Unit 6 Text A ADebt to Dickens
第一次课任务（个人）
Video Script
Teddy: Whatare you doing?
Ivy: I’mwatching my book.
Teddy: Foryour ________?
Ivy: That’sright.
Teddy: Aren’tyou supposed to, oh, I don’t know, read your book?
Ivy: Teddy,get with it. Kids don’t read anymore. You’re so _______.
Teddy: And ifyou don’t read your book, you’re gonna be old and still going to school.
Ivy: Hey.
Teddy: Sorry.I’m just a little upset about my conversation with Mr. Dingwall. He was tellingme how ____ I was, and then Charlie came in and he ______ like a Christmastree.
Ivy: Well,there’s your answer.
Teddy: Towhat?
Ivy: Togetting an “A”. You should do your presentation________ like a baby.
Teddy: Youknow what? I might have a better idea.
Ivy: And I’dlove to hear it, but the last of the Mohicans just took off his shirt.
Activity
Charles Dickens is acclaimed forhis rich storytelling and unforgettable characters. Here are six of his notablenovels. Can you match their titles with their brief descriptions given below?
Oliver Twist Great Expectations A Tale of Two Cities
Hard Times The Pickwick Papers David Copperfield
1) It is anautobiographical novel about a young man’s uncommon life experiences from anunhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as asuccessful novelist.
2) It is astory of an orphan, who leads a miserable existence and falls into the hands ofa gang of juvenile pickpockets. It is notable for its portrayal of criminals aswell as exposure of the cruel treatment of many street children in London inthe mid-19th century.
3) It is ahistorical novel, set in the late 18th century against thebackground of the French Revolution. It is best known for its opening lines:“It was the best of times; it was the …”
4) It isDickens’s first novel, a comic masterpiece, containing a sequence of adventuresof a four-member travelling society, the unusual tales they hear and the remarkablecharacters they meet in their travels throughout English countryside.
5) Itfeatures a schoolmaster, who bans fancy and wonder from any young minds. Theprimary goal of the novel is to illustrate the dangers of allowing humans tobecome like machines. It is also a bitter indictment of industrialization, withits dehumanizing effects on workers.
6) Itdepicts the personal growth and development of a boy, from his early childhoodto adulthood, attempting to become a gentleman. The theme of the novel includeswealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good overevil.
II. Globalreading tasks：
1. Main idea
1). What does this narrative text tell us?
2). What is the main purpose of the writer?
2. Structuralanalysis
1). How is the first paragraphassociated with the last one?
2). Work out the structure of thetext by completing the table.
| Paragraph(s) | Main idea |
| 1 | |
| 2-3 | |
| 4-6 | |
| 7 |
3. Previewstudy questions
Paragraph1
1). Howdo you interpret the debt which the writer has owed since she was seven yearsold?
2). Inthe eyes of the writer, what is the best way to pay her debt to CharlesDickens?
Paragraphs2-3
1). Wouldyou find the sentences that describe the most terrifying and sinister, as wellas the most delightful and exciting moments of the writer's childhood life?
2). Wouldyou give some examples to show the writer's unpleasant experiences when shelived in that remote part of the Chinese countryside?
3). Whatis the message that is stressed in the second paragraph?
4). Whatis the message that is repeatedly emphasized?
5).Whatis the main idea of Paragraph 3?
Paragraph4-6
1). Whydid the writer say, "She was an impossibly voracious reader"?
2). Howdoes the writer describe the way she read the novel Oliver Twist?
3). Inwhat ways was the writer greatly benefited or enlightened by Dickens?
4). Whatcomments does the writer make on Dickens?
5). Pointout the sentences in Paragraph 6 that are parallel to each other. Whatrhetorical effect can parallelism produce?
Paragraphs7
1).Whatis the textual function of the first sentence of this paragraph?
2).Whatis the main idea of this paragraph?
