安徽工业大学工商学院

外语系

 

综合英语4课程教案

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson One  Thinking as a Hobby

Part One  Warm-up

I. Picture Description

Please describe the following pictures in detail and depict theirsymbolic meaning in your own words.

Compare your answer with that of the author, andtry to find their symbolic meaning in the boy’s (the author) eyes.

 

II. Quotationson Thinking

“Intelligence is something we are bornwith. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.” —Edward de Bono

“Most people can’t think, most of the remainder won’tthink, and the small fraction who do think mostly can’t do it very well.” —Robert Heinlein

“Icannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”—Socrates

 

 

 “Nurture your mind with great thoughts.” —Benjamin Disraeli

“What is thehardest task in the world? To think.”—RalphWaldo Emerson

 

III.What Is Your Story?

Have you got an anecdote or true story about your school life?

Would you like to tell it to your partner?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

I. Author

Sir William Gerald Golding(September 19, 1911—June 19, 1993) was an English novelist, poet and winner of1983 Nobel Laureate in Literature:

“forhis novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and thediversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the worldof today.”

TheAuthor’s Background

 

Born on September 19, 1911 atSt. Columb Minor, a village near Newquay, Cornwall,he started writing at the age of seven.

Hewent to Oxford University(Brasenose College) in 1930, where he studiednatural sciences and English language. His first book, a collection of poems,appeared a year before Golding received his BA.

He married Ann Brookfield, ananalytical chemist, in 1939. He became a teacher of English and philosophy atBishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury.

DuringWorld War II he served in the Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking ofGermany’s mightiest battleship, the Bismarck. He participatedin the invasion of Normandyon D-Day and at war’s end went back to teaching and ]writing.

In 1961 his successful booksallowed Golding to leave his teaching post and he spent a year aswriter-in-residence at Hollins College in Virginia.He then became a full-time writer. He received a knighthood from QueenElizabeth II in 1988.

WilliamGolding died in his home at Perranarworthal, near Truro,Cornwall onJune 19, 1993.

William Golding’s main works

Poems (1934)；Lord of the Flies (1954)；The Inheritors (1955)；Pincher Martin (1956)

FreeFall (1959)；The Spire (1964) ；Darkness Visible (1979)

TheTrilogy Rites of Passage (1980, Booker Prize)

CloseQuarters(1987)；Fire Down Below (1989), republished under thegeneral title To The Ends of the Earth

 

II．Rodin’s Thinker

Resting on the horizontal panel above the doors, The Thinkerbecame the focal point of The Gates of Hell and subsequently perhaps the mostwell-known sculpture of all time. The athletic-looking figure, inspired by thesculpture of Michelangelo, depicts a man in sober meditation, yet whose musclesstrain with effort—possibly to evoke a powerful internal struggle. Rodininitially referred to the figure as Dante but eventually what we know as TheThinker evolved into a more symbolic representation of creativity, intellect,and above all—thought.

III. Goddess Venus

As Roman Goddess of Love andBeauty, Venus is associated with cultivated fields and gardens and later identifiedby the Romans with the Greek Goddess of Love, Aphrodite

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme: Thinking is not just for professional thinkers likephilosophers. It is something all educated people should enjoy doing, and it isconsidered one of the most precious qualities in young scholars for the healthymental development. 

Structure

Part 1 (Paras. 1—24 ) about: Howthe subject of thinking was first brought up to the author and hisunderstanding of the nature of “grade-three thinking”

Part2 (Paras. 25—29) about:The author’s analysis of the nature of “grade-two thinking”

Part3 (Paras. 30—35)about: The author’s understanding of the “grade-one thinking” and his desirefor it

GeneralAnalysis

Question:  What do the three statuettes(Venus,Leopard, Rodin’s Thinker symbolize?  What effect do the boy’s descriptions have?

They represented the whole oflife. The leopard stood for all animal needs or desires; Venus stood for loveand the Thinker stood for thinking as a uniquely human feature.

Anhumorous and sarcastic effect has been achieved by the author’s description ofthe statuettes, which established a background to support his later analysis ofthree grades of thinking and some human natures.

Question: How did the authordescribe the following figures to demonstrate his analyses of different gradesof thinking?

Headmaster: nothing human in his eyes, nopossibility of communication (not understand his students)

Me, the boy: delinquent, not integrated,misunderstanding the symbolic meaning of the statuettes, couldn’t think

Mr. Houghton: ruined by alcohol, preaching high-morallife but showing hypocritical and prejudiced nature

A pious lady: who hated German with the proposition ofloving enemies

Question: How did the authordescribe the following figures to demonstrate his analyses of different gradesof thinking?

Ruth: foolish argument, illogical and fled at last

British Prime Minister: talking about the great benefitconferring onIndiaby jailing Nehru and Gandhi

American politicians: talking about peace and refusing to join the League of Nations

Me, the author: not easily stampede, detect contradiction; turnedinto a professional thinker

The summary of thecharacteristics of the three grades of thinking

Thinking

Grade-three Ignorance, hypocrisy, prejudice,self-satisfied, contradictions 

 Mr. Houghton,nine tenth of people

Grade-two Detecting contradictions; do not stampedeeasily; lag behind, a withdrawal, destroy but not create

Ruth,

the author, (maybe) some acquaintances

Grade-one To find out what is truth, based on alogical moral system

far and few between, only in books

WritingDevices

1. Metonymy : It will lecture on disinterested puritywhile its neck is being remorselessly twisted toward a skirt.(girls)(Para. 23)

In metonymy, an idea is evoked or named bymeans of term designating some associated notion. “It” stands for “thought” ingrammar, but actually refers to Mr. Houghton, and it is vulgar to refer to agirl as a skirt.

Democracy favorsthe vote rather than the bullet. (Vote=election, bullet=military solutions)

“Political powergrows out of the barrel of a gun.” (Mao Zedong refers it to the militaryrevolution)

The pen is mightier than the sword. (pen= writer; sword = fighter)

 

2. Synecdoche : Synecdoche can be included in metonymy,and it refers to the substitution of the part for the whole or of the whole forthe part

Ifwe were counting heads, the Buddhists were the boys for my money. (Para. 27)(head = person)

There aretwo mouths to feed in my family.(mouth = person)

God blessthe hands that prepared this food.(hand =person)

 3.Hyperbole : It is thedeliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis. Forinstance

You could hear the wind, trapped in hischest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments. His body would reelwith shock and his face go white at the unaccustomed visitation. He wouldstagger back to his desk and collapse there, useless for the rest of themorning. (Para. 19)

4. Simile: It makes a comparison between two unlike elementshaving at least one quality or characteristic in common. To make thecomparison, words like “as”, “as... as”, “as if” and “like” are used totransfer the quality we associate with one to the other.

e.g.

They all came tumbling down like so manyrotten apples off a tree. (Para. 31)

Man enjoysagreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill. (Para. 24)

5. Metaphor : It is like a simile, also makes acomparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison isimplied rather than stated.

e.g. He seems to me ruled not by thoughtbut by an invisible and irresistible spring in his neck. (Para. 20)

e.g. It tookthe swimmer some distance from the shore and left him there, out of his depth. (Para. 29)

 

Sentence Paraphrase

1.I was not integrated, Forming a part of a harmoniousgroup I was, if anything, (on the contrary)disintegrated. (Para. 4)

---The direct opposite of “integrated”, andtherefore means some kind of trouble maker. This is not the way the word is normallyused.

if anything

a. 如果有什么（区别）的话

b. 恰恰相反

e.g. I never hadto clean up after him. If anything, he did most of the cleaning.

I’m not ashamed of her. If anything, I’mproud.

2.Themuscular gentleman contemplated the hindquarters of the leopard in endlessgloom. (Para. 9)

---The author expressed the boy’s viewingof the image of Thinker in a humorous way to show that the thinking doesn’tmake any sense to him

3.His spectacles caught the light so that you could see nothing human behindthem. There was no possibility of communication. (Para. 9)

---The teacher’s glasses caught the lightand therefore the boy could not see the teacher’s eyes. He could not have anyeye contact. He could have any communication with him. The implied meaning ofthis sentence is that they could not communicate, not because of this butbecause of the teacher’s lack of understanding of the boy.

4.Onone occasion he headmaster leaped to his feet, reached up and put Rodin’s  masterpiece on the desk before me. (Para. 13)

Three parallel verb phrases are used todescribe the sequence of his actions

5.to one’s feet

站起来

to leap to one’s feet一跃而起  to rise to one’s feet站起身来

to struggle to one’s feet挣扎着站起来to stagger to one’s feet蹒跚而立

to help sb. to one’s feet扶某人站起来topull sb. to his feet把某人拉起来

6.Naturehad endowed the rest of the human race with a sixth sense (A keen intuitive (直觉的)power. Here the author means the ability to think)and left me out. (Para. 15)

---Everybody, except me, are born with theability to think.

7.Youcould hear the wind, trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnaturalimpediments. His body would reel with shock and his face go white at theunaccustomed visitation. He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there,useless for the rest of the morning. (Para. 19)

--Note the humorous effect achieved throughthe use of the exaggeration and formal style

8.Mr.Houghton was given to high-minded monologues about the good life, sexless andfull of duty. (Para. 20)

--Obviously in Mr. Houghton’s clean life, thereis no place for alcoholic drink, sex, and other worldly pleasures. This is, ofcourse, ironical.

9.Yetin the middle of these monologues, if a girl passed the window, his neck wouldturn of itself and he would watch her out of sight. In this instance, he seemedto me ruled not by thought but by an invisible and irresistible spring in hisneck. (Para. 20)

---The author is ridiculing thecontradiction between his high moral tone and the working of his genes whichcompels him to turn his head toward young girls.

10.Technically,it is about as proficient as most businessmen’s golf, as honest as mostpoliticians’ intentions, or as coherent as most books that get written. (Para.23)

--This ironical sentence shows that theauthor not only considers those people incompetent, dishonest and incoherent,but also despises most businessmen, distrust most politicians and dislikes mostpublications

11.I no longer dismiss lightly a mental process. (Para. 24)

---I no longer consider the way grade-threethinkers think unimportant because they account for nine-tenths of the peopleand therefore have great power. Now I know that ignorance, prejudice andhypocrisy are very powerful enemies.

12.A crowd of grade-thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hand atthe fire of their own prejudices… Man enjoys agreement as cows will graze allthe same way on the side of a hill. (Para. 24)

--The author thinks that it is probablyhuman nature to enjoy agreement because it seems to bring peace, security,comfort and harmony.

13.Itset me watching the crowds cheering His Majesty the King and asking myself whatall the fuss was about, without giving me anything positive to put in the placeof that heady patriotism. But there were compensations. (Para.25)

---It made me watch people shouting in joyand support of the King and wonder what this senseless excitement was all aboutalthough I did not have anything good to replace this exciting or intoxicatingpatriotism. But I did get something out of it.

14.Sheclaimed that the Bible was literally inspired. I countered by saying that theCatholics believed in the literal inspiration of Saint Jerome’s Vulgateand the two books were different. Argument flagged. (Para. 26)

--“Both Methodists and Catholics believedthat their Books are a true record of the God’s divine plan.” The author usedthis example to defy Ruth’s illogical opinion, therefore the argument becamedull because Ruth didn’t know how to respond to it.   

15.Thatwas too easy, said I restively since there were more Roman Catholics thanMethodists anyway; … (Para. 27)

---Here, the author pointed out Ruth’slogical error. The number of people who hold a view is no proof of itsvalidity.

16.Islid my arm around her waist and murmured that if we were counting heads, the Buddhistswere the boys for my money. She fled. The combination of me arm and thosecountless Buddhists was too much for her. (Para. 27)

---Note the author’s description of thecontrasting combination of his intimate action and strong defiant expressions, whicheventually made Ruth withdraw and give up as a grade-two thinker.

17.I was given the third degree to find out what had happened. I lost Ruth andgained an undeserved reputation as a potential libertine. (Para. 28)

---The author lost his girlfriend and won abad name even as a grade-two thinker, satisfying himself by finding outdeficiencies but not seeking for the truth.

Note the effectof the author’s self-mockery.

18.Tofind out the deficiencies of our elders satisfies the young ego but does not makefor personal security. It took the swimmer some distance from the shore andleft him there, out of his depth. (Para. 29)

The author uses this metaphor to expressthe idea that grade-two thinking has its limitations. It does not have anythingpositive to offer.

19.Icame up in the end with what must always remain the justification for grade-onethinking. I devised a coherent system for living. It was a moral system, whichwas wholly logical. (Para. 31)

---According to the author, grade-onethinking must be based on a coherent and logical system for living, in otherwords, a moral system, without which you cannot prove yourself to be a grade-one thinker. Judging by the context, thissystem probably refers to one’s world outlook and basic political beliefs andmoral principles.

20.Hadthe game gone too far? In those prewar days, I stood to lose a great deal, forthe sake of a hobby. (Para. 33)

---In those prewar days when many peoplewere fully worked up to a political frenzy, it was very dangerous to voicedifferent opinions. You might lose friends or your job.

21.Nowyou are expecting me to describe how I saw the folly of my ways and came backto the warm nest… (Para. 34)

---Now you think I will tell you how Igradually saw my stupidity in being a grade-two thinker and therefore decidedto give it up and return to the majority of grade-three thinkers.

22.Butyou would be wrong. I dropped my hobby and turned professional. (Para. 35)

---But you guessed wrong. I did not drop myhobby of thinking ( here, we can say he might give up the hobby of grade-twothinking). Instead I went further and became a professional thinker.

LanguageStudy

Word Study

1. Acquaintance

n. a. (CN) a person whom one knows         

 b. (UN) knowledge or information aboutsomething or someone

      n. acquaintanceship

v. acquaint: to come to know personally; tomake familiar; to inform;

Examples:

Mrs. Bosomley hasbecome merely a nodding acquaintance.

Few of myacquaintances like Sheila.

Let me acquaint you with my family.

You must acquaint yourself with your new duties.

be (become, get) acquainted with:

I am alreadyacquainted with the facts.

2. anguish

v. (vi.) to feel or suffer anguish

      n. agonizing physical or mentalpain; torment

      a. anguished

Examples:  Shewas in anguish over her missing child.

anguished cries

3. bulge

v. to curve outward; to swell up; to stick out

    n. a. a protruding part; an outward curve orswelling

 b. a sudden, usually temporary increasein number or quantity

Examples: His pocket was bulging withsweets.

The baby boom created a bulge in schoolenrollment.

4. protrude

v. to push or thrust outward; to jut out 

Examples:

Helen’s teeth protrude too far.

The policeman saw a gun protruding from the man’s pocket.

Nails protruded from the board and had to be removed forsafety.

5. confer

v.  a. to bestow(e.g. an honor) 授予

 b. to invest with (a characteristic) 赋予；使带有

 c. (vi.)to meet in order to deliberate together or compare views 协商

Examples:

The government conferreda medal on the hero.

Diplomas wereconferred on members of graduating class.

The engineers andtechnicians are still conferring on the unexpected accident.

6.award     

 v. a. to grant as merited or due

  b. to give as legally due

Examples:

He was awarded hisdamages in the shipwreck by the court.

7.contemplate

v. a. to look at attentively and thoughtfully

       b. to consider carefully and at length;

       c. to have in mind as an intention orpossibility

Examples:

She stoodcontemplating her figure in the mirror.

The young surgeoncontemplated the difficult operation of kidney transplant.

She iscontemplating a trip to Europe, but she hasn’t planned it yet.

8.contempt

n. scorn; a feeling that sb. or sth. is not important anddoes not deserve any respect

Example:

I feel nothing butcontempt for such dishonest behavior.

9.exalt

v. a. to raise in rank, character, or status        b. to glorify, praise, or honor    c. to increase the effect or intensity ofexalted  d. excited; noble;exaggerated

Examples:Complementarycolors exalt each other.

Hewas exalted to the position of president.

The retiring professor is exalted by his colleagues.

an exalted dedication to liberty

Hehas an exalted sense of his importance to the project.

10. heady  a.

Try to translate the following phrasesheady liqueur /  the heady newsof triumph

a heady outburst of anger/  a heady current

headytactics  /too heady to reason with

11.hustle

vt. a. to convey in a hurried or rough manner     

b. to cause or urge to proceed quickly

   c. to gain by energetic effort

vi. towork or move energetically and rapidly

Examples:

The police hustledthe prisoner into a van.

Mother hustled thechildren off to school lest they should be late.

We hustled to getdinner ready on time.

12.impediment

n. a. a fact or event which makes action difficult orimpossible

   b. an organic defect preventing cleararticulation

Examples:

The mainimpediment to development is the country’s huge foreign debt.

He has animpediment in speech.

13.hinder:to hold back, as by delaying (implying stopping or prevention)

The travelers werehindered by storms throughout their journey.

hamper: to hinder by or as if by fasteningor entangling

A suit and anovercoat hamperedthe efforts of the accident victim to swim to safety.

14.impede: toslow by making action or movement difficult

Sentiment andeloquence serve only to impede the pursuit of truth.

obstruct: implies the presence of obstaclesthat interfere with progress

A building underconstruction obstructsour view of the mountains.

block: to complete obstruction thatprevents progress, passage, or action

A huge snowdriftis blockingthe entrance to the driveway.

dam: suggests obstruction of the flow,progress, or release of something, such as water or emotion

They dammed the brook to form a swimming pool

15.bar:to prevent entry or exit or prohibit a course of action

Mounted troops barred access to the presidential palace.

16.. integrate

v. a. to make into a whole by bringing all partstogether; to unify

b. to join with something else; unite

Examples:

Many suggestionsare needed to integratethe plan.

The teachers aretrying to integrateall the children into society.

17.muscular

 a.a. of, relating to, or consisting of muscle

 b. having well-developed muscles

 c. having or suggesting great power; forcefulor vigorous

Examples:

a muscular build 一副强壮的体格;muscular contraction  肌肉的收缩

muscularadvocacy groups  有力的拥护团体

18.stampede

 v. to (to cause to) flee in panic or toact on mass impulse

 n. a. a sudden frenzied or headlongrush or flight

    b. a mass impulsive action

Examples:

Rumors of ashortage stampededpeople into buying up food.

a herd of stampeding cattle

a stampede of support for the candidate纷纷支持那个候选人  

 

Phrases andExpressions

 

1.at the time

at a time在······时候        at all times 在任何时候，经常

at one time一度，曾经     at the time那时候

at times有时候            at the same time尽管如此，同时

at the best of times     在最有利的时候

 

2.do away with

They have doneawaywith corporal punishment in our school. 废除体罚

The city hasdecided to doawaywith overhead wires. 消除高架线

They agreed thatprivileges must be doneawaywith. 取消特权

 

3. few and far between

Examples: In Nevada the towns are fewandfarbetween.

Really excitinggames are fewandfarbetween.

Places where youcan get water are fewandfarbetween in the desert.

4. for (one’s) money

according to one’s opinion, choice, orpreference

依照某人的意见、选择或偏好

Example:

Formymoney, it’s not worth the trouble.

I wouldn’t give him my dog for love ormoney.

无论如何，不管以任何代价

After years of struggle and dependence, airtransportation is in the money

非常有钱，有利可图

Dick’s uncle died and left him money toburn.

大量的钱

to put money on outcome of a race1.

为······打赌

5.in the flesh

in the person, present

Examples:

I havecorresponded with him for some years,but i have never met him intheflesh.

He is nicer intheflesh than in his photograph.

6.lag behind

to fail to keep up a pace; to straggle

Examples:

The elder peopleand children always lag behind when we go for a walk.

