Unit 6 Being There Teaching Plan 教案

Unit 6Being ThereTeaching PlanLearning Objectives1)Rhetorical skill: transferred epithet and rhetorical question2)Key language & grammar points3)Writing strategies: cohesive devices4)Theme: travel and mental healthPre-class Activity: none.Relationship to Current Unit:Materials: Teacher’s Book (6), English-English Dictionary, Blackboard, PPTEstimated Time of Lesson: 270m, 6 sessionsTime Allocation:P 1-21.Pre-reading: playing games / word puzzle / picture activation / short stories 10m2.Global Reading: text introduction, culture notes, author, structure 15m3.Detailed Reading (a): Text I: Paragraph 1-7 65mP 3-44.Detailed Reading (b): Text I: Paragraph 8-20 90mP 5-65.Consolidation Activities (a): Text Comprehension; Writing Strategies 20m6.Consolidation Activities (b): Language work; Oral Activities; Writing 70m7.Further Enhancement (Optional): Text II / Other Comprehensive PracticesSection One Pre-reading ActivitiesI. Picture ActivationWhat is the meaning of traveling?II. Pre- reading Questions1. When asked about our hobbies, eight out of ten people will mention traveling. Many are even mad about it. When traveling, we feel free both physically and mentally, especially mentally: no work, no boss, no assignment, no deadline... What a wonderful world! At the same time, we admire the magnificence of natural landscapes, and enjoy the tranquility of the remote countryside as well as the convenience of the modern cities. There is no doubt that most of us have some kind of traveling experiences. So share one with the class.Open for discussion.2. Inside every traveler, there’s a dream place that he is dying to visit in his lifetime. We always hear people, especially young people, say that “When I hav e enough money, I will spend my holiday in …” What is your dream place? Tell us where it is and why you want to go there.Open for discussion.Section Two Global ReadingI. Text IntroductionThe text is basically composed of three topics: an examination of primary motivation for traveling, a discussion of travel writing that offers useful insights into the traveler’s psyche, and a description of the peculiar approach held by some travelers today.II. Culture NotesFreud (Paragraph 8)Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian neurologist. He founded psychoanalysis and was the first one to emphasize the significance of unconscious processes in normal and neurotic behavior.Evelyn Waugh (Paragraph 15)Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh (1903–1966), English novelist. His work was profoundly influenced by his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1930. His works include Decline and Fall (1928) and Brideshead Revisited (1945).Paul Theroux (Paragraph 16)(1941– ) American writer. He wrote fiction works that include The Mosquito Coast (1982), My Other Life (1996), and Kowloon Tong (1997) and nonfiction travel books that include The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) and The Pillars of Hercules (1995).Shiva Naipaul (Paragraph 16)Trinidadian writer; full name Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932–). His novels include A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) and A Bend in the River (1979). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.Graham Greene (Paragraph 16)(1904–1991) one of the most popular and critically acclaimed authors of the 20th century, a British editor, essayist, playwright and novelist. Greene’s most famous works include Brighton Rock (1938), The Quiet American (1955), Our Man in Havana (1958) and The Honorary Consul (1973). He had a long association with the movies, and was involved in This Gun for Hire (1942), The Third Ma n (1949) and Loser Takes All (1956).Philip Glazebrook (Paragraph 18)English novelist and travel writer. He is the author of Journey to Kars (1985).James Holman (Paragraph 19)Known as the “Blind Traveler,” James Holman (1786–1857) was a British adventurer, author and social observer, best known for his writings on his extensive travels. Not only completely blind but suffering from debilitating pain and limited mobility, he undertook a series of solo journeys that were unprecedented both in their extent of geography and method of “human echolocation.” In 1866, the journalist William Jerdan wrote that“From Marco Polo to Mungo Park, no three of the most famous tr avellers, grouped together, would exceed the extent and variety of countries traversed by our blind countryman.”III. AuthorAnatole Broyard(1920–1990) African-American literary critic. He worked for The New York Times for forty years. His writings include Aroused by Books and Men, Women, and Other Anticlimaxes. He grew up in Brooklyn and attended the New School for Social Research. After serving in World War II, he taught fiction writing at New York University and Columbia.IV. Structural AnalysisPart 1(Paras. 1-11) an examination of primary motivation for travelingPart 2(Paras. 12-16) a discussion of travel writing that offers useful insights into the traveler’s psychePart 3(Paras. 