What kind of person is Mr. Marain?

What is the “real test”?

I had no idea of what lay in store for me the first time I stepped into David Marain's advanced math class. It was a warm September day in 1981. Someone had opened one of the windows, but I was in a cold sweat. Math frightened me. At exactly 8 a.m., a young man with glasses leaped into the room. "My name's Mr. Marain, emphasis on the second syllable," he said brightly. I had heard from other students that Mr. Marain was just shy of a Ph.D. in mathematics. It

didn't surprise me. He seemed to possess the wit and self-confidence of someone who, without trying, always ran ten steps ahead of the group. As he joked with the brightest kids, I sank deeper in despair. At 16, I had no special talents, yet inside I was burning with desires. Already I had sworn that by age 30, I would become a novelist, songwriter and world traveler. Math never figured in my future. I was in Mr. Marain' s class for another reason.

take an esp. important

part; appear

Advanced math was a precondition for calculus and the national Advanced Placement calculus test. Passing the AP exam could earn a student up to a year of college math credits---a big help in keeping down tuition costs. To my parents, this was an incredible bargain. I did not want to disappoint them. Mr. Marain wrote a formula on the blackboard and asked us to prove it. Carefully, I copied the line of x's, y's and numbers into my notebook. But after a few steps, I was confused.

Mr. Marain moved swiftly around the room, looking over students' shoulders. I tried to cover the mostly blank sheet of paper with the loose sleeve of my blouse. Once Mr. Marain realized I wasn't a math whiz, I was certain he'd encourage me to drop out. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I could see him standing next to me. This is it, I told myself. But, instead, he bent down and wrote an equation on the page.

give up

"Try this," he said gently. I did, and from there the formula seemed to prove itself. "Very good," he said, smiling from behind his glasses, as though I'd arrived at the answer on my own. He seemed kinder than any teacher I'd ever known, never looking down upon a student for falling behind in class and never scoffing at a question, no matter how obvious or irrelevant. Most surprising of all, Mr. Marain seemed to make no distinction between the top students and those who could only just pass examinations.

Nevertheless, it was clear I was one of the slowest in class. On our first major exam, I got a C minus. That afternoon, I went to see Mr. Marain. "I don't belong with the other students," I said, near tears.

I hoped he might find a way to minimize the importance of the grade. Instead, he leaned on his gray metal desk and fixed me in his gaze. "What do you want out of this class?" he asked.

"I don't want to fail," I muttered.

"You won't fail," he promised. "And I won't let you walk away, as long as you are willing to do your very best." He suggested coming in after school for reviews. Mr. Marain was demanding excellence from me.

Over the coming months, our after-school reviews took on the regularity of athletic training. "I know math is a struggle for you,“ Mr. Marain said once

when I put down the chalk in disgust, unable to solve a problem. "But struggling against obstacles makes us stronger." With Mr. Marain's help, I got a B in advanced math. But I knew that 12th-grade calculus would be an even greater struggle.

My fears were well-founded. First semester I got a C plus.

"Hang in there," Mr. Marain said. "A grade doesn't tell the whole story."

hold on

My skills were put to the test one Saturday morning in May 1983 when I took the Advanced Placement calculus exam. Weeks later, the results came in. On a scale of one to five, I'd received a four--high enough to get a year of college math credits and save my parents thousands of dollars in tuition. I thanked Mr. Marain, even wrote a letter to the Board of Education about him. But I knew I would never touch another math book. And if I didn't,

what reason would I have to think of him again?

Yet I did think of him. In my 20s, I became a magazine writer. Life seemed full of limitless opportunities. Then I turned 30, and suddenly I realized I had yet to write the novel or publish the song I had promised myself I would. I couldn't control a painful feeling that I'd stalled somewhere along the way.

It had been a long time since someone had demanded the best of me, and I longed for that again. So I went back to Mr. Marain, hoping he could help. We talked for a long while, about former times, old friends, struggles and disappointments, mine and—surprisingly—his too. "I was once in a position similar to the one you're in now." he said. Then he told me the defeats and failures he'd suffered in his school and university years, and how he had overcome them.

"If you can't overcome it," he said, "you must strike out in a new direction with everything you've got."

"You see," he added, "we all have failures and regrets. The question is what we do with them. No one can always be the best," he said. "But if you do your best—give everything you have got you'll either overcome your obstacles or find a new, possibly better direction.

"That's where real success comes from working hard at something with all your heart and soul."

