新标准大学英语4课文summary
大学英语综合教程4课文summary
U1 AR2This is an in formal and pers on alized acco unt of an econo mic graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and the n has an opport unity to be successful (a lucky break). Since her family can t support her to further study, she has to work. She has financial problems and feels Ionely. She tells her troubles to Tony,a regular customer of the pub, who talks to some frie nds and gets her a loa n to set up a bus in ess. With this help she has her master' s degree and her own compa ny. The situati on, however, is reversed: Tony is disabled after an accide nt and n eeds the repayme nt of the loa n to adapt his house for his disability.U2 AR1Reading is a life-changing activity. It helps us enter a new world and liberate us from the real world we come from; it stimulates our emoti ons and allows us enjoy and celebrate the variety and difference from books; it aids us to get out of confusion in a material world and to discover the real meaning of the life. Simply put, books are supremely in flue ntial in the way we live.Homer un book might be the an swer for the book that every one should read. It describes the first readi ng experie nce that in duces such pleasure and satisfaction that you cannot put it down and it may rangefrom the classics to the most rece nt. Every one is looki ng for their own homer un books. And what is yours?U2 AR2Henry Miller depicts the struggle waged to obta in books whe n he was young, and then introduces the reason that makes a book live —that is, the passi on ate recomme ndati on of one reader to ano ther. I n his eyes, books are one of the few possessions men cherished deeply, but if you lend it to others, it makes friends for you. He continues to suggest that the vast majority of books overlap what others say, so read as little as possible. He then advises such a way to test his suggestion— that is, leave a book alone, but thi nk as inten sely as possible and if you decide to read, observe with what extraord inary acume n you tackle it and realize that very little of the books is really new to you.U3 AR1No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or un derestimate two con sta nt factors: jea ns and hemli nes.Jeans evolved from the work clothes in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century to a symbol of youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality with its expansion to Europe and Asia in late 1950s.Then the hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s and thepunk period had impact on the desig n of jea ns.In the mid-1980s, denim rema ined popular with the young. But the late 1980s saw jeans not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended while from 2000, desig ner jea ns gained huge popularity.While jeans came to be popular on the worldwide scale, hemlines have a more peculiar significanee (with only a few indicator) as an exceptions of economy, i.e., as the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they.The 1960s witnessed the miniskirt by Mary Quant whereas the mid-1980s saw knee-length skirts - the economy was unstable.Gradually hemli nes started to rise aga in... un til the world stock market crash in 1987. The n in Jan uary 2000 the New York tech nology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines. But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.But from 2007, hemli nes were no Ion ger followi ng the stock market.In con clusi on, the con sta nt factors over 1960s and 2010 are denim and hemli nes and the greatest in flue nces have bee n a 19th-ce ntury Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the swinging Lon don of the 1960s.U4 AR1 Today, we are caught in the credit crunch because banks settraps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic n eed for survival.The banks give a false sense of superiority to people with exclusive gold credit cards in hard. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying , and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. They lure impoverished stude nts with un realistic in terest rates.They charge people who go over the limit the exorbitant interest but omit to tell them the interest paid is not for the debt, but for the overspe nd of the overdraft. By attract ing us with their en dless publicity for loa ns of mon ey, the banks ear n mon ey.So how to get ourselves out of the traps? Lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. The n the banks have no pote ntial to tempt money away from you.U4 AR2What' s the key to Wedded bliss? Money matters. Marriage at its core is a financial union. To preserve their marital assets and their union, couples had better share similar outlooks on money matters or, at the very least, find some middle ground. Otherwise, money will be a huge factor in breaki ng up marriages.However, not every one is lucky to get married to a finan cial twin. Tobecome more compatible with their significant other and ultimately more prosperous, couples need follow these guidelines: talking and shari ng goals; running a home like a bus in ess, that is, making a budget and keep ing track of earnin gs, expe nses and debts, making big financial decisions and setting goals together; being supportive of careers; enjoying, but with in reas on; Using a mediator while hav ing strong yet diverge nt opinions. Maintaining some finan cial in depe ndence; spending time and money together as a kind of investment in marriage.U5 AR1Researchershave found that men gossip as much as wome n and men spend much more time talking about themselves. However, men don' t admit they gossip, in stead they defi ne it as “ excha nging in formatio n” . The reas on why female gossip actually sounds like gossip is that there seem to be three principal factors involved. Firstly, the tone rule. Women adopt a tone which is high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated, while men gossip in the same flat, unemotional manner as any other piece of information.Secondly, the detail rule. For women, a detailed speculation about possible motives, causes and outcomes is crucial. However, men find allthis detail boring, irrelevant and unmanly. Thirdly, the feedback rule. Female liste ners are required to be at least as ani mated and en thusiastic as speakers. However, men who respond in such a manner would be con sidered in appropriately girly, or eve n disturb in gly effemin ate. For them, a suitable expletive is better to convey their surprise.U5 AR2Wome n con sta ntly have to make choices about dress and appeara nee, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hair style is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. Tight or revealing clothes send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and that she is still available. Light make-up calls atte nti on to the wearer as some one who tries to be attractive without being alluring. A woman who takes her husband' s sur name announ ces to the world that she is married and also that she is traditional and may be less herself. However, men do not have to make the same choices.U6 AR1Churchill believed that he was destined to lead his country. He fought as a soldier in World War I and led the country to victory in World War II. It seems ironic that a leader of such renowned as Churchill could not counton the loyalty of voters in 1945. However, in a democratic country, electors cannot be bullied, and he had to tolerate political defeat after military victory, and went once more to his country retreat, Chartwell.。
新标准大学英语四UNIT4
新标准大学英语4 课文原文及翻译
Unit 1 Active reading (1) / P3Looking for a job after university? First, get off the sofaMore than 650000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize them in these financially fraught times?今年夏天，超过65万名学生离开了大学，很多人都不知道如何找到工作。
在这个经济困难的时期，父母应该怎样严厉地激励他们呢?In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party, began to fade. Until now.7月，你看着你21岁的儿子，穿着学士服，戴着学位帽，骄傲地拿着他的荣誉学位拍毕业照。
那些为了吃得好、参加不定期的聚会而每年掏出几千英镑的记忆开始消失了。
直到现在。
As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion of Generation Y has morphed overnight into a member of Generation Grunt. Will he ever get a job?当暑假即将结束，全国各地的学生都在为新学期的开始做准备时，你会发现，你毕业的儿子仍然整天窝在电视机前，只有发短信、上Facebook和泡酒吧。
大学英语4summary
Unit 1 AR1This passage focus on the problem of searching jobs after graduation. The graduates always want to find an ideal job with higher salary and less work. But after trying several times, they give up and start to complain about the unfair of the society. In the author’s opinion, parents should help their children to realize handling setbacks instead of complaining is more important and should try not to be too pushy or too soft. In the end the author concludes that if the graduates can not find an ideal job, they can take a temporary one.Unit 1 AR2This passage is story about an economic graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and then has an opportunity to be successful. Since her family can’t support her to further study, she has to find a job in a pub. She tells her troubles to Tony, a regular customer of the pub. Tony talks to some friends and gets her a loan to set up a business. With the help she get her master’s degree and established her own company. However, Tony is disabled after an accident and needs the repayment of the loan to adapt his house for his disability. In the end, the theme is revealed –investing in people gives the best returnUnit 2 AR1: Danger! Books may change your lifeReading is a life-changing activity. It helps us enter a new world and liberate us from the real world we come from; it aids us to get out of confusion in a material world and to discover the real meaning of life. Simply put, books are supremely influential in the way we live.Home-run book might be the answer for the book that everyone should read. These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and helped me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of the real world.Unit 2 AR2: They were alive and they spoke to meHenry Miller made a lot struggle to obtain books when he was young, and then introduces the reason that makes a book live, that is the enthusiastic recommendation of one reader to another. In his eyes, books are one of the few things men cherished deeply, but if you lend it to others, it makes friends for you. He think the best way to read a book is to leave a book alone, but think as intensely as possible and if you decide to read, observe with what extraordinary acumen you read it and realize that very little of the books is really new to you.Unit 3 AR1: Been there, done that, got the T-shirtDifferent clothes have different functions. The author’s father’s old battle jacket is a reminder of a historical event. Originally, the clothes are purely functional. However, nowadays we have to make choices: dressing for comfort or dressing for fashion. Fashionistas dress for fashion at the expen se of comfort. What’s worse, some people choose clothes to impress others. Anyway, fashion can express our emotions and also give a sense of occasions.After all, our clothes are indicative of our lives, the events, the emotions, the sense of nostalgia for yesterday’s innocence and the chastening, humbling reminder of who we are today.Unit 3 AR2: Eco-jewellery: sea glassSea glass is popular among the jewellery collectors for several reasons. First, the creation of sea glass is a form of natural recycling. Second, sea glass becomes rarer than diamonds. This leads to its boom in the market. Third, sea glass is environmental-friendly, so the designers would like to put sea glass to use.Gina Cowen became a sea glass jeweller in her 20s and 30s. While sea glass is disappearing, she is still on the hunt. Her designs were sold at Liberty London, but mostly she sells her jewellery to private customers.With the decline of sea glass in supply there has arisen problem of reviving old habits of dumping glass into the sea. However, there is always a story behind sea glass and nothing can replace it.Unit 4 AR1: The credit card trapA credit card allows you to charge something immediately and then pay for the bill at a later date. Once a credit card has been issued, you can makepurchases within the credit limit A credit card with a limit of $100.00 enables you to pay for up to 100.00 worth of items. Every month, you will receive credit card statements that lists the charges you have made. You have to pay your bill in full by the due date. Otherwise, you have to pay interest or a finance charge which can be fairly high.Unit 4 AR2: Look after yourselfThis passage tell us that a girl learns how to make financial management from her father. When her eleventh birthday was coming, she wanted an unusual birthday present—a puppy. However, her easy-going father looked serious and showed her the expenditure they should pay. She was surprised to learn how many bills there were for things she took for granted.They should also keep some savings “for a rainy day”.She worked out how much it would cost to feed a puppy. Then she decided to find some jobs to earn some money. She might have satisfied everyone in the family, thus she got the cutest puppy on her birthday. From this experience, she understood how to take financial responsibility for herself and her family.Unit 5 AR1: Sex differences in English gossip rulesResearchers have found that men gossip as much as women and men spend much more time talking about themselves. However, men don’t admit they gossip, they define it as “exchanging information”.The reason why female gossip actually sounds like gossip is that there seem to be three principal factors involved. Firstly, the tone rule. Women adopt a tone which is high and quick, while men gossip in unemotional manner. Secondly, the detail rule. For women, a detailed speculation about possible motives and causes, outcomes are crucial. However, men find all this detail boring, irrelevant and unmanly. Thirdly, the feedback rule. Female listeners are required to be at least as enthusiastic as speakers. However, men who respond in such a manner would be considered girly. For them, a suitable expletive is better to convey their surprise.Unit 5 AR2: Marked: women in the workplaceWomen constantly have to make choices about dress and appearance, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hairstyle is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. Tight or revealing clothes send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and that she is still available.Light make-up calls attention to the wearer as someone who tries to be attractive without being alluring. A woman who takes her husband’s surname announces to the world that she is married and also that she is traditional and may be less herself. However, men do not have to make the same choices.Unit 6 AR1: Winston ChurchillThis passage tell us a great president of Britain, Winston Churchill. Churchill believed that he was destined to lead his country. When his country was threatened, he stand out. He fought as a soldier in World War I and led the country to victory in World War II. He was an instinctive, daring, often infuriating war leader. But he is also an inspiration. After victory was declared, the billboard said “Cheer Churchill, Vote Labour”, and that’s what people did. Britain could live on because of him, nothing could be greater than him.。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文Summary
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文Summarybywithzhfn第1单元行动。
2ifyouaskme1.thisisastoryofagraduatewhogetsajobinapubforayearandhasachancetobesuccessful.3.在经历了一次意外事故，无法工作后，作者的助手帮助了他。
TONYSAINDING PEOPLEGISTER返回您可以访问的最佳位置。
unit2act.1danger!booksmaychangeyourlife1.本文介绍了Reading Books Tous的功能。
当你读库帕书的时候，你就可以进入世界了。
书籍会影响生活。
2.thewritermentionsaword“home-runbook”thatmightbetheanswerforthebookeveryoneshouldread.“home-run”bookiswhichcangiveyoupleasureandsatisfaction.3.标题描述了阅读能力。
unit2act.2theywerealiveandtheyspoketome2.作者建议尽可能少地使用。
更重要的是质量而不是数量。
unit3act.1fiftyyearsoffashion1960年至2022年的时尚有两个不变的因素：无处不在的Jeans，以及女性裙子和连衣裙的风格和风格。
他们的历史可以追溯到16世纪，后来他们成为了工人的工作服。
20世纪50年代，Jeanswer人与年轻人在一起，之后发展出了新思想。
女性的长寿与经济有关。
当经济形势好转时，女性会向她们展示自己。
unit3act.2eco-jewellery:seaglass这篇文章介绍了HYSEAGlass非常流行的原因。
并描述从海玻璃制作珠宝的过程，让人们思考循环的重要性。
并描绘了珠宝设计师金纳哥的激情。
unit4act.1thecreditcardtrapbywithzhfnunit4act.2thekeytoweddedbliss?moneymatters这篇文章告诉我们什么对婚姻和金钱很重要。
新标准大学英语4 Summary
