新编英语教程 6 Unit 6 教案

Unit Six

TEXT I

DULL WORK

Eric Hoffer

Objectives: To catch the central idea of each paragraph.

To discuss that eventful life kills rather than stimulates a man’s instinct for creation./all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Pre-class work:

Find out more about the figures mentioned in the text than those provided in the notes: Amos, Socrates, Omar, Jesus Christ, Albert Einstein, Niccolo Machiavelli, Immanuel Kant, John Keats, Sophocles, John Milton, Benvenuto Cellini.

Pre-reading Questions:

1. Do you think you can achieve much if you live a plain, ordinary life?

2. Does monotonous, routine work dull one’s mind?

In-reading Comprehension

Para. 1

1. There seems to be general assumption that brilliant people cannot stand routine; that they need a varied, exciting life in order to do their best.

to do their best: to achieve their potential creativeness; to best exercise their talent (comp. 3-1)

It is generally believed that a colorless life can freeze a creative mind, and only a colorful life can inspire a man to creative work.

2. Tell about this para. in your own words.

There is an assumption that brilliant people cannot stand routine life, and they need a colorful life; while dull people are suited for dull work. The present-day young are more brilliant than the young of the past because they are better educated. Therefore they prefer a colorful life to a dull, routine one.

3. What is the purpose of this para.?

This is an introductory para. to put forward an assumption (successful men - colorful life; unsuccessful - dull, routine life) so as to raise a question: Is the assumption right or wrong?

Para. 2

1. What is the ‘opposite’ that H says is ‘nearer the truth’? What is the purpose of this para.? (comp. 3-2)

As it goes in the 1st sentence, the successful men do not crave for (= long for) colorful life. The contrary is also true (反过来说): people who achieve much are often those content with the routine, uneventful life they live, or, the successful men are satisfied with the routine/uneventful/colorless life they are leading.

This is the central idea of this para. and H supports it by citing examples of some well-reputed men who led a colorless routine life.

2. Identify those great figures mentioned in this para. and say something about them.

Amos the sheepherder: a minor prophet in the Old Testament 阿摩斯，旧约中１２个小先知中的第三名

Socrates the stonemason: Greek philosopher well known for his sophistry Socrates of Athens, who flurished in the last half of the 5th century, was the 1st of the great trio of ancient Greeks - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - who laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.

He was born in or about 470 BC. His father Sophroniscus was a sculptor, mother a midwife, 3 sons, one an infant. There were 2 counts in the accusation: ‘corruption of the young’ and ‘neglect of the gods whom the city worships and the practice of religious novelties.’ An escape was planned by his freind Crito, but S refused to hear of it, on the grounds that the verdict, though contrary to the fact, was that of a legitimate court and must therefore be obeyed. The story of his last day, with his drinking of the hemlock, has been perfectly told in the Phaedo of Plato.

Though a good fighting man, his outward appearance was grotesque. Stout and not tall with prominent eyes, snub nose, broad nostrils, and wide

mouth, he seemed a very Silenus. But as his freinds knew, he was ‘all glorious within,’ ‘the most upright man of that day.’ (Plato)

Omar the tentmaker: Persian astronomer and poet

Jesus Christ: 上帝的独生子。大约罗马建城748年，在犹太的伯利恒，童贞女玛利亚由圣灵感孕生下耶酥，由约瑟抚养成人。出世不久，有几个博士从东方来到耶路撒冷，说是来拜生下来作犹太之王的人，因为他们在东方看到了他的星。犹太王希律听说后，心里十分不安，派人到处寻觅，找不着，便命把二周岁以内的男孩全部杀死。耶酥一家逃到埃及才得以幸免。耶酥回国来到拿撒勒作工匠，30多岁时施洗约翰在约旦河给他施洗，而后圣灵引他去接受魔鬼的试探，此后成为救世主。他召了12个门徒，和他们一起到犹太各地传教，要人们严守诫条。后来他的门徒加略人犹大为30块钱出卖了他，把他拘送到马总督彼拉多那里，他被钉死在十字架上。死后第三日复活，多次向门徒显现。复活后第一十日升天，第五十日差谴圣灵降临。众门徒领圣灵，开始传教。

