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1、Unit1 Who Are You and What You Are Doing HereUnit 1 Who Are You and What You Are Doing Here Mark Edmundson Structure of the Text Part I (Paras. 1-2) The speaker begins his speech by congratulating the students because their successful entry into the university has been achieved in spite of the mess
2、the country is in. Thus he sets the tone of his speech: critical of the society in general, and its education in particular. Part II (Paras. 3-4) In these two paragraphs the speaker advises the students what they must do to get a real education. He calls on them to get ready to fight the institution
3、. Part III (Paras. 5-7) The speaker recalls how his father helped him make up his mind about what he should do at university. Part IV (Paras. 8-18) In this part the speaker indicates what he considers to be the problems existing within the various groups making up the university: students, professor
4、s, and administrators. Part V (Paras. 19-23) The speaker describes how university authorities define the aims of education so that they do not include the substantial content of the courses and the soul-making of students. Part VI (Paras. 24-29) In this section, the speaker warns students against th
5、e influence of their parents and friends, teachers and counselors, religious leaders and conservative thinkers. They may all be useful, but they may all be wrong about who you are. Part VII (Paras. 30-34) In this section, the speaker tells students how to find out who they really are and what they r
6、eally want to do with their lives. He believes that the place to do that is at university, the time to start is now, and the best method is to read great authors. Then he goes on to describe his own experience to show how he has benefited from reading. Part VIII (Paras. 35-38) In this part, the spea
7、ker sums up his suggestions as how students can get a real education. Part IX (Paras. 39-40) In this last part, the author ends with the idea that education is about each students finding out what form of work is close to being playwork he does so easily that it restores him as he goes. It will brin
8、g out his best qualities, his imagination, devotion, passion, and determination. Detailed Analysis of the Text 1. Its been said that raising a child effectively takes a village: Well, as you may have noticed, our American village is not in very good shape. (Para. 2) There is an old saying that it ta
9、kes the collective effort of a whole village to raise a child properly, that is, the whole village is responsible for the healthy upbringing of a child. our American village is not in very good shape: Note that the speaker is talking about any traditional American village? He is using the word villa
10、ge in a metaphorical sense, taking it to mean the country. 2. Weve got guns, drugs, two wars, fanatical religions, a slime-based popular culture, and some politicians whoa little restraint herearent what they might be. (Para. 2) Some of the problems of the United States the author mentioned in the s
11、entence: Guns: meaning the lack of gun control and the atrocious crimes due to easy access to firearms Drugs: referring to drug abuse and drug-related crimes two wars: the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq fanatical religions: referring to extreme fundamentalist sects and cult religions. a slim
12、e-based popular culture: culture that employs sex and violence to appeal to peoples basest instincts some politicians: The speaker probably wants to say “some politicians who are loathsome and disgusting”, but he checks himself and decides to use understatement; “who arent what they might be” is les
13、s offensive and more effective than blunt accusation. a little restraint here: 我这里也许应该说得稍稍克制一点 The speaker says this to show that he is making a conscious effort not to be too outspoken. Note that an understatement can not only have a humorous effect when used properly, it can also very often be str
14、onger than a plain matter-of-fact statement. Compare: I dont know how to describe him. Let me put it this way: honesty is not his strong point. Before long, she discovered that the man she married was not what she thought he was. Note: We can sense that the author is deeply concerned about social pr
15、oblems and the situation the country is in; politically his attitude is very critical on many issues. He can be classified as a liberal, knows it and is proud of it. He is also witty and his lecture will not be pompous. 3. To merely survive in this American village and to win a place in the entering