More than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. Students Know they need to find a job,but dont konw how to find. The problem also plagued their parents,parents dont know how to help them.Some students didn't go to find a job because of enormous competitive pressure, low salary or a series of personal reasons. After a failure of applying a job，they start waching TV shows on the sofa rather than finding a job again.When their parents find this problem , they start to worry about their children's future.A psychologist give some advices to every parent about the problem. Firstly,the transition from university to a job is tough for parents and children,parents need to find the balance point between understanding children and not making their life too comfortable. Secondly,the main job for the parents is to be there because if they start advising them what to do, that is when the conflict starts. Thirdly, it's a good idea to get some jobs like bar work,shelf-stacking.All in all,this passage mainly tell us when we on the way to find a job,we need get off the sofa first.1.2This passage tell us a story about a girl overcame many difficulties and became successful in her field at last.First,the girl’s family can’t support her for university study.As a result,she packed up her belongings and went to London to get a job in order not to burden her family.Unfortunately, she was faced with many problems and she felt lonely.She told her problems to Tony.Tony give her a loan to start a business.With Tony’s help.she got her master degree and set up her own company.Many years later,Tony was disabled after an accident.She pays back Tony’s help and Tony thought investing in people gives the best return you can ever hope.2.1This passage mainly tell us the importance of reading. When we read a book we will enter a new world so that it may change our life.As soon as we are able to listen,books are supremely influential in the way we live.As we all know, reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety,and provides us with an opportunity to grow. And every book will have its own language and dialect,its own vocabulary and grammary. We may not always understand every word or sentence,but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded,our emotions are nevertheless stimulated.So books can help us to discover the real meaning of our life, and they may change our life. Such is the power of reading.2.2This article is about the author’s views of reading books. The author is a writer and he likes reading books very much. He think that a book lives though the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. Nothing can throttle this basic impulse in the human being. And he also raises that we should read books as often as possible bacause a book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. He told us that when you are eager to read a book, leave it alone for a few days and ask yourself earnestly if it be absolutely necessary to read it. In the end, the author described a writer who readed a lot and meanwhile writtrn a lot.3.1The article is about the fashion tendency in the last 50 years. The author mainly introduced the development of jeans and the relationship of economy and hemiline. It was Levi Strauss who invited the jeans. At first, only miners wore jeans. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, the hippie movement influenced the design of jeans. And jeans remained fashionable during the period of punk. Besides, the ahthor found that as the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they.3.2Sea glass is popular for several reasons. First, the creation of sea glass is a form of recycling. Second, sea glass becomes rarer than diamonds now. Third, its eco-credentials lend sea glass further appeal. So the designers would like to put sea glass to use.Gina Cowen became a sea glass jeweler. Her designs were sold at Liberty or to private customers.Though seaglass become rarer, Gina Cowen refuses to condone it and she even rejects to polish new glass to make it look old. So we'd better follow Cowen’s example and search for glowing pebbles before they vanish.4.1Today, we are caught in the credit crunch because banks set traps .The banks give a false sense of superiority to people with exclusive gold credit cards in hand. They target people who tempted to spend more than they have, students with unrealistic interest rates and people who go over the l imits the exorbitant interest but omit the interest. By this deceive means, the banks earn money. So in order not to be cheated, we should be cautious about credit cards provived by banks4.2Money matters is the key to wedded bliss.To preserve their marital assets and their union,couples had better share similar outlooks on money matters,or ,find some middle ground.To become more compatible with their significant other and ultimately more prosperous,couples need follow these guidelines:Talking and sharing goals;Running a home like a business;Using a mediator while having strong yet divergent opinions.5.1Researchers have found that men gossip as much as women,and men spend much time talking about themselves.But men don’t admit it,and they define it as “exchanging information”.The reason why female gossip sounds like gossip is that there three principal factors involved:The high and quick tone and sometimes likes a stage whisper,but always highly animated.A detailed speculation with possible motives,causes and outcomesAnimated and enthusiastic feedback rule.5.2Women constantly have to make choices about dress and appearance, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hair style is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. What’s more,tight or revealing clothed send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and that she is still available. Light make-up calls attention to the wearer who tries to be attractive without being alluring.A woman who takes her husband’s surname announces to the world that she is married and also that she is traditional and may be less herself. However, men do not have to make the same choices6.1W inston Churchill was born in 1874 into one of Britain’s grand est families. His parents are both cold and distant people. He was bullied when he was in Harrow. His dream was to be a general, so he got into the RMAS. Then he became a soldier and a hero in Boer war. In 1911, he lost his job and sanity because the failure of the Gallipoli in 1915.He recovered from his depression by his fashion and his wife’s support. When he returned England, he had already achieved many great things. He through his leadership and example to encourage Britons to win the war against the monstrous tyranny and defend what all we hold dear. He saved Britain.。
新标准大学英语综合教材4课文翻译
新标准大学英语综合教材4课文翻译引言新标准大学英语综合教材是为中国大学英语四六级考试（CET-4/6）开发的一套教材。
该教材以提高学生英语综合应用能力为目标，包含了丰富多样的课文和相关练习题。
本文将翻译新标准大学英语综合教材4中的一篇课文，帮助读者了解该教材的内容。
课文翻译标题：跨越天涯在生活中，我们经常面临各种选择。
有些选择是容易的，而另一些则相当困难。
而有时我们必须跨越自己的舒适区，去追求一个更好的未来。
回想起我的大学生活，我很庆幸当时做出了一个勇敢的选择。
那时，我正面临选择是继续留在自己的家乡读书，还是选择去一个陌生的城市追求大学的梦想。
尽管这个决定对我来说并不容易，但我最终还是选择了前者。
在新的城市，我开始了我的大学生活。
一开始，一切都很陌生和不熟悉。
新的环境、新的朋友，甚至新的语言，给我带来了一定的挑战。
然而，我并没有退缩，而是积极适应了这种变化。
我参加了各种社团活动，结交了许多新朋友，提高了我的社交能力。
随着时间的推移，我逐渐适应了新生活。
我发现自己在不知不觉中已经变得更加自信和独立。
在大学期间，我有机会接触到各种各样的知识和文化，拓宽了我的视野。
这种全新的体验，让我对自己有了更多的认识和理解。
大学生活中最重要的经历之一是参加了一个关于国际交流的项目。
这个项目给予我去一个完全陌生的国家学习和生活的机会。
尽管这个选择对我来说是一个巨大的挑战，但我还是决定接受它。
在那个国家，我面对了许多困难和困境，但我学会了坚持和适应。
通过这个项目，我不仅丰富了自己的人生经历，也提高了我的英语水平。
总的来说，跨越自己的舒适区对每个人来说都是一次挑战。
但正是这些挑战让我们变得更加强大和成熟。
对于我个人而言，大学生活中的选择和决定让我学到了许多宝贵的知识和经验。
尽管有时我会感觉困难和迷茫，但我相信这些经历将对我的未来产生积极的影响。
结论新标准大学英语综合教材4是一套帮助学生提高英语综合应用能力的教材。
通过翻译其中一篇课文，我们可以看到这套教材关注的是培养学生的综合能力和跨文化交流能力。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文原文
Looking for a job after university? First, get off the sofaMore than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize通电，刺激them in these financially fraught 担心的，忧虑的times?1 In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out不情愿掏出thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party began to fade. Until now.2 As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start ofa new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped 掉落in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion幼芽of Generation Y has morphed改变overnight into a member of Generating Grunt. Will he ever geta job?3. This is the scenario情节facing thousands of families. More than 650,000 students left university this summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next. Parents revert to回复nagging; Sons and daughters become rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get a job, but not sure how.4. Jack Goodwin, from Middlesex, graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer. He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again; there was a big queue. He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same. There was no pressure to find a job, even though most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.5. “I applied for a job as a political researcher, but got turned down,” he says. “they were paying ￡18,000, doesn‟t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent, but they wanted people w ith experience or master‟s degrees. Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream. I passed the exam, but at the interviews they accused me of being …too detached” and talking in language that was …too technocratic‟, which I didn‟t think possible, but obviously it is.”6. Since then he has spent the summer “hiding”. He can recount several episodes of Traffic Cops and has seen more daytime television than is healthy. He talks to his friends about his aimless days and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by his parents. For the rest it is 9-to-5 “chilling” before heading to the pub. So how about working behindthe bar, to pay for those drinks? “I don‟t want to do bar work. I went to a comprehensive and I worked my backside off to go to a good university, where I worked really hard to get a good degree,” he says. “Now I‟m back at the same stage as those friends who didn‟t go to uni at all, who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs. I feel that I‟ve come full circle.”7. Jacqueling Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job, but having worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advise him on how to proceed. “I have always had to work,” she says. “It‟s difficult because when you have a degree, it opens new doors for you, or you‟d like to think that it does.”8. Although she is taking a soft line with her son at the moment, she is clear that after an upcoming three-week trip to South America, his holiday from work will have to end. He may even have to pay rent and contribute to the household bills.9. “They‟ve got to grow up at some point. We‟ve finished paying for university, so a little bit of help back is good,” she says. “The South Ame rica trip is the cutoff point. When he comes back there‟ll be Christmas work if nothing else.”10. Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and the author of the Emotional Healing Strategy, says that the Goodwin parents have struck exactly the right note. The transition from university to a job is tough for parents and children: Crucially they must balance being positive and understanding with not making life too comfortable for their offspring.11 “the main job for the parents is to be there because if they start advising them what to do, that is when the conflict starts. If you have contacts, by all means use those,” she said. “But a lot of parents get too soft. Put limits on how much money you give them, ask them to pay rent or contribute to the care of t he house or the pets. Carry on life as normal and don‟t allow them to abuse your bank account or sap your reserves of emotional energy.”12 paying for career consultations, train fares to interviews or books are good things; being too pushy is not. But while parents should be wary of becoming too soft, Lindenfield advises them to tread 踩sympathetically after a job setback for a few days or even weeks –depending on the scale of the knock. After that the son or daughter needs to be nudged推动firmly back into the saddle. 13 boys are more likely to get stuck at home. Lingenfield believes that men are often better at helping their sons, nephews, or friends‟ sons than are mothers and sisters. Men have a different way of handling setbacks than women, she says, so they need the male presence to talk it through.14 as for bar work, she is a passionate advocate: it‟s a great antidote解毒剂to graduate apathy 冷漠. It just depends on how you approach it. Lindenfield, who found her first job as an aerial photographic assistant through bar work, says it is a great networking opportunity and certainly more likely to get you a job than lounging in front of the TV.15 “The same goes for shelf-stacking. You will be spotted if you‟re good at it. If you‟re bright and cheerful and are polite to the customers, you‟ll soon get moved on. So think of it as an opportunity; people who are successful in the long run have often got shelf-stacking stories,” she says.16 your son or daughter may not want to follow Hollywood stars such as Whoopi Goldberg into applying make-up to corpses尸体in a mortuary太平间, or guarding nuclear power plants like Bruce Wills, but even Brad Pitt had to stand outside El Pollo Loco restaurant chain in a giant chicken suit at one time in his life. None of them appears the poorer for these experiences.Danger! Books may change your life1 Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, who falls into a rabbit hole and discovers a mysterious wonderland, when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. We become observers of life from the point of view of a person older than ourselves, or through the eyes of a child. We may travel around the globe to countries or cultures we would never dream of visiting in real life. We'll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from.2 The English poet William Cowper (1731–1800) said "Variety's the very spice of life, / that gives it all its flavour" although he neglected to say where or how we could find it. But we know he was right. We know we live in a world of variety and difference. We know that people live various different lives, spend their time in various different ways, have different jobs, believe in different things, have different opinions, different customs, and speak different languages. Normally, we don't know the extent of these differences, yet sometimes when somethingunusual happens to make us notice, variety and difference appear more as a threat than an opportunity.3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. To interact with other people's lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us. We even understand, however fleetingly, that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors. We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home.4 If we ever question the truth of the power of reading books, we should take the trouble to go to our local library or bookshop, or even, if we're fortunate enough, to the books on our shelves at home. We should wonder at the striking vistas created by the titles of novels ranging from the classics to the most recent: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Fourth Hand by John Irving, Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. Then we should reflect on the other lives we'll meet once we begin to read.5 Every book will have its own language and dialect, its own vocabulary and grammar. We may not always understand every word or sentence, but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded, our emotions are nevertheless stimulated. Other people and other cultures are not always distant because of geography. In a book we may confront people who live in a different climate, have different religious beliefs, or come from a different ethnic group. Even our neighbours down the road may be strangers who we can only meet through books.6 As soon as we are able to listen, books are supremely influential in the way we live. From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with books in our adult homes, books define our lives. The English writer E. M. Forster (1879–1970) even hinted at a more mystical power which books possess over us. He wrote, "I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves." It's as if the right book comes to seek us out at the right moment, and offers itself to us—it's not us who seek out the book.7 Thomas Merton (1915–1968), the American monk, priest and writer, was once asked a series of seven questions by a journalist: Name the last three books you have read, the three books you are reading now, the books you intend to read, the books that have influenced you, and why, a book that everyone should read, and why. For the books which had influenced him, he cited poetic works of William Blake, various plays by ancient Greek thinkers and writers, and a number of religious writings. When asked why they had influenced him, he replied, "These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything."8 So how would you answer the questions?9 In 1947, Clifton Fadiman coined the term home-run book. When a baseball player hits a home run, he hits the ball so hard and so far he's able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. It's the most enjoyable and satisfying event in a baseball game. Likewise, a home-run book describesnot the child's first reading experience, but the first time they read a book which induces such pleasure and satisfaction that they can't put it down. For hundreds of millions of children around the world, the best known example of a home-run book will be the Harry Potter stories.10 As adults, we're always looking for our own home-run books, not just for the first time, but time after time again. Whoever has read a novel in one sitting will always remember the pleasure and satisfaction which await us, and eagerly, insistently, sometimes even desperately seeks to reproduce the marvellous sensation again. We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.11 Danger! Books may change your life. Such is the power of reading.Unit 3 Fifty years of fashion1 No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women's skirts and dresses.2 Denim, the material which jeans are made of, was known in France in the late 16th century, but it was Levi Strauss who saw that miners in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century needed strong trousers, which he reinforced with metal rivets. Blue denim jeans remained popular in the US as work clothes until the 1950s, but then became associated with youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality. When Levi Strauss & Co began to export blue jeans to Europe and Asia in the late 1950s, they were bought and worn with huge enthusiasm by young people and recognized as a symbol of the young, informal American way of life.3 Hemlines have a more peculiar significance during this period. It has often been noted that there is a precise correlation, with only a few exceptions, between the length of women's skirts and the economy. As the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they. Exactly why women should want to expose more or less of their legs during periods of economic boom and bust remains a mystery. But the general trend is inescapable. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes.4 Perhaps the most important development in fashion in the 1960s was the miniskirt, invented by the British designer Mary Quant. Because Quant worked in the heart of Swinging London, the miniskirt developed into a major international fashion. It was given greater respectability when the great French designer, Courrèges, developed it into an item of high fashion. But it would not have achieved such international currency without the development of tights, instead of stockings, because the rise in hemlines meant the stocking tops would be visible.5 The hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s influenced the design of jeans, with the trouser leg developing a flared "bell-bottom" style. By the mid-1970s, as the economy deteriorated, hemlines dropped to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), while jeans were no longer exclusively blue.6 Jeans remained fashionable during the period of punk, usually worn ripped, often with chains and studded belts. The look lasted for several years, although became more and more restricted to small groups of inner-city young people, and had little influence on other age groups.7 As a backlash to the anarchy of punk, the New Romantics was a fashion movement which occurred mainly in British nightclubs. It was glamorous and courageous, and featured lavish frilled shirts. Jeans were definitely not acceptable.8 The mid-1980s saw the rise of a number of different styles. Power dressing was characterized by smart suits and, for the newly-empowered women, shoulder pads and knee-length skirts. Not surprisingly, the economy was unstable, and people took less risks in what they wore. For men, the Miami Vice style, named after the television series, made use of smart T-shirts under designer jackets, and designer stubble—three or four days of beard growth. But as always, denim remained popular with the young. In particular, heavy metal music fans wore bleached and ripped jeans and denim jackets.9 Gradually hemlines started to rise again ... until the world stock market crash in 1987. So the late 1980s in the US saw the rise of the more conservative style called Preppy style, with classic clothes by Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers for men, button-down shirts, chinos and loafers, with a sweater tied loosely around the neck. They also wore jeans, but either brand-new or clean and smartly pressed—not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended.10 As the world economies improved again in the 1990s, fashion for young people became more daring. Boots and Converse or Nike trainers remained popular, but the predominant colours became olive green and oatmeal. Hair was worn long, or cut spiky short and dyed blue, green or red. Hoodies, baseball caps and baggy jeans, which were often worn low below the buttocks, were common on the streets.11 Then in January 2000 the New York technology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines, which were described by one commentator as "the prim and proper look is in. Skirts should be below the knee." But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.12 During this period, it was unusual to wear formal clothes unless you were at work. Designer jeans gained huge popularity. These were made of the traditional denim, perhaps with some lycra added, but cut and marketed under well-known brands such as Armani, Hugo Boss and Moschino, who until recently had only concerned themselves with the smartest fashion lines. Skinny jeans also became popular in Britain and most of Europe. Skirt length is uncertain, ranging from micro to "sensible"—knee-length or just below.13 Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it's called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt this showed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictated what people would wear. During the London and New York fashion shows in September 2008, hemlines continued to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market—they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends.14 During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines and the greatest influences have been a 19th-century Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the Swinging London ofthe 1960s.Unit4The credit card trap1 I have a confession. Several years ago, I was standing in a queue to collect some theatre tickets for my family, and my friend was doing the same for hers. I got mine, and paid for them by credit card, feeling contented by the convenience of this cash- free transaction. It was then her turn to pay. The whole operation passed as smoothly as mine, but my delight soon turned to abject shame. My credit card was a fairly pathetic, status-free dark blue, whereas hers was a very exclusive gold one.2 How did she do this? How could this be? I knew I earned more than her, my car was newer, and my house was smarter. How did she get to appear more flash than me?3 Now, I had a job which was as steady as any job was in those days – that's to say, not very, but you know, no complaints. I had a mortgage on my house, but then who didn't?I paid off all my credit debt at the end of the month, so although technically, I was in debt to the credit card company, it was only for a matter of a few weeks. So I assumed I had a good credit rating.4 Call me superficial, and I'm not proud of myself, but there and then, I was suddenly jealous of my friend. I decided I no longer wanted a blue card. I wanted a gold one. A gold card was suddenly indispensable, it would make me feel good with myself, and desirable to others.5 So I applied for the most distinctive, shiny golden card the company offered.6 I was turned down.7 When I had recovered from the shock, which took several seconds, I asked why. It appears that because I pay my credit card bill both on time and in full, I'm not the kind of person that they want to have their gold credit card. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. Then they can charge them more interest, and earn more money. That's the way they do business.8 So does this explain why the credit card companies are luring impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates, like my kids?9 Three weeks ago, No. 2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She's in her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of £3,000, like most of her friends, and a small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books, living expenses. She wears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usually does that) and then said, "Mum, I need to talk to you."10 "What is it, darling? Tell me everything."11 "I've applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantee for me. Is it OK if I put down your name? Thanks so much, Mum, must dash! Bye. "12 After I'd hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written to her offering a credit card at a low interest for a trial three-month period, subject to suitability ... and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even better than I do how broke she is.13 Here’s a serious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it would be more accurate to call them debt cards?14 Here's an even more serious story. Another friend's daughter, Kelly, was studying modern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was a change of procedure, and Kelly's bank failed to allow her to access her funds in her current account, because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally, there was a lengthy correspondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her funds meant that she went into the red, and her debts began to rise more than £200 above the agreed limit on her overdraft of £1,500.15 When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her £100 for going over the limit, and insisted she paid £30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tell her that she wasn't actually paying off the debt, but only the exorbitant interest on the overspend of the overdraft.16 So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly until that point. Because she was a student, and because she didn't use it much, naturally her credit limit was low.17 And not surpris ingly, she couldn’t pay off even the minimum payment on her credit card bill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And of course, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.18 Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the bank notified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from £1,500 to £1,000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, they discovered the card debt.19 Guess what? She didn't get the loan.20 This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economical about her lifestyle. She didn't go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn't use her credit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She used it to buy food, to survive.21 And what happened? She had to drop out of university22 I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly's story, although maybe there will be. For the moment, she's working in the local supermarket, and it's probable that she'll have another go at university when she has paid off her debts.23 So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fall into the trap they shout "Got you! Didn't you realize it was a trap?"24 And here we are today, caught in the credit crunch, with world economies in free fall, all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into, attracting us with endless publicity for loans of money which even they didn't have! It now appears they were borrowing on their own flashy gold credit cards too.25 So I have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me very carefully.26 I want you to lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then put them in an envelope and send them to your bank, with a letter saying (more or less) “I trusted you and you deceived me. You've got the whole world into this ridiculous credit card trap, and if I now cut your cards in half, and take away yourpotential to tempt money away from honest people like me, maybe it will be your turn to learn what it's like to run out of cash."27 As for me, I don't want any more credit cards, no more status symbols, no more bad feelings about wishing I could show how superior I am to others. I'm not going to yearn any more for what I cannot afford or cannot have.Sex Differences in English Gossip Rules1 Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that men gossip just as much as women. In one English study, both sexes devoted the same amount of conversation time (about 65 per cent) to social topics such as personal relationships; in another, the difference was found to be quite small, with gossip accounting for 55 per cent of male conversation time and 67 per cent of female time. As sport and leisure have been shown to occupy about 10 per cent of conversation time, discussion of football could well account for the difference.2 Men were certainly found to be no more likely than women to discuss "important" or "highbrow" subjects such as politics, work, art and cultural matters –except (and this was a striking difference) when women were present. On their own, men gossip, with no more than five per cent of conversation time devoted to non-social subjects such as work or politics. It is only in mixed-sex groups, where there are women to impress, that the proportion of male conversation time devoted to these more "highbrow" subjects increases dramatically, to between 15 and 20 per cent.3 In fact, recent research has revealed only one significant difference, in terms of content, between male and female gossip: Men spend much more time talking about themselves. Of the total time devoted to conversation about social relationships, men spend two thirds talking about their own relationships, while women only talk about themselves one third of the time.4 Despite these findings, the myth is still widely believed, particularly among males, that men spend their conversations "solving the world's problems", while the womenfolk gossip in the kitchen. In my focus groups and interviews, most English males initially claimed that they did not gossip, while most of the female readily admitted that they did. On further questioning, however, the difference turned out to be more a matter of semantics than practice: What the women were happy to call "gossip", the men defined as "exchanging information".5 Clearly, there is a stigma attached to gossip among English males, an unwritten rule to the effect that, even if what one is doing is gossiping, it should be called something else. Perhaps even more important: It should sound like something else. In my gossip research, I found that the main difference between male and female gossip is that female gossip actually sounds like gossip. There seem to be three principal factors involved: the tone rule, the detail rule and the feedback rule.The tone rule6 The English women I interviewed all agreed that a particular tone of voice was considered appropriate for gossip. The gossip-tone should be high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated."Gossip's got to start with something like[Quick, high-pitched, excited tone] 'Oooh –Guess what? Guess what?'" explained one。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文原文
Looking for a job after university? First, get off the sofaMore than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize通电，刺激 them in these financially fraught担心的，忧虑的 times?1 In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out不情愿掏出 thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party began to fade. Until now.2 As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped 掉落in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion幼芽 of Generation Y has morphed改变 overnight intoa member of Generating Grunt. Will he ever get a job?3. This is the scenario情节 facing thousands of families. More than 650,000 students left university this summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next. Parents revert to回复 nagging; Sons and daughters become rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get a job, but not sure how.4. Jack Goodwin, from Middlesex, graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer. He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again; there was a big queue. He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same. There was no pressure to find a job, even though most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.5. “I applied for a job as a political researcher, but got turned down,” he says. “they were paying ￡18,000, doesn‟t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent, but they wanted people with experience or master‟s degrees. Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream. I passed the exam, but at the interviews they accused me of being …too detached” and talking in language that was …too technocratic‟, which I didn‟t think possible, but obviously it is.”6. Since then he has spent the summer “hiding”. He can recount several episodes of Traffic Cops and has seen more daytime television than is healthy. He talks to his friends about his aimless days and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by his parents. For the rest it is 9-to-5 “chilling” before heading to the pub. So how about working behindthe bar, to pay for those drinks? “I don‟t want to do bar work. I went to a comprehensive and I worked my backside off to go to a good university, where I worked really hard to get a good degree,” he says. “Now I‟m back at the same stage as those friends who didn‟t go to uni at all, who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs. I feel that I‟ve come full circle.”7. Jacqueling Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job, but having worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advise him on how to proceed. “I have always had to work,” she says. “It‟s difficult because when you have a degree, it opens new doors for you, or you‟ d like to think that it does.”8. Although she is taking a soft line with her son at the moment, she is clear thatafter an upcoming three-week trip to South America, his holiday from work will have to end. He may even have to pay rent and contribute to the household bills. 9. “They‟ve got to grow up at some point. We‟ve finished paying for university, so a little bit of help back is good,” she says. “The South America trip is the cutoff point. When he comes back there‟ll be Christmas work if nothing else.”10. Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and the author of the Emotional Healing Strategy, says that the Goodwin parents have struck exactly the right note. The transition from university to a job is tough for parents and children: Crucially they must balance being positive and understanding with not making life too comfortable for their offspring.11 “the main job for the parents is to be there because if they start advising them what to do, that is when the conflict starts. If you have contacts, by all means use those,” she said. “But a lot of parents get too soft. Put limits on how much money you give them, ask them to pay rent or contribute to the care of the house or the pets. Carry on life as normal and don‟t allow them to abuse your bank account or sap your reserves of emotional energy.”12 paying for career consultations, train fares to interviews or books are good things; being too pushy is not. But while parents should be wary of becoming too soft, Lindenfield advises them to tread 踩sympathetically after a job setback for a few days or even weeks – depending on the scale of the knock. After that the son or daughter needs to be nudged推动 firmly back into the saddle. 