Don’t let a singleclassmate lag behind.

He wondered darklyat how great a lag there was between his thinking and his actions. 他暗暗惊讶于自己在思想和行动上有如此大的差距

 

7.make for

to have or cause to have a particulareffect or result; to help promote; to go to a place or rush forward

Examples:

small details thatmakefor comfort

Thoughtfulness makesfor closer relationships.

This book makesfor very enjoyable reading.

The convoy madefor the open sea.

As soon as itstarted to rain we turned round and madefor home.

 

8.nothing but

Examples:

Don’t have him fora friend: he’s nothing but a criminal.

He had nothing forsupper but a little piece of cheese.

Nothing but rosesmeets the eye.

nothing doing 毫无，决不      nothing if not 极其，极端

nothing like没有什么能比得上

nothing less than不亚于，完全（强调其多、其大

nothing more than仅仅，只不过（强调其少、其小）

nothing much非常少，

“Let’s go for a boat ride!” “Nothingdoing!”

 

He was nothing ifnot clever.

There’s nothinglike a holiday to make one fell rested.

Studying thatlesson should take nothing like four hours.

That’s nothingless than a miracle. (=no less than)

The drops didn’tget very big, and the earth received nothing more than a drizzle. (=no morethan)

“Anythinginteresting happening?” No, nothing much.”

9. on… occasion

He talked about his work on every occasion.

She was invited tothe Master’s room on several occasions.

Onoccasion, we feel like celebrating and have aparty.

On one occasion, he landed in a deserted car park.

10.out of one’s depth水深过头；超越自己的能力；理解不了的

Examples: Jack wasnot a good swimmer, add nearly drowned when he drifted outbeyondhisdepth.

I am outofmydepth when it comes to natural science.

in depth 广泛地；彻底地

a study indepth of the poems

explore a subject indepth

an in-depth study

11. not think well of :not think much of看轻

think better of sb. 对某人印象好；看重某人

think better of sth. 改变······念头；打消主意

think highly of看重；器重    think well of重视

think little of看轻；看不起    think poorly of不放在眼里；轻视

think nothing of轻视；认为无所谓；认为没什么了不起

12. stand by

a. to remain uninvolved; to refrain fromacting

b. to remain loyalto; to aid or support

c. to keep ormaintain

d. to be ready oravailable to act

Examples:

He stoodby me through all my troubles.

The police are standingby to control the crowd if it is necessary.

You should always standby your promises.

You can’t standby and allow such a thing

 

Grammar 

1.Parallelism. The method ofexpressing ideas of equal importance in

 the same orsimilar grammatical form is called PARALLELISM.

Parallel constructions:listing, contrast, choice, comparison

all shouting the same thing, all warmingtheir hands at the fire of their prejudices —two absolute constructions(listing)

not by thought; byan invisible and irresistible spring in his neck. —two prepositional phrases(contrast)

To be or not tobe, that is a question. —two infinitive phrases (choice)

Crawling up down amountain is sometimes harder than climbing up. —two participle phrases.(comparison)

1.For further information, you can eitherconsult an encyclopedia or surf the Internet. —two verb phrases (choice)

2.In the past tenyears people, especially old people, have been concerned more about theirhealth than about their income. —two noun prepositional phrases (comparison)

2. The Use ofComplement

Next to her, crouched the statuette of aleopard, ready to spring down… —adjective phrase as subject complement

You could hear thewind, trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments.—past and present participles as object complement

It took theswimmer some distance from the shore and left him there, out of his depth.—prepositional phrase as object complement

More examples:

Tired and sleepy,I went to bed.

Lincoln was born apoor farmer’s boy and died President of the United States.

People are justborn what color they are.

As a true friendhe stood by me to the end.

John wears hishair very long.

Can I have thisparcel weighed here?

Part Four  Assignment

Oral Work

Retell the story about how the author losthis girlfriend

Give a briefdescription of the three grades of thinking with your own illustrations

 

 

Lesson Two Spring Sowing

Part One  Warm-up

1. Do you know anything about farming? For example, do you know how tosow potatoes?

2. Since you previewed the lesson, can you describe the way the youngcouple do the planting?

3. What’s your opinion of being a farmer?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

I. Introduction to the Author

Liam O'Flahertywas born in the village of Inishmore, on 28 August 1896. Inishmore is the most northernof the Aran Islands. The entire area of Inishmore was bleak and harsh. Thetreeless, flat, rocky ground was almost too shallow for any crops to grow.

Such a harsh landaffected O'Flaherty immensely:

“I was born on astorm-swept rock and hate the soft growth of sun baked lands where there is nofrost in men's bones. Swift thoughts, and the swift flight of ravenous birds,and the squeal of terror of hunted animals to me reality.”

The area ofInishmore was also quite poverty stricken. Poverty, famine, and death weresomething that the people dealt with every day. The people struggled withfeeding large families on little or no food. Also, the people had little meansof earning money or removing themselves from the poverty.

O'Flaherty hadboth an admiration and hatred for the poor. They give him both a romanticquality in describing the plight of the common man but also "frequentlyfill him with misanthropy" (Doyle 18). Among the people were many orphansand widows. Because of the hard life, many people died early, either fromstarvation, disease, or drowning in the ocean in an attempt to catch fish tofeed the family.

Liam O'Flaherty isone of the most significant and important modern Anglo-Irish authors. Hisnovels have not been met with much critical analysis over the last forty yearsbecause he stopped publishing work in 1956. Both his novels and his shortstories define Anglo-Irish literature in that his themes stem from hisexperiences growing up in a poverty-stricken society on the island of Aran; hisnaturalistic, mystical, romantic, and realistic styles were also defined by hisexperiences in his native Ireland.

 

Chronology of LiamO'Flaherty's Main Works

1923  ThyNeighbour’s Wife

First publishedcreative work—a short story, “The Sniper“—appeared on January 12, 1923, in theBritish Socialist weekly The New Leader

1924  TheBlack Soul

One of thefounders of the short-lived literary magazine To-Morrow.

1924  Spring Sowing

1925  The Informer

It was made into afilm of the same name by John Ford.

1925  Civil War

1928  The Assassin

1932  Skerrett

1934  Shame the Devil

1937  Famine

 

II. General Introduction

“Spring Sowing” istaken from the author’s first collection of short stories which bears the sametitle published in 1924. The story describes the first day of the first springplanting of a newly-wedded couple against the backgrounds of a traditionalagricultural country.

In Ireland at thattime, most people still depend on farming for a living, and the main crop wasthe potato. Modern science and technology had not yet caught up with the land.There was little machinery. Practically everything was still done by hand. Atypical farmer believed in traditional virtues: hard work, simple living,discipline, and above all, a strong sense of responsibility, responsibility forthe happiness of your wife/husband, parent, and children.

In spite of theiralmost primitive living and working conditions, however, they also had theirjoys and love, and their longings for the future as does the newly-married coupledescribed here. For Mary and Martin Delaney, this was an extremely importantday, because it not only would determine the crop they would harvest in autumn,but would also show what kind of wife and husband they would prove to be eachother and what kind of family they were going to have.

What the authordescribes here, of course, is largely a thing of the past. The story describesthe first day of the first spring planting of a newly-wedded couple against thebackgrounds of a traditional agricultural country.

 

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

The simple life,honest nature and good wishes of the newly-married couple are presented throughthe descriptions of their spring planting in minute detail. It reveals thetraditional virtues of a typical farmer: hard work, simple living, discipline,and above all, strong sense of responsibility for the happiness of his wife andfamily. 

 

 Structure

Part 1 (Paras.1-8): The young couple’s preparations for the first dayof their first spring sowing

Part 2 (Paras.9-23): A detailed description of the spring sowing.

Part 3 (Paras.24-26): The young couple’s yearnings for the future

 

 Questions for Further Understanding

1. What kind of a harvest were the newly-weds going to have in thefirst day of their first spring sowing?

2. What values and moral principles are being idealized here? Is itstill the same today? Do you agree that the traditional work ethic is out ofdate? Are such qualities as hard work, diligence, thrift, responsibility,discipline, simple and honest living, rugged individualism and self-reliance,etc. still valued?

3. What changes have taken place in social ethics since ourgrandfathers’ time? Is there anything that remains unchanged?

4. Let’s pretendthat you are Martin Delaney or Mary living in the 21st century. What kind of aperson would you like to have as your wife or husband? What qualities would youlike to find in your spouse?

 

 DetailedAnalysis of the Text

1) Outside, cocks werecrowing and a white streak was rising from the ground, as it were, andbeginning to scatter the darkness. (Para.1)

Streak: A streak is a long thin mark, line or band of a differentsubstance or color. Here in the text, this word refers to the ray of earlysunlight which was white against the dark sky.

As it were: seemingly; in a way; so to speak. A shortening of “as if itwere so”, this expression has been in use since Chaucer’s time. We use thisexpression to make what we are saying sound less definite. More examples:

He was living in a dream world, as it were.

He closed his eyes, trying to relive that happy moment, as it were.

2)…and it was hateful leavinga warm bed at such an early hour. (Para.2)

Remember that this was anewly married couple, and it was a very early and cold spring morning.

Hateful: detestable; disgusting; unpleasant

3) His freckled face and hislittle fair moustache (Para.2)

fair: light in color; blond. Westerners hold the notion that lightcoloring is desirable.

(CF) beard, moustache, whiskers

on fire: burning with emotion; greatly excited; full of ardor’ veryenthusiastic, excited, or passionate

eg. He was on fire with excitement at this marvelous sight.

4) …and his wife lookedhardly more than a girl, …her black hair piled at the rear of her head with alarge comb gleaming in the middle of the pile, Spanish fashion. (Para.2)

Piled at the rear of her head: piled into a mass at the back of herhead

Comb: It is used here to keep her hair back and for decoration.

Spanish fashion: in the way Spanish people do; like Spaniards

5) Mary, with her shrewd woman’smind, thought of as many things as there are in life does a woman think in thefirst joy and anxiety of her mating. (Para.3)

Paraphrase: Mary, like all sharp and smart women, thought of manythings in life when she got married.

6) Martin fell over a basketin the half-darkness for the barn, he swore and said that a man would be betteroff dead than… (Para.4)

Paraphrase: In the barn, it was still very dark as it was very early inthe morning. So Martin tripped over basket. He cursed and said that it would bebetter for him to die than (to have to get up at such an early hour and beginthe day’s toil --- probably for the rest of his life).

better off: comparative form of “well off”; it means in a morefavorable position or financial circumstances

eg. They would be better off flying than driving there.

They were not rich, but they were better off than most of theirneighbors.

7) And somehow, as theyembraced, all their irritation and sleepiness left them. And they stood there…“Come, come, girl, it will be sunset before we begin at this rate.” (Para.4)

However, all of the unhappiness and drowsiness melted away with theirhug. They remained in each other’s arms until finally Martin pushed her away,with pretended roughness, to show that he was now the bread-winner of thefamily and had serious work to do and therefore must stop this sentimentalnonsense, otherwise they would not be able to get anything done in the wholeday.

At this rate: progressing at this speed, e.g.

At this rate we’ll never finish in time.

At this rate they’ll soon overtake other countries.

8) Martin and Mary restedtheir baskets of seeds on a fence outside the village…(Para.5)

Rest: to place, put, or layfor ease, support, etc, e.g.

She rested her mother’s head on a pillow.

He rested his legs on the desk in front of him.

Seeds: See Notes to the Text about how potatoes are propagated and whatwords and expressions are usually used in connection with this. Use these wordsin explaining the text.

9) And they both looked backat the little cluster of cabins that was the center of their world, withthrobbing hearts. For the joy of spring had now taken completely hold of them.(Para.5)

to take complete hold of: to gain complete control or influence oversb; to have great power over sb; to overpower sb

eg. She felt a strange excitement taking hold of her.

She was determined not to let the illness take hold again.

The idea will never take hold with the voters.

10) Suppose anybody saw uslike this in the field of our spring sowing, what would they take us for but apair of useless, soft, empty-headed people that would be sure to die of hunger?(Para.12)

to take for: to regard as

eg. Do you take me for a fool?

Don’t take our silence for approval.

I think they took us for Japanese.

soft: weak or delicate; not strong or vigorous; esp. not able to endurehardship as because of easy living

empty-headed: stupid; silly and ignorant; lacking sense or discretion

but: only

eg. This is but one of the methods used to try and get through to thepatients that alcohol should be a thing of the past.

11) His eyes had a wild,eager light in them as if some primeval impulse were burning within his brainand driving out every other desire but that of asserting his manhood and ofsubjugating the earth. (Par.12)

Paraphrase: His eyes shone and his only desire now was to prove what astrong man he was and how he could conquer the land.

but: except; with the exception of; save

eg. Europe will be represented in all but two of the seven races.

He didn’t speak anything but Greek.

The ship’s screw gave them nothing but bread to eat.

to assert one’s manhood: to state strongly or behave in such a way asto show that you already a full-grown man, an adult, a man capable ofsupporting his family and able to handle all difficulties in life

12) …he turned up the firstsod with a crunching sound (Para.13)

…he dug up the first piece of earth with grass and roots with hisspade, making a crunching sound

to turn up: to dig up/ dig up and turn over

Notice that “to turn up” here is not an idiomatic phrasal verb like thefollowing:

Turn up the radio a little bit. I can’t hear.

I don’t know why she did not turn up at the meeting the other day.

You must have mislaid your pen somewhere. Don’t worry, it will turn upsooner or later.

Sod: a section of grass-covered surface soil held together with mattedroots

To crunch: to make a crackling sound as if you are chewing sth noisily

13) Mary sighed and walkedback hurriedly to her seeds with furrowed brows. (Para.13)

Why did Mary sigh? Why did she walk back hurriedly with furrowed brows?

Mary sighed probably because she was reluctant to dismiss her romanticfeelings at that moment. She sighed because she would have to go back to work.

Furrowed bow: deep frowns

14) …to drive out the suddenterror that had seized her at that moment when she saw the fierce, hard look inher husband’s eyes that were unconscious of her presence. (Para. 13)

…she began to work hard) in order to get rid of the terror thatsuddenly seized her when she saw that her husband had suddenly changed from theloving husband she knew into a fierce-looking farmer who did not seem to be awarethat his bride was with him.

15) She became suddenlyafraid of that pitiless, cruel earth, the peasant’s slave master that wouldkeep her chained to hard work and poverty all her life until she would sinkagain into its bosom. (Para.13)

Pitiless: without pity; unfeeling; cruel; merciless

to be chained to: to be bound to; to have your freedom restrictedbecause of a responsibility you cannot escape

eg. Women nowadays refuse to be chained to the kitchen sink.

My brother was chained to my sick mother for more than thirty years.

to sink again into its bosom: to die and be buried in the earth; toreturn to the earth

16) Her short-lived love wasgone. Henceforth she was only her husband’s helper to till the earth.

Paraphrase: The love they had for each other did not last long. Theirromance was now replaced by their necessity to face the hard work. From thenon, she was merely her husband’s helper and had to work side by side with him.

henceforth: from this time on; from now on

to till the earth: (old use) to prepare land for raising crops a byplowing and fertilizing; to cultivate

17) And Martin, absolutelywithout thought, worked furiously…

P: Martin on the other hand had no time to waste on idle thoughts. Hejust concentrated on his work and worked with great energy.

furiously: with great energy; fiercely

18) …there was a sharpness inthe still thin air that made the men jump on their spade halts ferociously andbeat the sods as if they were living enemies.

Paraphrase: The chilly and biting air of early spring made the peasantswork fiercely with their spades, beating the sods a if they were enemies.

halt: the top part of the spade which you press with your foot

ferociously: furiously; fiercely

19) Birds hopped silentlybefore the spades, with their heads cocked sideway, watching for worms. Madebrave by hunger, they often dashed under the spades to secure their food.

Paraphrase: The birds were early too just like the farmers.

to cock sideways: to tilt or turn (said of the head or ear) to one side

eg: He paused and cocked his head as if listening.

to secure: to get hold or possession o; to obtain after a lot ofeffort; to acquire

eg: With a tremendous effort, she managed to secure a ticket for me.

Graham’s qualifications would no doubt help secure him a job.

20) …when he had taken a longdraught of tea from his mug. (Para.16)

Draught: (AmE draft) the act of swallowing liquid or the amount ofliquid swallowed at one time

Mug: a large china cup with straight sides and a handle, used esp. fordrinking tea

Cf. a cup of tea; a cup of coffee; a glass of water; a glass of beer; abowl of rice; a brandy glass(无脚或无柄的平底玻璃杯) of brandy, a tumbler of coke

Special glass for brandy, tumbler is a large glass for a long drink.

21) “Yes,isn’t it lovely,” said Mary, looking at the black ridges wistfully.

Question: What do you think was on Mary’s mind at that moment?

She was sad that this was going to be her life from now on, toiling andsweating over the land until the day she died. But on the other hand what theyhad done that day also make her proud and hopeful.

Yes, isn’t it lovely: Yes, it is lovely indeed. (Notice that thispattern is used to express agreement.)

wistfully: showing or expressing melancholy yearnings

22) The hurried trip to thevillage and the trouble of getting the tea ready had robbed her of herappetite.

Paraphrase: She was so tired that she lost her appetite.

to rob sb of sth: to deprive sb of sth belonging to that person by anunjust procedure

eg: The accident robbed him of his health.

He felt that he had been robbed of the pleasure that was his due.

When Miles Davis died last September, jazz was robbed of its mostdistinctive voice.

23) She had to keep blowingat the turf fire with the rim of her skirt, and the smoke nearly blinded her.

to blow at the fire: to sent out a current of air to the fire

turf: peat; a soft brown substance like earth that is used for burninginstead of coal, especially in Ireland; a dense accumulation of vegetablematter found in a swamp, used as  fuelinstead of coal when dried.

24) It overpowered that otherfeeling of dread that had been with her during the morning.

Paraphrase: The feeling ofjoy drove away the feeling of terror that she had had in the morning.

to overpower: to overcome by superior force

eg: I was so overpowered by my guilt and my shame that I was unable tospeak.

25) Martin ate heartily,revelling in his great thirst and his great hunger, with every pore of his bodyopen to the pure air.

Paraphrase: The heavy work made Martin thirsty and hungry and made himenjoy his lunch and tea more.

heartily: with a good appetite

to revel in: to take much pleasure in; to delight in

pore: one of the small holes in your skin that sweat passes through

26) The rasping noise carrieda long way in the silence.

Paraphrase: Even in this stillness Leaphorn doubted if the sound wouldcarry far.

rasp: make a harsh grating sound

carry a long way: (said of sound or smell) to go very far

27) That was the signal for ageneral rising all along the little valley. (Para.19)

The noise was the signal for all the peasants to stand up and startworking again.

28) Then she thought of thejourney home and the trouble of feeding the pigs, putting the fowls into theircoops and getting the supper ready, and a momentary flash of rebellion againstthe slavery of being a peasant’s wife crossed her mind. It passed in a moment.(Para.22)

a flash of sth: a sudden, brief and intense display of sth       

eg. “What did Moria tell you?” Liz demanded with a flash of anger.

The essays could do with a flash of wit or humor.

to cross one’s mind/ to pass through one’s mind: suddenly occur to one

eg. It never crossed my mind that they would turn the proposal down.

It passed trough her mind that he might have got lost.

