unit2A課本學(xué)習(xí)知識(shí)ALLTHECABBIEHADWASALETTER

1、-!ALL THE CABBIE HAD WAS A LETTERFoster FurcoloHe must have been completelylost insomething he was reading because I had to tap on the windshield to get hisattention.“ Is your cab available?”I asked when he finally looked up at me. He nodded, then said apologetically as I settled intothe back seat,“

2、 I 'm sorry, but I was reading a letter.He sounded as if he had a coldor something."I'm in no hurry,” I told him.Go ahead“ and finish yourletter.”He shook his head.“ I 've read it several times already. I guess I almostknow it by heart. ”“ Letters from home always mean a lot,” I sai

3、d“.At least they do with me because I 'm on the road so much.”Then,estimatingthat he was 60 or 70 years old, I guessed:“childFromoramaybe a grandchild?”“This isn't family, ”he replied.“ Although,” he went on,“ come to thinkmightofit, itjust as wellhave been family.Old Ed was my oldest friend

4、. In fact, we used to call each other' Old Friend'when we 'd meet, that is.I 'mnotmuch of ahand at writing.”“Idon't think any of uskeep upourcorrespondencetoo well,” I said.“ I know I don'tBut. I take it he's someoneyou 've known quite a while?”"All my life, pr a

5、ctically.We were kids together, so we go way back.”“ Went to school together?”“ All the way through high school. We were in the same class, in fact, through both grade and high school."There are not too many people who 've had such a long friend ship,” I said.“ Actually, ” the driver went o

6、n, because I moved away from the olda great guy.”“ I hadn't seen him more than once or twice a year over the past 25 or 30 yearsneighborhoodand youkind oflose toucheven though you never forget. He was“ You said 'was'. Does that mean?"He nodded.“ Died ac ouple ofweeks ago.”“ I 'm

7、 sorry,” I said.“ It's no fun to lose any friend and losing a real old one is even tougher.”He didn't reply to that, and we rode on in silence for a few minutes.when he spoke again, almost more to himself than to me:But I realized that Old Ed was stillon his mind"I should have kept in t

8、ouch. Yes,” he repeated,“ I shohavekept in touch.”“ Well,” I agreed,“ we should all keep in touch with old friends more than we do. But thingscome upand we just don'tseem to find the time.”He shrugged.“We used to find the time,”he said.“That's even mentioned in the letter.-!” He handed it ov

9、'Take a look.”“Thanks,”I said,“but I don't want to read your mail. That's pretty personal.”The driver shrugged.“Old Ed 's dead. There's nothing personal now. Go ahead,urgedme”. heThe letter was written in pencil. It began with the greeting "Old Friend, ” and the first senten

10、ce reminded me of myself. I 've been meaning to write for some time, but I 've always postponed it. It then went on to say that he often thought about the good times they had had together when they both lived in the same neighborhood . It had references to things that probably meant somethin

11、g to the driver, such as the time Tim Shea broke the window, the Halloween that we tied Old Mr. Parker 's gate, and when Mrs. Culver used to keep us after school.“You must have spent a lot of time together,”I said to him.“Like it says there,”he answered,“about all we had to spend in those days w

12、as time.He shook his head: "Time”.”I thought the next paragraph of the letter was a little sad: I began the letter with "Old Friend" because that's whatwe 've become over the yearsold friends. And there aren't many of us left.“ You know,go to a class” I said to him,reunion

13、, for example,“when it says here that there aren't many of us left, that's there are fewer and fewer still around.”absolutelyright. Every time I"Time goes by,”the driver said.“Did you two work at the same place?”I askedim. h“ No, but we hung outon the same corner when we were single. An

14、d then, when we were married, we used to go toeach other 's houseevery now and then.But for the last 20 or 30 years it 's beenmostlyjust Christmascourse there 'd be always a note we 'd each add to the cardsusually some news about our families, you know, whatthe kids were doing, who m

15、oved where, a new grandchild, things like that but never a real letter or anything likethat.”cards. Of“ This is a good part here,” I said.“ WhereYouritsaysfriendship over the years has meant an awful lot to me,more than I can say be cause I 'm not good at saying things like that.” I found myself

16、 nodding in agreement.must have made you feelgood, didn't it?”“ThatThe driver said something that I couldn't understand because he seemed to be all choked up, so I continued: "I knowI 'd like to receive a letter like that from my oldest friend.”We were getting close to our destinati

17、on so I skipped to the last paragraph. So I thought you 'd like to know that I was thinking of you. And it was signed, Your Old Friend, Tom.I handed back the letter as we stopped at my hotel.“Enjoyed talking with you,”I said as I took my suitcase out othe cab. Tom? The letter was signed Tom?“I t

