新视野大学英语第三版第二册课文语法讲解_Unit4
开学了日记-自我总结范文
新视野三版 读写 B2 U4 Text A
College sweethearts
1 I smile at
my two lovely daughters and they seem so much more
mature than
we, their parents, when we were
col ege sweethearts. Linda, who's 21, had a
boyfriend in her freshman year she thought she
would marry, but they're not
together anymore.
Melissa, who's 19, hasn't had a steady boyfriend
yet. My
daughters wonder when they wil meet
their father and I had a classic fairy-tale
romance heading for marriage from
the outset.
Perhaps, they're right but it didn't seem so at
the time. In a way,
love just happens when you
least expect it. Who would have thought
that
Butch and I would end up getting married to each
other? He became my
boyfriend because of my
shal ow agenda: I wanted a cute boyfriend!
2
We met through my col ege roommate at the
university cafeteria. That fateful
night, I
was merely curious, but for him I think it was
love at first sight.
have beautiful
eyes
night long. I real y wasn't that
interested for two reasons. First, he looked like
he was a real y wild boy, maybe even
dangerous. Second, although he was
very cute,
he seemed a little weird.
3 Riding on his
bicycle, he'd ride past my dorm as if
to be
surprised to see me. I liked the attention but was
cautious about his
wild, dynamic personality.
He had a charming way with words which
would
charm any girl. Fear came over me when I started
to fal in love. His
exciting
attracted me?
I always had an excel ent reputation. My
concentration was
solely on my studies to get
superior grades. But for what? Col ege is supposed
to be a time of great learning and also some
fun. I had nearly achieved a great
education,
and graduation was just one semester away. But I
hadn't had any
fun; my life was stale with no
component of fun! I needed a just
any had to
be cute. My goal that semester became:
Be
ambitious and grab the cutest boyfriend I can
find.
4 I worried what he'd think of me. True,
we lived in a time when a dramatic shift
in
sexual attitudes was taking place, but I was a
traditional girl who wasn't
ready for the new
ways that seemed common on campus. Butch
looked superb! I was not immune to his
personality, but I was scared. The
night when
he announced to the world that I was his
girlfriend, I went along
with him. And then I suddenly thought:
did that happen?
going to marry you one day
and I wil be a lawyer. You wil see.
5 I was
laughing inside and said to myself,
rebel
without a good future. He's my boyfriend because I
hate my boring
student life. I just want to
have fun.
*6 Sure enough, the fol owing month,
I found out he had failed al his
courses.
Consequently, he was going to be expel ed from the
university. To
my disgust, he seemed resigned
to his fate. I knew there was hope, so I led
him to the col ege secretary for
reconsideration.
*7
from UPenn and proceed
to the Col ege of Law,
on his behalf, which was
approved. Butch was granted reconsideration. And,
once we became steadies, he coordinated his
studies and social life, passing
al of his
classes. He eventual y studied law.
8 Despite
Butch's somewhat wild character, at his core, he
is always a perfect
gentleman and deserves a
lot of credit for , he'd sometimes take
the
liberty of displaying his love by planting a kiss
on my lips right in front of my
astonished
friends who watched and disapproved. But the truth
is we had a
pure and responsible relationship
for seven ful years. Sitting by the palm trees,
hand in hand, we would listen to romantic
songs, watch the sunset,
and weave dreams of
being together with children of our own, forever.
9 Two years passed in a blur. One day, Butch
took me by surprise as
he knelt down and
proposed marriage holding a dozen red roses! Fil
ed with
deep emotion, I confessed my love for
him,
brain woke up from fantasy land. I cried
out,
young to tie the knot. We haven't even
graduated from col ege yet!
loved him but was
pessimistic about our chances for success.
10
We married five years later.
11 Our faithful
journey of love and learning took us down rocky
roads of
hardship and on smooth easy-going
highways. It is a long, romantic,
sometimes
crazy, love story that sums up a 29-year long
honeymoon together
*as a couple who are stil
madly in love with each other. Our
love
commenced with a casual attraction but bloomed
into a mature love and
rich life.
Language Points:
1 I smile
at my two lovely daughters and they seem so much
more mature than we,
their parents, when we
were college sweethearts. (Para. 1)
Meaning
beyond words: Married to her col ege sweetheart,
the author now is happy
with
her family
and two grown daughters.
Note: College
sweethearts refer to someone with whom one is in
love and by whom one
is loved at col ege;
sweetheart is equivalent to lover,darling,
beloved, or dear. For
example:
*Wel done,
sweetheart, we are all so proud of you.
做得好，宝贝，我们以你为
荣。
*My husband is the greatest
guy in the world; he was my col ege sweetheart.
我丈夫
是世
界上最棒的，大学时他就是我的恋人。
He tries to
locate his former sweetheart Melina from whom he
has heard nothing for a
very
*long time.
他在努力寻找他以前的恋人梅利娜，他已经很久没有她的消息了。
2
Linda, who’s 21, had a boyfriend in her freshman
year she thought she would
marry, but they’re
not together anymore. Melissa, who’s 19, hasn’t
had a steady
boyfriend yet. My daughters
wonder when they will meet “The One”, their great
love.(Para. 1)
Meaning beyond words: Her
two daughters are at the age of just dating, but
they seem
to be very mature wondering when
they will meet their true love.
