《新概念英语》第二册第23课  A new house  新居
【课文】
First listen and then answer the question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
Why is the new house special?

I had a letter from my sister yesterday. She lives in Nigeria. In her letter, she said that she would come to England next year. If she comes, she will get a surprise. We are now living in a beautiful new house in the country. Work on it had begun before my sister left. The house was completed five months ago. In my letter, I told her that she could stay with us. The house has many large rooms and there is a lovely garden. It is a very modern house, so it looks strange to some people. It must be the only modern house in the district.

【课文翻译】
昨天我收到了姐姐的一封信，她住在尼日利亚。在信中她说她明年将到英国来。如果她来了，她会感到非常惊奇了。我们现在住在乡间的一栋漂亮的新住宅里。这栋房子在我姐姐离开之前就已动工了，是在5个月以前竣工的。我在信中告诉她，她可以和我们住在一起。这栋房子里有许多房间，还有一个漂亮的花园。它是一栋非常现代化的住宅，因此在有些人看来很古怪。它肯定是这个地区唯一的一栋现代化住宅。


【生词和短语】
complete  v. 完成
modern  adj. 新式的，与以往不同的
strange  adj. 奇怪的
district  n. 地区

【知识点讲解】
1 get a surprise
这个短语里，surprise作“使人惊奇、意外的事物”讲，是可数名词。
His boyfriend promises to give a surprise to her for birthday.
他男朋友答应在她生日时给她个惊喜。

2 in the country  在乡下
Many people choose to live in the country when they are old.
很多人选择老了后去乡下居住。

3 Work on it had begun before my sister left.
这栋房子在我姐姐离开之前就已动工了。

在这个句子里，work是名词，作主语，指住房的建设，而it是指房屋。因为建设这个动作发生在姐姐离开之前，所以动词begin用了过去完成时。类似的句子有：
I had finished my work when my mother called.
妈妈给我打电话时我的工作已经做完了。

4 complete  [动词]使齐全，使完整；结束，完成
This government intends to complete this project by the end of this year.
政府计划在年底完成这个项目。
complete还可以做形容词，表示完全的，彻底的；完整的，整个的。其副词形式是completely。

complete with sth. 包含，含有（额外部分或特征）
a complete change  翻天覆地的变化    in complete silence  万籁俱寂

She was completely touched by this movie.
她完全被整部电影打动了。

5 stay with sb. 与某人暂住，在某人处逗留
My friend is going to stay with me during the holiday.
我朋友节假日要来我这里住几天。

短语扩展：stay the night  过夜    

stay in  呆在家里，不外出  

stay out  呆在户外，不在家，不回家  
stay over  留宿    

stay up  熬夜，深夜不睡

6 so it looks strange to some people.
因此在有些人看来它很古怪。

be strange to sb.  陌生的，不熟悉的，奇怪的
例句：Peking Opera is strange to some foreigners.
对某些外国人来说，京剧是一项陌生的事物。

短语扩展：fell strange  感觉不自在，感觉不舒服

【上期作业回顾】
翻译以下三个句子。
1. 你有想过有一天做口译员吗？
→Have you ever thought of being an interpreter someday?
2. 她把英语笔记扔给了露西。
→She threw her notes to Lucy.
3. 我决定去上海工作了。
→I decided to work in Shanghai.

【课后作业】
翻译以下三个句子。
1. 每年春节我都会得到惊喜。
2. 老师要求我下周末前完成论文。
3. 五一假期我打算呆在家里看电影。