新編英語教程6 Unit 2

1、,Unit 2 The Fine Art of Putting Things Off,Appreciation of the movie Flipped Background Information/Director： Rob Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist. From the 1980s to present day, Reiner has been known as a director of successful Hollywood films. Some of

2、 these filmsThe Princess Bride, Stand by Me, and This Is Spinal Tap have achieved cult status. Reiner has stated that the film which will go down as his masterpiece is Stand by Me. The film is also his favorite film of his own work.,Reiner has gone on to direct other critically and commercially succ

3、essful films with his own company, Castle Rock Entertainment, such as When Harry Met Sally., Misery, and his most commercially successful work A Few Good Men.,One of Reiners most recent films, The Bucket List, was released in December 2007 and starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two termina

4、lly ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of tasks to accomplish before they die. Reiners latest film, Flipped, was released in 2010,In this movie, the director portraits six-year journey of a “relationship” between two neighborhood youngsters,1. This Is

5、Spinal Tap Actor, Director, Song- Writer (1984) 搖滾萬歲 2.The Sure Thing Director (1985) 犯賤情人 3. Stand by Me Director (1986) 伴我同行本片獲1987年金球獎最佳電影、最佳導(dǎo)演提名，1987年奧斯卡獎最佳編劇提名。 4. The Princess Bride Director (1987) 公主新娘 1988年奧斯卡最佳音樂獎；1987年多倫多國際電影節(jié)民選獎,Lets look at him as director:,5. When Harry Met Sally. Direc

6、tor (1989) 當(dāng)哈利碰上莎莉 影片以柏拉圖式感情的可能性（或稱不可能性）為主題，展現(xiàn)了都市男女的困惑。 6. Misery Director (1990) 危情十日（斯蒂芬金的小說改編） 7. A Few Good Men Director (1992) 好人寥寥或義海雄風(fēng)湯姆克魯斯 Tom Cruise；戴米摩爾Demi Moore ；杰克尼科爾森 Jack Nicholson 1993年奧斯卡最佳影片，最佳男配角，最佳剪輯，最佳音響四項提名,8. North Director (1994) 9. The American President Director (1995) 白宮夜未

7、眠 10. Ghosts of Mississippi Director (1996) 密西西比謀殺案 11. The Story of Us Director (1999) KISS情人布魯斯威利斯 Bruce Willis ； 米歇爾菲佛 Michelle Pfeiffer,12. Alex Juliannas / Julis father and mother; Julis twin brothers. Julis retarded uncle, Daniel; Julis girlfriend; And Sherry/ another girl who likes Bryce at s

8、chool Bryce; Bryces grandfather; Bryces father and mother; Bryces sister. Their neighbors: the lady who bought the eggs from Juli,2. Describe the relationship between the two main characters: Juli and Bryce,On the day Bryce moves into a vaguely rural suburb of an unnamed town, Juli flips over him. H

9、owever, the second-grade boy wants nothing to do with her. So Juli, who lives across the street, stalks Bryce for six years until junior high. This amounts to, as Bryces voice-over narration puts it, “half a decade of strategic avoidance and social discomfort.” But when Juli finds that Bryce is also

10、 a person who is less than the sum, she determines not to like him any more. At this time, Bryce finds that he always likes Juli. This is the story between Juli and Bryce.,3. Describe the two families in your own words from your own perspective:,Bryces mom and dad stand for superficial values and mi

11、sleading appearances. His dad is bitter and snide. But sadly, he must have traded his one-time artistic bent (saxophone playing) for bread-winner duties and middle-class social virtues. In Bryces family, only his grandfather reaches out to befriend with Julis family. He helps Juli tame her front yar

12、d and ill disguises his disdain for his son-in-laws pretensions.,Julies family is artistic and goodhearted. Dad paints landscapes, and Mom works part-time jobs so the family can funnel much of their money into maintaining Dads mentally disabled brother, Daniel, in a private-care facility. Twin broth

13、ers have musical talent.,What is Procrastination? Procrastination is putting off or avoiding doing something that must be done. It is natural to procrastinate occasionally. However, excessive procrastination can result in guilt feelings about not doing a task when it should be done. It can also caus

