Reading journal –The Gay Genius

20171205  Chapter 2   Meishan

1 OutstandingQuestion ( the author is answering)

In this chapter, the author tries to tell us something happened to Su’sfamily in Meishan and what influence they had on Su’s personality andachievements.

3 MostInteresting Sentences and my thoughts

今天读得有点快，只有一句印象深刻的句子：

About the time when his sonwas born, he began to take him seriously, regretting rather late, but witha sharp sense of remorse,the wasted years of his youth. He must have been bitten with shame to see thathis own brother and his wife’s brother, and his tow sister’s husbands, had allpassed state examinations and were going out as officials.

喜欢这句话里的几个表达，尤其是a sharp sense of

remorse里的sharp。和bitten with shame。

虽然喜欢这些表达，但苏洵也许没有sharply

remorseful about the wasted youth呢？总觉得最终能写出那么多传世名篇的大师，应该是对人生看得挺通透了的，最多也就是轻叹年少不更事，谈不上sharply。加上这个词之后，感觉瞬间变成了课本里劝学的文章，趣味少了许多。

读了两章，已经可以看出林语堂先生对苏东坡的喜爱和崇拜了~迷弟心态，看我偶像哪里都好，别人都是陪衬了~哈哈。

Wordsand expressions

1.eclipse

原文：Equally amazing is the fact that, starting at the late age oftwenty-seven, he did achieve such a high literary fame, a fame which was by nomeans totallyeclipsedby his brilliant sons.

释义：v.[often passive] to become more important,powerful, famous etc. than someone or something else, so that they are nolonger noticed使……失色，盖过

例句：The economy hadeclipsed the environment as an election issue.

同义词：overshadow

2.crotchety

释义：adj. easily annoyed or

made slightly angry很容易生气的，第一眼看这个词还以为是名词呢~

同义词：bad-tempered

造句：My boss is veryopinionated and sometimes bad-tempered.

3.haleand hearty

原文：In his young days he had been a handsome man,hale and hearty, given to drink, big-hearted and generous.

释义：adj. someone,

especially an old person, who is very healthy and active这两个词经常放在一起用，形容老人精神矍铄，老当益壮

造句：My grandpa is stillhale and hearty at 65.