Unit 5

Text A

Pre-reading Activities

First Listening
Before listening to the tape, have a quick look at the following words.

dropout
退学生

deal
待遇

Second Listening
Listen to the tape again and then choose the best answer to each of the following questions.

1. Which of the following is true of Malcolm X's education?
A) He had a degree from a good college.
B) He left school at an early age.
C) He did not attend school because he was a criminal.
D) He wishes he could have gone to college instead of prison.
2. What was Malcolm X's motivation to educate himself in prison?
A) To be able to converse and debate well.
B) To impress the prison authorities.
C) To help other black Americans.
D) To get a better job when he got out.
3. How did Malcolm X begin to study?
A) By reading books he knew from high school.
B) By talking and debating with other prisoners.
C) By copying the dictionary over manually.
D) By taking a course called "Prison Studies."
4. Which of the following best expresses Malcolm X's attitude towards reading?
A) He liked it because he learned many important facts.
B) He loved it because it made him more knowledgeable and mentally alive.
C) He saw it as a tool to advance himself in society.
D) He found it difficult because his language skills "were a mess."

Prison Studies

Malcolm X

Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I've said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.
It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn't contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.
I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary—to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship. It was sad. I couldn't even write in a straight line. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.
I spent two days just thumbing uncertainly through the dictionary's pages. I've never realized so many words existed! I didn't know which words I needed to learn. Finally, to start some kind of action, I began copying.
In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.
I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I've written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.
I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words—immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I've written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn't remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary's first page right now, that "aardvark" springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.
I was so fascinated that I went on—I copied the dictionary's next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary's A section had filled a whole tablet—and I went on into the B's. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. I went a lot faster after so much practice helped me to pick up handwriting speed. Between what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words.
I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something; from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have got me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors, and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life...
As you can imagine, especially in a prison where there was heavy emphasis on rehabilitation, an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books. There was a sizable number of well-read inmates, especially the popular debaters. Some were said by many to be practically walking encyclopedias. They were almost celebrities. No university would ask any student to devour literature as I did when this new world opened to me, of being able to read and understand.
I read more in my room than in the library itself. An inmate who was known to read a lot could check out more than the permitted maximum number of books. I preferred reading in the total isolation of my own room.
When I had progressed to really serious reading, every night at about ten p.m. I would be outraged with the "lights out." It always seemed to catch me right in the middle of something engrossing.
Fortunately, right outside my door was a corridor light that cast a glow into my room. The glow was enough to read by, once my eyes adjusted to it. So when "lights out" came, I would sit on the floor where I could continue reading in that glow.
At one-hour intervals the night guards paced past every room. Each time I heard the approaching footsteps, I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes—until the guard approached again. That went on until three or four every morning. Three or four hours of sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the years in the streets I had slept less than that.
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books." You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man...
Every time I catch a plane, I have with me a book that I want to read—and that's a lot of books these days. If I weren't out here every day battling the white man, I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity—because you can hardly mention anything I'm not curious about. I don't think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college. I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions. Where else but in prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?
(1 258 words)

New Words

emulate
vt. imitate, especially from respect 仿效，模仿

penmanship
n. the skill or style of handwriting 书写的技巧（或风格），书法

tablet
n. 1. a pad of writing paper glued together along one edge 便笺簿，拍纸簿
2. 药片

thumb
vi. (through) turn the pages of (a book, etc.) quickly 迅速翻阅（书等）

painstaking
a. done with, requiring or taking great care or trouble 刻苦的，下苦功的；煞费苦心的

punctuation
n. 标点符号 (=punctuation mark)

burrow
vt. dig (a hole, etc.) 挖（洞等）

mammal
n. 哺乳动物

termite
n. 白蚁

anteater
n. any of several mammals that feed largely or entirely on ants or termites 食蚁动物

miniature
a. very much smaller in size than is usual or normal 微型的，小型的

inevitable
a. incapable of being avoided or evaded 不可避免的

word-base
n. the vocabulary one commands 词汇量

broaden
v. (cause to) become broad(er) （使）变宽，（使）变阔，扩大

bunk
n. a narrow bed built into a wall like a shelf （倚壁而设的）床铺

wedge
n. 1. 楔子
2.（打高尔夫球用的）楔形铁头球棒

correspondence
n. communication by letters 通信

correspond
vi. 1. (with) 通信
2. (to, with) 相符合；成一致
3. (to) 相当，相类似

imprison
vt. put or keep (sb.) in or as if in prison 监禁，关押；禁锢

rehabilitation
n. restoration to a condition of health or useful and constructive activity 康复；（罪犯的）改造

inmate
n. a person confined (as in a prison or hospital) 囚徒；被收容者；住院者

intense
a. existing in an extreme degree 强烈的，极度的

well-read
a. well informed or deeply versed through reading 博学的，博览群书的

debater
n. 辩论家，好辩论者

devour
vt. enjoy avidly 贪婪地看（或听、读等）

literature
n. 文学，文学作品

maximum
n. the greatest quality or value attainable or attained 最大值，最大限度
a. as high, great, intense, etc. as possible 最高的；最大的；最强的

isolation
n. solitude 隔离；孤立

outrage
vt. make very angry and shocked 激怒；激起…的义愤
n. 1. a feeling of great anger and shock 义愤，愤怒
2. a very cruel, violent, and shocking action or event 暴行；骇人听闻的事件

engrossing
a. taking up sb.'s attention completely 使人全神贯注的

corridor
n. a passageway into which compartments or rooms open 走廊，过道

interval
n. a space of time between events; a space between objects, points or states （时间的）间隔；间歇；（空间的）间隔；空隙

footstep
n. 脚步，脚步声

feign
vt. give a false appearance of 假装，佯作

light-glow
n. 灯光

vista
n. 远景；前景

dormant
a. temporarily inactive 暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

confer
vt. give or grant (a degree or title) to sb. 授予（某人）（学位或头衔）
vi. discuss, talk together 讨论，商谈

sensitivity
n. the quality or state of being sensitive 敏感（性）

dumbness
n. lack of power of speech 哑

alma mater
n. a school, college, or university which one has attended or from which one has graduated 母校

intensively
ad. 加强地；集中地；密集地；透彻地

ignorance
n. the state or fact of lacking knowledge 无知，愚昧

Phrases and Expressions

in person
physically present亲身，亲自

take charge of
take control of; become responsible for 控制；掌管

go through the motions (of doing sth.)
pretend to do sth.; do sth. without sincerity or serious intention 装出（做某事的）样子；敷衍

get hold of
take in the hands; manage to find 抓住；得到，找到
along with
together with 与…一起

thumb through
turn over (pages, etc.) quickly with one's thumb 用拇指迅速地翻阅（书页等）

down to
下至，直到

live off
have as food; depend upon for support 以…为食；靠…生活

stick out (cause to) project, stand out 伸出，突出

pick up
gain (speed) 增加（速度）

up to
up until 直到

smile upon
direct a smile towards; approve of or favor 对…微笑；赞许；惠及

check out
have the removal (of sth.) recorded 登记借出
adjust to
become used to 适应于

reflect upon /on
think deeply about; consider carefully 沉思；仔细考虑

confer on /upon
give (an honor, etc.) to (sb.) formally 把（某种荣誉等）授予（某人）

Proper Names

Malcolm X
马尔科姆·艾克斯（1925 — 1965，美国黑人领袖）

Charlestown
查尔斯顿（美国地名）

Bimbi
宾比（男子名）

Norfolk
诺福克（美国地名）

Elijah Muhammad
伊莱贾·穆罕默德（1897 — 1975，美国黑色穆斯林教派领袖）