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Unit Eleven Text I Cultivating a Hobby

Unit Eleven Text I Cultivating a Hobby. Before Reading: Background

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Unit Eleven Text I Cultivating a Hobby

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  1. Unit ElevenText I Cultivating a Hobby • Before Reading: Background • Sir Winston Leonard SpencerChurchill (1874-1965), the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and an American mother, was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. After a brief but eventful career in the army, he became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1900. He held many high posts in Liberal and Conservative governments during the first three decades of the century. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty - a post which he had earlier held from 1911 to 1915.

  2. Before Reading: Background • In May, 1940, he became Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and remained in office until 1945. He took over the premiership again in the Conservative victory of 1951 and resigned in 1955. However, he remained a Member of Parliament until the general election of 1964, when he did not seek re-election. Queen Elizabeth II conferred on Churchill the dignity of Knighthood and invested him with the insignia of the Order of the Garter in 1953. Among the other countless honours and decorations he received, special mention should be made of the honorary citizenship of the United States which President Kennedy conferred on him in 1963. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the conference of Teheran,28th Nov. to 1st Dec. 1943.

  3. Before Reading: Background • Churchill's literary career began with campaign reports: The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) and The River War (1899), an account of the campaign in the Sudan and the Battle of Omdurman. In 1900, he published his only novel, Savrola, and, six years later, his first major work, the biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill. His other famous biography, the life of his great ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, was published in four volumes between 1933 and 1938.

  4. Before Reading: Background • Churchill's history of the First World War appeared in four volumes under the title of The World Crisis (1923-29); his memoirs of the Second World War ran to six volumes (1948-1953/54). After his retirement from office, Churchill wrote a History of the English-speaking Peoples (4 vols., 1956-58). His magnificent oratory survives in a dozen volumes of speeches, among them The Unrelenting Struggle (1942), The Dawn of Liberation (1945), and Victory (1946).

  5. Before Reading: Background • Churchill, a gifted amateur painter, wrote Painting as a Pastime (1948). An autobiographical account of his youth, My Early Life, appeared in 1930. • Winston Churchill died in 1965. • From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam Chiang Kai-shek , Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in 1943

  6. Before Reading: Background • Periods in Office:10 May1940 to27 July194526 October1951 toApril 7, 1955 • PM Predecessors:Neville ChamberlainClement Attlee • PM Successors:Clement AttleeAnthony Eden • Birth:30 November1874 • Place of Birth:Blenheim Palace, Woodstock,Oxfordshire, England • Death:24 January1965 • Place of Death:LondonPolitical Party:As PM:ConservativeAlso: Liberal Winston Churchill on the cover of TIME magazine (30 Sep. 1940).

  7. Before Reading: Background • In 1953 he was awarded two major honours: he was invested as a Knight of the Garter (becoming Sir Winston Churchill, KG) and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values". A stroke in June of that year led to him being paralysed down his left side. He retired because of his health on 5 April1955 but retained his post as Chancellor of the University of Bristol. Churchill during his second term

  8. Before Reading: Background • Churchill was a prolific writer throughout his life and, during his periods out of office, regarded himself as a professional writer who was also a Member of Parliament. Despite his aristocratic birth, he inherited little money (his mother spent most of his inheritance) and always needed ready cash to maintain his lavish lifestyle and to compensate for a number of failed investments. Some of his historical works, such as A History of the English Speaking Peoples, were written primarily to raise money.

  9. the importance of cultivating a hobby how to cultivate a hobby 人情必有所寄，然后能乐。……古之达士，高人一层，只是他情有所寄，不肯浮泛虚度光景。每见无寄之人，终日忙忙，如有所失，无事而忧，对景不乐，即自家亦不知是何缘故，这便是一座活地狱，更说甚么铁床铜柱、刀山剑树也。大抵世上无难为的事，只胡乱做将去，自有水到渠成日子。 《袁中郎随笔·李子髯》 Global Reading: Theme

  10. Detailed Reading: Language Points • 1.Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold of something and will not let go. (l.1-2)------The psychological nature of worry is a sudden violent spell of the emotion. People’s mind, at least temporarily, forms a kind of bigotry, i.e., it cannot help thinking continually about something. This spell of emotion is beyond one’s control and cannot be got rid of through any conscious effort.

