The Gay Genius |Chapter 3阅读笔记

《苏东坡传》

1.中文感悟

第三章主要讲述了苏东坡的童年和青年，我觉得家庭环境的影响也是挺重要的。东坡的爸爸不允许当时盛行的华丽文风，要求自然流露，这一点很棒。爸爸不在家的时候，妈妈就负责孩子的教育学习问题，而且和弟弟深厚的兄弟情谊也是令人赞叹的。可以说良好的家风对苏东坡的影响是深远的。

2.Guiding task

Q: What influenced Su Tungpo in his childhood and youth?

A: The young Su Tungpo had many intersts. He entered school at a young age, where he had shown his extraodinary talent. The experiences of memorying the classics and copying them not only served him well  in the future but also practiced his calligraphy. The good home atmosphere and the brotherhood with Tseyu also helped a lot. Besides, after Tungpo's elder sister's incident, Tungpo's father's challenge to the powerful clan, the tone of the public denunciation, and the intolerance of evil also influenced his characterisics .

interesting sentence:

The yound Su Tungpo looked up to his mother and asked her, "Mother, If I grow up to be a  Fan Pang, will you permit it?" And his mother replied, "If you can be a Fan Pang, can I not be a Fan Pang's mother?"

This book tells little about Tungpo's mother, but from these lines we can see that his mother was an open, courageous and wise woman. She not only permitted his son to do something right but also gave her full support. She set a good example to us(Whether or not we are mothers, just be brave and open~).

They comforted each other in sorrow, helped each other in distress, and dreamed about each other and wrote poems to each other as a form of communication.

It is very lucky to have such a sweet sibling in your life to share your happiness and sorrow. Like Tungpo and Tseyu, their brotherhood is the best. They could share each other's happiness in success, comfort each other in sorrow and help each other in trouble. Maybe they sometimes had some fights but no conflict on something important.

3.词汇学习

If we believe the records, he is supposed to have penned some extraodinary lines at the age of ten.

pen    v.

to write 写

eg: They have penned many letters to each other in the past few months.

It is a short piece describing how a little mouse, when found trapped in a bag, had pretended death, and then worsted his captors when thrown upon the ground.

worst      v.

to defeat sb. in a fight, a contest or an argument（在打斗、比赛或辩论中）打败对方，战胜

eg: He was worsted by his best friend in the speech contest yesterday and got the second prize.

This memory work was hard and strenuous toil.

strenuous  [ 'strenjuəs ]  adj.

taxing to the utmost; testing powers of endurance 艰苦的

toil  [ tɔil ]    n.

hard or exhausting work 辛苦的工作

eg: After several months of strenuous toil, these farmers had a great harvest.

①Besides the family name, he has a legal personal name(ming) with which he signs his own signature in all letters and official registrations.

②He has a courtesy name(tse) by which he should be addressed orally and in writing in his friends.

③In addition many scholars adopt special poetic names(hao) on various occasions as names for their libraries or studies--names that are often used in their seals, and by which they are popularly known once they became famous.

personal name 名

courtesy name 字

poetic name 号