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--- lesson 50 New Year resolutions |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- What marked the end of the writer's New year resolutions? |
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The New Year is a time for resolutions. |
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Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. |
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The same old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. |
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We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, |
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find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, |
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be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. |
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Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. |
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If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. |
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Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. |
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We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody |
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so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. |
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Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. |
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I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercise every morning and to read more of an evening. |
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An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, |
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but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task. |
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The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. |
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The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. |
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Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me out. |
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After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, |
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I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. |
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It was this that betrayed me. |
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The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. |
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That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. |
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However, my enthusiasm waned. |
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The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. |
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Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. |
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By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. |
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I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. |
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Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. |
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One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. |
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That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. |
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I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. |
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In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. |
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Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it! |