Lesson IV

1. Lesson IV Everyday Use for Your Grandmama

2. Background Information • The author wrote quite a number of novels, among them were The Color Purple which won the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction （普利策小说奖） and The American Book Award（美国图书奖）. In 1985, the Color Purple was made into a movie which won great fame.

3. Objectives of Teaching • To comprehend the whole story • To lean and master the vocabulary and expressions • To learn to paraphrase the difficult sentences • To understand the structure of the text • To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the passage.

4. Important and Difficult points • The comprehension of the whole story • The understanding of certain expressions • The appreciation of the writing technique • Colloquial, slangy or black English • Cultural difference between nationalities in the US

5. Detailed study of the text: • 1. wavy: having regular curves • A wavy line has a series of regular curves along it. • The wavy lines are meant to represent water. • Here in the text the word describes the marks in wavy patterns on the clay ground left by the broom. • *image – 1* (此处加一细曲线图）

6. Detailed study of the text: • 2. groove: a long narrow path or track made in a surface, esp. to guide the movement of sth.(here the explanation is not proper) • A groove is a wide, deep line cut into a surface. • The cupboard door slides open along the groove it fits into. • *image – 2* (此处加一groove图）

7. Detailed study of the text: • 3. homely: simple, not grand, (of people, faces, etc.,) not good-looking, ugly • If someone is homely, they are not very attractive to look at; used in Am.E.

8. Detailed study of the text: • 4. awe: Awe is the feeling of respect and amazement that you have when you are faced with sth. wonderful, frightening or completely unknown. • The child stared at him in silent awe.

9. Detailed Study of the Text • Section 1 of part I • The setting: yard, house • Maggie: appearance • Comparison with her sister: eying her with a mixture of envy and awe • Sister has held life in the palm of one hand

10. Detailed study of the text • To have made it: if you make it, you are successful in achieving sth. Difficult, or in surviving through a very difficult period. • I believe I have the talent to make it. • You are brave and courageous. You can make it.

11. Detailed study of the text: • 5. confront: to face boldly or threateningly, encounter • If a problem, task, or difficulty confronts you, or you are confronted with it, it is sth. that you cannot avoid and must deal with • I was confronted with the task of designing and building the new system.

12. II. Detailed study of the text: • 6. totter: to move in an unsteady way from side to side as if about to fall, to walk with weak unsteady steps • The old lady tottered down the stairs.

13. Detailed study of the text curse: If you curse, you use rude or offensive language,usu. because you are angry about sth. insult: If sb. insults you, they say sth. rude to you or offend you by doing or saying sth. which shows they have a low opinion of you.

14. Detailed study of the text: • embrace: to take and hold (another or each other) in the arms as a sign of love, hug • Smile into each other’s face:

15. Detailed study of the text • To smile into each other’s face

16. II. Detailed study of the text: • 7. limousine: A limousine is a large and very comfortable car, esp. one with a glass screen between the front and back seats. Limousines are usually driven by a chauffeur *image –2* （此处插一豪华轿车图）

17. II. Detailed study of the text: • cf: • Sedan / saloon is a car with seats for four or more people, a fixed roof, and a boot (the space at the back of the car, covered by a lid, in which you carry things such as luggage, shopping or tools) that is separate from the seating part of the car.*image-3* 普通轿车图

18. Detailed study of the text: • convertible: a car with a soft roof that can be folded down or removed*image –4 * 带帆布顶蓬的轿车 • sports car: a low usu. open car with room for only 2 people for traveling with high power and speed （*image – 5* 跑车图）

19. Detailed study of the text: • coupe [‘ku:pei] a car with a fixed roof, a sloping back, two doors and seats for four people *image – 6* 两箱轿车图 • station wagon (Am E) / estate car (Br.E) a car which has a long body with a door at the back end and space behind the back seats*image – 7*

20. Detailed study of the text: • 8. gray / grey: used to describe the colour of people’s hair when it changes from its original colour, usu. as they get old and before it becomes white • Johnny Carson: a talk show anchorman • 9. tacky: (Am.E, slang) shabby

21. Detailed study of the text: • I wear flannel nightgowns??? • 10. overalls: are a single piece of clothing that combines trousers and a jacket. (*image – 8* 工装裤图) • Your wear overalls over your clothes in order to protect them from dirt, paint, etc. while you are working

22. Detailed study of the text: • 11. hog: pig, esp. a fat one for eating • 12. sledge hammer: large, heavy hammer for swinging with both hands, a large heavy hammer with a long handle, used for smashing concrete *image –9* 长把大锤 • 13. barley: 大麦

23. Detailed study of the text: • 14. pancake: a thin, flat circle of cooked batter (糊状物) made of milk, flour and eggs. usu. rolled up or folded and eaten hot with a sweet or savory filling inside • Who ever knew a Johnson…the woman’s family name

24. Detailed study of the text • With one foot raised in flight…with my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them: Indirect speech act meaning ready to escape,

25. II. Detailed study of the text: • 15. sidle: walk as if ready to turn or go the other way • If you sidle somewhere, you walk there uncertainly or cautiously, as if you do not want anyone to notice you • A man sidled up to me and asked if I wanted a ticket for the match..

