A Man from Stratford

1. A Man from Stratford 郧阳师专英语系综合英语教研室

2. Teaching Aims: • In this unit students are required to: • Practice reading strategies such as predicting, skimming, guessing, etc. • Grasp some new words and expressions to enrich student’s vocabulary; • Do some oral work such as pre-reading questions, role play and interaction activities to help to develop the students’ oral communicative abilities; • Learn some writing skills in narration and letter writing; • Get to know more information about William Shakespeare; • Do some other after-class exercise including listening and translation to improve students’ comprehensive skills.

3. Teaching objectives: • 1. Text I A Man from Stratford—William Shakespeare • 2. Text II William Shakespeare • 3. Oral work • 4. Guide writing • 5. Exercises in the workbook

4. Teaching Emphasis: • 1. The comprehension and appreciation of Text I; • 2. New words and expressions: • legacy, estate, genius, baptize, in a flash, influential, sufficiently, conviction, apprentice, set foot on the road to, presume, tempest, brilliant

5. Teaching Procedure: • 1. Review the main points in last class; • 2. Study the new unit: • 1) Answer the pre-reading questions orally; • 2) Allow students 4 minutes for rapid reading and 10 minutes for writing down the main idea for each paragraph; • 3)Do the guesswork of vocabulary; • 4)Study Text I intensively;

6. 5)Answer the questions of Text I both in SB (student’s book) and WB (workbook) orally; • 6)Listen to the tape and study Text II extensively to enlarge their vocabulary and widen the scope of their knowledge; • 7)Do oral work; • 8)Study the main points of guided writing, including the narration in chronological order and conclusion and ending of a letter; • 9)Homework, finish all the exercise both in SB and WB.

7. Background Knowledge William Shakespeare (1564-1616) — English dramatist and poet, who is generally considered to be the greatest of authors in any language, ancient or modern. With his 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems, he has established his giant position in world literature. Throughout the world, Shakespeare’s plays are performed more frequently than those of any other playwright. Editions and translations of them continue to flow from the press 350 years after the publication of the first collected edition, and articles and books about Shakespeare appear in such numbers that no bibliography can pretend to give a complete list.

8. Surprisingly little is known about the life of William Shakespeare. He was born into a merchant’s family in Stratford-on-Avon, a small but important market town. Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, there is a record that he was baptized William on 26th April, 1564. It’s probable that he was educated at Stratford Grammar School. His real teachers are nature and its people that surrounded him. Stratford is a charming little village in beautiful Warwickshire, and near at hand were the Forest of Arden, the old castles of Warwick and Kenilworth. All this is artistically reproduced in Shakespeare’s writings; and the characters created by Shakespeare are more or less originated from the nobility and the littleness of the people around him, together with their virtues and vices, their dreams and realities, their happiness and miseries, and their gossips and prejudices.

9. Chronology of Shakespeare’s Plays • The date of composition of Shakespeare’s plays often cannot be fixed precisely, but in some instances we have a definite date for a performance. The following chronology, from Edmund K. Chamber’s William Shakespeare (1930), is generally accepted. • 1590-1591 Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3 • 1591-1592 Henry VI, Part 1 • 1592-1593 Richard III; Comedy of Errors • 1593-1594 Titus Andronicus; The Taming of the Shrew • 1594-1595 Two Gentlemen of Verona; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Romeo and Juliet • 1595-1596 Richard II; Midsummer Night’s Dream • 1596-1597 King John; Merchant of Venice • 1597-1598 Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2

10. 1598-1599 Much Ado About Nothing; Henry V • 1599-1600 Julius Caesar; As You Like It; Twelfth Night • 1600-1601 Hamlet; Merry Wives of Windsor • 1601-1602 Troilus and Cressida • 1602-1603 All’s Well That Ends Well • 1604-1605 Measure for Measure; Othello • 1605-1606 King Lear; Macbeth • 1606-1607 Antony and Cleopatra • 1607-1608 Coriolanus; Timon of Athens • 1608-1609 Pericles • 1609-1610 Cymbeline • 1610-1611 Winter’s Tale • 1611-1612 Tempest

11. 1612-1613 Henry VIII; Two Noble Kinsmen • Romeo and Juliet — a play of timeless beauty but a tragedy of fate rather than of character • Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth — Shakespeare’s great tragedies in which both character and fate have an influence on the outcome. Shakespeare’s finest characterizations and his most profound vision of the nature of evil and the struggles of the human soul are to be seen here. • A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It,The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night—Shakespeare’s great comedies.

