Thinking As a Hobby
William Golding
What do you know about
William Golding?
A British writer who
won The Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1983.
Known especially for
his novel
lord of the Flies.
Discussion
Section
• What is your hobby?
• Do you want to choose
thinking as your hobby?
• What kind of questions do you
often think?
•What is the
organization of
the essay?
Part I (Para.1)
Introduction.
Part II (Para.2-32) Dealing with
three
grades of thinking:
grade-three thinking
grade-two thinking
grade-one thinking
Part III (Para.33-35) Conclusion.
Words and Expressions
acquaintance
①someone
you know but not a close friend.
{搭配} have a large circle of acquaintances,
a speaking acquaintance
②knowledge or information about something or
someone.
e.g. I have some acquaintance with English,
but I don’t know it well.
acquaint v.
①to make familiar.
e,g, acquainted myself with
the rules.
②to cause to come to know personally.
Let me acquaint you with my family.
{搭配} be acquainted with 知道；相识
e.g.
anguish
n. mental or physical suffering caused by extreme pain
or worry.
{搭配} be in anguish
v. (to cause) to feel or suffer anguish.
e.g. The loss of her husband anguished her deeply.
Her heart anguished within her.
{辨析} anguish, suffering
anguish多指“精神上令人难以忍受的痛苦”, 如: the
anguish of despair 绝望引起的极度痛苦。
suffering指“身体或精神上的痛苦”, 着重“对痛苦的感觉
和忍受”, 一般用于人, 如: His wound caused him great
suffering. 他的伤使他深受痛苦。
compensation
n. something you get that makes a sad or unpleasant
situation better or happier.
{搭配} make compensation for sb.‘s losses 补偿某
人的损失
compensate v.
e.g. Nothing can compensate for the loss of time.
光阴一去不复还
The company compensates her for extra work.
公司
因她的额外工作而给她报酬。
confer
(conferred; conferring)
v. ①to officially give; to award; to bestow
{搭配} confer a medal on [upon] sb. 授与某人以勋章
②to meet in order to deliberate together or
compare views.
{搭配} confer with sb. on [about] sth. 与某人协商某
事
The engineers and technicians are still
conferring on the unexpected accident.
{派生} conference n. 协商会，会议
conferment n.给予, 商量, 授予
{联想} advise 劝告，建议
consult 商量，请教
confront
v.
①to
oppose defiantly
{搭配} confront danger/reality
e.g. A soldier has to confront danger and death
②to come up against; encounter
e.g. I am confronted with many difficulties.
{辨析} confront, face
confront指“遇到”、“面对”、“使...对立”， 此词系
正式用语,如：
She confronted the vital question of being
bankrupt. 她面临要破产的重大问题。
face指“正视”、“面对”、“不想逃避”， 属口语体，
语气比confront强， 如：
Let's face the facts instead of evading them. 让
我们面对现实， 不要逃避
modest
a. having or showing a moderate estimation of one‘s own
talents, abilities, and value 谨慎的
{搭配} be modest about
e.g. She is very modest about the prizes she has
won. 她对自己得奖非常谦虚。
She‘s very modest about her success. 她对自己的成就
很谦虚。
{反义} immodest, arrogant
proficient
a. able to do something well or skillfully.
{搭配} be proficient at / in
e.g. She is proficient at / in figure skating. 她精
于花样滑冰。
{派生} proficiency n. 熟练, 精通, 熟练程度
e.g. He made little proficiency in literary
accomplishments.
{辨析} proficient, skilled
Proficient implies an advanced degree of competence
acquired through training:
e.g. A proficient surgeon is the product of lengthy
training and experience.
Skilled implies sound, thorough competence and often
mastery, as in an art, a craft, or a trade
unaccustomed
a. not used to; unfamiliar.不习惯的，不熟悉的
{搭配} to be unaccustomed to hot weather
e.g. I am unaccustomed to public show. 我不习惯抛头
露面。
He is still unaccustomed to a life of stress.
他仍然无法适应充满压力的生活。
{派生} unaccustomedly adv. 不习惯地，不熟悉地
unaccustomedness n. 不习惯，不熟悉
{反义} accustomed
Sentence Appreciation
1) She seemed frozen in an eternal panic lest
the bath towel slip down any farther…
(Para.2)
lest: for fear that; to make sure that sth.
would not happen
Note: the subjunctive mood is used in the clause
lest introduces. e.g.
We ran as fast as we could lest we miss the
train.
He didn’t tell his father about the exam lest
he get mad at him.
farther & further
Farther refers to physical distance;
Further refers to degree, time and all other
figurative uses.
2) … because they symbolized to him the
whole of life. (Para.3)
Para.: … because they represented/stood for
the whole of life to him.
Note: the Leopard stood for all animal needs or
desires; Venus stood for love and the Thinker
stood for thinking as a uniquely human
feature.
