The Richer, the Poorer
Presented Suzy
The Richer, the Poorer
 About
the text
 Structure
 Cultural Note
 Language Point
 Sentence Paraphrases
 Usage
 After-class Discussion
 Keys to the Exercises
Comparison and Contrast
The story is a good example of comparison and contrast.
It concentrates on the differences of the two sisters’
lifestyles and experiences from childhood to old age. The
focus is on Lottie’s life while Bess’s is briefly touched
upon in contrast.The story opens with the two sisters’
contrasting financial conditions in old age. Then point-topoint method of organization is employed. One aspect of
Lottie’s, usually narrated in detail, is followed by a brief
account of the same aspect of Bess’s. The climax is their
reunion in old age, when they, for the first time, seem to
share similar opinion on life.
Point of View
The story is written from Lottie’s point of
view. Much of the space is devoted to
description of Lottie’s opinions, views and
reflections. The reader can enter her mind
and learn what goes on there. So when
we read such descriptions, we should not
be satisfied with their surface meaning but
should go deeper and find out what they
imply.
The Use of Both Formal and
Informal Expressions
We find informal words and expressions are used
alongside formal ones. But toward the end of
the story when Lottie’s lifestyle of “all work and
no play” begin to change, she speaks in a very
colloquial style. Her speech at the end of the
story is a good example. But in the first half of
the story and much of the second when Lottie is
working wholeheartedly to prepare for her old
age, the writer uses more formal words and
expressions.
Structure
Part One ( Para 1-Para18 ) :
The different lifestyles of the two sisters
Lottie : all work and no play ;
Bess : all play and no work .
Part Two ( Para 18 – End ) :
The two sisters’ reunion in old age, when they,
for the first time, seem to share similar opinion
on life
Cultural Note
Gypsies : A nomadic people believed to have
originated from India in the 14th century who
later moved westward first to Egypt, then to
North America. Gypsies typically do not live in
one place, but travel from place to place while
living in caravans. Gypsies do various jobs to
make a living, but traditionally they are thought
of as horse traders, musicians, basket makers
and fortune tellers. In the U.K., some people do
not trust Gypsies treat them with disapproval,
because the gypsy way of life is so different
from the way most British people live.
Gypsies
Gypsies have been traditionally treated with little
kindness wherever they go. Many European
Gypsies were killed by the Nazis during the
Second World War. However, the Gypsies have
inspired many musicians, artists and writers with
their great tradition of folklore, legends and
songs as well as their unique way of life featured
by independence and mobility. In the U.S.,
people imagine that Gypsies have a very
interesting life, traveling, and not worrying about
money.
Cultural Note
In the U.S. and Canada, a dime is a coin
worth ten cents. Other coins that are
commonly used are quarter, worth 25
cents, nickel, 5 cents, penny, one cent.
There are also coins worth 50 cents and
100 cents that are called half dollar and
dollar.
Language Point
worldly of the material world
one’s worldly possessions/
goods
things a person owns
water
(esp. of the eyes and mouth ) to form or let
out water or water liquid, esp. tears or
saliva (唾液).
e.g. 1) At the sight of roast duck, my mouth
watered.
2)Whenever I pass that factory, my
eyes water.
sense good and especially practical understanding
and judgement to do sth., often used in the
phrase “ have the sense to do sth.”
e.g. You should have had the sense to turn off the
gas before you left.
He had the sense to take a taxi instead of
waiting in the snow for a bus.
light (= white meat ) the very light-colored
meat from part of a cooked bird, such as
the breast of a chicken ;
dark (= dark meat ) the darker meat from
some part of a cooked bird, such as that of
the leg.
count ( the years )
to say the number
( the days that ) count
to be important or to have value
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Lean (adj.) small in amount or quantity ;
Clerk ( v.) to keep records or accounts, or to do
general office work ;
Wardrobe a collection of clothes especially of one
person or for one activity ;
Marriage license an official document which people
must get before they are allowed to marry ;
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Terms the stated conditions concerning payment,
prices, etc.
Blood tie family relationship ;
Redo ( a room ) to fix and decorate it ;
Play house a children’s game in which children
pretended to be mom and dad housekeeping ;
here it is used figuratively to show that Lottie
enjoyed working on her house as children enjoy
playing games.
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Specialty shop a shop that sells particularly
fine or excellent goods ;
Beauty salon/ parlor ( AmE also beauty shop)
a shop where women are given beauty
treatment for the face, hair, nails, etc.
