Unit 7 The Chaser

1. Unit 7 The Chaser

2. Contents • Pre-reading questions • Background information • Structural analysis of the text • Comprehensive questions • Language points • Sentence highlights • Language appreciation • Grammar points • Comprehensive questions of Text II

3. Pre-reading questions • 1.Do you believe love can be fostered? How can you lure one into love with you? • 2.What is likely to happen when a couple no longer love each other?

4. Background information • About the author and the text • John Collier (1901-1980), British playwright, poet, and novelist. He was famous for numerous fantasies he had written in his lifetime. “The Chaser” was originally published in The New Yorker in 1940.

5. Siren（塞壬） • In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa,[1] is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the Sirenusian islands near Paestum or in Capreae.[2] All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks. Sailors who sailed near were compelled by the Sirens' enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

6. Structure analysis of the Text This short story, which combines elements of horror and love, is built almost entirely through dialogue between a young man, Alan Austen, who is deeply in love and wants to possess his lover entirely, and an unnamed old man who believes in a life free of romantic involvement. As the dialogue develops, Austen’s attitude towards the potion changes from skeptical and hesitant to excited and overwhelmed.

7. Part I • Paragraph 1 • In this part, the protagonist, Alan Austen, has been introduced. • Part II • Paragraphs 2-12 • The old man is trying to sell his mixture. • Part III • Paragraphs 13-45 • Dialogue between the old man and Alan Austen.

8. Questions for comprehension • 1.What is the implied meaning of the old man’s remark. ‘Young people who need a love potion very seldom have five thousand dollars. Otherwise they would not need a love potion”? (para. 13) • What the old man means is that the young men who fall in love one-sidedly are seldom rich enough to win a young girls heart. If they are rich, it will be easier for them to gain girls’ hearts, and they don’t need to buy love potions. The old man suggests that money is an important factor for love.

9. 2.What are the effects of the love potion? Describe them in detail . • The love potion has a powerful, everlasting effect. It will make a gay girl care nothing but her lover. She will feel jealous of him when her lover is with other girls. She will want to be everything to him. She will be only interested in her lover and take every concern of his. Even if he slips a little, she will forgive him in the end. In a word, she will love him deeply if she drinks the love potion.

10. 3.Why is the love potion priced so low while the glove-cleaner so high? • The author seems to stress the great gap between the price of the love potion and the glove-cleaner. It is easy for people to fall in love, but it hard to keep it. That’s why he has to pay a colossal amount to get himself out of it. The other reason for the low price of the love potion may be that by doing so, the old man can attract more customers to his primary commodity, the glove-cleaner.

11. 4.What moral lessons can be drawn from the story? • One of the moral lessons we can draw from the story is that anything precious, love included, is most likely to have an end. A person can easily fall in love and get married, but what awaits him/her could be endless remorse, and a wish tha tit might end as soon as possible. So one should be wise and keep their eyes open when they are in love though love is said to be blind.

12. 5. How do the speeches of the young man and the old man differ? How does that help to build up the theme? • The young man’s speech is short and changing. At first, he speaks in short sentences with hesitation, but later on his speech changes into a succession of cries with excitement. In contrast, the old man’s speech tends to be long, stable and well-developed throughout the story. Their speeches form a sharp contrast which helps to bring out the two characters. The yound man is green, passionate, and hopelessly in love, while the old man is calm, sensible, and a bit satirical. It is by this contrast that the theme of the story is brought out more effectively.

13. Language points • Paragraph 1 • 1. peer:to look very carefully or with difficulty, especially as if not able to see clearly • She peered over my shoulder at the computer screen and asked about the figures. C.f. peep peep: to look at something quickly and secretly, especially through a hole or other small openings e.g. Now and then she peeped to see if he was noticing her.

14. Paragraphs 2-12 2. make somebody’s acquaintance: to meet somebody for the first time e.g. He made her acquaintance at a dance. 3. imperceptible: that cannot be noticed or felt because so small, slight or gradual e.g. an imperceptible change in temerature perceive v. , perception n. , perceptible a. , imperceptible a., imperceptibly ad.

15. 4. Apprehensively: full of anxiety about the future • They looked at each other apprehensively. • apprehensive a., apprehension n. e.g. She was apprehensive about/for her son’s safety every tome he went out on his motorcycle. Students are waiting with apprehension for their final examination results.

16. Paragraphs 13-45 5. oblige • do something a favor; to fulfill the wishes of e.g. She asked him to lend his car, and he willingly obliged her. I should/would be obliged if you could speak louder.

17. (2) to make it necessary for somebody to do something e.g. The heavy snow obliged me to abandon the car and continued on foot. Eric felt obliged to resign after such an unpleasant quarrel with the vice president.

