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Teaching demo -- A Short Story

Teaching demo -- A Short Story. By Wang Wenli. play. Importance of the work. Best-remembered and most-studied ， One of the world’s best short stories. (1924) winning the O’Henry Memorial Prize, the top short story prize in America

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Teaching demo -- A Short Story

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  1. Teaching demo--A Short Story By Wang Wenli 08/09/06 WANG

  2. play 08/09/06 WANG

  3. Importance of the work Best-remembered and most-studied， One of the world’s best short stories • (1924) winning theO’Henry Memorial Prize, the top short story prize in America • Included as a classic into American primary school and high school textbooks and the world’s best short fiction anthologies • Adapted into a dozen of films--- the latest one: Lethal Woman (1998); the best-known one: The Most Dangerous Game(1932) 08/09/06 WANG

  4. Objectives: genre study (review) Elements of the short story: • moral/theme  • plot • character & characterization  • setting  • point of view (reading technique：close reading) 08/09/06 WANG

  5. Objectives: language & writing • style: verbs, syntax, imagery, irony, personification… • suspense • step-up: repetition, comparison and contrast 08/09/06 WANG

  6. Outline: day 1 • Lead-in activities: task sheets • Objectives • Background information • Plot, characterization, setting, themes • Further questions for discussion: (for day 3) 08/09/06 WANG

  7. Day 2 • Check on preview: language • Detailed study: part by part Activities: blank filling, paraphrasing, translation, etc. 08/09/06 WANG

  8. Day 3: • Discussion • Sum-up • Extra exercise/ Quiz 08/09/06 WANG

  9. Preclass work • Group Work:  Please draw a map of the ship-trap island and mark out Rainsford’s escape route according to the text.  Study para. 27 and para. 36 carefully. Try to figure out how Rainsford’s tricks work. Demonstrate them in class. 08/09/06 WANG

  10. Preclass work • Individual work: 1) Produce a Venn Diagram to compare Rainsford and Zaroff. Do you think the villain and the hero are radically different? If not, what do they have in common? 08/09/06 WANG

  11. Preclass work: Venn Diagram Rainsford Zaroff 08/09/06 WANG

  12. Preclass work • Individual work: 2) stylistic analysis: This hunting story is described as a grippinghorror narrative loaded with action. What stylistic features can you find in the text to support this description? (verbs, syntax variation, imagery in setting and characterization, suspense, etc.) 08/09/06 WANG

  13. Preclass work • Individual work: 2) stylistic analysis: This hunting story is described as a grippinghorror narrative loaded with action. What stylistic features can you find in the text to support this description? (verbs, syntax variation, imagery in setting and characterization, suspense, etc.) 08/09/06 WANG

  14. Lead-in Activities: student representative Order the Events _____ Rainsford uses a Ugandan trick and kills Ivan. _____ General Zaroff invites Rainsford to join his game. _____ One of Zaroff’s dogs falls into the Burmese tiger pit and dies. _____ Rainsford and Whitney talk about “Ship Trap Island.” _____ Rainsford goes back to the chateau and kills General Zaroff. _____ Rainsford spends the night in a tree. _____ Rainsford jumps off a cliff _____ Rainsford falls into the water and swims to the island. _____ Rainsford makes a Malay man-catcher which hurts General Zaroff on the shoulder. 08/09/06 WANG

  15. N W E Malay man-catcher S Ugandan trick Zaroff's chateau Ship-trap Island Caribbean Sea Deathswamp 08/09/06 WANG

  16. Background information I: Introduction to the author & his work 08/09/06 WANG

  17. Richard Connell(1893 - 1949) • Age 10: covered baseball games for his father’s newspaper at the payment of 10 cents for each game • Age 16: becamecity editor of the paper • Age 22: graduated from Harvard • Age 26: married and turned a professional writer 08/09/06 WANG

  18. Achievements • One of the most prolific short story writers of the 20th century--- over 300 short stories published in top magazines of the time • Successful screenwriter and novelist • Dozens of movies and TV series based on his stories • http://www.intercoursewiththedead.com/concrit.htm 08/09/06 WANG

  19. Evaluation of the story • ‘On one level it is adventure and high drama. On another it tackles questions about man's relation to the lower animals. On still another it evaluates existentialism.’ --- Dave McCourt Characterized by lofty or thrilling events/themes 08/09/06 WANG

  20. Historical background: 1920s • Big game hunting in African and South American countries is popular with wealthy Europeans and Americans. In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt and his son killed 512 animals on an African safari. • Right after WWI, “a war to end all wars”, the Bolshevik revolution that topples the old hierarchy of classes. 08/09/06 WANG

  21. Plot • How many parts can we divide the story into? • In which part is the climax reached? • The conclusion/resolution consists of only one sentence. Why? 08/09/06 WANG

  22. Plot • How is tension built up? suspense (study para.19) sentence length and type (compare paras. 18, 34--36, 38 ) 08/09/06 WANG

  23. Characterization Stereotype, Cossack Kindred spirits志趣相投 Zaroff Rainsford Russian, aristocratic, military, maniac, demonic Professional hunter, Obsessed with hunting, Privileged class, Classist, American, (democratic) civilian Still “normal”, human 08/09/06 WANG

  24. Characterization: the general • Why is the general so obsessed with hunting? • How do you understand his choice of men as prey? • Do his profession and social class help to explain his beliefand behavior? 08/09/06 WANG

  25. Characterization: Rainsford • Do you think Rainsford is better than the general? • How is he different from traditional heroes?  ambivalence: similarity to Zaroff  vehicle of irony: hunter-turned huntee 08/09/06 WANG

  26. Irony • “The world is made up of two classes--the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.” • “Who cares how a jaguar feels?" "Bah! They've no understanding." 08/09/06 WANG

