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1、学 海 无 涯,Unit 1 Text A Pre-reading Activities First Listening Youre about to hear a conversation about Winston Churchill. Before you listen, take a look at the words below. Which do you think youre likely to hear when people discuss Churchill? Then, as you listen to the tape the first time, circle th
2、e words you hear. prime minister author painter politician World War I romantic fearless serious passionate World War II Second Listening Read the following questions first to prepare yourself to answer them to the best of your ability. What was the argument about? Which side do you believe? What do
3、 you know about Winston Churchill as British prime minister? What about his personalitydo you have any impressions of him as a human being? Winston ChurchillHis Other Life Mary Soames My father, Winston Churchill, began his love affair with painting in his 40s, amid disastrous circumstances. As Firs
4、t Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, he had been deeply involved in a campaign in the Dardanelles that could have shortened the course of a bloody world war. But when the mission failed, with great loss of life, Churchill paid the price, both publicly and privately: He was removed from the Admiralty and
5、 lost his position of political influence. Overwhelmed by the disaster I thought he would die of grief, said his wife, Clementine he retired with his family to Hoe Farm, a country retreat in Surrey. There, as Churchill later recalled, The muse of painting came to my rescue! One day when he was wande
6、ring in the garden, he chanced upon his sister-in-law sketching with watercolours. He watched her for a few minutes, then borrowed her brush and tried his hand and the muse worked her magic. From that day forward, Winston was in love with painting. Delighted with anything that distracted Winston fro
7、m the dark thoughts that overwhelmed him, Clementine rushed off to buy whatever paints and materials she could find. Watercolours, oil paints, paper, canvas Hoe Farm was soon filled with everything a painter could want or need. Painting in oils turned out to be Winstons great love but the first step
8、s were strangely difficult. He contemplated the blank whiteness of his first canvas with unaccustomed nervousness. He later recalled:,1,2,学 海 无 涯 Very hesitantly I selected a tube of blue paint, and with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a bean on the snow-white field. At that moment I
9、 heard the sound of a motorcar in the drive and threw down my brush in a panic. I was even more alarmed when I saw who stepped from the car: the wife of Sir John Lavery, the celebrated painter who lived nearby. Painting! she declared. What fun. But what are you waiting for? Let me have the brush the
10、 big one. She plunged into the paints and before I knew it, she had swept several fierce strokes and slashes of blue on the absolutely terrified canvas. Anyone could see it could not hit back. I hesitated no more. I seized the largest brush and fell upon my wretched victim with wild fury. I have nev
11、er felt any fear of a canvas since. Lavery, who later tutored Churchill in his art, said of his unusual pupils artistic abilities: Had he chosen painting instead of politics, he would have been a great master with the brush. In painting, Churchill had discovered a companion with whom he was to walk
12、for the greater part of his life. Painting would be his comfort when, in 1921, the death of his mother was followed two months later by the loss of his and Clementines beloved three-year-old daughter, Marigold. Overcome by grief, Winston took refuge at the home of friends in Scotland and in his pain
13、ting. He wrote to Clementine: I went out and painted a beautiful river in the afternoon light with red and golden hills in the background. Many loving thoughts. Alas, I keep feeling the hurt of Marigold. Life and love and hope slowly revived. In September 1922 another child was born to Clementine an
14、d Winston: myself. In the same year, Winston bought Chartwell, the beloved home he was to paint in all its different aspects for the next 40 years. My father must have felt a glow of satisfaction when in the mid-1920s he won first prize in a prestigious amateur art exhibition held in London. Entries
15、 were anonymous, and some of the judges insisted that Winstons picture one of his first of Chartwell was the work of a professional, not an amateur, and should be disqualified. But in the end, they agreed to rely on the artists honesty and were delighted when they learned that the picture had been p
16、ainted by Churchill. Historians have called the decade after 1929, when Winston again fell from office, his barren years. Politically barren they may have been, as his lonely voice struggled to awaken Britain to the menace of Hitler, but artistically those years bore abundant fruit: of the 500-odd Churchill canvases in existence, roughly half date from 1930 to 1939. Painting remained a joy to Churchill to the end of his life. Happy are the painters, he had written in his book Painting as a Pa