A few days later, an envelope arrived. Inside was a poem Mr. Marain had written years ago, called "Ode to a Calculus Class". I remembered him handing it out at the end of senior year. Now I reread the final lines with new-found appreciation:

But the real test of whetherit was worth the painwill come in a decade or two,if a few return and say: "You know,I've learned a lot since then,but I still remember you."

in store

keep ready for use, for future use 贮存 ; destined (for), coming to 必然发生，将来到

eg. Who knows what the future has in store for us?

We have a few surprises in store.

leapvi. jump; n. sudden jump; the distance crossed

by leaping 飞跃，跃进Eg. Look before you leap.

The boy took a leap over an obstacle.

You can’t leap to conclusion that he is a liar.

leap to do sth. 立即、迅速 by leaps and bounds 飞跃地，极迅速地

leap: 较正式，常用于文学中jump: general. 从高向低或从一定跳到另一点skip: 轻快而活跃的跳，轻盈而灵敏的跳spring: 突然的跳，好像有弹力作用Eg. They all leapt out of their sleeping bags, and hurried outside.

Children are fond of skipping.

He sprang out of bed.

比较 leap, jump, skip, spring

be shy of a Ph.D

be shy of: be short of; be lacking in

Ph.D: Doctor of Science ( Medicine, Laws)

Litt. D: Doctor of Literature

doctorship 博士学位

He seemed to possess the wit and self-confidence of someone who, without

trying, always ran ten steps ahead of the group.

wit: n. power of thought, intelligence

at one’s wit’s end 不知所措live by one’s wits 靠使小计谋骗人过

日子out of one’s wits 头脑不清楚，糊涂

confidence: n. faith 信心； full trust; self-confidence 自信心

exchange confidences 互谈心事gain one’s confidence 取得某人的信

任give one’s confidence to 信任某人in confidence 秘密地in the confidence of 为…的知己；参

与… 的秘密with (great) confidence 满怀信心的be worthy of confidence 值得信任

比较 belief ， faith ， trust ， confidence

• belief 承认某事为真实的，尽管有时缺乏足够的证据

• faith 认为有确凿的证据和道路而完全相信

• trust 信任，坚定的信念• confidence 有证据基础上的相信；自

信，有把握Practice

Eg. The event has shaken my ______ in ghosts.

I have ______ in his ability to succeed.

Our Party has enjoyed the ______ of the people.

She has great _________ in her ability to complete this design.

trust

belieffaith

confidence

As he joked with the brightest kids, I sank deeper in despair.

joke with sb.: make a joke with sb.

in despair: losing hope

abandon oneself to despair 悲观失望give oneself up to despair 悲观失望drive sb. to despair 使某人陷于失望，或走投无路out of despair 出于绝望

as though I'd arrived at the answer on my own

as though / as if: 引导让步状语从句，句中动词可用虚拟语气，也可用陈述语气。

Eg. It looks as if it is raining very soon.

He completely ignored the facts as though they never existed.

on one’s own: alone; without anyone’s helpcf. of one’s own

distinction

n. 差别；区分，辨别make no … between A and B: treat A

and B in the same waymake / draw a … between

对 …加以区分，分别对待

gain / attain / win 出名rise to … 出名win a … for 因…而获功勋without… 无差别的，一视同仁的

比较 gaze, glance, stare

• gaze: 凝视，注视，指由于感叹、好奇、感兴趣而长时间目不转睛地看

• glance ：“瞥”，由于专心于某事而在匆忙中迅速地看一眼

• stare ：“盯，凝视”，出于好奇、惊讶、赞叹等而瞪大眼睛长时间地、直接地注视，常含粗鲁无礼之意

Eg. It’s rude to _____ at a stranger up and down.

The little girl ______ at that film star with admiration.

As I was making the speech, I ______ at the clock.

stare

gazed

glanced

senior

adj. having a higher position or rank; older (opposite of junior) ； n. senior person

He is ten years senior to me.

He is my senior by ten years.

注意注意：一些来自拉丁语的词汇如： anterior inferior ， junior ， major ， minor ， posterior ， prior ， senior ， superior 等，没有比较级形式，作比较时用介词 to 。

In what ways is the bright student different from the dull students ？

andand

Years of watching and comparing the bright student and the not bright, or less bright, have shown that they are very different kinds of people. The bright student is curious about life and reality, eager to get in touch with it, embrace it, unite himself with it. There is no wall, no barrier between him and life. The dull student is far less curious, far less interested in what goes on and what is real, more inclined to live in worlds of fantasy. The bright student likes to

experiment, to try things out. He lives by the maxim that there is more than one way to skin a cat. If he can't do something one way, he'll try another. The dull student is usually afraid to try at all. It takes a good deal of urging to get him to try even once; if that try fails, he is through.