18、hought your friend 's name was Ed,”I said.“Why did he sign it Tom?'“ The letter was not from Ed to me,I never mailed it.”he explained.“I 'm Tom. It's a letter I wrote to him before I knew he 'd died. SoHe looked sort of sorrowful, or as if he were trying to see something in the d

19、istance.it sooner.”When I got to my hotel room I didn't unpackright away. First I had to write a letterlanguage studybe lost in/ lose oneself in:be absorbed in, be fully occupied with專心致志于He was lost in playing computer games so he was unaware of my entering the room.She was lost in her novel.I

20、had lost myself in thought.available:able to be used, had, or reached可用的;可得到的Since 1990, the amount of money available to buy books has fallen by 17%.If you don't want to buy a kite, you can make your own using directions available in the book.We have already used up all the available space.or s

21、omething:used when you are not very sure about what you have just said諸如此類的事The air fare was a hundred and ninety-nine pounds or something.Here's some money. Get yourself a sandwich or something.Similar phrase: or something like thatgo ahead:continue, begin (sometimes followed bywith +n.)The boa

22、rd of directors will vote today on whether to go ahead with the plan.Henry will be late but we will go ahead with the meeting anyway.know/ learn by heart:memorize, remember exactly記住, 能背出You have to know all the music by heart if you want to be a concert pianist.The pupils are required to learn a cl

23、assic poem by heart every day.estimate:form a judgement about (a quantity or value)估計(jì)I estimate that the total cost for the treatment of the disease will go from $5,000 to $8,000.Bill's personal riches were estimated at $368 million.-!“ I guess I should have written and mail it.-!might/ may (jus

24、t) as well:不妨 ,( 也 ) 無妨 If you say that you might/ may (just) as well do something, you mean that you will do it although you do not have a strong desire to do it and may even feel slightly reluctant about it.Anyway, you're here; you might as well stay.The post office is really busyWe might as w

25、ell go home. we'll have to queue for ages to get served.not much of a :not a good不太好的Some people may think that doing housework for others is not much of a career.He is not much of a father, but he is an outstanding professor.keep up:continue without stopping保持They risk losing their homes becaus

26、e they can no longer keep up the repayments.I was so hungry all the time that I could not keep the diet up for longer than a month.correspondence:1) the act of writing, receiving or sending letters (不可加 s, 但可加a , often followed bywith + n.)通信 (聯(lián)系 )His interest in writing came from a long corresponde

27、nce with a close college friend.2) the letters that sb. receives or sends (used as an uncountable noun)信件Mary really never mentions her step-mother in her correspondence.Any further correspondence should be sent to my new address.practically:almost, but not completely or exactlyHe'd known the ol

28、d man for practically ten years.I know people who find it practically impossible to give up smoking.neighborhood:one of the parts of a town where people live街坊;四鄰It seemed like an ideal neighborhood to raise my children in.Houses in a good neighborhood are likely to be sold at a high price.kind of/

29、sort of:(infml; "kind of"is esp.AmE, "sort of"esp.BrE) a little bit, in some way or degree (used before v. or after a link verb)有幾分 ,有點(diǎn)兒She wasn't beautiful. But she was kind of cute.The boy's description kind of gives us an idea of what's happening.-!lose touch (with

30、 sb.):meet and contact sb. less and less often, gradually stop writing, tele- phoning, or visiting them失去聯(lián)系I lost touch with my former classmates after graduation.In my job one tends to lose touch with friends.a couple of:(infml)a few, more than one but not many幾個(gè) ;一對(duì), 一雙Do you have a moment? There

31、are a couple of things I'd like to talk to you about.They promised the students that they would find a substitute teacher in a couple of days.on one's mind:in one's thoughts; of concern to one (If something is on your mind, you are worried or concerned about it and thinkabout it a lot.)掛

32、記在心頭keep in touch (with sb.)(與)保持聯(lián)系, 保持接觸If you keep in touch with someone, you write, phone, or visit each other regularly.The old man kept in touch with his children while living in a nursing home.While doing the research work in the Antarctic, the professor kept in touch with his students via ema

33、e up:1) happen, occur, esp. unexpectedly(尤指意想不到地) 發(fā)生, 出現(xiàn)"Sorry, I am late something came up at home."Other projects came up and the emphasis of my work changed.2) be mentioned or discussedThe issue of safety came up twice during the meeting.The term "Project Hope" has come

34、up a lot recently in the newspapers.urge:try very hard to persuade (often used in the patternurge sb. to do sth.or followed by athai-clause.In the that-clause, "should" or the base form of a verb is used.)力勸,催促They urged the local government to approve plans for their reform programme.I ur

