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
2025-01-02
27
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] Leacock’s account of being summoned to look at a stewardess’s knee ______.
选项
A、tells us that he was always ready to help others
B、indicates that he was an incompetent doctor
C、reveals that he was very proud of his degree
D、shows that he could be playful sometimes
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3896048.html
相关试题推荐
Leacockwasprobably’thefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritis
Leacockwasprobably’thefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritis
Leacockwasprobably’thefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritis
Leacockwasprobably’thefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritis
TheauthorofSisterCarrieis______.A、StephenCraneB、TheodoreDreiserC、Henry
ThefirsttimeIsawStephenLeacockatclosequartershecameswinginginto
ThefirsttimeIsawStephenLeacockatclosequartershecameswinginginto
TheauthorofSisterCarrieis______.A、StephenCraneB、TheodoreDreiserC、Henry
ThefirsttimeIsawStephenLeacockatclosequartershecameswinginginto
LeacockwasprobablythefirstCanadiantoqualifyasa"pro-AmericanBritish
随机试题
Smog-chokedSouthernCalifornia(demands)them.It’saCarforpeoplewhonever
我到这个城市出差,昨天下午下榻在这家旅馆。他和他的妻子就住在我的隔壁。这家旅馆的条件不太好,隔墙很薄,一点都不隔音。他们说话的声音总是很清晰地传过来。很
DuringtheSecondWorldWar,doctorstriedtosaveseverelyburnedpilotswit
3岁女孩,反复咳嗽2个月余。查体:体温正常,浅表淋巴结无肿大,咽无充血,双肺可闻
手足癣主要鉴别的皮肤病是A.手足多形性红斑 B.发生在手足湿疹 C.手足银屑
Thechangeinthatvillagewasmiraculou
下列测定项目不属于药品的检查项目的是A:干燥失重 B:pH C:重(装)量差
在接地故障线路上,零序功率方向()。 (A)与正序功率同方向; (B)与
案例一 求助者是第一次作心理咨询,他看到咨询室大约十五六平方米,室内摆设只有两
(2012年真题)出于优化资本结构和控制风险的考虑,比较而言,下列企业中最不适宜
最新回复
(
0
)