1、Unit 7 The Trying TwentiesAdditional lnformation for the Teachers ReferenceText The Trying TwentiesWarm-up ActivitiesFurther ReadingSpeaking SkillsAdditional WorkUnit 7 The Trying TwentiesWarm-up Activities1.What does“the trying twenties”mean?Why is the twenties a“trying”period?Here“trying”means str
2、aining ones power of endurance,so the phrase means that the twenties is a period in which people undergo many ordeals that will temper their willpower and make them more mature.Twenty-somethings are presented with numerous tasks which they are not yet equipped to deal with.For example,to prepare for
3、 a career,to find a mentor who will guide you through life,to find a mate with whom you will spend yourlife,etc.These are the things that were once irrelevant,but now have become imminent.In a sense these are the“trials”they need to go through as they are becoming an adult.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties
4、2.How will you describe people in their twenties?Positive:energetic/incandescent with their energies,impatient to be on their own,eager to find their own way of living in the world,ambitious,brave,curious,adventurous,vivacious,confident,optimistic,cheerful,straightforwardNegative:changeable,baffled,
5、confused,lovelorn(sometimes),rash,reckless,immatureUnit 7 The Trying Twenties3.Illusions are usually considered as negative.Can you think of how illusions can sometimes be beneficial for people in their twenties?People in their twenties are faced with problems never met before.They dont yet have eno
6、ugh experience and resources to deal with them,but they usually have no one to turn to and they dont like to look for help either.In times like this,illusions take away the fear inside a person and replace it with confidence and excitement.Since all they have is they themselves,the belief that their
7、 intelligence and willpower conquers all propels them forward.It is in the attempt to solve the problems that they mature.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties Gail Sheehy(1937 )was born in New York City and educated at the University of Vermont.Later she received a fellowship at Columbia University where she
8、studied under anthropologist Margaret Mead,who became her mentor.As a literary journalist,she was one of the original contributors to New York magazine.A contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 1984,she won the Washington Journalism Review Award for Best Magazine Writer in America for her in-depth
9、characterAdditional lnformation for the Teachers Reference1.Gail SheehyUnit 7 The Trying Twentiesportraits of national and world leaders,including both Presidents Bush,Bill and Hillary Clinton,Newt Gingrich,Margaret Thatcher,Saddam Hussein,and Mikhail Gorbachev.Since 1970,she has published many work
10、s,including Lovesound(1970),Hustling:Prostitution in Our Wide Open Society(1973),Passages(1976)and Character:Americas Search for Leadership(1988).Unit 7 The Trying TwentiesGail Sheehy divides life into the following stages:Provisional Adulthood Age 18 to 30First Adulthood 30 to 45Second Adulthood mi
11、d 40 s to 70 s.Third Adulthood 75 and beyond.She thinks there is a revolution in the life cycle.People today are taking longer to grow up and much longer to grow old.Adolescence is now prolonged until age 30.People dont feel fully grown up until they are in their 40s.The fact that we2.life as a seri
12、es of stagesUnit 7 The Trying Twenties3.Ma Bell Mother Bell is a colloquial term for the Bell Syste,so named because of the 1984 antitrust case which forced it to divest its local phone network.The result was seven so-called Baby Bells.This is the largest telecommunications breakup in history.are ta
13、king much longer to grow up and much longer to grow old shifts all the stages of adult life ahead by about 10 years:40 is what 30 used to be.50 is what 40 used to be.60 is what 50 used to be.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties4.Goethe Goethe,Johann Wolfgang von(1749-1832),German poet,dramatist,novelist,and s
14、cientist.Goethe s poetry expresses a modern view of humanity s relationship to nature,history,and society;his plays and novels reflect a profound understanding of human individuality.His importance can be judged by the influence of his critical writings,his vast correspondence,and his poetry,dramas,
15、and novels upon the writers of his own time and upon the literary movements which he inaugurated and of w h i c h h e w a s t h e c h i e f f i g u r e.H i sUnit 7 The Trying Twentiesmasterpiece,the poetic drama Faust,ranks as the preeminent version of the famous Faust legend,in which a character se
16、lls his immortal soul to the devil in return for knowledge and experience.According to the 19th-century English critic Matthew Arnold,Goethe must be considered not only“the manifest center of German literature but one of the most versatile figures in all world literature”.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties5
17、.The Sorrows of Young Werther Written by Goethe in 1744 as one of the most influential documents of romanticism.It is a romance in epistolary form,based on two incidents in the authors life.Werther falls in love with Charlotte,who is betrothed to Albert,and gives himself up to a few weeks happiness,
