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Lesson 1

1. We're elevated 23 feet. We're 23 feet above sea level.

2. The place has been here since 1915, and no hurricane has ever bothered it. The house has been here since 1915, and no hurricane has ever caused any damage to it.

3. We can batten down and ride it out.

We can make the necessary preparations and survive the hurricane without much damage.

4. The generator was doused, and the lights went out.

Water got into the generator and put it out. It stopped producing electricity, so the lights also went out.

5. Everybody out the back door to the cars!

Everybody go out through the back door and run to the cars. 6. The electrical systems had been killed by water.

The electrical systems in the car had been put out by water. 7. John watched the water lap at the steps, and felt a crushing guilt.

As John watched the water inch its way up the steps, he felt a strong sense of guilt because he blamed himself for endangering the whole family by deciding not to flee inland.

8. Get us through this mess, will you?

Oh God, please help us to get through this storm safely. 9. She carried on alone for a few bars; then her voice trailed away.

Grandmother Koshak sang a few words alone and then her voice gradually grew dimmer and stopped. 10. Janis had just one delayed reaction.

Janis displayed rather late the exhaustion brought about by the nervous tension caused by the hurricane. Lesson 2

1. The burying-ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth, like a derelict building-lot.

The burying-ground is nothing more than a huge piece of wasteland full of mounds of earth looking like a deserted and abandoned piece of land on which a building was going to be put up.

2. All colonial empires are in reality founded upon that fact.

All the imperialists build up their empires by treating the people in the colonies like animals (by not treating the people in the colonies as human beings).

3. They rise out of the earth, they sweat and starve for a few years, and then they sink back into the nameless mounds of the graveyard.

They are born. Then for a few years they work, toil and starve. Finally they die and are buried in graves without a name.

4. A carpenter sits crosslegged at a prehistoric lathe, turning chair-legs at lighting speed.

Sitting with his legs crossed and using a very old-fashioned lathe, a carpenter quickly gives a round shape to the chair-legs he is making.

5. Instantly, from the dark holes all round, there was a frenzied rush of Jews. Immediately from their dark hole-like cells everywhere a great number of Jews rushed out wildly excited.

6. …every one of them looks on a cigarette as a more or less impossible luxury. Every one of these poor Jews looked on the cigarette as a piece of luxury which they could not possibly afford.

7. Still, a white skin is always fairly conspicuous.

However, a white -skinned European is always quite noticeable.

8. In a tropical landscape one’s eye takes in everything except the human beings. If you take a look at the natural scenery in a tropical region, you see everything but the human beings.

9. No one would think of running cheap trips to the Distressed Areas.

No one would think of organizing cheap trips for the tourists to visit the poor slum areas (for these trips would not be interesting)．

10. …for nine-tenths of the people the reality of life is an endless, back-breaking struggle to wring a little food out of an eroded soil.

life is very hard for ninety percent of the people．With hard backbreaking toil they can produce a little food on the poor soil．

11．She accepted her status as an old woman, that is to say as a beast of burden. She took it for granted that as an old woman she was the lowest in the community，that she was only fit for doing heavy work like an animal． 12. People with brown skins are next door to invisible.

People with brown skins are almost invisible．

13．Their splendid bodies were hidden in reach-me-down khaki uniforms,… The Senegalese soldiers were wearing ready-made khaki uniforms which hid their beautiful well-built bodies．

14. How long before they turn their guns in the other direction?

How much longer before they turn their guns around and attack us? 15．Every white man there had this thought stowed somewhere or other in his mind. Every white man，the onlookers，the officers on their horses and the white N.C.Os. marching with the black soldiers，had this thought hidden somewhere or other in his mind． Lesson 3

1．And it is an activity only of human.

And conversation is an activity which is found only among human beings． 2．Conversation is not for making a point.

Conversation is not for persuading others to accept our idea or point of view． 3．In fact, the best conversationalists are those who are prepared to lose.

In fact a person who really enjoys and is skilled at conversation will not argue to win or force others to accept his point of view． 4．Bar friends are not deeply involved in each other’s lives.

People who meet each other for a drink in the bar of a pub are not intimate friends for they are not deeply absorbed or engrossed in each other's lives．

5. …it could still go ignorantly on…

The conversation could go on without anybody knowing who was right or wrong．

6．There are cattle in the fields, but we sit down to beef (boeuf).

These animals are called cattle when they are alive and feeding in the fields；but when we sit down at the table to eat．we call their meat beef．

7. The new ruling class had built a cultural barrier against him by building their French against his own language.

The new ruling class by using French instead of English made it difficult for the English to accept or absorb the culture of the rulers． 8．English had come royally into its own.

The English language received proper recognition and was used by the King once more．

9. The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes.

The phrase，the King's English，has always been used disrespectfully and jokingly by the lower classes． The working people very often make fun of the proper and formal language of the educated people． 10. The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.

There still exists in the working people，as in the early Saxon peasants，a spirit of opposition to the cultural authority of the ruling class．

11. There is always a great danger that “words will harden into things for us.” There is always a great danger that we might forget that words are only symbols and take them for things they are supposed to represent．For example，the word “dog” is a symbol representing a kind of animal．We mustn't regard the word “dog” as being the animal itself．

12. Even with the most educated and the most literate, the King’s English slips and slides in conversation.

Even the most educated and literate people do not use standard，formal English all the time in their conversation． Lesson 4