Unit 4: Everyday Use by Alice Walker
I . Additional Background Knowledge
Walker, Alice (1944- ), American author and poet, most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor, oppressed African American women in the early 1900s. Born Alice Malsenior Walker in Eatonton, Georgia, she was educated at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges. She wrote most of her first volume of poetry during a single week in 1964; it was published in 1968 asOnce. Walker's experiences during her senior year at Sarah Lawrence, including undergoing an abortion and making a trip to Africa, provided many of the book's themes, such as love, suicide, civil rights, and Africa. She won the American Book Award (see National Book Awards) and the Pulitzer Prize for her best-known work, the novel The Color Purple (1982), which was praised for its strong characterizations and the clear, musical quality of its colloquial language. The novel was made into a motion picture in 1985, and Walker's book The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996) contains her notes and reflections on making the film.
Walker's other works include the novels The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992); the volumes of poetry Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973) and Goodnight, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning (1979); and the essay collections In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) and Living by the Word (1988). Walker received many additional honors and awards. She was also active in the movements for civil and women's rights.
II . Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a short story
---character, action, conflicts, climax and denouement
2. Main idea
3. Organization:
---introduction
---development
---climax
---conclusion
III . Effective Writing Skills
1. successful portrayal of characters
2. using many elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect
3. using languages which suit the background of characters
IV . Rhetorical Devices
1.simile
2.metaphor
3.symbolism
V . Special Difficulties
1. understanding the underlying meaning conveyed by simple language
2. understanding and paraphrasing the colloquial, non-standard English words or sentences
VI . Questions
1. In real life what kind of woman is the mother?
2. What kind of woman would Dee like her mother to be?
3. What kind of girl is Maggie?
4. What is the mother’s feeling toward Dee? How is it changed in the course of the story?
Unit 5: Speech on Hitler’s Invasion of the U. S. S. R. by Winston S. Churchill
I . Additional Background Knowledge
1.Winston Churchill
2.World War Two
3. Hitler
II . Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of argumentation
2. The purpose of a piece of argumentation:
---to persuade, that is, to defend what is true and to attack what is false by the use of reason
3. Ways of developing a piece of argumentation:
---by deduction
---by induction
4. The thesis
III . Effective Writing Skills
1. using a lot of repetitions and parallel structures to achieve emphasis
2. using periodic sentences, rhetorical questions, and inverted sentences to make his speech vivid and forceful.
IV . Rhetorical Devices
1. alliteration
2. metaphor
V . Special Difficulties
1. paraphrasing some sentences
2. identifying figures of speech
VI . Questions
1.When and how did the Germans attack the Soviet Union?
2.What was Churchill’s reaction to the news of Hitler’s invasion of Russia?
3. What policy did Churchill declare Britain would pursue?
4. What, according to Churchill, was Hitler’s motive in invading Russia?
VII. Detailed Teaching Notes:
A. Words and Expressions
conviction, horde, enlist, croquet, revert, regime, devoid, ferocious, consistent, spectacle, unfold, threshold, immemorial, wring (wrung), primordial, hideous, onslaught, clank, dandify (dandifiedadj.), crafty, cow, docile, brutish, Hun, plod
smart (v.), villainous, cataract, concur, irrevocable, vestige, parley, yoke, steadfast(ly), creed,
divergence, slacken, woeful(ly), moralize / moralize, folly, catastrophe, blood-lust, impel, outrage, prelude, thrive, subjugate (subjugation), hearth, exertion, round up, count on, be true of, go all out (to do sth.), revert to, bow down, make references to, to the effect that (+ a clause), (be) devoid of, from time immemorial, in due course, be resolved to (do sth.), rid … of, appeal to sb. to do sth., in one’s efforts to do sth.
be resolved upon (sth.), strike down (be struck down)
B. Paraphrase
1) Hitler was hoping that his attack on Russia would help to win in Britain and the U. S. the support of those who were enemies of Communism.
2) Winant said the United State would adopt the same attitude.
3) In this way, it will be much easier for me to decide on my attitude towards various events.
4) I will not take back what I have said about Communism.
5) I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, who, severely beaten and shocked by British air force, now feel happy because they think they can easily beat the Russian air force.
6) We shall be more determined and shall make better and fuller use of our resources. (resources:pl. available money or property; wealth; sth that a country, state, etc. has and can use to its advantage)
7) Let us strengthen our unity and take greater efforts to fight against Nazi Germany when we have not yet been overwhelmed and when we are still powerful.
C. Translate the following into Chinese:
1）我只有一个目标：摧毁希特勒。这样一来，我对各种事物的态度就容易决定得多。如果希特勒入侵地狱，我至少要在下院替魔鬼说几句好话。
2）如果希特勒幻想他对苏俄的进攻会使决心消灭他的民主阵营各国稍稍转移目标或松懈斗志，那他就大错特错了，并将为此付出代价。
3）他所以要摧毁俄国的力量是因为他希望如果得手，他就能把陆、空军主力从东线调回来，全力进攻英伦三岛。他知道他必须征服英国，否则他将因其犯下的罪行而受到惩罚。
4）他希望他能以空前的规模，再次重复他一直得心应手、屡获成功的伎俩：将敌人各个击破。一旦这一伎俩再获得成功，他就可以上演最后一幕，将西半球置于其意志和制度的统治之下。不征服西半球，他的全部侵略成果都将化为泡影。
D. Pick out the metaphors used in the text and explain their meanings in your own words.
1) The Nazi regime is devoid of all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination: Here “appetite” isused metaphorically, meaning feverish desire for conquest.
2) delighted to find what they believe is an easier and a safer prey: Here “prey” is used metaphorically, meaning loser or victim.
