● Important Quotation

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY)

These words conclude the novel and find Nick returning to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the future, here represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. Yet humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past: in the metaphoric language used here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green light. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the future (epitomized by Gatsby’s desire to re-create 1917 in his affair with Daisy) and they cannot escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into reality. While they never lose their optimism (“tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . .”), they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away. This apt metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself. Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical disillusionment but rather the respectful melancholy that he ultimately brings to his study of Gatsby’s life.

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● Vocabulary

arsenic noun /ˈɑː(r)s(ə)nɪk/

: a very strong chemical that is used in industry and as a poison for killing small animals such as rats

-- Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily)

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apron noun /ˈeɪprən/

: something that you wear to protect the front of your clothes, especially when you are cooking

-- My fatherhad just come from themeathouse; he had his stiff bloody apron on, and a pail of cut-up meat in his hand. (Alice Munro, Boys and Girls)

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peri: around

e.g., peripheral: connected with something but not a necessary or important part of it

e.g., perimeter: the outer edge of an enclosed area of ground such as a field or airport

e.g, periscope: a long tube with mirrors at each end, used for looking over the top of something, especially for looking at the surface of the sea from a submarine

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tele: distance, far, from afar

e.g., telescope: a piece of equipment shaped like a tube that you look through to make distant objects look closer and larger

e.g., television: a piece of electrical equipment with a screen, used for watching programmes

e.g., telecast: a programme broadcast on television

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bi: two

e.g., binoculars: a piece of equipment with two parts that you hold against your eyes and look through to see distant objects more clearly

e.g., biannual: happening twice every year

e.g., bifurcate: to divide into two separate parts, especially parts that go in different directions

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sphere: ball, sphere 

e.g., hemisphere: one half of the Earth, divided between north and south by the equator

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● Term Explanation

point of view

Narration is the use of—or the particularly chosen methodology or process (also called the narrative mode) of using—a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to anaudience. Narration encompasses a set of techniques through which the creator of the story presents their story, including:

• : the perspective (or type of personal or non-personal "lens") through which a story is communicatedNarrative point of view
• Narrative voice: the format (or type of presentational form) through which a story is communicated
• Narrative time: the placement of the story's time-frame in the past, the present, or the future

A narrator is a personal character or a non-personal voice that the creator of the story develops to deliver information to the audience, particularly about the plot. The narrator may be a voice devised by the author as an anonymous, non-personal, or stand-alone entity; as the author themself as a character; or as some other fictional or non-fictional character appearing and participating within their own story. The narrator is considered participant if he/she is a character within the story, and non-participant if he/she is an implied character or an omniscient or semi-omniscient being or voice that merely relates the story to the audience without being involved in the actual events. Some stories have multiple narrators to illustrate the story-lines of various characters at the same, similar, or different times, thus allowing a more complex, non-singular point of view.

Narration encompasses not only who tells the story, but also how the story is told (for example, by using stream of consciousness or unreliable narration). In traditional literary narratives (such as novels, short stories, and memoirs), narration is a required story element; in other types of (chiefly non-literary) narratives, such as plays, television shows, video games, and films, narration is merely optional.

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Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm andeuphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.

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● Hyperbole 誇飾

Hyperbole (/haɪˈpɜrbəliː; Greek: "exaggeration") is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It is used in poems to create emphasis on a situation. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.

Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or effect. As a literary device, hyperbole is often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech. Many times the usages of hyperbole describes something as better or worse than it really is.  An example of hyperbole is: "The bag weighed a ton." Hyperbole makes the point that the bag was very heavy, though it probably does not weigh a ton.

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● Puberty 青春期

Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction to enable fertilization. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy.

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● Danny Boy

"Danny Boy" is a ballad written by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly and usually set to the Irish tune of the "Londonderry Air". It is most closely associated with Irish communities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s_jleJFR_M

Laird sang "Jingle Bells," which he would sing anytime, whether it was Christmas or nit, and I sang "Danny Boy."  I loved the sound of my own voice, frail and supplicating, rising in the dark. We could make out the tall frosted shapes of the windows now, gloomy and white. When I came to the part, When I am dead, as dead I well may be—a fit of shivering caused not by the cold sheets but by pleasurable emotion almost silenced me. You’ll kneel and say, an Ave there above me—What was an Ave? Every day I forgot to find out. (Alice Munro, Boys and Girls)

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● Boys and Girls

"Boys and Girls" (1964 / 1968) is a short story by Alice Munro, the Canadian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 which deals with the making of gender roles.

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● Spring Break

Spring break is a vacational period in early spring at universities and schools in various countries in the world. It is also known by names such as Easter vacation, Easter Holiday, March break, spring vacation, Mid-Term Break, study week, reading week, reading period, or Easter week, depending on regional conventions.

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Easter

Easter, also called Pasch or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

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Equinox 晝夜平分點

An equinox occurs twice a year, around 20 March and 22 September. The word itself has several related definitions. The oldest meaning is the day when daytime and night are of approximately equal duration.

UT date and time of equinoxes and solstices on Earth[1]
event	equinox		solstice		equinox		solstice
month	March		June		September		December
year
	day	time	day	time	day	time	day	time
2010	20	17:32	21	11:28	23	03:09	21	23:38
2011	20	23:21	21	17:16	23	09:04	22	05:30
2012	20	05:14	20	23:09	22	14:49	21	11:12
2013	20	11:02	21	05:04	22	20:44	21	17:11
2014	20	16:57	21	10:51	23	02:29	21	23:03
2015	20	22:45	21	16:38	23	08:20	22	04:48
2016	20	04:30	20	22:34	22	14:21	21	10:44
2017	20	10:28	21	04:24	22	20:02	21	16:28
2018	20	16:15	21	10:07	23	01:54	21	22:23
2019	20	21:58	21	15:54	23	07:50	22	04:19
2020	20	03:50	20	21:44	22	13:31	21	10:02