CHAPTER 4 reading notes

 Le mort de Don - Juan Mario Prassinos

1. Essences adapted from groups  

    （群组讨论摘抄精华）

【1】 torpedo

v. to hit as a bomb fired under water

1) I torpedo my career.

2) My self-absorption quickly torpedoed everything.

 【2】If hope that technology will fix traffic springs eternal

Whatever dystopias lie ahead, futurists seem confident we can sort out congestion. If hope that technology will fix traffic springs eternal, history suggests something different. 

——Jan 20th 2018 | Finance and economics |Free exchange: Jam tomorrow 

你读到的这句话时:

If hope that technology will fix traffic springs eternal 

是怎么理解的呢？


我的第一反应是：

 If 〖we〗hope （that technology will fix ）traffic springs eternal  

省略了主语，但是下一句的主语是history，两者不一致，所以不能省略，那么这个理解是错误的。

然后看了一个解析，这句话出自 Alexander Pope 的诗歌 An Essay on Man, 其中的 “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” 意味着 “永恒的希望之泉”。

于是：

 If hope （that technology will fix traffic） springs eternal

ok，句型来了。

Whatever .....lie ahead, ....seem confident we can ........ 

If hope that technology will fix AAA springs eternal, history suggests something different. 

顺便造个句。

Whatever problems lie ahead, optimists seem confident we can solve each of them. 

If hope that technology will fix everything springs eternal, history suggests something different. 

2. Q&A  (导读问题与答案）

【1】 

   Use three sentences to describe Onoda’s story.

   〖1〗Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army still persisted to fight, unaware of the end of the war and sceptical to the information of peace.

〖2〗Throughout the years, he managed to hide from the attack and search of the governments but ws found by one Japanese juvenile.

〖3〗Finally he got home and acquired money and fame but find his sufferings meaningless.

————————

（1）

Onoda of the Japanese Imperial Army, deployed to the small island of Lubang in the Philippines, managed to hide in the jungle with three of his men from the America's attack, whose orders were to slow the United States' progress as much as possible, to stand and fight at all costs, to never surrender. 


（2）

Half a year later, after Japan surrendered because the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Onoda, unaware that the war was over, continued to fight and pillage and didn't trust the leaflets the US. military in conjunction with the Japanese government and even five years later still ignored the Philippine government's flyers spreading the peace.


（3）Refused to believe the information of letters and pictures from the missing soldiers' families and a personal note from the emperor, Onoda alone survived in the jingle and hid from the search of governments but was found by one Japanese boy named Suzuki dropped out of school in four days and then went home, who firstly claimed to be proud but later became depressed of the Japanese current culture and realized his suffering had meant nothing：thirty years wasted and at last packed up to moved into Brazil where he remained until his death.

 【2】

     What can we learn from the Rock Star Problems?

    One rock star is successful in his career but has no pleasure while the other finds his pleasure in the family though with few reputation. We can learn that our values determine the metrics by which we measure ourselves and everyone else. That is to say if you want to change how you see your problems, you have to change what you value and/or how you measure failure/success.

 【3】

    Can you name some values that you hold dear?

   Robustness. Health. Growth. Diligence. Kind.

 【4】

   Do you have any good/bad values stated in the book? How those values affect your life?

    Yes, I do. Material Success. I am still in the stage of basic physical needs. Now without income, I need to work hard to study and learn skills to prepare for the future,

3. Some thoughts while reading  

    （阅读过程中的思考）

I have highlighted and underlined many sentences and believe these are great words to convey wonderful values. They make me reflect by what standard I should measure myself instead merely following others' rule.

We humans are the animal full of imagination. And throughout our life, we inevitable suffer a lot. The aware of this, we should question ourselves what problems I choose to solve and for what purpose we do this.

For example, I just finished a series of exams and my performance, it could be as what I expect, is not so good. And now I have meant to watch a movie but actually I am writing this reading notes. I just do not want to write this so late like before, and the movie could be enjoyed several days later. Honestly, I haven't seen many. But I have goals. I have to study and earn to cove my life expenses.

Define your success. When we feel angry, lost, failed, uninspired and lethargic, we owe it to our failures. That is ok. To accept the negative feeling. We could realize it as another step toward success. And we should know this is life. Life is full of failures. We bomb many times. And we learn and grow through these.

Human are animals of concepts, too, or precisely, the values. But there are good and bad ones. We should learn to distinguish them. Values underlie everything we do and mold ourselves gradually in turn. 

Problems are meant to show us what we choose to be bugged. They are programmed to change our values if we could solve them. Sometimes if we remeasure our life and we can find what is really important. Make your ultimate decision. Prioritize the better values.

4. Words expected to remember 

     (必记单词）

来看一句话吧：

 He was seen more as a showpiece than as a serious cultural thinker—a Japanese man who had emerged from a time capsule for all to marvel at, like a relic in a museum.

ok，句型又来了：

He was seen more as AAA than as BBBB

来造个句子：

It was seen more as a tragedy than as a play.

【01】flipping burgers somewhere

• 掷；轻击

【02】  scavenging the jungle for almost thirty years with no luck

• 清除

【03】 morphed into something of an urban legend

• 改变，alter
  

【04】 These holdouts continued to fight and pillage as they had before.

• pillage = rob, 抢劫
  

【05】 he’d rattle off the name of some firm

• 喋喋不休

【06】 His seething anger fueled his ambition; revenge became his muse

• adj. 火热的，沸腾的

  
  

这句话特别值得背诵，形容 一个人的怒火。

【07】 agonized over the decision

• 折磨

【08】 unceremoniously told him to piss off

• 随便地

今天的短语比较多，因为我全部都给标记出来了，但肯定记不完，不过还有点，是个别的单词，就没有放上来了。因为我查过后发现，这个单词我其实是认识的，只是很久不见，然后就给忘记了....这段时间考试，读的英文杂志少了，明天全部捡起来，再多读点英文背文章读新概念。