Book 1 lesson 14

1 text

11 It started on a biting cold February morning.

2 I’ll cover your classes.

3 I was to close the file and write the obituary for the school paper.

4 the almost bare sheets in the file mocked the effort.

5 As far as I could tell， he had never done one happy， noisy kid thing. He had never been any body at all.

6 How do you go about making a boy into a zero？

7 The other academic sheep had followed with “dull”；

8 Even shy， timid， sweet children have resilience. It takes time to break them.

9 A child is a believing creature. Cliff undoubtedly believed them.

10 He has been my challenge year after year， class after class.

11 …the school board， but I won’t have one of you coming out of here thinking himself into a zero.

2 phrase

1 stop（sb） short

The marching soldiers stopped short at the general’s command.

When the driver saw an old lady crossing the street， he brought the car to a sudden stop

2 come/bring sth to a stop

Passengers began to crowd at the door before the train came to a stop.

3 against

4 tap sb on the arm/shoulder ， take sb by the hand， seize sb by the arm， hit sb over the head/in the stomach

5 drop dead ： die suddenly and unexpectedly without having previously been ill

6 I’d appreciate your doing st/it if………

We’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention our identity.

I’d appreciate your understanding my absence from the party.

7 your going our

8 in person

9 see sth/sb in one’s mind’s eye ： imagine and have a clear picture of it/him/her in one’s mind

She can see in her mind’s eye the white building where she had classes twenty years ago.

10 close ： bring sth to an end/ come to an end

The chairman closed the meeting with a short speech