Questions and Answers
1. What did the driver and Ed use to do before they got married?
They went to school and passed time together.
2. Who wrote the letter? Who did the narrator think had written the letter? Find out sentences that demonstrate the narrator’s misunderstanding.
• 3. What did the narrator decide to do when he arrived at the hotel? Why?
He decided to write a letter and mail it immediately because he wouldn’t wait until it was too late.
go ahead: continue; begin (sometimes followed by with + n.) The board of directors will vote today on whether to go ahead with the plan. Henry will be late but we will go ahead with the meeting anyway.
When I got to my hotel room I didn’t unpack right away. First I had to write a letter — and mail it.
3. Read Text A as quickly as possible, and find out if you are right. Can you summarize the story with three sentences? Key words: lost in thought; read a letter; an old friend; lifelong friendship; regret; author decided
be lost in / lose oneself in:
be absorbed in; be fully occupied with He was lost in playing computer games so he was unaware of my entering the room.
I had lost myself in thought.
Part Division of the Text
Parts 1 Para(s) 1～20 Main Ideas
2
21～35
From a conversation with the cab driver the author learned how much he regretted failing to keep up correspondence with his old friend Ed. Reading the letter by himself, the author learned more about the lifelong friendship between the driver and Old Ed.
What does a cabbie do?
Who wrote the letter to the cabbie?
Why was all the cabbie had only a letter?
2. Read the last sentence of Text A and try to guess what the story is about.
estimate: 1. vt. form a judgment about (a quantity or value)
We estimate his income to be about $8,000 a year.
我估计她有35岁。
I estimate her age at 35.
2. n. approximate calculation or judgment made about a quantity or value 估价，判断 According to some estimates, the number of farms has increased by 50 percent. My estimate of her character was wrong.
The driver wrote the letter. The narrator thought that Ed had written the letter. For example, “I know I’d like to receive a letter like that from my oldest friend.”
trust
warm close intimate everlasting Friendship
genuine
help
generous
Topic-related Prediction 1. Text A is titled All the Cabbie Had Was a Letter. Before you read the story, think about the answers to the following questions.
Word Web The stories in this unit are about friendship. Can you raise some of the words which are related to friendship?
Friendship
durable perpetual
long-standing enduring lifelong
Group Discussion 1. The following questions are what the narrator asked the cab driver. Put them in the right order. 1) Did you go to school together? 2) The letter must have made you feel good, didn’t it? 3) Is your cab available? 4) Is he someone you’ve known quite a while? 5) Is he dead? 6) I thought your friend was Ed. Why did he sign it Tom? 7) Is the letter from a child or a grandchild? 8) Did you two work at the same place? ( 3 ) → ( 7 ) → ( 4 ) → ( 1 ) → ( 5 ) →( 8 ) → ( 2 ) → ( 6 )
他忙于这项工作而对周围的一切都很漠然。
or something: used when you are not very sure about what you have just said The air fare was a hundred and ninety-nine pounds or something. Here’s some money. Get yourself a sandwich or something. She's writing a dictionary or something. 她在编写词典之类的书。 NB: 同义的短语：or something like that
Warm-up Questions
1. Do you often write letters to your friends? 2. Did you ever write a letter which was not sent? Why did you keep it?
Scanning
Which of the following statements is the theme.
At least they do with me because I’m on the road so much.
Paraphrase the sentence. At least letters from home mean a lot to me because I travel a lot for long distances.
CF: estimate, ev”或“估价”的意思。 estimate 指先于实际的测量、计算或测试而作的某种估 计或估价，可以是经过仔细考虑，也可以是随意的。 He estimated he would do the hundred miles by noon. 他估计自已到中午时能走完这一百英里路。 I asked three building firms to estimate for the repairs to the house. 我请三个建筑公司估计修缮房屋的费用。
Main Ideas
Parts 3
Para(s) 36
The driver’s experience urged the author to reach for his pen.
True or False 1. The driver caught a cold that day. ( F ) He had just cried. 2. The driver had never seen Ed in the past 25 or 30 years. ( F ) He had only seen him once or twice a year. 3. The driver had never forgotten his old friend. ( T ) 4. The narrator was quite eager to read the letter. ( F ) He thought it was very personal.