29) Cows were lowing at adistance. (Para.26)

To low: to make the characteristic moo sound of a cow

 

Language Study

1. appetite

an appetite for learning.学习的强烈愿望

to lose one's appetite食欲不振

He has a good appetite.他的胃口好。

2. assert

assert one's rights维护自己的权利

assert sth. to be true断言某事是真实的

assert oneself坚持自己的权利; 表现自己的权威

eg. I had to assert myself in the meeting in order to ensureacquisition of the new book.我在会上不得不坚持自己观点以保证得到那本新书

3. commence

commence learning English开始学英语

commence in arts [Br]获文学学位

4. furrow:沟：车辙、沟槽或窄坑;皱纹：皮肤上的深皱(=deep wrinkle)

5. glimmer v. n.

A faint light glimmered at the end of the corridor.走廊的尽头闪着一星微光。

a glimmer of hope一线希望

a glimmer of understanding.隐隐约约明白

6. glisten: to shine by reflection with a sparklingluster由反光反射引起的闪光

eg. His hair glistened with oil.

7. imminence n.  

eg. The imminence of their exams made the students work evenharder."考试即将来临,迫使学生们更加用功了。

imminent adj.

eminence 杰出；卓越; 出众, 显赫, 崇高

8. low n. v.（牛）哞哞叫

9. overpower: to overcome by superior force

eg. A sudden dizziness overpowered him.

I was so overpowered by my guilt and my shame that I was unable tospeak.

I am overpowered with the beauty of the scene我为优美的风景所倾倒

10. primeval (Sync) primitive

a primeval forest.一片原始森林

11. raw       

raw meat生肉/ raw material原料/ a raw soldier新兵

a raw literary style不完美的写作风格/ a raw wound露出肉的伤口       

a raw winter day湿冷的冬日/ a raw deal不公正[严苛]的对待

raw beauty超凡的美丽/ raw talent 惊人的智慧                                       

a raw throat发炎疼痛的嗓子

12. revel in: to take much pleasure in; to delight in深爱, 酷爱; 纵情于, 沉湎于

eg. revel in a book十分爱好读书

13. rim

the rim of a hat帽边

the sea's rim水平线

14. shrewd

a shrewd answer机敏的回答                                                                     

have a shrewd tongue说话刻薄

a shrewd pain剧痛                                                                                              

do (one) a shrewd turn给(某人)吃一个苦头                                             

15. spade

call a spade a spade直言不讳, 有啥说啥

in spades: to a considerable degree:在很大程度上：

eg. They had financial trouble in spades.他们在经济上遇到了极大困难

16. streak

like a streak (of lightning)(闪电一样)迅速, 风驰电掣地, 一溜烟儿, 眨眼间

a streak of luck [美口]短时间的幸运

17. subjugate使屈服, 征服, 使服从, 克制, 抑制

sub- [前缀，表示“从属”]

18. triangle=tri- 三＋angle角

Part Five  Assignment

Ask Ss to reviewthe Text Analysis and finish Exercise Vocabulary part.

 

 

Lesson Three   Groundless Beliefs

Part One  Warm-up

One thing we all do every day isexpress our views，state our beliefs or discuss our ideas．We say to one another：I think，I believe，I’m convinced，I’m sure，It goes without saying，It’s crystal clear，It’s as simple as ABC，No doubt．．．，etc，every day and oftenmany times a day．We may not be professional thinkers. But we all dothinking as a habit．We may not have reached the level of grade-one thinking．But we cannot avoidthinking，rightlyor wrongly. However,

Do we really know what we are doing though?

Do we really know what it means when we say we arethinking?

Do we really think for ourselves? Are our beliefs and ideasreally well-grounded?

Are we sure that all the beliefs we hold with intenseconviction and accept without question are really true?

What constitutes adequate grounds for beliefs?

 

PartTwo Text Analysis

Paragraph1:

In future we are going to followthe practice—until it becomes a habit—of classifyingpropositions according to their grounds.

classify: to arrange ororganize according to class or category

ground: (usu. pl.) thefoundation/underlying condition for an argument, a belief, or an action; acause or good reason for sth.

e.g. What were his grounds forwanting a divorce?

  Neither statement can be faulted on the grounds that it is inaccurate.(Lesson 3)

groundless: a. not based onreason or evidence

e.g. groundless optimism     Our fears proved groundless.

Probably we shall be astonished at the number ofpropositions met with in everydaylife which we shall find it necessary to classas groundless.

beastonished at:  be very surprised at

metwith: encountered; experienced

classas: classifyas

similarusage: see P117.5

to be astonished at; to besurprised at; to be alarmed at;  to beamazed at; to be astounded at

to class as; to regard as; todescribe as; to accept as; to view as; to conceive as; to recognize as

Paraphrase: Probably we will besurprised at the number of ideas we meet in everyday life because there are toomany of them, and we will find that these ideas have no ground or foundation atall and it is necessary for us to classify them as “groundless”.

They rest upon mere tradition, or on sb’s bare assertion unsupported by even a shadow of proof…

restupon: to be based on; depend/rely on

bareassertion: strong statements without the support of proof

a shadowof: theslightest trace of

e.g. A shadow of a smile touchedhis mouth.

  There is not a shadow of justification for your behavior.

  She knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he was lying.

Paraphrase: They are only basedon tradition, or merely on somebody’s assertion, but are not supported even bythe least amount of proof.

bare: a. naked; not coveredwith or protected by anything; empty; just efficient, mere…

e.g. barearm/feet/wall/necessities/facts

       the bare branches of winter trees

       The fridge was completely bare.

Phrases:

with yourbare hands: without weapons or tools

bareyour soul: to tell your deepest and most private feelings

bareyour teeth: to show your teeth in a fierce and

                         threatening way

barefaced: a. showing that youdo not care about offending sb. or about behaving badly

e.g. a barefaced lie

Paragraph2:

Perhaps it was way back in our early childhood…

way backin: along time ago

e.g. I first met him way back inthe 60s.

Many of strongest convictions were established then.

conviction:astrong opinion or belief

established: formulated

Paraphrase: Many of our strongestbeliefs were formulated at that time

conviction could also mean thejudgment of a jury or judge that a person is guilty of a crime as charged

e.g. He has six previous convictionsfor theft.

Paragraph3:

But if the staunchest RomanCatholic and the staunchest Presbyterian had been exchanged when infants, and if they had beenbrought up with home and all otherinfluences reversed, we can have little doubt what the result would havebeen.

wheninfants: elliptical sentence: when they were infants

withhome and all other influences reversed: by exchanging all kinds ofinfluence they’ve got from home or other sources

Paraphrase:Butif they were exchanged when they were infants and brought up in different homesand under different influences, then the staunchest Roman Catholic would be thestaunchest Presbyterian, and vice versa.

Presbyterian（长老教信徒）: a member of thePresbyterian Church, a Protestant denomination

RomanCatholic: a member of the Roman Catholic Church

It is consistent with all our knowledge of psychology to conclude that each would have grown upholding exactly the opposite beliefs to those he holds now……

beconsistent with: be in agreement with

conclude:todraw a conclusion; to arrive at a conclusion

e.g. The results are entirelyconsistent with our earlier research.

Paraphrase: We can conclude,based on all our knowledge of psychology, that each would have grown up havingexactly the opposite beliefs to what they have now.

The same thing is true, of course, of many beliefs other than those of a religious nature.

be trueof:can apply to

e.g. The proverb " it isnever too old to learn" is true of everyone.

otherthan: here means apart from; the traditional meaning is except

e.g. I don’t know any Frenchpeople other than you.

adopt: to take into one'sfamily through legal means and raise as one's own child ; to start to use or toaccept…

e.g. to adopt a child

  adopt a different approach

  adopt a name/title/language

Q: Here the author saysthat some of our convictions are strong because they have been in our mind fora long time, because they were imprinted on our mind when we were littlechildren when we could not judge for ourselves, or because they were passed onto us during our most formative years and often by people we trusted and loved,do you agree with the author? Can you give some specific examples of this kindof conviction(s)?

Note:

formative: having an importantand lasting influence on the development of sth. or sb.’s character

e.g. the formative years ofchildhood 

formative education

Paragraph4:

Of course we do not cease…to adopt new beliefs on meresuggestions… to take only the most strikingexamples, the enormous influence of newspapers and the effectiveness of skilfuladvertising.

ceaseto: stopto do

e.g. You never cease to amaze me!

striking:attractive;noticeable

Paraphrase:Ofcourse it does not mean that when we grow up we no longer have these mistakenbeliefs. We still do. We are still easy and often willing victims of newspapersand advertising.

Phrasesand expressions:

wonderswill never cease: (spoken, usu. ironic) to express surprise and pleasure atsth.

Much of what passes as such is not, strictly, thinking at all. It is themere “parroting” of ideas picked up by chance and adopted as our own withoutquestion. Most people, most of the time, are mere parrots.

whatpasses as such: what people take as thinking

pass as=pass for: be accepted as

e.g. He speaks the language sowell he could easily pass as/for German.

parrot: n. 鹦鹉; one who imitates thewords or actions of another, especially without understanding them

      v. to repeat what sb. else has saidwithout thinking about what it means

Paraphrase: Most people, most ofthe time, are mere parrots. They simply echo, or repeat others’ ideas withoutquestion.

But as we leave childhood, wetend to accept only such new ideas as fitin with the ideas we already hold; …

fit inwith: to say the same thing or follow the same principle; to agree with

Comment: If we tend to acceptsuch new ideas as fit in with the ideas we already hold, they are, strictlyspeaking, no longer new ideas. Therefore it is often the case that when we saywe are thinking, we are really rearranging our deeply-rooted prejudices.

Possible psychological reasons:force of inertia; fear of the unknown; fear of losing face; fear of loss ofinterest, etc.

Can yougive some examples?

e.g. climb/jump on the bandwagon: (infml, disapproving) to join othersin doing sth. that is becoming fashionable because you hope to become popularor successful yourself

Paragraph5:

But we should fully face the factthat beliefs which are merely inherited from the past must have originated at atime when men knew much less than they know today. So the fact that a belief is“old” is no argument in its favour.

in itsfavour: in its support

Paraphrase:Butwe should admit that the beliefs passed on to us by our ancestors are based onthe limited knowledge of the old time. Their beliefs must be lack of strongsupports since it is certain that we know much more than our ancestors did.Therefore, we should not adopt a belief just because it is old.

Paragraph6:

We need especially to be on our guard when we come acrosspropositions which seem to be “obviously” true.

be onour guard: to be very careful

Paragraph7:

When we find ourselves entertainingan opinion about which there is a feeling that even to enquire into it would be absurd, unnecessary, undesirable or wicked---- we may know that opinion isa non-rational one.

find ourselves entertaining: to realize that one is unconsciously doingsth

enquireinto:to find out more information about; to investigate

wicked: morally bad; evil; inSpoken English it can mean mischievous

Paraphrase:Whenwe find that we have the very feeling that our certain opinion is sure to betrue and that we should not question its validity and that if we do so it wouldseem very ridiculous, needless, objectionable, or even evil of us, we shouldcome to the conclusion that this opinion is not a rational one since a rationalopinion is one that is open to question and challenge.

entertain:toextend hospitality toward; to interest and amuse sb. in order to please them; here  (formal.) to consider or contemplate

e.g. to entertain adoubt/suspicion   持怀疑态度

      entertain an idea          考虑一个主意

      entertain few illusions    几乎不抱幻想

Paragraph8:

…, we should remember that thewhole history of the development of human thought has been full of cases ofsuch “obvious truths” breaking downwhen examined in the light ofincreasing knowledge and reason.

breakdown:to cease to be useful; to fail to function; to stop being acceptable

in thelight of: in consideration of; as a result of

Examples of such cases:

    We used to regard the following as obvioustruth: that the sun moves round the earth; the earth is flat; the air isweightless; there is always a king; men are always stronger than women; etc.

Paragraph9:

The age-long struggle of thegreatest intellects in the world to shake off that assumption is one of themarvels of history.

intellect: person of greatintellectual ability

shakeoff:get rid of

Paraphrase: It took manyscientists of greatest learning hundreds of years to struggle against theassumption that the planets moved in circles. The success of getting rid ofthat assumption is one of the miracles in human history.

Thestruggle between the Roman Catholic Church and 17th-century Italian physicistand astronomer Galileo has become symbolic of the clash between authority andintellectual freedom. Galileo refused to obey orders from Rome to ceasediscussions of his theories and was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was notuntil 1992 that a papal commission acknowledged that the church was wrong.

that the church had made a mistake in condemning Galileo.

suggested reading: Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992   ---Maurice A. Finocchiaro

Paragraph10:

Many modern persons find it verydifficult to credit the fact thatmen can ever have supposed otherwise.Yet—they did.

creditthe fact: believe the fact

otherwise: differently

Paraphrase: Many modern peopleare hard to believe that for some time men had ever thought they were thinkingwith their hearts. Yet it is true that the ancient people really thought inthat way.

Paragraph12:

An assumed or dogmaticproposition which had been universally accepted as “obvious”; and which, whenchallenged, was supported by reference to a dogma of Aristotle. Until Galileoactually demonstrated the contrary,nothing could have seemed more beyondpossibility or doubt.

demonstratethe contrary: to prove that the contrary is true by means of a demonstration

beyondpossibility or doubt: be impossible or unquestionable

Paraphrase:Itwas a proposition that had been universally accepted as an obvious truth.Whenever it was challenged, it would be proved true with the strong support ofAristotle’s theory, one of the most firmly held dogmas. It would never bequestioned or doubted if there was no Galileo who proved that the contrary wastrue by means of a demonstration.

Paragraph13:

Progress in human thought seemsto consist mainly in getting rid of such ideas.

Compare:

consistof:to be made of or composed of

consistin:to have a basis in; to lie in; to be found in

e.g. Happiness consists in appreciating what you have.

  True education does not consistin simply being taught facts.

  The committee consists of tenmembers.

  Their diet consisted largely of vegetables.

Para 14:Self-interest (and modern psychology)

a general rule: the personconcerned is about the last person in the world to be able to recognize this inhimself

Para 15: Explanation of“self-interest” in its general sense.

Para 16:Explanationof “self-interest” in its broad sense: our attitude toward our opinion

Para 17: a similar case:desire to justify (finding excuses)

leave noroom for doubt: to make it impossible for people to doubt

clingto:to be unwilling to get rid of sth., or stop doing sth.

e.g. Throughout the trial she hadclung to the belief that he was innocent.

He had one last hope to cling on to.

pay sbto do sth: to bring benefit or advantage to sb to do sth

e.g. It pays to tell people thetruth.

  It pays to forgive others.

  It doesn’t pay to work too hard at the expense of your health.    

is aboutthe last person to do sth: is the least possible person to do sth

attribute…to…: result as resultingfrom

toextend the term: to extend the meaning of the word; to understand the word in a broadersense. 

to besomebody in some circle: to be and important person in a certain group of peoplewho know each other

sour grapes

e.g. He said he didn’t want thejob anyway, but that’s just sour grapes.

Para 18: Sentimental association (definition)

One’s thought is associated withmemories of particular persons who held similar opinions, (illustration) e.g. aman who was hostile to his father in childhood, other examples

Para 19:Itsinfluence on people’s thought

recollection: memory; a thing thatyou remember from the past

e.g. have a vivid/vaguerecollection of sth.

I have no recollection of meeting her before.

To the best of myrecollection I was not present at that meeting.

recollect: v. to remember sth.,esp. by making an effort to remember it

e.g. I don’t recollect what shesaid then.

antagonism: hostility; dislike;resentment

keensatisfaction: strong satisfaction

keen: eager; enthusiasticabout;

e.g. He is very keen to help.

  She is one of the keenest supporters of that team.

keen is also often usedbefore noun, it could mean quick to understand, strong or deep, or verysensitive or sharp

e.g. a keen mind/intellect

  keen interest/satisfaction

  keen sense of smell

  My friend has a keen eye for a bargain.

dispose sb to do sth: to make sb more likely to fell or think a particular way about sth

dispose of sb./sth.: to get red of; todeal with (P178)

Para 20:Fashion (illustration)

Para 21:Itsinfluence on people’s thought (sooner or later our thought become fixed)

Para 22: We tend to have fixedthinking habit (thought pattern)

Para 23: Illustration: peoplewith fixed thoughts are quite common in everyday life.

Para 24: How it functions toour thought and changes us to Old Fogeys.

Para 25: Purpose of this essay:be inquisitive, critical, rational…

wellworn:old because it has been used for a long time

brain-centre (BrE) = nerve centre(AmE) 神经中枢

connectup:join two or more things together

e.g. connect up these computers

stockanecdotes: stories about your personal experiences that you keep telling peoplewhenever you can think of nothing else to tell

e.g. “No comment” isentertainers’ stock response. (P179)

go tothe dogs: to get into a very bad state

e.g. This firm has gone to thedogs since the new management took over.

Phrases and expressions:

everydog has his/its day

rainingcats and dogs

sick asa dog

letsleeping dogs lie: to avoid mentioning a subject or sth. that happened inthe past in order to avoid any problems or arguments

straight can mean honestly anddirectly

e.g. I told him straight that Ididn’t like him.

  Are you playing straight withme?

 

Language Study

allowance: an amount of money that is given to sb.regularly or for a particular purpose

e.g. an allowance of $100 a month

makeallowance(s) for考虑到；估计到；体谅到

e.g. I am tired of making allowances for hislack of experiences.

    Making allowances for bad weather and for my own laziness, I thinkthat the job will be finished before the end of the year.

attribute:

v. a.to relate to a particular cause orsource;

b.to regard as the work of a specified agent orcreator:认为是…所为(所写/所做)

e.g. David attributed his company's success tothe unity of all the staff and their persevering hard work.    

   a symphonyattributed to Mozart

attribute: n. a quality orfeature of sb./sth.

e.g. Organizing ability is essentialattribute for a good manager.

    Lightning bolts are an attribute ofZeus.   

belittle: to make sb. or sth.seem unimportant

e.g. A poor but honest man is notto be belittled.

The size of the office tower belittles the surroundingbuildings.

bungle: v. to do sth. badlyor without skill; to fail at sth.

n. sth. that is done badly and that causes problems

e.g. He bungled the job.

  a bungled robbery

c.f. blunder: v. to make astupid or careless mistake

n. a stupid or careless mistake

adj. blundering; impatient and impetuous 浮躁的

conceive: to form an idea, aplan, etc. in your mind; to imagine sth.; to become pregnant with

e.g. Ancient peoples conceivedof the earth as flat.

  She is unable to conceive.

  …, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceivedin Liberty, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (Gettysburg Address, Lincoln)

dogma: n. a fixed belief orset of beliefs that people are expected to accept without question 教义；教条

e.g. The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequateto the stormy present.                                     ---AbrahamLincoln

dogmatic: a. being certain thatyour beliefs are right and that others should accept them, without payingattention to evidence or other opinions 教条的；武断的；自以为是的

grudge: n. a feelingof anger or dislike towards sb. because of sth. bad they have done to you inthe past 积怨；怨恨

syn: resentment

bear (a) grudge (against): have no resentmentagainst

e.g. I bear him no grudge.

  He has a grudge against the society

v. to think that sb. does notdeserve to have sth.

syn: begrudge

e.g. I grudge having to pay somuch tax.

  He grudges the time he spends idling around.

adj. grudging: given ordone unwillingly

syn: reluctant

headhunting: n. the practice ofobtaining and preserving the heads of one’s enemies   猎头

headhunt: v. to find sb. who issuitable for a senior job and persuade them to leave their present job 猎头

e.g. He was headhunted bya world 500 company.

improvident: a. notproviding for the future; thriftless; incautious  不顾将来的；不节俭的；鲁莽的

e.g. He was constantly beingwarned to mend his improvident ways and begin to "save for a rainyday."

in the light of: after consideringsth. 考虑到；鉴于

e.g. He rewrote the book inthe light of further research.

