I.Words and expressions

1.wander the world

Wander: here it is used as a transitive verb.

Also: roam the woods and fields

2.commit sth to memory

He committed the notes of that meeting to memory and then burned them.

3.aspire to sth; aspire to do sth

(1)Different people aspire to different things.

(2)Mary is ambitious enough to aspire to conversational fluency in Chinese in two months.

(3)We aspire to be the best within our field.

4.pay lip service to: to get insincere agreement to

People pay lip service to their dreams of freedom, but many feel frightened by it.

5.see to it that

We should see to it that all work done conforms to high standards.

6.give away to

(1)Was the printed word giving way to the spoken one? (to be replaced by)

(2)Many bridges gave away in this terrible flood. (broke under pressure)

(3)The company finally gave way and agreed to raise the workers’ wages. (agreed to the terms under pressure)

(4)The wind became stronger, and our doors and windows began to give way.

7.lay claim to

you state officially that you have a right to own sth.

8.seize and hold sth

to grasp sth quickly and forcibly and then hold it firmly.

9.be comprised of: to consist of: be composed of; to be made of

The museum is comprised of/ is made of/ is composed of/ consist of ten parts.

10.take measure of sb

to understand what sb is really like

11.suspect

(1)suspect v. (para.10)

a)suspect sb/sth

We suspected her real motive.

b)suspect sb of

It is perfectly all right, because the police had not suspected him of robbery.

c)suspect that …

The detective suspected that the bank robbery was an inside job.

(2)suspect adj. (para. 12)

Delegates evacuated the building when a suspect package was found.

(3)be suspicious of (para. 11)

Two officers on patrol became suspicious of two men in a car.

II.Sentences

1.Perhaps restlessness is a necessary corollary of devoted literacy. (para.5)

Questions for thinking:

In what ways was the author restless?

Do you agree with this statement?

How do you understand Mark Twain’s saying, “Almost all of the writers are ‘addicts.’”?

2.There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books, a kind of parallel universe in which I might be a newcomer but was never really a stranger. (para. 7

Questions for thinking:

Why did the author parallel waking, sleeping and reading?