Unit ONE HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR STUDY HABITS

Unit ONE HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR STUDY HABITS    …I didn’t want to be considered for an administrative position: …I didn’t want to be a candidate for an administrative position, such as the president or vice-president of a university, the dean of a college, the chairman of a department, etc. He was puzzled that I did not want…: money and power.:  And choose teaching as their life-long career. Here, Mr. Beidler, Professor of English at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., who was named 1983’s Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, gives his reasons why he teaches.  2. warm-up activity  In this article, Mr. Beidler gives his reasons for choosing teaching as his career. Ask the students to go over the text very quickly and find out those reasons.  The following is a suggested list for the teacher’s reference.  The pace of the academic calendar  Variety( teaching is built on change)  The freedom to be his own boss( the freedom to do things his own way)  The opportunity to keep on learning  The opportunity to share with his students the happiness of their success  The opportunity to teach his students to play their roles in the real world  The joy of seeing his students grow and change in front of his eyes  The power to help his students grow and change  A university administrator, as a rule, earns more money and has more power than an average professor and most Americans would be only too pleased to get a “step up” towards these goals. That’s why the author’s friend was puzzled that he would reject such a “promotion”.  Puzzle: make unable to answer, solve or understand; fill with doubt and confusion  Examples:  ---We were all puzzled by his recent behavior.  ---I’m puzzled why he declined our invitation.  ---The woman’s illness puzzled the doctor; he couldn’t find the cause.     Certainly I don’t teach because teaching is easy for me.: Certainly I teach not because teaching is easy for me. Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted to earn my living: mechanic, carpenter, and writer.: I have tried many other ways to make a living. I have worked as mechanic, a carpenter, a writer, and now I am working as a teacher. Of all these professions, teaching is the most difficult for me.        For me, teaching is a red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinkingstomach profession.: Teaching is a profession that makes my eyes red for lack of sleep, my palms sweaty because of nervousness and my stomach sinking because I often feel so disappointed with my lectures. Here, “stomach” means “spirit, heart”. A person’s stomach sinks when he is upset, disappointed. Profession: job that needs formal qualifications after training, e.g. law medicine, teaching, acting. Examples: ---As a sophomore, I still don’t know what profession would suit me best. ---Jeanne has decided on law as her profession. She wants to become a civil rights lawyer and help the poor.          Stay up: not go to bed Examples: ---He stays up reading and writing until midnight every day. ---I’ll be home late, but please don’t stay up for me. Sure that I will be found out for the fool that I am: For I’m sure that the students will find out what I really am: a fool Convince: cause (sb.) to believe; persuade (sb.) Examples: ---It took me a long time to convince him that he could learn English as well as anyone else in the class.  ---The Union officer was convinced (sure) that Aunt Bettie was not going to report his presence to the Confederate army.  …because I have knowledge I feel compelled to share:  …because I have knowledge (that) I feel compelled to share (with my students).  Examples:  ---Having found himself out of gas, the driver was compelled to walk several miles to the nearest village.  He was compelled by illness to drop out of school.  Sometimes I am amazed that… in class!  Here, the author claims, with mock modesty, that he is sometimes surprised to see his students bothering to take notes his lessons.   I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar. “The academic calendar” means “the calendar used in an institution of education” – a list of important events during the school year, such as when school terms begin, when exams are administered and when commencement is held.  In the United States, all teachers are eligible for three vacations with pay: the summer vacation (usu. from mid-May to the end of August), the winter vacation (about 4 weeks around Christmas) and the spring break (a week in mid-March). During these vacations, they can do whatever they want to do whether it is relevant to their profession or not. And many teachers take advantage of the vacations to write or to do some research work.      Opportunity: favorable occasion or chance Examples: ---Do come to our party tomorrow evening! It will give you an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people. ---This conference offers us a good opportunity to learn from one another. When the material is the same. I change – and, more important, my students change.  Even if I use the same textbook I have used before, I always teach a different way as I may have new ideas about the subject. And above all, each year I have new students who are different from the ones I have taught before and therefore I have to change my way of teaching accordingly to meet their needs.          To learn one’s lesson (s): To learn something useful from the mistake (s) one has made Examples: ---He had learned his lesson, and wouldn’t repeat the mistake. ---I have learned my lesson from the accident and won’t drive too fast again. Stimulate: excite (the body or mind); cause to become more active, energetic, etc. Examples: ---The teacher’s praise stimulated Tom to study even harder. ---Exercise stimulates the circulation of the blood.        Freshman: a student in the first year of college Sophomore: a student in the second year of college Junior: a student in the third year of college Senior: a student in the fourth year of college Failure: lack of success; failing; instance of failing Examples: ---Without your timely help, our plans would have ended in failure.  ---We had many failures before finding the right method of teaching.  To ask questions that students must struggle to answer:  To ask difficult, thought-provoking questions which the students must think hard about before they can answer.  The world is full of right answers to bad questions:  Here “bad questions” means “meaningless questions or simple questions” that everyone can answer easily.   I teach because I enjoy finding ways of getting myself and my students out of the ivory to tower and into the real world. Institutions like university and colleges are often referred to as “ivory towers” where professors and their students study only book knowledge and have little to don with the practice of everyday life. What the author tries to do is to help the students go out of the ivory tower and into the real world, learn to solve practical problems and prepare themselves for the life they will encounter after graduation.         