of paper.
He didn’t want to write about his summer vacation as usual. What could he
write about, except a dog, a water park, and two weeks of camp? Boring ...
He’d actually been happy to get back to school.sortout翻译
❖So he wrote what he wanted. Not an essay at all but a short story, science fiction. It was about a distant planet that didn’t have summer—it was spring
all the time. And it didn’t have vacation ，either. The aliens on the planet
worked 24 hours a day. They wished they had vacations.
❖The next morning he handed in the story, but later that night he lay awake until , thinking, “Why did I do that? Will Mrs. Peabody think I
ignored the assignment?” English was his favorite class. Maybe he would
beg Mrs. Peabody for a chance to write another one, the sort she wanted.
❖But when he got to class the following day, it turned out that Mrs. Peabody had already read and graded the essays.
The teacher said, “I’m going to pass back your summer vacation writing in a
minute. I’m afraid I’ve got some r ather harsh words to say. Almost everyone
in class simply wrote an essay about his or her summer vacation ... Almost
everyone.”
❖“This is bad,” Jim thought, “I’m getting an F,I know it.”
“But,” the teacher continued, “one of you had the courage to be as
imaginative as I asked you to be. Jim Martin was the only one who got an A
on the assignment.”
Jim couldn’t believe his ears.
【译文参考】
一次作文作业
❖英语老师皮博迪夫人给全班布置了一项写作作业。她说:“写一些和暑假有关的东西。”“尽可能地发挥你的创造力。但是，”老师补充说，“一定要用正确的拼写和语法。”
❖那天晚上，吉姆坐在家里的书桌前，开始看一张白纸。他不想像往常一样写他的暑假。除了一条狗、一个水上公园和两周的野营，他还能写些什么呢?无聊……他其实很高兴能回到学校。
❖所以他想写什么就写什么。不是一篇文章，而是一篇短篇小说，科幻小说。
它是关于一个遥远的星球，那里没有夏天——一直都是春天。而且也没有假期。那边的外星人一天工作24小时。他们希望自己有假期。
❖第二天早上，他交了那篇作文。但当晚晚些时候，他躺在床上，一直躺到凌晨3点，心里想着:“我为什么要那样做?”皮博迪夫人会认为我不重视这次作业吗?英语是他最喜欢的课。也许他会请求皮博迪太太给他个机会再写一封，她想要的那种。
❖但当他第二天去上课时，发现皮博迪太太已经读过并给作文评分了。
老师说:“我马上把你的暑假作文传回去。”恐怕我有些刺耳的话要说。几乎班上的每个人都写了一篇关于他或她的暑假的文章……几乎每一个人。”
❖“这太糟糕了，”吉姆想，“我肯定得个不及格。”
❖“但是，”老师继续说，“你们中有一个人有勇气像我要求的那样富有想象力。
吉姆·马丁是唯一一个在这项任务上得了A的人。”
吉姆简直不敢相信自己的耳朵。
Reading B
A LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER
Dear Daughter,
I know perhaps you will be surprised to read this: I remember well what it was like to be a teenager. As I watch you prepare for your first day of senior high school, there are a few things I want you to know.
You may be putting yourself under pressure to make sure that everything is perfect for that first day, but I want you to know that there’s no such thing as perfect. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. There is noting perfect. There is only good enough, but what is most important is believing you’re good enough—just as you are.
Also ,remember that you’re not in this boat alone .You’re not the only one facing a new school, new classmates, new teachers, new expectations and new pressures. At some point, everyone else is—or was—where you are right now. I hope you find
comfort in that.
There might be some people who will not always be so friendly to you .You will find such people not only in senior high school, but throughout your adult life .When you are reflecting on a nasty comment someone made on you or an unfriendly glance that came your way, I hope you’ll remember that these behaviours always say more about the giver than the receiver and there will never be a shortage of kind people and genuine smiles in your life. Remember that, too, when you are tempted to be nasty to someone else.
As you go forward into this new chapter in your life, I hope you’ll realize early that we are most often held back by the limitations we put on ourselves—by the sto ries we tell ourselves about who and what we are. Whenever you’re tempted to say, “I can’t ...” or “I’m not ...” about something you really want to achieve, I hope you’ll change that story—because you can and you are.
Love,
Mum
【参考译文】
给我女儿的一封信
亲爱的女儿,
我知道你读到这篇文章可能会感到惊讶：我清楚地知道青少年该有的样子。当我看着你为高中的第一天做准备时，有几件事我想让你知道。
你可能会给自己施加压力，以确保在第一天一切都完美无缺，但我想让你知道，没有什么是完美的。我以前说过，但还是要重复一遍。没有什么是完美的。只有足够好，但最重要的是相信你足够好—做真实的你。
还有，记住你不是一个人在这条船上。你不是唯一一个要面对新学校、新同学、新老师、新期望和新压力的人。在某种程度上，其他人——现在或者曾经——都在你现在的处境上。我希望你能从中得到安慰。
也许有些人并不总是对你那么友好。这样的人不仅在高中，在你的整个成年生活中也会出现。当你反思有人对你恶评或向你投来不友善的目光时，我希望你能记住：这些行为总是更多地表明发出这些行为的人而不是接受这些行为的人，而且你的生活中从不缺乏善良的人和面带真诚微笑的人。当你想对别人恶语相向时，也要记住这些。
当你迈入人生的新篇章时，我希望你能尽早领悟到，我们常常被强加在自己身上的种种限制所束缚——通过讲述我们自己是谁、是什么。每当关于你真正想要做成的的事情，你想说“我不行……”或者“我不是……”，我希望你能改变——因为你可以，而且你已经做到了。
爱你的人妈妈
Unit 2
Reading A
Have you had any confusing moments in another culture?Read the story and find out what might be the cause(s).
