首页
登录
职称英语
The first time I saw Stephen Leacock at close quarters he came swinging into
The first time I saw Stephen Leacock at close quarters he came swinging into
游客
2023-12-17
30
管理
问题
The first time I saw Stephen Leacock at close quarters he came swinging into a classroom in Moyse Hall, the serenely ugly old Arts Building of McGill University in Montreal. The room was packed with undergraduates like me who had come with huge curiosity to listen to their first lecture on political science by a man whose humorous writing had rocked the English-speaking world with laughter, but who was a campus character for very different reasons.
Leacock enjoyed a reputation for eccentricity and for an impish individualism that expressed itself in blunt speech on every subject. Naturally we looked him over carefully.
What we saw was a shock of graying hair crowning a rugged face that wore a friendly smile, emphasized by crinkles of mirth about the eyes. I remember thinking, "He could use a haircut." His necktie had slipped its moorings, and his tweedy suit looked slept-in. Across his vest his watch chain had come apart in the middle and had been put together with a safety pin. The effect was of a man who gave no thought to his appearance. But his manner was far too buoyant to suggest the absent-minded professor.
His apparel was topped by one of those loose, black gowns professors wore in those days, Leacock’s had been acquired about the time he received his Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1903. Even though the garment was showing signs of wear in 1914, it was still one of the essential properties of his play-acting. At least a dozen times during every lecture it would slip off his shoulders and seize him by the crook of his elbows. Without pause in the flow of talk and motion — he was a walking lecturer —a great shrug of the shoulders would hoist the gown part way into place.
Leacock was tremendously proud of his Chicago Ph. D., but it was inescapably in character that he must spoof it. "The meaning of this degree," he quipped in a lecture, "is that the recipient has been examined for the last time in his life and pronounced full. After this, no new ideas can be imparted to him."
In similar vein, after returning from a holiday abroad he told his class, "I was sitting quietly in my cabin when a steward knocked and, after making sure I am called Doctor, asked if I would come and look at the stewardess’s knee. I was off like a shot, but another fellow got there ahead of me. He was a Doctor of Divinity."
What came through to me, even in the first lecture, was Leacock’s warmth and humanness. I knew I was listening to a man who loved young people and was determined to give them as much wisdom as he could. His teaching methods were unconventional. He couldn’t resist the temptation to explore bypaths. In discussing the days of Queen Victoria, he mentioned Disraeli, and this set him off to talk about the man rather than the Prime Minister —his way of living, his quick mind, his dilettantism, his great love affair with his wife. The digression lifted the great statesman into a framework of his own and, when Leacock returned to the main line of his subject, the listener understood, in a way no textbook could inform him, how such a man could bring off the coup which gave Britain control of the Suez Canal and made the Empire impregnable for decades to come. [br] Stephen Leacock could be described as all of the following EXCEPT ______.
选项
A、careless about his appearance
B、witty and eloquent
C、an inspiring professor
D、an absent-minded person
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3281489.html
相关试题推荐
ScotlandYardistheheadquartersofthe_____.A、BritishSupremeCourtB、policeo
Theswingingsinglelifestyleofthestereotypeismostpossibleforurban,e
Theswingingsinglelifestyleofthestereotypeismostpossibleforurban,e
Theswingingsinglelifestyleofthestereotypeismostpossibleforurban,e
Theswingingsinglelifestyleofthestereotypeismostpossibleforurban,e
Theswingingsinglelifestyleofthestereotypeismostpossibleforurban,e
WhenMaggiewasgonetosleep,Stephen,wearytoowithhisunaccustomedamoun
WhenMaggiewasgonetosleep,Stephen,wearytoowithhisunaccustomedamoun
WhenMaggiewasgonetosleep,Stephen,wearytoowithhisunaccustomedamoun
LeacockwasprobablythefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBriti
随机试题
天津公安机关最近在火车站抓住了五名票贩子。TianjinSecurityAuthoritiesseizedfivescalpersatTianji
TherearefewstrangeralliancesinAmerica’sculturewarsthantheonebet
[originaltext]W:Ineedtobuytrainticketsformyparents,butthetrainstat
艺术鉴赏的主观条件,就是指具有__________能力的主体。
女性,28岁,因反复心慌气短1年,加重2天入院。平时劳累和感冒时症状加重,不能平
以下不属于香港地区的相关规则对规范投资银行与证券研究的关系的主要措施的是()。A
根据仲裁法律制度的规定,下列情形中,仲裁协议无效的有()。A.无民事行为能力人与
所有者权益变动表能够反映所有者权益各组成部分当期增减变动情况,有助于报表使用者理
断裂构造中,根据岩块相对位移的情况,可以划分为()。A.褶曲 B.路堑
(2019年真题)在正常使用条件下,关于建设工程质量法定最低保修期限的说法,正确
最新回复
(
0
)