萨默塞特毛姆

Unit 5 Cruelty

Text A A Friend In Need

Teaching Objectives

Students will be able to:

1. grasp the main idea and structure of the text;

2. give reasons when they do the ranking activities and make predictions;

3. appreciate the narrative skills (using details to bring out a character; a surprising ending; use of puns);

4. master the key language points and grammatical structures in the text.

Teaching Focus and Difficult Points

1. The main idea and structure of Text A.

2. The understanding of text A including some difficult expressions.

1) Difficult Sentences

Line 9-11: Unless I had heard the story from his own lips, I should never have believed that he was capable of such an action.

Line 18-19: I happened on one occasion to be spending a few days there, waiting for a ship, and I was introduced to him at the British Club.

2) Words and Phrases

for sb’s (own) part/the part of, all of a piece, in accordance with, something of, oddly enough, in a way, With (a) bad/good grace, go broke, down and out, be/go (all) to pieces, drive at, turn up

Teaching Duration: 45minutes

Teaching Procedure

The 1st Period

Step 1 Pre-reading Task: Questions for Discussion (15 minutes)

Teaching Method: communication, discussion，presentation

Ranking activity

T asks Ss at random what they think are the determining forces in shaping human nature (e.g., genes, family, parenting, schooling, peers, socioeconomic factors.)

1)T chooses five or six determining forces, and then write them down on

the blackboard

2)Ss form groups to rank these forces in descending order of importance.

They must also explain why.

3) A few Ss groups report to the class.

T may move on to Text A by saying: We will go on to debate the issue of nature vs. nurture in the fifth period, when we do the Theme-Related Language Learning Tasks. Now let’s turn our attention to the text, to see what Maugham has to say about human nature.

Step 2 Cultural Notes (20 minutes)

1.About the author

Somerset Maugham 萨默塞特.毛姆: He was born in 1874 and died in 1965. He was a British writer, whose novels and short stories are characterized by great narrative facility, simplicity of style, and a disillusioned and ironic point of view. His partially auto biographical novel Of Human Bondage <<人性的枷锁>>(1915) is

generally acknowledged as his masterpiece and is one of the best realistic English novels of the early 20th century.

英国著名小说家，剧作家，散文家, 于1874年1月25日出生在巴黎。8岁时母亲去逝，10岁时父亲死于胃癌。他的拉丁语和希腊语成绩突出，但有一只脚畸形，不擅长体育运动，口吃。毕业于医学院，是一名同性恋。最著名的作品《月亮与六便士》the Moon and Sixpence《人性的枷锁》《刀锋》The Razor’s Edge《面纱The Painted Veil 》以间谍生涯为素材的作品《艾兴顿Ashenden》.最重要的间谍活动曾在瑞士充当英国军情六处的间谍，试图扶持克伦斯基临时政府，阻止俄国革命.

2.Human Cruelty

Many people say: I can’t believe that. I can’t believe that man is that bad.” But just look at the way people treat each other, you will know the cruel side of man. Nations will go to war when practically nothing is to be gained. People will kill for greed and for personal power. (人类甚至会为贪婪，权利去杀人）

Thomas Hardy said, cruelty is the law pervading(遍及) all nature and society; and we can’t get ou t of it. We just forget that we are part of the nature. Death and decay(衰退）will remind us that we are the part of nature, we have to face the law of the nature(自然法则）:cruelty

3.Places mentioned in the text

Kobe: 神户one of the biggest sea ports in Japan. It was rebuilt after the World War II Yokohama:横滨another sea port in Japan Tarumi: 垂水a place in Japan

Step 3 Prediction (5 minutes)

Ss look at the title, and then predict what the text is about, or what kinds of plot are possible under such a title.

Upon first seeing the title, readers may think: It is a story about how people helped their friend in need. However, when they finish reading it, readers will find it is an entirely different story: Those who appear to be friendly may turn out to be so evil – minded as to be ready to strike a cruel blow a t a friend in need.

Step 4 The Outline of the Text (5 minutes)

This passage shows us a wealthy merchant, appearing to be kind and gentle to everyone, turned out to be such a cold-blooded man as insulted and fooled his friend, a needy and helpless man to death; and moreover, he appeared so indifferent to that man’s death. By this, the author aims to point out that one’s appearance is always deceptive; therefore, we shall not judge people only by appearance.

The 2nd Period

Step 1 Text Organization (15minutes)

Part I: It is no easy job to judge people for they aren’t always what they appear to be. Part II: 2-3. kind and gentle, Edward Burton ,a wealthy merchant, seemed as if he could not bear to hurt a fly.

Part III: 4-51.As it turned out, Burton was cold-blooded enough to send a friend to certain death.

For Part III: Section Division

This part constitutes the main plot, can be subdivided into 3 sections

Section one 4-16 What Edward knew about Lenny.

Section Two 17-31 How Edward respond to Lenny’s request.

Section Three 32-51 How Edward a “kind” gentleman, handled a friend in desperate