3
They think their father and I had a classic fairy
tale romance heading for
marriage
from the
outset. (Para. 1)
Meaning beyond words: Her
daughters consider their parents’ marriage a
typical
conventional romance because they
think it aimed at marriage from the very
beginning.
Usage note: classic, classical
1 classic 用作形容词表示“经典的；精彩的；一流的”。例如：
*Death
on the Nile is one of the classic works of Agatha
Christie. 《尼罗河上的惨
案》是阿
加莎?克里斯蒂的经典作品之一。
*口语中也会用到 classic 这个词。当你看到一场精彩的演出时，就可以说“That’s
classic!”来
表达赞美。
classic
用作形容词也表示“典型的；标准的”。例如：
*London is the classic
example of the scattered city. 伦敦是标准分散型的城市。
*This statement was a classic il
ustration of British politeness. 这项述是对英国礼
貌的一
个典型说明。
classic 也可用作名词，表示“文学名著；经典作品；杰作”。例如：
*We have al the standard classics of Hayao
Miyazaki at home. 我们家有宫崎骏的
所有的
经典作品。
2 classical
不能用作名词，只能用作形容词，表示“古典的；经典的”。例如：
*I spend a lot
of time reading and listening to classical music.
我花了很多时间阅
读和聆听
古典音乐。
*Classical music is
music written by composers such as Mozart and
Beethoven. 像莫扎
特
和贝多芬所创作的音乐称为古典音乐。
*莫扎特和贝多芬所创作的音乐属于古典音乐(classical music),
但这些古典音乐经
久不衰，
有永久的意义和价值，所以这些音乐也可称为经典的音乐（classic
music）。反
之，在前面
有一例中说可口可乐瓶子的设计是精彩的，一流的，所以是经典
（classic）之
作，但很明显
可口可乐瓶子的设计不是古典的
（classical）设计。所以，经典的（classic）作品
不一定
就是古典的（classical）作品。
Note: Classic fairy-
tale romance is used to describe a romance blessed
with unusual
happiness. Colloquially, a fairy
tale can also refer to any story extremely
unlikely to be
true.
4 Perhaps,
they’re right but it didn’t seem so at the time.
(Para. 1)
Meaning: My daughters’ perception
may be right, yet our romance back then was
actually
not like what they have assumed.
5 In a way, love just happens when
you least expect it. Who would have thought
that Butch and I would end up getting married
to each other? He became my
boyfriend because
of my shallow agenda: I wanted a cute boyfriend!
(Para. 1)
Meaning: Love comes your way when
you don’t real y expect it. No one thought that
Butch and I would finally get married. He
became my boyfriend simply because I would
like to fulfil my shallow wish: to have an
attractive boyfriend in col ege.
Meaning
beyond words: Here is the suspense of the story –
the author gives a broad
hint that she wil
tell us how she and her husband got married at
last.
6 We met through my college
roommate at the university cafeteria. That fateful
night, I was merely curious, but for him I
think it was love at first sight. (Para. 2)
Meaning: At the school dining hal that
important night, we were introduced to each
other
through my roommate. I met Butch
just out of curiosity, but he seemed to fal in
love
with
me as soon as he saw me.
7 “You have beautiful eyes,” he said
as he gazed at my face. (Para. 2)
Meaning
beyond words: The author was obviously attractive
to Butch since he tried to
please her by
praising her eyes.
8 He kept staring at me all night long. (Para.
2)
Note: Both gaze at and stare at mean
“looking at something fixedly for a long time
because of being attracted, surprised, or
thinking, etc.”. Stare at usually has the
additional
meaning of “with eyes widely
open”. Also, it usually implies “with great
attention”;
gaze
at usually implies “in a
dreamy and unaware state of mind”.
9
I really wasn’t that interested for two reasons.
First, he looked like he was a really
wild
boy, maybe even dangerous. Second, although he was
very cute, he seemed a
little weird. (Para. 2)
Meaning beyond words: She wasn’t interested in
him because she got the impression
that he was
wild and strange, which il ustrates that she
didn’t know much about him at
the
beginning. Therefore, it’s not true that their
romance was heading for marriage from the
start.
10 Riding on his bicycle,
he’d ride past my dorm as if “by accident” and
pretend to
be surprised to see me. I liked the
attention but was cautious about his wild,
dynamic personality. (Para. 3)
Meaning
beyond words: She understood his little trick:
trying to see her by
manufacturing excuses.
Though she was happy to be the focus of his
attention, she was
also very alert to his wild
and dynamic personality.
11 He had a
charming way with words which would charm any
girl. (Para. 3)
Meaning: He knew how to please
and attract girls because what he said was always
pleasant to their ears.
12 Fear
came over me when I started to fall in love. His
exciting “bad boy image”
was just too tempting
to resist. What was it that attracted me?(Para. 3)
Meaning: I was in an awkward position: I
started to fal in love with him, but I was also
afraid of that. His bad boy image was too
attractive to resist, but at the same time it was
somewhat fearful. So, what exactly was it in
him that attracted me?
