四、练习答案

Text I

Text Comprehension

I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s tone of writing.

B. 这篇文章主要以讽刺的语气叙事。

II. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.

1．T

2．T

3．F

4．F

5．F

III. Answer the following questions.

1．The repetition of the precise time of his death helps set the sardonic tone of the essay.

2．Because they knew little about his father.

3．Rear to Paragraphs 9-12. Successful as he was as a corporate man, Phil was a failing father. His eldest son knew so little about him that he had to research his father by asking the neighbors what he was like. His daughter had nothing to say when staying along with him. And his younger son, also his favorite, remarked bitterly that his father and he only boarded at the home. The relationship between Phil and his children was distant and estranged.

4．It implies the story of Phil sees no end: He will soon be replaced by an equally hardworking guy who may follow in his steps and repeat the same tragedy. Bosses are always on the lookout for workaholics and they are never in short supply. The ending is full of sarcasm and bitterness.

5．Open for discussion.

IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences.

1．He had dedicated all his time to work and had no hobby at all except that he played a golf game once a month which can’t be taken as a hobby anyway.

2．Their daughter said that when they were still small her father had become a company man and her mother had given up every attempt to keep him at home.

Structural Analysis

By mixing some unusually short sentences with the long ones, the author varies their weight and achieves emphasis and impact. For example, in Paragraph 3, the short sentence “Phil knew that.” follows two long sentences. This helps avoid monotony in narration and emphasizes Phil’s awareness of the cutthroat competition.

Rhetorical features of the text

1．In the day and a half before the funeral, he (his “dearly beloved” eldest of the “dearly beloved” children went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was like. (Paragraph 9)

2．She (his second child) lives near her mother and they are close, but whenever she was along with her father, in a car driving somewhere, they had nothing to say to each other. (Paragraph 10)

3．He (the youngest) was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. (Paragraph 11)

Vocabulary

I. Explain the underlined part in each sentence in your own words.

1．died from self-motivated overwork

2．most likely the presidency of the company; the highest position in the company

3．with no specific skills wanted by employers

4．trying to discover facts about his father; collecting the neighbors’ memories of his father

5．a person suited by nature for heart-attack

II. Fill in the blank in each sentence with a word taken from the box in appropriate form.

1．survived

2．grabs

3．discreetly

4．decreased, obituary

5．conceivably

6．board

7．classics

8．executives

III. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.

1．widowed

2．nerves

3．precisionist

4．competitiveness

5．execution

6．presided

7．marital

8．accompanied

IV. Fill in the blank in each sentence with an appropriate phrasal verb or collocation taken from the text.

1．died of

2．stay up

3．cares for

4．straightened out

5．picked out

6．given up

7．grabbed at

8．considered for

V. Give a synonym or an antonym of the word underlined in each sentence in the sense it is used.

1．exactly

2．immediately

3．slacker / idler / loafer

4．outlived

5．disconcerted / abashed

6．living

7．underweight / slim

8．queue

VI. Explain the underlined phrasal verbs in your own words.

1．disappointed

2．wait

3．firmly demanded

4．read

5．meant

6．entered cheerfully

7．intensifies gradually

8．became extinct

Grammar

I. Put the verbs in tile brackets into the correct form: the present perfect or the present perfect progressive.

1．have been playing / have played

2．has been putting / has put

3．have pulled; haven’t touched

4．have been waiting; have waited

5．have picked; have grown / have been growing; have never had

6．has been getting / has got; has been rising / has risen; has come

7．has been; has been looking; hasn’t found

8．has failed; has got

II. Choose “a” or “b” to end each sentence as you see fit.

1．a

2．b

3．b

4．b

5．a

6．a

7．b

8．b

III. Complete the following dialogue with the proper forms of the verbs given.

A: have been waiting for, have you been doing

B: have been shopping, have bought

A: met, was waiting

B: is, speaks

A: has he been learning

A: did you say

B: has been studying, was

B: have you gone

A: are saying

B: isn’t, have been walking

IV. Correct the errors, where found, in the following sentences.

1．has broken

2．has been winning

3．correct

4．has joined

5．have known

6．correct

7．was looking

8．has been walking

V. Choose the right word or expression to connect the two sentences.

1．Even so

2．yet

3．However

4．Nevertheless

5．For example

6．In contrast

7．However

8．also

VI. Make sentences of your own after the sentences listed below, keeping the italicized part, in your sentences.

1．The man looked at the beast in the eye and it turned away without hurting him.

