Before Reading

2. Assembly Line

4. An Imagined Day of Work

1. Warm-up Exercises

Charlie Chaplin

Modern Times

Assembly Line

Conveyor Belt

3. Background Information

Brainstorming

Warm-up Exercises

What do Iowa workers complain about all the time?

They’re denied bathroom access when they need it.

1.

What will be the consequences if workers are denied bathroom access according to Linder?

The indignities and health risks.

2.

In what way has Linder’s book been helpful to the workers in Iowa?

To pay off for Iowa workers.

3.

How does Linder challenge the argument some employers make about rest room breaks?

If workers have to pretend to use the bathroom to get a break, then perhaps companies must reexamine the amount of rest time they provide.

4.

Directions: Listen to the recording and then think over the following questions.

This unit is all about work, its pains and pleasures. We start with a look at how disputes over workers’ rights can touch on the most basic needs.

Questions about bathroom breaks come to the Iowa Department of Labor all of the time. From assembly line workers stuck on the line to elementary school teachers stuck in the classroom, the question is almost always the same: “Doesn’t someone have the right to use the rest room when he or she needs to?”

Until recently, the answer in most states was: “No.” But that is changing, thanks in part to the research of Marc Linder, a College of Law professor.

His book, Void Where Prohibited: Rest Room Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company Time, exposes the indignities and health risks faced by many American workers who are denied rest room access.

Linder argues that since government regulation requires employers to “provide” a rest room, it inherently implies that workers should be allowed to use it.

Linder’s work is starting to pay off for Iowa workers. The Iowa State Government announced last fall that it would begin citing companies that did not allow their employees to take rest room breaks when needed.

In a strongly worded letter to the press, Iowa Labor Commissioner Byron K. Orton wrote that he was aware of the situations where employees remained at their work stations, soiling themselves, even vomiting, because they were told if they left they would be fired. “That is totally wrong.”

Linder says she was surprised to find that few states regulate such a basic need. “What does it mean that you have to provide toilets?” Linder asks. “The question is whether the providing of the toilet implies an obligation to let the workers use the toilet or is it just there for ‘show and tell’?”

“A lot of people view it as kind of a joke or a very minor problem,” Linder says. “But if you talk to union organizers, with regard to assembly-line jobs, the right to go to the bathroom is number one or number two among the issues that workers being organized complain about.”

Linder challenges the argument some employers make that employees will abuse rest room break privileges by socializing or reading the newspaper in the bathroom.

In her opinion, if workers have to pretend to use the bathroom just to get a break, then perhaps companies must reexamine the amount of rest time they provide.

Assembly Line

Assembly line is a group of work areas, called stations, arranged in a certain order to make a product. Each station performs a given task on a unit of a product — such as inserting, tightening, or inspecting a part — and then passes it to the next station. When a unit reaches the end of the line, it has passed all the stations and has become a finished product. Each station consists of the machines, workers, tools, and parts required to do its assigned task. In some cases, industrial robots do simple assembly-line tasks. Many factories also use a conveyor belt to carry a unit from station to station.

Assembly-line production relies on the use of interchangeable parts — that is, all the pieces of a particular type are identical. Therefore, it does not matter which piece is selected for a unit of product to be made because each piece will fit. Assembly lines also depend on the division of labor, in which small portions of a job are divided among different workers. In this way, relatively unskilled workers can learn their jobs quickly and contribute to the manufacture of complex machinery. Assembly lines enable large quantities of products to be made at low cost.

Conveyor BeltDirections: Listen to the passage and try to get the definition and role

of conveyor belt.

Conveyor belt is a device that conveys (carries) large quantities of materials from place to place. It consists of an endless belt that is looped over two pulleys. One of the pulleys is called the drive pulley, which supplies the power that keeps the belt moving. Most conveyor belts are powered by an electric motor.

The belt travels over a series of rollers that reduce friction and support the belt. The material moves along the belt at a moderate speed in a straight line. A conveyor belt can carry materials at a much steeper grade, or slant, than a truck or a railroad train can. The steepness of the grade is limited only by the slant where the material will slide down the belt.

Brainstorming

Directions: Conveyor belts play an important part in mass production. Discuss with your partner and name the uses of conveyor belts as many as possible.

Automobiles move along the assembly line on a conveyor system. Workers stand in one place, and the materials to be worked on move past them.

1.

In airports, conveyor belts carry luggage from the ticket counter to the baggage room. Many buildings now use moving sidewalks, which consist of a ramplike conveyor belt with handrails. An escalator is a conveyor belt designed to form stairs as it moves around as an endless belt.

2.

Conveyor belts are widely used to load and unload ships, trucks, and railroad cars. One such system moves over 6,000 short tons (5,400 metric tons) of coal an hour in a steady stream from railroad cars to the belt. The belt carries the coal to a loading tower that distributes the coal to the various parts of a ship.

3.

Many industries use special types of conveyor belts to make their products. Large bakeries, for example, use conveyor belts to speed up the baking of bread. The mixed dough is placed in pans and put on an endless belt that passes through a walled oven.

4.

Name:

Year of birth:

Nationality:

Working place:

Profession:

Kind of films:

Main character:

Highest honor:

Charlie Chaplin

1. His Life:

Charlie Chaplin_____________

1889____

English______

the U.S.A.________

actor, director____________

comedy, silent cinema__________________

a little tramp__________

the greatest comic actor, knight__________________________

2. His Appearance:

a small black hat______________

a small moustache________________

very wide trousers and big shoes___________________________

a stick that he swung in the air as he walked____________________________________

Film 1: (1921)

Film 2: (1931)

Film 3: (1936)

Film 4: (1940)

3. His films:

The Kid_______

City Lights_________

Modern Times____________

The Great Dictator_______________

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was an English film actor and director who did most of his work in the U.S.A. Most people consider him the greatest comic actor of the silent cinema. He appeared in many of his films as the best-known character he created, a little tramp with a small round hat, a small moustache and trousers and shoes that are too big for him, causing him to walk in a funny way. He made many short comic films, such as The Kid (1921), and several longer films, such as City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936), which combined comedy with social and political comments. He was made a knight in 1975.

Modern Times

Modern Times was a comedy film (1936) which Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed as well as acting the main part. It was the last time he used his Little Tramp character. The film is an attack on the use of machines in modern factories and the bad treatment of factory workers.

An Imagined Day of Work

Work individually to write a diary about an imagined day of work after you graduate from college.

1.

Exchange what you have written within the group. 2.Each group comes up with a few sentences to summarize the characteristics of your imagined day of work.

3.

Groups report to the whole class. 4.

