by Joseph P. Blank
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. Hurricane; typhoon; cyclone
2. Salvation Army
3. Red Cross
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: A piece of narration
--character (protagonist/antagonist)
--action (incidents, events, etc.)
--conflicts (suspense, tension)
--climax
--denouement
1
2. Main idea
3. Organization：
--introduction
--development
--climax
--conclusion
III. Effective Writing Skills:
1. making effective use of verbs
2. using many elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. transferred epithet
2. personification
3. metaphor
2
4. simile
V. Special Difficulties
Avoiding the following kinds of mistakes:
1. run-on sentences
2. sentence fragments
3. dangling modifiers
4. illogical or faulty parallelism
5. unnecessary shifts in point of view
6. paraphrasing some sentences
7. identifying figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. What is the organizational pattern of this piece of narration
2. What does the writer focus chiefly on --- developing character, action (plot), or idea (theme)
3
3. Who is the protagonist in the story
4. How does the writer build up and sustain the suspense in the story
5. Why did John Koshak feel a crushing guilt
Unit 2: Marrakech by George Orwell
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. George Orwell
2. Morocco
3. Marrakech
4. The Jewish people
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of exposition
2. The purpose of a piece of exposition:
-- to inform or explain
4
3. Ways of developing the thesis of a piece of exposition:
--comparision, contrast, analogy, identification, illustration, analysis, definition, etc.
4. The central thought or thesis
III. Effective Writing Skills:
1. making effective use of specific verbs
2. using the methods of contrast, illustration, comparision, etc.
3. clever choice of words and scenes and tenses
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. rhetorical questions
2. repetition
3. metaphor
4. simile
5. elliptical sentences
5
V. Special Difficulties
1. Making sentences more compact by proper subordination, such as subordinate clauses, appositives, prepositional or verbal phrases.
2. Discriminating groups of synonyms:
--wail, cry, weep, sob, whimper, moan
--glisten, glitter, flash, shimmer, sparkle
3. Paraphrasing some sentences
4. Identifying figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. Orwell shows the poverty of the natives in at least five ways. Identify them.
2. Could paragraphs 4-7 just as well come after 8-15 as before Why or why not
3. Does this essay give readers a new insight into imperialism
4. Comment on Orwell’s lucid style and fine attention to significant descriptive details.
6
Unit 3: Pub Talk and King’s English
by Henry Fairlie
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. pub/pub-friends
2. Dumas/Three Musketeers
3. Carlyle
4. Charles Lamb
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of exposition
2. The thesis
3. What makes a good conversation
4. Seemingly loose organization
a. title b. transitional paragraph c. digression
7
5. Highly informal language
a. abundance of simple idiomatic expressions cheeked by jowl with copious literary and historical allusions
b. a mixed metaphor in paragraph 2
III. Effective Writing Skills:
1. deliberately writing this essay in a conversational style to suit the theme
2. making effective use of specific verbs
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. metaphor
2. mixed metaphor
3. simile
V. Special Difficulties
1. Idiomatic expressions:
8
--be on the rocks
--get up on the wrong side of the bed
--be on wings
--turn up one’s nose at sth.
--into the shoes of
--descendants of convicts
--Saxon churls
--Norman conquerors
--musketeers of Dumas
use of transitional devices
--transitional words and expressions
--pronoun reference
--repetition of important words
9
4. Paraphrasing some sentences
figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. What, according to the author, makes a good conversation What spoils it
2. What is the author’s attitude of the writer towards “ the King’s English”
3. How does the use of words show class distinction
4. What does the writer mean when he says, “the King’s English, like the Anglo- French of the Normans, is a class representation of reality”
Unit 4: Inaugural Address
by John F. Kennedy
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. John F Kennedy
2. His assasination
10
3. Inauguration
4. Inaugural address
5. Cold war period: socialist camp vs. capitalist camp
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: political speech
2. Object of a political speech:
--to explain
--to convince
--to persuade
3. Well organized and highly rhetorical
4. Biblical style/language
5. Often-quoted passages
III. Effective Writing Skills:
11
1. Employing suitable rhetorical devices and words to create the desired emotional impact
2. clear order and appropriate tone to the different groups he is addressing
3. Employing Biblical style deliberately
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. metaphor
2. antithesis
3. parallelism
4. repetition
V. Special Difficulties
1. Biblical language/quotations/style
the following methods for force, vividness and emotional appeal:
--Parallel and balanced structure
--Repetition of important words
12
--Antithesis
some sentences
figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. Cite examples to show that Kennedy is very particular and careful in his choice and use of words.
2. Is the address well organized Comment on the order in which he addressed all the different groups of nations and people.
