Every 23 Minutes: Tragedy Strikes and Lives Are Changed Forever

1. 21st Century College English: Book 3 Unit 6: Text A Every 23 Minutes

2. Unit 6: Text A Lead-in Activities Text Organization Reading and Writing Skills Language Points Guided Practice Assignment Every 23 Minutes

3. Lead-in Activities Warm-up Questions (The questions are based on the listening material) • What feeling do you think will be caused by the death reported in the passage---how must the family and friends of the dead students feel? What about the person responsible? • What do you think the police should do?

4. Text Organization The structure of Text A I. The writing starts with a tragic story. Paras. 1-5 II. The tragedy is not a rare occurrence. Paras. 6-9 III. Another example of this kind of tragedy Paras. 10-14 IV. A transitional paragraph Para. 15 V. The harsh reality Paras. 16-32 VI. Conclusion Paras. 33-37

5. The author and her husband Attended a funeral in honor of a friend who had died in a traffic accident. The reason for the traffic accident. Comments on the tragedy. Text Organization I. The writing starts with a tragic story. Para. 1 Para. 2 Paras. 3-5

6. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announces that this happens every 23 minutes. Text Organization II. The tragedy is not a rare occurrence.

7. Just the day before the funeral, the author met a longtime acquaintance who was involved in a traffic accident only two weeks after his return from the Vietnam War. He escaped injury in Vietnam only to be injured after his return. The accident took the life of his wife and the wife of the drunk driver. Text Organization III. Another example of this kind of tragedy

8. The author wishes that she knew the answers to the above questions and could offer them to the woman whose husband died in a traffic accident. However, there were no answers and the woman was left with the harsh reality of death and loss. Text Organization IV. A transitional paragraph

9. Every 23 minutes, who dies? The emotional effects of deaths. Text Organization V. The harsh reality Paras. 16-23 Paras. 24-32

10. This chart shows how the author puts emphasis on the effects of death on survivors through REPETITION and MATCHING PATTERNS ( ). Text Organization Every 23 minutes, who dies? Every 23 minutes, who dies? Every 23 minutes, who dies? Every 23 minutes, who dies? Paras. 16&17 Paras. 18&19 Paras. 20&21 Paras. 22&23 A mother, a woman, a man, a wife, etc. A son, a father, a daughter, a sister, etc. A brother, a friend, a bride-to-be, an aunt, etc. A child, an uncle, a grandmother, a lover, etc.

11. A tragedy happens every 23 minutes. Yet we permit this to go on every 23 minutes! Text Organization VI. Conclusion

12. Reading & Writing Skills 1) The author uses many different techniques to create an emotional response in readers. Review the writing techniques form the previous units: • Unit One: Misconception + Refutation • Unit Two: Viewpoint + Disagreement • Unit Three: Anticipating objections • Unit Four & Five: Listing + Explaining Also, repetition,& ellipsis are used applied in this text to render force to the argument.

13. Reading & Writing Skills Syntactical repletion: • Somebody drinks. • Somebody drives. • Somebody dies. Rhetorical repetition: • The question Every 23 minutes, who dies? is being repeated a number of times. Ellipsis: • A wedding. • Followed by a funeral. • To leave a war zone and then get injured.

14. Reading & Writing Skills 2) Distinguishing between facts and opinions: In reading comprehension, the ability to read in a critical way is needed, which involves the ability to distinguish between facts on the one hand and the writer’s opinions or interpretations on the other. Critical reading involves careful examination of our own beliefs as well as the author’s.

15. Language Points Text A: Every 23 minutes By Linda Weltner

16. Language Points Every 23 Minutes Linda Welter 1 My husband and I went to a funeral a few weeks ago. The man we honored had not been ill and will never grow old. He was killed in his car on a Sunday night, driving home along a divided highway. 2It was an ordinary evening, no blacker than any other, when a car coming in the other direction went out of control, broke through the guard rail, and hit two other cars before smashing head on into his. According to the newspaper, the driver, who was returning from a wedding, seemed puzzled. “I only had two bottles of beer and a cocktail.” she is reported to have said.

17. Language Points 3A wedding. 4 Followed by a funeral. 5 I wish she could have been there to see all the lives her act has changed forever, the wife, and four children, the extended family, the hundreds and hundreds of friends who sat in painful silence, listening to words which barely touched the depths of their grief. 6 Strange to think that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this happens in America every 23 minutes.

