neutral高级英语第一册Unit 4 文章结构+课文讲解+课文翻译+课后练习+答案

2021年1月21日发(作者：sneaker是什么意思)
Unit 4 Everyday Use for Your Grandmama

Everyday Use for Your Grandmama
教学目的及重点难点

Objectives of Teaching

To comprehend the whole story
To lean and master the vocabulary and expressions
To learn to paraphrase the difficult sentences
To understand the structure of the text
To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the passage.
Important and Difficult points

The comprehension of the whole story
The understanding of certain expressions
The appreciation of the writing technique
Colloquial, slangy or black English
Cultural difference between nationalities in the US

IV. Character Analysis
Dee:
She has held life always in the palm of one hand.

She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her
nature.
She was determined to share down any disaster in her efforts.

I. Rhetorical devices:
Parallelism:
chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle
Metaphor:
She washed us in a river of...burned us... Pressed us ...to shove us away
stare down any disaster in her efforts...

Everyday Use for your grandmama -- by Alice Walker
Everyday Use for your grandmama

Alice Walker

I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yester day
afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just
a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a
floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone
can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never
come inside the house.
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in
corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her
sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in
the palm of one hand, that


You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has
confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from
backstage. (A Pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child
came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) On TV mother and child
embrace and smile into each other's face. Sometimes the mother and father weep,
the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would
not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.


Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together
on a TV program of this sort. Out of a cark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered
into a bright room filled with many people. There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man
like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then
we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tear s in her eyes. She pins on my
dress a large orchid, even though she has told me once that she thinks or chides are
tacky flowers.


In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In
the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill
and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can
work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver
cooked over the open tire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter
I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer
and had the meat hung up to chill be-fore nightfall. But of course all this does not
show on television. I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred
pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pan-cake. My hair glistens in the
hot bright lights. Johnny Car
–
son has much to do to keep up with my quick and
witty tongue.


But that is a mistake. I know even before I wake up. Who ever knew a Johnson
with a quick tongue? Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the
eye? It seems to me I have talked to them always with one toot raised in flight, with
my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them. Dee, though. She would
always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature.



enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she's there, almost hidden by
the door.





Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless
person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be
kind of him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest,
eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the
ground.


Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She's a woman
now, though sometimes I forget. How long ago was it that the other house burned?
Ten, twelve years? Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie's arms
sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery
flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflect- ed in
them. And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum
out of; a look at concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board
of the house tall in toward the red-hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance
around the ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.


I used to think she hated Maggie, too. But that was before we raised the money,
the church and me, to send her to Augusta to school. She used to read to us without
pity, forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped
and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe,
burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to
her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like
dimwits, we seemed about to understand.


Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from
high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit
somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts.
Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation
to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own' and knew what style was.


I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down.
Don't ask me why. in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now.
Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see
well. She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her
by. She will marry John Thomas (who has mossy teeth in an earnest face) and then
I'll be free to sit here and I guess just sing church songs to myself. Although I never
was a good singer. Never could carry a tune. I was always better at a man's job. 1
used to love to milk till I was hooked in the side in '49. Cows are soothing and slow
and don't bother you, unless you try to milk them the wrong way.


I have deliberately turned my back on the house. It is three rooms, just like the
one that burned, except the roof is tin: they don't make shingle roofs any more.
There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a
ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutter s up on the
outside. This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees
it she will want to tear it down. She wrote me once that no matter where we

Maggie and I thought about this and Maggie asked me, Mama, when did Dee ever
have any friends?


She had a few. Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after
school. Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshiped the
well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in
lye. She read to them.


When she was courting Jimmy T she didn't have much time to pay to us, but
turned all her faultfinding power on him. He flew to marry a cheap city girl from a
family of ignorant flashy people. She hardly had time to recompose herself.


When she comes I will meet -- but there they are!
Maggie attempts to make a dash for the house, in her shuffling way, but I stay her
with my hand.
sand with her toe.


It is hard to see them clearly through the strong sun. But even the first glimpse
of leg out of the car tells me it is Dee. Her feet were always neat-looking, as it God
himself had shaped them with a certain style. From the other side of the car comes
a short, stocky man. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin
like a kinky mule tail. I hear Maggie suck in her breath.
like. Like when you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your toot on the
road.


Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it
hurts my eyes. There are yel-lows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the
sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings gold,
too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises
when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits. The
dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it. I hear Maggie go
again. It is her sister's hair. It stands straight up like the wool on a sheep. It is black
as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards
disappearing behind her ears.



her move. The short stocky fellow with the hair to his navel is all grinning and he
follows up with
she falls back, right up against the back of my chair. I feel her trembling there and
when I look up I see the perspiration falling off her chin.



see me trying to move a second or two before I make it. She turns, showing white
heels through her sandals, and goes back to the car. Out she peeks next with a
Polaroid. She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting
there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot
without making sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the
edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. Then she puts the
Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead.


Meanwhile Asalamalakim is going through motions with Maggie's hand.
Maggie's hand is as limp as a fish, and probably as cold, despite the sweat, and she
keeps trying to pull it back. It looks like Asalamalakim wants to shake hands but
wants to do it fancy. Or maybe he don't know how people shake hands. Anyhow, he
soon gives up on Maggie.












the people who oppress me.



my sister. She named Dee. We called her












back as I can trace it,


Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War
through the branches.









I try to trace it that far back?


He just stood there grinning, looking down on me like somebody inspecting a
Model A car. Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head.


















Well, soon we got the name out of the way. Asalamalakim had a name twice as
long and three times as hard. After I tripped over it two or three times he told me to
just call him Hakim-a-barber. I wanted to ask him was he a barber, but I didn't
really think he was, so I don't ask.




busy feeding the cattle, fixing the fences, putting up salt-lick shelters, throwing
down hay. When the white folks poisoned some of the herd the men stayed up all
night with rifles in their hands. I walked a mile and a half just to see the sight.


Hakim-a-barber said,
cattle is not my style.
had really gone and married him.)


We sat down to eat and right away he said he didn't eat collards and pork was
unclean. Wangero, though, went on through the chitlins and corn bread, the greens
and every-thing else. She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes. Everything
delighted her. Even the fact that we still used the benches her daddy made for the
table when we couldn't afford to buy chairs.



lovely these benches are. You can feel the rump prints,
underneath her and along the bench. Then she gave a sigh and her hand closed over
Grandma Dee's butter dish.
wanted to ask you if I could have.
the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it clabber by now. She looked at the
churn and looked at it.



tree you all used to have?











Dee (Wangero) looked up at me.



couldn't hear her.



churn top
as a center piece for the alcove table,”she said, sliding a plate over the
churn,


When she finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out. I took it for a
moment in my hands. You didn't even have to look close to see where hands
pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood.
In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had
sunk into the wood. It was beautiful light yellow wood, from a tree that grew in the
yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived.


After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started
rifling through it. Maggie hung back in the kitchen over the dishpan. Out came
Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee
and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them. One
was in the Lone Star pattern. The other was Walk Around the Mountain. In both of
them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bit
sand pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece,
about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform
that he wore in the Civil War.





I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door
slammed.



just done by me and Big Dee from some tops your grandma pieced before she died.



by machine.






used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!
securely in her arms, stroking them.



mother handed down to her,” I said, movi
ng up to touch the quilts. Dee (Wangero)
moved back just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged
to her.



marries John Thomas.


She gasped like a bee had stung her.



enough to put them to everyday use.



age ’em for long enough
with nobody using 'em. I hope she will! ” I didn't want to bring up how I had offered
Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they
were old-fashioned, out of style.




that!



Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred.
point is these quilts, these quilts!








Maggie by now was standing in the door. I could almost hear the sound her feet
made as they scraped over each other.



anything, or having anything reserved for her.
without the quilts.


I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and
it gave her face a kind of dopey, hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee
who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her scarred hands hidden
in the folds of her skirt. She looked at her sister with something like fear but she
wasn't mad at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to
work.


When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran
down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God
touches me and I get happy and shout. I did something I never had done before:
hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of
Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat there on
my bed with her mouth open.





But she turned without a word and went out to Hakim-a-barber.










for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it.


She put on some sunglasses that hid everything above the tip of her nose and
her chin.


Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real mile, not scared. After we
watched the car dust settle I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff. And then the
two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed.
------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
NOTES
1) Alice Walker: born 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, America and graduated from
Sarah Lawrence College. Her books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland
( 1970 ), Meridian ( 1976 ), The Color Purple(1982), etc.
2)
general
3) Johnny Carson: a man who runs a late night talk show
4)hooked: injured by the horn of the cow being milked
5) Jimmy T: 'T' is the initial of the surname of the boy Dee was courting.
6)
7)
8) Polaroid: a camera that produces instant pictures
9) the Civil War: the war between the North and the South in the U. S.(1861-1865)
10) branches: branches or divisions of a family descending from a common ancestor
11) Ream it out again:
display
12) pork was unclean: Muslims are forbidden by their religion to eat pork because it
is considered to be unclean.
13) Chitlins: also chitlings or chitterlings, the small intestines of pigs, used for food,
a common dish in Afro-American households
14) rump prints: depressions in the benches made by constant sitting
15) sink: depressions in the wood of the handle left by the thumbs and fingers


Background information
The author wrote quite a number of novels, among them were The Color Purple
which won the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction
（
普利策小说奖）

and The American Book Award
（美国图书奖）
. In 1985, the Color Purple was made into a movie which won great
fame .
Everyday Use for your grandmama
课文讲解

/Detailed Study
Everyday Use for Your Grandmama



------------ -------------------------------------------------- ------------------


Detailed Study of the Text



1. wavy: having regular curves
A wavy line has a series of regular curves along it.
The wavy lines are meant to represent water.
Here in the text the word describes the marks in wavy patterns on the clay ground
left by the broom.
*image - 1* (
此处加一细曲线图
)


2. groove: a long narrow path or track made in a surface, esp. to guide the
movement of sth.
A groove is a wide, deep line cut into a surface.
The cupboard door slides open along the groove it fits into.


3. homely: simple, not grand, (of people, faces, etc.,) not good-looking, ugly
If someone is homely, they are not very attractive to look at; uased in Am.E.


4. awe: Awe is the feeling of respect and amazement that you have when you
are faced with sth. wonderful, frightening or completely unknown., wonder
The child stared at him in silent awe.


5. confront: to face boldly or threateningly, encounter
If a problem, task, or difficulty confronts you, or you are confronted with it, it iss sth.
that you cannot avoid and must deal with
I was confronted with the task of designing and building the new system.


6. totter: to move in an unsteady way from side to side as if about to fall, to walk
with weak unsteady steps
The old lady tottered down the stairs.


7. limousine: A limousine is a large and very comfortable car, esp. one with a
glass screen between the front and back seats. Limousines are usually driven by a
chauffeur [ou]
cf:

sedan / saloon is a car with seats for four or more people, a fixed roof, and a boot
(the space at the back of the car, covered by a lid, in which you carry things such
luggage, shopping or tools) that is separate from the seating part of the car
convertible: a car with a soft roof that can be folded down or removed
sports car: a low usu. open car with room for only 2 people for traveling with high
power and speed
coupe [‘ku:pei] a car with a fixed roof, a sloping back, two doors and seats for four
people
station wagon (Am E) / estate car (Br.E) a car which has a long body with a door at
the back end and space behind the back seats


8. gray / grey: used to describe the colour of people’s hair when it changes from
its original colour, usu. as they get old and before it becomes white


9. tacky: (Am.E, slang) shabby


10. overalls: are a single piece of clothing that combines trousers and a jacket.
Your wear overalls over your clothes in order to protect them from dirt, paint, etc.
while you are working
The breast pocket of his overalls was filled with tools. (
工装裤
)


11. hog:

a. a pig, esp. a fat one for eating
b. a male pig that has been castrated

c. a dirty person
swine: (old & tech) pig
boar [o:]: male pig on a farm that is kept for breeding
sow [au]: fully grown female pig


12. sledge hammer: large, heavy hammer for swinging with both hands, a large
heavy hammer with a long handle, used for smashing concrete


13. barley:
大麦



14. pancake: a thin, flat circle of cooked batter (
糊状物
) made of milk, flour and
eggs. usu. rolled up or folded and eaten hot with a sweet or savory filling inside


15. sidle: walk as if ready to turn or go the other way

If you sidle somewhere, you walk there uncertainly or cautiously, as if you do not
want anyone to notice you
A man sidled up to me and asked if I wanted a ticket for the match..


16. shuffle: slow dragging walk
If you shuffle, you walk without lifting your feet properly off the ground
He slipped on his shoes and shuffled out of the room.
If you shuffle, you move your feet about while standing or move your bottom about
while sitting, often because you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
I was shuffling in my seat.
cf:
totter (n.6), sidle(n. 15), shuffle


17. blaze: to burn with a bright flame
A wood fire was blazing, but there was no other light in the room.
n. the sudden sharp shooting up of a flame, a very bright fire
The fire burned slowly at first, but soon burst into a blaze.


