Unit 13

Unit 13 Christmas Day in the Morning

Picture Singing for Warming-up (10 minutes)

Today, we will study Christmas Day in the Morning by Pear S. Buck. Let’s first sing the song We Wish you a Merry Christmas. Do you like it? Do you like

Christmas? Some people think a festival can best offer you a chance to express your love to those you love deeply. Do you agree?

Background Information (40 minutes)

I. About Pearl S. Buck

Birthday: June 26, 1892

Parents: Absalom & Caroline Sydenstricker (Southern Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in China ) Came to China: 3 months old Period of stay in China: 40 years

Residential area: Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province

In 1915 she met a Cornell graduate, John Lossing Buck, who became her husband in 1917. They moved to South Xuzhou, Anhui province where she gathered the materials she would use in the Good Earth and other stories. Their marriage was unhappy but would last 18 years.

Pearl’s first child proved to be retarded智力迟钝的，低能的, and Pearl herself underwent a hysterectomy子宫切除术. The couple later adopted a baby girl.

II. Pearl and her family

1st husband: John Lossing Buck, a Cornell graduate Carol (first child): Profoundly retarded Janice: adopted child

1st Marriage: unhappy but last 18 years 2nd husband: Richard Walsh, a publisher

III. Pearl’s life in 1920s In 1921, her mother died.

In 1927, Nanking incident broke out which made her suffer a lot. She spent a

terrified day in hiding, and was rescued by the American gunboat. The Bucks sailed to Japan for a year.

IV. Pearl’s works East wind, West Wind The Good Earth Dragon Seed The Big Wave

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Satan Never Sleeps Etc.

V. Pearl and Her Prizes

Pulitzer Prize and Howells Medal for The Good Earth Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 for The Good Earth

VI. Pearl’s Special Contributions

?In 1942, Pearl and Richard founded the East and West Association, dedicated to

cultural exchange and understanding between Asia and the West.

?In 1949, outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race children unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, the first international, inter-racial adoption agency; in the nearly five decades of its work, Welcome House

has assisted in the placement of over five thousand children.

?In 1964, to provide support for Amerasian children who were not eligible for adoption, Pearl also established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which provides sponsorship funding for thousands of children in half-a-dozen Asian countries.

Writing skills (30 minutes)

Ⅰ. Simile and metaphor

a direct comparison between two unlike elements “as, as…..so, like”

?As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. ?as cunning as a fox, as poor as a church’s mouse ?The world is like a stage.

An indirect comparison. It implies the likeness between things without the use of like or as. Life is a highway. The world is a stage.

Exercise:

For secrets are edged tools,and must be kept from children and fools. No man is an island, entire of itself.

IF poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all. His friend has become a thorn in his side.

A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a measured speech.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Ⅱ. Alliteration 头韵 the same consonant sound is repeated at intervals in the initial position She sells sea-shells on the seashore.

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Wild Mushrooms: Mysterious-Menacing- Magnificent Predictably the winter will be snowy, sleety and slushy. Weak and weary

Reference 2:

the repetition of identical consonant sounds in different words in close proximity 接近，邻近 e.g. frothing and fragrant Slushy:溶雪的，泥泞的 Ⅲ. Euphemism 委婉

The substitution of a mild or indirect word or phrase for a blunter or harsher one v ugly: plain-looking; homely-looking

v die: to pass away, to depart, to go to sleep(heaven) v fat: Plump, stout, chubby, weight catcher v toilet habits, etc.: to urinate or to defecate to go to the bathroom to do one’s business to answer nature’s call

In-class discussion and presentation (40 minutes)

1.What is the writing technique here? 2.What is the theme of this text?

3.“Love alone could awaken love.” how do you understand the sentence? And “Love is like measles. Everyone has to go through it.”; “Love is blind.”3. Do you agree that only love can awaken love? What is the essence of true love? Give your reasons. 4. Is love the solution to all the problems in the world today? Comment.

Text Appreciation (50 minutes)

I. How to appreciate literature (20 minutes) Plot of the story: Setting of the story:

Protagonist v.s. Antagonists: Drama of the story lies in:

Writing technique: (Have you ever read a story using the similar technique?) Theme of the story:

II . Flashback (10 minutes)A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

III Further discussion (20 minutes)

Love alone could waken love. Do you agree? Faults are thick where love is thin.

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Love and cough cannot be hid. Love at first sight. Love cannot be forced. Love is blind.

Love is neither bought nor sold. Love is the mother of love.

Love lives in cottages as well as in courts. No herb will cure love. One love drive out another. Love me, love my dog.

Language Understanding

I. Sentence Paraphrase (30 minutes)

1. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still!(P.1)

It was strange how up to that moment he had continued doing things the way he had always done them from boyhood.

2. He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays.

He had recently got into the habit of recalling things in the past /of reminiscing/ of letting his thoughts go back to the old days.

3. He had never thought of it before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. He had never thought of the fact that his father loved him because he took the

relationship of father and son as a matter of course. He had never given this another thought.

4.…there would be no more loitering in the mornings and having to be called again.

…he would never loiter in the morning and need no longer to be called again and again.

to loiter: to move or go about business slowly and with many stops 5.… stumbling blind with sleep and pulled on his clothes.

When he got up, it was still very dark and he was still very sleepy. He could hardly open his eyes and could not see or think clearly, so he walked or moved unsteadily and blindly.

