Unit 12

Task  1

【答案】

1) £229.

2) The Spanish.

3) Italians.

4) They view most of their meals as refueling.

5) Higher quality food.

6) Low-fat alternatives (such as sushi and organic salads).

【原文】

UK residents spend an average £229 a year on food consumed in transit, the highest in Europe, the research group Datamonitor says. In contrast, Spanish people spend only £56 a year, while Italians spend £128 a year on average.

The report's author says the difference is due to the greater amount of time Britons spend at work and commuting. In the UK people spend on average 48 minutes a day traveling to and from work. The Spanish and Italians spend 34 and 24 minutes respectively.

Attitudes towards food are also important, the study claims.

"There are a lot of people in the UK who view most of their meals as refueling," says Lawrence Gould, the report's author.

But it is not all bad, he adds.

"One thing emerging is a greater demand for higher quality food, even if it is food-on-the-go," says Mr. Gould.

Traditional fast food such as burgers and chips are now competing with low-fat alternatives. While the food may have been eaten in transit, people are increasingly being offered healthy fare: from sushi to organic salads.

Task  2

【答案】

A.

Stress in Everyday Life	Terms
Parenting as a task and a problem, rather than something that comes naturally	single mother, one-parent family
People wanting to be parents but not being able to for various reasons	surrogacy, test-tube babies
Behaviour of children	truanting
What do these terms suggest? There really is a kind of crisis or a breakdown in old-fashioned family life.

B.

1) Word such as "stressed out", "rage", "road rage".

2) The United States.

3) In the 1960s.

4) It means that a person is capable of feeling, expressing and sharing emotions, and it implies that emotion is something you can learn.

【原文】

1) There was an increasing amount of stress in everyday life for ordinary people, particularly so for families. And so you get a lot of language generated out of these social problems—terms like "single mother", "one-parent family", the whole idea of parenting being a task and a problem, rather than something that comes naturally. You get things like "surrogacy', "test-tube babies", the kind of thing where people want to be parents and can't for various reasons. You get the behavior of children: You've got "truanting", another keyword that used to be called "playing truant"—staying away from school. And all of these suggest that there really is a kind of crisis or a breakdown in old-fashioned family life.

2) Stress was a real social problem, not of course only in Britain, but particularly in Britain. And this gave rise to a whole lot of words, words for stress itself: "stressed out", "rage", "road rage". We needed a new language to express this new kind of emotionalism. We took it of course from the US, from the United States, where there had been a whole language of therapy and of feeling, and expressing emotions, and sharing emotions, which had started in the 60s but hadn't really spread to Britain until the 90s. And you have all this language like "caring and sharing", "getting in touch with your feelings", "emotional literacy" and the idea that you could become "emotionally literate", that emotion is something you can learn, like learning to read.

 

Task  3

【答案】

A. 1) c)   2) c)    3) a)    4) b)

B.1) F    2) T    3) F     4) T

【原文】

“You have to grab life by the throat and go for it—there are few second chances.”

That is the life philosophy of Somerville cancer survivor Carolynn Merks, who is learning to fly in spite of the limitations of two artificial knees.

The 53-year-old registered nurse, who works in pathology in Hastings, can bend her knees only partially but said learning to fly was a goal she was determined to achieve.

“Three years ago I was hit with breast cancer and them I lost a close friend with the same disease,” she said. “It made me take stock of my life and totally changed my thinking. I realized you only have one chance in life as there are no dress rehearsals. I don’t want to wait around for my cancer to come back ,so I decided to try to achieve my dreams and goals in life.”

Mrs. Merks has already completed 34 out 150 hours of solo flying time and is about to sit in her second of seven major exams to gain the difficult commercial helicopter pilot’s license.

The only constraint she acknowledges is that of finances—it is predicted to cost about $55,000 in total to gain her license.

