高级英语第一册讲义09

Lesson 9 Mark Twain---Mirror of American
I.Teaching Objectives:
1.To comprehend the whole text
2.To lean and master the vocabulary and expressions
3.To learn to paraphrase the difficult sentences
4.To appreciate the style and rhetoric of the passage.
II.Teaching Hours:
1.The first 2 hours: introduction of background information & detailed study of
para. 1-3
2.The second 2 hours: detailed study of para. 4-9
3.The third 2 hours: detailed study of para.10-15
4.The fourth 2 hours: detailed study of para.16-22
5.The fifth 2 hours: classroom discussion and exercise
III.Teaching Methods:
1.Prepare and review on the part of the students
2.Warm-up activities
3.Detailed explanation and interpretation
4.Classroom discussion
IV.Background Information:
1.National Geographic Magazine, with a circulation of more than 10 million
copies annually, is the third biggest only next to TV Guide and Reader's Digest (more than 16 million). It is a monthly journal run by the National Geographic Society based in Washington DC, a non-profit scientific and educational organization.
2. A brief outline of Tom: Tom lives with his younger brother Sid and Aunt
Polly in St. Petersburg, a remote town on the banks of the Mississippi river.
While his brother Sid is a “model” boy, Tom is quite the opposite of his brother. At school he disobeys his teacher and always busies himself with outside matters at the lessons. Tom’s bosom friend is Huck Finn, a boy deserted by his drunkard of a father and looked upon as an outcast in the town.
But Tom has read many books and wants to make his life just as bright as it is depicted in the stories. He devises games in which the boys play the role of brave outlaws and warlike Red Indians who are the terror of the rich and the oppressors. One night the boys involuntarily witness the murder of Dr.
Robinson. An innocent man is charged with the crime. But on the day of the trial Tom fearlessly exposes the real criminal the Indian Joe who escapes through an open window of the courtroom. Another night, the boys went out to dig for hidden treasures near a deserted house three miles from town. There they almost fall into the hands of the murderer who accidentally finds a box filled with gold coins. Shortly after the incident Tom goes to a picnic with a party of schoolmates. Exploring a cave, he gets lost with Becky Thatcher, the daughter of the Judge. Tom behaves like a brave boy, calms Becky’s fears and finds the way out of the cave. In a few days’ time Tom and Huck return to the cave. They find the dead body of the murderer, who could not have found the way out of the cave and also the hidden treasures.
3. A brief outline of Huck: Tom and Huck find the money. They each get six
thousand dollars, which they deposit with Judge Thatcher. The Widow Douglas takes Huck for her son and tries to “civilize” him. In the meantim e, Huck’s father tries to get the money and succeeds in kidnapping the boy and imprisons him in a lonely cabin. To free himself from both the boring widow and the brutal father, Huck runs away to a deserted island in the middle of the Mississippi river. In doing so, he makes it appear that he has been murdered by some robbers. On the island he meets Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave, and the two become close friends. They started down the river, come across all sorts of people and have lots of fun and adventures. Toward the end of the novel Jim is caught and imprisoned at a farm, and Huck and Tom make a
spectacular but unsuccessful attempt to rescue him. At last it turns out that Huck’s father has died and Miss Watson has also died, but not before setting Jim free in her will.
V.Detailed Study of the Text:
1.Writing style:
A biography is, by definition, an account of someone's life that has been written
by someone else, or a written history of someone's life. Generally, a biography is about sb. who enjoys certain reputation, who has acquired certain fame by his / her success in certain area. The protagonist can be a positive or negative character.
2.Paraphrase (difficult sentences)
1) A man who become obsessed with the frailties of the human race.
2)Mark twain digested the new American experience before sharing it with the
world as lecturer and writer.
3)The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and
varied- a cosmos.
4)Mark twain began digging his way to regional fame as a newspaper reporter
and humorist.
5)Bitterness fed on the man who had made the world laugh.
3.Rhetorical devices
1)Metaphor:
Mark Twain --- Mirror of America
saw clearly ahead a black wall of night...
main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart
the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States
All would resurface in his books...that he soaked up...
Steamboat decks teemed...main current of...but its flotsam
When railroads began drying up the demand...
...the epidemic of gold and silver fever...
Twain began digging his way to regional fame...
Mark Twain honed and experimented with his new writing muscles...
...took unholy verbal shots...
2)Simile:
Most American remember M. T. as the father of...
...a memory that seemed phonographic
3)Hyperbole:
...cruise through eternal boyhood and ...endless summer of freedom...
The cast of characters... - a cosmos.
4)Parallelism:
Most Americans remember ... the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure.
5)Personification:
the river had acquainted him with ...
...to literature's enduring gratitude...
the grave world smiles as usual...
Bitterness fed on the man...
America laughed with him.
Personal tragedy haunted his entire life.
6)Antithesis:
...between what people claim to be and what they really are...
...took unholy verbal shots at the Holy Land...
...a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever
7)Euphemism:
...men's final release from earthly struggle
8)Alliteration:
...the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home
...with a dash and daring...
...a recklessness of cost or consequences...
9)Metonymy:
...his pen would prove mightier than his pickaxe
nguage points
1)idyllic: [i / ai] a simple happy period of life, often in the country
2)cruise: A cruise is a holiday during which you travel on a ship and visit lots
of places. When it is used as a verb, it means to move at a constant speed that is comfortable and unhurried.
3)cynical: A cynical person believes that all men are selfish. He sees little or no
good in anything and shows this by making unkind and unfair remarks about people and things.
4)obsess: to worry continuously and unnecessarily.
5)frailty: a weakness of character or behaviour.
6)prospector: a person who examines the land in order to find gold, oil, etc.
7)delta country: Delta is the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet, which is shaped
like a triangle. Therefore anything in the shape of a delta, esp. a deposit of sand and soil formed at the mouth of some rivers is called a delta.
8)drain: to cause to become gradually dry or empty
9)cast of characters: the cast of a play or a film consists of all the people who act
in it
10)flotsam: rubbish, wreckage such as bits of wood, plastic, and other waste
materials that is floating on the sea, parts of a wrecked ship or its cargo found floating in the sea
11)perceive: realize, notice, see or hear sth. esp. when it is not obvious to other
people
12)succumb: a. (fml) stop resisting (temptation, illness, attack, etc)
13)mining strike: sudden discovery of mine
14)scathing: (of speech or writing) bitterly cruel in judgement, sharp and hurtful;
cutting, scornful
15)debunk: (infml) to point out the truth about (over-praised people, ideas, etc).
16)四书（大学，中庸，论语，孟子）: The Four Books (The Great Learning, The
Doctrine of Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius)五经（诗经，书
经，易经，礼记，春秋）: The Five Classics (The Book of Songs, The Book of
History, The Book of Changes, The Book of Rites, and The Spring and Autumn
Annals)
17)panorama: a complete view of a wide stretch of land; continuously changing
view or scene; a thorough representation in words or picture
5.Structural Analysis
1.Part 1: (the first para.) Introduction
2.Part 2: (Tramp printer...renew our edges)
Section 1. (Tramp printer... the settled United States)
the setting, background knowledge
Section 2. (Young Mark...that invented retreating)
early years of life on the Mississippi and as a Confederate guerrilla
Section 3. (He went west...best-seller.)
On his way to success.
Section 4. (At the age...renew our edges.)
Comment on his best works.
3.Part 3: (Personal tragedy...forget them forever.)
Personal tragedy and conclusion.
VI.Classroom Discussion:
Why does the writer consider Mark Twain a mirror of America?
VII.Assignment:
Write a summary of the life to Mark Twain within 200 words.。