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Unit Two
TEXT I
THE
FINE ART OF PUTTING THINGS OFF
Michael
Demurest
Objectives:
to
catch
the
main
idea/gist
of
each
paragraph
and
analyze
the
coherent development between
paragraphs.
to learn the level of usage
by first identifying the writer
’s
shifts in
tone from the serious to the
humorous and vise versa, and then writing a brief
essay on LW VII.
Pre-reading Questions
1.
Do you often
do things promptly or postpone them?
2.
Do you know the proverbs
‘Never put off till tomorrow what may
be
done
today/what
you
can
do
today’,
‘Never
put
off
today’s
work
for
tomorrow’,
‘Procrastination
is the thief of time’?
3.
Do you think putting things
off is a good habit or a bad one?
Why?
(This question
is raised partly to see how well the students have
previewed
the text and how much they
can understand it.)
In-
reading Discussion
In order to
catch the main idea of each para., it is necessary
to comprehend
some difficult sentences
in it and to understand the relevant notes.
Para. 1
1.
That
the
elegant
earl
never
got
around
to ...
and
had
a
bad
habit
of ...
attests to the fact that even the most
well-intentioned men have been postponers
ever.
That ...... (-
subject clause)attests to the fact that ...... (-
appositive clause).
2.
Moses
(
摩西）
pleaded
a
speech
defect
to
rationalize
his
reluctance
to
deliver Jehovah’s edict to
Pharaoh.
（法老）
.
plead:
offer an explanation or an excuse
Moses was reluctant to deliver
Jehovah’s message to Pharaoh, and he gave
1
an excuse that
he had speech defect.
Moses
justified
his
unwillingness
to
pass
Jehovah’s
order
to
Pharaoh,
saying that he was ‘slow of speech’.
Moses:
(Note 3)
According
to
the
Old
Testament
,
he
was
the
chief
of
ancient
Jews
/
Hebrews,
a
prophet,
and
Aaron’s
(
亚伦
)
brother.
At
that
time,
when
a
Jew
gave birth
to a son, it should be thrown away into the river.
But Moses was put
into a box and later was found by the
daughter of Pharaoh, the ruler of ancient
Egypt.
One day
he killed an Egyptian when this Egyptian was
fighting with a
Jew, and he escaped
because Pharaoh intended to
kill
him.
Later, he
got
the
message from Jehovah
the God, saying that he should lead the Hebrews
out of
Egypt to Canaan
迦南
.
He was to pass the order to Pharaoh.
But because M
was a stammerer (he was said to ‘slow
of speech’), his brother Aaron was to be
his spokesman.
Moses
delayed
giving
God’s
message
to
Pharaoh
because
he
was
a
stammered/slow of speech.
3.
Who
are
the
other
characters
mentioned
in
this
para.?
Why
are
these
characters mentioned?
Lord
Chesterfield
:
He
was
the
person
who
exhorted
‘Never
put
off
till
tomorrow
what
you
can
do
today’
in
his
letter
to
his
illegitimate
son,
Philip
Stanhope,
who
was
born
in
Holland
in
1732.
This
saying
later
became
a
worldly
well-known
proverb.
Chesterfield,
Philip
Dorner
Stanhope,
was
the
4th Earl of, (1694-1773), English
statesman, orator and author.
His letters to
his son were
filled with wit and worldly wisdom and published
under the title
Letter to His
Son
(1774).
(Note 1 & Lib. W.)
Dr. Johnson:
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English
poet, critic, and man
of letters, the
literary dictator of England in the latter half of
the 18th
century
and one of
the most famous personalities of his time.
He is best known for his
Dictionary
of
the
English
Language
(1755),
which
is
in
some
respects
an
innovation
in
lexicography.
He
had
the
strongest
influence
of
any
of
his
contemporaries
on
the
literary
thought
and
style
of
the
latter
part
of
the
18th
century. (Lib. W)
2
Lord
Chesterfield
postponed
getting
married
with
his
son’s
mother
permanently.