第二次课任务（小组）
II. In-depth study of the text
Words and Expressions
Ss are required to figure outmeanings, collocations, and synonyms of the following words or before class)
Gratitude (para. 1, line 3)
render (para. 1, line 4)
solitary (para. 2, line 1)
wind(v.) (para 2, line 3)
crawl (para2, line 6)
linger (para2, line 9)
alien (para2, line 10)
heed (para3, line 7)
voracious (para4, line 2)
in great peril (para 4, line 12)
descend (para4, line 13)
heritage (para5, line 3)
rouse (para5, line 3)
resolve (para5, line 13)
open one’s eyes to (para 6, line3)
despise (para6, line 7)
zest (para6, line 11)
alien/foreign
isolated/solitary/alone
Long and Difficult Sentences (paraphrase, explanation, andtranslation)
Part I
1). First, you mustpicture to yourself that child, living quite solitary in a remote Chinesecountryside, in a small mission bungalow perched upon a hill among the ricefields in the valleys below. (Paragraph 2)
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2). In the neardistance wound that deep, treacherous, golden river, the Yangtse, and some ofthe most terrifying and sinister, as well as the most delightful and excitingmoments of that child's life, were spent beside the river. (Paragraph 2)
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3). Sheloved to crawl along its banks upon the rocks or upon the muddy flats and watchfor the lifting of the huge four-square nets that hung into the moving yellowflood, and see out of that flood come perhaps again and again an empty net, butsometimes great flashing, twisting silver bodies of fish. (Paragraph 2)
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4). Shelingered beside villages of boat folk, and saw them live, the babies tied to arope and splashing in the shallower waters. (Paragraph 2)
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5). Shewandered small and alien among the farm folk in the earthen houses among thefields. (Paragraph 2)
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6). Sheaccepted a bowl of rice and cabbage often at meal time and sat among thepeasants on the threshing floor about the door and ate, usually in silence,listening and listening, answering their kindly, careless questions, bearingwith shy, painful smiles their kind teasing laughter at her yellow curls andunfortunate blue eyes, which they thought so ugly. (Paragraph 2)
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7). Howeverkindly the people about her might be, and they were much more often kind thannot, she knew that she was foreign to them. (Paragraph 3)
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8). Andshe wondered very much about her own folk and where they were and how theylooked and at what they played. (Paragraph 3)
Explanation:
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9). …theywere too busy to pay much heed to her and so she wandered about a great deal,seeing and learning all sorts of things. (Paragraph 3)
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10). Shelonged very much, I can remember, to have some of them to play with. But shenever had them. (Paragraph 3)
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Part II
1). Tothis small, isolated creature there came one day an extraordinary accident.(Paragraph 4)
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2). Shewas an impossibly voracious reader. (Paragraph 4)
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3). Theywere quite beyond her reach. (Paragraph 4)
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4). …whenthe household was asleep, all except the indefatigable parents, and they werevery, very busy. (Paragraph 4)
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5). Howcan I make you know what that discovery was to that small, lonely child?(Paragraph 5)
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6). …Ientered into my own heritage. (Paragraph 5)
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7). Iremember twice I closed the book and burst into tears, unable to bear thetragedy of Oliver Twist, and then opened it quickly again, burning to know more.(Paragraph 5)
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8). …Iwas wretched with indecision. (Paragraph 5)
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9). I resolved to read straight through the rowand then begin at the beginning once more and read straight through again. (Paragraph5)
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10)….Istill kept a Dickens book on hand, so to speak, to dip into and feel myself athome again. (Paragraph 6)
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11). He taught me to hate hypocrisy and piousmouthing of unctuous words. (Paragraph 6)
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12). He taught me to despise money grubbing.(Paragraph 6)
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13). It may be so, and yet I have found peoplesurprisingly like those he wrote about — the good a little less undiluted, perhaps, andthe evil a little more mixed. (Paragraph 6)
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14). Thevirtue was a great zest for life. (Paragraph 6)
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Part III
1). He hadmade himself a part of me forever.
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第四次课任务
I．Exercisechecking
Ssare required to finish exercises in the textbook before class. T answersquestions and explains difficult points.
II．Quiz
III. Reciting
I have long looked for anopportunity to pay a certain debt which I have owed since I was seven yearsold. Debts are usually burdens, but this is no ordinary debt, and it is noburden, except as the feeling of warm gratitude may ache in one until it isexpressed. My debt is to an Englishman, who long ago in China rendered aninestimable service to a small American child. That child was myself and thatEnglishman was Charles Dickens. I know no better way to meet my obligation thanto write down what Charles Dickens did in China for an American child.
