[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!