LU XUN – THE FATHER OF MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE 魯迅：現代中國文學之父2

As a young man, Lu Xun read Chinese and Western novels, classics and philosophy. Through these writings, he came to believe that literature could change society more than politics. Hoping to inspire writers to work toward social change, Lu Xun returned to China in 1909. There he became active in the Chinese literature movement.

The impact of his words

In 1918, Lu Xun published “Diary of a Madman.” But instead of using the formal, literary style of Confucius he wrote the way people spoke. His story was a huge success and became known as China’s first Western-style short story. From 1918 to 1926, Lu Xun published 25 influential stories. These stories described the hard life of villagers, students, workers and women. During his last 18 years, he purposely used his words to attack the failings of society. In 1936, Lu Xun died at the age of 55. But he left behind a large quantity of work totaling nearly 10 million words. These famous words are preserved in “The Complete Works of Lu Xun.”

madman àcrazy person that a lot of crazy thing

literary

Confucius孔子

purposelyàon purpose

【Grammar on the go】

Hoping to inspire writers to work toward social change, Lu Xun returned to China in 1909.

Hoping to

Hoping to impress his date, Dennis wore his best suit to the restaurant.

Hoping to get the best tickets for the concert, Ellen camped out all night in front of the ticket office.

【Chat room】

colloquial 口語的、白話的

colloquialism

colloquial words and phrases

slang俚語 (比colloquial更口語、非正式，大多是年輕人使用)

【Key word】

literary 文學的、文藝的

Most literary critics praise the original style of this new novelist.

大多數的文學評論家都讚美這位新銳小說家清新的風格

The poet won several literary prizes last year.

這位詩人去年贏得了許多文學的獎項

purposely 故意地、蓄意地

Mom purposely left the door open so she could hear what we were talking about.

媽媽故意把門打開這樣就可以聽到我們在說些什麼

The girl purposely came to the party late so everyone would notice her.

這個女孩故意晚到派對，這樣每個人都會注意到她

preserve 保護、保存

The governor promised to do his best to preserve the state’s natural resources.

州長承諾要盡全力保護該州的天然資源

Private collectors preserve the artist’s works.

這位藝術家的作品被私人收藏家所收藏。

Lu Xun – the Father of Modern Chinese Literature 魯迅：現代中國文學之父

Learn about “the greatest writer Asia produced in the 20th century”

 by Pamela Osment

Known as “the Father of modern Chinese literature,” Lu Xun (魯迅) – Zhou Shuren (周樹人) – is still renowned today. Yet if he had continued with his first career choice, the world might never have heard of him.

The early years

  In 1881, Lu Xun was born in Shaoxing (紹興) in Zhejiang province (浙江省). His family was educated but poor, and his father was often in need of medical care. This made it necessary for the family to pawn items to pay his bills.

Lu Xun watched as doctors treated his father with traditional methods, which never helped him. As a result, Lu Xun became interested in modern medical treatments practiced in Japan. In 1902, he received a government scholarship to travel to Japan, where he later studied medicine. By 1906, Lu Xun had become concerned about problems within his own country. He decided that the best way to bring about changes in society was through literature. So he quit medical school and turned his attention to writing. This decision changed his life.

renowned--> famous

medical

pawn

concerned about --> care about, worry about

【Chat room】

interested / interesting

interested形容個人的感受

I’m very interested in science. 我對科學很感興趣

Lu Xun became interested in modern medical treatments practiced in Japan.

interesting 有趣的、令人感興趣的

This book is so interesting. 這本書很有趣

有時候美國人會把interesting 當成委婉的用語，這時候就有別的含意

如果有人看著你的衣服說：Well, that’s an interesting shirt.

(表示對方不能苟同你的穿衣品味….覺得不好看)

【Key word】

literature 文學

Lawrence is an expert in modern American literature.

勞倫是美國當代文學的專家

literature 文獻；資料

The professor listed the latest literature regarding this medical field for his students.

教授替學生列出了這個醫學領域的最新文獻

pawn抵押、典當

Martha pawned everything she had to buy food for her kids.

Martha典當了許多東西給孩子們食物

He had to pawn his guitar to pay for his tuition.

他為了要付學費當掉了他的吉他

pawn也可以當名詞

Tina bought this ring in a pawn shop.

Tina在當舖買到了這個戒指。

Jason’s stereo system is in pawn.

Jason的音響系統典當掉了

concerned 擔心的、掛慮的 +about

We’re concerned about the financial problems in our company.

我們為公司的財務狀況而擔憂

INVENTIONS OF THOMAS EDISON 發明家愛迪生2

Audio

Edison not only helped give us movies, but he also played a part in the history of music and recording. His first phonograph could both record and play back sound. It amazed the public and brought him international fame.

Communication

From scrutinizing all of Edison’s inventions in this field, one sees he was obviously a believer in improving communication between people. In his era, the telegraph was the way to send and receive messages. Edison created the automatic telegraph, a gadget that allowed messages to travel extremely fast. Before, they couldn’t go much faster than 40 words per minute, but the automatic telegraph allowed for up to 1,000!

Edison also played a huge part in creating the telephone. He, of course, didn’t invent the telephone, but earlier versions of the machine were limited, and he improved it dramatically. Originally telephones only let people talk to each other over shot distances. Recognizing the problem, Edison took it upon himself to invent his own telephone transmitter, which was used up until the 1980s. Edison’s inventions changed the world. He once said, “Invention is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Even a wizard has to work hard!

phonograph 留聲機

telegraph 電報

scrutinizeàlook closely 細看；詳細檢查

gadget 小機件；器具

dramatically

inspirationàidea 靈感

perspirationàhard work 汗水、辛苦、賣力

 【Chat room】

transmitter was used up until the 1980s 送話器一直到1980年代還在被人們使用

注意這裡不是used up

We used up all our money 我們把錢用光了

而是up until 一直到那個時候

Up until I was a teenager, I didn’t know any English.