  27. Characterization: techniques • Zaroff speech • Rainsford thought What does the difference suggest? 08/09/06 WANG

  28. Setting • Where is the story set? a Caribbean island a Gothic chateau a jungle and a swamp • Do you find any symbolic meaning in this setting? 08/09/06 WANG

  29. Themes • The hunter and the hunted • Social Darvinism • Classism, racism, elitism 08/09/06 WANG

  30. Questions for further discussion (day 3) • What will happen after Rainsford kills the general? Will he become another Zaroff? • Why does the general lose the game? Is he deliberately courting his own destruction? • What do you think of hunting, or, war in general, after learning the story? • In association with what we have learned in U3 & 4, what does this story say about history and racism? (History is written by the winner/the stronger. Racism is discrimination based on the classification of people) 08/09/06 WANG

  31. Detailed study: Part 1 (1-14) • In what way does the general speak? What is told by the discrepancy between what he says and what he does? • What kind of man is he, judged from his speech? (para. 13) 08/09/06 WANG

  32. Language • Rest with, rest on (para. 6): Success in management ultimately _________ sound judgment. The final decision __________ the President. It ________ the jury to decide the prisoner’s fate. rests on rests with rests with 08/09/06 WANG

  33. Language • Venture (para. 6): to ~ + n. 如果我能冒昧地说一下我的看法，我觉得这个计划需要进一步的审核。 If I may venture an opinion, I’d say the plan needs closer examination. to ~ + to-v. 我能斗胆提几个改进的建议吗？ May I venture to suggest a few improvements? to ~ + prep. 非典时期大家都不敢出门。 Nobody ventured out of doors during the period of SARS. 08/09/06 WANG

  34. Paraphrase • Night found him legweary… when night came, he was too tired to walk… 二十一世纪中国抱着前所未有的乐观态度拓宽了对外开放的尺度。 The 21st century has found China ___________________________________ opening wider to the outside world with an unprecedented optimism. 08/09/06 WANG

  35. Part 2 (15-28) • What animals are the two characters compared to separately? (paras. 18, 20, 24, 27) • How does Rainsford’s awareness of his situation change step by step? 08/09/06 WANG

  36. Language • Verbal phrases: plunge along, strike off, stretch out, throw down, spur on ___________ by a sharp sense of shame, he had ___________, giving no heed to the passers-by who looked at him strangely. To get away from the hideous scene as far as possible, he _________ from the main street and blundered into one of those dark alleys, at the end of which he ___________ himself behind a trash can and finally ___________in a rest. 08/09/06 WANG

  37. Strike (para.18) • 发现新的办法 strike _______ a new ___________ • 想到这个可能，他心里突然充满了恐惧。 The __________struck terror _____ his heart. • 他们都惊呆了，说不出话来。 They were _________________________. • 我觉得很奇怪他居然不愿说出自己的名字。 It __________________________________________. on approach prospect into struck dumb with amazement struck me as rather odd that he refused to give his name 08/09/06 WANG

  38. Ring (para.27) • To blow a smoke ring • His laugh rings through the jungle (review: echo, buzz, thunder) 屋子里充满了孩子们欢乐的笑声 The room rang with the laughter of happy children. 整个城市到处流传着坏消息 The whole city rang with bad news. 他说的那些同情的话听上去空洞无力。 His words of sympathy ring hollow. 08/09/06 WANG

  39. Part 3 (29--45) • Why does the general identify each of his rival’s tricks? Where have you read of a similar plot? • How does his estimation of Raisford change gradually? • What are the details that hint at his cold-bloodedness? 08/09/06 WANG

  40. Language Paraphrase: • The pointed stakes found their mark. (para.31) hit their target--- “It found the spot all right”(L2) 08/09/06 WANG

  41. Language To come upon or discover, especially by chance • Hit (para. 36) We finally hit the exit after blundering about in the darkness for a long time. 我偶然发现了有个办法可以解决我们的问题。 I hit upon a solution to our problem. 很多跨国公司深受经济萧条的影响。 Many multinationalcompanies were hit hard by the recession. 上个月的销售再创新高。 Last month’s sales hit a new high. a Broadway hit 百老汇热门的戏剧 08/09/06 WANG

  42. Part 4 (para.46) • Who won the game in the end? • What might have happened to the general? • What moral does the general’s end tell? • How would you take up the story? 08/09/06 WANG

  43. Sum-up • Summarize the elements of the short story by comparing the lesson with the other short stories we have learned during the year. • Find out how the writer steps up the tension by different techniques: study paras. 15, 25, 38; paras.16, 24, 33; paras. 22-23, 30 08/09/06 WANG

  44. His first thought made him feel sick and numb… His second thought was even more terrible. It sent a shudder of cold horror through his whole being. • He had dug himself in in France when a minute’s delay meant death. That had been a placid pastime compared to his digging now. Have you read similar writing somewhere else? 08/09/06 WANG

  45. Writing assignment • What good writing techniques have you learned from the story? • Can you produce a short story with suspense and a surprising ending? 08/09/06 WANG

  46. T H A N K Y O U ！ 08/09/06 WANG

  47. Check on preview • Definition 1) a wild chance (34) a bit of wild grapevine (36) 2) the dead black eyes (3) the trees dead ahead (38) 3) the baying of the hounds (37) a beast at bay (44) 08/09/06 WANG

  48. Lacking animation, dull • wild accusations; a wild guess. • The party being dead, we left early. • dead silence, dead sure, the dead of winter/night Based on little or no evidence or probability; ungrounded 08/09/06 WANG

  49. Usage of PPT in Intensive Reading • Advantages: interest, language learning, global understanding • Disadvantages: distraction, over-reliance, overloading • Key points: size, text, pictures/audio-visual materials 08/09/06 WANG

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