Unit Two The Company Man

—Ellen Goodman

• Contents• A. Text one• I. Pre-reading: • (I). Warm-up questions • (II). Background information • II. While-reading: Text Analysis• (I) Structure analysis• (II) Comprehension questions • (III) Language points• (IV) Difficult sentences • III. Post-Reading:• (I) Grammatical items• (II) Translation Exercises• (III) Oral activities• (IV) Writing practice • B. Text two• （I）Questions for text comprehension• （II）Language points

I. Pre-reading:

(I). Warm-up questions

• 1. What do you think is the life of a typical workaholic like?

• 2. Do you have any workaholic around you?

-aholic

• someone who cannot stop doing sth. or using sth. --- chocaholic

• Alcoholic

• Addict

• Shopping addict

• Smoking addict

Main idea

• In a colloquial style, the author paints an ironic picture of the cutthroat life of a company man and his family. The man was a workaholic who died of a heart attack,

• which surprised no one. His wife lost him years ago to his work, and his children did not know him well.

II. While-reading: Text Analysis (I) Structure analysis

• Part (1)Ⅰ Introduction. This part tells what had happened.

• Part (2-6)Ⅱ This part reports how devoted the man was to his work.

Structure Analysis

• Part (7-13)Ⅲ This part describes Phil’s role in the family

• Part (14-16)AfterⅣ the cause of Phil’s death being restated, the author goes on to report the company president’s inquiry for his successor.

Text AnalysisComprehension questions

• What have you learned from the first sentence?

precisely

exactly

• The train left the station at 2 o’clock precisely.

synonyms:

exactly, accurately, definitely

P.2-6

• Why isn’t the name of the deceased mentioned at the very beginning?

• What type of man was the deceased?

• What was the man’s position in the company? Why do the author report it in detail?

• What does Saturday mean to Phil?

Vocabulary & Grammar

• Type A's—the weekend-working perfectionist strivers—were deemed likely candidates for heart disease.

• Relaxed, noncompetitive

• Type B's were supposed to be models of health.

• Type C's—outwardly pleasant people who avoid conflict by suppressing their feelings—were said to be cancer-prone.

Obituary

• Formal report, esp. in a newspaper, that someone has died, usu. With an account of the dead person’s life.

• An obituary notice / column

• He writes obituaries.

• She is a woman of robust frame, thought stout, not obese.

• Susan quite likes her boyfriend’s firm, fleshy arms.

• Even slim girls can become stout matron.

• His pudgy finger look really funny.

• Everybody loves Rita, the plump, rosy little girl.

• A chubby toddler, Chubby cheeks

Acquaintance

• a person whom one knows, but not close. 泛泛之交

• (with) knowledge obtained through personal experience rather than careful study. 所知，了解，认识。

• I have some acquaintance with the language.

• 我懂得一点这种语言。

Acquaint

• to make known to 把…通知，使…某人了解

• She acquainted them with the facts.

• 她把事实告诉了他们。

• Be acquainted with 与…相识

• We are already acquainted with each other.

• 我们已经互相认识了。

• classic

• eg. His book was a classic.

the classics 古典文学

conceivable

• able to be believed or imagined 可相信的，可想到的，可想像的

• It is conceivable that you may get full compensation, but it’s not likely.

• 只不过是想象而已。

• by every conceivable means

• 千方百计， 用一切手段• What conceivable reason

could they have for doing such a crazy thing?

• 他们做如此的蠢事难道有什么可想像出的理由吗？

• inconceivable/conceivably

• Conceivably, interest rates could rise very high indeed.

Conceive• to form an idea of, think of

构想出，想出• Scientists first conceived the

idea of the atomic bomb in the 1930s.

• I cannot conceive why you told her.

• 我无法想象你为什么告诉她。

• conceive a plan to increase profits.

• 构想出一个增加利润的计划

extracurricular

• outside the regular course of work in a school or college.学校课程以外的

• extracurricular activities are not part of the course that a student is doing at a school or college.

• overweight: weighing more than is normal

• This parcel is overweight by two kilos.

• 这包裹超重两公斤。• Charlie is not merely overweight

but downright fat.