He
never
got
married,
but
he
did
have
a
son.
And
he
even
delayed meeting the ‘worthy’ Dr.
Johnson by keeping him waiting fo
r
hours in
an anteroom.
He was the man to exhorted doing things
promptly.
However,
this well-intentioned man had ever been
a postponer.
Quintus Fabius Maximus:
(Note 2)
Fabius Maximus, a Roman general,
delayed the battle intentionally so that
Rome can had sufficient time to recover
its strength and attacked the invaders
successfully.
Hamlet:
(Note 4)
Hamlet procrastinated his revenge to
his uncle who murdered his father and
married his mother.
They are all
postponers/delayers/cunctators in some cases.
By mentioning
these
characters,
the
writer
provides
some
well
known
instances
of
putting
things off .
4.
Main idea:
D.
puts
forward
the
thesis
and
provides
some
well-known
instances
of
putting things off.
5.
Why does the
au
thor provide instances that go
against his statement ‘Never
put
off
today’s
work
for
tomorrow’?
Or,
Comp.
3
-2:
How
does
Demarest
begin his essay?
Is it an effective beginning?
He
begins
with
the
famous
saying
of
Chesterfield’s
‘Never
put
off
till
to
morrow
what
you
can
do
today.’
and
instances
of
non
-compliance
of
some
historically well-known
figures.
This
is
an
effective
beginning.
It
effectively
reminds
people
that
procrastination
is
not
under
all
circumstances
a
non-recommendable
practice;
sometimes people do have a
good reason to wait before they take action.
Para. 2
1.
Main idea:
two kinds of
people:
delayers and do-it-
nowers, and examples
2.
How is this para. coherent with the 1st
para.?
all the postponers in the
1st para., but now two kinds of people.
3
3.
Tell the examples of delayers and do-
it-nowers in your own words.
Do-
it-nowers:
preparing
their
personal
income
taxes
as
early
as
in
February
(usu.
paid
at
the
end
of
the
year.
e.g.
in
Singapore
and
the
United
States),
prepaying mortgages (The debtor can
offer some piece of
property
for
the
creditor
to
keep
for
some
time
as
a
guarantee
or
security
for
payment of a debt
until
he pays
off his
debt.
So
prepaying mortgages seems
absurd.),
having dinners
at exactly the fixed time no matter whether
it
is
too
early.
(Six
thirty
is
the
early
time
to
have
dinners
in
America,
in
Singapore and some other western
countries.
Work is off at
round about 5:30,
then drive home for a
long time because of the heavy traffic in the rush
hour.)
Delayers:
having their dinners even at 9 or 10
p.m., too late,
not
pay
income
tax
bills
until
the
deadline
or
even
after
the
deadline,
not pay credit-card bills until warned
of depriving him of using
the card.
visiting barbers, dentists,
or doctors, which are the usual things
to do in daily life in developed
countries.
4.
Comp. 3-3:
Why
does D refer to visits to the barber, the dentist,
and the
doctor as ‘Faustian
encounters’?
Faust was a
legend hero known for his magic deeds.
Goethe, the German
poet,
dramatist,
and
novelist,
turned
the
legend
into
a
dramatist
poem
Faust
.
Dr. Faust had many encounters with the
devil Mephistopheles.
‘Faustian
encounters’
refers
to
Faust’s
encounters
with
the
devil
Mephistopheles.
Naturally
they
are
undesirable.
Most
people
are
willing
to
visit
barbers, doctors, and dentists.
Para. 3
1.
Yet
for
all
the
trouble
procrastination
may
incur,
delay
can
often
inspire
and revive a creative soul.
Delay leads to problems.
However, in many cases, it can often
stimulate
the creativity in an artist.
4
2.
Main idea:
Delay can often
inspire and revive a creative soul.
The
first sentence is the topic sentence.
3.
How does the
writer develop the central idea of this para.?
