Unit Nine The Damned HumanRace

Period 1-2: Warm up

I. Dictation/ Read aloud the words and the text.

课文及单词表音频：

II. Questions &Activities

1. Do some research and give a list of the quotations on human nature.

Such is the human race, often it seems a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat.           — Mark Twain

Man—a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.              — Mark Twain

We are perverse creatures and never satisfied.              — NanFairbrother

Modern man is the missing link between apes and human beings.                    — Author Unknown

Men! The only animal in the world to fear.           — D. H. Lawrence

The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded.    一 Gustave Flaubert

Man is nature's sole mistake.                            一 W. S. Gilbert

Man is Creation's masterpiece; but who says so?           一 Elbert Hubbard

Man is but a reed, the most weak in nature, but he is a thinking reed.                    一 Blaise Pascal

It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.              一 Albert Einstein

There is no crime of which one cannot imagine oneself to be the author.                 一 Goethe

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.      一Napoleon Bonaparte

Human nature can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.    一Abraham Lincoln

Apart from man, no being wonders at its own existence.      一Arthur Schopenhauer

Man is a rope connecting animal and superman... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.                              一Friedrich Nietzsche

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love. 

                                      —George Bernard Shaw

2. Read the passage“We Are Only Human” in which the author strongly argues that we human beings should be and can be superior to other animals. But in this article, the author feels strongly that human beings are the least fit for survival. What do you think of these two authors' views? What's your understanding of human race? Have you found any defect? Or nothing negative at all?