Unit One: Thinking as a Hobby

1. Thinking Hobby Unit One: Thinking as a Hobby

2. William Golding (1911-1993), a remarkable British novelist, is never likely to be remembered for his social portraiture, which is not the essence of his work. He was a writer trained in a grand metaphysical Christianity who could address questions of good and evil in a corrupted and Godless age.

3. Lord of the Flies (1954) • The novel was one of the great novels of the Fifties, yet in no obvious sense was it a Fifties novel; one reviewer would find in Golding ‘a sullen distaste for the contemporary’. The novel was an ironic rewriting of the Victorian boys’ book tradition. The original story was R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island (1858), the story of a highly resourceful group of British boys, led by Ralph Rover, who are shipwrecked on an isolated Pacific island, whose lives are threatened by savages but are rescued by a missionary.

4. Background • A good liberal arts education must include good training in logical and critical thinking. • You should play with ideas the way you play with balls. • Three grades:

5. Grade-three thinking: was no thinking at all, but a combination of ignorance, prejudice and hypocrisy. Most people belong to this category (according to the author). • Grade-two thinking: People can detect the contradictions of grade-three thinkers’ beliefs. They can see their ignorance, prejudice, hypocrisy and lack of logic, which gives them great delight and satisfies their ego.

6. Grade-two thinking had nothing constructive to offer. It destroys without the power to create. Therefore the satisfaction it brings the thinker is limited and does not last. • Grade-one thinking: People who set out to find the truth and get it.

7. TEXTORGANIZATION • P1 -p15 Prelude/ Introduction • P16-p24 Grade Three Thinking • P25-p29 Grade Two Thinking • P30-p35 Grade One Thinking

8. nothing but(p2): nothing except;only • His parents care nothing but his scores at school. • One was a lady wearing nothing but a bath towel.

9. Venus • In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love and beauty. 【罗马神话】 维纳斯：爱情和形体美的女神 In other cultures, she has a more sinister role particularly in Mayan mythology. • 金星 According to International Astronomical Union in 2006 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, how many planets are in the solar system?

12. The eight planets now recognized by the IAU are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. • Pluto was re-classified as a dwarf planet

13. lest (p2):for fear that; in order to make sure that sth. will not happen • He hide behind the curtain lest the professor (should) see him. • She turned pale when her son came out of the study lest he (should) have heard what she had said.

14. farther v. further • 1 Walk farther to see if you can find any flowers under the snow. • 2 After graduating from Fu Dan University with the bachelor degree, he went abroad to seek further study.

15. be in a position to do sth.:to be able to do sth. because you have the ability, power or money • I am not in the position to advise you on this matter because I do not know all the facts about it.

16. A naked man, muscular gentleman, who sat, looking down, with his chin on his fist and his elbow on his knee. • Rodin’s thinker

17. Auguste Rodin: a French sculptor. • His most famous works: • The Kiss • The thinker

18. A naked man, A learned professor, the wretched life • Our beloved country, his beloved girlfriend, beloved by all. • My aged parents, a man aged 33.

19. delinquent adj.&n. (p3) : (person, especially the young) doing wrong; failing to perform a duty • juvenile delinquent • delinquent children • the problem of juvenile delinquency

20. if anything(P4) :on the contrary • Your suggestion did not encourage him. It, if anything, discouraged him. • He is not known for his generosity. He is, if anything, quite miserly.

21. confront sb.with sth.(vt.) (p24):to oppose sb.or bring sb.to sth. • I confronted him with my suspicions, and he admitted everything.(对质) • The customers are confronted with a bewildering amount of choice. • We must confront the future with optimism.（勇敢面对）

22. get sth. to thought(p24) • I no longer dismiss lightly a mental process which for nine tenths of the population is the nearest they will ever get to thought. • Meaning: I no longer consider the way grade-three thinkers unimportant because they account for nine-tenths of the people and therefore have great power. Now I know that ignorance, prejudice and hypocrisy are very powerful enemies.