Global Reading

2. Scanning

1. Part Division of the Text

3. Further Understanding

For Part 1

For Part 2

Table CompletionGuessing

Scanning

Rearranging the Order

For Part 3 Skimming and Scanning

Pair Work

Part Division of the Text

Parts Paragraph(s) Main Ideas

1

2

3

1

2~30

31~34

The author talks about her general impressions of the auto plants she toured.The author relates her own experience as an assembly line worker.

The author describes the lessons she drew from the experience.

Table Completion

In the essay, the author uses a number of sensory details to create a dominant impression of how overwhelming an automobile assembly line can be. Scan the text and find out in the paragraphs to which of the five senses (hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch) she appeals and illustrate.

Paragraph(s) Senses and Examples

Para. 1

Para. 4

Para. 12-13

senses of hearing, sight and touch (an enclosed, windowless world of harsh artificial light and hard concrete floors ringing with the discordant cacophony of industrial production…)senses of hearing and touch (lift a light plastic mold, bang a board with your knee…)

senses of touch, hearing and sight (the belt vibrated gently underfoot…)

Para. 31 senses of sight and hearing (Even the buzzing yellow of the sodium vapor lights seemed soothing…)

Guessing

Find out all onomatopoeic words in the text and guess their Chinese meanings.

1.

铃声ring刺耳的声音cacophony叮当声clank哀鸣声；呜呜声whine嘎吱声groan铿锵声；叮当声clang嘶嘶声whoosh噼啪声crackle哔哔声；嘟嘟声beep嘶嘶声；嘘声hiss突然巨响bang隆隆声；辘辘声rumble咔嗒；哗啦声clatter

Discuss the importance of using sensory details and onomatopoeic words.

Make a deep impression on the readers.

2.

Read the first paragraph, and then discuss with your partner what the auto plant impresses you most.

Pair Work

Locate the three time indicators in the text and analyze their uses.

Scanning

Para. 2, “at five in the afternoon”Para. 5, “two hours later”Para. 29, “Suddenly it was ten o’clock.” They help to tell the main events in this part clearly.

Rearrange the order of the following sentences according to the sequence described in the text.

Rearranging the Order

…the completed instrument panel would be lowered into the “smile joint” — a large lazy U going from side to side of the car’s frame.

A.

Pick up the steering shaft from a shelf and ease its thirty-pound weight down through the center of the module.

B.

First, thread the electrical wires through the back of the module and out through this flap, then loop them over and under the shaft like so, and then…

C.

We were standing on the line, a wide conveyor belt rumbling past an array of shelves piled high with parts, and beneath an overhead rack with dangling power tools and bins of screws.

D.

…pick up two bronze-colored bolts and screws, two black bolts, a circular piece, and two silver bolts from those big bins alongside the line.

E.

Walk six stands down the line, past other team members at different stages of the job, and read the manifest hanging on the dashboard shell.

F.

…she had a total of some fifty separate procedures to complete in a logic-defying sequence of about three minutes.

G.

1. D. 2. G. 3. A. 4. F. 5. B. 6. E. 7. C.

Identify the conclusion of the essay and tell what’s the function of it.

Skimming and Scanning

The conclusion is found in Para. 34 “…cars are not merely machines, but things put together by human beings, products of real men and real women doing the kind of work that would drive most people crazy.” It serves to convey the point the author wants to make in her essay and to leave the readers with a lingering impression of the hard toil that lies behind many everyday comforts we take for granted.

The author, a journalist, describes her brief introduction to working on an assembly line and the lessons she learned.

Assembly Line Adventure Lesley Hazleton

I’d toured many auto plants before, and physically this was not much different. That is, it was an assault on the senses: an enclosed, windowless world of harsh artificial light and hard concrete floors ringing with the discordant cacophony of industrial production. Metal rang on metal. Stamping presses clanked, power tools whined, pulleys groaned, hoists clanged, welding robots whooshed, sparks crackled, lasers beeped, compressed air hissed, bolts banged into place, trolleys rumbled down the aisles, and all the while, conveyor belts carrying cars in one stage or another of production, from bare metal frames to fully painted bodies, clattered and clanked beside us and behind us and even over our heads.

SentenceSentence WordWord

At five in the afternoon, I started work, joining three other workers stationed around a huge rotating machine. Our job was to feed a robot.

Officially, we were preparing dashboard molds for foam injection. In fact, we were simply loading and unloading the machine for the robot, which injected the foam and then wiped its own nozzle as though it were wiping its nose — one of those infuriatingly human gestures that make you think, “Cute,” and then hate yourself for having thought it.

SentenceSentence WordWord

This was one of the simplest tasks on the whole assembly line. Squirt some filler release into a hole. Lift a light plastic mold and place it on a protruding lip of the machine. Bang a board with your knee to drop three locks to hold the mold in place. Check the locks. Push a black button to bring the lip down into the right position for the next guy. Wait for the machine to rotate and present you with a new lip. And that was it. A ten-second job to be repeated ad infinitum.

SentenceSentence WordWord

Two hours later, I moved from one of the simplest jobs on the line to one of the most complicated: assembling the whole instrument panel. Steering wheel, indicator and wiper wands, gauges, dashboard line, the lot.

Audrey, the woman whose task it was to teach me this job, had a tough challenge ahead of her.

I guessed she was in her mid-thirties. Despite a mass of long brown curly hair, she had a boyish way to her, maybe because of the leather builder’s apron she was wearing, its pockets so full of connectors and screws and bolts that it took me a while to realize she was six months pregnant.

“Is this your first?” I asked.She burst out laughing. “Honey, I’m forty-three years old. And a

grandmother. I married again not long ago, and” — she spread her arms wide and stared at her belly — “just look what happened. This sure is the last thing I ever expected.”

SentenceSentence WordWord

“How long will you go on working?” She laughed again. “Do you know how much kids cost? I’m

staying right here till the day I pop.”She hadn’t stopped working for a moment as we talked. She

couldn’t. The line was rolling, and it was either keep up or bring everything to a halt. We were standing on the line, a wide conveyor belt rumbling past an array of shelves piled high with parts, and beneath an overhead rack with dangling power tools and bins of screws. On the line with us, every six feet or so, was a workstand holding an empty dashboard shell, placed upside down on the stand so that it was easy to work on. Audrey’s job was to make it into a complete instrument panel.

SentenceSentence WordWord

For the first few moments, standing on the moving belt was almost childishly fun. The world was reversed: you stood still and it went past you. Your mind knew it was you moving, not the world, but your senses told you otherwise. And all the time, the belt vibrated gently underfoot; if it weren’t for the noise, it might even have been pleasantly sexy.

