UNIT 6 ALL IN THE PAST
Language points
1. … to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpasd in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. (Para 2)
anxiety是什么意思The ntence means to fight against an evil dictatorship wor than any that has existed before in human history, despite all the terrible men there have been in the past.
2. But lf-belief was something he maintained despite rather than becau of his family. (Para 4)
You might think that coming from such a great family was what gave Churchill his lf-confidence, but actually, his family did nothing to encourage him.
3. His father Lord Randolph Churchill … and his mother, Jennie … were both cold and distant people. (Para 4)
Cold and distant people refer to tho who are not willing to show or give affection, and who are very formal and unemotional.
4. … Winston's father predicted his child would "degenerate into a shabby, unhappy and futile existence". (Para 4)
Winston's father predicted that Winston would get wor as he grew older and would have an uninteresting, unrespectable, sad and pointless life.
5. This was the ont of his first major bout of depression, a cur he called his "black dog". (Para 8)
Black dog here is a metaphor. Depression is en as dark / black, and it follows one around as does one's dog. It also caus pain. The black dog is also associated with the Devil.
6. She kept him together, but he got himlf out of it, in true Churchillian fashion. (Para 8)
Clementine helped her husband a lot at that bad time to function from day to day, but it was his typical personal mental strength that brought him back to normal.
7. But by 1930, Labour was in power and he was on the backbenches, a nobody and a has-been. (Para 9)
Someone 洋气是什么意思on the backbenches refers to a member of Parliament without a government position (ministers sit on the front row of ats / benches and their followers and supporters behind them). A nobody and a has-been refers to a person of no importance in politics, and someone with only a past, no prent or future.
8. He largely sat out the 1930s at his country retreat Chartwell. (Para 9)
The expression sit out is a metaphor from sport: Some players sit on a bench as rerves. Churchill was like this politically: No one asked him to leave his at and come and take part. He did not need to be in London much and could stay at home in the countryside.
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9. The billboards said "Cheer Churchill, Vote Labour", and that's what people did. (Para 12)
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During elections large posters are put up. The Labour Party, Winston's opponent in the election, did not attack him personally. They said it was correct to like and admire Winston, but not to vote for his party which did not have good policies, and people agreed.
10. That was the irony. The very democracy that Churchill was prepared to lay down his life to defend was the same democracy that knew the difference between the needs of peace and the needs of war. (Para 12)
It ems ironic that after fighting so hard and bravely to keep Britain a democracy, Churchill was removed from power by a democratic vote. The British knew that a great war leader may not be a good peacetime one.
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delon11. If Britain—its eccentricity, its strength of character, its big-heartedness—had to be summed up in one person, it was him. (Para 13)
Britain has always valued individuals who behave in their own unique way, who are not easily persuaded to do what they don't want to, and who accept others in a spirit of generosity. In this way, Churchill can be en as the model Briton.
Background Information
The writer of the passage Mo Mowlam (1949–2005) was a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001, and rved in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Her personal charisma, reputation for plain speaking and fight against a brain tumour led her to be perceived by many as one of the most popular "New Labour" politicians in the UK. She died in 2005 becau of a brain tumour. 英文原版书购买
温斯顿•丘吉尔
1940年夏天,英国面临外敌入侵,孤立无援。 在这一危急时刻,有一个人——温斯顿 • 汽车安全驾驶丘吉尔——挺身而出,显示了英国人的英雄本色。 我们英国人喜欢把自己看成是一个
宽容而坚忍的民族。 但是丘吉尔以他卓越的领导才能和光辉的榜样让我们看到,当我们所珍视的一切——我们的民主、我们的自由——受到威胁的时候,我们会展示出无与伦比的勇气和决心。圣诞英文歌