5. Procrastination has been honored long, suggesting that many ideas and decisions may well improve if postponed.
III. Translate the following into English
1. In fact, there is a long and honorable history of procrastination to suggest that many ideas and decisions may well improve if postponed. It is something of a truism that to put off making a decision is itself a decision. The parliamentary process is essentially a system of delay and deliberation. So, for that matter, is the creation of a great painting, or an entree, or a book, or a building like Blenheim Palace, which took the Duke of Marlborough?s architects and laborers 15 years to construct.
2. His point is well taken. Bureaucratization, which flourished amid the growing burdens of government and the greater complexity of society, was designed to smother policymakers in blankets of legalism, compromise and reappraisal --- and thereby prevent hasty decisions from being made. The centralization of government that led to Watergate has spread to economic institutions and beyond, making procrastination a worldwide way of life. Many languages are studded with phrases that refer to putting things off ---from the Spanish maiana to the Arabic bukrafil mishmish (literally “tomorrow in apricots, “more loosely “leave it for the soft spring weather when the apricots are blooming”).
3. In the process, the design can mellow and marinate. Indeed, hurry can be the assassin of elegance. As T. H. White, author of Sword in the Stone, once wrote, time “is not meant to be devoured in an hour or a day, but to be consumed delicately and gradually and without haste.” In other words, pace Lord Chesterfield, what you don?t necessarily have to do today, by all means put off until tomorrow.
4. “Never put off till tomorrow,” exhorted Lord Chesterfield in 1749, “what you can do today.”? That the elegant earl never got around to marrying his son?s mother and had a bad habit of keeping worthies like Dr. Johnson cooling their heels for hours in an anteroom attests to the fact that even the most well-intentioned men have been postponers ever.
5. Yet for all the trouble procrastination may incur, delay can often inspire and revive a creative soul. Jean Kerr, author of many successful novels and plays, says that she reads every soup-can and jam-jar label in her kitchen before settling down to her typewriter.
IV. Cloze
(1)put (2)Lord (3)what (4)That (5)around (6)habit (7)like (8)heels (9)fact (10)have (11)which (12)burdens (13)policymakers (14)prevent (15)that (16)making (17)way (18)putting (19)from (20)when
V. Proofreading: In fact, there is a long and honorable history of procrastination to suggest that many ideas and decisions may well improve if they are postponed. It is something of 1.∧truism that to put off making a decision is itself a 1. a 2.decision. The parliament process is essentially a system 2.parliamentary 3.of delay and deliberation. So, for this matter, is the 3. √ From:
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4.creation of a great painting, or an entree, or a book, or a 5.building like Blenheim Palace, for which took the Duke 6.of Marlborough?s architects and labors 15 years to 7.construct up. In the process, the design can mellow and 8.marinate. Indeed, hurry can be the assassin of an 9.elegance. As T. H. White, author of Sword in the Stone, once wrote, time “is not meant to be devoured in an hour or 10.a day, but∧ be consumed delicately and gradually and without haste.” 4. √ 5. for 6. laborers 7. up 8. an 9. √ 10. to Text II Rewrite the following
1. Gleefully she said it with her pride in the snake pit she?d come from, the way she said it seemingly more important than the truth of what she said. 2. With its less flattering modern connotations pared away, gossip, in my view, seems to have such a primary function like something of connection and community. 3. Gossip may not be like learning to tell stories by most of us, only in the case of those rare toddler-fabulists, enchanting parents and siblings with fairy tales made up on the spot. 4. Pacing, tone, clarity and authenticity may apply to the reportage of neighborhood news as well as to well-made fiction. 5. And yet for some people?s belief in gossip?s sole aim for criticizing and condemning, I prefer to see gossip as a tool of understanding.
From:
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M. A. Miller, pp. 266—269
TEXT I
Unit Three
WALLS AND BARRIERS
I. Paraphrase the parts underlined in the following:
Of course, my father is a gentleman of the old school, a member of the generation to whom a good deal of modern architecture is 1unnerving; but I suspect that his negative response was not so much to the architecture as to a violation of his concept of the nature of money.
