安徽工业大学工商学院
外语系
综合英语2课程教案
LessonOne Another School Year – What For?
Part One Warm-up
Topic discussion:
1. Discussionabout the students’ special experience in their winter holiday
2. What are the purposes of higher education?
Suggested answers:
1. To give Ss sufficient trainingfor a career.
2. To expose Ss to the essence ofhuman civilization
3. To cultivate the qualities ofbeing a human
4. To gather useful information andknowledge
5. To encourage intellectualcuriosity and cultural appreciation
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author:
John Ciardi (1916-1986) was an accomplished poet and essayist who wasbest known for his translation of Dante’s Inferno in the
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (para.1 –8) describes the writer’s encounter with one of hisstudent.
Part II (para.9–14)restates what the writer still believes to be the purpose of a university:putting its students in touch with the best civilizations the human race hascreated.
2.Analyze the style of the text:
As it isoriginally a talk, the writer adopts a basically colloquial and familiar style.As you read, you feel as if the professor is talking to you face to face. Torecreate the scene of his encounter with the tall boy in his office, he usesthe direct speech. This way, he reader can imagine the ignorance and arroganceof the student. The sentence structure is generally not very complicated. Butthere are a few long and involved sentences in the second part of text, forexample, the last sentence in Paragraph 12. And the last paragraph consists oftwo very long ones.
The tone inthe first part is humorous and mildly sarcastic. The pharmacy major is referredto as “a beanpole with hair on top”, “this specimen” and “this particularpest”.
3. Language points:
1.) …I was fresh out of graduate schoolstarting my first…
…I had justcompleted my graduate studies and begun teaching at the University of Kansas City.
fresh ( be fresh out of / from sth.): to have just come from a particularplace; to have just had a particular experience
eg: Studentsfresh from Business school should have a three-month probation in the company .
2). Part of the student body was abean-pole with hair on top…
“beanpole” means “a tall thin person”.
Here thewriter deliberately evokes a “beanpole” ,apole farmers use as a support in growing beans.
Part of the student body: one of the students
3).New as I was to the faculty, I couldhave told this specimen…
Though I wasa new teacher, I knew I could tell him what a university was for, but I didn’t.
specimen:a single plant or animal which is an example of aparticular species or type.
4). I could have pointed out that he hadenrolled, not in a drugstore-mechanics school, but in a college…
I could havetold him that he was now not getting training for a job in technical school butdoing a B.S. at a university.
reach for sth: to try to obtain sth
scroll: a long roll of paper or other material with writingon it.
5).It would certify that he hadspecialized in pharmacy, but it would further certify that he had been exposedto some…
The B.S. certificatewould be official proof that the holder had special knowledge of pharmacy, butit would also be proof that he/she had been exposed to some profound ideas ofthe past.
6).I could have told him all this, butit was fairly obvious he wasn’t going to be around long enough for it tomatter.
I didn’tactually say all this to him, because I didn’t think he would stay at collegevery long, so it wouldn’t be important whether or not he knew what universityeducation was for.
be around: to be present in a place, to be available
7). “For the rest of your life,” I said,“your days are going to average out to about twenty-four hours.
average out to: to come to an average or ordinary level orstandard, esp after being higher or lower, e,g. Meals at the university averageout to about 10 yuan per day.
8.) You will see to it that the cyanidestays out of the aspirin, that the bull doesn’t jump the fence…
You have totake the responsibility for the work you do. If you’re a pharmacist, you shouldmake sure that aspirin is not mixed with poisonous chemicals. As an engineer,you shouldn’t get things out of control. If you become a lawyer, you shouldmake sure an innocent person is not sentenced to death because you lackadequate legal knowledge and skill to defend your client.
a) See to it that: to make sure that,
e.g.Can yousee to it that all the invitations are delivered today?
b)Go to the electricchair(=electrocute): to bepunished by being killed in the electric chair, that is, by passing electricitythrough the body
9). They will be your income, and may italways suffice.
They: the skills
It: your income
May it always suffice: I hope your income will always be enough.
suffice: if sth suffices, it is enough to achieve a purposeor to fulfil a need. Eg: A very few rains will suffice to drain light or sandysoil.
10).Will the children ever be exposed toa reasonably penetrating idea at home?
penetrating idea: one that requires the ability ofunderstanding clearly and deeply
11). will you be presiding over a familythat maintain some contact with great democratic intellect?
Will you behead of a family who brings up kids in a democratic spirit?
Preside over: to be in charge or to control a meeting or anevent,
The greatdemocratic intellect: the great democratic thinking
12). Me, I’m out to make money.
be out to do / be out for sth: to be trying to get or do sth. eg:
During theholiday, I am out to have a good rest.
He is out fora remarkable pay rise in the negotiation with the boss.
Power forthemselves is what they are out for.
13). “I hope you make a lot of it,” Itold him, “because you are going to be badly stuck for sth to do when you’renot signing checks.”
if you don’thave any goal in life apart from making money to satisfy your desire formaterial riches, go ahead and make a lot of it.
be stuck for: not to know what to do in a particular situation.Eg:
In the middleof the speech, he was stuck for words.
Signing checks: paying for what you’ve bought by signing checks
14). if you have no time forShakespeare, for a basic look at philosophy, for the continuity of the finearts, for that lesson of man’s…
If you don’twant to improve your mind and broaden your horizon by studying a little literature, philosophy and the finearts and history, you shouldn’t be studying here at college.
have no business doing sth. / to dosth.: to have no right to dosth. , shouldn’t have been / be doing sth.
eg: She hasno business telling me to do this and to do that.
He has nobusiness to get involved into the scandal
15).You are on your way to being thatnew species of mechanized savage, the push button Neanderthal.
You will soonbecome an uneducated, ignorant person who can only work machines and operatemechanical equipment (one who doesn’t know anything about literature, music,the fine arts, culture in general, etc)
New species of mechanized savage: new type of humans who areintellectually simple and not developed and who can only work machines
the push-button Neanderthal:an uneducated, ignorant person who canonly use/operate machines by pushing the buttons
16).Our colleges inevitably graduate anumber of such life forms, but it cannot be said that they went to college: rather the college…
a number ofsuch push-button savages get college degrees. We cannot help that. But evenwith their degrees, we can’t say that these people have received a propercollege education, It is more accurate to say that they go through collegewithout learning anything.
Life forms: used sarcastically, meaning these people are livingcreatures, but can’t think or reason
go through: to be quickly excreted/to pass though the body aswaste without being digested, here used figuratively
17).No one gets to be a human beingunaided.
No one cangrow up to be a civilized person without the help of others.
18). You pass the great stone halls of,say, M.I.T., and there cut into the stone are the names of the scientists.
If you passthe great stone hall of a university, M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology) for example, you will see the names of the scientists cut into thestone.
Say: forexample
There cutinto the stones are the names of the scientists: the names of scientists arecarved in stone as memorials
19). And as this is true of thetechniques of mankinds, so it is true of mankind’s…
This is the way we learn and develop thetechniques of mankind. This is also how we inherit and advance mankind’sspiritual resources.
be true of (a person or a situation) : to apply to , eg:
What is trueof some groups of children may not be true of all of them.
Chinesechildren are taught to “Respect the old and cherish the young ”, which is trueof all the nations.
20).For a great book is necessarily agift; it offers you a life you have not the time…
in literal time: in reality
21). in essence: basically, by nature
22).If you are too much in a hurry, ortoo arrogantly proud of your own limitations, to accept as a gift to yourhumanity..
Translation:
If you aretoo much in hurry: if you are too anxious to make money
tooarrogantly proud of your limitations: too ignorant to see your limitations
Accept as agift…Einstein: to accept some of the thinking of…Einstein as sth that will helpcultivate in you the quality of being a human
23). The faculty, by its very existence,says implicitly: “ We have been aided by many people, and by many books, in ourattempt to make ourselves some sort of …
The existenceof the faculty if the liberal arts college itself says in an implied way: “Inour effort to make our faculty a place where our students can experience avariety of life they don’t have time to live themselves, we get a lot of helpfrom many people and books, presents and past…”
24). “We are here to make available toyou, as best we can, that expertise.”
Our role/taskis to do our best to provide such knowledge for you.
Part Four Assignment
Questions to think about and discuss:
1. Whydid the professor draw a line between training and education? In what way arethey different?
2. Whydid the professor talk about how people should spend the 24 hours in a day? Doyou think it was a good argument?
How did theprofessor try to prove the importance of book-reading?
LessonTwo Say Yes
Part One Warm-up
What does the title mean or what’s the meaning ofthe title?
Have a discussion for two minutes about theabove two topics in pairs of 6 or 7 students each according to pre-class workII on Page 118.
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author:
Tobias Wolff was born in Alabama in 1945. His parents divorced whenhe was a boy. As a child, Wolff traveled with his mother to the Pacific Northwest, where she remarried. And young Tobiassoon was forced to endure life under his strict and cruel stepfather. Hisefforts to get away from his stepfather led to his self-transformation.
That period of Wolff’s life is recounted in This Boy’s Life: A Memoir,which was later made into a film. He lives with his family in upstate New York and teaches writing at Syracuse University.From 1964 through 1968, Wolff served as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army SpecialForces (Green Berets) in
In 1972 Wolff earned his B.A. and then his M.A. from Oxford Universitywith First Class Honors in English three years later. That year, his firstbook, Ugly Rumours, was published in London.Also that year, he won a prestigious Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.
He is the author of the short novel TheBarracks Thief, which won the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award; two collections of shortstories, Back in the World (collecting “Say Yes”) and In theGarden of the North American Martyrs, which received the Saint Lawrence Awardfor fiction in 1982; Mr. Wolff's work appears frequently in Esquire, VanityFair, The Atlantic, and other magazines andreviews.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (1-13)
the husband, the setting and the conflict are introduced.
Ann and her husband argue about marriage between blacks and whites.
Part II(14-46)
the conflicts intensifies, escalates and is seemingly resolved.
As their argument intensifies it becomes personal
Part III (47-57)
the husband find his wife a stranger.
He gives in and their argument is seemingly settled.
