辽东学院 大学英语课程系列教案 新视野大学英语读写教程 第三版 第1册
Unit2 section A
A child's clutter awaits an adult's return
儿时百宝箱 老大归家梦
1 A child’s clutter awaits an adult’s return (Title) Meaning beyond words: Here the word clutter refers to the many small personal items collected by children in the course of their growing up. All these things are important and dear memories to them. No matter where they are or how far away they are from home, the clutter remains a bond between them and the family, representing a happy childhood. Usage note: await, wait
这两个词都是动词，都有“等候；期待”之意，但用法却有所不同： 1 await是及物动词，后面直接跟宾语，用法比较正式；wait一般用作不及物动词，常与 for，till，until 等词连用。 2 一般来说，await的宾语大多为抽象名词，如decision，reply，arrival，return， announcement等；而wait for的宾语一般是人或事物。例如：
They were awaiting the birth of their first child. 他们在等待着他们第一个孩子的降生。 He’s awaiting trial, which is expected to begin next month. 他在等候审判，预计下个月开始。 I have been waiting for her for an hour at the bus stop. 我已经在公共汽车站等了她一个小时了。 She has been waiting nervously for news of her son in the army. 她一直在紧张地等候她在部队里的儿子的消息。
3 await之后可以接动名词；wait之后接动词不定式。例如： We shall await hearing further from them. / We shall wait to hear further from them. 我们等待他们进一步的消息。
1 I watch her back her new truck out of the driveway. The vehicle is too large, too expensive. She'd refused to consider a practical car with good gas efficiency and easy to park. It's because of me, I think. She bought it to show me that she could.
1 我看着她在车道上倒着她的新卡车。 车太大，而且太贵。 她就是不愿意考虑买辆开起来省油、停起来省心的实用型汽车。 我想，原因在我。 她买这辆车就是为了让我看看她的能耐。
4 I watch her back her new truck out of the driveway. (Para. 1) Note: Notice that the mother is telling a story that happened in the past. She uses the past tense to describe the events that happened before her daughter left home. But when she describes the events that happened after her daughter left, she uses the present tense. By manipulating the past tense and the present tense, the author achieves immediacy in time, and produces the effect of great vividness. This use of the present tense to describe past events is referred to as “the narrative present” or “the dramatic present”
5 The vehicle is too large, too expensive. (Para. 1) Meaning beyond words: Here with too large and too expensive, the mother expresses her disagreement with her daughter’s decision to buy such a large and expensive truck.
辽东学院 大学英语课程系列教案 新视野大学英语读写教程 第三版 第1册
6 She’d refused to consider a practical car with good gas efficiency and easy to park. (Para. 1) Meaning: She had refused to think about buying a practical car which used less gas and was easy to park.
7 It’s because of me, I think. She bought it to show me that she could. (Para. 1)
Meaning beyond words: Here the mother tries to show that the daughter, eager to be independent, is purposefully acting against her wishes.
2 \
3 I thought, is that true? Just yesterday you watched some cartoons. What changed between yesterday and today? 2 “我18岁了，”她经常这样对我说，以至于听得我牙都疼了。 “我是成年人了！” 3 我心想,真的吗？ 昨天你还在看动画片呢。 今天和昨天又能有多大的变化？ 8 “I’m 18,” she’d told me so often that my teeth ached. (Para. 2)
Meaning beyond words: By saying repeatedly that she was 18, the daughter was constantly reminding her mom that she had grown up into an adult, old enough to make her own decisions. This made the mother unhappy and annoyed.
Note: Here the mother uses “my teeth ached” to show extreme annoyance, comparable to the sharp pain of an aching tooth. For example: I hate the scrape of chalk on the blackboard; it makes my teeth ache. 我讨厌粉笔在黑板上的刮擦声，听得我牙疼。
9 Just yesterday you watched some cartoons. What changed between yesterday and today? (Para. 3) Meaning beyond words: When someone likes watching cartoons, we tend to think that they are still a child. What the mother means here is that her daughter is still a child, though she kept saying she was already an adult. Note: The use of you instead of my daughter or she puts the mother in the position of talking directly to her daughter as if the conversation were face-to-face between her and her daughter.
4 Today she's gone, off to be an adult far away from me. I'm glad she's gone. It means she made it, and that I'm finally free of 18 years of responsibilities. And yet I wonder if she could take good care of herself.
4 今天她走了，远离我去寻求成年人的独立。 我很高兴她离开了。 这意味着她成功了，而我也终于可以从18年的责任中脱身了。 但是我还是担心她能不能照顾好自己。
10 Today she’s gone, off to be an adult far away from me. I’m glad she’s gone. It means she made it, and that I’m finally free of 18 years of responsibilities. And yet I wonder if she could take good care of herself. (Para. 4) Meaning beyond words: This shows that the mother is between two minds. On the one hand, she is happy her daughter is gone because this means her daughter starts to be independent and she can be free of responsibilities for her daughter; on the other hand, she is worried about whether her daughter could take good care of herself. In the mother’s mind, her daughter is still a child.
