Lesson One Another School Year -------- What For? III What For? III.

Lesson OneLesson OneLesson OneLesson OneAnother School Year --------Another School Year --------

What For? IIIWhat For? III

Content Explanation of the

text (part 2)

11. Nevertheless, I was young… to put it this way: Instead of telling him the importance of an all-around education, I tried to convince him from a very practical point of view.

• 1) put: to express or say sth. in a particular way• a) Can you put it in another way?• b) I really don’t know how to put it. I don’t really

hate the city. I don’t love it either.12. average out to: (informal) to come to an average or

ordinary level or standard, especially after being higher or lower.

• a) Meals at the university average out to about 10 yuan per day.

• b) The couple’s income averages out to 5,000 yuan a month.

• c) The restaurant’s monthly profits averaged out at 30% last year.

13. hold = hold good: to be true or valid, to apply 不会改变

• CF: it is the case14. more less: • 1) approximately• a) She works 12 hours a day, more or less.• 2) basically, essentially, almost• a) I’ve more or less finished my composition.• b) We have more or less reached an agreement on

the matter.15. be employed in doing sth: (written) to spend your

time doing sth.• a) The old man’s days were employed in reading,

writing, and doing Chinese boxing.• b) The old lady was busily employed in knitting sw

eaters for her grandchildren.

16. You will see to it that… as a result of your incompetence: You have to take responsibility for the work you do. If you’re a pharmacist, you should make sure that aspirin is not mixed with poisonous chemicals. As an engineer, you shouldn’t get things out of control. If you become a lawyer, you should make sure an innocent person is not sentenced to death because you lack adequate legal knowledge and skill to defend your client.

• 1) see to it that: to make sure that• a) Can you see to it that all the

invitations are delivered today?• b) I’ll see to it that everything is ready

before the guests arrive.

• 2) go to the electric chair (=electrocute): to be punished by being killed on the electric chair, that is, by passing electricity through the body. 以电刑处死

• 17. Along with everything else…and rears your children: In addition to all other things (such as satisfaction) these professions offer, they provide you with a living so that you can support a family—wife and children.

• 1) along with: an addition to sb/ sth; in the same way as sb/ sth 除某事物以外，和…一样也

• Note: if the phrase modifies the subject, the number of the verb should be used according to the subject, without considering the phrase.

18. may it always suffice: I hope your income will always be enough. (In other words, the writer hopes that the skills he learns at college will always provide him and his family with a living.)

19. do with (in question with “what” ) to take action with regard to.

• a) what shall we do with the children when we’re away?

• b) What do you do with rice straw in your country>

• c) They do not know what to do with all the garbage here.

20. Will the children ever be exposed to… at home: Will your children ever hear you talk about sth. profound at home?

• 1) be exposed to (usually, a new idea or feeling): to be given experience of it, or introduced to it.

• a) to learn more about the world we live in, we should be exposed to different cultures.

• b) Studying abroad, he was exposed to a new way of life.

• 2) reasonable: to a degree that is fairly good but not very good.

• a) She wants to find a place reasonably close (= not far from) to her university.

• b) Our university is not one of the top ten, but reasonably well known both at home and abroad.

• 3) penetrating idea: one that requires the ability of understanding clearly and deeply 深邃的思想

21. Will you be presiding over…democratic intellect: Will you be head of a family who brings up the kids in a democratic spirit?

• 1) preside over: to be in charge or to control a meeting or an event, here used humorously.主持会议，支撑家庭等

• 2) maintain contact with: to keep in touch with, here used figuratively

• 3) the great democratic intellect: the level of ideas possible in a society based on the belief that all people are equal politically or socially 伟大的民主思想

22. Will there be a book in the house: Will you be reading serious books (not just popular fiction)? 你读一些严肃的书吗？

23. Will there be …shuddering: What kind of pictures will you put up in your house? Will you have a painting in your house that shows some taste on your part? 你家里有没代表你个人品位的画？

24. be out to do sth/ for sth: to be trying to get or do sth.

• a) The company is out to break into the European market.

• b) Look out for such end-of-the-year sales. These shops are out to trick you into buying what you don’t need.

