New Year resolutions - NCE(III) Reading of Lesson 50

Here's an example of new year resolutions with a good lesson for our reference.

Wishing all friends in 美语世界 a Happy Prosperous New Year !



Lesson 50

New Year resolutions

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What marked the end of the writer's New Year resolutions?

The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. The same old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't' like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercise every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.

The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home form work Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!

Formidable ['f596;:mid601;bl] adj. 强大的, 可怕的, 难对付的
assiduously adv. 刻苦地，不懈地
inveterate adj. 根深蒂固的, 成瘾的
unsettling adj. 使人不安的
undoing n. 毁灭的原因
taunt n. 嘲弄
hypnotize vt. 施催眠术, 使恍惚, 使着迷

所有跟帖： 

• billnet, 这个不是你自己写的，不能参加活动的。 -YuGong- ♂ (124 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:07:54

• billnet读得好,无论是原创还是转载,朗诵还是撰文等,均可参加活动. -美语世界- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:15:10

• thank you 美语世界, YuGong is joking with me! -billnet- ♂ (104 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:19:11

• Oh, I see. Have a great New Year. -美语世界- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:21:22

• Hey YuGong, thank you for listening, gland you like it. -billnet- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:17:11

• bill作业交的好，就是不够personal，俺不过瘾的说~~ -lilac09- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 12:56:22

• I feel the same. Bill 的水平比较高，这个bar也应该高一些 :-) -YuGong- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 13:24:54

• 众怒不可犯，我也要准备更多的resolutions. -billnet- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 14:47:00

• GREAT READING, HAPPY HOLIDAY! -ntotl- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 13:13:30

• Nice Reading! Have a great New Year~~ -天泽园- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 14:46:25

• CO：Nice Reading! Have a great New Year~~ -小千...千与千寻- ♀ (281 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 14:52:39

• funny and lovable ! -billnet- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 15:36:38

• Good one. Happy New Year to you all. -紫君- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 17:05:12

• 紫君, 小千 thank you and a great New Year to all of you. -billnet- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 20:56:32

• greetings to ntotl, 天泽园. Thanks for listening. -billnet- ♂ (0 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 14:48:59

• 这个不能算作业，回去重交。 读的真好，我可是第一个 -blueswan- ♀ (28 bytes) () 12/28/2009 postreply 22:45:22

• 谢谢天鹅妹妹，祝你resolution早日实现 -billnet- ♂ (31 bytes) () 12/29/2009 postreply 06:35:07

• looking forward to your resolutions. Good read! -eyeyey- ♀ (0 bytes) () 12/30/2009 postreply 06:33:13