b. After the program, Rachel and Jason talked about their experience. Complete the conversation with appropriate words and phrases below.
technology • energy • popuIation • recycIing • ruIes • space • turn • winner
Rachel: So, teII me, Jason, how do you feeI about the program? Jason: WeII, when PauIa assumed that we both knew the (1) __________________ at the beginning of the program, she wasn’t entireIy correct. Rachel: What do you mean? You played correctly. In fact, your onIy mistake was when you didn’t know the (2) _____________________ question. Jason: That was the problem. I knew the technology question. I just didn’t know there was a time limit. I was about to say the answer, but i lost my (3)______________. Rachel: But you still did really well on the program. You answered the soIar (4) ______________________ and garbage (5) ______________________ questions correctIy. Jason: And l knew your questions about outer (6) ________________ and the country with the Iargest (7) _______________________ too. Rachel: So what are you compIaining about? Jason: Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to be the (8) _______________________!
c. Write five questions that could be used in the next broadcast of “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”. Have your classmates try to answer them.
Starting Young a. What can we assume about Marina, Mrs. Smythe, her parents, and her classmates? Complete the table by choosing the appropriate person/people for each assumption.
Assumption Person/People
1. They are very gratefuI for her heIp in the cIassroom. _______________ 2. They Ieft Russia Iess than two years ago. _______________ 3. She Iikes to heIp peopIe. _______________ 4. She beIieves the new immigrant students wiII Iearn EngIish quickIy. _______________ 5. They don’t know EngIish as weII as their daughter does. _______________
c. Circle the word that does not collocate with the verbs in bold.
1. join a cIass a group a decision a company
2. translate a teIephone schooIwork a document a Ianguage 3. pronounce a sentence words a fact a name 4. sign up customers kids contestants papers 5. practice speaking EngIish speciaIist writing
d. Write the copy for an ad for The Higgins Language Institute from the computer lesson.
The Higgins Language Institute
There are currently seven Higgins Language Schools (1) ____________________
and by this time next year there will be (2) ____________________. We aim at teaching (3) ____________________ foreign languages. We can teach them from a choice of languages, including (4) ________________________. Now’s your chance to take advantage of your child’s abilities to pronounce (5) ____________________ and to (6) ____________________ new words. Sign your child up now! E-mail us at Higginslanguageinstitute@vector1.com
Employee: Right, boss, l agree we shouId start preparing the tabIes right away. You: (2) ____________________________________________________________ Employee: But l prefer setting the tabIes to making up the guest Iist. You: (3) ____________________________________________________________ Employee: That’s a great idea. Let’s see if we have an oId but appropriate guest Iist. You: (4) ____________________________________________________________ Employee: And l guess that’s why l’m onIy an empIoyee.
Additional Reading Global Reading
1. Read the titIe of the additional reading text. What issues do you think the writer wiII discuss in this articIe? _____________________________________________________________ Do you know of any writers who write in a foreign Ianguage? ________________________
2. Read the first two sentences of the first paragraph. Do they add information reIated to the titIe? __________ What is the purpose of the writer in teIIing this story?_________________
3. Read the first sentence of the second paragraph. How does this sentence shed Iight on the titIe?_____________________________________________________________________
4. Read the first two sentences of the third paragraph. What reason does it give for writing a noveI in a foreign Ianguage? ________________________________________________
5. Read the first two sentences of the fourth paragraph. What difficuIties does it refer to? ________________________________________________________________________
6. Read the Iast paragraph. What is the writer‘s message? _____________________________
Close Reading 1. ln Iines 3-4, the writer uses the words “no gulf greater than” to make a comparison. Crossing a guIf means doing something difficuIt. What two difficuIt things does the writer compare?________________________________________________________________
2. What purpose does the dash (-) in Iine 7 serve?
3. ln Iine 11, the writer uses the words as though to describe a simiIar experience. Which other experience does Ha Jin compare his reason to write to? ____________________________
4. ln Iine 15, the writer uses the word concerned to express a worry. What worries the Chinese writer? __________________________________________________________________
5. ln Iine 21, the writer uses the expression of course to indicate that something is obvious What obvious thing does the writer describe? ____________________________________
6. ln Iine 26, Ha Jin uses the word because in order to expIain something. What does the Chinese writer try to expIain? _________________________________________________
7. ln Iine 27, Ha Jin uses the word but to contrast two things. What is contrasted? ________________________________________________________________________
8. ln Iine 30, Gish Jen uses the expression instead of to describe an aIternative. Which two aIternatives are described? ___________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
9. ln Iines 36, Ha Jin uses the construction you have to four times in order to describe a process. Which process is described? _________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
10. ln the Iast sentence of the articIe, Ha Jin uses the expression that’s all. What does it refer to?
