THE ALL-IMPORTANT PUMPKIN

THE ALL-IMPORTANT PUMPKIN

For American, the simple pumpkin has come to symbolize everything that is important and meaningful about autumn. Everyone knows it is autumn when pumpkins begin to appear at roadside stands. Soon afterward, pumpkins will decorate doorsteps at Halloween. Then they will be part of Thanksgiving holiday decorations. They will also be baked into breads and pies. Farmers will know winter is near when morning frost is on the pumpkin.

Pumpkin and squash are believed to be the first food plants cultivated by the Native Americans. New England natives called them both askootasquash. The pilgrims, who were the first English settlers, shortened it to squash. Then they named the pumpkin from a Greek word, pepon, meaning a large melon. The natives cooked pumpkins in stews and fed uncooked pieces to their horses. They planted pumpkins around their corn. The natives taught the settlers how to plant it and eat it. Very quickly the pumpkin became a favorite and important garden vegetable. It was a healthy addition to the settler’s diets because it is rich in vitamins and minerals.

Eighteenth-century Americans used pumpkin seed tea for medicinal purposes. But of all the uses of pumpkins, none is as amusing as the way it was used by New Englanders, or “Yankees.” Yankee men used the pumpkin shell as a guide for cutting their hair! They put the pumpkin on their head and trimmed around its base. This gave rise to the expression “pumpkinhead,” which at first meant New Englander, and later meant someone who looked silly or stupid.

Every autumn there are pumpkin festivals held all over the country. They are a type of harvest celebration. Pumpkin queens and kings are named. Prizes are given for the biggest or the best-decorated pumpkin, or the best-tasting pumpkin pie. With the help of fertilizers, some pumpkins have been grown to the size of a small car.

Pumpkins are popular with children, not so much for eating as for making jack-o’-lanterns at Halloween. Most Americans don’t realize that this tradition comes all the way from Ireland and Scotland. It originated over 2,000 years ago with the Celts who lived in what is now France and the British Isles. They celebrated a harvest festival on October 31. It was a joyous occasion, but also in some ways a sad one. It marked the beginning of long, dark, cold winter. They believed that in the darkness, the spirits of the dead walked upon the earth. Great fires were built on the hills to protect the people from bad spirits. People hollowed out turnips, a root plant, and put a candle inside. They carried them if they went outside to protect themselves from evil spirits.

When the settlers came to the America, they brought their customs with them. They didn’t have turnips, so they use pumpkins instead. Today, of course, children look forward to Halloween and the carving of pumpkins. First the pumpkin is hollowed out and the seeds and pulp taken out. Then funny or scary faces are curved into the side. In the evening, a candle is put inside and the face glows in the dark. Sometimes pumpkins are painted and decorated. As Halloween approaches, jack-o’-lanterns pop up on doorsteps everywhere.

After Halloween, Americans look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday. Pumpkins and corn plants are often used as decorations during this time. They symbolize autumn and the spirit of the season. It is a time of giving thanks for the harvest, for the family, and for all the good things that families enjoy.

But pumpkins don’t only serve as symbols. They’re eaten too. The first settlers who depended on the pumpkin for food would be amazed to see how many ways it’s eaten today. Pumpkins are boiled, broiled, and baked. They are put in bread, cakes, pies, muffins, doughnuts, ice cream, pancakes, cookies, soups, and even hamburgers! Sometimes there seems to be no end to the uses of pumpkins. Who would ever have thought this simple little plant would get to be so popular!

--- From more about the USA

The plain people

The Plain People

It is still dark when Elizabeth wakes up. She gets out of bed and shivers when her feet touch the cold, bare floor. The bedroom is not heated, and it is so cold that she can see her breath. She quickly puts on her long dress, black apron, and black shoes. Then she hurries downstairs to the kitchen.

The only light in the kitchen comes from Kerosene lamps; Elizabeth’s husband lit the lamps earlier, before he went out to milk the cows. Elizabeth puts a few pieces of wood into the stove and starts the fire. Then she begins to prepare a big breakfast for herself, her husband, and their six children. It is a beginning of a typical day of Elizabeth.

Although Elizabeth’s day will be typical, her life is certainly not typical of modern life in the United States. Elizabeth belongs to a religious group known as the Amish. The Amish are often called the “Plain People” because they live and dress very simply. Their homes have no carpets on the floors, no pictures on the wall, and no soft, comfortable furniture. The men wear dark pants and white or blue shirts, and the women wear long dresses in dark colors. The women never wear makeup or jewelry.