“Watch your head,” Audrey said, and I ducked as a power wrench came dangling past my right ear. Followed by another. And yet another. Even though I reminded myself that it was me moving, not them, every time I looked up they seemed to be aiming for my brains with a certain inexorable malevolence.

I spent the first half-hour watching Audrey and figuring out how to stay out of the way. So far as I could make out, she had a total of some fifty separate procedures to complete in a logic-defying sequence of about three minutes. Each step had to be performed in perfect timing, so that the right parts and tools were at hand exactly when she needed them. And to add to the pressure, this job was what they called a “show-stopper.”

SentenceSentence WordWord

Farther on down the line, the completed instrument panel would be lowered into the “smile joint” — a large lazy U going from side to side of the car’s frame. If it didn’t fit, the line would stop, and the whole plant would start running behind. “You can’t go back and do it again,” Audrey said. “You got to do it perfect the first time.”

I knew I’d never be able to do this job. Yet Audrey seemed convinced that I was educable. She talked each movement out loud as she worked, with me following her around like a pet dog. Somehow, she convinced me to do a bit here and a bit there, until within an hour, I had the beginning of it down pat.

Walk six stands down the line, past other team members at different stages of the job, and read the manifest hanging on the dashboard shell. Pick up different parts from the shelves alongside the line, depending on whether this is to be a sedan or a wagon, an automatic or a manual shift. Jam a leather sheath over the sharp metal edge to the side of the module. Ease the parts into place. Snap-connect electrical wires: gray to the right, blue to the middle, white to the left.

So far so good. I was feeling quite proud of myself. Trouble was, this was only the beginning of the beginning.

The rest began to blur: Snap-connect a black fastener, then a yellow one. Don’t delay. If you go too slow, the line will take you past the parts you need, and you’ll have to start running back and forth for them. Pick up the steering shaft from a shelf and ease its thirty-pound weight down through the center of the module. Arrange the wires to run over the top of the shaft. Slip on and snap a green fastener…

Or were those last two steps the other way round? “Here,” said Audrey, redoing my work.

Okay, now pick up two bronze-colored bolts and screws, two black bolts, a circular piece, and two silver bolts from those big bins alongside the line. Insert the silver bolts. Fine. Place the bronze-colored ones in one place, the black ones in another. Great. Pull down a power wrench from the overhead line…

SentenceSentence WordWord

SentenceSentence WordWord

I grabbed for it and missed. It began to recede from me. I stretched and yanked it down just in time to tighten the bolts. I had no idea of what I was bolting to what, or why. Neither, it turned out, did Audrey.

Right, you’ve got those bolts nice and tight. Now pick different bronze-colored bolts from another bin. No not alongside the line — right here, hanging overhead. Fine. Insert them and tighten them by hand for now. What about the wrench? Not there yet, that comes soon. First, thread the electrical wires through the back of the module and out through this flap, then loop them over and under the shaft like so, and then…

Then what? I couldn’t remember. And I was only a third of the way through the job.

“Don’t worry,” said Audrey. “It takes most people four days to learn this job. You’re doing real good.”

That was sweet of her, but it didn’t feel real good to me. My attention strayed for a moment, I lost a beat, and suddenly the power tools and screw bins were bearing down on me way before I was ready for them. I worked as fast as I could, one eye on my hands, the other on the dangling wrench going past. I swore, lunged for it, and yanked at the cord as though if I pulled hard enough I could pull back the whole line and slow things down to my pace. I remembered Charlie Chaplin’s desperation in Modern Times, and suddenly there was nothing remotely funny about it. I dropped a bolt, reached for the wrong wrench, and watched pathetically as Audrey stepped in and put everything to rights. I hadn’t felt quite this incompetent since I was a kid trying to thread a sewing machine at school. I never did master that.

SentenceSentence WordWord

SentenceSentence WordWord

Every time I thought I had the hang of it all, another two steps somehow reversed themselves in my mind, or one slipped out of existence altogether. My ears were ringing, my mind was reeling, and my hands had never felt clumsier. I began to fumble the screws, inserting them at an angle so that they wouldn’t tighten properly and had to be taken out and inserted anew. Audrey was working as hard as I was by now; we stood shoulder to shoulder, me fouling things up, her fixing them.

And suddenly it was ten o’clock, and there was a half-hour break for lunch. Ten at night, that is. By now, I was squinting to stop from seeing double. I was convinced that if I could just work through to the end of the shift, I’d get this job down pat. But as the line came to a halt and everything stopped moving, some remote part of my brain managed to signal a weak but just decipherable message that the pressure was getting to me. It was time to call it quits before I damaged a car, or myself, or worse still, somebody else.

SentenceSentence WordWord

“Don’t you want some lunch before you go?” said Audrey. But I was too exhausted to even look at food. I needed fresh air. And solitude. And silence. I made my excuses, stuffed my yellow Kevlar gloves into my pocket as a memento, got lost twice trying to find the way out, and finally emerged into the parking lot.

Never had a parking lot seemed so beautiful: so quiet, so peaceful, so serene. Even the buzzing yellow of the sodium vapor lights seemed soothing. Behind me, the plant hummed gently, its skylights glowing into the night. Mid-shift, I was the only person out here, and I had a flash of guilt mixed with giddy freedom, the kind that comes from playing hooky.

SentenceSentence WordWord

I found the truck, climbed in, made to start it up. Then stopped, hand in midair, and sat staring at the instrument panel. Something was wrong. I took a moment to figure it out: I’d spent the past few hours working on upside-down instrument panels, and now I was seeing this one the right way up.

I reached out and examined it for its component parts, thinking of the man or the woman who’d put it together, and appreciating the way it had been done. This thing I usually took so for granted that I’d never before paid a moment’s attention to it, was now an astounding piece of man-made — woman-made — complexity.

I started the truck and drove slowly out of the lot, wondering how long I’d keep this awareness that cars are not merely machines, but things put together by human beings, products of real men and real women doing the kind of work that would drive most people crazy. Not long enough, for sure.

SentenceSentence WordWord

Lesley Hazleton

I’d toured many auto plants before, and physically this was not much different. That is, it was an assault on the senses: an enclosed, windowless world of harsh artificial light and hard concrete floors ringing with the discordant cacophony of industrial production. Metal rang on metal. Stamping presses clanked, power tools whined, pulleys groaned, hoists clanged, welding robots whooshed, sparks crackled, lasers beeped, compressed air hissed, bolts banged into place, trolleys rumbled down the aisles, and all the while, conveyor belts carrying cars in one stage or another of production, from bare metal frames to fully painted bodies, clattered and clanked beside us and behind us and even over our heads.

