1、Reading 1: This is Water1. Whats the point of the fish story?The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.2. What is our natural default-setting, according to Wallace? Do you agree with h

2、im? If yes, give examples; if no, examples too, please.I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.Yes, I do. The world as you experience it is right there in front of you, or behind you, to the left or right of you, on your TV, or your monitor

3、, or whatever. Other peoples thoughts and feelings how to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.3. Is it possible for us to adjust our natural default-setting? If yes, how? And by the way, why should we adjust it?A: Yes, it is. We should pay attention to whats g

4、oing on inside me and stay alert and attentive instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head. whats more, we should learn how to Think and how to decide.The reason why should we adjust it is that thinking in the way of default-setting that we experience the boring, fru

5、strating, crowed parts of adult life.B: Yes, it is. Learning how to think-Learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. If we dont adjust it, we

6、 will be totally nosed. 4. What does it mean by learning how to think? And what is the justifiable way to think?Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to c

7、hoose how you construct meaning from experience.5. What is the meaning of college education? Do you agree? If yes, further explains please, if no, define your meaning of college education and further illustrate it.College education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get

8、 lost in abstract argument inside our head instead of simply paying attention to whats going on right in front of us.6. What did Wallace refer to as ' the work of choosing'?A:When you are going through petty, frustrating craps, you need to make a conscious choice of how to think and what to

9、pay attention to.B：Make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to.7. What is the only True matter of the long, lonely 'day in and day out'? B：The only thing whats capitally true is that you get to decide how you are going to try to see it. You get to consciously de

10、cide what has meaning and what does not. You get to decide what to worship.8. Why did Wallace suggest the graduating seniors to worship some spiritual things instead of anything else, say money and power?An outstanding reason for choosing some sort of spiritual things to worship is that pretty much

11、anything else you worship will eat you alive.9. How did Wallace define the real important freedom and if you would like to, please give your definition of freedom.The really important kind of freedom involves attention, awareness, discipline, effort, and being able truly able to care about other peo

12、ple and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in my pretty little unsexy ways, every day.10. Finally, what is water?The most obvious, important realities are the hardest to see and talk about.Reading 2: Moon Landing Faked.1. Why pathological explanations cannot be sufficiently used to explain conspi

13、racy theories?Because conspiracy theories are not just the implausible visions of a paranoid minority. There are so many people coming to believe in it.并不是少數(shù)妄想狂的難以置信的幻覺。2.How do you understand contradictory conspiracy theory?出于一種更高層次的信仰，嚴(yán)重的對權(quán)威的不信任。3. What is the definition of “conspiracy theory” (Pa

14、ra.7)? Who might those “powerful individuals and organizations” be?A conspiracy theory is usually defined as an attempt to explain the ultimate cause of an important societal event as part of some sinister plot conjured up by a secret alliance of powerful individuals and organizations. Government or

15、 officials.一些有權(quán)有勢的個(gè)人和組織組成了一個(gè)秘密聯(lián)盟，而這個(gè)秘密聯(lián)盟策劃了那些險(xiǎn)惡的陰謀。4. Why do people refuse science?B: Widespread belief in conspiracy theories.Receiving positive information about or even merely exposed to conspiracy theories can lead people to become disengaged from important political and societal topics.陰謀論為復(fù)雜的社

16、會事件提供簡單的解釋，提供了可控和可預(yù)測的感覺。Reading 3: Whats Isnt for Sale?1. What are the hidden costs mentioned in the leading paragraph?A:“ The hidden costs ” mentioned in the leading paragraph mainly means that there are some things money cannot buy in the past, but it is possible today. The logic of buying and sel

17、ling no longer applies to material goods alone. For example, nonviolent offenders can pay for a clean, quiet jail cell, without any non-paying prisoners to disturb them.B：Markets and market values have come to govern our lives as never before.錢過去不能買的，但今天成為可能，幾乎一切可售，買賣邏輯不僅適用于物質(zhì)商品，市場幾乎凌駕于我們。2. Can you

