行走的“打印机”Walking “printer”
Bad news has wings. So does good news. In 2021, a teacher from Shangqiu, Central China s Henan Province, wowed (博得称赞) thousands of netizens with his neat and immaculate (完美的) chalk handwriting after a video showing him writing characters in various calligraphy (书法) styles on a blackboard went viral. Each stroke (笔画) is so perfectly executed (完成) that it has earned the teacher the nickname “walking printer”.
Graduating from university as an art and craft major in 2003, Zhang Shifeng, now aged 41, has been an art teacher ever since. He took calligraphy as a hobby at an early age, and has put all his heart into calligraphy with chalk for decades.
According to Zhang, writing with a chalk is trickier than using a brush and paper, as the character you write on a blackboard is usually on a larger scale, making the stroke harder to handle and the pattern and composition of each character is difficult to grasp, thus requiring a great practice.
After years of perfecting his technique, Zhang is now capable of chalkboard writing in a dozen styles, including Small Seal script, and Semi cursive script.
Zhang said he felt exhilarated (高兴的) when his handwriting won compliments from students and believed his continuous efforts would pay off by helping students understand different calligraphy styles in the history of Chinese character development. “Every time I notice kids keen interest in my class, I see that their enthusiasm for Chinese calligraphy is fueled, which makes me feel so much rewarded. It is my hope that the kids will learn how to write properly through my chalkboard writing and inherit (继承) our beautiful art of calligraphy. You see, we can t let our traditional culture fade away,” he said.
Thanks to Zhang, interest in calligraphy among students is aroused, with many people imitating his writing, and to their credit, “they are doing fairly well,” Zhang added.
For calligraphy enthusiasts (爱好者), Zhang recommends starting off by practicing Kaishu, or Regular Script, as the structure of Kaishu preserves the essential characteristics of squareness (方形) and precision (精确性).
Activity A Reading for understanding
Ⅰ. Text centered chunks
earn the nickname 获得昵称
put all one s heart into 把某人的全部心血倾注于……
on a large scale 大范围地
be capable of 有能力做
win compliments 赢得赞美
pay off 取得成功
fuel one s enthusiasm 燃烧某人的热情
fade away 逐渐消失
arouse one s interest 唤起某人的兴趣
to one s credit 值得赞扬
start off by 通过……开始
Ⅱ. Text centered sentences
一、with的复合结构
Thanks to Zhang, interest in calligraphy among students is aroused, with many people imitating his writing, and to their credit, “they are doing fairly well,” Zhang said. 多亏了张老师,学生们对书法的兴趣被激发了,很多人模仿他的字体,值得赞扬的是,张老师说:“他们确实做得很棒。”
【点石成金】with many people imitating his writing是with的复合结构。
【运用迁移】老师进来了,腋下夹着一本书。
二、so...that句型
Each stroke is so perfectly executed that it has earned the teacher the nickname “walking printer”. 老师如此完美地完成每一笔,以至于这为他获得了“行走的打印机”的绰号。
【点石成金】so...that句型引导结果状语从句,意为“如此……以至于……”。
【运用迁移】她兴奋得睡不着。
三、同位语从句
It is my hope that the kids will learn how to write properly through my chalkboard writing and inherit our beautiful art of calligraphy. 我希望孩子们能通过我的黑板字学会如何恰当地书写,并继承我们美妙的书法艺术。