199 Lesson 8 Three Cups of Tea (Excerpts) Chapter 12 Haji Ali’s Lesson Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin Additional Background Material for Teachers’ Reference 1. Greg Mortenson Born on 27 December 1957, Greg Mortenson is an American humanitarian, writer, and former mountaineer. He and Dr. Jean Hoerni co-founded the non-profit Central Asia Institute and he is its executive director. He also founded the educational charity Pennies for Peace. He is the protagonist and co-author of the No.1 New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea, published in 2006. The sequel, Stones into Schools was released in 2009. In the spring of 1958 when Greg was only three months old, his parents moved their family from Minnesota to East Africa to teach in a girls’ school and four years later helped establish Tanzania’s first teaching hospital on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. He and his sisters attended a school where children were from more than two dozen different countries. Mortenson’s mother founded the International School Moshi in 1969. From his parents Greg inherited compassion for the local poor people. At the age of 11 Greg climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. From his parents Greg inherited two things: love for climbing and compassion for the poor and unprivileged.
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199
Lesson 8Three Cups of Tea (Excerpts)
Chapter 12 Haji Ali’s Lesson
Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Additional Background Material for Teachers’ Reference
1. Greg MortensonBorn on 27 December 1957, Greg Mortenson is an American
humanitarian, writer, and former mountaineer. He and Dr. Jean Hoerni
co-founded the non-profit Central Asia Institute and he is its executive
director. He also founded the educational charity Pennies for Peace. He is
the protagonist and co-author of the No.1 New York Times bestseller Three Cups
of Tea, published in 2006. The sequel, Stones into Schools was released in 2009.
In the spring of 1958 when Greg was only three months old, his
parents moved their family from Minnesota to East Africa to teach in a
girls’ school and four years later helped establish Tanzania’s first teaching
hospital on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. He and his sisters attended a
school where children were from more than two dozen different countries.
Mortenson’s mother founded the International School Moshi in 1969. From
his parents Greg inherited compassion for the local poor people. At the age
of 11 Greg climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. From his parents
Greg inherited two things: love for climbing and compassion for the poor
and unprivileged.
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After moving back to the U.S., Mortenson served in the U.S. army
in Germany from 1975 to 1977 as a medic, and received the Army
Commendation Medal. He attended Concordia College, Moorhead, from
1977 to 1979 on an athletic scholarship. After transferring, using a GI
scholarship, he later graduated from the University of South Dakota in
Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1983 with an Associate Degree in Nursing
and a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry. He had long dreamed of finding a
cure for his younger sister Christa’s epilepsy, and won admission to medical
school at Case Western Reserve University, but his father died while Greg
was still in college, and the family’s finances were in difficulty. Greg dropped
his plans for medical school and returned home to help support his family.
In July 1992, Mortenson’s young sister died on her 23rd birthday from
a life-long struggle with severe epilepsy. In 1993, to honor his deceased
sister’s memory, Mortenson joined an expedition to scale K2, the world’s
second highest mountain. Located in the Karakoram Range, K2 is the most
difficult peak in the world and the ultimate test for mountaineers. After
more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers
completed a life-saving rescue of a climber, which took more than 75 hours.
The time and energy devoted to this rescue prevented him from attempting
to reach the summit. After the rescue, he began his descent of the mountain
and became weak and exhausted. Mortenson took a wrong turn along the
way and ended up in Korphe, a small village. The village head Haji Ali gave
him food and the warmest quilt and Mortenson recovered from hunger,
cold and fatigue.
To pay the remote community back for their generosity and
hospitality, Mortenson promised to build a school for the village where
there had been no for six hundred years. After a frustrating time trying to
raise money, Mortenson convinced Jean Hoerni, a Silicon Valley pioneer,
to fund the building of the Korphe School. After talking with Mortenson,
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Hoerni asked him to be the director of the Central Asia Institute. The
mission of CAI — a non-profit organization — is to promote education
and literacy, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Hoerni appointed Mortenson as the first executive director of
CAI. A promise has turned into a long-time mission.
After the completion of the school in Korphe, Mortenson went on to
build more schools in northern mountain areas in Pakistan. In the process
of building schools, Mortenson overcame all sorts of hardships, and on
top of these, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping by the Taliban in
the tribal areas of Waziristan, escaped a firefight between Afghan opium
warlords and received hate mail and threats from fellow Americans for
helping educate Muslim children.
