Unit Six Happiness
Enhance Your Language Awareness
Words in Action
▆ Working with Words and Expressions
1. In the box below are some of the words you have learned in this unit. Complete the following sentences
with them. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers: 1) inform 2) envious 3) attractive 4) snatched 5) is soaring 6) interpret
7) was substituted 8) spiritual 9) trivial 10) temporary 11) scales 12) cultivate 13) extravagant 14) purchase
2. In the box below are some of the expressions you have learned in this unit. Do you understand their
meanings? Do you know how to use them in the proper context? Now check for yourself by doing the blank-filling exercise. Change the form where necessary.
▆ Answers:
1) work out
2) have a clear conscience 3) other than 4) fact of life
5) On the contrary 6) cried over 7) drop by 8) show off
9) looked down on 10) crossed, off 11) wore out
12) has a great deal to do with
▆ Increasing Your Word Power
1. Find the preposition from Column B that best matches each adjective in Column A, paying attention to
the be+adj.+prep. collocation. Some of the prepositions can be used more than once.
▆ Answers:
1) of
2) from/of 3) with 4) for
5) on/upon 6) on 7) with 8) of 9) in 10) of
Now fill in each blank in the following sentences with a proper collocation you’ve just formed. The verb “be” has already been filled in for you.
▆ Answers:
1) envious of 2) intent upon/on 3) rich in 4) keen on 5) free from/of 6) fearful of 7) honest with 8) hungry for 9) remindful of 10) overwhelmed with
2. The suffixes -ee, -eer, -ese and -ess are used to form nouns. Study the box below and form words by
adding -ee, -eer, -ese and -ess to the words given.
▆ Answers:
1) actress
2) mountaineer 3) profiteer 4) refugee 5) Vietnamese 6) trainee 7) addressee
Now complete each of the following sentences with a proper word you have just formed, using the plural form where necessary.
▆ Answers:
1) addressee 2) mountaineer 3) actress 4) trainees 5) Vietnamese 6) refugees 7) profiteer
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT
1. Now combine each pair of sentences into one by using one of the three phrases mentioned above.
▆ Answers for reference:
1) Judging from her accent, she is either Russian or Polish. 2) Either he could not come here or he did not want to. 3) I neither knew nor cared about what happened to him.
4) I cannot find out what the weather will be like tomorrow because there is neither TV nor radio in the house.
5) She can both speak and write Spanish.
6) The results of the research are both impressive and alarming.
2. Now translate the following sentences into English, using expressions of comparison.
▆ Answers for reference:
1) If only I could do half as well as you (have done)!
2) The press has published twice as many books as it did last year.
3) Sending gifts to your kids is not the same as giving them your companionship.
4) Since the construction of the subways was completed, the population of the suburbs has grown twice as large as that of the city proper.
5) An increase in income is far/much less important than a harmonious relationship among family members, friends and neighbors.
Cloze
Complete the following passage with words chosen from this unit. The initial letter of each is given.
▆ Answers: 1) terminally 2) purchasing 3) other than 4) ever 5) held/had
6) was taken with 7) fact of life 8) substitute 9) tenderness 10) crossed off 11) devoting
12) railing against 13) cultivate 14) filled with
Translation
1. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words and expressions given in brackets.
▆ Answers for reference:
1) We should be honest with ourselves and never become fogged up by greed and cry over what we have
failed to obtain.
2) It is a fact of life that happiness brought about by material things such as property and money is
temporary.
3) For thousands of years philosophers have taken pains to interpret the meaning of happiness from their
own perspectives.
4) If you substitute material things for love or a hug, you will not get happiness, because spiritual happiness has
little to do with material wealth.
5) After he learned that he was terminally ill, he informed his family that he had nothing / no property to leave
them other than the house he was living in.
6) They were worn out after a long day’s work in the fields. So seeing the sun dip below the horizon, they
couldn’t wait to go back home.
2. Translate the following paragraph into English, using the words and expressions in the box below.
▆ Answers for reference:
Nowadays, the media and commercials repeat over and over again the significance of the material side of life, so that we have been all brainwashed into believing that happiness can be purchased. We show off to people around us a new piece of property, and take pains to keep enriching our bank accounts. We are hungry for love, trying to substitute material things for love, gentleness and tenderness. However, we have never experienced maximum happiness. We are always envious of those who have more money and power. As a matter of fact, we have put our values in the wrong things and failed to tell/distinguish material happiness from spiritual happiness. Money is incredibly important, but other than it, we should also have good friends, a harmonious family, a strong body and a worthy goal. It is these things that (will) bring us lasting happiness.
Theme-Related Writing
Do either one of the following two tasks after class.
1. Write an essay entitled “Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone”. You can refer to the following outline: 1) Material things are important for man’s existence. 2) Man also seeks spiritual satisfaction. 3) Your conclusion.
2. When we talk about happiness, we usually refer to a specific moment when we feel that we are very happy. Write a short passage about one of your happiest experiences at college.
▆ Sample Essay One:
Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone
No one would doubt the truth that man’s existence relies essentially on material things. We need them to get fed, clothed and sheltered. Once we are living near the breadline, we’ll feel frustrated and miserable. However, our contentment does not merely lie in material things. This is especially the case in modern times.
The fast-developing economy has noticeably improved our lives and fulfilled most of our material needs. Then there comes the need of spiritual satisfaction, which is derived from good health, close friends, a loving spouse, well-raised children, a home built on love, a clear conscience, a worthy goal and an enjoyable job. While material things may lose their charm over time, spiritual satisfaction will bring us lasting happiness.
Therefore, to live a happy life, we should focus more on those things that meet our spiritual demands. After all, when our need for bread is met, happiness will not come unless we feel spiritually satisfied. (156 words)
▆ Sample Essay Two:
I Really Made It
I will never forget the awful feeling in my first Oral English class at college. I tried hard to listen to every word the teacher spoke, but what she was saying made no sense to me. Bitterly, I admitted that I was so poor at listening and speaking in English.
I wept several times, cursing my middle school for failing to provide adequate listening and speaking practice. But finally I calmed down because the familiar words rang in my ears: There must be a way out. I had a rather solid foundation of English vocabulary and grammar. What was left for me to do was to increase my listening input and speaking output. I made it a rule that every morning I would do reading aloud by the campus lake for 40 minutes, and every evening I would stay in the language lab, listening to English for at least an hour.
Then at the end of the second year came my happiest moment: I got the Scholarship for Academic Excellence. When the president granted me the award, I grinned from ear to ear, realizing with pleasure that happiness is gained through hard work. (197 words)
新世纪大学英语系列教材(第二版)综合教程(3)UNIT6课后练习答案
