Unit 04
Generation X
新知思想/趣味科普
New Knowledge/Fun Science
BRAIN STORM
Share your ideas with your teacher and try to make sentences.
What age do you think are the people who are labeled as Generation X?
VOCABULARY
Repeat these sentences after your teacher.
1. geriatric (n.) 老年的；年老體弱的
Eden is a Geriatric Psychologist.
伊甸園是一位老年心理學家。
2. bewildering (adj.) 使人困惑的
Life is bewildering number of possibilities.
生活令人迷惑不已。
3. cohorts (n.) 有共同特點（通常指年齡）的一群人
Trump has a cohort of aggressive supporters.
特朗普有一群積極的支持者。
4. delineated (adj.) 描述
Deserts have sharply delineated microenvironments.
沙漠有著清晰描繪的微環境。
5. fend for yourselves (phr.) 照顧自己，自謀生計
You will fend for yourselves at the deserts.
您將在沙漠中自生自滅。
6. cynical (n.) 超然；淡漠
He’s cynical about her motives.
他懷疑她的動機。
7. detachment (n.) 超然；淡漠
He was unable to examine the issue with detachment.
他不能客觀公正地調查這一問題。
Dialogue
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
Hey, Elliot. You’re a baby boomer, right?
嘿，Elliot。你是嬰兒潮一代的，對嗎？
Heck no! Do I look geriatric to you?
才不是呢！你覺得我看起來那麼老嗎？
Well, I know you’re too long in the tooth to be a Millennial. So what are you, then?
反正我知道你的年紀挺大，不可能是千禧一代。那你到底是哪一代的呢？
I’m a part of Generation X: “the neglected middle child of America” born between 1965 and 1980.
我是X一代的，也就是生於1965年到1980年之間的那批“美國被忽視的中間的孩子”。
X, Y, Z, all these letters are so bewildering! In China our cohorts usually just get delineated by the decade: 80s kids, 90s kids, and so on.
X、Y、Z，這麼多字母，我都懵了！在中國，我們一般以十年為單位來描述一代人，比如說80後、90後等等。
We’ve had other names too. We were once called “the latchkey generation” because of the minimal adult supervision we had growing up.
我們也有別的名字。以前我們還被稱為是“掛鑰匙一代”呢，因為我們在成長過程中受到的大人的監護很少。
Sounds like you guys had to fend for yourselves in a lot of ways.
看樣子你們這代人在很多方面都得自己照顧自己啊。
Bingo. We also grew up in a world that was postmodern and cynical, so we’re known for our irony and detachment, especially to authority.
沒錯。我們還成長在一個後現代和憤世嫉俗的環境之中，所以我們這一代以諷刺和超脫的性格而聞名，尤其是對權威。
So is everyone in your generation a cynical slacker then?
那你們這代都是憤世嫉俗的懶人嗎？
Of course not! We gave the world Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, for Pete’s sake!
當然不是了！拜託，我們這一代可是出了Elon Musk和Jeff Bezos這樣的人物！
Sounds like you’re pretty proud to be a GenXer.
聽上去你對自己是X一代感到很自豪嘛。
I am! On the whole, we’ve had a saner work-life balance than the Boomers did, and we have a better technological balance than Millennials ever will.
必須的！總的來說，我們在平衡工作與生活上比嬰兒潮一代要更為理智，而且比起千禧一代，我們也更懂得平衡科技的使用。
Grammar
Tooth idioms
In today’s lesson, we hear the expression “long in the tooth,” meaning “elderly.” Since just about everyone on the planet either has teeth or once had them, it should come as no surprise that many English idioms are tooth-related. Let’s take a look at a few more.
•Fight tooth and nail: to fight with all one’s energy.
•An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: a person who causes another person to suffer should suffer in an equal amount as retribution (often shortened to “an eye for an eye”)
•Like pulling teeth: refers to something that is very difficult to do.
•Lie through one’s teeth: when someone lies intentionally.
1.Our dog is getting a bit long in the tooth, so we need to change his diet.
2.He hit me, so I should be allowed to hit him back. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
3.Taking the college entrance exam was like pulling teeth.
4.I can’t believe he can stand there in front of everyone and lie through his teeth like that.
DISCUSSION
Make a conversation with your teacher.
1.What generation do you belong to? What are the disadvantages that you have observed, as a person who is from that generation?
