12.5  Chapter Two  Meishan

Part 1

In this chapter, the author introduced Su Tungpo’s birth place to us. He talked about Meishan and the local customs and habits here. In addition, the author also mentioned about the family members and the influence over Su Tungpo.

Part 2

1. The little hill stood against a vast plain of rice fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens, dotted here and there with bamboo groves and curiously dwarfed palm trees.

dot: to spread things or people over an area; to be spread over an area 星罗棋布于；遍布。多用于被动语态

eg. The countryside was dotted with small villages.

dwarfed: It is used to describe varieties or species of plants and animals which are much smaller than the usual size for their kind. 动植物等矮小的，矮种的

eg. There are many dwarfed shrubs.

A Chinese baby is "one year old" the moment he is born, following the general pattern of everyone's desiring to reach venerable age as quickly as possible.

venerable: A venerable person deserves respect because they are old and wise.（因年高睿智）德高望重的，令人崇敬的; venerable age 高龄

eg. Su Tungpo was a venerable poet with many works.

According to the poet himself, this explains why he ran into so many troubles all his life and was a target of rumors,

target usually means a result that you try to achieve, but in this sentence, it means an object, a person or a place that people aim at when attacking （攻击的）目标，对象

eg. In the late Qing Dynasty, China had been a target of threats and slanders from the major western powers.