Unit 5 Book 1
Detailed Reading
I. Difficult Sentences
1. He was a perfect Type A, a workaholic, a classic, they said to each other and shook their head — and thought for five or ten minutes about the way they lived. (Para. 2)
2. What is a perfect Type A?
3. (People exhibiting Type A behaviour tend to be impatient and highly time-conscious. Often as high-achieving workaholics, they feel incure about their social status and are extremely competitive and aggressive.)
4. He was, however, one of six vice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably — if the president died or retired soon enough — have moved to the top spot. (Para. 3)
5. What is the implied meaning of the ntence?
6. (He was one of the six vice-presidents of a large corporation and one of the three promising candidates who might succeed to the position of the president.)
7. He worked like the Important People. (Para. 4)
8. What can you infer from the ntence?
9. (He voluntarily worked overtime becau all the executives in the company considered themlves too important a group to be allowed to ea up.)
10. He had no outside “extracurricular interests,” unless, of cour, you think about a monthly golf game that way. To Phil, it was work. (Para. 4)
11. For what purpo did he play golf monthly?
12. (The monthly golf game offered him a good opportunity to talk or do business.)
13. He is survived by his wife, Helen, forty-eight years old, a good woman of no particular marketable skills, who worked in an office before marrying and mothering. (Para. 7)
14. Translate this ntence into Chine.
15. (他的遗孀海伦，四十八岁，一个好女人。但没有什么适合市场需求的技能，结婚生育之前曾在办公室工作。)
16. A company friend said, “I know how much you will miss him.” And she answered, “I already have.” (Para. 7)
17. Why did Phil’s wife say so?
18. (Being a workaholic, Phil spent little time at home before he died. His wife had misd him long before he died.)
19. The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high-school graduate who has spent the last couple of years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough odd jobs to stay in grass and food. (Para. 11)
20. What do we learn about Phil’s youngest son?
21. (His youngest son failed to go in for a college education and did no more than odd jobs to get enough money for marijuana and food.)
22. He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. (Para. 11)
23. Why did Phil’s youngest son try to “grab at his father”?
24. (The workaholic Phil never paid enough attention to the growth and education of his youngest son. His son longed for his love and care.)
25. You could have picked him out in a minute from a lineup. (Para. 14)
26. What can you infer from the ntence?
27. (Bad on the u of police lineups from which a victim identifies a criminal, this is ud metaphorically to emphasize how easy it is to identify Phil.)
28. So when he finally worked himlf to death, at precily 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning, n
o one was really surprid. (Para. 15)
29. Why does the author repeat “finally and precily” three times in the passage?
30. (The tone of this essay is bitter and sarcastic. It is achieved mainly by the choice of words and lection of details, which are otherwi considered unnecessary for the occasion.)
II. Words & Expressions
precily: adv.
1. exactly; just
- Planes fly daily over regular routes with timetable precily.
- Scientists do not yet know precily how incts can produce their toxic defensive chemicals without poisoning themlves.
- Since his own ideas were in flux, it is difficult to know precily where he stood.
- 每辆卡车装载的用品恰好是每个部队所需要的。(Every lorry indeed is packed with precily the articles which each unit will require.)
2. quite so
- — So you think it was a mistake?
— Precily.
acquaintance: n.
1. a relationship with someone you know, but who is not a clo friend
- I have a nodding acquaintance with German.
- Our mere acquaintance ripened into friendship.
- 我与他素昧平生。 (I have never made his acquaintance.)
- She recalled the past, trying to bring back to her memory incidents of their old acquainta
nce.
2. person whom one knows (less intimately than a friend)
- She is an old acquaintance of my sister.
- He has a wide circle of acquaintances.
Collocation:
make sb.’s acquaintance 结识某人
drop an acquaintance 断绝往来
have a casual acquaintance 半生不熟