Mortenson believes that education and literacy for children, especially
girls, in the remote and underserved areas is the most important investment
all countries can make to create stability, bring socio-economic reform,
decrease infant mortality, decrease the population explosion, and improve
health, hygiene, and sanitation standards globally. Mortenson believes that
violence should not be fought with violence, but that there should be a
global priority to promote peace through education and literacy, with an
emphasis on girls’ education. Later his project extended to building schools
in Afghanistan. His efforts in building schools in this war-ridden country
are documented in his second book Stones into Schools.
Up to 2010, the Central Asia Institute has successfully established 145
schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have provided education to
over 64,000 students, with an emphasis on girls’ education.
In 2010 the New York Times reported that Mortenson’s approach
of building schools as a way of improving the situation in Pakistan and
Afghanistan is being embraced by the U.S. military. Top military officials
are reading his book Three Cups of Tea, and General Petraeus has had
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meetings with him. The article reported that in 2009 Admiral Mike Mullen,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended the opening of one of
Mortenson’s schools in a remote village of Afghanistan.
Mortenson received the Star of Pakistan, Pakistan’s highest civilian
award granted by the Government of Pakistan in 2009. He was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. In November 2009, U.S. News & World
Report magazine featured Greg Mortenson as one of America’s Top Twenty
Leaders in 2009. Mortenson has won dozens of awards, and has been
granted honorary doctorates by more than a dozen universities.
Greg Mortenson’s wife is Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist,
whose father was a National Geographic photographer and a climber. They
live in Montana with their two children.
2. Three Cups of Tea“Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of
our time. Greg Mortenson’s dangerous and difficult quest to build schools
in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read,
it’s proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character
and determination, really can change the world.” — Tom Brokaw
“Greg Mortenson represents the best of America. He’s my hero.
And after you read Three Cups of Tea, he’ll be your hero, too.” — U.S.
Representative Mary Bono
Three Cups of Tea has been a freshman, honors, or campus-wide
required reading selection in over eighty universities and hundreds of
schools. It is also required reading for senior U.S. military commanders,
Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training, and special Force
deploying to Afghanistan. More than two hundred communities have used
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Three Cups of Tea as a “One Book” common read, and it is being published
in over thirty-one countries.
(Source: “Afterword” of Three Cups of Tea)
In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace...One School
at a Time, Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the
journey that led Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb the world’s
second highest mountain, to successfully establishing schools in some of the
most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with
pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background
with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to promote peace with
books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote
communities in central Asia. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable
adventure and an inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the
world — one school at a time.
In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach
the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his
group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without
food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village
where he was nursed back to health.
While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors,
scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that
it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the
village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From
that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian
campaigns of our time.
In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities,
businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100
check from NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only
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raised $2,400. But his efforts changed when a group of elementary school
children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623.40 in pennies, inspiring
adults to begin to take action. The 283 foot Braldu Bridge was completed
in 1995 and the Korphe School was completed in 1996. Since then, he’s
established 78 schools. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived
an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death
threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his
success speaks for itself.
3. Characters in Chapter 12 of Three Cups of Tea
Mortenson: Greg Mortenson is the co-author of the book. This book is
about how he built schools in remote areas in Pakistan.
Haji Ali: Chief of Village Korphe, an old man who played a key role in
leading the villagers in building the Korphe School. He died in 2001.
Twaha: Haji Ali’s son. His wife died in giving birth, and he has a daughter.
Tara: Dr. Tara Bishop is Mortenson’s wife. She is a psychotherapist. She met
Mortenson when he was having a difficult time raising money for the first
school. Her father was a National Geographic photographer and a mountain
climber.
Sakina: Haji Ali’s wife
Sher Takhi: Korphe’s mullah, religious leader, who supported building a
school to educate girls
Hussain: a strongly-built climbing porter who performed the execution of
the ram for the celebration
Hoerni: Jean Hoerni (1924–1997) was a Silicon Valley pioneer. Born
in Switzerland and educated there, he moved to California in 1952. He
provided the fund for building the Korphe School, and later founded
the Central Asia Institute with an endowment of $1 million to continue
providing services for them after his death. He appointed Mortenson as its
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Executive Director.
Jahan: Twaha’s daughter. She was nine when the Korphe School was built
and one of the first girls who graduated from this school. She attended
Girls’ Model High School in Skardu.
Makhmal: a mason who participated in the construction of the school
Hussein: teacher of the Korphe School
Tahira: Hussein’s daughter who was ten when the school was built. She
graduated with Jahan in the Korphe Schools’s first class and also attended
Girls’ Model High School in Skardu.
