大學(xué)英語(yǔ)綜合教程第一冊(cè) Unit 1a

[00:00.00]When we are writing we are often told to keep our readers in mind, [00:05.49]to shape what we say to fit their tastes and interests. [00:11.10]But there is one reader in particular who should not be forgotten. [00:15.96]Can you guess who? [00:18.10]Russell Baker surprised himself [00:21.24]and everyone else when he discovered the answer. [00:26.49]WRITING FOR MYSELF by Russell Baker [00:30.85]The idea of becoming a writer had come to me off and on [00:36.00]since my childhood in Belleville, [00:39.24]but it wasn't until my third year in high school that the possibility took hold [00:45.66]Unit then I'd been bored by everything associated with English courses. [00:53.03]I found English grammar dull and diffcult. [00:57.29]I hated the assignments to turn out long, [01:02.85]life less paragraphs that were agony for teachers to read and for me to write. [01:09.83]When our class was assigned to Mr.Fleagle to for third-year English [01:15.47]I anticipated another cheerless year in that most tedious of subjects. [01:21.68]Mr.Fleage had a reputation among students for dullness and inability to inspire [01:28.45]He was said to be very formal,rigid and hopelessly out of date. [01:35.53]To me he looked to be sixty or seventy and excessively prim. [01:42.90]He wore primly severe eyeglasses,his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed [01:51.86]He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts. [02:00.11]He had a primly pointed jaw,a primly straight nose, [02:06.17]and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct,so gentlemanly, [02:12.13]that he seemed a comic antique. [02:15.39]I prepared for an unfruitful year with Mr.Fleagle [02:19.62]and for a long time was not disappointed. [02:24.59]Late in the year we tackled the informal essary. [02:28.74]Mr.Fleagle ditributed a homework sheet offering us a choice of topics. [02:34.98]None was quite so simple-minded as "What I Did on My Summer Vacation," [02:41.91]but most seemed to be almost as dull. [02:47.16]I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due [02:52.72]Lying on the sofa, [02:56.48]I finally faced up to the unwelcome task,n [03:00.85]took the list out of my notebook,and scanned it.\ [03:05.99]The topic on which my eye stopped was "The Art of Eating Spaghetti." [03:13.15]This title produced an extraordinary sequence of mental images. [03:18.43]Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville [03:24.90]when all of us were seated around the supper table- [03:28.74]Uncle Allen,my mother,Uncle Charlie,Doris,Uncle Hal- [03:33.71]and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper. [03:39.06]Spaghetti was still a little known foreign dish in those days. [03:45.44]Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, [03:48.96]and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. [03:55.13]All the good humor of Uncle Allen's house reawoke in my mind [04:00.17]as I recalled the laughing arguments [04:04.32]we had that night about the socially respectable method [04:08.87]for moving spaghetti from pate to mouth. [04:13.54]Suddenly I wanted to write about that,about the warmth and good feeling of it [04:19.50]but I wanted to put it down simply for my own joy,not for Mr.Fleagle. [04:25.38]It was a moment I wanted to recapture and hold for myself. [04:31.62]I wanted to relive the pleasure of that evening. [04:37.19]To write it as I wanted,however, [04:40.14]would violate all the rules of formal composition I'd learned on school, [04:46.51]and Mr.Fleagle would surely give it a failing grade.Never mind. [04:52.57]I would write somehting else for Mr.Fleagle after I had written this thing for myself [04:59.02]When I finished it the night was half gone [05:02.29]and there was no time left to compose a proper [05:06.42]respectable essay for Mr.Fleagle. [05:09.26]There was no choice next morning but to turn in my tale of the Belleville supper [05:16.92]Two days passed before Mr.Fleagle returned the graded papers [05:21.88]and he returned everyone's but mine. [05:26.24]I was preparing myself for a command to report to Mr.Fleagle immediately after school for discipline [05:33.82]when I saw him lift my paper from his desk and knock for the class's attention [05:40.58]"Now,boys,"he said. "I want to read you an essay. [05:45.31]This is titled, "The Art of Eating Spaghetti." [05:49.99]And he started to read. [05:52.55]My words!He was reading my words out loud to the entire class. [05:58.11]What's more,the entire class was listening.Listening attentively. [06:04.67]Then somebody laughed,then the entire class was laughing, [06:09.82]and not in contempt and ridicule,but with open-hearted enjoyment. [06:17.05]Even Mr.Fleagle stopped two or three times to hold back a small prim smile [06:24.13]I did my best to avoid showing pleasure, [06:27.97]but what I was feeling was pure delight at this demonstration [06:33.40]that my words had the power to make people laugh. [06:37.45]In the eleventh grade,at the eleventh hour as it were, [06:43.62]I had discovered a calling. [06:46.57]It was the happiest moment of my entire school career. [06:51.64]When Mr.Fleagle finished he put the final seal on my happiness by saying, [06:59.68]"Now that, boys,is an essay,don't you see. [07:04.44]It's-don't you see -it's of the very essence of the essay, [07:09.79]don't you see.Congratulations,Mr.Baker." [07:14.13]off and on\possibility\take hold\bore [07:20.66]associate\assignment\ turn on\ agony [07:27.32]assign\anticipate\tedious\reputation [07:32.88]inability\inspire\formal\rigid [07:38.53]hopelessly\out of date\prim\primly [07:44.20]severecktie\jaw\comic [07:49.76]antique\ackle\essay\distribute [07:55.64]finally\face up to\scan\spaghetti [08:02.59]title\extraordinary\sequence\image [08:09.43]adult\humor\recall\argument [08:17.58]respectable\put down\recapture\relive [08:26.36]violate\compose\turn in\command [08:33.80]discipline\what's more\contempt\ridicule [08:41.06]open-hearted\hold back\aviod\demonstration [08:49.11]career\seal\essence\congratulation

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