12. Language points: • Master William Shakespeare: Master in this context means “a person recognized • as having achieved a very high degree of skill”. Its Chinese equivalent is 大师. E.g. a painting by a Dutch Master 荷兰大师的画 • Master key (pass key)万能钥匙 master- stroke 高招，绝招 • Master of Ceremonies (MC)司仪,典礼官 mastermind极具才智者；决策者

13. … leaving the famous legacy of … • 注意：legacy, inheritance, heritage 三词的区别 • 从法律上讲，inheritance 专指根据遗嘱已被继承了的遗产，包括不动产和动 • 产，legacy专指遗产中的动产，包括金钱部分，heritage 则指继承人有权获得的不动产。 • 在广义的条件下，inheritance可泛指从前辈那里继承来的任何东西，从遗传特征到文化传统，通常表示继承的抽象动作。Legacy和heritage都可表示从过去继承来的东西，但Legacy常指某事，某物或某人遗召的后果，heritage特指某些持久的具体的事物，如纪念碑，建筑物，天然资源或风俗等被认为属于某个国家或团体成员的事物，如：

14. The title passes by inheritance to the eldest son. • 这头衔按世袭传给长子。 • the inheritance of good looks from one’s parents. • 得自父母遗传的美貌 • His weak chest was a legacy of a childhood illness. • 他那瘦弱的胸脯是儿时患病的后遗症。 • These ruined buildings are a legacy of the war. • 这些破烂的建筑物是战争的痕迹。 • Our literary heritage 我们的文学遗产 • These ancient buildings are part of the national heritage. • 这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。

15. It was the will of a comfortably off man: • comfortably off : having enough money to live in comfort. • It’s more common to say : well off (富有 ), badly off (贫穷). • e.g. Lots of people in this community are quite well off. • Owing to illness, Tom is now worse off than before. • It’s also possible to use the comparative and the superlative forms of the adjective: • well- off, better-off, best-off, badly-off, worse-off, worst-off • But well-to-do, which is equal to “rich and wealthy”, means the possession of more than enough money or property. • 另：be well-off for 和 be badly-off for 分别表示“东西充足或缺乏” • Since I got the new job, I’ve been better off. • The school is rather badly-off for equipment.

16. Why was Shakespeare’s will the will of a comfortably off man? • (A comfortably off man is a man who is well-off or wealthy.) When Shakespeare died, he left in his will quite a large sum of money to his daughter and handsome furniture to his wife, which showed that he was quite well-to-do. So we can say that his will was the will of a comfortably off man.

17. … the income from the estate probably amounted to about 100 pounds a year. • Amount to • a. add up to or total sth 总计；共达 • The cost amounted to ￡ 250. 费用共达250英镑。 • The British National Debt amounts to many thousands of millions of pounds. • 英国国家债务达到几十忆英镑。 • b. be equal to or the equivalent of sth. 等于或相当于某事物 • It all amounts to a lot of hard work. 这一切就相当于很多繁重的工作。 • What you say amounts to a direct accusation. 你所说的话等于直接的指责。 • This conversation amounts to a difference of opinion between us. • 这次对话意味着我们之间的意见分歧。 • c. 取得成就，办得成事（常用语否定句） • He’ll never do anything, and he’ll never amount to anything. • 他决不会干什么事，也永远办不成什么事。 • para: … in all probability (most likely), the money he made from his estate reached about ￡ 200 a year.

18. … of the world’s literary genius: • 注意：literary, literal, literate 三词的区别 • literary 意为typical of literature(与文学有关的), 如：literary works, literary style 等；literal意为 being or following the exact or original meaning of a word, phrase（文字上的，字面上的）如：literal meaning (词的本义), 与figurative meaning (词的引申意义)相对，literal translation（直译）与 free translation（意译）相对； 副词literally意为“确实地，毫不夸张地” ；literate 意为：able to read and write(识字的)，反义词为：illiterate 如：computer illiterate • How would you define a literary genius? • He is one who has an exceptionally great creative and inventive capacity in writing.

19. There is no country… whose work has so much than that of anyone else. • Structure该句为一个主从复合句，句子以there be 句型开始，在主语country后接一关系副词where引导的定语从句和以because 引导的原因状语从句，其中原因状语从句中又有一个关系代词whose引导的定语从句做介词宾语a man的修饰语。句中No…not 结构为双重否定表肯定，强调作用。 • so much better than that of anyone else: a man whose work was the best among his contemporaries.

