基础英语4 lesson1-5 paraphrase

lesson 1 Thinking as a hobby
[paraphrase]

1.Nature had endowed the rest of the human race with a sixth sense and left me out.
【para】Everybody, except me, is born with the ability to think.


2.You could hear the wind, trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments. His body would reel with shock and his face go white at the unaccustomed visitation. He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there, useless for the rest of the morning.
【para】You could hear the fresh air struggling with difficulty to find its way to his chest, because he chest seemed to be unhealthy, as drinking had obviously harmed his lungs. He would lose balance and his face would become pale as a result of the unexpected attack of the wind. He would not be able to stand steadily so that he had to fall into the chair, unable to do anything for the rest of the morning.

3. In this instance, he seemed to me ruled not by an invisible and irresistible spring in the neck.
【para】In this situation, it seemed that it was not his thought but his natural instinct that ruled him, which he was unable to resist.



4.Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen’s golf, as honest as most politicians intentions, or as coherent as most books that get written.
【para】Precisely speaking, it is as incompetent as most businessmen’s golf, as dishonest as most politicians’ intentions, or as incoherent as most books that get written.

The author holds most businessmen, politicians and writers in contempt; in his eyes, they are incompetent, dishonest and incoherent.
（This ironical sentence shows that the author not only considers those people incompetent, dishonest and incoherent, but also despises most businessmen, distrusts most politicians and dislikes most publications.）


5. They have immense solidarity. We had better respect them, for we are outnumbered and surrounded.
【para】They usually represent the great majority. We had better respect them instead of distaining them, because the number of them is much larger than us and we are surrounded by them.

6. Man enjoys agreement as cows will gaze all the same way on the side of a hill.
【para】It is probably human nature to enjoy agreement because it seems to bring peace, security, comfort, and harmony, which is the same nature that leads cows to gaze in the same manner on the side of a hill.

7.To hear our Prime Minister talk about the great benefit we conferred on India by jailing people like Nehru and Gandhi. To hear American politicians talk about peace and refuse to join the League of Nations. Yes, there were moments of delight.
【para】The first contradiction I have detected is to hear that our Prime Minister (the British government) mentioned to offer great benefit to India and meanwhile put India independence-fighters like Nehru and Gandhi into prison. The second contradiction is to hear that American politicians talk about peace but r

efuse to join the association of nations to maintain world peace. I get temporary happiness occasionally.

8.I slid my arm around her waist and murmured that if we were counting heads, the Buddhists were the boys for my money. She fled. The combination of my arm and those countless Buddhists was too much for her.
【para】I put my arm stealthily around her waist and said in low voice that if we were talking about the number of people who believe in certain kind of religion, I believe the Buddhists are greater in number. She was frightened and fled away because of my delinquent behavior and our contradictory opinions on religion, which are more than she could accept.

9.It was Ruth all over again. I had some very good friends who stood by me, and still do. But my acquaintances vanished, taking the girls with them.
【para】what had happened to Ruth and me now happened again. I had still some very close friends supporting me as usual. But my grade-two thinking frightened away many of my acquaintances.



lesson 2 Waiting for the police
paraphrase
1.Bella was the boarding-house lovely,but no one had taken advantage of the fact.
【para】Bella was young and pretty and was seen as the beauty of the boarding-house,but no one had shown any particular interst in her.

2.He possessed a brain,and since no one understood it when he used it,it was resented.
【para】Mr.Penbury was wise,but no one in the boarding-house liked hime because of that,he was too smart for them,and everybody felt annoyed.

3.But Mrs.Mayton never allowedo more than three minutes to go by without a word;and so when the silence had reached its allowed span,she turned to Penbury and asked.
【para】But Mrs.Mayton would not stand any silence for more than three minutes.So when no one spoke within three minutes,she lost patience and turned to ask Penbury.

4."Now,then,don't take too long thinking of an answer!"glared Mr.Calthrop.
【para】"Now,you must give you alibi immediately,do not take time to make a story."glared Mr.Calthrop.

5.It found the spot all right.
【para】Tt he weapon went through his heart accurately.

6.We all know you walk in your sleep.
【para】Because you are a sleepwalker,we all know that.

7."but let me suggest that you give the statement to the police with slightly less emphasis"
【para】"Mr.Smith,I would advise you not to put so much emphasis on your statement when talking to the police,otherwise you would arouse their suspicions about your story."

8."No,"I answered,"I've come to cure it."
【para】"No."I answered."I have come to solve your problem of coughing."

lesson 4 A Drink in the Passage
1."My parents,and my wife's parents,and our priest,decided that I wasn't feeling up to it.And finally I decided so too."
【para】"My parents,my wife's parents and our priest all thought I'd better pretend to be not feeling well enough as an excuse to be absent from the awarding ceremony.So I decided not to attend the

ceremony."

2."...I'm a sculptor,not a demonstrator."
【para】"I am a sculptor,and I don't want to show any antagonistic feeling towards,the white world by receiving an award."

3."In Orlando you develop a throat of iron."
【para】So much practice of drinking helps you develop a throat as strong as the iron.

4...so I thought I'd go and see the window,and indulge certain pleasurable human feelings.
【para】..so I thought I'd go and see my sculpture in the window andhave some pleasant feelings of pride by enjoying my own work,which is natural to human beings.

5."You know it's by one of your own boys,don't you?"
【para】"What is extraordinary about the wonderful sculpture is that it is made by a black man like you,do you know?"

6."She knows it won't be an easy life."
【para】"She knows that her child will live a hard life in South Africa because they are black people.

7.I didn't feel like a drink at that time of night..
【para】I didn't want to drink because if the police caught me drinking late at night I would be in great trouble.

8.He wasn't looking around to see if anyone might be watching.
【para】He wasn't afraid of being seen walking with a black man.

9.I said unwilling,"Yes."
【para】I answered "yes",but actually I didn't want to telle him the truth.

10.Now I certainly had not expected that I would have my drink in the passage.I wasn't thinking what you may be thinking..
【para】Drinking in the passage was certainly beyond my expectation.What was in my mind was not what you may be thinking..

11."Our land is beautiful.But it breaks my heart."
【para】"Our country is beautiful.But the apartheid made me very sad."

12....as though they wanted..to touch me somewhere and didn't know how...
【para】..as though they wanted to communicate with me emotionally but didn't know the way to do it ...

13.And I thought it was a pity he was blind,for if men never touch each other,they'll hurt each other one day.
【para】And thought it was a pity that he didn't understand what prevented him from understanding us as he had been influenced by apartheid for so long a time,because if people never understand and trust each other,they will hurt each other someday.

14.What he was thinking,God knows,but I was thinking he was like a man trying to run a race in iron shoes,and not understanding why he cannot move.
【para】Nobody knows what he was thinking.But I was thinking that he was much like a man trying to run but couldn't because he was still not completely free from racial prejudices which were dragging his feet like iron shoes.