13 boys are more likely to get stuck at home. Lingenfield believes that men are often better at helping their sons, nephews, or friends‟ sons than are mothers and sisters. Men have a different way of handling setbacks than women, she says, so they need the male presence to talk it through.14 as for bar work, she is a passionate advocate: it‟s a great antidote解毒剂 to graduate apathy冷漠. It just depends on how you approach it. Lindenfield, who found her first job as an aerial photographic assistant through bar work, says it is a great networking opportunity and certainly more likely to get you a job than lounging in front of the TV.15 “The same goes for shelf-stacking. You will be spotted if you‟re good at it. If you‟re bright and cheerful and are polite to the customers, you‟ll soon get moved on. So think of it as an opportunity; people who are successful in the long run have often got shelf-stacking sto ries,” she says.16 your son or daughter may not want to follow Hollywood stars such as Whoopi Goldberg into applying make-up to corpses尸体 in a mortuary太平间, or guarding nuclear power plants like Bruce Wills, but even Brad Pitt had to stand outside El Pollo Loco restaurant chain in a giant chicken suit at one time in his life. None of them appears the poorer for these experiences.Danger! Books may change your life1 Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, who falls into a rabbit hole and discovers amysterious wonderland, when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. We become observers of life from the point of view of a person older than ourselves, or through the eyes of a child. We may travel around the globe to countries or cultures we would never dream of visiting in real life. We'll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from.2 The English poet William Cowper (1731–1800) said "Variety's the very spice of life, / that gives it all its flavour" although he neglected to say where or how we could find it. But we know he was right. We know we live in a world of variety and difference. We know that people live various different lives, spend their time in various different ways, have different jobs, believe in different things, have different opinions, different customs, and speak different languages. Normally, we don't know the extent of these differences, yet sometimes when something unusual happens to make us notice, variety and difference appear more as a threat than an opportunity.3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. To interact with other people's lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us. We even understand, however fleetingly, that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors. We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home.4 If we ever question the truth of the power of reading books, we should take the trouble to go to our local library or bookshop, or even, if we're fortunate enough, to the books on our shelves at home. We should wonder at the striking vistas created by the titles of novels ranging from the classics to the most recent: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Fourth Hand by John Irving, Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. Then we should reflect on the other lives we'll meet once we begin to read.5 Every book will have its own language and dialect, its own vocabulary and grammar. We may not always understand every word or sentence, but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded, our emotions are nevertheless stimulated. Other people and other cultures are not always distant because of geography. In a book we may confront people who live in a different climate, have different religious beliefs, or come from a different ethnic group. Even our neighbours down the road may be strangers who we can only meet through books.6 As soon as we are able to listen, books are supremely influential in the way we live. From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with books in our adult homes, books define our lives. The English writer E. M. Forster (1879–1970) even hinted at a more mystical power which books possess over us. He wrote, "I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down ourparticular path than we have gone ourselves." It's as if the right book comes to seek us out at the right moment, and offers itself to us—it's not us who seek out the book.7 Thomas Merton (1915–1968), the American monk, priest and writer, was once asked a series of seven questions by a journalist: Name the last three books you have read, the three books you are reading now, the books you intend to read, the books that have influenced you, and why, a book that everyone should read, and why. For the books which had influenced him, he cited poetic works of William Blake, various plays by ancient Greek thinkers and writers, and a number of religious writings. When asked why they had influenced him, he replied, "These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything."8 So how would you answer the questions?9 In 1947, Clifton Fadiman coined the term home-run book. When a baseball player hits a home run, he hits the ball so hard and so far he's able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. It's the most enjoyable and satisfying event in a baseball game. Likewise, a home-run book describes not the child's first reading experience, but the first time they read a book which induces such pleasure and satisfaction that they can't put it down. For hundreds of millions of children around the world, the best known example of a home-run book will be the Harry Potter stories.10 As adults, we're always looking for our own home-run books, not just for the first time, but time after time again. Whoever has read a novel in one sitting will always remember the pleasure and satisfaction which await us, and eagerly, insistently, sometimes even desperately seeks to reproduce the marvellous sensation again. We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.11 Danger! Books may change your life. Such is the power of reading.Unit 3 Fifty years of fashion1 No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women's skirts and dresses.2 Denim, the material which jeans are made of, was known in France in the late 16th century, but it was Levi Strauss who saw that miners in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century needed strong trousers, which he reinforced with metal rivets. Blue denim jeans remained popular in the US as work clothes until the 1950s, but then became associated with youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality. When Levi Strauss & Co began to export blue jeans to Europe and Asia in the late 1950s, they were bought and worn with huge enthusiasm by young people and recognized asa symbol of the young, informal American way of life.3 Hemlines have a more peculiar significance during this period. It has often been noted that there is a precise correlation, with only a few exceptions, between the length of women's skirts and the economy. As the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they. Exactly why women should want to expose more or less of their legs during periods of economic boom and bust remains a mystery. But the general trend is inescapable. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes.4 Perhaps the most important development in fashion in the 1960s was the miniskirt, invented by the British designer Mary Quant. Because Quant worked in the heart of Swinging London, the miniskirt developed into a major international fashion. It was given greater respectability when the great French designer, Courrèges, developed it into an item of high fashion. But it would not have achieved such international currency without the development of tights, instead of stockings, because the rise in hemlines meant the stocking tops would be visible.5 The hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s influenced the design of jeans, with the trouser leg developing a flared "bell-bottom" style. By the mid-1970s, as the economy deteriorated, hemlines dropped to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), while jeans were no longer exclusively blue.6 Jeans remained fashionable during the period of punk, usually worn ripped, often with chains and studded belts. The look lasted for several years, although became more and more restricted to small groups of inner-city young people, and had little influence on other age groups.7 As a backlash to the anarchy of punk, the New Romantics was a fashion movement which occurred mainly in British nightclubs. It was glamorous and courageous, and featured lavish frilled shirts. Jeans were definitely not acceptable.8 The mid-1980s saw the rise of a number of different styles. Power dressing was characterized by smart suits and, for the newly-empowered women, shoulder pads and knee-length skirts. Not surprisingly, the economy was unstable, and people took less risks in what they wore. For men, the Miami Vice style, named after the television series, made use of smart T-shirts under designer jackets, and designer stubble—three or four days of beard growth. But as always, denim remained popular with the young. In particular, heavy metal music fans wore bleached and ripped jeans and denim jackets.9 Gradually hemlines started to rise again ... until the world stock market crash in 1987. So the late 1980s in the US saw the rise of the more conservative style called Preppy style, with classic clothes by Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers for men, button-down shirts, chinos and loafers, with a sweater tied loosely around the neck. They also wore jeans, but either brand-new or clean and smartly pressed—not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended.10 As the world economies improved again in the 1990s, fashion for young people became more daring. Boots and Converse or Nike trainers remained popular, but the predominant colours became olive green and oatmeal. Hair was worn long, or cut spiky short and dyed blue, green or red. Hoodies, baseball caps and baggy jeans, whichwere often worn low below the buttocks, were common on the streets.11 Then in January 2000 the New York technology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines, which were described by one commentator as "the prim and proper look is in. Skirts should be below the knee." But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.12 During this period, it was unusual to wear formal clothes unless you were at work. Designer jeans gained huge popularity. These were made of the traditional denim, perhaps with some lycra added, but cut and marketed under well-known brands such as Armani, Hugo Boss and Moschino, who until recently had only concerned themselves with the smartest fashion lines. Skinny jeans also became popular in Britain and most of Europe. Skirt length is uncertain, ranging from micro to "sensible"—knee-length or just below.13 Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it's called, can even precede and predicta change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt this showed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictated what people would wear. During the London and New York fashion shows in September 2008, hemlines continued to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market—they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends.14 During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines and the greatest influences have been a 19th-century Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the Swinging London of the 1960s.Unit4The credit card trap1 I have a confession. Several years ago, I was standing in a queue to collect some theatre tickets for my family, and my friend was doing the same for hers.I got mine, and paid for them by credit card, feeling contented by the convenience of this cash- free transaction. It was then her turn to pay. The whole operation passed as smoothly as mine, but my delight soon turned to abject shame. My credit card was a fairly pathetic, status-free dark blue, whereas hers was a very exclusive gold one.2 How did she do this? How could this be? I knew I earned more than her, my car was newer, and my house was smarter. How did she get to appear more flashthan me?3 Now, I had a job which was as steady as any job was in those days –that's to say, not very, but you know, no complaints. I had a mortgage on my house, but then who didn't? I paid off all my credit debt at the end of the month, so although technically, I was in debt to the credit card company, it was only for a matter ofa few weeks. So I assumed I had a good credit rating.4 Call me superficial, and I'm not proud of myself, but there and then, I was suddenly jealous of my friend. I decided I no longer wanted a blue card. I wanted a gold one. A gold card was suddenly indispensable, it would make me feel good with myself, and desirable to others.5 So I applied for the most distinctive, shiny golden card the company offered.6 I was turned down.7 When I had recovered from the shock, which took several seconds, I asked why. It appears that because I pay my credit card bill both on time and in full, I'm not the kind of person that they want to have their gold credit card. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. Then they can charge them more interest, and earn more money. That's the way they do business.8 So does this explain why the credit card companies are luring impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates, like my kids?9 Three weeks ago, No. 2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She's in her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of £3,000, like most of her friends, and a small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books, living expenses. She wears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usually does that) and then said, "Mum,I need to talk to you."10 "What is it, darling? Tell me everything."11 "I've applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantee for me. Is it OK if I put down your name? Thanks so much, Mum, must dash! Bye. "12 After I'd hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written to her offering a credit card at a low interest for a trial three-month period, subject to suitability ... and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even better than I do how broke she is.13 Here’s a serious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it would be more accurate to call them debt cards?14 Here's an even more serious story. Another friend's daughter, Kelly, was studying modern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was a change of procedure, and Kelly's bank failed to allow her to access her funds in her current account, because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally, there was a lengthy correspondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her funds meant that she went into the red, and her debts began to rise more than £200 above the agreed limit on her overdraft of £1,500.15 When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her £100 for going over the limit, and insisted she paid £30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tell her that she wasn't actually paying off the debt, but only the exorbitant interest on the overspend of the overdraft.16 So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly until that point. Because she was a student, and because she didn't useit much, naturally her credit limit was low.17 And not surprisingly, she couldn’t pay off even the minimum payment on her credit card bill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And of course, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.18 Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the bank notified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from £1,500 to £1,000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, they discovered the card debt.19 Guess what? She didn't get the loan.20 This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economical about her lifestyle. She didn't go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn't use her credit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She usedit to buy food, to survive.21 And what happened? She had to drop out of university22 I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly's story, although maybe there will be. For the moment, she's working in the local supermarket, and it's probable that she'll have another go at university when she has paid off her debts.23 So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fall into the trap they shout "Got you! Didn't you realize it was a trap?"24 And here we are today, caught in the credit crunch, with world economiesin free fall, all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into, attracting us with endless publicity for loans of money which even they didn't have!It now appears they were borrowing on their own flashy gold credit cards too.25 So I have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me very carefully.26 I want you to lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then put them in an envelope and send them to your bank, with a letter saying (more or less) “I trusted you and you deceived me. You've got the whole world into this ridiculous credit card trap, and if I now cut your cards in half, and take away your potential to tempt money away from honest people like me, maybe it will be your turn to learn what it's like to run out of cash."27 As for me, I don't want any more credit cards, no more status symbols,no more bad feelings about wishing I could show how superior I am to others. I'm not going to yearn any more for what I cannot afford or cannot have.Sex Differences in English Gossip Rules1 Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that men gossip just as much as women. In one English study, both sexes devoted the same amount of conversation time (about 65 per cent) to social topics such as personal relationships; in another, the difference was found to be quite small, with gossip accounting for 55 per cent of male conversation time and 67 per cent of female time. As sport and leisure have been shown to occupy about 10 per cent of conversation time, discussion of football could well account for the difference.2 Men were certainly found to be no more likely than women to discuss "important" or "highbrow" subjects such as politics, work, art and cultural matters – except (and this was a striking difference) when women were present. On their own, men gossip, with no more than five per cent of conversation time devoted to non-social subjects such as work or politics. It is only in mixed-sex groups, where there are women to impress, that the proportion of male conversation time devoted to these more "highbrow" subjects increases dramatically, to between 15 and 20 per cent.3 In fact, recent research has revealed only one significant difference, in terms of content, between male and female gossip: Men spend much more time talking about themselves. Of the total time devoted to conversation about social relationships, men spend two thirds talking about their own relationships, while women only talk about themselves one third of the time.4 Despite these findings, the myth is still widely believed, particularly among males, that men spend their conversations "solving the world's problems", while the womenfolk gossip in the kitchen. In my focus groups and interviews, most English males initially claimed that they did not gossip, while most of the female readily admitted that they did. On further questioning, however, the difference turned out to be more a matter of semantics than practice: What the women were happy to call "gossip", the men defined as "exchanging information".5 Clearly, there is a stigma attached to gossip among English males, an unwritten rule to the effect that, even if what one is doing is gossiping, it should be called something else. Perhaps even more important: It should sound like something else. In my gossip research, I found that the main difference between male and female gossip is that female gossip actually sounds like gossip. There seem to be three principal factors involved: the tone rule, the detail rule and the feedback rule.The tone rule6 The English women I interviewed all agreed that a particular tone of voice was considered appropriate for gossip. The gossip-tone should be high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated."Gossip's got to start with something like[Quick, high-pitched, excited tone] 'Oooh –Guess what? Guess what?'" explained one woman, "or 'Hey, listen, listen [quick, urgent stage whisper] – you know what I heard?'" Another told me: "You have to make it sound surprising or scandalous, even when it isn't really. You'll go, 'Well, don't tell anyone, but …' even when it's not really that big of a secret."。