In his generation money was thought of as a 2tangible commodity --- bullion, bank notes, coins --- that could be 3hefted, carried, or stolen. Consequently, to attract the 4custom of a sensible man, a bank had to have heavy walls, barred windows, and bronze doors, to affirm the fact, however untrue, that money would be safe inside. If a building?s design made it appear 5impregnable, the institution was necessarily 6sound, and the meaning of the heavy wall as an architectural symbol 7dwelt in the prevailing attitude toward money, rather than in any aesthetic theory.
But that attitude toward money has of course changed. The banker no longer offers us a safe, he offers us a service --- a service in which the most valuable elements are 8dash and a creative flair for the invention of large numbers. The Manufacturers Trust is a great cubical cage of glass whose brilliantly lighted interior challenges even the brightness of a sunny day, while the door to the vault, 9far from being secluded and guarded, is set out as a window display. Just as the older bank 10asserted its invulnerability, this bank by its architecture boasts of its imaginative powers. From this point of view it is hard to say where architecture ends and 11human assertion begins. In fact, there is no such division; the two are one and the same.
In the age of sociology and psychology, walls are not simply walls but physical symbols of the 12barriers in men?s minds.
In a primitive society, for example, men pictured the world as large, fearsome, hostile, and beyond human control. Therefore they built heavy, walls of huge boulders, behind which they could feel themselves to be in a 13delimited space that was controllable and safe; these heavy walls expressed man?s fear of the outer world and his need to find protection, however illusory. It might be argued that the undeveloped technology of the period 14
precluded the construction of more delicate walls. Still, it was not technology, but a fearful attitude toward the world, which made people want to build walls in the first place. The greater the fear, the heavier the wall, until in the tombs of ancient kings we find structures that are practically all wall, the fear of 15
dissolution being the ultimate fear.
And then there is the question of privacy --- for it has become 16questionable. In some Mediterranean cultures it was not so much the world of nature that was feared, but the world of men. Men were dirty, 17prying, vile, and dangerous. One went about, if one could afford it, in guarded litters, women went about heavily veiled, if they went about at all. One?s house was surrounded by a wall, and the rooms faced not out, but in, toward a 18patio, expressing the prevalent conviction that the beauties and values of life were to be found by looking inward, and by engaging in the intimate activities of a personal 19as against a public From:
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life. The rich 20intricacies of the decorative arts of the period, as well as its contemplative philosophies, 21are as illustrative of this attitude as the walls themselves. We feel different today. For one thing, we place greater reliance upon the control of human hostility, not so much by physical barriers, as by the 22conventions of law and social practice --- as well as the availability of motorized police. We do not cherish privacy as much as did our ancestors. We are proud to have our women seen and admired, and the same 23goes for our homes. The principal function of today?s wall is to separate possibly undesirable outside air from the controlled conditions of temperature and humidity which we have created inside. Glass may 24accomplish this function, though there are apparently a good many people who still have 25qualms about eating, sleeping, and dressing under conditions of high visibility; they demand walls that will at least give them a sense of adequate 26screening. But these shy ones are a vanishing breed. The Philip Johnson house in Connecticut, which is much admired and widely imitated, has glass walls all the way around, and the only real privacy is to be found in the bathroom, the toilette 27taboo being still unbroken, at least in Connecticut. 28
To repeat, it is not our advanced technology, but our changing conceptions of ourselves in relation to the world that determine how we shall build our walls. The glass wall expresses man?s conviction that he can and does master nature and society. The “open plan” and the 29unobstructed view are consistent with his faith in the eventual solution of all problems through the expanding efforts of science.
II. Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. My father?s negative response was not so much to the architecture as to a violation of his concept of the nature of money.
The architecture itself didn?t cause so much of _______________ 2. It is not our advanced technology, but our changing conceptions of ourselves in relation to the world that determine how we shall build our walls,
We are changing our conceptions of ourselves in relation to the world, which, instead of our advanced technology, ____________ 3. If a building?s design made it appear impregnable, the institution was necessarily sound, and the meaning of the heavy wall as an architectural symbol dwelt in the prevailing attitude toward money, rather than in any aesthetic theory.
A building?s apparently impregnable design made ____________ 4. It is in the understanding of architecture as a medium for the human attitudes, prejudices, taboos, and ideals that the architectural criticism departs from classical aesthetics.
Understanding architecture as a medium ____________________ 5. It might be argued that the undeveloped technology of the period precluded the construction of more delicate walls.
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M. A. Miller, pp. 266—269