Unit 23 Beauty and Career

Discuss

• According to a survey, more than 60% of people think beautiful people can be always successful in their career .

• Do you think so? If not, please try to make your view convinced.

• Beauty does not mean good quality and ability. Success requires more ability than appearance. Whether one can be successful in his career consists in whether he can do his job better . Maybe beauties can be more competent in public relation. While others can make it after hardworking ,as well.

• Meanwhile, those who do not look beautiful can make up by nice clothes and skilled make-up.

• Beauty from inside can outweigh beautiful appearance. One can give colleagues a hand when people need it will be respectable even without a beautiful appearance.

• if you want to be successful, pay more attention to self-improvement.

•

• Will you choose your boyfriend or girlfriend based on the appearance? Why or why not?

• What is your ideal better half like?

Book 2-Unit 8

Quotable Quote

Beauty Beauty is is

skin skin deep.deep.

1. Do you want to make yourself more beautiful? and how can you make yourself become more beautiful?

2. Do you know anyone who has taken

plastic surgery? Do you think he/ she becomes more beautiful?

3. Why do people want to make themselves look prettier even though they know that beauty is only skin-deep?

In small groups, discuss the following questions.

Book 2-Unit 8

Tips

Tips

Tips

A. Using cosmetics

B. Using attire/dress

Tips for Question 1

e.g. shampoo, cream, make-up, lip-stick, powder mascara (睫毛膏）

e.g. fashionable dress, wearing rings, earrings, wig（假发） , hair-dyes, hair-perms, manicuring one’s fingernails, shaving, wearing lenses (隐形眼镜 )/glasses/sun glasses, etc.

Book 2-unit 8

C. Using cosmetic surgery/plastic surgery:

D. Using other means

e.g. liposuction (吸脂术 ), breast enhancement, facelift (去皱纹术 ), facial surgery, nose job /surgery， ear piercing, eye-lid surgery (割双眼皮 )

e.g. body-building, live on a diet, exercising (running, jogging, practicing dumb-bells, swimming, aerobic exercises, etc.)

Book 2-unit 8

A.

B.

C.

Boosting one’s confidence or self-esteem

Making themselves feel more normal; complying with the social standard of being a “normal person”Restoring their old image of being “young” and “looking great”, (e.g., the woman who wants to cut the “baby weight” after nursing her baby; or someone who was deformed in an accident such as a fire)

Tips for Question 3

Book 2-Unit 8

D.

E.

F.

Getting tired of one’s image and wishing to change

When one suffers from a skin disease and has to take surgery such as the US pop star Michael Jackson (He has a degenerative skin disease which he was treated for—this is why he claims he had so much surgery.)

Easier to create a good impression on other people; easier to be accepted.

Book 2-Unit 8

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But … it is better to be good than to be ugly. 善虽不如美，但总比丑强。

Beauty is only skin deep. 漂亮仅仅是一张皮而已。 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. / Beauty is only a matter of taste. 美丽因人而异。  

Don’t judge a book by its cover. 书皮漂亮不见得是好书。 

Book 2-Unit 8

Quotations about “Beauty”

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies for instance. 请记住：这个世界上好看的东西往往不中用，譬如孔雀和百合花。 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness. 美能创造永恒的幸福：美能使幸福与日俱增；美永远也不会消失。 

Book 2-Unit 8

1. What does Mary do? What business does Sue own? What is Elizabeth’s profession?

Mary is the hostess of a TV program; Sue is a successful businesswoman and owns a number of health studios; Elizabeth is a writer and lecturer.

Comprehension Questions

Book 2-Unit 8

Listen to the text recording first and then read it carefully again and discuss the following questions.

2. Summarize the arguments from the both sides. Which side do you support? Why?

Sue’s major arguments: Human beings have only one life to live; people should have the freedom to choose their lifestyle and undergo cosmetic surgery if they wish.there is no point in looking back the quaint old customs. Elizabeth’s major arguments: To be beautiful is the result of social pressure, not intrinsic needs of human beings; historical evidence is abundant from foot-binding in old China, removing bottom ribs in England, and neck-stretching in Burma.

Book 2-Unit 8

3. Elizabeth says, “We should judge the whole person.” How do you judge “the whole person”?

We may judge the whole person from the following perspectives:His/her personalities His/her attitude to workHis/her attitude to/relationship with colleagues/ classmates/ people around him/herHis/her ability to carry out work and tasksHis/her attitude to success and failureHis/her achievements in work and studyHis/her efforts

Book 2-Unit 8

• lecturer: a teacher in a British university or college讲师

• He's a good lecturer as he really knows his stuff.他是位好讲师 ,因为他确实精通业务。

• professor• associate professor,• lecturer

• teaching assistant.

Language points

head to head

 arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, face to face, heart to heart

Book 2-Unit 8

1. What lengths can we or should we go to, to make ourselves more beautiful?

go to any lengths/great lengths to do sth: to be willing to use any methods to achieve something that you are very determined to achieve. 不遗余力；不顾一切

To what extent can we or should we do/How much can we do, or should we do to make ourselves more beautiful?

go to (some, any, great) lengths to do sth. 想一切办法 ,尽很大努力

• Bill will go to any length to keep Dick from getting a date with Mary．

• 比尔将想尽一切办法来阻止狄克与玛丽的约会。

• Tr:他将不顾一切要得到他想要的东西。• *He will go to any length to get what he wants．

  start with : begin with

In Learning English， we usually start with listening and speaking．学习英语我们往往从听说开始。

end with: she ends her speech with a quotation

end up with

compliment n. & v.

pay / make  (sb) a ~ on sth.

