研究生英语 Unit 2 重点句

Unit 2

The Gift of Gift-giving Vocabulary

?perspicacious ?betoken ?nicety ?ritualistic ?one-up ?reciprocity ?benefactor ?proclivity ?frivolous ?wont ?prone ?cliché?fabulous ?pamper ?altruism ?dispense

perspicacious: able to understand sb./ sth. quickly (fml) 敏锐的，聪明的

It offers quite a few facts to the perspicacious reporter.

betoken: v. to be a sign of

A clear blue sky betokens fine weather.

Her deep frown betokened her feeling of sadness.

It is out of proportion to send gift that betokens an intimacy that doesn’t exist. nicety: n.（usu. pl）a minor aspect of polite social behavior; a detail of etiquette 精妙，微妙之处

W e were brought up to observe the niceties.

ritualistic: a.of fondness for ritual 遵守仪式的；仪式化的

It is purely ritualistic to send expensive gifts on wedding ceremony.

Each evening, she bursts into her apartment with a ritualistic shout of “Honey, I’m home.”

ritual n./a.仪式（的），典礼（的）ritualize v. 使仪式化

reciprocity: n. the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit

a reciprocity treaty

Reciprocity includes more than gifts and favors; it also applies to concessions that people make to one another.

reciprocal: mutual, giving and receiving in return交互的，互惠的

benefactor: n. a person who gives money or other help to a person or cause

we collected ￡478, but a very generous benefactor made it up to ￡500.

The chieftain of that country is disguised as a benefactor this time. benefactress

Proclivity: (to/towards/for) a tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition 癖性，倾向

For example:

a proclivity for hard work/ for dancing/ laziness

His son has a proclivity towards laziness.

Our teacher has a proclivity to faultfinding.

frivolous: a. not having any serious purpose or value轻薄的，轻浮的；琐碎的，无意义的

For example:

There should be rules to stop frivolous law suits.

This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.

wont: a./n. habit; accustomed to; in the habit of

be wont to do sth.: be used (accustomed) to sth./doing sth.

For Example：

Both have committed their indiscretions as human beings are wont to do.

Paul woke much earlier than was his wont.

prone: (to/to do sth.) : a. likely or liable to suffer from 可能的…,容易遭受…的

For example:

accident-prone

He is prone to jump to conclusions.

People with fair skin who sunburn easily are very prone to develop skin cancer. His nose is prone to be allergic to roses.

cliché: n./a. a phrase which has been used too often, and has become meaningless陈词滥调，陈腐思想/ 陈腐的

For example：

It has become a clichéto describe Asia Pacific as the world’s most dy namic economy.

The teacher criticized the student for writing a cliché-ridden article.

fabulous: a. wonderful ;marvelous 惊人的，难以置信的；寓言般的

W e had a fabulous time at the party.

pamper: v. indulge with every attention, comfort, and kindness; spoil 姑息，纵容；娇惯Famous people just love being pampered.

Today’s superstars are often pampered by mass media.

It’s no good pampering children like that.

altruism: [mass noun] the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others利他主义

For example:

Some may choose to work with vulnerable elderly people out of altruism.

dispense: v. distribute or provide (a service or information) to a number of people

For example：

The machines dispense a range of drinks and snacks.

Orderlies went round dispensing drinks.

dispense with：do away with省却，免除

indispensable: absolutely necessary不可或缺的，绝对必要的

?(Para.1 line1)I date a woman for a while—literary type, well-read, lots of books in her place—whom I admired a bit too extravagantly, and one Christmas I decided

Trans:我曾与一位女子约会过一段时间—她属于文学爱好者之类，博览群书，其寓所藏书甚丰—我对她的倾慕有点过分。有一次圣诞节，我决定送她一样非同一般的好东西，其价格也是贵得吓人。

extravagantly: ad. unreasonably high; exorbitant

For example:

The day before they left Jeff had shopped extravagantly for presents for the whole family.

They claim Laborer’s plans would be extravagantly expensive and over bureaucratic.

