Another School Year--- What For?

Another School Year---What For?

Warming-up Questions • Background Information Shakespeare/ Homer / Virgil / Dante / Aristotle Chaucer / Eistein / La Rochefoucauld •Word Study 1. Verbal affixies 2. body / faculty / staff 3. testify / justify / verify / Certify 4. say / speak / talk / tell / converse 5. rather / fairly / quite / pretty 6. sensitive / sensible • Writing Technique Euphemism • Text Analysis Structure Difficult Sentences • Discussion

Warming-up Qs 1. Did you have a good holiday? What did you do during the holiday? 2. Have you had any reflections on your first term college life? What do you think is your most impressive experience in the last semester? 3. According to your own understanding, what are the major differences between high school and college educations?

Background Information William Shakespeare

Tragedies: • (1) 'Hamlet', 'Macbeth', 'King Lear', 'Othello'; • (2) 'Antony and Cleopatra', 'Coriolanus', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Julius Caesar'; • (3) 'Richard II', 'Richard III', 'Timon of Athens'; • (4) 'King John', 'Titus Andronicus', 'Henry VI'.

Comedies: (1) • 'The Tempest', • 'As You Like It', • 'The Winter's Tale', • 'The Merchant of Venice', • Twelfth Night', • 'Much Ado about Nothing', • 'Cymbeline', • 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'; (2) 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', 'The Taming of the Shrew', 'Two Gentlemen of Verona', 'All's Well That Ends Well', 'A Comedy of Errors', 'Pericles', 'Love's Labour's Lost', 'Two Noble Kinsmen'.

Histories: (1) • 'Henry IV', Parts 1 and 2, • 'Henry V', • 'Richard II', • 'Richard III', • 'Henry VIII,; (2) 'King John', • 'Henry VI', Parts 2 and 3, • 'Henry VI', Part 1. Serious Plays, or Bitter Comedies: • 'Measure for Measure', • 'Troilus and Cressida'. Shakespeare’s Burial Site

The Globe Theatre Globe Theatre in London The Globe Theatre, where dramatist William Shakespeare saw his plays performed 400 years ago, has been rebuilt near its original location on the south bank of the Thames River in London, England. The rebuilt theater opened in 1997 and offers performances of Shakespeare’s plays during the summer.

Bach Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), was considered by many of his peers to be the supreme master of counterpoint (compositional technique pitting note against note or melody against melody). This quality was expressly illustrated in his fugal compositions. In this excerpt from his famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, written in his early years as a court organist, Bach expands on the toccata (short, intricately articulated keyboard movement) form in an elaborately constructed fugue.

Homer • Homer, name traditionally assigned to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two major epics of Greek antiquity. Nothing is known of Homer as an individual, and in fact it is a matter of controversy whether a single person can be said to have written both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Linguistic and historical evidence, however, suggests that the poems were composed in the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor sometime in the 8th century bc.

THE ILIAD • The Iliad is set in the final year of the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and the inhabitants of the city of Troy. The legendary conflict forms the background for the central plot of the story: the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles. Insulted by his commander in chief, Agamemnon, the young warrior Achilles withdraws from the war, leaving his fellow Greeks to suffer terrible defeats at the hands of the Trojans. Achilles rejects the Greeks' attempts at reconciliation but finally relents to some extent, allowing his companion Patroclus to lead his troops in his place. Patroclus is slain, and Achilles, filled with fury and remorse, turns his wrath against the Trojans, whose leader, Hector (son of King Priam), he kills in single combat. The poem closes as Achilles surrenders the corpse of Hector to Priam for burial, recognizing a certain kinship with the Trojan king as they both face the tragedies of mortality and bereavement. • .