6. Then Jesus had been born in a barn,… bring their Christmas gifts. Bible:

…And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts: gold and frankincense, and myrrh…

7. …he got up and crept downstairs, careful of the creaky boards…

He had to be careful so that the boards would not make any noise and wake up his father, thus spoiling his plan. Ⅱ. Word study Game:

Use your body language to express the following phrases:

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dash into the room, steal into the room, to burst into the room, to sneak into the room, to tiptoe into the room, to sail into the room, to break into the room, to dance out of the room, to stagger out of the room, to fly out of the room, to crawl out of the room, to slip out of the room, to creep downstairs, to make her way towards the door, to bow her way out of the room, to shoulder her way through the crowd, to worm his way into the organization, to beg her way back home, to inch his way up the mountain 1．bar: [often passive] v.

1) to close with a bar to bar the door

2) to make … safe by putting metal bats across it. The windows are barred.

3) to stop going in a certain direction He stood in the door and barred my way. 4) n. barrister, the profession of lawyer behind the bar; go to the bar

bolt v. to close the door with a bolt 闩门， 栓住 2．burst:

His heart was bursting with love.（shyness and pride)

1) (to be filled ) to the breaking point (with a substance or usually pleasant things) The bag is bursting with potatoes. He is bursting with health. The hall was bursting with people. The barns were bursting with grain. 3. cling to sth/an idea/the hope

His mother’s last words clung to his memory. The wet clothes clung to his body. The child clung onto its mother. 4. chore n.

Milking for once was not a chore. do one’s daily chores do odd chores domestic chores

Feeding the chickens and milking the cows were John’s chores on the farm. 5. creep: to move slowly and quietly with the body close to the ground (usu. stealthily)

creep into the barn; crept downstairs; creeping up to where the star had been a creeping plant creep on all fours The hours crept by. We took off our shoes and crept cautiously along the passage.

crawl: to move slowly with the body close to the ground/floor, or on the hands and knees crawl about on all fours They crawled into their beds to get warm. She crawled across the pool in record time.

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6. grant

1). to give what is wanted/requested准许，授予 They were granting a holiday for their achievement 2). to admit to the truth of sth.

I had to grant him the reasonableness of his argument. 7. loiter: to move on /about with frequent stops loiter the whole afternoon loiter along the street loiter over a job

You should not loiter your time away. 8. stable n.

Lock the stable door after the horse is stolen.贼走关门。 a. stable currency a stable economy

Price has been stabilized.

Slow and steady wins the race. 慢而稳事必成。 9. slip v. (He slipped back in time.) Time is slipping away.

The patient’s energy is slipping away.

Your work has been slipping back recently, you must make more effort. Never let a good chance to slip by! He slipped in unnoticed.

Mary couldn’t bear the party, so she slipped off while no one was looking. I didn’t mean to tell you his name, it just slipped out. She gave them a peek and slipped out of the room. n. a slip of paper

a slip of the tongue/pen

There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. 10. strike v.

A thought struck him like a silver dagger.

He must have waked twenty times, striking a match each time to look at his old watch.

Many students were struck down by the epidemic.

His heart struck heavily as he thought of the coming interview. The tree had been struck by lightning.

The idea at first struck me as stupid, but now I think it is a good one. 11. stumble: vi.The tired old man stumbled along. She stumbled on the stairs and fell forward to the bottom. While in the country, she stumbled upon some fine antiques.

The officials stumbled repeatedly in carrying out the new program. She stumbled at/over the long word.

( to stop or make a mistake when you are reading to people or speaking ~over/at/through)

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12.shimmer: to shine with a soft trembling light 闪烁，发出柔和的微光 The water shimmered in the moonlight. 13.beam:

1). of the sun or other shining objects to send out light (and heat) The sun beamed through the cloud. 2).to smile brightly and happily

The new father beamed with pleasure when he saw the baby for the first time. 14.glimmer: to give a very fait unsteady light闪烁不定的微光 The faint light glimmered at the end of the passage. gleam:

1). to give out a bright light

The furniture gleamed after being polished.

2). (of a felling) to be expressed with a sudden light in the eyes Amusement gleamed in his eyes.

15. feel for 摸索着寻找，同情，体谅

His father was standing beside his bed, feeling for him… He felt in his pocket for a penny. I felt for my purse and found it gone. He felt along the wall for the door. I feel for him in his sorrow. We feel keenly for you. 16. get by:

1). to continue one’s way of life度日，过生活，糊口 You can’t get by on such a small income.

2). be good enough but not very good, be accepted凑合，差强人意 Your work will get by, but try to improve it. 17.get off:

1). to leave work

2). to stop riding a horse or bicycle下车，下马 3). to start a journey, leave动身，出发

4). [vt, vi, (with)] (to cause to) escape punishment 获释， 不被处罚 The man went to prison but the two boys get off with a warning get on: to become late/older Time is getting on. Grandfather is getting on for 80. get over:

1)to return to one’s usual state of health, happiness. After a bad experience 痊愈，恢复，淡忘to get over an illness

She can’t get over the man she was going to marry, he disappeared so unexpectedly. To get over a shock

2). to find a way to deal with, overcome越过，克服get over the difficulty 3). reach the end of (usually sth unpleasant) 完成to get the operation over get through

1). to reach sb. by telephone

I called you but could not get through.

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2). (with) to finish

3). to cause to pass, come successfully to the end of …通过考试，熬过， 考试（及格），使（人）成功to get through an exam/the winter to get sb through an exam

18. in place适当的位置上，恰当的 He put the stool in its place by the door. I like to have everything in place. Your suggestion is quite in place.

Textbook exercises 1. In-class dictation

2. P.321-P. 327 (Contemporary College English 1) Theme of the story:

Love alone can waken love.

It means that love is always mutual and always begins with giving. In view of the growing lack of human warmth partly due to the fierce competition in modern society, this idea appears all more important. Of course it would be na?ve to think that love is the answer to all our problems today, and in a world divided by class, racial and national conflicts, universal love is still unrealistic.

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