他根据进一步的研究重写了那本书。

justify: to demonstrate orprove to be just, right, or valid

       证明……正确；为……辩解/辩护；对……作出解释

e.g. It’s hard to justifythe gunman’s killing 32 people in Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech Uni.

  You don’t need to justify yourself to me.

n. justification: a goodreason for sth. 正当理由

legitimate: for which there is afair and acceptable reason; allowed and acceptable according to the law  

e.g. legitimateconsiceration/execuse/quesiton

  Is his business strictly legitimate?  

originate from/in sth.

originate from/with sb. : have sb/sth as acause of beginning or as the creator or author of (sth)

e.g. All theories originatefrom / in practice and in turn serve practice.

  The optic theory originated with Einstein.

  originate a new style of dancing

polygamy n.一夫多妻

rel.monogamy n. 一夫一妻

ant.polyandry n. 一妻多夫

Prohibition: 

    The period (1920-1933) during which the18th Amendment forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages wasin force in the United States.

禁酒时期: 美国第十八条修正案禁止生产和销售烈性酒实施的时期（1920-1933年）

sentiment: feeling or opinion, esp. that based on emotions; feelings of pity,romantic love, sadness, etc. which may be too strong or not appropriate      情绪；伤感；哀伤

e.g. the spread of nationalist sentiments                      

    Anti-American sentimentis running high in some countries

    There is no room for sentiment in business.

sentimental: connected with emotions rather than reason; producing emotions such aspity, romantic love or sadness, which may be too strong or not appropriate   情感的；伤感的

e.g.The ring wasn’t worth very much but it had great sentimental value.

 

Part Three  Assignment

Comment on the text.

LessonFour Lions and Tigers and Bears

PartOne  Warm-up

What do you know aboutCentral Park?

Do you know what New Yorkersthink of Central Park?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

1. The founding commissioners of Central Park

 the city officials who were appointed toestablish Central Park.

Acommissioner is an important official who has responsibility in a governmentdepartment or an organization:
There is a commissioner in charge of the London police force.

2.Genre

 TravelWriting – The Best Travel Writing 2000

“Spinning all these elements into an engaging account of a place and amoment –a night at Central Park, Buford enables readers to get a glimpse ofsomething much broader and longer - the history of and life in New York.”-  book review

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

We see in this essay:

•   the pride and love of the city and the park for itscultural richness and its beauty (both natural and man-made)

•   the fear of the crime associated, the darkness inthe wild

In other words: Ambivalence/ mixed feelings

 

Structure

Para.1-2 my decision on the sleepover

Para.3-12 wandering in the park

Para.13-25 my camping: finding a place and the encounter with the raccoons

 

Detailed analysis

Para 1 – Para 2

When?

Fridayevening in July;9:15

What’sthe weather like?

aheavy, muggy day

Heavy- warmin a sticky unpleasant way, especially before rain or a storm

the skyis heavy; heavy clouds

Muggy -warm in an unpleasant way because the air feels wet muggy weather

Whatwas Ogden Nash trying to say in his poem?

–     The safest place in Central Park at night is the tiger’s lair.

Why?

–     Only a fool, a loon or bad people goes there at night.

 

Para 3 – Para 4

Wheredid he visit?

–     the Delacorte Theatre

–     Belvedere Castle

–     the Henry Luce Nature Observatory

–     Shakespeare Garden

Whatwas his feeling like in this period? Why did he feel like that?

–     Exhilaration

–      (happy, excitement, full ofenergy)

–     enjoy / experience the rich cultural flavor the park offers atleisure

Para 5 – Para 6

Whatdid he do?

–     blundered in Ramble

–     recalled crimes by the lake

Isthere a change of mood in this part? relaxed, leisurely →→ tensed, fearful

Howdoes the author create this mood?

–     quicken the pace by using shorter, incomplete  sentences

–     minute description       

Couldyou give this section a title?

–     the fear the park inspires

•     Why do people have suchconstant fear in the Park?

–     darkness in the wild (Ramble)

–     witnessed dreadful crimes (the lake), an example story of a dreadfulcrime

Para 7

Whatwas the park like in the first period of its history?

1st stage: 1857-1878

Whatwas the park like?

–     In terms of function:

–     the domain of the privileged (band concert on Saturday; to keep therougher elements out; luxurious and secluded)

–     In architectural terms:

–     a combination of Romanticism and French Classicism

 (the twodesign elements)

Paraphrase:

ThePark was to be strolled through, enjoyed as an aesthetic experience,like a walk inside a painting.

–     Aesthetic: relating to beauty (dictionary definition)

–     … is an aesthetic experience:

–     an occasion to enjoy beauty

–     Beautiful scenery, music, and company of well-dressed people; behaved inrefined manners; talking about arts: painting, music

Para 8 – Para 9

Do youfind the little episode interesting?

What isthe tone used in the episode? Is the narration given in a serious vein?   

His new“discovery” about the Park

•     Interesting discovery:

–     a man on his own is frightening 

•     I was emboldened by therealization.

–     Embolden: to make someone brave:

•             Emboldenedby drink, he walked over to speak to her.

•     The author narrated the episodewith:

•      a mischievous sense of humor because he foundit both funny and sad

Para 10

–     What changes took place in the Park at the turn of the century?

–     Who transformed the Park later on?

–     What was New Yorkers’ attitude to the park?

–     What was the author’s attitude to Moses reform? How do you know? 

2nd period of its history: 1900 –1934

•     The Park became:

–      a real public institution in NY

•     The park of the people:

–     taken over by immigrants

•     at its most popular: 

–     venue for a lot of cultural and social events:

–      band concerts

–     New Year’s Eve celebrations

–      races etc)

•     In the tens and twenties thePark was being destroyed by overuse and neglect.

3rd period of its historty:(1934-1960)

•     Robert Moses era

•     What happened in this period?

–     Cleaned up; Rejuvenated

–     Put inrecreationalfacilities

•     This addition is called the American(English? French? Romantic? Classical? )

What is the author’s attitude to Moses’reform? How is his attitude reflected in his language?

•      Moses was legendary

–     famous and admired

•     His addition is efficient,purposeful, and unapologetically American.

–     a sense of pride

•     The irony was that by the endof Moses era the Park was dangerous.

–     Moses did a lot to turn Central Park into an efficient people’s park. Butthe outcome was quite unexpected and sad: by the end of his era the Parkwas dangerous.

This was at the heart of Henry James’ observation.

•        This was the essence/centralidea of his remarks about the Park.

When it was most popular-

•        When it was at its most popular

•        When it was in its best condition

•        When it was at its best

Moses was responsible for the third element to the park

•      …be responsible for a situation or event: be the cause of it

He put in baseball diamonds

•      Put it: install, build

A senior citizen’s recreation center: a euphemism for old people

•      an euphemism for old people

•      Euphemisms: mild, pleasant or in offensive expressions substituted forharsh, blunt or unpleasant ones.

Para 11

•     Where is he now?

•     What did he see at theReservoir?

•     What made him keep his headdown and pick up his pace?

How does the followingdescription compare with the original:

•     Near the reservoir a group ofkids on bicycles cycled across the Eighty-fifth Transverse, ringing the hornloudly.

Para 12

What did he see at the north endof the park?

–     the reassuring city

What struck the author as very beautiful?

–     The city at night, viewed from thepark (what was meant to be an escape from it) is shimmering(shining).

Draw inferences

•      Too much glare. The Park is now framed, enveloped even, by the city, butthere was no escaping the recognition that this city – contrived, man-made,glaringly obtrusive, consuming wasteful and staggering quantities ofelectricity and water and energy – was very beautiful.

•     that seen from the park, thecity is beautiful?

•     the author’s feelings to NewYork ?

•     What kind of beauty is it?

•     What kind of feelings he hadfor the city?

There is no escaping/denying

–      There is no denying that …

–     There's no escaping being human. (We can never escape who we are.)

–     There is no escaping the fact that he has lied. (One can not escape fromthe fact that he has lied.)

–     There was no knowing how long he might be away.

–     There’s no telling when an outburst might come.

Para 13 – Para 25

Where did he camp finally?

–     In the North Woods

North Woods

TheNorth Woods are the dense woodlands covering the northwest Central Park from101st to 110th Street

Para 23

Note the weather changed as theauthor wandered from one place to another:

–     muggy→ heavy→ drizzle→ pour

Is the mentioning of helicoptermeaningful to you?

Part Four  Assignment

Work ingroups of four:

1. 
   

2. How is the essay     organized?

3. 
   

4. What feelings does the     author express towards Central Park and New York City? Do you have similar     feelings for a place?

3.  How doyou understand the title “Lions, tigers and bears”?

 

 

Lesson Five ForWant of a Drink

PartOne  Warm-up

How do you understand the cartoons shown on the PPT?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

TheEconomist

•     An English-language weekly news and internationalaffairs publication edited in London.

•     Founded by James Wilson in September 1843. Forhistorical reasons.

•     Neo-liberal inclination: a supporter of free trade,globalization, free immigration and social liberalism, including legalizeddrugs and prostitution.

Circulation: 1.5 million/week

Water Resources Worldwide

•     World Water Stress:

ü Population growth

ü Expansion of businessactivities

ü Rapid urbanization

ü Climate change

ü Depletion of aquifers

ü Water pollution

ü Water and conflict

Water Resources of China

•     General description:

ü severe water quantity shortagesand severe water quality pollution.

•     China’s water resources:

ü Total water resources (2.84trillion cubic meters): No. 6

Per capita water resources (2100 cubickilometers): No. 88

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

•     Understand the situation of theglobal water crisis

•     Analyze the difficulties inmeeting the water crisis

•     Develop a right approach tocommon international challenges

Structure

1. 
   

2. Introduction: a warning     about a water crisis (paras. 1–2)

3. 
   

4. Causal analysis of water     shortage (paras. 3–5)

5. 
   

6. Difficulty in satisfying     these demands (paras. 6–8)

7. 
   

8. Characteristics of water     as natural resource (paras. 9–15)

9. 
   

10. Reiteration of the value     of water (paras. 16–17)

11. 
    

12. Conclusion: difficulty in     using the resource sensibly (paras. 18–19)

Part I: (paras. 1–2)

Main Idea

Ø Why is water said to be the newoil?

Ø What are the signs of waterscarcity in this part?

Ø Why do you think “Bringingsupply and demand into equilibrium will be painful”? 

Ø Do you agree with the argumentsin this part?

Sentence Paraphrase

•    Bringing supply and demand into equilibrium will be painful, andpolitical disputes may increase in number and intensify in their capacity tocause trouble.

It isdifficult to make people use less water so that the amount of water they usematches the amount that is available. More and more political disputes overwater may erupt and may become more capable of causing more troubles.

Exercise

•     Translate the followingsentences into English, using words in the brackets.

他们的拒绝让步将不可避免地招致来自联合国的更多批评。(invite)

Theirrefusal to compromise will inevitably invite more criticism from the UN.

价格波动是为了使供给和需求实现均衡。 (equilibrium)

Pricesfluctuate in order to bring supply and demand into equilibrium.

Part II: (paras. 3–5)

Ø What are the causes of watershortage?

ü Population growth

ü Higher water demand inagriculture

ü Greater industrial and domesticconsumption of water

Ø What is the green revolution?

A series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives toincrease agriculture production around the world.

Part III:(paras. 6–8)

Ø Why is meeting the increasingdemand of water a difficult task?

The supply of water is finite;

Desalination of salty water is expensive;

Fresh water is not readily available.

Ø  What is the law of conservation of mass?

Part IV:(paras. 9–15)

Ø What are the characteristics ofwater resources?

ü Water being not evenlydistributed

ü Water being local and heavy tomove

ü Underground water beingexcessively used as a free resource

Exercise

•     Translate the followingsentences into English, using words in the brackets.

–     由于环境退化，不宜人类居住，数百万人不得不搬迁。(point)

–     Millions of people have been resettled because their home environmentshave degraded to the point where they are no longer fit for human habitation.

–     该计划的妙处在于简洁明了。(beauty)

–     The beauty of the plan lies in its simplicity.

Part V:  (paras. 16–17)

Ø How do you understand that thevalue of water depends on the use of water?

Ø Which use of water means thehighest value of water? Industrial or domestic use? Why so?

Ø How do you understand thatwater is a human right?

The Right to Water

Ø      “It is now time to consideraccess to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right, defined as theright to equal and non-discriminatory access to a sufficient amount of drinkingwater for personal and domestic uses…to sustain life and health. ”

—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on The Right to Water, 2007

Sentence Paraphrase

Throughout history, man’s dependence on waterhas made him live near it or organize access to it.

--In human history, since man can’t live withoutwater, man has chosen to live close to water supplies or build variousstructures to get water.

Exercise

•     Translate the followingsentences into English, using words in the brackets.

–     我们在荒芜的路上跋涉了很长时间。(trudge)

–     We trudged (along) the deserted road for a long time.

–     物理学家们想知道辐射的压力是否能被用来使物体高高飞起。 (harness)

–     Physicists wondered whether radiation pressure could be harnessed tohelp an item soar.

–     并不是每个企业员工都能有访问所有信息的权利。 (access)

–     Not everyone in the company should have access to all kinds ofinformation.

Part VI:  (paras. 18–19)

Ø What are the consequences? Doyou agree?

Ø How do you understand “Wateris… in his soul”?

Ø Why is water difficult toorganize?

Part Four  Assignment

Work ingroups of four:

Whataccount(s) for your disagreements about water resources?

Howhave you managed to reach a consensus?

Do webehave similarly with respect to other issues in our lives?

 

 

LessonSix The Telephone

PartOne  Warm-up

1.Didthe title tell you much?

2.Whatdid you expect to read

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

Author—Anwar F. Accawi

Born in Lebanon in a family whose ancestors are believed to have gone toJerusalem in the Crusades.While he was living in Lebanon teaching English as asecond language at the American University in Beruit, he married an Americanwoman from Tennessee.

When the civil war broke out in Lebanon, Anwar F. Accawi and his wifewere forced to leave the country and eventually moved to her native city of LaFollette, Tennessee, and later settled down in the States.

As a teacher of ESL/EFL for thirty-two years. He has taught in the USAand in Lebanon, first at the National Evangelical Institute and then at SidonHigh School, Sidon, Lebanon, and also taught at the American University ofBeirut before coming to the University of Tennessee in 1979. He has alsotrained students planning to become ESL teachers.Anwar F. Accawicurrently teaches as a full-time instructor at the English Language Instituteof the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has lived and taught in the U.S.since 1965.

Social Background

Location:

    Middle East, bordering theMediterranean Sea, between Israel and Syria

Ethnicdivisions:

    Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%

Languages:

 Arabic (official), French(official), Armenian, English

Religions:

    Islam 70%   Christian 30%   Judaism

Independence:

   22 November 1943 (from League ofNations mandate under French administration)

Part Three Text Analysis

Plot:The coming of telephone brought some changes into a small village, bothpersonally and socially.

Setting:

socialsetting: in the early 20th century before the process of modernization

storysetting: in the village in Lebanon

Protagonist:“I”—when the author was young

Theme

(1)The text describes, from a boy’s perspective, howthe telephone affected people’s way of life in a Lebanese mountain village: Itbroke the seclusion of the village.

(2) The text raised us a question: what attitude weshould adopt toward new things, whether we should welcome them or boycott them.

 

Structure

Part I (1-10)—village life before the  installation.

Ø  P(1-8): what timemeant to people in Magadaluna

Ø  P(9-10): theauthor’s memory of a draught in his childhood.

Part II (11-25)—changes brought to the village bytelephone.

Ø  P11: Transition

Ø  P(12-18):Installation

Ø  P(19-25): Changeshappening to the village

Part I (1-10):

Questions for comprehension

 1. What was the overall picture of Magdaluna?How did the narrator present the picture?

 2. What did time mean to the villagers? Howdid they keep track of time? What did it suggest?

 3. What was the general life pattern for thevillagers? And what were considered important events?

Para. 1:

  Topic sentence?

Ø  Time didn’t meanmuch to anybody in the secluded village.

  Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  the unchangingcycle of life?

Ø  a traditional,agricultural society?

Paras. 2 -- 8:

  Main idea?

Ø  The villagersused a divine calendar to keep track of time.

  Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  the natural disasters?

Ø  The tone of thenarrator “I” (as a boy)?

Find evidence in this partsuggesting the villagers had a monotonous life.

Find evidence in this partsuggesting the villagers had a hard life.

Find out the expressionsbearing a strong local flavor.

Find the figures of speechin this part.

Paras.9-10

Ø  Why did thenarrator say that the year of drought was one of his best years?

Ø  Do the boy’smemories of that year reveal anything important? What’s that?

Ø  Could you figureout the one of the advantages of adopting a boy’s perspective? …

Para. 11

Main idea?

Ø  The year ofdrought also one of the worst years

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  the boy’sattitude towards the installation of the telephone?

Ø  The division ofideas among the villagers?

Ø  The generalattitude towards the installation?

Paras. 12-18

•      What was thevillagers’ response to the installation of telephone?

•      What did thevillagers think of the telephone men? How did the villagers have such animpression?

•      How differentwere their positions when they came to observe the process? What does thissuggest? (para.13)

Paras. 19-25

                                       

	Before	After	Implication
village center	Im Kaleem’s house	Abu Raja’s dikkan	Mother-- father
activities	Argue about politics, drink coffee, play cards or  backgammon	Exchange rumor, glance   at the phone, drink Kacula,…	Home-- abroad
general   Atmosphere	Bustling at any time of day,   island of comfort, an oasis	Laughter, noise trailed off, stopped…   a skeleton	Life-- death
for me	Lucrative business,   Run errands to make money	Fewer and fewer men came to Im kaleem’s	?

Paras. 19 -- 20:

Main idea?

Ø  Before thetelephone’s arrival, the house of the village whore Im Kaleem was the village’scenter.

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  Im Kaleem’sfeatures?

Ø  Her place as oneof comfort and entertainment? …

Any question(s) in mind?

Ø  Why she wasattractive to those men?

 

The village whore— Im Kaleen

•      Appearance:

   short, middle-aged, jet-black hair

•      Voice:

   raspy, loud (exaggeration)

•      Identity:

   widow, devout Catholic, village whore(what’s special about her being a whore?)

•      Function:

   burden-reliever for women, confessor andtroubleshooter for men

•      Q: How do youunderstand this? Do you agree with the author’s opinion in retrospect?

Para. 21:

Main idea?

Ø  Abu Raja’s dikkanbecame the village’s new center.

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  young villagers’wish to leave?

Ø  Foreign things,esp. American beverage

Para. 22:

Main idea?

Ø  The telephone wasbad news for “me” personally, because “I” could no longer make money out ofrunning errands.

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  the earliercloseness among villagers?

Ø  Boys are boys(everywhere)?

Paras. 23 – 24:

Main idea?

Ø  The telephonecalls did come and villagers started to leave the village, leaving only theold, the sick and the maimed behind.

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  the exodus?

Ø  Many of them weredoing hard, often menial, work?

Ø  There was no morelife / vitality in the village?

Para. 25:

Main idea?

Ø  “My” family alsomoved away, and “I’” am now in the U.S., stilling looking for “that betterlife.”

Any other noted feature(s)?