23. stampede v. &n.(Pa.25) The stampede of deer shows that danger is near. At the roar of the tiger, the gang of hunters stampeded. ~ sb into sth / doing sth hustle or frighten sb into rash action Don’t be ~d into accepting his bargain.

24. confer v. (p25) • 1 give or grant • The president of this university will confer bachelor degree on you after you complete your four-year study here. • 2 consult or discuss • He conferredwith his lawyer on/about the investment project.

25. Convert v. & n. • He had to convert his securities into cash so that he could pay off the debt for his son. • They have tried to convert him from atheism to Methodist.(他们试图让他从无神论改信卫理公会教。） • people converted,esp. to a different belief • His convert(n.) to socialism is not easy.

26. She claimed that the Bible was literally inspired (Pa.26) A true historical record; a factual account of God’s divine plan and prophecies. This is the belief of fundamentalists.

27. Flag (vi.)(p26): begin to lose enthusiasm and energy; to decline in interest • Argument flagged: argument became dull because Ruth did not know how to respond. • His horse is flagging. 疲乏 • The country’s economy continued to flag.衰退

28. … if we were counting heads, the Buddhists were the boys for my money.the boys: people with the same interest;for my money: I bet, I believe, in my opinion…if we were talking about the number of the people, I will bet on the Buddhists (because I believe they are greater in number)

29. Be given the third degree (p28) Be severely questioned or interrogated

30. Make for sb./sth. (p.29) 1 contribute to; tend towards 有助于，倾向于 Frequent exposure to idiomatic English, such as VOA makes for your study at university. 2 head for 走向，向某个方向移动 It is late. We’d better make for home. 3 charge at, rush towards 袭击，攻击，冲向 The bull suddenly made for the girl in red and everybody was shocked.

31. Few and far between (p30) • 相隔很久才发生的; 彼此相距很远；稀少 • Good novels are few and far between.

32. Idiomatic pairs of adj. • Black and blue • 遍体鳞伤 • Fair and square • 公正，正大光明 • Hale and hearty • 精神充沛,老当益壮

33. Aspire(p.30) vi. +for/to/afterbe filled with high ambition Do you aspire after knowledge? The more power they have, the more they aspire to it. English majors in non-English speaking countries aspire to abandon their native accents and speak pure English. What do you aspire for at present?

34. go too far/carry sth. too far:(p.33)go beyond the limits of what is considered reasonable You have gone too far in saying that you’d rather break with the family. Go far: 1(of person) be successful; do much He is clever and intelligent, and will go far. 2(of money) buy goods, services,etc. A hundred does not go so far as it did ten years ago.（现在一百元不如十年前那么顶用了。）

35. Parallelism:the method to express ideas of equal importance in the same or similar grammatical form. • Parallelism can be classified into five types, namely list and series, contrast, series plus contrast, choice, and comparison.He would stand before us, put his hands on his waist and take a tremendous breath.(series) p.19 • Through him I discovered that thought is often full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance and hypocrisy.(list) p. 23

36. . To hear people justify their habit of hunting foxes by claiming that the foxes liked it.To hear our Prime Minister talk about the great benefit we conferred on India by jailing people like Gandhi. To hear American politicians talk about peace and refuse to join the League of Nations. (list) p.25

37. Oral topic 1 • Marriage between college students should or should not be forbidden?

38. Oral topic 2 • Do you think Internet isolates people or shortens the distance between people? Justify your answer.

39. Oral topic 3 • Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with a group of students. Which do you prefer? Why?

40. Tongue-twister

41. TEM 4 • NOTE-WRITING • Write on answer sheet two a note of about 50-60 words based on the following situation:You have got to know that your classmate, Michael ,is organizing a weekend excursion for the class, and you are thinking of joining the trip. Write him a note expressing your interest in the excursion and asking for information on two details related to the excursion.Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness.

42. Spectacles • Patriotism • Vanish • Visitation • Writhe • Deficiency • Disinterested • exalted

43. Bulge • Ego • Flee • Gloom • Libertine • Monologue • Stampede • utterly