Directions: You are expected to study this section in class. Don’t preview.
- Word Pretest
For each italicized word or expression, choose the best meaning below.
1. They whitewashed the house before decorating it.
A. cleaned B. painted white C. wiped D. scraped
2. The atmosphere in the room is depressing; everybody is low-spirited.
A. discouraging B. exciting C. polluting D. friendly
3. The woman teacher’s melodious voice attracted the students’ attention
A. melancholy B. interesting C. sharp D. pleasant
4. The baby nibbled a biscuit and smiled to its mother.
A. took big bites B. took small bites C. swallowed D. ate up
5. Don’t judge a man by the company he keeps. Sometimes he may have friends who are very different from him.
A. fellowship B. organization C. business firm D. friends
6. At last he attained the goal he had set for him.
A. completed B. finished C. achieved D. got to
7. These idle young men laughed at those old workers working.
A. naughty B. trouble-making C. lazy D. unable
8. With reluctance the boy went to see a doctor with his father.
A. Impatiently B. Unwillingly
C. Immediately D. Hopefully
Key
Text
Cultural Background:  
Mark Twain [pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910), American humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author．
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) are, by universal consent, Mark Twain's two best and most
famous novels.
Protagonist Tom Sawyer is introduced together with his friends Joe Harper and Huck Finn, young boys growing up in the antebellum South. While the novel was initially met with lukewarm enthusiasm, its characters would soon transcend the bounds of their pages and become internationally beloved characters, inspiring numerous other author’s works and characters and adaptations to the stage, television, and film.
Whitewashing Aunt Polly’s Fence
It was Saturday morning. All the summer world was bright. Tom appeared in front of Aunt Polly’s house with a bucket of whitewash and a big brush. He looked at the fence, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He dipped the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top board of the fence. He sat down, feeling that he could not continue.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to paint the fence. But there was nothing of value in his pockets — nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea of trying to buy help.
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to his. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work.
Presently, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple and giving a long, melodious whoop from time to time as he walked along the street. It was easy to see that he was enjoying life. As he walked along, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding-Dong-Dong” and “Ding-Dong-Dong” again, like the bell of a riverboat. Then he made other strange noises. When he came close beside Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing — paid no attention to the riverboat.
“Hello!” Ben said. “I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush gently alone the fence and surveyed the result. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for Ben’s apple, but he kept painting the fence.
Ben said, “That’s a lot of work, isn’t it?”
Tom turned suddenly. “Why, it’s you, Ben! I didn’t notice you there.”
“I’m going swimming,” Ben said. “Don’t you wish you could go? Or would you rather work?”
Tom said, “Work? What do you mean, ‘work’?”
“That’s work,” Ben said.
Tom continued painting and answered carefully, “It may be work, and it may not be work. But it’s fine for Tom Sawyer.”
“Do you mean that you enjoy it?”
“Enjoy it?” Tom repeated “Does a boy have a chance to paint a fence every day?”
Here was a new idea. Ben stopped nibbling his apple.
Tom moved his brush — moved away to look at the result — added a little paint here and there — and stepped away again. Ben watched. He became more and more interested. Soon he said, “Tom, let me paint a little.”
Tom seemed to be thinking for a moment. Then he said, “No, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. If it was the back fence, maybe you could paint a little. But this fence, beside the street, is where everybody can see it. It has to be done right.”
“Oh, Tom! Let me try. Just a little. I’ll be careful. Listen, Tom. I’ll give you part of my apple if you let me paint.”
“No, Ben. I’m afraid — “
“I’ll give you all the apple!”
Tom handed the brush to Ben, with reluctance in his face, but joy in his heart. While the late riverboat worked and sweated in the hot sun, Tom, the artist, sat under a tree close by, munching the apple and planning how to get more help.
There were enough boys. Each one came along the street, stopped to laugh, but soon begged to be allowed to paint. By the middle of the afternoon, Tom had many treasures: a dead rat, a cat with one eye, a piece of blue glass, the handle of a knife, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, and much more.
And he had not worked. He had had a nice, idle time all the while — plenty of company — and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, he would have owned everything belonging to the boys in the village.
Tom said to himself that the world was not so depressing, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it, that in order to make a man or a boy desire a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult too attain.
Total words: 776
Total reading time: minutes seconds
The text is based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.
- Reading Comprehension
Answer the following questions.
