研究生英语Unit-Two.doc

Unit Two
Text A

I. Introduction
1. Warm-up activities:
a. What is ignorance?
b. What is the relationship between ignorance and knowledge?
c. Some say ignorance is bliss. Some say ignorance is the root of all evil. State your opinion on it.

Reference:
a. Ignorance is a condition or state where a person ignores, disregards, or overlooks knowledge about something. It is when the person is uninformed, is uneducated about something.
b. If one is overwhelmed by ignorance, he or she would not be able to know more knowledge; if one is equipped with knowledge, he or she would be able to know he or she is vulnerable to ignorance.
c. (open)
Once upon a time, an old illiterate person asked somebody to write a letter for him. He said, “Please write whatever I am telling you.” He then began to explain his life while the writer was busy writing. He talked about himself and some of his problems. After he finished, he turned to the writer and said, “All right. Now read me all you have written.” The man began to read the letter. Little by little the old man, listening to the writer very carefully, started crying. The writer looked at him surprisingly and said, “These are what you have already explained. There is nothing more in this letter. Why are you crying then?”
Still crying hard, the old man said, “I partially knew that I was a poor wretched man, but I didn’t know it so clearly as you told me today!”

Quotes:
a. Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
—Benjamin Franklin
b. There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
—Confucius
The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
—Elbert Hubbard
e. He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
—Voltaire

2. Main idea of the text:
The author began the essay by telling the experience of waking in the morning and finding him practically ignorant of anything. The author felt pitiable yet not necessarily so depressed about his current store of knowledge after many years of costly education：Apart from the immediate personal experiences, he has a limited range of knowledge and the inadequate understanding of the major phenomena of the world. And the reasons may be that ignorance seems to do him no harm in his daily life, and his inadequate memory of knowledge may deceive him and even cause severe mistakes of misquoting. However, it suddenly occurred to him when he has gone his way serene and happy, he may be the only one who is ignorant, for anyone may harbor the same psychology of remaining to be a happy ignorant person.

II. Additional Information for the Teachers’ Reference
Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of problem solving, fixing things, or for obtaining knowledge. “Learning doesn’t happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again.” In the field of computer science, the method is called generate and test. In elementary algebra, when solving equations, it is “guess and check”. This approach can be seen as one of the two basic approaches to problem solving and is contrasted with an approach using insight and theory.
Confidence trickster: a confidence trick or confidence game is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, and any accomplices are known as shills.Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that “you can’t cheat an honest man.” The confidence trickster often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man’s plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be random strangers who have benefited from successfully performing the task.
III. Language Points
1. Just as suddenly, and without premeditation, I found myself reviewing the extent of my knowledge and, before it was time to get up, I had come to the conclusion that I knew practically nothing about anything.
---Just as it happened suddenly, I found myself evaluating the extent of my knowledge without my careful reflection upon this issue beforehand and, before it was time to get up, I had come to the conclusion that I knew literally nothing
- meditation: n. the action or practice of meditating
His later letters are intense meditations on man’s exploitation of his fellows.
He was deeply interested in meditation, the East, and yoga.
- practically: adv. virtually; almost
 Among the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature more than half are practically unknown to readers of English.  

2. I woke from no nightmare, but was in calm and contented possession of my faculties.
--- I woke from no nightmare, but remain in a sane state of being calm and contented.
faculty: n.
a. an inherent mental or physical power
He is not in full possession of his mental faculties.
b. an aptitude or talent for doing something
He had the faculty of meeting everyone on the level.
c. a group of university departments concerned with a major division of knowledge
the faculty of arts; the law faculty

3. A mixture of sherbet and milk chocolate in equal parts produces disconcerting results.
--- A mixture of sherbet and milk chocolate of equal proportion gives birth to very unpleasing effect.
disconcerting: adj. causing one to feel unsettled
If the results of an experiment are too disconcerting, the scientist will check to see whether the experiment was rightly conducted without breach of other conditions.

4. I can play, with a dubious proportion of success, the game of applying to English thoughts and objects the names under which similar thoughts and objects seem to be known in France.
---I can play the game of labeling English thoughts and objects with the equivalent thoughts and objects available in France, though whether this works is doubtful.
dubious: adj. hesitating, doubting, or questionable
He holds the dubious distinction of being relegated with every club he has played for.
It sounds a morally dubious proposal.

5. I know- as yet so tentative that no two of them use the same term in the same way.
---I know, not so clearly, that the various rival practitioners of a science hold such uncertain views that no two of them use the same term in the same way.
practitioner: n. a person actively engaged in an art, discipline, or profession, especially medicine
 The best that a practitioner can do is to have regard to the sort of multiplier which has in the past been adopted by judges in similar circumstances.
tentative: adj. not certain or fixed; provisional
It would be at once the most tentative and most final treaty that Earth had ever signed.  

6. The acquisition of this inconsiderable store has cost me fifty-six years and my parents a good deal of money.
---It took me fifty-years and my parents a good sum of money to acquire such poor store of knowledge
inconsiderable: adj.
a. of small size, amount, or extent
 The prince avoided such pitfalls by simply chartering private jets and paying for them out of his not inconsiderable private coffers.
b. unimportant or insignificant
 At the same time, there is a good deal of self-congratulation at attending a good college- they are even inclined to exaggerate its not inconsiderable virtues.  