2. Languagepoints:
1).Unlike mostmen he knew, he really pitched in on the housework
unlike ---.prep.opposite of the preposition “like”
dislike: verb. Opposite of the verb “like”
pitch in ----to offer helpand support
If we all pitch in, we’ll have it finished in no time.
The government pitched in with the offer of a free truck.
2). A fewmonths earlier he’d overheard a friend of his wife’s congratulating her on having such a consideratehusband.
overhear ( Line 2)----hear by chance
I overheard the young couple quarrelling last night.
considerate ----adj.thoughtful, kind, careful not to hurt others
He is a considerate boss who is always willing to listen.
opposite: inconsiderate
3)…somehow got onto the subject of whether white peopleshould marry black people.
somehow---adv. in someway( I don’t remember how it happened 不知怎么 )
That day somehow I didn’t feel like eating.
get on ( to )the subject----to begin to discuss
Let’s get on the topic / content.
4). He saidthat all things considered…
all thingsconcerned------when one considers every aspect of the problem or situation
All things considered, he is doing pretty well at school.
5)That’s okwith me….but it’s different.
That’s ok withme: I have no objection to that
But it’sdifferent:“it” here stands for marriage.
6). Don’t takemy word for it…
You don’t have to accept what I say as true. Look at the statistics
Take one’s wordfor it: (oral): used to say that someone should accept what you say as true.
Take my word for it, this boy is going to have a bright future.
7) He snapped,angry with her for resorting to this trick of….
snap: to say sthquickly and angrily
resort to thistrick: to adopt this method
8) He runupstairs to the bathroom and rummaged in the…
rummage: to search for sthby moving things around in a careless way
E,g. to rummage in a place for sth, to rummage through a place for sth,to rummage around
9).he dabbed ather thumb with the cotton
Dab: to touch sthlightly, usually several times
10). He’s actedout of concern for her, he thought that it would be a nice...
The man had shown concern for his wife, and he hoped that his wife wouldshow her concern in return by not continuing the unpleasant conversation.
Out of: because of
Make a sentence by using this phrase.
11) Let’s say Iam black and unattached…
Let’s say: let us suppose
Unattached: still single andunmarried, not engaged, without a regular companion
12) He had wonthe argument but he still felt cornered
corner: to get a personinto a position from which it is hard to escape. Here, it means “to put aperson into a difficult situation”
13) Let’s notmove too fast on this,…
Don’t let us rush to a decision. I have to think carefully before I giveyou an answer.
14) but shedidn’t snap through the pages the way he would have done.
snap throughthe pages: to turn the pages suddenly, making short and sharp noises.
He snapped two twigs off a tree and used them as chopsticks.
She snap her briefcase shut and left angrily.
He only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures
At first I treated it as a joke, but then I suddenly snapped.
15).While hewas at it, he decided, he might as well mop the floor.
Since he was doing the dishes, he might as well mop the floor.
Be at it: to be in acontinuous state or activity.
16). In anotherthirty years or so they would both be dead. What would all that stuff matterthen?
In another thirty years or so they would both be dead. So what’s the sense ofarguing about these problem?
17)I will makeit up to you.
Make it up tosb: to do sth good for sb because you feel responsible for sth bad thathappened between you.
I can’t take you to the park today, son. I’m sorry, but I will make it upto you next week when I am not so busy
Make it up with sb.
I had a little quarrel with my sister last night, but I made it up withher soon.
18). He knewthat he had to come up with the right answer.
He knew that he had to think of the right answer. It is clear that theman is merely trying to make peace with his wife. It does not mean that he hasrealized his mistake.
Come up with: to think of (anidea, plan or reply)
Part Four Assignment
Questions to think about and discuss:
Give a briefsummary of the man’s views on the subject of whether white people should marryblack people.
LessonThree The Rite of Spring
Part One Warm-up
What do you thinkis Arthur Miller's real attitude toward gardening? Does he love gardening ornot?
Why do you thinkthe author gave this title to the passage?
According to theauthor, what are the reasons for keeping a garden?
In what sense doesArthur Miller describe gardening as a moral occupation?
In what way doesgardening help character building accordingly?
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author:
One of thegreatest dramatists of the twentieth century politically engaged, commerciallysuccessful, social plays
Numourous awards and honors: Three Tony Awards,Pulitzer Prize for Death of the Salesman in 1949, 1965, elected thefirst American president of International Pen1993, awarded the NationalMedal of Arts. 2001, selected for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S government'shighest honor for achievement in the humanities
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I(Paras. 1--2):
Gardening as a wayof celebrating the coming of spring
Part II (Paras. 3--10):
Reasons for keeping a garden
Part III (Paras.11--12):
Gardening enablespeople to stay hopeful for the future.
2. Language points:
1) There is a human instinct at work here, a kind ofback-breaking make-believe that has no reality. (para.1)
Back-breaking: physically hard and tiring
Make-believe: believing in things that you want to believe becausethey are easy or exciting, but are not real
At work: (lit.) to be having an effect, usually an obvious or bad effect
Paraphrasing:Perhaps gardening is human nature. We like to exert ourselves year after yearworking in the garden, believing thisyear’s harvest will be better, just like we can always revive hope afterrepeated failures.
2) As it is, though, I cannot deny that when Aprilcomes I find myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that miserableplot of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again.(para.2)
Analyze thegrammatical structure of the sentence.
3) And the sun means business…(para.2)
Mean business: (infml) to want very much to achieve something, evenif other people disagree with you; be serious about sth. you have to do
Paraphrasing: Thesun shines more brightly and it’s getting warmer.
4) I’m not sure why I do this beyond the saving infertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds. (para.5)
Beyond: except (in negative sentences)
Eg. He has no ideaof the current situation beyond what little he is told.
Paraphrase: Idon’t know why I only use very little fertilizer; maybe I don’t want to spendtoo much on fertilizer, or maybe I don’t want the weeds to thrive onfertilizer. But certainly there are more reasons.
5) She is an outspoken, truthful woman, or she wasuntil she learned better. (para.8)
Learn better: learn that it is not wise or moral to do sth.
Cf. know better(than to do sth.): to be wise or moral enough not to do sth.
Paraphrasing: Sheused to be a woman who spoke her mind and who was always straightforward in herspeech, but now she has learned from experiences that it is not wise to do so.
6) In some pocket of the mind there might even be thetendency to change this vision into a personal assurance that all this healthygrowth, this orderliness and thrusting life must somehow reflect movements inone’s own spirit. (para.9)
Paraphrasing: Insome small corner of the mind, I am even inclined to believe that suchbeautiful view of the garden can be transformed into a spiritual certainty; Ifeel certain that just like this well-organized and arranged garden and thelife and vitality of everything growing in it, my spirit is equally active aswell as in order.
7) A garden in an extension of oneself – or selves –and so it has to be an arena where striving does not cease, but continues byother means. (para. 10)
Paraphrasing: Agarden is like your second self, or a projection of yourself in nature;whatever you do in real life continues in your garden. So a garden must be astate where your effort for achievements never stops, but carries on in differentways.
8) Only the gardener is capable of reviving so muchhope that this year, regardless of drought, flood, typhoon, or his ownstupidity, this year he is going to do it right! (para.11)
Paraphrasing: Onlythe gardener can become hopeful after repeated failures and believe that thisyear he is going to have a good harvest, even though there might be disasterslike drought, flood, typhoon, and even though he himself is foolish.
9) Leave it to God to have picked the properoccupation for the only creature capable of such self-delusion. (para. 11)
Leave it to sb. to do sth.: to allow someone to make a choice ordecision about something, or to make someone responsible for something
Paraphrasing: Godhas done His job properly and chosen the right occupation for mankind, becauseonly man can “deceive” themselves willingly, only man can regain hope after repeated failures, believing in new andbetter possibilities.
Part Four Assignment
1. Summarize whatMiller says about gardening .
2. Compare what hesays with the metaphors of gardening in “Mandela’s Garden”. What are the differences and similarities?
LessonFour The Man in the Water
Part One Warm-up
1. Do you know ofany disaster(s) that happened in recent years or recently?
2. When disasterhappens, what do we usually want to know?
3. We sometimesidentify some heroes in disasters. What do you think about them?
Match the wordswith their correct meaning in the text.
Part Two BackgroundInformation
The Man in the Water
The man was lateridentified as Arland D. Williams Jr., a bank examiner working for the FederalReserve system in Atlanta.The 14th StreetBridge was renamed in his honor.
In June of 1983,Williams was awarded a medal by President Reagan.
News Feature
A news featuredoes not cover all the details a news report has to contain and only focuses oncertain aspects of the event on which the reporter has something to say. Thoughthe details about the news event have to be true and exact, the reporter canadd his/her own comment and interpretation of the event, which he/she is notallowed in a news report.
Journalisticarticles: describe the fact with what is seen or heard; sometimes guesses aremade, but often with model verbs and continuous tenses to make the descriptionreliable and vivid. Parentheses and short elliptical sentences to make thereport vivid.
About the author:
Roger Rosenblattis a journalist, author, playwright and professor. As an essayist for Timemagazine, he has won two George Polk Awards, and awards from the Overseas PressClub and the American Bar association, among others. He attended New York Universityand Harvard University, where he later taughtEnglish. He served as director of director for the National Endowment for the Humanitiesbetween 1973---1975. He has worked for a few well-established
Media outlets aseditor and essayists and received the George Polk Award for Magazine reportingin 1982.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (1-2)
A brief account ofthe air crash that leads to the thesis—in the air crash, human nature rose tothe occasion.
Part II (3-4)
The account givenby the living heroes about what had happened and about “the man in the water”.
Part III (5-6)
The imaginedthoughts and feelings of the man on the plane and in the water.
Part IV (7-9)
Reflection on therole of man in the classic situation, the man in the water represents humannature at its best.
2. Language point
1). As disasters go, this one was terrible, but notunique…
The air crashesusually involve a heavy loss of life. Compared with other air crashes, this onewas not the worst. This air crash was remembered for a different reason.
as…goes…:compared with sth. average
2). Washington,the city of form and rules, turned chaotic by a blast of real winter and asingle slap of metal on metal. (para 1)
the city of form and rules: Thecity was neat and beautiful.