18. sweet gum tree: a large North American tree of the witch hazel (
榛子
) family,
with alternate maplelike leaves, spiny (
多刺的
) fruit balls, and flagrant juice
美洲金缕梅
,
落叶灌木或小乔木
.
原产于北美和亚洲
.
其分叉小枝从前用为魔杖
,
这寻找地下水
,
故俗称魔杖
.


19. dingy: dirty and faded
A building or place that is dingy is rather dark and depressing and does not seem to
have been well looked after,.
This is the dingiest street of the town.
Clothes, curtains, etc. that are dingy are dirty or faded.


20. raise: to collect together
raise an army / raise enough money for a holiday
His wife raised the money by selling her jewellery.
We’re trying to raise funds to establish a scholarship.



21. underneath: (so as to go) under (sth..)
The letter was pushed underneath the door.
Did you find very much growing underneath the snow?
(Here it suggests a repressive and imposing quality in her voice.)


22. make- believe: a state of pretending or the things which are pretended
She lives in a make-believe world / a world of make-believe.
Don’t be afraid of monster
-
the story’s only make
-believe.
The little girl made believe she was a princess.


23. shove: to push, esp. in a rough or careless way
There was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on the bus.

Help me to shove this furniture aside.
If you shove sb. or sth., you push them with a quick, rather, violent movement.
He dragged her out to the door and shoved her into the street.


24. dimwit: (infml) an ignorant and stupid person
dim: faint, not bright

wit: intelligence, wisdom
at one’s wit’s end: at the end of one’s tether



25. organdy: (Br. E organdie) very fine transparent muslin (
麦斯林纱
,
平纹细布
)
with a stiff finish (
最后一层涂饰
), very fine rather stiff cotton material used esp. for
women’s dresses

(
蝉翼纱
,
玻璃纱
)


26. pump: low shoe that grips the foot chiefly at the toe and the heel


27. stare down any disaster in her efforts: face up and defeat any disaster with
her efforts
stare down: two people looking at each other persistently until one shifts his eye


28. flicker: to move backwards and forwards unsteadily
shadows flickered on the wall
flickering eyelids


29. stumble: to stop and /or make mistakes in speaking or reading aloud
to catch the foot on the ground while moving along and start to fall
She stumble at/over the long word
He stumbled and stopped reading.
cf:

stammer: to speak or say with pauses and repeated sounds, either habitually or
because of excitement, fear, etc.
stammerer
stutter: to speak or say with difficulty in producing sounds, esp. habitually holding
back the first consonant.
stutterer


30. good-naturedly: naturally kind, ready to help, to forgive, not to be angry
A person or animal that is good-natured is naturally friendly and does not easily get
angry.
a good- natured policeman


31. mossy:

moss: any of several types of a small flat green or yellow flowerless plant that grows
in a thick furry mass on wet soil, or on a wet surface


32. hook: to catch with or as if with a hook
to hook a fish / a rich husband
hooknose
Here: to attack with the horn of the cow


33. soothe: to make less angry, excited or anxious, comfort or calm, to make
less painful
soothing words
soothe one’s feelings



34. shingle: a small thin piece of building material (such as wood) often with one
end thicker than the other for laying in overlapping rows as a covering for the roof
or sides of building
cf: tile; a flat or curved piece of fired clay, stone, or concrete used esp. for roofs,
floors, or walls and often for ornamental work


35. porthole: also port, a small usu. circular window or opening in a ship for light
or air


36. shutter: a. one that shuts
b. movable cover (wooden panel or iron plate, hinged, or separate and detachable)
for a window or door, to keep out light or burglars.

cf: Venetian blinds
The shop front is fitted with rolling shutters.
c. device that opens to admit light through the lens of a camera


37. pasture: land where grass is grown and where cattle feed on it


38. furtive: stealthy, If sb. is furtive, he / she behaves as if he / she wants to
keep sth. secret or hidden
They suddenly looked furtive when I got into the room.
I watched him furtively pencil a note and slip it between the pages.
A woman with furtive look sidled up to me and asked furtively whether I had /
wanted receipts.


