Unit Five

Section A: Father Dearest

Ⅰ. Main idea

The older you get, the more deeply you begin to realize your parents’ love. When you were young, your parents made sure that you were always safe, and for sure this sometimes seemed silly to you. Is there anything funny that your parents do even now to protect you? Or maybe you feel your parents are the ones who need protection as they get older! It’s true that a parent’s job is never done. But neither is that of a son or a daughter.

Ⅱ. Structure

Part one: (Para.1-2) Introduction to dad’s protection towards kids.

Part two: (Para.3-12) Detailed illustration of father’s protection, from past to present.

Part three: (Para.13-15) Author’s decision of protecting Dad as a conclusion of the passage.

Ⅲ.Text Learning

1. My father and I were watching a video in which my two-year-old nephew, Cameron, ran into view with a spoon sticking out of his mouth.

Meaning: My father and I were watching a family videotape recording in which my nephew, Cameron, who was two years old, appeared on the screen. He was running with a spoon held between his lips.

2. He'll trip, and that spoon will go right into his throat…

Meaning: He will fall down, and that spoon will go directly into his throat and hurt him…

3. I remember having dinner at a friend's house once, and being surprised that nobody said a word about food poisoning.

Meaning: I remember that once I had dinner at a friend's house. I was surprised that nobody at the dinner spoke of anything about food poisoning.

The author was surprised because at home his father always talked about the dangers of food poisoning.

Please notice the following structures of remember:

1) remember /forget doing something: have the memory of something that happened before.

记得/忘记做过某事

I remember going to Shanghai with my parents when I was five.    

记得5岁时和父母一起去过上海。

I remember returning the book to him last week.                 我记得上周我把书还给他了。

2) remember /forget to do something: not to forget to do something sometime later     

记得/忘记要做某事

Remember to buy me the evening newspaper on your way home.    记得在回来的路上给我买份晚报。

Remember to give him my regards when you see him.             见到他时记得代我向他问好

4.  A few years ago, he took away my coat because he said I hadn't had it made right.

Meaning: A few years ago, he took away my coat because he said there was something wrong with it.

Notice the following structure:

have something done: allow something to be done by someone else rather than by oneself

让（别人）做某事

I had my car fixed yesterday.                        我昨天找人把车修了。

He had the roof of the house painted red.            他让人把屋顶漆成了红色。

5. And this material is so heavy that it would pull you down.

Meaning: And this kind of cloth is so heavy that it would do harm to your body by forcing you downward.

6. "Do you want to be the first? Just cut it off here," he said, drawing his hand across his knees.

Meaning: "Do you want to be the first person to be injured by a heavy coat. Just make it shorter from here," he said, showing me, with his hand, that the coat should only be down to the knees.

cut off : separate by cutting

E.g. The telephone operator cut us off.                 电话接线员把我们的线路切断了

cut in  插嘴, 插入   cut down  砍倒, 胜过, 削减, 删节  cut out切掉, 裁剪出, 取代, 停止

7. Fashion was only one of the many dangers from which we had to guard ourselves.

Meaning: The style of clothes we wore was just one of the many dangers that we had to protect ourselves from.

Notice that when the preposition (e.g. "from" in the sentence) is put in front of the relative pronoun, "which" is used instead of "that". For example：

These are the tools (that) he has been working with on his farm.

These are the tools with which he has been working on his farm.

这些就是他在田里干活时用的工具。

Tiger is one of the wild animals (that) we have to guard ourselves from.

Tiger is one of the wild animals from which we have to guard ourselves.

老虎是我们须提防的野生动物之一。

8. We had our broken bones, car accidents, and illnesses—some of which might have been avoided if we had followed his advice.

Meaning: We broke our bones, met with a few accidents when we drove a car, and sometimes got sick. Some of these bad events might not have happened if we had followed Dad's advice.

Here, "which" refers to "broken bones, car accidents and illnesses." Notice the structure of "some of which". In this kind of relative clauses, "which" is used instead of "that". For example:

He has 12 novels. Some of them are borrowed from his friends.

He has 12 novels, some of which are borrowed from his friends.

他有12本小说，有些是从朋友那儿借的。

We've got a lot of work on hand. Some of the work must be finished this week.

We've got a lot of work on hand, some of which must be finished this week.

我们手头有很多工作，有的这个星期必须完成。

9. ... we recall Dad's telling us not to jump too hard and high while playing sports because of the possibility of backbone injury...

Meaning: ...we remember Dad told us that when we played sports, we should not jump with too much strength or too high because we might break our backbone…

10. As everyone is leaving, we all laugh when my niece says good-bye to Dad: "Be careful, Poppa!"

Meaning: As we all leave, my niece says good-bye to Dad in this way: "Be careful, Poppa!" This makes us all laugh.

Poppa is a term used in colloquial American English to address one's father or any elderly man in general.

Ⅳ. Structure Focus

1. the position of the preposition (定语从句:介词+关系代词) “介词＋关系代词”关系代词只可用whom或 which,不可用 that ,介词可以是 in, on, about, from, for, with, to at, of, without 等，可以引导限制性定语从句，也可以引导非限制性定语从句.

The world in which we live is made of matter. 我们生活于其中的世界是由物质组成的。

The conference invited the scholar to whom the article referred.

这次会议邀请了文章中提到的那位学者.

2. remember doing sth./to do sth. (动词后加不定式和动名次的区别)

1) remember doing something: have the memory of something that happened before. I remember going to Shanghai with my parents when I was five.           我记得5岁时和父母一起去过上海。

I remember returning the book to him last week.              我记得上周我把书还给他了。

2) remember to do something: not to forget to do something sometime later Remember to buy me the evening newspaper on your way home.                      记得在回来的路上给我买份晚报。

Remember to give him my regards when you see him.            见到他时记得代我向他问好。

Ⅴ. Check-up Exercises

Translating

A. Translate the following into English.

1. 看见大海，孩子们开心得大叫起来。

The children cried with delight at the sight of the sea.

2. 你刚刚说的话我没太听懂，你能再说一遍吗？     

I didn't quite catch on to what you said just now. Would you say it again?

3. 他知道那项任务很难，但还是接受了。

He was conscious of the difficulty of the task, but he still accepted it.

4. 直到现在，当想起那天发生的事情时，我还是觉得莫名其妙。

To this day, when I recall what happened that day, I still feel confused.

B. Translate the following into Chinese.

1. As a doctor, he is especially conscious of the many dangers surrounding us.

作为医生，他对我们身边的危险特别敏感．

2. Look—it’s too long, even on me. And this material is so heavy that would pull you down.

看，这衣服我穿着都太长．而且这料子还这么重，会把你压坏的．

3. To this day, when I walk within yards of tree branches, I pause and hear Dad's voice:

"Watch your eyes!"

直到现在，当走到离树枝尚有数码之遥时，我仍会停下来，耳边似乎又响起了父亲的声音：“当心戳到眼睛！”

4. His grandchildren have caught on quickly, knowing to shake their fingers and say, “That’s dangerous!” at the sight of cleaning products.

他的孙子孙女领会得很快，看见洗涤用品，他们知道摇摇手指说：“那很危险！”