Before Reading_ 1

1. Before Reading_ 1 About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler One of the most influential figures of American Jewry, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler served as President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the central body of Reform Judaism in North America, from 1973 to 1996. Throughout his tenure as President, he Lead-in Discussion Listening Comprehension Word Web served conscientiously to strengthen the Foundation’s efforts in reconstructing Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust and in developing innovative programs to address the cultural needs of the Jewish people globally. He was a dedicated and creative leader and raised the Foundation to new levels of harmony, accomplishment, and international recognition.

2. Before Reading2 1. What is your motto in life? Explain it. 2. Do you find life sometimes paradoxical? If yes, please give one example. About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler Lead-in Discussion Listening Comprehension Word Web

3. Before Reading_3.1 1. Listen to the poem and fill in the blanks with what you hear. About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler Let Go by Fion Lim Lead-in Discussion Letting go is one of the hardest lessons in life, Yet over changing seasons and passing time,You will have to learn to let go of certainPeople, relationships, situations and things,That fall way . Tenacity and the attitude of not giving up,Work wonders on many occasions but not all,As some things just are not meant to be,No matter how hard you fight and them,And forcing your will upon things just repel them further. ________ Listening Comprehension Word Web beyond your control ________________ cling to ______

4. There will always be people, Who will turn out in ways you never expected, And it you that you have to let them go, So that they can their destinies, While you go on to fulfill your own life path. As life likes to dish out surprises and challenges, Sometimes it is only through letting go, When your heart cries , That in the agonizing process that you realize, What is truly worth . Letting go does not signify weakness, As it might to let go than holding on, Like the big, inflexible tree that snaps in the storm, While tiny blades of grasses yield and live on, Revealing the strength of letting go. Before Reading_3.2 dawns on ________ About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler ____ fulfill Lead-in Discussion Listening Comprehension in anguish _________ Word Web holding onto __________ take more courage _______________

5. Before Reading_3.3 2. What is the theme of the poem? What does “letting go” mean in this poem? About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler Lead-in Discussion Listening Comprehension Word Web

6. Before Reading_4_main Directions: What words will occur to you whenever we mention the words “hold fast” and “let go”. Write down as many words as possible about them. About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler Lead-in Discussion hold fast Listening Comprehension Word Web let go

7. Before Reading_4.1 About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler dream materials love Lead-in Discussion justice Listening Comprehension hold fast desire Word Web sanity peace perfect ideal freedom

8. Before Reading_4.2 About the Author — Alexander M. Schindler inevitable dust destiny Lead-in Discussion Listening Comprehension unhappiness let go choice Word Web give up stress friendship negative pursue

9. Global Reading_ 1 Parts Paras. Main Ideas Through one event during his hospitalization, the author explains that we often fail to see the beauty and wonder of life when we should be holding on to it, urges us to hold fast to the gifts of life. Part Division of the Text Further Understanding 1~8 1 Questions and Answers True or False Discussion The author directs his discussion to the other side of the paradox: how to let go, and points out why we must accept losses and learn how to let go. 9~11 2 As a solution to the paradox, the author suggests a wider perspective to view what is transient and what is eternal, gives us his advice as to what we should do in order to make our lives meaningful and our deeds “timeless”. 3 12~16

10. Global Reading_ 2_1.1 Part Division of the Text 1. What, according to the author, is the paradox of life? Further Understanding You must hold fast to something that you must let go of eventually. Questions and Answers True or False Discussion 2. Why does the author quote the saying from the ancient rabbis? The author intends to use the metaphor to illustrate the paradox. “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched” mean that a man holds fast to the gift of life when he is born, but when he leaves this world, he has to let go of it.

