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.

Yuen Ren Chao and Buwei Yang

PART 2 Thoughts

这一周读下来最大的感受就是林语堂的英文真好啊，好到让人有点不相信这是一个中国人写的。这固然有其天赋的因素所在，但背后也一定有着其多年的学习和磨砺。冰冻三尺非一日之寒，没有漫长的学习过程是达不到这样深厚的功底的。

反观自身，我从小一直是班里英文考得比较好的学生，高考也多亏了英语让我在数学和化学考砸的情况下最后总分也勉强拿得上台面。然而上大学之前我看过的最长的英语文献也就是书虫系列的简化版的英文名著小说。时至今日没有字幕的英语电影对我来说还是很吃力的。我非常清楚自己离真正的英文好还有很遥远的距离。之前有一个同学托福考了116，他对我说："我终于可以告别英文了。"不知道为什么，那句话听着特别变扭。

我现在越来越觉得，学习语言是一个漫长的过程。我们学了这么多年中文，每天接触中文，但真正中文好的也没几个。英文更是如此，没有长久的学习和练习的过程，绝对不会有多大的提升。即使有语言天赋的人也不可能一蹴而就，更不可能上一两期培训班就“学好了英文”。我之前有上过托福培训班，当时报班的时候还有什么“至少提升5分”的承诺。然而回过头想，自己学到的也不过是一些应试技巧而已，根本不是在学英文。

有的时候想想学校里的英文教育，真的觉得挺可悲的。从小学一年级就开始学英语（现在的小朋友甚至幼儿园就在双语教学），学了将近二十年的英文出了国还是觉得自己是半个文盲。我觉得一个很大的问题是，学校的教育是把英文当作一种工具在教而不是当作一种学问或一种艺术对待。我大学里上的英文课，老师大部分的时间还是在讲单词的意思和词组搭配，然后每次考试还会划范围什么的，我甚至都觉得老师自己都不喜欢英文。民国时代出了那么多英文不输母语人士的大师，林语堂，钱钟书，赵元任，徐志摩等等。我们现在少的不是天赋，更不是资源，而是一种不浮躁的的心态。能真正学好一门语言的人一定是纯粹地爱这门语言、能够感受它的魅力的人，也一定是能够沉下心来，踏实而专注地去学习、去打磨的人。写了那么多，自己也挺汗颜的，因为我自己就是那种功利的应试英语下的产物。但不管如何，打算从现在开始好好的去读英文书，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: [ɪmˈpetʃuəs] 冲动的；鲁莽的 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: [ˈefɪkəsi] formal, the ability of sth to produce the right result SYN effectiveness

This pill is of extraordinary efficacy.

(o.) inefficacy

efficacious: [ˌefɪˈkeɪʃəs], 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.