Book One Unit Five-大学英语综合教程-高职高专教育“十二五”精

Unit Five

Leading In Global Reading

Intensive ReadingExercises

Writing

Leading In Group Discussion 1. Do you have the experience of offering a toast? 2. Do you know how to make a toast?

Background InformationThe word toast comes from the Latin "tostus", meaning "roasted" or "parched". By the 16th century drinking a "toast" became the same as saying you're drinking a "glass of wine with a chunk of toast at the bottom". Shakespeare mentions the term "toast”in "Merry Wives of Windsor" first published in 1602 but believed to be written prior to 1597.

"Drinking a toast" became all the rage in the 17th and 18th centuries. When the party ran out of physical attendees to toast, they started toasting absent friends as an excuse to keep drinking. Toasting competitions and other strange customs raged then died. Young men would stab themselves in the arm and mix their blood with wine when toasting a young lass to prove their devotion and prowess. And the practice of drinking to a lady's beauty from her shoe was born. Return

Global ReadingFirst skim the text and try to analyze the structure of the text.

Q1: How many parts can the textbe divided into? Q2: What’s the main idea of the text?

Part I (Para.1 ) Introduction Part II(Para.2-4) The origin of toast. Part III(Para.5-13) Some suggestions about how to make a toast.

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The main idea of the text: This passage is mainly about the history of toast and the author also gives us some suggestions about how to make a toast to the host.

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Intensive Reading Toast or Toast?

You may have wondered just what a roasted slice of bread has to do with the practice of offering a toast? The two couldn’t seem more unrelated. Take a look at the history of toasting and you will understand why.

Before Christ

As early as the 6th century B.C., the Greeks were toasting to the health of their friends for a highly practical reason—to assure them that the wine they were about to drink wasn’t poisoned. It gradually became a symbol of friendship for the host.

The Romans, impressed by the Greeks in general, tended to handle their interpersonal problems similarly. It’s no surprise then, that the practice of toasting was popular at Roman get-togethers as well. The term toast comes from the Roman practice of dropping a piece of burnt bread into the wine. This was done to temper some of the bad wines the

Romans sometimes had to drink. The charcoal actually reduces the acidity of wines, making them more palatable. In the 1700’s, party-goers even liked to toast to the health of people not present—usually celebrities and especially beautiful women. A women who became the object of many such toasts came to be known as the “toast of the town.”

By the 1800’s, toasting was the proper thing to do. It was said that every glass during dinner had to be dedicated to someone, and that to refrain from toasting was considered rude, as if no one present was worth drinking to. One way to effe

ctively insult a dinner guest was to omit toasting him or her.

Toasting is still very important now at official banquet. There are no hard and fast rules to toast-making and giving. What follows are some suggestions to show you how to make a toast to the host. 1. Time your toast to be delivered directly before for directly after the meal is served. If you wait until after the meal, be sure that every guest has finished eating before you begin.

2. Tap delicately on a glass, if necessary, to get everyone’s attention. 3. Ask everyone but the host rise. 4. Raise your glass and begin speaking. 5. Make your toast personal or humorous, depending on the occasion. Always make sure to include your gratitude for the invitation.

6. Compliment the host on one or more attributes or an accomplishment that everyone is there to celebrate. 7. Use a personal anecdote to support your compliments. 8. Finish the toast by saying “ Cheers!”, asking your audience to “ Raise your glass”, or some other accepted gesture.Return

toast n.(1) 烤面包片；吐司

a piece of toast一块烤面包片 (2) 祝酒；祝酒词; 干杯

drink/offer a toast to sb.向某人敬酒

propose a toast to sb.提议向某人敬酒

e.g. I’d like to propose a toast to the bride and groom.我提议为新娘新郎干杯。 v. 为…敬酒； 为…干杯

e.g. We toasted the success of the new company.我们为新公司的成功干杯。

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