consulted. ―There is always,‖ says Manderbach, ―a delicate edge between having enough information and too much.‖
(6) His point is well taken. Bureaucratization, which flourished amid the growing burdens of government and the greater complexity of society, was designed to smother policymakers in blankets of legalism, compromise and reappraisal – and thereby prevent hasty decisions from being made. The centralization of government that led to Watergate has spread to economic institutions and beyond, making procrastination a worldwide way of life. Many languages are studded with phrased that refer to putting things off – from the Spanish manana to the Arabic bukrafil mishmash (literally ―tomorrow in apricots,‖ more loosely ―leave it for the soft spring weather when the apricots are blooming‖).
(7) Academe also takes high honors in procrastination. Bernard Sklar, a
University of Southern California sociologist who churns out three to five pages of writing a day, admits that ―many of my friends go through agonies when they face a blank page. There are all sorts of rationalizations: the pressure of teaching, responsibilities at home, checking out the latest book, looking up another footnote.‖ (8) Psychologists maintain that the most assiduous procrastinators are women, though many psychologists are (at $ 50-plus an hour) pretty good delayers themselves. Dr. Ralph Greenson; a U.C.L.A. professor of clinical psychiatry (and Marilyn Monroe‘s one-time shrink), takes a fairly gentle view of procrastination. ―To many people,‖ he says, ―doing something, confronting, is the moment of truth. All frightened people will then avoid the moment of truth entirely, or evade or postpone it until the last possible moment.‖ To Georgia State Psychologist Joen Fagan, however, procrastination may be a kind of subliminal way of sorting the important from the trivial. ―When I drag my feet, there‘s usually some reason,‖ says Fagan. ―I feel it, but I don‘t yet know the real reason.‖
(9) In fact, there is a long and honorable history of procrastination to suggest that many ideas and decisions may well improve if postpones. It is something of a truism that to put off making a decision is itself a decision. The parliamentary process is essentially a system of delay and deliberation. So, for that matter, is the creation of
a great painting, or an entrée, or a book, or a building like Blenheim Palace, which took the Duke of Marlborough‘s architects and laborers 15 years to construct. In the process, the design can mellow the marinate. Indeed, hurry can be the assassin of elegance. As T. H. White, author of Sword in the Stone, once wrote, time ―is not meant to be devoured in an hour or a day, but to be consumed delicately and gradually and without haste.‖ In other words, pace Lord Chesterfield, what you don‘t necessarily have to do today, by all means put off until tomorrow. Questions:
(I) Judge which of the following best states the writer’s purpose of writing. (2 points) （ ）
A. As a member in good standing of the Procrastinators‘ Club of America, Demarest is trying to convince readers that procrastination is a fine art that can always improve things.
B. Demarest is trying to disprove with abundant examples Chesterfield‘s exhortation ―Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.‖
C. In a half serious and half-joking manner Demarest expresses his view on procrastination that while in some cases it is justified and fruitful to delay, in others it is irrational and encumbering.
(II) Judge whether the following statements are true or false. 12 points, 2 points each)
1. Many lawyers die with a will because they are in the habit of delaying doing things.（ ）
2. ―Chronic procrastination‖ (para. 5) means ―procrastination resulting from a prolonged, recurring disease‖. （ ）
3. Psychologists are interested in the phenomenon of procrastination but their study of it has not led to a unified explanation of its cause. （ ）
4. ―Academe also takes high honors in procrastination‖ (para. 7) means ―in academic circles procrastination is a commendable practice‖. （ ）
5. The word ―subliminal‖ (para.8) and the adjective ―sublime‖ are synonymous.
（ ）
6. According to Demarest one of the reasons people might give for delaying doing something is
that they have not collected sufficient information. （ ）
(III) Find 4 sentences using different rhetorical devices from the above passages, write them out and indicate the paragraphs from which they are taken. ( 8 points, 2 points each)
4. Christmas Day in the Morning
by Pearl S. Buck
1. He woke suddenly and completely. It was four o‘clock, the hour at which his father had always called him to get up and help with the milking. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still! His father had been dead for thirty years, and yet he still waked at four o‘clock in the morning. But this morning, because it was Christmas, he did not try to sleep again.
2. Yet what was the magic of Christmas now? His childhood and youth were long past, and his own children had grown up and gone.