“Draining the fuel, checking for water in the fuel line and checking for oil are the only tricky parts, because I have to bend my knees as far as they go, but I manage it because I am determined,” she said. “Not even my husband’s distinct lack of enthusiasm was going to change my mind. Helicopter flying is a lot more difficult than fixed wing—it is the harder of the two, but it is something I have always wanted to do. I feel I have to give it my best shot, try hard, and if I fail at least I can go to my grave saying, well at least I tried. And when I complete this, my next goal is learning to play the saxophone!”

 

Task  4

【答案】

A.

1) What truly is logic? Who decides reason?

2) It is only in love that any logic or reasons can be found.

3) Harvard Law School’s Graduation Ceremony

4) "The law is reason free from passion.”

5) The speaker’s 65th birthday.

6) They go by in a blink.

B.

1) numbers, logics, reason, physical, mysterious equations of love

2) passion, a key ingredient, law, life, courage of conviction, strong sense of self, first impressions, have faith in people, have faith in yourself

3) sneak away, glorious, memory, ups and downs, for a night, break precedent, one-candle wish, as lucky as mine, I don't want anything more

【原文】

Extract 1

John Nash:
Thank you. I've always believed in numbers and the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a

lifetime of such pursuits, I ask, "What truly is logic? Who decides reason?"

My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.

I'm only here tonight because of you [his wife, Alicia].

You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons.
Thank you.

Extract 2:

Professor Stromwell:

I am, personally, very honored to introduce this year's class-elected speaker. After getting off a quite interesting start here at Harvard, she graduates today with an invitation to join one of Boston's most prestigious law firms. I am sure we are going to see great things from her. Ladies and Gentlemen: Elle Woods.
Elle Woods:

On our very first day at Harvard, a very wise Professor quoted Aristotle: "The law is reason free from passion.”Well, no offense to Aristotle, but in my three years at Harvard I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law, and of life. It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next step into the world, remembering that first impressions are not always correct. You must always have faith in people. And most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.
    Congratulations, class of 2004—we did it!

Extract 3:

William Parrish:

I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night! Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we've had our ups and downs. But we're all together. You're mine—for a night. And I'm going to break precedence and tell you my one-candle wish: that you would have a life as lucky as mine, where you can wake up one morning and say, "I don't want anything more."

Sixty-five years, don't they go by in a blink…

 

Task  5

【答案】

A.

Title: The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the Twenty-First Century Moral Landscape

Author: Anita Allen (Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania)

Description: A professional and personal look at how life in America is changing with an eye on this question: Dow we need new ethics in this new age?

B.

1) Where?—the business sector, politics, government, education, journalism, sports

What?—lying, cheating, fraud, plagiarism; violation of clear-cut rules

2) What?—options offered by science and technology

3) What?—not knowing how to deal with other people

  →underinvolvement in the political process, in our neighborhoods and in the community

【原文】

Joe Palca: Is behaving ethically getting more complicated in the early years of the 21st century? Is it more acceptable to lie, cheat or just bend the rules a little bit in order to succeed in our highly competitive world? Are the scandals involving Enron, Tyco and Martha Stewart the exceptions, or are they just the ones we know about? And what about the new problems brought on by science? If we could use genetics to make our children smarter, should we? Anita Allen has been grappling with questions like these. She is a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of a new book called The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the Twenty-First Century Moral Landscape. Her book is a professional and personal look at how life in America is changing with an eye on this question: Do we need new ethics in this new age? Thanks very much for joining us on the show today.

Prof. Allen: Good to be with you.

Joe Palca: So you say in your book that our ethical map used to be clear, or at least clearer. What do you mean by that?

Prof. Allen: Well, it used to be that you grow up and, you know, if you were a girl, you were probably going to be a mom, a teacher, a wife, learn how to cook and sew, and you had to simply learn how to master the roles set out for you with grace and poise and virtue. And if you were a guy, you had to learn how to take care of a family and mow the lawn, and so forth. But nowadays, we have a perplexing array of ethical problems that seem to be not adequately handled by turning to traditional values. And we have a lot of choices to make. And these choices that we have to make call upon us to really bend over backwards to figure out what to do.

