PART 1 Writing
Yuen Ren Chao, better known as YR. Chao, was hard, if not impossible, to categorize. He was an illustrious linguist, a physicist, a pianist who also had doctor degrees in philosophy and mathematics. One of his daughters recalled that in her college life in Harvard, there was a professor acquainted with his father, who instead of calling her names, called her "the daughter of the genius".
Like most of other geniuses, Chao was an imbecile when it came to monetary issues. He was generous, impetuous, insouciant of salaries and always willing to squander his money on books and musical instruments. In his first few years in the US, when he could barely afford food and clothes, he spent most of his money buying a piano. Thanks to his wife, Ms Buwei Yang, a capable and vivacious woman who always managed to make both ends meet, Chao was pulled back whenever he was on the verge of bankruptcy.
There goes an interesting story between this couple. Ms Yang, contrary to her husband, was anything but rigorous in learning language. Her English was full of grammatical mistakes. Chao took it as a shame that his wife spoke and wrote in broken English. Chao made great efforts to teach her. The insubordinate and obstinate woman made no improvement at all. She insisted that her English was satisfactory as long as she could be understood. The couple gave birth to four daughters, whom they dubbed as "four glowing flowers". One graduated from Harvard, one from UCLA, one from Cornell and the other from Radcliffe.
Although Chao always yearned to tutor young talent in his motherland, he had no choice but to spend most of his life in the U.S. because he offended the authorities in charge of the education department in China. Anyhow, he still made great contributions to his own country and was crowned as one of the four most significant tutors in modern China.
PART 2 Thoughts
這一周讀下來最大的感受就是林語堂的英文真好啊，好到讓人有點不相信這是一個中國人寫的。這固然有其天賦的因素所在，但背后也一定有著其多年的學習和磨礪。冰凍三尺非一日之寒，沒有漫長的學習過程是達不到這樣深厚的功底的。
反觀自身，我從小一直是班里英文考得比較好的學生，高考也多虧了英語讓我在數(shù)學和化學考砸的情況下最后總分也勉強拿得上臺面。然而上大學之前我看過的最長的英語文獻也就是書蟲系列的簡化版的英文名著小說。時至今日沒有字幕的英語電影對我來說還是很吃力的。我非常清楚自己離真正的英文好還有很遙遠的距離。之前有一個同學托?？剂?16，他對我說："我終于可以告別英文了。"不知道為什么，那句話聽著特別變扭。
我現(xiàn)在越來越覺得，學習語言是一個漫長的過程。我們學了這么多年中文，每天接觸中文，但真正中文好的也沒幾個。英文更是如此，沒有長久的學習和練習的過程，絕對不會有多大的提升。即使有語言天賦的人也不可能一蹴而就，更不可能上一兩期培訓班就“學好了英文”。我之前有上過托福培訓班，當時報班的時候還有什么“至少提升5分”的承諾。然而回過頭想，自己學到的也不過是一些應試技巧而已，根本不是在學英文。
有的時候想想學校里的英文教育，真的覺得挺可悲的。從小學一年級就開始學英語（現(xiàn)在的小朋友甚至幼兒園就在雙語教學），學了將近二十年的英文出了國還是覺得自己是半個文盲。我覺得一個很大的問題是，學校的教育是把英文當作一種工具在教而不是當作一種學問或一種藝術對待。我大學里上的英文課，老師大部分的時間還是在講單詞的意思和詞組搭配，然后每次考試還會劃范圍什么的，我甚至都覺得老師自己都不喜歡英文。民國時代出了那么多英文不輸母語人士的大師，林語堂，錢鐘書，趙元任，徐志摩等等。我們現(xiàn)在少的不是天賦，更不是資源，而是一種不浮躁的的心態(tài)。能真正學好一門語言的人一定是純粹地愛這門語言、能夠感受它的魅力的人，也一定是能夠沉下心來，踏實而專注地去學習、去打磨的人。寫了那么多，自己也挺汗顏的，因為我自己就是那種功利的應試英語下的產(chǎn)物。但不管如何，打算從現(xiàn)在開始好好的去讀英文書，好好地感受英文的魅力。
PART 3 Expressions
1. Knowing Tunpo's very forthright and sometimes impetuous nature, she felt not so much the need of admiring him as the duty of taking care of him.
forthright: direct and honest, SYN straightforward
She answered in her usual forthright manner.
impetuous: [?m?pet?u?s] 沖動的；魯莽的 SYN impulsive
She might live to regret this impetuous decision.
2. But there is no reason for believers in any god, whether it be Buddha or a magic old stump, to doubt the efficacy of prayer. It can never be proved that prayer is not efficacious.
efficacy: [?ef?k?si] formal, the ability of sth to produce the right result SYN effectiveness
This pill is of extraordinary efficacy.
(o.) inefficacy
efficacious: [?ef??ke???s], effective
an equally efficacious method of treatment
3. Another "friend" Su met, Chang Chun, was destined to blight his later career.
blight: (v.) to spoil or damage sth, especially by preventing people from doing what they want to do
a country blighted by poverty
blight: (n.) （植物）枯萎；sth that makes people or unhappy or that spoils their lives or the environment they live in
Her guilty secret was a blight on her happiness
the blight of poverty
blighted: (a.)? eg. blighted hopes
PART 4 Summary
Su Tungpo was born as the eldest son in the family. He derived the character of integrity from his grandfather and the brilliance and literary aptitude from his father, Su Shun. Su Tungpo spent his childhood and youth in his hometown Meishan, whose austere style had profound influence on Su's writing. In that period, Su senior suffered the frustration of failing in the exams and the loss of his eldest daughter. When Su Tungpo reached 18, both he and his brother Su Tseyu got married under the arrangement of their family. Then the three Sus went to the capital. The brothers took the exams and both of them had an outstanding performance. Su Tungpo was spoken highly of by Ouyang Shiu, the then most illustrious scholar and authority on literature. When Su was about to start his official career, his mother died and the Sus went back to Meishan for ceremonies. When the mourning was over, the family went back to the capital with the new wives. This time they took the voyage down the Yangtse River and had a hazardous but enjoyable experience. Happily, Su senior was appointed an examiner of scripts without examinations. Su Tungpo, however, had to started from the bottom. For the first time, he parted with his father and brother and went to Fengshiang to work as a councilor of justice and an assistant magistrate. Legend had it that Su Tung had the ability to communicate with the gods and devils, pray for rain and disperse the ghosts.
