Unit 12 Christmas Lost and Found

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Unit 12Christmas Lost and Found
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Contents

• Pre-reading questions
• Background information
• Structure analysis
  
• Comprehension questions
• Language points of Text I
• Exercises

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Text I Christmas Lost and Found

• Pre-reading questions

1. Compare Chinese spring festival and Christmas
season.
4

• Dragon dancing welcomes Chinese New Year

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Words and Expressions

• ??
• The Spring Festival
• ??
• lunar calendar
• ??
• lunar January the first month by lunar calendar
• ??
• New Years Eve
• ???
• The Lantern Festival
• ??
• Spring Festival couplets
• ??
• paper-cuts
• ??
• New Year paintings

6

• ???
• do Spring Festival shopping
• ??
• propose a toast ??
• fireworks ??
• firecrackers ??
• red packets
• ??/?
• lion/dragon dance ??
• traditional opera ??
• variety show
• ??
• pay New Year's call give New Year's greetings

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• Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates
  the birth of Jesus.

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• A Christmas tree is one of the most popular
  traditions associated with the celebration of
  Christmas. It is normally an evergreen coniferous
  tree that is brought into a home or used in the
  open, and is decorated with Christmas lights and
  colorful ornaments during the days around
  Christmas. An angel or star is often placed at
  the top of the tree, representing the host of
  angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity
  story.

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• Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United
  Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as
  well as many other members of the Commonwealth of
  Nations. It is based on the tradition of giving
  gifts to the less fortunate members of society.
• It is usually celebrated on 26 December, the day
  after Christmas Day.

• Queue for Boxing Day sale outside a Future Shop
  store in Canada.

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• Christmas Cards
• The custom of sending Christmas cards started in
  Britain in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post'
  public postal deliveries began. They became even
  more popular in Britain when a card could be
  posted in an unsealed envelope for one half-penny
  - half the price of an ordinary letter.

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• 'Father Christmas' (or 'Santa Claus') has become
  the human face of Christmas. Pictures will be
  seen everywhere of the old man with long white
  beard, red coat, and bag of toys.

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• 2. What does the title of this text suggest to
  you?

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Background information (1)

• The text is one of the short stories from
  Christmas in My Heart a third treasury further
  taste of holiday joy, a selection of 14 Christmas
  stories from 11 volumes of Christmas in My Heart
  compiled and edited by Joe Wheeler. Christmas in
  My Heart series promises to touch hearts and life
  spirits with true meaning of Christmas, that is ,
  the best of Christmas is in our hears. The
  present story tells how two parents restore the
  real meaning of Christmas after being submerged
  in the sorrow of losing their son as well as
  Christmas for 17 years. Like all the other
  stories in this rich treasury of holiday tales,
  it will, like a cozy, crackling fire, warm our
  hearts and flood our soul.

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(No Transcript)
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Structure analysis of the text (1)

• The text can be divided into three parts.
• Paragraphs 1-5 are the first parts, which talks
  about the joy and happiness brought by the coming
  of Christmas Boy.
• Paragraphs 6-8 form its second part, which gives
  an account of the sorrow and sadness caused by
  the sudden death of Christmas Boy.
• Paragraphs 9-24 make up its last part, which
  describes the return of the joy and happiness to
  the family.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• Paragraphs 1-5
• This part introduces the writers dream of having
  a big family vibrating with energy, life and
  love, especially at Christmas. And her dream came
  true with the arrival of an adopted son,
  Christmas boy, as well as two biological
  children.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• What did the narrator desire to have as many as
  six children?
• Because being the only child in the family, the
  author had to spend a quiet Christmas. So she
  really longed for a big family full of energy,
  life and love, which could be brought about only
  by a crowd of children. As a result she vowed
  that she would have as many as six children after
  she got married.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• How did the author make her dream come true?
• She adopted a child since they were unable to
  bear a child at the beginning of their marriage,
  and named him Christmas Boy. Shortly after his
  arrival, they gave births to two biological
  children. Hence, the author finally got a big
  family vibrating with energy, life and love.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• How does the author describe the importance of
  Christmas Boy to her family?
• He was the only person who had the expertise to
  select and decorate the Christmas tree each year.
  He stirred up all the family members with his
  gift list and Christmas carols in the Christmas
  season. And he made life colorful with his good
  cheer and bossy wit.

