Unit8

1. Unit8

2. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement Watch the video and answer the following questions. 1. What is Mrs. Gump’s attitude toward death? She seems quite peaceful in face of her own death. She seems to accept death as something she is destined to do. Pre-reading Activities - Audiovisual supplement 1 2. Why does she have such an attitude? This is probably because she thinks she has lived a satisfactory life. She believes that death is a part of life, something one is destined to do. She assumes that she has done the best she could to be a good woman.

3. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement From Forrest Gump Pre-reading Activities - Audiovisual supplement 2

4. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement Forrest: Where’s Momma? Black woman: She’s upstairs. Mrs Gump: Hah, Forrest! Doctor: I’ll see you tomorrow. Mrs Gump: Fine. Doctor: Sure got you straightened out, didn’t we boy? Forrest: What’s the matter, Momma? Mrs. Gump: I’m dyin’, Forrest. Come on in, sit down over here. Forrest: Why are you dyin’, Momma? Mrs. Gump: It’s my time. It’s just my time. Oh, now, don’t you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. It’s something we’re all destined to do. I didn’t know it, but I was destined to be your momma. I did the best I could. Video Script1

5. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement Forrest: You did good, Momma. Mrs. Gump: Well, I happened to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the best with what God gave you. Forrest: What’s my destiny, Momma? Mrs. Gump: You’re gonna have to figure that out for yourself. Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you’re gonna get. Forrest (V.O.): Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them. Mrs. Gump: I will miss you, Forrest. Forrest (V.O.): She had got the cancer and died on a Tuesday. I bought her a new hat with little flowers on it. Video Script2

6. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement (EXT. BUS STOP － PRESENT The elderly woman and Forrest sit. The woman is crying and wipes her eyes with a hankie.) Forrest: And that’s all I have to say about that. Didn’t you say you were waiting for the number 7 bus? Elderly woman: There’ll be another one along shortly. Forrest: Now, because I had been a football star and war hero and national celebrity and a shrimping ... Video Script3

7. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement The Psychological Aspects of Amputation Regardless of the cause of the amputation, an amputee will probably go through basically the same psychological stages. Some may go through the grieving process in a short time, while others will suffer several months. However, it is important that one acknowledge and understand the process as he is going through each stage, for it possibly helps him to survive psychologically. Cultural information1

8. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement 1. The Five Stages of the Grieving Process ●Denial People who go through traumatic amputations usually experience Denial, but normally those who have had surgical amputations will not experience it. ●Anger Often people will blame God, the doctor, or others for their loss. Cultural information2

9. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement ●Bargaining In this stage, patients may attempt to postpone the reality of amputation, and most patients will try to bargain with their doctor or through a higher authority such as a religious figure. ●Depression In this stage, anger is taken place by depression. This is probably the most complicated stage of grief, but it too will disappear. Common symptoms include sleeping either too much or too little, negative feelings about the environment and the future, feelings of hopelessness, and talking about death. Cultural information3

10. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement ●Acceptance and Hope Eventually, the amputee will come to terms with his loss and start living again. This is more easily achieved if he has a visit from a peer counselor who has been through this entire process and can give him some advice. Cultural information4

11. Cultural information Audiovisual supplement 2. Complicated Grief Complicated grief is not common in amputee patients, however its symptoms are more harmful, which include severe isolation, violent behavior, suicidal ideation, workaholic behavior, severe or prolonged depression, nightmares, and avoiding reminders of the amputation. It is urgent for the amputees with these symptoms to seek appropriate professional medical treatment. Cultural information5

12. Structural analysis Rhetorical features This text is a piece of chronological narration about an amputee, a difficult and only semi-communicative patient who floundered in his last days in agony and depression and eventually died. The text can be divided into three parts: Structural analysis 1 Part I (Paragraph 1): This part serves as an introduction to the background of the story. (Paragraphs 2 — 13): This part describes the strange behavior of a particular patient dubbed the “discus thrower” and his conflict with health workers. Part II

13. Structural analysis Rhetorical features Part III (Paragraph 14 — 15): The last part tells the readers about the patient’s death. This narration also poses interesting challenges: what to think of this man, how to understand him, and how to treat him? Clearly the man’s enigmatic speech and action are saying something, and Selzer suggests that few are listening. The story offers no answer, but it suggests that the kind of sympathy the narrator develops through watching the patient (though not expressed) is a good start. The patient’s provocative behavior and the story’s openness make it a good point of departure for a discussion. Structural analysis 2