18、 think of anything that money cant buy nowadays?B：Family, affection, time, friendship and so on.A: From my perspective, the love to your family, friends or anybody else cannot be bought by money nowadays.3. How did the market thinking/market faith come into being?B：As the cold war ended, markets and

19、 market thinking enjoyed unrivaled prestige. The era began in the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher proclaimed their conviction that markets, not government, held the key to prosperity and freedom. And it continued into the 1990s with the market-friendly liberalism of Bill Clinto

20、n and Tony Blair, who moderated but consolidated the faith that markets are the primary means for achieving the public good. 冷戰(zhàn)后，沒有任何組織生產(chǎn)和分配物品的機(jī)制，可以堪比市場帶來的巨大財(cái)富和繁榮（prosperity、booming）4. What does something bigger (Para.20) refer to?It was the reach of markets, and of market values, into spheres of li

21、fe traditionally governed by nonmarket norms.5. Why is it not good that we are moving toward a society in which everything is up for sale? There are two reasons. First, its about inequality.as money comes to buy more and more, the distribution of income and wealth looms larger. Second,it is about th

22、e corrosive tendency of markets. Putting a price on the good things in life can corrupt them. Because markets dont only allocate goods, they express and promote certain attitudes toward the goods being exchanged.1不公 2 腐敗在一個(gè)什么都可以出售的社會，生活再難有尊嚴(yán)（dignity），當(dāng)金錢買越來越多的東西時(shí)，由收入和財(cái)富的分配差距會越來越大。2 將生活中的美好事物標(biāo)價(jià)，會使之變壞

23、，因?yàn)槭袌霾粌H在分配資源，他更表示和提倡東西都可以交易的態(tài)度。Reading 4: Who ruined the humanities1. Do you agree with writers view that “classroom ruins literatures joy”? If yes, how? If not, give your reasons.I dont think so. From my perspective, it is not classroom but the teaching method in classroom that ruins literatures jo

24、y. Many teachers can make these curriculums interesting by special teaching method.2. Whats the authors opinion about the notion that great literature can help you with reading and thinking clearly? And whats your view?In the authors opinion, the notion that great literature can help you with readin

25、g and thinking clearly is a chimera(妄想 ).I agree with the author. For example, the literary masterworks of Western civilization demonstrate the limitations of so-called clear-thinking. There are sonnets by Shakespeare that no living person can understand.偉大的文學(xué)作品能夠幫助你更清晰地閱讀和思考，這其實(shí)也是妄想。很多人的詩到現(xiàn)在也沒人理解，對

26、很多人來說，高中畢業(yè)時(shí)，文學(xué)之火已經(jīng)在我們所有人的心中充分燃燒起來。3. Of course its important to read the great poets and novelists. But not in a university classroom. Where do you think is an appropriate place?As far as I am concerned, the library, cafeteria, a quiet garden is an appropriate place to read them.Coffee shop4. How di

27、d the literature influence the author before he went to college? Take an example to describe the literatures influence to you.Before he studied literature in college, he plunged into the turbulent emotions of Julien Sorel. Chekhovs stories sustained him with words that captured his sadness. Keatss l

28、anguage filled him with a beauty that repelled his sadness. Books took him far from himself into experiences that had nothing to do with his life, yet spoke to his life. It leads him to a human. (Literature changes my way of thinking and makes me experience various tastes of life.自己想)5. What is the

29、relationship between the war and teaching literature?In a sense, the story of teaching literature as a profession is a story of war. After soldiers return home in 1945,teaching literature as an investigation of lifes enigmas(難題) struck a deep collective chord. And after the Vietnam War, majoring in

30、English began its slow decline and the popularity of literature spelled its doom.6. Please summarize Lionel Trillings perspectives of literature education?Trilling was exasperated(激怒)by the absurdity of teaching morally subversive modernist works in the morally conventional precincts（范圍） of a univer

31、sity, to the point where he somewhat hysterically exaggerated what he called the “force and terror” of modernist literature (there is terror in Syria, not in Gide).But he was not able to see that the classroom also ruins literatures joy, as well as trivializing(輕視).7. What is the author really again

