节选

UNIT 2

Studying the humanities improves our ability to read and write. No matter what we do in life, we will have a huge advantage if we can read complex ideas and understand their meaning. We will have a bright career if we are the person in the office who can write a clear and elegant analysis of those ideas!

学习人文学科会提高我们的阅读和写作能力。无论我们这一生中从事什么职业，如果我们能读懂复杂的思想并理解它们的内涵，我们都会受益匪浅。如果我们是在办公室里能对这些思想写出既明确又简洁的分析的人，我们会有光明的职业前景。

Studying the humanities makes us familiar with the language of emotion and the creative process. In an information economy, many people have the ability to produce a useful product such as a new MP3 player. Yet, very few people have the ability to create a spectacular brand: the iPod. Most importantly, studying the humanities invests us with great insight and self-awareness, thereby releasing our creative energy and talent in a positive and constructive manner.

学习人文学科会让我们熟悉表达情感的语言及进行创造的过程。在信息经济中，很多人都有能力创造出一个如新的MP3播放器那样的有用产品。然而，仅有很少的人具有能力创造出一个如iPod那样的精彩品牌。最重要的是，学习人文学科使我们具有伟大的洞察力和自我意识，从而以积极和建设性的方式来发挥我们的创造力和才艺。

UNIT 3

To reinforce this essential message, success moving through the odyssey years will come to those who don’t expect to achieve their goals right away but know that they must have the strength, capacity and confidence to endure over the long term. If you’re a little late with your goals, don’t feel like a failure! Stay strong, be positive, and keep focused! Someday you will look back and wonder at the vast changes as you passed through the odyssey years.

要强化这一重要信息：顺利度过奥德赛岁月的将是那些不急于即刻实现目标的人——但这些人知道他们必须保持实力、能力、信心去度过这段较长的岁月。如果你的目标起步稍晚了点，不要认为自己是个失败者！意志坚定，态度积极，并集中精力！有一天，你会回头审视，并对奥德赛岁月给你带来的巨大改变感到惊叹。

UNIT 4

We met through my college roommate at the university cafeteria. That fateful night, I was merely curious, but for him I think it was love at first sight. “You have beautiful eyes,” he said as he gazed at my face. He kept staring at me all night long. I really wasn’t that interested for two reasons. First, he looked like he was a really wild boy, maybe even dangerous. Second, although he was very cute, he seemed a little weird.

我们通过我的大学室友介绍在大学食堂相识。在那个命中注定的夜晚，我只是好奇，但对他而言，我认为是一见钟情。他凝视着我的脸，说：“你有一双美丽的眼睛。”他整个晚上一直盯着我。我真的对他没那么感兴趣，其原因有二。首先，他看起来就像是一个野小子，甚至还有些危险。其次，虽然他很可爱，却似乎有点怪异。

Our faithful journey of love and learning took us down rocky roads of hardship and on smooth easy-going highways. It is a long, romantic, sometimes crazy, love story that sums up a 29-year long honeymoon together as a couple who are still madly in love with each other. Our love commenced with a casual attraction but bloomed into a mature love and rich life.

我们忠实的爱和学习之旅带我们走过艰难崎岖的岩石路，走上平坦易行的公路。它是一个永久、浪漫，有时又疯狂的爱情故事。它诠释了一对仍在疯狂地爱着对方的夫妇如何一起度过了29年之久的蜜月。我们的爱从漫不经心的互相吸引开始，但最终却发展出成熟的爱情和富足的生活。

UNIT 7

When women work for women, a different dynamic often takes over. Susan, a cashier in a Toronto auction house, says that she has explored friendships with some of her female bosses and feels she can rely on them more. While women may feel more at ease with a female boss, men often have to make concessions to the new working styles. Brian, a marine biologist, says, “It took me a couple of years before I felt comfortable enough to relax around a female manager. In fact, my relations with her were much more businesslike.”

