My Personal Manager

1. My Personal Manager Margaret Goff Clark

2. Background • Warming-up questions • Text appreciation • Language understanding • Group activities

3. Background • Margaret Goff Clark is a productive author. • She wrote stories about teenagers. • Different themes: mysteries science fiction human relationship wild animals

4. Theme one: mysteries • Who Stole Kathy Young?It is about two girls who are cousins named Meg and Kathy. Meg and Kathy both live in Texas. The story is set in summer and Meg and Kathy always come for vacation. They saw two tourists that seemed a bit weird to them but didn't really think anything of it until they began to follow them. Next Meg sees Kathy a little further down the road being pushed into a van. Meg automatically thinks it must be those two tourists that they had seen earlier. Police search parties are sent out searching for Kathy but they can't find her. Meg decides that just waiting isn't helping, so she starts to search for Kathy herself with a boy named Julian. While all of this searching for Kathy is going on, Kathy herself is trying to escape.

5. Theme two: science fiction • Barney and UFO Barney is afraid to tell his foster parents that he has seen a UFO behind the house even when a hasty promise to a space boy leads him into trouble. • Barney on Mars When Barney's young friend's dog is taken to Mars, extraterrestrial acquaintance Tibbo helps them try to get it back.

6. Theme three: human relationship • This book is a historical fiction about a family helping slaves escape to Canada.

7. Theme four: wild animals The Endangered Florida Panther There is a good mix of high-interest anecdotes about the panther(黑豹)and the people who study and safeguard it, and of facts and photos that present basic information about the species and its ecological role. Habits and habitat are briefly discussed; history focuses on the panther's endangered status and the efforts to protect it.

8. The Threatened Florida Black Bear In this companion book Clark gives basic historical and scientific facts with eyewitness accounts of the wildlife biologists who study and protect the animals. It is these anecdotes that create a sense of excitement and convey the tragedy of habitat loss that puts various species at risk worldwide. Full-color photographs provide information and a feeling ofrespect. Solidly on the side of wildlife conservation, Clark presents a balanced picture of the bear's relationship with the environment and with humans, discussing conflicts and compromise.

10. Warming-up questions • What is your favorite book and who is your favorite character in juvenile literature? • What does a good story usually contain? • In this text, Why doesn’t the story directly begin from the first day I meet Carlos?

11. Text appreciation • Development of story: Part I (para.1): suspense of the story Part II (para. 2-par.6): the first day I met Carlos. Part III (para.7-para.8): Carlos became my personal manager. Part IV. (para.9-end): the success of us.

12. Text appreciation In-class discussion • What troubles the hero and heroine in the story? What will it usually result in? How do they deal with it? • If you were Karen, what would you do? And if you were Carlos? What would you do to help Karen? • Do you have the similar problems? What is your way to resolve them?

13. Text appreciation • Main characters: Carlos---being knee-high to a flea, I realized I was going to have to spend my life in this undersized skin. I just decided to make the best of it and concentrate on being myself. Karen ---No boy wants to date a girl taller than she is.

14. Text appreciation • Beginning of the story: Which is how little Carlos Herrera took me and turned me into，well— Which is how little Carlos Herrera took me and turned me into a cool, pretty, and popular girl.

15. Text appreciation • Chronological order: Karen ran into something solid. Carlos’s suggestions: appearance---let my hair grow，wear a fitted sweater and neat skirt; manners---lift my head and say“Hi”to everyone; I was to volunteer to work on the school paper and go out for dramatics;

16. Text appreciation • The end of the story: Karen refused Reed，and decided to have dinner with Carlos.

17. Text appreciation • Humorous: • I'mgoing to be a promotion man. I may be short, but I can promote big things.” “Like me.” (Carloswants topromote big ideas or activities; Karen says:”Do you mean you can promote big things like me？” ) • “Take that seat,"Mr. McCarthy told Carlos, pointing to the only empty one, in the back of the room. Carlos grinned.“But I need a couple of dictionaries.

18. Text appreciation • Karen ---“It doesn't seem to bother you—being short, I mean.”Carlos---“Of course I mind being short. I get a stiff neck every day from looking up at people like you.”

19. Text appreciation • Shortness: 1.to come back to earth/to come down to earth:to return to reality, suddenly or with a shock; to return to a normal way of thinking after a time when you are excited • I'm glad Mary has come down to earth and stopped dreaming of being rich.

20. Text appreciation 2. to make the best of it/to make the best of a bad job/to make the best of a bad situation:to accept a sad or unsatisfactory situation that you cannot change and do the best that you can in the circumstances　 • We'll have to spend the night in this awful place, so we might as well make the best of it.