32、st?I am against taking these starting epiphanies of the irrational, unspoken, unthought-of side of human life into the college classroom and turning them into the bland exercises in competition, hierarchy and information-accumulation that are these works' mortal enemies. 我反對的是把這些令人驚異的頓悟帶入大學(xué)課堂把他們

33、變成競賽中枯燥的練習(xí)題，等級體系和信息的堆砌，他們都是這些作品不共戴天的敵人。8. In common sense, the lack of literature education leads to pernicious personal condition, but the author thinks its a sentimental fantasy. Do you agree? If yes, please give some reasons. If not, why?A: Yes, I agree. As we all know, literature did not even be

34、come part of the university curriculum until the end of the 19th century. So, the college teaching of literature is a relatively recent phenomenon. Before it, literature developed even better. So, may be the lack of literature is a fantasy.直到19世紀(jì)末文學(xué)才成為大學(xué)課程的一部分，所以，大學(xué)文學(xué)教學(xué)是最近的現(xiàn)象，在此之前，文學(xué)發(fā)展的甚至更好。所以，說文學(xué)的缺

35、失只是個(gè)幻覺。9. How do you understand “a whale-ship was my Yale and my Harvard”? (Para.30)Reading literatures has nothing to do with the environment. If you are truly interested in literatures, you may learn much anywhere, and the place where you are is just your Yale and your Harvard.閱讀文學(xué)作品與環(huán)境無關(guān)，如果你真的對文學(xué)

36、感興趣，你可以在任何地方學(xué)習(xí)，而你學(xué)習(xí)的地方就是你的耶魯，你的哈佛。10. Literature requires only that you be human (Para.21). How do you understand this sentence?A: Literature does not like other academic subjects that requires specialized knowledge and a mastery of skills and methods. It does not have to be taught any more than dre

37、aming has to be taught. All you need to understand that is a heart.文學(xué)不像其他的學(xué)科那樣需要專業(yè)知識和掌握一些技巧與方法。而文學(xué)無需去教，就像夢想也不需要教一樣。Reading 5: Love People, Not pleasure1. How did ABD AL-RAHMAN assessed his life?He assessed his life that was full of fame, riches and pleasure beyond imagination, but he numbered the da

38、ys of pure and genuine happiness which fell to his lot: They amount to 14.2. What does I am an unhappy person mean according to the author?It means Your unhappiness is x, your happiness is y, and x>y.3. Can circumstances lead to unhappiness? What made Al-Rahman unhappy and why? Circumstances can

39、make people unhappy, And Al-Rahmans own search for well-being made him unhappy. Because the pursuit of fame, wealth and pleasure ultimately prolongs his suffering.4. What are the big and small circumstantial sources of unhappiness mentioned?Some people are oppressed or poor or have physical ailments

40、 that make life a chore. Research unsurprisingly suggests that racism causes unhappiness. Another common source of unhappiness is loneliness. There are also smaller circumstantial sources of unhappiness that ordinary daily activities and interactions kick up such as spending time with ones boss.5. W

41、hat can pursuit of fame, wealth and pleasure lead to?People who pursued extrinsic goals such as achieving reputation or fame experienced more negative emotions, such as shame and fear. They even suffered more physical maladies. People who rate materialistic goals like wealth as top personal prioriti

42、es are significantly likelier to be more anxious, more depressed and more frequent drug users, and even to have more physical ailments than those who set their sights on more intrinsic values.6. What are the astonishing innovations generated by everyday peoples impulse to fame? How did they make us

43、unhappy? They are the advent of reality television and social media. You build a fake life-or at least an incomplete one-and share it. Furthermore, you consume almost exclusively the fake lives of your social media” friends”.7. Few things are as liberating as giving away to others that which we hold

44、 dear. We do you hold dear and what are we liberated from if we give away to others? What we should hold dear are the strength to love others, condemnation of materialism and a deep skepticism of our own basic desires. And we should be liberated from the formula “Love things, use people”.8. Accordin

45、g to Brooks in Love People, Not Pleasure, why pursuit of fame, money, pleasure can bring us unhappiness? Pursuit of what goals, do you think, can make us happy? Just like drugs and alcohol, once you become addicted, you cant live without it. We look for these things to fill an inner emptiness. They

