writing,for,myself

篇一：writing for myself

Book Ⅰ

New College English 2

Writing

Growing Up

Growing Up

What do you think of growing up?

Is it easy or full of adventures?

Russell Baker

To find the answers in the song:

Say a little prayer before you go to sleep,

every day in every way, it’s getting better and better

(You should hold your hope all the time.)

It’s a long way to go, a hard row(行,列) to hoe(锄).

(Life is not easy; life is adventurous.)

Life is just what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

(Life is full of surprise.)

Writing For Myself

Ｕnit One

Homework

Looking Ahead

Introduction to the Content

Discovering Structure

Language Study

Further Development

Background information

Pulitzer Prize

Author: Russell Baker

Spaghetti vs. Noodles in China

American Educational System

普利策奖 Pulitzer prize

以J.普利策的遗赠为基金设立的奖金。开始于1917年 ，分设文学、历史、音乐、新闻等奖，以新闻奖的比例最大 。新闻奖授予有优异成就的美国新闻工作者和新闻机构，每年1次 ，在春季4月由哥伦比亚大学新闻研究生院颁发 。评选机构为普利策奖金评选委员会，成员是哥伦比亚大学校长和奖金设立者之孙小J.普利策，以及知名的报纸编辑或发行人。每届任期3年，可连任3届。授奖项目有优异公众服务奖、一般地方报道奖、特殊地方报道奖、国内报道奖、国际报道（包括联合国报道）奖、社论写作奖、漫画创作奖、现场新闻摄影奖、特写摄影奖、评论奖、批评奖、特稿写作奖等12项 。

“It is set specially for excellent Journalists.”

Russel Baker, American journalist and writer. Writing for myself is taken from his autobiography Growing Up, which won him a Pulitzer prize.

Spaghetti vs. Noodles in China

Ramen

stewed noodles

Sliced noodles

The US Grade School System

In the united States, education is the responsibility of individual states, not the federal government, so requirements may vary from one state to another. The following is a generalization:

Kindergarten: under 5 years old

Elementary/primary school (grades 1~6): 6~11 years old

Junior high/middle school (grades 7~8): 12~13 years old

Senior high school (grades 9~12): 14~17 years old

College, institute, academy(学院), university

What American teachers wear in school

Nowadays, people in the U.S. love to dress casually. Even among those companies with a rigid dress code some now allow employees not to wear suits on Fridays. U.S. teachers wear fairly formal clothes to school, but not necessarily suits and ties. Bow ties are considered even more old-fashioned than ties.

The author just told a story as:

I wanted to be a writer, but I found English grammar dull and difficult.

Mr. Fleagle became our English teacher, and he was very prim.

I tried to finish my informal essay before the due day.

One title attracted me, “The Art of Eating Spaghetti”, because I have experienced the real joy and happiness of our whole family while eating spaghetti.

I wanted to relive the pleasure of that evening.

Mr. Fleagle read my essay before the whole class,

who were laughing with open-hearted enjoyment.

I finally found that my words have power to make people laugh. ( In another word, I have successfully relived the enjoy with my words.)

IV.

Off and on (or on and off ): 断断续续地；有时

Example: It has been raining on and off for a week. That's why the clothes feel damp.

As her patient slept soundly during the night, Nurse Betty was able to doze off and on in a bedside chair.

Note:at times;on occasion; now and then

possibility: 可能（性）There is a ~ of doing sth

Example: Is there any possibility of life on Mars?

take hold: 生根，确立

Example: The idea of one child only has taken hold in many Chinese families.

Language Study

Match the words below

Turn in

Hold back

Put down

Turn out

Off and on

What’s more

Out of date

In addition

Wirte down

Hand in

Old-fashioned

Now and then

Produce

Restrain/inhibit

bore: 使（人）厌烦

Example: The speaker went on and on, and the audience grew bored by his speech.

Note: boring man

I feel totally bored

associate (with): 使联系起来；使联想 association

Example: We associate Egypt with pyramids. "

I can't associate this gentle young woman with the radical political essays she has written. Jim wished to forget everything associated with his former life.

turn out: produce 编写；生产，制造

Example: New computers are soon outdated since newer models are turned out constantly. anticipate: expect look forward to 预期，期望 ~ doing sth

Example: The police had anticipated trouble from the soccer fans and were at the ground in large numbers.

