Unit Two Love
Enhance Your Language Awareness
Words in Action
▆ Working with Words and Expressions
1. In the box below are some of the words you have learned in this unit. Complete the following sentences
with them. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers: 1) curled 2) minimum 3) clip 4) yielded 5) Given 6) preserve 7) fascinated 8) affection 9) interact 10) haste 11) grief 12) defies 13) presence 14) acquire 15) manipulate 16) restraints
2. In the box below are some of the expressions you have learned in this unit. Do you understand their
meanings? Do you know how to use them in the proper context? Now check for yourself by doing the blank-filling exercise. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers:
1) let, loose on 2) fit into 3) hold on
4) state of affairs 5) in the course of 6) in vain 7) build, on 8) In short 9) reached for 10) give and take
▆ Increasing Your Word Power
1. The prefix over- can be added to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, meaning “above”, “outside”,
“across”, or “too much”. Study the words given in the box and choose the proper word to fill in each of the blanks in the following sentences. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers:
1) overcoat 2) overhead 3) overjoyed 4) overslept 5) overweight 6) overdue 7) overtime 8) overworking
2. Many words in English can be used both as nouns and as verbs. Listed in the following table are some
of these words that you have learned in Unit One and Unit Two. Study them carefully and then complete each of the following sentences with one of them as you see fit. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers:
1) crush 2) attributes 3) fancy 4) bubbled 5) grasp 6) drizzling 7) labeling 8) yield
3. Listed in the box below are some idiomatic expressions formed with the word “hand”. Study them
carefully and try to make out their meanings. You may consult a dictionary if necessary. Then translate the given sentences into English, using one of them.
▆ Answers:
1) We are short of hands.
2) I still have some money in hand. 3) Give me a hand with this box, please. 4) I often keep a dictionary at hand. 5) The football fans were out of hand.
6) Hand out the pencils to everyone in the class.
7) This ring was handed down to me by my grandmother. 8) Time’s up. Please hand in your test papers.
9) Please hand on the magazine to your roommates. 10) I’m afraid I can’t help you. I’m a green hand.
Grammar in Context
1. Now complete the following sentences by translating the Chinese in the brackets into English. Make
sure that the sentences are in the inverted order.
▆ Answers for reference:
1) Sitting on the stairs was / On the stairs was sitting 2) Over the wall came / flew
3) 4) 5) 6) Round the corner was Then finally came
Under the table was lying
At / On the top of (On top of) the hill stood
2. Now correct the mistakes in the following sentences, if any. Write NONE under the correct sentence(s).
▆ Answers for reference:
1) The beaver chews down trees to get food and material to build its home with. 2) Do your parents think Tom is a nice boy to go out with? (Cross out him)
3) The goals for which he has fought all his life seem unimportant to him now.
4) NONE.
5) The essay starts by asking a question, to which the author then gives a positive answer.
Cloze
Complete the following passage with words chosen from this unit. The initial letter of each is given.
▆ Answers: 1) haste
2) state of affairs 3) distinguished 4) meeting of minds 5) blossom 6) inner charm 7) intimacy 8) emotion 9) acquiring 10) ideals 11) admiration 12) lasting 13) affection 14) forge 15) honor
16) overwhelming
Translation
1. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words and expressions given in brackets.
▆ Answers for reference:
1) In either friendship or love / In both friendship and love, you should never expect to take / receive the
maximum while you give the minimum.
2) I built all my hopes on his promise(s), only to find that he was not a man of sincerity at all.
3) We took Mother to all the best hospitals we could find, but all our efforts were in vain; she failed to
survive the disease.
4) Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 14, a perfect day to express love to the
object of your / one’s affection.
5) In the information era, communications with far-away friends via e-mail can be almost / virtually
simultaneous.
6) Love needs to be nurtured, and the “eternal / everlasting love” that we all dream to have is not forged
until we learn to appreciate and tolerate the other.
2. Translate the following paragraph into English, using the words and expressions in the box below.
▆ Answers for reference:
After dinner, we all sat around the hearth. Aunt Susan was still in the grief of losing Uncle Robert. In her soft voice she told us about their past years. Uncle Robert joined the army shortly after they were engaged. Given the critical situation at the time when lots of army men didn’t return alive, you can imagine how much horrified Aunt Susan was every day, and how much overjoyed she was to see Uncle Robert back safe and sound from the European battlefield. Then they got married and brought up five children. For all those years, their affection for each other grew stronger in the course of overcoming difficulties and hardships in life. I was fascinated by Aunt Susan’s story, which was totally different from my ideal of love. They practiced, in their daily life, giving and sharing instead of pursuing passion and romance, or making complaints. Amazingly, such love lasted through their whole life.
Theme-Related Writing
Do either one of the following two tasks after class.
1. Based on Text A, write a passage about the different ways different generations handle male-female relationships. The following hints may be of some help. 1) “our” parents’ generation (details mainly found in Para. 8); 2) “my” generation (details mainly found in Paras. 3–7);
3) the younger generation (details mainly found in Paras. 9–11).
2. Study the following data on love and marriage based on a survey with girl students. Write a passage on the topic “What do girl students look for in love and life?”
▆ Sample Essay One:
Male-female relations are indispensable to adults all through their lives. But different generations handle them differently. Our parents’ generation lived in an era of constraints, restraints, respect, admiration, and plenty of romance. They kept a distance from people of the opposite gender in order to preserve the holiness of love and relationships.
My generation, on the other hand, began with countless crushes for the opposite sex just because of their superficial charm. Harmless as they were, the love was as brief as soap bubbles. As we grew up, we came to the stage of developing real relationships, believing that love demanded a lot of give and not so much of take.
By comparison, the younger generation is more open-minded and less restricted in handling the matter of love and relationships. They jump on the bandwagon of love with so much haste that it is difficult for them to distinguish between physical attraction and mental compatibilities.
In short, the younger generation focuses more on physical beauty, closeness and passion, and they tend to seek what they want from the relationships. The other two generations give priority to inner charm, intimacy, emotion and sharing in dealing with relationships. (196 words)
▆ Sample Essay Two:
What Do Girl Students Look for in Love and Life?
In order to know about girl students’ opinion about love and life, a survey with girl students was conducted in 2005 in two universities — Chongqing University of Technology and Business and East China Normal University. The survey sought answers to two questions: What do you look for first in a boyfriend? What’s the most important thing for a happy life?
About one third of the students chose personality as the top factor in choosing a boyfriend, followed by 27 percent focusing on abilities. Next came common interests and goals, favoured by 17 percent, with only 14
percent of students claiming appearance to be uppermost in their minds. Fewer still, 11 percent, rated economic status as the first consideration.
As to their views about a happy life, nearly seventy percent of the girls attached the greatest importance to marriage and family. “Career” was given top priority by just under 20 percent, while even fewer, around 9 percent, believed that money was the key to a happy life.
Based on the survey, we may conclude that nowadays, girl students generally hold a rational attitude towards love and life. Admittedly, the improved material conditions of life explain why girls take economic status and money rather lightly. But contrary to the popular view that girls are more concerned about self-development in the workplace and social status, they still regard marriage and family life as central to a happy life. (235 words)