unit 1 think for yourself
千里挑一百里挑一-小学三年级数学教学计划
Think for yourself
1. Thinking for
yourself is still a radical act.
2. Thinking
for yourself is not a popular activity, though it
should be. Every step of real
progress in our
society has come from it. But in most circles,
particularly in places that shape
our lives –
families, schools and most workplaces – thinking
for yourself is regarded with
suspicion. Some
institutions thwart it on purpose. It can be seen
as dangerous.
3. I was reminded of this sad
fact at a party when a fellow guest asked me the
subject of a book
I was planning to write. I
told him that it was about how people can help
each other to think
for themselves. “Oh dear,”
he said, “I don’t think much of that; I much
prefer people do as
they’re told.” I later
found out that he is the fourth-generation
president of one of the largest
oil companies.
4. When was the last organizational vision
statement you saw that included the words “… to
develop ourselves into a model environment in
which everyone at every level can think for
themselves”? For that matter, when was the
last time somebody asked you, “What do you
really think, really?” and then waited for you
to answer at length?
5. This dearth should not
surprise us. Hardly anyone has been encouraged,
much less trained, to
think for themselves,
and their teachers and parents and bosses weren’t
either. And neither
were theirs. (We may have
learned to revere thinkers like Socrates, but we
also learned that
the state poisoned him for
thinking for himself: not unmitigated
encouragement.)
6. Occasionally, however, we
do have a teacher or mentor who truly wants us to
develop our
own thinking. They give us
glimpses. When I was 13 years old, I was put into
an advanced
algebra course. On the first day
the teacher, who was maligned by students as a
hard teacher
because she tried to get them to
think, stood in front of the blackboard and said,
“On the
paper in front of you write the sum of
a number.”
7. The entire class of 35 pubescent
people just stared at her. She repeated the
direction, “Write
the sum of a number.”
8.
I remember my hand gathering sweat around the
pencil. A few heads looked down and their
pencils started up. I wondered what in the
world they were writing. I saw the girl across the
aisle from me lean forward and peer over the
shoulder of the boy in front of her who was
scribbling something. Then she scratched a
figure and immediately covered it with her hand.
9. The teacher paced and rubbed the chalk
between her fingers. I wondered what she was about
to put on the board. I was now the only one
not writing. I leaned back and over my left
shoulder whispered to my friend, “What is it?”
10. “Seven,” she whispered back.
11. So I
wrote “7” on my paper. I kept my head down, hoping
I looked busy and confident.
12. After the
agony among us had become tactile, the teacher
asked us for our answers. The
number 7 was
prevalent. She walked slowly over to the board and
wrote: “There is no such
thing as the sum of a
number.”
13. I knew that.
14. Why didn’t
you write it?
15. Sarah said it was 7.
16.
Why did you ask her?
17. Because – I don’t
know.
18. That’s right. From now on, think for
yourself.
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19. I was too
scared around that teacher for the rest of my
young life to think very well in her
presence.
But I took the message with me and gradually
examined and valued it. I don’t
recommend
humiliating people into thinking for themselves as
she had. She certainly did not
create a
Thinking Environment for us. Had she affirmed our
intelligence first and spoken
about the joy of
thinking for ourselves, had she not fanned our
fear of her, we would all have
learned even
more powerfully what it meant to do our thinking.
And we might have been able
to think well
around her too.
20. But at least she
introduced the concept into my academic life.
Reading and understanding
2 Choose
the best answer to the questions.
○
1 Why
does the writer believe thinking for oneself is
not popular?
(a) Because it takes too much
time.
(b) Because institutions don’t like
it.
(c) Because it doesn’t lead to
progress.
(d) Because only a few people are
able to do it.
2 How often are people
interested in what other people think according to
the writer?
(a) Always.
(b) Often.
(c) Hardly ever.
(d) Never.
3
Who first made the writer realize that thinking
for oneself is important?
(a) The manager
of an oil company.
(b) The writer’s
parents.
