Unit 6 Attitudes to Life Two Truths to Live ByGet started • 1. Do you always get what you wanted? Have you experienced any difficult time or frustration in your life? • 2. What do you think is the right attitude towards problems and frustration? • Quotes • Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. • --- Winston Churchill • Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it . • ---Lou Haltz • When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. • --- Helen keller. How to keep a positive attitude? What is your motto in life? Two Truths to Live By Text comprehension • 1. What is the insight the author gained from his experience in hospital? • 2. What are the two truths to live by according to the author? • 3. Can most people hold fast to the gifts of life according to the author? • 4. How should we look at the paradox of life according to the author? • 5. What suggestions does the author make to resolve the paradox? Structure of the text Parts Paras.Main Ideas1231~89~1112~16Through one event during his hospitalization, the author explains that we often fail to see the beauty and wonder of life when we should be holding on to it, urges us to hold fast to the gifts of life.The author directs his discussion to the other side of the paradox: how to let go, and points out why we must accept losses and learn how to let go.As a solution to the paradox, the author suggests a wider perspective to view what is transient and what is eternal, gives us his advice as to what we should do in order to make our lives meaningful and our deeds “timeless”.Detailed reading The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. An ancient man said long ago: “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”fast: ad. become or be firmly fixed and unable to moveWhen they arrived there, they found that the church door was fast shut.clench : vt. close tightly The girl clenched her fist in anger. 手术时她咬紧了牙关。
She clenched her teeth when she was operated on.Detailed reading The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. An ancient man said long ago: “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”Detailed reading Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wonderful, and full of a beauty. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what it was and then suddenly realize that it is no more. Detailed reading We remember a beauty that faded, a love that withered. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered. wither: v. 1) (cause sth. To) become dry, or dead 这些花不放在水里就要枯死了。
The flowers will wither if you don’t put them in water. 2) render speechless or incapable of action; stun The teacher withered the noisy student with a glance.她的一瞥使他无言以对 She withered him with a look.tender: 1. v. formally offer or show something to someone As company secretary, you must tender the proposal.2. a. 1) (of meat) easy to chew; not tough Continue cooking until the meat is tender.2) painful when touched; sensitive 我的手指一碰就疼，因为昨天割破了My finger is tender because I cut it yesterday.• A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.hospitalize: vt. place in a hospital for treatment, care, or observation. Roger was hospitalized after a severe heart attack. NB :该词一般用于被动语态One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard in a chair. As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That’s all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was--- how warming; how sparkling; how brilliant!wheel: 1. n. one of the round things under a car, bus, bicycle, etc. that turns when it moves2. v. move someone or sth. that is in or on sth. that has wheelsTwo nurses were wheeling him into the operating theatre.I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun’s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond to the great beauty of it all.relish: 1. n. great enjoyment of something I ate with great relish, enjoying every bite.2. vt. enjoy an experience or the thought of something that is going to happ。