14. Structural analysis Rhetorical features A notable feature of this text is the extensive use of questions on the part of the narrator. He asks questions in his dialogue with the patient, and he also asks himself questions. Rhetorical Features 1 First look at the questions he asks himself: For example: 1. Ought not a doctor to observe his patients by any means and from any stance that he might take for the more fully assemble evidence? (Paragraph 1) 2. Is he mute as well as blind? (Paragraph 3) 3. What is he thinking behind those lids that do not blink? Is he remembering a time when he was whole? Does he dream of feet? Or when his body was not a rotting log? (Paragraph 6)

15. Structural analysis Rhetorical features These questions call for no answer but they reveal the inner thoughts of the narrator. He seems to be trying to place himself in the position of the patient to feel a better understanding of the patient’s psychology. Now look at the questions he asks in his dialogue with the patient: For example: 1. How are you? (Paragraph 5) 2. How do you feel? (Paragraph 5) 3. Anything more I can do for you? (Paragraph 7) All these questions help to show that the doctor is very patient with and, responsible for his patient. Rhetorical Features 2

16. Structural analysis Rhetorical features Practice: Study the text and pick out other questions he asks, and see how these questions help reveal his attitude towards the patient. Rhetorical Features 3

17. Detailed reading THE DISCUS THROWER Richard Selzer 1 I spy on my patients. Ought not a doctor to observe his patients by any means and from any stance,that he might the more fully assemble evidence? So I stand in the doorways of hospital rooms and gaze. Oh, it is not all that furtive an act. Those in bed need only look up to discover me. But they never do. Detailed reading 1

18. Detailed reading 2 From the doorway of Room 542 the man in the bed seems deeply tanned. Blue eyes and close-cropped white hair give him the appearance of vigor and good health. But I know that his skin is not brown from the sun. It is rusted, rather, in the last stage of containing the vile repose within. And the blue eyes are frosted, looking inward like the windows of a snowbound cottage. This man is blind. This man is also legless ― the right leg missing from midthigh down, the left from just below the knee. It gives him the look of a bonsai, roots and branches pruned into the dwarfedfacsimile of a great tree. Detailed reading 2

19. Detailed reading 3 Propped on pillows, he cups his right thigh in both hands. Now and then he shakes his head as though acknowledging the intensity of his suffering. In all of this he makes no sound. Is he mute as well as blind? 4 The room in which he dwells is empty of all possessions ― no get-well cards, small, private caches of food, day-old flowers, slippers, all the usual kickshaws of the sick room. There is only the bed, a chair, a nightstand, and a tray on wheels that can be swung across his lap for meals. Detailed reading 3-4

20. Detailed reading 5 “What time is it?” he asks. “Three o’clock.” “Morning or afternoon?” “Afternoon.” He is silent. There is nothing else he wants to know. “How are you?” I say. “Who are you?” he asks. “It’s the doctor. How do you feel?” He does not answer right away. “Feel?” he says. “I hope you feel better,” I say. I press the button at the side of the bed. “Down you go,” I say. “Yes, down,” he says. Detailed reading 5

21. Detailed reading 6 He falls back upon the bed awkwardly. His stumps, unweighted by legs and feet, rise in the air, presenting themselves. I unwrap the bandages from the stumps, and begin to cut away the black scabs and the dead, glazed fat with scissors and forceps. A shard of white bone comes loose. I pick it away. I wash the wounds with disinfectant and redress the stumps. All this while, he does not speak. What is he thinking behind those lids that do not blink? Is he remembering a time when he was whole? Does he dream of feet? Or when his body was not a rotting log? Detailed reading 6

22. Detailed reading 7 He lies solid and inert. In spite of everything, he remains impressive, as though he were a sailor standing athwart a slanting deck. “Anything more I can do for you?” I ask. For a long moment he is silent. “Yes,” he says at last and without the least irony. “You can bring me a pair of shoes.” In the corridor, the head nurse is waiting for me. “We have to do something about him,” she says. “Every morning he orders scrambled eggs for breakfast, and, instead of eating them, he picks up the plate and throws it against the wall.” Detailed reading 7.1

23. Detailed reading “Throws his plate?” “Nasty. That’s what he is. No wonder his family doesn’t come to visit. They probably can’t stand him any more than we can.” She is waiting for me to do something. “Well?” “We’ll see,” I say. 8 The next morning I am waiting in the corridor when the kitchen delivers his breakfast. I watch the aide place the tray on the stand and swing it across his lap. She presses the button to raise the head of the bed. Then she leaves. Detailed reading 7.2-8

