Unit 10

1. Unit 10 Text I “Keep Class 2 Under Your Thumb”

2. Objectives: • 1. The use of similes • 2. The use of metaphors • 3. The use of striking contrast

3. Teaching Tasks and Process • I. Pre-reading questions

4. Pre-reading Questions • What is meant by keep somebody under your thumb? • What relationships does the phrase usually apply to? • What contradictions are there generally between the governing and the governed? • Is it right for anybody to keep somebody under his thumb? Would you like to be kept under somebody’s thumb?

5. Background Information • Edward Blishen (1920 -1996 ), British novelist, autobiographer, writer of children's fiction, and writer in the field of education.

6. About Geoffrey Chaucer • Geoffrey Chaucer (1342/43 - 1400) • an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat • He is best remembered The Canterbury Tales

7. The Canterbury Tales • The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse).

8. The Main Ideas • An inexperienced teacher failed to deal with an unruly class of top year boys.

9. Teacher---inexperienced, timid, incompetent • apologized to boy who broke the rule • felt invisible • absolutely helpless in maintaining class discipline • spoke pleadingly to pupils • was hurt and shocked to the core • wanted to punish the boys, but did not know how

10. Class 2---unruly and defiant to the teacher • frightened away one teacher after another • had no respect for school discipline---ran illegally in the hall • were very noisy • did indefensible things---handled the furniture roughly, desk and chalk wars • were defiant to the teacher---skeptically silent, laughing, mocking, taunting

11. Language points • cudgel: a short thick heavy stick or similar object used as a weapon （短而重的）棍棒 • take up the cudgels (for): to begin to take part in argument or struggle, esp. in support of a person, principle, etc. 尽力捍卫…；为…辩护 • He took up the cudgels on behalf of the political prisoners. • cross the cudgels: 不参加争论或斗争

12. a succession of startled substitutes • teachers who took the place of their own teachers and who got shocked came one after another. Succession meaning “the coming of one person/thing after another in time or order” may refer to both people and events. • A succession of unexpected visitors came to our Department on the first day of school. • Last summer there was a succession of uncomfortably hot days.

13. It was plain the headmaster thought they had got nowhere. • plain: easy to see; clear • was a plain impostor. • plain: nothing less than, out-and-out • The words in italics in the two sentences are homonyms. • The boy cannot tear his eyes away from the teddy bear. • Why didn’t the apple tree in the Longs’ garden bear any fruit?

14. all white flag • all white flag---accepting defeat completely

15. couldn’t be nailed down • these improprietiescouldn’t be nailed down --- it was impossible to say exactly what the inexcusable things they did were.Nail down means literally “fix something firmly”, and figuratively “establish clearly and unmistakably”. • Let’s nail down the lid of the wooden box. • An agreement has been nailed down by the partners of the firm.

16. make out • make out---see or understand with difficulty. • Can you make out his handwriting? • She spoke in such a soft voice that I could hardly make outwhat she said.

17. Too negligently or maliciously treated, … • be negligent in one’s work • 工作马虎 • be negligent of one’s duties • 玩忽职守

18. in cold blood • in cold blood --- deliberately; (thinking things over) carefully • But in cold blood I could think of no practical substitute for these dramatic punishments. • On second thoughts / When I began to think seriously, I could not think of any punishment that could take the place of these exciting punishments and that could really be given to the pupils.

19. Comments on the Text • The text is a short narrative piece of writing which vividly and amusingly relates how a young inexperienced stand-in teacher attempts to control a class that has frightened away a succession of substitutes for their own teachers. • The writer is particularly successful in his effective use of comic exaggeration.

20. The use of vivid similes • To make this clear, he showed me his own thumb, a huge thing,like a pocket cudgel. • There was, for a time, pandemonium,like a big scene in an opera being played backwards on a gramophone.

21. The use of appropriate metaphors • I was inwardly all white flag. • I managed to make out that mixed up with these giants was a certain amount of furniture.

22. The use of striking contrast • Enormous boys were everywhere, … Was I really sopuny… • … mixed up with thesegiants was a certain amount of furniture…desks; doll’s house things…

23. The use of parallelisms • … a succession of startled substitutes had stood before them, ducked, winced and fled. • I was toying inwardly with ideas ofthunderbolts, earthquakes, and mass executions.

24. TEXT II An Exeter School Boy

25. Questions: • 1. When and where did the story take place? • 2. Why was Colin Lockwood bored and tired? • 3. What mood was the teacher in when he found his pupil sleeping in class? • 4. What do you know about the boy sharing the same desk with Colin? • 5. If you were a teacher, what would you do when you found a student in your class sleeping?

26. Discussion/Exercises • Role-play • Arguing About Examinations

27. Assignments • Exercises on the Work Book