Unit 7 Attitude Towards

Life

Word Pretest

1. I did not easily lose temper, but he kept me waiting for three hours and it was intolerable.

intolerable a. — too bad or unpleasant to deal with or accept

无法容忍的，不能接受的

• intolerably ad.

2. A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth.

induce v. — to cause something to happen； to persuade someone to do something 导致；诱使，劝说

induce sth. = cause sth. induce sb. to do sth.• inducement n. financial/cash inducements 经济 / 金钱诱惑

引诱；诱因

地震活动激增可能是油气开采井废水高压回注地下的结果

3. The place has developed from a fishing port into a thriving tourist center.

thrive v. [thrived, thrived / throve, thriven ]— to grow, develop or be successful

茁壮成长；兴旺，繁荣

• thriving a. = prosperous

4. It seemed incredible that she had been there a week already.

incredible a. — impossible, or very difficult, to believe； extremely good

难以置信的；极好的

• incredibly ad.

5. She has used her wits to progress to the position she holds today.

wits n. [plural]— intelligence and the ability to think quickly

机智 , 头脑

• wit = humor n.

6. She still clings to the belief that her son is still alive.

cling to — to refuse to stop believing or hoping for something

坚持（信念或希望） ，保持

• cling to the belief / hope that

7. The hills were shrouded in mist in the morning before sunrise.

shroud v./n. — to hide something by covering or surrounding it

笼罩；遮蔽；覆盖

8. My father will never give his consent to our marriage.

consent n./v. — permission or agreement

许可，允许；同意

• consent v.

• consent to do sth.

Section A : Text I

The Simple Wisdom in

Having the Right Attitude

It used to annoy me to no end(=very much) when people would tell me to have a better attitude, offering this advice as though it were as simple as flipping a switch. They made it sound like it was something entirely in my control. "Go ahead and just change your attitude, sweet heart, and the world will smile at you and the sun will shine brightly and you will feel so much better." Attitude seemed like the magic bullet ( 灵丹妙药 ), according to these happiness experts, and they would go so far as to( 甚至… ) say how it is the determining factor between one's happiness and misery in life. Ironically, every time I heard this advice, I ended up feeling depressed and angry, depressed because I could not understand how to change my own perspective, angry because I could not stand the idea of something so small being so powerful and yet not being able to have access to it, and more so, angry that life seemed easy for others when I struggled with my minuscule problems on giant scales.

How can looking at a situation differently change the actual situation? To me, facts are facts, and the good and bad are clearly marked for every event. A car accident is unfortunate and nothing to smile about. An unexpected sickness is nothing positive or educational. Being cheated in a service transaction is intolerable and does not serve any good purpose. An unfair grading by a professor is, well, just brutal and cruel and these, among many others, are plenty of reasons to plunge oneself into( 使陷入 ) self-induced pity, anxiety, unhappiness and stress. Or are they really? What it really means to have the right attitude? Attitude is not the be-all and end-all（ =the most important thing） . It is not the magic bullet or a secret to true happiness or even a solution to your problems. Smiling and laughing in the face of misfortune do not solve problems but neither do tears. The right attitude simply feels good. In fact, it feels really good and how you feel matters a great deal in what you do.

A few months ago, I was struggling with the direction of my business and the lack of momentum（ =energy） . Every day that I thought about this problem, I felt more helpless and powerless to change it. I decided to inspire myself by listening to success stories of other entrepreneurs but instead, I felt overwhelmed and small in the face of all the massively successful business minds, and fell more into a funk. I knew that I had the resources and the knowledge and the experience to build a smart platform for a thriving business, but the pressure of not succeeding right now — or even sometime in the past — wiped out all of my energy. I had none left to devote to the present moment. I had no hope in how I could put all this information to use.

That episode in late summer marks one of the worst — and best — examples of how a bad attitude can turn an average situation into a terribly hopeless one, not to mention the stress it puts on your well-being. One day, I just decided to change the way I was doing everything, from what I listened and read and consumed to how I went about doing the smallest tasks such as responding to emails and handling small tasks in my business. I remember walking in circles in my office, and with that decision alone, feeling the air filling up my lungs with space and openness. The surge of hope into my veins felt refreshing. The plethora of ideas and creativity was incredible. The change in my perspective had suddenly brought about change everywhere else.

