Unit 1
Active reading (1)
Catching crabs
Reading and understanding
3 Choose the best summary of what happened in the crab cage.
3 The cage was full of crabs. One of them was trying to escape, but each time it reached the top the other
crabs pulled it back. In the end it gave up trying and started to prevent other crabs from escaping.
4 Choose the best answer to the questions.
1 What happened to the students in the fall of the final year? (a) They became more relaxed. (b) They became more serious. (c) They spent more time outside. (d) They stopped going to lessons.
2 Why did some people have bags under their eyes in the morning? (a) They’d been to an all-night party.
(b) They’d started worrying about their future. (c) They’d spent all night in the library. (d) They wanted to impress their teachers.
3 Which students had already planned their future? (a) The ones who had the best grades.
(b) The ones who came from wealthy families.
(c) The quieter ones who didn’t have the best grades.
(d) The ones who wanted to get married and start a family. 4 Why did the writer go home? (a) He wanted to speak to his father.
(b) He could study better at home than at college. (c) He had to attend a job interview. (d) It was a national holiday.
Unit 1 Discovering yourself
5 Why did his father take him out to catch crabs? (a) They needed to get something to eat for dinner. (b) He wanted to show him how to catch crabs. (c) He wanted to tell him something about life.
(d) They both wanted to enjoy the coastline and the sea. 6 What advice did his father give him? (a) Get to know yourself better. (b) Watch what others do carefully. (c) Always listen to your father.
word文档 可自由复制编辑
(d) You can’t always do what you want.
Dealing with unfamiliar words
5 Match the words in the box with their definitions. 1 achieving good results (productive)
2 the fact of being present at an event, or of going regularly to school, church etc (attendance) 3 the refusal to accept something new, such as a plan, idea, or change (resistance) 4 determined to be successful, rich, famous etc (ambitious) 5 agreement to a plan, offer, or suggestion (acceptance)
6 the written words of a play, film, television programme, speech etc (script) 7 very good, large, or showing great skill (impressive)
6 Complete the paragraph with the correct form of the words in Activity 5.
To be a successful film scriptwriter takes more than training although (1) attendance on a screenwriting
course will definitely help you learn the skills. You also need to be very (2) ambitious – the film business
is very competitive. You have to be prepared to work hard and be very (3) productive because it takes
more than just one good idea to make it big. No matter how (4) impressive your idea is, there will
always be (5) resistance from producers because it’s too expensive. So make sure you have plenty of
others to show them. What are you waiting for? Get on with writing that brilliant (6) script and plan your
(7) acceptance speech for when you win your first Oscar!
7 Replace the underlined words with the correct form of the words in the box. 1 We’ve seen a place we like and we’re applying for a loan to buy a house. (mortgage) 2 We stood on the top floor of the boat and watched the coast disappear into the horizon. (deck)
3 I love to walk along the beach and watch the waves breaking, and the white water hitting the shore. (surf)
4 In seaside areas in the north-east of the country, life is hard and fishermen have to go against the forces
of nature every time they go to work. (coastal; defy)
5 Agreement was finally reached after a long and heated discussion. (lengthy) 8 Answer the questions about the words and expressions.
1 If you watch an impromptu performance of something, has it (a) been prepared, or (b) not been
prepared?
2 When you map out your future, do you (a) plan it carefully, or (b) draw a sketch of it on paper?
Discovering yourself Unit 1
3 If you brace yourself for something unpleasant, do you (a) try not to think about it, or (b) prepare
word文档 可自由复制编辑
yourself for it mentally and physically?
4 Do you moor a boat by (a) turning the steering wheel, or (b) tying it to a post with a rope? 5 Is a rusty piece of metal something that (a) is bright and shiny, or (b) might have been left out in the rain
and is covered with brown substance?
6 If a bowl is brimming with soup, is it (a) very full, or (b) half empty?
7 If someone is being held captive, are they (a) free to do as they please, or (b) being kept as a prisoner?
8 If you have figured out something, have you (a) added numbers together, or (b) understood it?
Active reading (2)
2 Work in pairs. Look at the title of the passage and choose the best way to complete the sentences.
1 The passage will be (c) .
(a) a newspaper article about life expectancy (b) a sad story about death
(c) advice about how to make the most of your life (d) a warning that modern lifestyles are bad for health
