2021-22学年度第9期总第846期
Open our hearts to refugees (Pages 4-5)
安徽省宁国中学       秦迎

Lead in
Who is Abdulrazak Gurnah?
How did he become this year’s winner?
What are his works about?
What do people think of his works?

Read for the gist
Read the title and the first paragraph to get the main idea of the passage.
Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in literature. His works explore the effects of colonialism (殖民主义) and war and the fate of the refugee.

Read for the structure

Read for comprehension
Read the text and answer the following questions.

1. What was Gurnah’s early life like?
Gurnah grew up in Zanzibar and was forced to leave for England as a refugee.

2. What was the theme of his 10 novels and stories?
The suffering caused by war and colonialism.

3. In what language are these works written?
Although Gurnah’s first language is Swahili, he adopted English as his literary language. Traces of Arabic, Swahili and German can be found in his works as well.

Sentences
Paraphrase the following sentences.
1. Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah is this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in recognition of his “compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee”.

The Nobel Prize was given to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah this year to show official appreciation of his works, which highlight the refugee experience and compassionately address the effects of colonialism and war.  

2. Academics and novelists are celebrating Gurnah’s win after long arguing that he deserves a wider audience.
Academics and novelists are happy to see Gurnah win the award because they do believe that Gurnah’s works should be shared by more readers.

Language study
Find useful words and expressions in the text and work out their meanings.
reflect on            思考
explore                探讨，探究
suffering            痛苦，磨难
literary language        文学语言
be recognized as        被认为是……

Assignment
Read this article carefully and write a paragraph to introduce Gurnah and his works using these words:

the Nobel Prize in literature; refugee;
effects of colonialism and war;
be recognized as; deserve a wider audience;
stories of people who aren’t heard