3MalcolmXdepictedhowthenextmorningHe had left behind the narrow, ignorant world5when he woke up, he kept thinking aboutof hisyouthtojoin theworld communityofthe words he had copied and read aloud andthoughts and actions ever since he started withabout the acquisition of the knowledge hehis great journey of learning English in prison.(Para.10)was pursuing. (Para.6)4With every succeeding page he copied andread aloud, Malcolm X found he was learningandrememberingmoreandmorewords.(Para.7)TextBMalcolmX was an African-American civil rights activist,religiousleader,writer,andspeaker. Born in 1925, he was mysteriously assassinated in 1965.By the time of hisdeath,hisowntelling ofhis life story,TheAutobiography of MalcolmX,had beenwidelyknown.He was born Malcolm Littleinto a poor household.Later, he took thename Malcolm X after joining an organization called the Nation of Islam, a religiousgroup that had changed major practices and beliefs of mainstream Islam to apply morespecificallyto the condition of African-American people in theUnited States in theearly1960s.MalcolmXlearnedabouttheNationofIslamwhileinprisonforcommittingcriminalacts suchas theft.Becausehewaspoorlyeducated, hefelt inadequatetoteachhisnewbeliefs to others. As a young man, he could sketch his thoughts with poor grammarand little vocabulary using the simple,unsophisticated language of people on thestreet. As an adult, when he tried to inform people about his new beliefs at a rally, hefound thathedidn't havetheadequate communication skillsheneeded.Inhis ownwords, he"wasn't even functional".3Inabidtoincreasehisknowledgeand improvehisskills,desperateMalcolmXdeviseda scheme. He turned to books, believing this would be beneficial. However, when hetried to read serious books on his own, he was distressed as he didn't know most of thewords."Theymight as well have been in Chinese,"hewrote.He skipped all thewordshe didn't know and then would end up with no clue as to what the book was about."lbecame frustrated," Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography, speaking of his inadequatelanguageskills.18New Horizon College English Third Edition
Thegreat journeyof learningMalcolmX's considerablefrustration athis inabilityto read andwrite launched himona questto overcomehis deficiencies.Hesaid,"I saw that the best thing I could do wasget hold of a dictionary-to study,to learn some words."And hewas lucky enough toreason also that he should try to improvehis handwriting.It was sad.I couldn't evenwrite in a straight line,"he told us.These ideas together moved him to appeal to theprison authorities forsomepaperandpencils.For the first two days, Malcolm X just skimmed through the pages of the dictionarytrying to negotiate his way through its unfamiliar format. He told us of his amazementathowcloselyrelatedthewordsseemed.Howmoistcouldbetherootofmoisture,andadvisableandadvisoryhadthesamerootword!"Ididn'tknowwhichwordsIneededtclearn,"hesaid,"finally,justto start somekind ofaction,I began copying."Inhis slow,careful,crudehandwriting,MalcolmXcopiedeverythingonthefirstfullpageofthedictionary into a notebook.Heeven copied thequotationmarks!This took him onefull day.Afterthat,hereadeverythinghehadwrittenaloud.Overand over,aloudto myself, I read my own handwriting,"Malcolm recalled.He also logged importantthings that happened every day.Repetition helped move him from basic literacytowardtrueproficiency.6MalcolmXdepictedhowthenextmorningwhenhewokeup,hekeptthinkingaboutthewordshehad copied and read aloud and aboutthe acquisitionof theknowledgehe was pursuing.It was a marvelous feeling.He felt immenselyproud.19LanguageinmissionNITJ
He was so fascinated that he went on copying the dictionary's next page. Once againhe awoke,proud and energized.With every succeeding page he copied and read aloud,Malcolm X found he was learning and remembering more and more words. With eachsuccessive day, his confusion diminished.AsMalcolmX'swordbasebroadened,hebegantobetterunderstandthebookshereadIt was the first time in his life this had ever happened,"Anyone who has read a greatdeal can imagine the new world that opened." From then until he left that prison,his concentration was focused on reading.He was soabsorbed in it.Months passedwithout his even thinking about being in prison."In fact, up to then, I never had beenso truly free in my life.""I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life,"MalcolmXwrote.HedescribedhowonedayawritertelephonedhimfromLondonforan interview. The interviewer asked Malcolm X what college he had graduated from ashe could write so fluently.He told the Englishman that his own personal universitywas"books".1oMalcolmX's life is a wonderful example of the profound effect of learning a language.Hewas bornintoa world full of povertyandignorance.However,asheacquiredknowledge, his horizons expanded. He had left behind the narrow, ignorant world ofhis youth to join the world community of thoughts and actions ever since he startedwith his great journey of learning English in prison.(830words)Culture notesAfrican-American people:black people living in the USwhoaredescendedfromfamiliesthatoriginallycamefromAfrica.the Nation of Islam:a religious group which wasfoundedinthe1930sandflourished intheUSintheearly1960s.It attracted manyAfricanAmericans whosegoalwastoachievetruefreedomand independence.20New Horizon College English Third Edition