26. II. Detailed study of the text: • 16. shuffle: slow dragging walk • If you shuffle, you walk without lifting your feet properly off the ground • He slipped on his shoes and shuffled out of the room.

27. II. Detailed study of the text: • If you shuffle, you move your feet about while standing or move your bottom about while sitting, often because you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

28. II. Detailed study of the text: • I was shuffling in my seat. • cf: • totter (n.6), sidle(n. 15), shuffle

29. II. Detailed study of the text: • 17. blaze: to burn with a bright flame • A wood fire was blazing, but there was no other light in the room. • n. the sudden sharp shooting up of a flame, a very bright fire • The fire burned slowly at first, but soon burst into a blaze.

30. II. Detailed study of the text: • 18. sweet gum tree: a large North American tree of the witch hazel (榛子) family, with alternate maplelike leaves, spiny (多刺的) fruit balls, and flagrant juice • 美洲金缕梅, 落叶灌木或小乔木. 原产于北美和亚洲. 其分叉小枝从前用为魔杖, 这寻找地下水, 故俗称魔杖.

31. II. Detailed study of the text: • 19. dingy: dirty and faded • A building or place that is dingy is rather dark and depressing and does not seem to have been well looked after,. • This is the dingiest street of the town. • Clothes, curtains, etc. that are dingy are dirty or faded.

32. II. Detailed study of the text: • 20. raise: to collect together • raise an army / raise enough money for a holiday • His wife raised the money by selling her jewellery. • We’re trying to raise funds to establish a scholarship.

33. II. Detailed study of the text: • 21. underneath: (so as to go) under (sth.) • The letter was pushed underneath the door. • Did you find very much growing underneath the snow? • (Here it suggests a repressive and imposing quality in her voice.)

34. II. Detailed study of the text: • 22. make-believe: a state of pretending or the things which are pretended • She lives in a make-believe world / a world of make-believe.

35. II. Detailed study of the text: • Don’t be afraid of monsters - the story is only make-believe. • The little girl made believe she was a princess.

36. II. Detailed study of the text: • 23. shove: to push, esp. in a rough or careless way • There was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on the bus. • Help me to shove this furniture aside.

37. II. Detailed study of the text: • If you shove sb. or sth., you push them with a quick, rather, violent movement. • He dragged her out to the door and shoved her into the street.

38. II. Detailed study of the text: • 24. dimwit: (infml) an ignorant and stupid person • dim: faint, not bright • wit: intelligence, wisdom • at one’s wit’s end: at the end of one’s tether

39. II. Detailed study of the text: • 25. organdy: (Br. E organdie) very fine transparent muslin (麦斯林纱, 平纹细布) with a stiff finish (最后一层涂饰), very fine rather stiff cotton material used esp. for women’s dresses • (蝉翼纱, 玻璃纱)

40. II. Detailed study of the text: • 26. pump: low shoe that grips the foot chiefly at the toe and the heel • 27. stare down any disaster in her efforts: face up and defeat any disaster with her efforts • stare down: two people looking at each other persistently until one shifts his eye

41. II. Detailed study of the text: • 28. flicker: to move backwards and forwards unsteadily • shadows flickered on the wall • flickering eyelids • even the self-assurance of Ogilver flickered.

42. II. Detailed study of the text: • 29. stumble: to stop and /or make mistakes in speaking or reading aloud • to catch the foot on the ground while moving along and start to fall • She stumble at/over the long word • He stumbled and stopped reading.

43. II. Detailed study of the text: • cf: • stammer: to speak or say with pauses and repeated sounds, either habitually or because of excitement, fear, etc. stammerer • stutter: to speak or say with difficulty in producing sounds, esp. habitually holding back the first consonant. stutterer

44. II. Detailed study of the text: • 30. good-naturedly: naturally kind, ready to help, to forgive, not to be angry • A person or animal that is good-natured is naturally friendly and does not easily get angry. • a good-natured policeman

45. II. Detailed study of the text: • 31. mossy: • moss: any of several types of a small flat green or yellow flowerless plant that grows in a thick furry mass on wet soil, or on a wet surface

46. II. Detailed study of the text: • 32. hook: to catch with or as if with a hook • to hook a fish / a rich husband • hooknose • Here: to attack with the horn of the cow

47. II. Detailed study of the text: • 33. soothe: to make less angry, excited or anxious, comfort or calm, to make less painful • soothing words • soothe one’s feelings

48. II. Detailed study of the text: • 34. shingle: a small thin piece of building material (such as wood) often with one end thicker than the other for laying in overlapping rows as a covering for the roof or sides of building

49. II. Detailed study of the text: • cf: tile; a flat or curved piece of fired clay, stone, or concrete used esp. for roofs, floors, or walls and often for ornamental work

50. II. Detailed study of the text: • 35. porthole: also port, a small usu. circular window or opening in a ship for light or air • 36. shutter: a. one that shuts • b. movable cover (wooden panel or iron plate, hinged, or separate and detachable) for a window or door, to keep out light or burglars.