Ø  Has the authorfound the “better” life he wants? (endless search / pursuit)

StylisticFeatures

•      a strong local flavor

•      figures of speech:

  -- metaphor, simile, exaggeration…

•      humor

•      very descriptive:

•      choice of sentence structures

  -- eg. … and … and … and …

•      choice of “the” before names

  -- Everyone knew everyone else.

Part Four  Assignment

Work in groups of four:

•      Now it’s time toreflect on what we discussed in the first class. Has your understanding of thetext changed? Why or why not?

•      There are severalpossible ways of reading the story. Which way do you like best? Give yourreasons.

 

 

LessonEightEconomic Growthis a Path to Perdition, Not Prosperity

Part One  Warm-up

Please answer the following questions

1. What is the author’s main argument?

2. If economic growth is a path to perdition, as claimed by the author,then in what way(s)?

3. Do you agree with the author? Why or why not?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

This is an interestingessay. It deals with a concept with which we are only too familiar: GDP. Untilrecently this has been almost our national obsession. We have all been unitedto strive for this goal, the goal of raising our GDP. For decades, it has beenthe measurement of our achievement, and the steady double-digit growth rate hastransformed our country into a world economic power. It has filled us withpride and has earned the admiration and envy and awe of many nations. But nowthe author of this article tells us that there are already many seriousthinkers who believe that this obsession of GDP is wrong. He compares this ideato Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at a time when the dominating myth wasit was God who created everything.

Come to think of it. GDP asa national goal indeed is a relatively recent turn of events. In our country ithappened only as a result of the open and reform policy. And the underliningtheory does seem to be sound to a certain degree. Our experience shows that highGDP does equal more profits, more jobs, more of everything for our consumption,and more prestige, power, and glory for the nation. But the author of thisessay challenges this basic assumption. First, he points out that the obsessionof GDP leads to mindless consumerism. It results in the endless churning out ofproducts which are unnecessary and useless (He could have added ‘evenharmful’). Secondly, he argues that GDP-oriented economy is unsustainable andit has already done great damage to human environment. Thirdly, he refutes theassertion that higher GDP is always a reliable indication of greater wellbeingand happiness.

Speaking as an American,it’s interesting that the author expresses his belief that this blind worshipof GDP is inherently deeply rooted in the capitalist system because that systemis dominated by the desire for more profit, for which the rich will leave nostone unturned. The author here is challenging the very foundation of theAmerican society. Of course, in this essay he has neither the space norintention to give a detailed analysis, let alone offer a well-conceivedsolution, but he ends the article on a very optimistic note:

‘The economy is a humanconstruct. It’s not an act of God. We made it, we can change it.’

Part Three Text Analysis

1.       Economic Growth is a Path to Perdition, NotProsperity

It means“Economic growth leads to hell, not prosperity”. Note the use of alliterationhere (Path, perdition and prosperity all start with the letter “p”).

2.       feature writer for the New Internationalistmagazine

feature: a prominent or extra article or story in a newspaper or periodical  特写

the New Internationalist:  a magazine that has articles about people in many different countries,and deals especially with the relationship between rich and poor countries andthe unfair or unequal ways in which some people and countries are treated.

3.       Charles Darwin was a rigorous, meticulousscientist. He spent nearly 20 years honing his analysis … beforepublishing his groundbreaking work.

Rigorous: Here it means exact, accurate, correct, precise, moreor less synonymous with “meticulous:.

Hone: to sharpen or to give an edge to a razor on a whetstone; Here it isused figuratively to mean to revise and polish until it is perfect

4.       Darwin’s slim volume was what we would calla “game changer,” a revolutionary work.

Slim:thin

What we would call: Notice the difference between “what we call” and“so-called”. The latter usually implies some disapproval.

A “game changer”: a revolutionary, groundbreaking work; a work thatchanges the overall views of many scientific fields

5.       Darwin was sailing into choppy waters. The Church of England had set rigidboundaries, and his thesis was clearly a challenge to the orthodox view.

Sailing into choppy waters: coming to a part of the sea that is roughwith small waves; used figuratively here meaning entering a dangerousfield  where you can easily get intoserious trouble

Set rigid boundaries: establish strict rules limiting your thinking oraction; The Church of England at that time would not allow its members to doubtthe Bible. Notice that we also often say: set the rule; set a standard, set alimit

orthodox: accepted and obeyed by most people as traditional and correct beliefsand practices (religious, political or economic)

6.       The establishment of the time mocked him.There was intense public debate. But Darwin was unflinching.

The establishment: See the Notes to the Text

Mock:scorn or ridicule; making sb or sth look stupid by laughing at him/it,mimicking or saying sth unkind; Notice that we often say “mock sb” and “mock atan idea”

Intense public debate: Do not mix up “intense” and “tense”.

                       i.             Intense:great and extreme e.g.: intense heat; intense cold; intense pain; intensepressure;

a)       intensecompetition; intense concentration; intense debate

                     ii.             tense:     nervous, anxious, and worried; We often sayfoe example: a tense meeting, a tense

a)       situation,a tense atmosphere, a tense silence; tense muscles

b)       Unflinching:firm, fearless, staunch, undaunted, persistent; It comes from the verb “toflinch” which

                       i.             meansto suddenly because you are afraid of being hit or hurt

7.       Today his core idea that all animals andplants evolve and adapt through natural selection is the bedrock of modern lifesciences.

Core: When used as a noun, it means the centralpart of a fruit that contains the seeds, but the word if often usedfiguratively. When used a s an adjective, it often means “the most important orbasic”, e.g.  the core idea, the corebelief, the core business, the core responsibility, the core

                       i.             subjects,the core curriculum, the core vocabulary

Bedrock: Used figuratively here, meaning basis,cornerstone or foundation; the ideas and principles

                     ii.             onwhich a belief or system is based

Lifesciences: subjects thatinvolve the study of living things (people, animals or plants) and life

                   iii.             processessuch as biology and medicine

8.       religious fundamentalists and “intelligentdesign” proponents

intelligentdesign: the idea that the worldis so well-ordered, it must have been planned or designed by someone withsupreme intelligence. If we compare the universe to a beautifully designedwatch, then God must be the great watch maker. (See the Notes to the Text formore information.)

proponent: advocate; supporter; defender;apologist     the opposite of opponent

9.       We, too, are trapped in the same sort of false illusion that stymied criticalthought

Betrapped: to be forced intoa position or place from which escape is difficult or impossible

Stymie:  blockthe way

10.   the myth that envelops us is more dangerousand even more deeply rooted.

Envelop: completely surround (Notice that the lastsilent letter “e” is dropped when the word “envelope” is converted into theverb form.)

11.   sustaining myth: everlasting; persistent

12.   Gross Domestic Product (GDP 国内生产总值/毛值)is what drives government policy worldwide.

Gross:including everything (usedespecially to describe a total amount of money that exists before taxes orother expenses are taken away) i.e.  grossincome; gross profits; gross weight

Worldwide:throughout the world(-wide is an adverb suffix)      Compare:

                       i.             Nationwide;citywide; countrywide

13.   The equation has beendrummed into us for so long that it’s received wisdom. Growth equals prosperity andjobs. Growth equals progress.

drumsth into sb: force sth tobe learned by sb by repeating it over and over again

receivedwisdom: widely accepted(Compare: Received Pronunciation)

14.   Yet this is a relatively recent turn ofevents. Using the GDP as a tool to measure growth has only been around sincethe late 1940s when the UN System of National Accounts was developed.

aturn of events:  something important and surprising hashappened

beenaround: has existed   e.g.

                       i.             Haven’tyou read that book? It has been around for years.

the UN System of National Accounts：（From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia）It is

                     ii.             aninternational standard system of national accounts, published first

                   iii.             in1953 and revised in 1968,1993, and 2008.The aim of UNSNA is to provide anintegrated, complete system accounts enabling international comparisons of allsignificant economic activity.

15.     For most of human history, economic growth wasa mere blip.

amere blip: something thatis small or unimportant or that does not last a long time

16.   As the father of green economics, HermanDaly, points out: “Historically, steady state is the normal condition; growthis an aberration.”

HermanDaly (1938-) is anAmerican ecological economist and professor at the Maryland University. He wasSenior Economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank, where hehelped to develop policy guidelines related to sustainable development. He isclosely associated with theories of a Steady state economy. He is also arecipient of many international awards. He is widely credited with havingoriginated the idea of uneconomic growth.

steadystate: a steady way ofliving or existence

aberration:  somethingunusual or abnormal

17.   a constant population and “the lowestfeasible flows of matter and energy

constant: staying the same, not changing

lowestfeasible: ;lowest possible

matter（uncountable）: (physics) the thing that forms physicalobject and occupies space 物质

18.   The latest global economic slump underlinesour reliance on growth. What happens when the economy stumbles? Financialmarkets crash, property values plummet, bankruptcies pile up, unemploymentsoars, and social pathologies multiply.

underlines: Here: shows the importance of sth;emphasize

propertyvalues plummet: Propertyhere means a piece of land often with buildings on it that is

                       i.             ownedby a person (房地产). Plummet means to fall suddenly straightdown, especially from a

                     ii.             highplace (Compare: to drop straight down; to plunge; to nosedive; to tumble; to bein free fall)

bankruptciespile up: bankruptciesincrease to a point hard to manage

unemploymentsoars: unemploymentincreases drastically/rises high/shoots up/climbs swiftly

socialpathologies multiply:social diseases increase to a great number

19.   Thusthe resurgence of Keynesian economics. Prime the pump with billions ingovernment funds. Pray that tax breaks and fiscal stimulus will boostinvestment, production, and jobs.

Resurgence: derivative of surge, a growth or increasethat occurs after a period without growth or

                       i.             Increase(For Keynesian economics, see the Notes to the Text)

Primethe pump: Originally itmeans to prepare the pump for use, usually by pouring water into the

                     ii.             pump.Here it is used figuratively, meaning to use government investment to boost the

                   iii.             economy

taxbreaks:  tax reductions

fiscalstimulus: measures takenby the government such as lower interest rates to

                   iv.             stimulate/encourageeconomic development

boost(investment, production, jobs, etc):  increase theforce, power or amount of something

20.   churning out mountains of consumer goods

churnout: (informal and oftendisapproving) produce something, especially something of low

                       i.             qualityquickly and continuously

mountainsof:  an expression of exaggeration.

21.   Spinning: turning round and round repeatedly

22.   Endless accumulation and expansion is thecore of capitalism:

It is thecore of capitalism because capitalism is driven not by human beings’subsistence needs, but by the search for profit, which is insatiable. Thereforeit must endlessly accumulate for increased reinvestment and expanded business.

1. 23.   before the recent global meltdown

It refers to the global financial crisis that firststarted in the United States in 1998 and then spread to the rest of the world.It is now the beginning of the year 2012, but the global financial crisis isfar from being over.

1. 24.   The upshot is that the natural environment,on which human life and the human economy depend, is sidelined –

Upshot: the final result or outcome of a processor event;

Sidelined: removed or kept from active participationas in athletic contests 使不能参加比赛，成为局外人

1. 25.   but as a realm to be exploited

realm: Here, an area of activity, interest orknowledge

to be exploited: to be made use of; to be put to use; to beutilized

1. 26.   biosphere:  the part ofthe Earth in which life can exist (Compare: sphere; private sphere; sphere ofinfluence; hemisphere; atmosphere; stratosphere)

2. 27.   we are fouling the planet with our wastes:

foul: pollute; make dirty

wastes: materials that are left over or unwantedafter things are made, done or used.

1. 28.   The hard statistics of ecological declinecould fill a library.

Hard statistics: statistics that are certain and canbe proved

1. 29.   We’re chewing through massive quantities ofboth renewable and non-renewable resources at a breakneck speed.

chewing through: Normally we say that a mouse chewedthrough a cord. Here, chewing through implies that we human beings are actuallywasting and destroying large quantities of resources

1. 30.   In 2005, the UN Millennium EcosystemAssessment, a collaborative work of more than 10,000 scientists, found that 60%of “ecosystem services” – things like climate regulation, the water cycle,pollination, global fisheries, natural waste treatment – were being degraded orused unsustainably.

the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment：The report made by the United Nations to assess theconsequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, theassessment involved the work of more than 1360 experts worldwide. Theirfindings provide a state-of-the-art appraisal of the condition and trends inthe world’s ecosystem and the services they provide, as well as the scientificbasis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.

ecosystem services: Humankind benefits from amultitude of resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems.Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and includeproducts like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition ofwastes. These services were popularized and their definitions formalized by theUnited Nations’ in 2004 in its Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

the water cycle: It describes the continuous movement ofwater on, above and below the surface of the Earth. Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and solid at various places in the water cycle.Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time,individual water molecules can come and go, in and out of the atmosphere.

pollination:  theplacing of pollen (a powder produced by flowers)  from one flower on another in order to helpit to produce seed were being degraded: were being made worse.

1. 31.   Ecological Footprint: See the Notes to the Text.

2. 32.   extracting from the planet: takingsomething from the planet by the use of machines or chemicals       

     Compare: extract; distract; protract; attract;subtract; contract

1. 33.   a subset of the economy: a small group of things that is part ofthe whole economy

2. 34.   It deals in averages so the rich/poordivide is blurred.

Deal in: use or be involved in

The rich-poor divide: the separation between the rich and thepoor

Be blurred: be unclear

1. 35.   Those of us in the rich world are way abovethe average.

Way  adv. (informal) to a great distance orextent; very far     e.g.

       He lives way up north.

       In terms of per-capita income, they arestill way ahead of us.

       We are bosom friends from way back in thefifties of the last century.

1. 36.   Equivalent: something that has the same value, use, meaning etc.as another thing   e.g.

There is no equivalent for this English word inChinese.

One acre is the equivalent of 6 Chinese mou.

The applicant must have a university undergraduatedegree or its equivalent.

1. 37.   keep up with our demands: go at the same rate as demands      Notice the subtle differences between catch up with/overtake, keep upwith and outstrip/surpass.

2. 38.   Ecologists call this phenomenon“overshoot.” It’s a temporary state that becomes increasingly untenable asstocks of resources are depleted.

Phenomenon: Remind students that the plural form ofthis noun is “phenomena”.

Overshoot: accidentally pass the place where youshould have stopped

Untenable: incapable of being defended againstattack or criticism

stocks of resources: supply of resources available for use

deplete: greatly reduce the amount of somethingimportant

1. 39.   we’ve been drawing down the biosphere’sprincipal rather than living off its annual interest.

Note the metaphorical use of principal and interestwhich refer to natural resources such as land, water, air etc. and what humanbeings produce by using those natural resources. The former are usuallyrenewable whereas the latter are for human beings’ consumption. But now we nolonger just live on our products. We are destroying nature itself, which is,beginning to use up our principal.

Draw down: We say “draw money” meaning taking outmoney. Draw down is not a common verb phrase. It is coined by the author tomake an antithesis with “live off” which means “depend on sth for the money youneed”.

1. 40.   liquidate resource stocks: destroy all the resources we have (stock: a supply of something that isavailable for use)

Note that this is an informal usage. The basic meaningof “liquidate” is to sell a business or property in order to pay off a debt.

1. 41.   Oil is the main culprit. The burning offossil fuels, especially petroleum, powers the global economy.

The main culprit: mainly responsible for the crime; culpritis the person who has committed a crime or done sth. wrong

Fossil fuels: fuels formed in the earth from deadplants or animals such as coal, oil, or natural gas

Power the global economy: drive the world economy

1. 42.   Oil is an extraordinary feat ofconcentrated energy: three teaspoons of crude contain about the same amountof energy as eight hours of human labor. Geologist Colin J. Campbell hit the nail on the head:

Feat:  anachievement

Concentrated:  asubstance made stronger or more pure by removing its water

Crude: crude oil

Hit the nail on the head: (figurative) say something that is exactlyright or true击中要害；一针见血

1. 43.   Napoleon said that an army marches on itsstomach

Napoleon meant that an army could not fight on emptystomach; in other words, food supply is the most important thing for anarmy. 

1. 44.   But it’s a Faustian bargain. The costs nowexceed the benefits.

A Faustian bargain: an unwise business contract ortransaction, like Faust who sells his soul to the devil for power andknowledge. The costs surpass/outrun/dwarf the benefits

1. 45.   greenhouse gas emissions, mostly CO2, themain byproduct from the combustion of fossil fuels. The more oil and coal weburn …the more we tip the balance.

Greenhouse gases: gases (such as CO2) that cause thegreenhouse effect—warming the Earth atmosphere by trapping the warmth from thesun.

Emission: noun of emit which means to send out gas,light, energy etc.   Compare thefollowing verbs and their corresponding nouns: emit; remit; omit; transmit;permit; commit; submit (-mittere  Latin,meaning to send)

Combustion: burning

Tip the balance: tipthe scales; change the situation so as to give an advantage to someone orsomething

1. 46.   Leading climate scientists: most important or authoritative climatescientists

2. 47.   We’re currently at 390 ppm and projected tohit 650 ppm by the end of this century.

Currently: right now; at present

Be projected to hit: bepredicted/expected/estimated/forecast (that …) to reach

1. 48.   This translates into an average increase …of about 4C. If this projection plays out, we’re in big trouble.

Translate into:   changesomething into a different form or to express something in a different way e.g.

The total cost would translate into US dollars in theamount of 10 million.

Scientific and technological development willeventually translate into economic growth.

Play out:developor end in a particular way; happen or occur usually in a gradual way  e.g.

       Be patient. Let’s see how things playout.

    The meltdown of the nuclear power stationwas finally put under control, but the consequences would play out for years ifnot decades.

1. 49.   Even on its own terms, growth isn’tworking. We avoid talking about the skewed distribution of the planet’s wealthand income, dreaming instead that we can grow our way out of the problem.

On one’s own terms: in one’s own way; according to one’s own conditions;by its own definition e.g.

She considered herself quite successful on her ownterms.

Isn’t working: isn’t having the intended effect orresult

Skewed distribution: distribution that favors a particulargroup of people in a way that is unfair

Grow our way out of theproblem: solve the problemthrough economic growth

       Comparethe following:

       Someeconomists believe that we can invest our way out of a slump.

       At firstthey succeeded in exporting their way out of economic stagnation, but thispolicy

             aroused s strong upsurge of protectionismin many countries.

       This bravearmy finally fought its way out of the enemy encirclement.

1. 50.   So the richest 20% of the world’spopulation consumes the lion’s share of resources, while the poorest 80% havetoget byon the crumbs.

The lion’s share: the largest part of something

Get by (on/with): be able to live or to do what is needed bywhat you have even though you

       do nothave much  e.g.

       Our familywas poor, but we got by.

       How longdo you think we can get by with the little money we have saved so far?

Crumbs:      (figurative)very small pieces of baked food such as bread or cake

1. 51.   We place growth above equality and pay aprice in what’s called “the hidden injuries of class.” Shorter, unhealthier,and unhappier lives addicted to a mindless consumerism.

The hidden injuries of class:the more subtle harm doneto people by a class society

Addicted to a mindlessconsumerism:hooked to astupid consumerism   Mindless people arepeople who do not think about what they are doing.  Here it refers to those people’s behavior.For consumerism, see The Notes to the Text.

1. 52.   Free market cheerleaders believe thattechnology and human ingenuity will solve the problem. The economy can be“de-coupled” from material inputs, …. This is whistling in the dark.

Cheerleaders: girls chosen for their attractiveappearance and ability to jump and perform dance-like movements during footballand basketball games. Here, proponents; supporters, advocates; apologists

Ingenuity: cleverness at making or inventingthings     (Notice its relationship with‘genius’)

1. 53.   …but average improvements of 2% a year wereeclipsed by growth rates of 3% or more. Increased technical efficiency isswamped by increased consumption.

