| [00:01.080] |
--- lesson 50 New Year resolutions |
| [00:05.200] |
--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
| [00:10.680] |
--- What marked the end of the writer's New year resolutions? |
| [00:16.680] |
The New Year is a time for resolutions. |
| [00:20.400] |
Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. |
| [00:26.920] |
The same old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. |
| [00:32.720] |
We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, |
| [00:36.960] |
find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, |
| [00:42.520] |
be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. |
| [00:49.880] |
Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. |
| [00:55.400] |
If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. |
| [01:03.480] |
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. |
| [01:13.080] |
We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody |
| [01:18.480] |
so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. |
| [01:24.400] |
Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. |
| [01:30.440] |
I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercise every morning and to read more of an evening. |
| [01:39.840] |
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, |
| [01:50.320] |
but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task. |
| [01:55.480] |
The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. |
| [02:04.040] |
The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. |
| [02:11.960] |
Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me out. |
| [02:18.960] |
After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, |
| [02:25.320] |
I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. |
| [02:29.440] |
It was this that betrayed me. |
| [02:31.960] |
The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. |
| [02:36.400] |
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. |
| [02:45.920] |
However, my enthusiasm waned. |
| [02:49.360] |
The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. |
| [02:53.560] |
Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. |
| [02:58.560] |
By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. |
| [03:02.840] |
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. |
| [03:12.480] |
Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. |
| [03:20.920] |
One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. |
| [03:29.400] |
That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. |
| [03:37.080] |
I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. |
| [03:40.720] |
In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. |
| [03:46.800] |
Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it! |