3. Yesterday his wife had said, ―It isn‘t worthwhile, perhaps—‖ And he has said, ―Oh, yes, Alice, even if there are only the two of us, let‘s have a Christmas of our own.‖ 4. Then she had said, ―Let‘s not trim the tree until tomorrow, Robert. I‘m tired.‖ 5. He had agreed, and the tree was still out by the back door.
6. He lay in his bed in his room. The door to her room was shut because she was a light sleeper. Years ago they had decided to use separate rooms. Neither of them slept as well as they once had. They had been married so long that nothing could separate them, actually.
7. Why did he feel so awake tonight? For it was still night, a clear and starry night. No moon, of course, but the stars were extraordinary! Now that he thought of it, the stars seemed always large and clear before the dawn of Christmas Day.
8. He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays. He was fifteen years old and still on his father‘s farm. He loved his father. He had not known it until one day a few
days before Christmas, when he had overheard what his father was saying to his mother.
9. ―Marry, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He‘s growing so fast, and he needs his sleep. I wish I could manage alone.‖
1. ―Well, you can‘t, Adam.‖ His mother‘s voice was brisk. ―Besides, he isn‘t a child any more. It‘s time he took his turn.‖
2. ―Yes,‖ his father said slowly. ―But I sure do hate to wake him.‖ When he heard these words, something in him woke: his father loved him! He had never thought of it before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. Now that he knew his father loved him, there would be no more loitering in the mornings and having to be called again. He got up after that, stumbling blind with sleep, and pulled on his clothes.
3. And then on the night before Christmas, he lay thinking about the next day. They were poor, and most of the excitement was in the turkey they had raised themselves and in the mince pies his mother made. His sisters sewed presents, and his mother and father always bought something he needed, not only a warm jacket, maybe, but something more, such as a book. And he always saved and bought them each something, too.
4. He wished, that Christmas he was fifteen, he had a better present for his father instead of the usual tie from the ten-cent store. He lay on his side and looked out of his attic window.
5. ―Dad,‖ he had once asked when he was a little boy, ―What is a stable?‖ 6. ―It‘s just a barn,‖ his father had replied, ―like ours.‖
7. Then Jesus had been born in a barn, and to a barn the shepherds and the Wise Men had come, bringing their Christmas gifts!
8. A thought struck him like a silver dagger. Why should he not give his father a special gift, out there in the barn! He could get up earlier, creep into the barn and get all the milking done. And then when his father went in to start the milking, he‘d see it all done.
9. He laughed to himself as he gazed at the stars. It was what he would do, and he mustn‘t sleep too soundly.
10. He must have waked twenty times, striking a match each time to look at his old watch.
11. At a quarter to three he got up and crept downstairs, careful of the creaky boards, and let himself out. A big star hung low over the roof, a reddish gold. The cows looked at him, sleepy and surprised. It was early for them, too.
12. But they accepted him placidly and he fetched some hay for each cow and then got the milking pail and the big milk cans.
13. He had never milked all alone before, but it seemed almost easy. He smiled and milked steadily, two strong streams rushing into the pail, frothing and fragrant. The cows were behaving well, as though they knew it was Christmas.
14. The task went more easily than he had ever known it to before. Milking for once was not a chore. It was a gift to his father. He finished, the two milk cans were full, and he covered them and closed the milk-house door carefully, making sure of the latch. He put the stool in its place by the door and hung up the clean milk pail. Then he went out of the barn and barred the door behind him.
15. Back in his room he had only a minute to pull off his clothes and jump into bed, for he heard his father up. He put the covers over his head to silence his quick breathing. The door opened.
16. ―Rob!‖ his father called. ―We have to get up, son, even if it is Christmas.‖ 17. ―Aw-right,‖ he said sleepily.
18. ―I‘ll go on out,‖ his father said. ―I‘ll get things started.‖
19．The door closed and he lay still, laughing to himself. In just a few minutes 19. his father would know. His dancing heart was ready to jump from his body. 20. The minutes were endless—ten, fifteen, he did not know how many—and he heard his father‘s footsteps again. The door opened. 21. ―Rob!‖ 22. ―Yes, Dad—‖
23. ―You son of a –‖ His father was laughing, a queer sobbing sort of a laugh. ―Thought you‘d fool me, did you!‖ His father was standing beside his bed, feeling for him, pulling away the cover.