THE ODYSSEY • The Odyssey describes the return of the Greek hero Odysseus from the Trojan War. The opening scenes depict the disorder that has arisen in Odysseus's household during his long absence: A band of suitors is living off of his wealth as they woo his wife, Penelope. The epic then tells of Odysseus's ten years of traveling, during which he has to face such dangers as the man-eating giant Polyphemus and such subtler threats as the goddess Calypso, who offers him immortality if he will abandon his quest for home. The second half of the poem begins with Odysseus's arrival at his home island of Ithaca. Here, exercising infinite patience and self-control, Odysseus tests the loyalty of his servants; plots and carries out a bloody revenge on Penelope's suitors; and is reunited with his son, his wife, and his aged father.

VIRGIL, or VERGI (70-19 BC). • The greatest of the Roman poets, Publius Vergilius Maro, was not a Roman by birth. His early home was on a farm in the village of Andes, near Mantua. His father was a farmer, prosperous enough to give his son the best education. The young Virgil was sent to school at Cremona and then to Milan. At the age of 17 he went to Rome to study. There he learned rhetoric and philosophy from the best teachers of the day. Mosaic of Virgil and the two muses Cleo and Melpomene

Virgil studied the Greek poets. He wrote his 'Eclogues'. These are pastoral poems describing the beauty of Italian scenes. At the suggestion of Maecenas he wrote a more serious work on the art of farming and the charms of country life called the 'Georgics'. This established his fame as the foremost poet of his age. • The year after the 'Georgics' was published, he began his great epic, the 'Aeneid'. He took as his hero the Trojan Aeneas, supposed to be the founder of the Roman nation. The poem, published after Virgil's death, exercised a tremendous influence upon Latin and later Christian literature, prose as well as poetry. Thus his influence continued through the Middle Ages and into modern times. This 1469 painting depicts Virgil as he drafts the poem Georgics (36-29 bc) before a statue of the Greek goddess Artemis.

DANTE(1265-1321). • One of the greatest poets in the history of world literature, Italian writer Dante Alighieri composed poetry influenced by classical and Christian tradition. • Dante’s greatest work was the epic poem La divina commedia (1321?; The Divine Comedy, 1802). • It includes three sections: • the Inferno (Hell), in which the great classical poet Virgil leads Dante on a trip through hell; • the Purgatorio (Purgatory), in which Virgil leads Dante up the mountain of purification; and • the Paradiso (Paradise), in which Dante travels through heaven. This passage from the Inferno (recited by an actor) comes at the beginning of the epic, when Dante loses his way in the woods. The illustration shows Dante standing in front of the mountain of Purgatory, with hell on his right and heaven on his left.

The Divine Comedy • was probably begun about 1307; it was completed shortly before his death. The work is an allegorical narrative, in verse of great precision and dramatic force, of the poet's imaginary journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. • In each of the three realms the poet meets with mythological, historical, and contemporary personages. Each character is symbolic of a particular fault or virtue, either religious or political; and the punishment or rewards meted out to the characters further illustrate the larger meaning of their actions in the universal scheme. • Dante is guided through hell and purgatory by Virgil, who is, to Dante, the symbol of reason. The woman Dante loved, Beatrice, whom he regards as both a manifestation and an instrument of the divine will, is his guide through paradise.

ARISTOTLE(384-322 BC). • One of the greatest thinkers of all time, an ancient Greek philosopher. His work in the natural and social sciences greatly influenced virtually every area of modern thinking. • Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira, on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea. His father was a friend and the physician of the king of Macedonia, and the lad spent most of his boyhood at the court. At 17, he went to Athens to study. He enrolled at the famous Academy directed by the philosopher Plato. • Aristotle threw himself wholeheartedly into Plato's pursuit of truth and goodness. Plato was soon calling him the "mind of the school." In later years he renounced some of Plato's theories and went far beyond him in breadth of knowledge.