Note: Tempting is a
present participle of the verb tempt, used as an
adjective to describe
the effect that
something has on someone’s feelings. For example,
if you find something
temptingcharmingdisgustingfrightening, it
means it temptscharmsdisgustsfrightens
you. In
English there are a group of words describing an
effect that something has on
your
feelings
and ideas. For example:
*a tempting job offer
一个诱人的工作机会
an alarming increase in
racial hostility 种族仇视的惊人增长
*a welcoming smile 热情的微笑
*a
surprising number of 数量惊人的
13 I
always had an excellent reputation. My
concentration was solely on my studies
to get
superior grades. But for what? (Para. 3)
Meaning: I was an outstanding student who only
concentrated on studies in order to get
excellent grades. But so what? Shouldn’t a
good student also have fun?
14
College is supposed to be a time of great learning
and also some fun. I had
nearly achieved a
great education, and graduation was just one
semester away. But
I hadn’t had any fun; my
life was stale with no component of fun! I needed
a
boyfriend. (Para. 3)
Meaning: College is
definitely a nice place for education but should
have some fun as
well. Throughout my years at
col ege, I had devoted all my time to study but
hadn’t had
any fun yet. Now that I was
graduating, I wanted to have a boyfriend to enrich
my col
ege
life.
15 Not just
any boyfriend. He had to be cute. My goal that
semester became: Be
ambitious and grab the
cutest boyfriend I can find. (Para. 3)
Meaning: The one I wanted to date was not just
an ordinary boy; he had to be handsome,
pleasant and attractive. My ambition for that
semester, therefore, was to find the cutest
boyfriend at col ege.
16 I
worried what he’d think of me. (Para. 4)
Meaning beyond words: Her concern about how
Butch would look at her shows that
she
was
becoming more interested in him and cared about
his real thinking.
17 True, we lived
in a time when a dramatic shift in sexual
attitudes was taking
place, but I was a
traditional girl who wasn’t ready for the new ways
that seemed
common on campus. (Para. 4)
Meaning: It is true that we lived in an era
when sexual attitudes were changing
dramatical
y, but since I was traditional, I wasn’t ready for
the new sexual practice
seemingly common on
campus.
18 Butch looked superb! I
was not immune to his personality, but I was
scared.
(Para. 4)
Meaning: Butch looked
extremely wonderful. I was surely influenced by
his personality,
but I felt scared.
19 The night
when he announced to the world that I was his
girlfriend, I went along
with him. (Para. 4)
Meaning: That night when my boyfriend
announced publicly I was his girlfriend, I did
not
have any objection.
Meaning beyond
words: She has apparently changed her perception
of Butch, from
being merely curious about him
at first to becoming cautious about his wild,
dynamic
personality later; from being fearful
of failing to resist his “bad boy image” to
approving
of
being his girlfriend.
20 And then I suddenly thought: “Oh my
gosh! Am I his girlfriend? How did that
happen?” (Para. 4)
Meaning beyond words:
Al of a sudden, she realized that she had made a
mistake
because she was not real y ready to
have a boyfriend yet.
Note: “Gosh”, as an
interjection, is used to express surprise. For
example:
*Gosh, I didn’t expect to see you
here! 天哪，我没想到在这里见到你！
*Gosh, it’s so cold.
天哪，太冷了！
*Gosh, there’s a lot of noise.
天哪，这儿真吵。
21 Then he whispered sweet
words in my ear and said, “I’m going to marry you
one
day and I will be a lawyer. You will
see.” (Para. 4)
Meaning: Then he quietly said
sweet words in my ear and said that he would marry
me
and I could eventual y see him become a
lawyer.
22 I was laughing inside and
said to myself, “I’d never marry this guy. He’s a
rebel
without a good future. He’s my boyfriend
because I hate my boring student life. I
just
want to have fun.” (Para. 5)
Meaning: Though I
agreed to be his girlfriend, from my heart, he was
just a rebellious
boy
without a bright
future. Therefore, I was not very serious about
our relationship. To me,
the
only purpose
to date him was to get away from my boring student
life.
23 Sure enough, the following
month, I found out he had failed all his courses.
(Para.
6)
Meaning: Just as I had
expected, he didn’t pass any of his courses.
24 Consequently, he was going to
be expelled from the university. (Para. 6)
Meaning: As a consequence, the university was
going to dismiss him from the school.
25 To my disgust, he seemed
resigned to his fate. I knew there was hope, so I
led
him to the college secretary for
reconsideration. (Para. 6)
Meaning: What upset
me was that he seemed to accept his fate. As I
knew there was stil
a hope, I took him to the
col ege secretary to see whether the decision
could be changed.
26 “You are going
to graduate with a BA in political science from
UPenn and
proceed to the College of Law,” I
told him, lodging an appeal on his behalf, which
was approved. (Para. 7)
Meaning beyond
words: What she did for her boyfriend indicated
their relationship
had
come to a new
stage. Besides encouraging him to consult with the
col ege secretary and
submitting the appeal on
his behalf, she also planned for his future
career. She told him
he had to continue his
studies at law school.