20
Part one Paragraph 1-5

• In what ways was Christmas Boy different from his
  foster parents?
• First, he had a music gift that his foster
  parents lacked. Second, his active,, bossy
  character contrasted with the relative passively
  on his foster parents part. He pressed them into
  singing carols and he stirred them up into
  animated Christmas activities. By contrast the
  parents were being dominated on that occasion.
  Another point is that the boy had irresponsible
  good cheer, a buoyant spirit that the parents
  seemed to lack. 

21

• Christmas was a quiet affair when I was growing
  up. There were just my parents and me. I vowed
  that someday I'd marry and have six children, and
  at Christmas my house would vibrate with energy
  and love. I found the man who shared my dream,
  but we had not reckoned on the possibility of
  infertility. Undaunted, we applied for adoption
  and, within a year, he arrived.

22

• We called him our Christmas Boy because he came
  to us during that season of joy, when he was just
  six days old. Then nature surprised us again. In
  rapid succession we added two biological children
  to the family - not as many as we had hoped for,
  but compared with my quiet childhood, three made
  an entirely satisfactory crowd.

23

• As our Christmas Boy grew, he made it clear that
  only he had the expertise to select and decorate
  the Christmas tree each year. He rushed the
  season, starting his gift list in November. He
  pressed us into singing carols, our froglike
  voices contrasting with his musical gift of
  perfect pitch. Each holiday he stirred us up,
  leading us through a round of merry chaos.

24

• Our friends were right about adopted children not
  being the same. Through his own unique heredity,
  our Christmas Boy brought color into our lives
  with his irrepressible good cheer, his bossy wit.
  He made us look and behave than we were.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 1. vow vi/t solemnly promise to do a specified
  thing
• He vowed to look after his mother when his father
  died.
• He vowed revenge on their persecutors.????????????
  
• C break/ keep a solemn vow
• 2. vibrate v (cause sth. to) move rapidly and
  continuously backwards and forwards
• Her heart vibrates with excitement.
• Adj. vibrant

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 3. but we had not reckoned on the possibility of
  infertility.
• Pp.but we had not expected that we would be
  unable to bear a child.
• reckon on expect depend on
• We dont reckon on his help.
• Infertility U(of a person, animal or plant)
  inability to reproduce
• Adj. infertile barren not fertile
• infertile land
• an infertile couple

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 4. Undaunted, we applied for adoption a child,
  within a year, he arrived.
• Pp Not discouraged by our infertility, we
  requested to adopted a child. Within a year, we
  succeeded in adopting one.
• undaunted not discouraged by difficulty, danger
  or disappointment
• daunt V. cause to lose courage to the will to
  act.
• I was rather daunted by the thought of addressing
  such an audience.
• Daunting adj. discouraging frightening

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 5. Then nature surprised us again.
• Pp. the arrival of their Christmas Boy shortly
  after their application surprised them once now
  they were surprised again because they were able
  to have two biological children one after
  another.
• 6. in rapid succession quickly and continuously
• His words came out in rapid succession.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 7. compared with my quiet childhood, that made
  an entirely satisfactory crowd.
• Pp.... with three children, my family was filled
  with a big crowd, which, quite different from my
  quiet childhood, completely satisfied my dream of
  having a big family.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 8. As our Christmas Boy grew, he made it clear
  that only he had the expertise to select and
  decorate the Christmas tree each year.
• Pp As our Christmas Boy grew, he showed his
  special skill in selecting and decorating the
  Christmas tree and he became the only qualified
  person to do those things each year.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 9. rush the season make people prepare for
  Christmas hastily long before Christmas really
  comes
• ????(????????) ??????

