大学英语综合教程4课文summary

U1 AR2This is an informal and personalized account of an economic graduate who gets a job in a pub for a year and then has an opportunity to be successful (a lucky break). Since her family cant support her to further study, she has to work. She has financial problems and feels lonely. She tells her troubles to Tony, a regular customer of the pub, who talks to some friends and gets her a loan to set up a business. With this help she has her masters degree and her own company. The situation, however, is reversed: Tony is disabled after an accident and needs the repayment of the loan to adapt his house for his disability.U2 AR1Reading is a life-changing activity. It helps us enter a new world and liberate us from the real world we come from; it stimulates our emotions and allows us enjoy and celebrate the variety and difference from books; it aids us to get out of confusion in a material world and to discover the real meaning of the life. Simply put, books are supremely influential in the way we live. Homerun book might be the answer for the book that everyone should read. It describes the first reading experience that induces such pleasure and satisfaction that you cannot put it down and it may range from the classics to the most recent. Everyone is looking for their own homerun books. And what is yours? U2 AR2Henry Miller depicts the struggle waged to obtain books when he was young, and then introduces the reason that makes a book livethat is, the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. In his eyes, books are one of the few possessions men cherished deeply, but if you lend it to others, it makes friends for you. He continues to suggest that the vast majority of books overlap what others say, so read as little as possible. He then advises such a way to test his suggestionthat is, leave a book alone, but think as intensely as possible and if you decide to read, observe with what extraordinary acumen you tackle it and realize that very little of the books is really new to you.U3 AR1No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: jeans and hemlines.Jeans evolved from the work clothes in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century to a symbol of youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality with its expansion to Europe and Asia in late 1950s. Then the hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s and the punk period had impact on the design of jeans. In the mid-1980s, denim remained popular with the young. But the late 1980s saw jeans not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended while from 2000, designer jeans gained huge popularity. While jeans came to be popular on the worldwide scale, hemlines have a more peculiar significance (with only a few indicator) as an exceptions of economy, i.e., as the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they.The 1960s witnessed the miniskirt by Mary Quant whereas the mid-1980s saw knee-length skirts the economy was unstable.Gradually hemlines started to rise again.until the world stock market crash in 1987. Then in January 2000 the New York technology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines. But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.But from 2007, hemlines were no longer following the stock market.In conclusion, the constant factors over 1960s and 2010 are denim and hemlines and the greatest influences have been a 19th-century Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the swinging London of the 1960s.U4 AR1Today, we are caught in the credit crunch because banks set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. The banks give a false sense of superiority to people with exclusive gold credit cards in hard. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying , and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. They lure impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates. They charge people who go over the limit the exorbitant interest but omit to tell them the interest paid is not for the debt, but for the overspend of the overdraft. By attracting us with their endless publicity for loans of money, the banks earn money.So how to get ourselves out of the traps? Lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then the banks have no potential to tempt money away from you.U4 AR2Whats the key to Wedded bliss? Money matters. Marriage at its core is a financial union. To preserve their marital assets and their union, couples had better share similar outlooks on money matters or, at the very least, find some middle ground. Otherwise, money will be a huge factor in breaking up marriages. However, not everyone is lucky to get married to a financial twin. To become more compatible with their significant other and ultimately more prosperous, couples need follow these guidelines: talking and sharing goals; running a home like a business, that is, making a budget and keeping track of earnings, expenses and debts, making big financial decisions and setting goals together; being supportive of careers; enjoying, but within reason; Using a mediator while having strong yet divergent opinions. Maintaining some financial independence; spending time and money together as a kind of investment in marriage.U5 AR1Researchers have found that men gossip as much as women and men spend much more time talking about themselves. However, men dont admit they gossip, instead they define it as “exchanging information”.The reason why female gossip actually sounds like gossip is that there seem to be three principal factors involved. Firstly, the tone rule. Women adopt a tone which is high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated, while men gossip in the same flat, unemotional manner as any other piece of information. Secondly, the detail rule. For women, a detailed speculation about possible motives, causes and outcomes is crucial. However, men find all this detail boring, irrelevant and unmanly. Thirdly, the feedback rule. Female listeners are required to be at least as animated and enthusiastic as speakers. However, men who respond in such a manner would be considered inappropriately girly, or even disturbingly effeminate. For them, a suitable expletive is better to convey their surprise.U5 AR2Women constantly have to make choices about dress and appearance, and even the way they sign their names, which lead people to make judgments about them. A woman without a particular hair style is considered careless about how she looks and can be disqualified for many positions. Tight or revealing clothes send a message that the wearer wants to be attractive and th