THE CONFUSING WAY MEXICANS TELL TIME
When I first set foot on Mexican soil, I spoke Spanish well. So when I asked a local ice-cream seller for an ice-cream, and he said “ahorita”,which directly translates to “right now,”I took him at his word, believing that its arrival was immediate.
I sat near his shop and waited. Half an hour passed and still no ice-cream arrived, so I asked again about it. “Ahorita,” he told me again. His face was a mix of confusion and maybe even embarrassment.
I was torn. Waiting longer wasn’t pleasant, but I felt it was impolite to walk away, especially if the ice-cream was now being delivered just for me. But finally, after waiting too long, I made a rush for the nearest bus to take me home. As I left, I signaled at my wrist and shrugged to the ice-cream seller. Obviously I couldn’t wait any longer and it rea lly wasn’t my fault. His face was, once again, one of total confusion.
This experience faded from my memory until years later when I came back to live in Mexico. I discovered that understanding “ahorita” took not a fluency in the language, but rat her a fluency in the culture. When someone from Mexico says “ahorita,” it should almost never be taken literally; its meaning changes greatly with context. As a linguist told me, “Ahorita could mean tomorrow, in an hour, within five years or never.” It is even used as a polite way of saying “no, thanks” when refusing an offer. Difficulty in explaining what I have come to call “Ahorita Time” is a reflection of different cultural understandings of time. Since I moved to Mexico, my attitude towards time has changed dramatically. I don’t worry so much about being late; I am generally still on time for appointments, but when I’m not, I don’t panic. Ironically, it would seem that “Ahorita Time” has actually allowed me to live far more in the “right now” t han I ever did before.
【参考译文】
墨西哥人报时方式的“骚操作”
当我第一次踏上墨西哥的土地时，我的西班牙语说得很好。所以，当我向当地的
冰淇淋小贩要冰淇淋时，他说的是“ahorita”(直译为“现在”)，我相信了他的话，认为它马上就会到来。
我坐在他的商店附近等着。半个小时过去了，冰淇淋还没有到，所以我又问了一遍。“ahorita，”他又对我说。他的脸上混杂着困惑，甚至可能是尴尬。
我要炸了。等得久一点并不让人愉快，但我觉得走开是不礼貌的，尤其是如果现在冰淇淋是专为我送的。但最后，在等了太久之后，我匆忙赶去最近的公共汽车回家。离开时，我示意了一下自己的手腕，对卖冰淇淋的小贩耸了耸肩。显然我不能再等了，这真的不是我的错。他的脸又一次显得十分疑惑。
这段经历逐渐从我的记忆中消失，直到多年以后我回到墨西哥生活。我发现理解“ahorita”并不需要流利的语言，而是需要对文化理解的顺畅。当来自墨西哥的人说“ahorita”时，几乎不应该从字面上理解；它的意思会随着上下文的变化而变化很大。正如一位语言学家告诉我的那样，“Ahorita可能意味着明天，一个小时内，五年之内，甚至永远不会。”甚至在拒绝某项工作时，它也被用来礼貌地说“不，谢谢”。
难以解释我所称的“ahorita时间”是不同文化对时间理解的反映。自从我搬到墨西哥后，我对时间的态度发生了巨大的变化。我不太担心自己会迟到；我通常还是能准时赴约，但如果不能准时赴约，我也不会
惊慌。具有讽刺意味的是，似乎“Ahorita Time”实际上让我比以前更能活在“当下”。
Reading B
MY EXPERIENCE WITH AMERICAN ENGLISH
When I was ten years old, I went to the US to visit some family friends. W e travelledall the way from California to Las Vegas. I noticed something funny a bout the way everyone spoke English. I was thinking, “This is the way they spea k in films!”
At the beginning of the holiday, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to order “French fries.” I couldn’t imagine what French fries were. What was fried a nd French? Snails? Chinese? She was amazed that I had never tried them and sh e ordered a portion for us to share. When the waiter brought us some chips, I as ked her where the French fries were. She pointed to the plate of chips! Later that week she said she was going to buy some “chips” from the supermarket. She ca me out with a packet of crisps!
During that holiday we were also offered “biscuits and gravy” with our lunc h. This wasa very strange idea to me, because in England biscuits are sweet. Gra vy is a salty, meat-based sauce. I later realized that “biscuits” in America are sav oury snacks. What we call “biscuits,” they call “cookies.”

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