The Amish have a saying: “The old way is the best way.” Although the Amish accept some new ideas—they use new medicines, for example—their way of life has not changed much in 300 years. They do not use electricity, so Amish homes have no electric lights, no TVs, and no kitchen appliances like refrigerators. The Amish don’t own telephone, either. They ride in buggies pulled by horses, and they speak German, the language that the first Amish people spoke.

The first Amish people lived in Germany and Switzerland. They were called Amish because their leader was Jacob Amman. The Amish were persecuted in Europe, so around 1700 they came to the New World. They settled in what is now the state of Pennsylvania.

Most of the Amish still live in Pennsylvania, although there are large communities in other states, too. All Amish, no matter where they live, have similar beliefs.

The Amish believe that life in the countryside is best. Almost all Amish live on farms. Amish farmers do not use modern machinery, yet their farms are successful because the Amish work hard and take good care of their land and animals. Their farms are always small. The Amish think it is wrong to have more land or more money than they need to live. A few years ago some Amish farmers discovered oil on their land. Was there a lot of oil under the ground or just a little? The Amish farmers didn’t want to know. They immediately sold their land and moved away, without telling anyone about the oil. They didn’t want to be rich.

The Amish, who are Christians, believe they should follow the peaceful example of Jesus. Amish men will not fight in the wars or served in the army. They will not even wear coats with buttons, because military uniforms often have large gold or silver buttons.

The Amish will not buy insurance of any kind. When there is trouble, they help one another. If an Amish farmer gets sick, relatives and neighbors will milk his cows, plant his fields, and harvest his crops. If a barn burns down, as many as 200 men will come and build a new barn in one day.

The Amish are not allowed to marry people who are not Amish. That has caused a peculiar problem. The 500 or so Amish who came to the New World in the 1700s had about 40 last names. The 100,000 Amish who live in the United States today are the descendants of those people—and have the same 40 last names. In one school in Pennsylvania, 95 percent of the students—and their teacher—have the last name “Stolzfus.” The Amish custom of choosing first name s from the Bible adds to the problem. In one small Amish community there are 11 men named Daniel Miller!

To avoid confusion, the Amish give nicknames to people who have the same name. Some nicknames have an obvious explanation: “Chicken Dan” sells chicken, for example; “Curly Dan” has curly hair. But what about “Gravy Dan”? How did he get his nickname? At dinner one evening this Dan want to pour some cream into his coffee. He reached for the pitcher of cream but took the pitcher of gravy by mistake and poured gravy into his coffee. Ever since that evening, his nickname has been “Gravy Dan.”

People are curious about the lives of Amish like Elizabeth and Gravy Dan. Every year thousands of tourists visit the part of Pennsylvania where most Amish live. They take pictures of the black buggies and the plain white houses. They watch Amish children as they walk to school and Amish men as they work in their fields. Most Amish are not happy about the tourists, but they tolerate them. Perhaps the Amish understand that the tourists want to experience, at least for a few days, the quieter, simpler Amish way of life.

The Spirit Of The Wolf

The Spirit Of The Wolf

The Native Americans had great respect for nature and all its creatures. They depended animals for food, clothing, and shelter. They also admired animals for their cunning, strength, and agility. Newborn babies were often named after an animal, such as Running Deer or Little Eagle. An important chief of the Cheyenne people was named High Backed Wolf. To Native Americans, the wolf was a very special animal.

The Native Americans believed that the world was filled with spirits that controlled their lives. All things in nature, such as the sun, the mountains, the snake, eagle, and wolf had a spirit within it. To honor the spirits and ask them for help, ceremonies were performed. One of them was the animal dance of the Cheyenne. For this ceremony, many special rites were performed. One was the painting of a wolfskin in a certain manner. Another was when the man put on skins of various animals, including the wolf. They danced around a special fire. It was believed this ceremony would bring the tribe good fortune when they went out to hunt. It was important to have the spirit of the wolf with them. The natives knew the wolf was a great hunter. They also admired its many other qualities.

In the wild, wolves have great strength and endurance. Their thick fur protects them from temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero. They travel in family groups called packs and are intelligent, loving and loyal. There are a number of wolf species. In America, Arctic wolf and timber wolf are found, as well as smaller and darker red wolf of Texas, and the Mexican wolf. Wolves can adapt to a variety of habitats.

