Weekly Note

Words review

1. devilish: highly, extremely

2. unrequited: not returned in kind, unpaid

3. belated: happening or arriving late

4. ransack: to go through a place, stealing things and causing damage

5. doom: to make someone or something certain to fail, die, be destroyed

6. be indebted to: be grateful to

7. indigent: very poor

8. embankment: a wide wall of earth or stones to support a road or railway.

9. satire: a way of criticizing something.

Summary

这次的阅读任务对我而言是有点难的，除了内容多，还有阅读中出现的错综复杂的人际关系。基于非常浅显的中文和历史基础，在有限的时间里，真的是硬着头皮，咬着牙看完。看到了苏东坡的几经周折，生活经历的变化，生活环境的变化，锤炼了这位伟大的诗人。山清水秀的杭州启发了苏东坡，反之，苏东坡以自己的才华成就了杭州。当苏东坡遭贬黄州，仕途的不顺反而让他更加超然物外，沉淀自我，也写出来更多的好诗词。林语堂对苏东坡诗句的评价“the power of mosquito bites”，尽管远在江湖，其思想的影响能跨越地理的限制影响身在朝中的官员大将。苏东坡的影响不仅仅在于宋朝的人民，更是延续至今。借鉴林语堂的评价就是“It has always seemed to me that wherever the spirit of man lives, religion comes to life again. Whenever the spirit of man dies, religion also decays.”