Unit Five
The Company Man
I
Pre-reading Qs
II
Text Analysis
III After reading
IV
Exercises
I Pre-reading
Background Information
 -About the author
 Ellen Goodman (1940-), journalist and
columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980
for commentary. She has written for
Newsweek, the Detroit Free Press, and the
Boston Globe.
Discussion Qs:
 - What do you think is the life of a typical
workaholic like?
 -How important do you think work is to a
person?
T or F?
 workaholics are driven by stress and an
obsessive need to control the outcome of their
jobs.
 Some workaholics are as happy as can be in
their work.
 There are workaholics whose fear of failure and
the need to control their lives forces them to
work harder and harder until they suffer physical
and emotional side effects.
Workaholics are mentally healthy and
work hard because it gives them great
satisfaction.
Unhealthy work addictions are best dealt
with by counselors and therapists who
specialize in workplace problems.
Are you a healthy workaholic?
 Is work more exciting than family or anything
else in your life?
 Do you often take work with you to bed?
 Have your family and friends given up expecting
you to be on time because of your work
demands?
 Do you become impatient with people who have
priorities besides work?
Is the future a constant worry for you even
when things are going well?
Have your long hours at work hurt your
personal relationships?
Do you think about work while driving,
falling asleep or when others are talking?
Is your life full of work-related stressors
that affect your ability to sleep, diet and
health?
Origin
Wayne Oates, a professor of psychology
of religion at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary. However, it was the appearance
of Oates's book Confessions of a
Workaholic in 1971 that propelled that
term and prompted many writers to start
using the suffixes -aholic, -holic, or -oholic
to describe "all-consuming obsessions,"
not all of them so serious.
-holic
golfaholic, footballaholic, basketball-oholic,
bingoholic, leisureholic;
beefaholic, peanuntholic, ice creamaholic;
hashaholic (for hashish) or mariholic (for
marijuana), tobaccoholic
book-oholic, catalogueoholic, eclipsoholic,
gambler-oholic, game show-oholic, noteoholic, or phone-oholic.
What is a workaholic?
A workaholic is a person addicted to work.
This addiction may be pleasurable to the
victim or it may be burdensome and
troubling.
Workaholism is believed by some to be a
disease, akin to obsessive compulsive
disorder.
II
Text Analysis
Text Structure:
 Para 1: introduction
 Para2-6: reports how devoted the man was
to his work.
 Para7-13: describes Phil’s role in his family.
 Para 14-16: reports the company
president’s inquiry for his successor.
Structural Analysis:
 Short Ss+ long Ss (varies their weight
and achieves emphasis and impact.)
Rhetorical Features:
 details to illustrate the point the author wants to
emphasize
 Para 9:
 Para 10:
 Para 11:
Language points:
 -precisely: exactly
 eg: They arrived at five o’clock ~.
 -overweight: weighing more than is normal,
necessary, or allowed, esp. having more body
weight than is considered normal or healthy for
one’s age or build
 cf:
-stout: polite term for fatness. Person with a
thickset, bulky figure;
 eg: Even slim girls can become stout
matrons.
-pudgy: short and fat;
 eg: His pudgy fingers look really funny.
- plump: pleasing fullness of figure;
- eg: Everybody loves Rita, the plump, rosy
little girl.
- chubby: person who is round and plump;
- eg: A chubby toddler; chubby cheeks
-Fat: excessive weight and is generally
unfavorable in its connotations
 eg: Charlie is not merely overweight but
downright fat.



- obese: implies gross overweight

eg: …though stout, not obese.



- fleshy: a not necessarily excessive
abundance of flesh
 eg: Susan quite likes her boyfriend’s firm,
fleshy arms.

 -survive: to live longer than; to outlive
 eg: It’s amazing that she should have ~d all
her children and grandchildren.

My father ~d my mother by four years.
 -marketable: wanted by purchasers or
employers
 eg: They have failed to launch a ~ model for
years.

It is a good idea to list your ~ skills
before heading for the job fair.
-widow: a woman whose husband has died,
and who has not married again
 widower:
 widow v. : to make a widow or widower
of sb.
 eg: She calls her widowed mother almost
every day.
 Straighten out : to solve or settle; to remove
difficulties( from sth.) or the doubt or ignorance
(in sb.’s mind)
 eg: We need someone capable of
straightening out all the confusion.
III After Reading
Text II