The northern wolf is a very handsome animal that looks like a big, friendly dog. In the far north, it is often white. In the south, it is gray. Wolves are very social animals. They travel, hunt, and perform almost all other activities in the company of other wolves. A pack usually consists of a male and female that will stay together for life and have babies, or pups. They are constant and loving companions. The other members are usually their young, ranging in age from tiny pups to two- and three-year-olds. Most packs include six or seven members but have been known to include as many as 15.

The parent wolves are the leaders. The rest of the wolves, depending upon their age and strength, all have their own places. Their relationships are very complicated. Scientific studies have shown that wolf packs have complex rules that govern their behavior and the way they relate to each other. Their methods of communicating are also very elaborate. Although wolves make many different kinds of songs, the most famous is the howl. Wolves howl at any time, not just at night. It’s a way of sharing their closeness as a group. One wolf will point its nose toward the sky and start to howl. Immediately the other pack members will rush over and join him. The whole group is expected and happy. Packs also communicated with each other this way. They tell each other to stay out of their territory.

In wolf families, everything is done as a group, including the raising of the young. They trust and depend on each other from birth. Probably the most important activity in the life of the pack is hunting. Wolves are carnivorous, or meat eaters. They live on a variety of foods, from mice to fish to the larger deer and moose. Wolves only kill what they can eat. Hunting in packs is necessary for chasing and killing large prey. Wolves are never attack a large, healthy deer or moose, which can easily defend itself with sharp kicks. Wolves pursue herbs to find the sick or weak members. This may cruel, but they are actually doing the herd good by keeping it strong. Also, without the natural enemies, herds will overpopulate their territory and use up the food supply. Many will eventually starve. Wolves are needed to keep the balance of nature.

Unfortunately, the people who settled the America did not respect the wolf like the natives did. Over the years, wolves were hunted, poisoned, and destroyed in great numbers. They are now rare in North America. However, many people now believe the wolf has a rightful place among America’s wildlife. In some places, like the Yellowstone national park, they have been put back into the wild. There is much controversy about this. Ranchers believe the wolves will attack their herds. Hunters also don’t like the wolves in the wild. They want the deer to overpopulate so they can hunt them. At the same time, there are many people who are fighting to let the wolf once again roam freely in the remaining wild lands of America. The argument over putting wolves back into the wild is certain to continue for many years. Only time will tell whether they will one day be allowed to do that, and if the spirit of wolf will live on.

DEATH SPEAKS

DEATH SPEAKS
-- W. Somerset Maugham

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lend him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

LUCY

LUCY
－－－Jamaica Kincaid

It was January again; the world was thin and pale and cold again; I was making a new beginning again.

I had been a girl of whom certain things were expected, none of them too bad: a career as a nurse, for example; a sense of duty to my parents; obedience to the law and worship of convention. But in one year of being away from home, that girl had gone out of existence.

The person I had become I did not know very well. Oh, on the outside everything was familiar. My hair was the same, though now I wore it cut close to my head, and this made my face seem almost perfectly round, and so for the first time ever I entertained the idea that I might actually be beautiful. I knew that if I ever decided I was beautiful I would not make too big a thing of it. My eyes were the same. My ears were the same. The other important things about me were the same.

But the things I could not see about myself, the things I could not put my hands on—those things had changed, and I did not yet know them well. I understood that I was inventing myself, and I was doing this more in the way of a painter than in the way of a scientist. I could not count on precision or calculation; I could only count on intuition. I did not have anything exactly in mind, but when the picture complete I would know. I did not have position, I did not have money at my disposal. I had memory, I had anger, and I had despair.

I was born on an island, a very small island, twelve miles long and eight miles wide; yet when I left it at nineteen years of age I had never set foot on three-quarters of it. I had recently met someone who was born on the other side of the world from me but had visited this island on which my family had lived for generations; this person, a woman, said to me, “What a beautiful place, ” and she named a village by the sea and then went on to describe a view that was unknown to me. At the time I was so ashamed I could hardly make a reply, for I had come to believe that people in my position in the world should know everything about the place they are from.

