Do They Deserve So Much?

Sample

• Athletes train very hard. The intensity is almost beyond what we can imagine. They get up very early in the morning and have a very vigorous training regime no matter how cold or hot it is. Coaches can be very harsh in the training process. What’s more, their sports life is comparatively short compared with pop stars and movie stars, who don’t have to train so hard as athletes, but earn even more and can remain popular for a longer period of time. So in my opinion, star athletes deserve what they have got.

• I know being good athletes involves devotion and hard training. Most jobs involve strict trainingandarechallenging,too.Butfewpeoplecanmakeasmuchmoneyasstarathletesdo.

For example, scientists spent a long time of their life studying, and they have to work very hard to explore different areas. And not many of them can push back the frontiers of their fields and achieve what they have aimed at. They may have to work persistently for several decades before they can discover something. Now think about what they get. They can never be as popular as star athletes and their income is nothing as compared with athletes’. It’s really unfair. We shouldn’t ignore those who contribute greatly to humans’ welfare quietly.

PART 4 Translation and Writing

2 Translation Practice

1 奥林匹克不仅是锻炼忍耐力和体能的学校，也是培养高尚情操和纯洁道德的学校。——顾拜旦 2 现代奥林匹克精神的总体目标一直是促进相互理解，使世界各国一起友好而有效地合作。——梅瑟利 3 通过各国相聚、通过给予人们互相认识和尊重的机会、通过建立友好的关系，奥林匹克实现了和平

这一重要目标。——梅瑟利

79 Athletes 4 让我们为活着而运动，而不是为了运动而活着；同时也让我们记住，最好是参与比赛，而不是观看

别人比赛。——加德纳

5 一个好的运动员应该树立一个好的榜样，并成为年轻人的行为榜样。一个好的教练应该树立一个好 的榜样，并成为年轻运动员的行为榜样。——顾拜旦

6 奥运会最重要的不是胜利，而是参与，正如在生活中最重要的事情不是成功，而是奋斗。但最本质 的事情并不是征服，而是奋力拼搏。——奥林匹克运动会的信条

3 Writing

1 Sample

The Athlete I Admire Most

The athlete I admire most is David Villa. He is an amazing and intuitive football superstar. He has comprehensive skills, so he shines as a striker. He can also operate as a winger (^边锋). He always lives up to his fans’ expectations. He helped the Spanish team to the world, the summit in the 2010 World Cup. So he is welcome anywhere and at any time. Perhaps you think the performance of football stars such as Ronaldo and Michael Owen is also excellent and you wonder why I admire David Villa most. Let me tell you the reasons.

First of all, he played for the Spanish national team and I like Spain very much. It is a very beautiful and civilized country. I think Spanish people are full of vigor, wisdom and courage.

David Villa is a hero in the eyes of Spanish people because he has brought glory to their nation and contributed to the positive image of the Spanish people. Secondly, I like the Spanish National Team very much. The members are full of passion, energy and intensity. I think the Italians are tooconservative,whiletheBraziliansaresorashthattheylackcooperation.ButtheSpanishare

very brilliant. They are well-organized, and David Villa is the soul of the team. Speaking of their goal he said, “I am very proud and I hope I can continue breaking records.”

Finally, Villa frequently attends charity events. A “David Villa Camp” is held annually, where children receive training from professional footballers. In 2010 he sang alongside Grammy Award-nominated Spanish singer Ana Torroja on the song “Insurrection”. The recording was made for the beneficiary project to help raise money to build an art and education school in Mali. Villa commented that footballers “are an example for society and we have to be ready to get involved in these projects, where we can help people who need it.” He is a true role model. That’s why I admire him the most.

2 Sample

Athletes Should Be Role Models

Whether they like it or not athletes are role models. If they participate in national or international sports and win, we admire them. We don’t necessarily worship them, but we think about their courage and determination when we are discouraged.

Most athletes are good role models. They aim for perfection and they have a lot of self-discipline.

These are positive characteristics that I would like to have. Since we live in a competitive world today, we need the qualities that athletes have in order to succeed.

80 Unit 5

The role models we choose can come from all walks of life. In a sense, athletes are the center of attention. We can watch their performance on television or we can read about them in the newspaper. We can talk about them with our friends. Athletes are like public heroes that can inspire us.

3 Sample

Athletes Should Not Be Role Models

Athletes are specialists in physical performance. They display great athletic skills and indomitable spiritsinsportsfield.Butthatdoesn’tnecessarilymeantheyareexcellentinotherareas.As

CharlesBarkleyputit,“JustbecauseIcandunkabasketballdoesn’tmeanIshouldraiseyourkids.”