Assembly Line Adventure

SentenceSentence WordWord

At five in the afternoon, I started work, joining three other workers stationed around a huge rotating machine. Our job was to feed a robot.

Officially, we were preparing dashboard molds for foam injection. In fact, we were simply loading and unloading the machine for the robot, which injected the foam and then wiped its own nozzle as though it were wiping its nose — one of those infuriatingly human gestures that make you think, “Cute,” and then hate yourself for having thought it.

This was one of the simplest tasks on the whole assembly line. Squirt some filler release into a hole. Lift a light plastic mold and place it on a protruding lip of the machine. Bang a board with your knee to drop three locks to hold the mold in place. Check the locks. Push a black button to bring the lip down into the right position for the next guy. Wait for the machine to rotate and present you with a new lip. And that was it. A ten-second job to be repeated ad infinitum.

SentenceSentence WordWord

Two hours later, I moved from one of the simplest jobs on the line to one of the most complicated: assembling the whole instrument panel. Steering wheel, indicator and wiper wands, gauges, dashboard line, the lot.

Audrey, the woman whose task it was to teach me this job, had a tough challenge ahead of her.

I guessed she was in her mid-thirties. Despite a mass of long brown curly hair, she had a boyish way to her, maybe because of the leather builder’s apron she was wearing, its pockets so full of connectors and screws and bolts that it took me a while to realize she was six months pregnant.

“Is this your first?” I asked.She burst out laughing. “Honey, I’m forty-three years old. And a

grandmother. I married again not long ago, and” — she spread her arms wide and stared at her belly — “just look what happened. This sure is the last thing I ever expected.”

SentenceSentence WordWord

For the first few moments, standing on the moving belt was almost childishly fun. The world was reversed: you stood still and it went past you. Your mind knew it was you moving, not the world, but your senses told you otherwise. And all the time, the belt vibrated gently underfoot; if it weren’t for the noise, it might even have been pleasantly sexy.

“Watch your head,” Audrey said, and I ducked as a power wrench came dangling past my right ear. Followed by another. And yet another. Even though I reminded myself that it was me moving, not them, every time I looked up they seemed to be aiming for my brains with a certain inexorable malevolence.

I spent the first half-hour watching Audrey and figuring out how to stay out of the way. So far as I could make out, she had a total of some fifty separate procedures to complete in a logic-defying sequence of about three minutes. Each step had to be performed in perfect timing, so that the right parts and tools were at hand exactly when she needed them. And to add to the pressure, this job was what they called a “show-stopper.”

SentenceSentence WordWord

Farther on down the line, the completed instrument panel would be lowered into the “smile joint” — a large lazy U going from side to side of the car’s frame. If it didn’t fit, the line would stop, and the whole plant would start running behind. “You can’t go back and do it again,” Audrey said. “You got to do it perfect the first time.”

I knew I’d never be able to do this job. Yet Audrey seemed convinced that I was educable. She talked each movement out loud as she worked, with me following her around like a pet dog. Somehow, she convinced me to do a bit here and a bit there, until within an hour, I had the beginning of it down pat.

Walk six stands down the line, past other team members at different stages of the job, and read the manifest hanging on the dashboard shell. Pick up different parts from the shelves alongside the line, depending on whether this is to be a sedan or a wagon, an automatic or a manual shift. Jam a leather sheath over the sharp metal edge to the side of the module. Ease the parts into place. Snap-connect electrical wires: gray to the right, blue to the middle, white to the left.

SentenceSentence WordWord

So far so good. I was feeling quite proud of myself. Trouble was, this was only the beginning of the beginning.

The rest began to blur: Snap-connect a black fastener, then a yellow one. Don’t delay. If you go too slow, the line will take you past the parts you need, and you’ll have to start running back and forth for them. Pick up the steering shaft from a shelf and ease its thirty-pound weight down through the center of the module. Arrange the wires to run over the top of the shaft. Slip on and snap a green fastener…

Or were those last two steps the other way round? “Here,” said Audrey, redoing my work.

Okay, now pick up two bronze-colored bolts and screws, two black bolts, a circular piece, and two silver bolts from those big bins alongside the line. Insert the silver bolts. Fine. Place the bronze-colored ones in one place, the black ones in another. Great. Pull down a power wrench from the overhead line…

SentenceSentence WordWord

I grabbed for it and missed. It began to recede from me. I stretched and yanked it down just in time to tighten the bolts. I had no idea of what I was bolting to what, or why. Neither, it turned out, did Audrey.

Right, you’ve got those bolts nice and tight. Now pick different bronze-colored bolts from another bin. No not alongside the line — right here, hanging overhead. Fine. Insert them and tighten them by hand for now. What about the wrench? Not there yet, that comes soon. First, thread the electrical wires through the back of the module and out through this flap, then loop them over and under the shaft like so, and then…

Then what? I couldn’t remember. And I was only a third of the way through the job.

“Don’t worry,” said Audrey. “It takes most people four days to learn this job. You’re doing real good.”

SentenceSentence WordWord

That was sweet of her, but it didn’t feel real good to me. My attention strayed for a moment, I lost a beat, and suddenly the power tools and screw bins were bearing down on me way before I was ready for them. I worked as fast as I could, one eye on my hands, the other on the dangling wrench going past. I swore, lunged for it, and yanked at the cord as though if I pulled hard enough I could pull back the whole line and slow things down to my pace. I remembered Charlie Chaplin’s desperation in Modern Times, and suddenly there was nothing remotely funny about it. I dropped a bolt, reached for the wrong wrench, and watched pathetically as Audrey stepped in and put everything to rights. I hadn’t felt quite this incompetent since I was a kid trying to thread a sewing machine at school. I never did master that.

SentenceSentence WordWord

Every time I thought I had the hang of it all, another two steps somehow reversed themselves in my mind, or one slipped out of existence altogether. My ears were ringing, my mind was reeling, and my hands had never felt clumsier. I began to fumble the screws, inserting them at an angle so that they wouldn’t tighten properly and had to be taken out and inserted anew. Audrey was working as hard as I was by now; we stood shoulder to shoulder, me fouling things up, her fixing them.

And suddenly it was ten o’clock, and there was a half-hour break for lunch. Ten at night, that is. By now, I was squinting to stop from seeing double. I was convinced that if I could just work through to the end of the shift, I’d get this job down pat. But as the line came to a halt and everything stopped moving, some remote part of my brain managed to signal a weak but just decipherable message that the pressure was getting to me. It was time to call it quits before I damaged a car, or myself, or worse still, somebody else.