?(Para.1 line 10) I had visions of her opening the set, volume by volume, while we sat by the fire Christmas Eve sipping cognac and listening to the Brandenburg Concertos.

Trans:我想象着这样的情景，圣诞之夜，我俩围炉而坐，一边啜饮着上等科涅克白兰地，一边欣赏着勃兰登堡协奏曲，她把文卷一页页地打开。

(line 18)It’s totally out of proportion。

It’s very inappropriate.

proportion：比例

out of proportion（to）in proportion to

much too great as compared with 不相称，不成比例

e.g. The price of the article is out of proportion to its value.

(para. 2 line 8) She insisted that I take the books back or sell them or keep them for myself. When I protested, she just got more upset, and finally she asked me to leave and to take the books with me. Hurt and perplexed, I did.

Trans:她坚持让我把书拿走，要么卖掉，要么自己留着。见我不肯罢休，她越发不安。最后，她请我带着书离开。我伤心困惑地离开了。

1) insist + that clause

Verbs with similar usage: suggest, advise, recommend, propose, decide, urge,

demand, order, require, request, ask, etc..

2) Hurt and perplexed, I did.

Adj. or adj. phrase is used as adverbial of manner

---Hungry and thirsty, they went into the restaurant.

---Curious, the little boy looked around for other guests.

(line 24)There’s a goat in all of us…

We’re often too stubborn to recognize our own foolishness.

Trans:我们都是愣头青，既愚笨又倔强。

(Para.3 line 26) To my credit, I’m normally more perspicacious about the gift I give, and less of a show-off.

To praise myself, I often understand quickly what I give which is not intended to brag myself.

Trans：我引以为荣的是，我通常送礼物还是比较有眼光的，不太张扬。

To my credit…

1.deserving of a praise值得赞扬，足以为某人增光

e.g. To his credit, he did admit his mistake.

2.belonging to one; having as one’s accomplishments

e.g. He had thirty published articles to his credit.

(para. 3 line 27) But I have it in me, obviously, to be, as my ex-girlfriend said, totally out of proportion: to give people things I can’t afford, or things that betoken an intimacy that doesn’t exist, or things that bear no relation to the interests or desires of the person I’m giving them to…

Trans:但我的毛病也是明摆着的，正如我的前女友所言，送的礼物根本就不合适。比如说：送给人家的礼物自己难以支付，或者把象征亲密关系的礼物送给与自己没有那层关系的人，或者送的礼物与所送之人的兴趣或渴望的东西毫不相干。

(line 32)I’ve kicked myself too often not to know it’s there, this insensitivity to the niceties of gift-giving.

I have blamed myself ever since for being unaware of my foolishness and failure to follow the etiquette of gift-giving.

Trans:我对送礼的奥妙感觉迟钝，为此常常责备自己不解其中味。

?(para4 line 35)In most cultures, most of them more sensible than our own, the giving of gifts is highly ritualistic—that is, it is governed by rules and regulations; it is under strict social control. It is also, more or less explicitly, an exchange.

?在大多数文化中（其中多数文化都比我们的文化更明智），送礼是很讲究规矩的—也就是说，受到条条框框的限制和严格的社会制约。送礼多少有点明显地也是一种交换。

（para. 4 line49)Y ou can finish your cognacs, in other words, and get down to the

real business of the evening:

To put it another way, when you finish the brandy, you can ask her to do what you intend to do.

Trans:换句话说，你就可以喝完科涅克酒，开始认真地讨论晚上的正事了。(Line 51)Gift-giving involves the expectation of reciprocity therefore, but we wise men of the western world avoid this fact; we paper it over with rhetoric about selflessness about how much better it is to give than to receive:

We tried to conceal the truth by making seemingly pervasive but insincere statement of selflessness, that is, it is far better to give than to receive.

Trans: 因此，送礼涉及到对互惠的期待，但我们西方世界的智者却回避这个事实：我们高谈无私之道，阔论给予如何胜于接受，以掩饰这一点。

(Line 59)To give freely, spontaneously, like nature in her abundance. Like some happy hooker who neglects to charge her customers. Like God’s own fool.

