Unit Eight

1. Unit Eight

2. Teaching Objectives • Enlarge vocabulary • Talk about personal opinions • Learn to distinguish between facts and opinions • Learn to write about a person’s feelings

3. Sections Section ASlavery Gave Me Nothing to Lose Section B Why Are Women Afraid of Wrinkles Section C What Does It Really Mean to Grow Old

4. Section A Slavery Gave Me Nothing to Lose

5. Table of Contents 1.Background Information 2.Warming-up Activities 3.Text Analysis 4.Vocabulary and Structure 5.Vocabulary Testing 6.Translation & Writing

6. Background Information Eatonville It is a small community of great significance to African-American history and culture. Located just north of Orlando, Florida between Winter Park and Maitland, it is historically recognized as the first incorporated African-American municipality in the United States and one of the oldest surviving African communities in the U.S. Following the Civil War, “free” Africans settling in the area worked primarily as farm hands clearing land or helping in the construction of nearby Maitland, a white township.

7. Orlando It is the fifth-ranking U.S. destination of overseas travelers—after San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City—and it claims the second highest number of hotel rooms in the U.S., lagging just behind Las Vegas in the bedroom stakes. There wasn’t much to Orlando until Walt Disney started buying up property at the city’s southwestern edge in the 1960s and the property he bought became Disney World in 1971. Since then, waterslides, roller coasters, fairy tale palaces and costumed characters have made Disney World one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions.

8. Zora Neale Hurston(1891-1960) American writer, folklorist and anthropologist. Born in Eatonville, Florida, Hurston was educated at Howard University, at Barnard College, and at Columbia University. As a fiction writer, Hurston is noted for her metaphorical language, her story-telling abilities, and her interest in Southern black culture in the United States.

9. Zora Neale Hurston(1891-1960) Her best-known novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), in which she tracked a Southern black woman’s search, over 25 years and 3 marriages, for her true identity and a community in which she can develop that identity. Hurston’s prolific literary output also includes such novels as Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934) and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), short stories, plays, journal articles, and an autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942). Hurston’s work was not political, but her characters’ use of dialect, her manner of portraying black culture, and her conservatism created controversy within the black community.

10. Warming-up Activities Comprehension of the Text 1. What did the timid people do when the Northern travelers went through the town? 2. What does the word “show” in Paragraph 2 mean? Who were the “actors”? 3. Why does the author say there was a strange exchange of greetings? 4. Why did the author feel it strange to be given money when she was singing and dancing? .

11. Comprehension of the Text 5. When was the author aware of the fact that she was black? 6. What does the author mean by saying that “it fails to register depression with me”? 7. What does the author compare herself to? 8. What is the author’s point in describing in detail the contents of the bag?

12. Referencefor Comprehension Questions 3. Probably there were different ways of greetings between them, so there might be some misunderstandings or some inappropriate responses. 4. She wanted to sing and dance so much that she thought the money should have been given as a discouragement rather than an encouragement.

13. Referencefor Comprehension Questions 1. They hid behind their curtains and looked through them at the travelers cautiously. 2. The small town was a stage where actors were the different travelers who passed by and revealed themselves to the audience—villagers in different aspects. In a child’s eye, it was a play, bringing to her a lot of pleasure.

14. Reference for Comprehension Questions 5. After she was thirteen and left her hometown of Eatonville, and then she experienced a huge change. She was aware that she was black. 6. It expresses the author’s attitude or her state of mind that she was not emotionally disturbed by the fact that she was a descendent of slaves. She felt good about herself.

15. Reference for Comprehension Questions 7. The author felt like a brown bag of mixed items propped up against a wall. 8. As is described, the contents revealed are nothing but common objects. It suggests that for ordinary people, no matter whether they are white or black, they share something in common.

16. Text analysis Text main idea When I was young living in the Negro town of Eatonville, I enjoyed watching and contacting the white people. To me, the difference between black and white was that the white rode through town and never lived there. When I moved to a school in Jacksonville, I was taken as a black girl. It didn’t depress me, though. Rather, I regarded as an advantage the history that my forefathers had been slaves. In my view, people of different colors are just the differently colored bags with almost the same contents in them.