When I told Mariah that I was leaving, she sail, “It’s not a year yet. You are supposed to stay for at least a year. ” Her voice was full of anger, but I ignored it. It’s always hard for the person who is left behind. And even as she said it she must have known how hollow it sounded, for it was only a matter of weeks before it would be a year since I had come to live with her. The reality of her situation was now clear to her: she was a woman whose husband had betrayed her. I wanted to say this to her: “Your situation is an everyday thing. Men behave in this way all the time. The ones who do not behave this way are the exceptions to the rule.” But I knew what her response would have been. She would have said, “What a cliché.” She would have said, “What do you know about these things?” And she would have been right; it was a cliché, and I had no personal experience of a thing like that. But all the same, where I came from every woman knew the cliché, and a man like Lewis would not have been a surprise; his behavior would not have cast a pall over any woman’s life. It was expected. Everybody knew that men have no morals, that they do not know how to behave, that they do not know how to treat other people. It was why men like laws so much; it was why they had to invent such things—they need a guide. When they are not sure what to do, they consult this guide. If the guides give them advice they don’t like, they change the guide. This was something I knew; why didn’t Mariah know it, also? And if I were to tell it to her she would only show me a book she had somewhere which contradicted everything I said- a book most likely written by a woman who understood absolutely nothing.

The holidays came, and they did feel like a funeral, for so many things had died. For the children’s sake, she and Lewis put up a good front. He came and gone, doing all the things he would have done if he were still living with them. He bought the fir tree, bought the children the presents they wanted, bought Mariah a coat made up from the skins of small pesty animals who lived in the ground. She, of course, hated it, but for appearance’s sake kept her opinion to herself. He must have forgotten that she was not a sort of person who would wear the skin of another being if she could help it. Or perhaps in the rush of things he gave his old love his new love’s present. Mariah gave me a necklace made up of pretty porcelain beads and small polished balls of wood. She said it was the handiwork of someone in Africa. It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever given me.

The New Year came, and I was going somewhere new again. I gathered my things together; I had a lot more than when I first came. I had new clothes, all better suited to this new climate now I lived in. I had a camera and prints of photographs I had taken, prints I had made myself. But mostly I had books- so many books, and they were mine; I would not have to part with them. It had always been a dream of mine to just own a lot of books, to never part with a book once I had read it. So there they were, resting nicely in small boxes—my own books, the books that I had read. Mariah spoke to me harshly all the time now, and she began to make up rules which she insisted me to follow; and did, for after all what else could she do? It was a last resort for her—insisting that I be the servant and she the master. She used to insist that we be friends, but that apparently not worked out very well, for now I was leaving. The master business did not become her at all, and it made me sad to see her that way. Still, it made me remember what my mother said to me many times: for my whole life I should make sure the roof over my head was my own; such a thing was important, especially if you were a woman.

On the day I actually left, there was no sun; the sky had shut if out tightly. It was a Saturday. Lewis had taken the children to eat snails at a French restaurant. All four of them liked such things—and just as well, for that went with the life they were expected to lead eventually. Mariah helped me put my things in a taxi. It was a cold goodbye on her part. Her voice and her face were stony. She did not hug me. I did not take any of this personally; someday we would be friends again. I was numb, but it was from not knowing just what this new life would hold for me.

PUT HANDS ON: understand easily
COUNT ON: depend on
CLICHE: an idea or expression that has been used too much
CAST A PALL: produce a dark covering; create sadness
PUT UP A GOOD FRONT: face a situation with pretended confidence
A LAST RESORT: a last possibility
DID NOT BECOME HER: was not appropriate for her

TWO KINDS

Two Kinds
---From The Joy Luck Club

My mother believed you could be anything you want to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.

“Of course you can be prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine. “You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.”

America was where all my mother’s hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, two baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.

Every night after dinner, my mother and I would sit at the Formica kitchen table. She would present new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children she had read in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, or Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, and a dozen other magazines from people whose house she cleaned. And since she cleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would look through them all, searching for stories about remarkable children.

The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old boy who knew the capitals of all the states and even most of the European countries. A teacher was quoted as saying the little boy could also pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly.

“What’s the capital of Finland?” my mother asked me, looking at the magazine story.

All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento was the name of the street we lived on in Chinatown. “Nairobi!” I guessed, saying the most foreign word I could think of. She checked to see if that was possibly one way to pronounce “Helsinki” before showing me the answer.

The tests got harder-multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London.

One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I could remember. “Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and … that’s all I remember, Ma,” I said.

And after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that night, I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back- and that it would always be this ordinary face- I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made highpitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.

And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me-because I had never seen that face before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. This girl and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or other thoughts filled with lots of won’ts. I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not.