一直到我是個青少年，我一點英文都不會

【Key word】

scrutinize 詳細的檢查、細看

The editor scrutinized the final copy of the article to make sure there weren’t any mistakes.

編輯查看這篇文章的最後定稿確定沒有任何的錯誤

The detective scrutinized all the evidence trying to find any clues.

這名警探仔細的查看證物試著找出任何線索

transmitter 發射器、發報器

The whales were implanted with radio transmitters so the scientists could locate them.

這些鯨魚被植入電波發報器，這樣科學家們可以知道牠們的行蹤

transmitter傳遞者、傳播者

Mosquitoes are transmitters of many kinds of diseases. 蚊子是許多疾病的傳播者

perspiration 汗水、出汗

bead 汗珠

Beads of perspiration were on his forehead. 他的額頭上有汗珠

perspire 流汗、出汗

The kids perspired a lot in the summer heat.

INVENTIONS OF THOMAS EDISON 發明家愛迪生

There’s a reason he was called the wizard愛迪生之所以會被稱為奇才，其來有自

Have you ever wondered which great minds helped give us the electric light as we know it today? If Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was one of your guesses, you were right! But that wasn’t the only thing he worked on.

Light

During his lifetime Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions. Let’s first take a look at one of his most famous ones. Did you know that Edison’s improvement of the light bulb almost never happened? Needing to keep the carbon from burning up in order to make the bulb work, he sat in his lab wondering what to do.

Finally looking up, he saw he had unconsciously rolled some lampblack into a thin thread. He decided to roll the carbon into the same shape. Using this carbon filament, his bulb burned for about 15 hours.

Visual

Edison was probably one of the first movie fans ever. After seeing another inventor’s machine showing animals in motion. Edison likewise became interested in moving pictures. He began working on his own motion picture invention. By 1892, Edison and photographer W.K.L. Dickson created a motion picture camera and a viewing implement.

lampblack

motion

likewise

implement 工具、器具

【Grammar on the go】

Have you ever wondered which great minds helped give us the electric light as we know it today?

as we know it today

àlike the ones we use or are familiar with today

The bicycle as we know it today didn’t become popular until half a century after its invention.

Ever since 1700, the piano went through numerous changes to become western music’s most popular instrument as we know it today.

【Chat room】

burn up /burn out

burn up 字面上是燃燒、燒盡的意思

今天的課文中：

keep the carbon from burning up 防止碳燃燒起來

burn up延伸的意思是：使某人發怒

You really burn me up! I’m very angry at you!

burn out精疲力盡

因為工作過度或工作壓力而身心俱疲

Rhonda is completely burned out at her job.

Rhonda對她的工作已經非常厭倦了

burn the midnight oil 燃燒午夜的油燈：開夜車、挑燈夜戰

【Key word】

patent 取得某項東西的專利權v.

The scientist patented his newly developed technology of turning salt water into drinking water. 這位科學家把他新發展的將鹽水轉變為飲用水的科技申請了專利

patent 專利、專利權n.

The patent application of this new product is still in process.

這個新產品的專利申請還在進行中

unconsciously 不知不覺地、未意識到地

He was unconsciously biting his fingernails.他下意識地咬他自己的指甲

The victim was beat by the robbers until he lay unconsciously in the dirt.

這位受害者被搶匪打到失去意識躺在地上。

likewise 也、同樣地、照樣地

The leading actor of the movie did a marvelous job, and the leading actress did likewise. 這部電影的男主角表現優異，女主角也不遜色

Josh used to complain that his boss was too strict. Likewise, his employees now complain about him.

Josh以前抱怨他的老闆對他很嚴格，現在他的員工也同樣地抱怨他。

“I’m going home now.” “Likewise.”

“我要回家了” “我也是”

Watch Where You Walk! 走路要看路！2

When they are texting, people walk more slowly. They weave back and forth and don’t notice other people around them. And texting isn’t the only thing people do on their phones while walking. They play games, answer e-mails and use applications as well. Trying to do these things while walking may be dangerous, but people do it anyway. Some think it should be illegal, like texting and driving is in many places.

But others think this kind of law would be hard to enforce. Too many people want to keep using their phones while they walk. In the worst cases, people have died by accidentally walking into traffic while texting. Would anybody walk down the street with their eyes closed?

Probably not, but texting is nearly the same thing. It only takes one quick glance to send a text or check an e-mail. In that instant, a little typing could cause a lot of trouble.

weave

application

illegal

【Grammar on the go】

In the worse cases, people have died by accidentally walking into traffic while texting.

in the worse situations or examples

Getting sick is not the end of the world, the worse case would be having to miss work for a few days.

After the war, food became very expensive. In the worse case, the price for bread was a worker’s entire salary for a whole month.

【Chat room】

text 傳送簡訊(原本是書裡的文字)

SMS= Short Message Service

SMS language =Textese 手機的簡訊文

【Key word】

weave 迂迴前進

We weaved our way through the crowds trying to get out of the parade.

我們穿過人群試著要離開這個遊行

The road weaved through the valley and led to the town down the hill.

這條路在山谷繞來繞去，最後來到了山腳的小鎮

illegal 不合法的

It’s illegal to open other people’s mail without their permission.

The movie star was charged with possession of illegal drugs.

這位電影明星因為持有非法藥物而被控告

enforce 執行、實施

Traffic rules need to be enforced to protect both drivers and pedestrians.

The doctor enforces a strict dietary program on his overweight patients.

這位醫生對體重超重的病人們執行嚴格的減肥計劃