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 10. He pressed us into singing carols, our
  froglike voices contrasting with his musical gift
  of perfect pitch.
• Pp. He forced all of us to sing carols, even
  though our voices, compared with his perfect
  voice with musical gift, were too harsh and husky
  to sing.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 11. Each holiday he stirred us up, leading us
  through a round of merry chaos.
• Pp.Each holiday. He tried to excite us and turned
  the whole family into a cheerful disorder.
• merry chaos This is an expression of oxymoron.
  Chaos refers to a state of complete and
  thorough disorder or confusion, which is,
  however, modified by an adjective incompatible to
  or contradictory with its original meaning.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• 12. Our friends were right about adopted children
  not being the same.
• Pp. Our friends were right in saying that
  adopting children would usually be different from
  biological children.
• 13. Through his own unique heredity, his
  irrepressible good cheer, his bossy wit, our
  Christmas Boy made our life colorful.
• Pp. With his unique ability inherited from his
  own parents, his cheerful personality, as well as
  his wit of ordering others to cooperate with him,
  he changed our life into a colorful one.

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Part one Paragraph 1-5

• heredity the set of characteristics transmitted
  from parent to offspring.
• Modern medical search results have proved that
  some diseases are present by heredity.????????????
  ???????
• Vt. Inherit
• Irrepressible too strong or forceful to be held
  back
• irrepressible laughter.???????
• Irrepressible high spirits
• an irrepressible talker

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Part two Paragraph 6-8

• Paragraphs 6-8
• The second part describes what kind of sorrow the
  death of Christmas Boy brought to his family.
• What happened to Christmas Boy as well as his
  family?
• Christmas Boy was killed in a car accident on his
  26th Christmas after he decorated his parents
  Christmas tree as usual, which gave a very heavy
  blow to his parents.

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Part two Paragraph 6-8

• How can you know the parents suffered great
  sorrow at their sons death?
• Paragraph 7 tells us that they were
  grief-stricken and they sold their home and moved
  to California, leaving behind their friends and
  church, as well as the sad memories of their
  Christmas Boy.

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Part two Paragraph 6-8

• What kind of life did the parents live after
  their adopted son died?
• With all the joys that had been brought by
  Christmas Boy taken away, the parents lived in
  grief and pain and could not bear to visit their
  hometown even once in the following 17 years. And
  Christmas must be the most miserable time for all
  the members of their family and all kinds of
  Christmas activities had disappeared from this
  family.

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Part two Paragraph 6-8

• What is meant by Christmas lost?
• The phrase means two things. First, it means that
  the narrator lost her Christmas Boy, who was
  killed on his 26th Christmas. Second, it means
  that the narrator no longer celebrated Christmas
  in the 17 years that followed the death of her
  Christmas Boy. It was on Christmas that they lost
  their son Christmas Boy and thus the special
  occasion became a double-edged heart-breaking day
  for her. So for 17 years she hadnt had a
  Christmas tree and had given up Christmas church
  service. In this sense, it would be said that she
  had not had given up Christmas in its true sense
  for 17 years.

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• Then, on his 26th Christmas, he left us as
  unexpectedly as he had come. He was killed in a
  car accident on his way home to his young wife
  and infant daughter. But first he had stopped by
  the family home to decorate our tree.

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• Grief-stricken, his father and I sold our home,
  where memories clung to every room, and moved
  away.In the 17 years that followed his death,
  his widow remarried his daughter graduated from
  secondary school. His father and I grew old
  enough to retire, and in December 1986 we decided
  to return home.