17-20) an explanation for reasons and purposes of travellingSection Three Detailed ReadingBEING THEREAnatole BroyardI. AnalysisParagraph 1 AnalysisIn order to catch his reader’s attention, the author starts the essay with an unusual simile by comparing travel to “adultery” —travelers are dissatisfied with their own countries and tempted to visit others for excitement.Paragraphs 2-3 AnalysisIn these two paragraphs the author provides the example of Americans, who are used to “young, new” things in their own country but who are only interested in the o ld when they are abroad.Paragraphs 4-5 AnalysisIn these paragraphs, the author points out that we tend to put on our best façade when we travel (“It is our best selves that travel ...”)Paragraphs 6-7 AnalysisThe author explains when and why travel became popular.Paragraphs 8-9 AnalysisIn these two paragraphs the author cites the Freudian theory to explain why we travel —to “get away,” that is to escape the familiar for “a luxurious feeling of disengagement.”Paragraphs 10-11 AnalysisIn these paragraphs the author cites two examples to show that travel could refresh people: to see summery people and to hear things said in another tongue.Paragraph 12 AnalysisAfter enumerating some reasons for traveling, the author moves to the next related topic — travel writing.Paragraph 13 AnalysisIn this paragraph the author compares “the earliest travelers” and “the latest travelers” in terms of their purposes.Paragraph 14 AnalysisIn this paragraph we learn that travel books reveal many interesting aspects of our self-contradictions: we live today but miss the past; we oppose “ethnic distinctions” at home but value them abroad ...Paragraphs 15-16 AnalysisIn these two paragraphs the author argues against Evelyn Waugh’s idea that travel books will disappear because the world is becoming a “monoculture” by enumerating some of our various reasons for traveling.Paragraphs 17-18 AnalysisIn these paragraphs the author further explains some of the reasons for traveling: the love of “awfulness for its own sake” and the quest for “the exotic” in the traveler himself. For the description of exotic phenomena, travel writers have turned their attention from something visible (presence of things) to something invisible (absence of things), when they find fewer new and alien things available for their books.Paragraphs 19-20 AnalysisIn these paragraphs the author points out what a traveler should do by citing the example of the blind traveler James Holman —“to squeeze the places” we visit, “until t hey yield something, anything.” And that is probably the purpose of “being there.”II. Questions for ParagraphsParagraphs 1-3: QuestionWhat is the primary motivation for traveling and what is the unique approach held by some travelers today?The prima ry motivation for traveling is people’s boredom with their own places and their desire to see something different and new. In this sense, traveling can fulfill one’s desire to drop familiar life and temporarily make one an onlooker, so that one can feel disengaged and impregnable. Some travelers hold a peculiar approach. They want to look for the worst, to find rationalizations for their anxiety or despair, to cover their disillusionment with labels.For them the significance of ruins has changed. Instead of the classical ruins of antiquity, now they have places that are merely “ruined.” They take a positive delight in them and love awfulness for its own sake. In their eyes, awfulness is the contemporary equivalent of the exotic. It is a negative sublime, a swoon or ecstasy of spoliation.Paragraph 5: QuestionWhat does the author mean by “roots” and “rootlessness”?By “roots” the author means the cultural or ethnic origin one can identify with, orwhat one belongs to; by “rootlessness” he means one’s psycho logical need to be free.Paragraph 6: QuestionWhy was people’s curiosity about other countries restrained until the 17th century?Traveling was not popular before the 17th century because the influence of the church, the traditional pattern of life, the lack of money and leisure had all restrained curiosity. The scientific discoveries in and after the 17th century began to exert certain pressure on people to explore the physical world.Paragraph 7: QuestionWhy does the author compare travel to a personal crusade?By definition, a crusade can be interpreted as a continual effort or struggle for a particular cause. Here the author finds that travel is, in some way, a battle to find “the profane” and to get away from boredom in modern society.Paragraphs 8-9: QuestionHow does the author explain one’s desire “to get away” in Paragraphs 8 and 9?The author uses the Freudian theory to explain one of the most important reasons for traveling, that is, “to escape father and family,” or our psychological urge f or “disengagement” from “the familiar,” for “irresponsible free association.”Paragraph 11: QuestionWhat, according to the author, is the traveler’s possible reaction to an alien language?According to the author, it is a pleasure to leave their own cliché-filled language and hear things said in another tongue.Paragraph 13: Questions1. What, according to the author, is the main difference between the earliest travelers and today’s travelers?