35、ged my cousin to take a year off to study drawing.Sir Fred urged that Britain (should) join the European Monetary System.postpone:delay (usu. followed byn. /gerund)推遲 ,使延期The Russian experts postponed dumping Mir (和平號(hào) Russia's space station) in the Pacific Ocean until March 23, 2001.The couple h

36、ad postponed having children to establish their careers.reference:1) the act of talking about sb. / sth., or mentioning them (usu. followed byto)提及 , 談到It was strange that he made no reference to any work experience in his resume.His recent book makes references to the political events of those days

37、.2) sth. that shows you where else to look for information, for example the page number of another place in a book考Make a note of the reference number shown on the form.3) the act of looking at sth. for information查閱Use the dictionary for easy reference.Keep their price list for further reference.ab

38、solutely:totally and completely完全地, 極其Funding is absolutely necessary if research is to continue.There is absolutely no difference between the two oil-paintings.reunion:a party attended by members of the same family, school, or other group who have notseen each other for a long time(家人、 朋友、同事等久別后的)

39、重逢The soccer club holds an annual/yearly reunion.Before she went abroad for further study, the whole family had a big family reunion.go by:(of time) pass(時(shí)間 ) 逝去Her daughter was becoming more and more beautiful as the years went by.As each month goes by, the economic situation gets better.hang out:1

40、)(in/ml;used mainly inAmE)stay in or near a place, for no particular reason, not doing very muchI often hung out in coffee bars while I was unemployed.We can just hang out and have a good time.That's the corner where all the kids hang out.2) hang clothes on a piece of string outside in order to

41、dry them .掛晾曬I was worried that I had no time to hang out my washing.-!參閑逛;徘徊What a pain! It's raining and I've just hung the washing out.-!every now and then:sometimes, at times有時(shí) ,不時(shí)Every now and then I have a desire to quit my tedious job.I still see Jane for lunch every now and then, but

42、 not as often as I used to.mostly:almost all; generally幾乎全部;多半,大體They have invested their money mostly in expensive real estate.The guests at the wedding party are mostly friends of the bride.awful:(infinl;used to add force) very great; very bad or unpleasant非常的 ,極大的 ;可怕的I have got an awful lot of w

43、ork to do.I can't bear the awful smell of cigarette smoke.choke up:become too upset to speak(使)窒息;堵塞When he learned the news of his friend's sudden death, he was so choked up he couldn't say a thing.Losing my job left me completely choked up; I was so upset that I didn't know what to

44、 say.destination:the place to which sb. is going or being sent目的地Singapore is still our most popular holiday destination.Only half of the emergency supplies have reached their destination because of the bad weather.skip:pass from (one point, etc.) to another, disregarding or failing to act on what c

45、omes between略過 ,跳過 ;跳躍The teacher skipped chapter five and said it wouldn't be on the test."As time is limited, we will have to skip some of the exercises in Unit 10, "said the teacher.right away:(in/ml)at once立刻Tom has got a high fever; he should go and see a doctor right away.I wrote

46、 him a letter and posted it right away.language point 1He sounded as if he had a cold or something. :language point 2At least they do with me because I'm on the road so much. :because I travel a lot in a car for long distances.This sentence implies the sad state of mind the taxi driver was in.At

47、 least letters from home mean a lot to me-!language point 3This isn't family.: This isn't a letter from my family.language point 4I'm not much of a hand at writing. :I'm not good at writing.language point 5But I take it he's someone . : But I expect that he is someone . The sente

48、nce pattern "I take it (that)" is used to say that you expect someone will do something, know something etc.Example: I take it (that) you've heard that all the students in my class have done a very good job in GET Band 4.language point 6Went to school together? :The complete sentence i

49、s like this: You went to school together?(In colloquial English a declarative sentence with a rising tone may serve as a question.)language point 7But I realized that Old Ed was still on his mind when he spoke again, almost more tohimself than to me.: But I realized that the taxi driver was still th

50、inking of Old Ed when he spoke again. It seemed that he spoke more to himself than to me.language point 8It had references to things that . :The letter made mention of things that .language point 9"Like it says there,". "about all we had to spend in those days was time.":"th

51、ough we didn't have much money we had a lot of free time.""As the letter says there,".language point 10. there are fewer and fewer still around.:.fewer and fewer of us are left alive.language point 11But for the last 20 or 30 years it's been mostly just Christinas cards. :But generallyspeaking we have sent only Christmas cards to keep in touch with each other for the last 20 or 30 years.language point 12Your friendship over the years has meant an awful lot to me, more than I can say because I'm not good atsayin