5 She left a mess. Her bathroom is an embarrassment of damp towels, rusted shaving blades, hair in the sink, and nearly empty tubes of toothpaste. I bring a box of big black garbage bags upstairs.
辽东学院 大学英语课程系列教案 新视野大学英语读写教程 第三版 第1册
Eye shadow, face cream, nail polish — all go into the trash. I dump drawers, sweep shelves clear and clean the sink. When I am finished, it is as neat and impersonal as a hotel bathroom.
5 她留下的是一片狼藉。 她的卫生间真是凌乱不堪，有没拧干的毛巾，有生锈的剃刀片，散落在面盆里的头发，还有几支快挤空了的牙膏。 我拿了一盒大号的黑色垃圾袋上了楼。 眼影、面霜、指甲油——这些统统扔进垃圾袋。 我把抽屉清空，把架子打扫干净，还把面盆擦洗干净。 我打扫完后，卫生间就像酒店里的那样井井有条，丝毫没有人情味儿。
11 She left a mess. Her bathroom is an embarrassment of damp towels, rusted shaving blades, hair in the sink, and nearly empty tubes of toothpaste. (Para. 5)
Meaning beyond words: Here the mother describes how messy her daughter’s bathroom is. It is so messy that she thinks it is an embarrassment.
12 Eye shadow, face cream, nail polish — all go into the trash. (Para. 5) Meaning: Eye shadow, face cream, and nail polish are all put into the garbage bag. Note: The word go as in all go into the trash means “be put in the position where it is supposed to be”. Another example can be found in Paragraph 10: Donations to charity go into the trunk of my car; trash goes to the curb. 要捐给慈善机构的都放在我汽车的后备箱里；要扔掉的都放在路边。
13 I dump drawers, … (Para. 5) Meaning: I get rid of the things in the drawers.
14 When I am finished, it is as neat and impersonal as a hotel bathroom. (Para. 5) Meaning: When I finished cleaning the bathroom, it becomes tidy and shows no personal features, just like a hotel bathroom. impersonal: a. used about a place that does not seem friendly because there are no personal features （地方）无人情味的，不够人性化的 Hospitals always seem such impersonal places — rows of identical beds in dull gray rooms. 医院这种地方看起来总是那么没有人情味——单调的灰色房间里放着一排排一模一样的床。 Note: Here by using impersonal, the mother emphasizes the lack of personal connection in the bathroom since she has thrown away most of her daughter’s personal stuff. After the bathroom is cleaned, it looks nothing special, just like a hotel bathroom.
6 In her bedroom I find mismatched socks under her bed and purple pants on the closet floor. Desk drawers are filled with school papers, filed by year and subject. I catch myself reading through poems and essays, admiring high scores on tests and reading her name, printed or typed neatly in the upper right-hand corner of each paper. I pack the desk contents into a box. Six months, I think. I will give her six months to collect her belongings, and then I will throw them all away. That is fair. Grown-ups pay for storage.
6 在她的卧室里，我发现床下有不配对的袜子，壁橱底板上扔着紫色的裤子。 书桌的抽屉里满是学校的卷子，按照年份和科目归了类。 我发现自己竟然在翻看她的诗歌和作文，欣赏着考卷上的高分，端详着每张考卷右上角她用印刷体工工整整书写的或是打印的她的名字。 我把书桌里的东西收拾到一个盒子里。 六个月，我心想。 如果过了六个月她还不来拿她的东西，我就会把它们一股脑儿全扔了。 这算讲道理了吧。 成年人存放东西是要付费的。
辽东学院 大学英语课程系列教案 新视野大学英语读写教程 第三版 第1册
15 Desk drawers are filled with school papers, filed by year and subject. (Para. 6) Meaning: Desk drawers are full of my daughter’s school papers, which are kept in order according to year and subject. file: vt. keep papers, documents, etc. in a particular place so that you can find them easily 把…归档/存档
Please file those letters by arrival date. 请将那些信件根据寄达时间归档。
16 I catch myself reading through poems and essays, admiring high scores on tests and reading her name, printed or typed neatly in the upper right-hand corner of each paper. (Para. 6) Meaning: Suddenly I realize I am reading the poems and essays written by my daughter, looking at her excellent test scores with pride, and reading her name which is printed or typed tidily and carefully in the upper right-hand corner of each paper. admire: vt. look at sth. and think how beautiful or impressive it is 欣赏；观赏 They stopped at the top of the hill to admire the scenery. 他们在山顶上停下来欣赏风景。 print: v. write words by hand without joining the letters 用印刷体书写 Please print your name clearly in the top right-hand corner of the page. 请在这一页的右上角用印刷体清楚地写上你的名字。
Usage note: Pay attention to the expression upper right-hand corner (右上角). Other similar expressions include:
upper left-hand corner 左上角 lower left-hand/right-hand corner 左下角/右下角 bottom left-hand/right-hand corner 左下角/右下角 top left-hand/right-hand corner 左上角/右上角
17 I pack the desk contents into a box. Six months, I think. I will give her six months to collect her belongings, and then I will throw them all away. That is fair. Grown-ups pay for storage. (Para. 6) Meaning beyond words: Paragraph 6 describes how the mother is between two minds — annoyance and love. She is much annoyed that her daughter leaves the room in a mess. However, while she is reading and admiring her daughter’s poems and essays, high scores on tests, etc., she feels proud of her. She decides to keep her daughter’s things for six months, and then she will throw them into the trash if her daughter does not come back and collect them by then. The mother thinks she is right in handling her daughter’s stuff in this way. Her daughter, an adult now, should pay for storage cost. At this point, the mother shows again her doubt and scorn for her daughter’s claim to be an adult.
