大学英语新课标第三册英语U2B3课文知识讲解

1、此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除Whereas You Were an Insensitive Fool.The simpletruthis thatif you wantto be heardby yourhusband, you must speak a language he understands.如果你想你丈夫听你的，你就必须说他能听懂的语言，这是一个简单的事实。An example: A friend of mine is married to a wealthy moneywaster (spendthrift) who used to drive like a ma

2、niac（ madman ） tailgating, speeding, weaving between lanes. My friendrepeatedly expressed her fear about his dangerous habits but hedidn t modify his behavior; money was the language he spoke. Shegave himone fina l warning:slowdownor else. He didn sot,withoutanyfanfare,she withdrew$40,000fromtheirba

3、nkaccounts and boughtherselfa luxuryconvertible.I hear he aspretty safe driver now.举个例子：我的一个朋友，她的丈夫很有钱，爱挥霍，开起车子来像个疯子：追逼前车、超速、随意变道。我的朋友不止一次对她丈夫表示这种危险的驾车习惯让人害怕，但他不曾有任何改变； 钱是他能听懂的语言。我朋友给了最后通牒：开慢点，否则他当然没有听进去，于是我朋友从他们的银行账户里取了40000 美元给自己买了辆豪华敞篷跑车， 当然这样做并不是为了炫耀。我听说她丈夫现在开车非常小心。只供学习与交流此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除M

4、y husband is a lawyer, so naturally the language he best understands is that of the legal profession. For more than two decades we have enjoyed a peaceful relationship of love, respect and decency.我的丈夫是一名律师，自然法律行业的语言是他最能理解的。在过去的 20 多年里我们一直互敬互爱，相处融洽。Until six weeks ago, that is, when I stumbled off a

5、 curb on the first day of a long-awaited vacation abroad, breaking my foot andthus e nding the trip before it really began. That-s when my mildmannered, gentle husband, with whom I veraised two children,the man I truly love and rely on, became someone I didn t knowresentful, insensitive, uncaring. A

6、nd his hideous behaviorlastedlong beyond the accident and its immediate aftermath; indeed, itcontinued until I figured out how to get his attention.6 周前，在我们期待已久的境外游的第一天，我被台阶绊倒， 摔下来伤了脚，因此不得不结束还未真正开始的假期。就是那时，那个温和的、绅士的、 与我共同抚育了两个孩子的丈夫，我真心爱着和依赖的爱人变得陌生起来：愤怒、麻木、没有同情心。他糟糕的表现一直持续着，直到我想出法子引起他的注意。只供学习与交流此文档仅供

7、收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除Neither my silent seething nor my open anger would reach him.So I, Lisa K. Friedman, being of sound mind and broken foot, turned to the language he spoke: I served him with a mock complaint, claiming Breach of Contract (our marriage contract). I drafted it myself, using all the stan

8、dard conventions, as I have watched him do many times. Then I hired a legal courier to deliverit to my husband office,sidentifyhimand concludewiththestandard assertion:“ You have been served.”不管我生闷气还是大发雷霆都不能触动他。我 Lisa K Friedman ，虽然摔坏了脚，但是脑子还是好使的，所以我用他的语言跟他沟通：我自己起草了一份模拟诉状，声称他违反合约。 然后我雇人将诉状递到了我丈夫的办公室

9、。What he saw when he opened the envelope went something like this:当他打开信封时，他看到的内容如下：Complaint诉状COMES NOW, Plaintiff, Lisa K. Friedman, and for her complaint against the Defendant, her husband, states as follows:原告： Lisa K Friedman。起诉被告即原告丈夫。陈述如下：The Parties当事人1. The Plaintiff is a housewife whose pri

10、ncipal role includes general household maintenance, food service, transportation andmanagement of thedomicile shared by them, their two childrenand one dog.原告系一名家庭主妇，其主要指责包括：负责一家人的生活，准备一日三餐，接送小孩，打扫一家四口和一条狗居住的家。只供学习与交流此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除2. Her husband, the Defendant, is an attorney in Washington,

11、D.C.Jurisdiction and Venue被告，其夫系一名华盛顿特区的律师。3. The Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Md., handles major criminal and civil cases including marital breach of contract complaints filed by any and all outraged wives who, after suffering vacation-ending injuries, are cruelly blamed and mistreated by t

12、heir husbands.Background Facts4. On June 29, 1986, Lisa K. Friedman, heretofore known as“ thPlaintiff” and her husband signed a Contract of Marriage (the“ Contract ” ).5. The Contract contemplated, among many clauses, that theparties will“ love and comfort, in sickness and in healthr an” festimated

13、length of time described in the Contract as“ as longthey both shall live.”Count OneBreach of Contract6. The Defendant breached the Contract by failing and refusing to offer aid and comfort to the Plaintiff after she stumbled off a curb只供学习与交流此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除in front of the hotel where the coup

14、le intended to enjoy a romantic and restful three nights before beginning their highly anticipated, hugely expensive and meticulously planned archaeological hiking tour of remote historical sites in Israel and Jordan.The fall fractured the fifth metatarsal bone of her right foot. It is not relevant

15、to the complaint that neither the Plaintiff nor the Defendant immediately knew that the foot was broken, despitethe Plaintiff s report that she heard a“ snappinghenshe sound” wstumbled and fell.The Defendant dismissed this evidence of a broken bone, contending, ridiculously, that it must have been t

16、he strap on her sandal snapping. The Plaintiff did not feel the bone snap because she was consumed at the time by a white light of pain, so intense that it blotted out all other physical sensation.Therefore, they did not find out the foot was broken until days later, when they were back in the Unite

17、d States, because no medical care was sought for the Plaintiff in Israel even though the next morning her foot was so swollen she could hardly只供学习与交流此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除distinguish her toes, and the entirety of her foot resembled an exotic purple vegetable or gourd.7. The Defendant breached the Co

18、ntract by behaving in a nasty and demeaning way toward the Plaintiff in the immediate aftermath of the accident, including but not limited to terse comments, ridicule, eye rolling and ignoring of the injuredPlaintiff. He seemed, at one point, to be“ almost having a stroke(the Plaintiff s characteriz

19、ation) asonthemplatedc the myriaddisappointments associated with the untimely demise of their dream vacation. And even though the Defendant seemed to sense that his behavior toward the Plaintiff was truly awful andunforgivable, he simply couldn t controltheitduemountingtodispleasure and inconvenienc

20、e caused by her untimely stumble.This inconvenience included but was not limited to theDefendant s resentment-filled two-hour search for crutches forthe Plaintiff, which left him mute with frustration for a time hewas unwilling to communicate verbally with the Plaintiff in any manner about any subje

21、ct.8. The Defendant breached the Contract, and all acceptable codes of husbandly (and human) conduct, by remaining unhelpful when只供学习与交流此文档仅供收集于网络，如有侵权请联系网站删除it came to the required purchase of airline tickets for their premature return to the United States.At the time the Defendant could not have known that the cost of these last-minute tickets would total a s