Midnight Visitor

1. Midnight Visitor Robert Arthur

2. The Midnight Visitor Unit 4 W arming up Reinforcement T ext Analysis Background

3. The Midnight Visitor Unit 4 Questions / Activities Warming up Check-on Preview Objectives W B T R

4. Warming up Questions / Activities • Have you ever seen a spy movie, or read a spy story? What is it? Do you like it? Why? • What is a spy like? What is your general impression of a spy? Look at the prompts (提示) and pictures on the next slide and try to think of as many words as possible to describe people who work as a secret agent. W B T R

5. Warming up Questions / Activities Age, appearance Personality Tasks, responsibilities Reasons

6. Warming up Questions / Activities Adventurous Courageous Intelligent Shrewd (精明的) Presence of mind Young or old? Handsome or ordinary-looking? They live in a secret world of deception, fraud (欺骗), and sometimes violence. Collect and pass on significant information Recruit new agents Espionage For money? For ambition? For patriotism?

7. Warming up Questions / Activities Espionage • [Fr.] spying • Espionage (谍报)： the secret collection of information, or intelligence, the source of such information wishes to protect from disclosure. • Intelligence (情报)：evaluated and processed information needed to make decisions. Intelligence generally has a national security connotation and therefore exists in an aura (光环) of secrecy.

8. An Example British intelligence agents secretly intercepted (截获)conversations of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his New York officelast year. Warming up Questions / Activities

9. Warming up Questions / Activities CIA中央情报局 • Central Intelligence Agency • Mainly for gathering secret information that may bear on national security • Created in 1947 • The CIA also coordinates the activities of the United States intelligence community, which includes agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). • In addition, the CIA takes overall responsibility for gathering information from other U.S. intelligence agencies, analyzing the separate pieces of information from each source, and providing a recommendation to the president of the United States and the president’s advisers.

10. Warming up Questions / Activities FBI美国联邦调查局 • Federal Bureau of Investigation • Chief investigative agency of the United States federal government and a division of the U.S. Department of Justice • The primary responsibility for counterespionage activities within the US., coordinating its work with the CIA, which is responsible for such operations outside the US.

11. Warming up Questions / Activities FBI • It also provides services to other law enforcement agencies, including fingerprint identification, laboratory analysis of criminal evidence, police training, and access to a centralized crime information database. • Because of its broad mandate (授权), the FBI is one of the most powerful and controversial agencies in the government. • The bureau traces its origins to 1908, when the attorney general appointed a small group of investigators within the Department of Justice.

12. Warming up Questions / Activities KGB苏联国家安全委员会(克格勃) • Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti • (State Security Committee) • the government agency of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in charge of the Soviet political police from 1954 to 1991. • The KGB, the last in a series of Soviet security agencies dating from 1917, was officially disbanded（解散）when the USSR collapsed. • During its years of operation the agency’s main directive was to protect the Soviet regime from internal and external threats by means of a vast police and spy network. • During the cold war, both the FBI and the CIA concentrated their attention primarily on KGB of the USSR.

13. Warming up Questions / Activities Do you know these terms? 1. spy 2. espionage 3. international spy 4. double agent 5. secret agent 6. secret service 7. special agent 8. intelligence 9. intelligence agency 10. counterintelligence agency 11. spy movies 12. detective stories 13. undercover agent or undercover operation 1. 间谍 2. 侦察、谍报 3. 国际间谍 4. 双重间谍 5. 秘密特工 6. 特工处 7. 特工 8. 情报 9. 间谍机构 10. 反间谍机构 11. 间谍片 12. 侦探故事 13. 秘密的地下工作者/活动

14. Warming up Check-on Preview • Do you like the story? Why/Why not? • Read aloud the sentences/paragraphs you like best and say why. • What is the story about? • How do you understand the historical background against which the story was set? • What have you found about the source of this article? • Give the meaning/ the definition of the following words and expressions (p. 270): • official hands, course, drama, a start, management, to take a chance W B T R

15. Warming up Objectives • By the end of the Unit, students are expected to • be able to retell how Ausable defeated his adversary (敌手, 对手)Max. • be able to make character analysis of Ausable, Max and Fowler. • be able to use the key words, phrases, expressions, and grammar items correctly and appropriately. • know more about the author, detective stories and related information about secret agents. W B T R