18. Language Points 7Somebody drinks. 8 Somebody drives. 9 Somebody dies. 10 And other lives are altered forever, though sometimes the changes may be invisible to a casual observer. By chance, the day before the funeral I ran into a longtime acquaintance while shopping. He commented on my crutches. I asked if he had ever broken his leg. “Uh, I have a long rod in this thigh,” he said, “from a car accident two weeks after I came back from Vietnam.” 11 “That’s ironic. To leave a war zone and then get injured,” I teased him. “You’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”

19. Language Points 12“Well, my wife was killed in the crash and so was the wife of the driver,” he said uncomfortably. “We were hit by a drunk.” 13I’ve known this man for years, yet suddenly realized there was a whole chapter of his life he’d never mentioned. I asked and discovered he’d remained in the hospital seven weeks, and that all that time he’d known his wife was dead. It was hard to know where to go from there, for there arequestions you can’t put to someone in a casual conversation — questions like, “How could you bear it?” or “What did you do about wanting revenge?”

20. Language Points 14I wish I knew the answers to those questions. I wish I could offer those answers to the woman who, overwhelmed by grief, could barely walk as she followed her husband’s coffin from the church.  15 Every 23 minutes, who dies? 16 A mother who will never comfort the child who needs her. A woman who will never know how very much her friends depended on her. A man whose contributions to his community would have made a difference. A wife whose husband cannot picture the future without her. 17 Every 23 minutes, who dies?

21. Language Points 18A son who involuntarily abandons abandons his parents in their old age. A father who can never acknowledge his children’s accomplishments. A daughter who can never take back her angry words. A sister who will never be her sister’s maid of honor. 19 Every 23 minutes, who dies? 20 A brother who will not be there to hold his newborn niece. A friend whose encouragement is gone forever. A bride-to- be who will never say her vows. An aunt whose family will fragment and fall apart.

22. Language Points 21Every 23 minutes, who dies? 22 A child who will never fulfill his early promise. An uncle who leaves his children without guidance and support. A grandmother whose husband must now grow old alone. A lover who never had a chance to say how much he cared. Every 23 minutes. 23 A void opens. 24 Someone looks across the table at a vacant chair; climbs into an empty bed, feels the pain of no voice, no touch, no love. Where there was once intimacy and contact, now there is only absence and despair.

23. Language Points 25Every 23 minutes 26 A heart breaks. 27Someone’s pain shatters the confines of her body, leaking out in tears, exploding in cries, defying all efforts to soothe the despair.Sleep offers no escape from the nightmare of awakening. And morning brings only the irreversibility of loss. 28 Every 23 minutes. 29 A dream ends.

24. Language Points 30Someone’s future blurs and goes blank as anticipation fades into nothingness. The phone will not ring, the car will not pull up to the house. The weight of tomorrow becomes unbearable in a world in which all promises have been broken by force. 31Every 23 minutes. 32Somebody wants to run. Somebody wants to hide. 33Somebody is left with hate. Somebody wants to die. 34 And we permit this to go on. 35 Every 23 minutes.

25. The man we honored had not been ill and will never grow old. the man we honored — the man to whose funeral we went; the dead Paraphrase ? The man had died of neither illness nor old age.

26. Text-related information National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for reducing deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting form motor vehicle crashes. NHTSA investigates safety defects in motor vehicles, sets and enforces fuel economy standards, helps states and local communities reduce the threat of drunk drivers, etc. NHTSA also conducts research on driver behavior and traffic safety, to develop the most efficient and effective means of bringing about safety improvements.

27. No is used in front of a comparative adjective to indicate the level, standard, or size of something, and sometimes to express surprise, scorn, or admiration. Example: Winners of the prize will be notified by post no later than 31st August. He made no fewer than 50 mistakes. The job was no better than a common laborer’s.

28. Text-related information Cocktail A cocktail is an iced alcoholic drink which contains several ingredients including one or more spirits. There are well over fifty different guesses as to the origin of the word. Some plausible ones include: a deviation from the French coquetier, “an egg cup”, in which the drink was supposedly first served; from coquetel, “a mixed drink of the French Revolution period,” and from a toast to that cock which after a cockfight had the most feathers left in its tail.

29. smash head on into his — hit violently against his car front to front head on —with the head or front parts meeting violently Example: The two cars crashed head on. The bicycle ran head on into the lorry.

30. Text-related information Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975, involving the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (NLF) in conflict with the United States forces and the South Vietnamese army. During the conflict, approximately 3 to 4 million Vietnamese on both sides were killed, in addition to another 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians who were drawn into the war. More than 58,000 Americans lost their lives.