18. 6. substitute: to put something or somebody in place of another. • They were expected to substitute violence for dialogue. • to substitute A for B=to replace B with A

19. 7. overwhelm • to give somebody a particular feeling very strongly. e.g. The family of the victim was overwhelmed by/with grief. (2)to make powerless by using force e.g. Government troopsoverwhelmed the rebels.

20. Overwhelming a.: very large or very great e.g. The overwhelming majority of small businesses went broke within the first twelve months.

21. 8. fervently (formal) with deep sincere feelings e.g. It is a cause for which we have campaigned fervently these past four years. Fervent a., fervency n.

22. 9. be better off: to have more money than one used to have or most other people e.g. Mr. Cooper was much better off when he got promoted, and even could afford foreign travel. She’ll be 50 pounds better off. be better off doing/ to do something: to be wiser to do something specified e.g. If you’ve got you bags you are better off taking/to take a taxi. be better off with somebody/something: to be happier or more at ease with somebody/something e.g. You’d be better off with her as a roommate.

23. Sentence highlights • 1. Alan Austen, as nervous as a kitten, went up certain dark and creaky stairs in the neighborhood of Pell Street, … one of the doors. (Para. 1) • Paraphrase:

24. 2. For indifference,… they substitute devotion. For scorn, adoration. Give one tiney measure of this to the young lady- its flavour is imperceptible in orange juice, soup or cocktails-and however gay and giddy she is, she will change altogether. She will want nothing bu tsolitude and you. (para.23) • Paraphrase:

25. Language Appreciation • 1. He pushed open this door, as he had been told to do, and found himself in a tiny room, which contained no furniture but a plain kitchen table, a rocking chair, and an ordinary chair. On one of the dirty, buff-coloured walls were a couple of shelves, containing in all perhaps a dozen bottles and jars. (Para.2) • This short description of the house depicts a gloomy atmosphere

26. 2) a. “Do you mean it is a poison?” cried Alan, very much horrifed. • “Call it a glove-cleaner if you like,” said the old man indifferently. “… Lives need cleaning sometimes.” • … • “ I hope all your mixtures are not as expensive,” said Alan apprehensively. • …(Paras. 8-17) • “Wonderful!” cried Alan. (Para. 30) • “That is love!” cried Alan. (Para. 32) • “I can hardly imagine Diana like that!” cried Alan, overwhelmed with joy. (Para.34) • “That will not happen,” said Alan fervently. • Note the italicized words. They all reveal the emotional change of Alan;

27. b. “How carefully she will look after you! She will never allow you to be tired, to sit in a draught, to neglect your food. If you are an hour late, she will be terrified. She will think you are killed, or that some siren has caught you.” • The remark of the old man fully reveals the kind of love longed for by Alan and many other young people.

28. Grammar points • Nominal Clauses • Nominal clause are clauses that are used as nouns in a sentence. • e.g. My failure to pass the exam has brought an earthquake to my family. • What made her so angry is now still a mystery. • That she was chosen as the monitor made us happy.

29. Inversion • I. Inversion of predicative • An expensive thing it was. • II. Inversion of object • This conception of a hollow earth we know to be false. • III. Inversion of adverbial • At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with electric lights.

30. Comprehensive questions of Text II • 1. How was the hero vastly different from his roommate Petey Burch? • The hero was a highly intelligent man as his brain was extremely powerful, precise and penetrating while Petey Burch was a very dumb man as he was emotional, unstable, impressionable and, worst of all, crazy about the fashion. • 2. Why did the hero love Polly Espy? • She was a beautiful and gracious girl, almost the right kind of wife in promoting a lawyer’s career, which was what he desired to pursue as his profession in the future, despite the fact that she was not intelligent enough, but he was determined that she would become smart under his guidence.

31. 3. What happened and how did the hero feel when he wasw working hard to get the girl’s mind up to the standard he required? • The girl constantly missed the point in his instructions and made a lot of silly mistakes. He felt disappointed and vaguely felt that this project had no hope of success. A wave of despair swept over him and he almost concluded that he would not possible instill logic into her mind. • 4. What happened when the hero believed that he should proceed to shift the focus of smartening the girl up to fostering the mutual love between them? • When he tried various menas to suggest a knid of intimate relationship between them, the girl refuted him by pointing out different fallacies in his logic. He felt very much dismayed as very fallacy the girl pointed out was what he had just tried to make the girl recognize while he was teaching her how to be smart.

32. 5. What have you learnt from the text? • One of the very important lessons contained in the text is that one should not be too calculated in everything, particularly in love which is th eresult of natural affection developed over a long period of time.