Reading Exercise: Appetite
Golden Bay
1.
请阅读下面这篇散文Appetite，并按照文章后面的要求做完理解题和练习，答案另给。（相同内容同时以word文挡--Reading-Appetite--放在ftp上，有必要的话请打印该材料。）
2. 在观看电影Shattered Glass之后预习好Unit Nine "Where is the
News Leading Us?"，有时间的话预习Unit Six/Eight等。
3. 在ftp上核对已上课文的练习答案。
另外，因为近来非常忙，ftp上的阅读材料最近没有更新，请谅解。
Eric Chen
======================
Appetite
By Laurie Lee
One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major
duties should be to preserve it. Appetite is the keenness of living; it
is one of the senses that tells you that you are still carious to
exist, that you still have an edge on your longings and want to bite
into the world and taste its multitudinous (多种多样的) flavours
and juices.
By appetite, of course, I don't mean just the lust for food, but any
condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves
you want more than you've got, and that you haven't yet used up your
life. Wilde (王尔德) said he felt sorry for those who never got
their heart's desire, but sorrier still for those who did. I got mine
once only, and it nearly killed me, and I've always preferred wanting
to having since.
For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one's
expectations alive. I remember learning this lesson long ago as a
child, when treats and orgies were few, and when I discovered that the
greatest pitch of happiness was not in actually eating a toffee
(太妃糖) but in gazing at it beforehand. True, the first bite was
delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing,
neither toffee nor lust. Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was
imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it. No, the
best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted
an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavours.
So, for me, one of the keenest pleasures of appetite remains in the
wanting, not the satisfaction. In wanting a peach, or a whisky, or a
particular texture or sound, or to be with a particular friend. For in
this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always
at its most flawlessly perfect. Which is why I would carry the
preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply
because I think that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be
bludgeoned into (强迫) insensibility by satiation (饱餐) and
over-doing it.
For that matter, I don't really want three square meals a day - I want
one huge, delicious, orgiastic, table-groaning blow-out, say every four
days, and then not be too sure where the next one is coming from. A day
of fasting is not for me just a puritanical (清教徒的) device for
denying oneself a pleasure, but rather a way of anticipating a rarer
moment of supreme indulgence.
Fasting is an act of homage (敬意) to the majesty of appetite. So I
think we should arrange to give up our pleasures regularly - our food,
our friends, our lovers - in order to preserve their intensity, and the
moment of coming back to them. For this is the moment that renews and
refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. Sailors and travellers
enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. Part of the weariness
of modern life may be that we live too much on top of each other, and
are entertained and fed too regularly. Once we were separated by hunger
both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both. The
men went off hunting, and the dogs went with them; the women and
children waved goodbye. The cave was empty of men for days on end;
nobody ate, or knew what to do. The women crouched by the fire, the wet
smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry. Then
one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs' from the hills,
and the men came back loaded with meat. This was the great reunion, and
everybody gorged themselves silly, and appetite came into its own; the
long-awaited meal became a feast to remember and an almost sacred
celebration of life. Now we go off to the office and come home in the
evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas. Very nice, but too much of
it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting. We eat,
we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we don't know the
pleasure of being hungry any more.
Too much of anything - too much music, entertainment, happy snacks, or
time spent with one's friends - creates a kind of impotence of living
by which one can no longer hear, or taste, or see, or love, or
remember. Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its
guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. So if we are to
enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and
keep it eager and not too much blunted.
It is a long time now since I knew that acute moment of bliss that
comes from putting parched lips to a cup of cold water. The springs are
still there to be enjoyed- all one needs is the original thirst.
I. Comprehension
A. Answer the following questions.
1. What is one of our major duties, according to Lee?
2. What is Lee's definition of appetite?
3. What is the word "appetite" usually associated with?
4. Do you agree with Wilde's statement? Why or why not?
5. Has Lee always preferred wanting to having?
6. According to Lee, how would he get the most pleasure out of a piece
of toffee? Describe his views.