They anticipate that deaths from AIDS will have doubled by 2002.

tedious: boring a.乏味的；冗长的

Example: The movie was so tedious that many viewers left before it was over.

Laura found George to be tedious and decided not to see him any more.

reputation：n.名声 have a high/low ~ for sth

Example: Premier Zhu Rongji has a high reputation as a statesman in the world. Jim Kerry has quite a reputation for being comic.

inspire: vt.激励，鼓舞 encourage to do; ~ to do; stimulate to do

Example: Martin Luther King's speeches inspired people to fight for equal treatment of African

Americans.

rigid: prim a.一成不变的，严格的

Example: If he had been a little less rigid about things, his daughter would not have left home at such a young age.

out of date: old-fashioned 过时的

Example: Although her clothes were out of date, the old woman appeared clean and dignified.

severe: 1) completely plain a. 朴素的

Example: Earnest Hemingway is known for his severe writing style.

2) stern, strict严厉的，严格的

Example: Only those who have undergone severe training can be accepted into the air force.

3) causing very great pain, difficulty, worry, etc.严重的，剧烈的

Example: The severe chest pain experienced by the Vice-President proved to be a heart attack.

tackle: deal with Vt. 处理，应付 cope with; handle

Example: Toshiba (东芝) recently designed a robot that can tackle

almost any kinds of house-work.

The classroom was quiet as students were busy tackling the final exam. finally: at last ad.最终，终于 in the end

Example: Mr. Smith lived in Turkey, France, and Norway before finally settling in Mexico. Finally he came to realize his mistake and apologized to his parents.

After years of war the two countries finally signed a peace agreement.

face up to: 勇敢地接受或对付

Example: Now that your daughter is born, you'll have to face up to the responsibilities of being a father.

scan: v.浏览，粗略地看

Example: The banker scanned the financial section of a dozen newspapers over breakfast.

sequence: n. 次序，顺序

Example: A sequence of bad harvests forced some African countries to ask for foreign aid. The Fall of the Roman Empire was written in historical sequence.

image: n.形象；印象；（图）像

Example: Many pop stars try to improve their public image by participating in charity events.

vivid: 形象的，生动的；有生气的

Example: In the little girl's vivid imagination the curtain wrapped around her body became a princess's gown.

recall: bring back to the mind; remember (usu. followed by noun/gerund, or that-clause) vt.回想起，回忆起

Example: I recognize the face but can't recall her name.

I don't recall ever meeting her.

argument: disagreement, quarrel n.论据，论点；争论

Example: The bride and her mother got into an argument about whether to wear white or red on her wedding day.

put down: write down 写下

Example: What’s the use of a password to your computer if you put it down on a piece of paper stuck to the computer screen?

violate：act against vt.违背，违反

Example: Speeding in downtown areas violates traffic regulations.

compose: vt.创作

Example: The president's speech is really brilliant. Do you think it was composed by himself or by someone else?

John Lennon composed the song Beautiful Boy for his son.

turn in: hand in 交（作业）

Example: For your final grade, each of you must turn in a 7-page paper.

It is said that if a policeman is ordered to turn in his gun, it is meant as a punishment.

command: 1) n. order 命令，指令

Example: The commander gave the command that all prisoners of war should be well treated.

2) v. give an order to命令，指令

Example: The captain commanded his men to leave the ship immediately.

The king commanded that the victory day become a national holiday.

(As with the verbs "suggest, demand", subjunctive mood is used in a that-clause after command.)

25. what's more: in addition, more importantly 而且，此外

Example: How can you love this man? He watches TV all day long, and what's more, he seems not to have brushed his teeth for months!

26. hold back: 控制（感情、眼泪等）

Example: People could hardly hold back their anger when they found that millions of dollars of public funds had been used to build luxurious houses for city officials.

Johnny cried bitterly in the classroom, not even attempting to hold back the tears. avoid: keep or get away from vt.避免

Example: The little boy who had broken a neighbor's window ran away to avoid punishment / being punished.

career: n.生涯，事业；职业

Example: In her long career as a journalist, Barbara Walters has interviewed famous people from all over the world.

篇二：Writing for myself

Writing for myself

The idea of become a writer had come to me off and on since my childhood in Belleville, but it doesn?t until my third in high school that the possibility took hold. Until then I?d been bored by everything associated with English courses. I found English dull and difficult. I hated the assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were agony for teachers to read and for me to write.

