PART 1 Q & As
1. What does "entitlement" mean? Can you give an example to explain it?
Entitlement, which literally means the official right to do something, here refers to a perspective a person owns that he or she deserves special treatment because he or she is uniquely special or uniquely defective in some way. For example, some actors think they are entitled to jump the queues in restaurants because of their fame and popularity.
2. What's the point of telling Jimmy's story?
Jimmy is a typical example of someone with high self-esteem. The author used Jimmy's story to vindicate his viewpoint that people who merely feel good about themselves can accomplish nothing and that a true and accurate measurement of one's self-worth is how people feel about the negative aspects of themselves.
3. Do you think you are special? What's wrong with feeling you are special?
Sometimes I do. In high school, I thought I had a special talent in writing and thus I aimed to become a professional writer in the near future. The problem is, that sense of specialty made me stressed out. I thirsted for the recognition of others for every essay I wrote. I cared so much about the awards and honors that I could hardly enjoy the process of writing.
4. If you are not special, how can we achieve greatness?
Greatness is not a reward for specialty. Instead, it is a reward for assiduity, resilience and strenuous efforts. Therefore, the only path to achieve greatness is to work extremely hard.
PART 2 Sentences
1. If you gave him an inch of conversational daylight, he’d pulverize you about how world-spinning his work was.
give him an inch of conversational daylight 不是一个固定的用法，而是作者自己的一个表述。可以理解为:对对方说一句话，他就会说个不停。与中文中的“给他点阳光就灿烂，给他点颜色就开染坊”有异曲同工之妙。
与它有点相似的一个表达是：give sb an inch and they'll take a yard/ mile
2. All talk and no walk. 语言的巨人，行动的矮子。
类似的表达： All bark, no bite. All tales, no sales.
从正面来说：Actions/ Facts speak louder than words.
3. Our lives today are filled with information from the extremes of the bell curve of human experience, because in the media business that’s what gets eyeballs, and eyeballs bring dollars. That’s the bottom line.
That's the bottom line. 这个表达很常见，但是自己写的时候经常想不到。下次想说That's the most important thing.的时候不妨换成 That's the bottom line.
PART 3 Expressions
1. The catch was that Jimmy was also a total deadbeat—all talk and no walk.
catch: informal, a hidden problem or difficulty
This deal looks too good to be true -- there must be a catch somewhere.
The catch is that you can't enter the competition unless you've spent $100 in the store.
2. Jimmy was a professional leech, living off his family’s hard-won money by spinning them as well as everybody else in the city on false ideas of future tech glory.
leech: 水蛭（又叫蚂蝗，一种吸血环体生物）；(n.) someone who takes advantage of other people by taking their money, food etc SYN parasite
The family began to see him as a leech.
补充： 啃老族 boomerang child, boomerang generation (boomerang [ˈbu:məræŋ] 是一种回飞镖)
3. Despite all of Jimmy’s shenanigans, I have to admit that it was fun hanging out with him sometimes.
shenanigan: [ʃɪˈnænɪgənz] （n.）bad behavior that is not very serious, or slightly dishonest activities 诡计；恶作剧
She wouldn't put up with his shenanigans.
Greece over-borrowed and overspent, then got caught in accounting shenanigans and the global financial meltdown.
同类表达: chicanery
4. As if on cue, I gulp.
cue： （n.）1. 台球的球杆； 2. an action or event that is a signal for sth else to happen; 3. a word, phrase, or action in a play that is a signal for the next person to speak or act
Our success was the cue for other companies to press ahead with new investment.
She stood nervously in the wings waiting for her cue.
(right/ as if) on cue: happening or done at exactly the right moment
And then, on cue, the weather changed.
As if on cue, Sam arrived.
5. Many celebrities are probably just as clueless about life as the people who gawk at them and follow their every move.
clueless: having no understanding or knowledge of sth, used to show disapproval 笨的；对...一无所知的
Many teachers are clueless about the needs of immigrant students
not have a clue: 1. to not have any idea about the answer to a question, how to do sth, what a situation is etc
Until I arrived here, I hadn't got a clue what I was going to say to her.
2. to be very stupid, or very bad at a particular activity
No point asking Jill -- she hasn't got a clue about math.
6. The ticket to emotional health, like that to physical health, comes from eating your veggies.
ticket to success/ fame/ stardom etc: a way of becoming successful, famous etc
Michael thought an MBA would be a ticket to success.
be (just) the ticket: old-fashioned to be exactly what is needed
It's stuffy in this room. An electric fan would be just the ticket for me.
PART 4 Thoughts
The ticket to emotional health, like that to physical health, comes from eating your veggies -- that is, accepting the bland and mundane truths of life: truths such as "Your actions actually don't matter that much in the grand scheme of things" and "The vast majority of your life will be boring and not noteworthy, and that's okay."
今天看了最新一期的《歌手》里，最令我感动的一位歌手是李晓东。我有的时候会猜想，他和18岁的张天站在同一个舞台上是什么感受。他一腔真情但是观众没有投以掌声的时候又是什么感受。如果说张天是开了挂的人生的话，李晓东的人生就是被上天辜负的人生。有一句鸡汤这真么说的：“生活不会辜负每一个努力的人。”但是这种话只适合刚刚离开校园意气风发的年轻人用来自我激励吧，如果真的把这句话当作标尺去衡量自己的人生的话，那么太多数人只会徒增不幸和辛酸之感吧。我突然想到我的韩语语伴，他是一个定居在洛杉矶的韩国人，20多年前毕业于首尔大学计算机系的他来到宾夕法尼亚读研究生，此后留在美国工作，如今四十多岁的他依然是一个普通的软件工程师，没有百万年薪，更没有豪宅名车，甚至还经常担忧自己技术更不上时代变化而被裁员。如果放在前两年，我一定会认为，那样的人生是高开低走的、是“混得不好”的人生，然而现在越来越觉得，这样的人生才是更加真实和普遍的人生。我很佩服我的这位语伴，他从来没有以一种不幸者的姿态来讲述自己的故事，反而始终透露着一种对生活的满足和坦然之感，我也很佩服他在不惑之年依然能孜孜不倦学习外语来充实自己。不是每一个有才能的软件工程师都能成为另一个马化腾或李彦宏，也不是每一个法学院的尖子生都能成为现实版的何以琛，成功需要太多的偶然因素，而平淡和平凡才是生活的主旋律。
