Lesson One Thinking as a Hobby

1. Lesson One Thinking as a Hobby

2. Picture Description Please describe the following pictures in detail and depict their symbolic meaning in your own words. Compare your answer with that of the author, and try to find their symbolic meaning in the boy’s (the author) eyes.

3. Picture Description

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6. “Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.” —Edward de Bono “Most people can’t think, most of the remainder won’t think, and the small fraction who do think mostly can’t do it very well.” —Robert Heinlein “I think, therefore I am.” —René Déscartes II. Quotations on Thinking

7. II. Quotations on Thinking “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” —Socrates “We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.” —Mao Zedong

8. II. Quotations on Thinking “Thinking is what a great many people think they are doing when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” —William James “Nurture your mind with great thoughts.” —Benjamin Disraeli “What is the hardest task in the world? To think.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. Theme Thinking is not just for professional thinkers like philosophers. It is something all educated people should enjoy doing, and it is considered one of the most precious qualities in young scholars for the healthy mental development.

10. Structure Part 1 (Paras. 1—24 ) about: Part 2 (Paras. 25—29) about: Part 3 (Paras. 30—35) about: How the subject of thinking was first brought up to the author and his understanding of the nature of “grade-three thinking” The author’s analysis of the nature of “grade-two thinking” The author’s understanding of the “grade-one thinking” and his desire for it

11. The summary of the characteristics of the three grades of thinking examples thinking characteristics Ignorance, hypocrisy, prejudice, self-satisfied, contradictions Mr. Houghton, nine tens of people Grade-three Detecting contradictions; do not stampede easily; lag behind, a withdrawal, destroy but not create Ruth, the author, (maybe) some acquaintances Grade-two To find out what is truth, based on a logical moral system far and few between, only in books Grade-one

12. Metonymy （转喻） It will lecture on disinterested purity while its neck is being remorselessly twisted toward a skirt. (Para. 23) Mr. Houghton girls In metonymy, an idea is evoked or named by means of term designating some associated notion. “It” stands for “thought” in grammar, but actually refers to Mr. Houghton, and it is vulgar to refer to a girl as a skirt. To be continued on the next page.

13. Rhetoric: • The burglar was in Sally’s mind all day long. (burglar=some idea of the burglar) • Democracy favors the vote rather than the bullet. (Vote=election, bullet=military solutions) • “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” (Mao Zedong refers it to the military revolution) • Bill Gatesis the king of operating systems worldwide.(Bill Gates = Microsoft) • The pen is mightier than the sword.(pen = writer; sword = fighter)

14. Synecdoche （提喻） Synecdoche can be included in metonymy, and it refers to the substitution of the part for the whole or of the whole for the part. • If we were counting heads, the Buddhists • were the boys for my money. (Para. 27) • (head = person) • There are two mouths to feed in my family. • (mouth = person) • God bless the hands that prepared this food. • (hand = person)

15. Irony （反语） Irony is the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. • Technically, it is about as proficient as most • businessmen’s golf, as honest as most politicians’ • intentions, or as coherent as most books that get • written. (Para. 23) • Mr. Houghton was given to high-minded • monologues about the good life, sexless and full of • duty. (Para. 20)

16. Hyperbole （夸张） It is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis. For instance. You could hear the wind, trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments. His body would reel with shock and his face go white at the unaccustomed visitation. He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there, useless for the rest of the morning. (Para. 19)

17. Simile （明喻） It makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic in common. To make the comparison, words like “as”, “as... as”, “as if” and “like” are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other. • They all came tumbling down like so many rotten • apples off a tree. (Para. 31) • Man enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the • same way on the side of a hill. (Para. 24)

18. Metaphor （暗喻） It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. • He seems to me ruled not by thought but by an • invisible and irresistible spring in his neck. (Para. 20) • It took the swimmer some distance from the shore • and left him there, out of his depth. (Para. 29)

19. Sentence Meaning But you would be wrong. I dropped my hobby and turned professional. (Para. 35) But you guessed wrong. I did not drop my hobby of thinking ( here, we can say he might give up the hobby of grade-two thinking). Instead I went further and became a professional thinker.

20. anguish Synonyms • v. (vi.) to feel or suffer anguish • n. agonizing physical or mental pain;torment • a. anguished • Examples: • She was in anguish over her missing child. • anguished cries suffering, agony, distress, grief, heartache, heartbreak, misery, pain sorrow, torment, torture

21. confer v.a. to bestow (e.g. an honor) 授予 b. to invest with (a characteristic) 赋予；使带有 c. (vi.) to meet in order to deliberate together or compare views 协商 Synonyms award • Examples: • The government conferred a medal on the hero. • Diplomas were conferred on members of graduating • class. • The engineers and technicians are still conferring on • the unexpected accident.

22. integrate • v.a. to make into a whole by bringing all parts • together; to unify • b. to join with something else; unite • disintegrate: to become reduced to components, • fragments, or particles • Examples: • Many suggestions are needed to integrate the plan. • The teachers are trying to integrate all the children into society. • The extracted case was so old it just disintegrated when a worker picked it up. Word Formation a. integrated 综合的, 完整的

23. few • no fewer than • not a few • quite a few (a good few) • the few • 有……之多，至少有 • 不少，相当多 • 好些，相当多 • 少数（有特殊要求的）人

24. out of one’s depth 水深过头；超越自己的能力；理解不了的 • Jack was not a good swimmer, add nearly • drowned when he drifted out beyond his depth. • I am out of my depth when it comes to natural • science. • in depth 广泛地；彻底地 • a study in depth of the poems • explore a subject in depth • an in-depth study

25. think well of 看轻 对某人印象好；看重某人 改变……念头；打消主意 看重；器重 重视 看轻；看不起 不放在眼里；轻视 轻视；认为无所谓；认为没什么了不起 not think much of think better of sb. think better of sth. think highly of think well of think little of think poorly of think nothing of

26. List: • Prefix—hind- • Suffix— -ette • Derivative: orate • Suffix— -fer

27. prefix hindquarters Prefix—hind- • located at or forming the back or rear • Examples: • hindquarters n. 后腿，臀部 • hindlimb (hind legs a.) n. (动物或昆虫的)后肢，下肢 • hindsight n.枪的表尺，后瞄准器；后见之明，事后聪明 • I now know with hindsight that I did him a • terrible wrong. 我事后才明白我完全冤枉了他。 • hindmost a. 最后面的， 最后部的

28. statuette suffix—-ette a.small; diminutive 表示小的，小型的 b.female 表示女性的 c.an imitation or inferior kind of cloth 表示仿造品或衣料质地较差的 a. kitchenette 小厨房 novelette 中或短篇 luncheonette 小餐馆 launderette 自动洗衣店 b. usherette 女引座员 drum majorette 鼓乐 bachelorette 未婚女子 c. Leatherette 人造革

29. oratory orate v. to speak in a formal, pompous manner oration n. a formal speech, especially one given on a ceremonial occasion; a speech delivered in a high-flown or pompous manner orator n. one who delivers an oration; an eloquent and skilled public speaker oratory n. the art of public speaking; eloquence or skill in making speeches to the public; public speaking marked by the use of overblown rhetoric

30. confer -fer：from Latin: ferre = to carry 携带 fertile 肥沃的，多产的 afferent 传入的 defer 推迟，延期，听从，服从 proffer 提供 efferent 传出的，输出管, infer 推断, offer , differ, refer , suffer , transfer, prefer