25. “I hope you make …not signing checks”• 1) Note the sarcastic tone of the writer. In spite of w

hat he had said, the student didn’t seem to be convinced. What the writer meant here is sth. like this: If you don’t have any goal in life apart form making money to satisfy your desire for material riches, go ahead and make a lot of it.

如果你除了挣钱满足物质欲望外再也没有别的生活目标的话，那你就去挣吧，希望你多多地挣。

• 2) Be stuck for sth: not to know what to do in a particular situation. 被困住，不知怎么做

• a) In the middle of the speech, he was stuck for words (= he didn’t now how to go on).

• 3 ） Signing checks: paying for what you’ve bought by signing checks 用支票购买

26. to put you in touch with…have thought: to expose you to/make you understand the ideas, opinions and thinking of the best philosophers, scientists, writers and artists in human history.

27. If you have no time…then you have no business being in college: If you don’t want to improve your mind and broaden your horizon by studying a little literature, philosophy and the fine arts and history, you shouldn’t be studying here at college.

• 1) that lesson of man’s development we call history: 我们称之为历史的人类发展过程中有教育意义的经历

• 2) lesson: an experience which acts as a warning to you or an example from which you should learn 能给人以警戒，或使人从中获取教训的经历

• 3) man: (singular) the human race• a) Man lives in almost all parts of the wor

ld.• b) Man’s knowledge of nature continue

s to grow.• c) This is the greatest of discoveries kno

wn to man.

• 4) have no business doing sth/ have no business to do sth: to have no right to do sth. shouldn’t have been / be doing sth.

• a) You’ve no business telling me what to do.• b) He has no business criticizing her about he

r make-up.• c) She has no business reading your mail.• 28. You are on your way to…the push-butt

on Neanderthal: You will soon become an uneducated, ignorant person who can only work machines and operate mechanical equipment (one who doesn’t know anything about literature, music, the fine arts, culture in general, etc.)

• 1) on the/ one’s way to: on the point of experiencing or achieving.

• a) She is on the way to becoming a full professor.

• b) That bright young man is on his way to being the sales manager of the company.

• c) Nancy is well on her way to a nervous breakdown.

• 2) new species of mechanized savage: new type of humans who are intellectually simple and not developed and who can only work machines 头脑简单、智力低下、只会操纵机器的新人类

• 3) the push-button Neanderthal: an uneducated, ignorant person who can only use / operate machines by pushing the buttons. 只会通过按按钮操纵机器的未受过教育的无知之人

29. Our colleges inevitably…without making contact: A number of such push-button savages get college degrees. We cannot help that. But even with their degrees, we can’t say that these people have received a proper college education. It is more accurate to say that they come through college without learning anything.

• 我们学校必然会有一些这样的毕业生，他们虽然拿到学位，但不能说明他们已经接受了良好的大学教育，只能说上了大学而没有学到真正的知识。

• 1) life forms: used sarcastically, meaning these people are living creatures, but can’t think and reason.

• 2) Go through (a person) (like a dose of salts): (of food, etc.) to be quickly excreted/ to pass through the body as waste matter without being digested; here, used figuratively and sarcastically. 食物等未经消化流经某人的身体，这里是比喻和讽刺用法

30. No one gets to be a human being unaided: no one can grow up to be a civilized person without the help of others.

• 1) get to be/ to do sth: to reach the point at which you’re, feel, know, etc. sth.

• a) Once you get to know her better, you’ll realize she’s compassionate at heart.

• b) His absent-mindedness is getting to be a big problem.

31. There is not time enough …to be a civilized human: to become a civilized person, you need to acquire the knowledge and develop the culture a civilized society needs. One lifetime is too short to create an environment for him to become civilized.

• 1) a single lifetime: the time during which a person is alive.

• 2) A civilized human: a person who id pleasant, charming and without roughness of manner 有素养的人

32. You pass the great stone halls… the scientists: If you pass the great stone hall of a university, M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for example, you’ll see the names of the scientists cut into the stone.

