The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. Thesame old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, findmore time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drivecarefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyondattainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results fromfailure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time tocarry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even morefoolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions tomyself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercise every morning and to read more of an evening. Anall-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on thefirst day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task. The daily exercises lasted only eleven
minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myselfout of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living roomfor two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortablepositions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the
whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the familygood-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercisesgradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. Iargued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when Igot home form work Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to abook. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. Thatproved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still haven't given up myresolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps itwill solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!
10.I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercise every morning and to read more of an evening.只给⾃⼰定下两项适中的任务；每天早上锻炼⾝体，每天晚上多看点书。
11.An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutionson the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.
新年除⼣举办的⼀次通宵晚会，使我理直⽓壮地在新年头⼀天免去了这两项任务。不过，新年第⼆天，我全⼒以赴地照着去做了。
语⾔点:apply oneself assiduously to do sth.的意思是“全⼒以赴做某事。”
12.The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up.早锻炼⼀共只有11分钟，我打算在别⼈起床之前进⾏。
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