Unit 12 A Break from Life

　　Feeling Free

　　① I woke up feeling cranky. I didn't want to do housework, though the laundry was piling up. I didn't want to read the work I brought home from the office. I didn't want to do anything that resembled responsible behavior. It was that kind of day.(承上总结句)

　　② As I drank my morning tea, I thought I felt a headache coming on. Yes, there it was, a dull throb just behind my eyes. Maybe I should go back to bed until it subsided. As I put the dishes in the sink, it seemed that my muscles were beginning to ache. Or was the ache in my joints? That could mean I was coming down with the flu. (承上启下句) Everyone I knew had the flu this year. Why should I be the one to escape it? I absolutely should be in bed.

　　③ I shuffled back to bed, wiggled under the covers and shut my eyes. (1)Another couple of hours of sleep would be so nice, but I was already completely awake. I ought to get up. But no, there was that headache and the beginning of a sniffle. Better get the tissues.

　　本部分重点及难点：

　　1. Another couple of hours of sleep would be so nice, but I was already completely awake.

　　be completely / wide awake

　　be fast / sound asleep

　　④ On my way back from the bathroom with a family-sized(适合全家用的)tissue box, I stopped to grab that big new novel I had bought but had no time to read. I opened the book and settled against the pillows.

　　⑤ The morning was moving along and so was my reading. Another twenty pages and I was stretching. I should try to crack(找到解决办法)the report I was working on. I should at least get up and do the wash. What if I was contagious? I certainly didn't want to spread any germs. The wash could wait. (2)My family was resourceful enough to scrounge clothing for the next day.

　　⑥ Maybe I wasn't actually getting the flu. I didn't really want to be sick. To be truthful, all I wanted was a little time off. (3)I needed to nurture myself away from people, chores, career and the outside world. Did I have to wait to be sick to do that? As a child, the only respite from school or family chores was illness. But I wasn't a child any more. (4)Did I have to manufacture symptoms to provide myself with an excuse? No, I decided, I didn't.

　　本部分重点及难点：

　　2. My family was resourceful enough to scrounge clothing for the next day.

　　家人足够有能力找到第二天能穿的衣服。

　　3.I needed to nurture myself away from people, chores, career and the outside world.

　　nurture 养育，培养，培育;支持，鼓励

　　Parents want to know the best way to nurture and raise their child to adulthood. 父母们想了解把他们的孩子养育成人的最好方法。

　　She had always nurtured great ambitions for her son. 她一直在培养她儿子的雄心大志。

　　The human learns partly by nature, partly by nurture. 人的学习能力部分是先天的，部分是后天培育的。

　　nature and nurture 先天与后天，遗传与环境;先天遗传说和后天培养说

　　We want to nurture the project, not destroy it. 我们要支持这个新工程，不要破坏它。

　　4. Did I have to manufacture symptoms to provide myself with an excuse?

　　(1) manufacture 编造，捏造

　　(2) provide sb. with sth. / provide sth. for sb.

　　⑦ I talked to myself. Okay, I said, you need a day off. Admit it. Accept it. Toss out the guilt and enjoy a mini-vacation. What would you like to do? Read? You're already doing that. Pamper yourself? Take a bubble bath. Be a hermit? Let the machine answer the phone.

　　⑧ I poured half the bottle of bath gel into the streaming water and added a hearty handful of chamomile bath salts. Then I lit a vanilla-scented candle and gingerly stepped into the bathtub. With a grateful sigh, I immersed myself in my homemade spa. I heard the phone ring somewhere off in the distance and smiled.

　　⑨ It is funny how the aches subsided in the heat of the tub. They just slipped away with the last of the bubbles down the drain. My head felt just fine, the throb replaced by a sense of well-being.

　　⑩ By late afternoon, I was back at it, refreshed physically, mentally and emotionally. And rather than feeling helpless, I felt empowered. (5)I had given myself permission to listen and respond to my needs, to care for myself the way I tended to my family. (6)I didn't need the crutch of illness to justify a rest. It was such a simple awareness, but then isn't it the simple things that set us free?

　　本部分重点及难点：

　　5. I had given myself permission to listen and respond to my needs, to care for myself the way I tended to my family.

　　(1) give sb. permission to do sth.

　　(2) respond to one's needs: meet one's needs

　　(3) the way sb. did sth.

　　(4) tend to sb. 照顾，照料

　　(5) 译文：我给了自己倾听并满足自己需求的机会，像照顾家人一样关心一下自己。

　　6. I didn't need the crutch of illness to justify a rest.

　　(1) crutch: 拐杖;依靠，支持

　　(2) justify: prove sth. to be reasonable

　　The high quality of the cloth justifies its high price.