现代大学英语精读4Paraphrase

现代大学英语精读4 Paraphrase Unit 2

1.…sleepy and yet on fire with excitement, for it was the first day of

their first spring sowing as man and wife. (Para. 3)

Paraphrase:Although still not fully awake, the young couple was already greatly excited, because that day was the first day of their first spring planting after they got married.

2. But somehow the imminence of an event that had been long expected, loved, feared and prepared for made them dejected. (Para. 3) Paraphrase:The couple had been looking forward to and preparing for this spring planting for a long time, but now that the day had finally arrived, strangely, they felt somehow a bit sad.

3. Martin fell over a basket in the half-darkness of the barn, he swore and said that a man would be better off dead than…

Paraphrase:In the barn, it was still very dark as it was very early in the morning. So Martin tripped over a basket. He cursed and said that it would be better off to die than to have to get up at such an early hour and begin the day’s toil—probably for the rest of his life.

4. …as they walked silently… through the little hamlet, there was not a soul about. (Para. 5)

Paraphrase: When they walked silently through the small village, they saw not a single person around them because they were earlier than everybody else.

5. And they both looked back at the little cluster of cabins

that was the center of their world, with throbbing hearts. For the joy of spring had now taken complete hold of them. (Para. 5)

Paraphrase: Both of them looked back towards their small village, which was the most important place for them because they and their forefathers before them were born and raised here. Their hearts were quivering with excitement at that moment, for the coming of spring had already filled their hearts with pleasure.

6. And there was a big red heap of fresh seaweed lying in a corner by the fence to be spread under the seeds as they were laid.

Paraphrase:In a corner beside the fence, there was a big pile of fresh seaweed. Before the seeds were dropped on the ridge, the seaweed should be spread first.

7. When she was a little distance down the ridge, Martin advanced with

his spade to the head, eager to commence. (Para. 9) Paraphrase:When she was a little away from him, Martin started to move ahead, putting his spade to the front. Now he was eager to start working.

8. Suppose anybody saw us like this in the field of our spring sowing, what would they take us for but a pair of useless, soft, empty-headed people that would be sure to die of hunger. (Para. 12)

Paraphrase:If people should see us like this (with your arm round my waist), what would they think of us? They were sure to take us for a pair of good-for-nothings, people who are unable to endure hardships and foolish and, therefore, were sure to die of hunger.

9. His eyes had a wild, eager light in them as if some primeval impulse were burning within his brain and driving out every other

desire but that of asserting his manhood and of subjugating the earth. (Para. 12) Paraphrase: His eyes shone and his only desire now was to prove what a strong man he was and how he could conquer the land.

10. …but she drew back at the same time and gazed distantly at the ground. (Para. 13)

Paraphrase: She stayed from Martin and deeply absorbed in her

thought.

11. Martin ate heartily, reveling in his great thirst and his great hunger, with every pore of his body open to the pure air. (Para. 18) Paraphrase: The heavy work made Martin thirsty and hungry and made him enjoy his lunch and tea more.

12. That was the signal for a general rising all along the little valley. (Para.

19)

Paraphrase:The noise was the signal for all peasants to stand up and start working again.

13. Then she thought of the journey home and the trouble of feeding the pigs, putting the fowls into their coops and getting the supper ready, and a momentary flash of rebellion against the slavery of being a peasant’s wife crossed her mind. It passed in a moment. (Para. 32) Paraphrase:When she thought of all the drudgery waiting for her at home, suddenly she wanted to break the chains on her as a peasant’s wife, but it only lasted a very short time. She immediately dismissed the idea.

14. All her dissatisfaction and weariness vanish from Mary’s mind with

the delicious feeling of comfort that overcame her at having done this work with her husband. (Para. 34)

Paraphrase:At the moment when she had done this work with her husband, the feeling of comfort fought against all her previous feelings of dissatisfaction and weariness and took control.

15. Mary, with her shrewd woman's mind, thought of as many things as there are in life as a woman would in the first joy and anxiety of her mating. (Para. 3)

Paraphrase:Mary, like all sharp and smart women, thought of many things in life when she got married. In her marriage life, sometimes they might have encountered happiness and sometimes have suffered sadness.

Unit 4

1. Anybody who knows anything about New York knows the city’s essential platitude – that you don’t wander around Central Park at night – and in that, needless to say, was the appeal: it was the thing you don’t do.(para.1)

Paraphrase: Everybody who knows New York knows that you should not wander in Central Park at night because it is too dangerous. However, precisely because of the risk there are always people lured to visit

Central Park at night. They just wish to do what people normally don’t do.

2. …and this could have been an outdoor summer-stock Shakespeare production anywhere in America, except in one respect. (para.3) Paraphrase:And tonight’s performance could be any outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s play one regularly finds in summer in America (It’s a cultural tradition in America to put on free Shakespeare productions in summer). There was only one difference.

3. And I bolted, not running, exactly, but no longer strolling—

and certainly not looking back—turning left, turning right, all sense of direction obliterated……

Paraphrase:And I started to run away quickly. To be exact, I was not running, but it was also not strolling any more. Without looking back, I turned left and right and finally I lost my sense of direction.

4. One of the first events in the Park took place 140 years ago almost to the day: a band concert. The concert, pointedly, was held on a Saturday, still a working day, because the concert, like much of the Park then, was designed to keep the city’s rougher elements out. (Para. 7) Paraphrase: One of the first events in the Park took place almost exactly on this day 140 years ago: a band concert. The concert was deliberately

held on a Saturday when ordinary people were all working so as to keep them out.

5. I spotted a couple approaching. Your first thought is : nutcase? Paraphrase: I suddenly saw a couple coming my way. Your first thought is: are they mad (dating in the Central Park at night)?

6. The irony was that by the end of the Moses era the Park was dangerous. (Para. 10)

Paraphrase:Moses did a lot to turn Central Park into an efficient people’s park. But the outcome was quite unexpected and sad: by the end of his era the Park was dangerous.

7. But there was no escaping the recognition that this city-contrived, man-made, glaringly obtrusive, consuming wasteful and staggering quantities of electricity and water and energy-was very beautiful. (para.12)

Paraphrase: But there was no denying the fact (you have to admit) that the city was very beautiful, although it was not a

natural kind of beauty, it was artificial and showy, and it used up a great amount of water and energy.

8. But there it was: the city at night, viewed from what meant to be an

escape from it, shimmering. (para.12)

Paraphrase:People come to the Park to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. But it was precisely in the Park that day that I found the city at night was extremely beautiful.

Unit 6

1. And that’s the way it was in our little village for as far back as anybody could remember. （Para.8）

Paraphrase: And that’s how we kept track of the important events in our little village to the extent that/ for as long as the oldest people could remember. The only way is to pass the important events by generation by generation orally.

2. …because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told and retold that story until it was incorporated into Magdaluna’s calendar.(Para. 8)

Paraphrase: They trusted honest people and didn’t seek any proof for what had been said about past events. They accepted what they said without any questions.

3. And sometimes the arguments escalated into full-blown, knockdown-dragout fights.

Paraphrase:And sometimes the arguments became so fierce that the women began to fight violently.

4. The telephone was also bad news for me personally. It took away my lucrative business—a source of much-needed income.

Paraphrase:For the boy the coming of the telephone deprived him of the opportunity to earn some money.