Smart to cause or to feel a painful stinging
sensation, usually in one part of the body
and not last long ;
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Onrush a strong movement forward ;
Top-heavy not properly balanced because
of too much weight at the top, here the
word indicates that the turkey is
disproportionately too big and lavish a dish
for two old ladies ;
The end ( euphemism ) a person’s death
Go on/ run errands for sb.
to go somewhere for other people to take a
message, to buy sth., or to deliver goods,
etc.
e.g. 1)When I was a child, I liked to run
errands for my parents.
2)Sorry, at the moment I have no time
to go on errands for anybody.
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Put one’s mind to sth./ set one’s mind on
sth. to concentrate on sth. Or to be
determined to achieve sth.
e.g. 1) She’s put her mind to improving
her pronunciation.
2) I’m sure you can do anything if
you set your mind on it.
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Straight out of high school immediately after
graduating from high school
Straight + adv./ prep. directly, esp. without delay
e.g. 1) He went straight home without
stopping at his favorite saloon.
2) He met the director straight after the
lunch break.
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In rags wearing very old torn clothes
Here, “in rags” is used figuratively (meaning
“poverty”) as the antithesis (direct opposite) to “in
riches”.
“Riches” (esp. in written English) : large amount of
money and valuable or beautiful possessions.
(from) rags to riches from being extremely poor to
being extremely rich.
Dump sth./ sb. (on sb.)
to get rid of sth./sb. Or leave them for
someone else to deal with.
e.g. 1) Some young couples dump their
children on their grandparents.
2) She never dumps her problems on
her parents.
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Be through (with sth./sb.)
(informal. Esp.AmE) to finish ; to have no
further relationship.
e.g. 1) I’m through with all the painting.
2) We hope you are through with
drugs.
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Waste sth. (in) doing sth./ on sth.
to use more of sth. Than necessary or useful.
e.g.
You are just wasting your time
trying to talk him out of the idea.
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Kick up one’s heels
(AmE, informal) to be relaxed and enjoy oneself
e.g. 1) She’s a workaholic and doesn’t know
how to kick up her heels.
2) He plans to kick up his heels and go on
a trip to Europe when he finishes his book.
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land on one’s head to result in an unpleasant
situation; this is a perversion of the idiom to
“land on one’s feet”, which literally means
“ (of a cat) to land on its paws safe and
sound after falling from a great height”.
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Be better off : to have more money (the phrase is
used ironically here)
Peace of mind : the state of being without worries;
calmness
Feel giddy : to feel so happy and excited that one
can’t behave normally.
Warm over : to reheat cooked food for eating
Sentence paraphrases
Over the years Bess had lived each day as
if there were no others.
Over the years in spite of her sister’s urge
to prepare for her old age, Bess seized
every minute to enjoy herself as if she
would die the next day.
She decided to keep her money for clothes.
When she entered high school, she would
wear a wardrobe that no one else would be
able to match.
She decided to keep her money to buy
clothes when she started high school.Then
no other girls in her school would have
more and better clothes to wear than she
did.
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Lottie expected to be settled with a home and
family while Bess was still waiting for Harry to
earn enough money to buy a marriage license.
With her savings in the bank, Lottie wanted to get
married and settled down for a comfortable life
while Bess’s boyfriend couldn’t even earn enough
money to get a marriage license.
Or : When Lottie was financially ready to get
married and settle down, Bess’s boyfriend couldn’t
even earn enough money to get a marriage
license.
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Two or three times she was halfway persuaded,
but to give up a job that paid well for a
homemaking job that paid nothing was a risk she
was incapable of taking.
Two or three times, urged by others, she thought
seriously about marrying. But she didn’t because
that would mean she had to give up a well-paying
job and become a housewife/ homemaker who
didn’t get paid for all the work she did. This was
something she couldn’t make herself accept.
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That Lottie had a doorstep was only because her
boss, having bought a second house, offered
Lottie his first house at a price so low and terms
so reasonable that it would have been like losing
money to refuse.
When Lottie’s boss bought a new house, he
offered his old house at a very low price and very
generous terms, which made Lottie think that it
would be foolish not to accept this offer. So it was
because her boss’s kindness that Lottie now had a
home of her own. (Probably the terms were to pay
the house over a long period of time.)
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Passing her gleaming mirrors, at first with vague
awareness, then with painful clarity, Lottie saw
herself as others saw her, and couldn’t stand the
sight.
When she walked past her shiny mirrors, Lottie
noticed, at first dimly, then clearly, how old and
worn she looked. She came to know, painfully,
exactly how she looked to others. She disliked her
appearance and couldn’t bring herself to look into
the mirrors any more.
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She went on a spending spree from the specialty
shops to beauty salon, emerging transformed into
a woman who believed in miracles.
Then she began visiting specialty shops and
beauty salons, spending money lavishly and
wastefully to improve her looks. She marveled at
result and came to believe that impossible could
happen if a person set her mind on it.