Note: Besides a noun,
“proceed to” can also be fol owed by a verb
phrase. For example:
Having said how much she
liked my idea, she then proceeded to make critical
comments
*about it.
说完她是多么喜欢我的点子，她接着就提出了批评性的意见。
27 Butch
was granted reconsideration. And, once we became
steadies, he
coordinated his studies and
social life, passing all of his classes. He
eventually
studied law. (Para. 7)
Meaning
beyond words: Here we see the turning point of the
relationship between the
two. Her suggestions
did work well with Butch since he was granted
reconsideration. As
soon as they became steady
lovers, Butch balanced his studies and social life
and passed
every course. Final y, he studied
law as had been planned.
Note: Steady can also
be used as a noun, as is in the text. It’s an old-
fashioned American
way to describe a boyfriend
or girlfriend that someone has been having a
romantic
relationship with.
28
Despite Butch’s somewhat wild character, at his
core, he is always a perfect
gentleman and
deserves a lot of credit for that. (Para. 8)
Meaning: In spite of Butch’s a little wild
character, he was always a perfect gentleman
in
essence, for which he should be given
recognition.
29 True, he’d sometimes
take the liberty of displaying his love by
planting a kiss on
my lips right in front of
my astonished friends who watched and disapproved.
(Para.
8)
Meaning: Without my
permission, sometimes he would press a kiss on my
lips to show
his love in front of my friends,
who were astonished and resented what he did.
Note: “Plant a
kiss” is a figurative use of the word plant, which
means an intimate and
publicly demonstrative
kiss showing his love to all who are watching.
30 But the truth is we had a pure
and responsible relationship for seven full years.
Sitting by the palm trees, hand in hand, we
would listen to romantic songs, watch
the
sunset, and weave dreams of being together with
children of our own, forever.
(Para. 8)
Meaning beyond words: Butch showed much
respect for her conservative perception
of
love. For seven years, they just enjoyed their
romance in a traditional way.
31 Two
years passed in a blur. One day, Butch took me by
surprise as he knelt
down and proposed
marriage holding a dozen red roses! (Para. 9)
Meaning: Two years passed so quickly that I
didn’t real y remember everything clearly.
One
day, I was startled when Butch, holding a dozen
red roses, knelt down to propose
marriage.
Note: propose to sb. = propose marriage to sb.
32 Filled with deep emotion, I
confessed my love for him, “How roooomaaaantic!!”
(Para. 9)
Meaning: I admitted my love for
him with deep affection. It was super romantic!
Meaning beyond words: She was so happy and
thril ed to accept Butch’s marriage
proposal
that she said the word romantic in a slow and
exaggerated way.
Note: In informal writing,
people would emphasize something in a similar way.
For
example:
*Thank you soooooo much!
真是太太太感您了！
33 Then my brain woke up
from fantasy land. I cried out, “Good heavens. No!
We’re
too young to tie the knot. We
haven’t even graduated from college yet!” I really
loved him but was pessimistic about our
chances for success.(Para. 9)
Meaning beyond
words: Al of a sudden, she woke up from the
romantic scene. Though
she already accepted
love from Butch and confessed her love for him,
she was not sure
whether they would get
married and have a happy ending as they were stil
col ege
students.
Note: It isn’t clear
whether this expression tie the knot derives from
an actual knot used
in
marriage ceremonies
or whether the knot is merely symbolic of a
lasting unity. Knots
have
a place in many
cultures and usually symbolize unbreakable
pledges. Actual knots have
certainly been used in marriage
ceremonies for some time. The word knot, although
not
in
the phrase tie the knot, has been
associated with marriage since at least the 13th
century.
34 We married five years
later. (Para 10)
Meaning beyond words: Though
she was pessimistic about their chance for success
of
love, she accepted Butch’s proposal. They
got married five years later, which il ustrates
their deep and true love for each other.
35 Our faithful journey of love and
learning took us down rocky roads of hardship
and on smooth easy-going highways. (Para. 11)
Meaning: Our devoted and faithful love guided
us both in times of happiness and also
in
times of hardship.
Note: The word rocky
comes from the noun rock combining with -y. A
rocky road refers
to
a road ful of rocks,
uneven or not flat. Words of this group
include: muddy, stony, grassy, snowy, rainy,
etc.
36 It is a long, romantic,
sometimes crazy, love story that sums up a 29-year
long
honeymoon together as a couple who are
still madly in love with each other. (Para.
11)
Meaning beyond words: She felt very
proud of her long-lasting romantic, sometimes
even crazy love, which was just like a 29-year
long honeymoon for her and her husband.
37 Our love commenced with a casual attraction
but bloomed into a mature love
and rich life.
(Para. 11)
Meaning beyond words: Completely
beyond her expectation, love came to her as she
started with a casual date but ended up
growing into a mature love and rich life.
Note: We usually use commence doing sth. or
commence with sth. Also, in the US, the
official col egeuniversity graduation ceremony
is cal ed “commencement”. The word
refers to
the completion of one’s education and the
beginning of one’s new adult life.
Note: The
phrase “bloomed into a mature love and rich life”
in the text is used
figuratively,
meaning
their love was just like blossoms on a tree.