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Part two Paragraph 6-8

• 1. stop by make a short visit to (someones
  home) ???
• Ask him to stop by for a chat.
• 2. where memories clung to every room.
• Pp.where every room would make us recall the
  past.
• cling to hold tightly to stick firmly to
• She clung tightly to her few remaining
  possessions.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• Paragraphs 9-24
• This last part tells us that 17 years later, the
  parents returned to the city, which brought back
  all kinds of memories of Christmas Boy. However,
  they gradually realized that they had found the
  joy of a noisy Christmas of a big family again
  and that the love harbored in everyones heart
  will unite people, biological connected or not,
  into a family and Christmas is just a chance for
  people to share love with each other.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• Did the author overcome the heartbreaking sorrow
  of her sons death after 17 years?
• No, the mother still could not bear to visit her
  sons grave. The question of their present small,
  boxy house was a sharp contrast to the energetic
  atmosphere of their old family home. The
  appearance of their granddaughter was the
  reflection of their adopted son.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• How did the author and her husband change after
  they met their granddaughter and her new family?
• At first, they refused to do any Christmas
  services, saying that they had not a Christmas
  tree for 17 years, and that they just couldnt
  join them for church and for their Christmas
  dinner. Then, reluctantly they attended the
  Christmas party under pressure, and sat rigid in
  the front pew, fighting back tears. Later on,
  when they heard their granddaughters song O
  Holy Night, they recalled the old memories,
  which were no longer bitter only, but mixed with
  bitterness and sweetness. Finally, they sang
  carols happily in loud voices together caring
  strangers, and enjoyed the joyous and noisy
  Christmas party, which they had been refusing in
  the past 17 years.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• How did the authors biological children treat
  their adopted brother?
• They showed their love to him in their own ways,
  the artist daughter painted a heart-shaped rock
  on the headstone of her adopted brothers grave,
  writing the words To my brother, with love on
  its surface while the son sent a holly bright
  Christmas wreath every year.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• Why, for the first time, did the author feel a
  sense of peace, of the positive continuity of
  life, of renewed faith and hope?
• When the author saw that her own children loved
  their adopted brother as usual, her granddaughter
  and her new family had never forgotten her father
  and never ceased to love him, she realized that
  their Christmas Boy was still living in all his
  family members hearts, and she would not torture
  herself any more with the loss of her adopted son
  because she had found him again in their hearts.
  Thats why she felt a sense of peace. With their
  love passed on and on, she harbored a new faith
  in and hope for a joyful life again.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• What is the real meaning of Christmas implied by
  the author?
• The real meaning of Christmas lies in our hearts.
  Christmas is not only a time for family members
  to gather, but it is also an occasion to show our
  deep love for each other. As long as our hearts
  are together, all the family members, living or
  dead, our own flesh and blood or not, will make
  up a true and harmonious home.
• To the narrator, the true meaning of Christmas is
  peace, continuity of life, faith and hope.

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(No Transcript)
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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• What is a climate of the heart? Why does the
  author say that a true family is a climate of the
  heart?
• A climate of the heart refers to an atmosphere
  full of love. The author realized through her own
  experience in that big family that a true family
  was one in which all the members were extending
  great love to each other without caring whether
  they shared any kinship or not.

51

• We slid into the city on the tail of a blizzard,
  through streets ablaze with lights. Looking away
  from the glow I fixed my gaze on the distant
  mountains, where our adopted son had loved to go
  in search of the perfect tree. Now in the
  foothills there was his grave - a grave I could
  not bear to visit. We settled into a small,
  boxy house, so different from the family home
  where we had orchestrated our lives. It was
  quiet, like the house of my childhood. Our other
  son had married and begun his own Christmas
  traditions in another part of the country. Our
  daughter, an artist, seemed fulfilled by her
  career.

52

• While I stood staring toward the mountains one
  day, I heard a car pull up, then the impatient
  peal of the doorbell. There stood our
  grand-daughter, and in her gray-green eyes and
  impudent grin I saw the reflection of our
  Christmas Boy. Behind her, lugging a large pine
  tree, came her mother, stepfather and
  ten-year-old half brother. They swept past us in
  a flurry of laughter they decorated the tree and
  piled gaily wrapped packages under the boughs.

53

• "You'll recognize the ornaments," said my former
  daughter-in-law. "They were his. I saved them for
  you." When I murmured, in remembered pain, that
  we hadn't had a tree for 17 years, our cheeky
  grand-daughter said, "Then it's time to shape
  up!"They let in a whirl, shoving one another
  out the door, but not before asking us to join
  them the next morning for church and for dinner
  at their home. "Oh," I began, "we just can't."

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• You sure as heck can," ordered our granddaughter,
  so bossy as her father had been. "I'm singing the
  solo and I want to see you there." We had long
  ago given up the poignant Christmas services, but
  now, under pressure, we sat rigid, in the front
  pew, fighting back tears. Then it was also
  time. Our granddaughter's magnificent soprano
  voice soared, clear and true, in perfect pitch.
  In a rare emotional response, the congregation
  applauded in delight. How her father would have
  relished that moment.