Outside sports arena, they are ordinary people as us. They also may make mistakes, sometimes, bigger ones.

For example, how can one admire athletes like Mike Tyson? He is greedy and selfish and is actually a criminal. Many athletes have much money that they think they deserve and they believe they don’t have to care about other people. They do not give back anything to their community. They do not accept their social responsibility, but enjoy being put on a pedestal by fans who worship them. They think they are superior to other people in society. I admire people who contribute to society, not people who think they are superior to others.

81 Risks

Risks

Unit 6

Useful Information

Risk is the probability of losing something of value. Since we value life above other things, the greatest risk for most people is the risk of life. Yet life itself, to the best of our knowledge, is finitely limited.

We are likely to overlook the routine and long-range risks associated with being human, for example, we rarely think about the chances of death, disability, or disaster, or try to predict the times of their occurrence. Walking across the street in many cities is more dangerous than riding an airplane across an ocean, but many people give no thought to the former and have great fear of the latter. People eagerly do dangerous things for recreation that they would rarely do at work, such as scaling a steep mountain or skiing rapidly down it. Young people are especially willing to take foolish chances for the sheer joy of doing so, or because they discount the probability of adverse outcomes. Yet they should probably be much more careful than their elders, since they have longer life expectancies remaining and thus have more at stake.

Other things we value include health, safety, money, property, relationships and happiness. There are risks attached to the loss of any of these. Hypochondriacs exaggerate the risks of ill health or injury. Ironically the precautions taken to promote health and safety may add to a hypochondriac’s perception of the risks involved. A wise investor takes calculated risks with money, and tries to choose reasonable risks over unreasonable ones. A compulsive gambler, on the other hand, is so addicted to risk that there is little thought of the loss that inevitably follows from gambling indefinitely against the odds. So risk itself may at times be perceived as a reward.

Optimists and pessimists have opposite attitudes toward risk. Extreme optimists always expect the best. Therefore they try to maximize gain. More cautious optimists may try to maximize the minimum gain. Extreme pessimists always expect the worst. Therefore they expect the maximum loss. More moderate pessimists may try to maximize the minimum loss. The science of cost-benefit analysis studies these and other strategies for managing risk. So does actuarial science (^精算学), with special emphasis on the risks of death, injury, or illness.

Onewaytomanageriskinordinarylifeisthroughrationalplanning.Byconsideringalternatives

and balancing the greatest or most likely risks against the greatest or most likely rewards, we can oftenmakebetterdecisionsandgivegreaterconsiderationtolong-termoutcomes.Byalways

having a contingency plan (^应急计划) in case our main plan fails, we can usually avoid catastrophes.

But,planningtakeseffort,andwemustbalancethiseffortagainstthepleasureofdoingthings

spontaneously.

82

• This poem tells us risk is closely related to our life. Anything we do in life might be risky. The very nature of life requires risk-taking. We would never grow up or become mature without taking risks and we would never achieve successes without suffering from failures. Risks and failures teach and lead us to monitor our situations and adjust accordingly. Taking risks enables us to challenge ourselves in different aspects of life and thus to reach our higher selves. Only when we are courageous enough to take risks can we eventually enjoy freedom in our lives.

• The poem consists of two parts. In the first part, the poet lists the possible risks in our lives.

Almost everything we do entails some level of risks, from laughing, weeping to loving and hoping. In spite of all the possible risks, the poet advocates risk-taking. That’s what the second part of the poem tells us. Then the poet gives us the reasons why we should take risks. The most philosophical lines in this part are that “The person who risks nothing is one who does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. / He may avoid suffering and sorrows, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, or love.” Just as no pain, no gain, here the poet implies no risk, no life.

Obviously the poet is convincing.

2 Risks and Jobs

STEP ONE Sample

Physical Risks Financial Risks Emotional Risks

nurse, psychiatrist, policeman, coal miner, secretary,

fighter pilot, fireman, singer, football player, writer, cleaner, teacher, tourist guide, model, journalist, chemical engineer,

The ranking of activity riskiness (from high to low):

rock climbing → skydiving → driving a motorcycle → skiing → flying in an airplane → driving a car → working on a farm

1 • I prefer to do rock climbing. I know it’s a very risky sport, but I really want to challenge myself and see how I can use my muscles and brain to do a tough job. You may ask why I like this risky sport while there are so many safer ones to test my strength and determination.