blackmail 解析

I. Teaching objectives:

This unit aims to help students

1.Familiarize with the British/Canadian novelist Arthur Hailey and his

writing;

2.recognize fiction narrative and its major elements

3.enjoy fiction by acting out

II. About the author

A. Arthur Hailey (1920-2004)

•British/Canadian novelist

•Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England

•Served in the Royal Air Force (1939-1947)

•1947, moved to Canada

•1956, became a full-time writer

•1965-1969, lived in California

•1969, moved to the Bahamas to avoid American and Canadian income taxes, which t were claiming 90% if his income.

B. His novels:

•Runaway Zero-Eight (1958)- in-flight medical emergency;

•The Final Diagnosis(1959) - hospital politics as seen from the pathology department;

•In High Places (1960) - Cold War Era politics in North America

•Hotel (1965) - hotels

•Airport (1968) - airport politics

•Wheels (1971) - automobile industry

•The Moneychangers (1975) - banks

•Overload (1979) - power crisis in California

•Strong Medicine (1984) - pharmaceutical industry

•The Evening News (1990) - newscasters

•Detective (1997) - investigation politics

•

C. Characteristics of his writing

•He would spend about one year researching a subject, followed by six months reviewing his notes and, finally, about 18 months writing the book.

•Each of his novels has a different industrial or commercial setting and includes, in addition to dramatic human conflict, carefully researched information about the way that particular environments and systems function and how these affect society and its

inhabitants.

•Many of his books have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and more than 170 million copies have been sold worldwide in

40 languages.

•Many have been made into movies and Hotel was made into a long-running television series. Airport became a blockbuster movie with stunning visual effects.

III. A detailed study of the text:

1. the chief house officer., Ogilvie, who had declared he would…took twice that time:

The chief house officer. Ogilvie, gave the Croydons a mysterious telephone call telling them he would pay them a visit an hour later, but actually he appeared at their suite two hours later.

1) chief house officer: Hotels in the U.S.employ detectives to take

care of hotel security, called ‘house dicks’, dignified

appellation—house officer.

2) Suite: a set of rooms. A suite in a hotel is usually expensive.

The suite the Croydons are staying in is St. Gregory Hotel’s largest and most elaborate, called the Presidential Suite, which has housed, according to the book, a succession of distinguished guests, including visiting presidents and royalty.

3) Cryptic telephone call: The message over the phone was brief

and with mysterious implications.