18、while Albert is absent.The he tears himself away.Albert and Charlotte are married,and despair gradually comes over Werther,who finally takes his own life.This work exalts sentiment,even to the point of justifying committing suicide because of unrequited love.The book set atone and mood much copied b
19、y the romantics in their works and often in their personal lives:a fashionable tendency to frenzy,melancholy,world-weariness,and even self-destruction.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties6.the romantic movement Also called romanticism,a movement in the literature of virtually every country of Europe,the Unite
20、d States,and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to about 1870,characterized by reliance on the imagination and subjectivity of approach,freedom of thought and expression,and an idealization of nature.Goethe served as the foremost representative of the German romantic movement.Unit 7 The Tryin
21、g TwentiesThe Trying TwentiesNotesIntroduction to the Author and the ArticlePhrases and ExpressionsExercisesMain idea of the TextUnit 7 The Trying TwentiesMain idea of the Text In the text,Gail Sheehy describes the difficulties,as well as freedom,which twenty-somethings are presented with when they
22、enter the adult world.The twenties is the period when one is eager to find his own way of life.Some choose to go to graduate school,some get married early and tryout different jobs to see which suits them best,and some stay single and put their career first.Two impulses are at work during this perio
23、d.One is to be set as early as possible;the other is to keep experimenting.A balance struck between the two determines what ones twenties will be like.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties People in their twenties have many“illusions”which fill them with enthusiasm in every effort they make.Illusions also brin
24、g will power.Young people dont usually have much money while the problems they face are endless,but with sturdy wills they can overcome any difficulty.Twenty-somethings also tend to believe there is only one true course in life,which cannot be altered.They are blind to other possibilities.Thus if th
25、ey find any part of their personality not congruent with that course,they will regard it as undesirable and try to suppress it.They shape their character to fit the course they have chosen,instead of the other way round.They will rediscover those suppressed parts later in their forties.Unit 7 The Tr
26、ying TwentiesIntroduction to the Author and the Article Gail Sheehy(1937-)was born in New York City and educated at the University of Vermont and Columbia University.She is specialized in the study of adult development.Since 1970,she has published many works,including Lovesound(1970),Hustling:Prosti
27、tution in Our Wide Open Society(1973),Passages(1976)and Character:Americas Search for Leadership(1988).Unit 7 The Trying Twenties In this essay,Gail Sheehy describes the difficulties,as well as freedom,which twenty-somethings are presented with when they enter the adult world.Unit 7 The Trying Twent
28、ies The Trying Twenties confronts us with the question of how to take hold in the adult world.Incandescent with our energies,having outgrown the family and the formlessness of our transiting years,we are impatient to pour ourselves into the exactly right form our own way of living in the world.Or wh
29、ile looking for it,we want to tryout some provisional form.For now we are not only trying to prove ourselves competent in the larger society but intensely aware of being on trial.Gail SheehyThe Trying TwentiesTextUnit 7 The Trying Twenties Graduate student is a safe and familiar form for those who c
30、an afford it.Working toward a degree is something young people already know how to do.It postpones having to prove oneself in the bigger,bullying arena.Very few Americans had such a privilege before World War II;they reached the jumping-off point by the tender age of 16 or 18 or 20 and had to make t
31、heir move ready or not.But today,a quarter of a century is often spent before an individual is expected or expects himself to fix his lifes course.Or more.Given the permissiveness to experiment,the prolonged schooling available,and the moratoria allowed,it is not unusual for an adventurer to be near
32、ly 30 before firmly setting a course.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties Today,the seven-year spread of this stage seems commonly to be from the ages of 22 to 28.The tasks of this period are as enormous as they are ED exhilarating,To shape a dream,that vision of ones own possibilities in the world that will
33、generate energy,aliveness,and hope.To prepare for a lifework.To find a mentor if possible.And to form the capacity for intimacy without losing in the process whatever constancy of self we have thus far assembled.The first test structure must be erected around the life we choose to try.Unit 7 The Try