(c) The writer’s maths teacher.
(d) The writer’s friend Sarah.
4 How
did the writer feel when she was asked to write
“the sum of a number”?
(a) Pleased, because
it was an easy question to answer.
(b)
Bored, because she wasn’t interested in maths.
(c) Worried, because she was the only one
who didn’t
know the answer.
(d)
Confused, because she didn’t understand the
question.
5 What did the writer do in the end?
(a) She copied what someone else wrote.
(b) She suddenly realized the meaning of
the question.
(c) She felt too frightened
to write an answer.
(d) She asked the
teacher to explain.
6 What does the writer
think of the maths teacher?
(a) She was the
best teacher she ever had.
(b) She was the
worst teacher she ever had.
(c) She taught
her an important lesson.
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(d) She valued the intelligence of
her pupils.
Dealing with unfamiliar words
3 Replace the underlined words with the
correct form of the words in the box. You
○
may need to make other changes.
affirm agony glimpse
institution lean
pace peer
poison rub scratch
1 I moved my
body forwards so that I could get a quick look at
what was written in the book.
2 Our college
has publicly stated that it will help students
with financial problems.
3 Waiting for the
results of the exams was not pleasant – it was a
feeling of great worry.
4 I looked carefully
at the letter but I couldn’t read the name at the
bottom.
5 In the next room a woman was
walking up and down the room.
6 I could hear
the dog moving its claws against the door, trying
to get out.
7 The university is one of the
most famous large organizations in the country.
8 The king died after he was made to eat or
drink a substance that could kill him.
9 She
woke up and pressed and moved her hands over her
eyes, still feeling sleepy.
4 Complete
the paragraph with the correct form of the words
in the box.
○
advanced concept
particularly
powerful presence
radical suspicion
Children learn from
their teachers, but they learn from other children
too. This (1) __________
has been proved in a
lot of research, (2) __________ with young
children. When they find
themselves in the (3)
__________ of other children, the desire to
imitate them is a(n) (4)
__________ aid to
learning. Adults may lose their motivation, but
not children! But real progress
comes when
children learn to think for themselves – and that,
as we all know now, is a(n) (5)
__________
skill. It may sound (6) _________ and we may view
it with (7) __________, but it’s
an important
skill to learn.
5 Answer the questions
about the words.
○
1 If you thwart
something, do you (a) make it happen, or (b) stop
it from happening?
2 If you revere someone,
do you think they are (a) very old, or (b) very
wise?
3 If you malign another person, do you
say (a) nice things, or (b) bad things about them?
4 Is an aisle (a) a narrow area between rows
of seats, or (b) an area at the front of a
classroom?
5 If you scribble something, do you
write it (a) very quickly, or (b) very clearly and
carefully?
6 If you humiliate another person,
do you make them feel (a) bad, or (b) good about
themselves?
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Language in use
Structure
impersonal structures with the passive voice
1 Look at the sentences.
○
People
regard thinking for yourself with suspicion. They
see it as dangerous.
We can rewrite them like
this:
Thinking for yourself is regarded with
suspicion. It can be seen as dangerous.
We can use the passive voice when we do not know
who the subject of the action is, or when
the
subject is vague or general (such as people). It
is common in phrases which express
widely-held
beliefs (It is thought believed said that…).
These structures are more formal than
the
equivalent structures in the active voice.
Now
rewrite the sentences using impersonal structures
with the passive voice.
1 Some people
consider asking too many questions to be rude.
2 They view a relaxed attitude to learning
with suspicion.
3 People believe that our
university dates back to the tenth century.
4
Most people consider this library to be the oldest
in the country.
5 Many people think Imperial
College London is the best place to study
sciences.
6 They say my old school has the
best teachers.
Had + subject inversion
2 Look at the sentence.
○
If she had
affirmed our intelligence first, we
would all
have learned even more powerfully.
We can
rewrite it like this:
Had she affirmed our
intelligence first, we would
all have learned
even more powerfully.
