新視野大學(xué)英語第二版第四冊讀寫教程課文原文

1、Unit1 Para1 An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it.The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek su

2、ch success to participate in their own destruction. Para2 “Don't quit your day job!“ is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to su

3、cceed. The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt. Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on. The l

4、ure of drowning in fame's imperial glory is not easily resisted. Para3 Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. They develop a sty

5、le that agents market aggressively to hastenpopularity, and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur. Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there. Artists cannot remain idle, though. Whe

6、n the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain the attention of the public. After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the pu

7、blic simply moves on to the next flavor of the month. Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even minute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing the audience

8、9;s favor. The public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous. Para4 Famous authors' styles a Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost

9、or T.S. Eliotare easily recognizable.The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou. Their distinct styles marked a significant cha

10、nge in form from others and gained them fame and fortune. However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms. Para5 Fame's spotlight can be hotter than a tropical ju

11、ngle－a fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure.It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The per

12、former, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe. Para6 One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a man's soul, and so a

13、n artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing. You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game. An example, the famous Ir

14、ish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his uncompromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself. The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused h

15、im at a banquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son. Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young man's mother, asserting that she had damaged his “good“ name. He should have hired

16、 a better attorney, though. The judge did not second Wilde's call to have the woman pay for damaging his name, and instead fined Wilde. He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and evenworse, was permanently expell

17、ed from the wider circle of public favor. When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense. His price for remaining true to himself was to be left alone when he nee

18、ded his fans the most. Para7 Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom! They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of f

19、ans. Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out. They may justify their failure by convincing themse

20、lves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences. Para8 Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some artist. He turn

21、ed them into other kinds of objects. Thus, a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pawnbroker became a “sick“ patient undergoing surgery; boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten with salt and pepp

22、er like prime cuts of fish (the nails being removed like fish bones). This physical transformation, plus the skill with which he executed it again and again, is surely the secret of Chaplin's great comedy. Para7 He

23、 also had a deep need to be loved—and a corresponding fear of being betrayed. The two were hard to combine and sometimes—as in his early marriages—the collision between them resulted in disaster. Yet even this painfu

24、lly-bought self-knowledge found its way into his comic creations. The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl who'll be waiting to walk into the sunset with him; while the other side of Chaplin makes Monsie

25、ur Verdoux, the French wife killer, into a symbol of hatred for women. Para8 It's a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie Chaplin the stability and happiness it had earlier denied him. In Oona O'Neil

26、l Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them, which had seemed so threatening, that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful

27、girl of 17 who'd given notice of their wedding date, he said, “And where is the young man? “—Chaplin, then 54, had cautiously waited outside. As Oona herself was the child of a large family with its own problems, she

28、 was well prepared for the battle that Chaplin's life became as many unfounded rumors surrounded them both—and, later on, she was the center of calm in the quarrels that Chaplin sometimes sparked in his own large fam

29、ily of talented children. Para9 Chaplin died on Christmas Day 1977. A few months later, a couple of almost comic body thieves stole his body from the family burial chamber and held it for money. The police recovered it

30、 with more efficiency than Mack Sennett's clumsy Keystone Cops would have done, but one can't help feeling Chaplin would have regarded this strange incident as a fitting memorial—his way of having the last laugh

31、on a world to which he had given so many. Unit3 Para1 A welfare client is supposed to cheat. Everybody expects it. Faced with sharing a dinner of raw pet food with the cat, many people in wheelchairs I know bleed the

32、 system for a few extra dollars. They tell the government that they are getting two hundred dollars less than their real pension so they can get a little extra welfare money. Or, they tell the caseworker that the landlor

33、d raised the rent by a hundred dollars. Para2 I have opted to live a life of complete honesty. So instead, I go out and drum up some business and draw cartoons. I even tell welfare how much I make! Oh, I'm tempted

34、to get paid under the table. But even if I yielded to that temptation, big magazines are not going to get involved in some sticky situation. They keep my records, and that information goes right into the government's

35、 computer. Very high-profile. Para3 As a welfare client I'm expected to bow before the caseworker. Deep down, caseworkers know that they are being made fools of by many of their clients, and they feel they are entitl

36、ed to have clients bow to them as compensation. I'm not being bitter. Most caseworkers begin as college-educated liberals with high ideals. But after a few years in a system that practically requires people to lie, t

37、hey become like the one I shall call “Suzanne“, a detective in shorts. Para4 Not long after Christmas last year, Suzanne came to inspect my apartment and saw some new posters pasted on the wall. “Where'd you get th