To be eclipsed by: to be surpassed by; to be dwarfed by

To be swamped by: to be swallowed up by; to beengulfed/flooded by

1. 54.   theNew Economics Foundation found that, to stabilize carbon emissions …, thecarbon intensity of the global economy would need to fall by 95%.

2. 55.   Ramping up GDP: (informal) improving our GDP

3. 56.   We’ve been captured by a myth far morealluring than the one that Charles Darwin confronted 150 years ago: We have been seized by a myth much moreattractive than the one Charles Darwin had.

4. 57.   living beyond our ecological means: living in a way that our ecology cannotafford

5. 58.   Theglobal population is expected to jump by 3 billion ….Most of that increase willbe in the South, where poverty is entrenched….Justice demands that we in the rich countries retched back our growth and clear some space

Jump by 3 billion: increase by 3 billion  (Not: increase to 3 billion)

In the South: Here, in the Southern hemisphere.

To be entrenched: to be placed in a strong position thatcannot be easily changed  e.g.

       Some ofour habits have been entrenched since childhood.

       Men’sentrenched attitude toward women is difficult to change.

Retch back our growth: throw up/vomit what you have eaten toomuch

1. 59.   Are we upto it?

Are we capable of performing or dealing withsomething?

Notice that “up to” here is used in a newmeaning.  Compare:

His behavior roused my suspicion. I was certain thathe must be up to something.

1. 60.   The economy is a human construct: The economy is a human concept.

Construct: an idea or theory formed in people’s mind

Part Four  Assignment

Work in groups offour:

•     What is the main idea of the documentary?

•     Do you find Al Gore’s arguments convincing?Any argument or reasoning you find not valid?

•     What is the main opposition presented in thesecond clip? Are you convinced?

•     What is your opinion on global warming: isit a real danger? If it is, what should we do to tackle this problem?

 

LessonNineThe Damned Human Race

PartOne  Warm-up

l  Which of thefollowing words can best describe this essay? Serious and matter-of-fact?Scientifically detached and objective? Hilariously humorous? Bitterlysatirical?

l  What is the mainidea of this essay? What is the Darwinian theory? How does the author come todoubt this? Is that the result of scientific experiment?

l  Is Mark Twainserious when he says that he has done many months of painstaking and fatiguingwork in the London Zoological Garden? What effect do you think he hopes toachieve with this mock seriousness?

l  How does theauthor contrast human beings with other animals?

l  Please list thespecific human traits and dispositions that he condemns in this essay.

l  Why does he saythat man is the cruel animal? What examples does he give to illustrate the point?  What arguments does the author give tosupport his  views?

l  Do you think weshould take Mark Twain’s views seriously? Do you agree with him? Are we really that bad? Isn’t there some savinggrace in the human race?

l  What devices doesthe author use to make the article interesting?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

The author

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an Americanauthor and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of TomSawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel.“Twain grew upin Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for HuckleberryFinn and Tom Sawyer. He achieved great success as a writer andpublic speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and hewas a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would"go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet'ssubsequent return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of hisage,"[ and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of Americanliterature."

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

Within his essay of TheDamned Human Race, author Mark Twain powerfully declares that the human race isboth flawed and corrupt, and that people actually should be classified as"lower animals" rather than the formerly known "higher animals.”

Structure

1.      Thesis statement,how the “research” is conducted (paras. 1–2)

2. Process of the“research”, various traits and dispositions of human beings as contrasted tothe “higher animals” (paras. 3–17)

3. Conclusion (paras. 18)

Writing features

•        tongue-in-cheek tone

•        Imitating scientific experiment

•        Formal language (big words, long sentences, academicstyle)

•        Humor and satire

1. I have been studying the traits and dispositions ofthe “lower animals”, and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions ofman. I find the result humiliating to me.

I have been studying thecharacteristics of the so-called lower animals in comparison with those of man.The result of this study makes me, as a man, feel terribly ashamed.

traits and dispositions: characteristics; features;nature; qualities; personalities

humiliating: making me feel ashamed;embarrassing; mortifying

Notice the tongue-in-cheek way the author expresseshis ideas. He makes it sound as if he were conducting and reporting on theresult of a scientific investigation. In other words, he is deliberately usinga pompous style to achieve humor.

2.For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to theDarwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals and to name it theDescent of Man from the Higher Animals.

Because the result of mystudy forces me to give up (to abandon) my loyalty to (firm belief in )Darwin’s theory of evolution and to change the theory of the Ascent of Man fromthe Lower Animals to the theory of the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

to oblige sb to do sth: to force sb to do sth; tomake it necessary for sb to do sth

to renounce: to abandon or give up; toreject or disown

allegiance: loyalty, esp. to a nationor a cause

3.That is to say, I have subjected every postulatethat presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment.

In other words, I have putevery theory or hypothesis there is to the decisive test of actual experiment.

to subject sht/ sb to sth: to cause sb/sthto undergo or experience sth unpleasant or difficult and often for a longtime,e.g.

   They weresubjected to very cruel tortures.

   The desertification subjected people livingin that area to great hardships.

postulate: (fml) assumption; theory;hypothesis

that presented itself: that happens or exists, e.g.

   when theopportunity presents itself you must seize it at once.

4. It also seemed to suggest that the earl wasdescended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition.

It also seemed to show thatthe earl came from the anaconda and had lost a lot of the anaconda’s goodqualities in the process.

to be descended from sb: to be related to sb wholived a long time ago

5.Iwas aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than theycan ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheatthe ignorant and the helpless out of their poor saving in order to partiallyappease that appetite.

I knew that many men whohave more money than they can ever use have shown a mad desire to get more, andthey have not hesitated to cheat poor people and their few saving in order tosatisfy that desire.

rabid: uncontrollable (Note: it is related to rabies,which is an acute, infectious and often fatal disease of dogs, also known ashydrophobia, transmitted by the bite of the infected animal)

to have not scrupled to do sth: to have nothesitated to do sth because of trouble conscience or embarrassment from moralconsiderations

to cheat sb out of sth: to trick or deceive sb inorder to get an advantage, e.g.

to cheat sb out of his moneyor job or land,etc

   Compare: to talk sb out of sth; to trick sbout of sth

the ignorant and helpless: the uneducated andpowerless people; the poor laboring people in general

to appease: to satisfy or relieve(hunger, thirst, desire, etc)

6.Catsare loose in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from thecat, has brought the cat’s looseness with him but had left the unconsciousnessbehind—the saving grace which excuses the cat.

Cats are immoral, but theydo not know it. They just can’t help it. Man has inherited cats’ looseness, butnot their innocence, which is what excuses the cat for its low morals.

to be loose in morals: immoral

the saving grace: the redeeming quality; thequality that makes up for the generally negative characteristics.

7. Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity--- these arestrictly confined to man; he invented them.

These are only man’sproblems. They are limited to man. They only happen to man

8. No--- Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is theonly one that does it--- or has occasion to.

No, man is not the onlyanimal that laughs, but it is true that man is the animal that blushes. He isthe only animal that does it or has the need to.

to have occasion to do sth: to have the needor necessity to do sth

Notice that Mark Twain is saying here that only manneeds to blush because he consciously does bad, immoral things.

9. Man--- when he is King John, with a nephew torender untroublesome, he uses a red-hot iron;In the case of King John whowanted to get rid of his nephew he used a red-hot iron to torture him.

King John: was the youngest son ofHenry II. During his brother Richard I’s absence on the third Crusade, Johnhimself declared king and later held his brother in captivity.He was believedto have murdered his nephew Arthur I of Brittany. This and many other cruel thingshe did made him extremely unpopular, and finally a civil war resulted duringwhich he died, presumably poisoned.

to render sb untroublesome: to cause sb tobecome untroublesome; to prevent sb from making trouble for him (King John’sthrone had been stolen from his nephew. Therefore he thought his nephew posed athreat to him.)

10. The cat is moderate--- unhumanly moderate,… shedoesn’t dig out its eyes, … or drive splinters under its nails--- man-fashion;when she is done playing with it, she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it outof its trouble.

unhumanly moderate: reasonable, not so violent,not so excessive or extreme, unlike human beings( Unhumanly is not to be mixedup with inhuman. It is actually a word coined by the writer.)

man-fashion: like man; as man does

to be dong doing sth: to finish doing sth

to make a meal of: to eat it up

to put sb out of his trouble: to end sb’strouble

11. There is not an acre of ground on the globe thatis in possession of its rightful owner…

Not a single pieces of landis in the hands of its original owner. Every piece of land has been stolen.

Mark Twain is referring to the fact that the world hasbeen, in the course of history, divided and re-divided countless times throughwar.

12. Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animalwho enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has alwaysheld other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another.

Mark Twain is referring tothe idea that in the history of human civilization, our society has always beenbased on some kind of exploitation of man by man. No one is free. Everyone is aslave of one form or another and at the same time enslaved those under him.

to hold sb in bondage: to keep sb in the state ofbeing a slave

13… and in the intervals between campaigns he washesthe blood off his hands and—works for “the universal brotherhood of man”---withhis mouth.

…and when they are notfighting each other, they will start talking about peace and universalbrotherhood, but without any sincerity. Man, according to Mark Twain, is notonly cruel and warlike, but also hypocritical.

to work for… with his mouth: to pay lipservice to …; to give empty promises to…

the universal brotherhood: the idea that allliving human beings are brothers and sisters to each other四海之内皆兄弟的思想；博爱

Note that the word man= humankind （men and women）。Theworld brotherhood also includes women in this sense.

14. He was at it in the time of the Caesar’s, he wasat it in Mohammed’s time, he was at it in the time of the inquisition, he wasat it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary’s day,he had been at it ever since he first saw the light

to be at sth: to be engaged in a certainactivity

The Caesars: in the times of Caesars,the early Christians were cruelly persecuted by the Romans.

Mohammed: in Mohammed’s time, theMuslims were cruelly persecuted.

Inquisition: it means that “inquiry” or“investigation”. Specifically, it refers to the former tribunal in the RomanCatholic Church directed at the suppression of heresy. 

(Queen) Mary: in Mary’s day, theProtestants were persecuted.

to see the light: to come into existence, tobe born.

15. And so I find that we have descended anddegenerated, from some far ancestor--- some microscopic atom wandering at itspleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perhaps… down the longhighway of perfect innocence, till…

And so I find that withoutknowing it, we have descended and deteriorated from our ancestor---some tinyatom which moved about freely and happily in the huge world of a drop of waterperhaps… perfectly innocence during this long process of change… until we havefallen to the bottom, to the lowest stage of our development and become humanbeings.

to do sth at one’s own pleasure: to do sth whenyou want to

microscopic: extremely small, only seenunder a microscope

mighty: awesomely huge

the long highway of perfect innocence: the long processof our change from one insect into another, one animal into another and onereptile into another, all completely innocent, until we become human beings andlose all our innocence.

PartFour  Assignment

In Book 3, thereis a text entitled “We Are Only Human” in which the author strongly argues thatwe human beings should be and can be superior to other animals. But in thisarticle, the author feels strongly that human beings are the least fit forsurvival. What do you think of these two authors’ views?

 

LessonTen The World House

PartOne  Warm-up

What does a house suggest toyou?

What do you think “the worldhouse” mean? What did King mean by it?

Could there be any otherinterpretation?

Part Two   Background Information

Author

Martin LutherKing, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr.,but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family'slong tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attendedsegregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age offifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, adistinguished Negro* institution of Atlanta from which both his father andgrandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at CrozerTheological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of apredominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With afellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University,completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommonintellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were borninto the family

In 1954, MartinLuther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, Kingwas, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization ofits kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to acceptthe leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration ofcontemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by GunnarJahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United Stateshad declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroesand whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King wasarrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at thesame time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he waselected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, anorganization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civilrights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity;its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-fivehundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; andmeanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, heled a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entireworld, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his"Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution;he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; hedirected the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom hedelivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrestedupwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded fivehonorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; andbecame not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age ofthirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received theNobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he wouldturn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rightsmovement.

On the evening ofApril 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis,Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with strikinggarbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

According toKing…

•     Whatkind of world we are inhabiting?

•     Whatchanges that are and will be taking place?

•     How tocope with the changes?

•     Whatto worry about?

•     How tolive in the world house?

Structure

•     Part I(1-2): introduction to the idea of the “world house”

•     PartII (3-8): a worldwide neighborhood as a result of dramatic developments

–    Paras.(3-5): scientific and technological revolution

–    Paras.(6-8): worldwide freedom revolution

•     PartIII (9-15): how to cope with the social changes

–    Paras.(9-10): staying awake, transforming the worldwide neighborhood into a universalbrotherhood

–    Paras(11-14) bridging the gulf between our scientific progress and our moralprogress

–    Para15: a spiritual and moral reawakening

Part I (1-2): Main Idea

King maintains that all inhabitants in theworld must learn to live in peace together. Do you think we can reach thisgoal? What must we do to learn to live together in peace?

It is known to all that King is a civilrights leader whose greatest dream is racial harmony. How does he relate thisstruggle to the challenges people confront throughout the world? What are thechallenges? Do they apply to today’s world? Are there any threats that evenKing did not foresee?

Part II-section1 (3-5): Main ideas

How did King describe the furniture, rooms,decorations, etc. of this “World House”?

How in King’s opinion was this “worldwideneighborhood” brought into being?

What changes that King predicted have cometrue? What are those that have not been fulfilled?

Which predictionshave come true?

–    Physicalscience will carve new highways through stratosphere.

–    Astronautswill probably walk comfortably across the uncertain pathways of the moon.

–    Itwill be possible to fly from New York to London in two and one-half hours.

–    Medicalscience will greatly prolong the lives of men by finding a cure for cancer anddeadly heart ailments.

–    Automationwill make it possible for working people to have undreamed-of amounts ofleisure time.

Part II-section 2 (6-8):  Main ideas

Comment on the quote from Alfred NorthWhitehead:

-         whencivilization is shifting its basic outlook; a major turning point in historywhere the presuppositions on which society is structured are being analyzed,sharply challenged, and profoundly changed.

What do you think King had in mind when hetalked about the “presuppositions” being analyzed, challenged and changed? Canyou think of any other presuppositions that have been or are being challenged?

What specific significance does it havewhen King mentions the biblical story of Moses and exodus? What message do youthink King wanted to convey by making a comparison between oppressed Negroesand the enslaved Hebrews?

Eastis moving West

Those poor developing countries are nowquickly catching up with the developed countries in the West.

Somethingwithin has reminded the Negro of his birthright of freedom, and somethingwithout has reminded him that it can be gained.

Deep in his heart he knows that freedom ishis birthright. And what is happening in the world convinces him that he can befree.

Part III-section 1 (9-10): Main idea

Why refer to the story?

Why should we stay awake?

How is staying awake related to universalbrotherhood?

King believes that there is a gulf betweenour scientific progress and our moral progress. Does it in any way apply to oursociety today? Do we have this “gulf”? Or is the outcry of “moral decay” anoverstatement?

King maintains that moral persuasion andspiritual awakening are all we need to make the world house a place of perfectharmony. Do you agree? What is your solution to our moral and spiritual lag?

RhetoricalDevices

Simile

All over the world like a fever, freedom isspreading… (7)

…moving toward their goal like a tidalwave. (7)

Metaphor

…rising from dungeons of oppression to thebright hills of freedom. (7)

This does not mean that we must turn backthe clock of scientific progress. (14)

Historical/literary/religious allusion

Muses

Wip Van Winkle

King George III of England

Antithesis and parallelism P.65, exercise 2

PartFour  Assignment

Work in groups of four:

•      Are there anylines in this essay that strike you as particularly penetrating orthought-provoking? Is there anything in this essay that you don’t quite agree?

•      Suppose King wasmaking this speech and you were among the audience, what question would youlike to put to him during the question hour?

 

LessonEleven Soldier's Heart

PartOne  Warm-up

1. What did you anticipateabout the content when you first saw the title?

2. Soldiers’ determinationand will-power?

3. Solders’ patriotism andsense of responsibility?

4. Soldiers’ sympathy fortheir fellow human beings?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

War, this complex phenomenonin our life, has been one of the most favorite subjects in art and literatureas well as in serious academic studies. In literature, war has been describedas a conflict between justice and evil; a battle of wits and a demonstration ofmilitary powers; a display of noble patriotism and courage as well as arevelation of human wickedness, cruelty and stupidity.

The text, however, does notdeal with any of this. It is a first-person narration of World War II veteranabout his personal experience, his feelings and sufferings during the war andthe physical and psychological scars the war left him with.

Generally, war isrepugnant, but peace is welcome. While peace is the ultimate goal of all of ourundertaking in this world, war has been inevitable in the course of humancivilization. Does man have an innate taste for war? Or is it just an acquiredscheme learned from human society? We only know that there hasn't been anyperiod in the history during which the world was really at peace. Human beingspursue peace and prosperity through the establishment of families, communities,and nations. Why should we let all these be destroyed by wars?

    To reduce the possibility of war to thelowest extent, there are two suggestions. First of all, education should beconsolidated to eliminate the brutality and beastliness in human nature.Knowledge derives from education and is a surer road to wisdom. Wisdom enablesus to distinguish right from wrong. It also teaches us restraint and tolerance,two effective means of preventing wayward killing and destruction.

Another cure isreligion. Most religions in the world advocate philanthropy and forgiveness,which dissolve hatred and revenge. Consequently, education and religion workingside by side can transform a barbarian into a civilized person. With wisdom andlove, the human race as a whole will detest war and embrace peace

  Peace, from human appeared, until today it isbecause of the formation of the vocabulary of war, is considered by some peoplesince the scope of "war crimes". The Korean people will never forgetthat, the Afghan people will never forget, the Iraqi people will never forget."Peace" and "war" are twins, they are interdependent anddepend on each other. In this world, there is war there will be peace, there ispeace there will be a war.

Part Three Text Analysis

Structure of thetext

Part I : (paras. 1-3) his vivid warmemories

Part II: (paras. 4-11)hislife immediately after the war

Part III : (paras. 12-19) his life afterbeing discharged from the hospital

Part IV: (paras. 20-27) Why he kept writing about war

Detailed analysis

Part I

1. What did the author’s vivid memories of the war show about hisstate of mind?

Writing Techniques in Part I

the use of present tense

the use of simile

Like aspecies of animal;  …as though the airwere being torn.

words describing sounds

shrieks,purring, drumming

words describing motions

scraping,vanish, burdened, spread out, run forward, crouch…

words describing different terrains covered by the soldiers

smallfields, flat landscape, forest covered with snow, river, mountains...

Part II

his life immediately after the waràsufferingfrom soldier’s heartàreceivinghospital

treatmentàNever tobe understood by politicians

1. What can you infer from these sentences?

–    I returned to the university. (para. 4)

–    I have a vague recollection of sitting withother students in a room…(para. 4)

–    …it was the course for upper divisionstudents known as the Colloquium. (para. 4)

–    I was reading furiously about everything.(para. 4)

–    The patients in this hospital saw verylittle of the doctors. (para. 8)

–    Much of the time, especially during theevening and night hours, they (three guards) ran the ward. (para. 8)

2.What symptoms does the author have forhis “soldier’s heart”?

–    Heart beating faster (para. 7)

–    Tremble, sweat, and on occasion, pass out(para. 7)

–    Walking in the fog (para. 10)

–    Hearing voices (para. 11)

–    Flashbacks (para. 1,2,3,13)

Part III

his life after being discharged from the hospital

continuing to suffer from the disorderà request for returning to the college turned downà back to the university by a side door

1. Was the author completely cured when hewas discharged from the hospital? What are the symptoms that remained with him?

