新视野大学英语第二版第四册读写教程课文原文.pdf
UnitlParal An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasin his own tail who,when he captures it,does not know what else to do but to continuechasing it.The of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.Para2 Dont quit your day job!is advice frequently given by understandably pessimist family members and friends to a budding artistwho is trying hard to succeed.The conquest of fame is difficult at best,and many end up emotionally if not financially bankru.Still,impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on.The lure of.owning in famesimperial 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.Theydevelop a style that market aggressively to haste popularity,and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a jlur.Most wouldbe hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there.Artists cannot remain ile,though.When the performer,painter or writer becomesbored,their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to ustai；,the attention of the public.After theirenthusiasm has dissolved,the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month.Artists who do attempt to remain current bymaking even minute changes to their style of writing,dancing or singing,run a significant risk of losing the audiences favor.The publicsimply Iiscour: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 or T.S.Eliotare easilyrecognizable.The same is true of painters like Monet,Renoir;or Dali and nov i elike Hitchcock,Fellini,Spielberg,Chen Kaige orZhang Yimou.Their distinc styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune.However;they paid for it bygiving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms.Para5 Fames spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle a.iud is quickly exposed,and the pressure of so much attention is too muchfor most to endure.lt takes you out of yourself:You must be what the public thinks you are,not what you really are or could be.Theperformer;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 mans soul,and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself isparticularly amazing.You would be hard-pressed to many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in thefame game.An example,the famous Irish writer Oscar Wildez known for his uncompromising behavior,both social and sexual,to whichthe public paid heavily for remaining true to himself.The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with ccuse!him at abanquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son.Extremely angered by her remarks,he sued the young mansmother,asserting that she had damaged his good name.He should have hired a better:though.The judge did not.ondWildes call to have the woman pay for damaging his name,and instead fined Wilde.He ended up in jail after refusing to pay,andevenworse,was permanently pelle from the wider circle of public favor.When things were at their worst,he found that no one waswilling to risk his or her name in his defense.His price for remaining true to himself was to be left alone when he needed his fans themost.Para7 Curiously enough,it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward:freedom!They enjoy the freedom to express themselves inunique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans.Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artistsnever found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out.They may justify their failure byconvincing themselves 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 somefamous people to work even harder to succeed.Thomas Wolfe,the American loveii,had his first novel Look Homeward,Angel rejected39 times before it was finally published.Beethoven overcame his father,who did not believe that he had any potential as a musician,tobecome the greatest musician the world.And Pestalozzi,the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century,failed at every job he ever haduntil he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education.ThomasEdison was thrown out of school in the fourth grade,because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull.Unfortunately for most people,however;failure is the end of their struggle,not the beginning.Para9 I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune:good luck.But alas,you may find that it was not what you wanted.The dogwho catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail.The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good.Soinstead of trying so hard to achieve success,try to be happy with who you are and what you do.Try to do work that you can be proud of.Maybe you wont be famous in your own lifetime,but you may create better art.Unit2Paral He was born in a poor area of South London.He wore his mothers old red stockings cut down for ankl socks.His mother wastemporarily declared mad.Dickens might have created Charlie Chaplins childhood.But only Charlie Chaplin could have created the greatcomic character of the Tramp,the little man in who gave his creator permanent fame.Para2 Other countriesFrance,Italy,Spain,even Japanhave provided more oplauv(and profit)where Chaplin is concerned than theland of his birth.Chaplin quit Britain for good in 1913 when he journeyed to America with a group of performers to do his corned act onthe stage,where talent SCOIH recruited him to work for Mack Sennett,the king of Hollywood comedy films.Para3 Sad to say,many English people in the 1920s and 1930s thought Chaplins Tramp a bit,well,crude.Certainly middle-classaudiences did;the working-class audiences were more likely to:la for a character who revolted against authority,using his wicked littlecane to trip it up,or aiming the he of his boot for a well-placed kick at its broad rear.All the same,Chaplins comic beggar didnt seem allthat English or even working-class.English tramps didnt sport tiny moustaches,huge pants or tail coats:European leaders and Italianwaiters wore things like that.Then again,the Tramps quick eye for a pretty girl had a coarse way about it that was considered,well,notquite nice by English audiences-thats how foreigners behaved,wasnt it?But for over half of his screen career;Chaplin had no screenvoice to confirm his British nationality.Para4 Indeed,it was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find the right voice for hisTramp.He stponed that day as long as possible:In Modern Times in 1936,the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter;hemade up a nonsense language which sounded like no known nationality.He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a college-educatedgentleman whod come down in the world.But if hed been able to speak with an educated accent in those early short comedies,itsdoul iif he would have achieved world fame.And the English would have been sure to find it odd.No one was certain whetherChaplin did it on purpose but this helped to bring about his huge success.Para5 He was an nmensel talented man,determined to a degree unusual even in the ranks of Hollywood stars.His huge fame gave himthe freedom-and,more importantly,the