Unit 2

1. Unit 2 The New Singles

2. Work in pairs and discuss the following questions. • What occurs to you when you hear of a person being a spinster or a bachelor? • Are any changes taking place concerning the attitudes of Chinese young people towards marriage? • Which lifestyle would you prefer, singled or married? • What would your relatives and friends say if you were single at age 40, or at age 50?

3. Eleanor Rigby • A pop song character who is poor, miserable and pitiful. • Rice throwing: an old custom. In the old days people usually threw rice, which meant fertility, on the bride and groom as they left the church.

4. Eleanor Rigby Ah, look at all the lonely people Ah, look at all the lonely people Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been Lives in a dream Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door Who is it for All the lonely people Where do they all come from? All the lonely people Where do they all belong?

5. Eleanor Rigby • Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear No one comes near Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there What does he care All the lonely people Where do they all come from? All the lonely people Where do they all belong?

6. Eleanor Rigby • Ah, look at all the lonely people Ah, look at all the lonely people Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried along with her name Nobody came Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave No one was saved All the lonely people Where do they all come from? All the lonely people Where do they all belong?

7. Plot Summary for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

8. Plot Summary for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery • In 1967, after burning most of his henchmen, Dr. Evil sets a trap for Austin Powers, but freezes himself so Austin won't catch him. Austin then volunteers to be frozen in case Dr. Evil shows up again. 30 years later, Dr. Evil wakes up in Nevada and steals a nuclear weapon and holds the world hostage for 1 million dollars. Sorry, 100 billion dollars. Austin is woken up to stop Dr. Evil but gets Vanessa Kensington, his ex-partner's daughter and goes to Vegas to look for Evil, but finds out there is no longer any free love in the 90's, or Swinging.

9. Lava lamp

10. Lava lamp • When turned off and cold, the lava is a hard lump at the bottom of the glass container and can barely be seen. • The turned on light bulb heats both the element and the lava. • Lava expands with heat, becomes less dense than the water, and rises to the top. Away from the heat, the lava cools and becomes denser than the water and falls.

11. Lava lamp • The lava at the bottom reheats and begins to rise all over again and as long as the lamp is on, the lava keeps flowing in pleasing up-and-down waves. • Initially lamps require a warm-up period of about 30 minutes to melt the lava before going into full motion

12. Plot Summary for Bridget Jones's Diary • Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) is an average woman struggling against her age, her weight, her job, her lack of a man, and her many imperfections. As a New Year's Resolution, Bridget decides to take control of her life, starting by keeping a diary in which she will always tell the complete truth. The fireworks begin when her charming though disreputable boss (Hugh Grant) takes an interest in the quirky Miss Jones and the ups and downs of their ill-fated relationship prove hilarious and touching at once. Thrown into the mix are Bridget's band of slightly eccentric friends and a rather disagreeable acquaintance (Colin Firth) who Bridget cannot seem to stop running into or help finding quietly attractive.

13. Those days are gone. In the place of withered spinsters and bachelors are people like Elizabeth de Kergorlay, a 29-year-old Parisian banker who views her independence and her own apartment as the spoils of professional success. Scooting around Paris in her Golf GTI, one hand on the wheel and the other clutching her cell phone, de Ker­gorlay pauses between calls to rave about life alone. “I’m not antisocial,” she says. “I love people. But living alone gives me the time and space for self-reflection. I’ve got the choice and the privacy to grow as a human being.”

14. The spoils of victory included mounds of treasure and armor. as the spoils of: as the result of 战利品包括成堆的珍宝和盔甲。 After the coalition victory, the difficulty was to divide the spoils equally among the victorious ministers. 联合成功后，如何在胜利的部长们之间均分权力成了困难所在。

15. Describe Elizabeth de Kergorlay.

16. Para. 3 • Those days are gone. In the place of withered spinsters and bachelors are people like Elizabeth de Kergorlay, a 29-year-old Parisian banker who views her independence and her own apartment as the spoils of professional success. Scooting around Paris in her Golf GTI, one hand on the wheel and the other clutching her cell phone, de Ker­gorlay pauses between calls to rave about life alone. “I’m not antisocial,” she says. “I love people. But living alone gives me the time and space for self-reflection. I’ve got the choice and the privacy to grow as a human being.”