39. hang about: to wait or stay near a place without purpose or activity


40. washday: also washing day, the day when clothes are washed


41. impressed with her: impressed by her manner,


42. well-turned: (of a phrase) carefully formed and pleasantly expressed
a well-turned phrase:
恰当的词语



43. cute: delightfully pretty and often small
If you describe sb. as cute you mean that you find them attractive, often in a sexual
way


44. scald: to burn with hot liquid
He scalded his tongue on / with the hot coffee
scalding: boiling or as hot as boiling
court: If a man courts a woman, he pays a lot of attention to her because he wants
to marry her.


45. flashy: over-ornamented, unpleasantly big, bright, etc. and perhaps not of
good quality Something that is flashy is so smart, bright and expensive that you find
it unpleasant and perhaps vulgar

a flashy sports car / cheap flashy clothes


46. recompose:

compose: to make (esp. oneself) calm, quiet, etc.
Jean was nervous at first but soon composed herself.


47. kinky: (esp. of hair) having kinks

kink: a backward turn or twist in hair, a rope, chain, pipe, etc.


48. wriggle: to twist from side to side


49. loud: attracting attention by being unpleasantly colourful


50. rope: (of 2 or more mountain climbers) to be fastened together with the
same rope
(I think the word here means the plaits or the pigtails are fastened together


51. gliding: to move noiselessly in a smooth, continuous manner, which seems
easy and without effort
glider: a plane without an engine


52. something of a(n)... : (infml) rather a(n), a fairly good
You use the expression something of in the following ways. If you say that a person
or thing has something of a particular quality, feeling, etc., you mean that they have
it to some extent.
If you say that a person is something of an actor, something of a poet, etc., you
mean that the person can act, write poetry, etc. to some extent
Dr. Mitra, a scholar and something of a philosopher
If you say that a situation is something of a mystery / a surprise, etc., you mean
that it is slightly mysterious, slightly surprising
He is something of a book collector / a liar / a musician.
I am something of a carpenter myself, you know.
make sth. of oneself: be successful
He is a clever boy--- I hope he'll make sth. of himself.


53. peek: (infml) to look at sth. quickly, esp. when one should not
They caught him peeking through the hole at what was going on in the room
peep: to look at sth. quickly and secretly
It’s rude to peep at other people’s work.

He took a peep at the back of the book to find out the answers to the questions.
Peek & Peep are not clearly distinguishable when denoting to see what is concealed,
or hidden.
peer: to look very carefully or hard, esp. as if not able to see well
She peered through the mist, trying to find the right path.
He peered at me over the top of his glasses.


54. stoop: to bend the head and shoulders forwards and down


55. cower: to bend low and draw back as from fear, pain, shame, cold etc.


56. go through motions with Maggie’s hand:

Here “motions” refer to trying to shake hands with Maggie.

If you go through the motions, you say or do sth. that is expected of you without
being very sincere or serious about it. Or you pretend to do sth. by making the
movements associated with a particular action.
The doctor was sure that the man wasn’t ill, but he went thr
ough the motions of
examining him.
I can go through the motions of putting imaginary food into my mouth.


57. limp: lacking strength or stiffness
n. a way of walking with one foot dragging unevenly
v. to walk with an uneven step, one foot or leg moving less well than the other


58. There you are: I told you so.
There you are. I knew I was right. That’s what

I expected. I knew you couldn’t trace
it further back.
There I was not: You are not right.
crop up: arise, happen or appear, unexpectedly
Some difficulties have cropped up at work so I’ll be late coming home tonight.

Literally the sentence in the text could possibly understood as follows:
I was not there before the name “Dicie” appeared in our family, so why...

But “There I was not” is obviously a quick, short cut answer to “there you are”.



59. Model A car: in 1909 Henry Ford mass-produced 15 million Model T cars and
thus made automobiles popular in the States. In 1928 the Model T was discontinued
and replaced by a new design - the Model A - to meet the needs for growing
competition in car manufacturing.
Here he thinks she is quaint, attractive because it is strange and something rather
old fashioned


60. ream: sl. say it, spit it


61. out of the way: not blocking space for the forward movement of
(Here there must be one misunderstanding either by me or by the editor who
explains that as:
We overcame the difficulty and managed to pronounce it at last)
I will move the chair out of your way.
He ran through the crowd, pushing people out of his way.
Her social life got in the way of her studies.
We got the name out of the way: we finished talking about it, we set the problem
aside.
When we got topic A out of the way, we discuss topic B.