Albert Einstein (1879-1955): German-American scientist and one of the greatest of all time, is best known as the special and general theories of relativity. From 1896-1900, he was a student at the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, Switzerland. From 1902-1909, he was hired by the Swiss Patent Office at Berne as ‘Probationary technical expert, third class’. It was in 1905 that he published 4 papers of major importance in the journal Annalen der Physik, including his first memoirs on special relativity. Later it was revealed that, although it took him only 5 weeks to write his first paper on relativity despite working all day at the patent office, he had been mediating since he was 16 on the fundamental problem concerning the velocity of light that gave rise to this theory.

Niccolo Machiavelli: Florentine statesman and political philosopher. His removal from political activity forced him to a retired life and to enter the career of a political writer.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): German philosopher. His attempt to define precisely the domain of rational understanding is a landmark in Western thought. On the one hand, he opposed Hume’s skepticism, the idea that pure reason is of no real use in understanding the world, and on the other hand, he

challenged Enlightenment faith in the unlimited scope of reason. The basic formulation of what is called his critical philosophy is contained in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of Judgment (1790). The quiet regularity of Kant’s everyday life in Konisberg, where he was a university professor (1770-1804), became proverbial. According to an anecdote of Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), German poet, satirist and journalist, the r esidents of the town set their watches by Kant’s daily walks.

So, the purpose of this para. is to show that the lives of many truly great men are extremely ordinary. Or, people who achieve do not necessarily live eventful lives.

Para. 3

1. Tell what you know about John Keats and Sophocles.

John Keats (1795-1821): probably the most talented of English romantic poets. Long poems as Isabella, Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, shorter poems as Ode on a Grecian Urn 希腊古瓮颂, Ode to Autumn, Ode to a Nightingale.

Sophocles: 2nd of classical Athens’ 3 great writers of tragedy - Aeschylus, S., and Euripides. He was born about 496 BC, wealthy from birth, well-educated, with beauty of physique.

2. Paraphrase the whole para.

One of the wonders human creativity works is that man can make full use of even insignificant feelings to produce far-reaching results. Man’s creativeness lies in his ability, rather than his way of life (eventful or routine), to turn the small wish into significant reality. The greatness of man lies in that he can achieve/accomplish something in whatever cases (no matter whether he feels happy or unhappy, no matter whether he has pressures and hungers). Take Keats as an example /According to Keats, he could get the inspiration when he was in vexation (= illness, discomforts). All the experiences or events, happy or not, are the resources for man’s creativity. Happy ones can be the resources of new ideas and insights, so are the unhappy ones. The excessive humanness lies in the ability to transmute/bring the insignificant element into significant consequence.

3. So, what, in this para. according to H, makes a truly creative man? (comp.

3-3)

His ability to turn trivial experiences into inspirations for creative work, the ability to make the trivial reach an enormous way.

This is essential for creative work, and it is the purpose of this para. The first sentence is the topic sentence, and the last one reinforces the central idea of this para.

4. List the various words and phrases H uses to refer to the insignificant, mundane life experiences that he thinks are capable of sparking off man’s creative power. (comp. 3-4)

Trivial impulses, petty grievances and joys, common psychological pressures and hungers, little vexation, the trivial and common.

Para. 4

1. An eventful life exhausts rather than stimulates.

A life full of diversions stops man’s creativity instead of activating it.

An eventful life exhausts a creative man rather than stimulates his drive for creation. Or, an eventful life does more harm than good to a creative man.

This is the purpose of this para.

2. It is usually the mediocre poets, writers, etc., who go in search of stimulating events to release their creative flow.

Only literary artists of an average type rely on excitements in life as a source for their creative work.

So they can hardly accomplish great works. This is, again, a reinforcement of the topic sentence.

