华尔街中级英语Lesson 45

1. –My, You are a professionally trained marriage guidance counselor¹. Could you describe your work?
-Yes, we deal with any type of relationship issue that comes our way. We used to
deal with marriages, but 1990s obviously reflect a change in the way behaviors are,
and very much now, people are cohabiting rather than marrying. And,  therefore, open our doors to anybody who is in a relationship where things are difficult. So our
work is focused on either relationship breakdowns³ or marital⁴ breakdowns in the hope
that we can either help people to reconcile or help them to separate without too
much animosity and with more understanding.

2. The breakdown² of marriage in Britain is about 33,34%, well higher than any other European country. With in fact, that’s first marriages, 50% of second marriages breaking down.

3. How long have you been doing this sort of work?
-I’ve been involved in counseling now for 8 years.
-What sort of qualifications do you need to do what you do as a profession?
-For counseling, you don’t actually need any formal qualifications, but the actual selection procedure is extremely stringent⁵. It’s a two year training, and they way we select people, it means that most of our counselors⁶ are 99% of the way there.  We then just put the skills around it. And the training’s ongoing⁷.  You have to read a lot, you have to attend these courses--there are day courses, seminars.  We have training all the time.

4. So what are the most important qualities that make a good counselor?
-Well, the qualities are that you are a good listener, that your genuinely care about other people, that you can separate empathy from sympathy, that how you behave fits with what you say, that you have the ability to make people feel that they are important. To be a counselor of any sort you need to be emotionally quite strong yourself.
-Do you find the work stressful at all? Does it upset you?
-I would be a liar⁸ to say it didn’t ever upset me. It’s always interesting in what upsets me. Because if it upsets me, it means it touches a part of my life in some way. And this is why any good counselor has counseling available to them.

5. If someone in a relationship has got a problem and they come to your for help and guidance, that is a very big responsibility. Does that responsibility ever worry you?
-It used to worry me far more. For any counselor beginning on the route of counseling,  it is an awesome⁹ responsibility. But what experience has told me is that people never do what they don’t want to do, and what a good counselor does is hands the responsibility back to the client. So I see counseling as empowerment for the individual, for them to choose what they want, so that they actually go and live their life in a more positive way. So the responsibility I try to hand back to the client.

1 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

2 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

3 breakdowns   

n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析

参考例句：

• Her old car was unreliable, so the trip was plagued by breakdowns. 她的旧车老不听使唤，一路上总是出故障。 来自辞典例句
• How do we prevent these continual breakdowns? 我们如何防止这些一再出现的故障？ 来自辞典例句

4 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

5 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。

6 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

7 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

8 liar   

n.说谎的人

参考例句：

• I know you for a thief and a liar!我算认识你了，一个又偷又骗的家伙！
• She was wrongly labelled a liar.她被错误地扣上说谎者的帽子。

9 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.