大学英语写作课程Unit Four Sentence Base

A treacherous fellow is the Shark. He never makes the least remark. -- Alfred Douglas, "The Shark“ To emphasize "a treacherous fellow" and to achieve the rhyme
What is a good subject then? a good subject is usually a concrete or personal noun instead of an abstract word , because a concrete or personal noun can raise the reader’s interest in what he/she is going to read .
Voice
Once a subject is chosen, the next step is to decide the voice. When should we use the passive or active voice? What are their distinctive features?
Part II Focus
• 4). Before I set my world record, I was a great fan of The Guinness Book of World Records and read each new edition from cover to cover. • 5). For a while I had been secretly desiring to be in that book myself -- to astonish others just as I had been astonished. • 6). Readers will always appreciate classics like Middlemarch. • 7). An English critic in the nineteenth century asked the question "Who ever reads an American book?"
• A mission to help thousands of starving local people was organized by Father Robert I. Charlesbois, a 48-year-old Catholic priest from Gary, Indiana, with 12 years of experience working in disasterstricken areas.
• 4). A great deal of learning -- I learned a great deal in my chemistry class. • 5). The intelligence necessary to understand this concept -- Few people are intelligent enough to understand this concept. • 6). The embarrassment -- I was too embarrassed to speak.
Unit 4 Sentence base
2011-Simon-GDUBS
Unit Objectives
• know how to choose an appropriate subject and where to put it; • use voices effectively
Sentence Base
• By reputation a dreary experience, but this time proving to be educational and even mildly enjoyable, language training came to an end. • Language training, by reputation a dreary experience, finally came to an end; in all, it proved to be educational and even mildly enjoyable.
• In the center of the painting standsቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱa lady in white.
• A lady in white stands in the center of the painting.
Classroom activities on P.46
1. 1). Rod missed the fun of college by making chemistry his sole activity and participating in no other extracurricular activities. • 2). Cayenne is used freely by Mexican cooks because it adds spice to their sauces and provides color as well.
Classroom activities P. 46
2. Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest;
And a mother she was, and is, to me ... --Brian Waller Procter, "The Sea“
To emphasize "a mother"
Part II Focus
Subject • We should be aware of nominalization and use of abstract nouns as subjects and try to use them cautiously. • Learn to use human and specific nouns as subjects.
• 3). The neighborhood was terrorized by the dog which barked up the wrong tree and de-fended an enormous territory not his own. • 4). Patty began apartment hunting by paging through the classified ads and making large circles here and there.
Voice
Generally speaking, the active voice is more vigorous and lays more emphasis on the predicate while the passive voice is ,as its name suggests ,“passive” and emphasizes the agent (though sometimes omitting it ). The selection of voices should also be decided by the context
Part II Focus
Voice • to use the active voice more often and give up the misconception that the passive voice is more sophisticated than the active one. • Of course there are certain occasions on which the passive voice is preferred, but we should know what these situations are so as to use it more effectively.
Choosing the passive voice
• The book about motorcycles was misplaced among books about cosmetics.
• In 1850, no trace of the glacier was found.
• When the agent is either unknown or unimportant, we use the passive voice.
Down in a green and shady bed A modest violet grew; Its stalk was bent, it hung its head, As if to hide from view. -- James Taylor, "The Violet“ To emphasize "down in a green and shady bed” and achieve the rhyme
Classroom activities P. 44
1. 1). Freedom. • 2). A reluctance to work steadily -Because she was reluctant to work steadily, she was unprepared for the presentation on Monday. • 3). The horror of the movie -- I was so frightened by the movie that I did not sleep for three nights.
Classroom activities P. 47
• 1). The luxury liner rammed into the huge iceberg. • 2). Ferrari ran a good race. • 3). The amateur archaeologist discovered some objects of art. • (The original sentence em-phasizes the agent, "the. amateur archaeologist," while this sentence stresses the fact that this amateur archaeologist discovered some objects of art. )
The sentence base, which is like the trunk of a tree, consists of at least one subject and one verb.
Subject
• The catching of fish provides enjoyment for polar bears. • Polar bears like to catch fish.
Choosing the active voice
• Through her studies of child rearing, personality, and culture, world fame was achieved by Margaret Mead. • Through her studies of child rearing, personality, and culture, Margaret Mead achieved world fame.
Position of the subject
• The beginning and the end of a sentence are its strong points where the writer may put significant words to impress the reader