After his death, Aristotle's writings were scattered or lost. In the early Middle Ages the only works of his known in Western Europe were parts of his writings on logic. They became the basis of one of the three subjects of the medieval trivium--logic, grammar, and rhetoric. Early in the 13th century other books reached the West. Some came from Constantinople; others were brought by the Arabs to Spain. Medieval scholars translated them into Latin. • The best known of Aristotle's writings that have been preserved are 'Organon' (treatises on logic); 'Rhetoric'; 'Poetics'; 'History of Animals'; 'Metaphysics'; 'De Anima' (on psychology); 'Nicomachean Ethics'; 'Politics'; and 'Constitution of Athens'.

Geoffrey Chaucer • Called the Father of the English Language as well as the Morning Star of Song, Geoffrey Chaucer, after six centuries, has retained his status as one of the three or four greatest English poets. • He was the first to commit to lines of universal and enduring appeal a vivid interest in nature, books, and people. As many-sided as Shakespeare, he did for English narrative what Shakespeare did for drama. If he lacks the profundity of Shakespeare, he excels in playfulness of mood and simplicity of expression. • Though his language often seems quaint, he was essentially modern. Familiarity with the language and with the literature of his contemporaries persuades the most skeptical that he is nearer to the present than many writers born long after he died.

Works • The following list supplies approximate dates for when Chaucer's works were completed: 'The Book of the Duchess' (1369); 'The House of Fame' (1374-84); 'The Parliament of Birds' (1374-81); 'Troilus and Criseyde' (1385); 'Canterbury Tales' (1387-1400). His last, longest, and most famous work was the 'Canterbury Tales'. His writing dominated English poetry up to the time of Shakespeare.

The Canterbury Tales • The Tales is a collection of stories set within a framing story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket. The poet joins a band of pilgrims, vividly described in the General Prologue, who assemble at the Tabard Inn outside London for the journey to Canterbury. Ranging in status from a Knight to a humble Plowman, they are a microcosm of 14th-century English society. • The Canterbury Tales contains 22 verse tales and 2 prose tales presumably told by pilgrims to pass the time on their way to visit a shrine in Canterbury, England. • The tales represent nearly every variety of medieval story at its best. The special genius of Chaucer's work, however, lies in the dramatic interaction between the tales and the framing story.

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Francois de (1613-80). • Francois de La Rochefoucauld was born to one of the noble families of France on Sept. 15, 1613, in Paris. His notions of human faults and foibles grew out of a life immersed in the political crises of his time. The public life of his family was conditioned by the attitude of the monarchy toward the nobility--sometimes flattering, sometimes threatening. Having served in the army periodically from 1629 to 1646, La Rochefoucauld became one of the prominent leaders in the civil war from 1648 to 1653. Wounded in 1649 and again in 1652, he finally retired from the struggle with extensive face and throat wounds and with his health ruined.

The literary reputation of La Rochefoucauld rests on one book: 'Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales', published in 1665. Generally called the 'Maximes', these moral reflections and maxims are a collection of cynical epigrams, or short sayings, about human nature--a nature that the author felt is dominated by self-interest. Typical of his point of view are the following sayings: "We seldom find such sensible men as those who agree with us"; "Virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea"; "The surest way to be deceived is to think oneself cleverer than the others"; and "We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire."

After convalescing, he settled in Paris where he became involved with a circle of brilliant and cultivated people who debated intellectual subjects of all kinds. As an exercise, they attempted to express their thoughts with the greatest brevity. In so doing they made great use of the epigram, or maxim, which creates surprise through the devices of exaggeration and paradox. La Rochefoucauld soon gained mastery of this device. The first edition of his 'Maximes' contains, in fact, some longer selections along with the epigrams. Altogether he authorized five editions of the book in his lifetime, the last appearing in 1678. Two years later, on March 17, 1680, he died in Paris.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world’s leading research universities, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1865 the school was opened in Boston by geologist William Barton Rogers, who became its first president. Throughout its history MIT has held a worldwide reputation for teaching and research. It was among the first schools to use the laboratory method of instruction, develop the modern profession of chemical engineering, and offer courses in aeronautical and electrical engineering and applied physics.

