新编英语教程 Book 8 教案
西北师范大学外国语学院
Unit Seven
Content and Time Allotment Text I: 2 hours Exercises and Language Work: 2 hours
Text I A MODEST PROPOSAL, Part One Jonathan Swift
Ⅰ.PreClass Work
Ask students if they have ever read the works of Jonathan Swift, the eighteencentury English writer? In the text that follows, he made his “modest proposal”, was he serious about this suggestion? Was he really for cannibalism? Ask students to think about the above several questions.
Ⅱ.Background Knowledge
a) About the author Jonathan Swift, English poet and satirist, was born in Dublin of an English Protestant family in a Catholic country. One of the greatest writers of satire in English literature, he attacked religious as well as social and educational corruption in his works. Main works includes: A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal b) About “A Modest Proposal” During the eighteenth century, Ireland suffered under and English rule that was repressive and exploitative. Religious intolerance was strong and Protestant England imposed harsh religious, political, and economic restrictions upon the native Irish, who were virtually all Catholic. A Modest Proposal is a biting satire on England’s policy toward Ireland, in which he suggested an appalling scheme, saying to England, in effect: Since you are determined to destroy the Irish fro profit, let me show you how to conduct your slaughterhouse policy more systematically and efficiently. Actually the purpose of his ironic proposal was to present a vivid picture of Ireland’s dire circumstances and to upbraid England’s unconcern.
Ⅲ.A detailed study of the text
1. Line 1 … a melancholy object melancholy: sad, lowspirited. The whole sentence means it is a sorry sight to see, when you walk through this great town, or travel in the country, the streets, the
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新编英语教程 Book 8 教案
西北师范大学外国语学院
roads, and cabindoors crowded with women beggars, with three, four, or six children following behind, all in torn and worn clothes, and begging from passersby. 2. Paragraph one contributes to the fact that the Irish people were reduced to extreme poverty and serves partly as the reason why Swift proposed his suggestion. 3. Line 8 … prodigious : enormous, amazing Line 9 … at the heels of their mothers: close behind Line 12 … would deserve so well of the public: would be highly rewarded by 4. Line 18 As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, … as to my own part: as far as I am concerned maturely weighed: carefully/perfectedly compared the importance, value, etc. 5. Line 20 It is true a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment,… A child who is newly born from its female parent may be fed with mild from its mother from the first year, supplemented with hardly any other nourishment. Dam used especially with reference to domestic animals. Note Swift’s satirical use of the term to refer to human female parent. 6. Para 5 Let students think about the implied meaning of the socalled “great advantage” in his scheme: to sell babies as goods, to prevent voluntary abortions, and to move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast. 7. Line 32 The number of souls in this kingdom this kingdom: Ireland 8. Line 41 … by all the methods hitherto proposed hitherto proposed: until now suggested 9. Line 54 I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thought, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection. I shall hereby attempt to disclose what is in my mind as a modest proposal, in the hope that it will be readily accepted. After listing all the advantages of treating children as salable commodity, Swift put forward his proposal. 10. Line 59 … in a fricassee, or a ragout a fricassee or a ragout : meat cooked in a thick white sauce or a highly seasoned meat stew. 11. Line 71. I have reckoned upon a medium, … I have come upon a way of calculating that on average,… 12. Line 74 … seem to have the best title to the children seem to have the undeniable legal right to possession of the children 13. Line 77 … a grave author, an eminent French physician referring to Francois Rabelais, French scholar, humanist, physician, and satirist, who is famous for his robust and outspoken burlesque Gargantua and Pantagruel which satirizes contemporary religion, pedantry, politics, and social institutions.
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新编英语教程 Book 8 教案
西北师范大学外国语学院
14. Line 91 … artificially dressed,… artificially: skillfully
Ⅳ.Organization and Development
This is the first half of a complete essay, which consists of the first two of the five sections that comprise the whole essay. In these two sections, the first one is the introduction, in which the problem is identified and laid out; the second one provides his proposed solution to the problem. In Para. 9 he proposes to treat the infants as food. Then in Para. 10 in talking about the reservation of breeders, he parallels the infants to sheep, cattle and swine. In para.13, infant’s flesh is said to be in season throughout the year as if it were some kind of edible goods again.
Ⅴ.Rhetoric
Unity and Coherence(A) I. The central idea and two principles in information organization The purpose of this selection is to familiarize students with the notion of central idea in ordinary speech of writing. In ordinary speech of writing, the central idea, also called the “main idea”, or “controlling idea”, refers to the writer’s focal point of information. It holds the entire piece of writing together. The two key principles for a writer to observe in organizing information are to achieve unity and coherence. Unity means each part of the composition closely relates to the central idea. Coherence means each of these parts connects smoothly and logically to the one preceding it. II. Creating unity A. Contain only the details that help develop the central idea. B. Delete any unnecessary detail that does not help explain and/or support the central idea. C. Rewrite the part of the composition where the structure is loose and does not convey the central idea clearly. Let students understand the general conception of the central idea and the main strategies in creating unity in writing.
Ⅵ.Supplementary exercises
1. Translate paragraphs 2 and 3 of text II into Chinese 2. Translate the following paragraph into English. 在 60 年代和 70 年代期间，人们越来越意识到修建铁路、水坝及其他基础设 施工程对人类和环境具有破坏性的影响。这一认识使人们失去了对专家们的 信心。虽然效益是衡量专家优劣的标志，但美国人愈益相信，这不是唯一的 价值尺度。人、社区和环境才是最重要的。 Answers:
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新编英语教程 Book 8 教案
西北师范大学外国语学院
A growing awareness of the human and environmental costs of roads, dams, and other infrastructure projects brought the public’s faith in experts to an end during the 1960s and 1970s. Increasingly, American came to believe that efficiency, the totem of the experts, is not the sole value. People and communities matter; the environment matters.
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