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Her face reflected the joys and sorrows of her
remembering, and above all, the love she lived by
that enhanced the poorest place, the humblest
person.
As she talked, Lottie could see that the years she
had lived with Harry was full of both joys and
sorrows, and that the most important thing was
his love for her. This love had made her poorest
place a paradise and the second-rate player, her
husband, a perfect man to her.
Usage
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In English, a part of an object is often used to
stand for the whole.
“a doorstep” refers to “a house”
wheels : (informal) a car
engine : a vehicle that pulls a train
Parts of the body, esp. in colloquial English, are
sometimes used to refer to a particular type of
people. Here are a few examples:
mind : an intelligent person
hand : a person who does physical work
As soon as anyone would hire her, Lottie put
herself to work.
Here “would” means “be willing to do”. More
examples :
He said he would do everything possible to save
her life.
She said she would wait for him no matter how
long it might take.
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Very likely she would have dumped them on
Lottie’s doorstep.
“would have done sth.” expresses an action that
might but did not occur in the past. Often, a
condition is implied. Here the implied condition is :
if Bess had had children. More examples :
Lottie would gladly have worked for nothing,
to have some place to go, something to do with
her day.
She would have come (if she had been
invited).
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Harry died abroad, in a third-rate hotel, with Bess
weeping as hard as if he had left her a fortune.
“As + adverb/ adjective + as if” introduces an
adverbial clause of comparison. More examples :
He looked as innocent as if he had never
heard about it.
When they saw him, they all ran as quickly as
if they had seen the ghost.
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Comparison & Contrast Between
Lottie & Bess
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Lottie :
has one simple aim in life: to work hard,
save hard, and prepare for her old age. She tried hard to
earn money even when she was a little girl. She looked
after babies, ran errands for the old, worked as a clerk
after school in a store, and finally got a job in a
restaurant. She never stopped working and she never
spent money if she could help it. She never married and
lived all alone. Now when she reached her sixties, she
had a house, a bank account, but she obviously had not
enjoyed life.
Bess:
Lottie’s sister, was a entirely different story.
She liked to go outside & play when she was a
child. She never worried about the future. She
married young to a second-rate horn player. They
were always poor and lived like Gypsies. But they
loved each other and obviously enjoyed life. By
the time she reached her sixties, she had lost her
husband and she had no children and she had
nothing in the world she could call her own. But
she had no regret about her life.
Discussion
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When the two sisters met at their old age, the contrast
was very interesting. Lottie had a house and money in
the bank, but had had no fun in life whereas her sister
had had a lot of fun in life but had no house, no money,
no property of any kind except the shirt on her back.
And it was the rich sister Lottie who envied the poor
sister Bess.
1) Who is richer and who is poorer?
2)Would you rather be Lottie, who has not much fun in
life, but is financially secure in her old age or Bess, who
has had a full exciting life but is alone and penniless at
the same age, or neither of them? How should we spend
our life? A wise man once said that happiness is
somewhere between too much and too little. Do you
agree?
Keys to Exercises
Complete the sentences based on the
Chinese in the brackets.
(1)transportation (2)transplant(3)transitional
(4)transform (5)dramatize (6)enlarged
(7)sweeten (8)endangered (9)lighten
(10)transferred (11)summarize
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Complete the sentences with the
expressions listed below in their proper
terms.
1)are better off 2)had put your mind to 3)go
about 4)added up to 5)save for 6)marveled
at 7)above all 8)by comparison 9)have
anything to do with 10)adds up to 11)go
about
Give the meaning of the underlined parts in
the sentences below. Note how the meaning
are different in different contexts.
1) Race 比赛
2)hard on sb. 对某人过于为难
3)hard cash 现金 4)hard 很难的 ; terms 条
件 5)passage 通道 6)passage 通道
7)passage文章的一段 8)race 种族 9)race 跑
步比赛
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Give the verb pattern of the underlined part in the sentences below and then
put the Chinese into English.
Verb pattern : vi + prep. + n./ pron.+ to-infinitive (phrase)
1) I think you will have to depend on your own efforts to overcome the difficulties.
2) We have arranged for you to speak to university students during your visit.
3) The conference called on us to pay special attention to the growing gap
between the poor and the rich.
4) The students appealed to the school authorities to improve their living
conditions.
5) You can rely on her to find the best solution.
6) More and more people are pleading with their government to stop the
bombing.
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Put in right prepositions.
1) by
2) by, from
3) with, since, in
4)from, without, out of, with/ of
5) In, In, for, like
6) for, with, at, into
7) about, as, about
8) in, by, Because of, for, for
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