3). And there was the aesthetic clash as well -—blueand green Air Florida, the name of a flying garden, sunk down among gray chunksof ice in a black river. (para 1)
When the air crashoccurred, it was not just a clash of metal against the bridge, but also a clashbetween colors: the blue-green color of the plane ant the gray and black colorof the ice and river.
The aesthetic clash: the combination of different colors which look verybad
4). Last Wednesday the elements, indifferent as ever,brought down Flight 90. And on that same afternoon human nature —groping andstruggling — rose to the occasion. (para 2)
Last Wednesday, thebad weather, unconcerned about the consequences it might bring about as always,made Flight 90 fall down. On that same afternoon, human nature, groping for theflotation rings and struggling in the icy water, came to prove its greatnessdisplayed in an unexpected tragedy.
Brought down: made the plane fall
the elements: the forces of nature 自然力;风,雨等的力量
Indifference as ever: unconcerned about the consequences as always
rise to the occasion /challenge /task: prove oneself able to deal with anunexpected problem, a difficult task, etc.
5). Of the four acknowledged heroes ofthe event, three ate able to account for their behavior. (para. 3)
Only three out ofthese four heroes lived to tell people what they actually had done and how theyrescued the five survivors.
6). On television, side by side, theydescribed their courage as well in the line of duty. (para 3)
in line with: in agreement with
(be) in line with /(be) out of line with
7). Skutnik added that "somebodyhad to go into the water, delivering every hero's line that is no lessadmirable for being repeated. (para 3)
Skutnik gave a remark that has been said before by many people in similarsituations, but it is still admirable.
8). "In a mass casualty, you'llfind people like him," said Windsor."But I've never seen one with that commitment. (para 4)
We can always findheroic people like him in a mass casualty because although not everyone is ahero, there's bound to be a fair representation of heroes in a big crowd. ButI've never seen anyone with such a strong sense of responsibility.
Casualty: somebody who is hurt or killed in an accident.
mass casualty: large number ofpeople hurt or killed in an accident or battle
9). His selfishness was one reason the story heldnational attention; his anonymity another. (para 4)
The fact that theman in the water who had displayed such heriosm did not leave his name and noone was ever able to find it out was another reason why the whole nation feltso touched by this story.
10). The fact that he went unidentified gave him auniversal character. (para 4)
The fact that hewent unidentified made him a representative man, like everyone of us could do.We may feel that it might have been anyone.
gave him a universal character: gave him a universal quality
11). For a while he was Everyman, and thus proof (asif one needed it) that no one is ordinary.(para 4)
What he did wasnot the act of a supernatural being, but the act of an ordinary person. Everyperson is an individual moral entity and is capable of rising to the occasionand make history.
12). Still he could never have imagined such acapacity in himself. (para. 5)
The first half of the lifeconsists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists ofthe chance without the capacity.
He has the ability to swim like a fish.
He has the capability of solving practical problems.
The theater has a seating capacity of 300 people.
The book is within the reading capacity of young readers.
13). He was there, in the essential, classical circumstance.(para 7)
What happened thatday was a typical situation in which nature and man fought each other. And whennature begins to show its power, you always find man fight back. He is alwaysthere. We can always expect to find such a hero.
14). So the age-old battle began again in the Potomac. For as long as man could last, they went at eachother, nature and man. (para 7)
the age-old battle between nature and man: here refers to the traditional idea that humancivilization is a record of man's gradual conquest of nature.
go at: attack; fight
15). … the one making nodistinctions of good and evil, acting on no principles, offering no lifelines;the other acting wholly on distinctions, principles and , perhaps, on faith.(para. 7)
Nature is indifferent. Itdoes not have any idea what is good or what is bad for human beings, and itdoes not care. It has no moral principles. Human beings, on the other hand, aredifferent. They have moral standards. They have feelings. They care and theylove. Therefore they are able to choose between right and wrong.
16). In reality, we believe theopposite, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us o four truefeelings in this matter. (para. 8)
Actually, the death of the man did not mean that human beings had lost thebattle. In a moral sense, man had won because man's courage to defy death wasalso a tremendous power. Therefore, what happened to this man in the watershould fill us with pride rather than sadness.
17). The man in the water set himselfagainst an immovable, impersonal enemy; he fought it with kindness; and he heldit to a standoff. He was the best we can do.. (para. 9)
set sb. against: make sb. start to fight or quarrel with
an immovable, impersonal enemy: refers to nature, which is indifferent andcannot be persuaded to change its attitude towards us humans
standoff: a situation in which neither side in a fight or battlecan give an advantage
He was the best wecan do: The man in the water represented human nature at its best.
Part Four Assignment
Choose one topic
Retell the storyas “the man in the water”, or as one of the survivors who owes his life to “theman in the water”, or as one of the other three heroes who is able to accountfor what he did.
LessonFive Quick Fix Society
Part One Warm-up
1. Study the word “fix”. What does a “quick fix” mean inthe text?
2. What are thethree features of a quick fix society according to the author? Summarize themin your own words.
3. Provideexamples for a quick fix society from your life.
4. Find outrelevant brief information about the American highway system.
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author:
Janet MendellGoldstein (1940—) received her advanced degrees at HarvardUniversity and the University of Pennsylvania.An educator for thirty years, she now works as an editorial consultant,freelance writer, and textbook author. Her work has appeared in a variety ofnewspapers and magazines, including the English Journal, Faith and Inspiration,and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (1-3)
the introduction:the writer compares her ride on fast roads to West Virginia and her return trip of adifferent route. The contrast set her thinking whether there was somethingwrong with Americans quick-fix lifestyle.
Part I (4-6)
the body: threeways Americans seek a quick fix.
Part I (7-8)
the conclusion:the thesis: let’s slow down and enjoy what nature offers us and what mankindhas left us and rediscover life.
2. Writing skills
Comparison-contrast,examples, rhetorical questions, repetition (of structure, of words)
3. Language and style
Informal
4. Language points:
1).can’t wait/can hardly wait: used when you are emphasizing that sb. isvery excited about sth. or keen to do it, e.g.
When she received the letter of admission from Qinghua University,she couldn’t wait to tell her parents the good news.
The night before the reunion, I could hardly wait to go back to my AlmaMater.
2).slide by: to move quickly past
3).It would feel like to holdstill again: Here, “it” isan anticipatory/introductory “it”, it stands for the subject of the clause “tohold still again”.
4).outlet: a shop/store that sells goods of particularmake at reduced prices
5).stuff (a space) with sth.: to fill it with sth. or with a quantityof things until it is full, e.g.
His wallet is always stuffed with coins.
Each time the boy went to see his grandma, she would stuff his pocketswith candy.
6).refreshed, revitalized,and reeducated: threeparticiples used as subject compliment, denoting the state the subject “we”were in when home again
7).more and more: increasingly, to a steadily increasingextent or degree, e.g.
When he first arrived, he rejected cheese. But more and more, he comesto like it.
As the day of the exam was approaching, we became more and morenervous.
8).in search of: to try to find
9).fix: (informal) solution to a problem,especially an easy and temporary one, e.g.
Don’t expect a quick fix for the financial crisis.
Do you have a quick fix in mind for the leaking?
Yes. Use a green banana.
10).for a rainy day: for a (future) time when money may beneeded
11).put (money) away: to save money to use later
12).save (up) (for): to keep and add to an amount of money fora particular purpose/later use, e.g.
I’m saving (up) for my retirement.
They’re saving up for a trip to Europe/to go to Europe.
13).help sb. out: to help sb., esp. in a difficult situation/togive sb. help at a time of need, e.g.
My parents helped us out when I lost my job.
His relatives always help out on his farm during harvest time.
14).at a time: separately or in groups of two, three,etc. on each occasion, e.g.
They were interviewed one at a time.
The boy ran up the stairs two at a time.
15).take out: to obtain an official document or service,e.g.
To take out aloan/an insurance policy/a mortgage, etc.
16).not agree with sb.: (of food) to make you feel ill/sick, e.g.
I love seafood, but it doesn’t agree with me.
17).What’s more: used to add a point that is more important
18).linger (over/on): to continue to look at sth./sb. or thinkabout sth. for longer than usual, e.g.
The detective lingered over some cigarette ash on the door.
Her eyes lingered on the girl’s purse; it looked exactly like the oneshe had lost.
19).best-seller: a produce, usually a book, which is boughtby large numbers of people, e.g.
His collection of essays is one of the best of the year.
Harry Porter was on the seller list for several weeks.
20).after all: (here) used to explain sth. or to give areason
21).save sb. the trouble of doing sth.: to make sb. able to avoid extra effort orwork, e.g. Shopping on the web saves people the trouble of going out.
Fast-foodrestaurants are popular because they save people the trouble of cooking.
22).pick out sb./sth. :to choose carefully form a group of peopleor things, e.g.
He picked out the best wine for his parents.
She was picked out to speak on behalf of the class.
23).devote sth. to sb./sth.: to give an amount of time, attention, etc.to sb./sth. , e.g.
I think the paper should devote more space to local news.
No matter how busy he is, he devotes an hour a day to reading.
24).replace sth./sb. ( withsth./sb.): to start usinganother thing or person instead of the one you are using now, e.g.
They want to replace their old computer with a new one.
I don’t want to replace Ms. Wang with anyone less experienced.
25).more often than not: more than or at least half of time, e.g.
Whenever I make a request, more often than not my parents reject it.
More often than not, the couple dine out in Chinese restaurants.
26).get sb. wrong: (spoken) not to understand correctly whatsb. means
Cf. get sth. wrong : not to understand a situation correctly
27).go back to sth.: to start doing sth. again that you stoppeddoing, e.g.
Now that her son started school, she decided to go back to work.
He went back to teaching after ten years of successful law practice.
Part Four Assignment
Questions to think about and discuss:
If you agree thatpeople are getting too impatient and too obsessed with the quick fix foreverything, what examples would you give to illustrate your point?
LessonSix Wisdom of Bear Wood
Part One Warm-up
Can you cite examples orexperiences of yourself to illustrate what friendship means to you?