Changazi: a trekking agent and tour operator who organized Mortenson’s
K2 expedition. He was a capable man and Mortenson thought he could
arrange to get the school supplies he had purchased carried up the Braldu
Valley. Changazi managed to do that but he turned out to be a dishonest
man and stole the supplies. Only after a hard time and great effort did
Mortenson retrieve part of the supplies.
Parvi: CAI’s Pakistan-based manager and accountant
Haji Mehdi: chief of Askole, someone like a Mafia boss who forced Korphe
villagers to give him 12 big rams
Detailed Study of the Text
1. The rocks looked more like an ancient ruin than the building blocks
of a new school. (Para. 1): antithesis, contrasting ancient ruins with
new school
2. Though he stood on a plateau high above the Braldu River...the
prospect before him. (Para. 1)
1) pyramid: a large stone building with four triangular walls that
slope into a point at the tip, especially in Egypt and Central America; a
pyramid-shaped object
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2) K2: K2 (8,611 m) is the second-highest mountain on Earth with
a peak elevation of 8,611 meters. It is part of the Karakoram Range,
and is located on the border between China and Pakistan. The name
K2 was actually given by mistake by the British surveyor Thomas
Montgomerie who named Masherbrum (7821 m) K1, thinking it was
the highest peak in the Karakoram Range, and when he saw Chogori
( 乔戈里峰 ) he named it K2, which is actually higher than K1. K2 is
known as “the Savage Peak” among climbers, due to the difficulty of
ascent and the highest fatality rate.
3) Mortenson was disheartened by the prospect before him:
Mortenson was deeply disappointed by the view before him. About
what happened before this, refer to Aids to Comprehension in Advanced
English (Third Edition)Book1.
3. He’d left Haji Ali enough cash to hire laborers...quarry and carry the
stone. (Para. 2)
1) Haji Ali: village chief of Korphe. Haji means one who has made a
pilgrimage to Mecca. Later in the text, there is Haji Mehdi (Para. 59),
the head of another village.
2) quarry: to dig out stone, marble, slate, etc. from a place where such
building materials are excavated by cutting or blasting
4. He had arrived here in mid-October, nearly a month after...expect
him. (Para. 3): He told Haji Ali he would return in mid-September
but arrived one month late because he had just got married and the
marriage delayed his departure for Korphe. How Mortenson met and
married Tara was itself a moving and romantic story. After a bridge
was built on the Upper Braldu to transport building materials for the
school, Mortenson planned to return to Korphe in mid-September
the next year. Jean Hoerni, who funded the construction of the bridge
as well as the school, wanted to see him and pictures of the bridge. So
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Mortenson went to Seattle to meet the scientist. At the dinner party
he met Tara Bishop, and immediately they began a conversation “that
flowed seamlessly and unstoppably.” Each of them found themselves
eager to tell their life stories to the other. Tara had heard about
Mortenson and knew what he was doing. Her father was a National
Geographic photographer and reached the top of Qomolangma in
1963. The two shared a lot in common. The next morning they drove
to the airport to change the flight to the next week. Only six days after
their meeting, they got married. Mortenson postponed his flights three
times in order to spend a few more days with his wife. After driving
between home and the airport four times, Mortenson finally left Tara
and arrived in Pakistan in mid-October.
5. Now that he was married, he needed a career. (Para. 3): Before his
marriage he spent most of his time climbing mountains and only
did sporadic jobs to meet his basic needs. Now he must function as a
responsible husband and a future father.
6. “You look like the young ram at the time of butting.” (Para. 4):
simile. Haji Ali compared him to a young ram that was striking with
his horns angrily. Probably in the mating season when it fought other
rams.
1) ram: a male sheep
2) butt: to strike or push with the head or horns
7. “Doctor Greg, we discussed your plan after you returned to your
village...” (Para. 6): Mortenson was called Dr. Greg by the villagers
because he had used his medicine and medical skills to cure some
illnesses suffered by the villagers after he was saved by the villagers in
Korphe. Haji Ali used the word “village” for any place, though it might
be a big city.
8. They know the school is being built by a rich foreigner... (Para. 6):
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In fact Mortenson was not rich at all. He even didn’t have a regular
income. In order to build the school, he had to cut his living expenses
to the minimum and wrote 580 letters to raise money. But in the eyes
of the poor local people, every foreigner was rich.
9. ...because many of the men had to leave for porter work. (Para. 6):
Korphe is located in northern Pakistan where there are many world-
famous high mountains which are the destinations for climbers.