We should give like a generous nature who endows freely and naturally, like happy hooker who forgets to pay for her services, like the fool who is ready to help under the will of god.

Trans:慷慨奉献，自发赠送，如同丰饶的大自然对人类的给予，如同快乐的妓女忘了收嫖客的钱，如同任上帝捉弄的傻瓜。

I’ve given some thought to my own proclivities i n this matter and have concluded that even at my most ridiculously generous, my most spontaneously giving, I expect something in turn as much as the next man does.

Trans:我曾反省过自己在这方面的习性，并得出这样的结论：即使在我慷慨得最最荒唐、送礼完全是发自内心时，我也和别人一样期待着回报。

（line 65)I’m trying literally to buy something: affection, maybe love. Someone’s admiration. Or to establish my chosen identity as a romantic, capable of making grand gesture.

Actually, I’m trying to buy….,or to set up in others’ mind my chosen image of being a romantic, with generous associations.

Trans:我简直是在收买人心，如感情或是爱情，或者以浪漫者自居，能一展慷慨之雄风。

(line70) penetrate v. — to enter or force a way into; pierce

For example:

The insistent rhythm of piano practice penetrated each room of the house. Lenovo penetrated the home computer market with an affordable new model.

(Line 86) She had a puritan mentality.

She didn’t like to have gifts decorated.

Trans: 她具有一种清教徒式的简朴心态。

(Line 119)It’s an ego trip…

trip：preoccupation

It’s an activity people do for feeling important…

Trans:这是一种自我表现。

(Line 133)There’s precious little altruism in the world.

There is very little truly altruism in the world.

(Line 157)Cesar Chavez, whom I met on the ninth day of his famous fast as he lay in his austere room…watching the sunlight fade.

….his famous move of refuse dining for religious observation, as he lay in his simple and modest room…

Trans:我们见面的那天，正值他著名的绝食第九日，他躺在自己的陋室里欣赏日落的余晖。

(Line 172) Some of them wind up thinking very well of themselves indeed.

Some of them end up by thinking well of themselves.

He wound up by attacking the critics.

Winding up the debate, she said：“It would immediately put up interest rates.”(line 180)As soon as one becomes cynical about the possibility of altruism, counterinstances come to mind.

When people became cynical, the examples run counter to altruism came to mind. (Line 186)we want to give; beneath the neuroses, the compulsions, the fears, anxieties, desires, the self-pity, we harbor generous impulses, spontaneous warmth.

under the ….., we cherish ..

They found a body beneath a pile of leaves

She began to harbor doubts about the decisions.

Trans:在神经官能症，不自主的冲动，恐惧，焦虑，欲望以及自怜的背后，我们也怀有慷慨的冲动和自发的热情。

(Line 197) When I give I give myself.

When I give, I give all what I have .

Trans:当我给与时，我付出了全部。

(Line 201) Whitman gave himself to the world and made the bold, massively egoistic assumptions that the gift measured up.

Whitman made the brave and grand self-important assumptions that the gift is worthwhile.

Trans:惠特曼大胆地，毫不谦逊地臆断：他的礼物是合格的。

measure up : reach the standard required or expected

For example:

She’s always comparing me to other people and somehow I never measure up.

I have never measured up to your expectation, have I?

(Line 210) As long as…we don’t deceive…, there’s no danger of feeling the kind of unacknowledged disappointment over unacknowledged expectations …cynical.

unacknowledged: 1.unrecognized (truth)莫名的 2. failed to express gratitude 没有得到感谢的

Trans:只要我们不欺骗自己，在期待回报的时候想象不“图”回报，就不必顾虑期待落空造成的莫名失望让人玩世不恭。

An Outline of the Text

Paras 1-3I suffered a failure in gift-giving owing to ignorance of the niceties of it. Paras. 4-14People, by nature, expect some type of return, physically or spiritually, for what they give.

Paras. 4-9Niceties for gift-giving are: ritualistic, reciprocal, thoughtful, and decorated.

Paras.10-11There is little genuine altruism in the world: people, by nature, expect some type of return, physically or spiritually, for what they give.