What do you think are theessential elements of true friendship?
Why is the friendshipbetween the boy and the old lady is true and rewarding?
What’s your understanding of“wisdom” in the title?
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author:
Michael Welzenbach(1954---2001) was an art critic as well as a poet and a novelist. He wrote someof the most stimulating criticism of art and music for the Washington Post.
Michael Welzenbach,"Mirrors of Their Souls" WashingtonPost (July 20, 1991)
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part 1 (paras. 1-4)
The lonely boy found hispleasure in Bear Wood.
Part 2 (paras.5-23)
The boy met Mrs.Robertson-Glasgow in the Bear Wood and they became best friends.
Part 3 (paras.24-27):
Mrs. Robertson-Glasgowbecame sick and dead while their friendship flourished more than ever before.
Part 4 (paras. 28-37)
The revelation of true love
2. Language points:
1) wrench sb/sth away--- to twist andpull yourself away (or free) from 痛苦地离别或分开
a) He managed to wrenchhimself free.
If someone is wrenched frompeople whom they like or love, they are taken away from them suddenly, whichcauses them great unhappiness.
eg: At the age of eight, shewas wrenched from her foster parents and sent to live with another family.
2).Loving nature, however, I was mostdelighted by the endless patchwork of farms and woodland that surrounded ourhouse (Para 2)
a patchwork of farms--- farms that looklike small pieces of cloth of different colors when seen from far above
woodland---a piece of land coveredwith trees
However, as (because) Iloved nature, I was really very happy to enjoy the endless pieces of farms andwoods around our house.
3). In the deep woods that verged againstour backfence, a network of paths led almost everywhere, and pheasants rocketedoff into the laurels ahead as you walked. (Para2)
verge against--- to be close to; to be atthe edge or border of
The preposition “against” isused to mean “next to”, “touching or hitting the surface of” eg: a)A heavy rainwas pattering against the windows.
b)The policeman was leaningagainst the door.
a network of: a system of lines, wiresroads etc. that cross each other and are connected to each other 一种网络
... and pheasants rocketed off:…and pheasantswent off like rockets
pheasant--- a large bird with a longtail, often shot for food
4).I spent most of my time roaming thewoods and fields along…
The sentence means that Ispent most of my time walking in the woods without any clear purpose ordefinite destination.
Roam: walk or travel without anydefinite aim or destination
idiomatic use of “roam” as atransitive word. Normally it is used as an intransitive verb as in “roam about”or “roam around”
1) roam through the desertedvillage
2) just roaming around
3) He used to roam thestreets for hours on end.
5).keeping to myself was my way of notforming attachment that I would only have to abandon the next time we moved. (Para 3)
I did not try to make manyfriends because in that way I did not have to give up my friendship the nexttime I had to move.
To keep to oneself: to live a veryquiet and private life and not do many things involving other people 独居
attached--- full of affection for sb/sth
eg: The children are veryattached to (=love) their grandparents.
6). I started hiking there ..., up a long,sloping hill to almost impenetrable stand of trees called Bear Wood (Para 4)
impenetrable stand of trees: trees growing sothick that they are impossible to go through or enter into 一片无法通过的树丛
stand; trees growing in a givenarea 个体植物群丛
impenetrable---impossible to enter or gothrough
7).I’d leave the… for a softly carpetedfloor.
Note the metaphor. Thewriter compares Bear Wood to a largely beautifully decorated stone church, likening its treetrunks to the church’s pillars and its thickly covered ground to the carpeted floor.
Note the use of “for” tomake a comparison between the qualities of the wood and those of a church.
The twitter and rustle---onomatopoeia
8.) My own breathing rang in my ears , andthe slightest stirring of any woodland creature echoed through this privateparadise (Para 4)
I could even hear my ownbreathing, and even the lightest movement of any bird or animal in the wood canbe heard throughout this paradise.
9). a pair of powerful-looking binocularsdangled on…
powerful-looking binoculars ---高倍望远镜
dangle--- hang or swing loosely
eg: a) She had big earringsdangling from her ear.
b) A loose electric wire wasdangling from the wall.
10) “yes, they are away," she said,"But then, gamekeepers have been shooting them ever since they got here.They are introduced, you know, not native.“ (Para11)
wary: careful, cautious,watchful, suspicious, alert
to be introduced: to be broughtinto this place from somewhere else for the first time
11) I has been warned against going offwith…
go off with sb --- leave one’shusband, wife, lover, etc in order to have a relationship with sb else
eg: He went off with his bestfriend’s wife.
go off with sth ---leave a placewith sth that does not belong to one
eg: He went off with $10 000of the company’s money.
12) ...extending her fine hand (Para 15)
-offering to shake handswith the boy-
"Fine,, here meanssmall and attractively shaped, looking rather delicate. Remember the woman isold and weak”
13) Soon I saw a small brick cottage thatglowed pinkly in the westering sun.---
Soon I saw a small brickcottage shining with a pink color in the sun that was moving toward the west.
to glow---(synonyms): blaze, burn,flare, flicker, gleam,
glimmer, quiver, shine,flash, glitter, beam, spark,
14)between mouthfuls of tea and jam tart---
while eating jam tart anddrinking tea
15) and my well of knowledge about naturalhistory began to brim over I began to know much about natural...
Notice the figurative use ofthe word “well” and the exaggeration of having knowledge “brimming over”
Metaphor: the boy’sknowledge about natural history is likened to a well in which there was toomuch water
brim over--- to have so much of sththat it begins to flow over the edge of the container
eg: The sink is brimmingover.
I began to know much aboutnatural history, too much for a boy of my age.
16) Familiarity sometimes makes peoplephysically invisible, for you find yourself talking to the heart-to theessence, as it were, rather than to the face. (Para26)
When people get to know eachother really well, sometimes they don’t notice physical changes. The boy didn'tsee that his friend, the old lady, was getting weaker and weaker because allthe time he was talking to her heart, rather to her face.
Here “the heart” and “theface” form a pair of antitheses (direct opposites), the former referring to“what is deep down”, the latter “what can be physically seen”.
essence--- the most importantquality of sth; the thing that makes sth what it is
17) I eyed it as I went to the…
to eye sth/sb--- to observe or watchnarrowly, often in
suspicion, jealousy, or inlonging
a) The policeman eyed me insuspicion. I think he thought I was drunk.
b) She eyed (up) (=lookedclosely at ) the other passengers warily/suspiciously.
18) My mother was regarding me with astrange gentleness (Para 29 )
My mother was looking at mewith a strange gentleness because she wanted to break the sad news gently sothat I would not take it too hard.
19) I could tell she was having difficulty.(Para 30 )
I could see that she washaving difficulty finding a suitable way to break the news.
20) It is a wisdom tutoredby nature itself, about the seen and the unseen, about things that change andthings that are changeless, and about the fact that no matter how seemingly twosouls, may be, they process the potential for that most precious, rare thing--anenduring and rewarding friendship. (Para 37)
Part Four Assignment
1. Why did the boy say thatthe woods and fields in the neighborhood was a heaven for him?
2. Why did the boy rememberso fondly his days in the Bear Wood? What did he mean when he talked aboutwisdom as a legacy? What are the “seen and unseen”; “things that change andthings that are changeless”?
LessonEight The Man in Asbestos
Part One Warm-up
What do you thinkhuman life will be like in 400 or 500 years? (In terms of life expectancy,clothing, food, housing, communication, education, entertainment…)
Part Two BackgroundInformation
About the author and the text :
Stephen Leacock 1869-1944
born in
emigrated to
studied modern andclassical languages and earned his bachelor’s degree in the University of Torontoin 1891.
taught high schoolbut did not quite like the job.
started graduatestudies at the university of Chicago in 1899.received a doctorate in political science and political economy, in 1903 andwent back to
died in 1944 in
published over 40books, more than half of which were on serious political matters but havemostly been forgotten.
known as the besthumorist in the English-speaking world in the early 20th century for his worksof humor.
Leacock was asocial conservative. He opposed giving women the right to vote, dislikednon-Anglo-Saxon immigration and supported the introduction of social welfarelegislation. He was a staunch champion of the British Empire and went on lecture tours to further the cause.
The story in thetext was originally entitled “The Man in Asbestos—An Allegory of the Future”and was first published in a collection of short stories entitled NonsenseNovels in 1911.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Para I. 1-6
Sleeping into thedistant future
Para II.7-78
Experiencing thedistant future
1).7-28:Astonished
2).29-55: Thrilled
3).56-66: Doubtful
4).67-78: Angry
ParaIII. 79-81
Waking up from thedistant future
2. Language points:
1).To begin with, let me admit that I did it partlyfrom jealousy
It is true thatthe first important reason for me to visit the distant future in sleep is thatI as a writer am jealous of other writers that can do it.
2) It seemed unfair that other writers should be ableat will to drop into a sleep of four or five hundred years, and to plungeheadfirst into a distant future and be a witness of its marvels.(para.2)
Surprisingly otherwriters are able to fall asleep and stay asleep for four or five hundred yearswhenever they like, and they can go right into a distant future in their sleepwithout heisitation to see all the wonders, while I haven’t done this yet. I’malso a writer, so this unfair.
3) It was, in a way, clear, straight suicide, but Idid it.(para.5)
Clearly there isto a certain extent great risk in dropping into a sleep of four or five hundredyears and plunge headfirst into the distant future, but I did it in spite ofthe risk.
4)Icould feel my senses leaving me…the very existence of the outer world washushed. Dimly I could feel the days go past, then years, and then the longpassage of the centuries. (para.6)
I could feel thatI was becoming more and more insensitive to the things around me…the worldaround me had become silent and still…
5).Don’t you keep track of them anymore? (para.15)
Don’t you recordtime anymore? / Don’t you care to know the time anymore?
6).“Stop,”I said, my brain reeling. “Tell me one thing at a time.” (para.19)
“Stop,” I said,and my head seemed to be moving round and round in a whirling motion so that Ifelt dizzy, bewildered, and completely puzzled. “Tell me these things one byone.”