11. Global Reading_ 2_1.2 Part Division of the Text 3. What is the change of the author’s attitude towards life after hospitalization? Further Understanding Questions and Answers He learns to appreciate the beauty existing in daily life. True or False Discussion 4. What, according to the author, is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us? Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

12. Global Reading_ 2_2.1 1. 2. 3. It is not easy to learn how to let go when we are young. With the full force of our passionate being, we are able to hold fast to and attain whatever we desire. It is inevitable that we will lose something at different phases of life. Part Division of the Text ( ) T Further Understanding Questions and Answers True or False ( ) F Discussion We cannot always hold fast to life and not let go even with the full force of our passionate being. We must accept our losses, and learn how to let go. ( ) T

13. Global Reading_ 2_2.2 4. 5. We come to realize that “to let go” is as important as “ to hold fast” in our lives when we are young. From the moment we are born, we have to let go of certain things. Part Division of the Text ( ) F Further Understanding Questions and Answers We do not realize that we must accept our losses and learn to let go until life confronts us with realities when we are not young any more, because when we are young, we think that we can have whatever we desire at our command. True or False Discussion ( ) T

14. Global Reading_ 2_3 Part Division of the Text • What’s your understanding of “perishable life” and “enduring • beauty”? • 2. What can you learn from this essay? Further Understanding Questions and Answers True or False Discussion

15. Detailed Reading Detailed Reading Life is a long journey. Some walk with joy and fulfillment, others with bitterness and regret. If you could live by the two truths discussed in the following essay, your journey would be more meaningful and rewarding.

16. Detailed Reading_t1-2 Two Truths to Live by Alexander M. Schindler Detailed Reading The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. An ancient man said long ago: “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.” Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wonderful, and full of a beauty. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what it was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.

17. Detailed Reading_t3-4 We remember a beauty that faded, a love that withered. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered. Detailed Reading A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.

18. Detailed Reading_t5-6 One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard in a chair. As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That’s all there was to my experience. Detailed Reading Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was — how warming; how sparkling; how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun’s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond to the great beauty of it all.

19. Detailed Reading_t7-10 The insight gleaned from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life’s gifts are precious — but we are too careless of them. Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxicaldemands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be respectful before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute. Hold fast to life, but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life’s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go. This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passion can, and will be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this second truth dawns upon us. Detailed Reading

20. Detailed Reading_t11 At every stage of life we sustain losses — and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we come to this world. We enter schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual Detailed Reading or not so gradual weakening of our own strength. And ultimately, we must confront the inevitability of our own death, losing ourselves, as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.

21. Detailed Reading_t12-14 But why should we be reconciled to life’s contradictory demands? Why fashion things of beauty when beauty is short-lived? Why give our heart in love when those we love will ultimately be torn from our grasp? In order to resolve this paradox, we must seek a wider perspective, viewing our lives as through windows that open on eternity. Once we do that, we realize that though our lives are finite, our deeds on earth weave a timeless pattern. Life is never just being. It is becoming, a relentless flowing on. Our parents live on through us, and we will live on through our children. The institutions we build endure, and we will endure through them. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but the beauty and goodness and truth they create live on for all time to come. Detailed Reading

22. Detailed Reading_t15-16 Don’t spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as the ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth. Add love to a house and you have a home. Add righteousness to a city and you have a community. Add truth to a pile of red brick and you have a school. Add justice to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization. Put them all together, elevate them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and conflict and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope. Detailed Reading

23. Detailed Reading_ A man comes … Detailed Reading A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open. Translate this sentence into Chinese. 一个人出生时拳头紧握，过世时却松手而去。

24. Detailed Reading_ We know that… Detailed Reading We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what it was and then suddenly realize that it is no more. 1. What does “so” refer to here? It refers to what was mentioned in the preceding sentence: life is wonderful and full of beauty. 2. What does “only in our backward glance” mean? It means “only as we examine our life in retrospect.”

25. Detailed Reading_ But we remember… Detailed Reading But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered. What can we infer from this sentence? From this sentence, we can infer that one should hold fast to beauty and love at the right time when they are full of sweetness and being offered.

26. Detailed Reading_ I looked to … Detailed Reading I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun’s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. 1. What does “the sun’s golden glow” symbolize? It symbolizes the beautiful and precious life. 2. What can we infer from “hurrying to and fro” and “with eyes fixed on the ground”? It can be inferred that most people are indifferent to the beauty of life.

27. Detailed Reading_ Then I remembered … Detailed Reading Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond to the great beauty of it all. Paraphrase this sentence. Then if remembered how often I, too, had ignored the magnificence of each day, since I was too busy with unimportant and even unpleasant things.