“The earliest travelers went to see marvels, to admire the w onderful diversity of the world,” and they were fascinated with foreign places at first sight; while the latest travelers go to catch a last sight of what is disappearing, to mourn “dying cultures.”2. What does the author hope to convey when he mentions the custom in some ancient societies for the son to inhale his father’s last breath?The author suggests that today’s travelers are trying to “inhale” the “departing soul” of “dying cultures,” that is, to get hold of what is still left of ancient civilizat ions.Paragraph 20: QuestionWhy does the author entitle his essay “Being There”?On the surface, the title “Being There” means “traveling to other places,” which is opposite to “being here.” What the author drives at is our psychological motivations for traveling: our dissatisfaction with our own countries, our desire “to be what we’ve always wanted to be,” our curiosity about antiquity and other countries and cultures, our desire “to get away” from “father and the family,” even “to leave our own language” ... The author also suggests that it is not enough just to be “there” —we should “squeeze the places” we visit until “they yield something.”Detailed ReadingIII. Language Work of ParagraphsParagraph 1“Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country.”Paraphrase: Travel is like infidelity between married people, but here one is always lured into going out to see other countries.adultery n. (adulterous adj.) sex that takes place between a married person and someone who is not their husband or wifee.g. Many people in public life have committed adultery.He had an adulterous relationship with his wife’s best friend.tempt v. to make you want to do or to have something, especially something that is not good for youe.g. The offer of a free car stereo tempted her into buying a new car.They tempted him to join the company by offering him a large salary and acompany car.“... we are lovers looking for consummation.””Paraphrase: Here the word “consummation means “fulfillment and perfection,” which implies that we are dissatisfied with what we have.Paragraph 2“Only while traveling can we appreciate age”Paraphrase: Only while traveling can we recognize the value of age.appreciate vt. to understand the true nature of a situation, and realize why it is important or seriouse.g. I appreciate your problems.I really appreciate your help.Paragraph 3“When we travel, we put aside our defenses our anxiety, and invite regression.”Paraphrase:When we travel, we are not so much on the alert .../less wary of what might happen to us, instead we show keen interest in what happened in the past.put aside: to not allow yourself to be affected by a problem, argument, etc. so that you can achieve something more importante.g. Can we put that question aside for now, and come back to it later?Let’s put our disagreements aside and make a fresh start.“cultivate our hysteria”Paraphrase: release our desires that have long been suppressedParagraph 4“We’re going to see in Europe everything we have eliminated or edited out of our own culture in the name of convenience ...”Paraphrase:We’re going to see in Europe everything we have removed out of our own culture for the sake of convenience ...eliminate vt. to get rid of something that is not wanted or needede.g. The police eliminated the possibility that it was just an accident.A move towards healthy eating could help eliminate heart disease.edit out:to remove parts of a film, television, or radio programme that are not wanted before it is shown or broadcaste.g. The film’s 129 minutes were edited out from 150 hours of footage.in the name of: representing someone or something; using the authority given by someone or somethinge.g. Much blood has been spilled in the name of religion.Paragraph 5“At home, we impersonate ourselves ...”Paraphrase: At home, we are always masked. We dare not show others our real selves ...impersonate vt.to act the part of; to attempt to deceive someone by pretendingthat you are another persone.g. He was fined for impersonating a police officer.She’s the woman who impersonates the Queen on TV.He does a brilliant impersonation of Prince Charles.Paragraph 6“The influence of the church, the traditional pattern of life, the lac k of money and leisure had all restrained curiosity until the seventeenth century, when under pressure of scientific discoveries, the physical world began to gape open.”Paraphrase: The power of the church, the traditional life style, the lack of money and spare time, all these factors had inhibited or suppressed our curiosity until the seventeenth century. Then, the world began to open to travel due to scientific discoveries.restrain vt. (restraint n.) to be or become wide opene.g. You should try to restrain your ambitions and be more realistic.Growth in car ownership could be restrained by increasing taxes.I was expecting him to be furious but he was very restrained.gape vi. to look at something or someone with your mouth open because you are very surprisede.g. Peter’s jacket gaped at the seams.The bomb had left gaping holes in the wallParagraph 7“Travel arrived together with sophistication ...”Paraphrase: Travel became popular when people became sophisticated...“Something of the Crusades survives in the modern traveler ...”Paraphrase: In the modern traveler there is still the desire to conquer ...Note: Note that when the word “crusade” is not capitalized, it usually indicates a continual endeavor or effort for a particular cause, e.g. a crusade against dishonest advertising.“... only his is a personal crusade, an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure battles of his own spirit.”Paraphrase: ... but his battle is a personal one, motivated by a desire to leave his own country and to fight some personal spiritual battles.crusade n. an effort over a long time to achieve something that you strongly believeis morally righte.g. They have long been involved in a crusade for racial equality.a moral crusade against drugscertain obscure battles: some spiritual battlesThey are “obscure” because you cannot see them.Paragraph 8fatherIn the Freudian theory “father” is the potential antagonist to the son, a domineering force in the family.