I made a few promises to myself, made a few priorities and put a few deadlines in place and absolutely forbid myself from comparing my business to any other business in the world. I started to feel genuine happiness for others who had risen to respectable success in their business and started to realize the possibilities for myself again. I had managed to restore my faith, my sanity and my wits with my changing attitude and my frame of mind. Since I made the switch to this attitude, there has been no shortage of good results and encouraging series of events from every business decision and move that I've been making.

The right attitude gives you hope when your mind wants to cling to hopelessness and feel sorry for itself like a sad victim. It fills you up with positive energy that helps you think and see your situation more clearly. It enables you to look at every situation like a puzzle of a problem and it encourages you to look for solutions rather than to focus on all the reasons why the problem happened to you. The right attitude helps you take long deep breaths in a stressful situation and that sends oxygen to your brain rather than spasm to your muscles. It helps you consider possibilities that you can hardly see when your head is shrouded in clouds of misery. The right attitude can be powerful beyond measure but only with your consent because you alone determine the role this attitude can play in your life.

How Having the Right Attitude Opens Doors for You

The right attitude does not make light of a serious situation or a big problem in your life. It does not make it seem as though bad things happened for a good reason. The right attitude is not about justifying the poor hand of cards that you may have been dealt (=the wrong decision we have made ). It is rather about choosing every step that follows that hand by positioning you in such a way that you can indeed make the best decisions with the information that you have. The right attitude empowers, enables, fills the room with hope and fills your lungs with air. It clears your mind and feeds your body with everything you need to turn any situation around. And that is the power of the right attitude.

If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want. — Oscar Wilde

Reading Comprehension

1. According to some happiness experts, if you change your attitude ______.

A.the world will remain the same B. the world will change C. the world will be out of your control

(B. fact: …as though it were as simple as flipping a switch. They made it sound like it was something entirely in my control. "Go ahead and just change your attitude, sweet heart, and the world will smile at you and the sun will shine brightly and you will feel so much better." Line 2~6)

Reading Comprehension2. Every time the author heard the advice of having a

good attitude, he was annoyed because ______. A. he had to deal with big problems B. he was not able to get a good attitude C. life seemed easy for everyone including himself

(B. fact: every time I heard this advice, I ended up feeling depressed and angry, depressed because I could not understand how to change my own perspective, angry because I could not stand the idea of something so small being so powerful and yet not being able to have access to it, and more so, angry that life seemed easy for others when I struggled with my minuscule problems Line 10~15)

Reading Comprehension3. The author will disagree with the following except

for ______. A.attitude is the most important thing B. attitude is the magic bullet C. smiling and laughing in the face of misfortune do

not solve problems

(C. fact: Attitude is not the be-all and end-all（ =the most important thing） . It is not the magic bullet or a secret to true happiness or even a solution to your problems. Smiling and laughing in the face of misfortune do not solve problems but neither do tears. Line 25~28)

Reading Comprehension4. What happened to the author in late summer? A.His bad attitude turned a good situation into a

hopeless one. B. He decided to change the way he was doing

everything. C. He spent the whole day responding to emails and

handling small tasks in his business.

(B. fact: That episode in late summer marks one of the worst — and best — examples of how a bad attitude can turn an average situation into a terribly hopeless one…One day, I just decided to change the way I was doing everything, Line 41~44)

Reading Comprehension

5. After the author made a switch to the right attitude, ______.

A.he still allowed himself to compare his business with other businesses in the world

B. his business decisions failed to produce encouraging results

C. he started to feel genuine happiness for others who had risen to respectable success in their business

(C. fact: I started to feel genuine happiness for others who had risen to respectable success in their business ……

Since I made the switch to this attitude, there has been no shortage of good results and encouraging series of events…… Line 54~55)

Reading Comprehension

6. The right attitude gives one the following except for ______.

A. hope B. the justification for the wrong decision we have

made C. positive energy

(B. fact: The right attitude gives you hope when …. It fills you up with positive energy that …… . Line 62~64)

Reading Comprehension

7. When a bad thing happened to you, ______. A.you should look for a good reason B. you should choose the right steps to deal with itC. you should accept the situation without taking any

action

(B. fact: The right attitude is not about justifying the poor hand of cards that you may have been dealt (=the wrong decision we have made ). It is rather about choosing every step that follows that hand by positioning you ……Line 76~78)

Reading Comprehension

8. Oscar Wilde's words tell us that ______. A. not everything in the world is what you want B. thinking of things you don't want helps you get

everything you want C. if you want to get everything you cannot be

successful

(A. fact: If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.