55

• We had been alerted that there would be a lot of
  people for dinner - but 35! Assorted relatives
  filled every corner of the house small children,
  noisy and exuberant, seemed to bounce off the
  walls. I could not sort out who belonged to whom,
  but it didn't matter. They all belonged to one
  another. They took us in, enfolded us in joyous
  camaraderie. We sang carols in loud, off-key
  voices, saved only by that amazing soprano.

56

• Sometime after dinner, before the sunset, it
  occurred to me that a true family is not always
  one's own flesh and blood. It is a climate of the
  heart. Had it not been for our strangers who
  would help us hear the music again.Late, our
  granddaughter asked us to come along with her.
  "I'll drive," she said. "There's a place I like
  to go." She jumped behind the wheel of the car
  and zoomed off toward the foothills.

57

• Alongside the headstone rested a small,
  heart-shaped rock, slightly cracked, painted by
  our artist daughter. On its weathered surface she
  had written. "To my brother, with love." Across
  the crest of the grave lay a holly-bright
  Christmas wreath. Our No. 2 son, we learned, sent
  one every year. As we stood by the headstone in
  the chilly but somehow comforting silence, we
  were not prepared for our unpredictable
  granddaughter's next move. Once more that day her
  voice, so like her father's, lifted in song, and
  the mountainside echoed on and on into infinity.
  

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• When the last pure note had faded, I felt, for
  the first time since our son's death, a sense of
  peace, of the positive continuity of life, of
  renewed faith and hope. The real meaning of
  Christmas had been restored to us.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 1. We slid into the city on the tail of blizzard,
  through streets ablaze with lights.
• Pp.We drove into the city at night just after a
  heavy snowstorm, in order not to be noticed by
  any acquaintance.
• Slide go slowly and unnoticed pass smoothly or
  continuously slip
• Peter slid out of the room when no one was
  looking.
• on the tail of following closely behind
• blizzardCa severe snowstorm with strong winds

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• ablazeadj.1) very brightly colored or lighted
• E.g. The house was ablaze with lights. ????????
• 2) Being on fire
• E.g. The house is ablaze.?????
• 3) adv. On fire
• E.g. We set the logs ablaze.???????????

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 2. fix ones gaze on gaze at
• 3. We settled into a small, boxy house, so
  different from the family home where we had
  orchestrated our lives. It was quiet, like the
  house of my childhood.
• Pp We settled down in a small house, which was
  so different from our previous home where, with
  our Christmas Boy, we had changed our quiet life
  into a cheerful one. Now the small house reminded
  me of the quiet house of my childhood, which I
  had disliked so much.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 4. fulfill oneself  fully develop ones
  abilities and character
• They don't like the idea that women can fulfill
  themselves without the assistance of a man.
• He was able to fulfill himself through
  music.????????????????.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 5. pull up come to a stop
• The car pulled up outside the station.
• The driver pulled up at the traffic lights.
• 6. peal C / v. A ringing of a set of bells,
• a peal of applause????????
• The bells began pealing.????????

64
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 7. There stood our granddaughter, and in her
  gray-green eyes and impudent grin I saw the
  reflection of our Christmas Boy.
• Pp Our granddaughter was standing there, her
  gray-green eyes as well as her rude smile
  reminded us of her father, our Christmas Boy.
• impudent adj. very rude and disrespectful.
• an impudent child, question
• reflection U an image that reveals something
  about a person.
• Your clothes are a reflection of your
  personality.?????????????.

65
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 8. Behind her, lugging a large pine tree, came
  her mother, stepfather and ten-year-old half
  brother.
• Pp.Her mother, stepfather and ten-year-old half
  brother came after her, dragging a large pine
  tree.
• 9. flurry ca sudden shared feeling of
  excitement
• E.g. a flurry of alarm????
• 10. gaily adv. In a cheerful or light-hearted
  way.
• Off we set, with Pam chattering gaily all the
  way.?????,?????????????????
• 11. bough a main branch of a tree

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 12. cheeky slightly rude or disrespectful but
  in a charming or amusing way
• 13. shape up begin to do right
• It is no use simply to tell adolescents to shape
  up and do something useful.
• Youd better shape up, young man, or you will be
  punished.
• 14. in a whirl in a confusing rush
• His brain was in a whirl.???????
• 15. shove vt. push someone or something roughly.
• He shoved her out of the way.

