1. Words&Phrases
1) It was a typical Peace Corps scenario: having been told a wealth of horror stories about the pointless machismo of Sichuanese drinking.
a. a wealth of大量的
b. machismo 男子气概的
2) undisputed
-1known to be definitely true
-2accepted by everyone
e.g.: Doctors found undisputed evidence of nerve damage.
3) scoffing/taunt嘲笑(许多此类小词)
4) It was a quintessentially Sichuanese scene—for every scroll painting of a lovely river they could have had ten depicting baijiu arguments, two men scrabbling over a cup while a young woman waited with a bottle.
- quintessentially 典型的
e.g.: Guys and Dolls is the quintessential American musical
- depict: 描绘
5) skid 打滑 ;doge 躲闪
6) euphoria
an extremely strong feeling of happiness and excitement which usually only lasts for a short time
e.g.: There was a general atmosphere of pessimism after the euphoria of last year.
7) elusive难以捉摸的
8) enamor
1 不可在名词前liking something very much
e.g.: You don't seem very enamoured with your job.
2正式 in love with someone
enamoured of with
e.g.: He was greatly enamoured of Elizabeth
9) voyeurism 偷窥癖，喜欢打探别人消息的人
* 有一些有趣的说法:
- out-and-back run 往返跑
- To me this seemed insult upon injury.伤口上撒盐。
-“You were dribbling wrong,” she said. “That’s why he kept penalizing you.带球
- We downed the shot, and we downed the next one, too.干了这杯酒
- alcoholic leaderboard酒量排行榜
- alcoholic tolerance 酒量: Where does his alcohol tolerance stand in relation to everybody else’s in the department?
-In a pathetic way, drinking became one small thing that Adam and I were good at, although it was difficult to take much pride in this. 两个因为酒量而不知该自豪还是尴尬的歪果仁。
-The tall man wore a new sweater, and from the way he carried himself it was clear that he was important—a cadre. 踱步？
- Every banquet had a leader, a sort of alcoholic alpha male who controlled the direction of the baijiu.酒桌的老大
- Finally something clicked in my mind.灵光这么一闪现！
- Our cups were frozen above the table.空气瞬间凝固
- For a solid week一整个星期
- holding his head in his hands.手端着头
- at an impasse.陷入僵局
2. Summary
In the third chapter,Peter talks about his attemps and efforts to try to fit in the daily life of Fulin. He worked hard on learning Chinese(mainly chinese characters) ,attended the banquets and expierienced the Chinese baijiu culture, participated the basketball tournament and one the first prize in the city road running race.
Peter is surely a cute young man with stubborness and perseverance. During his Chinese learning from two local Chinese tutors who can not speak Enlish, he found significant differences in the way of teaching between China and the west. Constantly correction and criticism was repeated over and over again during teaching, success was expected and failure criticized and promptly corrected. The young man surely expected wanted his ego snoothed after he read a section from the textbook with a minor mistake, but the teacher simply flinched with unwilling admiration to praise him.
So running, which he was especially good at ,undoubtedly became his comfort to escape, to relax himself and to build his ego. The air in Fulin was not that good for running and obviously he felt assulted when the surrounding voyeurism wherever he went. But he kept running nearly everyday and accepted the schools invitation to take part in the annual city road race to welcom spring. Through all chaos and interference, he won the first prize against all odds. During the 1990s', Peter's championship in the city running race made big news and unevitalbly caused some patriotic remarks from the public. Unexpectedly, he also received favorable praise from his once stiff and rigid tutor.bWhatever, he proved himself that he could be good at something and not just ‘expensive English teaching machines or farm animals’.
3. Thoughts
非常不幸的消息是，由于昨天在11点后，群里发送自己的打卡和读书笔记，被群主无情的移出了群聊，which is soooooo embarrasing. (⊙﹏⊙)b 毫无疑问这个有雷厉风行的群主很有个性，从入群第一天起就隐隐感觉自己会因为break rules被他踢出去，现在果然应验。不过也不禁和今天读到的Peter那个僵硬保守，整天否定他的老师联系在一起。对于Peter来说，学习语言真是一件大难事啊——中文已经够难的了，居然还要分辨佶屈聱牙的四川方言。四是四，十是十，傻傻分不清楚。他执拗的想要读懂每天跑步上山看到的标语是什么，当最后他终于能读懂，却发现毫无例外的是一些scant。中文老师的严厉和不苟言笑也成了他的心魔，哈哈，心疼他。
中国的酒桌文化也是Peter 感受颇深的一点，在四川，劝酒之风尤甚。他很快发现，在中国，所有的决定和洽谈都在酒桌上进行。虽然作为白种人，酒量优势让他赢得了酒桌上的一席之地，不过他很快发现，一切全是套路，劝酒和敬酒成为一项酒桌上乐此不疲的文化，而他和Adam也入乡随俗地适应出了一套应对策略。
一个大小伙子，成天被乡亲们"waiguoren waiguoren"这么叫着也是郁闷（其实我挺反感这样的，也许没有恶意，但某种程度上就是bullying）Peter只好在跑步中寻求慰藉，简直就是流落涪陵版的"Forrest Gump"啊。最泪目的无异于Peter最后参加市里面的迎新长跑，又一次受到了乡亲们的耻笑，内心的小宇宙是这样YY的：“And I thought:Not today.If you’re looking for people who are out of their country, out of place, out of step,out of shape,awkward,clumsy; if that’s what you’re looking for,look back there. Look for the ones who started too fast,or the men who have smoked too many Magnificent Sound cigarettes, or the people who are wearing too many clothes and are choking with heat and sweat. Don’t look at me—I’ve done this for many years in many places, and always it has been exactly the same. There are no referees,no language barriers,no complicated rules of etiquette. All you do is run.”
Oh yes，don't look at me if you are looking for people who are weak and clumsy.That's not me who should be overlooked and punished.I will keep practising running forward!!!
Anyway, down the pot of jitang and everyday daka 不能停！