世纪大学生英语.ppt

Unit 1; Pre-reading Activities Intensive Study Exercises Review of Text A; Listening Comprehension Pre-reading Questions;Who was Winston Churchill? What positions did he hold in the British government? What about his personality? What do you know about Winston Churchill and the two World Wars?;;;;;; Winston Churchill — His Other Life by Mary Soames 1 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. ;2 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!” 3 One day when he was wandering in the garden, he chanced upon his sister-in-law?sketching with? watercolors. 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. ;4 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. 5 Painting in oils turned out to be Winstons great love – but the first steps were strangely difficult. He contemplated the?blank whiteness of his first canvas with?unaccustomed nervousness. He later recalled: ;6 “Very?hesitantly I selected a tube of blue paint, and with? infinite?precaution made a mark about as big as a bean on the