7).Isee, you must have been asleep a long time.(para.20)
The pattern “musthave done” is used here to show that sth. was very likely, probable, or certainto be true.
8).“But here,” he said... (para.25)
but now, butlisten, but look
9).But the moment we came out upon the street, I stoodriveted in astonishment
When we went outof the museum and onto Broadway, I was so astonished that I stood still as iffastened to the ground with a rivet.
10) In place of the roaring thoroughfare that I hadknow, this silent, moss-grown desolation.(para.27)
In place of: Instead of
roaring thoroughfare: a lively and busy main street
this silent, moss-grown desolation.:this silent wasteland covered with moss
11)Andwas this the era of the conquest that I had hoped to see?(para.28)
this the era of the conquest:It refers to man’s conquest of nature. Upuntil very recently, people still believed that by relying on science andtechnology, we would be able to make nature serve our needs; we would conquernature as its master.
Note that theconquest might also be about the principles of nature, like aging. Human beingshave always dreamed of beating disease and death, anyway.
12)Thispicture of desolation rendered me almost speechless.(para.28)
to render: to cause to be or become, make
13) ...humanity was destined to move forward.(para.28)
Based on Darwiniantheories of evolution, through struggle for survival and natural selection,people believe that humanity is sure/certain/bound to move forward, since theinevitable law is the survival of the fittest, progress is not only desirable,but also inevitable.
14)“Oh,done away with long ago,” he said.(para.31)
The man inasbestos said, “Oh, we got rid of the transportation vehicles a long time ago.”
15) It’s just the same being here as being anywhereelse.(para.33)
There is nodifference between being here and being anywhere else (so there is no need tomove anywhere).
16)Athousand questions surged into my mind at once.(para.34)
Immediately myhead was full of questions.
17) I looked at him a moment open-mouthed.(para.37)
I looked at theman in asbestos for a moment with my mouth open because I was too surprised.
18)Itried to pull my senses together.(para.38)
I tried to calmdown and think clearly.
19)...I must go at it systematically.(para.38)
I must startfinding out about this new and undreamed-of future in a well planned orderlyway.
20) Why...it died out of itself. Machinery killed it. (para.40)
Why …work forhuman beings disappeared without external interference. Machines did all thework so that human beings didn’t have to work anymore.
21) You were all caught in the cogs of your ownmachines.(para.42)
You could notescape the consequences of your industrialization. / You became the slave ofyour own machines.
22)Agriculturewent overboard.(para.46)
Agriculture waseliminated. / Agriculture died out.
23)Eatingand all that goes with it...(para.46)
Eating andeverything related to it (such as cooking)…
24)That,of course, could never have been if it hadn’t been connected with the revolt ofwomen and the fall of Fashion.(para.47)
Fashion is ageneral term for a popular style of practice, especially in clothing, foot wearand accessories. Diversity and change are important features of fashion whichis not supposed to last long. Only the disappearance of fashion can dresspeople in the same unchangeable asbestos clothing.
25) ...and how much of the texture of life had beenbound up in the keen effort of it. (para.56)
…and to what extentthe quality or essence of life lied in or depended on the great effort we madewhen we worked.
26)...Isaw what seemed to be the remains of telephone lines.(para.57)
the remains: any pieces, scraps, fragments, etc, that are leftunused or still extant, as after use, consumption, the passage of time, etc.
27) Disease and death were simply a matter ofgerms.(para.63)
Since disease anddeath were caused by germs, to eliminate them we only needed to eliminategerms.
28)...nay,the very millennium of happiness.(para.66)
Millennium: A millennium is a period of 1,000 years.
It also means ahope-for age of general joy, serenity, prosperity, peace, happiness andjustice.
In Christianity,the millennium refers to the period of a thousand years of Christ’s awaitedreign upon earth.
Part Four Assignment
Work with a partner:
Read the text again.
While reading, outline on a piece of paper all theaspects of life in the world of the man in asbestos.
Using your outline as a reminder, orally summarize thelife in the world of the man in asbestos.
Offer your opinion on such a life.
Work in groups of four:
Has the story made you think about anything? Shareyour thoughts.
Do you think it is possible for us to eliminate death,disease, hunger, war, work, climate change, the difference between men andwomen in the future? Would there be negative side effects if any of these couldbe eliminated?
Lesson Nine Confessions of aMiseducated Man
Part One Warm-up
What is aconfession?
a formal statement that you’ve done sth.wrong orillegal;
a privatestatement to a priest about the bad things you’ve done;
miseducated &uneducated
An uneducatedperson is one who has received no formal school education while a miseducatedperson is one who has received formal education but is educated in a wrong way.
Did you wellpredict the topic of the essay? Why or why not?
What would you seeas the biggest difference among human beings, language, religion, or political/ideological system?
What is their mostimportant similarity?
Do you agree ifsome people say that globalization is the strategy of cultural differences?
Part Two BackgroundInformation
about the author:
Born in New Jersey, 1915 and deceased in 1990;
Educated in and graduated from Columbia University Teachers College;
Editor of Saturday Review for 35 yrs;
Lifelong concerns including world peace, worldgovernance, justice, human freedom, health, etc.;
Proponent of world federalism and world government;
Traveled extensively in Europe and Asiaand then published Who Speaks for Man? in 1953;
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (para.1)
Introduction: WhatI’m going to say in the article;
Part II (paras.2-6)
Awareness of myeducation being inadequate for a new time and a new world in its focus on thedifferences among peoples while bypassing the similarities among them;
Part III (paras.7-11)
A new type ofeducation is therefore necessary, with which we can recognize the fact thathuman life is a rare occurrence, that all peoples belong to one single humanspecies with common capacities, and are united with their common needs. Withsuch vital understanding we can work together for the common welfare and forthe human destiny;
2. Language points:
1).In short, my education protected me againstsurprise. (para.3)
Paraphrasing: In aword, the education I had had taught me enough about the differences amongpeople so that I wouldn’t feel surprisedat what I saw, no matter how different they might be.
2).But what my education failed to do was to teach methat the principal significance of such differences was that they were largely without significance.(para.4)
Paraphrasing: Theeducation I had did not teach me to see the fact that the main meaning ofrecognizing such differences was that they were not meaningful in a greatmeasure (if compared with the meaning of understanding the similarities).
3).My education had by-passed the similarities.(para.4)
Paraphrasing: Theeducation I had had did not teach me/avoided dealing with the similarities among peoples.
4).It was the mark of a rounded man to be welltraveled…(para.6)
Paraphrasing: Onesign/indication of a person who has had a well-rounded (not one-sided),complete education is that s/he has been to many places or countries…
5).The old emphasis upon superficial differences hadto give way to education for mutuality and for citizenship in the humancommunity. (para.7)
Paraphrasing: Thetraditional education with the emphasis on the superficial differences betweendifferent peoples, different cultures, etc. should be replaced by a new type ofeducation focusing on mutual respect, mutual understanding, equalityinterdependence and how to be a citizen in the whole human community.
6).Life is a rare occurrence among…that occupy space.(para.8)
Paraphrasing: (Sofar we’ve not yet found any sign of life in outer space.) Human life may wellbe the only life form in the universe, so it is more than precious ( It thusimplies that the respect for the only and precious life is the very basis onwhich we build the future world community).
7).to give way to…(para.7)
to give its placeto sth. better, to be replaced by
The traditionalextended family has now given way to the nuclear family.
Coal is dirty andwill have to give way to gas or other cleaner energy.
8).to take in…(para.8)
to understand andremember
I told Grandpa we were going away, but I don’t thinkhe took it in.
小孩子很难理解社会责任的全部意义。
It is hard forchildren to take in the full meaning of social responsibility.
9).to respond to…(para.9)
to react to sth.that has been said or done
Clive responded to my suggestion with a laugh.
The
至今还没有人对我们的抱怨作出回应。
No one has yet responded to our complaints.
Her cancer failedto respond to treatment. ( to improve as a result of a particular kind oftreatment)
10). to concern (para.10)
a). If sth.concerns you, it affects/involves you
The price of water will concern many people.
(not in passive)tomake sb. feel worried/upset;
That Bess did not work to save for her old age reallyconcerned Lottie.
b). If astory/book/report concerns sb./sth., it is about them
This essayconcerns (is about) how the author thinks of his education in the past years.
11). to come forward (with/as/to do sth.)…(para.11)
12). to offer yourself for a job, election, etc.
More women are coming forward as candidates than evenbefore.
我们需要更多的志愿者提供帮助。
We need more volunteers to come forward to help.
A girl has comeforward with (offer help to sb. who needs or has asked for it) a description ofthe murderer.
13).to rise to the occasion/challenge
to dealsuccessfully with a difficult situation or problem（成功地）应对，得体地）
e.g. We arecalling on all our employees to rise to the occasion and become more efficientand productive.
The team rose to the challenge and fought back toproduce another goal.
Part Four Assignment
Work in groups anddiscuss the following questions:
Is it true that there are more topics on similaritiesamong people? Or just vice versa?
What do you think is the proper attitude towards thedifferences and similarities among peoples?
Can you see any significance in proposing such anissue now?
LessonTen Pompeii
Part One Warm-up
Why does theauthor call Pompeiia strange city?
What happened tothe city?
What was the citylike before it was destroyed?
What are someother natural disasters in world history that you have learned about?
Part Two Background Information
about the author:
Robert Silverberg(born January 15, 1935) is an American author, best known for writing sciencefiction. In 1956 he graduated from Columbia University, havingmajored in Comparative Literature.
Cultural tips:
Naples is the capital of Campaniaand the third-largest city in
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city nearmodern Naples. Pompeii was partially destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m(13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and it was lost for nearly 1700 years beforeits accidental rediscovery in 1749. Since then, its excavation has provided anextraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana.Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most popular touristattractions of
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (para.1-7)
A brief account ofpompeii beforeand after August 24,AD,79
Part II (paras.8-9)
A detaileddescription of what happened on the day of eruption
2. Language points:
1) Beneath the protecting shroud of ash, the city layintact. (para 5.)
Paragraphing: Thecity remained as it had been before the eruption. It had been protected by thethick layer of ash that buried the city deep.