20. 最高级意义有多种表示方法： • a. 用形容词比较级表示最高级的含义 • George did more work this morning than anyone else. • (=George did the most work) • The car runs faster than any other car in the garage. • (= This car runs the fastest of all the cars in the garage.) • b. 也可用as…as 结构来表示 • Nothing in my life shook me so deeply as my first visit to China. • (=My first visit to China shook me the most deeply.) • c. 还可用“否定词+比较级”表示 • I like nothing better. • (=It’s the best thing I like.) • It can’t be worse. • (= It’s the worst thing I’ve ever known.) • para: People all over the world read Shakespeare’s work with a feeling of profound respect and wonderment because there is something about him which made people charmed. • Trans:全世界的人都怀着敬畏、感叹之情拜读莎士比亚的著作，因为这位大师本身比任何人更有魅力。

21. … almost every detail of his personal life is supposition rather than fact: • rather than • a.此处rather than做连词使用，对其后的成分表示否定概念，意为“而不是， • 与其……宁愿…” 注意rather than 必须连接一个平行结构（a parallel structure）,即其连接的应是语法成分对等的两部分，但是其位于句首时要跟原形动词。 • I think I’ll have a cold drink rather than coffee. • 我想喝冷饮，不想喝咖啡。 • It’s Mary who is wrong rather than Jane. • 错在玛丽而不在简 • Rather than risk breaking up his marriage he told his wife everything. • 他惟恐婚姻破裂，把一切都告诉了妻子。

22. b.如果分开写，rather… than… 意为“宁愿……而不……”Rather后的成分 • 示肯定概念，than 后的成分表示否定概念。 • I would rather you came tomorrow than today. 我宁可你明天来，而不是今天来。 • c. Rather… than otherwise不是别的而是 • It’s rather cold than otherwise.天还是挺冷的 • para: We do not base every minute and particular detail of his personal life so much on facts on guesswork.

23. Historically speaking, Shakespeare lived only yesterday but his activities, like • those of nearly every playwright of his day, are so vague that he could have lived in Roman times. • Why did the writer say “Historically speaking, Shakespeare lived only yesterday”? • From the historical point of view, 400 years is only a short period of time. Besides, historians set the date 1453 as the beginning of modern history. Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. So to the historians, Shakespeare lived only yesterday. • Roman times: Roman occupation of Britain began in the first century after Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain in 55 B.C., and it continued until the early fifth century. • Para: we are so uncertain about his activities that we might as well say that he was born when the Romans occupied Britain a long time ago.

24. a. Times此处使用了夸张（hyperbole）的修辞手法。从历史的角度看，四百年只是一个很短暂的时间，但是人们对莎士比亚的生平知之甚少，简直像他生活在公元1—5世纪的古罗马时代一样。 • b.夸张 Hyperbole • 1) 突然，在我们头顶五六丈的上空，发出一声可怕的霹雳，闪电像利剑一样直插下来，天空被彻底吹裂了，震碎了！（叶蔚林：《在没有航标的河流上》） • All of a sudden, there came a terrible thunderclap about fifty feet directly above our heads, and a bolt thrust downward like a sharp sword. The sky was brought into pieces. • 2)我从乡下跑到京城里，一转眼已经六年了。（鲁迅《一件小事》） • Six years have passed by in a twinklesince I came to the capital city from the countryside. • 3) He ran down the avenue, making a noise like ten horses at a gallop.他在林荫道上跑着，发出的声音就像十匹马在奔腾。 • 4) She is the prettiest girl in the world.她是世界上最漂亮的姑娘。

25. Shakespeare’s birthplace, the little town of Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen for a long time. • Stratford-upon-Avon: the birthplace and burial place of Shakespeare is a town on the Avon River, in the county of Warwickshire, central England. • out of: by the use of; from • e.g. The hut was made out of old planks. • She made a hat out of bits of old materials. • Can good ever come out of evil? • had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen for a long time: • para: Because of its most famous citizen, Stratford-upon-Avon has made a lot of money for a long time.

26. even though many of them would have the greatest of difficulty in • understanding Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English. • Elizabethan English: Shakespeare lived in during the reign of Queen Elizabeth(1558-1603). The English language used in that period is called Elizabethan English which is classified as early modern English and which is different from present-day English in many respects, such as pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. That’s why many of the tourists would have difficulty in understanding it.