Word Study 1. Verbal affixies -ize/iseto cause to be; to make; to become modernize / stablize / realize / crystalize / materialize standardize / computerize / idealize / capitalize to put into stated place hospitalize / centralize / socialize -fyto cause to be purify / simplify / clarify / justify / notify / simplify / classify identify / terrify / qualify / terrify -ento become darken / weaken / blacken / sadden to be made of wooden / golden / woolen

2. body / faculty / staff • body 1. whole physical structure of a human being or an animal; main part of a human body dead body a strong body 2. main part of sth the body of a ship the body of the theater the main body of the book 3. object heavenly bodies a foreign body 4. group of people working or acting as a unit a body of troops a body of supporters a legislative body a government body the student body the governing body the school body an elected body

Faculty • any of the power s of the body or mind the faculty of the sight mental faculties 2.department or group of related departments in a university the Faculty of Law the Faculty of Science 3.the whole teaching staff in one of the departments or in the whole university The entire faculty of the university will attend the meeting.

Staff (usu. sing) • group of assistants working together in a business, etc responsible to a manager or a person in authority the hotel staff the shop staff We need more staff in the office. I have a staff of ten 2. Those people doing administrative work a head teacher and her staff (校长及全体教师） The school staff are expected to supervise school meals.

3. testify / justify / verify / Certify • testifydeclare as a witness, esp in court; give evidence （提供证据，作证） Two witnesses testified against her and one in her favour. • justifyshow that sth / sb is right, reasonable or just （表明或证明某人或某事是正当的，有理的或公正的） You shouldn’t attempt to justify yourself They found it hard to justify their son’s giving up a secure well-paid job.

verifyto check; to make sure sth is true or accurate （证实，核查） The computer verified the data was loaded correctly. • certifyto declare formally, esp in writing or on a printed document （尤指书面证明） He certified it was his wife’s handwriting.

4. say / speak / talk / tell / converse • say其宾语通常是所说的话的内容， He hasn’t said that he is leaving. 或用以表达出直接引语 He said, “Good night”, and went to bed. • speak 用途较广，可指说或说话， The baby is learning to speak. Please don’t speak with your mouth full of food. 还可指发言或演讲，通常是一人讲大家听 I’d like to speak with you about my idea. We have invited her to speak on American politics. 还可用来指会说或能够用某种语言说话。 He speaks several languages.

Talk通常用来指两人或两人以上相互交谈，含着有说话对象的意思, 往往只调侃或闲聊 We sat in the bar and talked for hours • Tell 强调一人提供信息，其他人接受信息 She told him to hurry up. She told me nothing about herself. • Converse谈话交谈，更正式 It is a pleasure to converse with you. It is difficult to converse with people who do not speak your language.

5. rather / fairly / quite / pretty 几个副词均可以表示“适度地”，“在某种程度上”，或“不很”意思，常用于改变所修饰的形容词或副词的分量 rather 1. 既可与褒义词连用也可与贬义词连用。与褒义词连用时，听起来令人心情愉悦； rather good play rather poor work 2. 与贬义词或中性词连用时，表示不赞成或不满意。 rather hot rather small 3. 可与比较级或too连用 The house is rather bigger than we thought. Those shoes are rather too small. 4. 与a/an + adj. + n.连用时，可置于a / an 之前。 a rather nice day a rather pretty woman

fairly 词义最弱，多与褒义词连用 fairly tidy / friendly • quite和rather一样，在与a/an + adj. + n.连用时，可置于a / an 之前。 A quite nice guy a quite promising future • pretty 1. 词义最强也最通俗，但词义的强弱受语调影响较大。 A pretty simple question a pretty ugly man 2. 和rather一样既可与褒义词连用也可与贬义词连用。与褒义词连用时，听起来令人心情愉悦；

6. sensitive / sensible • sensiblereasonable; having or showing good sense a sensible person a sensible suggestion • sensitiveeasily hurt, damaged, affected, offended, upset a sensitive nerve heat-sensitive a sensitive girl sensitive to criticism

Writing Technique • Euphemism 委婉语 jump the fence go to the electric chair Euphemism, or “language pollution”, or “double speak,” as some call it, is often intended to obscure or hide the real situation. pass away rest in peace go to the bathroom ladies’ room senior citizen sanitary engineer correction center domestic help meat technologist substandard housing He is a bit slow for his age.

