Unit12 Onwards and Upwards

• Impoverish: • 1).to make sb poor: Many gamblers impoverish themselves overnight. 2).to make sth. worse in quality: Intensive farming has impoverished the soil.
Unit 12 Onwards and Upwards
• What’s your understanding of the title? • Onwards and upwards: a set expression, meaning toward a better condition or higher level. • I can see things just going onwards and upwards for us now. 我认为从现在起我们的境况只会越来 越好。
• A term of abuse: a harsh or insulting term
• In left-right politics, left-wing politics are political positions or activities that accept or support social equality, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. • Social progressivism is another common feature of the modern Left, particularly in the United States, where social progressives played an important role in the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights, and multiculturalism. • The New York Times • Los Angeles Times • The Washington Post
2)~ (to sb) owed to sb as a debt, because it is their right or because they have done sth. to deserve it. e.g. Have they been paid the money that is due to them?
• Idea of Progress, the theory that scientific progress drives social progress; that advances in technology, science, and social organization inevitably produce an improvement in the human condition.
• self-delusion: the act of making yourself believe sth. that you know is not true. • Delusion: a false belief or opinion • Have faith in We have faith in your judgment. • Lose one’s faith in
• • • •
Para.5 Detailed study: Contain your protests Contain: to keep (a feeling or yourself) under control • Case: a convincing argument • ~ (for / against sth) e.g. He sat there while I made the case for his dismissal. Both these facts strengthen the case against death penalty.
• Tread water: 1. to float vertically in the water by moving the legs and the arms up and down 2. not be advancing in any way • Be attached to : to be connected/ linked with e.g. We attach labels to things before we file them away. 我们在把东西归档前先给它们贴上标签.
• Progress trap, the condition societies find themselves in when human ingenuity, in pursuing progress, inadvertently introduces problems that it does not have the resources to solve, preventing further progress or inciting social collapse.
• Late: • 1) having died recently her late husband • 2) of the immediate past SYN: former Our late President is still very active.
• Para.7 • Detailed study: • Reconcile: 1) to make two sets of numbers add up to the same total, e.g. to reconcile the bank balance 核对银行结单 • 2) ~ sth (with sth) to find a satisfactory way of dealing with two or more ideas, needs, etc. that seem to be opposed to each other. e.g. • It was hard to reconcile his career ambitions with the needs of his children.
• What is the definition of progress? List some facts that achieved progress for the better.
• Progress (history), the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc. • Social progress, the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their social, political, and economic structures.
• Right-wing politics involves in varying degrees the rejection of some egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming either that economic inequality is natural and inevitable or that it is beneficial to society.
It causes employees to lose faith in company d ecisions and, ultimately, in the company.
• Question: • How do you interpret ‘…trying to cage the ape within’? • What does the second ‘it’ refer to in the last sentence? • Do you think that people are justified in losing faith in progress today？What’s your argument?
• The Wall Street Journal
• Tension: a situation in which opposing needs, interests or ideas cause difficulties. • Hundreds of protestors took to the streets in Vietnam Sunday as territorial disputes escalated tensions between the communist state and its neighbor China.
• Question: • Which is the key sentence of para. 3?
• For most of the year, the area is teeming with tourists. • My heart burst with pride for my son.
• Due: 1)~ (for) sth owed sth; deserving sth:
I'm still due 15 day's leave. She's due for promotion soon. All those who earn their own living are due some respect from society.
• 3) ~ sb (with sb) to make people become friends again after an argument or a disagreement. e.g. • He never believed that he and Susan will be reconciled. • 4)~ sb / yourself (to sth) to unpleasant situation because it is not possible to change it. 妥协，（不情愿地）接 受 e.g. • She had reconciled herself to never seeing him again.