Unit 25
Are midlife crises real?
海外生活/日常溝通
Overseas Life/Daily Communication
BRAIN STORM
Share your ideas with your teacher and try to make sentences.
In your opinion, are midlife crises real?
VOCABULARY
Repeat these sentences after your teacher.
1. midlife crisis (n.) 中年危機
How do adults deal with midlife crisis?
成人如何應對中年危機？
2. social construct (n.) 社會建構產物，社會建構概念
Get out of the social construct and be you!
擺脫社會的束縛，成為你！
3. stressorscalp (n.) 壓力來源，導致緊張的事件
I always feel the stressors when I am working.
當我工作時，我總是感到壓力。
4. premise (n.) （作為先決條件的）假定，前提
Do not leave the school premise!
不要離開學校的前提！
5. constitute (v.) 構成
All the grief will constitute a shared joy.
所有的悲傷將構成共同的喜悅。
6. last-ditch (adj.) 最後一招的，孤注一擲的
He made his last-ditch effort today.
他今天做了最後的努力。
7. youthfulness (adj.) 青春
Appreciate your youthfulness, while it still lasts.
感激您的青春，而青春仍將持續。
8. privilege (n.) 特權；優特
Only a privileged few are able to attend the country’s elite schools.
只有少數特權人才能夠上學該國的精英學校。
Dialogue
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
Hey Luna, how did car shopping with your dad go?
嘿，Luna，和你爸爸買車買得怎麼樣了？
Well, he’s dead-set on buying a sleek little red sports car now. Midlife crisis much?
他現在堅定不移地想要買一輛豪華紅色小跑車。 這不就是中年危機的表現？
You know midlife crises are just a social construct right?
你知道中年危機只是一種社會建構產物，對吧？
Oh, here we go again with “social construct this” and “postmodern that.“
哦，又來了，又是”社會建構”，又是”後現代主義”的。
I’m serious! Psychological research has pretty much all but rejected this as a concept.
我是認真的！ 心理學研究基本上都否定了這一概念。
But don’t people at roughly the same age face the same stressors with the same outcomes?
但是，年齡大致相同的人都面臨同樣的壓力源而且有相似的表現，不是嗎？致脫髮。
Sure, but what the research challenges is the premise that these all constitute a shared experience.
確實，但這些研究質疑的是一個前提條件，即這些都構成共同的經歷。
So my dad’s last-ditch effort to regain his youthfulness isn’t universal?
所以我爸爸為重返青春而做的最後努力並不是普遍的嗎？
People living in poverty or people of color face stress all their lives. Just starting to face it in your 50s is a sign of immense privilege.
窮人和有色人種一生都面臨著各種壓力。 在50多歲的時候才開始面對壓力其實象徵著極大的特權
I’ve never thought about it that way. So why is this concept so pervasive?
我從沒這樣想過。 那為什麼中年危機這個概念這麼流行呢？
I think for a lot of people it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
我認為對很多人來說，這是一個自我應驗的預言。
Well I just hope that my dad’s newfound lust for life doesn’t persuade him to get a girlfriend to go along with his new ride!
好吧，我只希望我爸最近對多彩生活的嚮往，不會讓他想找個女朋友來陪他開啟新旅程！
Grammar
Complaining with “this and that”
“This” and “that” are a pair of words that by now you are quite familiar with. Today we’d like to talk about a great use for both of these words: complaining!
This type of complaining is especially useful when your complaint is that another person always talks about the same things.
You can use the same word before “this” and “that.” For example, he’s always talking about “money this and money that.” But you can also change one of the words, like we see in today’s dialogue: “social construct this” and “postmodern that.”
1. I find his optimism exhausting. His books are all technology this and future that.
2. He’s always going on about fishing this or camping that.
3. I’m so bored with superhero movies. It’s always “aliens attack” this or “time travel” that.
