Week 6

青少年文學 week 6

1.defy

(v)

1. to challenge the power of; resist boldly or openly: to defy parental authority.

2. to offer effective resistance to: a fort that defies attack.

3. to challenge (a person) to do something deemed impossible:

ex: They defied him to dive off the bridge.

4. Archaic. to challenge to a combat or contest.

(n)

1. a challenge

ex: But Tesla Motors, the electric sports car manufacturer, continues to defy gravity.

ex: In the shorter term, the bottom line is that the pill, like all modern medicine, allows our bodies to defy nature.

ex: And they began searching for Republican senators who had dared to defy the will of the unions.

2.defiant

(adj)

1.      characterized by defiance; boldly resistant or challenging: a defiant attitude.

ex: It's a snap of the matador's red cape, a defiant baiting of Fox News and talk radio.

ex: A defiant group of women have pledged online to hit the road and go for a little drive in Saudi Arabia on October 26, 2013.

ex: The defiant shake-your-fist-at-authority message roused teenagers around the country, who turned the song into a Top 40 hit.

3.losing family  obliges us to find one

The story of an unlikely friendship between a reclusive author and an academically gifted African American teenager, who turn out to be spiritual teachers for each other.

Jamal (Rob Brown) is a 16-year-old African American who lives in the Bronx with his single-parent mother. He attends high school in the ghetto and hides his academic brilliance from his peers by pretending to only be interested in basketball. But when he gets very high scores on his achievement tests, he is offered a chance to transfer to Mailor-Callow, an exclusive private school in Manhattan.

One day while playing basketball with his friends, Jamal takes them up on a dare to break into the apartment of a neighborhood recluse they call "the Window." He does so but while wandering around one of his rooms, he is scared away by the man. He flees without saying anything, leaving his backpack behind. Later, he finds it on the sidewalk and discovers that his journals inside have been marked up with comments on his writing. Jamal goes back to talk to the mysterious man and discovers he is William Forrester (Sean Connery), a writer whose first novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954. The author agrees to tutor Jamal as long as he doesn't ask any questions about him, his family, or why he never wrote another book. The boy also promises to keep their relationship secret.

Meanwhile, Jamal decides to attend the private school. Belong long he is a star on their basketball team. He picks up a friend in Claire (Anna Paquin), the daughter of Dr. Spence (Michael Nouri), a member of the Mailor-Callow school board. He also makes an enemy in Robert Crawford (F. Murray Abraham), an English professor who is threatened by Jamal's creativity.

Spiritual writer Denise Linn has observed: "My old Chinese teacher used to say that a person will draw to himself those who want what he has to offer. So, whatever your level of ability, whoever comes to you, knows within his higher self what you have to offer. And what you have to offer is what that person needs at that time." This gracious dynamic plays out beautifully in the screenplay by Mike Rich. Jamal practices writing in Forrester's quiet apartment, even using the great author's material as a spur to his own essay for a school writing contest.

The boy in turn is a facilitator for Forrester, opening up his life to a wider world. Jamal takes him to a basketball game at Madison Square Garden but the writer is overwhelmed by the push of the crowds. The resourceful youth then takes his friend to a deserted Yankee Stadium where his brother Terrell (Busta Rhymes) works as a parking attendant. There on the baseball field, Forrester, grateful for this birthday gift, breaks down and shares a bit of personal history about his close relationship with his brother.

Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) accentuates the give-and-take in this unlikely friendship. It's a story of the lost and found, or as it says in Jamal's essay: "Losing family . . . obliges us to find our family. Not always the family that is our blood, but the family that can become our blood. And should we have the wisdom to open our door to this new family, . . . we will find that the wishes and hopes we once had . . . for the father who once guided us, for the brother who once inspired us, . . . those wishes are there for us once again."

4. Remarkable

(adj)

unusual or special and therefore surprising and worth mentioning

ex: Nelson Mandela was a truly remarkable man.

ex: Meeting you here in Rome is a remarkable coincidence.

ex: The 20th century was remarkable for its inventions.

ex: She has remarkable powers of observation.

ex: We witnessed a remarkable chain of events in eastern Europe in 1989.

ex: An Olympic gold medal is the only thing that has evaded her in her remarkable career.

ex: The book celebrates the hostages' remarkable triumph over appalling adversity.

ex: The workmanship which went into some of these pieces of furniture was truly remarkable.

5. pass away

to die. This word is used to avoid saying ‘die’when you think this might upset someone

ex: He passed away in his sleep at the age of eighty-four.

6.realize my dream

(v)

to know and understand something

ex: Almost without realizing it, he began to sing.

realize (that): It’s important to realize that this situation is only temporary.

realize what/how etc: At the time I never even realized how unhappy I was.

used for showing someone that you understand their feelings

ex: We realize that this is upsetting for you, but it’s for the best.

to gradually begin to understand something that you did not know or notice before

ex: I soon realized my mistake.

realize (that): It was some time before he realized he’d offended them.

realize why/how etc: I’ve just realized how much I miss him.

to achieve something that you have planned or hoped for

ex: Their expectations of huge profits were never fully realized.

realize a goal/dream/ambition etc: He finally realized his boyhood ambition to become a dancer.

7.climax

(n.)

1. the highest or most intense point in the development or resolution of something; culmination:

ex:His career reached its climax when he was elected president.

2. (in a dramatic or literary work) a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot.

3. a figure consisting of a series of related ideas so arranged that each surpasses the preceding in force or intensity.the last term or member of this figure.

4. an orgasm.

5. Ecology. the stable and self-perpetuating end stage in the ecological succession or evolution of a plant and animal community.

(v.)

1. to bring to or reach a climax

ex: Here, in the climax of Commando, Schwarzenegger helps this baddy with some plumbing issues.

ex: “I did want a sense of resolution and a sense of climax,” Gallagher said.

8.wish /hope /dream

Wish is strong desire of something that cannot or probably will not happen, Sometimes things are simply out of your control. You cant change them. You cant bend them to your will. At that time you wish, Its like you wanna be me but you Caaaan't.

Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen, They say its better to stay in the dark, because in the dark there may be fear, but there's also hope, Hope to get out alive, Hope to survive. Its like you need something to happen.You just need a sign, a reason to go on. You need some HOPE and in absence of hope, Its like you need to stay in bed a feel like you are going to die today.

Dream  technically its is the image or sensations that occurs in person's mind, It is supposed to happen in sleep only but sometimes it happens when you are in balcony, or looking out of windows or when you are awake. These are an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy. Dream is something which you wish and hope.

9.gift

A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment. An item is not a gift, if that item, itself, is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relations and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are also first and foremost presented on occasions - birthdays and, in Western cultures, Christmas being the main examples and other occasions like birthdays.