新标准大学英语综合教程1 Unit 4 summary
1.Can we live without our mobile phones?Mobile phones have been the biggest factor of change in everyday behavior. An increasing number of subscribers make more calls and take decisions more quickly that make an impact on our lifestyle. At the same time, the world has become smaller due to the wide use of mobile phones. In order to test whether people can live without mobile phones, the researchers ask three people to switch off their mobile phones for three days.The businessman loses his social life,but he is less likely to act on an impulse.Moreover,not having a phone creates more time for him to think.The schoolgirl cant’t speak to her friends or make arrangements for her social life without her mobile phone,but she feels more independent.The working mother,switching off her phone,feels anxious at first,but later on she finds that life can be solitary without anyone distracting her or interfering with her daily routine,so she feels it’s like therapy for the soul.2. Thank you for inviting us,when can we leave?The passage describes some nonverbal and verbal cultural bump about different countries.These phenomna reflect that there may be cross-cultural problems which cause misunderstanding,even you speak a language well. It’s impossible to collect all the information you might need to be relaxed in the many different cultures around the world, but you need to be tolerant and aware of the possibility of differences.。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文翻译
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文翻译Unit 1 Friendship。
Part I。
Text A。
Friendship。
Friendship is an important part of life. Everyone needs friends. No one can live without friends. If we have friends, we are happy. If we have no friends, we feel lonely. Friendship is a kind of love. It is a feeling between people who care about each other. Friendship is a wonderful thing. It makes our lives interesting and happy.Some people have many friends. Others have only a few friends. Some people have friends at work. Others have friends at school. Some people make friends easily. Others find it hard to make friends. Some people have friends from childhood. Others make friends when they are adults.How do we make friends? Making friends is not difficult. We can make friends by being friendly to others. We can make friends by helping others. We can make friends by talking to others. We can make friends by sharing our things with others. We can make friends by spending time with others. We can make friends by being ourselves.Friendship is like a plant. It needs to be watered and cared for. We need to spend time with our friends. We need to listen to our friends. We need to help our friends. We need to be kind to our friends. We need to trust our friends. We need to forgive our friends.We all have friends. Some friends are close to us. Others are not so close. Some friends are old. Others are new. Some friends are easy to get along with. Others are not so easy. Some friends are always there for us. Others are not always there for us.We need to be a good friend. We need to be a good listener. We need to be a good helper. We need to be a good sharer. We need to be a good companion. We need to be a good forgiver.Friendship is important. It is important to have friends. It is important to be a good friend. Let's cherish our friends. Let's be good friends.Part II。
新标准大学英语4课文原文及翻译
新标准大学英语4课文原文及翻译Unit 1 Active reading (1) / P3Looking for a job after university? First, get off the sofaMore than 650000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize them in these financially fraught times?今年夏天，超过65万名学生离开了大学，很多人都不知道如何找到工作。
在这个经济困难的时期，父母应该怎样严厉地激励他们呢?In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party, began to fade. Until now.7月，你看着你21岁的儿子，穿着学士服，戴着学位帽，骄傲地拿着他的荣誉学位拍毕业照。
那些为了吃得好、参加不定期的聚会而每年掏出几千英镑的记忆开始消失了。
直到现在。
As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion of Generation Y has morphed overnight into a member of Generation Grunt. Will he ever get a job?当暑假即将结束，全国各地的学生都在为新学期的开始做准备时，你会发现，你毕业的儿子仍然整天窝在电视机前，只有发短信、上Facebook和泡酒吧。
新标准大学英语4课文复述Summary
Book 4 Retelling the passagePart I Please retell Unit 1 AR2 “If you ask me”The writer has been in trouble in the past. She couldn’t even last till end of the year. After getting her master’s, she didn’t really go out to work just yet. She had her eyes on the course at the LSE. But her family couldn’t afford to pay for it.After leaving university, she went to London to get a job. She wanted a job about finance and investments. But she didn’t get it. Finally, she got a job in the pub. It was a quiet demanding job, and she liked it.In the pub, she met a customer whose name is tony. And she told her unlucky story to tony. Tony gave the writer a loan for her to set up her business.Fortunately, the writer succeeded. So she paid back Tony and set up her own firm. Tony wrote her a thank-you note.Part I Please retell Unit 2 AR1 “Danger! Books may change your life”When we pick up a book, we are about to enter a new world. Weknow we live in a world of variety and difference. Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. After taking the trouble to go to our local library or bookstore, we could realize the truth of the power of reading books. We may not always understand every word or sentence, but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded, our emotions are nevertheless stimulated. As soon as we are able to listen, books are supremely influential in the way we live. When we become adults, books define our lives. As adults, we are always looking for our own home-run books which give us such pleasure and satisfaction that we can not put it down. Books may change our lives. Such is the power of reading.Part I Please retell Unit 2 AR2 “They were alive and they spoke to me”I have a collection of books which are selected by me. And in the past I did most of my work without the aid of a library I look upon as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. One of the first things I associate with the reading of books is the struggle I waged to obtain them. A book lives through the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. Books are one of the few things men cherish deeply. And the better the man the more easily will he partwith his most cherished possessions. Here an irrepressible impulse seizes me to offer a piece of gratuitous advice. It is this: Read as little as possible, not as much as possible! Indubitably the vast majority of books overlap one another.Knowledge and awareness of this repetitive quality in books can help us select and read all that is worthwhile in the entire realm of literature.Part I Please retell Unit 3 AR1 “Fifty years of fashion”No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women's skirts and dresses. Jeans was used by miners in the Californian in the mid-19th.But then became associated with youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality. It has often been noted that there is a precise correlation, with only a few exceptions, between the length of women's skirts and the economy. Perhaps the most important development in fashion in the 1960s was the miniskirt. The hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s influenced the design of jeans. The mid-1980s saw the rise of a number of different styles. The late 1980s in the US saw the rise of the more conservative style called Preppy style. In the 1990s, Boots and Converse or Nike trainersremained popular, but the predominant colors became olive green and oatmeal. Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it's called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. Fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture.Part I Please retell Unit 3 AR2 “Eco-jewellery: sea glass”Although sea glass is disappearing, jewellery designer Gina Cowen is still on the hunt for the elusive treasure. It has the ability to transform magically from something ordinary to luminous treasure after a stint in the sea. There is no hard and fast rule about how long chunks of glass must spend in the waves before they can officially be called sea glass. Cowen decided to become a jeweller came after stints in journalism and music management in her 20s and 30s. Her favourite hunting ground—and popular among collectors—is Seaham Beach in County Durham. The creation of sea glass is a form of recycling, but more than that. The decline in supply, combined with an increase in demand, has produced a boom in the market. Its eco-credentials lend sea glass further appeal, at a time when people have started to question jewellery'sorigins. In 50 years, plastic may be the only thing being washed up, but Cowen is confident artists will find ways to put it to use.Part I Please retell Unit 4 AR1 “The credit card trap”Several years ago, I became unhappy because my credit card was only a fairy pathetic, but my friend get a gold one. And I thought that she couldn’t get it. So, I wanted a gold one, and I applied. However, I was turned down, I asked why. It appears that I am not the kind of person that they want to have their gold credit card. 3 years ago, my No.2daughter applied for a credit card and needed me to act as a guarantee. At last, I’d hauled her back into the house. Another friend’s daughter came across a more serious problem. Because of her credit card, she even did not get the loan. At last, she had to drop out of university. The banks set traps which appears to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic neede for survival. And then we fall into their traps. As for me, I don’t want any more credit cards, no more status symbols.Part I Please retell Unit 4 AR2 “The key to wedded bliss? Money matters”In fact, when it comes to finances, your marriage is likely to be your most valuable asset—or your largest liability. Today, while most of us marry for romantic reasons, marriage at its core is still a financial union. Making those choices as a team is one of the most important ways to preserve your marital assets, and your union, experts say. These guidelines are compiled from the successfully married and from experts on psychology, divorce and finance. TALK AND SHARE GOALS. Before walking down the aisle, couples should have a talk about their financial health and goals. RUN A HOME LIKE A BUSINESS. BE SUPPORTIVE OF CAREERS. Having a supportive partner helps you professionally, which should trickle down to your mutual bottom line. ENJOY, BUT WITHIN REASON. Create a cash cushion, and live a lifestyle you can sustain. USE A MEDIATOR. Perhaps both of you have strong yet divergent opinions about how to invest.MAINTAIN SOME INDEPENDENCE. INVEST IN YOUR MARRIAGE. Think of it as dollar-cost averaging your marriage, where you make small investments over time.Part I Please retell Unit 5 AR1 “Sex differences in English gossip rules”Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that men gossipjust as much as women. Men were certainly found to be no more likely than women to discuss "important" or "highbrow" subjects. In fact, recent research has revealed only one significant difference, in terms of content, between male and female gossip: Men spend much more time talking about themselves. In my focus groups and interviews, most English males initially claimed that they did not gossip, while most of the female readily admitted that they did. Clearly, there is a stigma attached to gossip among English males, an unwritten rule to the effect that, even if what one is doing is gossiping, it should be called something else. The English women I interviewed all agreed that a particular tone of voice was considered appropriate for gossip. Among English women, it is understood that to be a "good gossip" requires more than a lively tone and attention to detail. Among English women, it is understood that to be a "good gossip" requires more than a lively tone and attention to detail..Part I Please retell Unit 5 AR2 “Marked: women in the workplace”The term "marked" is a staple of linguistic theory. The unmarked forms of most English words convey "male". Being male is theunmarked case. Unfortunately, marking words for female also, by association, tends to mark them for frivolousness. For man no make-up is unmarked. There is no unmarked woman. There is no woman's hairstyle that could be called "standard". Women have to choose between shoes that are comfortable and shoes that are deemed attractive. If a woman's clothes are tight or revealing (in other words, sexy), it sends a message—an intended one of wanting to be attractive but also a possibly unintended one of availability. A woman wearing bright colors calls attention to herself, but if she avoids bright colors, she has (as my choice of verb in this sentence suggests) avoided something. Women can't even fill out a form without telling stories about themselves. A married woman who wants to have her cake and eat it too may use her surname plus his. In a list (Harvey O'Donovan, Jonathon Feldman, Stephanie Woodbury McGillicutty), the woman's multiple name stands out. It is marked.Part I Please retell Unit 6 AR1 “Winston Churchill”In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone on the brink of invasion. This was the moment when Britain had to be at its greatest. And in Churchill we found it. Churchill was born in 1874 in a grand family. His family hadbeen fighting for king and country for generations. So did him. But his parents was not kind to him. When he was s child, he was not outstanding. So his father thought that he would be a loser. After leaving school, Churchill joined the army. Then he behaved good as a hero of Boer War. Because of that, he become a MP. As a politician, he thought highly of law and order. But his dream is to become a general. So he must be happy when he became First Lord of the admiralty. But he failed in Gallipoli. Then he became depressed. But he recovered because of his wife. To amends his mistake, he took himself off to the trenches of France to fight. At last, he succeeded. In 1930s, he was on the backbenches. When War II broke out, he became the leader of Britain. In 1940, he lead British people to ride out a storm. When he died in 1965, the new rock-and-roll Britain stood still.。
新标准大学英语4课文summary