新视野三版 读写 B2 U4 Text
A
College sweethearts
1 I smile
at my two lovely daughters and they seem so much
more mature than
we, their parents, when we
were col ege sweethearts. Linda, who's 21, had a
boyfriend in her freshman year she thought she
would marry, but they're not
together anymore.
Melissa, who's 19, hasn't had a steady boyfriend
yet. My
daughters wonder when they wil meet
their father and I had a classic fairy-tale
romance heading for marriage from
the outset.
Perhaps, they're right but it didn't seem so at
the time. In a way,
love just happens when you
least expect it. Who would have thought
that
Butch and I would end up getting married to each
other? He became my
boyfriend because of my
shal ow agenda: I wanted a cute boyfriend!
2
We met through my col ege roommate at the
university cafeteria. That fateful
night, I
was merely curious, but for him I think it was
love at first sight.
have beautiful
eyes
night long. I real y wasn't that
interested for two reasons. First, he looked like
he was a real y wild boy, maybe even
dangerous. Second, although he was
very cute,
he seemed a little weird.
3 Riding on his
bicycle, he'd ride past my dorm as if
to be
surprised to see me. I liked the attention but was
cautious about his
wild, dynamic personality.
He had a charming way with words which
would
charm any girl. Fear came over me when I started
to fal in love. His
exciting
attracted me?
I always had an excel ent reputation. My
concentration was
solely on my studies to get
superior grades. But for what? Col ege is supposed
to be a time of great learning and also some
fun. I had nearly achieved a great
education,
and graduation was just one semester away. But I
hadn't had any
fun; my life was stale with no
component of fun! I needed a just
any had to
be cute. My goal that semester became:
Be
ambitious and grab the cutest boyfriend I can
find.
4 I worried what he'd think of me. True,
we lived in a time when a dramatic shift
in
sexual attitudes was taking place, but I was a
traditional girl who wasn't
ready for the new
ways that seemed common on campus. Butch
looked superb! I was not immune to his
personality, but I was scared. The
night when
he announced to the world that I was his
girlfriend, I went along
with him. And then I suddenly thought:
did that happen?
going to marry you one day
and I wil be a lawyer. You wil see.
5 I was
laughing inside and said to myself,
rebel
without a good future. He's my boyfriend because I
hate my boring
student life. I just want to
have fun.
*6 Sure enough, the fol owing month,
I found out he had failed al his
courses.
Consequently, he was going to be expel ed from the
university. To
my disgust, he seemed resigned
to his fate. I knew there was hope, so I led
him to the col ege secretary for
reconsideration.
*7
from UPenn and proceed
to the Col ege of Law,
on his behalf, which was
approved. Butch was granted reconsideration. And,
once we became steadies, he coordinated his
studies and social life, passing
al of his
classes. He eventual y studied law.
8 Despite
Butch's somewhat wild character, at his core, he
is always a perfect
gentleman and deserves a
lot of credit for , he'd sometimes take
the
liberty of displaying his love by planting a kiss
on my lips right in front of my
astonished
friends who watched and disapproved. But the truth
is we had a
pure and responsible relationship
for seven ful years. Sitting by the palm trees,
hand in hand, we would listen to romantic
songs, watch the sunset,
and weave dreams of
being together with children of our own, forever.
9 Two years passed in a blur. One day, Butch
took me by surprise as
he knelt down and
proposed marriage holding a dozen red roses! Fil
ed with
deep emotion, I confessed my love for
him,
brain woke up from fantasy land. I cried
out,
young to tie the knot. We haven't even
graduated from col ege yet!
loved him but was
pessimistic about our chances for success.
10
We married five years later.
11 Our faithful
journey of love and learning took us down rocky
roads of
hardship and on smooth easy-going
highways. It is a long, romantic,
sometimes
crazy, love story that sums up a 29-year long
honeymoon together
*as a couple who are stil
madly in love with each other. Our
love
commenced with a casual attraction but bloomed
into a mature love and
rich life.
Language Points:
1 I smile
at my two lovely daughters and they seem so much
more mature than we,
their parents, when we
were college sweethearts. (Para. 1)
Meaning
beyond words: Married to her col ege sweetheart,
the author now is happy
with
her family
and two grown daughters.
Note: College
sweethearts refer to someone with whom one is in
love and by whom one
is loved at col ege;
sweetheart is equivalent to lover,darling,
beloved, or dear. For
example:
*Wel done,
sweetheart, we are all so proud of you.
做得好，宝贝，我们以你为
荣。
*My husband is the greatest
guy in the world; he was my col ege sweetheart.
我丈夫
是世
界上最棒的，大学时他就是我的恋人。
He tries to
locate his former sweetheart Melina from whom he
has heard nothing for a
very
*long time.
他在努力寻找他以前的恋人梅利娜，他已经很久没有她的消息了。
2
Linda, who’s 21, had a boyfriend in her freshman
year she thought she would
marry, but they’re
not together anymore. Melissa, who’s 19, hasn’t
had a steady
boyfriend yet. My daughters
wonder when they will meet “The One”, their great
love.(Para. 1)
Meaning beyond words: Her
two daughters are at the age of just dating, but
they seem
to be very mature wondering when
they will meet their true love.
