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Book 6 Unit 1
Unit One
Text I
Pre-reading Questions
1. You may have kept in your memory some words, phrases or even whole sentences that are of
great wisdom and can serve as guidelines in your life. Share them with your classmates and discuss their value.
2. The two words that, as the author of the text suggests, should be avoided are \
two be remembered are \the author intends to convey to the reader with such a suggestion?
General Reading
I. Judge which of the following best states the purpose of the article. A. To explain how Freud's psychotherapy works. B. To demonstrate the power of positive thinking.
C. To call attention to the importance of the choice of words.
Key: B
II. Judge whether the following statements are true or false.
1. That wintry afternoon, the author was in a bad mood and he happened to meet an old friend of his in a French restaurant in Manhattan.
2. The Old Man asked the author to go to his office because he thought that the office was a better place than the restaurant for their talk.
3. The three speakers on the tape had all been unfavorably affected by what had happened to them.
4. In the Old Man's opinion, it was a bad way of thinking always to regret what one had done or had not done.
Key: 1. F 2. F 3. T 4. T
Background Notes
1. Manhattan, an island near the mouth of the Hudson River, is a borough of New York City, in
southeastern New York State, U.S.A. Commercial and cultural heart of the city, Manhattan is the site of the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the City Center of Music and Drama, and numerous other music institutions.
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Book 6 Unit 1
2. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is an Austrian physician and the founder of psychoanalysis.
Freud explored the workings of the human mind and developed psychoanalysis as a therapeutic technique to treat neurosis or mental disturbances.
Text Study Text
Two Words to Avoid, Two to Remember
Arthur Gordon
1 Nothing in life is more exciting and rewarding than the sudden flash of insight that leaves you a changed person — not only changed, but changed for the better. Such moments are rare, certainly, but they come to all of us. Sometimes from a book, a sermon, a line of poetry. Sometimes from a friend ...
2 That wintry afternoon in Manhattan, waiting in the little French restaurant, I was feeling frustrated and depressed. Because of several miscalculations on my part, a project of considerable importance in my life had fallen through. Even the prospect of seeing a dear friend (the Old Man, as I privately and affectionately thought of him) failed to cheer me as it usually did. I sat there frowning at the checkered tablecloth, chewing the bitter cud of hindsight. 3 He came across the street, finally, muffled in his ancient overcoat, shapeless felt hat pulled down over his bald head, looking more like an energetic gnome than an eminent psychiatrist. His offices were nearby; I knew he had just left his last patient of the day. He was close to 80, but he 2
Book 6 Unit 1
still carried a full case load, still acted as director of a large foundation, still loved to escape to the golf course whenever he could.
4 By the time he came over and sat beside me, the waiter had brought his invariable bottle of ale. I had not seen him for several months, but he seemed as indestructible as ever. \man,\
5 I had long since ceased to be surprised at his perceptiveness. So I proceeded to tell him, at some length, just what was bothering me. With a kind of melancholy pride, I tried to be very honest. I blamed no one else for my disappointment, only myself. I analyzed the whole thing, all the bad judgments, the false moves. I went on for perhaps 15 minutes, while the Old Man sipped his ale in silence.
6 When I finished, he put down his glass. \7 \
8 \
9 A chill rain was beginning to fall outside, but his office was warm and comfortable and familiar: book-lined walls, long leather couch, signed photograph of Sigmund Freud, tape recorder by the window. His secretary had gone home. We were alone.
10 The Old Man took a tape from a flat cardboard box and fitted it onto the machine. \tape,\are not identified, of course. I want you to listen to the recordings and see if you can pick out the two-word phrase that is the common denominator in all three cases.\puzzled. I have my reasons.\
11 What the owners of the voices on the tape had in common, it seemed to me, was unhappiness. The man who spoke first evidently had suffered some kind of business loss or failure; he berated himself for not having worked harder, for not having looked ahead. The woman who spoke next had never married because of a sense of obligation to her widowed mother; she recalled bitterly all the marital chances she had let go by. The third voice belonged to a mother whose teen-age son was in trouble with the police; she blamed herself endlessly.