money-to be his own master.He already had the urge to explore and extend a talent hediscovered in himself as he went along.It cant be me.Is that possible?How extraordinary,is how he greeted the first sight of himself asthe Tramp on the screen.Para6 But that shock jse his imagination.Chaplin didnt have his jokes written into a cript in advance;he was the kind of comic whoused his physical senses to invent his art as he went along.Lifeless objects especially helped Chaplin make contact with himself as anartist.He turned them into other kinds of objects.Thus,a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pawnbroker became a sick patientundergoing surgery;boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten with salt and)epper like prime cuts of fish(thenails being removed like fish bones).This physical transformation,plus the skill with which he ocutcc it again and again,is surely thesecret of Chaplins great comedy.Para7 He also had a deep need to be lovedand a corresponding fear of being)etrayed.The two were hard to combine and sometimesas in his early marriages-the collision between them resulted in disaster.Yet even this painfully-bought self-knowledge found its way into his comic creations.The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl wholl be waiting to walk into the unse with him;while the other side of Chaplin makesMonsieur Verdoux,the French wife killer,into a symbol of hatred for women.Para8 Its a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie Chaplin the stability and happiness it had earlier denied him.In Oona ONeillChaplin,he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them,which had seemed sothreatening,that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful girl of 17 whod given notice of their weddingdate,he said,And where is the young man?Chaplin,then 54,had cautiously waited outside.As Oona herself was the child of a largefamily with its own problems,she was well prepared for the battle that Chaplins life became as many unfounded rumors.urroundedthem bothand,later on,she was the center of calm in the quarrels that Chaplin sometimes sparkc in his own large family of talentedchildren.Para9 Chaplin died on s Day 1977.A few months later,a couple of almost comic body thieves stole his body from the family burialchamber and held it for money.The police recovered it with more efficiency than Mack Sennetts；msy Keystone Co(；would have done,but one cant help feeling Chaplin would have regarded this strange incident as a fitting memoria-h is way of having the last laugh on aworld to which he had given so many.Unit3Paral A welfare client is supposed to cheat.Everybody expects it.Faced with sharing a dinner of raw pet food with the cat,many peoplein wheelchairs I know bleed the system for a few extra dollars.They tell the government that they are getting two hundred dollars lessthan their real tension so they can get a little extra welfare money.OG they tell the caseworker that the landlord raised the rent by ahundred dollars.Para2 I have jpte(to live a life of complete honesty.So instead,I go out and drum up some business and draw cartoons.I even tellwelfare how much I make!Oh,Im tempted to get paid under the table.But even if I yielded to that temptation,big magazines are notgoing to get involved in some sticky situation.They keep my records,and that information goes right into the governments computer.Very high-profile.Para3 As a welfare client Im expected to bow before the caseworker.Deep down,caseworkers know that they are being made fools of bymany of their clients,and they feel they are entitled to have clients bow to them as compensation.Im not being bitter.Most caseworkersbegin as college-educated liberals with high ideals.But after a few years in a system that practically requires people to lie,they becomelike 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.Wheredyou get the money for those?she wanted to know.ParaS Friends and family.Para6 Well,youd better have a receipt for it,by God.You have to report any donations or gifts.Para7 This was my cue to beg.Instead,I talked back.I got a cigarette from somebody on the street the other day.Do I have to report that?HPara8 Well,Im sorry,but I dont make the rules,Mr.Callahan.Para9 Suzanne tries to lecture me about repairs to my wheelchair;which is always breaking down because welfare wont spend moneymaintaining it properly.You know,Mr.Callahan,Ive heard that you put a lot more miles on that wheelchair than average.Para 10 Of course I do.Im an active worker;not a vegetable.I live near downtown,so I can get around in a wheelchair.I wonder whatshed think if she suddenly broke her hip and had to crawl to work.Parall Government cuts in welfare have resulted in hunger and suffering for a lot of people,not just me.But people with spinal cordinjuries felt the cuts in a unique way:The government stopped taking care of our chairs.Each time mine broke down,lost a screw,neededa new roller bearing,the brake wouldnt work,etc.,and I called Suzanne,I had to endure a little lecture.Finally,shed say,Well,if I canfind time today,Ill call the medical worker.Paral2 She was supposed to notify the medical worker;who would certify that there was a problem.Then the medical worker called thewheelchair repair companies to get the cheapest bid.Then the medical worker alerted the main welfare office at the state capital.Theyconsidered the matter for days while I lay in bed,unable to move.Finally,if I was lucky,they called back and approved the repair.Para 13 When welfare learned I was making money on my cartoons,Suzanne started visiting every fortnight instead of every two months.She looked into every corner in search of unreported appliances,or maids,or a roast pig in the oven,or a new helicopter parked out back.She never found anything,but there was always a thick pile of forms to fill out at the end of each visit,accounting for every penny.Para 14 There is no provision in the law for a gradual shift away from welfare.I am an independent businessman,slowly building up mymarket.Its impossible to jump off welfare and suddenly be making two thousand dollars a month.But I would love to be able to pay forsome of my living and not have to go through an embarrassing situation every time I need a spare part for my wheelchair.Para 15 There needs to be a lawyer who can act as a champion for the rights of welfare clients,because the system so easily lends itself toabuse by the welfare givers as well as by the clients.Welfare sent Suzanne to look around in my apartment the other day because thechemist said I was using a larger than usual amount of medical supplies.I wasz indeed:The hole that has been surgically cut to drain urinehad changed size and the connection to my urine bag was leaking.Para 16 While she was taking notes,my phone rang and Suzanne answered it.The caller was a state senator,which scared Suzanne a little.Would I sit on the governors committee and try to do something about the thousands of welfare clients who,like me,could earn part orall of their own livings if they were a