14、e anxiety since the task still needs to be done. Further, excessive procrastination can cause poor performance if the task is completed without sufficient time to do it well. In short, excessive procrastination can interfere with school and personal success.,Do you procrastinate?,Do you put things o

15、ff? Find yourself making excuses to get out of bothersome little duties? In short, are you guilty of that nasty habit of procrastination? Were all guilty of it from time to time, but when putting things off interferes with your life, theres cause for concern. Procrastination can cause problems at wo

16、rk or school, in your relationships, and with your health, among other things. Find out why you procrastinate.,Instructions of Procrastination Test Each procrastination question points to different but overlapping procrastination activities. Your answer is on a three point scale: not me, somewhat li

17、ke me, like me. Score zero for not me, one for somewhat like me, and two for like me. When you finish the test, total your score.,The Procrastination Test,Not me Somewhat like me Like me,1. Procrastination comes naturally to me. _ _ 2. I have responsibilities that Im not doing._ 3. I have plans that

18、 stay on the drawing board. _ _ _ 4. I sidestep uncomfortable priorities. _ _ _ 5. I tell myself that later is the time to begin. _ _ 6. I start things that I dont finish. _ _ _ 7. I have a habit of showing up late. _ _ _ 8. I delay acting to meet a deadline. _ _ 9. I find ways to extend deadlines.

19、_ 10. I come up with excuses to explain delays. _ _,11. I put off hard decisions. _ _ 12. When Im not sure, Ill avoid the situation. _ _ 13. I put off making a needed lifestyle change. _ _ 14. My pessimism causes delays. _ _ 15. My emotions affect what I do. _ _ 16. My intimate relationship is going

20、 nowhere. _ _ 17. I avoid what frustrates me. _ _ 18. I get side-tracked by conflicts. _ _ 19. My doubts and fears inhibit my actions. _ _ 20. When I feel anxious, Ill avoid what I fear. _ _,Interpretation Even when some statements seem similar, they wont have the same feel because they have differe

21、nt nuances. Study the subtlety. It says something about how you perceive situations or what you do as result of your perceptions. For example, item six suggests behavior procrastination. This is different from intrigue procrastination (item 18), or decision-making procrastination (item11).,Procrasti

22、nation ranges from an inconvenience, to a hindrance, to disabling. And the meaning of your total score is suggestive. If you have a zero total score, what are you doing wasting your time taking this test? 0-15: you need to pay attention to the items on which you always score “2”, because these are y

23、our procrastination tendencies or causes and they can bring inconvenience to your life; 15-30: you need to retrospect your life and try to improve what you can do about your procrastination behavior, because they have already become hindrance to your life; If you score 30 or more, you have come to t

24、he right blog site.,Suppose you mark most items two. Maybe youre too hard on yourself. However, dont despair. Instead of many different types of procrastination to address, what you likely have are many examples of some basic conditions for procrastination. For example, your procrastination may be a

25、 combination of (1) self-doubts and hesitation, and (2) tension sensitivity and discomfort dodging reactions. Progress in one area can cause improvements in the other. .,Overcoming Procrastination,Introduction William Knaus, a psychologist, estimated that 90% of college students procrastinate. Of th

26、ese students, 25% are chronic procrastinators and they are usually the ones who end up dropping out of college. What is Procrastination? Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. This can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt among st

27、udents. Procrastination has a high potential for painful consequences. It interferes with the academic and personal success of students.,Excessive Procrastination? Procrastination is putting off or avoiding doing something that must be done. It is natural to procrastinate occasionally. However, exce

28、ssive procrastination can result in guilt feelings about not doing a task when it should be done. It can also cause anxiety since the task still needs to be done. Further, excessive procrastination can cause poor performance if the task is completed without sufficient time to do it well. In short, e

29、xcessive procrastination can interfere with school and personal success.,Why do Students Procrastinate? 1.Poor Time Management. Procrastination means not managing time wisely. You may be uncertain of your priorities, goals and objectives. You may also be overwhelmed with the task. As a result, you k

