Paraphrase

Unit 1

1.And it is an activity only of humans.

And conversation is an activity that is found only among human beings.

2.Conversation is not for making a point.

Conversation is not for persuading others to accept our ideas. In a conversation, we should not try to establish the force of an argument or idea.

3.In fact, the best conversationalists are those who are prepared to lose.

Actually, a person that really enjoys and is good at conversation will not argue to win or force others to accept his/her idea.

4.Bar friends are not deeply involved in each other’s lives.

People who meet each other for a drink in a pub are not close friends, because they are not deeply absorbed in each other’s lives.

5.....it could still go ignorantly on ...

The conversation could go on without anyone knowing who is right or wrong.

6.They are cattle in the fields ,but we sit down to beef.

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When these animals are alive and feeding in the fields, we will call them “cattle”, but when we sit down at the table to eat, we will call their meet “beef”. The word “beef” is derived from French word “boeuf”.

7.The new ruling class had built a cultural barrier against him by building their French against his own language.

By using French instead of English, the new ruling class made it hard for the peasant to accept or absorb the culture of the rulers.

8.English had come royally into its own.

English survived at last and became the universal language of England once again.

9.The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes.

The phrase, the King’s English, has always been used disrespectfully and jokingly by the lower classes. The working people often make fun of the proper and formal language of the educated people.

10.The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.

There still exists in the lower classes, as in the early Saxon peasants, a spirit of opposition to the cultural authority of the ruling class.

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11.There is always a great danger, as Carlyle put it, that “ words will harden into things for us.”

There is always a great danger, as Carlyle put it, that we may forget that words are only symbols and take them for things that they are supposed to represent.

Unit 2

1. The burying-ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth, like a derelict building-lot.

The buring-ground is nothing more than a huge piece of wasteland full of mounds of earth, looking like a deserted and abandoned piece of land on which a building was going to be put up.

2. All colonial empires are in reality founded upon that fact.

All the colonialists build up their empires by not treating the people in the colonies as human beings.

3. They rise out of the earth, they sweat and starve for a few years, and then they sink back into the nameless mounds of the graveyard.

They are born and they work very hard and starve for a few years. Finally they die and are buried in graves without a name.

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4. A carpenter sits crossleggeed at a prehistoric lathe, turning chair-legs at lightning speed.

Sitting with his legs crossed and using a very old-fashioned lathe, a carpenter quickly gives a round shape to the chair-legs he is making.

5. Instantly, from the dark holes all round ,there was a frenzied rush of Jews, many of them old grandfathers with flowing grey beards, all clamouring for a cigarette.

Immediately, from their dark hole-like cells everywhere, a great number of Jews, many of whom were old grandfathers with flowing grey beards, rushed out wildly excited, all loudly demanding a cigarette.

6. ...every one of them looks on a cigarette as a more or less impossible luxury.

Every one of these poor Jews regards a cigarette as a piece of luxury which they could not possibly afford.

7. Still, a white skin is always fairly conspicuous.

However, white-skinned people are always quite noticeable.

8. In a tropical landscape one’s eye takes in everything except the human beings.

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If you take a look at the natural scenery in a tropical region, you see everything but the human beings.

9. No one would think of running cheap trips to the Distressed Areas.

No one would think of organizing cheap trips for the tourists to visit the poor slum areas.

10. ...for nine-tenths of the people the reality of life is an endless, back-breaking struggle to wring a little food out of an eroded soil.

One could probably live there for years without noticing the fact that life is very hard for ninety percent of the people, and they can produce a little food on the poor soil only with very hard and tiring work．

11. She accepted her status as an old woman, which is to say as a beast of burden.

She took it for granted that as an old woman she was the lowest in the community，and that she was only fit for doing heavy work like an animal．

12. People with brown skins are next door to invisible.

People with brown skins almost cannot be seen．

13. Their splendid bodies were hidden in reach-me-down khaki uniforms.

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The Senegales soldiers were wearing second-hand ready-made khaki uniforms which hid their beautiful well-built bodies．

14. How long before they turn their guns in the other direction?

How long before they turn their guns around and attack the colonialist rulers?

15. Every white man there had this thought stowed somewhere or other in his mind.

Every white man there had this thought hidden somewhere or other in his mind.

Unit 3

1.And yet the same revolutionary belief for which our forebears fought is still at issue around the globe....

Our ancestors fought a revolutionary war to maintain that all men were created equal and God had endowed them with certain unalienable rights that no state or ruler could take away from them. However, today this belief is still in dispute in a lot of countries all over the world

2.This much we pledge-- and more.

We promise to do this much and we also promise to do more.

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3.United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures.

we can accomplish a lot of things in a large number of joint bold undertakings if we are united and working together

4.....our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace...

The United Nations is our last and best hope of survival in an age in which the tools to wage war have far surpassed and exceeded the tools to keep peace.

5....to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

We pledge to help the United Nations enlarge the area where its authority and mandate may continue to be in effect or in force.

6.....before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

Before the terrible forces of destruction, which atomic bombs can now release, wipe out mankind, which may be planned or brought about by accident

7.....yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the band of mankind’s final war

Yet both groups of nations are trying to change as quickly as possible that

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uncertain balance of terrible military power that restrains each group from launching mankind’s final war.

