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1、新编英语教程5上 (Unit 1-7课文整理版) ants 05Unit 1TEXT I （P 1）Hit the Nail on the Head Alan Warner1. Have you ever watched a clumsy man hammering a nail into a box? He hits it first to one side, them to another, perhaps knocking it over completely, so that in the end he only gets half of it into the wood. A ski
2、llful carpenter, on the other hand, will drive home the nail with a few firm, deft blows, hitting it each time squarelyon the head. So with language; the good craftsman will choose words that drive home his point firmly and exactly. A word that is more or less right, a loose phrase, an ambiguous exp
3、ression, a vague adjective, will not satisfy a writer who aims at clean English. He will try always to get the word that is completely right for his purpose.2. The French have an apt phrase for this. They speak of “le mot juste”, the word that is just right Stories are told of scrupulous writers, li
4、ke Flaubert, who spent days trying to get one or two sentences exactly right. Words are many and various; they are subtle and delicate in their different shades of meaning, and it is not easy to find the ones that express precisely what we want to say. It is not only a matter of having a good comman
5、d of language and a fairly wide vocabulary; it is also necessary to think hard and to observe accurately. Choosing words is part of the process of realization, of defining our thoughts and feelings for ourselves, as well as for those who hear or read our words. Someone once remarked: “How can I know
6、 what I think till I see what I say?” This sounds stupid, but there is a great deal of truth in it.3. It is hard work choosing the right words, but we shall be rewarded by the satisfaction that finding them brings.The exact use of language gives us mastery over the material we are dealing with. Perh
7、aps you have been asked “What sort of a man is so-and-so?” You begin: “Oh, I think hes quite a nice chap but hes rather” and then you hesitate trying to find a word or phrase to express what it is about him that you dont like, that constitutes his limitation. When you find the right phrase you feel
8、that your conception of the man is clearer and sharper.4. Some English words have a common root but are used in very different senses. Consider human and humane, for example. Their origin is the same and their meanings are related, but their usage is distinct. A human action is not the same thing as
9、 a humane action. We cannot speak of a Declaration of Humane Rights.-There is a weapon called a humane killer, but it is not a human killer.5. We dont have to look far afield to find evidence of bad carpentry in language. A student, replying to an invitation to dinner, finished his letter: “I shall
10、be delighted to come and I am looking forward to the day with anxiety.” Anxiety carries with it suggestions of worry and fear. What the writer meant was possibly eagerness. Anxiety has some kinship with eagerness but it will not do as a substitute in this context.6. The leader of a political party i
11、n Uganda wrote a letter to the Press which contained this sentence:Let us all fight this selfishness, opportunism, cowardice and ignorance now rife in Uganda and put in their place truth, manliness, consistency and singularity of mind.7. This stirring appeal is spoilt by a malapropism in the last ph
12、rase, the word singularity. What the writer meant, I think, was singleness of mind, holding steadfastly to the purpose in mind, without being drawn aside by less worthy objects. Singularity means oddity or peculiarity, something that singles a man out from other men.8. Without being a malapropism, a
13、 word may still fail to be the right word for the writers purpose, the “mot juste”. A journalist, writing a leader about Christmas, introduced a quotation from Dickens by saying:All that was ever thought or written about Christmas is imprisoned in this sentenceImprisonment suggests force, coercion,
14、as if the meaning were held against its will. It would be better to write contained or summed up. Epitomized might do, though it is rather a clumsy-sounding word. Searching a little farther for the “mot juste” we might hit on the word distilled. This has more force than contained or summed up. Disti
15、llation suggests essence and we might further improve the sentence by adding this word at the beginning:The essence of all that was ever thought or written about Christmas is distilled in this sentence.English has a wide vocabulary and it is a very flexible language. There are many different ways of
16、 making a statement. But words that are very similar in meaning have fine shades of difference, and a student needs to be alive to these differences. By using his dictionary, and above all by reading, a student can increase his sensitivity to these shades of difference and improve his ability to express his own meanings exactly.9. Professor Raleigh once stated: “There are no synonyms, and the same statement can never be repeated in a changed f