Line 86~87)

Word Match (p. 107) minuscule an enclosed area used for sports, public entertainments, etc．

funk extremely small preach taking or needing great effort or strength strenuous great feararena to advise or urge others to accept (sth. one believes in)

adversity to damage, break, or cause to lose shape

batter a particular eventepisode bad fortune, troubleplethora to move or be thrown suddenly forwards / downwards

plunge an amount much greater than is needed

Vocabulary Building

sanity a sudden uncontrolled tightening of muscles

spasm to disorder, spoil etc．empower the quality of being sanemess up completely destructivedevastating to give someone the power to do something

common denominator to lose strength or effectiveness; weaken odds a quality or belief shared by all the members of a group

stack the probabilities that something will or will not happen

motivate to arrange dishonestly so as to give oneself an unfair advantage

falter to provide with a strong reason for doing sth.

Semantic Variations (p.108)

1. C 2． B 3． B 4． A 5． C 6． B

Stems (p.109)1． prescribe: ： to advise the use of a medicine2． description ： an account of a person in words3． terrain ： a stretch of land, with regard to its natural features4． subscribe ： to pay regularly in order to receive a magazine， newspaper， etc．5． territorial ： of a country’s territory6． extraterrestrial ： of or from outside the earth or its atmosphere

terr = land , 表示“土地”terrace n. 梯田；露天平台，阳台 [terr 土地， -ace 名词后缀 ] terrain n. 地形；地带；领域   [terr 土地， -ain 名词后缀 ]

territory n. 领土；地域；领域 ，范围 [terr 土地， -it-， -ory 名词后缀 ] territorial a. 领土的

terrestrial a. 地球的；陆地上的[terr 土地→地球， -ial 形容词后缀 ] extraterrestrial n. 外星人，天外来客（缩写： E.T. ） a. 地球外的 [extra- 外， 同上 ]

scrib/scrip = write , 表示“价值；力量”describe v. 描写，叙述（ de 着重 +scribe--> 着重写 --> 描写） descriptive a. 描述的； 描写的description n. 描述；描写；种类

subscribe v. 签署；捐款； 同意；订阅 （ sub 在下面 +scribe→在下面写上名字→签订单） subscription n. 捐款；订阅；签名subscriber n. 捐款者；订阅者

prescribe  v. 规定，命令；开处方 （ pre 预先 +scribe--> 预先写好药量） prescriptive a. 规定的，规范的prescription n. 处方；命令

Antonyms (p.109)

1. appear 2． ready 3． hide 4． skillful 5． careless

Cloze (p. 110)intelligentactivities workout attitude off reducing seem aside

Each of us has his own attitudes towards life. Some are optimists while others are pessimists. It is, perhaps, better to be a realist, i.e. seeing the world as it really is. This is important because only by being realistic can we formulate goals and strategies that are practical and attainable. In order to define our achievable goals, we need to know our own strengths (or assets) and weaknesses (or liabilities). A little bit of optimism is good so that we are not easily discouraged. It gives us hope. Pessimists are usually discouraged even before they begin, or if they have begun, they gave up too easily without a fight. On the other hand, being too optimistic can get us into unnecessary troubles. People who are too optimistic tend to rush hastily into things without putting some thoughts into their plans. Sometimes, they do not recognise troubles until it is too late. Thus, it is best to be realistic towards life. If we cannot be so, then better optimistic than pessimistic. This should be our attitude towards life. Only then can we make the most out of our lives.

Two average, financially successful, young-middle-age couples thought that happiness was eluding(=not achieve) them. One lived in a large city and the other in a small rural area. Each decided that the other’s way of life was much better — and so they changed places for a year. The city couple soon became bored with the less hectic pace and the more direct confrontation with nature. The country couple was soon dismayed by the crowded, impersonal hurry-up city tempo. At the end of the year both couples came to realize a fundamental truth of life — that happiness lies within ourselves. If all the people in the world today were asked their goal in life, the vast majority would probably reply that they sought happiness. Yet we know that happiness is not the passing fancy, passive contentment or far-off paradise. We learn that life gives only periods of happiness. We also learn that our ideas of happiness change as we mature and define our goals more clearly. We also find out that our station in life, our surroundings, or our bank account does not determine the nature and extent of our happiness. “Happy families are all alike; unhappy families are unhappy each in their unique way.” This sentence, which begins a famous novel by Tolstoi, is meant to show that we get what we give in daily living. Happiness is an attitude toward life. It is a garden that only we can cultivate.