content: n. (~s) [pl.] 1 the things that are inside a box, bag, room, etc. 所容纳之物；内容 I emptied the contents of the fridge into boxes. 我把冰箱里的东西全都倒在了盒子里。 2 the things that are written in a letter, book, etc.（信、书等的）内容 She kept the contents of the letter a secret. 她对这封信的内容秘而不宣。
3 a list at the beginning of a book or magazine, showing the parts in which the book or magazine is divided （书或杂志的）目录 I can’t find it in the contents. 我在目录里找不到它。
辽东学院 大学英语课程系列教案 新视野大学英语读写教程 第三版 第1册
7 I have to pause at the books. Comic books, teen fiction, romantic novels, historical novels, and textbooks. A lifetime of reading; each book beloved. I want to be practical, to stuff them in paper sacks for the used bookstore. But I love books as much as she does, so I stack them onto a single bookshelf to deal with later.
7 轮到整理书的时候，我有些犹豫了。 连环漫画册、青少年小说、言情小说、历史小说，还有课本。 阅读是一辈子的事；每本书都是心爱之物。 原本我想现实一点，把这些书塞进纸袋，然后送到旧书店。 但是我跟女儿一样爱书如命，于是我把她的这些书归置到一个单独的书架上，等日后再作处理。
18 I have to pause at the books. (Para. 7) Meaning beyond words: The mother has to think about the books before she decides what to do with them. We do not know exactly why the mother pauses, but one thing is for sure: Books are different from damp towels, rusted shaving blades, mismatched socks, etc., which can be thrown away without any hesitation. As we read on, we will find that all the books are important to both the daughter and the mother because they are both book-lovers.
19 Comic books, teen fiction, romantic novels, historical novels, and textbooks. (Para. 7) Note: Comic books are not only for children. They are also read, collected, and traded at comic book fairs by adults of all ages. Some famous comic books are Superman, Wonder Woman, and James Bond. Usage note: historical, historic 1 historical表示“基于史实的；（有关）历史的；历史上的；历史（学）的”等意义。常见的表达包括：historical event（历史事件）、 historical novel（历史小说）、 historical context（历史背景）、 historical research（史学研究）、 historical material（史料）、historical gure（历史人物）、 places of historical interest（历史名胜）。例如：
The book I bought yesterday is based on historical facts. 我昨天买的那本书是根据历史事实编著的。
Could you name two historical events on October 1? 你能不能说出在10月1日这天发生的两个历史事件呢？
2 historic表示“历史性的；有重大历史意义的；（地方或建筑）古老的”等意义。常见的表达包括：historic moment（历史性时刻）、historic progress（历史性的进步）、historic leap（历史性的飞跃）、historic level（历史水平）、 historic meeting（具有历史意义的会议）、 historic event（有历史意义的事件）、historic building（历史/古老建筑）。例如：
From the perspective of mankind’s achievements, the moon landing was a historic event. 从人类成就的角度来说，登月是一次具有历史意义的事件。
More people hope to travel into space after the historic flight of Dennis Tito, who paid 20 millions of dollars to travel into space. 丹尼斯?蒂托花了两千万美元遨游太空。这一历史性飞行之后，越来越多的人希望能实现太空之旅。
20 A lifetime of reading; each book beloved. (Para. 7) Meaning: Reading is something that lasts a lifetime; each book is a treasure for those who love reading.
21 I want to be practical, to stuff them in paper sacks for the used bookstore. (Para. 7) Meaning: I want to deal with the books in a practical way: to put them in paper bags and take them