商务英语综合教程第3册第2单元参练习答案

Key to Unit Two

Myths and Legends

Overview

Warm-up Activities Intensive Reading Extensive Reading Reading & Writing

Warm-up Activities

I. Starting up

A. Decide from your common sense which of the following is a myth, a legend or a fable. Then

compare them with your partner’s.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Kua Fu Chases the Sun. (myth)

Yu the Great Conquers the Flood. (legend) Nü Gua Mends the Sky. (myth)

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. (fable) Zeus, Prometheus and Pandora. (myth)

Mark the Boat for a Dropped Sword. (fable) Venus, the Roman goddess of love. (myth)

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. (legend) The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. (fable)

Robin Hood---Bold Outlaw of Barnsdale and Sherwood Forest. (legend)

II. Listening

Listen to the following three passages and then do the relevant exercises.

A. Listen to Passage 1 and answer the questions.

1. Their names are Plan Ahead, Think Fast, and Wait and See.

2. Towards the same issue, the three fish made different responses: Plan Ahead said, “I'm

swimming down the river tonight!” Think Fast said, “I'm sure I'll come up with a plan.” Wait and See lazily said, “I just can't think about it now!”

3. When the fisherman cast his nets, Plan Ahead was long gone. But Think Fast and Wait and

See were caught! Think Fast quickly rolled his belly up and pretended to be dead and so the fisherman threw him safely back into the water. But, Wait and See ended up in the fish market.

B. Listen to Passage 2 describing the myth and legend which surround St George’s Day and

complete the sentences below.

1. slayer, saviour, medieval texts and art, little information about

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2. 3. 4. 5. C.

valorous deeds, 12th century, rescuing a king's daughter, slaying a dragon popularized, knights, Middle East

have appeared, white robes, siege, patron saint, Henry V's victory stake a claim, invoke, exorcise demons, associated with fertility

Listen to Passage 3. In this part, you will hear a lecture given by a historian. He will talk about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake myths which persist even after 100 years. After you have heard the lecture, select the best answer from the four given choices.

1.

B

2.

C

3.

D

4.

D

5.

C

6.

D

7.

A

8.

D

III. Discussion

B. Work in groups of three or four and discuss the following questions:

1. Yes, it is. In the absence of scientific information of any kind, long ago societies all over the

world devised creation myths, resurrection myths, and complex systems of supernatural beings, each with specific powers, and stories about their actions. Since people were often isolated from each other, most myths evolved independently, but the various myths are surprisingly similar, in particular creation myths.

2. The first function of myth is the need: myth is a universal need. Over time, one version of a

myth would become the accepted standard that was passed down to succeeding generations, first through story-telling, and then, much later, set down in written form. Inevitably myths became part of systems of religion, and were integrated into rituals and ceremonies, which included music, dancing and magic.

The second function of myth is to justify an existing social system and to account for its rites and customs. One constant rule of mythology is whatever happens among the gods reflects events on earth. In this way, events such as invasions and radical social changes became incorporated into myths. Some myths, especially those from the Greco-Roman and medieval periods, also serve to illustrate moral principles, frequently through feats of heroism performed by mortals.

Exercises

I. Reading Comprehension

1. Yes, they are. Myths are significant stories for their culture, and their significance sometimes

resonates over millennia and far beyond their original culture. Myths permeate every culture, and are borrowed, retold, and live again in fresh imaginings. They are the stories of cultural beginnings, of how people's lives and ways of thinking came to be shaped, and they still help to shape the way that many people understand themselves and the world.

2. Explanatory myths pose and offer the answers to questions that puzzle the philosophers. Such

questions cannot be answered from a purely rational framework, and the greatest philosophers have sometimes resorted to the language of myth to treat such issues. On the

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3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. 10.

other hand, etiological myths explain the range of phenomena in the world by offering answers that science casts aside, as science has its own rational explanations for celestial visitors like comets and eclipses, phenomena of the weather, geological formations, and the like, but these myths still offer a truth of the imagination, if not the scientific truth that can be weighed and calculated and predicted.

Because myths give the peoples of the world reasons for ritual, and enforce certain social behaviors with promises of divine favor and real threats of divine punishment. Especially in tribal cultures, myths are potent means of socializing children into the ways of the people. Myths lay down the many important rules, for instance, for the right behavior toward animals that are hunted, or set up the precedent for a people's system of law.