Attitude is the consistent manner in which we react to a person or an object. It is learned and acquired from young. A good attitude produces good results. A poor attitude produces poor results. Parents can help their child acquire a positive attitude towards life. Here is an illustration. A director of an expanding and growing shoe company wanted to venture into an isolated island population to market his products. He sent salesman A to tap the potential of the market there. After three days, salesman A called the director and said, “I will be taking the next flight back. The people here do not wear shoes, therefore we do not have a market.” A few months later, salesman B from the same company went for a holiday in this island. Almost immediately he called hisdirector and said, “Sir, please send me all types and sizes of shoes. I am so excited. People here do not wear shoes. When I showed them how it could protect their feet, they liked the idea so much that they want shoes of their own. There are just too many orders here.” The circumstances were both the same, yet salesman B with a better attitude found a market when A could not.

Recently, the number of suicide cases increase rapidly in Hong Kong. As teenagers are the future of our society, it is important for them to develop an optimistic view towards life. Here three activities are suggested for students to promote a positive attitude towards life and to face difficulties through the activities. Talks and seminars can be organized for students and their parents. Students should share their ups and downs with their parents whereas their parents should spend more time with their children and listen to them. Moreover, organizing talks can suggest various ways to help their children if they realize that their children are under heavy stress. Apart from organizing talks and seminars, discussions about suicide cases in Hong Kong between teachers and students can be held. By discussing, teachers should teach their students that they should not escape problems but be brave to face them. Students should also be encouraged to ask the teachers or social workers for help if they have emotional problems. In addition to discussions about suicide cases in Hong Kong, an inter-school drama competition can be held. Students of each class should work together to perform a drama that can spread the idea of “being optimistic towards life.” It aims to encourage students to face different kinds of difficulties, such as the stress in their studies, conflicts in inter-personal relationship and problems in families through different plays. Every cloud has a silver lining 事情总有转机（一线希望 ). and we should develop a progressive and optimistic philosophy towards life. We should strive hard for a better tomorrow.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them — work, family, health, friends and spirit and you are keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends and spirit — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably marked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. Then how to strive for balance in your life? Don’t undermine(=make someone less confident) your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different and each of us is special. Only you know what is best for you. Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying. Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave. Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find time. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been, but also where you are going(=the direction). Life is not a race, but a journey to be tasted each step of the way.

Dare Mighty Things In his 1899 speech before the Hamilton Club in Chicago, Theodore Roosevelt preached the idea of the strenuous life（ = strenuous effort and overcoming hardship ） for a successful life. Yet I would like to add to Roosevelt’s idea of the strenuous life the equally important idea of the winning attitude. You are not born with it. It is not for sale. You can’t go to college and get a degree in it. But a winning attitude may be the single most important ingredient in your personal and career success. Over the years, I’ve come to believe that attitude is often the determining factor in success or failure. It’s an intangible thing — you can’t see it or touch it. But you can see the effects of attitude, both positive and negative, in the results it creates in people’s lives. Everyone has the opportunity to win in life, but most people won’t win. Most people will get tired and give up, because they are not willing to pay the price. They have the ability, but they lack the most important determining factor in success — the will to win.

敢于挑战

When I first started as a salesman, I made a lot of mistakes. I would come home every night and say: “Art, how could you do something that stupid? How could you mess things up like that?” Then I’d go out the next day and make another mistake, and I’d come home the next night saying the same thing. I made a million dumb mistakes, but something kept me going. And looking back, I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me from giving up, and kept me holding on until I started to do things right, was the will to win. That thin thread of determination turned out to be a lifeline that has helped me across all the tough spots in my life. The sports arena is one of the best places in the world to learn about attitude. We’ve all seen the weaker football or baseball team that lacked talent, suffering from injuries and bad luck and was called a loser beat teams three times as strong.

Once in my coaching career, I took over a weak little football team of underweight, inexperienced kids, who had such a history of losing that they don’t even want to dress out at practice. I knew that I couldn’t make them physically perfect and professional in one season. No coach could have. The only thing I could do was to make them see themselves as winners. We practiced as if there were no tomorrow, and we worked harder than any other team. But, most important, every day I told these kids they were winners. I stressed not only physical toughness but mental toughness. At first, they must have thought I was crazy. But, you know, slowly they began to believe it. When they won their first game, they were confident in themselves, and after that there was no stopping them. They had developed a winning attitude. They hadn’t become different people overnight. But they saw themselves as winners, and that perception changed everything.

