Central Thoughts:
Su Tungpo was unpredictable . He had the habot of begonning his poems in the most natural , simple and effortless manner , he would put in an allusion or two rwcalling ancient history , and from then on nobody knew what was going to happen , least of all the poet himself . But it made him got into trouble , because he compared the ruling authorities to owls . When he transforned to Wichow , which was a very poor district , he was able to save thirty or forty starving orphans and put them in homes . It was a period when Su Tungpo was feeling sad and despondent , and strange to say , it was when the poet was saddest that he wrote his best poems . When he got an appointment to office at Suchow , which was not only a big city , but also a place of the greatest strategic importance , holding control of the mountainous regions in southern Shantung , a big flood reached Suchow . He plunged into the work of saving the city . On top of this outer city wall , following his love for architecture, Su Tungpo had a tower built a hundred feet high , which was called the Yellow Tower . The Yellow Tower was so called because of a belief in the old Chinese cosmogony . According to this system , all things in the universe are composed of five elements , gold , wood , fire , and earth .Each of these stands for a principle and a color . Yellow stands for the earth and black stands for water , and yellow earth is supposed to overcome the black water by its power of absorption . The name given the Yellow Tower was , therefore , symbolic of the power to resist water . Su Tungpo was now very popular , not only because of his successful fight against the floot but also because he had taken a personal interest in the health and welfare of the prisoners , something which was rarely , if ever , done by magistrates at the tome . Tungpo was less tactful , but really a good man .
Words and Sentences:
（1）rapacious? ? ? adj.貪婪的，掠奪的
其意義和greedy相似。
例句：It's easy to paint a stork , difficult to describe a tiger------a clear reference to a rapacious goverment .
（2）mellow? adj.成熟的，芳醇的比默，柔和? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 的植旧，圓潤(rùn)的? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? v.成熟栅盲，變?nèi)岷鸵坝狗即?/p>
Even his joys in the beauties of nature and the pleasures of the day were more mellow.
（3）plunged into 陷入
Su Tungpo plunged into the work of sving the city .
（1）There is no question that he was a master of both prose and poetry , written in the style of “saiting clouds and winding water , going whither it wants to go and stopping whenever it is right to stop”
這句“如行云流水谁尸，常行于所當(dāng)行晰赞，常止于不可不止”能很好詮釋蘇東坡詩歌的特點(diǎn)稼病。
（2）But such lines have the power of mosquito bites . They sting , they irritate , and they annoy ；and if there were too many bites , they can thoroughly ruin one's sleep for the night .
這話很生動(dòng)形象地闡述了蘇東坡作品對(duì)當(dāng)權(quán)者的一種抨擊掖鱼，很有穿透力然走。
（3）The whole town was present to witness the opening ceremony .
這話的主語應(yīng)該是人們從巷子里出來看儀式落成，而此處用了the whole town做主語戏挡，變成主動(dòng)者芍瑞，表達(dá)萬人空巷。