17. As the sages would say, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. • What does “we are all ultimately alone” mean?

18. sage / saint / God / god

19. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical meditations, but a fact of Europe’s new economic landscape • The book is a meditation on the morality of art. 这本书深刻思考了艺术的道德性 meditation

20. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyles, observes French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann, is part of the “irresistible momentum of individualism” over the last century. In an attempt to give new momentum to their plans, the committee set a date for starting detailed discussions. 为了进一步推动他们的计划，委员会位开始具体讨论制定了日期。 The project gained momentum when your fund was added. 你的资金加入后，项目注入了新的动力。

21. Para. 4 • In Germany this year, 56-year-old divorcee Bernd Klosterfelde produced a CD called “Alone No More.” Featuring 15 tracks of household noises with titles like “Nothing on TV; At Least the Chips Are Good” and “The Fridge Is Finally Full Again,”it promises people who live alone “62 minutes of togetherness.” • How do you understand “togetherness”?

22. Para. 5 • Europe’s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today’s tech-savvyworkers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. • How do you understand “a free market in love”?

23. Para. 6: Replace the words with your own Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage — twenty-something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a hefty proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. “The Swedish word for someone living alone used to be ensam, which had connotations of being lonely,” notes Eva Sandsteadt, author of “Living Alone in Sweden.”“It was conceived as a negative—dark and cold, while be­ing together suggested warmth and light. But then along came the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.”

24. professionals senior citizens pensioners hefty crop high earners connotations conceived people with good education oldpeople the retired large group people who make big money implication regarded

25. Para. 8 • Parisian banker de Kergorlay’s apartment allows her the luxury of being able to “read, cook, write and entertain without having to make compromises.” • What does “make compromises” mean?

26. Para. 10: Replace these words with your own. • Millions of singles yearning for escape zones or solitude are straining Europe’s city housing market. Over the next 15 years, the British population is set to decline, but the number of houses will rise by 25 percent — an increase largely accounted for by single people. Southeastern England is undergoing a major building boom: the British government has authorized the construction of 860,000 new homes, mostly for the middle classes. Real-estate brokers note a rise in the number of young singles who work mad hours and treat their homes like dorms.

27. yearning accounted for boom real-estate brokers mad hours longing caused development people who sell houses bigbuildings

28. Para. 10: Replace these words with your own. • In London, luxury complexes with tiny flats, gyms and easy access to urban pleasures are springing up for young and driven professionals. Single-person households promote gentrification: when singles move in­to the neighborhood, say geographers, latte bars, gyms and restaurants are sure to fol­low, and local music, theater and art galleries thrive. “Singles are a real benefit to French cultural life,” says Olivier Donna, of the French Ministry of Culture and Communications. “Without them, you are left with couples and families who prefer to stay at home and watch TV.”

29. complexes pleasures driven thrive big buildings entertainments busy develop

30. Para. 12 • For some young urbanites, renting The Matrixand reaching for a lager is a much ­needed escape — particularly for those in New Economy careers like media, advertising or information technology. “My whole job is communicating,” says Katherine Ed­wards, whose job as public-affairs manager for the British supermarket chain Tesco takes her out to parties and dinners a couple of times a week. “The last thing I want to do when I come home is communicate.” For Richard Moore, managing director of a sport-promotions company, his 1870s south London house is a refuge from work. The peace and quiet is such a luxury, says Moore, that “I’ll live alone until I meet the girl I’m going to marry.”

31. What does it mean? • The last thing I want to do when I come home is communicate. What I don’t want to do when I come home is communicate. Examples: He is the last person I want to see. Crab is the last sea food I would choose.

32. Para. 13 Married types who have bickered once too often about toothpaste caps or dust bunnies are opting to live apart in peace rather than together in stress. Examples: A mistake in such a test is often one too many. I found myself with one yuan too few when I boarded the bus.