Joe Palca: So you break these problems down basically into three distinct areas, or three distinct kinds of problems, that are caused by these changes. Can you tell us about them?

Prof. Allen: Sure. So I look out on the ethics scene and I see sort of three predominant features. The first one is massive ethical failure in just about every sector: the business sector, politics, government, education, journalism, sports. There's lying, cheating, fraud, plagiarism; violation of clear-cut rules. That's one huge area of concern. The second area of concern is the area of ethical novelty. And this is where, you know, science and technology are giving us all these options. We can use genetic testing; we can donate organs; we can become guinea pigs in experiments; we can eat meat or not eat meat because of, you know, radiation and genetic engineering. And all these new things require us to make choices that we didn't have to make before, and we're all suddenly feeling very perplexed and clueless. And then finally, the last big feature I focus on in the book is something I call complacent island syndrome. And what 1 mean by that label is there are a lot of us who just don't know how to deal with other people. We don't like other people who aren't like ourselves, we don't tolerate other groups. We don't care adequately about one another. And so this gets reflected in our underinvolvement in the political process, in our neighborhoods and, in general, in the community.

Task  6

【答案】

1) Because of the Internet, radio and television/24-hour news coverage.

2) She thinks there is more social equality (there are better racial equality laws, better gender equality laws; people are more concerned about the poor; they have more poverty programs, more social safety nets).

3) Congress announced in 1998 that there were record levels of youth crime and pregnancy and teen pregnancy and substance abuse.

4) Twelve suggestions on better ethics.

5) To take themselves more seriously, to realize that they have a unique capacity to figure out what's right and then to do it; to resist temptations, to accept blame and to learn from their mistakes; to be cleaner competitors; to nurture fair-minded youth; and to acknowledge interdependence.

6) She wants people to look for the hidden ethical issues.

【原文】

Joe Palca: Well, let’s take these one at a time because I think they’re all three very interesting areas to think about. But let’s talk about this concept of, you know, this lying and cheating. And you’re absolutely right. There seems to be no day that that passes where we don’t hear about some malfeasance of even some well-respected person. The question I have really, though, is: Is it worse? I mean, is it the fact that we have a 24-hour news cycle, that there's so much more investigative things that an example of malfeasance that might have taken place or a cheating scandal or fraud or something that took place in the hinterlands 20 or 30 years ago might be overlooked by the national media, now, you know, it's front page everywhere and the media covers it? I mean, is it really different, or are we just seeing more of it?

Prof. Alien: Well, my own view is that we're seeing more of it. I do think that in the past, as you point out, you could do something quite horrible and yet no one would know about it outside your immediate community. But now with the Internet, with radio and television, people know about what's going on all over. So things seem to be generally in a spiraling-down mode. But I do think in some ways things are better, because we do have more social equality. We have better racial equality laws, better gender equality laws. You know, in some ways, we're more concerned about the poor than we were in our great-grandparents' generation. We have more poverty programs, more social safety nets. So, in some ways, we're better. But there is this sense that things are really bad. And, you know, in 1998, Congress announced that there were record levels of youth crime and pregnancy and teen pregnancy and substance abuse, and sort of... saw this as the symbol of a great spiraling down. So while you might say that there are some things that are better, you might also say there are things that are a little worse.

Joe Polca: So one of the things, also, that I like about the book is at the end you've provided some...Well, they're not rules, but they're suggestions for a better ethics. Can you talk a little bit about what people should be doing?

Prof. Allen: Well, you know, I didn't want to try to rewrite the Ten Commandments, but it struck me that...

Joe Palca: No, they did a pretty good job with those, huh?

