Unit 4 American Dream

1. Unit 4 American Dream • Text A Tony Trivisonno’s American Dream • Pre-reading tasks: • What is American Dream? • P91 p106 • The belief of Americans that their country offers opportunities for a good and successful life. For minorities and immigrants, the dream also include freedom and equal rights.

2. Native Americans--Indians --A country of immigrants from all over the world • The first immigrant :May flower in 1620 • Puritans • In search of religious freedom • All Americans have ancestors who were immigrants. • A melting pot

3. immigrants

4. Melting pot

5. people are proud to say that their ancestor were immigrants who came with very little and built a better life for themselves.

6. Successive waves of immigration: • America is known as a country of immigrants. Except for the Indians, all Americans are the descendants of, or are themselves, the sons and daughters of other lands. • The first wave of settlement in the 17th century were predominantly English. They were later joined by Dutchmen, Germans, Scotch-Irish, French Huguenots(Protestants) and Spanish-Portuguese Jews.

7. Then there were the Blacks, who were “involuntary immigrants” seized in Africa and chained and shipped to this land to be sold as slaves. • The second wave:of immigration. • During this period, some 1.6 million The 40 years before the civil war accelerated the pace Irish came to America, mostly as refugees from a terrible famine. The same period also saw

8. the arrival of 1.5 million Germans, many to escape from political persecutions after the failure of revolutions. There were also many Scandinavians and Swiss people who settled in the new states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and converted many forests and soils into farms and prospering towns. • The third wave: • The real flood however, came from during the 7 decades after the civil war. Six times between

9. 1905 and 1914 for example, yearly immigration exceeded one million. Roughly during the same period, almost 3 million Italians, some 2 million Jews from Russian Poland, and approximately one million people of other eastern European stocks-----Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians, Serbs, Croatians, and others, came. More hundreds of thousands came from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkish Armenia and Greece. The period also witnessed a relatively small number of Chinese and Japanese who settled mostly in the west coast.

10. today, these waves of immigration still continue in spite of the US government’s attempts to restrain them and in spite o the fact the “ American Dream” that lures people to go there has often turned out to an “ American nightmare • The American character:

11. Work hard play hard • sensitive to the rights of individual, worships bigness, yet idealized the little man, • place a very high valuation upon success. aggressive one.

12. While-reading tasks: What is the essence of American dream according to the author? • The belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/ she works hard enough.

13. How did Tony realize his American dream through his own effort? • Circle all the time words, phrases or sentences in this text. • What is the function of time words? • time phrases serve as transitions between steps.

14. Go to Text Organization p98 1. 2.) • Lg points: • 1.     Turn away from sb./sth.: stop facing or looking at sb./sth. • Refuse to give help • Refuse reject turn down decline • 2.turn/come to sb. for sth. (comfort, money, advice, suggestion sympathy )

15. 3.Capacity: ability; power • At full capacity • In the capacity of/in one’s capacity as • A mind of great capacity • The lab has a capacity of 60 students. • 4.  be delighted with • be pleased with sb./sth.

16. 5. wreck n.sth. such as a ship, car, plane, or building which has been destroyed, usu. in an accident. • The wreck of one’s hope /plans/ the plane • The ship was wrecked . • 6. call on sb.: visit sb. for a short time • drop in on sb./ drop into sb.: pay a casual visit

17. 7.  damn esp as an interj, used to express annoyance, anger, . • eg. Damn! I’ve lost my money • adj. (expressing disapproval, anger, impatience) • e.g. Where is that damn book? • 8.  lot: a piece of land • a parking lot

18. Odds and ends:Up and down • Wait and see • Safe and sound • 9. persuade sb. to do sth.

19. Euphemism:taboo ,unmentionable • --Death • to go to the other world • run one’s last race • breath one’s last • Pass away • --Disease • Look off colour • Under the weather • Social disease

20. --Sex • Have a relation with • Sleep around • Have love fair • --Pregnant • In a family way • In an interesting condition

21. Profession • Plumber—pipe engineer/heating engineer • Garbage collector/dustman– sanitation engineer • Poverty • Needy, disadvantaged, underprivileged • Slum—substandard housing, depressed areas, special areas

22. Excretion: To see the star • To wash one’s hands • To see one’s aunt • Respond to the call of the nature • I have to visit John to do No.1 job. • Go to men and ladies

23. Blue: • blues • blue-collar / white-collar • A blue-eyed boy---sb.’s favorite • Feel blue, look blue • Have blue blood----royal in origin • Blue book, white book, yellow pages, • blue film

24. Please scan the text again to find out all the description of Tony’s physical appearance. • Line 3 He was about five-foot-seven or eight and thin. • Lines 59-59-60 He seemed to stand a little straighter. He has a look of confidence • Line 71 neatly dressed

25. Writing: • Tell Tony’s story in the first person.