Symbolize: v. ①to serve as a symbol of
e.g. Roses symbolize love.
②represent sth./sb. by means of a symbol
e.g. The poet has symbolized his lover with a
flower.
{派生} symbol n.象征
symbolic a.象征的；用符号的；
3) I was not integrated. I was, if anything,
disintegrated. (Para,4)
Integrated: forming a part of a
harmonious group
Disintegrated: Here, it is used by the
author to mean the direct opposite of
“integrated”, and therefore means some
kind of a trouble-maker.
Note: This is not the way the word is
normally used.
If anything: on the contrary
e.g. He is not known for his generosity. He
is, if anything, quite miserly.
The weather forecast says that it will not
be warmer this winter. It will, if
anything, even colder than last year.
4) Nature had endowed the rest of the human
race with a sixth sense and left me
out.(Para.15)
Para: Everybody, except me, are born with the
ability to think.
a sixth sense: a keen intuitive power. Here,
the author means the ability to think.
to endow sb. with sth.: to provide sb. with
a natural quality or talent.
e.g. She is one of those lucky women who are
endowed with both a sharp brain and great
beauty.
God has not endowed him with much humor.
5) If either happened to be prominent in
current affairs, no argument could make Mr.
Houghton think well of it.(Para. 21)
Para.: If either country because the center
of attention, nobody could talk him into
liking that country.
Note: It implies that Mr. Houghton’s attitude
was based on nothing but prejudice.
to think well of sb.: to have a good opinion
of sb; to think favorable of sb.; to like
sb.(opposite: to think ill of sb.)
6) Through him I discovered that thought is often
full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance and
hypocrisy. It will lecture on disinterested purity
while its neck is being remorselessly twisted
toward a skirt. (Para. 23)
Para.: Through him I discovered that what people call
thought is often full of prejudice, ignorance and
hypocrisy.
Note: “it” stands for “thought” in grammar, but actually refers to
Mr. Houghton.
The word “skirt” stands for girls in general. It is a common
figure of speech called metonymy, in which an idea is evoked
or named by means of term designating some associated notion.
More examples:
The world is watching closely what the White House
will do next. (The White House stands for the
American government.)
They have no intention of turning their swords into
ploughs. (Sword stands for war and plough stands
7) I delighted to confront a pious lady who hated
the Germans with the proposition that we should
love our enemies. (Para.24)
Para.: I was happy to point out the inconsistency of a pious lady
who hated the Germans by quoting the Bible which says that
Christians should love their enemies.
to confront sb. with sth.: to oppose sb. defiantly
pious: having strong religious beliefs
{辨析} religious devout pious
Religious implies adherence to religion in both belief and
practice;
Devout implies ardent faith and sincere devotion;
Pious stresses dutiful, reverential discharge of religious duties.
e.g.
Hans was a very religious man. He behaved in a Christian way to
all people including his enemies.汉斯是个虔诚的宗教信徒,所以他用
基督教的方式对待一切人,包括他的敌人。
devout wishes for their success. 衷心地希望他们成功.
Her mother, a pious woman, attends Mass every morning.她的母亲是一
8) It set me watching the crowds cheering His Majesty
the King and asking myself what all the fuss was
about, without giving me anything positive to put
in the place of that heady patriotism. But there
were compensations.(Para. 25)
Para.: It made me watch people shouting in joy and support of the
King and wonder what this senseless excitement was all about
although I did not have anything good to replace this exciting
patriotism, approval and support.
fuss: too much attention to or uncalled-for excitement
over things that are unnecessary and unimportant
e.g. What a fuss about nothing! 真是无事生非！
to put in the place of: to replace
heady: inclined to go to your head and make you
excited
e.g. a heady trend; heady days; heady success
compensation: pay, reward, sth. that compensate for
9) Now you are expecting me to describe how
I saw the folly of my ways and came back
to the warm nest…(Para. 34)
Para.: Now you think I will tell you how I
gradually saw my stupidity in being a
grade-two thinker and therefore decided to
give it up and return to the majority…
folly: n. an act or instance of foolishness
e.g. regretted the follies of his youth. 为他年轻时的愚
蠢行为而后悔
The follies of youth are food for repentence in old
age. [谚]年轻时胡闹, 年老时烦恼。
{同义} silliness, stupidity
Second Round
Give a brief description of the
three
grades of thinking with your own
illustrations.
Out of class activities：
 Write an essay in about 200
words on the topic: What Kind
of Thinker Am I?
Analyze the thoughts you have had
on a recent issue, and explain why
those thoughts result from “gradeone”, “grade-two” or “grade-three”
thinking.
The
end
What does this description remind
you
 night~sky~bird~person
 Dead
silence~cry of a
startled bird ~footstep
(slowly and
carefully)~something moving
by the same winding way~the
sight of a man