3
They think their father and I had a classic fairy
tale romance heading for
marriage
from the
outset. (Para. 1)
Meaning beyond words: Her
daughters consider their parents’ marriage a
typical
conventional romance because they
think it aimed at marriage from the very
beginning.
Usage note: classic, classical
1 classic 用作形容词表示“经典的；精彩的；一流的”。例如：
*Death
on the Nile is one of the classic works of Agatha
Christie. 《尼罗河上的惨
案》是阿
加莎?克里斯蒂的经典作品之一。
*口语中也会用到 classic 这个词。当你看到一场精彩的演出时，就可以说“That’s
classic!”来
表达赞美。
classic
用作形容词也表示“典型的；标准的”。例如：
*London is the classic
example of the scattered city. 伦敦是标准分散型的城市。
*This statement was a classic il
ustration of British politeness. 这项述是对英国礼
貌的一
个典型说明。
classic 也可用作名词，表示“文学名著；经典作品；杰作”。例如：
*We have al the standard classics of Hayao
Miyazaki at home. 我们家有宫崎骏的
所有的
经典作品。
2 classical
不能用作名词，只能用作形容词，表示“古典的；经典的”。例如：
*I spend a lot
of time reading and listening to classical music.
我花了很多时间阅
读和聆听
古典音乐。
*Classical music is
music written by composers such as Mozart and
Beethoven. 像莫扎
特
和贝多芬所创作的音乐称为古典音乐。
*莫扎特和贝多芬所创作的音乐属于古典音乐(classical music),
但这些古典音乐经
久不衰，
有永久的意义和价值，所以这些音乐也可称为经典的音乐（classic
music）。反
之，在前面
有一例中说可口可乐瓶子的设计是精彩的，一流的，所以是经典
（classic）之
作，但很明显
可口可乐瓶子的设计不是古典的
（classical）设计。所以，经典的（classic）作品
不一定
就是古典的（classical）作品。
Note: Classic fairy-
tale romance is used to describe a romance blessed
with unusual
happiness. Colloquially, a fairy
tale can also refer to any story extremely
unlikely to be
true.
4 Perhaps,
they’re right but it didn’t seem so at the time.
(Para. 1)
Meaning: My daughters’ perception
may be right, yet our romance back then was
actually
not like what they have assumed.
5 In a way, love just happens when
you least expect it. Who would have thought
that Butch and I would end up getting married
to each other? He became my
boyfriend because
of my shallow agenda: I wanted a cute boyfriend!
(Para. 1)
Meaning: Love comes your way when
you don’t real y expect it. No one thought that
Butch and I would finally get married. He
became my boyfriend simply because I would
like to fulfil my shallow wish: to have an
attractive boyfriend in col ege.
Meaning
beyond words: Here is the suspense of the story –
the author gives a broad
hint that she wil
tell us how she and her husband got married at
last.
6 We met through my college
roommate at the university cafeteria. That fateful
night, I was merely curious, but for him I
think it was love at first sight. (Para. 2)
Meaning: At the school dining hal that
important night, we were introduced to each
other
through my roommate. I met Butch
just out of curiosity, but he seemed to fal in
love
with
me as soon as he saw me.
7 “You have beautiful eyes,” he said
as he gazed at my face. (Para. 2)
Meaning
beyond words: The author was obviously attractive
to Butch since he tried to
please her by
praising her eyes.
8 He kept staring at me all night long. (Para.
2)
Note: Both gaze at and stare at mean
“looking at something fixedly for a long time
because of being attracted, surprised, or
thinking, etc.”. Stare at usually has the
additional
meaning of “with eyes widely
open”. Also, it usually implies “with great
attention”;
gaze
at usually implies “in a
dreamy and unaware state of mind”.
9
I really wasn’t that interested for two reasons.
First, he looked like he was a really
wild
boy, maybe even dangerous. Second, although he was
very cute, he seemed a
little weird. (Para. 2)
Meaning beyond words: She wasn’t interested in
him because she got the impression
that he was
wild and strange, which il ustrates that she
didn’t know much about him at
the
beginning. Therefore, it’s not true that their
romance was heading for marriage from the
start.
10 Riding on his bicycle,
he’d ride past my dorm as if “by accident” and
pretend to
be surprised to see me. I liked the
attention but was cautious about his wild,
dynamic personality. (Para. 3)
Meaning
beyond words: She understood his little trick:
trying to see her by
manufacturing excuses.
Though she was happy to be the focus of his
attention, she was
also very alert to his wild
and dynamic personality.
11 He had a
charming way with words which would charm any
girl. (Para. 3)
Meaning: He knew how to please
and attract girls because what he said was always
pleasant to their ears.
12 Fear
came over me when I started to fall in love. His
exciting “bad boy image”
was just too tempting
to resist. What was it that attracted me?(Para. 3)
Meaning: I was in an awkward position: I
started to fal in love with him, but I was also
afraid of that. His bad boy image was too
attractive to resist, but at the same time it was
somewhat fearful. So, what exactly was it in
him that attracted me?