12 The Old Man switched off the machine and leaned back in his chair. \times in those recordings a phrase is used that's full of subtle poison. Did you spot it? No? Well, perhaps that's because you used it three times yourself down in the restaurant a little while ago.\the box that had held the tape and tossed it over to me. \saddest words in any language.\
13 I looked down. Printed neatly in red ink were the words: If only.
14 \this chair and listened to woeful sentences beginning with those two words. 'If only,' they say to me, 'I had done it differently — or not done it at all. If only I hadn't lost my temper, said the cruel thing, made that dishonest move, told that foolish lie. If only I had been wiser, or more unselfish, or more self-controlled.' They go on and on until I stop them. Sometimes I make them listen to the recordings you just heard. 'If only,' I say to them, 'you'd stop saying if only, we might begin to get somewhere!'\
15 The Old Man stretched out his legs. \'if only,'\change anything. It keeps the person facing the wrong way — backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become a habit, it can become a real roadblock, an excuse for not trying any more.
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Book 6 Unit 1
16 \take your own case: your plans didn't work out. Why? Because you made certain mistakes. Well, that's all right: everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are what we learn from. But when you were telling me about them, lamenting this, regretting that, you weren't really learning from them.\
17 \
18 \the future. And in a way — be honest, now! — you were enjoying it. There's a perverse streak in all of us that makes us like to hash over old mistakes. After all, when you relate the story of some disaster or disappointment that has happened to you, you're still the chief character, still in the center of the stage.\
19 I shook my head ruefully. \
20 \promptly. \that supplies lift instead of creating drag.\21 \
22 \23 \Next time?\
24 \keeps saying 'if only' to me, he's in trouble. But when he looks me in the eye and says 'next time,' I know he's on his way to overcoming his problem. It means he has decided to apply the lessons he has learned from his experience, however grim or painful it may have been. It means he's going to push aside the roadblock of regret, move forward, take action, resume living. Try it yourself. You'll see.\
25 My old friend stopped speaking. Outside, I could hear the rain whispering against the windowpane. I tried sliding one phrase out of my mind and replacing it with the other. It was fanciful, of course, but I could hear the new words lock into place with an audible click.... 26 The Old Man stood up a bit stiffly. \man. Always is. Now, if you will help me find a taxi, I probably should be getting on home.\
27 We came out of the building into the rainy night. I spotted a cruising cab and ran toward it, but another pedestrian was quicker.
28 \caught that cab, wouldn't we?\
29 I laughed and picked up the cue. \
30 \it,\cried the Old Man, pulling his absurd hat down around his ears. \it exactly!\
31 Another taxi slowed. I opened the door for him. He smiled and waved as it moved away. I never saw him again. A month later, he died of a sudden heart attack, in full stride, so to speak. 32 More than a year has passed since that rainy afternoon in Manhattan. But to this day, whenever I find myself thinking \only\I change it to \time\Then I wait for that almost-perceptible mental click. And when I hear it, I think of the Old Man. 33 A small fragment of immortality, to be sure. But it's the kind he would have wanted.
Words and Phrases
1. prospect n. sth. one expects to happen; a possibility or likelihood of sth. happening
e.g. I look forward to the prospect of being a volunteer doing social work in the Great
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Book 6 Unit 1
Northwest.
There is a reasonable prospect of reaching the trapped miners within the next 24 hours. prospects pl. — opportunities
e.g. Most people are not quite optimistic about the prospects for/of employment.
Don't think too much how the job pays now. What really matters is that it holds good prospects.
2. eminent adj. famous and respected within a particular profession, e.g. eminent
doctor/surgeon/scientist, etc.
3. invariable adj. never changing
e.g. The invariable question the mother asked her child after school every day was: \everything go today?\
4. proceed v. begin a course of action
e.g. After the preparations had been made, we proceeded to draft the plan.
5. at some length: (formal) in some detail
e.g. She described to us her trip to New Zealand at some length. cf. at length — after a long time; at last
e.g. He thought over the mathematical problem day and night and solved it at length.
6. false move: an unwise action that turns out to be a mistake and brings one risks or failure
e.g. Be very careful with the designing of the plan; a false move and it will fall through.
7. berate v. (formal) scold or criticize angrily because of a fault
e.g. Don't berate anyone just because he has made a mistake. Don't we all make mistakes from time to time?
8. lament v. feel or express deep sorrow (for or because of sth.)
e.g. One should not lament the past mistakes, but should try to do better later.
9. ruefully adv. regretfully
e.g. He faced his recent failure ruefully.
10. promptly adv. quickly, at once
e.g. He always responded to the customers' requests promptly.
11. grim adj. harsh, unpleasant, dreadful
e.g. He was depressed when he heard the grim news that two-thirds of the workforce might be discharged.
Notes
1. the sudden flash of insight that leaves you a changed person: the quick and spontaneous
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