Central Thoughts:
Su Tungpo was unpredictable . He had the habot of begonning his poems in the most natural , simple and effortless manner , he would put in an allusion or two rwcalling ancient history , and from then on nobody knew what was going to happen , least of all the poet himself . But it made him got into trouble , because he compared the ruling authorities to owls . When he transforned to Wichow , which was a very poor district , he was able to save thirty or forty starving orphans and put them in homes . It was a period when Su Tungpo was feeling sad and despondent , and strange to say , it was when the poet was saddest that he wrote his best poems . When he got an appointment to office at Suchow , which was not only a big city , but also a place of the greatest strategic importance , holding control of the mountainous regions in southern Shantung , a big flood reached Suchow . He plunged into the work of saving the city . On top of this outer city wall , following his love for architecture, Su Tungpo had a tower built a hundred feet high , which was called the Yellow Tower . The Yellow Tower was so called because of a belief in the old Chinese cosmogony . According to this system , all things in the universe are composed of five elements , gold , wood , fire , and earth .Each of these stands for a principle and a color . Yellow stands for the earth and black stands for water , and yellow earth is supposed to overcome the black water by its power of absorption . The name given the Yellow Tower was , therefore , symbolic of the power to resist water . Su Tungpo was now very popular , not only because of his successful fight against the floot but also because he had taken a personal interest in the health and welfare of the prisoners , something which was rarely , if ever , done by magistrates at the tome . Tungpo was less tactful , but really a good man .
Words and Sentences:
（1）rapacious adj.贪婪的，掠夺的
其意义和greedy相似。
例句：It's easy to paint a stork , difficult to describe a tiger------a clear reference to a rapacious goverment .
（2）mellow adj.成熟的，芳醇的，柔和 的，圆润的
v.成熟，变柔和，使芳醇
Even his joys in the beauties of nature and the pleasures of the day were more mellow.
（3）plunged into 陷入
Su Tungpo plunged into the work of sving the city .
（1）There is no question that he was a master of both prose and poetry , written in the style of “saiting clouds and winding water , going whither it wants to go and stopping whenever it is right to stop”
这句“如行云流水，常行于所当行，常止于不可不止”能很好诠释苏东坡诗歌的特点。
（2）But such lines have the power of mosquito bites . They sting , they irritate , and they annoy ；and if there were too many bites , they can thoroughly ruin one's sleep for the night .
这话很生动形象地阐述了苏东坡作品对当权者的一种抨击，很有穿透力。
（3）The whole town was present to witness the opening ceremony .
这话的主语应该是人们从巷子里出来看仪式落成，而此处用了the whole town做主语，变成主动者，表达万人空巷。