Prof. Allen: They did a pretty good—Moses did a pretty good job when he came down from the mountain. But I did want to offer people something concrete and kind of a take-away message, and so I have this Agenda for Better Ethics. It has 12 imperatives on it, and they arc intended to be directly responsive to our current context, yon know. So I urge people to, for example, take themselves more seriously, to realize that they have a unique capacity to figure out what's right and then to do it. I urge people to resist temptations, to accept blame and to learn from their mistakes. I urge people to be cleaner competitors. I think one of the reasons why we're so concerned about the upcoming presidential debates is that we're afraid that we won't see clean competition, that we'll see dirty competition. But I think being a cleaner competitor is a very important ethical goal for our times. I think not trying to outthink ethics is an important goal; that is to say, trusting that if you do follow the ethical rules, you won't end up in the poorhouse. You'll do okay in business, you'll do okay in school, you'll do okay in the Olympics, if you follow the rules. We need to nurture fair-minded youth—get kids to think about fairness and to behave fairly, to look for the hidden ethical issues that lay behind, you know. So I talk about cosmetic surgery in my book. A lot of people are quite comfortable getting breast jobs or nose jobs, but I raise the question, you know: Might there be some hidden ethical issues behind some of the choices we make that may actually have impacts on others or may say things about ourselves that we really don't intend? That's an important one. So most of them are things I talk about in the book. And I think that a couple of the rules that I suggest, like acknowledging interdependence, go directly to my last theme of the complacent island syndrome. I mean, I think that one reason to get out there and vote in November is because we are interdependent. We are dependent upon one mother for our political futures, and by not expressing our vote we're kind of saying, "Well, l don't think my preferences matter" or "I don't care enough about other people's lives in order to share my perspective with them."

Joe Palca: Okay, Anita Allen, we have to stop there. Thanks so much for joining us.

 

Task 7

【答案】

Ⅰ.

the best thing a man can do with his life, goal, objective

Ⅱ.

A. Enjoying refined pleasures, work an unfulfilling and unrewarding job

B. Earning a good name for yourself, a career in public service

C. Appreciating and understanding the universe

D. personal and financial independence

Ⅲ.

A. skills, knowledge

B. live well, fare well

Ⅳ.

A. the best thing in the world

B. politics, economics, wisdom

Ⅴ.

A. rational

B. Discipline, education

Ⅵ.

B. contemplation of god, the irrational part of the soul

Ⅶ.

entirely excellent activity, moderate good fortune

【原文】

Every young man asks the same question, "How can I make my life successful?" First one must define success, which Aristotle said is the best thing a man can do with his life. He also said that in order to obtain this success one must have a goal, or objective for their life. Success does not directly equal wealth, power, or having virtue without exercising that virtue. According to Aristotle, there are three reasons for living. One, enjoying refined pleasures, which is best defined as a life of pleasant amusement; however Aristotle says that no one in their right mind would choose that life. Immature fun, such as that which children enjoy, living in order to sleep, eat, have sex, or work an unfulfilling and unrewarding job are all paths of this type of life. The second reason to live is to earn a good name for yourself in your eyes and in the eyes of the community, such as a career in public service. Finally, to appreciate and understand the universe in which we find ourselves, such as a philosopher. Everyone will choose one of these three ways of life. However one must have personal and financial independence to do so.

In order to attain success you must use your skills and knowledge to pursue certain objectives for the sake of higher objective. For example, a human can either: accomplish one objective, such as running a mile, or accomplish one objective for a higher purpose, such as keeping in shape. The single highest objective in life is to live well and fare well, i.e. being successful. An objective in the highest degree is only worth pursuing for itself and never anything else; success is worth pursuing in its own right.

The idea of good is an area in which Aristotle did not agree with Plato. Plato said that good is the best thing in the world, but his idea was abstract. Aristotle felt that knowing what is good would help in discerning what goods to attempt to achieve. The goods that were relevant to Aristotle are politics, economics and wisdom, all three of which account for the "master skill."