2) A good imagination is all you need to restore it toactivity. (para. 7)
Paraphrasing: Ifyou have a good imagination you will be able to imagine what was going on － the sights, sounds, smells and activities of a busy,prosperous Roman town.
3) The sound of the explosion died away, but it stillreverberated in everyone’s ears. (para. 13)
Paragraphing: Evenwhen the loud sound stopped, people did not recover from the shock.
4) An hour went by and darkness still shroudedeverything. (para. 14)
Paragraphing: Anhour passed, things did not improve and darkness covered everything.
5) Rushing throngs, blinded by the darkness and thesmoke, rushed up one street and down the next, trampling the fallen in a crazyfruitless dash toward safety. (para. 17)
Paragraphing:People panicked. They rushed into the streets to escape the falling buildings.It was dark and the air was full of smoke so they could not see where they aregoing. They rushed up one street and down the next in a hopeless attempt toreach safety. In their blind rush they ran over the bodies of people who hadfallen down.
Part Four Assignment
Retelling
Suppose you survived the volcanic eruption, retell howyou managed to escape to your partner.
Suppose you are a visitor in Pompeii, retell what you have seen to yourpartner.
In both retellings, please use as many specific wordsas you can to make your account vivid.
Discussion
What makes ruins like Pompeii well-known?
Ruins of quake-hit Sichuan now become new tourist hotspots. Isit suitable to develop “disaster tourism”?
What insights about life do tourist expect to gain?
LessonEleven Button, Button
Part One Warm-up
“Button, Button”
“Press the button” means to initiate an action or atrain of events (informal), often in a nuclear context.
The title “Button, Button” indicates taking an actionor making a choice that would have consequences.
When do you press the button?
Do you press the right button?
How do you weigh gain and loss/cost when you press abutton?
Tell a story where you have to “press the button”.
Fill in the blanks according to the meanings provided.
s_____________ to (cause to) divide into two or moreparts
i_____________ money paid by the insurance company ifthere is any loss
a_____________ very surprised or shocked
s_____________ to give a long high shout
e_____________ strange or unusual, sometimes in ahumorous way
r_____________ to not allow something, especiallyfeelings, to be expressed
d_____________ a rounded roof on a building or a room
i_____________ very interesting because of beingunusual or mysterious
c_____________ feeling or showing that you have norespect for sb./sth
s_____________ to arrange things in an ordered pile
1.Split; 2. indemnity; 3. astounded; 4. shriek; 5.eccentric;
6. repress; 7. dome; 8. intriguing; 9. contemptuous;10. stack
Part Two Background Information
about the author:
American author & screenwriter
Fantasy, horror, science fiction
Wide adaptation of his works
Born on Feb. 20, 1926 in New Jersey to Norwegian immigrants parents
Raised in Brooklyn, New York
Served as an infantry soldier in WWII
Bachelor in journalism from the University of Missouriin1949
Moved to Californiain 1951, married in 1952, had four children, three of whom were fiction andscreenplay writers
A prolific writer: 28 novels, 19 short storycollections, 19 movie scripts, and 33 TV screenplays
An extended writing career: first short story in 1951,and latest novel in 2011
Author of a list of Times Best Sellers
Screenplays and adaptations:
16 episodes for The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
“Button, Button” for The Twilight Zone (1986)
Episode for Star Trek
Major film adaptations:
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1955) from The ShrinkingMan
The Last Man on Earth (1964)/The Omega Man (1971)/I amLegend (2007) from I am Legend
The Box (2009) from “Button, Button”
Genre:
A Science Fantasy
a hybrid genre drawing elements from both sciencefiction and fantasy
Science fiction: stories about events in the futurewhich are affected by imaginary developments in science
Fantasy: a genre of fiction that uses magic and othersupernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting
“Science fiction makes the implausible possible, whilescience fantasy makes the impossible plausible” – Rod Serling
Often involves a moral
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure
Part I (1-41)
Introduction: Mr. Steward makes the proposition withthe button unit.
Part II (42-52)
First day: Norma and Arthur reacted differently to theproposition. Their first discussion: Arthur thought the whole thing was immoralwhile Norma was tempted.
Part III (53-90)
Second day: Norma got deeply involved in the matterand the couple began to drift apart.
Norma called Mr. Steward for confirmation of theoffer.
Norma took in the returned button unit.
Their second discussion: Norma tried to convinceArthur to push the button.
Part IV (91-116)
Third day: Norma made the decision and pressed thebutton.
Part V (117-129)
Ending: Norma found out the person that died was herhusband
2.Language points：
1）Norma repressed a smile. Shewas sure now that it was a sales pitch. (para. 10)
Paraphrasing:Norma wanted to smile but didn’t, because it would be impolite. She thought thevisitor was a salesman who had left the package by her door. She believed hewas there to persuade her to buy the package.
2）Well, of all the nerve, shethought. (para. 70)
Paragraphing:Norma is angry that Mr. Steward assumed that she would want the package andsent it back.
3）“If it’s some old Chinesepeasant ten thousand miles away? Some diseased native in
Paragraphing:Norma wants to establish that if you don’t know the person, it will somehowlessen the crime/guilt in killing him/having him killed, while Arthur isadamant that it is murder no matter how far away that person is. This alsosuggests a hint of racism/American ethnocentrism
4）“My dear lady,” Mr. Stewardsaid. “Do you really think you knew your husband?” (para. 129)
Paraphrasing:Norma didn’t know her husband in thesense that they had very different moral standings: Arthur was upright anddetermined from the very beginning that pressing the button and having peoplekilled is murder, while Norma was tempted, and finally pressed the button onlyto find her husband was the price to pay for 50,000 dollars.
Part Four Assignment
Imagine you were Norma. Give a soliloquy of what wasgoing on in her mind.
You can choose a specific period from the three days.
You can also do a monologue addressing Arthur
Watch the first two episodes of Harvard open course“Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do” by Michael Sandel.
Read the original version of “Button, Button” and seeif there are any differences and what are the significance of thesedifferences.
LessonTwelve AFundamental Technique in Handling People
Part One Warm-up
Have you ever read a book on self-improvement? If so,do you find it useful?
Do you think it necessary for people to have specialtraining on skills for handling interpersonal relationships? Why or why not?
Do you follow certain principles of your own inhandling interpersonal relationships?
What is the “fundamental technique in handling people”according to the author? Are you convinced?
Part Two Background Information
The Author
Dale Carnegie's main focus is on dealing with andmotivating people successfully. His common sense approach is easy to understandand apply in both personal and business relationships. He developed severalfamous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, publicspeaking and interpersonal skills. He wrote one of the most popular books inhistory, and taught millions of people how to achieve self-confidence andinterpersonal social skills. Dale Carnegie became an icon of 20th century
Genre
Self-help books are books written with the statedintention to instruct any readers on a number of personal problems. They firstappeared in the Victorian age and flourished to become a postmodern culturalphenomenon in the late twentieth century—a period marked out by “the burgeoningliterature of self-improvement”.
Writing Style
Dale Carnegie is not a scholar. His reasoning isneither profound nor particularly strong in logic. But he expresses his ideaseloquently and uses many interesting historical anecdotes to illustrate hispoints, which makes his book interesting to read.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure:
Part I (para 1)
Criticism is usually futile and dangerous in handlingpeople
Part II (para 2-21)
Let’s learn a few lessons on handling people
The Body: Let’s learn a few lessons in handlingpeople. (para. 2–21)
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln leant to not toridicule people the hard way. (para. 2–4)
As president, Lincolnlearnt to put himself in the position of the person he intended to criticize.(para. 5–11)
People should not do to others what they do not wantdone to themselves. (para. 12–15)
It takes character and self-control to beunderstanding and forgiving. (para. 16–21)
Part III(para 22-23)
Instead of criticism, condemning and complaining,let’s try to understand people.
2.language points
1) put/force somebody on thedefensive
if you put someone on the defensive in an argument,you attack them so that they are in a weaker position → go on the offensive :
e.g. an issue that put the White House on thedefensive
促使白宫进入防守状态的事件
Warnings of an enemy attack forced the troops onto thedefensive.
敌军来袭的警报让部队进入防守状态。
defensive adj. used or intended to protect sb. or sth.against attack
我们使用核武器仅仅是为了防御。
We use the nuclear weapons only for defensive purpose.
Do you think he will became a good defensive player?
你认为他会成为一个好的防守球员吗？
2) I have made as detailedand exhaustive a study …as it is possible for any being to make.(para.3)
In this “as …as possible” pattern, if what follows thefirst “as” is a noun modified by an adjective, then the article “a” should beplaced before the noun.
C.f.
We should work hard to achieve as high a growth rateas possible. 我们应该努力实现尽可能高的增长率。
Due regard must also be paid to "recruiting thestaff on as wide a geographical basis as possible".
征聘人员时还应充分注意“使他们来自尽可能广阔的地域”。
3) He found out who wrote theletter, leaped on his horse, started after Lincoln and challenged him to fight a duel.（para.3)
Note the touch of humor here. The writer used fourvery short verb phrases in a row to create a sense of quickness and eagernessin the man’s getting into a duel fight, thus implying the extremeness of Lincoln’s provocation.
4)…but Lincoln, “with malice toward none, withcharity for all,” held his peace.
The quotation comes from Lincoln’s second inauguralspeech in which he expressed the hope for a peace without hatred, and calledupon his countrymen to act “with malice toward none, with charity for all… tobind up the nation’s wounds… to do all which may achieve a just and lastingpeace among ourselves and with all nations.”
5) One of his favoritequotations was “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”(para.5)
This quotation comes from the Bible-Matthew7-1, whichmeans: Do not judge others, for if you do, others will judge you by the samemeasure you use.
6) I do not believe youappreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee’s escape.(para.9)
Paraphrasing: I don’t think you fully understand whata big mistake you made in letting Lee escape or what serious consequences itwill entail.
7) If I send this letter, itwill only arouse hard feelings and impair all his further usefulness as acommander.(para.11)
Paraphrasing: If this letter reaches him, it will onlyserve to hurt his confidence and make him feel inadequate as a commander, whichwill affect his performance in the future because he will never be his bestagain.