The Oyster

Up to this evening, which should have been the most delightful of all, everything had been delightful. “Delightful” was Gopal’s new word. “London is delightful,” he wrote home. “The college is delightful, Professor William Morgan is delightful and so is Mrs. Morgan and the little Morgans, but perhaps,” he added with pain, for he had to admit that the Morgan children were rough and spoiled, “perhaps not so delightful if you see them for a very long time… The hostel is delightful… I find my work delightful.” He had planned to write home that Paris was delightful. “We went to a famous French restaurant in the rue Perpignan,” he had meant to write, “it is called the Chez Perpignan. It is de-” Now tears made his dark eyes bright; he could not write that; it was not delightful at all.

Gopal’s family lived in Bengal; they were Brahmini Hindus and his mother kept the household to orthodox ways in spite of all he and his elder brother could do. Now Gopal saw her orthodox food: and flat brass platters of rice, the pile of luchis--flaky, puffed, pale gold biscuits—the vegetable fritters fried crisp, the great bowl of lentil puree, and the small accompanying bowls of relishes—shredded coconut or fried onion or spinach or chilis in tomato sauce or chutney, all to be put on the rice. He saw fruit piled on banana leaves, the bowl of fresh curd, the milk or orange or bel-fruit juice in the silver drinking tumblers; no meat or fish, not even eggs, were eaten in that house. “We shall not take life, ” said his mother. Gopal looked down at his plate in the Perpignan and shuddered.

He had come to Europe with shining intentions, eager, anxious to do as the Romans did, as the English, the French, as Romans everywhere. “There will be things you will not be able to stomach,” he had been warned; so far he had stomached everything. His elder brother Jai had been before him and had come back utterly accustomed to everything Western dishes; they ate meat, even beef, but not in their own home. “Not while I live,” said his mother.


Oyster: shellfish (used as food and usually eaten uncooked) some types of which produce pearls inside their shells 牡蛎，蠔
Orthodox: generally accepted
Chutney: hot-tasting mixture of fruit, vinegar, sugar and spices, eaten with curries, cold meat, cheese, etc. 酸辣酱
Hostel: a building that offers student rooms and meals at reasonable prices
Take life: kill
Shining intentions: the best intentions
As the Romans did: this refers to the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Stomach: accept, tolerate
relish: spicy or strongly-flavored appetizer served with plain food 开胃小菜

New words(2)

TIMBER
Timber is wood or trees grown for use in building.

ECCENTRIC
Eccentric people are strange and behave in an unusual manner.

ON RECORD
Facts or events on record are written down and preserved.

VAST
Something great in size is vast.

REEFS
Reefs are lines of rocks or sand near the surface of the sea.

THAW
When something frozen becomes soft or liquid it thaws.

MOSS
Mosses are small, flat, green or yellow plants without flowers that grow like a thin carpet on wet soil.

RANGE
A connected line or chain of mountains is a range.

SPECTACULAR
Something spectacular is sensational and striking to watch.

NATURAL PHENOMENON
An unusual event in nature is a natural phenomenon.

New words (1)

DESPERATELY
To suffer from extreme need of something is to need it desperately.

SKIDDED OFF
If a vehicle skidded off the road, it would have slipped sideways out of control.

UNTANGLED
When something is untangled, the twisted parts are made free.

TRAIL
A path across rough or wild country is a trail.

SLED DOG TEAM
A group of dogs working together to pull a small vehicle for sliding along snow is a sled dog team.

GRUELING
Something that is very hard and exhausting is grueling.

FRIGID
Extremely cold is frigid.

STAMINA
A person with stamina has a strong body or mind to fight tiredness and keep on going.

VIGOROUS
Exercise that demands a lot of force and energy is vigorous.

KENNEL
A place where dogs are kept is a kennel.

Idiom (1)

Down-to-Earth: practical and simple

For the birds: bad idea; worthless; stupid

Get one's kicks: to do something for fun or excitement

Go banana: to becoming excited

Have a ball: to have a lot of fun

Let something out of the bag: to reveal a secret

Don't desert me: don't leave me alone

Grew on someone: to gradually become better liked by someone
I didn't like him at first, but he is grew on me.

Early bird<--->Night owl
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
The early bird catches the worm.

Cream of the crop: the best of the group

Give someone a shot: give someone a chance

Go to great pains: special effort
You went to great pains to prepare those delicious food.

Have something down cold: to know something very well

Judge a book by its cover: form an opinion based on appearance

On the ball: clever, capable and efficient

Once in a blue moon: rarely, not often

One in a million: special, unique, unusual