• there cut into the stone are the names of the scientists: the names of scientists are carved in stone as memorials

33.The chances are that few…those great scholars of the past: Only very few, if any at all, of you will turn out to be great scientists and have your names cut into those stones. But if you were attentive enough in your high school physics class, any of you knows more about physics than many of those scientists whose names are cut into the stones.

• (the) chances are: it is likely• a) Chances are that he had heard the

news.

34. You know more… learned for you.• 1) You know more about Physics not becau

se you’re more talented than those scholars of the past, but because they left their knowledge to you, and because everything you first learn is what people learnt in the past. In other words, all human knowledge has been accumulated by people living in the past and has been passed on to us. You learn all this before you do any original research, or any research of your own.

• 2) What the past learned for you: what people in the past learned and passed on to you. 前人已经了解并传递给你的知识。

35. And as this is true…spiritual resources: This is the way we learn and develop the techniques of mankind. This is also how we inherit and advance mankind’s spiritual resources. 人类技术的发展如此，人类精神财富的积累也如此。

• 1) be true of (a person or a situation): to apply to

• a) It’s a wonderful opera. The music is superb. The same is true of the acting.

• b) The young tend to look ahead while the old like to look back upon the past. This is true of all nations.

36. When you have read a book, you have added to your human experience: When you have read a book, you have enriched your life.

37. Read Homer and your mind includes a piece of Homer’s mind: When you have read a book, you have enriched your life. 读一读荷马的史诗， 你头脑中就有了荷马的一些思想。

38. Through books you can acquire at least fragments …the list is endless: Through reading their books, you can at least learn a bit of the thinking and experience of such literary giants as Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare—there have been so many great thinkers and writers that it’s impossible to list them all here. 通过读书，你至少能获得维吉尔、但丁、莎士比亚等无数前人的一点点思想的火花。

39. For a great book is necessarily a gift; it offers you …travel in literal time: Because a great book is sth. given to us to enrich our lives. It presents to you a kind of life you don’t have a chance to experience yourself, and it describes for you places you don’t have time to visit actually.

40.A civilized mind is…and many such worlds: Basically, a cultured and educated person should know about such great variety of lives and worlds.

• 1) in essence: basically, by nature• a) He is in essence an outgoing person.• b) In essence they were asking for the impossibl

e.

41. If you are too much in a hurry…a useful citizen of a democracy: 如果你急着去赚钱，或对自己的无知甚为得意，从而把亚里士多德或乔叟或爱因斯坦的思想—这个提高你品德修养的礼物拒之门外，那么你既不是一个发展到成熟阶段的人，也不是一个民主社会有用的成员。

• 1) if you are too much in a hurry: if you are to anxious to make money

• 2) (or if you are) too…own limitations: (or if you are) too ignorant to see your limitations.

• 3) Accept as a gift… Einstein: to accept some of the thinking of…Einstein as something that will help cultivate in you the quality of being a human

42. He might have said…about it: He might have added that a person wouldn’t deserve to be called a human being if they hadn’t read about it.

43. I speak, I’m sure…the specialized school as well: My remarks apply to… and the same is true of…

• 1) liberal arts: subjects of study that develop students’ general knowledge and ability to think, rather than their technical skills 大学文科

• 2) liberal arts college: ( 大学里的 )文学院• 3) the specialized schools: departments

of a university that teach particular subject or skill, e.g. medical / law school, the school of dentistry.

44. When I say…your human mind needs to include: 要是一所大学不能使你们学生，无论作为专门人才还是普通人，去接触那些你们头脑应该有的大师们的思想，那么，这所大学就没有真正的办学宗旨，也就没有存在的必要了。（我说的这番话既适用于…）

• 1) both as specialists and as humans: as person who have specialized and are trained in a certain subject or skill and as civilized creatures and thinking animals.

45. The faculty…of human experience: the existence of the faculty of the liberal arts college itself says in an implied way: “In our effort to make our faculty a place where our students can experience a variety of life they don’t have time to live themselves, we get a lot of help from many people and books, present and past…”

46. we are here to make…that expertise: our role / job / task is to do our best to provide such knowledge for you (to become both specialists and civilized humans).

• 1) be here to do sth: used to show your role in a situation

• a) we’re all here to help you.

• This is the end of Part Three.