1. The burying –ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth,like a derelict building-lot.
The burying-ground is nothing more than a huge piece of wasteland full of mounds of earth looking like a deserted and abandoned piece of land on which a building was going to be put up. 2.All colonial empires are in reality founded upon that fact.
All the imperialists build up their empires by treating the people in the colonies like animals (by not treating the people in the colonies as human beings).
3. They rise out of the earth,they sweat and starve for a few years,and then they sink back into the nameless mounds of the graveyard.
They are born. Then for a few years they work, toil and starve. Finally they die and are buried in graves without a name.
4. A carpenter sits crosslegged at a prehistoric lathe,turning chair-legs at lightning speed.
Sitting with his legs crossed and using a very old-fashioned lathe, a carpenter quickly gives a round shape to the chair-legs he is making.
5. Instantly,from the dark holes all round,there was a frenzied rush of Jews.
Immediately from their dark hole-like cells everywhere a great number of Jews rushed out wildly excited.
6. …every one of them looks on a cigarette as a more or less impossible luxury.
Every one of these poor Jews looked on the cigarette as a piece of luxury which they could not possibly afford.
7. Still,a white skin is always fairly conspicuous.
However, a white-skinned European is always quite noticeable.
8.In a tropical landscape one’s eye takes in everything except the human beings.
If you take a look at the natural scenery in a tropical region, you see everything but the human beings.
9. No one would think of running cheap trips to the Distressed Areas.
No one would think of organizing cheap trips for the tourists to visit the poor slum areas (for these trips would not be interesting)．
10. …for nine-tenths f the people the reality of life is an endless,back-breakiing struggle to wring a little food out of an eroded sold.
life is very hard for ninety percent of the people．With hard backbreaking toil they can produce a little food on the poor soil．
11. She accepted her status as an old woman,that is to say as a beast of burden.
She took it for granted that as an old woman she was the lowest in the community，that。she was only fit for doing heavy work like an animal．
12 .People with brown skins are next door to invisible. People with brown skins are almost invisible．
13. Their splendid bodies were hidden in reach-me-down khaki uniforms,…
The Senegalese soldiers were wearing ready-made khaki uniforms which hid their beautiful well- built bodies．
14. How long before they turn their guns in the other direction?
How much longer before they turn their guns around and attack us?。
15. Every white man there had this thought stowed somewhere or ther in his mind.
Every white man，the onlookers，the officers on their horses and the white N．C．Os．marching with the black soldiers，had this thought hidden somewhere or other in his mind．
lesson 3
1. And it is an activity only of humans.
And conversation is an activity which is found only among human beings．(Animals and birds are not capable of conversation．)
2. Conversation is not for making a point.
Conversation is not for persuading others to accept our idea or point of view． 3．In fact,the best conversationalists are those who are prepared to lose.
In fact a person who really enjoys and is skilled at conversation will not argue to win or force others to accept his point of view．
4．Bar friends are not deeplu involved in each other’s lives.
People who meet each other for a drink in the bar of a pub are not intimate friends for they are not deeply absorbed or engrossed in each other’s lives． 5….it could still go ignorantly on…
The conversation could go on without anybody knowing who was right or wrong．
6. There are cattle in the fields ,but we sit down to beef.
These animals are called cattle when they are alive and feeding in the fields；but when we sit down at the table to eat．we call their meat beef．
7. The new ruling class had built a cultural barrier against him by building their French againsthis own language.
The new ruling class by using French instead of English made it difficult for the English to accept or absorb the culture of the、rulers． 8. English had come royally into its own.