Climbers usually hire local men as porters to carry their baggage,
supplies and other loads.
porter: a person who carries burdens, especially one employed to
carry baggage for patrons at a hotel or transportation terminals. In
this case, the porters are paid to carry the baggage of climbers.
10. Allah (Para. 8): the Islamic name for God. Prior to Mohammed, Allah
was the supreme but not the sole deity in Arabia. It was Mohammed’s
mission to proclaim Allah as the sole God, the creator and sustainer of
all things.
11. “What is one winter more?” (Para. 8): What does it matter if we have
to go without a school for another winter? Haji Ali fully foresaw all the
difficulties in building the first school in their poor and remote village
which had existed without a school for six hundred years, and he knew
patience was as essential as hard work.
12. ...and a bubble of happiness rose up so forcefully that he couldn’t
keep it to himself. (Para. 9): metaphor, a vivid way of saying that he
felt so happy that he felt he must share his happiness with his friend.
13. Mortenson heard a click, then squinted...America for his friend.
(Para. 13): On hearing that Mortenson was married, Twaha switched
on the flashlight Mortenson had given him as a gift. Apparently he
directed the light at Mortenson so that the latter squinted.
squint: to look at something with your eyes partly closed in order to
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see better
e.g. Betty squinted in the sudden bright sunlight.
14. ...Mortenson felt a sharp flurry of fists pummeling...in congratulations.
(Para. 14): Twaha congratulated Mortenson by hitting his arms and
shoulders suddenly and repeatedly.
1) flurry: an occasion when there is suddenly a lot of activity within a
short period of time
e.g. After a quiet spell there was a sudden flurry of phone calls.
2) pummel: to hit someone or something many times with your fists
15. “Haji Ali say Doctor Greg look different...everything.” (Para. 14):
Haji Ali says Doctor Greg looks different this time. He really knows
everything. Twaha could speak some English but not very well. This is
an example showing that Haji Ali was a perceptive man.
16. “How many goat and ram you must give her father?” (Para. 18): How
many goats and rams did you have to give her father? Twaha asked this
question because it is the custom for a Pakistan bridegroom to give
goats and rams to the bride’s father.
17. “Did she cry when she left her mother?” (Para. 20): another cultural
difference between the East and West. In many Eastern countries,
including rural areas in China, when a girl is married off, she is
supposed to cry on leaving home to show her reluctance to leave
and gratitude for her parents’ raising her. Also there may have been
genuine grief, because she had to leave her family and live with her
husband’s family. In the old tradition, since marriages were arranged,
the bride usually didn’t know her husband until marriage.
18. ...considering the exotic matrimonial customs of Americans.
(Para. 22): An American would also consider the Pakistan marital
customs equally exotic.
exotic: foreign, not native; strange or different in a way that is striking
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or fascinating
e.g. Introducing exotic plants to replace native plants is not a good
idea and may damage the local ecological system.
19. The next morning, Mortenson found a precious boiled egg...chapatti
and lassi. (Para. 23): In a poor mountain village like Korphe, eggs were
rare and therefore precious. This shows the hospitality and generosity
of Haji Ali.
20. Sakina grinned proudly at him from the doorway to her kitchen.
(Para. 23): Sakina was Haji Ali’s wife. She grinned at Mortenson,
proud of him.
21. A grin smoldered, then ignited at the center of his thick beard.
(Para. 24): Metaphor, comparing a grin to a spark of fire. The implied
meaning is that he tried to suppress a grin but then his face broke into
a broad smile through his thick beard.
1) smoldered: to burn or smoke without flame
2) ignited: to start burning or to make something start burning
22. Haji Ali climbed to his roof and called for all the men...the local
mosque. (Para. 25): It seems that the roof of a house had more than
one function in Korphe. In warm weather men slept on the roof, and
when Haji Ali called for the villagers he stood on the roof.
23. The Balti, lacking a written language, compensated...exacting
oral history. (Para. 26): The Balti people lacked a written language.
However, this was made up by passing down an oral history which was
strict, demanding great care, patience and effort.
exacting: strict; demanding great care, patience and effort
24. And everyone in Korphe knew the legend of this listing wooden
building buttressed with earthen walls. (Para. 26):
1) listing: leaning over, more usually of a boat or a ship
2) buttressed: supported or reinforced with a buttress (a projecting
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structure, generally of brick or stone, built against a wall to support or
reinforce it)
25. It had stood for nearly five hundred years...a foothold in Baltistan.
(Para. 26): Baltistan came under the control of the Tibetan King
Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. Under Tibetan cultural influence,
the Baltis began to adopt Tibetan Buddhism from Indian Buddhism.