• SELF-STUDY: fat---obese---fleshy---stout---pudgy---plump---chubby---chunky

P.7-13

• What did Phil’s wife mean when she answered, “I already have”(P.7)?

• What is meant by the sentence “she would be ‘well taken care of’” in Paragraph 8?

• Why is the phrase “dearly beloved” repeated when referring to his children in Paragraph 9?

Paraphrase

• But it did list his “survivors” quite accurately. (P.7)

Vocabulary & Grammar

• survive: 1) to live longer than; to outlive 比…活得长，经历…之后还存在

• My father survived my mother by four years.

• Few buildings survived the fire.

• 这次火灾中没有几处建筑物幸免于难。

• 2) To continue to live or exist.• His parents died in an

accident, but she survived.• He survived in the desert for a

week on biscuits and water.• 他在沙漠中靠饼干和水维持了

一个星期。

marketable

• adj. 适于销售的• The program is designed to

provide students with real, marketable skills.

• They have failed to launch a marketable model for years.

odd

• 1) strange, unusual

• Eg. She gets odder as she grows older.

• 2) not even

• 3) a little more than

• Eg. Thirty-odd years later…

• He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. (P.11)

• grab at:

• seize … desperately

board

• to stay in a room in someone’s house that you pay for

• Several students boarded with Mrs. Smith.

widow

• a woman whose husband has died, and who has not married again 。 widow---widower

• widowed: having or become a widow or widower.

• She was widowed at the age of 25. 她 25 岁时成了寡妇。

• Her widowed mother. 她守寡的母亲。

straighten out

• to deal with problems or a confused situation and make it better, especially by organizing things; 改正，清理 , 解决

• There are several financial problems that need to be straightened out quickly.

• Her parents changed her school, hoping it would straighten her out.

• There are a few things that need straightening out between us.

• 我们之间有好多事情需要搞清楚。

Straighten vt.

• 使直 , 使平正，整顿 , 整理• straighten your shoulders

• 把肩膀挺直• straighten one's face

• 板起面孔

natural

• n. a person who has the natural tendency of doing sth.

• You are a natural for this job.

• 你是这项工作的天才人选• She is a natural at

mathematics.• 她有数学天赋

• How many time is “he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning” repeated in the essay? Why is it repeated?

• Why does the essay end with the question the company president asked?

• What can you learn from the story of Phil?

Rhetoric Device

• To make her writing more effective, the author uses repetition and parallelism.

• details

Writing Practise

• Career or Family: which is more important?

Translation Exercises1. 在问询处 , 导游帮我弄清了本次旅行的安

排 .• In the inquiry office, a tourist guide helped

to straighten out my confusions over the arrangement of the outing.

• 2. 珍妮的父亲是个十足的工作狂 . 他总想得到晋升的机会 , 从不过问女儿的生活和感受 .

Jenny’s father is a workaholic in every sense of the word. He is far too preoccupied with his chances of promotion to care and ask about the daughter’s life and feelings.

3. 所有记者都不得不熬夜加班 , 以便尽快看出本次和平谈判的内容和结果 .

• The reporters all stayed up late working overtime to get the content and result of

the peace talk published with the least delay

• 4. 电子邮件正在迅速取代书信成为人们交流和传递信息的主要方式之一 .

• E-mail is rapidly replacing letters as one of our major means of communication and transmission of information

5. 为了节省开支 , 我打算到当地人家中搭伙 ,不再天天去餐馆用餐 .

• Instead of dinning out as I used to, I plan to board at a local family to cut expenses.

6.虽然体弱多病 , 她却意外地比她体格健壮的丈夫多活了三年 .

• Weak and feeble as she was,she unexpectedly survived her muscular husband by three years.

7. 他被目击者认出就是事故后逃逸现场的那个司机 .

• He was picked out by the eyewitness as the driver who fled the scene after the accident.

• 8.浮士德博士 (Faust) 想尽一切办法要获得青春、知识和力量，最后为了达到目的，竟然将灵魂出卖给魔鬼 . Having tried every conceivable means to gain youth, knowledge and magic power, Dr.Faust went so far as to sell his soul to the devil to fulfill his ambition