When our class was assigned to Mr. Fleagle for third-year English I anticipated another cheerless year in that most tedious subjects. Mr. Fleagle had a reputation among students for dullness and inability to inspire. He was said to be very formal, rigid and hopelessly out of date. To me he look to be sixty or seventy and excessively prim. He wore primly severe eyeglasses, his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique.

I prepared for an unfruitful year with Mr. Fleagle and for a long time was not disappointed. Late in the year we tackled the informal essay. Mr. Fleagle distributed a homework sheet offering us a choice of topics. None was quite so simple-minded as “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” but most seemed to be almost as dull. I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due. Lying on the sofa, I finally faced up to the unwelcome task, took the list out of my notebook, and scanned it. The topic on which my eye stopped was “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.” This title produced an extraordinary sequence of mental images. Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville when all of us were seated around the supper table- Uncle Allen, my mother, Uncle Charlie, Doris, Uncle Hal- and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper. Spaghetti was still a little known foreign dish in those days. Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. All the good humor of Uncle Allen?s house reawoke in my mind as I recalled the laughing arguments we had that night about the socially respectable method for moving spaghetti from plate to mouth.

Suddenly I wanted to write about that, about the warmth and good feeling of it, but I wanted to put it down simply for my only joy, not for Mr. Fleagle. It was a moment I wanted recapture and hold for myself. I wanted to relive the pleasure of that evening. To write it as I wanted, however, would violate all the rules of formal composition I?d learned in school, and Mr. Fleagle would surely give it a failing grade. Never mind. I would write something else for Mr. Fleagle after I had written this thing for myself.

When I finished it the night was half gone and there was no time left to compose a proper, respectable essay for Mr. Fleagle. There was no choice next morning but to turn in my tale of the Belleville supper. Two days passed before Mr. Fleagle returned the graded papers, and he returned everyone?s but mine. I was preparing myself for a command to report to Mr. Fleagle immediately after school for discipline when I saw him lift my paper from his desk and knock for the class?s attention.

“Now, boys,” he said. “I want to read you an essay. This is titled, ?The Art of Eating Spaghetti.?”

And he started to read. My words! He was reading my words out loud to the entire class. What?s more, the entire class was laughing and not in contempt and ridicule, but with open-hearted enjoyment. Even Mr. Fleagle stopped two or three times to hold back a small prim smile.

I did my best to avoid my showing pleasure, but what I was feeling was pure delight at this

demonstration that my words had the power to make people laugh. In the eleventh grade, at the eleventh hour as it were, I had discovered a calling. It was the happiest moment of my entire school career. When Mr. Fleagle finished he put the final seal on my happiness by saying, “Now that, boys, is an essay, don?t you see. It?s- don?t you see- it?s of the very essence of the essay, don?t you see. Congratulations, Mr. Baker.”

篇三：Unit 1 Writing For Myself

Text A Writing For Myself

1 Background information

Spaghetti is the Italian-style thin noodle, cooked by boiling and served with sauce. Usually you would put a fork into a plate of spaghetti, turn the fork several times so that spaghetti will wind around the fork, then fork into your mouth. It’s impolite to suck.

2 Introduction

The topic of this unit is about human’s growth. Growing up is an unavoidable process for every one. In the course of growing up, we’ll meet many different things, sth. good or bad, sth. lucky or unlucky, difficulties or opportunity, surprise or sth. unexpected. Passage A is a story about an American writer named Russell Baker. Before his third year in high school, he had some problem with his English. But a writing experience of an essay decided his fate and led him to the road of writing.

3 Text details

3.1 Para.1: Baker’s feeling about English courses

Questions

1) When did the author’s dream of becoming a writer seem possible?

2) Why had he felt bored by everything associated with English courses?

Lps

·off and on

·take hold

·be associated with

·turn out

·it wasn’t until?that?

·boring, dull, lifeless

3.2 Para.2: Baker’s impression of his English teacher.

Questions

(转 载 于:wWW.smHAida.cOM 海达范文网:writing,for,myself)

1) What did the students think of Mr. Fleagle?

2) According to Mr. Baker, which word could vividly describe Mr. Fleagle? Lps

·have a reputation for

·out of date

·one is said to do/be — it is said that?

·He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts: ? with neckties pressing the collar ?

· against：错误！未找到引用源。in opposition to eg. That is against the law. 错误！未找到引用源。in contact/touch with eg. I stand against the wall.

