II. Exercises

16.1 Are these sentences true or false? Explain.

1. At first, Jai was not impressed by nor interested in Randy. To him, she was a formidable brick wall.

2. As a decidedly quirky individual, Randy had many traits. Incurable romantic was one of them.

3. As a young professor, Randy felt a compulsion to get married and settle down.

4. He had always lived in a lovely apartment. He could afford it.

5. At some point, Randy felt he was losing Jai. He was totally miserable, but his parents were totally supportive.

6. Randy was hooked on Jai, but Jai was gun-shy.

7. When they met at the academic conference, Randy was flirting aggressively, making much more eye contact that was appropriate in the situation.

16.2 Ask and answer these questions with the items in brackets.

1. Why did Randy consider Jai so difficult to get to know? [formidable brick wall]

2. In Randy's view, what made him attractive? [good job, offbeat personality, incurable romantic]

3. In Jai's view, what made him a little strange? [no compulsion to settle down, funky personal information, know-it-all attitude]

4. How did Randy actually get Jai's attention? [pull it off, come to a realization]

III. Categorized List

AWL + other long words

adjective + noun

formidable brick wall

incurable romantic

know-it-all attitude

awkward scene

feel no compulsion to (settle down)

could afford something (better)

be totally miserable

supportive

come to a realization

a conclusion

an understanding

Idioms + other useful expressions

it reduced me to tears

But who was I kidding?

Granted, I had a good job.

my funkier personal information

a pretty offbeat and interesting guy

be + adjective

was intrigued

gun-shy

hooked

scared to death

a long-distance relationship

had fallen in love

might have pulled it off

flirting pretty agressively

make (far) more eye contact than was appropriate

I couldn't tell (if you did that with everyone)

breakthroughs

no matter what they do

The Last Lecture

Ch. 17 Not All Fairy Tales End Smoothly

I. Chronological List

It was a little disconcerting

We're at the mercy of the winds

I see a variable here

The odds (of the basket hitting the train) were small

The calamity

I often rely on people with expertise

The balloon kept descending

Run for our lives

Be better off (hitting a house)

Tilted almost horizontally

The deflating envelope

We were pretty rattled

Spent some time decompressing

Fairy-tale moments

II. Exercises

17.1 Match the beginning of the sentence with its ending.

1. When Jae and Randy were up in the hot-air balloon, they were at the mercy of the ………

2. As it was the start of her honeymoon, Jae did not feel confident. In fact, she found the whole event a bit ……….

3. Randy, of course, was busy calculating the odds of hitting a train and having a true ……….

4. In his scenario, they'd be better off hitting a house and then running for their ………..

5. Instead of feeling relaxed at the start of their honeymoon, they were both pretty ………..

6. While the balloon keep deflating and descending, they wondered where they would land. After finally hitting the earth, they had to spend some time ……………

calamity

decompressing

disconcerting

lives

rattled

winds

17.2 Ask and answer questions with your buddies.

1. What would rattle you more, floating in a hot-air balloon or going on a roller coaster?

2. What's your expertise?

3. Have you ever been at the mercy of the winds, say in a storm or at sea? How did it feel?

4. What was Randy's idea of a fairy-tale moment with his bride?

5. What lesson did Randy take from the near-calamity on his wedding day?