SentenceSentence WordWord

“Don’t you want some lunch before you go?” said Audrey. But I was too exhausted to even look at food. I needed fresh air. And solitude. And silence. I made my excuses, stuffed my yellow Kevlar gloves into my pocket as a memento, got lost twice trying to find the way out, and finally emerged into the parking lot.

Never had a parking lot seemed so beautiful: so quiet, so peaceful, so serene. Even the buzzing yellow of the sodium vapor lights seemed soothing. Behind me, the plant hummed gently, its skylights glowing into the night. Mid-shift, I was the only person out here, and I had a flash of guilt mixed with giddy freedom, the kind that comes from playing hooky.

SentenceSentence WordWord

I found the truck, climbed in, made to start it up. Then stopped, hand in midair, and sat staring at the instrument panel. Something was wrong. I took a moment to figure it out: I’d spent the past few hours working on upside-down instrument panels, and now I was seeing this one the right way up.

I reached out and examined it for its component parts, thinking of the man or the woman who’d put it together, and appreciating the way it had been done. This thing I usually took so for granted that I’d never before paid a moment’s attention to it, was now an astounding piece of man-made — woman-made — complexity.

I started the truck and drove slowly out of the lot, wondering how long I’d keep this awareness that cars are not merely machines, but things put together by human beings, products of real men and real women doing the kind of work that would drive most people crazy. Not long enough, for sure.

Translate the sentence into Chinese.

实际上我们仅仅是替机器人进料卸料，给机器人注入泡沫，然后擦一下管嘴，就像擦鼻子似的 —— 那种活像人做的动作，一看就令你想：“真逗”，随后又怪自己竟会那样想。

Paraphrase the sentence.

I will keep working here till the day I give birth to my baby.

Paraphrase the sentence.

The assembly line was still moving and we must keep pace with the rhythm of it, otherwise the entire production process had to stop.

1. What can we learn from the sentence?

From this sentence we can see that the work on the assembly line was labor-intensive, and the workers had to be old hands and work hard.

2. Translate the sentence into Chinese.

我估算了一下，她要在 3 分钟左右的时间内非人力所能地逐一完成约 50 个不同的工序。

1. What does the word “show-stopper” mean in English and Chinese?

It means “ the show is so wonderful and has to be stopped by long-time applause” in English and “被长时间的掌声所打断的表演” in Chinese.

2. Translate the sentence into Chinese.

更大的压力在于，这项活是他们所谓的“压轴戏”。

1. What does the phrase “to have sth. down pat” mean?

It means “to know sth. thoroughly so that you can say it or perform it immediately without thinking about it”.

2. Paraphrase the sentence.

By some means, she made me feel certain that I can do it and follow her. An hour later, I had mastered the beginning part of it perfectly.

3. Translate the sentence into Chinese.

不管怎么样，她好歹说得我这儿帮个忙，那儿搭个手，一小时下来，开始的部分我都记得一清二楚了。

1. What does the phrase “like so” mean?

It is used when you are showing someone how to do something by using your hands, feet, etc.

2. Translate the sentence into Chinese.

先把电线从组件后面穿过去，再从这个活板穿出来，绕个圈，再这样从转向柱下绕过，然后……

1. Paraphrase the sentence.

2. What can we infer from this sentence?

The job on the assembly line was a most complicated one.

Every time I thought I learnt how to operate it thoroughly, I don’t know why the next two steps are opposite, or I forgot one entirely.

1. Analyze the structure of the sentence.

2. Why does the author use four adjectives to describe the surrounding?

Here the author wants to sharply contrast the auto plant and the parking lot: one is “an assault on the senses”, another is “so beautiful, so quiet, so peaceful, so serene”.

This is an inversion because “never” is put at the beginning of the sentence. More examples:

Never in all my life have I heard such nonsense!

我这辈子从没听过这种废话！Never shall I agree to their demands.

我决不同意他们的要求。

enclose: vt. 1. surround sth., especially with a fence or wall, in order to make it sepa

rateFarmers often enclose their land with fences那些聚集成群的黑压压的房子每一幢都藏着它自己的秘密。Every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret.

2. put sth. inside an envelope as well as a letter

I’ll enclose your letter with mine.兹附上价目及交易条款 , 并请注意下面的签名。We enclose our list of prices and terms, and would ask you to kindly note the signatures at foot.

be enclosed inPattern:

enclose, surround, encircle & compass这四个词都是动词，都有“环绕”、“围绕”之意。

CF:

enclose 表示用围墙、篱笆等材料把某物四周围住或封闭起来，使之与外界 隔绝。例如：

Armed guards constantly patrol the fence enclosing the prison.武装警卫经常在围住监狱的篱笆周围巡逻。The oil pan and the lower part of the cylinder block together are called the crankcase; they enclose, or encase, the crankshaft.油盘和气缸体的下部共同称为曲轴箱，用来封闭或罩住曲轴。

surround 表示从四周或以环状围绕、围住，也可指军事上的包围（防止逃脱）。 例如：

They watched the wolves surrounding the injured deer.他们眼看着狼群包围了那只受伤的鹿。

They have surrounded the town with troops. 他们出动军队包围了这个小镇。

encircle 意思是“环绕”、“围绕”，常用于被动语态，侧重在某事物周围围成 圈状。可与 surround互换，但用法上比较具体。例如：

She has always been encircled with fashionable friends.她周围总有许多爱赶时髦的朋友。A similar system is used to contact the communications satellites that now continually encircle the earth.人们正用同样的系统来与目前绕地球飞行的通讯卫星保持联系。

compass 表示算“由……环绕，包围”，还表示一些想法萦绕心头。例如：In the past, human beings were compassed by too many mysteries for we didn’t fully develop our intelligence.过去，人们有过太多疑惑，因为我们那时还未充分开发自己的智力。A belief in God, and trust in his providence, began to compass his heart.皈依上帝，信赖上天的保佑的念头开始萦绕在他心头。

weld 1. vt. join metals by melting their edges and pressing them together when they are hot

2. n. a joint that is made by welding two pieces of metal togetherProviding good maintenance practices and correct weld parameter setting are done, no weld breaks are expected必须注意，首先要保证焊接头表面十分清洁，因为污物会减弱焊缝的强度。Care must be taken to ensure that the surfaces are thoroughly clean first, for dirt will weaken the weld.

The car has had a new wing welded on.In one street people were hand-making bicycles out of tubing, welding the bits together and then painting them.

Pattern: weld together

spark 1. n. a very small piece of burning material produced by a fire or by hitting or rubbing two hard objects together

2. v. be the cause of sth., especially trouble or violence That small incident sparked into street riots.A discarded cigarette sparked a small brush fire.

