Unit 1 Fresh Start
Section One Pre-reading Activities
Watch the movie clip and answer the followingquestions.
Script:
Casey:Mom, I just want to compete at regionals.
Mother:Why? What do you have to gain by this?
Casey: I’m good.
Mother: So, what areyou saying? You wanna just blow off our whole plan for you,chuck the scholarship and become a professional athlete? Case, what is theshelf life on an ice-skater? Eight years? And then a few years touring withHas-Beens on Ice. And that’s it? That’s the end of your life?
Casey: Ilove it, Mom.
Mother: Case, there’sno shelf life on your mind. If I’d learned how to use mine a littlesooner, if I’d gone to college when I was your age, maybe we wouldn’t be livinglike this.
Casey:There’s nothing wrong with the way we live.
Mother: I’venot been able to give you a quarter of the things that I wanted to.
Casey:You’ve given me everything.
Mother:Then you need to give me something now.
Questions:
1. Why does the mother not want her daughter to be a professional athlete?
2. Why does Casey insist on becoming an ice-skater?
1. The importance of “face”
“Face” is a sense of worth thatcomes from knowing one’s status and reflects concern with the congruencybetween one’s performance or appearance and one’s real worth.
“Face” stands for a very importantsociological concept in Chinese culture. The concept of “face” roughly translates ashonour, good reputation or respect. The essence of “face” lies in the drive foracceptance and approval of other people other than one’s real worth.
2. Be yourself; everyone else is alreadytaken. — Oscar Wilde
Being yourself is celebrating you,as an individual — learning to express yourself andbe happy with who you are. For some people, it’s learning to love yourself. Forothers, it’s not hiding who you are or changing things about you to fit in.
3. Steps to be yourself
● define yourself
● stop worrying about how peopleperceive you
● be honest and open
● relax
● develop and express yourindividuality
● believe in who you are
● follow your own style
I. Structural Analysis of the Text
This text is a piece of narrativewriting, in which the author tells about her experience during the first yearat university, which at first seems to be very awkward but turns out to be onthe right track at last.
In the text, three incidents arenarrated by the author:
the first is about her going intothe wrong classroom;
the second is about her fallingdown in the cafeteria;
the last is about her witnessingthe same embarrassing fall happening to someone admired by her.
Despite the differences betweenthese three incidents, they actually revolve around onetheme:
The growth of the author, who isable to draw lessons from the mistakes she has made and finally succeeds inadjusting herself to the college life.
II. Rhetorical Features of the Text
Detailed descriptions of eventsare everywhere to be seen in this text, which is a dominant feature ofnarrative writing. Since the description of an event will involve a lot ofmovements or actions, compound sentences and compound-complex sentences have beenused frequently in the text.
Forexamples:
I first began to wonder what I was doing on a college campus anyway when my parentsdrove off, leaving me standing pitifully in a parking lot, wanting nothing morethan to find my way safely to my dorm room. (Paragraph 1)
I settled into my chair and tried to assume the scientific pose of a biology major,bending slightly forward, tensing my arms in preparation for furiousnote-taking, and cursing under my breath. (Paragraph 5)