16. The Midnight Visitor Unit 4 Author Background B W Genre T R

17. Background Author • Born on Nov. 10, 1909 in the Philippines • Got his B.A. in 1930 at the University of Michigan • Got his M.A. in journalism in 1932 • 1930-1940, his stories was published in Wonder Stories, Detective Fiction Weekly, Mystery, The Illustrated Detective Magazine, Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, Amazing Stories, The Shadow, Street & Smith Mystery Reader, Detective Tales, Thrilling Detective, Double Detective, Startling Stories, Collier’s, The Phantom Detective, Argosy Weekly, Unknown Worlds, and Black Mask. B W T R

18. Background Author • 1940s to 1960s: • He also wrote radio scripts and TV series. His career as a writer for radio came to an end during the McCarthy era. In 1959, he worked in television and wrote scripts for The Twilight Zone. • 1960s: • He was involved in editing a series of anthologies for younger readers. He died on May 2, 1969 in Philadelphia at the age of 59. B W T R

19. Background Genre • Elements of a Short Story • Setting • Characters: protagonist vs. antagonist • Conflicts • Climax • Theme • Suspense • Irony

20. Background Genre • How is a spy story similar to or different from a detective story?

21. A spy story vs. a detective story Both have complicated plots so that the reader remains as puzzled as the characters within the story. Both are like a puzzle and the climax of the story is the solution of the puzzle. The bulk (大部分内容) of the narrative concerns the logical process by which the investigator follows a series of clues to this solution. Suspense is used a lot. A spy story is mainly concerned with international intrigue (阴谋) and politics; while a detective story is usually concerned with local crimes. Background Genre

22. The Midnight Visitor Structure Unit 4 Theme Text Analysis Detailed Analysis W B T R

23. Text Analysis Theme • Wisdom is more powerful than any weapon. • Never judge a person by his appearance. • First impressions could be misleading. • He who laughs last,laughs longest.

24. Text Analysis Structure 1 2 3 Paras. 6-23 How Ausable developed a plan to deal with his adversary Max and what he did to throw Max off guard Paras. 24-28 How Ausable finally outwitted Max and made him jump onto the so-called balcony and kill himself Paras. 1-5 Who Ausable was and why the young writer Fowler was disappointed with him

25. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I Part II Part III Main Idea Sentence Paraphrase Words & Expressions Exercise W B T R

26. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Main Idea • When and where did the story happen? • Who was Fowler? Why did he follow Ausable to his room? • What was his first impression of Ausable? • Why did Fowler feel disappointed with Ausable? • Who was Ausable? Did he fit in with Fowler’s picture of a good spy? Why or why not?

27. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Ausable did not fit the description of any secret agent Fowler had ever read about. (para. 1) Paraphrasing: Ausable was not at all what a secret agent should look like.

28. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Someday soon that paper may well affect the course of history. (para. 5) Paraphrasing: In the near future, this document might probably have an effect on the development of history.

29. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Words & Expressions Sentence Pattern Phrases Grammar Words fit figure wheezily espionage crack sloppy for one thing (for another) deal in slip into may/might well risk one’s life doing sth. risk one’s life to do sth. as used in time clauses as used in reason clauses

30. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis • to risk one’s life doing sth./to do sth. • Don’t risk your life (in) trying to climb that mountain. • He risked his life to save his friend. • I don’t want to risk being late. • risk n. • There is a high risk of accidents happening on the icy road. • Heart attack can be avoided if people at risk take medical advice. • The houses at the foot of the mountain were at the risk of mud-rock flow. • She argued with him at the risk of being fired. • risky adj. • Verbs collocated with: be, look, prove, seem, sound, consider sth.

31. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Exercise • Choose one option that can best replace the underlined part in each sentence. 1. It was a small room on the sixth floor, and hardly a setting for a romantic figure. A. character B. story C. picture 2. Ausable was, for one thing, fat. A. just a little B. for one reason C. generally 3. There is drama in that thought, don’t you think? A. performance B. some trick C. something out of the ordinary • Key: 1. A, 2. B, 3. C

32. What happened when Ausable opened the door of his room? Did Ausable know the man? Who was Max? What did he want? How did Ausable react to the sudden appearance of Max in his room? How did Ausable react to Max’s threat? Why did Ausable start talking about the balcony? How did Fowler feel? Was he frightened? Why or why not? Did Max believe the story? How come he never doubted Ausable? Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Main Idea

33. Discuss the following questions in pairs. 1. What is meant by “It will be safer in my hands than in yours.” (para. 10)? 2. Why did Ausable say “The appointment was for twelve-thirty. I wish to know how you learned about the report, Max.” (para. 15)? 3. Describe Max’s feelings when he said “And we wish we knew how your people got the report.”? 4. What do you think helped to make Ausable’s plan work out? Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

34. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Sentence Paraphrase …you gave me quite a start. (para. 8) Paraphrasing: You surprised me.

35. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Words & Expressions Sentence Pattern Phrases Grammar • except for • save the trouble of doing sth • raise the devil with • block off • learn about • check on • take one’s chance(s) • make sure start press glance unlock cover unreal condition passive voice

36. raise Cain alludes to the son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother, Abel “Why have we every reason to believe that Adam and Eve were both rowdies? Because … they both raised Cain.” (pun) raise Cain/hell/the devil: to behave in a rowdy or disruptive way 闹事; 大吵大闹; 提出强烈反抗 e.g. 1. He said he’d raise Cain if they wouldn’t give him a refund. 他说如果他们不给他退款，他就大吵大闹。 2. The gang was out to raise hell that night. 那天晚上，黑社会出来闹事。 3. The wind raised the devil with our picnic. 风把我们的野餐搅乱了。 Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Cain and Abel

37. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis • take chances:to behave riskily • Don’ttake your chances when driving a car. • take a chance (on sth.): to take a risk • He left home and decided totake a chance on pursuing a career in acting. take one’s chance:to benefit as much as possible from one’s opportunities • If you want to work in a creative field, you should learn totake your chance.

38. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Exercise • Choose one option that can best replace the underlined part in each sentence. 1. Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. A. will quite probably B. will to a great extent C. will positively 2. And as the light came on, Fowler had his first real thrill of the day. A. fear B. excitement C. headache 3. “Max,” he wheezed, “you gave me quite a start.” A. frightened shock B. good beginning C. terrible pain 4. Max was slender, not tall, and with a face that suggested the look of a fox. A. evoked B. proposed C. demanded 5. I’m going to raise the devil with the management this time. A. raise Cain with B. curse C. fire 6. I wish I knew how you learned about the report, Max. A. studied B. read through C. became aware of 7. Send them away or I’ll shoot and take my chances. A. kill B. try my luck C. have an opportunity • 答案见备注栏

39. How did Max feel when he heard someone knocking at the door? Did Ausable know who it was? What did he say to Max? Did Max believe him? What did Max decide to do under the circumstances? What happened to Max? Why did Ausable sigh? Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part III: Main Idea

40. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part III: Words & Expressions Words uncork shrilly sigh stare stammer

41. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis • Sigh: to breathe out slowly and noisily, expressing tiredness, sadness, pleasure, etc. • She sighed deeply and sat down. • "I wish he was here, " she sighed • (= she said with a sigh) .

42. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis • Stare: to look for a long time with the eyes wide open, especially when surprised, frightened or thinking • Don't stare at people like that.It's rude. • Henry sat quietly for hours staring into the distance, thinking of what might have been.

43. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis • Stammer:to speak or say something with unusual pauses or repeated sounds, either because of speech problems or because of fear and anxiety • "Wh-when can we g-go?" she stammered. • He dialled 999 and stammered (out) his name and address.

44. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part III: Exercise • True/False Statements. • Fowler was a young man learning spy skills from Ausable. ( ) • Ausable was quite probably an American secret agent working in France. ( ) • Fowler was disillusioned because Asuable would not tell him anything. ( ) • Both Asuable and Fowler were thrilled when they found someone standing in the room holding a pistol in one hand. ( ) • Ausable started talking about the balcony because he wanted to gain some time to make a plan. ( ) • It wasn’t the first time for somebody to get into Ausable’s room through the balcony. ( ) • Somebody started knocking at the door at about twelve-thirty at night. ( ) • When somebody knocked at the door, Ausable knew it was the waiter who had brought his wine. ( ) • Max was probably killed at the end of the story. ( ) • 答案见备注栏

45. The Midnight Visitor Unit 4 Discussion Reinforcement Retelling W B T R

46. Dramatize the story Assume a role of Ausable, Fowler, or Max and retell the story Imagine yourself to be Fowler, the writer, and retell your experience on the night you spent with Ausable. Retelling Reinforcement

47. Discussion Reinforcement Lurk (《潜伏》) is a 2009 Chinese television series based on a spy novel. Yu Zecheng was an underground worker who spied for the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. Many viewers consider this is different from what we have usually seen on screen. The actor Sun Honglei presents a refreshing spy image and displays the true-to-life personality of a spy in a high danger-plagued existence full of espionage, pretending to be foolish and just dressing like an ordinary person in office. Topic: Why do people love spy dramas and their heroes?