1、Unit 5 Keep your Dreams AliveA Famous QuoteYou are never too old to set another goal to dream a new dream.- C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), Irish-born British scholar, writer and lay theologian. He was an established literary figure whose impact is increasingly recognized by scholars and
2、 teachers.Text A Life Is DifficultPre-reading Questions:1. Do you believe that life is difficult? What are some of the difficulties that you have encountered in your life?2. What suggestions did you get from your parents or friends when you met with difficulties in your life?Life is difficult.This i
3、s a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult once we truly understand and accept it then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, that fact that life is difficult no l
4、onger matters.Most people do not fully see this truth that life is difficult.Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief,
5、noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race, or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this m
6、oaning because I have done my share.Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve lifes problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we
7、 can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending upon their nature, evoke in us frustration of grief, sadness, loneliness, guilt, regret, anger, fear,
8、 anxiety, anguish, or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, often as painful as any kind of physical pain, sometimes equaling the very worst kind of physical pain. Indeed, it is because of the pain that events or conflicts engender in us all that we can call them probl
9、ems. And since life poses and endless of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth
10、our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to resolve problems, just as in school we delibe
11、rately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” It is for this reason that wise people learn no to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain
12、of problems.Text B Begin AgainPre-reading Question:1. If your friends turn to you for advice when they face lifes challenges, what will you say to them?2. What advice do you expect the author will give to people in difficulties?To begin again means that you wont give up.To begin again means youre tr
13、ying.You can either start over and live your life.Or spend the rest of your life slowly dying.It is never the falling that makes us fail.It is never the pain or the crying.You can never fail in life, my friend, Unless you give up trying. Bob PerksIt seems lately that more and more of my friends are
14、facing some seemingly insurmountable challenges in their lives. A few have lost their jobs and some have failed marriages. All too many have failed marriages. All too many have health issues or are battling cancer.I dont know if it is desperation that causes them to turn to me for advice or whether
15、they have come to value our friendship. But it is difficult, to say the least, to offer words of hope when all they feel is hopelessness. They expect answers, some magic waving of a wand, or a roadmap to get them back on their feet again.I have often struggled with what to say. Mostly because I have
16、 faced many of the same challenges in my own life, I remember how empty I felt after someone cheerfully offered words like, “Keep your chin up!” “Things will get better!” “Hang in there!” “Its always darkest,” etc.Yes, even those were quick to quote the Bible to me found me quite unreceptive at the
17、time.Now, as an inspiration writer, being thought of as a resource of hope or a good (or bad) example of what to do in life, I have even more people contacting me.So, what do I say?“What can I do, Bob?” Ive lost my job. What do you suggest?”“Begin again.”“He walked out on me. My whole world just end
18、ed. What should I do?”“Begin again.”“Bob, I know both your on and your wife have cancer. I found out my wife does, too. What did you tell them?”“Begin again.”It almost sounds too simple. I imagine in the darkest hours of ones life, those works would seem useless or uncaring. But it is indeed the ans
19、wer.All life challenges bring about and ending and the chance for a beginning. A job prevents and opportunity to start over somewhere else and maybe even in another career.A failed marriage does not mean you are through loving or being loved. It means there are others just like you needing to be loved. Find them.A life-threatening disease does not mean giving up. It means starting a new path to recovery and discovering within yourself the ability to fight back and win.And if you are a person of faith, even death does not mean its over. It means, “to begin again.”