8) He ordered: “Set thematter according to my copy hereafter and see that the proofreader retains hissuggestions in the mush of his decayed brain.”
Paraphrasing: From now on my articles should beprinted without being proofread, I don’t need any advice from the proofreaderwho is too dim-witted to come up with any valuable idea.
9) But it takes character andself-control to be understanding and forgiving.(para.18)
Paraphrasing:But it requires our good moral qualitiesand the ability to control ourselves to be understanding and forgiving toothers.
character: a combination of qualities such as courage,loyalty, and honesty that are admired and regarded as valuable
Part Four Assignment
Discussion
Work in groups of four answer the following questions:
In what sense is the writer using the word“criticism”? Is there any difference between “to criticize” and “to ridicule”?
Is there any difference between “to praise” and “toflatter”?
Can we do away with criticism altogether? If not, howcan we best do with criticism?
What are the best ways of motivating people from apsychological point of view?
Carnegie’s book received vehement criticisms from high-mindedscholars but won acclaims from the general public? Why is that?
LessonThirteen Mr. Imagination
Part One Warm-up
How do you understanding the quote below? Do you agreewith it? How important is imagination toour life?
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
—Elbert Einstein
Part Two Background Information
About the author:
Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905)
French author who pioneered the science fiction genre.He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), AJourney to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days(1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air traveland practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of spacetravel had been devised. He is the second most translated author in the world(after Agatha Christie). Some of his books have also been made intolive-action, animated films and television shows. Verne is often referred to asthe "Father of Science Fiction", a title sometimes shared with HugoGernsback and H. G. Wells.
Major works:
Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863)
A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
About the text:
Nantes (French) is a city in western
Genre:
Biography is a form of literature, commonly considerednonfictional, the subject of which is the life of an individual. As one of theoldest forms of literary expression, it seeks to re-create in words the life ofa human being—as understood from the historical or personal perspective of theauthor—by drawing upon all available evidence, including that retained inmemory as well as written, oral, and pictorial material.
A biography entails more than basic facts (education,work, relationships, and death); it also portrays the subject's experience ofthose events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biographypresents the subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or herlife, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis ofthe subject's personality.
Biographical works are usually non-fiction, butfiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form ofbiographical coverage is called legacy writing. Biographical works in diversemedia—from literature to film—form the genre known as biography.
Part Three TextAnalysis
1.Structure:
1-5 Mr. Imagination vs. Monsieur Verne
6-8 Father of Science Fiction
9 Childhood
10-18 Meeting Dumas
19-22 Family Relationships
23-31 Major Works
32-34 Last Years and Death
2.Language points:
1) Back in the 1880s, a bigred-bearded man came to call one day on the French Minister of Education.（para.1)
red-bearded: with a read beard
to call on sb.: to visit sb. formally.
Compare: call in, call at, call by, call for, call off,call back, call on, call up
2)The receptionist looked atthe card and his face lighted up.(para.1)
“The card” refers to a visiting card or a callingcard. It is a small card with the name and often the address of a person or ofa couple, for presenting when making a business or social call, for enclosingin gifts, etc.
Note that today’s business cards are slightlydifferent in that contact information is essential on them.
to light up: to become cheerful.
The room is brilliant, lighted up and full of guests
3)Monsieur Verne, pray beseated.(para.1)
Monsieur: the French equivalent of Mr., used as acourtesy title before the surname, full name or professional title of a man. Itis pronounced
Madame is the French equivalent of Mrs., andMademoiselle Is the French equivalent of Miss.
Paraphrasing: Mr. Verne, please take a seat.
4)Jules Verne should have beenworn out.(para.2)
Paraphrasing: We have every reason to believe thatJules Verne was exhausted.
5)There was very little of theworld’s geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.(para.2)
Paraphrasing: Jules Verne had written about visits toalmost all corners of the world in his books.
6) Jules Verne, the man, wasa stay-at-home.(para.3)
Paraphrasing: Unlike the characters in his novels,Jules Verne didn’t travel very much in his real life. Here the writer meansthat Jules Verne did not write about the various adventures in his book fromhis own experiences, but from his imagination, hence the title of this essay.
7)If he was tired, it wasmerely writer’s cramp.(para.3)
Writer’s cramp: a muscular spasm or temporaryparalysis of the muscles of the thumb and first two fingers caused by prolongedwriting
8)Then he raised his gunand—poof!—shot the red ribbon off the hat of a game warden. The only fish heever caught was on a plate at the end of a fork.(para.4)
Paraphrasing: Jules Verne almost shot the game wardenin his only experience of hunting, and that must have given him quite a scareand kept him away from hunting since. And he only “caught” fish when he usedhis fork to carry cooked fish to his mouth at dinner table. In an exaggeratedtone for humorous effect, the author is trying to tell us that Jules Verne hadalmost no personal experience in hunting or fishing.
9)He had TV working beforesimple radio had been invented.(para.5)
to have sb./sth. doing: to cause sb./sth. to do and keep sb./sth.in the state of doing (e.g. The show had the audience laughing from thebeginning to the end.)
Compare:
to have sb. do: to ask/request/make sb. do (e.g. Thedirector had the actress recite her lines before shooting.)
to have sth. done: to get sb. else to do it for you (e.g.I’ll have my car fixed tomorrow.)
10)...he was years ahead ofH.G.Wells,Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizes of things tocome.(para.6)
Paraphrasing: …he forsaw many future inventions yearsbefore other science fiction writers such as H. G. Wells and Conan Doyle did.
11)He wrote about the marvels oftomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail that he was takenseriously.(para.7)
Paraphrasing: He described the details of things to beinvented so accurately and convincingly that people almost forgot that he waswriting fiction.
12)Learned societies argued withhim. Mathematicians spent weeks checking his figures.(para.7)
his figures: the numbers and mathematic operationsVerne wrote in his books
learned societies: organized groups of scholars
13)Verne, who lived to seemany of his fancies come true, was matter-of-fact about it all.(para.8)
Paraphrasing: Many of the things Verne imagined anddescribed in his novels were invented before he died. But he didn’t seemsurprised or complacent at all.
14)...his mother was descendedfrom one of the great families of France.(para.9)
to be descended from: to be related to a person orgroup who lived a long time ago
The verb “descend” can be used in other senses, as in:
The path descends steeply into the valley.
Jane descended the stairs.
A feeling of despair descended upon us as we realized that we were lost.
The demonstrations in the capital soon descended into anarchy.
I never thought she would descend to stealing.
15)Fortunately for his lateradmirers, a friend of the family saw him go on board and told thefamily.(para.9)
Paraphrasing: A friend told his family what he hadseen, so his father got him home before the ship left. If the friend hadn’tdone this, Jules Verne would have had an entirely different life and wouldn’thave become a writer to be admired by so many people later.
16)At the bottom he slipped offand landed squarely on a stout gentleman about to ascend the stairs.(para.11)
Paraphrasing: At the end of the staircase he slippedoff the banister and fell right on a heavily built gentleman who was going toclimb up the stairs.
17)You could have knocked Julesover with a breadstick.(para.17)
Paraphrasing: Jules was greatly surprised to find thatthe man who had invited him to dinner was Dumas the great writer. Since Juleswas interested in writing and he was a nobody yet, he must have regarded thegreat writer as his idol and admired him and could hardly ever expect to have anythingto do with the great writer.
18)Knowing Dumas confirmed youngVerne’s desire to be an author.(para.18)
Paraphrasing: Knowing Dumas, he became firm in hisdesire to be a writer.
19)Jules, urged on by the olderman, made up his mind he would do for geography what Dumas had done forhistory.(para.18)
Paraphrasing: Alexandre Dumas père is bestknown for his historical novels of high adventures which were full of imaginedstories set in various historical backgrounds. Verne also wanted to write greatworks of imagination, but in a different field—travelling set in variousgeographical backgrounds.
20)...but the years thatfollowed were lean ones.(para.19)
Paraphrasing: …but in the following years Verne wasconstantly short of money.
21)I eat beefsteak that a fewdays ago was pulling a cart through the streets of Paris.(para.19)
Paraphrasing: Beef from a bull that labors in thestreets instead of enjoying its life on a farm must be tough to chew. Normallywork cattle do not become meat on the dinner table until they die naturally atan old age. So the beefsteak Verne ate was of a low quality and naturally a lowprice. With the consideration that Verne was from a well-off family, eatingsuch beefsteak means he was short of money.
22)“My stockings,” he told afriend, “ are like a spider-web in which a hippopotamus has been sleeping.”(para.19)
Paraphrasing: Hippopotami (or hippos) are known fortheir heavy bodies. Put one on a spider-web if this were possible, the weightwould of course stretch the holes in the web. Verne was saying in anexaggerated way that his stockings were full of big holes (because he had nomoney to buy new ones).
23)Though his father haddeprived him of his allowance...(para.20)
Paraphrasing: Though his father refused to give himany money to support his life and study…
24)…and rarely took a stepwithout first seeking parental advice.(para.20)
Paraphrasing: …and seldom started to take actionwithout asking his parents for advice.
25)Fifteen publishers looked atit, sniffed and sent it back.(para.23)
Paraphrasing: Fifteen publishers took a look atVerne’s manuscript without carefully reading through it, thought little of thework and reject it.
26)The publisher read thebook through as the fidgeting young author waited.(para.24)
Paraphrasing: Unlike the fifteen publishers who merely“looked at it”, Pierre Hetzel “read the book through” while the young author,eager to know what the publisher would do with the manuscripts and probablyexpecting bad news, waited restlessly and nervously.
27)...missed connections on heraccount...(para.28)
Paraphrasing: …and almost failed to catch the nexttrain or ship because of the Indian widow…
28)...he was attacked by RedIndians, and arrived in New York to see theship that was to take him to
Paraphrasing: …he was attacked by native Americans,and when he finally arrived at the wharf of New York harbor,the transatlantic steamer he had planned to take had already left and wasalmost out of sight so that he could only see a small speck on the sea.