“There is a recurrent desire to drop our lives, to simply walk out of them.”Paraphrase: There is a persistent desire to abandon our normal lives, and to experience something totally different.recurrent adj.happening many times recurringe.g. For much of his life he suffered from recurrent bouts of depression.He suffered all his life from a recurrent nightmare that he was trapped in afalling house.The doctor told him to go to the hospital if there was a recurrence of his symptoms.Paragraph 9“feeling of disengagement, of irresponsible free association”Paraphrase: feeling of freedom and releaseParagraph 10“when life comes out of doors”Paraphrase: When we go out to travel, life seems to come back.summery people: This is a transferred epithet, because “summery” usually does not go with peo ple. A similar example is “sad falls” (falls that make people sad). Here the author refers to the cheerfulness of people in summer, the most agreeable season, contrary to the sadness of people in fall, winter and spring.“The places we visit are gold-plat ed by the sun.”Paraphrase: The places we visit always look so gorgeous in the sunshine.gold-plated adj. covered with a thin layer of golde.g. Gold-plated earrings are much cheaper than solid gold ones.We normally plate the car handles with nickel and then chrome.Paragraph 11“with its clichés stuck in our teeth”Paraphrase: with its trite words and expressions being uttered again and again between our teeth“It’s like having our ears cleaned out.”Paraphrase:It’s as if our ears were cleaned out, because they don’t have to listen to all those clichés.Paragraph 12“Because we travel for so many reasons —some of them contradictory —travel writing is like a suitcase into which the writer tries to cram everything.”Paraphrase:Because we travel for so many reasons —some of the reasons are very different from each other — travel writing is like a suitcase into which the writer tries to stuff everything.contradictory adj. contradictory statements, information, ideas, or beliefs disagree with each other and cannot both or all be truee.g. The evidence given in the trial was contradictory.You say that you’re good friends and yet you don’t trust him. Isn’t that a bit of acontradiction?If you’re both going to lie, at least stick to the same story and don’t contradicteach other!cram vt. to put people or things into a space that is too small; to do many things in a short period of time; to study hard in order to learn a lot in a short time, especially for an examinatione.g. Eight children were crammed into the back of the car.I managed to cram three countries into a week’s business trip.She’s cramming for her history exam.“... it’s a continual tasting, the expression of a nostalgia for the particular.”Paraphrase:it (travel writing) enables readers to recall those particular events orpeople that they meet while traveling and cherish them in their memories.Note: “The expression of a nostalgia for the particular” refers to what the author mentions in the next sentence — traveling reminds us of our childhood. It is like a childish game. The only difference is that we played “house” when we were young, and we play “countries” when we are traveling.Paragraph 13“The earliest travelers went to see marvels ...”Paraphrase: The earliest travelers went to see amazing things...marvel n. someone or something that is very surprising or impressivee.g. This miniature TV is the latest technological marvel from Japan.It’s a marvel to me how they’ve managed to build the tunnel so quickly.Paragraph 14“Travel writing has become a quintessentially modern thing, the present regretting the past.”Paraphrase: Travel writing has become a typically modern thing, the present grieving over the past.quintessential adj. (quintessentially adv.) most typically representative of a quality, state, etc.e.g. Sherry before dinner is quintessentially English.His music was quintessentially weird.This is the quintessential English village.“We travel like insurance appraisers, assessing the damage”Paraphrase: We travel like insurance appraisers, trying to see how much damage has been done to the places.Paragraph 15“the sense of place giving way to placelessness”Paraphrase: the feeling that all places have lost their distinctive features Note: Note that “the sense of place” means “the sense of one place being different from other places,” and that the word “placelessness” is the author’s coinage referring to the disappearance of the differences between places, hence “monoculture.”“... every slippage of culture would provoke its peculiar literature.”Paraphrase: ... any slight changes of culture would produce some particular travel writing.