新标准大学英语BOOK4-unit2教案-李骠

4 To claim that books provide the meaning to life. 5 To recommend some major novels to read.

9 Work in pairs. Look at the statements from the passage and discuss the questions. 1 … when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. Do you agree with this statement? Is this true of every book?

I agree with this up to a point, but it is not true of every book because with some books you may already be very familiar with the world of those particular books so although you might read them, they wouldn?t take you to a new world.

2 We’ll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from. How can reading be a “painful” experience? In what sense does reading “liberate” us from the real world?

It is easy to imagine how reading could be a painful experience for some people: It depends on the book and on the reader?s background and personality. For instance, I can see that a story about bullying, might be painful to read if you were bullied when you were a child – it would remind you of the experience of being hurt.

Reading can liberate us because in books we can have all sorts of wonderful and interesting experiences which would be impossible for us in the real world: we can travel to distant places or go anywhere in time, we can meet all sorts of people we probably wouldn?t meet anywhere else except in books.

3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow.

How does this idea contrast with the title of the passage? In what way can a book help us “grow”? The word “Danger” in the title contrasts with this idea that reading is a safe experience. However, this is not a contradiction because experiences that would be dangerous in real life are quite safe when we read about them in books. The author seems to think that we grow in our minds with a better understanding and enriched imagination when we meet a wide variety of people and different situations in books. This vicarious experience in reading is a safe way to grow mentally and emotionally.

4 To interact with other people’s lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us.

Do you agree? Is fiction really different from other types of writing?

Well, I think this is true because in fiction we do interact with the characters, both positively (with characters we can identify with) and negatively (with characters we do not like or admire). But this doesn?t mean that we don?t interact with the writer in non-fiction. Surely all of us have the experience of feeling that we do interact with writers in newspaper or magazine articles and in some kinds of non-fiction which may be about science, for example. I suppose it depends on the style of the writing and on the personality of the writer (and of characters in fiction) and on us, as readers.

5 We even understand … that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors.

This suggests that people who read are different from people who don?t read. Do you agree? Well, I am not sure. I guess that people who read similar books, fiction or non-fiction, would share some common knowledge, experience and maybe feelings and they would probably talk about these when they know about each other?s reading habits. Of course, they wouldn?t necessarily have other things in common, just this particular connection with a certain kind of culture through reading. Maybe people in the street do not have to share this reading experience, so in that respect they are different, but they may be quite similar and share many cultural experiences in other ways – after all they live in the same place, probably speak the same language. So, I think it?s all a question of what sort of common experiences you are talking about. The more I think about it, the less I agree! 6 From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with books

in our adult homes, books define our lives.

What do you understand by “books define our lives”?

I suppose they would be those books – not many, surely? – which have made a great impact and remain so strong in our memories that do have a function of defining something in our lives. However, I think the author has exaggerated here. Books are not the only things that define our lives. People, places and special events define our lives too, so books are only one part which for some people have a great influence but for others maybe very little or none at all. We have to remember that some people simply don?t read books. Even some students only read what they have to read, nothing more than that!

7 We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.

Do you agree that we “live other lives” when reading? Or is this an exaggeration?

I agree that we have strong imaginative experiences when we read. Maybe you can call this “living other lives” sometimes, but for me, anyway, this simply doesn?t happen very often and when it does happen it is only for a short time. I think the writer is exaggerating here to make the point that reading has importance in our imagination.

8 Books may change your life.

Is this a suitable title – and ending – for the passage? Why / Why not?

Yes, I think it OK as a catchy title – it gets our attention, after all, and repeating it at the end makes a kind of coda like the ending of a piece of music which echoes something near the beginning. Also if you look carefully, it does have a note of caution by using “maybe” instead of “will”, so this title isn?t a definite promise, it?s more of an attractive idea, that your life may be changed through books, but might not be.

Now discuss which of the above statements would have been more effective if backed up by example(s).

In fact, it seems that any of them could effectively be illustrated by examples, but if all of them were to be backed up with examples, the whole passage would be a lot longer and maybe too heavy with examples.

If I had to choose just two statements which need supporting examples, I would say numbers three and six because I?d say the ideas about ?growing? through books and books ?defining? our lives are too vague without examples.

Active reading (2)

They were alive and they spoke to me Background information

This is from The Books in My Life by Henry Miller (1861–1980), an American novelist, writer and painter. Miller was born in New York, lived in Paris 1930–1939, and then in California. His best-known works blend fiction, autobiography, social criticism and mysticism: Tropic of Cancer (1934 published in France) describes his life and loves in Paris and because of its sexual frankness it was not published in the USA till 1961; Black Spring (1936) has ten autobiographical stories; Tropic of Capricorn (1939) is about his years with the Western Union Telegraph Company; The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), considered by some critics to be his best work, is a travel book about people from his stay in Greece.

In The Books in My Life (1969) Miller looks at 100 books that influenced him. His list includes children?s books written originally for adults (eg Alice in Wonderland, The Arabian Nights, Greek Myths and Legends, Robinson Crusoe, The Three Musketeers); many French novels and poetry (eg by Balzac, Hugo, Giono, Nerval, Proust, Rimbaud, Huysmans, Maeterlinck), German novels (by Mann, Hesse, Dreiser) and the Chinese Lao Tse and Fenollosa?s The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, besides work by American writers (Twain, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman), Dostoievshy, Nietzsche, Joyce and writers on spiritual topics. Culture points

August Strindberg (1849–1912): A Swedish playwright and a prolific writer of novels, short stories, satires, essays and poems, and a photographer, who tried various jobs before becoming assistant librarian at the Royal Library in Stockholm and established an experimental theatre. He is best known for his plays, including The Father (1887) and Miss Julie (1888), and for his vitality, vigour, and brilliant use of language. Miller cites Strindberg?s autobiographies, The Confession of a Fool (vol.2), a passionate love story and account of problems in his marriage, and The Inferno (vol.3), a study of his religious conversion, delusions and neuroses which reflect Strindberg?s periods of mental instability.

Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961) is the pen name of Frédéric Sauser, a Swiss-born French novelist, shortstory writer, poet, and film-maker, who led a life of constant travel (he was born in an Italian railway train) doing various jobs in Russia, Europe, North and South America and Asia – he is said to have shoveled coal on steam trains in China. He lost his right arm fighting for France in World War I. His prose includes vivid, witty, action-packed novels, like Moravagine (1926), which describe travel and adventure, or works directly inspired by his own experience, like The Astonished Man (1945) and The Cut Hand (1946), and four volumes of memoirs. Miller admired his work and lists ?virtually the complete works? of Cendrars as influential reading. Rémy de Gourmont (1858–1915): a French writer of 50 books: essays, novels and poetry, with a strong interest in medieval Latin literature; as a critic he was admired by T. S. Eliot. He was a librarian at the National Library in Paris; later, a painful skin disease kept him largely at home. He was influential in the symbolist movement in literature. He claimed that a work of art exists only through the emotion it gives us. He asserted the need to get away from the unquestioning acceptance of commonplace ideas and associations of ideas, and believed it was necessary for thought to proceed by imagery rather than by ideas.

Julius Caesar (110 BC–44 BC): a Roman statesman, known as a great military strategist. As a general he was famous for the conquest of Gaul (modern France and Belgium) which he added to the Roman Empire. He also made two expeditions to Britain, was governor of Spain and traveled in North Africa and Egypt. He was a good speaker and he wrote several books of commentaries and memoirs on Roman wars and military campaigns. Caesar?s writing is often studied today by those who learn Latin.

The Julius Caesar of literature: this phrase compares Cendrars with Caesar: both were men of action, travelers, adventurers, explorers, who somehow found time to read a lot and write books. Language points

1 The fact, however, that in the past I did most of my work without the aid of library I look upon as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. (Para 1)

This is irony. Miller is writing about the importance of reading and about key books in his life, but there is a paradox: Only recently has he been able to get all the books he has wanted all his life (ie he now has money, as a best-selling writer, to buy books) and, as a writer, he wrote books without the help of a library. He says that not having books was an advantage. The explanation is probably that Miller?s early writing was a mixture of autobiography and fiction, so he didn?t need to read other books or refer to them to do his own writing. The irony is that he is saying this in a book about the books the influenced him.

2 A good book lives through the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. (Para 3)

Miller thinks that a good part of the ?life? of a book is how one reader recommends it to another with enthusiasm, ie books are about sharing experience, not just the author?s experience in the book and the reader?s experience of reading it, but also the experience of word-of-mouth or face-to-face recommendation by other readers. 3 And the better the man the more easily will he part with his most cherished possessions. (Para 4)

This continues Miller?s thought that books are for sharing. A good person will share things he or she loves. In this case, such a person will give or lend favourite books and such generosity makes friends: When you give books you get friendship.

4 If you are honest with yourself you will discover that your stature has increased from the mere effort of resisting your impulse. (Para 6)

Miller?s argument here is that you should not read everything, but that you should choose very carefully and selectively. This means you should resist the temptation to read some things which are not really going to add to your knowledge or enjoyment (not every book will do this, only some). Here, he says that in this way, we grow (we “increase our stature”). That is, we grow by not reading many books. The implication is that if we choose the very best books and read these few really carefully we will get the best from them – and grow by such selection. Miller discusses 100 books which he things are such books. 5 All on the side, as it were. (Para 7)

Cendrars was a man of action who spent most of his time on travels and adventures. Surprisingly (you would think he did not have time), he read a lot in different languages and even wrote many books – this was in addition to his main activities.

6 For, if he is anything, Cendrars, he is a man of action, an adventurer and explorer, a man who has known how to “waste” his time royally. (Para 7)

Cendrars had a huge reputation as a man of action, travelling, having adventures and exploring different countries and yet he read a lot (he knew how to use the little time available to read). “Waste” is in quotes to show irony (reading isn?t a waste of time), that he reads in a royal manner (ie very thoroughly). The sentence structure here is quite French with the repetition of “he”. Reading and understanding

2 Choose the best answer to the questions.

1 What does Miller consider to have been an advantage during his writing career? (a) To have been able to read all the books he wanted. (b) To have grown up in a room full of books. (c) To have written without the aid of a library. (d) The fact that he never wanted to own any books.

2 What did three stars on a book mean in the public library in Miller?s youth? (a) Young people weren?t allowed to read them. (b) They were the most popular books in the library. (c) They were intended for children.

(d) They were more exciting than one-star books.

3 Why does Miller hope the star system still exists in public libraries? (a) It is an efficient system which works well.

(b) It discourages people from reading inappropriate books. (c) It makes people interested in reading.

(d) It makes it easier for people to recognize books. 4 Why do people lend books, in Miller?s opinion? (a) Because they feel the need to share their feelings. (b) It?s the best way to make a friend. (c) It?s less risky than lending money.

(d) Because it?s not possible to possess a book for ever.

5 According to Miller, what should you do when you find a book you want to read? (a) Pick it up and start reading.

(b) Ask a friend for advice about the book.

(c) Think about whether you really need to read it. (d) Only read it if it is original.

6 What does Miller especially admire about Blaise Cendrars? (a) He had a very adventurous life. (b) He was a great writer.