新标准大学英语BOOK4-Unit 2教案
Active reading (1)
Danger! Books may change your life Teaching aims:
1. to learn the new words and expressions;
2. to understand the texts and learn to paraphrase some difficult sentences in English; 3. to analyze the structure of the texts;
4. to get to know the cultural background of the texts;.
5. to learn to think and presents one?s viewpoints from different perspectives; 6. to learn to write a book report; Teaching schedule:
Class period 1-2: warm-up activities
new words and expressions cultural background knowledge Class period 3-4: reading 1 study
reading, sentences making, simulated writing and sentence paraphrasing Class period5-6: exercises, writing practice; cross culture reading Class period7-8: quiz and reading 2
Culture points
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) is the pen-name of Charles Dodgson. He was a priest, a mathematician who taught at Oxford University, a photographer, humorist and writer of children?s literature. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) was immediately successful, a masterpiece which revolutionized children?s literature, giving coherence and logic through wit and humour to unlikely or impossible episodes in which imaginary creatures embody recognizable human characteristics. He is also known for Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there (1871) and nonsense poems, such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
William Cowper (1731–1800): a notable English poet, writer of hymns and letter-writer. He wrote gentle, pious, direct poems about everyday rural life and scenes of the countryside which have been seen as forerunners of the Romantic movement: Coleridge called Cowper “the best modern poet”. He translated Homer?s Greek epics. The Odyssey and The Iliad into English. Another example of his verses which have become common sayings is “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform…”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968): American novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a well-known, long tragic novel about an American family of farmers who are driven off their land in Oklahoma by soil erosion in the famous “dust bowl” era. They flee to California to what they hope will be a better life. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film in 1940. Other well-known novels include Of Mice and Men (1937), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden (1952) and an account of a personal rediscovery of America, Travels with Charlie (1962).
John Irving (1942– ): American novelist and screenwriter who taught English at college and was a wrestling coach. The Fourth Hand (2001) is a comic-satirical novel about a TV journalist, Wallington, whose hand is seen by millions of viewers to be bitten off by a circus lion. A surgeon gives him a hand transplant (a third hand) but the wife of the dead donor wants to visit her husband?s hand and have a child by Wallington, who feels where his original hand used to be (the fourth hand).
Audrey Niffenegger (1963– ): American college professor who teaches writing to visual artists and shows students how to make books by hand. Her first novel, The Time Traveller’s Wife (2003) – filmed in 2009 – is a science fiction and romance bestseller about a man who travels uncontrollably in time to his own history and visits
his wife in her childhood, youth and old age. His wife needs to cope with his absences and dangerous life while he travels. The story is a metaphor for distance and miscommunication in failed relationships.
Paul Torday (1946– ): a British businessman who worked for a company that repaired ship?s engines for many years. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007) was his first novel. It is a political satire and comedy about a dull civil servant who becomes involved in a plan to populate the desert with Scottish salmon. Politicians manage the media to “spin” this as a plan they support in order to divert attention from problems in the Middle East. There are themes of cynicism and belief, and East-West culture clashes.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008): a Russian writer who was imprisoned in Soviet labour camps in 1945; after eight years, he was exiled to Kazakhstan and not freed until 1956, when he became a teacher. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but not receive it until 1974. He went to Germany, Switzerland and the USA, returning to Russia in 1994. His best known novels were based on his experiences as a prisoner and include: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), Cancer Ward (1968), The Gulag Archipelago (1974–1978). His later works were about Russian history and identity.
Graham Greene (1904–1991): a British novelist, short-story writer, playwright, travel writer and essayist. He wrote a number of thrillers (he called them ?entertainments?) which dramatize an ambiguous moral dilemma, often revealing guilt, treachery, failure and a theme of pursuit. Greene was also a film critic and all of these novels have been made into films: Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), The Third Man (1950), The Quiet American (1955), and Our Man in Havana (1958).
E. M. Forster (1879–1970): a British novelist and writer of short stories and essays. He lived at different periods in Italy, Egypt and India and taught at Cambridge University. His best known novels include A Room with a View (1908), Howard’s End (1910), A Passage to India (1924) which have all been made into films. His writing about reading and writing includes a book of lectures, Aspects of the Novel (1927).
Thomas Merton (1915–1968): an American Catholic writer, who was a Trappist monk in Kentucky. He wrote over 70 books, including many essays about Buddhism and a translation into English of the Chinese classic, Chuang Tse. He had a great deal to say about the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures and wrote many letters to writers, poets, scholars and thinkers. He read a lot in English, Latin, French and Spanish and said he always had at least three books which he was reading at any one time.
William Blake (1757–1827): a British poet, artist and mystic, who read widely in English, French, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He made many engravings to illustrate the work of such writers as Virgil, Dante and Chaucer, as well as his own poems. He stressed that imagination was more important than rationalism and the materialism of the 18th century and criticized the effects of the industrial revolution in England, but his work was largely disregarded by his peers. He is best known for his poetry in Songs of Innocence (1787) and Songs of Experience (1794). His belief in the oneness of all created things is shown in his much-quoted verse, “To see the world in a grain of sand / And a heaven in a flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand / And eternity in an hour.”
Clifton Fadiman (1904–1999): an American writer, radio and TV broadcaster and editor of anthologies. For over 50 years he was an editor and judge for the Book-of-the-Month Club. In 1960 he wrote a popular guide to great books for American readers, The Lifetime Reading Plan, which discusses 133 authors and their major work: the 1997 edition includes 9 authors from China.
