现代大学英语精读6第二版Unit 8 Housewifely Arts教学参考书Word格式文档下载.docx

1、 Will you love me forever? I think to myself. Will you love me when Im old? If I go crazy? Will you be embarrassed by me? Avoid my calls? Wash dishes when you talk to me on the phone, roll your eyes, lay the receiver down next to the cat?These were exactly the things she did to her mother. Loving he

2、r son, she finally realizes how much her parents also loved her. Her fathers love was easier to understand. He tried his best to give her opportunities in life, but when she failed in the year at a private college, which he had funded for her with considerable difficulty, he did not judge or reproac

3、h her. She loved her father, but she regarded her mother as cold and harsh and fought constantly with her, reacting like her former self, the rebellious teenager, being neither mature nor compassionate in looking after her mother in old age, understanding her, forgiving her weaknesses, and loving he

4、r.But now that her mother is dead, she begins increasingly to miss her, and the decision to drive nine hours with her son for the sake of hearing her mothers voice again through the imitations of Carnie, the African parrot, shows how much she needs this connection. “I realize how badly I need a piec

5、e of my mother. A scrap, a sound, a smellsomething.” She knows she has not been a good daughter, and the parrot her mother loved and which she hated so much, always seemed to come between them. Now, however, Carnie has become her only avenue to the kind of memory she craves. But the bird does not gi

6、ve her that satisfaction, remaining completely silent. Perhaps it could not forgive her unkind treatment of it in the past.Nonetheless, the journey proves successful. In the tradition of the American “road trip”, another way of thinking about this story, the protagonist does not merely make an actua

7、l journey with her son in a car, during which various things happen along the way, she also makes a personal, emotional journey in which she achieves a measure of enlightenment. It is a typical feature of “road trip” journeys that they teach the characters things about themselves that they did not p

8、reviously know. Driving toward home, they stop at the house in which the protagonist grew up- “a deserted, plain house for plain folks” I lead him to the back of the house, down the hallway which still feels more familiar to me than any I knowI remove the valances Mom made in the early eighties, dri

9、ed bugs falling from the folds of the fabric into the sink below. These are the things with which she made a home. Her contributions to our sense of place were humble and put forth with great intent, crafts which took weeks of stitching and unstitching, measuring, cutting, gathering. I realize how m

10、uch in the home was done by hand and sweat. My father had laid the carpeting and linoleum. Mom had painted the same dinner chairs twice, sewed all the window treatmentsI scan the kitchen and picture Mom paying bills, her perfect script, the way she always listed her occupation with pride: homemakerR

11、ecalling how her parents had created a home that she describes to Ike by saying, “This was a beautiful house”, she understands that her parents were not demonstrative people, not people who talked about love, but people who had shown it to her in all their actions and these things they had made. And

12、 here, also, she finds the clear recollections of her mother that she had been seeking: “ Now I can hear my mother everywherein the kitchen, in my bedroom, on the front porch” This visit also helps the protagonist to make a major decision around which one part of the plot is constructed: should she

13、and Ike move to Connecticut, a state to which her firm has offered to transfer her? Ike is reluctant. “What if we live here forever? He asked. People used to do that, I said. Lived in one house their entire life. My mother, for instance”In revisiting the house of her childhood, she has grasped the p

14、rofound sense of home that growing up in this single place has given her. She concludes: “Together, we can make a solid grilled cheese, prune shrubs, clean house. Together, maybe were the housewife this house needs. Maybe our best life is here.”And, significantly, she comes, finally, to a true under

15、standing of her mothers courage and strength, granting her respect and admiration: “Steamrolled by the world, but in the face of defeat, she threatened us all.” And the last three sentences of the storyMy heart, shed said. I can turn it off.For years, Id believed her.But I know the truth now. What m

16、aniacs we aresick with love, all of us.make clear her final realization that her mother loves and has always loved her, and that she, too, loves and has always loved her mother.Structure of the TextPart I （Paras. 1-11）The protagonist introduces herself and tells us that she is driving nine hours wit

17、h her 7-year-old son so that she can hear her mothers voice again.Part II （Paras. 12-22）The protagonist describes how she had to sell her mothers house and how the house brought back memories of her dead mother with her African parrot.Part III （Paras. 23-34）On their way to the Zoo, the protagonist a

18、nd her son come to a rest stop and what she sees makes her think about her responsibilities as a mother.Part IV （Paras. 35-51）The protagonist reminisces about how she first saw the parrot at her mothers home and how they developed a hostile relationship from the very beginning.Part V （Paras. 52-58）T

19、he protagonist tells her son where they are going and for what purpose. We learn from this section what kind of person her sons father is and how she became a single parent.Part VI （Paras. 59-65）The protagonists son, Ike, tells her a story about his classmate Louis crazy mother and this once again m

20、akes her keenly aware of her desire to protect her son against even the knowledge that such people exist.Part VII （Paras. 66-97）This is a most revealing and touching part of the story in which we learn the reasons for the intense disagreements between the protagonist and her mother. She does not und

21、erstand why her mother often appears harsh and cold, unlike her father, who was kind and did not judge her, nor can she understand why her mother gave so much of her care and attention to a bird so soon after her fathers death.Part VIII （Paras. 98-110）The protagonist and her son check into an inn an

22、d there she remembers how her mother cried over her grandmothers death. She also hears in the news about a python strangling a toddler, which reminds her of a video of a similar event Ikes father showed her. The fear that this could really happen to her son keeps her awake that night.Part IX （Paras.

23、 111-123）In this section, the protagonist recalls how cruelly she hurt her mothers feelings over the parrot when it was time to send her mother to a nursing home. Part X （Paras. 124-143）These memories show why the protagonist misses her mother so much and wants so much to hear her dead mothers voice

24、 once again through the imitations of the parrot, but the bird refuses to talk, as though her mother still will not forgive her for the way she treated the bird.Part XI （Paras. 144-150）The protagonist now remembers the day her mother finally had to part with her beloved bird and go to the nursing ho

25、me. It was a heart-breaking day for her.Part XII （Paras.151-177）As the protagonist revisits her home, happy memories come to her and she recalls her deceased parents. Her son feels sorry that his mother has been brought up in this place; in its rundown state, he sees it as miserable, but his mother

26、tells him that it was “a beautiful house”. （提醒：因编辑的疏忽，教材（184页）1-4行漏标了段落序号，造成176-179序号缺失，并非文字缺失，特此说明。编者为此疏忽表示歉意，并将在教材重印时修正。） Part XIII （Paras. 178-192）A realtor comes for a preview, then a couple come for an inspection. As they check the house, they jot down critical observations. The protagonist thi

27、nks that perhaps this is just the right place for her and her son.Part XIV （Paras. 193-211）The protagonist again remembers the day she was to send her mother to the nursing home. She kept asking her mother whether she would like to keep a few things as souvenirs, but her mothers answer was always no

28、, saying that she “could turn her heart off”. Looking back, the protagonist realizes that this was not true, and that they were all “sick with love”.Detailed Analysis of the Text1. I am my own housewife, my own breadwinner. （Para. 1）The protagonist is a single parent and has to take care of everythi

29、ng because there is no one else around to help her. In Chinese “single parent” is translated as 单亲，It is very close, also, to the expression “又当爹，又当娘” or “里里外外就靠她一个人”2. I can make a pie crust and exterminate humpback crickets with a homemade glue board, though not at the same time. （Para. 1） The protagonist is being humorous: it would be awkward if she were to exterminate crickets and cook at the same time.3. Id like to compliment myself on these things （Para. 1） to compliment sb on something: to praise sb for （doing） somethingNotice the subtle differences between thes