-
Unit 2
1. Cool
one
’
s heels
，
be forced to wait
to,testify to
3.
apocalyptic,
predicting the end of the
world
4.
not at
all or in any respect
sul
(prō
-
k?n′s?
l)
,
A high administrator in one of the modern colonial empires.
te
(roo′m?
-
nāt′)
,
turn
a matter over and over in the mind.,go
over---
ing,
,noisy,talk idly
y,
encourage:,
make strong
e
(?k
′?
-
dēm′)
,
< br> a.
The academic
environment;
；
b.
Academic life.
,psychiatrist
inal
/
?
s
?
b
?
l
?
m.
?
.n
?
l/
,
not recognized by the
conscious mind
/
tru
?
.
?
.z
?
m/
,
obvious truth
,
a
statement that
is
so
obviously true that
it
is
almost
not worth
saying
:
II.
,
having worth or
merit or value
,
appeal or request earnestly;
stinatio n,
[pro
??
kr?st
?
'ne
??
n]
< br>
,
putting off or delaying an
action to a later time
The Fine Art of Putting Things Off
拖延的艺术
Michael
Demarest
迈克尔·德马雷斯特
exhorted
Lord Chesterfield in 1749,
can do today.
and had a bad
habit of keeping worthies like Dr. Johnson cooling
their heels for
hours
in
an
anteroom
attests
（证明）
to
the
fact
that
even
the
most
well-intentioned
men have
been postponers ever. Quintus Fabius Maximus, one
of the great Roman
generals,
was
dubbed
Cunctator”
(Delayer
拖延者
)
for
putting
off
battle
until
the
last
possible
vinum
['va
?
n
?
m]
break
（休息）
.
Moses
pleaded
a
speech
defect
（语
言表达缺陷）
to
rationalize
（找理由）
his
reluctance to deliver Jehovah's edicts
（
法令
）
to
Pharaoh. Hamlet, of course, raised procrastination
（
拖延
）
to an art
form.
1
“今天能做的事情决不要推到明天。”
切斯特菲尔德伯爵
在<
/p>
1794
年劝告儿
子说。
但是这位高雅的伯爵一直没有抽出时间来与孩子他妈举行婚礼，
也没有让
约翰逊博士等名士在接待室久等的坏习惯。
这足以证明，
用心最善之人亦可是拖
沓之士。
罗马的一位大将军昆
塔斯·费边·马克西姆斯
为了有尽可能多的机会喝
酒消闲，
常常推迟战斗，
被人起了“拖延者”的绰号；
摩西不愿向
法老
传达
耶和
华
的法令，
便借口说自己语言有缺陷；
当然
哈姆雷特
更是把拖延上升为一种艺术
形式。
world
is
probably
about
evenly
divided
between
delayers
and
do-it-nowers.
There are those who prepare their
income taxes in February, prepay mortgages and
serve precisely planned dinners at an u
ngodly
（
难以忍受的
）
6:30 p.m. The other
half
dine
happily
on
leftovers
at
9
or
10,
misplace
bills
and
file
for
an
extension
of
the
income
tax
deadline.
They
seldom
pay
credit-card
bills
until
the
apocalyptic
（
警告性的
）
voice
of
Diners
（
大来
信用卡<
/p>
）
threatens
doom
from
Denver
（丹佛总部）
.
They
postpone, as Faustian
encounters, visits to barbershop, dentist or
doctor.
2
世上的人基本
上可以均等地分成两类：
拖延者和马上行动者。
有些人二月份<
/p>
就准备好交
个人所得税
，
预先偿还抵押借款，
按计划准时在常人难以忍受的六点
半开饭；
另一些人则乐于在九点或十点时吃些剩饭剩菜、
错放账
单和文件以期延
长缴税的期限。
他们非要等到信用卡总部警告他
们后果自负才肯去付信用卡上的
帐。就像浮士德遇见魔鬼一样，他们推迟去理发店、去看
牙医或看医生。
3
Yet
for
all
the
trouble
procrastination
may
incur,
delay
can
often
inspire
and
revive
a
creative
soul.
Jean
Kerr,
author
of
many
successful
novels
and
plays,
says
that she reads every soup-can and
jamjar
label in her kitchen before
settling down
to
her
typewriter.
Many
a
writer
focuses
on
almost
anything
but
his
task
—
for
example,
on
the
Coast
and
Geodeti
c
（
土地的
）
Survey
of
Maine's
Frenchman
Bay
and
Bar
Harbor,
stimulating his imagination with names
like Googins Ledge, Blunts Pond, Hio Hill
and Burnt Porcupine, Long Porcupine,
Sheep Porcupine and Bald Porcupine islands.
尽管拖延会带来诸多不便，但拖延经常可以激发和唤醒具有创新意识的灵
魂
。
写下许多成功小说和剧本的
作家琼·克尔说
< br>，
她要把厨房里每个汤罐头和酱
瓶子上的标签看上一遍后
，
才能安心地坐在打字机前。
许多作家都关注着他们任
务之外的各种杂事，
譬如，
关注在缅因州的法国
人海湾和巴尔海港进行的海岸和
土地测量，
其中的地名，
如古金斯
（姓氏）
暗礁、
布伦特
（迟钝）
池塘、
黑奥
（含
碘）山、伯恩特（焦烤）豪猪、朗（长条）豪猪、希皮（绵羊）豪
猪以及鲍尔德
（光秃）豪猪岛，都激起了他们的想象。
4
From Cunctator's day until
this century, the art of postponement had been
virtually a
monopoly
of
the military
(
up
and
wait
diplomacy and the law.
In former times, a British proconsul
（
总督
）
face
d with a native uprising could
comfortably ruminate
['ru?m?
ne
?
t]<
/p>
(
思考
)
about the situation with Singapore Sling