Unit 1 Discovering yourself 12
2 The passage is likely to be (d) . (a) serious (b) funny (c) depressing
(d) a mixture of all three
3 The passage is likely to say (b) .
(a) young people don’t think enough about death (b) life is short
(c) people are dying unnecessarily (d) people don’t enjoy life enough
We are all dying Background information
The passage is taken from Everything That Happens to Me Is Good, a book of thoughts, experiences and
insights from the life of Geoff Thompson. The writer worked in many different jobs, including nine years
as a “bouncer” in a nightclub in London (a bouncer has the tough job of making sure that no one causes
trouble, eg if they are rude, drunk or violent). He then trained full-time in karate, judo and other martial arts
and became well-known as a martial arts instructor. He lived out his dream to become a writer,
word文档 可自由复制编辑
authoring
over 30 books on self-defence and self-improvement and has recently been making films and writing for the
screen. Asked what he had learnt from his years in martial arts, he said, “The main thing I’ve learned is that
wherever there is discomfort there is growth, but what people do is to look for growth in areas of comfort –
and there’s no growth in comfort. So look for areas of growth that are uncomfortable but allow you to grow,
and learn to become comfortable in those areas.”
Language points
1 I have some good news and some bad news for you (as the joke goes). The bad news – and I’m very
sorry to be the bearer – is that we are all dying. It’s true. I’ve checked it out. (Para 1) Good news and bad news are often paired together in jokes and in comments on new information or recent
events where there is a mixture of positive and negative aspects, eg The good news is … But the bad news is …
To check something out means to examine something or someone in order to be certain that everything is
correct, true, satisfactory or acceptable. Check this out! is an attention-getting exclamation which means
here’s something interesting to have a look at.
2 … we are all going to be either coffin dwellers or trampled ash in the rose garden of some local
cemetery. (Para 1)
Coffin is a long box in which a dead person is buried. The expression coffin dweller is a humorous way to refer to dead people.
The expression trampled ash in the rose garden of some local cemetery refers jokingly to the ashes of a
dead person placed in a cemetery garden where people walk on the buried ashes.
Discovering yourself Unit 1 13
3 After all, we never quite know when the hooded, scythe-carrying, bringer-of-the-last-breath might come-a-calling. (Para 1)
The expression the hooded, scythe-carrying, bringer-of-the-last breath refers to the reaper, a person who
reaps or cuts corn for the harvest and is a symbol of death from medieval times of the West. A reaper is
personified as a tall figure dressed in a black cloak with a hood covering his face and carrying
word文档 可自由复制编辑
a scythe,
a cutting tool with a long curved metal blade used for cutting, or reaping long grass or corn. The reaper
brings death or brings your last breath. The expression when the reaper arrives means when death comes to you.
4 … and nothing underlines the uncertainty and absolute frailty of humanity like the untimely exit of a friend. (Para 1)
The word exit here means leaving this world or death. The word untimely means happening at a time that
is not suitable because it causes problems. An untimely death is too soon or when a person is young.
5 Knowing that we are all budding crypt-kickers takes away all the uncertainty of life. (Para 3)
That we are all budding crypt-kickers is a humorous way of saying that we are all potentially soon to be
buried, ie dead.
6 The prologue and epilogue are already typed in. All that’s left is the middle bit ... choose the meat of the story. (Para 3)
A prologue is a piece of writing at the start of a book, or the beginning of a play, film or TV programme
that introduces a story. An epilogue is at the end of a novel, play or piece of writing, which carries an extra
comment or extra information about what happens after the main story. Here, the writer’s point is that the
prologue (birth) and epilogue (end, death) of your life are already written, but we all choose to write the
middle bit – the meat of the story.
7 So, all those plans that you have on the back burner, you know, the great things you’re going to do
with your life “when the time is right”? (Para 4)
A back burner is literally one of the back parts of a cooker which is used for heating or cooking food.
Metaphorically, if you put something on the back burner, it means you have decided not to do it until
later. It is at the back of the cooker, just simmering or cooking slowly, so you don’t give it priority because
it doesn’t need your full attention. The expression this back-burner stuff (Para 10) thus refers to things
which have low priority and get little attention.
8 There’s only a promissory note that we are often not in a position to cash. (Para 5) A promissory note is a document giving details of your promise to pay someone a particular
word文档 可自由复制编辑
搜索“diyifanwen.net”或“第一范文网”即可找到本站免费阅读全部范文。收藏本站方便下次阅读，第一范文网，提供最新初中教育新标准大学英语综合教程3课后答案 全文阅读和word下载服务。
相关推荐：
刻骨铭心