31. The verb wish followed by a that-clause The verb wish can be followed by a that-clause to express a DESIRE for some situation that is different from the one that existed or exists in reality. □wish+that-clause in the past perfect tense→a particular action in the past. — I wish (that) I hadn’t eaten so much. — She wishes (that) she’d never got involved in the whole affair. □wish+that-clause in the past simple tense→ expressing regret about a state or situation that exists at this moment. — I wish ( that ) I didn’t have to go to work today. — I wish (that ) I was / were a bit taller. Exercise IX, p. 174 1. I’m sorry you told Anne what I said about her. Key I wish you hadn’t told Anne what I said about her. Exercise IX, p. 174 2. Julie was sorry she didn’t give Roger the message. Key Julie wished she’d given Roger the message. Exercise IX, p. 174 3. It’s too bad Peter has to leave so early. Key I wish Peter didn’t have to leave so early. Exercise IX, p. 174 5. George regretted that he couldn’t attend the meeting. Key George wished that he’d been able to attend the meeting./ George wished that he could have attended the meeting. Assignment Exercise IX, 4. 6. 7. 8., p.175

32. comment on —remark on Example: The fans commented fervently on the last match. The minister refused to comment on the rumors about his resignation.

33. … words which barely touched the depths of their grief. Paraphrase: ? … words that were hardly enough to express their deep grief.

34. chapter n. — a period of time in a person’s life or in history Practice: Make a sentence with the word “chapter”. Example: A new and more responsible chapter or my career as a journalist has begun. That opened a new chapter in the history of international relations.

35. It was hard to know where to go from there, for there are questions you can’t put to someone in a casual conversation … Translate into Chinese: 话说到这儿我就不知道该怎么说下去了,因为有些问题你是没法在一次随意的交谈中向一个人提出的…

36. do about (doing) sth. —take action about (doing) sth. Example: What can the public do about improving the environment? We shall have to do something about our methods if we are to get any results.

37. make a /no/much, etc. difference (to sb./sth.) —be important/unimportant/very important, etc. (to sb./sth.) — have an /no/much, etc. effect (on sb./sth.) Example: Whether he comes or not makes no difference. Example: Your support can make a difference to our project. Translate: 他的演讲对我们学生未来的前途很重要。 Key His speech makes much difference to our students future career.

38. picture vt. —form a mental picture; imagine Example: I can’t picture the village without the old church. He pictured to himself what it might be like to live on the moon.

39. A son who involuntarily abandons his parents in their old age. Paraphrase: ? A son who, in spite of himself, will not be supporting his parents when they get old.

40. A daughter who can never take back her angry words. take back one’s words — admit that something one said was wrong or should not have said it Example: Well, I take back my words about your being selfish. Although he knew he had been wrong, he refused to take back his words. Translate into Chinese: 一个永远也不收回气话的女儿。

41. voidn. — a feeling of loss Example: His death left a great void in her life. She sensed the black void of despair inside him. Translate: A void opens. Key: 展开了一片空白。

42. Someone’s pain shatters the confines of her body, leaking out in tears, exploding in cries, defying all efforts to soothe the despair. Translate into Chinese: 某个人的苦痛冲破她躯体的束缚，伴着眼泪流出，随着哭声迸发，反抗着一切抚慰其绝望心情的努力．

43. Sleep offers no escape from the nightmare of awakening. And morning brings only the irreversibility of loss. Paraphrase ? Day and night, awake or asleep, they are obsessed with the painful loss of their loved ones, a loss that will never be made up any day.

44. go blank — become blank Note: Go can be followed by an adjective that describes the state or conditions of a person or thing, or changes in that state or condition. Example: Her hair was going gray. The company went bankrupt during the crisis.

45. fade into — gradually disappear into or become Example: As evening came, the coastline faded into darkness. Day slowly faded into night.

46. The weight of tomorrow become unbearable in a world in which all promises have been broken by force. Translate into Chinese: 在一个所有的诺言都被暴力打破的世界里，明天的重负变得使人无法承受.

47. Guided Practice Vocabulary Cloze Translation Structure Writing

48. Vocabulary 《读写教程 III》:Ex. III, p. 170

49. Vocabulary III. Fill in the blanks with the words given below. Change the form where necessary. injure revenge nightmare soothe despair shatter leak fade defy fragment 1. When he failed the entrance exam, his ______ drove him to consider suicide. ☆despair 2. Their van ran into a taxi but fortunately no one was ______ . ☆injured

50. Vocabulary III. Fill in the blanks with the words given below. Change the form where necessary. injure revenge nightmare soothe despair shatter leak fade defy fragment 3. It would take years for the pain over her divorce to ______ away. ☆fade 4. The soldiers vowed to get ______ for their captain’s death. ☆revenge