–     a heart that beat faster, and shaking, and sweating

–     imagining shells falling and hearing the sound ofguns

–     having the habits that remained with soldiers

–     reliving the war almost every night in his dreams;having nightmares

keep an eye peeled/open/out for

•      你留神一下加油站。

–     Keep your eyes peeled for a gas station.

complain of

•      难民诉说被官员抢夺并殴打。

–     Refugees complained of being robbed and beaten byofficials.

at close range

–     wide/broad/wholerange of

–     within/outof range of

–     long/shortrange missiles

•      死者是被近距离射中头部的。

–     The dead man was shot in the head at close range.

•      一切准备就绪，等敌人一进入射程，我们就开火。

–     Everything is ready. We’ll open fire as soon as theenemy come within range.

•      这样的阅读旨在扩大学生的知识面。

–     This kind of reading is aimed at enlarging thestudents’ range of knowledge.

test

•      我们饮用水的纯度应当定期进行检测。

–     The purity of our drinking water should be regularlytested.

Part IV

Battle of the Somme

•     June 24 ~Mid-Nov.,1916

•     The largest scale battle, turning point

•     Most deadly: 1.34 million (Germany, Franceand Britain)

1. How did the author feel when he discovered that most young peopletoday do not remember the history of those terrible wars?

2. Why did he think it was important for people to know the longpast wars?

3. In what way did the war change him? Did it change him in hisattitude toward people? What was his general opinion of the men and women hewas working with at the university? Why did he feel that way?

 

Writing Device:

Hyperbole is a figure of speech which is an exaggeration.

 Persons often use expressionssuch as "I nearly died laughing," "I was hopping mad," and"I tried a thousand times."

Such statements are not literally true, but people make them tosound impressive or to emphasize something, such as a feeling, effort, orreaction.

Hyperbole derives in Greek —huperbole，means exceed。

For instance：a river of tears (泪河)

a mountain of coal (煤山)

oceans of people (人海)...

They were deaf to people’s complaints.

I’m the happiest man in the world.

The whole world seemed to have turned golden.

1）You are mylifesaver.（你是我的“救命恩人”。）

2）My back killed me.（我的腰痛的厉害。）

3）I haven’t seen youfor ages. (好久不见了呀！)

4）I could sleep for awhole year. (我太困了。)

5）We’re all tired todeath. （我们快累死了。）

6）It’s a crime to stayinside on such a beautiful day. 今天阳光明媚，躲在家中实在太遗憾了。

7）A drop of ink maymake a million think.一滴墨水写成的文字可让千万人思索。Language Study

A matter of

Things will get better: it’s just a matter of time.

Learning a language is not just a matter of memorizing words.

When I left the house I locked the door as a matter of course.

Burden

The burden of economic sacrifice rests on the workers of the plant.

The burden of organizing the campaign fell to me.

burden with

使负重担(如债务、捐税等), 麻烦

adj.  burdensome

shelter

They found shelter in a cave.

We took shelter from the rain under a tree.

Many people try to shelter their children from the outside world.

This new housing program will promise that all inhabitants will besheltered.

find/take/seek shelter from…

Shelter  通常指提供暂时的保护、免受伤害或攻击而被覆盖或包围的区域：

Cover  暗指提供庇护的某物，如灌木：

Retreat  主要用于某人为沉思、平静和独处退居的隐居场所：

Sanctuary  指神圣的或不可侵犯的避难场所：

Discharge

To discharge a patient / a soldier.

a train discharging commuters.

To discharge a pistol.

To discharge the defendant.

To discharge a court order

撤销/射击/放出；腾空/释放；使退伍/宣判…彻底无罪/开除, 免除(义务)

discharge sb. from an obligation

shell

n. 贝壳, 壳, 外形, 炮弹

 vt. 去壳, 脱落, 炮轰

 vi. 剥落, 脱壳

the shell of a walnut

a tear shell

illuminating shell

照明弹

a blind shell

未爆炸的炮弹

Sly

adj.  acting or done in asecret, often cunning way  狡猾的

 suggesting that one knows 会心/意的

It was sly of you not to tell me that you’ve been married.

当吉米进来的时候他向他的弟弟投去会意的一瞥。

He cast a sly glance at his brother when Jimmy came in.

Controversy

controversy about/over sth.

The author’s new novel aroused a lot of controversy.

The point in controversy is not whether we should do it, but whetherwe can do it.

irremediable

adj. impossible to remedy, correct or repair

irremediable errors in judgment

an irremediable loss

an irremediable mistake

to speak for sb/sth: toexpress the thoughts, opinions, etc. of sb/sth, e.g.

    别人想什么我不知道，我只是表达自己的观点。

       What others think I donot know, I can only speak for myself.

I believe I’mspeaking for many others present at this meeting when I say that we will neverforget the things you have done for us in the past two years.

to keep an eyepeeled/ open/ our for:

(infml) to look or watch carefully for; to be on the lookout for

rain or shine   风雨无阻

up and down 往返

to and fro 来来回回

back and forth 前前后后

far and forth 到处，远处

far and near   远近

dos and don’ts  注意事项

sooner or less 高低贵贱

take up:

Let's take up where we left off.

The extra duties took up most of my time.

take up mountain climbing.

Let's take up each problem one at a time.

took up a friendly attitude.

crops taking up nutrients.

took up engineering.

Diminish:

Traffic decreases on holidays.

Lack of success decreases confidence.

Use your seat belt to lessen the danger of injury in an accident.

Decrease 和 lessen 在大多数上下文中可互换，指稳定或逐步的减少：

The workers reduced their wage demands.

Reduce  强调在大小、程度或强度方面下降或减少：

Their savings dwindled away.

Dwindle  含有一点一点减少直到消失的意思

An occasional outburst didn't diminish my respect for her.

The warden's authority diminished after the revolt.

Diminish  含有拿走或除去的意思

Casualty:

n. the loss in numbers in action against the enemy through injury,death or other causes死亡（人数），伤亡人员

Examples:  road  casualties   交通事故伤亡人员Both sides had suffered heavy casualties.

Console: Console yourselfwith the thought that you did your best.

       你可以安慰自己的是你已经尽了最大的努力。

       I didn’t like lying butI consoled myself that it was for a good cause.

我不愿意撒谎，但我安慰自己那是出于好意

Insofar:   I’ll help youinsofar as I can.我一定尽力帮助你。

       "Insofar as I cansee, the representatives are all satisfied with the arrangement."

＂据我了解，代表们对这一安排都感到满意。

Part Four  Assignment

Discussion

Doyou agree with the following statements?Why or why not?

The day when nobody comes back from a war it will bebecause the war has at last been properly organized.

Today the real test of power is not the capacity tomake war but the capacity to prevent it.

War is only cowardly escape from the problems ofpeace.

There are no warlike peoples---just warlike leaders.

War can only be abolished through war.

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor howjustified, is not a crime.

 

LessonTwelve Onwards and Upwards

PartOne  Warm-up

Does this unit “Onwards and Upwards” deal with thesame subject as Unit 8 “Economic Growth is a Path to Perdition”? Why or whynot?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

Historiographyof Progress

Origin: Latin progressus,meaning "an advance“

•     Historiography

Ancient Greece: the theory of world-cycles or thedoctrine of eternal return

Epicureans, Xenophanes and Plato: seeds for Progress

Renaissance: curiosity and individual potential to beGod-like

Enlightenment: scientific and societal advance

American Revolution: progress potentials of the"Empire of Liberty"

Enlightenment

•     Acultural movement of intellectuals in the 17th and 18th centuries

•     Firstin Europe and later in the American colonies.

•     Purpose:to reform society using reason, challenge ideas grounded in tradition andfaith, and advance knowledge through the scientific method.

•     For:science, skepticism,intellectual interchange

•     Against:superstition, intolerance,abuses by church and state.

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

How do youunderstand “…the idea of progress has become impoverished”?

Why do peopleargue so?

How shall“Progress” be defined?

What do you thinkis human destiny?

Structure

1. The concept of progress:Now and Then (paras.1-6)

2. Problems withthe concept of “Progress” (paras. 9–21)

3. Silver-line:Moral sensibility and governance (paras. 22-28)

Part I:

What is the new argument about progress?

Can you give any concrete examples for “morals andsociety are treading water or…sinking back into decadence and barbarism”?

Political left

•     Acceptor support social equality

•     Opposesocial hierarchy and social inequality

•     Biggovernment

•     Society:Progressivism

•     Economy:Keynesianism/Marxism

•     Environmentalism

Political right

•     Acceptor support social hierarchy and social inequality

•     Believeinequality to be natural and even desirable

•     Smallgovernment

•     Society:Conservatism and traditionalism

•     Economy:Laissez-faire capitalism

What didoptimists in the Enlightenment and the 19th century think of human destiny:

Happy and worthy lives

A better world

What was thebig question then?

How to bring about progress

The popularview is that, although technology and GDP advance, morals and society aretreading water or, depending on your choice of newspaper, sinking back intodecadence and barbarism. (Para. 1)

People generally believe that while technologies are constantly upgradedand economy continues to grow,  the samedoes not apply to morality and society. People of different politicalaffiliations even believe that human beings are falling back to the days whenthey were uncivilized barbarians.

Part II:

In addition to these statistics, what else does progress denote?

happiness

fulfillment

Do you agree? Why or why not?

People born inthe rich world today think they are due a modicum of health, prosperity andequality. They advance against that standard… (Para. 8)

People from the rich countries believe they have are entitled toreasonably good health, economic wellbeing and equal rights.  prosperity and equality, and they expect toachieve them in their life…

Politicalcorrectness: the avoidance of forms of expression or actions that exclude, makelittle of, or insult certain racial, cultural or other groups.

Examples:     Police officer vs.policeman

                     migrant workervs. peasant worker

Political correctness often is satirized.

What does the author say about science as a source of progress?

How do you interpret “Science and technology constitute a primaryproductive force”?

To what extent do you think the author will agree with “catch phrase”?

What is instrumental for science to do good?

Is there acorrelation between happiness and GDP? How?

Economic growth ≠ emotional welfare

Why is thecorrelation weak, according to the author? What do you think?

Status-consciousness

Part III:

What are thearguments against government?

The right: too much government intervention

The left: too little government intervention

How is moralsensibility related to governance?

Governance  embodies some moralsensibility.

Governance is the institutional face of moral sensibility.

What isGovernment?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, thatamong these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to securethese rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomesdestructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolishit, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principlesand organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely toeffect their safety and happiness. --Declaration of Independence

According toSusan Neiman, what are the challenges facing humanity?

Consumerism

Petty self-interest

How does SusanNeiman define moral sensibility?

People’s behavior should beshaped by what is right despite the costs.

Moral sensibility is whypeople will suffer for their beliefs.

And it is thesignificance of courts that can hold states to account when they,inevitably, fail to match the standards that they have set for themselves.(para. 24)

States frequently fail fail to live up to their high moral standards andhonor their promises. When this happens, it is the court that  can hold states responsible and force statesto explain and accept punishment or criticism for bad or wrong actions ordecisions. This explains the important role played by courts. 

What is thetrue meaning of progress?

Moral progress: an endless pursuit of ideals for their own sake out ofour sense of human dignity.

Consumerism

•      First used in1915: "advocacy of the rights and interests of consumers" (OxfordEnglish Dictionary).

•      Since 1960, morecommonly: "emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumergoods" (Oxford English Dictionary); that is, a social and economicorder that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greateramounts

•      Ineconomics:  economic policies placingemphasis on consumption;

To a certain degree: a part of media culture

“Human dignity”, she writes, “requires the love of ideals for its ownsake, but nothing requires that the love will be requited.” Ms Neiman askspeople to reject the false choice between Utopia and degeneracy. (para.28)

Ms Neiman writes, “We must love ideals out of our sense of dignity ashuman beings, not for the sake of any reward.“ Today many people tend to thinkthat we are either utopians who have unrealistic ideals or degenerates who haveno ideals at all. We can only choose between the two. But Ms Neiman asks peopleto refuse to make this choice because it is mistaken.

Part Four  Assignment

Work in groupsof four:

•     Is theequation “onwards=upwards” possible?

•     Whatwill be the key to ensure that onwards can always bring upwards?

 

LessonThirteen Cord

PartOne  Warm-up

•      Do you still remember “a dispute abouttime”? (In My Day, Book III) say something about that.

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

Author

Edna O'Brien(1930~ )

Irish novelist, playwright, poet and short storywriter

Influence from Byron, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Joyce,Tolstoy and Woolf

The inner feelings of women, and their problems inrelating to men, and to society as a whole.

"The mostgifted woman now writing in English"--Philip Roth

"One ofthe great creative writers of her generation"--Mary Robinson

Her Works

Country Girls Trilogy:

The Country Girls (1960),

The Lonely Girl (1962)

Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964)

A Pagan Place (1970)

Lantern Slides (1990)

Time and Tide (1992),

House of Splendid Isolation (1994)

In the Forest (2002),

Saints and Sinners (2011)

Generation Gap

Generation gaprefers to the vast differences in terms of attitudes, experiences and tastebetween people born a certain amount of time apart who are living at the sametime.

Generation gapsform when two age groups begin to see the world from significantly differentperspectives.

Part Three Text Analysis

Theme

•     Who isto be blamed for generation gap, parents or children?

•     Isgeneration gap becoming more serious a problem or not in modern times?

•     Isfamily still relevant today? Why or why not?

•     How tocope with generation gap within a family?

Structure

I. Theintroduction: the mother’s arrival in London. (paras. 1–15)

1. 
   

2. Her departure from Ireland and her     flight to London. (paras. 1–5)

3. 
   

4. Reunion between mother and daughter at     London airport (paras. 6–15)

II. Themother’s 8-day stay with her daughter Claire. (paras. 16–95)

1. 
   

2. The first evening (paras. 16–28)

3. 
   

4. The second day. (paras. 28–88)

5. 
   

6. The rest of the mother’s stay. (paras.     89–95)

III. Theconclusion: The mother’s departure two days later. (paras. 96–105)

1. 
   

2. The mother’s changed appearance.     (paras. 96–97)

3. 
   

4. Changed relationship between mother     and daughter: overtly polite but less close. (paras. 98–105)

Part I:

What kind of a mother she is? Any textual evidence?

Housewife,traditional, religious…

What kind of a daughter Claire is? Why so?

Working women, modern,non-religious, expressive…

Do you find the daughter different? Whom did themother think “her daughter was different” from?

“But otherwise?”Claire said. This was a holiday, not an expedition into the past. (para. 13)

Apart from that,would you say you had a good trip? Her mother had come to spend a holiday withher. She shouldn’t think or talk a lot about things that had happened betweenthem in the past, especially anything she’d better forget.

Part II:

Why do you think the mother prepared all the presents?

Chicken, bread andeggs

A tapestry of achurch spire and a holy water font

Ashtrays made fromshells and lamps converted from bottles?

How would you account for the daughter’s response tothe gifts? Why did she lie?

How are the tones of the following two sentencesdifferent?

You’ll stayseventeen days.

Are you stayingseventeen days?

Which one do you use when talking to your parent(s)?

What kind of a man was the father? Any textualevidence?

Alcoholic

Frustrated

Domineering

Abusive

What are the signs of difference between the motherand the daughter on the second day?

Claire’s friends

The hat

The mother’s storyabout the old shoes

Ornaments at home

Dressing

Make-ups

Place of interests

What are bohemian people like?

People who liveunconventional, usually artistic, lives.

Why did Claire think her mother would suffer them?

The “Trio”

What kind of lifestyle did Claire live with? Anyevidence from the text?

What was the social background of the story?

Counterculture

Sexual liberation

What kind of a life could you piece together for thedaughter?

Treated badly bythe father but not protected by the mother

Escaping to Londonseeking love but hurt by various men

Troubledconstantly by loneliness and occasional emotional break-down

How did the relationship change between the daughterand the mother?

Polite to eachother in an unreasonable way

Father away

Part III:

Why was anything “enduring” or anything “that wouldatone” said at the departure?

Part Four  Assignment

Work in groups offour:

•     Haveyou mother done similar things when meeting you in Beijing or seeing you offfrom your hometown as the mother did in the text?

•     How doyou usually react to their ways?

•     Why doyou  react that way?

 

LessonFifteen A Letter to American Jews

PartOne  Warm-up

1. What do you know about the Arab-Israeli wars inmodern times? Were Palestinians and Israelis enemies in history?

2. Please introduce to the class the Palestine-Israelconflict.

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

It is the hope of the compilers that thistextbook will be designed in a way conducive to the training of language skillsas well as critical thinking plus the exposure of students to knowledge inimportant fields. Therefore it is necessary to cover as wide a range ofsubjects as possible, and we feel that we cannot afford to make internationalrelations a missing link. This text is chosen to fill this gap.

Internationalrelations is difficult to handle partly because this subject is usually verysensitive, and whatever choice the compilers make will be challenged. TheIsrael-Arab conflict has been one of the hot spots in the world for more thanhalf a century. It is particularly complicated. To settle the problem, threewars have been fought, many people have lost their lives, including an Arableader and a Prime Minister of Israel who tried to negotiate a peace acceptablefor both sides. But the solution is still not found. Both regard theirreligious heritage, territorial rights, geopolitical interests, ethnicalidentity as unnegotiable. Both have strong reasons and powerful supports fortheir position. This is one pathetic example showing how difficult it is forpeople to learn to live harmoniously in this ‘World House’ Martin Luther Kingdesignated romantically.

Three questionsare worth asking if we want to break this Middle Eastern deadlock:

(1)   Can we reject the idea of ‘the survival ofthe fittest’, the idea that the one who has a bigger fist wins? Can we find areliable mechanism to achieve peaceful settlements?

(2)   Can we find a win-win solution ininternational relations?

(3)   Can we learn to think globally and get rid oftribalism in all its expressions?

Cultural tips

•     Refuseniks:refusal to obey specific orders; refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces(IDF) in any capacity

•     pacifistsand anti-militarists

–    disagreementwith the policies of the Israeli government as implemented by the army, such asthe Disengagement plan or occupation of Palestinian territory

–    youthwho are not interested in military service and wish to pursue other activities

Part Three Text Analysis

Structure

Part I Paras. 1-3Introduction: A reply to anti-refuseniks sentiment

Part II Paras.4-19 A criticism of Israel’s self-delusion and its war of terror againstPalestinians

Part III Paras.20-22 A call for action 

Part I

1. What message doyou think the refuseniks were trying to promote in the ad published by Tikkan?

2. Why do youthink the majority of American Jews felt so bitter about the refuseniks’ ideas?

3. How does theauthor understand the Israeli effort in grasping control of the Palestine area?

4. Please definethe term “tribalism”. Is tribalism exceptional in the middle east? Pleasesearch the latest news for other evidence of tribalism.

Part II

1. In thissection, the author discussed several Israeli military attacks on Palestinians.What are they? According to the author, what are the cause and effect of thefighting?

2. What isconsidered as a turning point of the whole affair? What does it mean to theauthor?

3. Why does theauthor believe the Israeli government and the IDF should take the blame for the50 years of conflict?

4. In what waydoes the mainstream Israeli hostility toward Palestinians resemble the idea oftribalism?

Part II

1. How does theauthor understand the current public support for the government decisions?

2. What are thetwo options for the Israeli public?

3. What does theauthor call for?

Theme

•     Whydoes the author feel obliged at the moment to address the Jewish community inAmerica? What is the immediate issue at concern?

