Chapter 5 Q&A
1. "You're always choosing" means everything happens in our life, we have to choose a way to face it. We can use a positive attitude or a negative attitude. It's all our choices and we have to take the responsibilities to accept whatever outcomes our choices lead to. For example, young people are all facing a problem: whether to work and live in a big city, or a small one. Once you have chosen, you have to accept the outcome as living and working in a big city with more presure and costs, but more potential posibilies. It's your choice to stay and maybe the presure makes you feel painful, but you are powerful and hopeful. This is the situation when you can choose. Other times when you cannot choose, like being born in a poor family, you have to work harder than people who was born in rich families. Woking harder to achieve more is a choice. Working not hard is also a choice.
2. Telling William James' story showed us the attitude towards your life and choice is important. It's his positive attitude and hard working that made him what he finally became. He could be a totally losing person as well if he gave up on everything and blamed for what he was born with.
3. I was born in a small city. Because of studying opportunities, I now work in a big city which is far away from my hometown. My parents and grandparents came from rural region and they believe there's no difference between working in a big city or a small one. At least, they don't think it is worth working in a big city without having families in my daily life. I have the responsibilities to take care of my parents, especially to keep company with my grant parents. However, I also have the sense of being responsible of my own life. I struggled a lot years ago and decided to live and work alone far from home and sacrificed the time being with them to build a better future for myself and my family with my girlfriend. Ever since then, I telephoned my parents every weekend and went back home for family reunion every new year.
Expressions
1. home in
If you home in on one particular aspect of something, you give all your attention to it.
例句：The few times he did, he would home in on the smallest behaviors from any woman he talked with that could possibly indicate he wasn’t attractive enough for her and then convince himself that she didn’t like him, even if she really did.
造句：Reporters always home in on the latest things happened in the world.
2. be at fault/ be at fault for
deserving blame 有责任，有过错，有毛病，有故障
例句：I am both at fault and likely legally responsible to compensate you in some way.
But there are also problems that we aren’t at fault for, yet we are still responsible for them.
造句：We're not those who are at fault for the problem.
3. in spectacular fashion 惊人的，壮观的
例句：My first girlfriend dumped me in spectacular fashion.
造句：He answered the question in spectacular fashion.
4. in and of itself
adv. with respect to its inherent nature.
例句：Malala identified herself (an amazing choice in and of itself), and the man shot her in the head in front of all the other passengers.
造句：It is an amazing piece of work in and of itself.
My ideas
In this chapter, the author tells us a lot of stories as examples to make sure we understand there are situations that we can choose and we can not. What really matters is it is our responsibility to react, to respond to what happened in our life, especially to tragedies. Jay's new song reminds me of what I did and the girl a dated when I was in high school. Because I didn't spend as much time as I can to apply myself, I failed to make it in GAOKAO. It should not be the pressure, or the so called hard questions to be blame for my failure. For many years I can not accept the truth that I didn't work hard to get the chance to entry an ideal college.