1 - 阅读感悟
（1）苏东坡与权利。
“I feel like a tired hose who balks at climbing up a hill.”
苏东坡参加考试初入仕途时的雄心壮志，到如今，他把自己比喻成疲惫的马，体现对官场的乏力。
（2）本章主旨。
If Su Tungpo's fate / in the next twenty years / is indicative of / an official's lack of freedom / of personal movement,// it should be a powerful argument / against any scholar's joining politics / who can make a living otherwise.
开头的第一句话就点名了本章的主旨：人在官场，身不由己，苏东坡何去何从全由皇帝决定。这个句子的结构也值得学习。
（3）苏东坡的善良。
If that was a beautiful thing to do, it was a beautiful thing to do —— that was all.
对于苏东坡的善良，本章中用买房子的事情再一次予以佐证。“成全一桩美事，全因其美，无它。”林语堂用这句话写出了苏东坡秉性纯良，不用金钱来衡量事情值不值得做。
（4）精彩译文。
① “ To speak about politics only when in office is the normal rule." “不在其位，不谋其政。”
②“Wang chuckled but did not reply.” "王安石笑而不语。"
③“... he had his heart in his mouth.” "... ... “心都快跳出来了。”
2 - Words and Expressions
（1）break in on（或upon）
原文：This news broke in on him at the beginning of March in 1084.（P524）
①突然扰乱…而使中断，打扰，突然打断(谈话等)：
【例句】Children shouldn"t break in on adults" conversation。打断他人的谈话是不礼貌的。
②突然袭击；闯入：
【例句】The police broke in upon the robbers. /警察突然袭击了那伙强盗。
（2）toss off
原文：... of which he tossed off a great many.
①轻而易举地完成某件事：
【例句】She tossed off a letter during the 10-minute break.
在10分钟休息时，她很快地写了一封信。
②to perform, write, consume, etc, quickly and easily 迅速而轻松地表演、写作、消耗等，文中就是这个意思。
③将某物一饮而尽。
（3）entrust：表示“委托，交付”，可同义替换成leave，pass,hand等。
原文：... in order to entrust this old preist to one of his friends at Shingkuo.
（4）at a stroke：一下子，一举。
原文：At a stroke,the rewards of his years of labor were wiped out...