Note: Tempting is a
present participle of the verb tempt, used as an
adjective to describe
the effect that
something has on someone’s feelings. For example,
if you find something
temptingcharmingdisgustingfrightening, it
means it temptscharmsdisgustsfrightens
you. In
English there are a group of words describing an
effect that something has on
your
feelings
and ideas. For example:
*a tempting job offer
一个诱人的工作机会
an alarming increase in
racial hostility 种族仇视的惊人增长
*a welcoming smile 热情的微笑
*a
surprising number of 数量惊人的
13 I
always had an excellent reputation. My
concentration was solely on my studies
to get
superior grades. But for what? (Para. 3)
Meaning: I was an outstanding student who only
concentrated on studies in order to get
excellent grades. But so what? Shouldn’t a
good student also have fun?
14
College is supposed to be a time of great learning
and also some fun. I had
nearly achieved a
great education, and graduation was just one
semester away. But
I hadn’t had any fun; my
life was stale with no component of fun! I needed
a
boyfriend. (Para. 3)
Meaning: College is
definitely a nice place for education but should
have some fun as
well. Throughout my years at
col ege, I had devoted all my time to study but
hadn’t had
any fun yet. Now that I was
graduating, I wanted to have a boyfriend to enrich
my col
ege
life.
15 Not just
any boyfriend. He had to be cute. My goal that
semester became: Be
ambitious and grab the
cutest boyfriend I can find. (Para. 3)
Meaning: The one I wanted to date was not just
an ordinary boy; he had to be handsome,
pleasant and attractive. My ambition for that
semester, therefore, was to find the cutest
boyfriend at col ege.
16 I
worried what he’d think of me. (Para. 4)
Meaning beyond words: Her concern about how
Butch would look at her shows that
she
was
becoming more interested in him and cared about
his real thinking.
17 True, we lived
in a time when a dramatic shift in sexual
attitudes was taking
place, but I was a
traditional girl who wasn’t ready for the new ways
that seemed
common on campus. (Para. 4)
Meaning: It is true that we lived in an era
when sexual attitudes were changing
dramatical
y, but since I was traditional, I wasn’t ready for
the new sexual practice
seemingly common on
campus.
18 Butch looked superb! I
was not immune to his personality, but I was
scared.
(Para. 4)
Meaning: Butch looked
extremely wonderful. I was surely influenced by
his personality,
but I felt scared.
19 The night
when he announced to the world that I was his
girlfriend, I went along
with him. (Para. 4)
Meaning: That night when my boyfriend
announced publicly I was his girlfriend, I did
not
have any objection.
Meaning beyond
words: She has apparently changed her perception
of Butch, from
being merely curious about him
at first to becoming cautious about his wild,
dynamic
personality later; from being fearful
of failing to resist his “bad boy image” to
approving
of
being his girlfriend.
20 And then I suddenly thought: “Oh my
gosh! Am I his girlfriend? How did that
happen?” (Para. 4)
Meaning beyond words:
Al of a sudden, she realized that she had made a
mistake
because she was not real y ready to
have a boyfriend yet.
Note: “Gosh”, as an
interjection, is used to express surprise. For
example:
*Gosh, I didn’t expect to see you
here! 天哪，我没想到在这里见到你！
*Gosh, it’s so cold.
天哪，太冷了！
*Gosh, there’s a lot of noise.
天哪，这儿真吵。
21 Then he whispered sweet
words in my ear and said, “I’m going to marry you
one
day and I will be a lawyer. You will
see.” (Para. 4)
Meaning: Then he quietly said
sweet words in my ear and said that he would marry
me
and I could eventual y see him become a
lawyer.
22 I was laughing inside and
said to myself, “I’d never marry this guy. He’s a
rebel
without a good future. He’s my boyfriend
because I hate my boring student life. I
just
want to have fun.” (Para. 5)
Meaning: Though I
agreed to be his girlfriend, from my heart, he was
just a rebellious
boy
without a bright
future. Therefore, I was not very serious about
our relationship. To me,
the
only purpose
to date him was to get away from my boring student
life.
23 Sure enough, the following
month, I found out he had failed all his courses.
(Para.
6)
Meaning: Just as I had
expected, he didn’t pass any of his courses.
24 Consequently, he was going to
be expelled from the university. (Para. 6)
Meaning: As a consequence, the university was
going to dismiss him from the school.
25 To my disgust, he seemed
resigned to his fate. I knew there was hope, so I
led
him to the college secretary for
reconsideration. (Para. 6)
Meaning: What upset
me was that he seemed to accept his fate. As I
knew there was stil
a hope, I took him to the
col ege secretary to see whether the decision
could be changed.
26 “You are going
to graduate with a BA in political science from
UPenn and
proceed to the College of Law,” I
told him, lodging an appeal on his behalf, which
was approved. (Para. 7)
Meaning beyond
words: What she did for her boyfriend indicated
their relationship
had
come to a new
stage. Besides encouraging him to consult with the
col ege secretary and
submitting the appeal on
his behalf, she also planned for his future
career. She told him
he had to continue his
studies at law school.