3.3 Para.3: A topic that attracts Baker’s attention.

Questions

1) Which topic attracted Mr. Baker’s attention at last?

Lps

·prepare for

·face up to.

·I prepared for an unfruitful year with Mr. Fleagle and for a long time was not disappointed: I expected that I would make no progress with Mr. Fleagle as my English teacher and for a long time I was right in my expectations.

·due a. requiring immediate payment eg. My rent will be due till Friday（.in the text, it means “before the essay must be finished/handed in”）

3.4 Para.4: Baker’s memory came back to a night in Belleville.

Questions

1) What kind of dish was spaghetti in those days?

2) Why were all the people in Uncle Allen’s house laughing and arguing?

Lps

·a sequence of

·Vivid memories came flooding back of a night?: Vivid memories came back of a night ? like a flood/ I remembered the night clearly

·I recalled the laughing arguments we had that night about the socially respectable method for moving spaghetti from plate to mouth: I remembered that we all laughed that night when we argued/discussed what was the proper method and how to meet the social standard for moving ?

3.5 Para.5: Baker’s sudden desire to write about that topic.

Questions

1) What did Mr. Baker write for?

Lps

·put down

·I wanted to recapture and hold for myself: I’d like to bring it back in my mind and keep it within my heart.

·To write it as I wanted ?：To write what I wanted ?

·recapture, relive

3.6 Para.6: Anticipating /Expecting punishment

Questions

1) Did Mr. Baker prepared another essay to Mr. Fleagle’s requirements? Why? Lps

·I was preparing myself for a command to report to Mr. Fleagle immediately after school for discipline: I expected that Mr. Fleagle would order me to see him soon after school for the purpose of punishing me

·discipline: 错误！未找到引用源。punishment; 错误！未找到引用源。training; 错

误！未找到引用源。order kept by certain group of people; 错误！未找到引用源。branch of knowledge, subject

· no ? /nothing/nobody but（except） ? I have no choice but to tell you the truth. ·be doing sth./be going to do sth./be about to do sth.?when?

3.7 Para.7: Mr. Fleagle’s announcement

Questions

1) What would Mr. Fleagle do?

3.8 Para.8: Classmates’ response

Questions

1) What was the students’ response to Mr. Baker’s writing?

Lps

·what’s more: in addition/besides/further than that/more than that/furthermore; more importantly

·hold back

·contempt

·ridicule

3.9 Para.9: What Baker discovered

Questions

1) In which way did this experience change Mr. Baker?

2) Can you explain “ the very essence of the essay ”?

Lps

·in the eleventh grade: in the third year in high school

·at the eleventh hour

·as it were

·put/set the final seal on: be the high point in sth.; complete eg. This award has put the final seal on his sports career.

篇四：英语学习_unit1_A课文WRITING_FOR_MYSELF_必备

弃我去者，昨日之日不可留

乱我心者，今日之日多烦忧

WRITING FOR MYSELF

Russell Baker

off and on since my childhood in Belleville, but it wasn't until my third year in high school that the possibility took hold

bored by everything associated

assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were agony for teachers to read and for me to write.

When our class was assigned to Mr. Fleagle for third-year English I anticipated another cheerless year in that most tedious of subjects. Mr. Fleagle had a reputation among students for dullness and inability to inspire. He was said to be very formal, rigid and hopelessly out of date. To me he looked to be sixty or seventy and excessively prim. He wore primly severe eyeglasses, his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique.

I prepared for an unfruitful year with Mr. Fleagle and for a long time was not

tackled the informal essay. Mr. Fleagle distributed a homework sheet offering us a choice of topics. None was quite so simple-minded as “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” but most seemed to be almost as dull. I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due. Lying on the sofa, I finally faced up to the unwelcome task, took the list out of my notebook, and scanned it. The topic on which my eye stopped was “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.”

This title produced an extraordinary sequence of mental images. Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville when all of us were seated around the supper table—Uncle Allen, my mother, Uncle Charlie, Doris, Uncle Hal—and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper. Spaghetti was still a little known foreign dish in those days. Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. All the good humor of Uncle Allen 's house reawoke in my mind as I recalled the laughing arguments we had that night about the socially respectable method for moving spaghetti from plate to mouth.

warmth and good feeling of it, but I wanted to put it downsimply for my own joy, not for Mr. Fleagle. It was a moment I wanted to recapture and hold for myself. I wanted to relive the pleasure of that evening. To write it as I wanted, however, would violate all the rules of formal composition I 'd learned in school, and Mr. Fleagle would surely give it a failing grade. Never mind. I would write something else for Mr. Fleagle after I had written this thing for myself.

compose a proper, respectable essay for Mr. Fleagle. There was no choice next morning but to turn in my tale of the Belleville supper. Two days passed before Mr. Fleagle returned the graded papers, and he returned everyone 's but mine.

command to report to Mr. Fleagle immediately after school for discipline

when I saw him lift my paper from his desk and knock for the class 's attention.