34、ing Twenties One young man with vague aspirations of having his own creative enterprise,for instance,wasnt sure if his forte would be photography or cabinetmaking or architecture.There was no sponsor in sight;his parents worked for the telephone company.So he took a job with Ma Bell.He married and t
35、ogether with his wife decided to postpone children indefinitely.Once the structure was set,he could throw all his free-time energies into experimenting within it.Every weekend would find him behind a camera or building bookcases for friends,vigorously testing the various creative streaks that might
36、lead him to a satisfying lifework.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties Singlehood can be a life structure of the twenties,too.The daughter of an ego-boosting father,taught to try anything she wished so long as she didnt bail out before reaching the top,decided to become a traveling publicist.That meant being
37、free to move from city to city as better jobs opened up.The structure that best served her purpose was to remain unattached.She shared apartments and lived in womens hotels,having a wonderful time,until at 27 she landed the executive job of her dreams.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties “I had no feeling of
38、rootlessness because each time I moved,the next job offered a higher status or salary.And in every city I traveled,I would look up old friends from college and meet them for dinner.That gave me a stabilizing influence.”At 30 Shazam!The same woman was suddenly married and pregnant with twins.Surround
39、ed by a totally new and unforeseen life structure,she was pleasantly baffled to find herself content.“I guess I was ready for a family without knowing it.”Unit 7 The Trying Twenties The Trying Twenties is one of the longer and more stable periods,stable,that is,in comparison with the rockier passage
40、s that lead to and exit from it.Although each nail driven into our first external life structure is tentative,a tryout,once we have made our commitments we are convinced they are the right ones.The momentum of exploring within the structure generally carries us through the twenties without a major d
41、isruption of it.One of the terrifying aspects of the twenties is the conviction that the choices we make are irrevocable.If weUnit 7 The Trying Twentieschoose a graduate school or join a firm,get married or dontmarry,move to the suburbs or forego travel abroad,decideagainst children or against a car
42、eer,we fear in our marrow that we might have to live with that choice forever.It is largely a false fear.Change is not only possible;some alteration of our original choices is probably inevitable.But since in our twenties were new at making major life choices,we cannot imagine that possibilities for
43、 a better integration will occur to us later on,when some inner growth has taken place.Two impulses,as always,are at work during this period.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties One is to build a firm,safe structure for the future by making strong commitments,to be set.Yet people who slip into a ready-made fo
44、rm without much self-examination are likely to find themselves following a locked-in pattern.The other urge is to explore and experiment,keeping any structure tentative and therefore easily reversible.Taken to the extreme by people who skip through their twenties from one trial job and one limited p
45、ersonal encounter to another,this becomes the transient pattern.Unit 7 The Trying Twenties The balance struck between these two impulses makes for differences in the way people pass through this period of provisional adulthood and largely determines the way we feel about ourselves at the end of it.T
46、he Power of Illusions However galvanizing our vision in the early twenties,it is far from being complete.Even while we are delighted to display our shiny new capacities,secret fears persist that we are not going to get away with it.Somebody is going to discover the imposter.Unit 7 The Trying Twentie
47、s To have seen the vivacious,24-year-old junior executive at her work in a crack San Francisco public relations firm,one would probably not have guessed the trepidations underneath,“I realized that I had not grown up.I was amazed at how well I functioned at work.When clients would deal with me as an
48、 equal,Id think,I got away with it,but the feeling wasnt one of joy.It was terror that eventually they would find out I was just a child.Simply not equipped.The other half of the time,I would have tremendous confidence and arrogance about who I was ahotshot out there accomplishing all sorts of thing
49、s and everybody thinking I was so terrific.I was like two people.”Unit 7 The Trying Twenties Many of us are not consciously aware of such fears.With enough surface bravado to fool the people we meet,we fool ourselves as well.But the memory of formlessness is never far beneath.So we hasten to try on
50、lifes uniforms and possible partners,in search of the perfect fit.“Perfect”is that person we imbue with the capacity to enliven and support our vision or the person we believe in and want to help.Two centuries ago,a fictional young poet in Germany,torn by his hopeless passion for the“perfect”woman,d