28. Detailed Reading_ The insight gleaned … Detailed Reading The insight gleaned from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life’s gifts are precious — but we are too careless of them. What does “that experience” and “them” refer to in this sentence? “That experience” refers to the sunlight in his hospitalization; “them” refers to life’s gifts.

29. Detailed Reading_ This is not an easy … Detailed Reading This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passion can, and will be ours. Translate this sentence into Chinese. 做到这一点并不容易，尤其是当我们还年轻，自以为世界在我们的掌握之中，只要满腔热情、全力以赴地去渴求，我们就能得到我们想要的东西，而且一定能得到！

30. Detailed Reading_ And ultimately… Detailed Reading And ultimately, we must confront the inevitability of our own death, losing ourselves, as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be. Paraphrase this sentence. Finally, we have to face the reality that we cannot avoid our own death. That is to say, we will sooner or later cease to be what we are and what we have dreamed of being.

31. Detailed Reading_ But why should… Detailed Reading But why should we be reconciled to life’s contradictory demands? Why fashion things of beauty when beauty is short-lived? Why give our heart in love when those we love will ultimately be torn from our grasp? • What is the author’s purpose of using these rhetorical • questions? The author uses rhetorical questions to emphasize that there is no reason for us to cling to what we will inevitably lose. 2. What does “life’s contradictory demands” refer to? It refers to the two seemingly opposing truths: we should hold fast to life’s gifts and let go of them when time comes.

32. Detailed Reading_ In order to resolve… Detailed Reading In order to resolve this paradox, we must seek a wider perspective, viewing our lives as through windows that open on eternity. What does this sentence mean? It means that in order to solve this paradox, we must view our lives from the perspective of eternity.

33. Detailed Reading_ Life is never just… Detailed Reading Life is never just being. It is becoming, a relentless flowing on. Translate this sentence into Chinese. 生命绝不仅仅是静止的存在。它是一股不断演变的、百折不回的奔流。

34. Detailed Reading_ Our flesh may perish… Detailed Reading Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but the beauty and goodness and truth they create live on for all time to come. What does the author hope to convey through this statement? The author hopes to convey the message that what we let go of is still there if we view life from the perspective of eternity. The beauty and goodness and truth that we create will endure and we will endure through them. Therefore, we should let go of life’s gifts in due time.

35. DetailedReading_ fast Detailed Reading fast: ad. become or be firmly fixed and unable to move The boat was stuck fast in the mud. When they arrived there, they found that the church door was fast shut.

36. Detailed Reading_ clench Detailed Reading clench : vt. close tightly The girl clenched her fist in anger. 在被动手术时她咬紧了牙关。 She clenched her teeth when she was operated on.

37. Detailed Reading_ fade1 Detailed Reading fade: vi. 1) lose colour and brightness Flowers soon fade when cut. The colour in this silk material will not fade. 2) disappear gradually. 他的希望渐渐破灭 His hopes faded. The memory of her sufferings in her childhood will never fade from her mind.

38. CF: wither & fade wither fade Detailed Reading_ wither wither: v. 1) (cause sth. To) become dry, shrivelled or dead Detailed Reading 这些花不放在水里就要枯死了。 The flowers will wither if you don’t put them in water. limbs withered by disease and starvation 2) render speechless or incapable of action; stun The teacher withered the noisy student with a glance. 她的一瞥使他无言以对。 She withered him with a look. 这两个动词均含“凋谢”之意。 指因无活力而丧失生命力。 强调指渐渐失去色彩和光泽。

39. Detailed Reading_ tender1 Detailed Reading tender: 1. v. formally offer or show something to someone As company secretary, you must tender the proposal. The seller has the right to keep the goods until payment is tendered to him. 2. a. 1) (of meat) easy to chew; not tough Continue cooking until the meat is tender. 2) painful when touched; sensitive 我的手指一碰就疼，因为昨天割破了。 My finger is tender because I cut it yesterday.