We can use a clause
beginning with the inversion had + subject as an
alternative to the if clause in
a conditional
sentence. It’s more formal than the if clause, and
is not as common.
Now complete the
sentences about yourself using Had + subject
inversion.
1 I would have enjoyed myself more
___________________________________.
2
__________________________________, I would have
made different plans for the weekend.
3 I
wouldn’t have worked so hard
__________________________________________.
4
_________________________________, I would have
gone to a different college.
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neither + inversion
3 Look at the sentences.
○
Hardly
anyone has been encouraged to think for
themselves, and their teachers and parents and
bosses weren’t either. And the same is true of
theirs.
We can rewrite them like this:
Hardly anyone has been encouraged to think for
themselves, and their teachers and parents and
bosses weren’t either. And neither were
theirs.
Now complete the sentences with
your own ideas using neither + inversion.
1
My friends weren’t told about the change of the
timetable, and _____________.
2 Xiao Ming
doesn’t feel ready to do the work yet, and
____________.
3 They don’t understand how to
solve the problem, and ____________.
4 Josh
won’t be able to get there early, and
________________________.
5 Melanie never
really spoke to me about the course, and
_______________________.
6 I don’t feel like
doing anything more tonight, and
_______________________.
much
4 Match
the sentences with the uses of much.
○
1 I
don’t think much of that …
2 I much prefer
people do as they’re told.
3 Hardly anyone
has been encouraged, much less trained, to think
for themselves …
(a) used to say that
something is even less true
(b) used after
“I don’t think” to indicate an opinion
(c)
used before a verb expressing a preference
5 Rewrite the sentences using not think much
of.
○
Rewrite the sentences using not
think much of.
1 I didn’t think that lesson
was very good.
2 None of us like the timetable
we’ve been given for this term.
3 I’m afraid
I’ve got a lot of doubts about what he’s written.
4 Our professor is always criticizing this
book.
5 I don’t like the theme of this week’s
essay.
6 Complete the sentences with your
own ideas using much prefer.
○
1 I
_____________________________ than in my room.
2 Lily ______________________ her friend than
go there on her own.
3 Personally I
____________________ to playing basketball.
4
Some people ______________________________ than
spend a lot of time reading.
5 I ____________
teachers _______________________ than send me an
email.
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7 Rewrite the
sentences using much less.
○
1 I can’t
even say two words of Chinese, so I definitely
can’t speak the language.
2 Basic study skills
are not taught here, and certainly not practised.
3 Nobody has even started the essay, let alone
finished it.
4 Nobody even heard what the
lecturer said, and so of course they didn’t
understand him.
5 I haven’t even got a PC in
my room, so I obviously haven’t got an Internet
connection.
Translation
8Translate
the sentences into Chinese.
○
1 But in most
circles, particularly in places that shape our
lives – families, schools and most
workplaces
– thinking for yourself is regarded with
suspicion.
2 Hardly anyone has been
encouraged, much less trained, to think for
themselves, and their
teachers and parents and
bosses weren’t either.
3 I saw the girl across
the aisle from me lean forward and peer over the
shoulder of the boy in
front of her who was
scribbling something.
4 I was too scared
around that teacher for the rest of my young life
to think very well in her
presence.
5 Had
she affirmed our intelligence first and spoken
about the joy of thinking for ourselves, had
she not fanned our fear of her, we would all
have learned even more powerfully what it meant to
do our thinking.
9 Translate the
sentences into English.
○
1
独立思考能力是大学生必备的素质之一。(think for yourself; quality)
2 虽然大家对这部电影好评如潮，我却不怎么喜欢这部电影。(despite; not
think much of)
2
虽然大家对这部电影好评如潮，我却不怎么喜欢这部电影。(despite; not think much
of)
4 正要离开书店时，他发现了自己一直在寻找的一本书。(be about to do
sth.)
5 会上，大家对如何提高学生的阅读技能进行了更详细的探讨。(at length)
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