  11. Language Points • 2.It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. (l.2-3)------ When one is in the worry, it’s impossible for one to dissuade himself from considering the subject of his worry. • 3.The stronger the will, the more futile the task. (l.3)------The more you attempt to shake off your worry, the harder it will be for you to get rid of it.

  12. Language Points • 4.One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. (l.3-4)------The course of getting rid of worry can only be carried out in a gradual manner. The way to achieve this purpose is to transfer one’s attention from the thing one formerly worrying about to something else bit by bit.

  13. Language Points • 5.attended by the illumination of (l.5)------(if it can) bring with it some valuable epiphany from • 6.undue grip (l.6)------excessive control (of one’s mind by worry)

  14. Language Points • 7.a public man (l.9)------a person engaged in the affairs or service of the people; a person who participates in social activities or works for the society. The cultivating of a hobby is extremely important to such a person because the peacefulness of mind is something he cannot afford to lose, or he would fail to exert his responsibility to the society, the consequence of which would deprive him of his social position upon which his individual value rests.

  15. Language Points • 8.swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will (l.10)------had the idea casually practiced no sooner than it occurred in one’s mind. • 9.alternative mental interests (l.10-11)------other interests of the mind.

  16. Language Points • 10. The seeds must be carefully chosen…when needed. (l.11-13)------The cultivation of a hobby (the seed of a plant) must be carefully chosen for a person (good ground); then the process of cultivating a hobby, like that of growing a plant, requires care and effort. Only in this way can one reap in due time the fruit of one’s labor---the relaxing effect of one’s hobby.

  17. Language Points • 11.It is no use starting late…or that. (l.15-16)------It is not a good idea to begin thinking of pursuing a hobby when you have already grown old. • 12.aggravate (l.16)------to make worse.

  18. Language Points • 13.A man may…or relief. (l.17-18)------The cultivation of a hobby has its own track and one has to pay due time in acquiring his hobby. There is a gap between having a hobby and having all the external features of a hobby. It would be impossible for you to get relaxation from your hobby if one hasn’t invested enough time as well as efforts in cultivating it.

  19. Language Points • 14.It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. (l.18-19)------It is no good believing that you are in a position to enjoy at a moment’s notice any pastime which happens to catch your fancy; pleasure comes from exerting one’s talents in a hobby suited to one’s circumstances. • 15.those who are toiled to death (l.20)------manual laborers, blue-collar workers.

  20. Language Points • 16.those who are worried to death (l. 20)------people who work with their brains, e.g., professionals, public man. • 17.those who are bored to death (l.21)------people who are not doing anything seriously, perhaps the leisured class. • 18.command (l.26)------have control of; be master of.

  21. Language Points • 19.gratify every caprice (l.27)------satisfy every whim; gratify: satisfy a desire; caprice: a sudden wish to have or do something without any reason.

  22. Language Points • 20.As for the unfortunate people…an additional satiation. (l.26-28) ------Since those very wealthy people can afford to get access to almost anything they may think of and to turn the most fanciful ideas into reality, there is nothing in this world that can interest or excite them any more. To them, a new pleasure, a new excitement may very often make them even more bored about life.

  23. Language Points • 21.avenging boredom (l.29-30)------boredom that gives (them) no peace or that inflicts suffering (upon them); here also carries the meaning that the more efforts you make to get rid of boredom, the more boredom you would get.

  24. Language Points • 22.clatter and motion (l.30)------refers to the frantic rush from place to place of those who can command all they want; clatter refers to the noise (as from hilarious parties) and motion refers to trips from place to place since those hollow-minded people are easily get bored.

  25. Language Points • 23.modest (l.37)------simple, humble or shabby. • 24.grudge (l.40)------complain about. • 25.Indeed…from their minds. (l.42-43)------In fact, it is probably those whose work provides them with their enjoyment are those who are most in need of periodic distractions from their work.

  26. After Reading: Exercises • 1.Oral practice: Name one of your hobbies and try to evaluate it with the criterion provided by Mr. Churchill. • 2.Written work: Write a short composition about your hobby. Lay emphasis on describing how you cultivate this hobby and the enjoyment you’ve drawn from it.

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