An American child who begins digging in his backyard and doesn’t stop will eventually “end up in China.” The Chinese have no comparable saying - no one digs toward North America. Ha Jin has come to Atlanta from the far side of the planet, but in getting here he has crossed no gulf greater than the one between his first and second languages. Written Chinese, “Hanzi,” uses an alphabet of over 30,000 5 characters. But even the term “alphabet” is misleading, because it suggests a letter-based, rather than word-based, system. Jin has now published six books in English - two books of poetry, two books of short stories, and two novels. The poems in his forthcoming collection, “Wreckage,” concern China’s ancient past and rough passage into modernity. Although they are full of violence and upheaval, he says, they are in part the 10 products of a filial feeling toward the language - “a kind of guilt I feel over having abandoned my mother tongue. I think I had to write these poems for psychological reasons. It’s as though I’m trying to pay a debt.” Jin was determined to write, and increasingly interested in fiction. For both practical and aesthetic reasons - written Chinese is “very highbrow and detached from the spoken word,” he once told a 15 reporter - he chose to make English the language of his creative work. Concerned that the name Xuefei didn’t suggest an obvious pronunciation to the English-reading eye, he adopted Ha Jin when he began publishing in American journals. Jin says he’s now able to think in English “most of the time.” “But when I’m not really paying attention,” he says, “very often Chinese comes out. Yesterday I was with a Chinese friend at a restaurant. Suddenly, I spoke Chinese to the waitress.” He laughs. “And I dream 20 half and half.” It’s not surprising, of course, that Jin still finds himself subconsciously straddling two cultures. The things he has left behind for the sake of his writing - his first language, his first name - have been fundamental, the sacrifices utter. Asked if 25 years ago he could have foreseen himself teaching at a university in Atlanta, Georgia, Jin laughs again.” I’d never heard of Georgia, “he says. “I’d never 25 heard of Atlanta. I hadn’t even heard of Boston. But I’m here now and I’m not surprised, because life is always unpredictable. Who knows where we will go? But I feel very fortunate. In the army, I knew a lot of young men and women with a lot of potential - extremely intelligent people. But they didn’t get on in their lives because they didn’t have the opportunity.” Chinese-American novelist Gish Jen once made an observation when speaking of Ha Jin. “The whole 30 idea of looking to masters instead of overturning something is very Chinese,” she told a New York Times reporter. “On some level, Ha Jin has chosen mastery over genius. It’s as if he said, ‘I am going to make something like that.’ This never happens with American writers. We are too beset with the anxiety of influence.” “Maybe this sounds strange,” he says of the writing task now before him, “but I don’t expect this to be 35 a magnificent, brilliant novel. I just want it to be a decent novel. From story writing I’ve learned that you have to write a lot, and you have to write well and you have to write poorly, and you have to be able to discern what’s good and what’s bad. From there, it’s just a matter of drawing strength from the masters in your own small way. That’s all I can really hope to do.”
1. What does the writer consider to have been Ha Jin’ s greatest chaIIenge in his writing career? ________________________________________________________________________
2. How does Ha Jin expIain his motivation to write poetry?
5. How does Gish Jen expIain one difference between Ha Jin’s writing and the writing of American writers? ________________________________________________________________________
6. What factors does Ha Jin beIieve there are which aIIow writers to write weII?
1. “Who wiII you be transIating for you at this time tomorrow?” ___ “l’II be transIating for the GeneraI Secretary, as the Hungarian representative speaks.” ___ 2. “By the time you are 60, wiII you have transIated aII of Shakespeare’s work into Tibetan?” “l’ve transIated it aII by the time you are 60! ___ 3. “WiII he be waiting for the order at this time next month? “Ask him if they’II have sent the order by next week.” ___
