1、Mr.Doherty Builds His Dream Lifeby Jim DohertyCompared to the noisy city life, many Americans yearn for a free and unfettered life, every day is not very busy, very peaceful and joyful.This is their dream life.Background InformationWhat do you think of country life?City life or country life ,which d

2、o you prefer?Text Organization PartsParagraphs Main IdeasPart OneParas 1-3Part TwoParas 4-7Part ThreeParas 8-11Part FourParas 12-15The writer views his life in the country as a self-reliant and satisfying oneLife in the country side is good yet sometimes hardAfter quiting his job, the writers income

3、 was reduced, but he and his family were able to get by.A tolerance for solitude and a lot of energy have made it possible for the family to enjoy their life in the country. 1 There are two things I have always wanted to do - write and live on a farm. Today Im doing both. I am not in E. B. Whites cl

4、ass as a writer or in my neighbors league as a farmer, but Im getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.As a writer,I am not as famous as E.B.White.Not in his lever.As a farmer,I m not quite the sa

5、me as my neighbors.get by: be good enough but not very good; manage to live or do things in a satisfactory way.Ex: 我父母親靠很少的一些錢湊合我父母親靠很少的一些錢湊合著過下去著過下去My parents managed to get by on a small amount of money.2 Its a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of our fruits and vegetables. Our hens ke

6、ep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season.make it:succeedWith the wood they cut, their family can succeed in getting through the cold winter. Its a satisfying life too. In the

7、 summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields. 3 Three mouths ago whe

8、n it was 30 below,we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled.Three months from now,it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn,weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof.along the riverSoon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the

9、youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, well spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive.in a

10、pposition to “Jim, 16 and Emily, 13.” an attributive clause modifyiny “the outdoor toilet.”1) transport, as with a truck, cart, etc.The rescue team hauled medical supplies and food to the flooded villages.2) pull or drag sth. with effort or forceRescue workers hauled passengers out of the crashed tr

11、ain.vt. add to sth. in order to improve it (followed by with)Petersupplements his ordinary income by writing books.n. an additional amount of sth.She has been ill and must have supplements to her ordinary food.spray sth. with sth 5 In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at t

12、he typewriter or doing reporting for the freelance articles I sell to magazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, prac

13、tices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this - and not much for the virtuous e

14、ither.The saying comes from the Bible, “ no peace, says my god, to the wicked.” It means that you must continue with your work or other activity that you should be doing, not rest. 正如老話說的那樣，在這種情形之下，壞人不得閑正如老話說的那樣，在這種情形之下，壞人不得閑 賢德之人也歇不賢德之人也歇不了。了。adj. evil, or badWe are all born good, but can be taught

15、 to be wicked.6 None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute o

16、f it.暴風(fēng)雪肆虐，一場接著一場，厚厚的積雪覆蓋著屋子和谷倉。7 When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overflowed, covering much of our land for weeks. Then the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce. The first flood refers to “great overflow of water” while the other refers to “agri

17、cultural products.”paraphrase: Then the growing season came and it brought us a lot of agricultural products.The v-ing form is one of the non-finite verbs (非謂語動詞). It serves as an adverbial in the sentence and it indicates another action by the subject of the sentence. Our freezer filled up with che

18、rries, raspberries,strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato juice, grape juice, plums, jams and jellies. Eventually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began

19、to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing. what can we infer?(1) The big harvest was beyond expectation.(2) The writers attitude toward his country life: he was very satisfied with it and enjoyed the harvest.8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood

20、 that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thous

21、and dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so - with my employers blessings and half a years pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket - off I went. come successfully to the endat that very moment; right

22、then 9 There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, Ive crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake C

23、hamplain “monster” for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.on balance: with all things consideredkeep ones balance 保持平衡保持平衡lose ones balance 失去平衡失去平衡strike a balance 力求折中力求折中in the balance 不確定，成敗或安危未定不確定，成敗或安危未定10 Im not making anywher

24、e near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we dont need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and coll

25、ege costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor mans major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low - only $560 a year -and we

26、are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA(Individual Retirement Account).that refers to “the first $500 the family pays.” Ex:Suppose the medical fee is $1,000, the famil

27、y has to paythe first $500 plus the last $100 while the insurance company will pay $400 that refers to “a poor mans major-medical policy”, which costs them $560 a year only. cover.against.:為為.投投保保.險(xiǎn)險(xiǎn)ex:cover the goods against All Risks為貨物投保一切險(xiǎn)為貨物投保一切險(xiǎn)1) be ready to pay2) take hold of and lift up3) g

28、ain; get4) improve5) gather together; collect6) collect someone or something from a placeWhere did you pick up your excellent English? (3)Ill pick you up at your hotel. (6)Mary has been ill, but shes picking up now. (4)She picked up a stone and threw it at the window. (2)Please pick up all your toys

29、 when youve finished playing. (5)apart from11 Weve been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We

30、 still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments the family used to spend much more money on Christmas12 I suspect not everyone

31、 who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we dont entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involve

32、d in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home. CF:suspect, assume & presumesuspect 意思是意思是“猜想猜想”、“覺得會覺得會”、“有點(diǎn)感覺到有點(diǎn)感覺到”，表示，表示 有（某事物）存在的想法。另外，該詞有有（某事物）存在的想法。另外，該詞有“懷疑懷疑”,”, “ “ 懷疑某人有懷疑某人有罪罪”之意。之意。Ex: Ex: We suspected that he was lost, even before we were told.assume意思是意思是“假定

33、假定”、“設(shè)想設(shè)想”，指把一件尚未證實(shí)，指把一件尚未證實(shí)的事作為事實(shí)或真理。的事作為事實(shí)或真理。Ex: He assumed that the train would be on time.presume也有也有“假定假定”、“設(shè)想設(shè)想”的意思，但它指根據(jù)過去的的意思，但它指根據(jù)過去的經(jīng)驗(yàn)或某些現(xiàn)實(shí)的感覺把某事認(rèn)為事實(shí)，雖然還沒有確定的證經(jīng)驗(yàn)或某些現(xiàn)實(shí)的感覺把某事認(rèn)為事實(shí)，雖然還沒有確定的證據(jù)。據(jù)。Ex:The court presumed the death of the man that disappeared during the war.13 The other requirement

34、 is energy - a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultiv

35、ator and a 16-inch chain saw.14 How much longer well have enough energy to stay on here is anybodys guess - perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, well leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what weve been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. Weve invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double tha