27. a. Sonnet 18 • Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 我該把你比擬做夏天嗎？ • Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 你比夏天更可愛，更溫婉： • Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May 狂風會把五月的嬌蕊吹落 • And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 夏天出租的期限又太短暫： • Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 有時天上的眼睛照得太熱， • And often is his gold complexion dimm'd 他金色的面容常常變陰暗； • And every fair from fair sometime declines, 一切美的事物總不免凋敗， • By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd 被機緣或自然的代謝摧殘： • But thy eternal summer shall not fade 但你永恆的夏天不會褪色， • Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; 不會失去你所擁有的美善， • Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, 死神也不能誇說你在他陰影裡徘徊， • When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: 當你在永恆的詩行裡與時間同久長： • So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 只要人們能呼吸或眼睛看得清， • So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 此詩將永存，並且賜給你生命。 • b.Wherefore art thou Romeo?你为什么是罗密欧？

28. however, he has such a fine reputations that it’s well worth the journey just to be able… • it is well worth the journey: it is, to a considerable extent, worth the journey • para: he enjoys such high prestige that it’s worthwhile to make a journey to Stratford-upon-Avon just to be able to…

29. to plot Shakespeare’s life is to become involved in a kind of… • be / become / get involved in sth./with sb.: be / become / get concerned with sth. / connected with sb. • e.g. become involved in criminal activities • get emotionally involved with sb.

30. … although the Parish Church confirms that William Shakespeare… • The Parish Church was the church in the parish where Shakespeare was born. A parish(教区)is an area in the care of a priest and served by one main church. Every case of baptism, marriage and death of the members of the parish is recorded in the parish register. • confirm: vt., establish the truth of 确认；可直接接名词做宾语/宾语从句。 • The announcement confirmed my suspicious.这项通告证明了我的猜疑事实。 • When asked, she confirmed that she was going to retire. • 有人问她时， 她肯定了她将要退休。

31. Shakespeare wrote with great conviction about storms and shipwrecks and • eating the hard ship’s biscuits “with aching teeth”. • conviction: firm opinion or belief.坚定的看法或信仰；确信 • in the full conviction…that 确信 • I speak in the full conviction that our cause is just. • 我深信我们追求的理想是正确的。 • eating the hard ship’s biscuits “with aching teeth”此处为一暗喻(metaphor),hardship’s biscuits意指船的甲板残骸，with aching teeth意指大海的波涛，文中引用莎士比亚作品中的这一生动的比喻说明莎士比亚对海上生活和海上的风暴非常熟悉，从而推测出莎士比亚在去向不明的七年中很可能在海外旅行。

32. … he can next be traced in 1592 in London… • trace:v. follow or discover (sb. or sth.) by observing marks, tracks, bits of evidence • etc. • e.g. The criminal was traced to New York.罪犯被跟踪到纽约. • I cannot trace any letter from you dated June 1st. • 我找不到你七月一号寄给我的信。 • para: … after that we know he was in London in 1592.

33. … the young Shakespeare saw some of these performances, realized in a flash • that this was the life for him and talked one of the managers into giving him a job. • In a /like a flash: very quickly, suddenly, or soon瞬间，即刻 • I’ll be back in a flash.我很快就回来。 • para: After Shakespeare had seen some of the performances put on by some of the theatrical companies, he came to see instantly that he ought to take up theatre as his career, and he persuaded one of the managers (by talking to him) to give him a job. • talk into: to persuade someone to do something

34. e.g. She talked her husband into having a holiday in France. • He talked me into coming here. • They talked John into taking part in the speech contest. • talk out of: to persuade someone not to do something. • e.g. He talked his wife out of buying a new car. • She tried to talk him out of his plan. • Judy talked her husband out of investing their money in stocks and shares. • The policemen talked the man out of jumping from the top of the building.

35. Whatever else had happened during the lost years, plays that followed, such as • Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew, were proof that the greatest literary • career of all time had begun. • the lost years: from the year 1585 to the year 1592 • Richard III: This play, written in 1592, was about a strong-willed and vicious king • who came to power through a series of horrible crimes. • The Taming of the Shrew: This play might have been written after 1594. It is about • the taming of a bad-tempered young woman by her husband. • the greatest literary career of all time had begun: Shakespeare began his greatest • writing career which was unprecedented in human history

36. Shakespeare soon became sufficiently well-known for managers and other influential • people to refer to him in writing. • Para: Soon Shakespeare became so famous that managers and other powerful people often mentioned him in their writings.

37. We know that as well as working on old plays he rapidly made a name for himself as an author of entirely new ones and also performed as an actor at court. • make / win a name for oneself: become well-known • name:n. (singular only) reputation; fame • e.g. The firm has a name for good workmanship. • His genius has earned him his name. • at court: at Queen Elizabeth I’s court • Note that a ruler’s court is宫廷or朝廷, and a court of law is法庭. • The literal meaning: He soon became famous by not only improving or revising the old plays but also writing completely new plays and acing in the plays for the queen. • The implied meaning : Shakespeare was gifted both in creative writing and i

38. … Shakespeare left behind a mass of questions that experts have been trying to answer ever since. • ever since: from then till now • e.g. She went to the country in June to spend her summer holidays and has remained there ever since. • Tom was down with a high fever a fortnight ago and has been keeping to his bed ever since.