24. Detailed reading 9 In time the man reaches to find the rim of the tray, then on to find the dome of the covered dish. He lifts off the cover and places it on the stand. He fingers across the plate until he probes the eggs. He lifts the plate in both hands, sets it on the palm of his right hand, centers it, balances it. He hefts it up and down slightly, getting the feel on it. Abruptly, he draws back his right arm as far as he can. 10 There is the crack of the plate breaking against the wall at the foot of his bed and the small wet sound of the scrambled eggs dropping to the floor. Detailed reading 9-10

25. Detailed reading 11 And then he laughs. It is a sound you have never heard. It is something new under the sun. It could cure cancer. Out in the corridor, the eyes of the head nurse narrow. “Laughed, did he?” She writes something down on her clipboard. 12 A second aide arrives, brings a second breakfast tray, puts it on the nightstand, out of his reach. She looks over at me shaking her head and making her mouth go.I see that we are to be accomplices. Detailed reading 11-12

26. Detailed reading 13 “I’ve got to feed you,” she says to the man. “Oh, no, you don’t,” the man says. “Oh, yes, I do,” the aide says, “after the way you just did. Nurse says so.” “Get me my shoes,” the man says. “Here’s the oatmeal,” the aide says. “Open.” And she touches the spoon to his lower lip. “I ordered scrambled eggs,” says the man. “That’s right,” the aide says. I step forward. “Is there anything I can do?” I say. “Who are you?” the man asks. Detailed reading 13

27. Detailed reading 14 In the evening I go once more to that ward to make my rounds. The head nurse reports to me that Room 542 is deceased. She has discovered this by accident, she says. No, there had been no sound. Nothing. It’s a blessing, she says. 15 I go into his room, a spy looking for secrets. He is still there in his bed. His face is relaxed, grave, dignified. After a while, I turn to leave. My gaze sweeps the wall at the foot of the bed, and I see the place where it has been repeatedly washed, where the wall looks very clean and white. Detailed reading 14-15

28. Detailed reading Does the doctor feel guilty of spying on his patients? Why or why not? (Paragraph 1) Detailed reading1--Question No, he doesn’t. Instead, he finds the activity justifiable. For one thing, he thinks the activity is well-meant, i.e. he wants to collect more pathological evidence in order to give the patients more effective treatment. For another, his activity is not spying in the true sense, for the act is far from furtive.

29. Detailed reading How would you account for the possessions in Room 542? (Paragraph 4) Detailed reading4--Question The fact that there are no get-well cards, no small, private caches of food and day-old flowers shows that he has been abandoned by his family and friends.

30. Detailed reading Why does the patient ask for shoes time and again? (Paragraphs 7) Detailed reading7--Question As a blind man, he is restrained in activity. Now without legs he is completely confined to bed. Like a caged bird, he longs for freedom and dreams of going back to his career. Thus it is understandable why he repeatedly asks for shoes.

31. Detailed reading Why does the patient throw his plate? (Paragraphs 9－10) This is the way he expresses his wrath with the unfair fate. He is deprived of sight and now his legs. Deserted by society, he is left with very little. Indignant as he is, he can avenge himself upon nobody. What he can do is only to crash his plate against the wall to vent his anger and despair. Moreover, he would rather die in a stroke like the plate than linger in agony. Detailed reading9-10--Question

32. Detailed reading What kind of laughter does the patient give? (Paragraph 11) The laughter is unique as is indicated in Paragraph 11. It comes both from the pleasure after revenge by crashing the plate and the hope to extricate himself from his agony by means of an abrupt death like the plate. Since freedom in this material world is impossible to him, he wishes to have it in the other world. Detailed reading11--Question

33. Detailed reading Group discussions How do you think a dying man will most probably behave? Should euthanasia (physician-assisted suicide) be legalized? Detailed reading8– Activity

34. Detailed reading spy: v. notice Collocations: spy on: secretly or furtively observe sb. or sth. Detailed reading1– spy e.g. The children loved spying on the grownups. Translation: 公司派他去侦查竞争对手的销售实力。 The company sent him to spy on the competitor’s sales force. ___________________________________________________________________ Blank filling: has been spying on The US government the movements of the terrorists since 9.11. _____________________

35. Detailed reading stance: n. an attitude or view about an issue that you state clearly Collocations: Detailed reading1– stance stance on/toward/against Tell us what your stance is on capital punishment. e.g.