J. K. Rowling (1965–): British writer of the seven Harry Potter fantasy books. She studied French and Classics at Exeter University, before teaching English in Portugal and training to teach French in Scotland. The main idea about a school for wizards and the orphan Harry Potter came on a delayed train journey from Manchester to London in 1990. She began to write as soon as she reached London. Twelve publishersrejected the first book before Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, agreed to publish it. Later books have repeatedly broken all the sales records (as have some of the films). She is one of the richest women in the UK and a notable supporter of many charities. Language points
1 Variety’s the very spice of life, / That gives it all its flavour … (Para 2)
Spices are made from plants and added to food to give it its particular flavour or taste. The English proverb “Variety is the spice of life” (the proverb comes from Cowper?s poem) therefore means that variety gives life extra value and allows you to appreciate life in particular ways.
2 We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home. (Para 3)
This means that through reading we learn to look beyond our immediate experience or familiar environment to things beyond our immediate experience, ie to completely different things that we can imagine and experience through books.
3 When a baseball player hits a home run he hits the ball so hard and so far he’s able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. (Para 9)
In the American game of baseball, the field of grass is diamond-shaped and has four bases (specific points marked around the diamond), round which players must run to score points. One team bats (ie team members take turns to hit the ball and run round the bases) and the members of the other team throw (pitch) the ball and, when it is has been hit, try to catch it or get it quickly to one of the four bases. If a batting player can hit the ball hard enough, he can run round all four bases before the other team can get the ball and thus score maximum points – with a home run. In the passage, a really good book is a home run. 3 Choose the best answer to the questions.
1 Why are we like Alice in wonderland when we read a book? (a) Because, like Alice, we often have accidents. (b) Because reading makes us feel young again.
(c) Because reading opens the door to new experiences. (d) Because books lead us into a dream world.
2 According to the writer, what is the advantage of reading over real life? (a) There is more variety in books than in real life.
(b) We can experience variety and difference without going out of the house. (c) The people we meet in a book are more interesting than real people. (d) It?s harder to make sense of real life than a book.
3 What do the seven novels listed in Paragraph 4 have in common? (a) Their titles stimulate imagination.
(b) They represent the best writing by British and American novelists. (c) They have become classics.
(d) You can find all of them in any local library.
4 At what moment in our lives do books become important? (a) As soon as we start reading.
(b) When we start buying books to fill our shelves at home. (c) When we start listening to bedtime stories. (d) Only when we are ready for books.
5 What claim did Merton make about the poems of William Blake? (a) They were similar to the works of the Greek writers and thinkers. (b) They helped him understand the meaning of life. (c) They created a sense of confusion.
(d) They taught him a lot about modern culture. 6 What is meant by a home-run book?
(a) A book which is so good you are unable to put it down.
(b) A book that the whole family can enjoy.
(c) A children?s book that is read and appreciated by adults.
(d) A book that hits hard like a home run in the game of baseball. Dealing with unfamiliar words
4 Match the words in the box with their definitions.
1 to make someone feel that they do not belong to your group (exclude) 2 to fail to do something that you should do (neglect) 3 to mention something as an example (cite)
4 to be strong enough not to be harmed or destroyed by something (withstand) 5 in most situations or cases (normally) 6 to be about to happen in the future (await)
5 Complete the paragraph with the correct form of the words in Activity 4.
When I lived in Britain, one of my favourite radio programmes was called “Desert Island Discs”. The format was always the same: Guest celebrities were asked to imagine they had been washed ashore on a desert island, and had to choose nine books – (1) excluding the Bible and Shakespeare, which they were already provided with – to take with them to the island, to help them (2) withstand the physical and mental isolation. I sometimes like to think which books I would take. (3) Normally, like most people, I don?t have much time for reading, and I could (4) cite dozens of books which I have never read but which I would like to. It?s an opportunity I have (5) awaited all my life, in fact. But what would I choose? Mostly novels, probably, but I wouldn?t (6) neglect to include a volume or two of poetry. My first choice, I think, would be Tolstoy?s War and Peace. I?ve never read it, but I?m ready to believe that it is one of the most marvelous books ever written.
6 Replace the underlined words with the correct form of the words in the box. 1 In a good novel, the writer and reader communicate with each other. (interact) 2 I have to face up to the problem sooner or later. (confront) 3 I read the book in one sitting and Mary did too. (likewise)
4 E. M. Forster was one of the most important and respected British novelists of the 20th century. (influential)
5 Do you believe that a work of literature can actually lead to social changes? (induce)
6 Robert Burns was a great poet who wrote in the language variety spoken in Scotland. (dialect)
7 The Time Traveller’s Wife is the story of a man who has a strange and inexplicable genetic disorder. (mysterious)
7 Answer the questions about the words.
1 If you have had a disconcerting experience, do you feel a bit (a) tired, or (b) confused? 2 If you have a vista of something, can you (a) see or imagine it, or (b) go and visit it? 3 Would you express great wrath by (a) smiling at someone, or (b) shouting at them? 4 If you feel enchanted by a book, do you (a) like it a lot, or (b) not like it at all? 5 Is a writer who is supremely talented (a) very good, or (b) quite good at his job?
6 If reading fosters an understanding of certain problems, does it (a) help understanding, or (b) prevent it? 7 If you are desperately trying to get a job, are you (a) trying very hard to get it, or (b) caring little whether you get it or not?
8 Is a sensation (a) a certainty, or (b) just a feeling? Reading and interpreting
8 Check (?) the writer’s main purpose in writing the passage. 1 To show the reader how to read fiction.
2 To suggest that fiction is more powerful than non-fiction.
√ 3 To persuade the reader that reading can be a life-changing experience.