39. Who was the beautiful but apparently heartless ‘dark lady’? • Among the sonnets, numbers 1-126 are addressed to a young man, beloved of the poet, of superior beauty and rank but of somewhat questionable morals and constancy. In the first 17 sonnets, the young man is urged to marry and beget children. The attitude of the poet toward the friend is one of love and admiration, deference and possessiveness, but it’s not at all a sexual passion. Sonnet 20 makes quite clear the difference between the Platonic love of a man for a man and any kind of homosexual attachment. • The sonnets numbered 127-152 involve a mistress of the poet, a mysterious “Dark Lady”, who is sensual, promiscuous (混杂的), and irresistible. The poet’s attitude toward her is frankly lustful, with occasional pangs of conscience and feeling of revulsion. Apparently, to judge by the key sonnet 144, the Dark Lady seduced the poet’s friend, and the poet’s reaction is one of concern for the friend rather than ordinary jealousy.

40. so far we do not know. • so far: until now • e.g. So far the work has been easy. • The weather has been hot so far this summer. • This is likely to be the biggest conference so far.

41. … nothing remains of the busy writer’s own handwriting but the signature. • Nothing but: only; e.g. • Nothing but a miracle can save her now. 现在只有出现奇迹才能救她。 • I want nothing but the best for my children.我要把最好的给我的孩子。 • Nothing but roses meets (not meet) the eye. • 除了玫瑰以外没有什么（而不用 meet）可以引起注意。 • anything but: definitely not • I was anything but happy about going. 我根本不喜欢去。 • The hotel was anything but satisfactory. 这家旅馆太不让人满意了。 • He is anything but a liar他绝对不是个骗子。

42. Organization & Development • This text is another form of narration. After the first paragraph, it is organized in the usual chronological order. The writer classifies William Shakespeare’s life into chronological periods, the division of which is based on a time order. • One way to begin a narrative is to use the flashback technique, for example, a film may start with the main character dying on a battlefield and then relates for 110 minutes how he changed from an ordinary young man into a staunch revolutionary. This technique is to a certain extent used in the text, which begins with the signing of the will and then turns back to the beginning, the middle, and the end.

43. Moreover, the writer uses the key word — signature — in the beginning paragraph and ends the final paragraph with the same word signaling “the end.” This technique is called “cyclic return”. • By using the two techniques, the writer tries to inform the reader about the life of William Shakespeare in the most effective way possible. • The tone of this text can be described as “emotional”.

44. Examples of specific words that are used to achieve the tone: • The most interesting part of the will… • There is something fascinating about a man… • …that have been written about this amazing writer. • …had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen… • Exactly what happened…during those seven years has puzzled scholars… • …were proof that the greatest literary career of all time… • …more than thirty plays as well as marvelous verse… • What was the source of Shakespeare’s amazingly detailed knowledge… • …it seems astonishing that nothing remains…

45. Examples of sentence patterns that are used to achieve the tone: • There is no country where Shakespeare’s work is not read with something very like awe because there is something fascinating about a man whose work was so much better than that of anyone else. • Nobody even knows the exact date of his birth…Nor can it be proved that he went to the excellent local grammar school… • It can never be proved, but it seems…

46. Examples of sentences using superlatives to achieve the tone: • …out of its most famous citizen… • …would have the greatest of difficulty… • …but of all the probabilities the most likely one is that he traveled abroad… • were proof that the greatest literary career of all time…

47. The above words in italics and emphatic sentence patterns are likely to arouse the strong feelings in readers. They are also used to develop the central idea — it is astonishing that nothing remains of the greatest and the most famous and the busiest writer’s own handwriting but his signature.

48. Furthermore, this narrative has no plot in the usual sense of the word but appropriate temporal reference points are used to enable the readers to trace the flow of events. • Examples of the temporal reference points that are used in the text: • …William Shakespeare was baptized there on April 26th, 1564. • At the age of 18, he married… • Then in 1585,this young married man… • Exactly what happened to William Shakespeare during those seven years has puzzled… • …he can next be traced in 1592 in London… • During his fifteen years as a working man… • After his death on April 23rd, 1616, Shakespeare…