30、eep putting off your academic assignments for a later date, or spending a great deal of time with your friends and social activities, or worrying about your upcoming examination, class project and papers rather than completing them.,2. Difficulty Concentrating. When you sit at your desk you find you

31、rself daydreaming, staring into space, looking at pictures of your boyfriend/girlfriend, etc., instead of doing the task. 3. Your environment is distracting and noisy. You keep running back and forth for equipment such as pencils, erasers, dictionary, etc. Your desk is cluttered and unorganized and

32、sometimes you sit/lay on your bed to study or do your assignments. You probably notice that all of the examples that you have just read promote time wasting and frustration.,4. Fear and Anxiety. You may be overwhelmed with the task and afraid of getting a failing grade. As a result, you spend a grea

33、t deal of time worrying about your upcoming exams, papers and projects, rather than completing them. 5.Negative Beliefs such as; I cannot succeed in anything and I lack the necessary skills to perform the task may allow you to stop yourself from getting work done.,6. Personal problems. For example,

34、financial difficulties, problems with your boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. 7. Finding the Task Boring. 8. Unrealistic Expectations and Perfectionism. You may believe that you MUST read everything ever written on a subject before you can begin to write your paper. You may think that you havent done the be

35、st you possibly could do, so its not good enough to hand in.,9. Fear of Failure. You may think that if you dont get an A, you are failure. Or that if you fail an exam, you, as a person, are a failure, rather than that you are a perfectly ok person who has failed an exam.,How Do I Know if I Procrasti

36、nate Excessively? You procrastinate excessively if you agree with five or more of the following statements: I often put off starting a task I find difficult I often give up on a task as soon as I start to find it difficult. I often wonder why I should be doing a task. I often have difficulty getting

37、 started on a task. I often try to do so many tasks at once that I cannot do any of them. I often put off a task in which I have little or no interest.,7. I often try to come up with reasons to do something other than a task I have to do. 8. I often ignore a task when I am not certain about how to s

38、tart it or complete it. 9. I often start a task but stop before completing it. 10. I often find myself thinking that if I ignore a task, it will go away. 11. I often cannot decide which of a number of tasks I should complete first. 12. I often find my mind wandering to things other than the task on

39、which I am trying to work.,How to Overcome Procrastination 1. Recognize self-defeating problems such as; fear and anxiety, difficulty concentrating, poor time management, indecisiveness and perfectionism. 2. Identify your own goals, strengths and weaknesses, values and priorities. 3. Compare your ac

40、tions with the values you feel you have. Are your values consistent with your actions? 4. Discipline yourself to use time wisely: Set priorities.,5. Study in small blocks instead of long time periods. For example, you will accomplish more if you study/work in 60 minute blocks and take frequent 10 mi

41、nute breaks in between, than if you study/work for 2-3 hours straight, with no breaks. Reward yourself after you complete a task. 6. Motivate yourself to study: Dwell on success, not on failure. 7. Try to study in small groups. 8. Break large assignments into small tasks. Keep a reminder schedule an

42、d checklist. 9. Set realistic goals.,10. Modify your environment: Eliminate or minimize noise/ distraction. Ensure adequate lighting. Have necessary equipment at hand. Dont waste time going back and forth to get things. Dont get too comfortable when studying. A desk and straight-backed chair is usua

43、lly best (a bed is no place to study). Be neat! Take a few minutes to straighten your desk. This can help to reduce day-dreaming.,Does procrastination have any advantages?,Do you ever postpone things, or just forget about them for a while, or tell yourself, Ill get to that later? Do you sometimes fe

44、el guilty about it? Well, its true that procrastination can be a bad habit, but there are times when it can be useful.,Procrastination When You Are UnsureSometimes procrastinating makes sense if you arent sure you should be doing something. If you havent started that business, for example, maybe you

45、r unconscious mind is saying you arent ready to do it. Look into the reasons for your procrastination, not to rationalize your lack of action, but to see if there really is a good reason to wait.,Procrastinate When You Know Its WrongThis is where we all need to learn better procrastination. Just put

46、 off eating that piece of cake until later. Wait a few more days to go to the casino, or to get together with that friend that always gets you into trouble. Anytime you are thinking about doing something you shouldnt be doing, just say, Ill get to that later.,The key to creative procrastination is t