17. Progress Diagram Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Part 2 (Para. 4) A transitional paragraph. I was made to realize that I was a little black girl . Part 3 (Paras. 5-7) The knowledge of being a black girl didn’t depress Zora. Part 1 (Paras. 1-3) Zora, as a little black girl, didn’t feel any difference from the white.

18. Main idea for Part I When I was a little girl, I enjoyed making some contacts with the white, and didn’t see any difference between black and white except that the white rode through town and never lived there.

19. Developing technique (1) Specific-general (分—总法) “Specific—general” technique is employed in the whole part from Para. 1 to Para. 3. This makes a good development of text: the author presents her personal experience with the white first, and then comes to a natural conclusion that white people differed from black only in that they rode through town and never lived there.

20. Main idea for Part II It was when I was thirteen that I found out in my heart as well as in the mirror that I was a little black girl.

21. Developing technique (2) Cause: But changes came to the family when I was thirteen, and I was sent to school in Jacksonville. I left Eatonville as Zora. When I got off the riverboat at Jacksonville, she was no more. Effect: It seemed that I __________________ ______. I was not Zora of Eatonville any more; I ______________________. I found it out in certain ways. _________________________ ______, I became a permanent brown—like the best shoe polish, ___________ not to rub nor run. Cause and effect (因果法) had suffered a huge change was now a little black girl In my heart as well as in the mirror guaranteed

22. Main idea for Part III Now as an adult, I don’t think that being the granddaughter of slaves has negative effect on me. I don’t always feel colored, and in the main I believe different races are just bags of different colors which are filled with almost the same contents

23. Developing technique (3) General-specific (总-分法) General statement: It fails to register depression with me. Specific reasons: 1. Slavery is something sixty years in the past. 2. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. 3. It is thrilling to think, to know, that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. 4. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage…

24. Developing technique (4) Description (描写法) For the purpose of furthering the problem of race, the author makes a vivid description of her insight into race, with the rhetoric device of simile running through. 1. The author compares herself, or all the black, to a brown bag of mixed items. (L. 50) 2. People of other colors are compared to white, red and yellow bags. (L. 51)

25. Developing technique (4) Description (描写法) • The racial differences are compared to the contents of bags with different colors, piles of small things both valuable and worthless. (L. 52-55) • 4. The sameness of races is compared to bags refilled with items from a single heap without altering the contents • of any greatly. (L. 56-59)

26. Vocabulary and Structure words & phrases patterns • in passing • at one’s elbow • put / lay sth on the line • prop up • in the main • exclusive • in company with • pay the price of • happen to do • in that • to be something else again. • to be a front row seat for sb. • (just) in time to do sth. • At certain times…… But in the main:

27. 1.in passing:顺便；附带地 words & phrases 活学活用 这个不重要,我只是附带说说而已。 It’s not important, I only mentioned it in passing

28. 2.at one’s elbow: 在（某人）手边/近旁 活学活用 把这本字典留在你手边,以便可以随时参考. Keep the dictionary at your elbow so you can use it for reference any time.

29. 3. put / lay sth on the line:冒险 活学活用 那位冠军今晚将冒丢失冠军称号的风险进行比赛. In the fight tonight, the champion is laying his title on the line.

30. 4.to prop up:支撑; 支持; 维持 活学活用 那个政权几乎全靠外援支持. The regime was propped up almost by foreign aid.

31. 5.in the main:基本上；大体上 他所讲的基本上符合事实. 活学活用 What he has said conforms in the main to facts.

32. 6.exclusive a.奢华的;独有的; 排他的; 不包括……在内的 1.这是该城市最高档的夜总会之一。 2. 这个高尔夫俱乐部仅对会员开放。 活学活用 This is one of the city’s most exclusive nightclubs. This golf club is exclusive to the membership owner.

33. 7. in company with:与……一起 她同一群女孩子一起来 活学活用 She came in company with a group of girls.