If I don’t keep my promise, I won’t be able to look him in the eye.

I couldn’t look my mother in the eye afterwards, knowing that I had lost all that money.

2．I go to the theatre whenever I get the chance.

She told me to come back whenever l want to.

Whenever I go travelling, I always make sure that I don’t take any superfluous luggage with me.

Translation

I. Translate the following sentences into Chinese.

1．当然，就像你想象中的那样，他每月打一次高尔夫球，他没有其他的爱好。

2．“想了他这么多年了”，她如此在乎的这个男人，必须放弃她。

3．他是唯一一个能够抓住父亲的人，尝试把父亲留在家里。

4．在葬礼上，60岁的总裁安慰48岁的遗孀说，这位51岁的死者对公司的贡献巨大，没有人可以替代他的位置。

II. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words or phrases given in brackets.

1．My immediate boas is a typical workaholic, for he works for over ten hours each day all the year round.

2．The principal attaches much importance to extracurricular activities and he believes that they will help to cultivate students’ tremendous interest in the external world.

3．He always grabs a shower, a sandwich and then a taxi to go to work every Monday morning.

4．Since you are leaving the company, you should straighten out the accounts within the week.

5．He often stays up late at night in order to finish writing his Ph. D. dissertation on time.

6．Nothing can replace the profoundest love in one’s heart of hearts.

7．He is considered a natural for the post of the president, for he has been an excellent vice-president for almost ten years.

8．He is just too common to be picked out from the crowd.

III. Translate the following passage into Chinese.

他是一个经典人物，因为他是工作累死的。他们都相信，假如他能够多活5年的话，他将会自然被提拔为第一把手。他一直被誉为同事们的典范。他一周工作6天，一天工作l0多个小时。他的兴趣只局限在他的工作上。当然，他偶尔锻炼身体，以保持身体健康。他将任何形式的娱乐活动视作浪费时间。他太忙了，没有时间和孩子们待在一起。结果，他跟自己的孩子有点疏远了，至少，他的孩子们是这么想的。然而。他对公司来说却十分重要，公司里每一个人都爱他，甚至羡慕他，因为在他们眼里，他近乎完美。但是，谁来帮助这位失去丈夫的妻子和这些失去父亲的孩子收拾他去世后留给家里的杂乱局面呢？

Integrated Skills

Everyone is under some pressure / in the work place. / Some external pressures / can be a positive factor, / helping us to be more productive. / Some people actually thrive / under short-term added pressure, / and our bodies are designed to meet these short-term demands. / Hormones are released to prepare us / for a “fight or fight” response / to demanding situations. / However, excessive and prolonged stress / can take its toll, / producing a range of physical and emotional health problems, / which has come to be grouped as “work-related stress”. / The experience of stress is different for every person. / Some people are affected more than others. / So what is stressful for one person / may not be stressful for another. / It can depend on your personality type / and on how you have learned to respond to pressure.

II. Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE word you think appropriate.

1．hours

2．while

3．less

4．from

5．explain

6．by

7．late

8．difference

9．policies

10．taking

Text II

Questions for discussion

1．When summer comes, much of Europe is getting ready to shut down for business and relax.

2．They point out that the U.S. is the richest and most powerful country in the world. And that won’t happen by lying in bed.

3．It’s deep in Americans that time should not be wasted no matter what. They think that work is not just good for bank account. It’s good for spiritual health, too.

4．People who work hard often forget to relax. They will have to work hard at learning to be lazy.

5．We need some time to doing something we would rather be doing, or the gentle art of doing ‘nothing’.