16、 class has taken a lot of grit on your part. So, yes, congratulations to all. (Para. 2) You need to have a lot of courage and determination to survive in this country and manage to enter college. You have done both. Therefore I congratulate you. 4. Questions on Paragraphs 3-4: 1) Is the author disap
17、pointed with all American universities? No, he says that one can get a terrific education in the United States, and the university the students have entered has all the essential ingredients for success students could hope for. But having obtained the opportunity to get a good education does not mea
18、n they are sure to get it. 2) So why cant the students just go on as before, work hard, listen to the teachers, and so on? The speaker emphasizes the idea that true education is not something that will be presented to you on a platter. You must strive for it. You must fight. 3) The speaker asks the
19、students to fight, but fight what? Fight who? Fight those problems he mentioned just now? Yes. But theres more. More importantly he asks them to fight the “institution”, because all institutions have rules, traditions, systems, and principles that might impede students creative thinking. He will dev
20、elop his ideas in the following paragraphs. 5. and occasionally even to piss off some admirable people. (Para. 4) and occasionally even to offend some admirable people, like learned professors and fine school leaders because you do not agree and feel you must defy their authority and stick to your v
21、iews. to piss off: (impolite) to annoy sb. very much 使人发火；使生气 Notice the speakers choice of words. He is sometimes deliberately using words and expressions that will bring him closer to the students. 6. I came to college with few resources, but one of them was an understanding, however crude, of how
22、 I might use my opportunities there. (Para. 5) I came to college without much money (financial resources) or abilities and qualities that would help me succeed in college. to hatch plans: to make plans, usually in a secret way秘密炮制 (Remember that hatchs primary meaning refers to hatching eggs.) 7. I
23、was about to go off to college, a feat no one in my family had accomplished in living memory. (Para. 5) As far as I or other living members of my family are aware, no one else in our family had ever been admitted to a university (I am the first college student in our family) feat: an act or achievem
24、ent that shows courage, strength , or skill功夫；绝技；成就；业绩 8. My father compressed his brow and blew twin streams of smoke, dragonlike, from his magnificent nose. (Para. 5) compressed his brow: to knit his brow or frown blew two streams of smoke, dragonlike, from his magnificent nose: The speakers fathe
25、r blew smoke through his nose, thus “two streams”. Smokers sometimes also blow rings of smoke from their mouth. dragonlike: like a dragon. Dragon is an imaginary fire-spitting animal. magnificent nose: Magnificent most likely in size. The speaker is joking about his fathers big nose. 9. My father ha
26、d some experience with lawyers, and with policemen, too; he was not well-disposed toward either. (Para. 5) The speakers father was not well-disposed to lawyers and policemen. because he must have had some unpleasant experience with them before. The speaker does not say what kind of experience that i
27、s, but we can assume that his father had most likely violated some rule or regulation punishable by law. 10. That was not uncommon. My father detonated a lot. (Para. 6) My father had a pretty hot temper. He blew up often. 11. We were rich kids minus the money. (Para. 6) The speakers father reminds h
28、is son that he and his brother are poor, but he chooses to use the humorous expression “rich minus the money” to protect his dignity, implying that his sons are just as rich as the rich children in many ways, and money is the only thing they lack. 12. Then I had better study literature, unless I had
29、 inside information to the effect that reincarnation wasnt just hype, and Id be able to attend college thirty or forty times. (Para. 6) Everybody knows there is no such nonsense as reincarnation unless I have some secret information that there is. (The speakers father of course is being sarcastic.)
30、13. What my father told me that evening was true in itself, and it also contains the germ of an idea about what a university education should be. (Para. 7) What my father told me that evening was quite true， and it could develop into a full understanding of the meaning of a university education. 14.