Unit1 reading2 if you ask meThis is an informal and personalized account of an economic graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and then has an opportunity to be successful (a lucky break). Since her family can’t support her to further study, she has to work. She has financial problems and feels lonely. She tells her troubles to Tony, a regular customer of the pub, who talks to some friends and gets her a loan to set up a business. With this help she has her master’s degree and her own company. however, unluckliy,Tony is disabled after an accident and needs the repayment of the loan to adapt his house for his disability. She pay back Tony’s help, and Tony thinks that investing in people gives the best return you can ever hope for. Unit2 reading1Reading is a life-changing activity. It helps us enter a new world and liberate us from the real world we come from; it stimulates our emotions and allows us enjoy and celebrate the variety and difference from books; it aids us to get out of confusion in a material world and to discover the real meaning of the life. Simply put, books are supremely influential in the way we live.Homerun book might be the answer for the book that everyone should read. It describes the first reading experience thatinduces such pleasure and satisfaction that you cannot put it down and it may range from the classics to the most recent. Everyone is looking for their own homerun books. And what is yours?Unit2 reading2Henry Miller depicts the struggle he made to obtain books when he was young, and then introduces the reason that makes a book live---that is, the enthusiastic recommendation of one reader to another. In his eyes, books are one of the few things men cherished deeply, but if you lend it to others, it makes friends for you. He continues to suggest that the vast majority of books repeat what others say, so read as little as possible. He then advices such a way to test his suggestion---that is, leave a book alone, but think as intensely as possible and if you decide to read, observe with what extraordinary acumen you read it and realize that very little of the books is really new to you.Unit3 reading1Between 1960 and 2010, there are two constant factors:the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women’s skirts and dresses.Jeans were invented by Levi Strauss in the mid-19th century in America. But it soon became popular among young people. In late 1950s, it export to Europe and Asia. The most importantdevelopment in fashion in the1960s was the miniskirt invented by Mary, Quant.Hemlines were related to the economy. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes. And as the economy situation changed, time saw a number of different styles. Sometimes the hemline can even predicted a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. And it was proved in the economic crisis in 2008. During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines.Unit3 reading2Sea glass is popular among the jewellery collectors for several reasons. First, the creation of sea glass is a form of recycling , where nature compensates for man’s folly. Second, with human recycling rather than hurling it into the sea, sea glass becomes rarer than diamonds, its supply is in decline while its demand is on the rise. This leads to its boom in the market.Third, its eco-credentials lend sea glass further appeal, as gold extraction damages the environment and diamond industry has a poor human rights record. So the designers would like to put sea glass to use.Gina Cowen became a sea glass jeweller after her stints injournalism and music management in her 20s and 30s. While sea glass is disappearing, she is still on the hunt.Gina Cowen’s collection started in her walk along a shingle beach near Capetown, South Africa, where she was born. She has several hunting grounds, South Africa, Fiji, Majorca in Spain, and the UK. But her favourite one is Seaham Beach in the UK.Her designs were sold at Liberty, London, but mostly she sells her jewellery to private customers.With the decline of sea glass in supply, there has arisen problem of reviving old habits of dumping glass into the sea. Gina Cowen refuses to condone it and she even rejects the idea of polishing new glass to make it look old, as there is a story behind sea glass.So follow Cowen’s example and search for glowing pebbles before they vanish.Unit4 reading1Today, we are caught in the credit crunch because banks set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival.The banks give a false sense of superiority to people with exclusive gold credit cards in hard. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind withrepayments. They lure impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates.They charge people who go over the limit the exorbitant interest but omit to tell them the interest paid is not for the debt, but for the overspend of the overdraft. By attracting us with their endless publicity for loans of money, the banks earn money.So how to get ourselves out of the traps? Lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then the banks have no potential to tempt money away from you.Unit4 reading2What’s the key to Wedded bliss? Money matters. Marriage at its core is a financial union. To preserve their marital assets and their union, couples had better share similar outlooks on money matters or, at the very least, find some middle ground. Otherwise, money will be a huge factor in breaking up marriages.However, not everyone is lucky to get married to a financial twin. To become more compatible with their significant other and ultimately more prosperous, couples need follow these guidelines: talking and sharing goals; running a home like a business, that is, making a budget and keeping track of earnings, expenses and debts, making big financial decisions and setting goals together; beingsupportive of careers; enjoying, but within reason; using a mediator while having strong yet divergent opinions. Maintaining some financial independence; spending time and money together as a kind of investment in marriage.Unit5 reading1Researchers have found that men gossip as much as women and men spend much more time talking about themselves. However, men don’t admit they gossip, instead they define it as ‘’exchanging information’’.The reason why female gossip actually sounds like gossip is that there seem to be three principal factors involved. Firstly, the tone rule. Women adopt a tone which is high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, bue always highly animated, while men gossip in the same flat, unemotional manner as any other piece of information. Secondly, the detailed rule. For women, a detailed speculation about possible motives, causes and outcomes is crucial. However, men find all this detail boring, irrelevant and unmanly. Thirdly, the freedback rule. Female listeners are required to be at least as animated and enthusiastic as speakers. However, men who respond in such a manner would be considered inappropriately girly, or evendisturbingly effeminate. For them, a suitable expletive is better to convey their surprise.Unit5 reading2Women constanly have to make choices about dress and appearance, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hair style is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. Tight or revealing clothes send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and that she is still available. Light make-up calls attention to the wearer as someone who tries to be attractive without being alluring. A woman who takes her husband’s surname announces to the world that she is married and also that she is traditional and may be less herself. However men do not have to make the same choices.Unit6 reading1Churchill believed that he was destined to lead his country. He fought as a soldier in World War 1 and led the country to victory in World War 2 . it seemed to ironic that a leader of such renowed as Churchill could not count on the loyalty of voters in 1945. However, in a democratic country, electors cannot be bullied, and he had to tolerate political defeat after military victory, and went once more to his country retreat, Chartwell.。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文原文
Looking for a job after university? First, get off the sofaMore than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way toget a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize 通电，刺激 them in these financially fraught担心的，忧虑的 times?1 In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard,proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out不情愿掏出thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party began tofade. Until now.2 As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start ofa new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped掉落in front ofthe television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion幼芽ofGeneration Y has morphed 改变 overnight into a member of Generating Grunt. Will he ever get ajob?3.This is the scenario 情节 facing thousands of families. More than 650,000 students left universitythis summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next. Parents revertto 回复 nagging; Sons and daughters become rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get ajob, but not sure how.4.Jack Goodwin, from Middlesex, graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer.He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again; there was a big queue.He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same. There was no pressure to find a job, eventhough most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.5.“ I applied for a job as a political researcher, but got turned down,” he says.“ they ￡18,000, doesn ?t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent, but they wanted peoplewith experience or master ?s degrees. Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream. I passed theexam, but at the interviews they accused me of being ,too detached” and talking in language that was ,too technocratic ?, which I didn ?t think possible, bu t obviously it is.”6. Since then he has spent the summer“ hiding” . He can recount several episodes of Traffic Copsand has seen more daytime television than is healthy. He talks to his friends about his aimlessdays and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by hisparents. For the rest it is 9-to- 5 “ chilling before” heading to the pub. So how about workingbehindthe bar, to pay for those drinks??t want“to Idonbar work. I went to a comprehensiveand I worked my backside off to go to a good university, where I worked really hard to get a gooddegree, ” he says. ?m“NowbackI at the same stage as those friends who didn ?t go to uni at all,who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs. I feel that I ?ve come full ci rcle. ”7.Jacqueling Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job, buthaving worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advisehim on how to proceed. “ I have always had to work, ?s” difficultshesaysbecause.“whenIt youhave a degree, it opens new doors for you, or you ?d like to think that it does. ”8.Although she is taking a soft line with her son at the moment, she is clear that after an upcomingthree-week trip to South America, his holiday from work will have to end. He may even have to payrent and contribute to the household bills.9.“ They?ve got to grow up at some point. We?ve finished paying for university, so a little bit ofhelp back is good,” she says.“AmericaTheSouthtrip is the cutoff point. When he comes backthere ?ll be Christmas work if nothing else.”10.Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and the author of the Emotional Healing Strategy, says that the Goodwin parents have struck exactly the right note. The transition from university to ajob is tough for parents and children: Crucially they must balance being positive and understanding with not making life too comfortable for their offspring.11 “ the main job for the parents is to be there because if th ey start advising them what to do,that is when the conflict starts. If you have contacts, by all means use those,But a lot of parents get too soft. Put limits on how much money you give them, ask them to payrent or contribute to the care of the house or the pets. Carry on life as normal and don?t allow them to abuse your bank account or sap your reserves of emotional energy.”12 paying for career consultations, train fares to interviews or books are good things; being toopushy is not. But while parents should be wary of becoming too soft, Lindenfield advises them totread 踩 sympathetically after a job setback for a few days or even weeks–depending on the scale of the knock. After that the son or daughter needs to be nudged推动firmly back into the saddle. 13 boys are more likely to get stuck at home. Lingenfield believes that men are often betterat helping their sons, nephews, or friends ? sons than are mothers and sisters. Men have adifferent way of handling setbacks than women, she says, so they need the male presence to talk it through.14 as for bar work, she is a passionate advocate: it ?s a great antidote 解毒剂 to graduate apathy冷漠 . It just depends on how you approach it. Lindenfield, who found her first job as an aerial photographic assistant through bar work, says it is a great networking opportunity and certainlymore likely to get you a job than lounging in front of the TV.15“ The same goes for shelf-stacking. You will be spotted if you ?re good at it. If you ?re bright and cheerful and are polite to the customers, you?ll soon get moved on. So think of it as an opportunity; people who are successful in the long run have often got shelf-stacking stories,”says.16 your son or daughter may not want to follow Hollywood stars such as Whoopi Goldberg into applying make-up to corpses 尸体 in a mortuary 太平间 , or guarding nuclear power plants likeBruce Wills, but even Brad Pitt had to stand outside El Pollo Loco restaurant chain in a giant chicken suit at one time in his life. None of them appears the poorer for these experiences.Danger! Books may change your life1Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, who falls into a rabbit hole and discovers a mysterious wonderland, when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. We become observersof life from the point of view of a person older than ourselves, or through the eyes of a child. Wemay travel around the globe to countries or cultures we would never dream of visiting in real life.We'll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from.2The English poet William Cowper (1731 –1800) said "Variety's the very spice of life, / that gives it all its flavour" although he neglected to say where or how we could find it. But we know hewas right. We know we live in a world of variety and difference. We know that people live various different lives, spend their time in various different ways, have different jobs, believe in different things, have different opinions, different customs, and speak different languages. Normally, we don't know the extent of these differences, yet sometimes when something” she said. sheunusual happens to make us notice, variety and difference appear more as a threat than an opportunity.3Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. To interact with other people's lives in the peace and quietof our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us. We even understand, however fleetingly, that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than wemight do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors. We learn tolook beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home.4If we ever question the truth of the power of reading books, we should take the trouble togo to our local library or bookshop, or even, if we're fortunate enough, to the books on our shelves at home. We should wonder at the striking vistas created by the titles of novels ranging from the classics to the most recent: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Fourth Hand by John Irving, Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. Then we should reflect on the other lives we'll meet once we begin to read.5 Every book will have its own language and dialect, its own vocabulary and grammar. We maynot always understand every word or sentence, but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded, our emotions are nevertheless stimulated. Other people and other cultures arenot always distant because of geography. In a book we may confront people who live in a different climate, have different religious beliefs, or come from a different ethnic group. Even our neighbours down the road may be strangers who we can only meet through books.6As soon as we are able to listen, books are supremely influential in the way we live. From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room linedwith books in our adult homes, books define our lives. The English writer E. M. Forster (1879–1970) even hinted at a more mystical power which books possess over us. He wrote, "I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which havegone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves." It's as if the rightbook comes to seek us out at the right moment, and offers itself to us —it's not us who seek outthe book.7Thomas Merton (1915–1968), the American monk, priest and writer, was once asked a series of seven questions by a journalist: Name the last three books you have read, the three books you are reading now, the books you intend to read, the books that have influenced you,and why, a book that everyone should read, and why. For the books which had influenced him, he cited poetic works of William Blake, various plays by ancient Greek thinkers and writers, and a number of religious writings. When asked why they had influenced him, he replied, "These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything."8So how would you answer the questions?9In 1947, Clifton Fadiman coined the term home-run book. When a baseball player hits a home run, he hits the ball so hard and so far he's able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. It'sthe most enjoyable and satisfying event in a baseball game. Likewise, a home-run book describesnot the child's first reading experience, but the first time they read a book which induces such pleasure and satisfaction that they can't put it down. For hundreds of millions of childrenaround the world, the best known example of a home-run book will be the Harry Potter stories.10As adults, we're always looking for our own home-run books, not just for the first time,but time after time again. Whoever has read a novel in one sitting will always remember the pleasure and satisfaction which await us, and eagerly, insistently, sometimes even desperately seeks to reproduce the marvellous sensation again. We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.11Danger! Books may change your life. Such is the power of reading.Unit 3 Fifty years of fashion1No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women's skirts and dresses.2Denim, the material which jeans are made of, was known in France in the late 16th century, but it was Levi Strauss who saw that miners in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century needed strong trousers, which he reinforced with metal rivets. Blue denim jeans remained popular in the US as work clothes until the 1950s, but then became associated with youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality. When Levi Strauss & Co began to export blue jeansto Europe and Asia in the late 1950s, they were bought and worn with huge enthusiasm byyoung people and recognized as a symbol of the young, informal American way of life.3Hemlines have a more peculiar significance during this period. It has often been noted that there is a precise correlation, with only a few exceptions, between the length of women's skirts and the economy. As the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they. Exactly why women should want to expose more or less of their legs during periods of economicboom and bust remains a mystery. But the general trend is inescapable. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes.4Perhaps the most important development in fashion in the 1960s was the miniskirt, invented by the British designer Mary Quant. Because Quant worked in the heart of Swinging London, the miniskirt developed into a major international fashion. It was given greater respectability when the great French designer, Courr è ges,developed it into an item of high fashion. But it would not have achieved such international currency without the development oftights, instead of stockings, because the rise in hemlines meant the stocking tops would be visible.5The hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s influenced the design of jeans, with the trouser leg developing a flared "bell-bottom" style. By the mid-1970s, as the economy deteriorated, hemlines dropped to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), while jeans were no longer exclusively blue.6Jeans remained fashionable during the period of punk, usually worn ripped, often with chains and studded belts. The look lasted for several years, although became more and more restricted to small groups of inner-city young people, and had little influence on other age groups.7As a backlash to the anarchy of punk, the New Romantics was a fashion movement which occurred mainly in British nightclubs. It was glamorous and courageous, and featured lavish frilled shirts. Jeans were definitely not acceptable.8The mid-1980s saw the rise of a number of different styles. Power dressing was characterized by smart suits and, for the newly-empowered women, shoulder pads and knee-length skirts. Not surprisingly, the economy was unstable, and people took less risks in what they wore. For men, the Miami Vice style, named after the television series, made use of smartT-shirts under designer jackets, and designer stubble —three or four days of beard growth. But as always, denim remained popular with the young. In particular, heavy metal music fans wore bleached and ripped jeans and denim jackets.9Gradually hemlines started to rise again ... until the world stock market crash in 1987. So the late 1980s in the US saw the rise of the more conservative style called Preppy style, with classic clothes by Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers for men, button-down shirts, chinos and loafers, with a sweater tied loosely around the neck. They also wore jeans, but either brand-newor clean and smartly pressed —not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended.10As the world economies improved again in the 1990s, fashion for young people becamemore daring. Boots and Converse or Nike trainers remained popular, but the predominant colours became olive green and oatmeal. Hair was worn long, or cut spiky short and dyed blue, green or red. Hoodies, baseball caps and baggy jeans, which were often worn low below the buttocks, were common on the streets.11Then in January 2000 the New York technology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines, which were described by one commentator as "the prim and proper look is in. Skirts should be below the knee." But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.12During this period, it was unusual to wear formal clothes unless you were at work. Designer jeans gained huge popularity. These were made of the traditional denim, perhaps with some lycra added, but cut and marketed under well-known brands such as Armani, Hugo Bossand Moschino, who until recently had only concerned themselves with the smartest fashion lines. Skinny jeans also became popular in Britain and most of Europe. Skirt length is uncertain, ranging from micro to "sensible" —knee-length or just below.13Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it's called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt thisshowed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictatedwhat people would wear. During the London and New York fashion shows in September 2008, hemlines continued to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market —they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends.14During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines and the greatest influences have been a 19th-century Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the Swinging London ofthe 1960s.Unit4The credit card trap1I have a confession. Several years ago, I was standing in a queue to collect sometheatre tickets for my family, and my friend was doing the same for hers. I got mine, andpaid for them by credit card, feeling contented by the convenience of this cash-freetransaction. It was then her turn to pay. The whole operation passed as smoothly as mine, butmy delight soon turned to abject shame. My credit card was a fairly pathetic, status-free dark blue,whereas hers was a very exclusive gold one.2How did she do this? How could this be? I knew I earned more than her,my car was newer, and my house was smarter. How did she get to appear more flash than me?3Now, I had a job which was as steady as any job was in those days–that'sto say, not very, but you know, no complaints. I had a mortgage on my house, but then who didn't?I paid off all my credit debt at the end of the month, so although technically, I was in debt to thecredit card company, it was only for a matter of a few weeks. So I assumed I had a good creditrating.4Call me superficial, and I'm not proud of myself, but there and then, I was suddenlyjealous of my friend. I decided I no longer wanted a blue card. I wanted a gold one. A gold card wassuddenly indispensable, it would make me feel good with myself, and desirable to others.5So I applied for the most distinctive, shiny golden card the company offered.6I was turned down.7When I had recovered from the shock, which took several seconds, I asked why. Itappears that because I pay my credit card bill both on time and in full, I'm not the kind ofperson that they want to have their gold credit card. They target people who are proneto impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, andliable to fall behind with repayments. Then they can charge them more interest, and earn moremoney. That's the way they do business.8So does this explain why the credit card companies are luring impoverished studentswith unrealistic interest rates, like my kids?9Three weeks ago, No. 2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She'sin her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of￡ 3,000, like most of her friends, and a small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books, living expenses. Shewears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usuallydoes that) and then said, "Mum, I need to talk to you."10"What is it, darling? Tell me everything."11"I've applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantee for me. Is it12After I'd hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written toher offering a credit card at a low interest for a trial three-month period, subject to suitability ...and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even better than I do how broke she is.13 Here ’s aserious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it would be moreaccurate to call them debt cards?14Here's an even more serious story. Another friend's daughter, Kelly, was studyingmodern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was achange of procedure,and Kelly's bank failed to allow her to access her funds in her currentaccount,because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally,there was a lengthycorrespondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her fundsmeant that she went into the red, and her debts began to rise more than￡ 200 above the agree limit on her overdraft of￡ 1,500.15When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her ￡ 100for going over the limit, andinsisted she paid￡ 30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tellher that she wasn't actually paying off the debt,but only the exorbitant interest on theoverspend of the overdraft.16So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly untilthat point. Because she was a student, and because she didn't use it much, naturally her creditlimit was low.17And not surprisingly, she couldn pay off even’t the minimum payment on her credit cardbill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And ofcourse, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.18Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the banknotified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from￡1,500 to￡1,000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, theydiscovered the card debt.19Guess what? She didn't get the loan.20This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economicalabout her lifestyle. She didn't go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn't use hercredit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She used it to buy food, to survive.21And what happened? She had to drop out of university22I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly's story, although maybe there will be. For themoment, she's working in the local supermarket, and it's probable that she'll have another go atuniversity when she has paid off her debts.23So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed andsometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fall into the trap they shout "Got you!Didn't you realize it was a trap?"24And here we are today, caught in the credit crunch, with world economies in free fall,all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into, attracting us with endless publicityfor loans of money which even they didn't have! It now appears they were borrowing on theirown flashy gold credit cards too.25So I have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me verycarefully.26I want you to lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors andcut them into small pieces. Then put them in an envelope and send them to your bank, with aletter saying (more or less ) I“trusted you and you deceived me. You've got the whole world intothis ridiculous credit card trap, and if I now cut your cards in half, and take away yourpotential to tempt money away from honest people like me, maybe it will be your turn tolearn what it's like to run out of cash."27 As for me, I don't want any more credit cards, no more status symbols, no more bad feelings about wishing I could show how superior I am to others. I'm not going to yearn any more for whatI cannot afford or cannot have.Sex Differences in English Gossip Rules1Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that men gossip just as much as women. In one English study, both sexes devoted the same amount of conversation time (about65per cent) to social topics such as personal relationships; in another, the difference was found tobe quite small, with gossip accounting for 55 per cent of male conversation time and 67 percent of female time. As sport and leisure have been shown to occupy about 10 per cent of conversation time, discussion of football could well account for the difference.2Men were certainly found to be no more likely than women to discuss "important" or "highbrow" subjects such as politics, work, art and cultural matters –except (and this was astriking difference) when women were present. On their own, men gossip, with no more thanfive per cent of conversation time devoted to non-social subjects such as work or politics. It isonly in mixed-sex groups, where there are women to impress, that the proportion of male conversation time devoted to these more "highbrow" subjects increases dramatically, tobetween 15 and 20 per cent.3In fact, recent research has revealed only one significant difference, in terms of content, between male and female gossip: Men spend much more time talking about themselves. Of thetotal time devoted to conversation about social relationships, men spend two thirds talking about their own relationships, while women only talk about themselves one third of the time.4Despite these findings, the myth is still widely believed, particularly among males, that men spend their conversations "solving the world's problems", while the womenfolk gossip in the kitchen. In my focus groups and interviews, most English males initially claimed that they did not gossip, while most of the female readily admitted that they did. On further questioning, however, the difference turned out to be more a matter of semantics than practice: What the women were happy to call "gossip", the men defined as "exchanging information".5Clearly, there is a stigma attached to gossip among English males, an unwritten rule to the effect that, even if what one is doing is gossiping, it should be called something else. Perhaps even more important: It should sound like something else. In my gossip research, I found that the main difference between male and female gossip is that female gossip actually sounds like gossip. There seem to be three principal factors involved: the tone rule, the detail rule and the feedback rule.The tone rule6The English women I interviewed all agreed that a particular tone of voice was considered appropriate for gossip. The gossip-tone should be high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated."Gossip's got to start with something like[Quick, high-pitched, excited tone] 'Oooh – Guess what? Guess what?'" explained one。
新标准大学英语4summary
UNIT 1Active Reading 1What are the most important issues for students today? Is the university campus really such a different place compared to what it was 40 years ago?For the students in the 1960s, going to college was the most exciting and stimulating experience of their life. They took part in protests and launched strikes against the establishment with their new and passionate commitment to freedom and justice. Going to college also meant their first taste of real freedom. They could discuss the meaning of life, read their first forbidden book and see their first indie film.In contrast, the students today don’t have the passion for college life that they used to. Today, college is seen as a kind of small town from which people are keen to escape. Instead of the heady atmosphere of freedom which students in the 1960s discovered, students today are much more serious.College has become a means to an end, an opportunity to improve their prospects of being competitive in the employment market, and not an end in itself.But in spite of all this, the role of the university is the same as it always has been. It is the place where students have the opportunity tolearn to think for themselves.Active Reading 2Older generations generally have a negative attitude to today’s students, the product of postmodern times. Today’s students are expected to accomplish anything in an era with extraordinary privileges and opportunities. It would seem they do the opposite. They direct their energy on the Internet communicating ideas and frustrations, instead of trying to assert their identity by revolution. Perhaps when they are not told about what their parents did before, they will be seen writing the revolution in technology.UNIT 2Active Reading 1Empathy, orginally known as motor mimicry, stemmed from physical imitation of others’ plight, which then evokes the same feelings in oneself. Children seem to feel sympathetic distress from infancy—much earlier than they realize they exist apart from other peopleBy one year old, they start to learn the pain is someone else’s but still seem confused about what to do. At around two and a half years, motor mimicry fades from toddlers’ repertoire when they are able to distinguish their own feelings from others’ feelings, so they are able touse other means to comfort others. At the same time, their sensivity to other’s emotional upsets begins to diverge from one to another. Active Reading 2This is Sandy is an extract from Tone, a story about the life of a deaf girl. She thinks her friends are honorable people who beam with pride when they introduce her to someone new. When people find out she is deaf they are mostly shocked for a moment at first but pretend not to be. Sandy says that the hearing aids she saw in a catalog are great fashion accessories, they’re just like a clip you put onto your ear. Sandy likes to show her hearing aid. She doesn’t tie her hair up in a knot but sh e tucks it behind her ears. Sandy’s friend Carol introduces her to a boy called Colin at a party. They sit together on a couch and Colin realizes that Sandy can understand what he is saying by reading his lips. Someone turns up the volume of the music and they dance together. Soon they are dating. This is when the real drama begins.UNIT 3Active Reading 1Identity theft refers to stealing information about someone that makes it possible to use their bank account or credit card. With an informal and conversational tone the author persuades readers intoactions against the threats of identity fraud in our daily life. According to the author we make the thieves’ job easy by leaving our mails