47、o recognize which things you should and shouldnt do. By all means, learn to overcome the habit of procrastinating on good actions, but let yourself get into the habit of waiting to do harmful or time-wasting things.Of course its better to quit bad habits and actions, but this is really just an easie

48、r way to quit. Put off smoking that cigarette often enough, and youll be smoking less of them. Wait a couple days to go eat that fast food, and youre breaking the habit, one step at a time. Thats creative procrastination.,Lecture,Part I:,1. cool ones heels:,be forced to wait; be kept waiting,2. atte

49、st to:,serve as an evidence to affirm; to be proof of,3. apocalyptic:,Foreboding imminent disaster or final doom,4. proconsul:,an administration in a colony usually with wide powers 殖民地總督,5. ruminate:,go over in the mind repeatedly and often slowly;,6. nattering:,chattering; hence, noisy,7. echelon:

50、,rank, level,8. fortify:,encourage; support,9. reappraisal:,re-evaluation,10. academe:,the academic community; academics,11. shrink:,psychoanalyst or psychiatrist,12. subliminal:,Existing or functioning outside the area of conscious awareness,13. truism:,an undoubted or self-evident truth,14. mellow

51、 and marinate:,to mellow is to become ripe or fully developed, and to marinate is to steep (meat, fish) in a savory sauce to enrich its flavour; here, ripen and mature,Part II: Library work,Lord Chesterfield (4th earl) Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694-1773) was an English Statesman, author

52、 and orator. His long public career begun in 1715, including an ambassadorship to the Hague (海牙), a seat in Parliament, and a successful tenure (任期) as lord lieutenant of Ireland. His literary fame rests upon his letters, which are full of wit and worldly wisdom, to his illegitimate son, Philip Stan

53、hope. These letters were fist published in 1774 under the title Letters to His Son.,Johns, Samuel (1709-1784): English poet, critic, and man of letters, the literary dictator of England in the latter half of the eighteenth century and one of the most famous personalities of his time. He is best know

54、n for his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), which is in some respects an innovation in lexicography (詞典編撰學(xué)). He had the strongest influence of any of his contemporaries on the literary thought and style of the latter part of the eighteenth century.,Part III: Text Appreciation:,1. That the e

55、legant earl got around to marrying his sons mother and had a habit of keeping worthies like Dr. Johnson cooling their heels for hours in an anteroom attests to the fact even the most well-intentioned men have been postponers ever.,Paraphrase: In fact, this elegant earl never found the time to marry

56、his illegitimate sons mother, and he also had a bad habit of keeping people waiting for long hours in his anteroom, even such famous people like Dr. Johnson. And this proves that even a man like Lord Chesterfield, who would strongly advise us not to postpone, is capable of being a postponer himself.

57、,2. Moses pleaded a speech defect to rationalize his reluctance to deliver Jehovahs edict to Pharaoh. Hamlet, of course, raised procrastination to an art form.,Paraphrase: Moses used his slowness in speech as a justification for his unwillingness to pass Jehovahs order to Pharaoh. And through Hamlet

58、, Shakespeare made procrastination, hesitation, the major trait of Hamlet, the theme of his dramatic art.,摩西不愿想法老傳達(dá)耶和華的法令，便借口說自己語言有缺陷； 當(dāng)然哈姆雷特更是把拖延上升為一種藝術(shù)形式。,3. Yet for all the trouble procrastination may incur, delay can often inspire and revive a creative soul.,Paraphrase: In spite of the all the t

59、rouble delay may cause, in many cases, delay can often stimulate the imagination and creativity of an artist.,盡管拖延會帶來諸多不便，但拖延經(jīng)常可以激發(fā)和喚醒具有創(chuàng)新意識的靈魂。,4. There is a difference, of course, between chronic procrastination and purposeful postponement, particularly in the higher echelons of business.,Paraphrase: There is a difference, of course, between habitual and purposeful postponement, especially in the higher level of business.,譯：當(dāng)然，習(xí)慣性拖延和刻意延緩是有