By
giving
examples:
Jean
Kerr
who
postponed
her
writing
by
reading
some
seemingly
trifles
which
did
give
her
inspiration
in
writing;
and
many
other
writers who procrastinated by focusing on anything
except their work, but
did stimulated
their imagination.
4.
How is coherence achieved between this
para. and the above?
‘Yet’
Para. 4
1.
What’s the
central idea of this para.?
How does the author develop
it?
Topic
sentence:
From
Cunctator’s
day
until
this
century,
the
art
of
postponement
had
been
virtually
a
monopoly
of
the
military
(“Hurry
up
and
wait”),
diplomacy and law.
i.e.:
postponement is a monopoly
of the military,
diplomacy and
law.
He develops
this para. by giving examples or illustrations.
1)
military:
‘Hurry
up
and
wait.’
is
a
military
order
made
by
some
lieutenant, colonel, commander,
general, who are delayers.
A general could
agree with his enemy to delay the battle by
taking a day off
for sports, or by looting the
villagers’ chickens and
wine.
2)
diplomacy:
A
British
proconsul
could
postpone
taking
up
actions
against the uprising by local people
because he needed more time for rumination,
but he could still be rather easy,
drinking wines or something.
Comp. 3-
4:
How do you understand the word
‘Blessedly’ in the sentence
Blessedly,
he had no nattering Telex to order in machine guns
and fresh troops?
It
means
‘fortunately’.
The
nattering
Telex
would
have
facilitated
the
supply of weapons and dispatch of
(sending off) troops, depriving the proconsul
of the excuse to delay
action.
3)
law:
Lawyers,
though they help people to write the will, often
delay
making their own wills, and there
are many of them who die without leaving a
will, according to a life insurance
salesman.
5
2.
Coherence:
The repetition of ‘cunctator’ at the
beginning.
Para. 5
1.
Comp.
3-
5:
Explain
Demarest’s distortion of the proverb ‘where there
is
no will, there is a way’ at the
beginning of this para..
The
author is playing /
punning on the word
‘will’.
The repetition of
the
word serves as a cohesive tie
between the two paras.
But
mind that the word is
used
in
different
senses
in
the
two
instances.
In
the
proceeding
para.,
‘will’
means
a
statement
in
writing
saying
how
someone
wishes
his
property
to
be
distributed after his death.
In the distorted version of
the old saying, the word
‘will’ is used
in the sense of ‘volition’(= determination).
Thus it means ‘Even
when there is no will to procrastinate,
there is a way to do so
.’
Or, even you
don’t wish to
procrastinate, you have to do so in some cases.
He goes on to
illustrate
his
point
by
giving
examples
of
purposeful
procrastination.
(The
chronic
postponement has been illustrated with examples
before.)
2.
Can you tell the example in your own
words?
Why
does
making
a
final
decision
always
seem
to
be
delayed
in
big
companies?
Because
of
the
large
number
of
staff,
the
complexity
of
labor
division, and the
specialization of individual’s work, it is
necessary to take many
things into
consideration before a decision is made.
Caution is needed before
any decision is made, and caution is
the reason
of delay.
There are so many
data
to
examine,
so
many
reports
to
read,
so
many
authorities
to
consult,
and
you
need
to
get
more
information.
These
can
be
used
as
the
excuse
for
inaction,
for
procrastination.
Thus,
procrastination
occurs
no
matter
whether
you like it or not.
Actually,
speedy
action
can
be
embarrassing
or
extremely
costly.
=
hastiness
may
give
rise
to
decisions
which
turn
out
to
be
humiliating
and
expensive.
3.
Coherence:
The parody
of
the
proverb
‘Where
there
is
a
will,
there
is
a
way’
at
the
beginning.
The
repetition
of
the
word
serves
as
a
cohesive
tie
between the two paras.
Para. 6
1.
Coherence:
His point at the beginning
to refer to what Manderbach says in
6
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