Text

I have just received a letter from my old school, informing me that my former headmaster, Mr. Stuart Page, will be retiring next week. Pupils of the school, old and new, will be sending him a present to mark the occasion. All those who have contributed towards the gift will sign their names in a large album which will be sent to the headmaster's home.

We shall all remember Mr. Page for his patience and understanding and for the kindly encouragement he gave us when we went so unwillingly to school.

A great many former pupils will be attending a farewell dinner in his honour next Thursday. It is a curious coincidence that the day before his retirement, Mr. Page will have been teaching for a total of forty years.

After he has retired, he will devote himself to gardening. For him, this will be an entirely new hobby. But this does not matter, for, as he has often remarked, one is never too old to learn.

Words & Expressions

*grudgingly ['grʌdʒiŋli], unwillingly 勉强地不情愿地

--Except in Thailand, this fact is either denied or grudgingly acknowledged and often poorly documented.

*sidetrack 转移(话题) to make someone stop doing what they should be doing, or stop talking about what they started talking about, by making them interested in something else.

--Don't get sidetracked by the audience's questions.

--An effort to improve security was sidetracked by budget problems. (to delay or stop the process of something) 

*elaborate [ɪ'læbəreit]复杂的,详尽周密的

having a lot of small parts or details put together in a complicated way

--pure silks embroidered with elaborate patterns

--It was clearly an elaborately planned operation.

If you elaborate on something that has been said, you say more about it, or give more details. 作详细阐述

--A spokesman declined to elaborate on a statement released late yesterday.

*steep [sti:p] 陡峭的/不合理的/夸大的/急剧升降的

--The road became rocky and steep.

--steep prices, charges, rents, unusually expensive

--steep increase/rise/drop in house prices

*(learn/start) from scratch 从零开始 you begin without using anything that existed or was prepared before.

--We had to start again from scratch.

--He had built the business up from scratch.

*learning curve, a learning curve is a relationship of the duration or the degree of effort invested in learning and experience with the resulting progress, considered as an exploratory discovery process.

--Everyone in the center has been through a very steep learning curve. (=they had to learn very quickly)

*inform somebody about/of something通知

--Please inform us of any change of address as soon as possible.

Sentences

*One is never too old to learn.

*We shall all remember Mr. Page for his patience and understanding and for the kindly encouragement he gave us when we went so unwillingly to school.(耐心、理解、亲切鼓励)

Pronunciations

contribute       [kənˈtrɪbjut]

contribution    [ˌkɑ:ntrɪˈbju:ʃn]

headmaster   [ˈhed,mæstə(r)]

album            [ˈælbəm]