•     Whatstrategy does the Israeli government adopt in handling the conflict withPalestinians? How do they defend their positions?

•     Whatdoes the author think of the “throw-us-into-the-sea” paradigm?

•     Whatevidence does the author present to argue that the IDF is fighting not a waragainst terror, but a war OF terror?

•     Whatdoes he propose to the Jewish community?

 

Language Study

1.     the Israeli reservist refusenics：

agroup of people in the military reserve of Israel who refuse to  obey the orders of their government to treatPalestinians as sub-humans.

2.      bombardedwith hate mails and phones:(figurative) hit or attacked by hate mails and phones repeatedly or constantly

hate mails: mails expressing hatred

3.      sincewe came out with our public pledge to refuse: since we openly declared our pledge to refuse tofight .

come out with something: to say or express something (such as anidea; here a pledge)

4.      sproutup:  to appear suddenly and in large numbers                   

5.     we must lay morality and conscience tosleep, shut up and fight to kill—or else, the Palestinians will throw us intothe sea.

Laymorality and conscience to sleep: put morality and conscience to sleep; forgetabout them; do not let them bother us

6.                   Does this ring a bell to you? 

 Does it soundfamiliar to you?

7.                   …they know not to mess with us any more: …they know not to make us angry or arguewith us any more

8.                   the Liberated Territories: They denote the territories Israeloccupied. 

9.      the1973 war, also known asThe Yom Kippur War, The Ramadan War or the Fourth Arab-IsraeliWar, was fought on October 6, 1973, between Israel andsome Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The war began with a massive and successful Egyptiancrossing of the Suez Canal. Then the Syrians coordinated their attack on the Golan Heights. Israel recovered and launched acounter-offensive. The Israelis defeated the Egyptians decisively, crossed theSuez Canal, and advanced southward and westward. By 24 October, the Israelishad completed their encirclement of Egypt's Third Army. This development led totensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, aceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. At theconclusion of hostilities, Israeli forces were 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Damascus and 101 kilometres (63 mi) from Cairo. The war had far-reaching implications. The Arab World, felt psychologically vindicated byearly successes. In Israel, the war effectively ended its sense ofinvincibility and complacency. The war also made the United States initiate newefforts which paved the way for the subsequent peace process.

10.               those throw-us-in the-sea Arabs came totalk with us, and in exchange for all of Sinai they would sign a full peace：The author is referring to Sadat, the EgyptianPresident who agreed to make peace with Israel on those terms.

11.               The IDF chief of staff shouted that it is ahoax

Hoax: an act that is meant to trick or deceive people

12.             from day one: from the very beginning

13.             Well, lucky for the country, the governmentand the majority of the people employed a different logic, and the peace withEgypt was not missed.

Employ a different logic: use a different logic

14.               the throw-us-into-the-sea paradigm

paradigm: (formal) here: a set of ideas that are used forunderstanding or explaining something, especially in a particular subject   e.g.

Thethesis of Mark Twain’s essay ‘Damn the Human Race’ is a direct challenge to theDarwinian evolutionary paradigm.

15.  Therewas an inconvenient reality on the Northern border, and even though the forceson the other side had strictly adhered to a secret cease-fire …, they wereArabs and therefore could not be trusted. So we talked ourselves into invadingLebanon and setting up a friendlier regime there.

Notethe sarcastic tone used here. What the author calls ‘an inconvenient reality’actually means a serious threat, and what he calls ‘a friendlier regime’ meansa puppet regime. The author is deliberately speaking in the words of hisopponents.

Adhere to:  to stick to;to act in the way required by a rule, a law, an agreement, a promise etc.

Talk oneself into doing something: persuade oneself to do something that hethinks he has good reasons to.

16.  Themastermind was defense minister Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres, then head ofopposition

Mastermind:  a person whoplans and organizes something

Then the head of opposition: at the time the leader of the oppositionparty

ForSharon and Peres, see the Notes to the Text.

17.               WhenI understood that the government had lied to me in order to sell me this war, Iturned from ‘center-rightist’ to ‘leftist’.

Sell me this war:  topersuade me to accept or approve of this war

18.               to soothe our endless paranoia andsuspicion, we created that perpetual source of death and crime ironically knownas ‘the Security Zone’.

To soothe: to cause something (such as pain, suspicion etc) togo away or become less severe

Paranoia:a serious mental disease that causes you to falselybelieve that other people are trying to harm you

19.               It took many years, a lot of blood and FourMothers—against almost all politicians, generals, and columnists—to finallypull us out of Lebanon.

Four Mothers: Probably they mean ‘four motherfuckers’, which areextremely offensive words used by the author to show his disgust for the fourgovernment leaders between the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, May 14, andthe final withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000. Note that the twowords are both capitalized. This is a device used by the author many times inthis letter for emphasis. 

        Motherfucker:an annoying person (offensive)

Columnist: a person who writes regularly for a newspaper ormagazine on a particular subject

Pull out of: withdraw from

20.               But not the Palestinians. Because thePalestinians are too painfully close, like a rival sibling, we have singled them out for a specialtreatment.

Rival sibling: competing brother or sister; brother or sistercompeting for parents’ favor or personal achievement

Single someone out: to choose someone out from a group forspecial attention

21.       There we have created an entirelyhallucinatory reality, in which the true humans,members of the Nation of Masters, could move and settle freely and safely,while the sub-humans, the Nation of Slaves, were shoved into the corners, andkept invisible and controlled under our IDF boots.

Hallucinatory reality: reality that causes hallucinations

Hallucination:something that you think you can see or hear that is not really there,especially because of a mental illness or the effect of drugs

Move and settle freely: move and settle down freely

Sub-human: people who are not as intelligent or kind as normalhuman beings;   sub-: (prefix) at a lower rank or secondary level

The Nations of Masters and the Nation ofSlaves: In racists’rhetoric, certain nations are chosen by God to rule other nations. They aremeant to be the nations of masters.

Shove: to push along or away in a rough or careless way

22.               I did and witnessed … deeds that I’mashamed to remember to this day.

Idid and saw things that I am ashamed to remember

Notethat we normally should avoid such collocations as ‘do a deed; dream a dream;die a death etc’ unless the objects are preceded by an adjective to make itspecific, i.e. ‘do a heroic deed; dream a terrible dream; die a natural deathetc’. But even so, it would be more natural to say ‘did something heroically; hada terrible dream; died naturally, etc’.

Something pornographic: something showing or describing nakedpeople or sex in an open and direct way to cause sexual excitement, andtherefore perhaps implying sexual assault.

23.               …exploding in our face:

In our face: in our presence; right in front of us

24.  Whena fledgling and hesitating peace process tried to work its way through thismess, one major factor … that undermined it and voided its meaning was ourestablishment’s endless fear and suspicion of The Other.

A fledgling and hesitating peace process:  apeace process just getting started and is slow and uncertain

Fledgling: a bird that is developing feathers necessary forflying or has just become able to fly

Void: (legal term) to make something invalid; to say thatsomething is no longer in effect; to abolish or renounce

The Other: The other aide or the other party   Note the capitalization for emphasis.

25.               There they are, we said in relief, now wesee their true face again.

Therethey are: (or: There youhave it) This is a colloquial expression used to indicate that something hashappened as predicted or that something is completed or done in a satisfactoryway

Inrelief: feeling relaxedand happy because your idea has been proved.

26.               But what about the existential threat, youmay ask? What type of existential need are we answering in trampling thePalestinians?

Existentialthreat: a threat relatingto human existence (Existential threat is not the same as existing threat)

       Answerthe need: meet the need; satisfy the need

        Trample: to cause damage or pain bywalking or stepping heavily on some one or something

27.               So here’s the deal. I don’t buy the “theywant to throw us into the sea” crap.

Sohere’s the deal: (informal) So this is the basic information about me or about mypresent situation.

Buythe crap: (informal) toaccept or believe this as true.

       Crap: (informal and impolite)  junk; shit; nonsense  e.g.

       Idon’t believe all that crap.

       Noneof them are worth buying. Just a bunch of crap.

       Cutthe cap! Tell me the truth!

28.               throwing them a couple of crumbs in whichthey can set up pitiful, completely controlled

            Bantustansin between our settlements and bypass roads, and believing it to be a great actof “generosity”, does NOT come close to answering this basic demonstration ofhistorical justice,

Settlement: ausually recently built small village; a newly settled place

Bypass roads:     roadsthat go around crowded places

Does not come close to: is far from

29.                     violent acts of killing and destruction,those which some people still try to explainaway as    “surgical acts of defense”

       Explainaway: to give a reason for an action so that you will not be blamed for it

       Surgicalacts of defense: This is often used as a euphemism of brutal war action oraggression.

30.                     But the worse type of terror is the silentone, which has continued unabated since 1967 and through the entire Osloprocess.

Unabated: continuing at full strength or force without becoming weaker

Through the entire Osloprocess: See the Notes tothe Text

31.         It is the terror of Occupation, ofhumiliation on a personal and collective basis, of deprivation and legalizedrobbery, of alternating exploitation and starvation.

This is the mass of the iceberg on apersonal and collective basis

       deprivation:the state of being deprived of the things you need for a good or healthy life

       alternating:changing between the two

       themass of the iceberg: the huge lump of the iceberg that has no clear ordefinite shape

32.                     deporting all Palestinians have been partof our Knesset…map

deport: expel from a country

theKnesset: the Israeliparliament

33.                     General Effi Eitam, fresh out of the military, …

Freshout of the military: justleft the army to go in for politics (See the Notes to the Text)

34.                     Nazi rhetoric : language used by Nazis to influence people that maynot be honest or reasonable

35.                     Haven:   a place whereyou are protected from danger, trouble etc.

36.                     I feel hair-raising horror: I feel frightening horror   

37.                     reserve duty as an intelligence officer

reserve:a military force that isadditional to the regular armed forces and that is available if it is needed.

Intelligence: secret information that a governmentcollects about an enemy or possible enemy

38.                     allude to the Nazi horror

allude(to): to speak or mention something/someonein an indirect way

39.                     …while our mind sleeps our muscles tightenthe death grip, instead of doing the only sensible thing—which is to let go.

Tightenthe death grip: make thetight grip even tighter    

deathgrip: a very tight hold onsomething

letgo: stop holding orgripping something or someone (We can say ‘let somebody/something go, or let goof somebody/something, or let go somebody/something)

40.       Will you guys join the hypocrite mobssinging lullabies to Israel, and pouncing upon the refuseniks…

       hypocritemobs: hypocritical mobs

       singlullabies to: sing songs to send children to sleep, used metaphoricallyhere

       pounceupon sb: (figurative) jump suddenly upon somebody

41.                     the Seder:

thefeast commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, celebrated on theeve of the first day of Passover.

42.                     sitting on the fence: unable or unwilling to decide aboutsomething

43.                     May you have a happy Holiday of Freedom.

The Passover is a holiday of freedom for the Jewish people because thiswas the day their forefathers escaped from the enslavement of the EgyptianPharaoh.

Part Four  Assignment

Imagine you are anIsraeli refusenik addressing to the Israeli public. Explain your points ofview, defend the cause of justice and persuade the audience to take sensibleactions as soon as possible.

 

Lesson SixteenMan of the Moment

PartOne  Warm-up

1.What has happened to VicParks and Douglas in the past 17 years? How to understand the title “Man of theMoment”?

2.Do you find it strangethat an ex-bank-robber should have become a famous TV personality and remainsuch a scoundrel(恶棍)?

3.What is the wider socialproblem the author tries to reveal besides personal issues?

4. Can you give a briefintroduction to all the characters? And which character(s) impress(es) you most? Why?

5. What does the play intendto tell us: goodness is  forgotten, butbadness will live forever?

Part Two   BackgroundInformation

1. About the author

Alan Ayckbourn(1939---?),English playwright and director ,was born in London in 1939 .He isone of  Britain’s most prolificdramatists  and widely performed ofEnglish language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director.

He had his first play  produces in 1959 and since  then has written 62 plays  for the theatre. He is known for the wit and ingenuity(巧妙，心灵手巧) with which he portrays（描绘，扮演） the foibles（怪癖） and anxietiesof  England’s suburban middle class andtheir conflicts  with those in the socialspheres above and below them, Since 1970,Ayckbourn has been artistic directorof  the Stephen Joseph Company inScarborough ,where he began his career, and her has taught at Oxford Universitysince 1992.His antibourgeois(反对中产阶级的) farces(闹剧), many of whichwere also produced in the United States and a number of which have beentelevised,

Alan Ayckbourn’s Man ofthe Moment (1990) is a play about, among other things, representation,truth, reality, hyper(宣传人员 ) reality and hyper consumerism(用户至上主义). The story lineis simple. Vic Parks, a once bank robber and an ex-convict, is now a wellsought after media celebrity. He is presented as a writer, benefactor(捐助者) and a kind ofpop star as well. Vic is killed in his Mediterranean summer Villa by acquaintancesfrom his past and present. To help promote hyper consumerism and hyper reality,media has transformed the story of his murder to something different.

2. About the text

Man Of The Moment features one ofthe most fascinating and memorable characters in the Ayckbourn play canon准则，标准. In Vic Parks,Alan Ayckbourn creates  a character of appealing charisma [kə‘rizmə]神秘的个人魅力 and barelycontained violence who is as close to depicting the epitome [i’pitəmi]缩影 of evil thatAlan Ayckbourn has ever got. He dominates a play which directly tackles处理，解决 issues of goodand evil, while taking a satirical swipe尖刻的话 at our obsession with thefacile 温和的world of television and celebrity名声.

Here was the inspiration forMan Of The Moment, which also fulfilled Alan’s desire to tackle theissue of good and evil and to see whether he could write two convincing andequally interesting characters who epitomized [i‘pitəmaiz]概括 both sides of the moralbalance.

The play is also aboutAlan’s scepticism怀疑论 of the media and the direction television is going.It deals with how the media manipulates 利用its audiences and howcertain people can manipulate the media or allow themselves to be shaped by themedia to create often undeserved fame and celebrity名声、名人.

3. Comedy

Comedy (from the Greek,komodia) as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended toamuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must becarefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre,whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy,the public opinion of voters was remarkably influenced  by the political satire performed by thecomic poets  at the theaters.

A comedy of mannerstypically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upperclass society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms习性 of its members.Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning急速增长的 romance inhumorous terms, and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.

Much comedycontains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict,repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations, but there are manyrecognized genres of comedy. Satire and political satire use ironic comedy toportray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thusalienating their audience from the object of humor. Satire is a type of comedy.

4. Black Comedy

Black comedy ,also known asblack humor or dark comedy(荒诞喜剧), is a sub-genre次种类型 of comedy and satire（讽刺剧） where topics andevents that are usually treated seriously ---death, mass murder, sickness,madness ,terror, drug , rape, war ,etc---are treated in a humorous orsatirical manner. Synonyms created to avoid possible racial overtones includedark humor , morbid病态的 humor , gallows绞架 humor and off-color.

Black comedy is similar tosick comedy ,such as dead body jokes. However, in sick humor most of the humorcomes from shock and revulsion（厌恶）; black humor usuallyincludes an element of irony , or even fatalism（宿命论）.

Part Three Text Analysis

1. Structure

PartⅠ(para1--37):In Vic’s villa Douglas saw Vic insulting his maidSharon.

PartⅡ(para38--86): Douglas  had aconversation with Vic’s wife Trudy about the bank raid 17 years ago and its influenceto his wife.

Part Ⅲ(para87--104): Douglas left ;Trudy found Sharon ready to kill herselfand talked with her about Vic’s cruelty.

Part Ⅳ(para105--173):Vic talked Sharon into drowning herself and gotdrowned himself.

2. Theme

Man of the Moment is a play about, among other things, representation,truth, reality, hyper reality and hyper consumerism, above all, a meditation onfame and morality.

3. Plot

Plot: seventeen years after the bank raid, theex-bank robber and the hero are brought together again to see how differentfate has affected their lives.

Scene: in Vic’s Spanish villa                  

Protagonists: Vic (the ex-convict) & Douglas (thehero)

Conflicts: Major conflict:  Vic v.s Douglas; Minor conflicts: Vic v.sTrudy; Vic v.s Sharon

Climax: Sharon killed Vic in the swimming pool,bringing every conflict to a close.

4. Language understanding

1. Some days Icouldn’t look at her at all. My hands would shake and my voice used to crackwhen I spoke and I’d feel sick in my stomach. (Para. 39)

I loved her so much that sometimes I did not evendare to look at her. Often when I saw her, my voice would go hoarse and I wouldfeel sick.

2. Shewas generally very nice and polite, but, so far as romance went, I think I wasdefinitely at the bottom of the reserves as far as she was concerned. (Para.39)

She was nice and polite to me just as she was toeverybody. But if we are talking about love, I definitely would be the last oneto win her heart. (I definitely would be her last choice.)

3. How rotten.Aren’t people rotten, sometimes? (Para. 50)

How terrible! How disgusting! Don’t you think peopleare terrible, deserting their friends like that?

4. Sharon,it’s passing thing, I promise. It’s something we all go through. (Para. 98)

Sharon, I can assure you that this feeling won’tlast very long. You will grow out of it. We all have this experience when weare young.

5. Andif you are honestly clinging on to life in the hope of getting one tiny scrapof care or consideration back from that self-centered, selfish man, then all Ican say is, you’d better jump in there now, Sharon, and cut your losses. (Para.104)

And if you really want to continue to live hopingthat you will get a little bit of care and consideration from that selfish andegotistic man, then my only suggestion is that you’d better jump into theswimming pool now, so that you will not be hurt more.

6. Sharon,understandably, is a little shaken by this outburst. (Para. 104)

Sharon had never expected Trudy to say these thingsabout her husband. She is shocked.

7. Nobodywould miss her except the national union of bakers. (Para. 137)

Nobody cares whether she lives or dies. She is of noimportance to anybody except to the national union of bakers, because she issuch a big consumer of their products.

8. Douglasreacts like a charger on hearing the bugle call. (Para. 144)

Douglas responds like a fearless horse when it hearsthe bugle call.

(History is now repeated. Vic, though now rich andsuccessful, is still the bank robber in his heart, and Douglas, though awarethat what he did seventeen years ago was rash and silly, reacts exactly in thesame way when the occasion arises.)

9. Shelands a blow that Vic doesn’t care for. (Para. 140)

She gives him a blow that he does not quite like/ablow he does not find amusing/a blow that hurts.

10.Sharon comes up for air and props herself against the side of the pool,breathlessly and strangely happy. (Para. 152)

Sharon comes to the surface to take a breath. Sheleans against the side of the swimming pool and appears breathless and happy inan odd way.

 

5. Writing Device

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is a formof irony that is widely used in English especially when people are beinghumorous. Generally the sarcastic speaker or writer means the exact opposite ofthe word they use, often intending to be rude or to laugh at the person thewords are addressed to. Studythe following sentences. Pay attention to the tone.

1. Do you know the reason why you’re sitting there like a great bowl of porkdripping? (Para. 14)

2.It comes of being surrounded by peoplewho nod at him all day at work. He prefers us all to nod at home too… (Para.36)

3. And if you are honestly clinging on tolife in the hope of getting one tiny scrap of care and consideration back fromthat self-centered, selfish man, then all I can say is, you’d better jump inthere now, Sharon, and cut your losses. (Para. 104)

4. Nobody would miss her except thenational union of bakers… (Para. 137)

Part Four  Assignment

Give an analysis of the main characters in the text.