1. When and whose fence did Tom Sawyer paint? And how was the fence?
2. How did he feel about it?
3. What was his plan to buy any help?
4. Why did he stop thinking and calmly begin to paint again?
5. Who came up to Tom first?
6. Where was the boy heading?
7. Who enjoyed the life. Ben or Tom?
8. What did Ben say to Tom? And did Tom hear it?
9. How did Tom trap Ben to paint the fence and give the whole apple to him?
10. Where did Tom sit and what did he do while Ben painted the fence in the hot sun?
11. What did other boys in the village respond to Ben’s work when they saw it?
12. How many times was the fence painted? And why did they stop painting?
13. What did Tom get from his friends?
14. How was his afternoon?
15. What was the human nature Tom discovered?
- Vocabulary Building
① Word Match
Match the following words with their definitions within each group of five words.
whoop soon
dip a loud cry of delight
bucket examine
presently put something in a liquid and then take out
survey a container for liquids
munch ancient
antique doing what one is ordered to do
unlock becoming larger
swelling open the lock
obedient eat or chew, esp. making a noise
noble a wide view of country scenery
landscape a kind of drink
beverage admirable in appearance; grand; great
amuse give help to
attend to cause to laugh and smile
valley not sure about
doubtful go upward
ascend the land lying between two lines of hills or mountains; climb up
henpecked a person standing near without doing anything
bystander (of a man) ruled by one’s wife
Complete the sentences by using the words above. Change the forms in necessary.
1. Seven-up is a very good in summer.
2. The old man the children by telling a funny story.
3. The is very clear about what is going on.
4. Coming back from school, Tom a potato quickly as if he were very hungry.
5. The foot ball fans gave a of joy when their favorite team won the game.
6. The police were the evidence.
7. After being freed from the children’s hands the balloons into the sky.
8. Nancy is an girl; she always does as she is told.
② Compound Words
A new word can be formed by combining two words together. Such a word is called a compound word. The meaning of a compound word depends on the meanings of the two words which make up it. Consider the following examples:
examples meanings
self-confidence confidence in oneself
five-page having five pages
four-legged having four legs
paper-thin as thin as a piece of paper
well-done being done well
good-looking looking good
blue-eyed water for drinking
handmade made by hand
Fill in the blanks with compound words you know. Add more to the list if you can.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Determine the meanings of the following compound words.
compound word meaning
1. five-year
2. sleeping-car
3. knee-deep
4. well-informed
5. long-haired
6. strange-looking
7. high-chair
8. three-cornered
9. auto-repair
10. law-abiding
Combining the two words before each sentence into a compound word and then fill in the blank with it. To get a compound word, you may need to change the form of one of the given words.
1. time part
I plan to stay on campus for the summer and do some job.
2. two hour
It is a drive from Nanjing to Yangzhou.
3. mind narrow
I was annoyed by that man.
4. up make
Don’t wear too much . It makes you look unnatureal.
5. sick sea
On that sea trip, he was quite and threw up.
6. flow over
It had rained for a week; the river its bank.
7. master school
She is talking to a .
8. beat heart
If you concentrate enough, you can hear your own .
- Cloze
Fill in each of the blanks with a word given below.
bed cat pointing showing pondalorum
sir please cottage whatever servant
A girl once went to the fair to hire herself for servant. At last a funny-looking old gentleman engaged her, and took her home to his house. When she got there, he told her that he had something to teach her, for that in his house he had his own names for things.
He said to her: “What will you call me?”
“Master or mister, or you please sir,” says she.
He said: “You must call me ‘master of all masters’. And what would you call this?” pointing to his .
“Bed or couch, or whatever you please, sir.”
“No, that’s my ‘barnacle’. And what do you call these?” said he to his trousers.
“Trousers or pantaloons, or whatever you , sir.”
“You must call them ‘squibs and crackers’. And what would you call her?” pointing to the cat.
“ or kitten, or whatever you please, sir.”
“You must call her ‘white-faced simminy’. And this now,” to the fire, “What would you call this?”
“Fire or flame, or whatever you please, .”
“You must call it ‘hot cockalorum’. And what about this?” he went on, pointing to the water.
“Water or wet, or whatever you please, sir.”
“No,‘ ’is its name. And what do you call all this?” asked he as he pointed to the house.
“House or , or whatever you please, sir.”
“You must call it ‘high topper mountain’.”
That very night the woke her master up in a fright and said: “Master of all masters, get out of your barnacle and put on your squibs and crackers. For white-faced simminy has got a spark of hot cockalorum on its tail, and unless you get some pondalorum, high topper mountain will be all on hot cockalorum.”
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