新视界大学英语4 Unit4

Warming up Skimming Digging Interpreting Critical thinking

Unfamiliar wordsLanguage in use

Talking point

Warming up

Watch a video clip about what Forrest Gump’s mother tell him when she was dying.

Warming up Read the quotations about money and answer the

questions.

More

Warming up

Warming up

1 2 3 4 5 6

Which of them are easy to understand? Which of them are similar in meaning? Which of them do you agree with? Which of them are warnings? Which one recommends spending? Which one recommends saving?

Warming up Work in groups of three or four and discuss the

questions. 1 2 3 4 What do you spend your money on? Are you careful about how you spend it? What do you think is the best way to invest money? If you won a lot of money, what would you do with it?

Warming up Check (√) the advice you expect an intelligent older

person to give to a young man. □1 □2 □3 □4 □5 Be honest with yourself. Devote yourself to loving others. Enjoy yourself while you can. Money can’t buy you love. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

Now read the passage by Mitch Albom and find out what Morrie says to him.

Skimming Task

◇Browse the passage within 8 minutes to get a rough idea about it. ◇Answer the questions of Activity 2 and 3 on page 71.

Skimming

Check (√) the true statements about Morrie. □1 □2 □3 □4 □5 □6 □7 □8 □9 Morrie is very ill. He is an emotional person. He has lost interest in the pleasures of life. He used to be very interested in material things. He has been thinking about money a lot. He can’t afford to buy anything new for his house. He does volunteer work in a local senior centre. He thinks people have the wrong values. He believes in the power of love.

The true statements are 1, 2, 8 and 9.

Skimming

Answer the questions.

1 What has happened to Morrie’s interest in music since he became ill?

Morrie’s interest in music has got even more intense.2 In what way does Morrie think American people have been brainwashed?

American people are made to believe that material things are the most important and the more, the better.3 In what way does Morrie think material things and love are connected?

They are not connected, you cannot substitute material things for love.

Skimming

4 What happened the day Morrie discovered he was terminally ill?

He lost interest in buying things.5 How has Morrie’s house changed since that day?

It has not changed physically as he stopped buying things, but it has become a wealthy home, filled with love, friendship, family, honesty, tears, colleagues, students and so on.6 How does Morrie distinguish between “wants” and “needs”?

“Wants” are luxuries whereas “needs” are necessary.

Skimming

7 What advice does Morrie give the narrator?

To offer others what you have to give.8 Why does the narrator take notes of the conversation he has with Morrie?

Mostly because he doesn’t want Morrie

to see his eyes and understand what he is thinking.

DiggingBackground informationMP3译文

Tuesdays with MorrieMorrie was focused. There were good days and bad days now. He was having a good day. The night before, he had been entertained by a local a cappella group that had come to the house to perform, and he relayed the story excitedly, as if the Ink Spots themselves had dropped by for a visit. Morrie’s love for music was strong even before he got sick, but now it was so intense, it moved him to tears. He would listen to opera sometimes at night, closing his eyes, riding along with the magnificent voices as they dipped and soared.1

DiggingMP3译文

“You should have heard this group last night, Mitch. Such a sound!” 3 Morrie had always been taken with simple pleasures, singing, laughing, dancing. Now, more than ever, material things held little or no significance. When people die, you always hear the expression “You can’t take it with you.” Morrie seemed to know that a long time ago.2

DiggingMP3

译文

“We’ve got a form of brainwashing going on in our country,” Morrie sighed. “Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that’s what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it—and have it repeated to us—over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore.4

DiggingMP3译文

5 “Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. ‘Guess what I got? Guess what I got?’