The scrape of metal on metal sent up a shower of sparks.用石头相擦可产生火花来生火。Rubbing stones together produces sparks to start a fire.

injection n. the act of forcing a liquid into sth.

a fuel injection system

gesture1. n. a movement of part of your body, especially your hands or head, to show what you mean or how you feel; sth. that you say or do, often sth. small, to show how you feel about sb. or sth.

2. v. move your hand, arm, or head to tell sb. sth., or show them what you mean

Their voices were faint at this distance, but they could be seen gesturing towards the company.

He said something, accompanying the words with a gesture of the most indifference.As a gesture of goodwill, we have decided to waive the charges on this occasion.

Patterns: gesture to / towards / at gesture for sb. to do sth.

He answered, and she pushed the door wide and gestured him in after her.

cute: adj.1. very pretty or attractive

2. (esp. AmE.) clever in a way that can seem rude

It was cute of you to spot that.

这只小猫虽说不大，但她那可爱的姿势已足以使她成为世界上最著名的小猫之一。

What’s better than making a comfy home and bringing up some cute kids and knowing nice homey people?

Although she is not big, her cute poses have made her one of the most famous cats in the world.

I have had enough of your cute remarks.

protrude: v. stick out from somewhere

He managed to hang on to a piece of rock protruding from the cliff face.

She injured herself on a screw that protruded two inches out of the bench.他设法抓住悬崖表面向外伸出的岩石。

A copper strip protruded from the top and ran vertically down through the center.

in place:in the correct position; existing and ready to be used

一切就绪，她开始放幻灯片。With everything in place, she started the slide show.Funding arrangements are already in place.

rotate: v.1. turn with a circular movement around a central point, or to make sth. do this

2. if a job rotates, or if people rotate jobs, they each do a particular job for a particular period of time

A better solution may well be to pick up the idea of rotating the audit partner every five to ten years.

Rotate the pan halfway through the baking time.Two or more of the pulleys are attached to a fixed block, and the remaining pulleys are free to move as well as rotate.

Interns will rotate through various departments.主席一职由委员会的成员轮流担任。The post of chairman rotates among members of the committee.

rotate, revolve, roll & spin这三个都是动词，都有“转动”、“旋转”之意。

CF:

rotate 侧重指物体围绕自己的轴或中心旋转，即自转。

revolve 强调指物体围绕本身以外的中心旋转，即公转。常作为正式、技术性词语。

roll 指某物在平面上滚动或翻滚。

spin 指沿内轴迅速而连续旋转，或沿外部一个点作快速圆周运转，着重说明运动的持续性而且通常指范围很小的圆周运动。

The Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.地球每 24 小时绕着地轴自转一圈。

The restaurant slowly revolves, giving excellent views of the city.这家饭店缓缓地转动，可以欣赏到城市的美丽景色。

The ball rolled into the street.球滚到马路上去了。

The plane’s propellers were spinning.飞机的螺旋桨正在转动。

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the four words above.

The earth around the sun while the moon around

the earth.

The boy was a top.

The worker the logs down the hill into the river.

They the coin to see who would have the first turn.

The earth once every 24 hours.

The kids were about on the lawn.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

revolves_______ revolves_______

spinning_______

rolled_____

span____

rotates______

rolling_____

panel: n.1. a board in a car, plane, boat, etc. that has the controls on it

2. a group of people with skills or specialist knowledge who have been chosen to give advice or opinions on a particular subject

All applicants are questioned by a panel of experienced interviewers.

Next year another new machine will be in place, the two producing eighty thousand tons of car panels a year.

He was among a panel of judges for a famous literary prize.

burst outsuddenly start to laugh, cry, etc.

Everyone in the room became puzzled firstly, and then burst out laughing.

“I don’t believe it!” she burst out angrily.

inexorable: adj.an inexorable process cannot be stopped

这无情的工作是永远干不完，永远没有间歇的。The inexorable work goes on, without end, without pause.

procedure: n.a way of doing sth., especially the correct or usual way

It was my responsibility as managing director to follow the correct procedure for getting rid of toxic waste.

It appears that he was spared the normal procedure of having his fingerprints and photograph taken.

manifest1) n. a list of passengers or goods carried on a ship, plane or train

And I can’t help seeing the manifests — in any case, I’ve always been interested in them.

2) adj. plain and easy to seeThe educational system is a manifest failure.That vision was made manifest in the Ford Motor Company.

manifest, plain, obvious, evident & apparent这些都是形容词，都有“清楚的，明白的，明显的”之意。

CF:

manifest 语义较强，书面用词，强调一目了然，暗示不要任何推论就一清二楚。

plain 普通用词，含义与 clear很接近，可通用，但 plain 着重简单明了，不复杂，没有装饰。

It is a manifest error of judgment.这是一个明显的判断错误。

It was plain that Mary was not going to agree.很明显，玛丽是不会同意的。

强调显而易见或一想便知。这个词从动词 appear派生而来，故有时含有表面如此而事实上未必的意味。

obvious 语气较强，指极为明显，一看就清楚，有目共睹，无需说明和论证。

evident 指根据事实成为显然的，暗示存在外部的迹象。

apparent

The obvious way of reducing pollution is to use cars less.

降低污染的最显而易见的方法就是少用轿车。

It was evident that she was unhappy.

显然她很不开心。

It soon became apparent that we had a major problem.

我们有一个主要的问题，这个不久就变得很明显了。

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the words above. Change the form where necessary.

The sky became darker and it was that we were going to

have rain.

The meaning of these compounds is from the component

parts.

It studies the relation between the significance of a text and the

linguistic characteristics in which they are .

Their affluence is more than real.

The advantages were to see.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

evident______

obvious______

manifest_______

apparent_______

plain ____

而在日后的生活中，这些儿童就表现出保守的、跋扈的、强硬的和有偏见的态度。

3) vt. show a feeling, attitude, etc.; appear or become easy to seeMountain sickness is usually manifested as headache and tiredness.This problem manifests itself when a student forgets to bring home her books or remembers the books but forgets the homework assignments.

manifest, show & demonstrate这三个词都是动词，都有“显示、显露、展现”之意。

CF:

manifest 书面正式用词，表示将隐含的事物或特点清楚明白地表现出来，多与抽象概念名词连用。例如 :

Pattern: manifest itself

But the effects of mortal shocks only manifest themselves slowly.但是一个人受了致命的打击，反应是慢慢地显露出来的。And in later life these same children manifest conservation, domineering, rigid and prejudiced attitude.

高度表显示那架飞机正在下降。

show 最普通用词，泛指任何有意或无意地把东西给别人看的行为。The old boat showed itself to be seaworthy. 这艘旧船是经得起风浪的。The altimeter showed that the plane was descending.