7. What is Lee's ideal diet in everyday life?
8. What are your views?
B. Choose the best answer.
1. One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, so ( )
a. one should eat to one's full.
b. one should preserve this keenness of living.
c. one ought to have a taste of the multitudinous flavours of different
kinds of food.
d. one should starve it.
2. Oscar Wilde ( )
a. was a kind-hearted man who felt sorry for everyone.
b. never got his heart's desire.
c. thought it better to have one's heart's desire than never to have
it.
d. thought having one's desire fulfilled was worse than not having it
fulfilled.
3. When Lee was a child, ( )
a. he was often invited to parties to eat toffees.
b. toffee was his favorite sweet.
c. he never ate toffees; he only looked at them.
d. he found more pleasure in looking at the toffee before eating it
than eating it outright.
4. From the passage we learn that Lee ( )
a. has a meal every four days.
b. has less than three meals a day.
c. is so poor that sometimes he doesn't know where his next meal is
coming from.
d. enjoys fasting as it whets his appetite.
5. Which statement is true? ( )
a. When people have a thing too easily and too often, they will take it
for granted and miss out the pleasure of having it.
b. Lee doesn't like chicken.
c. Lee enjoys being hungry as it is a pleasure to him.
d. When a person loses his appetite, he will soon die.
C. Paraphrase the following sentences:
1. Appetite is the keenness of living; it is one of the senses that
tells you that you are still carious to exist, that you still have an
edge on your longings and want to bite into the world and taste its
multitudinous flavours and juices.
2. By appetite, of course, I don't mean just the lust for food, but any
condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves
you want more than you've got, and that you haven't yet used up your
life.
3. No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when
one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavours.
4. Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the
extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is
too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by
satiation and over-doing it.
5. Part of the weariness of modern life may be that we live too much on
top of each other, and are entertained and fed too regularly.
6. The springs are still there to be enjoyed- all one needs is the
original thirst.
II. Vocabulary
A. Fill in the blanks with words and expressions from the text.
1. His ( ) for home has never been so strong as now.
2. The rich ( ) of the material makes it ideal for an overcoat.
3. The drama festival was held in China to pay ( ) to the genius of
Shakespeare.
4. Please give me the bill; this is my ( ).
5. Although his fever is gone, his lips are still ( ).
6. This library is a ( ) of knowledge.
7. There was ( ) pain in her eyes when she learned she had failed the
examination.
8. "I know you like red, but aren't you ( ) it a bit by painting the
walls of your room red?" asked Lena.
9. This piece of ruby is almost ( ) cut.
10. The long walk ( ) his energy.
B. Rewrite the following sentences using words and expressions given.
bludgeon...into, bliss, fast, gross, reunion, refresh, orgy, blunt,
pitch, gorge, true ... but
1. Her vulgar behavior at the reception shocked all her friends.
2. He scolded his son for going to all these wild drinking parties.
3. She has been living in perfect happiness ever since she got married.
4. Though life there was full of hardships, it was also full of joy and
excitement.
5. He did it of his own free will no one has ever forced him to do it.
6. After refraining from food for more than 48 hours, he ate greedily
the meal she prepared for him.
7. The meeting of old friends after a long separation was climaxed by
Dr. Laker's speech.
8. Grief has made his senses less keen.
9. He was happy to the highest degree of ecstasy when he was awarded
the honor.
10. After taking a hot bath, he feels his strength has come back.
C. Word formation
Form words by adding im-, in- or un- to the following.
eg: possible - impossible
l. perfect 11. subordinate
2. active 12. movable
3. adequate 13. equal
4. skilful 14. conditional
5. dutiful 15. accented
6. intelligible 16. fortunate
7. mortal 17. pure
8. soluble 18. secure
9. imitable 19. combustible
10. moved 20. audible
III. Topics for Oral Work
A. Do you agree with Lee's view that one of the keenest pleasures of
appetite remains in the wanting, not the satisfaction?
B. Would you like to fast deliberately in order to preserve your
appetite? Why or why not?