67
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 16. You sure as heck can.
• Pp. You certainly can.
• 17. solo C A performance by or intended for a
  single individual.???

68
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 18. We had long ago given up the poignant
  Christmas services, but now under pressure, we
  sat rigid in the front pew, fighting back tears.
• Pp. After the death of our Christmas Boy, we
  had not expected to have any Christmas services
  any more. Now, at the demand of our
  granddaughters family, we sat in the front
  seats, but the sad memories stiffened our body
  and filled our eyes and heart with tears.
• poignant evoking a keen sense of sadness or
  regret
• It is the poignant memories of my life in
  another country

69
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• rigid ( of a person or part of his body) stiff
  and unmoving, especially as a result of shock or
  fear inflexible
• rigid ideas
• rigid in one's views
• rigid discipline
• pew the long seats in a church for people to
  sit in

70
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 19. soprano the highest singing voice a female
  or boy with such a voice ???
• ??? mezzo-soprano
• ??? alto
• 20. In a rare emotional response, the
  congregation applauded in delight.
• Pp. Greatly touched by her singing, the audience
  gave a big applause to her delightedly.
• congregation refer to the people who are
  attending a church service or who regularly
  attend a church service.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 21. relish 1)vt.enjoy be pleased with
• She won't relish having to get up before dawn to
  catch that train.
• 2) C (for)
• I have no relish for tragedy.

72
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 22. We had been alerted that there would be a
  large number of people for dinner-but 35!
• Pp. We had been warned that there would be a
  large number of people attending dinner, but we
  had never expected that there would be 35 of
  them.
• alert1) vt. Warn
• The doctor alerted me to the dangers of smoking.
• 2) Vigilantly attentive watchful
• He is an alert boy.??????????

73
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 23. assorted relatives various types of
  relatives
• 24. exuberant ( of people and their behavior)
  overflowing with life and cheerful excitement
• an exuberant feeling?????
• 32.bounce jump or spring up and down like a
  ball
• Children bounced into the room.??????????

74
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 33. sort out separate from a mass or a group
• Sort out the papers to be thrown away, and put
  the rest back.
• 34.They took us in, enfolded us in joyous
  camaraderie.
• Pp. They received us and treated us like old
  friends.
• enfold surround envelop
• camaraderie mutual trust and friendly among
  people who spent a lot of time together

75
Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 35. We sang carols in loud, off-key voices, saved
  only by that amazing soprano.
• Pp. We sang carols loudly, often in the wrong
  key, but every time we were led to the right key
  by our granddaughters perfect singing.

76

• 36. it occurred to me that a true family is not
  always ones own flesh and blood. It is a
  climate of the heart.
• Pp. I suddenly realized that a family is not
  always made up by kinship and the hearts filled
  with love for others would surely make up a true
  family.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 37. Had it not been for our adopted son, we would
  not now be surrounded by caring strangers who
  would help us hear the music again.
• Pp. I felt grateful to my adopted son, without
  whom we would not have a chance to spend
  Christmas with these caring people and hear the
  Christmas carols again, which we had not had for
  so many years.
• 38. zoom ( of a driver or vehicle ) move or
  travel quickly
• Jack went zooming past in his new car.

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 39.crest C the top of something, especially a
  mountain or hill
• 40.holly adj. A widely distributed evergreen
  shrub, typically having prickly dark green
  leaves, small white flowers,and red berries.???
• 41.wreath C an arrangement of flowers, leaves,
  or stems fastened in a ring and used for
  decoration or for laying on a grave.??

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 42. Once more that day her voice, so like her
  fathers, lifted in song, and the mountainside
  echoed the chorus of Joy to the World, on and
  on into infinity.
• Pp. After hearing her carols at the Christmas
  party, for a second time she sang with a voice
  similar to her fathers. Her song Joy to the
  World echoed among the mountains as if it would
  be passed on unlimited by time and space.
• mountainside??, ??