The history of Islam in Baltistan starts with the arrival of Ameer
Kabeer Syed Ali Hamadani (a legendary Sufi Saint in Muslim History)
from Iran during the 15th century.
1) Baltistan: Baltistan is a region in northern Pakistan and India, now
called Gilgit-Baltistan, bordering the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region of China. It is situated in the Karakoram Mountains just to the
south of K2. It is an extremely mountainous region, with an average
altitude of over 3,350m. It is inhabited principally by Balti of Tibetan
origin.
2) foothold: a secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged
26. During his visits he had kept a respectful distance from the
mosque... (Para. 27): Mortenson kept a distance from the mosque, not
out of disbelief but out of respect. He didn’t know how the religious
leader would feel about a non-Muslim proposing to build a school to
educate the girls in Korphe, which was not in accordance with Islamic
tradition.
27. Sher Takhi smiled at Mortenson and led him to a prayer mat...the
room. (Para. 27): The smile of Sher Takhi, the religious leader,
indicated he approved of Mortenson’s proposal, and leading him to
a prayer mat at the rear of the room showed he treated the American
almost like a Muslim.
28. Sher Takhi, who called Korphe’s widely dispersed faithful...booming
voice. (Para. 28): Sher Takhi had a booming voice, and without the
advantage of amplification it filled the small room. He called Korphe’s
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believers, who were widely scattered working on their respective jobs,
to pray five times a day.
1) disperse: to break up and scatter in all directions
2) faithful: keeping faith. “Faithful” and “loyal” are synonyms. Note
the difference between them. “Faithful” implies steadfast adherence to
a person or thing to which one is bound as by an oath or obligation,
such as a faithful wife; “loyal” implies undeviating allegiance to a
person, cause, institution, etc. which one feels morally bound to
support or defend, such as a loyal friend.
29. Mortenson prayed, folding his arms and bending at the waist.
(Para. 28): The fact that Mortenson prayed with his Muslim friends
shows that he truly respected their religion.
30. Haji Ali provided the string, locally woven twine. (Para. 29): In
the previous visit Mortenson had circled the floor space with blue
and red braided nylon cord which he had provided. But with the
construction suspended for a year, the cord had been blown away by
strong mountain winds. Later Mortenson found women in Korphe
had braided pieces of the blue-red nylon cord in their hair. For the
villagers nothing should be wasted. This time, Haji Ali provided
locally woven twine.
twine: strong thread, string, cord, etc. of two or more stands twisted
together
31. ...the village’s time-tested method... (Para. 29): This method is
explained in detail in the next sentence.
32. “Usually you have to drag a ram to make it move,” Mortenson
says. (Para. 31): The book Three Cups of Tea is co-written by Greg
Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The third-person narration is
employed throughout the book. But in many places direct speech
by Mortenson is used to add vividness and authenticity to the
descriptions.
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33. Gently, he turned the animal’s head toward Mecca...his test of
loyalty. (Para. 32):
1) Mecca : the birthplace of Mohammed and the holiest city of
Islam. It is to Mecca that all pious Muslims are enjoined to make the
pilgrimage, at least once during their lifetime. The pilgrimage is called
the Haj and the title Haji means one who has made the pilgrimage to
Mecca.
2) Abraham: in the Old Testament, the founder and first patriarch
of the Hebrew people. Chosen by Jehovah to establish a new nation,
Abraham emigrated with his wife, Sarah, from Ur to Canaan. There
he had two sons: Ishmael by Sarah’s servant Hagar and Isaac by Sarah.
Jehovah and Abraham made a covenant, according to which Jehovah
promised that He would be God to Abraham and his children and that
they would inherit and dwell in the land of Canaan. Jehovah tested
Abraham’s loyalty by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham
was preparing to obey but was stopped at the fatal moment by an
angel and commended by Jehovah, who confirmed the terms of the
covenant. Three world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
belong to monotheism, faith in a single God, which is characteristic of
the Abrahamic religions.
3) before allowing him to substitute a ram after he passed his test of
loyalty: First, Allah asked Abraham to offer his son as sacrifice, but as
Abraham was about to obey Allah’s will, thus passing his loyalty test,
Allah changed his mind and allowed him to use a ram instead.
34. Koran (Para. 32): (伊斯兰教)《古兰经》,曾译《可兰经》。The
Koran, or the Qur’an, is the religious text of Islam. It is widely regarded
as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language. Muslims hold
that the Koran is the verbal divine guidance and moral direction for
mankind.