“Now, boys,” he said. “I want to read you an essay. This is titled, 'The Art of Eating Spaghetti.' ”

was reading my words out loud to the entire class. What's more, the entire class was listening. Listening attentively. Then somebody laughed, then the entire class was laughing, and not in contempt and ridicule, but with open-hearted enjoyment. Even Mr. Fleagle stopped two or three times to hold back a small prim smile.

did my best to avoid showing pleasure, but what I was feeling was pure delight at this

eleventh hour as it were, I had discovered a calling. It was the happiest moment of my entire school career. When Mr. Fleagle finished he put the final seal on my happiness by saying, “Now that, boys, is an essay, don't you see. It's—don't you see—it's of the very essence of the essay, don't you see. Congratulations, Mr. Baker.”

off and on (or on and off) :

from time to time, now and again, irregularly 断断续续地 ; 有时

It has been raining on and off for a week. That's why the clothes feel damp.

As her patient slept soundly during the night, Nurse Betty was able to doze off and on in a bedside chair. possibility:

state of being possible; (degree of) likelihood (usu. followed by that-clause or of) 可能 ( 性 )

Is there any possibility of life on Mars?

They haven't arrived. There is a possibility that they have taken the wrong road.

take hold:

become established 生根 , 确立

The idea of one child only has taken hold in many Chinese families.

Old habits die hard. That's why you should stop smoking before the habit takes hold.

bore:

make (sb.) feel tired and lose interest 使 ( 人 ) 厌烦

The speaker went on and on, and the audience grew bored by his speech.

Tom Sawyer grew bored with painting the garden fence, so he thought of a way to make others paint for him. associate (with):

join or connect together; connect or bring in the mind使 联想起来 ; 使联想

We associate Egypt with pyramids.

I can't associate this gentle young woman with the radical political essays she has written.

Jim wished to forget everything associated with his former life.

turn out:

produce 编写 ; 生产 , 制造

New computers are soon outdated since newer models are turned out constantly.

American film studios turn out hundreds of films every year.

anticipate:

expect (usu. followed by gerund or that-clause) 预期 , 期望

The police had anticipated trouble from the soccer fans and were at the ground in large numbers.

They anticipate that deaths from AIDS will have doubled by 2002.

We anticipate running into problems in carrying out the medical welfare reform.

tedious:

boring and lasting for a long time 乏味的 ; 冗长的

The movie was so tedious that many viewers left before it was over.

Laura found George to be tedious and decided not to see him any more.

reputation:

(an) opinion (about sb. or sth.) held by others 名声 ; 名誉

Premier Zhu Rongji has a high reputation as a statesman in the world.

Jim Kerry has quite a reputation for being comic.

inspire:

fill (sb.) with confidence, eagerness, etc. 激励 , 鼓舞

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches inspired people to fight for equal treatment of African Americans.

The last leaf on the tree that never fell off inspired the dying patient with the will to live on.

rigid:

(often disapproving) fixed in behavior; based on correct or accepted rules 一成不变的 ; 严格的

If he had been a little less rigid about things, his daughter would not have left home.

at such a young age. The rigid headmaster would button up his clothes even on the hottest days.

out of date:

old-fashioned 过时的

New words are constantly added to our vocabulary while some old words go out of date.

Although her clothes were out of date, the old woman appeared clean and dignified.

severe:

1) completely plain 朴素的 ;

The widow wore a severe black dress to her husband's funeral.

Earnest Hemingway is known for his severe writing style.

2) stern, strict 严格的

Only those who have undergone severe training can be accepted into the air force.

Fu Lei was so severe with his son that even his wife would cry.

3) causing very great pain, difficulty, worry, etc. 严重的 , 剧烈的

The severe chest pain experienced by the Vice-President proved to be a heart attack.

