第四册 Unit 11. If you ask me, real life is not all its cracked up to be. Twelve years at school and three years at university, teachers banging on about opportunities in the big wide world beyond our sheltered life as students, and what do I find?Try as I might to stay cheerful, all I ever get is hassle, sometimes with people (especially boys, god, when will they grow up?), but mostly with money. Its just so expensive out here! Everyone wants a slice off you. The Inland Revenue wants to deduct income tax, the bank manager wants repayments on my student loan, the landlord wants the rent, gas, water, electricity and my mobile bills keep coming in, and all thats before Ive had anything to eat. And then some bright spark calls me out of the blue, asking if Im interested in buying a pension. At this rate, I wont even last till the end of the year, let alone till Im 60.依我看，现实生活与人们想象的不一样。我们上了12年的中、小学，又上了3年的大学，这期间老师们一直在没完没了地谈论在安宁的学生生活之外那个广阔天地里的各种机会，可我遇到的又是什么呢？无论我怎么想保持心情愉快，麻烦事总是接踵而来：有时是跟人争吵（尤其是跟男孩，天哪！他们什么时候才能长大？），但通常是为钱发愁。这个地方什么东西都很贵！人人都想从我身上拿点钱去：国税局要收个人所得税，银行经理要我偿清学生贷款，房东催我交房租、燃气费、水费、电费，手机账单也不断地寄来。所有这些还没算上吃饭的钱。更可气的是，不知从哪里冒出一个自作聪明的家伙冷不丁地给我打电话，问我要不要买养老金。照这样下去，我连今年都活不过去了，更别提活到60岁领养老金了。2.我认为，选修第二专业并不适合每一位本科生。我大学本科主修英语专业，大一时就开始辅修经济学了。无疑，我是班里最用功的学生。我竭尽全力想同时达到两个不同专业的要求，但还是有不及格的时候。因为经济学需要良好的数学基础，我不得不花大量时间钻研数学，因而忽略了英语学习。If you ask me, taking a second major isnt good for every undergraduate. In my freshman year as English major, I took economics as my minor. By all odds, I was the most hardworking student in my class. But try as I might to meet the requirements of the two different subjects, I still couldnt do well enough to pass all the exams. Given that the study of economics required a good command of mathematics, I had to spend so much time on math that I neglected my English major.第二学期,英国文学及宏观经济学两门课不及格给我敲响了警钟，这可是我一生中第一次考试不及格，这大大打击了我的自信心。虽然我不是一个容易向命运低头的人，在暑假结束的时候，我还是决定放弃经济学，以免两个专业都难以完成。当我只需修一个专业的时候，一切似乎又回到了正轨。 (if you ask me; odds; try as might; sap ones confidence; given that; bow to fate; come to a close; for fear that; now that)Failing English Literature and Macroeconomics in the second semester sounded the alarm for me. This was the first time I did not pass a course in my life, which had greatly sapped my confidence. Although I was not a man who would easily bow to fate, as the summer break came to a close, I decided to give up economics for fear that I would fail in both subjects. Now that I had only one subject to attend to, everything seemed to be on the right track again.第四册Unit 51 .Women cant even fill out a form without telling stories about themselves. Most application forms now give four choices for titles. Men have one to choose “Mr.” so their choice carries no meaning other than to say they are male. But women must choose among three, each of them marked. A woman who checks the box for “Mrs.” or “Miss” communicates not only whether she has been married but also that she has conservative tastes in forms of address, and probably other conservative values as well. Checking “Ms.” declines to let on about marriage (whereas “Mr.” declines nothing since nothing was asked), butit also marks the woman who checks it on her form as either liberated or rebellious, depending on the attitudes and assumptions of the one making the judgment. I sometimes try to duck these variously marked choices by giving my title as “Dr.” and thereby risk marking myself as either uppity (hence sarcastic responses like “Excuse me!”) or an over-achiever (hence reactions of congratulatory surprise, like “Good for you!”). 女人一填表就会暴露自己的个人经历。给出四种称谓选择。男人只有一种选择，即“先生”(MR.)，这除了表明他们是男性之外没有其他任何含义。女人则必须三种称谓中选一个，而任何一种都是标记性的。如果一位女士勾选了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的称谓，那么她不仅暴露了自己的婚姻状况，而且还表明她在称谓方面很保守，或许在其他价值观方面也很保守。如果一位女士勾选了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的称谓，那么她不仅暴露了自己的婚姻状况，而且还表明她在称谓方面很保守，或许在其他价值观方面也很保守。另外，在表格中勾选“女士”这一称谓的人会被标记为思想解放的人或叛逆者，这就要看评判她的人持什么样的态度和看法了。我有时会选择“博士”头衔，以避开这几种带标记的称谓选项。但这么做又会给自己带来风险，标明自己要么骄傲自大（于是乎招来讥讽的反应，比如“对不起，我不知道你是博士！”），要么是一个成功欲过强的人（那么对方的反应就是祝贺式的惊奇，比如“你真行！”）。2.我们对理想丈夫或理想妻子的假设显示出我们的性别期待以及我们对性别期待的反应。如果大多数年轻姑娘希望她们的未婚夫强悍、能干、可靠，那么小伙子们也就别无选择，只能把自己训练得强悍、能干、可靠，这样才能赢得女孩子的芳心。如果他们的做法与性别期待背道而驰，那么他们很可能会在悲叹自己的光棍生涯中度过下半辈子。根据同样的不成文法则，如果多数年轻男子希望他们的未婚妻温柔体贴、耐心、忠贞，认为这些比什么都重要，那么姑娘即便不是这种人，也会假装自己将来会成为贤妻良母。深入研究一下这种性别期待，我们就会发现这是受生理和社会因素制约的。无疑，女性为孕育婴儿做好了生理准备，而男人则完全不适合这项工作。男人只有努力挣钱养家，才能让一家人过上好日子。Our presumptions about what ideal husbands or wives are like reveal a lot about our gender expectations as well as our responses to them. If most girls want their fiances to be tough, capable and reliable, there is no option left for young men other than to be trained as tough, capable and reliable if they want to win girls heart. If they act to the contrary, they will most probably bemoan their bachelors status for the rest of their lives. Following the same unwritten rule, if most boys expect their fiances to be caring, patient and faithful more than anything else, girls are prone to let on that they will become faithful wives and