That perception is the key to achievement. Writers and researchers who have spent years studying successful people conclude that success is made of three parts: one part talent, one part “breaks” (=opportunity or being at the right place at the right time), and one part “will to win.” A common denominator among successful people is their ability to perceive themselves as winners, even at their lowest moments. Winners have in common a “burning desire” to succeed. I firmly believe that life will give you whatever you will accept. If you accept being average and ordinary, life will make you average and ordinary. If you accept being poor (either financially or in spirit), life will make you poor; and if you accept being unhappy, life will deliver that, too. You must expect to win. “Will to win” in action means an attitude of perseverance, even in the face of every adversity, and a determination to succeed, even when the odds are stacked against you（ = it is not likely that you will succeed) ） . The greatest definition of a winner I’ve ever seen goes like this: “Most people can stay motivated to two or three months. A few people can stay motivated for two or three years. But a winner will stay motivated for as long as it takes to win.”

In business, I encounter people almost every day who have dozens of good reasons that they don’t succeed. They usually go something like this: “People like me don’t get a chance in today’s world.”“The odds are stacked against me 成功的可能性不大 .”“Someone from my background can’t compete with people who are born with a silver spoon in their mouths.”“I don’t have a college education.”“I’m held back by my responsibilities.” Excuses don’t count. Everyone has the ability to begin where he is right now to turn his life around, to start becoming somebody special. The decision to do it is the starting point. The feeling that you can do it — a winning attitude — will make it work for you. Someone once said, “Tough times don’t last — tough people do.” Life gets tough for all of us at one time or another. The many devastating things that can happen — business failure, personal unhappiness, family tragedy — all have the potential to destroy the heart of a person. But tough people can turn these times into determination to move ahead. They can make the most miserable circumstances a challenge to survive and defeat adversity.

Sounds good, you say, but how do I develop this attitude? My theory is this: If you want to be a “winner,” you’ve got to become a dreamer again. Most people have stopped dreaming. They grow up with everyone telling them how special they are. They are really “turned on” about life and about becoming somebody that they’ll be proud of. Then they’re thrown out into the big, real world, and these once motivated, enthusiastic people go into a shell. They begin to develop an attitude that “Life has passed me by. Life has dealt me a bad hand.” To develop a winning attitude you must relearn how to dream. You must become excited, confident, and enthusiastic about your life just one more time.

I can think of a particular instance of someone who succeeded in turning a battered outlook on life into a winning attitude. Cindy joined our company as a part-time employee and made good progress; eventually her husband began to work with her in the business. Then misfortune hit. Her daughter contracted a serious disease. Their house caught fire. Several of her associates quit suddenly, and her business faltered. Both cars were about to be repossessed. The money completely ran out, and things got progressively worse. One day she realized there was nothing in the home to eat and no money. For Cindy, that day was the turning point of her life. It was the day she decided to take control of her life — and to win. Her husband took an outside job, and she threw herself back into the business. With no money and thousands of dollars worth of debts, they began again. And inch by inch, day by day, one debt at a time, they crawled back. She found the ability to dream of being a winner, even when every standard of society said she was the worst kind of loser. She became motivated, and she stayed motivated for as long as it took to win.

When people in our company come to me and want advice on how to succeed, I don’t waste time with business tips. My best advice is to tell them to look inside themselves and pull out the ability to dream big. And I know that if they can do that, the rest of it will surely follow. I’ve seen it work too many times to attribute it to luck. Think about it, and consider it for your own life. Reach inside and find that dream you’ve been hanging on to — the one about becoming somebody special, doing something great with your life. If you believe in it, really believe in it, you’ll have the security of knowing that nothing can defeat you. And that’s real security, the kind that only true winners have. The little football team did have a winning season. Today, Cindy is a top executive with a flourishing business. In both cases, the ability to develop a winning attitude made all the difference. The tough times didn’t last and the people involved are still going strong. Tough people always do. That’s why they call them “winners.”

Key to Section B: (p. 111-114)1. C 2. C 3. C 4. C 5. C 6. T 7. F 8. T9. F 10.T 11.T 12.F 13.F 14. F 15.T

Key to Section C: (p. 115-117)1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F 6. T 7. F 8. T9. T 10. T