The English language received proper recognition and was used by the King once more．
9. The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes.
The phrase，the King’s English，has always been used disrespectfully and jokingly by the lower classes． The working people very often make fun of the proper and formal language of the educated people．
10. The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.
There still exists in the working people，as in the early Saxon peasants，a spirit of opposition to the cultural authority of the ruling class．
11. There is always a great danger that”words will harden into things for us.”
There is always a great danger that we might forget that words are only symbols and take them for things they are supposed to represent．For example，the word “dog” is a symbol representing a kind of animal．We mustn’t regard the word “dog” as being the animal itself．
12. Even with the most educated and the most literate,the King’s English slips and slides in conversation.
Even the most educated and literate people do not use standard，formal English all the time in their conversation．
Lesson 5
1. Logic, far from being a dry, pedantic discipline, is a living, breathing thing, full of
beauty, passion and trauma: Logic is not at all a dry, learned branch of learning. It is like a living human being, full of beauty, passion and painful emotional shocks.
2. Same age, same background, but dumb as an ox: He is of the same age and has the same
background but he is dumb as an ox.
3. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason.: Fads (a passing fashion or craze), in my
opinion, show a complete lack of reason.
4. To be swept up in every craze that comes along, to surrender yourself to idiocy just
because everyone else is doing it – this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. It is the greatest of lack of intelligence for me to follow enthusiastically every current fashion that appears, or to indulge myself to stupid action just because everyone else is doing it.
5. “All the Big Men on Campus are wearing there. Where’ve you been?”: All the important
and fashionable men on campus are wearing them. How come you don’t know?
6. “Don’t you want to be in the swim?”: don’t you want to follow the current fashions? /Don’t
you want to be doing what everyone else is doing?
7. My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear. My brain began to work at
high speed or efficiency. / My brain, which is a precision instrument, began to work at high speed.
8. I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason.: I wanted Polly for a
cleverly thought out and an entirely intellectual reason.
9. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt sure that time would supply the lack.
She was not yet as beautiful as a pin-up girl but I felt sure she would become beautiful enough after some time.
10. She had an erectness of carriage, an ease of bearing, a poise that clearly indicated the
best of breading. She walked with her head and body erect and moved in a natural and dignified manner—all this showed she was well trained in manners and social behavior.
11. In fact she veered in the opposite direction.: In fact, she went in the opposite direction. /She
was not intelligent, that she was rather stupid.
12. In other words, if you were out of the picture, the field would be open. If you’re no longer
involved with her (if you stop dating her) others would be free to compete for her friendship. 13. He was a torn man. He was agitated and tormented, not knowing what was the right thing to
do.
14. I was getting nowhere with this girl, absolutely nowhere.: I was making no progress with
this girl.
15. The girl simply had a logic-proof head.: Polly had a head that was resistant to (could not be
affected by) logic
16. Admittedly it was not a prospect fraught with hope…: One must admit the outcome does
not look very wonderful.
17. Suddenly, a glimmer of intelligence—the first I had seen—came into her eyes.: From her
eyes that for the first time she was beginning to understand the problem.
18. Over and over again I cited instances…without let-up.: Over and over again I gave
examples and pointed out the mistakes in her thinking. I kept emphasizing all this without stopping.
19. I reeled back, overcome with the infamy of it.: I staggered back overcome by the great
wickedness of Petey’s traitorous act.
20. I shrieked, kicking up great chunks of turf.: The narrator has now thoroughly lost control
of himself and his temper. He now screamed and kicked up big pieces of grassy earth in his anger.
lesson 7
1. …boy and man,I had been through it often before.
As a boy and later when I was a grown-up man, I had of- ten travelled through the region.
2.But somehow I had never quite sensed its appalling desolation.
But somehow in the past I never really perceived how shocking and wretched this whole region was.
3. ..it reduced the whole aspiration of man to a macabre and depressing joke.
This dreadful scene makes all human endeavors to advance and improve their lot appear as a ghastly, saddening joke.
4.The country itself is not uncomely,despite the grime of the endless mills.
The country itself is pleasant to look at, despite the sooty dirt spread by the innumerable mills in this region.
5. They have taken as their model a brick set on end.
The model they followed in building their houses was a brick standing upright. / All the houses they built looked like bricks standing upright.