New wordsactivist/'aktivist/[C]sb.whoworksharddoingpracticalthingstoachievesocial orn.politicalchange活动家；积极分子mysterious/mr'stiorias/difficulttoexplainorunderstand神秘的难以解释的a.ad.神秘地：难以解释地mysteriously/mi'stioriosli/assassinate/a'saesinert/ut.murderanimportantperson暗杀；行刺autobiographyn.[C, U] a book in which sb.writes about their own life, or books of this/o:taobar'pgrafi/type自传household/haushauld/n.[C]all thepeoplewholivetogether inone house家庭；一家人mainstream/mein,stri:m/(onlybefore noun)considered ordinary ornormal and accepted or used bya.mostpeople主流的(the~)ideas, methods, or people that are considered ordinary or normaln.andacceptedbymostpeople主流specifieally/spa'sifikli/ad. 1 relating to or intended for one particular type of person or thing only特定地：具体地：专门地2inadetailedorexactway详尽地：明确地inadequate/in'edrkwat/a.notgood enough,big enough,skilled enough,etc.fora particular purpose（对某一特定目的而言）不够好的，不足的，不强的sketch /sketj/1describesth.inageneralway,givingthebasicideas概述；简述2makeaquick，roughdrawingofsth.（给画）速写：（给画）素描[C] a shortaccount of sth.withonlya fewdetails概略；大要.rally/'rali/[C] a large public meeting,esp.one that is held outdoors to support a1.politicalidea，protest，etc.大型公众集会（尤指支持某政治观点、抗议等在户外举行的集会）functional/fankfnal/workinginthewaythatsth.issupposedto正常运转的a.bid/bid/[C】1anattempttoachieveorobtainsth.（为争取某物而作出的）努力n.2anoffertopayaparticularpriceforsth.，esp.atanauction（尤指拍卖的）出价desperate/'desp(a)rat/1 willing to do anything to change a verybad situation, and not caringa.aboutdanger（由于处在绝境而）不惜冒险的，拼命的，绝望的2needingorwantingsth.verymuch非常需要的；极其需要的devise /dr'vaizlut.planorinventanewwayofdoingsth.想出；设计；发明scheme/ski:m/n.[C]aplanforachievingsth。（为取得某项成功而制定的）计划clue/klur/[C]informationthathelps sb.understandandfindtheanswer（帮助理解n.和找到答案的）线索quest/kwest/[C]alongsearchforsth.thatisdifficulttofind（长期的）探索，追求n.appeal/e'pi://vi.makea seriouspublicrequestforhelp,money,information,etc.思请；求；呼skim/skim/readsth.quicklytofindthemainfactsorideasinit浏览，略读（以找出主u.要信息）21UNIT1Language inmission
negotiate/nr'gaufieit/1 successfully deal with sth. that is preventing you from achieving an aim1（成功地）解决，处理，克服2 try to reach an agreementby discussing sth.in a formal way,esp.in abusinessorpoliticalsituation（尤指在商业或政治上）谈判，协商format/fo:maet/[C]thearrangement,design，ororganizationofsth.设计；安排；组织方式n.moist/morst/slightlywetesp.inawaythatispleasantorsuitable潮润的；微湿的；湿润的a.moisture/'morstfa[U] small amounts of water that are present in the air, in a substance,orn.onasurface水分；水汽；湿气advisable/ad'vaizobl/acceptable，appropriate，sensible可取的；适当的；明智的a.advisory/ad'vaiz()ri/havingthepurposeofgivingadvice顾问的；咨询的a.crude/krurd/1notdevelopedtoa highstandard,ormadewithlittleskill粗制的；粗糙的a.2unrefined，rawornatural未经提炼的；未经加工的；天然的quotation/kwau'teifn/[U] a sentence or phrase from a book, speech, etc. which you repeat in an.speechorpieceofwriting引语；引文quotation mark[C, usu.pl.]引号n.recall/rrko:/rememberaparticularfact,event,orsituationfromthepast回想；回忆起Ulog/lpg/ut.makeanofficialrecordofevents，facts,etc.正式记录（事件、事实等）cutdowntrees伐木；砍伐Urepetition/,repa'tifn/[U]doing or sayingthesamethingmany times重复n.literacy /lit(a)rasi/[U]thestateofbeingabletoreadandwrite有读写能力；有文化n.depict /dr'pikt/ut.(fml.)describe sth.or sb.in writing or speech, or show them in a painting,pictureetc，描写；描述；描绘acquisition /,aekwi'zifn/[U]theprocessbywhichyougainknowledgeorlearnaskill（知识、技能的）获得，习得marvelous /'maivalas/extremelygood，enjoyableimpressive,etc.极好的；绝妙的；了不起的a.successive/sak'sesiv/(onlybeforenoun)coming orfollowing one afterthe other连续的；连接的：a.相继的confusion/kan'fjui3n/[C, U] a feeling that you do not understand sth. or cannot decide what ton.do困惑；混乱diminish/dr'minifu.becomeormakesth.becomesmallerorless（使）减少；（使）变小concentration/,kpnsn'trerfn/[U]theprocessofgivingallyourattentiontosth.集中精力；专心；专注n.fluent/'flurant/fluent speech orwriting is smooth and confident,withnomistakes（语言a.或文字）流畅熟练的fluently/flurontli/ad．（语言或文字）流畅熟练地poverty /'ppvati/Uthesituationorexperienceofbeingpoor贫穷；贫困n.ignorance/ignarans/[U]lackofknowledgeorinformationaboutsth.无知；愚味n.horizon/ha'raizn/1（~s)[pl.]thelimitofone'sideas,knowledge,andexperience（思想、知n.识以及经验的）范围，界限；眼界2(the~)the line farawaywhere theland or sea seems tomeet the sky地平线22NewHorizon CollegeEnglish Third Edition