Reference Keys to Exercises of Unit 1
iii. Answer the following questions.
1. (Paragraphs 1, 2 and 6) Moral attitude is a decisive factor in how neat people and sloppy people handle things. According to the author, sloppiness is merely the unfortunate consequence of sloppy people's extreme moral rectitude, while neat people are bums and clods at heart, holding a careless cavalier attitude toward possessions.
2. (Paragraphs 4, and 5) The problem with sloppy people is that they aim too high and wide, and have never got round to executing their perfect plans. Their noble vision, ambitious plans, loving attention to every detail can be considered their moral virtues in contrast to neat people.
3. (Paragraph 7) The purpose of neat people in getting everything neat and tidy is frivolous and trivial. For example, they get the whole thing over with so that they can sit down and watch TV programs.
4. (Paragraphs 6, 9 and 12) Cavalier attitudes have turned neat people into bums and clods, insensitive and unloving. Sentimental attachment and loving care, however, are the very ingredients that make a moral man according to the author.
5. (Paragraph 12) The attitudes of neat people toward things and people form a continuum that is a manifestation of their moral frivolity and insensitivity, which is why they would rather send their children off to boarding school. iv. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text.
1. Sloppy people aim at a perfect and Utopian plan that entails such a huge task and mission that they have consistently failed to accomplish.
2. Sloppy people are preoccupied with unrealistic beliefs and usually place their hope on someday which will never really come.
3. Neat people hold the same attitudes toward things and people, and are very likely to dispose of them without care or reserve. Text appreciation
1. Sloppy people carry in their mind's eye a heavenly vision, a precise plan, that is so stupendous, so perfect, it can't be achieved in this world or the next. (Paragraph 2) 2. ... the surface of the desk is buried under mounds of paper and the unread magazines threaten to reach the ceiling. (Paragraph 4)
3. No sentimental salvaging of birthday cards or the last letter a dying relative ever wrote. (Paragraph 9)
4. Neat people cut a clean swath through the organic as well as the inorganic world. (Paragraph 12)
Language work
i. Explain the italicized part in each sentence in your own words.
1. absolute moral righteousness and correctness 2. arrange in alphabetic order
5. are gradually formed and developed 4. lazy and stupid
5. finish quickly what they have to do 6. destroy ruthlessly the main part of
III. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate phrasal verbs or collocations from the text.
1. passed on to 2. toying with 3. getting over 4. straightened out 5. part with 6. figured out 7. responded ... to 8. gone through
V. Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE appropriate word.
1. purposefully 2. rather 3. worthy 4. who 5. contributors 6. developed 7. staff 8. stories 9. described 10. audience / readership
Translation
The author holds that the fundamental difference between neat people and sloppy people is moral. The former place neatness above everything else and work on two unvarying principles: Never handle any item twice; and throw everything away. They are clear-minded and objective, but they are so indifferent that people, animals and things are all one to them. In sharp contrast, the latter fill their minds with all kinds of romantic whims and their ideals are just too perfect to come true in reality. What's more, the latter have a loving heart and seem to show sentimental attachments to everything. In a way, we may conclude that most statesmen and generals fall into the former category while most poets and artists belong to the latter type.
Tips for Discussion
1. With language, you might make the world laugh or weep when you laugh or weep.
2. What Daniel Defoe, writer of Robinson Crusoe, experienced best illustrates the power of the English language. It is said that his The True-born Englishman (1701) won him friendship; with the king while The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) brought him into jail.
3. So far as varieties of language are concerned, degrees of formality reflect to a considerate extent degrees of familiarity between people.
4. Private language, though casual and less refined, often displays intimacy while public language often betrays the distance between people.
Composition Writing
1. Based on your observations of friends or roommates and your own experiences, compare and contrast in a paragraph two people’s attitudes toward something. Focus on a single significant point of comparison. You might consider the following as possible subjects: A. Use of telephone B. Clothes
C. Shared vs. private space D. Shared vs. private objects
E. Loudness of conversations or music
F. Public behavior at a bus stop or some other places.
2. As an objective observer, write an essay on cultural differences between two groups. You should have a central theme. Use specific examples to support your statements and try to avoid overgeneralization. And, of course, you should beware of making biased judgments.