Loan: something lent, especially a sum of money Examples: ---It’s more and more difficult to get a bank loan now. ---The World Bank has promised to make a further loan of $ 2 million for this project. Distribute: divide among several or many, give or send out Examples: ---People there often complain that wealth is not evenly distributed in their society. ---New information is quickly distributed to millions of people all over the world by means of the Internet.         Variety: state of varying; a number of different kinds Examples: ---My job lacks variety; I am doing the same things all the time. ---The Shanghai Museum has a wide variety of objects on display. Challenge: something new and exciting or difficult which requires great effort and determination Examples: ---His new job as the department chairman is a real challenge to him. ---This job is dull; I want one with more challenge.  ---This job is dull; I want one with more challenge.  Leave out: fail to mention or include  Examples:  ---You left out an important detail in your report of the accident.  ---Be sure not to leave anyone out in your invitation.  Who labored at her dissertation:  Who worked very hard on her dissertation.  Learned journals:  Periodicals presenting research papers in a particular academic field         …with an occasional nudge from me: …with, now and then, some encouragement (or suggestions) from me occasional: happening from time to time; not regular Examples: ---Your writing is quite good except for a few occasional mistakes in spelling or grammar. ---In these islands there are occasional earthquakes, but not very violent ones. But I was there when…: But what was really rewarding was to be there when…       …who started as an engineering student, then switched to English: …who began as an engineering student and then changed his subject to English switch (to): turn from one subject or activity to another Examples: ---In Japan, Lu Xun started as a medical student but then switched to literature. ---As the demand for tape-recorders has fallen off the factory has switched to the production of color TV sets.       …because he decided he liked people better than things: A student of English studies mainly literature, which reflects man’s life and thought, while an engineering student concerns himself mainly with the making of things. Urban: of a town or city Examples: ---I prefer to work in an urban environment, where there are good libraries and cultural facilities. ---In the past ten years or so, China’s urban population has been increasing very rapidly.    a civil rights lawyer: Civil rights, in its broadest sense, means the rights of persons to engage in such varied activities as holding property, making contracts, expressing themselves freely, and participating in government and politics. In common usage, the term “civil rights” has come to mean the rights such as race, color, sex, or national origin. In the U.S. a variety of state and federal civil rights laws have been passed to protect persons against discrimination by individuals and organizations, as well as by the government. If a U.S. citizen is denied these rights in any way, he has the right to take the matter to court, and those lawyers who devote all their time to “civil rights” cases are called civil rights lawyers.        A cleaning woman who knows more by intuition than most of us learn by analysis: A cleaning woman whose intuition enables her to make more correct judgments than most of us can do with all that we have learned by analysis. Intuition: ability to understand or realize sth. Without reasoning Examples: ---Intuition told me that something was wrong with our plan/ ---The old hunter knew by intuition that the deer would soon be there. Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe.  According to the Bible, man was created by God out of clay. When God breathed the breath of life into the clay, it became alive and the creation of man was completed. Here the author compares the job of a teacher to the work of God. He implies that the teacher helps the student become a real man or woman.  a “promotion” out of teaching:  a “promotion” from a teaching position to an administrative position      What is the point of being rich?: What’s the use of being rich? Point: use; purpose Examples: ---What’s the point of / in talking to her again? She’s already made up her mind. ---Now that Father has made the final decision, there is no point in arguing further.     I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to point out a pathway.: I have the power to give my students a gentle push in the right direction, to arouse their interest and curiosity, to recommend good books, to point out the way to greater achievements. What other power matters? : What other power is important to me? That is to say, I need no other power apart from the power to nudge, to fan sparks…         …that rare student who walks into a teacher’s life and begins to breathe: …that exceptionally good student who becomes part of a teacher’s life and begins to grow and change in front of him. Rare: unusual; uncommon; unusually good Examples: ---On the rare occasions when he spoke, his voice sounded very nervous. ---One of my uncle’s hobbies is collecting rare books. Perhaps love is the wrong word; magic might be better. : Perhaps the word “love” is not sufficient to describe what teaching offers; it might be better to use the word “magic”.    …being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself catching my breath with them: …when I see that my students are beginning to grow and change in front of me, I from time to time find myself growing and changing with them too, as if new life were being breathed into my body. The more frequent use of “to catch one’s breath” is to mean “to stop breathing for an instant with surprise and delight”. The author plays with both ideas at the same time.  Translation 16 1. Many American students apply for government loans to pay for their education /tuition. 2. Besides reading materials, the use of films and videotapes can stimulate students’ interest in a subject. 3. The attorney/lawyer tried to convince the jury of his client’s innocence. 4. Medical scientists have been working on/at finding a cure for AIDS since the early 1980s. 5. I have sent off my resume to several corporation, but haven’t yet received a reply. 6. Many people wish for an opportunity to study abroad; only a few, however, have this chance. 7. We came to the meeting full of expectation, yet we left very disappointed. 8. Although the professor had) explained this point in great detail, many students still failed to understand.