B2L9课文详解

B2L9课文详解

Lesson Nine Quick Fix Society

Introduction to the Text

1.Structure

The tree parts of the essay are clear-cut.

Introduction (para.1-3): Her ride on fast roads and her return trip of a country road。the writer compares her ride on fast roads to West Virginia and her return trip of a different route. The contrast set her thinking whether there was something wrong with American?s quick-fix lifestyle. The last sentence of the secti on “Our country has become a nation in search of the quick fix---in more ways than one.” serves as a transition from the introduction to the body Body(para.4-6): she lists three ways Americans seek a quick fix. In the conclusion Now instead of later faster instead of slower

Superficially instead of thoroughly

Conclusion (para.7-8): the three rhetorical questions in Paragraph 7 prepare the reader for what the writer summarizes in the last sentence of the paragraph. The thesis (= the central idea) is stated in the last two sentences of Paragraph 8: Let?s slow down and enjoy what nature offers us and what mankind has left us and rediscover life. Slow down and rediscover life

2.Writing Skills

This is a piece of explanatory writing. Its purpose is to explain or clarify a certain point. The writer chiefly uses two patterns to develop the central idea.

1)Comparison-contrast

Comparison-contrast is a way of developing an essay. It means explaining the similarities and/or differences between

events, people, ideas, and so on. In this essay, the writer concentrates on differences rather than similarities. In the first two paragraphs, she contrasts her featureless ride driving on fast roads and the pleasure of the return trip of a different route.

In Paragraph 4, she points out how American?s lifestyle has changed from “saving for a rainy day” to “relax now, pay later”, and what they did in the past when they wanted to lose weigh, and how they try to get quick results today.

2)Examples

Using an example or examples is a one of the simplest ways of explaining anything. In Paragraph 5, several examples are given to illustrate how the “I-hate-to-wait”attitude is reflected in various aspects of American life. In the next paragraph, the writer lists facts to show how the iceberg principle applies to the way many Americans live their lives.

3)Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions in the essay are chiefly used in Paragraph 3, 5 and 7. we could ask the students to think about what purposes such questions serve.

4)Repetition

(1)Of Structure: In Paragraph 4, four if-clauses are used to contrast the way Americans did

things in the past (the first three) and the way they seek a quick fix today (the last one)

(2)Of Words: The writer repeats the word “fast”throughout Paragraph 5 with negative

implications.

/doc/8c4740190.html,nguage and Style

Unlike some previous essays such as “More Crime and Less Punishment” and “The Man in the Water”, this is an informal