▆ Answers:
1) The woman thought that the three old men must be hungry, so she invited them to come in and have
something to eat. 2) The old men said that they did not go into a house together.
3) The husband wished to invite Wealth, but the woman did not agree and wished to have Success, while their daughter suggested: “Wouldn’t it be better to invite Love?”
4) The woman came out and asked: “Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.” 5) The other two old men also got up and followed, which surprised the woman.
6) One old man told the woman: “If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would have stayed out.”
Script:
An Invitation
A woman saw three old men sitting in her front yard. She said, “I don’t think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.” “We do not go into a house together,” they replied. “Why is that?” she wanted to know.
One of the old men explained: “His name is Wealth, this is Success, and I am Love.” Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.”
Then the woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband said, “Let’s invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth.” His wife disagreed, “My dear, why don’t we invite Success?” Then the daughter made a suggestion: “Wouldn’t it be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love.” “Let’s take our daughter’s advice,” said the father.
So the woman went out and asked, “Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.” Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other two also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: “I only invited Love. Why are you coming in?”
The old men replied together: “If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would have stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever HE goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success.”
Part III Read and Explore
Text A
Section A Discovering the Main Ideas
1. Answer the following questions with the information contained in Text A.
1) Is “love” easy to define? Why or why not? 2) How does the author describe “puppy loves”?
3) What does it take for love to develop into maturity?
4) What helped preserve the holiness of love in the author’s parents’ generation?
5) What negative roles do the media play in forming the younger generation’s view of love?
6) What do young people today tend to value in relationships? What does the author think they should value?
▆ Answers for Reference:
1) No. It is because love is a feeling that can only be felt but cannot be clearly described. 2) “Puppy loves” are brief, silly, adventurous but harmless.
3) Love takes time to blossom and it takes a lot of understanding, caring, sharing and affection to develop into maturity.
4) It was the distance between men and women that helped preserve the holiness of love in the author’s parents’ generation.
5) The media have exposed the younger generation to things that have fast paced their sensibilities so much
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that taking things slow requires effort.
6) They tend to value physical beauty, closeness, passion and acquiring. The author thinks that they should value inner charm, intimacy, emotion and sharing.
2. Text A can be divided into four parts with the paragraph number(s) of each part provided as follows. Write down the main idea of each part.
Paragraph(s) Main Idea
1-2 ________________________________________________ Part One
________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
3-7 ________________________________________________ Part Two
________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
8-12 ________________________________________________ Part Three
________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
13-14 ________________________________________________ Part Four
________________________________________________ ________________________________________________
▆ Answers for Reference:
Main Idea Paragraph(s)
Love is hard to define because it can only be felt but not 1-2 Part One
described. The author discusses love of different depths from her own 3-7 Part Two
experiences. The two generations handle love and relationships 8-12 differently. The younger generation tends to be more hasty Part Three
and selfish in building relationships. The author advises young people to learn the essence of love 13-14 Part Four
and find ways to develop relationships into lifelong bonds.
Section B In-Depth Study
Love is an overwhelming joy that is beyond description. It is human nature to yearn for and indulge in love, but true love takes a lot of understanding, much sharing and caring, and plenty of affection. What is true love? How deep is your love? The author shares her views with the younger generation on these questions.
How Deep Is Your Love?
Mansi Bhatia
1 Love to some is like a cloud
To some as strong as steel For some a way of living For some a way to feel
And some say love is holding on And some say let it go
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And some say love is everything Some say they don’t know
2 At some stage or the other in our lives we experience the gnawing pangs of an emotion which defies definition. It’s a feeling that can only be felt and not described. An overwhelming joy that comes together with its share of sadness. Love.
3 Given the busy nature of our lives, it’s to be appreciated that we even find the time to indulge in matters of the heart. But at the same time I wonder if we even understand its true depth. I remember having countless crushes while in school. My math teacher, our neighbour’s son, my best friend’s brother and lots of others whom I fancied for the colour of their eyes, the shape of their moustaches or just the way they walked. Harmless puppy loves that are as brief as soap bubbles. I can laugh about all those silly and adventurous thoughts and acts now but at that time nothing could be more serious an affair for me. Then came the stage of real relationships.
4 Being in an all girls’ school I hardly had the opportunity to interact with members of the opposite gender. Socials between our school and the boys’ college, therefore, would be awaited anxiously. Those three hours of unhesitant attention by a group of well-groomed young gentlemen provided us with enough content to talk and feel exhilarated about for the next four weeks.
5 And even then there was no real need of having a boyfriend.
6 I somehow grew up believing that love would happen when it had to. And sure enough it did. It came at an age when I had a career, a long-term plan and a more or less settled life (and now I am not yet 25!). I was mature enough to enter a relationship which demands a lot of give and not so much of take.
7 Love was a magnificent building I built on the foundation of friendship. It took time to blossom. It took a lot of understanding, loads of sharing and caring, and plenty of affection to become what it is today. And it meant a meeting of minds. You might say that I belong to the traditional school of romance. But in my opinion, love needs to be nurtured. And it has to be distinguished from the intense but short-lived love or the pleasures of the flesh.
8 Our parents’ generation was fed lavishly with ideals. It was an era of constraints, restraints, respect, admiration, and plenty of romance. The long skirts, the quiet and unpretentious looks, the curled long hair, the calmness, the shy glance—these are all so frequently remindful of a bygone era. An age when the distance between the sexes somehow managed to help preserve the holiness of love and relationships.
