广外英语文学欣赏U1 (3)

Rice
Fluffy white flakes in a porcelain bowl. Steam rises and with it, the particular fragrance. Like a kind of incense, it wafts and weaves so many, many memories.
According to government statistic, the total population of Singapore as of September 2007 is 4.68 million, of which 3.7 million are Singaporean citizens and permanent residents (termed 'Singapore Residents').Of this group of about 3.7 million people, Chinese form 75.2%, Malays form 13.6%, Indians form 8.8%, while Eurasians and other groups form 2.4%.

Rice as a symbol
Sprinkling rice at the wedding ceremony What does “rice” symbolize in the story?

Vocabulary exercise:
1.With the _____ of clockwork, dinner at our house is always served at 7:30 pm…the meal is eaten in ______ silence, _____ and with _____ silence. 2.But this I long remember of a family ____; we‟ve always had rice for dinner. 3.Pa would always have his _______ bowl of rice and Ma would always serve it.


4.I make _______ for brown rice, which I eat ______, more as a health lad rather than as real food. 5.The sharp-smelling of cheese will turn Ma ______ with disgust. 6.The silence in the kitchen ______ with the _____ as the bowl ______ into a thousand pieces. 7. The _______ of rice was symbolic of fertility.

Baidu Nhomakorabearanslate:
unhusked rice, rinse the rice shovel the rice into her mouth scoop the grains into the bowl sprinkle the rice Rice is a staple. to savor its full-bodied flavor
Questions for discussion:
1. What memories does the writer talk about in the passage? 2.What is the speaker‟s feeling towards „rice‟? 3. What might be the cause of the quarrel between mother and father? What does the quarrel tell us about the mother? 4. Why is the grandmother so angry about the broken rice bowl? 5. On what basis does the father reject the speaker‟s marriage? What does that tell of the father? 6. What does the ending of the story suggest?

Preparations for the next class:
Do you have small moments which you have enjoyed without realizing what wealth it had brought to you? If you have, would you like to share with us? In your growing-up process is there any incident that suddenly wakens you up to the realization of something? If there is, in what way has the incident affected you? Read “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth.
Rice
Oral practice:
Please talk about the legends about “rice”.
The author: Mary Loh Chieu Kwuan
Singapore was colonized by the British East India Company in 1819. Occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II, it reverted to British rule in 1945 and was later part of the merger which established Malaysia in 1963. Less than two years later it left the federation and became an independent republic on 9 August 1965.