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What marked the end of the writer's New Year resolutions?
The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us
could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. The same old favourites
recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier
each morning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand
and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully,
and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that
certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers,
it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results
from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our
schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make
the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look
even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these
pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited
myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to
read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a
good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first
day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the
task.
The daily exercises lasted only 11 minutes and I proposed to do them early
in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag
myself out of bed 11 minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless,
I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me
out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into
uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted
condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family
trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended
off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got
used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercises
gradually diminished. Little by little the 11 minutes fell to zero. By January
10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time
exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for
reading when I got home from work Resisting the hypnotizing effect of
television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book.
One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front
of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon
got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still
haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a
book entitled 《How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute》. Perhaps it will solve my
problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!
New words and expressions 生词与短语
resolution
n. 决心
mentally
adv. 内心里
compile
v. 编辑，编制
formidable
adj. 令人畏惧的
recur
v. 再发生，又出现
regularity
n. 规律性
accomplishment
n. 成就
attainment
n. 达到
inveterate
adj. 根深蒂固的
self-improvement
n. 自我完善
scheme
n. 简单的计划，方案
ambitious
adj. 雄心勃勃的
pitfall
n. 意外的困难，易犯的错误
modest
adj. 要求不过分的
assiduously
adv. 刻苦地
self-discipline
n. 自我约束
frame
n. 躯体
betray
v. 暴露，显露
troop
v. 成群结队地走动
unsettle
v. 使不安
taunt
n. 嘲笑，奚落人的话
jibe
n. 嘲弄，挖苦
good-humouredly
adv. 和气地，心情好地
wane
v. 逐渐变小，变弱
hypnotize
v. 使欲睡，使蒙胧
undoing
n. 祸根，毁灭的原因
screen
n. 电视机屏幕
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发表于 2016-7-11 23:04:32