店员（向顾客）演示如何使用洗衣机。

demonstrate 指用实例、实验、推理等手段表演证明，或论证某一问题。例如：

The professor demonstrated the laws of physics with laboratory equipment.教授用实验装置演示物理定律。An assistant demonstrated the washing machine (to customers).

module: n. (esp. BrE. ) one of the separate units that a course of study has been divided into

The Modular Course involves all departments, and most students take modules in more than one department.

The guidelines will be of benefit to those delivering the modules in colleges, schools and other centers.

Usually students choose a number of modules to study.

back and forthgoing in one direction and then in the opposite direction, and repeating this several times

她沿着海岸走来走去焦急地等待着渔船的返回。She walked back and forth along the shore, anxiously waiting for the fishing boats to return.I saw some people bend their upper body back and forth, twisting their waist.

the other way roundin the opposite order or position

I am accused of stealing money from her but in fact it is the other way round.

看好，你从这个方向卷胶片，不是从相反的方向。Watch, you slide the film in this way round, not the other way round.

circular1) adj. shaped like a circle; moving around like a circle

The procession follows a circular route through the town, and finishes back in the park.

2) n. a printed advertisement, notice, etc. that is sent to lots of people at the same time

The villa has a circular courtyard with rooms leading off it in all directions.

Publishers often distribute, in addition to catalogues, circulars about individual books or series.

by handdone or made by a person rather than a machine

INSTRUCTIONS: This form must be filled out by computer, or in legible block letter if by hand.

与此同时，本届交易会还安排手织地毯的现场表演。At the same time, on-the-spot demonstrations of carpet weaving by hand have also been arranged.

stray1. v.1) begin to deal with or think about a different subject from the main

one, without intending to我在讨论时总是走神（去想别的事情）。

2) move away from the place you should beYoung children should not be allowed to stray from their parents.

I have perhaps strayed away from matters of industry.

Be careful not to stray from the right path of duty.

My mind kept straying from the discussion (to other things).

Patterns:

stray into / ontostray fromstray to / back / over

2. adj.1) a stray animal, such as a dog or cat, is lost or has no home

Lost-and-found objects and stray animals shall be returned to their rightful owners, and any costs thus incurred shall be reimbursed.

2) accidentally separated from other things of the same kind 除了少数几个行人外 , 街上空空如也。

It soon became apparent that because of an administrative oversight our vehicle had not been insured against stray cattle.

Four people were hit by stray bullets from the shoot-out and taken to hospital.

The streets were empty except for a few stray passers-by.

bear down on / upon1. move quickly towards a person or place in a threatening way

Maggie looked up to see Neville bearing down on her.

2. behave in a threatening or controlling way towards a person or group

Federal regulators have been bearing down on campaign contributors.

lunge: vi.make a sudden strong movement towards sb. or sth., especially to attack them

Maggie lunged out an arm and hauled the girl towards her.

Suddenly he yanked at the covers and lunged towards me.

工人们干完活儿后 , 我用了很长时间才把东西收拾好。

put to rights / put rightcorrect (sb. or sth.); make (a situation, etc.) return to normal again

This medicine will soon put you to rights

It took me ages to put things to rights after the workmen had finished working.

Edward had set himself with a will to put the place to rights.

无论做什么事，杰克都能很快找到窍门。

have / get the hang of somethinglearn how to do sth. or use sth.

I’m trying to get the hang of the new telephone system.

Don’t worry! You’ll soon get the hang of it.Whatever he does, Jack can always get the hang of it quickly.

reel1) vi. be confused or shocked by a situation

Norman’s brain was reeling, but he did his best to appear calm.

2) vi. walk in an unsteady way and almost fall over, as if you are drunk

我的脑子被一堆事实和数据搞得一片混乱。

Cameron’s brain reeled slightly under the weight of all these alternatives.

Andy reeled away from the bar and knocked over his stool.

My head reeled with the facts and figures.

The drunk reeled across the road, talking loudly to nobody.

fumble: v.1) try to hold, move, or find sth. with your hands in an awkward way

The old woman fumbled in her pocket for some coins.

2) if you fumble with your words when you are speaking, you have difficulty saying sth.

The blind man fumbled about in his pocket for the key.

Before he could even fumble at his belt, she pulled the trigger.

Asked for an explanation, Mike had fumbled for words.

The speaker fumbled for the right word to answer the question.

演讲者笨嘴拙舌地想找到合适的词来回答这个问题。

Patterns:

fumble at / in / withfumble for

We should tighten supervision over power in terms of decision-making, execution and other links.

tighten v. make a rule, law, or system more strict

During periods when exchange rates stayed fixed for many years, central banks found it hard to tighten (or loosen) credit.

He said he will take steps to tighten up the administration.

他说他将采取措施加强行政管理。

foul1. vt.1) (formal) make sth. very dirty, especially with waste

The oil spill has fouled at least four beaches.

2) do sth. wrong or spoil sth. by making mistakes

We can’t afford to foul up this time.

They fouled their corners and filled the hot room with their smells, and they frightened him with their incessant snarling.

Patterns:

foul sth. upfoul up

2. adj. very dirty; rude and offensive words

Refugees in the camps are short of food and at risk from foul water.She claimed she had been subjected to abuse foul language.

Collocations:

foul languagefoul-smellingin a foul mood / temperfoul weatherfoul deedsa foul crimea foul stroke

粗话味道难闻的坏脾气坏天气可憎的行为邪恶的罪行犯规的一击

3. n. an action in a sport that is against the rules

He’d committed three fouls by half-time.

他们的前锋在禁区内犯规了。Their forward makes a foul in the penalty area.That last foul (against / on Smith) made us lose the match.

see doubleif you see double, sth. is wrong with your eyes, so that you see two things when there is only one

I was dizzy, seeing double after climbing down the plane.The workers were seeing double because of the two-day work.

After thirty years of marriage, they suddenly decided to call it quits.

call it quitsstop doing sth.

The surfer call it quits after one is nip by a shark.

双方谁也没占上风，他们这才决定罢休。Neither side having a clear advantage, they decided to call it quits.

complexity: n. the state of being complicated

The introduction of analog and digital computers opened the way for much greater complexity in automatic control theory.

随着报纸在体积和复杂程度上的变化，其组织结构也随之变化。

As the newspaper grows in size and complexity, so too does its organization.

complexity & complication这两个词都是名词，都有“复杂”之意。

CF:

complexity 指极度复杂而难于辨认的关系。例如：

The complexity of this plate tracery increased, reaching a climax in the magnificent windows of Charters Cathedral.