“He underestimated the variousness of our reasons for traveling.”Paraphrase: He failed to foresee that people travel for so many different reasons.underestimate vt. & n. to think that someone has less power or ability than they really havee.g. Originally the builders quoted me a price of £2,000, but now they say theyunderestimated the cost and it’s going to be at least £3,000.Never underestimate your opponent!Clearly £250 for a trip to Paris was a serious underestimate.Paragraph 16“to find rationalizations for their anxiety or despair”Paraphrase: to find some reasons and justification for their anxiety or despair“to cover their disillusionment with labels, as steamer trunks used to be covered with them”Paraphrase: to invent some names or expressions for their disillusionment, as people used to put labels onto trunks on steamshipsWhy else would Paul Theroux go to South America, which he so obviously detested?Paraphrase: If not, then why would Paul Theroux go to South America, which he hated so much?detest vt. to hate someone or something very muche.g. I detest any kind of cruelty.I detest warm milk — it makes me feel sick.The Student’s Union is ruled by her detested older brother.a detestable cowardParagraph 17Instead of the classical ruins of antiquity, we now have places that are merely “ruined.”Paraphrase: Instead of those classical relics of the ancient times, wenow have places that are badly destroyed.a positive delightHere the word “positive” means “definite; absolute.”“It’s a negative sublime ...”Paraphrase: Travelers elicit from awfulness a feeling of delight and grandeur which is opposite to the feeling commonly associated with classical ruins of antiquity ...Paragraph 18“The centrifugal tendency turns centripetal ...”Paraphrase: When we travel, we normally move out to see the exotic world, but now the traveler himself becomes something exotic in the place he visits ...the classic bookstraditional travel books, opposite to modern travel books“...Philip Glazebrook seems to have visited several unappealing villages in Turkey simply for the irony of being there.”Paraphrase: .. Philip Glazebrook seems to have visited several villages in Turkey which are neither attractive nor interesting. But he went there simply because he wanted to be there, not because he was attracted to those villages.“Irony is the contemporary traveler’s drip-dry shirt.”Paraphrase: For the modern traveler irony has become something very common, just like a drip-dry shirt.Note: “A drip-dry shirt” is a shirt that is specially treated so as to be easily or quickly washed and dried and require little or no ironing.Now the term “drip-dry” has become a metaphor for all things modern, easily or quickly treated, but necessary for people’s life.“... is a place where he himself can stand out in absolute relief.”Paraphrase: ... is a place where he himself is the only thing prominent. In other words, he sees only himself instead of the place.Paragraph 19“Perhaps in the future we shall have to travel like James Holman, who, after being invalided out of the British navy because he had gone blind, setout in 1819 to see the world.”Paraphrase:Perhaps in the future we shall have to travel like James Holman, who, after being forced to leave the British navy because he had gone blind, started traveling in 1819 to see the world.invalid out:If you are invalided out of a job, especially a military job, you are forced to leave because of injury or illness.e.g. I was not quite so sick as to be invalided out, even though I was of no more use.He became an invalid as a result of a car accident.Paragraph 20“Since he could not see, people often invited Holman to squeeze things as a way of perceiving them ...”Paraphrase: Since he could not see, people often asked Holman to feel things with his hands, so that he knew what they were like...squeeze vi. to press something firmly, especially with your hands; to press something such as a liquid out of something; to strictly limit the amount of money that is available to a company or organizatione.g. The studio is using all sorts of marketing tricks to squeeze as much profit fromthe movie as they can.I must have put on a lot of weight over Christmas because I can just squeeze intomy jeans.I’m very busy this week but I could squeeze you in at 2:30 on Tuesday.Small businesses are being squeezed by heavy taxation.“He has to squeeze the places he visits, until they yield something, anything.”Paraphrase: He has to explore the places hard until they become meaningful to him. Section Four Further EnchantmentI. Lead-in QuestionsCan cultural differences incur misunderstanding? Try to give some examples.Open for discussion.Text IICULTURAL HABITSRichard BrennanII. NotesAbout the authorRichard Brennan (1943– ), Australian film producer and screen writer, internationally renowned author, having written four books on the Alexander Technique which have been translated into eight languages.the Alexander profession (Paragraph 1)the profession of teaching the Alexander Technique, which teaches how to recognize and overcome habituated limitations within a person’s manner of movement and thinking. The first and most common limitation addressed is unnecessary muscular tension.sweeping generalizations (Paragraph 3)very broad generalizationsmannerisms (Paragraph 3)habitual gestures or ways of speaking or behaving; idiosyncrasiesTahiti (Paragraph 5)an island in the central South Pacific, one of the Society Islands, part of French PolynesiaRarotonga (Paragraph 5)a mountainous island in the South Pacific, the chief island of the Cook Islands. Its chief town, Avarua, is the capital of the Cook Islands.Fiji (Paragraph 5)a country in the South Pacific consisting of a group of some 840 islands, of which about a hundred are inhabitedthe ancient kava ceremony (Paragraph 5)a kind of ancient ceremony practiced in Fiji. For example, when a new king takes his throne or a new chief is established in his title, he must participate in this kind of ceremony.a very surreal experience (Paragraph 6)an experience which has surreal characteristics. Surrealism is a 20th century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the。