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35. In the Koran, the story appears in much the same manner...and the
Bible. (Para. 32): The major source of monotheism is the narrative of
the Hebrew Bible, the source of Judaism. Judaism may have received
influences from various non-biblical religions present in Egypt and
Syria. This can be seen by the Torah’s reference to Egyptian culture
in Genesis and the story of Moses. Thus there are many similarities
between the Koran and the Old Testament of the Bible.
covenant: a formal agreement between two or more people
36. “Watching this scene straight out of the Bible stories...same root.”
(Para. 32): The scene in which Korphe villagers sacrificed the ram
before Allah exactly resembled the Bible story about Abraham that
Mortenson had learned in Sunday school. He was amazed at how
much the different faiths had in common and how one could trace
their separate traditions to the same root. There may be two opposing
attitudes toward a different religion. One only sees the differences,
which may result in confrontation and clashes. The other emphasizes
similarities and the same root, which could lead to mutual respect and
understanding.
Sunday school: usually affiliated with some church or synagogue,
giving religious instruction on Sunday
37. Baltoro porters (Para. 33): porters who carry loads for expeditions
on the Baltoro Glacier. The Baltoro Glacier, at 62 kilometers long, is
one of the longest glaciers outside the polar regions. It is located in
Baltistan, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, and runs through
part of the Karakoram mountain range. The Baltoro Muztagh lies to
the north and east of the glacier, while the Masherbrum Mountains lie
to the south.
38. Haji Ali was in a hurry to sanctify the school... (Para. 34): As building
a school to educate girls was not part of the tradition, Haji Ali must
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have thought it was important to make this school building socially
and religiously acceptable.
sanctify: to make something socially or religiously acceptable
39. As the moon rose over Korphe K2, they danced around...folk
songs. (Para. 35): At this time, the moon went up high in the sky
above Korphe K2. The villagers danced around the fire and taught
Mortenson lines from the Himalayan Epic of Gezar, beloved across
most parts of the Himalayas which is the highest part of the world,
and introduced him to a tradition of Balti folk songs so rich that it
could never be finished or used up. About the Epic of Gesar, See Note
21 to the text in Advanced English (Third Edition) Book1.
40. Together, the Balti and the big American...to the south and east.
(Para. 36): Here the villagers sang songs which told the history of their
people.
41. The fact that it wasn’t written down didn’t make it any less real.
(Para. 37): The Balti didn’t have a written history, but that fact didn’t
mean that its rich history didn’t exist.
42. These faces ringing the fire didn’t need to be taught so much as they
needed help. (Para. 37): synecdoche: the naming of a part to mean the
whole. Here “faces” stand for “men.” Mortenson felt that his job was to
help the men who surrounded the fire in a circle rather than to teach
them.
43. ...during that night of dancing, the school reached critical mass...real
to him. (Para. 37): Although he knew they couldn’t do much work
before returning home, he could see the completed school standing
before him in his mind because these people with whom he was
singing and dancing told him they had a history and a rich tradition
and they knew what they were doing. He began to understand them
better and thus have more confidence in them. The minimus size
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高级英语教师用书 1
required to start something. That night he realized with confidence
that the school would be built.
critical mass: something real, something tangible
44. In May 1996, when Mortenson filled out his arrival forms...occupation.
(Para. 38): Mortenson arrived in Islamabad again in May 1996. This
time his occupation had changed from “climber” to his new capacity
as the director of the newly set up Central Asia Institute. He was still
not used to the unfamiliar title and so his hand hesitated for a moment
when he filled out the arrival form.
hover: to stay suspended or flutter in the air near one place (like
a bird). Here it is used figuratively, meaning linger or wait in an
uncertain condition.
45. Hoerni had suggested the name. The scientist envisioned...the Silk
Road. (Para. 38): Hoerni funded the organization and suggested the
name. He imagined that the project of building schools could develop
fast just like one of his semiconductor companies in the Silicon Valley
in California, extending its mission to build schools and operating
other humanitarian projects not only in Pakistan but beyond it, across
the many countries whose names end with “stan” scattered along the
separate routes of the Silk Road.
1) envision: to imagine (something not yet in existence); to picture in
the mind
2) operation: any specific plan, project, venture
3) humanitarian: concerned with improving bad living conditions
and preventing unfair treatment of people
4) “stans”: the Persian suffix “stan” means “land.” There are many
countries in Central Asia whose names contain “stan,” such as