62. trip: If you trip over something, you knock your foot against something
when you are walking and lose your balance so that you fall or nearly fall.
I tripped and fell...
She tripped over a stone...
He put each foot down carefully to avoid tripping up.
Here: to make a mistake as in a statement or behaviour
This lawyer always tries to trip witness up by asking confusing questions.


63. salt-lick shelters: shelters where blocks of rock salt were kept for cattle to
lick


64. style: The style of a particular person or group is all the general attitudes,
likes, dislikes, and ways of behaving that are characteristic of them.
Purple is not my style.
Raising cattle is not my style: I am not interested in raising cattle.


65. gone and married: colloq.


66. collard:
宽叶羽衣甘蓝



67. go on through the chitlins etc.
chitlins: also chitlings, chitterlings: the intestines of hogs esp. when -prepared as
food


68. greens: green vegetables


69. talk a blue streak: speak very fast and very much
blue streak: sth. that moves very fast, a constant stream of works
streak: thin line or band, different from what surrounds it


70. rump: the part of an animal at the back just above the legs. When we eat
this part of a cow it is called a rump steak (
后腿部的牛排
)
(humour) of a human being the part of the body one sits on, bottom


71. her hand closed over the butter dish: A butter dish is a small rectangular
container which you can simply put your hand close over


72. if I could have: here if means whether


73. churn: a container in which milk is moved about violently until it becomes
butter , Am.E a large metal container in which milk is stored or carried from the farm
(
搅乳器
,
盛奶罐
)


74. clabber: (not found in Longman or Collins) curdle --- to form into curds,
cause to thicken


75. whittle: to cut (wood) to a smaller size by taking off small thing pieces


76. dasher: a devise having blades for agitating a liquid or semisolid


77. centerpiece: The centerpiece of a set of things that is greatly admired is sth.
that you show as the best example of the set
The centerpiece of the modern navy is the nuclear submarine.


78. alcove: an alcove is a small area in a room which is formed by one part of a
wall being built further back than the rest of the wall. a partially enclosed extension
of a room, often occupied by a bed or by seats,
凹室

(see. Oxford)


79. to do with the dasher: use the dasher to make sth. artistic
I’ll do sth. artistic with the dasher

I don’t know what to do with those books, what to use them for, where to put them

Someone who is artistic is able to create or appreciate good painting, sculpture.
Something that is artistic relates to art or to artists. A design, arrangement, pattern,
etc. that is artistic is beautiful or attractive


80. sink: a depression (part of a surface lower than the other parts) in the land
surface
(The rain collected in several depressions on the ground.)


81. rifle: to search through and steal everything valuable out of a place
The thieves rifled his pockets of all their contents.
The burglar rifled the safe.
The bad boy rifled the apple tree.
Here in the text, the word “rifle” means to look thorough to see what to take, and
indicates that Dee was trying to find sth. she did not deserve.


82. hung back: be unwilling to act or move
The bridge looked so unsafe that we all hung back in fear.


83. piece: to make by joining pieces together


84. quilt: to sew, stitch in layers with padding in between


85. Lone Star and Walk Around the Mountain pattern


86. scrap: small piece, bit
a scrap of paper
Scrap of bread were thrown to the birds.
There was not a scrap of food left, we’ve eaten it all.



87. teeny: teeny weeny: also teensy weensy (used esp. to children) very small


88. top: the most important or worthiest part of anything


89. priceless: of great value
cf: invaluable, priceless, expensive, costly, dear, precious, sumptuous, luxurious
valueless: worthless, useless


90. temper: particular state or condition of the mind with regard to anger, an
angry, impatient or bad state of mind John is in a temper today.


91. stump: n. the part of a plant, (esp. a tree) remaining attached to the root
after the trunk is cut
v. put an unanswerable question to, puzzle, perplex
If something stumps you, you cannot think of any solution or answer for it
The question has stumped philosophers since the beginning of time.
It’s unusual for Jeremy to be stumped for an answer.

You’ve go me stumped there.



92. snuff: tobacco made into powered for breathing into the nose, esp. used in
former times


93. dopey: [‘doupi] showing
dullness of the mind or feelings caused or as if
caused by alcohol or a drug, sleepy and unable to think clearly, stupid