33. Para. 14 A bowl believed to have been used by Jesus Christ at the meal before his death. Some of his blood is believed to have been collected in it and it therefore became a holy thing which many people looked for. The holy grail is often used figuratively for the thing which is most wanted. • the holy grail for advertisers was the couple with 2.3 children. Jenny will seize he degree like a holy grail when her name is called at this morning’s Arts Faculty Graduation Ceremony.

34. King Arthur and the Round Table Knights

35. Para. 15 • bring you aspirin and coffee when you’re hung over hang over: [美]残剩物; 遗留物; [俚]宿醉(因酒喝多引起头痛等) This wine is said to have weaker hang-over than others.

36. Para. 17 Rewrite this sentence into the pattern “ It looks like…” • the feel is less that of an old person’s home than a college dorm, It looks more like a college form and an old person’s home. Rewrite the following sentences with the pattern in the text. The shopping mall is more like a park than a store. Xiamen Marathon is more like a carnival than a competition.

37. 当今都市较高贵的居住区中有群被人们称作单身族的人，他们通常是些有技术的专业人员，既年轻、富有，又独立选择自己的生活方式。近年来这类单身族的人数增长引人注目。他们中有些人或许是为了追求事业而未把婚姻列入自己的议事日程中，有些人或许是沉溺在工作、旅游、娱乐、健身或交友等活动中，总之他们保持单身的原因不尽相同。他们中80％以上的人并没有摈弃传统的结婚价值观，并表示希望结婚或将来要结婚。但在找到合适的人之前，他们有耐心等待，并对现在的单身生活满意。当今都市较高贵的居住区中有群被人们称作单身族的人，他们通常是些有技术的专业人员，既年轻、富有，又独立选择自己的生活方式。近年来这类单身族的人数增长引人注目。他们中有些人或许是为了追求事业而未把婚姻列入自己的议事日程中，有些人或许是沉溺在工作、旅游、娱乐、健身或交友等活动中，总之他们保持单身的原因不尽相同。他们中80％以上的人并没有摈弃传统的结婚价值观，并表示希望结婚或将来要结婚。但在找到合适的人之前，他们有耐心等待，并对现在的单身生活满意。

38. Nowadays in the city’s tonier residential districts there are people named as the singles, who are usually young, rich and tech-savvy professionals and choose independently their own lifestyles. The number of singles has increased dramatically over the recent years. The reasons of remaining single are various: some may be busy exploring careers without putting their marriage into the agenda, some may indulge in their jobs, travel, entertainment, physical fitness or friendship. More than 80% of them have not abandoned the value of marriage, and they say they aspire to marry or they want to be married someday, but they are patient and feel content being single until they meet the right person.

39. rave heterosexual twenty-something mainstay fusion meditation embrace mandatory foster holy grail The challenge for the future lies in ______ conditions in cities that will be favorable to economic growth. fostering The old lady ______ to the police detective about her grandchildren for about an hour. raved Gene therapy—the actual correction or replacement of defective gene sequences in the embryo or the adult—is the _________ of genetic medicine. holy grail

40. rave heterosexual twenty-something mainstay fusion meditation embrace mandatory foster holy grail Through genetic engineering, will scientists be tampering with the genetic diversity that has been the __________ of human survival in the past? mainstay A news release by the Chinese Ministry of Personnel printed in a few leading newspapers and on news websites caught the attention of thousands of ________________ in October. twenty-something

41. rave heterosexual twenty-something mainstay fusion meditation embrace mandatory foster holy grail For many reasons, the vast majority of _______________ still prefer the “old-fashioned” sexual way of producing children. No other method better expresses the loving union of a man and a woman seeking to make a baby. heterosexuals It is absolutely __________ that every driver of a vehicle must pass a driver’s license test. mandatory

42. rave heterosexual twenty-something mainstay fusion meditation embrace mandatory foster holy grail In today’s lightning-speed world many singles are ___________ the newest trend in relationships—speed dating—to size up a potential love interest. embracing meditating As a young man, he spent a lot of time __________ upon the purpose of life. She really enjoyed the film because it was a ______ of history and contemporary events. fusion