2023-2024学年高中典范英语 David Copperfield Chapter 1 经典文学学习学案

Reading makes a full man David Copperfield Charles Dickens CHAPTER I A bad child My life has been full of ups and downs, and during my childhood the downs seemed to rain on me like a never-ending storm. When I look back on those years, I can't believe that any grown-up would behave in that way to a child. But they did. My story starts in Suffolk with the first noise I ever heard --- the slamming of our front door. My great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood, had been quite sure I was going to be a girl. When she was told I was a boy, she got up in a rage and stormed out. My poor mother! She was all alone in the world, except for me and our housekeeper, Peggotty. My father had died six months before I was born. My early childhood was very happy. I remember watching geese waddle around our back yard and reading picture books with Peggotty. Peggotty was not pretty, like my mother, Clara, but she was kind and loving, and I adored her as much as I adored my mother. Then one evening at a friend's house, my mother met Mr Murdstone. He had black hair and a hard, cold, handsome face. My mother seemed to light up in his company but even though I was very young, I could tell Mr Murdstone didn't like me at all. And I didn't like him. Before long, this unpleasant man began to visit our house more and more often. So I was very happy when Peggotty took me on a holiday to the seaside where her brother, Dan Peggotty, lived. I fell in love with his house, which was in an upside-down boat --- a large black barge, with an iron funnel blowing out chimney smoke. I also fell in love with his little orphaned niece, Emily, who lived with him. She was bold and pretty with a wildness that completely captured my heart. I often think that if I hadn't met Emily, some of the terrible things that happened to her in later life may never have taken place. But you can't know these things at the time. Dan Peggotty also looked after an orphaned nephew named Ham, a tall lad with a wide smile, wh