This is due to the cultural differences. In times before literacy was widespread, in the days before the printing press, myths were told and retold countless times. Some cultures valued the precise words of their myths as sacred texts given to them by the gods, and they sought to transmit their myths in exactly the same way. Other cultures enjoyed varying the elements of the story, so that each time the myth was retold, it would be slightly different, with its listeners enjoying the variations as part of the pleasure of hearing this particular version of the traditional tale.

Besides using words as a medium to pass on myths from generation to generation, people also use sacred artworks or carvings on rocks, special dances or music, and ritual enactment to spread myths. Perhaps it is because all peoples have a thirst for insights into the mysteries of life, from the origin of consciousness to the end of the world. And myths tend to have an enduring power because they do not limit the world to statistically verifiable facts and figures, because they people the familiar world with wonder and marvel, and because they intersect humanity with the world of the animals and that of the gods. All myths stretch our ways of perceiving the world, and have the power to lift us away from our mental habits.

He says that we need the stories of myth to make sense of the confusion of our society and our own psyches. Myths voice the truths of our unconscious selves, and the gods, goddesses, and heroes of myth embody aspects of creativity, cleverness, grief, joy, aggression, and ecstasy. The monsters of myth are really monsters of the mind; the tragedies and triumphs of myth reflect upon the ways in which we seem to be tossed to and fro psychologically by forces that are beyond our control. Human beings are myth-makers by nature, always curious, always psychologically living out the patterns of myth or being lived out by them.

Because the printing press came into popular use, and it has helped to fix one form of a story as the correct version. Besides, radio, film, television, and video have also helped to fix more stories, which in turn discouraged the art of telling and retelling traditional stories over and over again.

The Internet. Myth may once again flourish in chat rooms and e-mail transmissions, on a scale far beyond that of the ancients.

Because in our life some popular figures are loved by people and sometimes they are even treated as people’s idols all over the world. When they died, people will use different ways to commemorate them and gradually the stories told about them will have different variations and become more or less myths.

II. Paraphrase

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1. For their own cultures, myths are important stories which are liked, enjoyed by the people

and they have lasted for thousands of years, and what is more, they even spread through all the other foreign cultures, and gain new versions, interpretations and variations while being told. (Para. 2)

2. Some myths explain the hard questions and describe the difficult phenomena which the

philosophers want to understand. (Para. 3)

3. Many myths focusing on the causes and reasons of the natural phenomena have their own

understandings and interpretations towards these things. But science does not think they are right because it has its own reasonable explanations for the space issues, for instance, the comets, the eclipses, the change of the weather, the geological formations and so on. But in these myths there is a certain truth although the truth cannot be regarded as the scientific one, as the latter can be measured and seen in advance. (Para. 4)

4. Myths give the people of all nationalities in the world the reasons for religious ceremonies, emphasize and strengthen the social manners. If they follow the practice, they can get the praise and honour from a god or God, otherwise, they will be likely punished by them. (Para. 5)

5. Most myth writers are unknown because they were told long before the writing came into

being, and only few of the first story tellers could be known. (Para. 6)

6. Myths are told in different forms. We can find them in the religious paintings, rock carvings,

unique dances or music, and religious performance. (Para. 7)

7. Certainly some myths give praise and thanks to a state or city, give religious punishment to

invasion and political control over other countries, but this is not the reason why these myths could last much longer than the state or the empire themselves for several thousand years. The reason is that in the myths there is something which is strong and super enough which makes the myths go far beyond the reason itself and the different cultures. (Para. 8)

8. Myths are likely to last longer because they do not restrict themselves to the confirmed facts

and numbers, because they give wonders and surprises to people in their normal life, and because they join the world of animals and the world of gods with the world of human beings. (Para. 9)

9. By nature human beings love to create myths because they want to know about things, and in

heart they want to experience the life style in myths or they wish the life style of myths could be part of their experience. (Para. 11)

10. The sudden, large increase of great sadness people felt over the death of Princess Diana is the

same as people all over the world felt over the much earlier and unexpected death of the Norse god Baldr. (Para. 13)

III. Word Practice

1. 5. 9. 13.

strenuous embody anonymous console

2. 6. 10. 14.

afresh transcend legitimate outlast

3. 7. 11. 15.

variation glorify cast ecstasy

4. permeated 8. precedent 12. commemorate

Extended Activities

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