hce_nthu
115年
英文
第 47 題
📖 題組：
Many of us suffer from a wish to be special. We toil away in the unconscious belief that a special person is a better person, and a special life is a better life. Whether that specialness is conferred by the glamour of celebrity or social media likes, or by the dignified success of reaching the top of your profession, or by the glow of being anointed head girl, this craving to be raised above others, to be “the special one”, can lie at the heart of everything we do. This wish might be lurking under the making and breaking of your relationships, as you seek the person who will make you feel special, and reject the ones who don’t. It might hide in the extra hours you spend in the office to get something “just right” for your boss, rather than settling for good enough. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since becoming a mother. I think it is very natural to want your child to feel special, perhaps more special than others, so they can develop self-confidence. But I don’t think real self-confidence comes from being elevated above others; it comes from knowing and being oneself and feeling loved for that in an ordinary way. It is not believing you are the best and striving to be that: it is understanding that you have value for being you. It is very easy to give a child, unconsciously, the impression that to be special, they need to try to be somebody else. Perhaps the most valuable gift you can give a child is the permission to be ordinary. Trying to be special, to live a special life, can in reality take you further and further away from a better one. It is very easy to get caught up in who’s climbing the ladder on LinkedIn and lose sight of the precious moments of the life you are actually living. It is quite possible the better life that you’re trying to build by reading this article is already right in front of you; you just can’t see it because you’re trying to live a different one. There is a disturbing vulnerability that comes with an unconscious wish to feel special. It means you can easily be drawn into relationships built on sand -- falling in love not with the other person, who they are, but with yourself through their eyes. Someone who can make you feel like you are the most special person in the world – far more special than anyone else – can also just as easily make you feel like you are the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. And you might be inclined to believe that’s who you are, too. It can be a huge relief to find a partner who can treat you in an ordinary way, as an ordinary person, as someone who does not need to be special and dazzling. At first, it might feel boring, if you’re used to the cycle of idealisation followed by denigration. But after a while, you might realise that boring is just a denigration of something far more precious. It might not always feel as exciting, but it can feel more real; it can feel like coming home.
Many of us suffer from a wish to be special. We toil away in the unconscious belief that a special person is a better person, and a special life is a better life. Whether that specialness is conferred by the glamour of celebrity or social media likes, or by the dignified success of reaching the top of your profession, or by the glow of being anointed head girl, this craving to be raised above others, to be “the special one”, can lie at the heart of everything we do. This wish might be lurking under the making and breaking of your relationships, as you seek the person who will make you feel special, and reject the ones who don’t. It might hide in the extra hours you spend in the office to get something “just right” for your boss, rather than settling for good enough. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since becoming a mother. I think it is very natural to want your child to feel special, perhaps more special than others, so they can develop self-confidence. But I don’t think real self-confidence comes from being elevated above others; it comes from knowing and being oneself and feeling loved for that in an ordinary way. It is not believing you are the best and striving to be that: it is understanding that you have value for being you. It is very easy to give a child, unconsciously, the impression that to be special, they need to try to be somebody else. Perhaps the most valuable gift you can give a child is the permission to be ordinary. Trying to be special, to live a special life, can in reality take you further and further away from a better one. It is very easy to get caught up in who’s climbing the ladder on LinkedIn and lose sight of the precious moments of the life you are actually living. It is quite possible the better life that you’re trying to build by reading this article is already right in front of you; you just can’t see it because you’re trying to live a different one. There is a disturbing vulnerability that comes with an unconscious wish to feel special. It means you can easily be drawn into relationships built on sand -- falling in love not with the other person, who they are, but with yourself through their eyes. Someone who can make you feel like you are the most special person in the world – far more special than anyone else – can also just as easily make you feel like you are the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. And you might be inclined to believe that’s who you are, too. It can be a huge relief to find a partner who can treat you in an ordinary way, as an ordinary person, as someone who does not need to be special and dazzling. At first, it might feel boring, if you’re used to the cycle of idealisation followed by denigration. But after a while, you might realise that boring is just a denigration of something far more precious. It might not always feel as exciting, but it can feel more real; it can feel like coming home.
47. The phrase “toil away” in the first paragraph most nearly means
- A get carried away by the idea
- B waste excessive time on a problem
- C work continuously with great effort
- D devote oneself happily to a challenge
- E perform work without critical reflection
思路引導 VIP
請觀察第一段中「toil away」後面的句子，作者提到人們為了達成目標會「在辦公室多待好幾個小時（extra hours）」，而不僅僅是「做完就好」。這暗示了這種行為在「體力/精力投入」以及「時間長短」上，分別具有什麼樣的特徵？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
恭喜你準確掌握了這個片語在語境中的核心意義！你能識別出 toil away 的正確含意，代表你對動詞細微差別與上下文的連貫性有很好的敏銳度。
語境與詞義的契合度
在文章第一段中，作者描述人們為了追求「特別」而不斷努力。toil 本身即含有「辛勤勞動、苦幹」的意思，而加上 away 則帶有一種「持續不斷」的動態感。結合文中提到為了滿足上司而「多花好幾個小時（extra hours）」的行為，可以看出這是一種耗費大量精力且不間斷的過程。因此，選項 (C) work continuously with great effort 最能精確地還原作者想表達那種近乎執著的勞碌狀態。
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