A factory must turn out newer and better products to win in the climate of severe business competition. tackle:

deal with 处理 , 应付

Toshiba ( 东芝 ) recently designed a robot that can tackle almost any kinds of house- work.

The classroom was quiet as students were busy tackling the final exam.

finally:

at last (usu. used in the following situations: indicating that sth. is the last one in a series of things or events;

introducing a final point, asking a final question, or mentioning a final item; when sth. happens that you have been waiting for a long time, you can say that it finally happens) 最终 , 终于

Mr. Smith lived in Turkey, France, and Norway before finally settling in Mexico.

Finally, I should like to thank you all for coming and to wish you a pleasant journey home.

Finally he came to realize his mistake and apologized to his parents.

After years of war the two countries finally signed a peace agreement.

face up to:

be brave enough to accept or deal with (a problem or difficulty) 勇敢地接受或面对

Yeltsin faced up to the fact that he was no longer fit for the Russian presidency and resigned on New Year's Eve. Now that your daughter is born, you'll have to face up to the responsibilities of being a father.

scan:

look through quickly 浏览 , 粗略地看

The banker scanned the financial section of a dozen newspapers over breakfast.

篇五：Unit1 Writing for Myself

To Freshmen

Ⅰ: Congratulations to the Freshman

Ⅱ: Self-introduction

Ⅲ. Timing (Freshman-Sophomore-Junior-Senior)算一笔时间帐 Four years? No

Two years+100,000 Yuan: Seize the time!!!

Ⅳ. English Learning

1. Reading; Writing; Listening; Speaking; Translating

2. 如何去强化每一个部分

3. Exams (mid-exam; final; CET-4)

Ⅴ. Teaching Plan of This Semester

1. Reading & Writing Course

2. Listening & Speaking Course

Ⅵ. Course Requirements

e.g. Attendance; Review & Preview?

Ⅶ. Websites for English Learning

Ⅷ. Suggestions

Unit 1 Writing for Myself

Russell Baker

Ⅰ. Warming-up

1. Have students listen to John Lennon’s song (lullaby) Beautiful Boy

2. Through this song ,we can feel the strong love of a father towards his son (the singer’s soft voice; the repetition of “beautiful boy”; the lyrics)

3. Q: Without the parents’ love, it is impossible for a baby to grow up. In the process of becoming an adult, parents ★have great influence over their children. Besides them, who else has affected you the most and why?

4. Lead into the text by saying: “Let’s read text A, unit 1 and find out who influenced the author Russell Baker and in what way.”

Ⅱ. Cultural Background Information

1. Russell Baker (1925- ): American journalist and writer. The text is taken from his autobiography Growing Up (1982), which won him a Pulitzer prize.

2. The Pulitzer Prize: an award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 and is administered by

Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.

3. The American Educational System

In the United States, education is the responsibility of individual states, not of the federal government, so requirements may vary from one state to another. The following is a generalization kindergarten: under 5 years old

★elementary / primary school (grades 1~6): 6~11 years old junior high / middle school (grades 7~8): 12~13 years old senior / high school (grades 9~12): 14~17 years old

4. Spaghetti and the proper way of eating it: Spaghetti is an Italian thin noodle, cooked by boiling and served with sauce. Usually you put a fork into a plate of spaghetti, turn the fork several times so that spaghetti will wind around the fork, then place the fork into your mouth. It’s impolite to suck.

Ⅲ. Structure

Ⅳ. New Words and Phrases

1.off and on/on and off: from time to time; now and again;

irregularly

e.g. It has been raining on and off for a week. That’s why the

clothes feel damp.

2. take hold: become ★established

e.g. Old habits die hard. That’s why you should stop playing

computer games before the habit takes hold.

3. associate: vt. join or connect together; connect or bring in the

mind

e.g. We often associate China with the Great Wall.

同义短语：be associated with/be connected with/be linked to,etc. 名词：association(NBA: National Basketball Assocation；CUBA)

4. turn out:1) produce; make

e.g. We are to turn out 100,000,586 computers next year to meet

the market requirements.

2) prove to be

e.g. The experiment turned out to be a success.

5. anticipate: vt. expect (usu. followed by gerund or that-clause)

e.g. A good teacher is able to anticipate the students’ needs and

concerns.

We anticipate running into problems in carrying out the

educational reform.

名词anticipation

6. tedious: adj. boring and lasting for a long time

e.g. The movie was so tedious that many viewers left before it

was over.

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