Para. 12-14We live in tension between the possibility of altruism and the reality of egoism. when you generously give gifts and harbor good motivation, your altruism and egoism melted.

Para. 15In gift-giving, it would be easier if we accept that it’s part of human nature to expect sth. in return for our giving.

Key to Exercises

III. Vocabulary

A.

1. pamper

2. perspicacious

3. philanthropic

4. precious

5. charisma

6. largess

7. betoken

8. tacky

9. grudgingly 10. proclivity

B.

1. observe

2. wicked

3. egoism

4. discomfort

5. abundance

6. imminent

7. ashamed

8. puritan

9. spontaneously 10. worthy

C.

1. B

2. D

3. A

4. C

5. D

6. B

7. A

8. D

9. C 10. B

IV. Cloze

1. chances

2. single

3. with

4. to

5. mutually

6. following

7. partially

8. bother

9. As 10. taboo 11. beginning 12. both 13. an 14. on 15. not 16. made 17. similar 18. worth 19. concerned 20. themselves

V. Translation

A.

我曾与一位女子约会过一段时间——她属文学爱好者之类，博览群书，其寓所藏书甚丰——我对她的仰慕有点太过分。有一次过圣诞节，我决定送她一样非同一般的好东西，其价格恐怕也贵得非同一般。我给她买了一套斯威夫特文集——那可不是一套普通的文集，而是18世纪早期的珍藏版；随后，我把每一卷皮面精装书独立包装，还为每一卷制作了一张卡片，每张卡片上都写有我精选的一条斯威夫特语录。我以为这样非常浪漫；我想象着这样的情景：圣诞之夜，我俩围炉而坐，一边啜饮科涅克上等白兰地，一边欣赏着勃兰登堡协奏曲，她把文集一卷卷地打开。

我有时真笨！我早该知道她是个讲实惠的女人才是。她曾给我买过两双短袜和一件衬衫，还有一册小开本的A·R·阿曼斯诗集。她打开斯威夫特文集时，哭了起来。我还以为那是喜悦的泪水呢，但其实不是。“我不能接受这件礼物，”她说，“这太不合适了。”她硬要我把书拿走，要么卖掉，要么自己留着。见我不肯罢休，她越发不安。最后，她请我带着书离开。我伤心困惑地离开了。从那以后，我们彼此再也没有见面。几周之后，我才认识到是自己的不对。R·P·布莱克默曾在某处写道：“我们都是些愣头青，既愚笨又倔强。”

我引以为荣的是，我通常送礼还是比较有眼光的，不太张扬。但我的毛病也是明摆着的，正如我的前女友所言，送的礼物根本就不合适。比如说：送给人家的礼物自己难以支付，或者把象征亲密关系的礼物送给与自己没有那层关系的人，或者送的礼物与所送之人的兴趣或渴望的东西毫不相干。我对送礼的奥妙感觉迟钝，为此经常责备自己不解其中味。

Translation Exercise B

?Flowers are among the most frequently given gifts. There’s a traditional floral language, and a carefully selected bouquet or plant can convey a wide range of emotions and sentiments. Red roses symbolize love as well as the hopeful beginning of a new enterprise; violets beseech the recipient not to forget the donor; orchids and other exquisite blooms indicate that the recipient regards you as exotic, precious and rare.

?A floral gift that evokes warm recollections will be prized more than one that is simply showy and extravagant. Here’s an example：Once a customer asked a florist to deliver a bouquet of a certain variety of rose yellow tinged with red to a hospital where her mother lay seriously ill. “They’ve been my mother’s favorite flowers since she carried them at her wedding many years ago,” she said. The florist found the flowers she wanted after a week of searching. The customer’s mother was delighted at the sight of the flowers she had long cherished.

?A floral gift can also strengthen the emotional ties between husband and wife. Here’s a

brief story of that nature：A doctor, on his 57th birthday, received an ambitious floral gift. What was it? Well, he returned home from work that day, much to his joyful surprise, he found his front lawn turned into a rose garden containing 57 bushes. “It was a wonderful, self-renewing gift from my wife —a constant reminder of her and her love,” he said.