40. Detailed Reading_ tender2 Detailed Reading 3) gentle and careful in a way that shows love Her voice was tender and soft. Collocations: tender age年幼而未成熟的 tender loving care 悉心、关切的照顾 a tender heart软心肠 a tender mother慈母

41. Detailed Reading_ hospitalize Detailed Reading hospitalize: vt. place in a hospital for treatment, care, or observation. Roger was hospitalized after a severe heart attack. NB: 该词一般用于被动语态

42. Detailed Reading_ wheel1 • wheel: • n. one of the round things under a car, bus, bicycle, etc. that • turns when it moves Detailed Reading The car slid sideways, its rear wheels spinning. 2. v. move someone or sth. that is in or on sth. that has wheels Two nurses were wheeling him into the operating theatre. 他把摩托车推到街上。 He wheeled his motorcycle into the street.

43. Detailed Reading_ wheel2 Detailed Reading Collocations: at the wheel驾驶，掌舵 oil the wheels使事情进行得顺利 on wheels用车子 put one’s shoulder to the wheel（帮助他人）动手 wheels within wheels复杂的事情；复杂的原因 wheel and deal (AmE.)（在政界）独断专行

44. Detailed Reading_ relish Detailed Reading relish: 1. n. great enjoyment of something I ate with great relish, enjoying every bite. 我对坐办公室那种刻板的工作毫无兴趣。 Routine office jobs have no relish at all for me. 2. vt. enjoy an experience or the thought of something that is going to happen He relishes the chance to play Hamlet. 我可不乐意这麽早就起床。 I don’t relish having to get up so early.

45. CF: indifferent, unconcerned, incurious, detached & uninterested indifferent unconcerned incurious detached uninterested Detailed Reading_ indifferent1 Detailed Reading indifferent: a. not at all interested in someone or sth. It is quite indifferent to me whether you go or stay. 我对他们的争论毫不关心。 I am indifferent to their arguments. 这些形容词均有“不关心的，不感兴趣的”意思。 运用得最广。它可以表示无偏向性，对事物这样或那样不关心 意指不仅不感兴趣，而且也不同情，不焦虑，不关心 强调缺乏理性的探询和本能的好奇心 意指不参与，同时对此有客观的看法 仅表示缺乏兴趣

46. Detailed Reading_ indifferent2 Detailed Reading Directions: Fill in the blanks with the words above. Change the form where necessary. The universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply . He was in politics. Many large companies seem totally about the environment. She described what had happened in a cold and manner. He was of technical and textual science. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. indifferent ________ uninterested __________ ___________ unconcerned detached ________ incurious ________

47. Detailed Reading_ preoccupy Detailed Reading preoccupy: vt. engage (sb. or his mind, thoughts, etc.) so that he cannot think of other things Something seems to be preoccupying her at the moment. 你昨天在公共汽车站上心不在焉,没有注意到我。 You were too preoccupied to notice me at the bus stop yesterday. Pattern: be preoccupied with 全神贯注于

48. Detailed Reading_ petty1 Detailed Reading petty: a. 1) of small importance; trivial We started having arguments over petty little things. The meeting spent too much time on petty issues, and didn’t address the real problem. 2) unkind and caring too much about small unimportant things How can she be so petty? 他有时候在金钱上很小气。 Sometimes he can be so petty about money.

49. Detailed Reading_ petty2 Detailed Reading Collocations: petty and childish behaviour小心眼和孩子气的行为 petty about money在金钱上很小气 petty cash零用现金 petty larceny小偷小摸 petty officer海军士官

50. CF: low, mean, cheap & shabby low mean cheap shabby Detailed Reading_ mean mean: a. ignoble Detailed Reading I never thought he was capable of doing such a mean thing to his brother. They have an air of freedom, and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. 他们有一种奔放不羁的风度，没有对卑鄙的野心目标的无聊追逐和对舒适的迷恋。 这些形容词均有“卑鄙的，卑贱的，卑下的”意思。 指行为卑鄙、可耻、下文明，可引申指庸俗。 暗示狠毒、贪婪、缺乏尊严感等为人们所不耻的卑鄙、自私、渺 小的行为。 侧指人或物的品质低劣下贱。 指行为的不公和卑劣，往往使人感到不屑和轻蔑。