Setting Is Time and Place · 背景即时间与地点
| English | 中文 | Pinyin · 拼音 |
|---|---|---|
| Setting/ˈsetɪŋ/ | 背景 | bèi jǐng |
The definition is smaller than students expect
- Setting 背景 includes the time and place during which the events of the text occur.
- Two components, both concrete.
- Atmosphere, mood and symbolism are effects of setting, not part of the definition.
An attic at midnight gives you time and place; “creepy” is what happens when the door creaks.
这个定义比学生想象的要小
- 背景(setting)包括文本中事件发生的时间与地点。
- 两个构成要素,都很具体。
- 气氛、情绪与象征意义是背景所产生的效果,不是定义的一部分。
午夜的阁楼给出时间和地点；门一响，你才有了“诡异”的感受。
The CED defines setting as... · CED将背景定义为……
Mood and atmosphere are effects of setting, not part of the definition. · 氛围和情绪是背景的效果，而非定义的一部分。
Finding the details that convey it
- A text rarely announces a date and an address.
- It conveys time through what is possible: what people travel in, what work exists, what is assumed.
- It conveys place through what is present: weather, objects, buildings, language, distances.
找出传达它的细节
- 文本很少直接报出日期和地址。
- 它通过"什么是可能的"来传达时间:人们乘什么出行、有什么样的工作、有哪些不言自明的前提。
- 它通过"什么在场"来传达地点:天气、物件、建筑、语言、距离。
Time, place, or neither? · 时间、地点，还是两者都不是？
Sort each detail by what it fixes. · 根据每个细节固定的内容进行排序。
A text usually states its setting outright as a date and a place name. · 文本通常直接以日期和地名陈述其背景。
It conveys time through what is possible and place through what is present. · 它通过可能性传达时间，通过现存事物传达地点。
Identify before you interpret
- This subtopic's objective is to identify and describe the details that convey setting.
- That is deliberately the first half of the work.
- An interpretation built on a setting you never pinned down cannot be checked against the page.
先指认,再阐释
- 本小节的目标是指认并描述传达背景的细节。
- 这是有意为之的、工作的前一半。
- 建立在你从未确定下来的背景之上的阐释,无法对照书页加以核查。
The objective of this subtopic is to ____ and describe the details that convey setting. · 本子主题的目标是____并描述传达背景的细节。
Identification is deliberately the first half of the work; interpretation comes after. · 识别被刻意设为工作的一半；解释在后。
Select all · 所有 the details that fix a time · 时间. · 选择所有固定时间的细节。
The last one fixes distance, and so fixes place. · 最后一个固定的是距离，因此也固定了地点。
Setting is time and place — nothing else is in the definition. Calling mood, atmosphere or social class "the setting" blurs a term the exam uses precisely. Those things are what the setting does; a question about setting details is asking what fixes the when and the where.
背景就是时间与地点——定义里没有别的。把情绪、气氛或社会阶层称作"背景",会模糊一个考试精确使用的术语。那些是背景所起的作用;关于背景细节的问题,问的是什么确定了何时与何地。
Match each channel to what it tells you. · 将每个渠道与其告知的内容匹配。
Identify first; the function of setting is the work of later units. · 先识别；背景的功能是后续单元的工作。
Quote small
- A setting detail is usually two or three words, not a sentence.
- a coal fire, the last bus, the third summer of the drought.
- Short quotations are stronger evidence because the reader can see exactly what you are pointing at.
引用要短
- 背景细节通常是两三个词,而不是一整句。
- 一炉煤火、末班车、旱情的第三个夏天。
- 短引文是更有力的证据,因为读者能确切看到你所指的是什么。
A setting pass
- List every detail that fixes when. List every detail that fixes where.
- If one list is empty, that absence is itself worth noticing.
- Only then ask what the setting does — which is where the next units go.
背景检查
- 列出每一处确定何时的细节。列出每一处确定何地的细节。
- 如果其中一份清单是空的,这一缺席本身就值得注意。
- 然后才问背景起了什么作用——那是后面几个单元要去的地方。
"the last bus had gone" fixes both at once: a time late enough for services to stop, and a place with a bus route and no other way out. Four words, two components, and everything the passage later does with isolation now has a source.
*"末班车已经开走了"*一次确定了两者:一个晚到班车已停运的时间,以及一个有公交线路、却再无别的出路的地点。四个字,两个要素,而这段文字随后关于孤立的一切,如今都有了出处。
Setting includes the time and place during which the events occur — that is the whole definition. Texts convey time through what is possible and place through what is present. Identify and describe the details first; short quotations make the strongest evidence.
背景包括事件发生的时间与地点——定义就是这些。文本通过"什么是可能的"传达时间,通过"什么在场"传达地点。先指认并描述这些细节;短引文是最有力的证据。