Note: Besides a noun,
“proceed to” can also be fol owed by a verb
phrase. For example:
Having said how much she
liked my idea, she then proceeded to make critical
comments
*about it.
说完她是多么喜欢我的点子，她接着就提出了批评性的意见。
27 Butch
was granted reconsideration. And, once we became
steadies, he
coordinated his studies and
social life, passing all of his classes. He
eventually
studied law. (Para. 7)
Meaning
beyond words: Here we see the turning point of the
relationship between the
two. Her suggestions
did work well with Butch since he was granted
reconsideration. As
soon as they became steady
lovers, Butch balanced his studies and social life
and passed
every course. Final y, he studied
law as had been planned.
Note: Steady can also
be used as a noun, as is in the text. It’s an old-
fashioned American
way to describe a boyfriend
or girlfriend that someone has been having a
romantic
relationship with.
28
Despite Butch’s somewhat wild character, at his
core, he is always a perfect
gentleman and
deserves a lot of credit for that. (Para. 8)
Meaning: In spite of Butch’s a little wild
character, he was always a perfect gentleman
in
essence, for which he should be given
recognition.
29 True, he’d sometimes
take the liberty of displaying his love by
planting a kiss on
my lips right in front of
my astonished friends who watched and disapproved.
(Para.
8)
Meaning: Without my
permission, sometimes he would press a kiss on my
lips to show
his love in front of my friends,
who were astonished and resented what he did.
Note: “Plant a
kiss” is a figurative use of the word plant, which
means an intimate and
publicly demonstrative
kiss showing his love to all who are watching.
30 But the truth is we had a pure
and responsible relationship for seven full years.
Sitting by the palm trees, hand in hand, we
would listen to romantic songs, watch
the
sunset, and weave dreams of being together with
children of our own, forever.
(Para. 8)
Meaning beyond words: Butch showed much
respect for her conservative perception
of
love. For seven years, they just enjoyed their
romance in a traditional way.
31 Two
years passed in a blur. One day, Butch took me by
surprise as he knelt
down and proposed
marriage holding a dozen red roses! (Para. 9)
Meaning: Two years passed so quickly that I
didn’t real y remember everything clearly.
One
day, I was startled when Butch, holding a dozen
red roses, knelt down to propose
marriage.
Note: propose to sb. = propose marriage to sb.
32 Filled with deep emotion, I
confessed my love for him, “How roooomaaaantic!!”
(Para. 9)
Meaning: I admitted my love for
him with deep affection. It was super romantic!
Meaning beyond words: She was so happy and
thril ed to accept Butch’s marriage
proposal
that she said the word romantic in a slow and
exaggerated way.
Note: In informal writing,
people would emphasize something in a similar way.
For
example:
*Thank you soooooo much!
真是太太太感您了！
33 Then my brain woke up
from fantasy land. I cried out, “Good heavens. No!
We’re
too young to tie the knot. We
haven’t even graduated from college yet!” I really
loved him but was pessimistic about our
chances for success.(Para. 9)
Meaning beyond
words: Al of a sudden, she woke up from the
romantic scene. Though
she already accepted
love from Butch and confessed her love for him,
she was not sure
whether they would get
married and have a happy ending as they were stil
col ege
students.
Note: It isn’t clear
whether this expression tie the knot derives from
an actual knot used
in
marriage ceremonies
or whether the knot is merely symbolic of a
lasting unity. Knots
have
a place in many
cultures and usually symbolize unbreakable
pledges. Actual knots have
certainly been used in marriage
ceremonies for some time. The word knot, although
not
in
the phrase tie the knot, has been
associated with marriage since at least the 13th
century.
34 We married five years
later. (Para 10)
Meaning beyond words: Though
she was pessimistic about their chance for success
of
love, she accepted Butch’s proposal. They
got married five years later, which il ustrates
their deep and true love for each other.
35 Our faithful journey of love and
learning took us down rocky roads of hardship
and on smooth easy-going highways. (Para. 11)
Meaning: Our devoted and faithful love guided
us both in times of happiness and also
in
times of hardship.
Note: The word rocky
comes from the noun rock combining with -y. A
rocky road refers
to
a road ful of rocks,
uneven or not flat. Words of this group
include: muddy, stony, grassy, snowy, rainy,
etc.
36 It is a long, romantic,
sometimes crazy, love story that sums up a 29-year
long
honeymoon together as a couple who are
still madly in love with each other. (Para.
11)
Meaning beyond words: She felt very
proud of her long-lasting romantic, sometimes
even crazy love, which was just like a 29-year
long honeymoon for her and her husband.
37 Our love commenced with a casual attraction
but bloomed into a mature love
and rich life.
(Para. 11)
Meaning beyond words: Completely
beyond her expectation, love came to her as she
started with a casual date but ended up
growing into a mature love and rich life.
Note: We usually use commence doing sth. or
commence with sth. Also, in the US, the
official col egeuniversity graduation ceremony
is cal ed “commencement”. The word
refers to
the completion of one’s education and the
beginning of one’s new adult life.
Note: The
phrase “bloomed into a mature love and rich life”
in the text is used
figuratively,
meaning
their love was just like blossoms on a tree.