29)As the world held its breath,Fogg reached Londonwith only minutes to spare, and won his bet.(para.29)
Note that this statement is not accurate. In thestory, Fogg arrived in Londonactually one day ahead of the deadline but due to miscalculation he thought hewas late. When he realized that he wasn’t late and hurried to meet those bettedagainst him, he arrived with only a couple of seconds left.
30)The people of hisfancy...(para.31)
Paraphrasing: People of his imagination; thecharacters he created in his books
To his colleagues he wired: “There is no Jules Verneand Company—there is only Jules.”(para.32)
Paraphrasing: He sent a telegram to his colleagues,saying that the person named Jules Verne did exist and he did not work with anyother people as a group.
31)The old story teller is dead.It is like the passing of Santa Clause.(para.34)
Jules Verne has entertained the world with richimagination in his wonderful stories in the same way as Santa Claus entertainschildren with gift, and his death is a loss, which is as great as the death ofSanta Clause would be.
Part Four Assignment
Work in groups of four:
Discuss the importance of imagination and how to keepyour imagination alive.
To a partner
Retell three anecdotes from the essay in your ownwords and analyze what can be seen from those anecdotes.
LessonFifteen Obama’s Victory Speech
Part One Warm-up
What did Obama want to say in this speech?
What were the main points he tried to make on thisoccasion?
Which section and which lines do you think areparticularly well put?
Part Two Background Information
About the author:
Barack Obama
Obama is a graduate of ColumbiaUniversity and Harvard Law School, where he was thepresident of the Harvard Law Review.
He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. Heworked as a civil rights attorney in Chicagoand taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992to 2004.
He ran for United States Senate in 2004. Severalevents brought him to national attention during the campaign, including hisvictory in the March 2004 Democratic primary and his keynote address at theDemocratic National Convention in July 2004.
He won election to the U.S. Senate in November, 2004.
His presidential campaign began in February 2007, andafter a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primariesagainst Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination.
In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republicannominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009.
About the text
This is the speech delivered by Obama to some 600,000supporters in Grant Park, Chicago, when he wonthe election as the first Afro-American president of the
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure:
The introduction (para. 1–4):
Obama hails his election as a triumphant victory forAmerican democracy.
The body (para. 5–28)
A. He reviews the 21-month-long campaign and expresseshis gratitude to people concerned. (para. 5–13)
He pays tribute to his opponents in the election.(para. 5–6)
He expresses gratitude to those who have supported himin the campaign. (para. 7–9)
He owes his election mostly to the broad masses ofAmerican people. (para. 10–13)
B. He looks ahead to his new job confidently. (para.14–28)
He appeals to American people to join him in remakingthe nation (para. 14–16)
He urges American people to unite, displaying a newspirit of patriotism, fighting partisanship, and sticking to the ideals of thenation. (para. 17–20)
By sharing the story of a 106-year-old black woman whohas witnessed the nation’s progress in the past century, he conveys to allAmericans his confidence in the nation. (para. 21–28)
The conclusion (para. 29–31)
He sets new goals for the
2.Language points:
1) It's the answer spoken by…Native American, gay, straight, …(para. 3)
“Spoke an answer” is not a common collocation.
“Native Americans” refers to American Indians.
“Gay and straight” refer to the “homosexuals and heterosexuals”.“Homosexuals” usually refer to men.
2) … put their hands on thearc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day (para. 4)
Note the use of the word “arc” here. It may come fromthe belief that historical development does not take a straight line. It can bebent by human beings one way or the other.
3) It's been a long timecoming,…(para.5)
Paraphrasing: We have waited a long time for this day.
4) …I would not be standinghere tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the lastsixteen years,… (para. 8)
Paraphrasing: …I would not have succeeded if it hadnot been for the firm support of my best friend for the last sixteen years…
5) It grew strength from theyoung people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy…(para. 12)
The younger generation today in the States hassometimes been referred to by some people as “the generation of apathy” meaningthey are rather indifferent to what goes on in the world or in the country.
Obama says that what young people have done in thiselection has proved that it is not so; the younger generation does care.
6) … braved the bitter coldand scorching heat… (para. 12)
Paraphrasing: …went outside in spite of the extremelyhot and cold weather…
7) There will be setbacks andfalse starts. (para. 15)
“False starts” originally means “starting too soon at the beginning of a race”. Here itrefers to mistakes or unsuccessful attempts at the beginning in general.
8) And to all those watchingtonight…And to all those who have wondered if
Many early Puritans came to the North Americancontinent for religious reasons—to build a Christian Paradise on earth, tobuild a “City upon a Hill”, a “Beacon of democracyand freedom”.
9) … if our children shouldlive to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live aslong as Ann Nixon Cooper, … What progress will we have made? (para. 29)
a)When “should” is used with “if”, it usually refersto a possibility and should betranslated as “可能”，而不是 “应该”.
b) will have made: This is used in the future perfecttense.
Part Four Assignment
Discussion
Work in groups of four and discuss the followingquestions:
What do you think of the language and style of thisspeech? Do you find it powerful and convincing?
If a Chinese person wins an election, what is he/sheexpected to say? In what way will the different approaches reflect culturaldifferences?
Is the eloquence of a politician a reliance guaranteethat he/she is going to be a great leader? Are those who are particularly goodat winning votes always good at running the country as well? If the answer isno, why then do we have elections?
LessonSixteen The Oyster and the Pearl
Part One Warm-up
What do you know about oysters and pearls? What dothey usually symbolize?
Have you read other literary works where the oysterand/or the pearl is used as a symbol?
What do you expect to read when you see the title?
Explain the meaning of the colloquial expressions inthe following sentences.
On the walls, on the shelves, are odds and ends.
He sold me the shop for seventy-five, and threw in thehaircut.
Let bygones be bygones.
On top of that, almost all of them are unruly.
I can’t kick.
They had one too many fights.
Part Two Background Information
About the author:
William Saroyan :1908-1981
Born in Californiato Armenian immigrants
Spent five years (3-8) in an orphanage after father’sdeath
Began writing short stories in 1930s
His works celebrated optimism in the midst of trialsand tribulations
A prolific writer: short stories, plays, memoirs, etc.
Many of Saroyan's stories were based on his childhoodexperiences among the Armenian-American fruit growers in Californiaor dealt with the rootlessness of the immigrants.
The short story collection My Name isAram (1940), an international bestseller, was about a young boy and thecolorful characters of his immigrant family.
Saroyan's plays were drawn from deep personal sources,and often disregarded the convention that conflict was essential to drama.
The most famous play The Time of Your Life (1939) wona Pulitzer Prize, which Saroyan refused on the grounds that commerce should notjudge the arts.
Genre
A Utopia Play
Utopia resembles both the Greek words "noplace", "outopos", and "good place","eutopos".
Utopia is oftencreated in literature as an non-existent, ideal world.
Famous utopiafiction includes Plato’s The Republic and Thomas Moore’s Utopia.
Dystopia, theopposite of utopia, is defined as a society characterized by poverty, squalor,or oppression, and usually extrapolates elements of contemporary society. Ofthe most famous is George Orwell’s 1984.
In what ways can this play be seen as utopialiterature?
Part Three TextAnalysis
1. Structure:
Part I (1-165)
Introduction of the setting, character and conflict
Part II (166-328)
Resolution of conflicts
2. Language points:
1) Clark Larrabee, come home.Your fishing tackle’s in the closet safe and sound. The fishing’s good, plentyof perch, and bass. Let bygones be bygones. We miss you. (para.53)
Paraphrasing: This does not read like anadvertisement. It’s more like a boy talking to his father from the bottom ofhis heart, trying to get him home by recounting the things they enjoyedtogether. Simple but touching.
2)Miss America, I presume. … You’d be newanywhere. (para. 57 & 63)
Paraphrasing: You are just like Miss
3)Cooking? … I must see Iexpected to see a much older man. Well. Thanks. (para. 84-85)
Miss McCutcheon is saying that cooking is rather anold-fashioned educational program, and a man that comes up with such an ideashould be much older than Harry. Harry is taking this up in a teasing way bypretending to take this as a compliment rather than a criticism that she thinkshe looks much younger for his age.
4)It’s never too soon for any of us to face thetruth. (para. 176)
Paraphrasing: Any of us should face the truth; theearlier, the better.
Cf.It’s never too old to learn.
5)…in as much as only oneoyster in a million has a pearl in it, truth favors the probability that thisis not the millionth oyster… (para. 178)
Paraphrasing: Because only one oyster out of a millionhas a pearl in it, it is not likely that this oyster will be just that one. Thechances of finding a pearl in an oyster are vey slim.
6)A few people find jobs a couple of monthsevery year North or South, come back half dead of homesickness, and live onnext to nothing the rest of the year. (para. 215)
Paraphrasing: A few people work away from home justfor a couple of months because they are terribly homesick. For the rest of theyear, they practically have no income whatever and have to depend on whatlittle money they have saved during the working months.
7)Clay believes there’s a pearl in thisoyster for the same reason you and I believe whatever we believe to keep us going.(para. 215)
Paraphrasing: We have the courage to face the worldwith all its obstacles and difficulties because we have our faith/belief/hope.It’s the same with Clay. He believes there’s a pearl in the oyster because itgives him hope that his father will come home.
8)As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing isa pearl. (para. 295)
Paraphrasing: What I’ve witnessed here today is aprecious experience to me. Through Clay’s belief that there is a pearl in theoyster, and Harry’s way of trying to protect his belief, I have learned a newway of life, to take it easy and never to lose hope.
Part Four Assignment
Discussion
Work in groups of four:
The play’s symbolism is very straightforward,characters are somewhat stock and there are traces of sexism in it. How wouldyou account for these? Would you take into consideration the historicalbackground (1953)?
If you were to write a play with the same theme set incontemporary society, what changes would you like to make?
Acting
Work in three groups of eight. Each group will act outthe whole play. Make necessary changes if you want.
You will be the judge for you classmates’ performance,and awards will be given to the best play, best actor, and best actress.
Further Reading
Suggested further reading:
Utopia literature:
A Modern Utopia, H. G. Wells
Lost Horizon, James Hilton
Dystopia literature:
1984, George Orwell
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
