大学思辨英语教程 精读2课件Unit 6

Lead in
beginning. Time changes the new and young into the old, and displays the consequences of what we have done or have not done. As young as you are now, what do you expect from the future? Take a moment to think about it both in terms of your personal life and the future of mankind.
Background Knowledge
4. Mars
Martian soil to be slightly alkaline and containing elements such as magnesium, sodium, potassium and chlorine. These nutrients are found in gardens on Earth, and they are necessary for growth of plants. That means it is possible to have some plants grow on Mars. Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −143 C (−225 F) at the winter polar caps to highs of up to 35 C (95 F) in equatorial summer.
Unit 6 Time and Future
August 2002: Night Meeting Ray Bradbury
Learning Objectives
Intercultural Competence
• Reading Strategies
Critical Thinking Literary Elements
against the notions of science fiction and allegory • Perceive and evaluate different points of view regarding time
and civilizations
• Intercultural Competence
Background Knowledge
2. Memorable quotes from the story
1) What did Time smell like? …down and down into nothing. (Para. 10) 2) What does it matter who is Past or Future, if we are both alive, for what follows will follow, tomorrow or in ten thousand years. (Para.127)
Bradbury’s literary influences and the literature they wrote:
H. G. Wells (science fiction), Jules Verne (fantasy, science fiction), Edgar Allan Poe (horror stories), Edgar Rice Burroughs (adventure story, fantasy and science fiction), Robert Heinlein (humanistic science fiction).
Background Knowledge
The story was published in 1950, appearing in The Martian Chronicles, one of the author’s short story collections. During the first half of the 20th century, the world witnessed unprecedented development of science and technology, two world wars, various colonizing activities and civilization collisions. In this story, the author reveals this kind of worry of people. (further elaborations needed)
Ray Bradbury is best known for science fiction, fantasy, horror and mystery fiction. On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream.”
Learning Objectives
• Literary Elements
• Science fiction • Sensory description • Metaphor, simile • Setting, atmosphere
• Reading Strategies
• Identify and analyze figures of speech and their functions in the text
The 19th century American writer Edgar Allan Poe said, “It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence as a dream.” Both of the following texts are in some way allegories of Time.
Lead in
In the first, the characters argue about who lives in the past and who in the future. In the second, the narrator tells a story of “the past” which is in fact set in the future. The ambiguity and allegorical richness of what the future/past presents in these stories may help redefine your conception of time and the future.
• Be aware of differences in attitudes towards time among different cultures
• Compare traditions of science fiction between China and the West
• Be alert to egotism in intercultural communication
Lead in
Have you ever thought about how time matters in our perception of the world and ourselves? Time produces past, present, and future. Time marks a lot of beginnings and endings, or as some say, the beginning of the end or end of the
BackgrouΒιβλιοθήκη d KnowledgeFiction Writers of America made him its 10th SFWA Grand Master. He won a First Fandom Hall of Fame Award in 1996 and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999. Pulitzer Prize citation (2007)
Background Knowledge
Some of his notable works of fiction: Fahrenheit 451; The Martian Chronicle; Something Wicked This Way Comes Awards and honors he received: Prometheus Award for Fahrenheit 451 (1984) World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (1977) World Fantasy Convention and was named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy at the 1980 World Science Fiction Convention. In 1989 the Horror Writers Association gave him the fourth or fifth Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in horror fiction and the Science
Background Knowledge
3. Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. The time setting of science fiction is in the future. It often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations. It is based on the fact and what it depicts is something might happen in the future.
Background Knowledge
1. About the Author
Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920—June 5, 2012), American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet. He was one of the most celebrated 20th century American writers.
• Learn about the genre of the story • Analyze the mood and tone of the story
Learning Objectives
• Critical Thinking
• Draw inferences about the various aspects of the story • Explain the genre of the story by examining its features