The best ways to live is up to one's own nature, or in a rational way, by being a creature directed by rational soul. Living a well-lived life is the best possible "good" for a man; this is what it is to succeed as a human being, and living well means living virtuously. Living well means living one's life under the guidance of the virtues of the soul. Since success is a perfect and self-sufficient objective, it must include the whole of life and all the most important virtues. Success in life, the best possible good for man, is therefore living one's whole life in a rational way, under the guidance of the best virtues of the rational soul. Discipline and education foster virtuous activities which lead you to success.

When one does achieve success, Aristotle says, that we should praise men for the qualities, which help them achieve, but we should congratulate them for that achievement. In order to be successful one must have some good fortune, because it is hard to be happy if you are ugly, poor, fat, or if your offspring are a disappointment. However, this does not mean that good fortune gives one success or the opposite, just that good fortune is helpful. At the same time, too much good fortune can be harmful. The best amount of good fortune is one that "will most produce the contemplation of god and make us take notice of the irrational part of the soul as little as possible."

Aristotle's final definition of success is entirely excellent activity, together with moderate good fortune, throughout an entire life.

Task 8

【答案】

A.

1) From Alice in Wonderland(Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland).

2) They are dream goals, performance goals and daily goals.

3) His dream goal was to lose 20 kilos, his performance goal may have been to exercise at certain times of the day and limiting his diet to three meals a day, no chocolate bars, etc., and his daily goal was actually to do the exercises and stick to the diet.

4) His three current goals are to have a certain level of business income, to get to the next level of accreditation with the National Speaker’s Association, and to publish a book.

5) A goal is a dream with a thought out plan for actually achieving it.

6) Every week.

7) You can ask them for their support, and also the goal is no longer your secret, and becomes more important.

B.

1) close-minded, changes, fluctuate, focused

2) restrictive, floating

3) lose focus, happening, get in the road

4) stand up, fight

【原文】

E-Views: Tell me about your work in goal-setting?

Warwick: OK. I was bumbling through life, not really achieving what I wanted to achieve or knowing what I wanted to achieve. And then finally it dawned on me after I’d heard from nearly everybody else, that if I had set goals, if I set goals for myself that I would be more focused on achieving things. One of the key things that I read that really triggered this for me was a book called Alice in Wonderland. And the section that I refer to is when Alice is lost in the forest and she stumbles across the Cheshire Cat. And she says to the Cheshire Cat, “I’m lost. Which way should I go?” And the Cheshire Cat says “Where do you want to go?” And Alice says “Well, it doesn’t really matter, as long as I get somewhere.” And the Cheshire Cat says, “Well it doesn’t matter which way you go!” That’s what I found, for me, I wasn’t really going anywhere, and then finally, I decided that I needed to do something, and the big thing for me was, I was obese. And I was very concerned that I was going to be a 30-year-old heart attack victim. So what I did was got a group of friends around me, told them that I was concerned about it, and that I wanted to lose weight and increase my health. And when it came to goal setting, I’m really focused. There are three types of goals. There’s the dream goal, the performance goal and the daily goal. Now by that, when your dream goal is... For me, for example, I want to lose twenty kilos, so I’ll wake up and think, “yeah, gonna lose twenty kilos”. The performance goal is, okay, what do I have to do to lose twenty kilos. And that might be, I’ve got to exercise certain times in the day or do a half hour walking every day, or maybe it’s going to be I’m only going to eat three meals a day and no chocolate bars or whatever. And then there’s the daily goal which is actually doing that, and actually refraining from eating poor foods, etc. Now goal setting... There are some negative things when it comes to goal setting; if you set yourself a goal and you’re so focused on it that you can be close-minded to other things that happen. There may be some changes that happen in your life and you don’t fluctuate to that because you’re so focused on the goal. Many sporting people get very focused on goals, and if they focus on a certain time for an event, thinking that that time will win, if there is another time that’s faster. They’re focused on their time. And so that’s usually what happens cause they’re... The mind is so powerful that they meet the goal that they’re focused on. And other people don’t like goals because they find it restrictive, whatever... But I... I’m a very big one for goals because my personal experience is that I was just floating without them. So what I did and what I currently do is at any point in time have three major goals that I’m aiming for. At the moment I have three major goals and they are: to have a certain income level with my business, to have a certain level of accreditation within the National Speaker’s Association of Australia. I currently have the third highest level and I want to have the second highest level. And the final one is for me to have a published book. Now they’re the three goals that I have, and what I do is I think about those, basically, every day. I have an affirmation that I go through and think about those goals. Now they’re effectively as I said, my dream goals. There’s other levels of the goals and what I have to do to that, so for, for example, for my accreditation, whenever I do a presentation or do any work, I make sure I get a testimonial, a written letter saying how wonderful they thought I was, because that’s part of what I need to do to get that next level of accreditation. Also I need to go to a national conference, I need to do a few other things. So I’m working on those and I put those in my diary and I have time plans for them. The other things about goals is... frequently we hear people say that they need to be SMART which is an acronym for; they need to be specific, they need to be measurable, they need to be achievable, realistic, and timely. So if you have a goal, let’s say “Oh one day I’m going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.” And then five years later it’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s right, I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro”— it’s not really a goal, that’s more a dream. By having it as a goal it’s when are you going to climb it by, what process are you going to put into place. So it’s all about, bringing all your energies to focus on achieving your goals.