The bright student is patient. He can tolerate uncertainty and failure, and will keep trying until he gets answer.

When all his experiments fail, he can even admit to himself and others that for the time being he is not going to get an answer. This may annoy him, but he can wait. Very often, he does not want to be told how to do the problem or solve the puzzle he has struggled with, because he does not want to be cheated out of the chance to figure it out for himself in the future. Not so the dull student. He cannot stand uncertainty or

failure. To him, an unanswered question is not a challenge or an opportunity, but a threat. If he can't find the answer quickly, it must be given to him, and quickly; and he must have answers for everything. Such are the students of whom a second grade teacher once said, "But my students like to have questions for which there is only one answer.“ They did; and by a mysterious coincidence, so did she.

The bright student is willing to go ahead on the basis of incomplete understanding and information. He will take risks, sail uncharted seas, explore when the landscape is dim, the landmarks few, the light poor. To give only one example, he will often read books he does not understand in the hope that after a while enough understanding will emerge to make it worthwhile to go on. In this spirit some of my students tried to read Moby Dick.

But the dull student will go ahead only when he thinks he knows exactly where he stands and exactly what is ahead of him. If he does not feel he knows exactly what an experience will be like, and if it will not be exactly like other experiences he already knows, he wantsno part of it. For while the bright student feels that the universe is, on the whole, a sensible, reasonable, and trustworthy place, the dull student feels

that it is senseless, unpredictable, and unreliable. He feels that he can never tell what may happen, particularly in a new situation, except that it will probably be bad.

What’s the main idea of the passage?

A. The dull student will suffer more than the bright student.

B. The universe where the dull student lives is unpredictable.

C. The bright student has a control over the world he lives in.

D. The bright student is in many ways different from the dull student.

D

The bright student is curious about life and reality, eager to get in touch with it

…• be curious about: have or show too

much interest in

• be eager to do: be full of strong desire (for, after, to do)

• get in touch with: make contact with

比较 tolerate, bear, endure, stand

• bear and stand are used with “can” in questions and with negative words to express great dislike, but endure is usu. used only about sth. really serious

• bear, endure and stand are also used for great physical hardship; endure suggests pain that lasts for a long time.

• tolerate is used of people or behavior, but not of suffering

Eg. I can’t bear / stand black coffee.

We shouldn’t tolerate such flagrant violations of discipline.

我们不应容忍这种公然破坏纪律的行为。 She has endured great pain for a number

of years.

比较 settle ， solve

• solve

a puzzle

a problem

a mystery

difficulties

a question

an argument

a quarrel

a matter

•settle

he does not want to be cheated out of the chance to figure it out

• struggle with / against: make great efforts to deal with; fight wit

• cheat sb. (out) of sth.: 骗取某人东西• figure out: 想出；计算出

比较 deceive, fool, cheat

• deceive 指制造假相，诱使某人上当• fool 指捉弄某人以取乐• cheat 指在没被人察觉的情况下用不诚

实的手段占便宜，骗钱财Eg. The magician _______ us by making us think the box was empty. That lawyer _______ the old woman out of money. Don’t _______ me that way.

deceived

cheated

fool

辨析： distinctive distinct instinctive

distinctive 意为“起区别作用的”，强调某人或某物具有能使之与其他人或物区别开的特点 distinct 意为“明显的，性质不同的”。 instinctive 意为“本能的”

Practice

She has a very ________ walk.

There is a ________ Skittishness in her pronunciation.

Climbing is ________ in monkeys.

distinctive

distinct

instinctive

辨析： distinct definite clear

这三个词都可做“清楚”的讲。

distinct 意为“明显的，与众不同的，独特的”，指使人很容易分辨。

definite 意为“清楚的，确定的”，强调证据充足、无可置疑。

clear 意为“清楚的，明晰的”，指因轮廓清楚、毫不混乱、毫不模糊而使人了解和洞悉。

Practice

She spoke in a ________ voice.

My plans are now perfectly ________ .

I have no ________ idea about it.

distinct

definite

idea