21. Text appreciation 3. to go through with sth. :to carry out; refuse to be prevented from sth. • I can't go through with this performance. I'm so nervous. 4. to know better informed about sth./ to know better than to do sth. : ，be wise enough to behave in a more responsible and acceptable way • She's only six, but she's old enough to know better than to run out into the traffic. I'm surprised at your behaving so badly—you ought to know better.

22. Language understanding 1. annoy, irritate, bother • annoy refers to mild disturbance caused by an act that tries one's patience • irritate is closely related but somewhat stronger • botherimplies troublesome imposition

23. Language understanding 1) Hasn't he ______them enough with his phone calls? 2)I was ______ by his bad manners. 3) Your interruptions only serve to _____the entire staff. 4) Pardon me for _______ you with such a smallmatter. bothered annoyed irritate bothering

24. Language understanding 2. cast • The fisherman cast his net into the sea. • She cast an eye in his direction. • It cast a new light on the problem. • He seemed to be cast down. • He cast his vote against the new tax law. • stake everything on the single cast of a dice 孤注一掷 • This is a play with an all-star cast.

25. Language understanding 3. knee beat sb. to his knees/bring sb. to his knees ( force sb. to submit) bend one's knee before /to sb. The water was knee-deep. The grass was knee-high.

26. 4. plead • to ask earnestly; beg: The boy pleaded for mercy. She pleaded with the officer not to give her a ticket. • to assert as defense or excuse; claim as a plea plead ignorance 以不知道情况为借口 • to put forward a plea of a specific nature in court, claim plead guilty 服罪 • argue earnestly in favor of: pleading the rights of the unemployed 为失业者的权利据理力争

27. 5. under- • Beneath or below in position: underground, undergarments, undercurrent • Inferior or subordinate in rank or importance: undergraduate, undersecretary • Less in degree, rate, or quantity than normal or proper: undersized, underdeveloped, underpaid, underdone, undernourished

28. 6. know better than to do: be wise enough not to do She is old enough to know better than to spend all her money on clothes. I know better than to lend him any money. He ran away from school. He ought to have known better.

29. Language understanding 7. be through (with) Are you through with your work? I am through talking to her. 8. worth for all one is worth 尽力； for what it is worth 不管怎样； get one's money's worth 钱花得值, We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. （proverb) [谚]井干方知水可贵。

30. 9. laugh • laughing-stock 笑柄 • no laughing matter 不是小事 • laugh off an embarrassing situation 一笑置之 • laugh in one’s face 公开嘲笑 • laugh in one's sleeve 幸灾乐祸偷偷地欣喜或高兴 • He laughs best who laughs last.

31. Language understanding 10. laugh, smile, grin, chuckle, sneer, giggle grin:smile broadly showing the teeth露赤而笑 chuckle：to laugh quietly or to oneself抿嘴轻笑 sneer：to assume a scornful, contemptuous facial expression 冷笑；讥笑 giggle:to laugh with repeated short sounds咯咯地笑

32. Language understanding • At that moment, everybody began tolaughand sing. • He grinned from ear to ear. • He was chuckling to himself over what he was reading. • The inn-keeper smiledand immediately went out. • Jamessneered at my old bicycle. He has a new one. • The funny man amused the girls, so they giggled.

33. Language understanding 11. best • make the best of a bad job 善处逆境 • to the best of one's ability 竭尽全力 • The best is the enemy of the good. [谚]至善者善之敌; 好高鹜远成就有限。 • to the best of my knowledge:as far as I know • Strive for the best, prepare for the worst. 作最坏的打算,争取最好的结果。 • She spent the best part of an hour writing a letter. 她花费大半个钟头写一封信。

34. 12. come back to earth • like nothing on earth 非常罕见的 • bring sb. back [down] to earth 使某人从幻想中清醒过来 • down to earth 实际的, 不加渲染的

35. 13. let loose • at /in the (very) loose在最后一刻[瞬间 • break /get loose挣脱; 爆发; • give (a) loose 发泄 • on the loose 放纵

36. Language understanding 14. brain • brain wave 突如其来的灵感; 巧妙的主意 • beat one’s brains 费劲思考 • have something on the brain 老想着某事 • rack one’s brains 绞尽脑汁

37. Group activities • Group discussion How do you think Karen will choose between Reed Harrington and Carlos as her boyfriend according to story? Why do you think so? If you were Karen, which one would you choose? • Dramatize the story.

38. Writing Write a story. Pay attention to the plot and dialogue.