46、may bring a brief satisfaction, but it never lasts, and it is never enough. And so we crave more. Intrinsic goals such as deep, enduring relationships, are associated with happier lives.就像酒和藥，一旦上癮，你就不能離開它。我們尋找這些東西來填補(bǔ)內(nèi)心的空虛。他們可能帶來短暫的滿足感，但是不會持續(xù)，這是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的。所以我們渴望更多。內(nèi)在目標(biāo)如深,持久的關(guān)系,與快樂的生活。Reading 6: Actually,

47、practice doesnt always make perfect-new study1. What is K. Anders Ericssons report about practice and success? What might be the reasons to support his conclusion?A: The report is that what separates the expert from the amateur, a first-rate musician or chess player from a wanna be, isnt talent; its

48、 thousands of hours of work. Practice is the primary contributor to excellence. There are three reasons to put it: first, it is our common sense; second, it is the protestant work ethic, We dont like the idea that someone could succeed without effort or that lots of deliberate practice might prove f

49、ruitless; at last, it is the saying that nurture over nature. To believe that performance results from effort can give us a sense of egalitarianism and control.B：Success comes from practice. Practice hard and you will do well. Practice is the primary contributor to excellence. The more time you spen

50、d trying to get better at something, the more proficient（skilled）you will become.成功源于實(shí)踐。努力訓(xùn)練，你會做得更好。訓(xùn)練是卓越主要的貢獻(xiàn)者。你花越多的時(shí)間試圖把事情得到更好，你就越熟練。2. Why is “time on task” not always correct, according to the author? (Para.5)A: Researchers have found that only when “achievement” is defined as rote recall do we

51、discover a strong, linear relationship with time. When the focus is on depth of understanding and sophisticated problem solving, time on task doesnt predict outcome very well at all-either in reading or math.B：Only when achievement is defined as rote recall, do we discover a strong, linear relations

52、hip with time. When the focus is on the depth of understanding and sophisticated problem solving, time on task doesnt predict outcome very well at all.只有當(dāng)“成就”的定義是死記硬背的回憶，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一個(gè)強(qiáng)的，時(shí)間的線性關(guān)系。當(dāng)重點(diǎn)是需要深度了解和解決復(fù)雜的問題時(shí)，工作的時(shí)間就不是很好預(yù)測。3. How to understand “nurture over nature”? (Para.6)A: Its more egalitarian to

53、 declare that geniuses are made, not born. Students are more likely to embrace learning if their performance results from effort, something under their control, rather than from a fixed level of intelligence that they either possess or lack.B:Performance results from effort rather than from a fixed

54、level of intelligence. Geniuses are made, not born.好的表現(xiàn)是需要努力的而不是出于一個(gè)固定的智力水平。天才是造的，不是天生的。4. What might be the other factors that affect the quality of performance? And how are they related? Which one do you think is the most important?A:They are starting age,how open you are to collaborating and lear

55、ning from others,howmuch you enjoy the activity and intrinsic motivation.All of these factors overlap and serve ascatalysts for one another,which means that even if practice does predict success to somedegree,that does not mean it caused the success.I think intrinsic motivation is the mostimportant,

56、because the pleasure one takes from an activity is a powerful predictor of success.：One is how early in life you were introduced to the activity, others include how open you are to collaborating and learning from others, and how much you enjoy the activity. All these factors overlap and serve as cat

57、alysts for one another. I think the last one is the most important. The pleasure one takes from an activity is a powerful predictor of success.一是在你生命中多早進(jìn)入這個(gè)活動(dòng)，其他包括你多么開放的和別人合作和學(xué)習(xí)，還有你喜歡這個(gè)活動(dòng)的程度。最后這個(gè)最重要。5. How is education related with Ericsson or Macnamaras research?A:The research never had the relevan

58、ce to education that some people have claimed.It neversupported the value of giving students lots of practice problems.We cannot simply assumethat whatever promotes success in activities like music or chess also applies to ,say,math orlanguage arts.In education-as supposed to,say,chess-everything depends on the kind oflearning we want.Practice has much less of a role to play in promoting deep understandingt