3) behind all this storm: Here “storm” is used metaphorically, meaning war or fighting.
4) rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke: Here both “shadow” and “yoke” are used metaphorically, the former meaning the great influence of Hitler and the latter meaning control.
E . Write five sentences or phrase containing alliteration.
F . In his speech, Churchill uses a lot of repetitions and parallel structures …
Parallel structure:
1) We will never parley
We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang.
2) We shall fight him by land
We shall fight him by sea
We shall fight him in the air
3) behind all this glare
behind all this storm I see…
4) I see the Russian soldiers standing…
I see them guarding…
I see the ten thousands villages…
I see advancing upon…
I also see the dull…
I see the German bombers…
I see that small group…
5) That is our policy
and that is our declaration.
6) We shall be fortified and encouraged in our efforts …
We shall be strengthened and not weakened in determination and in resources
7) Let us learn the lessons already taught by such cruel experience
Let us redouble our exertions…
Repetition of meaning in different words:
1) We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable purpose.
2) He has so long thrived and prospered.
3) We will never parley, we will never negotiate…
13) great and sudden disaster
Unit 6: Blackmail by Arthur Hailey
I . Additional Background Knowledge
1. Arthur Hailey:
Arthur Hailey is the author of a number of bestselling novels. Born in Luton, England, in 1920, he was educated in English schools until age fourteen. After a brief career as an office boy, he joined the British Royal Air Force in 1939 and served through World War II, rising through the ranks to become a pilot and flight lieutenant. In 1949 Hailey immigrated to Canada, where he was successively a real estate salesman, business paper editor and a sales and advertising executive .He became, and still is a Canadian citizen. He makes his home at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas. In 1956 Arthur Hailey scored his first writing success with a TV drama, Flight into Danger, which later became a motion picture and a novel, Runway Zero-Eight (1958).
2. His works
The sensational Hailey bestsellers include:
The Final Diagnosis (1959),
In High Places (1962),
Hotel (1966),
Airport (1968),
Wheels (1971),
The Moneychangers (1975).
Though a Canadian himself, he set the scene of most of his works in the United States. Each of his books deals with one particular field of society. This is made clear by the titles of his books. It is this peculiarity of his that is value to those who are eager to learn about contemporary American society.
3. About the novel Hotel
The St. Gregory Hotel is the largest in New Orleans, Louisiana. For 4 days from Monday evening to Friday, the hotel goes through a succession of dramatic events. With the hotel’s mortgage due by the weekend and with no chance of getting further renewal, the owner, Warren Trent, reluctantly makes up his mind to sell his hotel to a chain hotel owner, Curtis O’Keefe.
Peter McDermott, the assistant general manager, has to tackle several other knotty problems: handling an attempted rape which has occurred in one of the hotel’s rooms; catching a professional thief operating in the hotel; pacifying a whole convention of several hundred dentists to putting up a member of the convention--a black doctor. Then there is the Duke of Croydon.
The Duke is an internationally famous statesman and the newly-appointed British ambassador to Washington. He and his wife occupy the best suite in St. Gergory. On Monday evening while driving back with his wife from a gambling house, the Duke and the Duchess, however, drive away. The hit-and-run becomes top sensational news in New Orleans. The hotel’s chief house detective Ogilvie notices the battered car when it comes back. Instead of reporting this to the police, he goes to see the Duke and the Duchess. He promises to keep quiet about what he knows and asks for a large sum of money in return for the favour. The Duke, now totally at a loss as to how to act, hides behind the skirt of her wife. The Duchess understands that to get themselves out of this mess, the car has to be driven out of the south where people are alerted about the hit-and-run. So she offers to pay Ogilvie more than he has asked on condition that he drives the car to Chicago up in the north. The greedy detective agrees. At one o’clock Thursday morning Ogilvie gets the car out of the garage. He is seen leaving by one person only, by Peter McDermott, the assistant general manager. Though it strikes him as odd, Peter does not link this up with the hit-and-run until late that afternoon when he witnesses the funeral of the two victims of the accident. He contacts police headquarters right away. By this time, Ogilvie has crossed Louisiana and Mississippi, driving by night and concealing the car by day. He thinks that everything is going smoothly, little knowing that he is already being followed by the Highway patrol cruisers. In Tennessee, he is caught and sent back to New Orleans.
At first the Duchess tries to deny everything, but doesn’t succeed in convincing the police. The Duke then decides to go over to police headquarters before they come for him, wishing to save the little shreds of decency left in him. He takes an elevator to go down. This elevator which has been out of order for some time and badly in need of repair breaks down. As it goes down, one set of clamps holds and the other fails. The elevator car twists, buckles and splits open, throwing the Duke nine floors down to the cement ground. He dies instantly.
However, the novel ends with a pleasant surprise. A sick, old eccentric man staying in the hotel turns out to be an extremely wealthy man from Montreal, Canada. Earlier, he fell seriously ill and was saved by Peter and his girl friend. To show his gratitude and repay their kindness, he buys the hotel from its former owner and makes Peter the new executive vice-president, with complete authority to run the hotel as he thinks fit.
II . Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of narration
---character, action, conflicts, climax and denouement
2. Main idea
3. Organization:
---introduction
---development
---climax
---conclusion
III . Effective Writing Skills
1.making effective use of specific words to make the narration vivid
2.vividly and carefully describing the actions of the characters
3.using the languages which suit the backgrounds of characters
IV . Rhetorical Devices
V . Special Difficulties
1. understanding the colloquial, and even slangy English
2. analyzing and commenting on the three characters
VI . Questions
1. Did Ogilvie deliberately delay his call at the Croydon’s suite? Why?
2. Why did the Duchess send her maid and secretary out?