36. Detailed reading furtive: a. done on the sly or in a sneaky way e.g. The thief gave a furtive glance at the defense attorney when the judge read the charges. Detailed reading1– furtive1 Synonym: secret, stealthy, covert, clandestine, surreptitious, underhand Comparison: Secret is the most general. e.g. a desk with a secret compartment; secret negotiations Stealthy suggests quiet, cautious deceptiveness intended to escape notice. e.g. Paul heard stealthy footsteps on the stairs.

37. Detailed reading Covert describes something that is concealed or disguised. e.g. Every measure, both overt and covert, is being taken against terrorists. Detailed reading1– furtive2 Clandestine (a. & n.)implies stealth and secrecy for the concealment of an often illegal or improper purpose. e.g. clandestine intelligence operations Furtive suggests the slyness, shiftiness, and evasiveness of a thief. e.g. Chris kept stealing furtive glances at me.

38. Detailed reading Surreptitious is stealthy, furtive, and often unseemly or unethical. e.g. His surreptitious behavior naturally aroused suspicion. Detailed reading1– furtive3 Underhand implies unfairness, deceit, or slyness as well as secrecy. e.g. He’s a gentleman and would never say anything underhand about me.

39. Detailed reading frosted: a. covered with frost or sth. like frost e.g. a frosted window frosted glass frosted blue eyes Detailed reading2– frosted

40. Detailed reading bonsai: n. an ornamental tree of shrub grown in a pot and artificially prevented from reaching its normal size Detailed reading2– bonsai

41. Detailed reading dwarf: n. & a. (of) sth. or sb. much shorter than the normal dwarf tree, plant, animal e.g. Detailed reading2– dwarf v. to cause to appear small by comparison e.g. Together these two big men dwarfed the tiny Broadway office. buildings dwarfed by the surrounding hills 被周围的小山衬得低矮的建筑物

42. Detailed reading facsimile: n. an exact copy of sth., especially a book or document He spread out several facsimile weather charts. e.g. Detailed reading2– facsimile

43. Detailed reading prop (up): v. support by placing against sth. solid or rigid; shore up e.g. Try to prop up the tent with the branch from the tree. He can’t always expect his colleagues to prop him up. to prop up a new regime 扶植一个新政权 Detailed reading3– prop

44. Detailed reading cup: v. support or hold sth. with the hands that are curved like a dish Detailed reading3– cup e.g. He cupped her chin in the palm of his hand. Make a sentence with the following key words: kneel, cup, hand, river water. David knelt, cupped his hands and splashed river water onto his face. ___________________________________________________________________________

45. Detailed reading swing: v. (swung, swung) move sth. from side to side e.g. A large pendulum swung back and forth inside the grandfather clock. His mood swings between elation and despair. Detailed reading3– swing

46. Detailed reading probe: v. physically explore or examine sth. with the hands or an instrument e.g. Detectives questioned him for hours, probing for any inconsistencies in his story. Detailed reading9– probe Collocations: probe in/into e.g. The official enquiry will probe into alleged corruption within the Defence Ministry. They probed in/into the mud with a special drill, looking for a long-buried shipwreck.

47. Detailed reading heft: v. lift or hold sth. in order to test its weight e.g. I watched him heft the heavy sack onto his shoulder. Detailed reading9– heft

48. Detailed reading accomplice: n. sb. who helps another person to do sth. illegal or wrong He is suspected as an accomplice of the murder. e.g. Detailed reading12– accomplice Derivation: complicity: n. (formal) the act of taking part with another person in a crime complicity in a crime e.g. Confusing words: accomplice, accomplish

49. Detailed reading go/make one’s rounds: (1) deliver mail door to door; go round (esp. a hospital ward); inspect e.g. make/go the rounds of the wards （医院）查房 Detailed reading14– go/make one’ rounds (2) spread e.g. a paragraph going the rounds of various journals 转载在各种杂志上的一段文章 War rumors are going the rounds. 有关战争的谣言正在流传。

50. Detailed reading deceased: a. dead e.g. flowers on the grave of deceased relatives the deceased: (formal and legal) person(s) who has(have) recently died Detailed reading14– deseased e.g. The deceased was a highly respected member of the farming community. Confusing words: deceased, diseased