9 The younger generation, with its openness and fading lines of proximity, has jumped on the bandwagon of love with so much haste that it is difficult for them to distinguish between physical attraction and mental compatibilities. What we have been exposed to via the media have fast paced our sensibilities so much that taking things slow requires effort on our parts.
10 I am amazed when I hear stories of school kids bragging about the number of physical relationships they have had. I am horrified to learn that girls barely eighteen have already been in and out of seven to eight “hook ups”.
11 I am sorry to learn about the kind of emotional baggage these kids are carrying in what are purely unemotional relationships. Some might blame the current state of affairs on peer pressure. But has anyone ever stopped to figure out where this peer pressure originates? Do any of us try and understand who is responsible for this shift? Does anyone bother to study the state of mind of the teenagers?
12 The mindset of this generation is all too evident in the way it handles its personal life. There are more relationships being distorted under the pressures of lust than ever before. There is more focus on physical beauty than on inner charm. There is more of closeness and less of intimacy. There is more of passion and less of emotion. There is more of acquiring and less of sharing. There is more of opportunism and less of selflessness. In short, there is more of ME and less of US.
13 We have hardened ourselves so much in this competitive age that we have forgotten the essence of relationships. There’s much more to being someone’s lover than gifting them red roses and fifty-cent cards. What about gifting our object of affection, our time, our company, our support, our friendship? What about setting priorities in our lives and focusing on each with sincerity? What about trying to be self-sufficient emotionally before letting ourselves loose? What about giving ourselves, and others, time and space to forge relationships? What about working towards meaningful and lasting friendships? What about honouring our commitments? What about channeling our energies and emotions towards building lifelong bonds rather
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than wasting them on seasonal relationships?
14 We have but one life and we must experience everything that can make us stronger. True love happens once in a lifetime. And we should not have become so tired by our frivolous acts that when it comes we aren’t able to receive it with open arms.
▇ 课文参考译文
你的爱有多深
曼茜·巴蒂亚
1 有人认为爱如浮云
有人认为爱坚强如铁
有人认为爱是一种生活方式 有人认为爱是一种感觉 有人说爱要执着 有人说爱不要约束 有人说爱是生命的全部 有人说不知道爱为何物
2 在我们生命中的某个阶段，我们会经历某种难以名状的情感所带来的阵阵折磨。这种情感只能体会，无法用语言描述。莫大的喜悦伴随着丝丝的伤感一同降临，这就是爱。
3 在紧张忙碌的生活中，我们竟能找到时间沉湎于感情之中，这的确令人感佩。然而，此时我想知道：我们是否懂得爱到底有多么深刻。记得上学的时候，我迷恋的对象真是数不清：我的数学老师、邻居的儿子、好朋友的弟弟，还有另外一些因为眼睛的颜色、胡子的形状或走路的姿势而让我倾慕的人。年少时的爱慕，不会带来伤害，如肥皂泡一样转瞬即逝。那些稚气、大胆的想法和行为，现在想来大可一笑了之。但是，在那时，对我来说，没有比恋爱更重要的事了。接着就进入了真正“谈”情“说”爱的阶段。
4 我在女子学校学习，和男孩子交往的机会寥寥无几，因此，我热切地期待着我们学校和男子学校举办的联谊会。联谊会上，一群精心打扮的年轻男子毫无顾忌地盯着我们。这三个小时中的点点滴滴，成了我们在以后四个星期中足够的谈资，我们在议论时，心情澎湃。 5 即使是在那个时候，我也没有真正交男朋友的需要。
6 在我的成长岁月中，不知何故，我相信爱情该来的时候自然会来。事实果真如此。当我有了稳定的工作，有了长期的计划和比较安定的生活时（我现在还不到25岁呢！），爱情降临了。我也比较成熟了，能够步入不贪图许多回报而需要大量付出的感情关系。
7 我的爱情是在友谊这块地基上建起的高楼大厦。爱情经过旷日持久的培养才开花。我和我的恋人相互理解、同甘共苦、相互关心，投入了丰富的感情，才使爱情发展到今天。爱情意味着情投意合。你也许会说，我属于浪漫的传统派。但是，依我看，爱情需要培养。我们必须把爱情同强烈而短暂的激情或身体的愉悦区别开来。
8 我们的父辈，被灌输了太多的（爱情）理想。那是一个约束、压抑、崇敬、仰慕和十足浪漫的年代。长裙、娴静质朴的外表、卷曲的长发、恬静的气质、羞怯的目光——这一切常使人想起一个消逝久远的年代。从某种程度上来说，那个时代异性之间的距离帮助他们维持了恋爱的神圣性。
9 年轻的一代人，由于观念开放，随着男女之间交往界线的消退，他们便急于赶浪头，匆忙恋爱，以至于难以区分身体的互相吸引与心灵的相投。我们从媒体中接触到的人和事，使我们的感情历程大大加速，要想慢慢地体会自己的感受，确实需要付出努力。
10 每每听到学校的孩子们夸口说自己有过多少次性关系的经历，我都十分惊讶。年仅18岁的女孩们已有过七八次跟异性“勾勾搭搭”的经历，我感觉极其惊骇。
11 这些青少年在全然没有感情的关系中所背负的感情包袱，令我深感难过。也许有些人会把他们目前的感情状况归结为同龄人之间所施加的压力。但是，可曾有任何人停下来想一想同龄人之间的
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