当女性为女上司工作时，往往会用一种不同的工作和交流方式。苏珊是多伦多一家拍卖行的收银员，她说，她与一些女上司建立起了友谊，她感到她们更能够依靠。虽然女性可能会觉得与女上司相处时更自然，男性却往往不得不作出改变以适应女上司新的工作方式。海洋生物学家布赖恩说：“我花了几年时间才能在与女经理共事时感到轻松自如。事实上，之前我与她的关系更多只是一种务实的工作关系。”

长文

Unit2

Through exploration of the humanities, we learn how to think creatively and critically to analyze, and to ask questions. Because these skills allow us to gain new insight into everything from poetry and paintings to business models and politics, humanistic subjects have been at the heart of a liberal arts education since the ancient Greeks first used them to educate their citizens.

Research into the human experience helps to boost bour knowledge about our world. Through the work of humanities scholars, we learn about the values of different cultures, about what goes into making a work of art, and about the mystery of how history is made. Their efforts depict the great accomplishments of the past, help us understand the world today, and give us tools to imagine the prospect of our future.

Today, humanistic knowledge continues to promote the ideal foundation for exploring and understanding the human experience. Learning another language might help to investyou with great insights as well as gain much appreciation of different cultures. Taking a close look at a sculpture might make you think about how an artist’s life affected his creative decisions. Reading a book from another region of the world might help you speculate about the meaning of democracy. Listening to history courses might give you a clearer picture of what the future will be like.

Unit3

There is a special life stage that our generation goes through. It is the Transition period during which we move from teenage to adolescence.

We learn who we are and what we stand for and what inspires us. Also, in this period we aresaddled with a lot of pressure from our parents who want us to make something out of ourselves.

My parents have already expressed feelings of anxiety over my future with academics and life. When I expressed to them recently that I would not mind graduating in five years instead of four in order to study abroad to acquaint_ myself with the world, they seemed so shocked. That idea sounded foreign and to them was equivalent to lack of ambition.

Apart from that, my mother has expressedto me that she is worried that I am not searching for a boy friend .I resent this stupid idea of marrying out of college since it does not suit me one bit. Women today can get what they want out of life without a man ,even children, as it becomes more acceptable for women to adopt children.

I personally want to stay in school as long as I can toreinforce my academic work, possibly complete a law degree and start a career, and then after, and only after, begin to think about shiftingto marriage. If my math is correct, that means I will be more or less“ready” for Marriage at the age of 29 or 30, the age when my mother had me.

Unit4

Traditional dating is a self-paced, general meeting of two people. The two usually Commence with spending extra time together, getting to know one another and seeing how temptingthey could be to each other. A good example is a man meeting a woman and sensing her charmHe then extends a formal invitation for a date. With traditional dating, you get to go at a steady pace, allowingyourself and your date to get to know each other through extensive contact.

There are many components that can be expected from traditional dates. Men who are supposed to displaythese traditional values, will open the door for the woman, stand up when she leaves the table, pay for everything and proceed to the next move. In the1950s,a man would usually ask a woman out several days ahead for a specific date and time If she accepted, they would arrange for a time to pick her up. He would then take her to a dinner and a movie.

Today the rules of traditional dating are less clear. Twenty years ago, if a young lady asked a young man out on a date it was thought to be weird. Now women are being encouraged to take the initiative and ask men out. A date may consist of a brief meeting at a café or a trip to the local art museum. Men often pay on the first date, but the woman may offer to go Dutch. The traditional dating style has been found much less common now.

Unit7

It’s obvious that women have come a long way as successful professionals. Women in the workplace areflourishingas an increased number of women have made their presence felt in many industries and professions.The sector of the female workforce has expendedwith more and more strength and thus has its genuineimportance in the professional world.

Whether they like it or not, men have to accept that women are marching up the management ladder confidently and diplomatically. Women used to be much more “quiet and passive” due to the relatively small number of female employees in comparison to males. Women today, on the other hand,have begun seeking theiradministrive positions by using all their powers of intelligence.

Men are hierarchical and jealous of the“beauty power” that allows women to get certain things based on their physical assets.

Even though there is a(n)dispute whether many professional females got into positions of power by using their appearance to their advantagethevalid fact is the majority of women have worked hard to achieve their desired success women were considered as bystanders in the workplace for many years and it was believed that the only jobs that they could handle were those of teachers or secretaries, but today’s women can not only hold their own positions in the workplace, but they also have the dual task of raising their families.