全新版大学英语第二册第四册unit 6(9)

Unit 6

parallel: adj. having the same distance between each other at every point *Draw a pair of parallel lines. 希尔路和米尔路两路平行。

(=Hill Road is parallel to Mill Road.)

opt: vi. decide to do sth.; choose *John opted for early retirement. 他不参加健康保险计划。

(=He opted out of the health insurance plan.)

\

like an Olympic endurance event: the everydayathon,\Walljasper in the Utne Reader.

Translate the sentence into Chinese.

(=“程度已经如此严重，我的生活排满了各种各样的活动，感觉就像是在进行奥运会耐

力项目比赛：每日马拉松赛，”杰伊·沃加斯泼在《优涅读者》杂志上坦言。)

endurance: n. state or power of enduring

*Running a marathon is a test of human endurance. 疼痛难以忍受。

(=The pain was bad beyond endurance.)

confess: vi. acknowledge; admit

*I've got something to confess — I ate the pie.

基督教会的成员们向牧师忏悔那些他们曾经做过的错事，以便能洗刷他们的罪恶。

(=Members of some Christian churches confess to their priest about the things they have done wrong so that their guilt can be removed.)

If you make haste, you probably make it in the technology-driven world.

Sociologists have also found that increasing wealth and increasing education bring a sense of tension about time. We believe that we possess too little of it.

Paraphrase the sentence.

(=If you save time and do things quickly, you are likely to succeed in the technology-driven world. According to sociologists, the increasing wealth and increasing education make us feel so time-pressed that we always think we have too little time to get things done. )

possess: vt. have or own (sth.)

*Ruth possesses great knowledge in her field and a pleasing personality. 他是位极有天赋的作家，具有用通俗的语言表达复杂概念的才能。

(=He is an extremely gifted writer who possesses the talent of turning difficult concepts into words that everyone can understand.)

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Unit 6

no wonder: it is not surprising that

*No wonder you have got a headache, given the amount you drank last night. “她没得到那份工作。”“难怪她有点举止失常。”

(=\

run the risk of: be in a situation in which sth. bad could happen *If you tell him the truth, you run the risk of hurting his feelings. 信任他你冒了极大的风险。

(=You’re running a big risk in trusting him.)

temporal: adj. of or denoting time

*We need both spatial and temporal dimensions to make sense of the universe we perceive.

越来越多的人依靠时间界限而非传统的空间界限来区分家庭与工作。

(=A growing number of people rely on temporal boundaries to make the distinction between home and work instead of the traditional use of space.)

crash down: fall noisily, heavily and often dangerously

*A portion of a bridge supporting a water pipe crashed down on a passing commuter train.

我还没来得及喘一口气，另一个巨浪重重地打在我身上。

(=Before I could gasp for air, another huge wave crashed down on me. )

suspend: vt. cause to stop for a period; render temporarily ineffective

*The ferry service has been suspended for the day because of bad weather. 建筑物的屋顶上用绳子悬挂着一个木平台，建筑工人在上面干活。

(=The builders worked on wooden platforms, suspended by ropes from the roof of the building.)

3. Comprehension Task

1. Dialogue

People hold different attitudes towards living at breakneck speed in the technology-driven world. Now you are required to get a partner and make up a dialogue between Woolf, who believes that we should break the busy habit and pay more attention to our quality of life, and Anderson, who maintains that the leisure time at the beach on the sunny day brings him distress and sense of guilty instead of joy. The dialogue should cover the following aspects:

(1) current situation of people’s pace of life;

(2) the reasons why Woolf thinks it necessary to stop living mechanically and

unconsciously and take time to relax;

(3) the reasons why Anderson prefers a busy life to the leisure time; (4) conflicts between Woolf and Anderson; (5) the settlement of the conflicts

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Unit 6

2. Listening and discussion Fill in the blanks.

Listen to the passage carefully and fill in the blanks.

1. It has been said that the Americans are slaves to ___________ and many of them

have a rather acute sense of ___________. (=nothing but the clock; the shortness of each lifetime)

2. A foreigner's first impression of the U.S. is likely to be that ___________,

___________. (=everyone is in a rush; often under pressure)

3. It’s no wonder to see others in public eating-places waiting for you to finish so they

can ___________ within the time allowed. (=be served and get back to work)

4. Americans value time highly and they resent ___________. (=someone else wasting

it beyond a certain appropriate point)

Retell the story

Listen to the passage again and retell the story in class.

Discussion

Form groups of 4 students in each and have a discussion based on the following questions.

1. Do you agree with Americans on the statement ―If you not moving ahead, you are

falling behind‖? Why or why not?

2. Can you list evidences to show that Americans save time carefully?

3. Do you think the time-conscious Americans should slow down their pace of life?

Why?

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