新标准大学英语综合教程4unit2.docx

1、新标准大学英语综合教程4unit2新标准大学英语综合教程4-unit2Unit 2Active reading (1)Danger! Books may change your lifeCulture pointsLewis Carroll (18321898) is the pen-name of Charles Dodgson. He was a priest, a mathematician whotaught at Oxford University, a photographer, humorist and writer of childrens literature. Alices

2、 Adventuresin Wonderland (1865) was immediately successful, a masterpiece which revolutionized childrens literature,giving coherence and logic through wit and humour to unlikely or impossible episodes in which imaginarycreatures embody recognizable human characteristics. He is also known for Through

3、 the Looking Glass andwhat Alice found there (1871) and nonsense poems, such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876).William Cowper (17311800): a notable English poet, writer of hymns and letter-writer. He wrote gentle,pious, direct poems about everyday rural life and scenes of the countryside which have

4、 been seen asforerunners of the Romantic movement: Coleridge called Cowper “the best modern poet”. He translatedHomers Greek epics. The Odyssey and The Iliad into English. Another example of his verses which havebecome common sayings is “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”John Stei

5、nbeck (19021968): American novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a well-known, long tragic novel about an American family of farmers who aredriven off their land in Oklahoma by soil erosion in the famous “dust bowl” era. They flee to California

6、 towhat they hope will be a better life. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film in 1940. Otherwell-known novels include Of Mice and Men (1937), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden(1952) and an account of a personal rediscovery of America, Travels with Charlie (1962).

7、John Irving (1942 ): American novelist and screenwriter who taught English at college and was a wrestlingcoach. The Fourth Hand (2001) is a comic-satirical novel about a TV journalist, Wallington, whose hand isseen by millions of viewers to be bitten off by a circus lion. A surgeon gives him a hand

8、transplant (a thirdhand) but the wife of the dead donor wants to visit her husbands hand and have a child by Wallington, whofeels where his original hand used to be (the fourth hand).Audrey Niffenegger (1963 ): American college professor who teaches writing to visual artists and showsstudents how to

9、 make books by hand. Her first novel, The Time Travellers Wife (2003) filmed in 2009 is ascience fiction and romance bestseller about a man who travels uncontrollably in time to his own history andvisits his wife in her childhood, youth and old age. His wife needs to cope with his absences and dange

10、rouslife while he travels. The story is a metaphor for distance and miscommunication in failed relationships.Paul Torday (1946 ): a British businessman who worked for a company that repaired ships engines formany years. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007) was his first novel. It is a political satire

11、 and comedy abouta dull civil servant who becomes involved in a plan to populate the desert with Scottish salmon. Politiciansmanage the media to “spin” this as a plan they support in order to divert attention from problems in theMiddle East. There are themes of cynicism and belief, and East-West cul

12、ture clashes.Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (19182008): a Russian writer who was imprisoned in Soviet labour camps in1945; after eight years, he was exiled to Kazakhstan and not freed until 1956, when he became a teacher.In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but not receive it until 1974. He

13、 went to Germany,Switzerland and the USA, returning to Russia in 1994. His best known novels were based on his experiencesas a prisoner and include: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), Cancer Ward (1968), The GulagArchipelago (19741978). His later works were about Russian history and iden

14、tity.Graham Greene (19041991): a British novelist, short-story writer, playwright, travel writer and essayist.He wrote a number of thrillers (he called them entertainments) which dramatize an ambiguous moraldilemma, often revealing guilt, treachery, failure and a theme of pursuit. Greene was also a

15、film critic andall of these novels have been made into films: Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940),The Heart of the Matter (1948), The Third Man (1950), The Quiet American (1955), and Our Man inHavana (1958).E. M. Forster (18791970): a British novelist and writer of short stories and

16、 essays. He lived at differentperiods in Italy, Egypt and India and taught at Cambridge University. His best known novels include A Roomwith a View (1908), Howards End (1910), A Passage to India (1924) which have all been made into films.His writing about reading and writing includes a book of lectu