E-Views: Why is it that most people do so badly at reaching goals?

Warwick: A lot of it’s focus, they lose focus. Everybody’s life is busy. There is so much happening in everybody’s life that what happens is they might have a goal, and then something will get in the road of that. Maybe their goal might be they want to go on a holiday every year, and they put in their leave form with their boss, and their boss is like, “Oh now’s not a good time. We’ve got this such-and-such project on. Can you wait, you know, wait a month?” And then next month it’s, “Can you wait a month?” And so different things get in their road, and people don’t... in my experience, people don’t stand up for their goals. They don’t fight for them. They let other forces push them round a little bit. Also a lot of people don’t set goals. They think they do, but it’s either a dream, or it’s a very loose goal. So when it comes time to making a decision about an action, they need to take in their life; the goal is so far back in their mind that they don’t act in its best interests. Also because, people will sit down and go, “Oh, here’s my goals”, and forget all about them. By revisiting them every week is a good plan, they stay top of mind, they stay in your mind so you can make actions based on them. I mean, so many of us have had New Year’s resolutions where we say, “Right, this year I’m going to balabalabala!” Usually it’s lose weight or get fit or give up smoking or whatever. Come February, you’ve forgotten all about it, life goes on and it’s not as important any more to you.

E-Views: You said when you finally decided that you wanted to get serious about losing weight, that you gathered some close friends together. How does that fit into the process? Why was that important?

Warwick: It was important for me because I needed support. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I was at a size where, if I could have done it on my own, I mean I’d done so many diets; I would’ve done it years ago. I realized that there were going to be some tough times, and I’d need support from people to help me with issues I was facing, to when I felt like eating some food that I’d prefer not to, if I wanted a chocolate bar or something, if I could ring up a friend first and say, “at the moment I want to eat a chocolate bar. Tell me not to or just whatever.” They could give me support that I didn’t have at that time. Also it helps because I was able to share my problems with them, I could then also share my success with them and... I think also, with some of our goals, if we tell other people they’re no longer our secret. Frequently what I used to do was set a goal and say, “Right. I’m going to do this”, but not tell anyone, so when I never did it, well it didn’t really count. So by telling other people, “I really want to do this and I seek your help”, they could keep you honest I suppose.

Task  9

【原文】

When you get old in life, things get taken from you. That's part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life's this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small: one half a step too late, or too early, and you don't quite make it; one-half second too slow, too fast, you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch, because we know when add up all those inches that's going to make the fucking difference between winning and losing, between living and dying!