研究生综合英语2,单元2.ppt

Review Humans have a genuine desire to give freely to each other, but in reality most people are unable to do this without expecting something in return_. Gift-giving would be much easier without unacknowedged_ disappointment if one were to accept such a fact rather than deceive_ ourselves and imagine we don’t want anything back when we all do. The author once had an experience of sending expensive_ gift to a girlfriend, only to find it totally out of proportion_. He came to realize he has a tendency to give people things that he cannot afford , or things that betoken(表达)_ an intimacy that doesn’t exist or things that bear no relations to the interest or desires of the person he is giving them to. He came to understand that it’s the niceties_, not the raw act of giving, that count. As to the niceties of gift-giving, it involves the expectation of reciprocity(互惠) although the west world tends to paper(掩盖)_ it over with rhetoric（高谈阔论） about selflessness. Meanwhile, in contrast to the puritan(清教徒)_ mentality of his mother, the author thinks that decoration_ is most of the niceties instead of the ego(自我表现)_ trip to find a real thoughtful gift. According to Brandt, There is no genuine altruism(利他主义) in the world. Even “helping professions” get paid_ by the government and institutionalized giving is an exchange of money for philanthropic(慈善)_ or payoff(偿还)_. However, we human live in a tension_ between altruism and egoism. When Whitman said that “when I give, I give myself,” he meant that by keeping nothing to yourself, everything comes to you. In so doing, altruism and egoism become one_. Half the battle: A big gun: Spike one’s guns: Burn one’s boats: A shot in the dark: 成功的一半 有影响力的重要人物 挫败;破坏 破釜沉舟, 自断退路 凭空猜想 A sword of Damocles: At daggers drawn: Get one’s knife into (sb.): When one’s ship comes home: Bite the bullet: 大难临头 势不两立 跟某人过不去, 敌视某人 当愿望实现时 忍受困难或勉为其难做某事 They’ll do anything to _________ of the opposition, even at the risk of underpricing themselves