在职硕士 共英语 Book B unit 1教案.docVIP

Unit one 1. Space is perceived感觉, 认知, 理解, 意识到 differently in different cultures. Spatial consciousness in many Western cultures is based on a perception of objects in space, rather than of space itself. Westerners perceive shapes and dimensions维度, in which space is a realm of light, color, sight, and touch. Benjamin L. Whorf, and his classic work Language, Thought and Reality, offers the following explanation as one reason why Westerners perceive space in this manner. Western thought and language mainly developed from the Roman, Latin-speaking culture, which was a practical, experience-based system. Western culture has generally followed Roman thought patterns in viewing objective “reality” as the foundation for subjective or “inner” experience. It was only when the intellectually crude Roman culture became influenced by the abstract thinking of Greek culture that the Latin language developed a significant vocabulary of abstract, nonspatial terms. But the early Roman-Latin element of spatial consciousness, of concreteness(concrete以物质形式存在的; 具体的; 实体的, has been maintained(保持或维持某事物maintain law and order 维持法治 retain, contain包含， detain滞留) in Western thought and language patterns模式, even though the Greek capacity (be capable of生产﹑ 体会﹑ 理解或学习的能力: She has an enormous capacity for hard work. 她有苦干的巨大能力. * Some people have a greater capacity for happiness than others. 有的人享得起福, 有的人享不起福. for abstract thinking and expression was also inherited(heritage遗产heir继承人)继承; 遗传. 2. However, some cultural-linguistic systems developed in the opposite direction, that is, from an abstract and subjective vocabulary to a more concrete one. For example, Whorf tells us that in the Hopi language the word heart, a concrete term, can be shown to be a late formation from the abstract terms think or remember. Similarly, although it seems to Westerners, and especially to Americans, that objective, tangible(clear and definite; real 明确的; 确切的; 真实的: tangible advantages 真正的优势 * tangible proof 确凿的证据 * the comp