3. Is Kennedy’s argument and persuasion based mainly on facts and logic or on an appeal to emotions Would this type of speech be successful on all occasions
4. Is the tone and message suited to the different groups he addresses Give your reasons.
Unit 5: Love Is a Fallacy
by Max Shulman
I. Additional Background Knowledge
13
1. The meaning of Logical fallacies
2. Logical fallacies:
--Dicto Simpliciter
--Hasty Generalization
--Poisoning the Well
--Ad Misericordiam
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of narrative writing
--protagonist/antagonists
--climax
--denouement
2. The main theme
3. Well chosen title and words
14
4. Style
--a very fast pace with a racy dialogue full of American colloquialism and slang
--employing a variety of writing techniques to make the story vivid, dramatic and colorful
III. Effective Writing Skills:
1. Employing colorful lexical spectrum, from the ultra learned terms to the infra clipped vulgar forms
2. Too much figurative language and ungrammatical inversion for specific purposes
3. The using of short sentences, elliptical sentences and dashes to maintain the speed of narration
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. metaphor
3. antithesis
4. transferred epithet
15
4. hyperbole
5. metonymy
6. litotes
7. ellipsis
8. synecdoche
9. inversion
10. simile
11. mixed metaphor
12. rhetorical questions
V. Special Difficulties
1. Analyzing the logical fallacies
2. Using inverted sentences to achieve emphasis
3. Effectively using many figures of speech
16
4. Understanding colloquial expressions and slang
5. Allusions:
--Frankenstein
--Pygmalion
6. Paraphrasing some sentences
7. Identifying figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. Define and give an example of each of the logical fallacies discussed in this essay.
2. Can you find any evidence to support the view that the writer is satirizing a bright but self-satisfied young man
3. Comment on the language used by Polly. What effect does her language create
4. Why does the writer refer to Pygmalion and Frankenstein Are these allusions aptly chosen
17
5. In what sense is the conclusion ironic
Unit 6: Disappearing Through the Skylight
By Osborne Bennet Hardison Jr.
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. A brief introduction to O. B. Hardison Jr.
2. A brief introduction to his views in Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century
3. International style
4. Features of scientific English
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. The central theme of “disappearance”
--nature disappears
--history disappears
--solid banks disappears
18
2. The four important ideas put forward
--disappearance
--the universalizing tendency of science and technology
--man as a cosmopolitan
--the playfulness of science
3. Clearly and logically organized
III. The Stylistic Features
1. Features of scientific English
--technical terms such as thermodynamics, genetics, genetic mutation, etc.
--short sentences and present tense used to express a universal statement
2. Using figurative language freely to make ideas more vivid and forceful
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. metaphor
19
2. analogies
3. repetition
4. balanced structures
5. ellipsis
6. rhetorical questions
V. Special Difficulties
1. Some technical terms
2. Understanding the metaphorical phrase “Disappearing Skylight”
3. The use of topic sentences
4. The use of present tense and universal statements
5. Paraphrasing some sentences
6. Identifying figures of speech
VI. Questions
20
Through the 1. How does the writer substantiate his statement that science is committed to the universal
2. Why do banks appear to be disappearing through their own skylight
3. Sum up the main views of the writer and comment on how they are organized and presented.
4. What stylistic features of scientific English are to be found in this piece Cite examples.
5. Comment on the use of some figurative language. Cite examples.
Unit 10: The Sad Young Men
by Rod W. Horton & Herbert W. Edwards
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. Some terms:
--The Sad Young Men
--The Lost Generation
--The Beat Generation
21
--The Angry Young Men
--Greenwich Village
2. Some literary figures:
--Gertrude Stein
--E. Hemingway
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
II. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of expositive writing
2. The thesis stated in the last paragraph of the essay
3. The structural organization of this essay: clear and simple
--para. 1: introducing the subject
--paras. 2-9: supporting and developing the thesis
--paras. 10-11: bringing the discussion to an end
22
III. Effective Writing Skills:
1. Effective use of topic sentences
2. Developing a new but related aspect of the thought stated in the thesis in each paragraph or paragraph unit.
IV. Rhetorical Devices:
1. metaphor
2. personification
3. metonymy
4. transferred epithet
V. Special Difficulties
1. Identifying and understanding Americanisms in this essay
--speakeasy
--sheik
--drugstore cowboy
23
--Babbitry
--flapper
--soap opera
2. Understanding some terms
--Puritan morality
--provincial morality/artificial walls
--Victorian
--Prohibition
--the stalemate of 1915 – 1916
--Greenwich Village
--The Sad Young Men/The Lost Generation
--keep up with the Joneses
3. Prefixes “-un” and “-in” (-im, -il, -ir) bearing a negative meaning
24
4. Paraphrasing some sentences
5. Identifying figures of speech
VI. Questions
1. How did World War I affect the younger generation
2. Why did young intellectuals of this period emigrate to Europe
3. Why were these writers called the “lost generation” Were they really lost
4. How does the writer develop his central thought Does he support his opinions with convincing facts and details
5. Do you agree with the conclusion of the writer Give your reasons.
25
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容