31、 They have it wrong. (Para. 7) They have all got it wrong. / They have all failed to grasp the essence of a university education. 15. Education has one salient enemy in present-day America, and that enemy is education. (Para. 8) This sentence does not seem to make sense, but we know that when the sp
32、eaker says that educations obvious (noticeable) enemy in the US today is education, he is using the second education to refer to the way universities are currently run which in his opinion is based on the wrong understanding of the proper aims of education. 16. university education is a means to an
33、end. For students, that end is a good job. Students want the credentials . They want the certificate that will give them access to Wall Street, or entrance into law or medical or business school. (Para. 8) We often hear that education is a means to an end. But the question is to what end? The speake
34、rs answer is: for students, that end is a good job, and a good job means a job that will bring power and money, and to get a good job, you must have good credentials or certificate or diploma. This is one of the most serious problems of education in the speakers opinion. We probably must redefine ed
35、ucation not as a means to an end, but an end itself. 17. And how can we blame them? America values power and money, big players with big bucks. (Para. 8) The speaker is right that a nations education reflects the basic values of the whole society. The American society values money and power. Thorste
36、in Veblen, a well-known American economist once said bitterly that America is a country in which half of the population are busy making money, while the other half are busy breeding money-makers. player: A player is contemporary slang and means someone who is highly successful in the area being disc
37、ussed - or just in general. 玩家 18. Students come to college with the goal of a diploma in mindwhat happens in between, is often of no deep and determining interest to them. (Para. 8) what happens in between: What happens between the time they enter college and the time they graduate, that is, the ti
38、me they spend in school 19. they live with their prospects for success. (Para. 9) they live with their hopes of success in the future. They do not live in the present. 20. If universities stopped issuing credentials, half of the clients would be gone by tomorrow morning, with the remainder following
39、 fast behind. (Para. 9) the clients: the students the remainder: the other half 21. The idea that the courses you take should be the primary objective of going to college is tacitly considered absurd. (Para. 9) tacitly: expressed or understood without being said directly暗中地；不明言地；默示地 22. The work the
40、y are compelled to do to advanceis, broadly speaking, scholarly work this work has precious little to do with the fundamentals of teaching. (Para. 10) The professors are busy with their own business too. They have no choice. If they want to get on, they must get tenure, promotion, raises, outside of
41、fers. They call them scholarly work, but it actually has very little to do with the real purpose of teaching. 23. The public senses this disparity and so thinks of the professors work as being silly or beside the point. (Para. 10) The public is well aware of the difference between the professors so-
42、called scholarly work and the fundamentals of teaching. Therefore the public thinks that professors scholarly work is either silly or irrelevant. 24. But the public also senses that because professors dont pay full-bore attention to teaching they dont have to work very hardtheyve created a massive f
43、eather bed for themselves and called it a university. (Para. 10) Because professors do not give much attention to teaching, the public therefore thinks that they do not have to work hard. The university is therefore a big comfortable feather bed professors have created for themselves. full-bore: a.
44、(informal) moving or operating with the greatest power attention: 全神贯注 25. This is radically false. (Para. 11) radically: fundamentally, completely 26. Scholarship, even if pretentious and almost unreadable, is nonetheless labor-intensive. (Para. 11) Professors are not lazy. They work hard. Their sc
45、holarly work may be hard to read because they want to make readers feel they are more learned and successful than they really are. But it has taken them a lot of effort. labor-intensive: 需要耗费大量劳力的；劳动密集型的 27. These essays are honest: their footnotes reflect real reading, real assimilation, and real d
46、edication. (Para. 11) 他们的论文都是实实在在的：它们的注释都反映出他们的确认真阅读了大量的材料，吸收掌握了大量的东西，真正体现了对学术研究的献身精神。 28. Shoddy workin which the author cheats, cuts corners, copies from othersis quickly detected. (Para. 11) shoddy work： 粗制滥造的作品 cut corners: to not do a job as thoroughly as you should so as to finish it quickly o
47、r save money 偷工减料 29. that the results have almost no practical relevance to the students, is a central element in the tragicomedy that is often academia. (Para. 11) The speaker thinks that the academia (高等学府的学术界) is a tragicomedy (悲喜剧) mainly because of this. On the one hand its scholarship reflect
48、s real dedication, serious research, and tremendous effort; on the other hand, it is really of very little use to students. have no practical relevance to: have no practical use to; does not have much connection with sb.s needs or interests. 30. The students and the professors have made a deal: neither of them has to throw himself heart and soul into what happens in the classroom. (Para. 12) throw oneself into: to devote ones energy to heart and soul: whole-heartedly 31. The students write their abstract, over-intellectualized essays; the professors grade the students for their