板状窗花格的复杂性不断增加，沙特尔大教堂的雄伟的窗户达到了这种复杂性的顶峰。

更加复杂的是，从 1978到 1989年间，作品要得到著作权的保护必须要在出版时附有版权声明。

complication 指纷乱复杂到令人难于理解的地步。例如：

I have enough complication in my life without having to look after your sick pets!

即使不给你照看那些生病的小宠物 , 我生活里的麻烦事也已经够多了！

An added complication is that, from 1978 until 1989, an author / artist was required to attach a copyright notice to the work for it to be copyrighted.

对剪纸的了解和研究对于认识和欣赏复杂多样的中国民间艺术来说是一个很好的开始。

An understanding and scrutiny of papercuts is a good beginning to get to know and appreciate the complexity of Chinese folk arts.

4. Writing Practice

1. Useful Expressions

2. Compound Dictation

3. Cue Card

After Reading

6. Proverbs and Quotations

5. Talk about the Pictures

1. 装配线

2. 汽车厂

3. 电动工具

4. 始终；一直

5. 传送带

6. 就是这样！

7. 仪表板

8. 面临重大挑战

assembly line

auto plant

power tool

all the while

conveyor belt

That was it!

instrument panel

have a tough challenge ahead of sb.

Useful Expressions

9. 有点男孩气

10. 一点儿都没料到

11. 孩子般开心

12. 更大的压力在于

13. 压轴戏

14. 自动档或手动档

15. 到目前为止一切顺利

have a boyish way

the last thing I ever expected

childishly fun

add to the pressure

show-stopper

an automatic or mammal shift

so far so good

16. 倒过来 the other way round

17. 慢了一拍

18. 纠正，使恢复正常

19. 熟悉，掌握

20. 并肩而立

21. 弄乱，搞糟

22. 干到下班

lose a beat

put to rights

have / get the hang of

stand shoulder to shoulder

foul things up

work through to the end of the shift

23. 熟悉工作

24. 停下来

get the job down pat

come to a halt

25. 或更糟的

26. 找借口

27. 一阵不安

28. 逃学

29. 部件

30. 肯定地

or worse still

make excuses

a flash of guilt

play hooky

component parts

for sure

Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from S1 to S7 with the exact words you have just heard. For the blanks numbered from S8 to S10 you are required to fill in the missing information. You can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

Compound Dictation

Last summer I had the (S1) to work on the assembly line at an automobile plant. While the pay was (S2) , the working conditions were so bad that I couldn’t wait for the summer to end.

Working on the assembly line was no (S3) . To begin with, the work was (S4) . Day after day, hour after hour, I performed the same task again and again. All I had to do was (S5)

bolts. And hardly ever could I take a break or rest. Next, things might have been better if my foreman had not been so (S6)

to me. As soon as he found out I was a “college kid”, he (S7)

to make my life difficult. (S8) . Soon I began to dread going to work.

tightening

excellent_________

monotonous____________

_________

misfortune_________

picnic______

hostile______

The Worst Job I Have Ever Had

proceeded_________ Not only did he deny me the breaks I deserved, he also never missed an opportunity to make a fool of me

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Last, the very worst part of this horrible job was the hours. (S9) . Naturally, I got stuck with midnight-to-eight. Going to the factory was really dangerous. I was always alone on the bus, and had to walk several long, dark blocks. In addition, my crazy schedule made my social life almost impossible. (S10) . It is true that, the pay was great, but I know I shall do everything possible to avoid working the night shift in a factory again.

Because of the inconvenient hours, the constant conflictswith the foreman, and the tedious work, my job was a nightmare

As atemporary job, I had the last choice when it came to shifts

___________________________________________________

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Cue Card

Directions: There are three cue cards showing different aspects of job hunting. You are required to talk about job hunting according to what is listed on the card. You will have one minute to prepare and each of you will have one and a half minutes to make your presentation.

For Candidate 1

Please talk about the advantages of fining a job in the “job fair” according to the following aspects:Advantages: •get to learn the company better •make your requirements directly •higher diaphaneity

For Candidate 2 Please talk about the advantages of finding a job through the advertisements in the newspaper according to the following aspects:Advantages: •less pressure •more choices •get a large amount of information

For Candidate 3 Please talk about the advantages of finding a job through self-recommendation according to the following aspects:Advantages: •more active •self-confidence •self-promotion

Based on what you’ve learned in the unit, write a composition entitled My Attitude Toward Work. The Chinese outline of each paragraph has been given to you. Your composition should be more than 150 words.

1. 有人认为工作太辛苦。2. 有人认为工作就是一切。3. 我的观点是……

1. Some Useful Sentence Patterns

Writing Practice

As far as I am concerned…From my point of view…My view on it is as follows…I take a positive / negative attitude…To tell you the truth…

2. Homework

We often hear some people complain about the tiring work. They are afraid of getting up early everyday and going to work on time. They hope to stay at home and take rest forever. Considering the strict principles in their offices or factories, they have to be careful, because they don’t want to be criticized. With the development of the society, they have become tired of the fierce competition.

Some other people, however, think in a quite different way. They believe work means everything. They try their best to work and find much fun from their work. Without work, they would feel uneasy and restless.

In my opinion, both of the above-mentioned attitudes toward work are wrong in a way. Work meets our material and spiritual needs. Some people often complain that work makes them tired, but if they really have no job, they will feel idle at home. Overwork may bring poor health. As a result, we can draw a conclusion that hard work is necessary, and so is proper rest.

3. An example

Talk about the Pictures

1. He works best who knows his trade.

2. Work has a bitter root but sweet fruit.

3. The work shows the workman.

4. By the hands of many a great work was made light.

众擎易举。

内行的人干活一定干得最好。

劳动的根虽然苦，然而果实甜。

工作出工匠。

Proverbs and Quotations

Happiness, I have discovered, is nearly always a rebound from hard work. — Grayson, American journalist

5.

我发现，辛勤工作的报酬几乎总是幸福。 —— 美国记者 格雷森

It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. — Churchill, British prime minister

6.

不能爱哪行才干哪行，要干哪行爱哪行。 —— 英国首相 丘吉尔

Work is the grand cure for all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind. — Carlyle, British historian

7.

工作是良药，能医治一切困扰人的疾苦。 —— 英国历史学家 卡莱尔

Why should work be such a significant source of human satisfaction? A good share of the answer rests in the kind of pride that is stimulated by the job and by the activity of accomplishing. — Sayles, British writer

8.

为什么工作竟然是人们获得满足的如此重要的源泉呢？最主要的答案就在于，工作和通过工作所取得的成就，能激起一种自豪感。 —— 英国作家 塞尔斯