She paid me a ~ on my paintings.

~ sb. on sth.

The teacher ~ed the girl on her good grades.

老师称赞那位女孩成绩优良

complimentary adj. a ~ remark

She paid me a very charming _________________ my painting.

The guests __________________ her ____ her cooking.

compliment on

complimented on

keep yourself fit / healthy

His qualification fits him for this demanding job.

His behavior doesn’t fit his newposition.

The coat fits me well.

The food here is not ~ to eat. /

The man is not ~ for the position.

fit adj.

v. (使 )符合 ;适合 ;与…相符 

• cosmetic:

• adj 美容的；• cosmetic preparations 梳妆打扮• cosmetic surgery整容手术• n 化妆品• Lipstick and hair conditioner are cosmetic

s. 口红和护发素都是化妆品 .

Book 2-Unit 8

2. I think it’s up to everyone to decide what is right for them.

be up to sb: to be sb’s duty or responsibility; to be for sb to decide e.g. Success or failure? It’s up to you.

Everyone has freedom to decide what is right for them.

historic / historical

• historic具有历史意义的 / historical历史的，与历史有关的

• a ____________ novel/play/perspective

• a ___________ spot

• a ____________film/painting

• _____________studies

• a ________event/moment

historical

historichistorical

historichistorical

Book 2-Unit 8

3. Well, there are lots of examples of societies in which people have done some horrendous things so as to make themselves more “beautiful” in quotes.

Lots of examples show that in some societies people have done some extremely terrible things in order to make themselves fit the society’s current ideas about what is beautiful.

horrendous: 1.extremely shocking, terrible; 2.extremely unpleasant and unacceptable e.g. horrendous injuries horrendous traffic

in quotes: in quotation marks

Beauty in Burma

In Africa, there were tribes which went in for stretching the ear lobes, or the lips, or even changing the shape of the skull itself.

go in for: take strong interest in爱好*I thought he only went in for music and tennis．我以为他只爱好音乐和网球。tr:很多人对钓鱼感兴趣Lots of men go in for fishing．

在非洲，有些部落喜好拉长耳垂或嘴唇，或更有甚者，改变头骨形状。

African Women stretched their lips

• ridiculous: deserving to be laughed at; absurd 可笑的 ; 荒谬的 ; 荒唐的

• Who made this ridiculous rule?

• 这条荒唐的规则是谁定的

Book 2-Unit 8

4. So I don’t see there is any real point in looking back at all these quaint old customs.

quaint: attractive in an unusual and old-fashioned way稀奇古怪的

So I don’t think it is worthwhile to recall all these unusual practices of old customs.

What’s the point?/There’s no point (in) doing …: used to say that you do not think something is worth doing

所以我认为回顾这些奇形怪状的古老习俗没有什么意思。

Blank Filling

Rewrite the sentences

Word Study

Book 2-Unit 8

Mary Has it always been in fashion for women to have thin waists, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth No, not always. But they enjoyed a ___________ popularity for centuries in Europe. Women used to wear wooden or metal corsets to give them thin waists.

Mary From a modern __________, it sounds rather amusing. What a ______ thing to do!

Elizabeth I’m afraid it wasn’t very funny most of the time. The women had to ______ a lot of pain. Sometimes the corsets damaged their internal organs, like the liver.

Book 2-Unit 8

considerable

perspectivequaint

Fill in the blanks with the words from the text. (page 109)

endure

Blank Filling

Book 2-Unit 8

Mary But there is a ______ here between the past practice and the _______ ideas, isn’t there? We still put a lot of ________ on having a thin waist, don’t we?

Elizabeth That’s right. Some people even have _______ ________ to remove fat from their stomachs. The surgeon inserts a tube and sucks out the fat. It’s a growing ______ especially in America.

Mary Oh, it sounds __________ to me. I could never have that done.

linkcurrent

emphasis

cosmetic

trend

horrendous

surgery

Rewrite the Sentences (page 109)

1. While living in the countryside, she developed a special interest in gardening.

2. Father spent a great deal of time and effort to give the old house a face-lift.

3. Since we have already settled the problem, it is meaningless to talk about it again.

4. It is the students’ responsibility to decide their future careers.

While living in the countryside, she went in for gardening.

Father went to great lengths to give the old house a face-lift.

It is up to the students themselves to decide their future careers.

Since we have already settled the problem, there is no point in talking about it again.

Book 2-Unit 8

5. The manager will view the project in terms of its net profit.

6. When he was thumping melons for a ripe one, the boy accidentally step into a rattler's mouth.

7. It is foolish and unreasonable, scientists have argued, to talk of computers as if they were human brains.

8. They continued walking for a while in silence.

The manager will judge the project by its net profit.

When he was thumping melons for a ripe one, the boy happened to step into a rattler’s mouth.

It is ridiculous, scientists have argued, to talk of computers as if they were human brains.

They kept on walking for a while in silence.

Book 2-Unit 8