7. When I put three pennies into an automatic machine, and receive the ticket to Tottenham Count Road, I am not devoured by any desire to know how the miracle is worked.
---When I put three pennies into an automatic machine, and get the ticket to the stop of Tottenham Court Road from the machine, I did not have a very strong desire to know the way how the machine works.
devour: v.
a. to eat (food or prey) hungrily or quickly
The plants grow naturally in impoverished peat bogs, and they devour insects as a source of protein.
b. (of a person) to be totally absorbed by a powerful feeling
The grey eyes roamed over her face, and she felt as though she was being devoured by some huge magnetic force.

8. As I said, outside of the range of my own immediate experience, and such deductions of cause and effect as seem to be constant when I come into contact with them, I know next to nothing-and that at the end of an elaborate and costly education.
---As I said, though I have received a very systematic and costly education, I know literally nothing, except for the range of my immediate experience, and the unchangeable deduction of cause and effect derived from my daily experience.
next to: almost
The sense of relationship overreaches the historical truth that Shakespeare may have known next to nothing of the actual works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.  
elaborate: adj. involving many carefully arranged parts or details; detailed and complicated in design and planning
 An elaborate system of accounting and reports was worked out, and the trade was to be managed in the most scientific way.  
Some, like the British and the French, maintain an elaborate system of personal contacts and have experts constantly studying special areas of the American scene.  

9. After all, when we put theories aside, and come down to brass tacks, why should I be?
---Anyway, when we ignore theories, and start talking about the basic facts, why should I be?
put aside: ignore
If Palfrey ever had any doubts about the wickedness of slavery, they were put aside after he received an inventory of the slave property he had inherited.
See also set aside, brush aside, aside from, stand aside
brass tacks: the most important or basic facts of a situation
Get down to the brass tacks , and quit talking round the subject.

10. Why should my limited understanding be tossed about on long and short waves, provided I can switch over from the program I don’t want to the one I do?
---Why should I torture my limited understanding so much, if I can switch over from my disliked program to my liked program?
toss about: feel agitated for something that can not be decided
Almost any topic under the sun was likely to be tossed about in the course of a morning’s talk.
Because he was the victim of the unhappy marriage of his parents, tossed about between the two, he lacked a stable and warm background.

11. Not long ago, I made an appalling howler through satisfaction at my own knowledge.
---Not long ago, I made a shockingly stupid mistake because of my satisfaction with my own knowledge.
appalling: adj. horrifying; shocking
In Mozambique, many are living in appalling conditions without clean water and proper sanitation.
howler: n. a very stupid or glaring mistake
The prospect of making a howler in front of millions of people is a worry, for Television has destroyed some goalkeepers.

12. He consults his lawyer before he gives rein to his just indignation.
---Before the happily ignorant man let the free go of his anger, he consults his lawyer.
give rein to: to give someone the complete freedom of action
She is highly adept at encouraging people not only to think and give rein to the excitement of ideas, but also to think critically.

13. In fact, such a premium has our civilization put upon ignorance, he gets along very comfortably indeed.
---In fact, our civilization has regarded ignorance as being so valuable that the happily ignorant man actually gets quite well along his life.
put a premium on: to regard or treat as particularly valuable or important
The practice not only created a dependency culture by reducing the incentive to work, but put a premium on early marriage and on childbirth

14. It would be downright discourteous to oppose to his discourse the obstacle of any previous knowledge.
---It would be utterly rude to object to his talk, which may be a threat or obstacle to any previous knowledge.
downright: adj. (of something bad or unpleasant) utter; complete (used for emphasis)
She played a little game with herself, seeing how downright rude she could act to the others, before they’d take offense, threaten to call the manager.
discourteous: adj. showing rudeness and a lack of consideration for other people
 The young man had so little time to learn and he had to be curious he had to find out, so it was not a discourteous question.  

15. Am I just a surreptitious, disgraceful exception to a rule of enlightenment? Am I just the only one who does not know?
---Am I just a shameful guy who keeps the secret of being the only ignorant person to myself？uy who keeps the secret of being the only ignorant person?who runates
surreptitious: adj. kept secret, especially because it would not be approved of
Low wages were supplemented by surreptitious payments from tradesmen.
enlightenment: n. the action or state of attaining or having attained spiritual knowledge or insight
I gained a good deal of enlightenment from him.

Key to Exercises
I. Reading comprehension
1. In a morning when he woke up a few minutes earlier than he usually is, and he had not thought it before.
2. It is unwise to take hold of the little door in front of a coal range in one’s fingers (learnt at the age of seven), that a mixture of sherbet and milk chocolate in equal parts produces disconcerting results (discovered at night)，and that it is socially inexpedient to make jokes about false teeth.
3. It means that the author can not be sure that his application of the names of the thoughts or objects of one language to another is successful or not, and thus he thinks that its feasibility is doubtful.
4. He thinks that his knowledge is inadequate compared to his lifelong investment and his parents’ money. But he feel reassured that ignorance does no harm to him, for an ignorant person doesn’t misquote.
5. When people realize the fact that sometimes memory is not reliable, the knowledge they possess will bring them trouble and mistakes. Therefore, ignorance does work at this time, for the ignorant men seldom make inaccurate judgment without making an investigation first.
6. He thought that the author of the book he needed to review had neglected some contents in the book, but actually the author had not. He learned from this experience that ignorance can be a great help to him, for his memory may deceive him sometimes.
7. The sentence has an ironical tone, which means that under such civilization of valuing ignorance, knowledge is not necessari