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Part three Paragraph 9-24

• 43. I felt a sense of peace, of the positive
  continuity of life, of renewed faith and hope.
• Pp. I resumed a peaceful state of mind free of
  sorrow, realizing that life would be infinite
  with continuing love, and I began to hold a new
  faith in and hope for life.
• 44.The real meaning of Christmas had been
  restored to us.
• Pp. I found the real meaning of Christmas
  again, that is, hearts with love, which I had had
  when my family was filled with energy and love
  with all my three children around me, but later I
  had mistakenly lost after my adopted sons death.

81
Exercises (1)

• Translation exercises
• 1.   ?????????????????,?????????????
• Ill give you a week to sort your men out, and
  then I expect things to run smoothly.
• 2.   ????????,????????????
• Whenever we move to a new house, we always cling
  to too many possessions.
• 3.  ?????,???????,???????
• She is such a talkative woman that whenever she
  takes her turn to start talking, her words will
  come out in rapid succession.

82
Exercises (2)

• 4.????????,?????????
• He will always help in time of need, on this you
  can reckon.
• 5.  ???????????
• He slid his pistol into his pocket.
• 6.???????????,????????
• My mind is in a whirl with all this noise, so I
  cannot think clearly.

83
Exercises (3)

• 7. ??????????????????
• The farmer took in the lost travelers for the
  night.
• 8.?????,??????????
• He smiled, relishing the idea of a long
  journey.
•  

84
Exercises (4)

• Fill in the blank in each sentence with a word or
  phrase taken from the box in its appropriate
  form.

Slide into , pull up, bounce, reckon on, in
succession, pressinto, stir up, cling to
85
Exercises (5)
bounced

• He __________a ball against the wall.
• The newly founded regime needed there influential
  politicians to stop her _______ chaos.
• The local bar has been pressed into service as a
  school restaurant since the war began.
• They knew that academic authorities rejected
  their legend, but they still clung to their
  belief.

sliding into
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• At the beginning of the playoffs, he was made
  redundant and now he is trying to_pull himself
  up again.
• Pete Sampras won the Championship of American
  Open for the third year_in succession.
• They are typical of couples who plan a family
  without _reckoning on the small fortune it will
  cost.
• He said senior government officials were trying
  to stir up ethnic tensions through mess media.

87
Exercises (6)

• Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two words
  with opposite meanings are used together to
  describe the same object or phenomenon.
• More examples an open secret, a poor
  millionaire, a private public man, changelessly
  changing, audible silence, conspicuous absence,
  War is peace, Ignorance is strength, Wealth is
  poverty.
• What we can get by using oxymoron in the right
  context is an unexpected but acceptable,
  seemingly contradictory but sensible combination
  of opposites.

88
Comprehension questions of Text II (1)

• 1.       Why did the author enjoy his visits to
  the cemeteries when he was a child?
• He enjoyed going there because the cemeteries
  were quiet, calm places full of life stories.
  Just the same and dates of a persons life were
  interesting enough for him. He would imagine
  whole scenarios about how that person lived and
  what kind of family he had had. He would infuse
  the dead of rural Indiana with all manner of
  mystery.

89
Comprehension questions of Text II (2)

• 2. What made him feel dissatisfied with his
  life in the rural Indiana?
• When he was in his teen, he found the life in his
  home area too quiet and sheltered. What he
• needed was an escape from it and a new way
  of life.

90
Comprehension questions of Text II (3)

• 3.What did he learn from his tome leaving
  experience at the end of the passage?
• From this experience, he came to realize
  that what his father did all the years in the
  cemeteries, which seemed to be tedious and
  insignificant, gave the relatives of the dead
  people a lot of comfort and warmth. Love and care
  should not be confined to family members.

91
Oral activities

• Organize yourselves into groups of five or
  six and discuss the following issue.
• A proverb goes like this thicker than water. Do
  you think there is any contradiction between this
  proverb and the way the author of the text looks
  at human relationship?.

92
Oral activities

• Organize yourselves into groups of five or six
  and discuss the following issue
• Why Christmas is celebrated in China nowadays.
  Does it mean that Christianity is getting popular
  in China?

93
Writing practice

• Write a composition of about 200 words on the
  following topic
• What children should do for their parents,
  especially when an important festival like
  Christmas or Chinese New Year is approaching.
• .

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• Good bye!