Unit 1

Text A

Pre-reading Activities
First Listening
1. You're about to hear a conversation about Winston Churchill. Before you listen, take a look at the words below. Which do you think you're likely to hear when people discuss Churchill? Then, as you listen to the tape the first time, circle the words you hear.
prime minister author painter politician World War I romantic fearless serious passionate World War II

Second Listening
Read the following questions first to prepare yourself to answer them to the best of your ability.
2. What was the argument about? Which side do you believe?
3. What do you know about Winston Churchill as British prime minister? What about his personality—do you have any impressions of him as a human being?

Winston Churchill—His Other Life

Mary Soames

My father, Winston Churchill, began his love affair with painting in his 40s, amid disastrous circumstances. As First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, he had been deeply involved in a campaign in the Dardanelles that could have shortened the course of a bloody world war. But when the mission failed, with great loss of life, Churchill paid the price, both publicly and privately: He was removed from the Admiralty and lost his position of political influence.
Overwhelmed by the disaster — "I thought he would die of grief," said his wife, Clementine — he retired with his family to Hoe Farm, a country retreat in Surrey. There, as Churchill later recalled, "The muse of painting came to my rescue!"
One day when he was wandering in the garden, he chanced upon his sister-in-law sketching with watercolours. He watched her for a few minutes, then borrowed her brush and tried his hand — and the muse worked her magic. From that day forward, Winston was in love with painting.
Delighted with anything that distracted Winston from the dark thoughts that overwhelmed him, Clementine rushed off to buy whatever paints and materials she could find. Watercolours, oil paints, paper, canvas — Hoe Farm was soon filled with everything a painter could want or need.
Painting in oils turned out to be Winston's great love — but the first steps were strangely difficult. He contemplated the blank whiteness of his first canvas with unaccustomed nervousness. He later recalled:
"Very hesitantly I selected a tube of blue paint, and with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a bean on the snow-white field. At that moment I heard the sound of a motorcar in the drive and threw down my brush in a panic. I was even more alarmed when I saw who stepped from the car: the wife of Sir John Lavery, the celebrated painter who lived nearby.
"'Painting!' she declared. 'What fun. But what are you waiting for? Let me have the brush — the big one.' She plunged into the paints and before I knew it, she had swept several fierce strokes and slashes of blue on the absolutely terrified canvas. Anyone could see it could not hit back. I hesitated no more. I seized the largest brush and fell upon my wretched victim with wild fury. I have never felt any fear of a canvas since."
Lavery, who later tutored Churchill in his art, said of his unusual pupil's artistic abilities: "Had he chosen painting instead of politics, he would have been a great master with the brush."
In painting, Churchill had discovered a companion with whom he was to walk for the greater part of his life. Painting would be his comfort when, in 1921, the death of his mother was followed two months later by the loss of his and Clementine's beloved three-year-old daughter, Marigold. Overcome by grief, Winston took refuge at the home of friends in Scotland — and in his painting. He wrote to Clementine: "I went out and painted a beautiful river in the afternoon light with red and golden hills in the background. Many loving thoughts.... Alas, I keep feeling the hurt of Marigold."
Life and love and hope slowly revived. In September 1922 another child was born to Clementine and Winston: myself. In the same year, Winston bought Chartwell, the beloved home he was to paint in all its different aspects for the next 40 years.
My father must have felt a glow of satisfaction when in the mid-1920s he won first prize in a prestigious amateur art exhibition held in London. Entries were anonymous, and some of the judges insisted that Winston's picture — one of his first of Chartwell — was the work of a professional, not an amateur, and should be disqualified. But in the end, they agreed to rely on the artist's honesty and were delighted when they learned that the picture had been painted by Churchill.
Historians have called the decade after 1929, when Winston again fell from office, his barren years. Politically barren they may have been, as his lonely voice struggled to awaken Britain to the menace of Hitler, but artistically those years bore abundant fruit: of the 500-odd Churchill canvases in existence, roughly half date from 1930 to 1939.
Painting remained a joy to Churchill to the end of his life. "Happy are the painters," he had written in his book Painting as a Pastime, "for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day." And so it was for my father.
(776 words)

New Words

amid
prep.in the middle of, among 在…之中

* disastrous
a. extremely bad; terrible 灾难性的，糟透的

lord
n. (in Britain) title of some officials of very high rank（英）大臣；大人，阁下

admiralty
n. (the A～)(in Britain) government department in charge of the navy （英）海军部

campaign
n. 1. a series of planned military actions 战役
2. a planned series of activities, esp. in politics and business 运动

bloody
a. 1. very violent, with a lot of wounding and killing 血腥的
2. covered with blood 血污的

mission
n. 1. (usu. military) duty or purpose for which people are sent somewhere ［常指军事］任务
2. 天职，使命

privately
ad. 1. not publicly 非公开地
2. personally; secretly 在涉及私（个）人方面；秘密地

private
a. 1. personal; secret 私（个）人的；秘密的
2. not public 非公开的

disaster
n. (a)sudden great misfortune 灾难，天灾；祸患

* grief
n. a feeling of extreme sadness 悲哀

* grieve
v. suffer from grief or great sadness （为…而）悲伤；伤心

retreat
n. 1. a place into which one can go for peace and safety 隐居处
2. 撤退；避难
vi. move back or leave a center of fighting or other activity 撤退；退避

muse, Muse
n. 1. (in Greek mythology) one of the nine goddesses of poetry, music, etc. 缪斯（希腊神话中司文艺的九位女神之一）
2. a force or person that inspires sb. to write, paint, etc. 创作灵感

rescue
n. help which gets sb. out of a dangerous or unpleasant situation 救助；救援
vt. 救助；救援

sister-in-law
n. sister of one's husband or wife 姑子；姨子；嫂子；弟媳

sketch
v. make a quick, rough drawing (of sth.) 素描，速写
n. 素描，速写

watercolo(u)r
n. 水彩（颜料）；水彩画

magic
n. 魔法，法术
a. 有魔力的