Unit Five The Company Man

IV Exercises

I Pre-reading Qs

II Text Analysis

III After reading

Unit Five The Company Man

IV Exercises

I Pre-reading Qs

II Text Analysis

III After reading

I Pre-reading

Background Information -About the author Ellen Goodman (1940-), journalist and

columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for commentary. She has written for Newsweek, the Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe.

Discussion Qs: - What do you think is the life of a typical

workaholic like? -How important do you think work is to a

person?

T or F?

workaholics are driven by stress and an obsessive need to control the outcome of their jobs.

Some workaholics are as happy as can be in their work.

There are workaholics whose fear of failure and the need to control their lives forces them to work harder and harder until they suffer physical and emotional side effects.

Workaholics are mentally healthy and work hard because it gives them great satisfaction.

Unhealthy work addictions are best dealt with by counselors and therapists who specialize in workplace problems.

Are you a healthy workaholic?

Is work more exciting than family or anything else in your life?

Do you often take work with you to bed? Have your family and friends given up expecting

you to be on time because of your work demands?

Do you become impatient with people who have priorities besides work?

Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going well?

Have your long hours at work hurt your personal relationships?

Do you think about work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?

Is your life full of work-related stressors that affect your ability to sleep, diet and health?

Origin

Wayne Oates, a professor of psychology of religion at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. However, it was the appearance of Oates's book Confessions of a Workaholic in 1971 that propelled that term and prompted many writers to start using the suffixes -aholic, -holic, or -oholic to describe "all-consuming obsessions," not all of them so serious.

-holic

golfaholic, footballaholic, basketball-oholic, bingoholic, leisureholic;

beefaholic, peanuntholic, ice creamaholic; hashaholic (for hashish) or mariholic (for ma

rijuana), tobaccoholic book-oholic, catalogueoholic, eclipsoholic, g

ambler-oholic, game show-oholic, note-oholic, or phone-oholic.

What is a workaholic?

A workaholic is a person addicted to work. This addiction may be pleasurable to the victim or it may be burdensome and troubling.

Workaholism is believed by some to be a disease, akin to obsessive compulsive disorder.

Text Structure: Para 1: introduction Para2-6: reports how devoted the man was

to his work. Para7-13: describes Phil’s role in his family. Para 14-16: reports the company president’s

inquiry for his successor.

II Text Analysis

Structural Analysis: Short Ss+ long Ss (varies their weight

and achieves emphasis and impact.)

Rhetorical Features: details to illustrate the point the author wants to

emphasize Para 9: Para 10: Para 11:

Language points: -precisely: exactly eg: They arrived at five o’clock ~. -overweight: weighing more than is normal,

necessary, or allowed, esp. having more body weight than is considered normal or healthy for one’s age or build

cf:

-stout: polite term for fatness. Person with a thickset, bulky figure;

eg: Even slim girls can become stout matrons.

-pudgy: short and fat; eg: His pudgy fingers look really funny. - plump: pleasing fullness of figure; - eg: Everybody loves Rita, the plump, rosy li

ttle girl. - chubby: person who is round and plump;- eg: A chubby toddler; chubby cheeks

-Fat: excessive weight and is generally unfavorable in its connotations

eg: Charlie is not merely overweight but downright fat.

- obese: implies gross overweight eg: …though stout, not obese. - fleshy: a not necessarily excessive abundance

of flesh eg: Susan quite likes her boyfriend’s firm, flesh

y arms.

-survive: to live longer than; to outlive eg: It’s amazing that she should have ~d all

her children and grandchildren. My father ~d my mother by four years. -marketable: wanted by purchasers or employer

s eg: They have failed to launch a ~ model for

years. It is a good idea to list your ~ skills befor

e heading for the job fair.

-widow: a woman whose husband has died, and who has not married again

widower: widow v. : to make a widow or widower of

sb. eg: She calls her widowed mother almost eve

ry day. Straighten out : to solve or settle; to remove diff

iculties( from sth.) or the doubt or ignorance (in sb.’s mind)

eg: We need someone capable of straightening out all the confusion.

III After Reading

Text II