3. What do you know about John Milton and Cellini? What does H want to illustrate by referring to Milton’s experience and Cellini’s? (comp. 3-5) John Milton (1608-1674): English poet and prose writer, one of the best known and most respected figures in English literature, supported the Puritan cause in various tracts and pamphlets. IN 1649, after King Charles I was executed, he became Latin (or foreign) secretary to Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1653-58). IN that office he handled correspondence with foreign nations and was apologist for the Commonwealth to the world at large. After the Restoration of King

Charles II to the throne in 1660, Milton was arrested and fined but escaped imprisonment or death. Aged, blind, his public career over, his hopes for a godly and republican England dashed, he began to compose a great national epic. In 1667, he published his masterpiece, Paradise Lost.

J. M. wrote nothing great in his eventful life during the Puritan revolution, but he did his masterpiece in solitary disgrace when he was in prison.

Benvenuto Cellini: Florentine goldsmith and sulptor, was one of the most noted craftsmen of his time.

H takes Milton and Cellini as examples to support the topic sentence: An eventful life exhausts a creative man rather than stimulates his drive for creation. Or, an eventful life does more harm than good to a creative man.

This is the purpose of this para.

4. Do you fully agree with it? (comp. 3-5)

A quest ion one can probably ask here is ‘Could Milton have possibly created what he did during the years when the revolution was dead and when he lived in solitary disgrace if he had not experienced those 20 eventful years of the Puritan revolution?’

Para. 5

1. Chances are that had my work been of absorbing interest I could not have done any thinking and composing on the company’s time or even on my own time after returning from work.

Chances are: if my work had been of absorbing interest (= had been interesting), I could not have done any thinking ... (= I could not have had all the thoughts and insights and have made all the writings in the company or at home.

2. Why did H enjoy his experience of doing dull, repetitive work for 50 years? (comp. 3-6)

It did not interfere with his literary creation.

3. What is the purpose of this para.?

H, after citing numerous truly brilliant people and their reputed creations, gave his own experiences. He tries to tell the reader how he himself has been benefited from his dull work experience.

Para. 6

1. Who find the dull work endurable? (comp. 3-7)

Children and mature people find dull work endurable though the reasons are different (children - capacity for concentration, i.e. the curiosity of the immature to be interested; mature - inner resources to turn the dullness of work to good avail). This is why H put them into one category.

2. Who are the really dull people, according to H? And why? (comp. 3-8)

The adolescents.

They lack the inner resources of the mature to turn the dullness of work to good avail, and the curiosity of the immature to be interested.

3. What does this essay tell us?

Dull people cannot stand dull work so that they can hardly accomplish anything when at leisure or in solitary. They love eventful life life, but this kind of life exhausts them rather than stimulates. Only those who find dull life endurable can derive something from it (this is creativeness) and achieve something. So they may become successful.

*** What is the purpose of H’s writing? (comp. 1-D)

To convince that creativeness of a man’s mind is primary to what he can achieve.

Post-reading discussion

Step one: Organization and Development

1. The title of the essay ‘Dull Work’ only tells us what the author is going to focus on but not what he thinks of it. Can you find his thesis statement in the essay? If not, can you summarize in one sentence H’s view on dull work? (Org. & Devl.)

No.

What a man achieves does not depend on the type of work he does, or the life experiences he has; rather, it depends on his ability to transmute what seems dull and routine into what is momentous.

2. What is H’s main technique to demonstrate his thesis?

H cites numerous examples.

3. How does he arrange the examples?

Well-reputed men are cited before his own experience.

4. How does his argument go?

The possible harmful effect of an eventful life is illustrated only after he has made it clear that an eventful life is not a must for creative achievement. Step two: Comp. 2

Step three: Discussion

Discuss that eventful life kills rather than stimulates a man’s instinct for creation./all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. (LW 8)

TEXT II

DOING CHORES

August Heckscher

1. Read the text before class and prepare for the answers to the questions in the textbook.

2. Go through the text within 2 minutes in class and discuss the questions.