17、res, Aspects of the Novel (1927).Thomas Merton (19151968): an American Catholic writer, who was a Trappist monk in Kentucky. Hewrote over 70 books, including many essays about Buddhism and a translation into English of the Chineseclassic, Chuang Tse. He had a great deal to say about the meeting of E

18、astern and Western cultures and wrotemany letters to writers, poets, scholars and thinkers. He read a lot in English, Latin, French and Spanish andsaid he always had at least three books which he was reading at any one time.William Blake (17571827): a British poet, artist and mystic, who read widely

19、 in English, French, Italian,Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He made many engravings to illustrate the work of such writers as Virgil, Danteand Chaucer, as well as his own poems. He stressed that imagination was more important than rationalismand the materialism of the 18th century and criticized the effec

20、ts of the industrial revolution in England, buthis work was largely disregarded by his peers. He is best known for his poetry in Songs of Innocence (1787)and Songs of Experience (1794). His belief in the oneness of all created things is shown in his much-quotedverse, “To see the world in a grain of

21、sand / And a heaven in a flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of yourhand / And eternity in an hour.”Clifton Fadiman (19041999): an American writer, radio and TV broadcaster and editor of anthologies. Forover 50 years he was an editor and judge for the Book-of-the-Month Club. In 1960 he wrote a popul

22、ar guideto great books for American readers, The Lifetime Reading Plan, which discusses 133 authors and their majorwork: the 1997 edition includes 9 authors from China.J. K. Rowling (1965): British writer of the seven Harry Potter fantasy books. She studied French andClassics at Exeter University, b

23、efore teaching English in Portugal and training to teach French in Scotland.The main idea about a school for wizards and the orphan Harry Potter came on a delayed train journeyfrom Manchester to London in 1990. She began to write as soon as she reached London. Twelve publishersrejected the first boo

24、k before Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, agreed to publish it. Later books haverepeatedly broken all the sales records (as have some of the films). She is one of the richest women in the UKand a notable supporter of many charities.Language points1 Varietys the very spice of life, / That gives

25、it all its flavour (Para 2)Spices are made from plants and added to food to give it its particular flavour or taste. The English proverb“Variety is the spice of life” (the proverb comes from Cowpers poem) therefore means that variety giveslife extra value and allows you to appreciate life in particu

26、lar ways.2 We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away fromhome. (Para 3)This means that through reading we learn to look beyond our immediate experience or familiarenvironment to things beyond our immediate experience, ie to completely different things

27、 that we canimagine and experience through books.3 When a baseball player hits a home run he hits the ball so hard and so far hes able to run round thefour bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners alreadyon a base. (Para 9)In the American game of baseball

28、, the field of grass is diamond-shaped and has four bases (specific pointsmarked around the diamond), round which players must run to score points. One team bats (ie teammembers take turns to hit the ball and run round the bases) and the members of the other team throw (pitch)the ball and, when it i

29、s has been hit, try to catch it or get it quickly to one of the four bases. If a battingplayer can hit the ball hard enough, he can run round all four bases before the other team can get the balland thus score maximum points with a home run. In the passage, a really good book is a home run.3 Choose

30、the best answer to the questions.1 Why are we like Alice in wonderland when we read a book?(a) Because, like Alice, we often have accidents.(b) Because reading makes us feel young again.(c) Because reading opens the door to new experiences.(d) Because books lead us into a dream world.2 According to

31、the writer, what is the advantage of reading over real life?(a) There is more variety in books than in real life.(b) We can experience variety and difference without going out of the house.(c) The people we meet in a book are more interesting than real people.(d) Its harder to make sense of real lif

32、e than a book.3 What do the seven novels listed in Paragraph 4 have in common?(a) Their titles stimulate imagination.(b) They represent the best writing by British and American novelists.(c) They have become classics.(d) You can find all of them in any local library.4 At what moment in our lives do books become important?(a) As soon as we start reading.(b) When we start buying books to fill our shelves at home.(c) When we start l