CHAPTER 3 reading notes

Dancing Shoes Helene Schjerfbeck

1. Essences adapted from groups  

    （群组讨论摘抄精华）

【1】

   It lasers in on what you perceive your personal shortcomings and failures to already be, and then emphasizes them for you.

Question: 

How to understand it grammatically?

...to already be ...

• 如何从语法结构上理解... to already be ....?

• 划分下句子结构：

It lasers in on what you perceive your personal shortcomings and failures to already be, and then emphasizes them for you.

它如同激光一样指出你本就知道的自己个人缺点和失败变成了什么样子，然后为你把它们强调出来。

（总感觉翻译很多英语翻译成中文很拗口，水平不高。）

ok, 我们可以学到一个句型了：

It lasers in on what you perceive .... to already be, and then emphasizes.......

造个句子：

It lasers in on what we have never perceived the errors and techiniques to already be, and then instructs on us for a bette learning.

2. Q&A  (导读问题与答案）

【1】 

    What does “entitlement” mean? Can you give an example to explain it?

     Entitlement means a person feels as though he or she deserves good things without  actually  earning them. 

    For example, a person with entitlement believes he or she should be able to be rich without actually working for it.

 【2】

     What’s the point of telling Jimmy’s story?

    The point is that a person like Jimmy hiding from his problems by making up imagined success for himself at every turn is weak, because he cannot face his problems, no matter how good he feels about himself.

 【3】

    Do you think you are special? What’s wrong with feeling you are sepcial?

    Sometimes I do, but mostly I feel myself as an ordinary one and even below the average.

    The problem with entitlement is that it makes people need to feel good about themselves all the time, even at the expense of those around them, ending up spending most of their time thinking about themselves. Feeling special can never change any facts. You have to take actions to achieve it.

 【4】

     If you are not special, how can we achieve greatness?

     Giving up the sense of entitlement and the belief that you're somehow owned by this world and the supply of emotional highs. Accept that your are mediocre and average. Free yourself to accomplish what you truly wish to.

3. Some thoughts while reading  

    （阅读过程中的思考）

我们并不特别，也不伟大。我们都很普通，但很容易觉得自己比别人优越，自己得到某些东西是应该的，很帅/很美，该被人喜欢。但并不是的，如果所有的人都伟大，那么每个人都还是普通人。

百分之九十以上的司机都认为自己的驾驶技术高于平均水平。

有时候我会觉得自己很平庸，非常普通的一人，尤其是和别人比较时，似乎没什么可以拿得出手的技能。但有时候另一种感觉有上来了，就是我还很幸运，似乎又比别人好一点。我不知道别人什么情况，反正自己是这两种想法交织。

书中说的You are not special. Not to feel special, to achieve greatness. 或许也有道理吧，但并不是适用于每一个人。

我最受益的是第三章最后一段：

And the knowledge and acceptance of your own mundane existence will actually free you to accomplish what you truly wish to accomplish, without judgment or lofty expectations. You will have a growing appreciation for life’s basic experiences: the pleasures of simple friendship, creating something, helping a person in need, reading a good book, laughing with someone you care about. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? That’s because these things are ordinary. But maybe they’re ordinary for a reason: because they are what actually matters.

我们每天所做的事情，大部分决定了我们自身。有些事情就很烦，但你要忍耐住，因为他们很重要，比如学习。接受自己的平庸，去简单纯粹的享受你正在做的事情，不要幻想什么伟大，什么成功。

我读到 acceptance of your own mundane existence 时，想到有一年的高考语文作文：拒绝平庸。年少人都是不服气的，但看到的世界越大，越觉得自己的渺小、无力和普通。

那就接受吧，accomplish what you truly wish to accomplish, without judgment or lofty expectations 。

今天读英语时很烦。每天一个小时，还有做实验，复习考试，日常的琐碎工作。但有时就觉得很烦，这些都是极其普通的事情，自己做的效果也并不好。但这些就是简单的事情呀，有时候就是觉得无聊，但这就是我的日常。

4. Words supposed to remember 

     (必记单词）

finagle
  1 : to get (something) in a clever or dishonest way

  2 : to trick (someone) in order to get something

 To finagle a loan from some one, is to trick one a loan, pr to cheat one of a loan.