6. This they have converted into a thing of dingy clapboards,with a narrow,low-pitched roof.
These brick-like houses were made of shabby, thin wooden boards and their roofs were narrow and had little slope.
7. When it has taken on the patina of the mills it is the color of an egg long past all hope or caring.
When the brick is covered with the black soot of the mills it takes on the color of a rotten egg.
8. Red brick,even in a steel town,ages with some dignity.
Red brick, even in a steel town, looks quite respectable with the passing of time. / Even in a steel town, old red bricks still appear pleasing to the eye.
9. I award this championship only after laborious research and incessant prayer.
I have given Westmoreland the highest award for ugliness after having done a lot of hard work and research and after continuous praying.
10. They show grotesqueries of ugliness that,in retrospect,become almost diabolical.
They show such fantastic and bizarre ugliness that, in looking back, they become almost fiendish and wicked. When one looks back at these houses whose ugliness is so fantastic and bizarre, one feels they must be the work of the devil himself.
11. It is incredible that mere ignorance should have achieved such masterpieces of horror.
It is hard to believe that people built such horrible houses just because they did not know what beautiful houses were like.
12. On certain levels of the American race,indeed,there seems to be a positive libido for the ugly,…
People in certain strata of American society seem definitely to hunger after ugly things; while in other less Christian strata, people seem to long for things beautiful.
13. They meet, in some unfathomable way,its obscure and unintelligible demands.
These ugly designs, in some way that people cannot understand, satisfy the hidden and unintelligible demands of this type of mind.
14. …they made it perfect in their own sight by putting a completely impossible penthouse,painted a staring yellow,on top of it.
They put a penthouse on top of it, painted in a bright, conspicuous yellow color and thought it looked perfect but they only managed to make it absolutely intolerable. 15. Out of the melting pot emerges a race which hates beauty as it hates truth.
From the intermingling of different nationalities and races in the United States emerges the American race which hates beauty as strongly as it hates truth． lesson 10
1. The slightest mention of the decade brings nostalgic recollections to the middle-aged…
At the very mention of this post-war period, middle-aged people begin to think about it longingly.
2. The rejection of Victorian gentility was,in any case, inevitable.
In any case, an American could not avoid casting aside its middle-class respectability and affected refinement.
3. The war acted merely as a catalytic agent in this breakdown of the Victorian social structure….
The war only helped to speed up the breakdown of the Victorian social structure.
4. …it was tempted,in America at least,to escape its responsibilities and retreat behind an air of
naughty alcoholic sophistication..
In America at least, the young people were strongly inclined to shirk their responsibilities. They pretended to be worldly-wise, drinking and behaving naughtily.
5. Prohibition afforded the young the additional opportunity of making their pleasures illicit,...
The young people found greater pleasure in their drinking because Prohibition, by making drinking unlawful added a sense of adventure. 6….our young men began to enlist under foreign flags.
Our young men joined the armies of foreign countries to fight in the war.
7. …they”wanted to get into the fun before the whole thing turned belly up”
The young people wanted to take part in the glorious ad-venture before the whole war ended.
8. …they had outgrown towns and families….
These young people could no longer adapt themselves to lives in their home towns or their families.
9. …the returning veteran also had to face…the hypocritical do-goodism of Prohibition,…
The returning veteran also had to face Prohibition which the lawmakers hypocritically assumed would do good to the people.
10. Something in the tension-ridden youth of America had to “give”…
(Under all this force and pressure) something in the youth of America, who were already very tense, had to break down.
11….it was only natural that hopeful young writers,their minds and pens inflamed against war,Babbittry,and “Puritanical”gentility,should flock to the traditional artistic center… It was only natural that hopeful young Writers whose minds and writings extremely opposed war, Babbittry and \"Puritanical\" gentility, should come in great numbers to live in Greenwich Village, the traditional artistic centre.
12.Each town had its “fast”set which prided itself on its unconventionality,…
Each town was proud that it had a group of wild, reckless people, who lived unconventional lives.
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