8.So let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness...

So let us start once again. Let both sides bear in mind that being polite is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always proved by deeds.

9.Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors.

Let both sides try to use science to produce good and beneficial things instead of employing it to bring frightful destruction.

10.....each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.

Since the founding of this country, Americans of every generation have been called on to prove their loyalty to their country.

11.With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love...

Let us go forth to lead the country we love, knowing our only sure reward will be a good conscience and history will finally judge whether we have done our task

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well or not. We ask for God’s blessing and help, but we know that here on earth we are truly the ones who must do God’s work.

Unit 4

1. A nice enough young fellow, you understand, but nothing upstairs.

He is a nice enough young fellow, you know, but he is empty-headed.

2. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason.

A passing fashion or craze, in my opinion, shows a complete lack of reason.

3. I should have known they’d come back when the Charleston came back.

I ought to have known that raccoon coats would come back to fashion when the Charleston dance, which was popular in the 1920s, came back.

4. “All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where’ve you been?”

All the important, influential and fashionable men in the school are wearing raccoon coats. How come that you don’t know?

5. My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear.

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My brain, which is a precision instrument, began to work at high speed.

6. With one omission, Polly fitted these specifications perfectly.

Except for one thing—intelligence, Polly had all the other requirements.

7. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt sure that time would supply the lack.

She was not yet as beautiful as those girls in posters if we take her proportions into consideration, but I felt sure that she would become beautiful enough as time went by.

8. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction.

In fact, she went in the opposite direction, that is, she was not intelligent but rather stupid.

9. “In other words, if you were out of the picture, the field would be open. Is that right?”

That is to say, if you were no longer emotionally involved with her, others would have a chance to get her as a girlfriend. Is that right?

10. Back and forth his head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning.

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His head turned back and forth , looking at the coat then looking away from the coat. Every time he looked his desire for the coat grew stronger and his resolution not to give away Polly became weaker.

11. This loomed as a project of no small dimensions…

To teach Polly to think appeared to be a rather big and hard task.

12. Admittedly it was not a prospect fraught with hope, but I decided to give it one more try.

One must admit the outcome did not look very hopeful, but I decided to try one more time.

13. There is a limit to what flesh and blood can bear.

There is a limit to what any human being can bear.

14. I was not Pygmalion; I was Frankenstein, and my monster had me by the throat.

I planned to be Pygmalion, to fashion, to fashion an ideal wife for myself, but I turned out to be Frankenstein because the result of my hard work ultimately rejected me and ruined my plan.

15. Frantically, I fought back the tide of panic surging through me.

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Desperately, I tried to stop the feeling of panic that was overwhelming me.

Unit 9

1. …with a face that seemed totally unfamiliar with laughter…

…with a face that was dead serious, never laughed…

2. Sometimes old Jules, or his son Lazarus, would get mixed up in a Saturday-night brawl…

Now and then old Jules, or his son Lazarus, would get involved in a rough, noisy quarrel or fight on a Saturday night after much drinking of liquor…

3. …her attendance had always been sporadic and her interest in schoolwork negligible.

…she often missed her classes and had little interest in schoolwork.

4. …she existed for me only as a vaguely embarrassing presence…

…I only knew her as someone who would make other people feel ill at ease

5. She dwelt and moved somewhere within my scope of vision…

She lived and moved somewhere within my range of sight…

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6. If it came to a choice between Grandmother Macleod and Piquette, Piquette would win hands down, nits or not.

If my mother had to make a choice between Grandmother Macleod and Piquette, she would choose Piquette without hesitation, no matter whether Piquette had nits or not.

7. My acquaintance with Indians was not extensive.

I didn’t know many Indians.

8. …she remained both a reproach and a mystery to me.

…I blamed myself for being unable to make Piquette’s response warmer and at the same time found her mysterious.

9. Her defiant face, momentarily, became unguarded and unmasked, and in her eyes there was a terrifying hope.

She used to be defensive and sensitive as if her face were guarded and masked. But in a brief moment when she was saying this, she expressed the true emotion of defiance on her face. In her eyes there was a kind of hope which was so intense and violent that it struck people as terrifying.

10. …she looked a mess, to tell you the truth, a real slattern, dressed any old how…

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…she looked very messy, dirty and untidy, dressed in a very careless way…

11. She was up in court a couple of times — drunk and disorderly, of course.

She was taken to court a couple of times because she was drunk and disorderly as one could expect.

12. The one store had become several dozen, and the settlement had all the attributes of a flourishing resort — hotels, a dance-hall, cafes with neon signs, the penetrating odours of potato chips and hot dogs.

There had been only one store in the past, but now there were several dozen stores. The settlement had all the characteristics of a flourishing resort such as hotels, a dance-hall, cafes lighted by neon signs, the strong smell of potato chips and hot dogs.

13. Perhaps they had been unable to find such a place, and had simply died out, having ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not.

Perhaps they had failed to find a suitable habitat where they could belong and had simply died out, having lost any interest in life and ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not.

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