研究生英语作业第五单元

1. What day is it? What did the woman, Carol, doover the weekends? It’s Monday.Paul and she played tennis on Saturday. And yesterday they just stayed in and did chores in the house.

2. What did the man, Steve, do last Friday?

His brother fixed him up with some kind of his homework on Friday . They went out for dinner and caught a movie. They had a nice time, but nothing really special.

3. Who found the office door unlocked over theweekend, and when? Who was thought to be responsible? What might be theconsequence he has to face, and why does it have to be so serious a penalty?

MrJohnson found the office door unlocked over the weekend .On Monday morning when he came in early. Luke was thought to be responsible.

He might be fired because of this.He has already messed up some phone messages and he has come late a few times.

4. Why is Steve certain that it was him ratherthan anyone else who is to blame for the whole thing? If you were Steve, whatwould you do and why? If you were Steve’s boss, what would you think of Steveand what would be your decision and why? He stayed a little late on Friday. There was some work heneed to finish up. Luke definitely left before he did. He got busy with some stuff and remembered the date. He was so worried about being late for his date .He didn’t even think about locking the door.

If I were Steve,I wouldgoand tell Johnson right away.Idon’twant anyone to get fired on my account. If Luke tells our bossI was there when he left, the result will be worse.SoI choose to be honest.

If I were Steve’sboss ,Iwill think of Steve as the kind of person who can be trusted. Because he told the truthknowing that he might be fired.

I will give him a warning and make some rules or regulations in the office.In order to let him and others learn the lessons and be more careful in the future.

Paneldiscussion: a drop in values?

1. Are people on the panel in agreement thatthere is a drop in values? What does each speaker say to support that view?

Tom doesn’t think the human nature has changed a lot.Hethink we just inherit a little bit and more. He thinks that most peoplestill have essential moral values. But when people are faced with situations where they could lose something or have something to gain by being dishonest, the human nature is tend to fudge the truth a little.

He know that there are several individuals that he work with that have helped to really solve complicated problems.Also when he was in school he lived in a town where that everybody was very friendly. They can trust each other. They never locked their house.

Linda doesn’t agree. But there are still time when you prefer not to tell the whole truth. She thinks it’s important for someone to come out and say maybe what other people don’t want to hear or to say something that is against the accepted practice in the office, and to come out to present the new point of the view.

Adrain agrees. Because about 3.5 years ago, a stranger who had found his lost credit card returned it to him without hesitation.

2. To what extent do you agree on the view “humannature tends to fudge the truth a little bit when it is beneficial to do so”? Doyou think it is part of human nature to be tolerated or discouraged, and is itpossible to discourage it? Why and how? (at least 200 words)

I think the view “human nature tends to fudge the truth a little bit when it is beneficial to do so” does make sense.Appropriate praise can encourage others. We have to admit nobody is perfect andwe can’t find a person who is always telling the truth. There can be kinds of reasons, either good or bad. For example, you may say “It looks great,I like it very much”to your friends for his or her birthday present even you have got the same one before. But you try not to

discourage him or her. It explains a lot. Sometimes we have to fudge it a little in order not to hurt his self-respect. So I think it is part of human nature to be

tolerated. In some occasions the truth hurts and can be very hard to accept. But we can’t do like this every time regarding of the results. Faithful words grate upon the ear but it’s beneficial to row.We need to tell the truth according to the situations.Maybe only by telling the truth can we help him realize his own problem and correct it. So usingwhite lies properly and be loyal to yourself.