Text Analysis • Structure Part I (para.1 – 8) describes the writer’s encounter with one of his student. Part II (para. 9 – 14) restates what the writer still believes to be the purpose of a university: putting its students in touch with the best civilizations the human race has created.

Difficult Sentences • New as I was to the faculty, I could have told this specimen a number of things. ParaphraseThough I was a new teacher, I knew I could tell him what a university was for, but I couldn’t. Note specimen:a person who is unusual in some way. Here it refers to the student who challenges the teacher.

2.You will see to it that the cyanide stays out of the aspirin, that the bull doesn’t jump the fence, or that your client doesn’t go to the electric chair as a result of your incompetence. ParaphraseYou have to take responsibility for the work you do. If you’ re a pharmacist, you should make sure that aspirin is not mixed with poisonous chemicals. As an engineer, you shouldn’t get things out of control. If you become a lawyer, you should make sure an innocent person is not sentenced to death because you lack adequate legal knowledge and skill to defend your client.

Note see to it that: to make sure that the bull Jumps the fence:to make trouble; to make out of control. go to the electric chair:to be sentenced to death

3. They will be your income, and may it always suffice. ParaphraseThose professional skills will be rewarding for your career and we hope that there may always be opportunities of further learning. Note May: in formal English, “may” is used to express a hope or wish May you happy new year. May you a happy holiday. May peace finally prevail. May our country be prosperous and our people happy.

4. You are on your way to being that new species of mechanized savage, the push-button Neanderthal. ParaphraseYou will soon become an uneducated, ignorant person who can only work machines and operate mechanical equipment. Note 1. on one’s way to: on the point of experiencing or achieving 2. new species of mechanized savage: new types of humans who are intellectually simple and not developed and who can only work machines 3. The push-button Neanderthal: an uneducated, ignorant person who can only use / operate machines by pushing the buttons.

Discussion • Value of College Education A girl is going to give up her chance of receiving college education in order to pursue her dream of becoming a performer. Her father is worried about her and posted a message on the internet, expecting advice from other internet surfers.

寄件者：Steve Vaughn (slvaughn@kodak.com) 主旨：Value of college education View this article only 网上论坛：rec.arts.theatre.misc 日期：1996/07/09 I hope I am posting my question to an appropriate newsgroup. I apologize if not. My daughter is entering her senior year in high school and plans to pursue a career in theatre. She has wanted to be a performer since she was very little and is a hard working, focused person. She has received training in dance, voice, and acting both in and outside of high school. She recently informed us that a college education (degree) may not be of that much value to her career, except for the networking benefits from attending one of the top flight theatre programs. I believe her current voice and acting teacher has planted this seed. I would be very appreciative of the opinions of anyone in professional theatre regarding the importance of a college education degree for someone planning to work in this business. Her mother nor I have any experience in this field. Thanks for your help.

The following letter is from one of the internet surfers who are interested in this topic.

寄件者：Mary Beth (msancomb@execpc.com) 主旨：Re: Value of college education View this article only 网上论坛：rec.arts.theatre.misc 日期：1996/07/10 While a degree won't help your daughter get an acting job (in that educational credentials aren't necessary, talent is), I firmly believe in the value of an education. Her schooling should help her to hone her craft, and therefore will be a plus if she is truly looking to pursue theatre as a career. Additionally, if she is a vocalist, the training she should get will be invaluable. I would suggest she look into colleges and universities with reputations for good theatre and/or music programs. Good luck to her!

Suppose you are also one of the interested internet surfers, what will you say to the father of the girl in your letter of reply?

Another School Year--- What For?