2013-2014年春季硕士生学术英语读译教程20142013-2014年春季硕士生学术英语读译教程2014.doc

北京师范大学 研究生英语 《学术英语读译》讲义2013~2014学年春季学期 Unit 1 College Pressures by William Zinsser Dear Carlos: I desperately need a dean’s excuse for my chem midterm which will begin in about 1 hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. I’ve fallen incredibly, inconceivably behind. Carlos: Help! I’m anxious to hear from you. I’ll be in my room and won’t leave it until I hear from you. Tomorrow is the last day for ... Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed up all night to finish a take-home make-up exam and am typing it to hand in on the 10th. It was due on the 5th. P.S. I’m going to the dentist. Pain is pretty bad. Carlos: Probably by Friday I’ll be able to get back to my studies. Right now I’m going to take a long walk. This whole thing has taken a lot out of me. Carlos: I’m really up the proverbial creek. The problem is I really bombed the history final. Since I need that course for my major I ... Carlos: Here follows a tale of woe. I went home this weekend, had to help my Mom, and caught a fever so didn’t have much time to study. My professor ... Carlos: Aargh!! Trouble. Nothing original but everything’s piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview ... Hey Carlos, good news! I’ve got mononucleosis. 1 Who are these wretched supplicants, scribbling notes so laden with anxiety, seeking such miracles of postponement and balm? They are men and women who belong to Branford College, one of the twelve residential colleges at Yale University, and the messages are just a few of the hundreds that they left for their dean, Carlos Hortas—often slipped under his door at 4 a.m.—last year. 2 But students like the ones who wrote those notes can also be found on campuses from coast to coast—especially in New England, and at many other private colleges across the country that have high academic standards and highly motivated students. Nobody could doubt that the notes are real. In their urgency and their gallows humor they are authentic voice