II.Read the following passage carefully and then paraphrase numbered parts (3 points each) and translate the underlined parts(4 points each). (25%)
In the dining-saloon I sit at a table with three other men; Laura sits some way off with a married couple and their daughter.I can observe her without her knowing, and this gives me pleasure, for it is as in a moving picture that I can note the grace of her gestures, whether she raises a glass of wine to her lips or turns with a remark to one of her neighbors or takes a cigarette from her case with those slender fingers.I have never had much of an eye for noticing the clothes of women, but I get the impression that Laura is always in grey and white by day, looking cool when other people are flushed and shiny in the tropical heat; in the evening she wears soft rich colors, dark red, olive green, midnight blue, always of the most supple flowing texture.(1) I ventured to say something of the kind to her, when she laughed at my clumsy compliment and said I had better take to writing fashion articles instead of political leaders.
The tall Colonel whose name is Dalrymple seems a nice chap .He and I and Laura and a Chinese woman improbably galled Mme Merveille have made up a Bridge-tour and thus beguile ourselves for an hour or so after dinner while others dance on deck.The Colonel, who is not too offensively an Empire-builder, sometimes tries to talk to me about public affairs; he says he used to read me, and is rather charmingly deferential, prefacing his remarks by Of course it's not for me to suggest to you… and then proceeding to tell me exactly how he thinks some topical item of our dome, the or foreign policy should be handled.He is by no means stupid or ill-informed; a little opinionated perhaps, and just about as far to the Right as anybody could go, but I like him, and try not to tease him by putting forward views which would only bring a puzzled look to his face.Besides, I do not want to become involved in discussion.I observe with amusement how totally the concerns of the world, which once absorbed me to the exclusion of all else except an occasional relaxation with poetry or music, have lost interest for to the extent of a bored distaste.Doubtless some instinct impels me gluttonously to cram these the last weeks of my life with the gentler things I never had time for, releasing some suppressed inclination which in fact was always latent.Or maybe Laura's unwitting influence has called it out.
(2) Dismissive as Pharisee, I regarded as moonlings all those whose life was lived on a less practical plane.Protests about damage to' natural beauty’ froze me with contempt, for I believed in progress and could spare no regrets for a lake dammed into hydraulic use for the benefit of an industrial city in the Midlands.And so it was for all things.A hard materialism was my creed, accepted as a law of progress； any ascription of disinterested motives aroused not only my suspicion but my scorn.
And now see how I stand, as sentimental and sensitive as any old maid doing water-color's of sunsets! I once flattered myself that I was an adult man; I now perceive that I am gloriously and adolescently silly.A new Clovis, loving what I have despised, and suffering from calf-love into the bargain, I want my till of beauty before I go.Geographically I did not care and scarcely know where I am.There are no signposts in the sea.
The young moon lies on her back tonight as is her habit in the tropics, and as, I think, is suitable if not seemly for a virgin.Not a star but might not shoot down and accept the invitation to become her lover.When all my fellow-passengers have finally dispersed to bed, I creep up again to the deserted deck and slip into the swimming pool and float, no longer what people believe me to be, a middle-aged journalist taking a holiday on an ocean-going liner, but a liberated being, bathed in mythological waters, an Endymion young and strong, with a god for his father and a vision of the world inspired from Olympus.All weight is lifted from my limbs; 1 am one with the night; I understand the meaning of pantheism .How my friends would laugh if they knew I had come to this! To have discarded, as I believe, all usual frailties, to have become incapable of envy, ambition, malice, the desire to score off my neighbor, to enjoy this purification even as I enjoy the clean voluptuousness of the warm breeze on my skin and the cool support of the water.Thus, I imagine, must the pious feel cleansed on leaving the confessional after the solemnity of absolution.
Sometimes Laura and I lean over the taffrail, and that is happiness.It may be by daylight, looking at the sea, rippled with little white ponies, or with no ripples at all but only the lazy satin of blue, marbled at the edge where the passage of our ship has disturbed it.Or it may be at night, when the sky surely seems blacker than ever at home and the stars more golden.I recall a phrase from the diary of a half-literate soldier, 'The stars seemed little cuts in the black cover, through which a bright beyond was seen.’ (3) Sometimes these untaught scribblers have a way of putting things.
The wireless told us today that there is fog all over England.
Sometimes we follow a coastline, it may be precipitous bluffs of grey limestone rising sheer out of the sea, or a low-lying arid stretch with miles of white sandy beach, and no sign of habitation, very bleached and barren.These coasts remind me of people; either they are forbidding and unapproachable, or else they present no mystery and show all they have to give at a glance, you feel the country would continue to be flat and featureless however far you penetrated inland.What I like best are the stern cliffs, with ranges of mountains soaring behind them, full of possibilities, peaks to be scaled only by the most daring.What plants of the high altitudes grow unravished among their crags and valleys? So do I let my imagination play over the recesses of Laura's Character, so austere in the foreground but nurturing what treasures of tenderness, like delicate flowers, for the discovery of the venturesome.
Part Three Cloze Test
directions: Filling each numbered blank in the following passage with one suitable word among the 20 given words in the box to complete the passage.(20%)
it observations experience not rather mind other than forces only how them no another persuade as what like if thought
One way of improving one's writing is to get into the habit of keeping a record of your observations, of storing ___1_____in a notebook or a journal.You should make notes on your experience and on your ____2___of everyday life so that they are preserved.It is sad ____3_____to be able to retrieve a lost idea that seemed brilliant when it flashed across your____4______, or a forgotten fact that you need to make a point in a argument or to illustrate a conclusion.The journal habit has still ____5____ value.Just ____6_____you need to record observations—the material for writing—you need to practice putting thoughts on paper.Learning to write is more like learning to ski ____7_____it is like studying calculus or anthropology.Practice helps you discover ways to improve.Writing down ideas for your own use forces you to examine them.Putting thoughts on paper for someone else to read ____8____you to evaluate not _____9_____the content—what you say—but also the expression—— _____10_____you say it.Many writers have benefited from the habit.
Part Four Writing
Nowadays most people are more practical than ever.Material life becomes their creed and life-long pursuit.The whole society seems to be a money-oriented arena in which people clamor for “success”。 Many intellectuals are obsessed with the frailties of human race.It is true of that in America in late 19th century, so Mark Twain suggested： “What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges.”
Write a composition of about 500 words on the following topic:(50%)
Relax A Little and Sharpen Your Edges
You are to write in three parts.In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement and in the second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate reasons.In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion.Marks will be awarded for content, organization as well as for syntactic variety and appropriate word choice.Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
The End