Level5 Unit2 Part1 Listening

The Psychology of Love

One of the most important human emotions is love. However, there are many different kinds of love. Romantic love is certainly one of the most interesting kinds of love. It can be beautiful, wonderful, and heartbreaking, sometimes all at the same time. Romantic love can make our lives full and meaningful, but it can also be an escape from loneliness and suffering.

If romantic love has a purpose, neither psychology nor biology has discovered it. However, throughout history, philosophers have offered opinions about it. The Greek philosopher, Plato, said love makes us complete. He relates a comic story in which humans originally had 4 arms, 4 legs and 2 faces. Then, when they angered the Gods, they were cut in half. Since then every person has been searching for their soulmate, the other half of his or her self.

Another philosopher believed that love is an illusion. In his view, people fall in love because they believe the other person can make them happy. But in fact, this is just an illusion designed to make us have children. Once we have children, we are right back to where we were, still searching for happiness. For nature this is a success, because we have children to maintain our species. But it leaves us still searching for something more. (If something is an illusion，it isn't what it seems to be.)

In Buddhism, romantic love is seen as an attempt to satisfy our desires. These desires are a defect, something we need to overcome. The way to free ourselves from suffering is to remove desires. Once free of desires we can reach a state of peace and wisdom. This state of being is called nirvana.

In one of China's greatest classical novels,Dream of the Red Chamber, love is presented as a state of foolishness. A young man falls in love with a beautiful woman who tricks and makes a fool of him. This results in conflicting emotions of love and hate which tear him apart. To cure him, a priest gives him a magic mirror. The priest tells him to look into the reverse side of the mirror, but never to look in the front side.

When the young man looks into the mirror, he doesn't like what he sees, so he looks into the forbidden side, the front side. There he sees the lovely image of his love, who invites him into the mirror to be with her. He does this several times until he is finally dragged away in chains. He dies while looking into the mirror. Perhaps the point of the story is that all such attachments should be avoided.

A famous French writer, Simone de Beauvoir has another point of view. For her, love is the desire to integrate with another, like in a great friendship. However, it is important that lovers not become too dependent on the other person. Becoming dependent on another person can lead to boredom or power games. Lovers should support each other in discovering themselves and developing their potentials. In this way, romantic love can enrich the world.

Falling in love can be exciting and frightening. Maybe we lose ourselves and maybe we find ourselves. Will you dare to find out?（He enters the mirror to be with his love and satisfy his desires.）

Level5 Unit2 Part1 Listening

Describing Situations

Forbidden or prohibited, to be against the rules or not allowed. Smoking is prohibited on many airplanes. Athletes are forbidden from taking certain kinds of drugs. If something is allowed, it isn't forbidden or prohibited.

Risky, to be a bit dangerous or unsafe. A risky investment may not be a good idea for people who worry too much. If you make a risky investment, you may lose a lot of money. What level of risk are you willing to take?

Ridiculous, to be foolish or not make any sense. Their proposal is ridiculous, because it requires too much time and money. Without enough quality practice, it's ridiculous to expect much progress.

Innovative, to come up with a new idea or way of doing things. Innovative people are usually clever and creative. To innovate means to come up with a new way of doing something. Innovative thinking can lead to the development of new products and services.

Conservative, to be conservative is to avoid taking risks. Conservative investors try to make safe investments. A conservative investor wants to minimize risks. A conservative approach to management may discourage innovation.

Interacting with Others

To disguise, to change something's appearance, so that it can't be recognized. He wasn't good at disguising himself, so we knew who he was right away. She wore a disguise, so I wasn't sure who she was.

To clarify, to explain, or make something clear. We weren't sure what he meant until he clarified his ideas. Everyone was confused until she clarified what she meant.

To confuse, to make things difficult to understand, the opposite of to clarify. Everyone was confused because her presentation was so disorganized. He confuses people, because he keeps changing his ideas. The instructions were confusing, so nobody knew what to do. (after the explosion people were confused and unsure about where to go.)

To ignore, to try not to notice or deal with something, to act as if something isn't there. We tried to ignore her, but she finally stood up and told everyone to shut up. People don't respect or like her, so they ignore her in the office. (He is an ignorant old fool, so we should just ignore him.)

To confirm, to indicate that something is correct or completed as expected. We weren't sure he was going to accept our offer, until he called and confirmed it. We can't start the project without a written confirmation that we agree on the details.

Level5 Unit2 Part1 Dialogue

The Teenage Years

What's so funny?

What are you writing about?

I'm writing about something I saw earlier this morning.

Really? Do you keep a journal?

Yes, I do.

Every weekend I write about things that happened during the week.

How long have you been doing it?

I've been doing it fairly regularly since high school.

Are you going to turn it into a book?

I don't know.

Maybe I will someday but for now it's just for me.

So what was so interesting about what you saw this morning？

I was in the same coffee shop I usually go to and a group of teenagers came in.

I couldn't help watching them and trying to hear some of their conversation.

That must have been interesting.

Yes, it was.

The more I watched them the more I realized how glad I am that I don't have to go through that stage of life again.

So it brought back some memorizes?

Yes, it did.

It was so clear how uncomfortable some of them were, yet they were pretending to have a good time.

At least, that's how it seemed to me.

Why do you think they were pretending?

It was just the way they smiled and laughed.

It seemed unnatural and overdone, as if they were bad actors.

A couple of the boys were really awkward around the girls, and two of the girls were wearing too much make up.

I had to stop myself laughing.

Yes, I can imagine it.

I can remember wanting to be popular when I was in high school.

Now that you mention it, it wasn't a great time, though I had some fun too.

I guess it wasn't so bad at the time, except when I was preparing for my university entrance examinations.

Yes, that was awful.

My parents put tons of pressure on me, so I thought I was going to go crazy.

What about girls?

Did you have any girlfriends?

There was one girl I had a crush on, but I thought she was interested in somebody else.

I didn't find out until much later that she was interested in me too.

It was a lost opportunity, one of many.

Really? you should become a writer or make a movie.

You have a great imagination.

To be honest, it's much easier to imagine things than actually do things.

You can say that again.