34. 8. pay the price of:为……付出代价 活学活用 这是我们为自由必须付出的代价. The is the price that we must pay for freedom.

35. 1. happen to do .碰巧 patterns 如果她碰巧回家看到她的儿子在网上聊天，她会勃然大怒。 活学活用 If she happens to come home to see her son chatting online, she would fly into a rage.

36. 2. in that: 原因在于…… 戏剧不再占据国内舞台的中心是因为它们发展赶不上现代生活的节奏。 活学活用 Operas no longer hold the center of the national stage in that their development can’t keep up with the pace of the modern life.

37. 3. to be something else again.又是另一回事 友谊是一回事，原则又是另一回事。 活学活用 While friendship is something, principle is quite something else again.

38. 4. to be a front row seat for sb.对某人来说就像前排座位一样 活学活用 现在互联网使我们能够快速而轻松地得到我们所需要的东西。 Nowadays Internet is a front row seat for us, and we can get what we need quickly and easily.

39. 5. (just) in time to do sth.正好赶上做某事 在许多好莱坞大片的末尾，人们总能及时设法消除致命性的灾难，使人类免遭灭顶之灾。 活学活用 At the end of many Hollywood blockbusters, a solution to a fatal disaster is always worked out just in time to save mankind from termination.

40. 6. At certain times…… But in the main:有时候……但从整体上讲…… 有时候，我也渴望尽情地享受生活，但从整体上讲，我还是感到自己是一个清心寡欲的人。 活学活用 At certain times, I also aspire to enjoy my life to the fullest. But in the main, I feel like a person who controls his passions and has few desires.

41. Vocabulary Testing Test I Test II

42. Test I (1) Choose the best answer to each question. 1.All the key words in the article are printed in ___ type so as to attract readers’ attention. A) dark B) bold C) dense D) black 2. This passage is available to the stuff, but ___ to the customers. A) exclusive B) only C) inclusive D) belonging

43. Test I (2) 3. These two countries ___ their diplomatic relations due to the disagreement on foreign trade.. A) break out B) break off C) break down D) break in 4. The government began to take measures to water down the ___ of inflation. A) tendency B) trend C) flow D) possibility

44. Test I (3) 5. The two areas are similar ____ they both have a high rainfall during the season. A) except that B) in that C) in which D) besides that 6. What you should say in your speech is entirely ____ you. A) up to B) due to C) owing to D) according to

45. Test I (4) 7. John made some mistakes in the test, but his answers were ____ right. A) no less than B) more than C) more or less D) less than 8. The results are _____, satisfactory. A) in succession B) in the long run C) in the first place D) in the main

46. Test I (5) 9. The government does not intend to ____ declining industries. A) put up B) set up C) end up D) prop up 10. She stayed up all night writing the paper with a pot of coffee _____. A) at her ease B) at her disposal C) at her elbow D) at one’s expense

47. Test II (1) Fill in the blanks with the phrases or expressions given below. Change the form where necessary. give …of… at one’s elbow more or less break off up togive off peer at in passing on the line prop up 1. His book on modern Chinese history covers the period from the outbreak of the Opium War ___ the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. 2. She ____ him closely as if not believing it could really be him.

48. Test II (2) give …of… at one’s elbow more or less break off up togive off peer at in passing on the line prop up 3. He mentioned _____ that he had been there once. 4. He ____ the conversation and left in a hurry. 5. We thanked all the people who have ____ their money. 6. Those ___ other people ___ their patience and tolerance can win love and care as well as friendship of others.

49. Test II (3) give …of… at one’s elbow more or less break off up togive off peer at in passing on the line prop up 7. A bosom friend is not always ____, but his care and love for you are. 8. Driven by their greed for money, some officials often put their political careers ____. 9. The friendship ____with material benefits finds no way to last. 10. His explanation was _____ helpful.

50. Key to Testing Keys to test I 1. B 2. A 3. B 4. A 5. B 6. A 7. C 8. D 9. D 10. C Keys to test II 1. up to 2. peered at 3. in passing4. broke off 5. given off6. giving… of… 7. at your elbow 8. on the line 9. propped up10. more or less