unprotected, using ball pens for checks and forms, throwing documents containing our personal information in the trash, leaving our computer on and so on. So we should look for different ways to protect ourselves and change our mindset.Identity crime is very likely to happen at any time, to any of us. We can take precautions to improve the chances of avoiding this crime, though it will never go away.Active Reading2The writer tries to create a feeling of fear in order to warn readers of the threat involved in the ever-increasing amounts of data on people being collected. With various stylistic devices, the writer leads readers along his thought-path step by step to the point that collecting personal information places people in peril because we don’t know who collects it for what purposes. And neither do we know where the information goes and how it is used. According to the writer, identity theft is much feared in society but there are worse things than that. And the danger is growing though it is vague, not certain. There is no balance yet between the convenience of the world and the peril that we sense in the presence of all that information in the databases which can be employed as aweapon as well as a tool.UNIT 4Active Reading 1What exactly is news? The objective importance and the historical, international significance of an event is not enough. It is the odd, unexpected and human nature that made news like 9/11 memorable and newsworthy. So is immediacy which refers to the nearness of the event in time.When it comes to immediacy, those media like TV, radio and Internet have an enormous advantage over the press. However, no matter what form it may take, all the media more or less covertly, influence the public. That is the so- called power of the media.In the new millennium, maybe the press or TV are not going to disappear overnight, but the power of the media may be eroded or at least devolved to ordinary people.Active Reading 2All over the English-speaking world, newspaper circulation has been confronted with a long-term trend of decline. The decline comes much from the challenge of internet and the negative environmental impact of newspaper industry. The challenge of internet mainly focuses on itsattraction to readers and minute-by-minute ads monitoring system. But maybe the newspaper won’t die without struggle. Besides its convenience over laptop, the demand for local news and the exploitation of lifestyle journalism will create new revenue streams. And more interestingly, the ritual of reading the newspaper has become a hard habit to break.UNIT 5Active Reading 1As an anti-war novel, Catch-22 is well known for its comic tone as against the normal perception of a war novel which tends to be serious, sentimental and involve bloodshed. Its main character is Yossarian. Unlike the war heroes who would die for their home country, Yossarian aims to survive the war and go back home.To achieve this goal, he has to pretend to be insane. If he were crazy, he could be grounded. So he had to ask Doc Daneeka first. But once he asked Doc Daneeka, it meant he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions.Normally, he was sane if he didn’t fly more missions while he would be crazy if he flew more missions. Anyway, he would be plunged into a tricky situation– a Catch-22 situation.Active Reading 2To escape from Nazi persecutionof the Jews, Anne and her family members emigrated from Germany to Holland. However, in 1940 the Germans invaded, and occupied Holland. So quickly did the persecution of the Dutch Jews begin there that the Franks and another Jew family, the Van Pels went into hiding in the secret annexe. For the next two years, eight people of the two families were confinedto just six small rooms and could never go outside.Under such harsh circumstances, Anne continued to write her diary, which she started a few weeks before they moved to the hiding. Her diary was the account of the day-to-day activity in the annexe –the suffering, but her dreams and aspirations were still there. The diary voiced a declaration of her principles and of the right to human dignity so profoundly that it was viewed as the voice of Holocaust.In August 1944,the hiding place was stormed, and Nazi officers arrested everyone.They were taken to concentration camps.Out of the eight people in hiding, Otto Frank was the only survivors, and when he found his daughter’s diary after the war, he arranged for its publication in recognition of her courage. Anne’s writing would be a support and comfort to the world after her death.UNIT 6Active Reading 1Standing at the vast and beautiful Stadium Australia, I was tense and excited. The feeling was fantastic since I was so close to my childhood dream. I tried to concentrate on the crowd and felt unified with them. The first lap was good but mental and physical fatigue were starting to crush me on the second lap. I kept telling myself: “two minutes, one more lap towardsbeing the Olympic champion”. As I crosse d the line I was sure that I’d just made it. But negative thoughts lingered in my mind. When I saw my name in lights, I felt a tingle through the whole of my body. It was the moment that will stay with mefor the rest of my life. Active Reading 2It is time to blow the whistle on the so-called beautiful game -- soccer. For one thing, it is a game of chance. Goals are the best illustration of the chance natureof this game. Ninety percent of goal shots failed. The scoring system is another evidence. Most finals, 0-0, 1-0, 2-1, indicate that games tend to be standoffs and it’s a matter of luck to be ahead when time runs out. For another, soccer is a sport in which strategies and regulations are so obscure. No universal interpretation can be found for offside rules. Besides, with only one referee on the field, most of theinfractions-- pushing, punching, tripping, kneeing, handballing-- are committed when he isn’t looking.。
新标准大学英语综合教程4课文Summary
新标准⼤学英语综合教程4课⽂Summary~Unit 1 If You Ask Me1.This is a story of a graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and has a chance to be successful.2.Since her family can’t support her to further study, she has to work. She has financial problems and feels lonely. She talks her trouble to Tony, a regular customer of the pub. Who gets her a loan to set up a business. With his help she has her monster’s degree and her own company.3.After a few years Tony had been in a car accident and couldn’t work, the writer’s money helped him. Tony said investing in people gives the best return you can ever hope for.Unit 2 Danger! Books may Change Your Life1.This article introduces the power of reading books to us. When we pick up a book, we are about to enter a new world. Books will influence the way we live.2.%3.The writer mentions a word “home-run book” that might be the answer for the book everyone should read. “Home-run” book is which can give you pleasure and satisfaction.4.The title described the power of reading.Unit 2 They were alive and they spoke to me1.The writer introduces what makes a book alive. A book lives through the passionate recommendation of one reader to another.2.The writer suggests us read as little as possible not as much as possible. What is more important is the quality not the quantity..Unit 3 Fifty Years of FashionFashion in the year 1960 to 2010 has two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines of women’s skirts and dresses. The jeans date back to 16 century, and then jeans bacame the work cloth of miners. Jeans were worn with young people in 1950s, and after that developed a lot, associated with new ideas. The length of women’s dresses is associated with economy. When the economy is positive, women enjoy to show them.Unit 3 Eco-jewellery: Sea GlassThis article introduces the reason why sea glass is very popular. Anddescribes the process of making jewellery from sea glass, makes people think about the importance of recycling. And paints the passion of Gina Cowen, who is a jewellery designer.'Unit 4 The Credit Card TrapThis article tells the writer’s complain about bank credit card. She takes some examples to analyze how credit cards get people in to a trap and make people be in debt for bank. The author use a humorous way to suggest people how to solve the credit card trap, that cut them by scissors, never use them anymore.Unit 4 The Key to Wedded Bliss Money MattersThis article tells us that what is important to marriage is money. What makes marrige work is finding your financial soulmate, marrying a person who shares your attitudes about money. The writer gives some guidelines: (1) talk and share goals (2) run a home like a business (3) be supportive of careers (4) enjoy, but within reason (5) use a mediator (6) maintain some independence (7) invest in your marriage!Unit 5 Sex Differences in English Gossip RulesThis article summarizes findings form recent research. And it presents the writer’s owns research findings that men gossip as much as women, but they call it “exchanging information”. The main difference between male and female gossip is that female gossip sounds like gossip. Three principal involved are: the tone rule, the detail rule and the feedback rule.Unit 5 Marked:Women in the workplaceWomen constantly have to make choices about dress and appearance, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them; men do not have to make the same choices.—Unit 6 Winston ChurchillChurchill came from a famous family and was a soldier and politician. When Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, Britain was at war. Churchillmade speeches that inspired the nation, and led the country to victory. Although he was considered a great military leader, Churchill lost the general election after the war.。
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Unit1 reading2 if you ask meThis is an informal and personalized account of an economic graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and then has an opportunity to be successful (a lucky break). Since her family can’t support her to further study, she has to work. She has financial problems and feels lonely. She tells her troubles to Tony, a regular customer of the pub, who talks to some friends and gets her a loan to set up a business. With this help she has her master’s degree and her own company. however, unluckliy,Tony is disabled after an accident and needs the repayment of the loan to adapt his house for his disability. She pay back Tony’s help, and Tony thinks that investing in people gives the best return you can ever hope for. Unit2 reading1Reading is a life-changing activity. It helps us enter a new world and liberate us from the real world we come from; it stimulates our emotions and allows us enjoy and celebrate the variety and difference from books; it aids us to get out of confusion in a material world and to discover the real meaning of the life. Simply put, books are supremely influential in the way we live.Homerun book might be the answer for the book that everyone should read. It describes the first reading experience thatinduces such pleasure and satisfaction that you cannot put it down and it may range from the classics to the most recent. Everyone is looking for their own homerun books. And what is yours?Unit2 reading2Henry Miller depicts the struggle he made to obtain books when he was young, and then introduces the reason that makes a book live---that is, the enthusiastic recommendation of one reader to another. In his eyes, books are one of the few things men cherished deeply, but if you lend it to others, it makes friends for you. He continues to suggest that the vast majority of books repeat what others say, so read as little as possible. He then advices such a way to test his suggestion---that is, leave a book alone, but think as intensely as possible and if you decide to read, observe with what extraordinary acumen you read it and realize that very little of the books is really new to you.Unit3 reading1Between 1960 and 2010, there are two constant factors:the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women’s skirts and dresses.Jeans were invented by Levi Strauss in the mid-19th century in America. But it soon became popular among young people. In late 1950s, it export to Europe and Asia. The most importantdevelopment in fashion in the1960s was the miniskirt invented by Mary, Quant.Hemlines were related to the economy. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes. And as the economy situation changed, time saw a number of different styles. Sometimes the hemline can even predicted a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. And it was proved in the economic crisis in 2008. During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines.Unit3 reading2Sea glass is popular among the jewellery collectors for several reasons. First, the creation of sea glass is a form of recycling , where nature compensates for man’s folly. Second, with human recycling rather than hurling it into the sea, sea glass becomes rarer than diamonds, its supply is in decline while its demand is on the rise. This leads to its boom in the market.Third, its eco-credentials lend sea glass further appeal, as gold extraction damages the environment and diamond industry has a poor human rights record. So the designers would like to put sea glass to use.Gina Cowen became a sea glass jeweller after her stints injournalism and music management in her 20s and 30s. While sea glass is disappearing, she is still on the hunt.Gina Cowen’s collection started in her walk along a shingle beach near Capetown, South Africa, where she was born. She has several hunting grounds, South Africa, Fiji, Majorca in Spain, and the UK. But her favourite one is Seaham Beach in the UK.Her designs were sold at Liberty, London, but mostly she sells her jewellery to private customers.With the decline of sea glass in supply, there has arisen problem of reviving old habits of dumping glass into the sea. Gina Cowen refuses to condone it and she even rejects the idea of polishing new glass to make it look old, as there is a story behind sea glass.So follow Cowen’s example and search for glowing pebbles before they vanish.Unit4 reading1Today, we are caught in the credit crunch because banks set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival.The banks give a false sense of superiority to people with exclusive gold credit cards in hard. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind withrepayments. They lure impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates.They charge people who go over the limit the exorbitant interest but omit to tell them the interest paid is not for the debt, but for the overspend of the overdraft. By attracting us with their endless publicity for loans of money, the banks earn money.So how to get ourselves out of the traps? Lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then the banks have no potential to tempt money away from you.Unit4 reading2What’s the key to Wedded bliss? Money matters. Marriage at its core is a financial union. To preserve their marital assets and their union, couples had better share similar outlooks on money matters or, at the very least, find some middle ground. Otherwise, money will be a huge factor in breaking up marriages.However, not everyone is lucky to get married to a financial twin. To become more compatible with their significant other and ultimately more prosperous, couples need follow these guidelines: talking and sharing goals; running a home like a business, that is, making a budget and keeping track of earnings, expenses and debts, making big financial decisions and setting goals together; beingsupportive of careers; enjoying, but within reason; using a mediator while having strong yet divergent opinions. Maintaining some financial independence; spending time and money together as a kind of investment in marriage.Unit5 reading1Researchers have found that men gossip as much as women and men spend much more time talking about themselves. However, men don’t admit they gossip, instead they define it as ‘’exchanging information’’.The reason why female gossip actually sounds like gossip is that there seem to be three principal factors involved. Firstly, the tone rule. Women adopt a tone which is high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, bue always highly animated, while men gossip in the same flat, unemotional manner as any other piece of information. Secondly, the detailed rule. For women, a detailed speculation about possible motives, causes and outcomes is crucial. However, men find all this detail boring, irrelevant and unmanly. Thirdly, the freedback rule. Female listeners are required to be at least as animated and enthusiastic as speakers. However, men who respond in such a manner would be considered inappropriately girly, or evendisturbingly effeminate. For them, a suitable expletive is better to convey their surprise.Unit5 reading2Women constanly have to make choices about dress and appearance, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hair style is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. Tight or revealing clothes send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and that she is still available. Light make-up calls attention to the wearer as someone who tries to be attractive without being alluring. A woman who takes her husband’s surname announces to the world that she is married and also that she is traditional and may be less herself. However men do not have to make the same choices.Unit6 reading1Churchill believed that he was destined to lead his country. He fought as a soldier in World War 1 and led the country to victory in World War 2 . it seemed to ironic that a leader of such renowed as Churchill could not count on the loyalty of voters in 1945. However, in a democratic country, electors cannot be bullied, and he had to tolerate political defeat after military victory, and went once more to his country retreat, Chartwell.。