English around the world教案
d.are immigrants from english-speaking countries
2.in the past the non-english immigrants____________.
a.didn’t know how to learn english
b.found that english was not important
c.learned english through books
d.paid special attention to teaching english
3.____________is the most widely used language except english in the u.s.
a.esl b.french c.spanish d.chinese
4.the phrase “pick up” in the second paragraph means “____________”.
a.try to master b.repeat again and again
c.go to school sometimes d.learn without studying or taking lessons
5.esl programs teach the students____________.
a.only grammatical rules and idioms
b.to use english through practice
c.different languages
d.to learn english by translating their own native languages into english
answers：1.b 2.a 3.c 4.d 5.b
words and idioms
to break your neck 美國(guó)人在講話和寫(xiě)文章的時(shí)候經(jīng)常用一些和人體各部分有關(guān)系的成語(yǔ)或俗語(yǔ)。本文介紹的兩個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)就是和脖子（neck）有關(guān)的。在美國(guó)英語(yǔ)里有一些習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)都和neck 這個(gè)詞有聯(lián)系，但是它們的意思卻各不相同。例如to break your neck，它的意思并不是指你的脖子真的斷了，而是盡一切力量努力去做某件事的意思。
i wish sam would study harder，because i am breaking my neck to scrape up the money to keep him in college.我希望薩姆念書(shū)再用功一些，因?yàn)槲乙恢痹谙氡M辦法湊足錢(qián)好讓他繼續(xù)念大學(xué)。
美國(guó)人的生活是很緊張的，節(jié)奏很快，人人感到壓力很大。可是，下面這個(gè)例子說(shuō)的是那個(gè)修電視機(jī)的工人當(dāng)天運(yùn)氣比較好，碰到了一個(gè)好顧客。這位顧客對(duì)他說(shuō)：
you don’t have to break your neck fixing this tv set：i really don’t need it next week.你不必趕緊修這個(gè)電視機(jī)，我下星期并不需要它。
“to stick your neck out”有時(shí)把脖子伸得太長(zhǎng)是很危險(xiǎn)的。中國(guó)話里有“槍打出頭鳥(niǎo)”的說(shuō)法，在英文里就是“to stick your neck out.”據(jù)說(shuō)，“to stick your neck out”這個(gè)說(shuō)法是用來(lái)形容烏龜?shù)奶幘车摹．?dāng)烏龜?shù)念^縮在烏龜殼里的時(shí)候，一切都很安全。可是，一旦它們把頭伸出來(lái)，那可就危險(xiǎn)了。現(xiàn)在，“to stick your neck out”已經(jīng)成為美國(guó)人在日常生活中常用的表達(dá)形式了，它的意思是不顧一切地硬來(lái)、擔(dān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
i think my boss is dead wrong about hiring his son-in law，but i’m not going to stick my neck out and tell him!我認(rèn)為我的老板雇用他的女婿是絕對(duì)錯(cuò)誤的，但是我才不去冒那風(fēng)險(xiǎn)告訴他呢！
可是，不怕?lián)L(fēng)險(xiǎn)的人還是有的。下面這個(gè)人就是在稱(chēng)贊他們州的國(guó)會(huì)議員：
i admire our congressman—he’s one politician who’s not afraid to stick his neck out and say what he really thinks，even if it costs him some votes.我很欽佩我們的國(guó)會(huì)議員。他是一個(gè)敢于冒風(fēng)險(xiǎn)說(shuō)自己心里話的政治家，即使那樣做會(huì)使他失去一些選票。