Unit 3 A Crime of Compassion

Unit 3 A Crime of Compassion

I Teaching objectives

1. Understanding the various aspects related to the usage of words. 2. Cultivating a sense of appropriateness in style

3. Learning methods of dealing with the body paragraphs of a writing.

II Teaching time: six class periods III Teaching Procedures Step 1 library work

1 the Phil Donahue show: The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, is an American television talk show that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, and it was broadcast nationwide between 1967 and 1996.

2 code blue: Hospital emergency codes are used in hospitals worldwide to alert staff to various emergency situations. The use of codes is intended to convey essential information quickly and with a minimum of misunderstanding to staff.

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Step 2 pre-reading questions

1 If you have ever witnessed the sufferings of a dying person, tell us the feelings that the scene evoked from you.

2 Do you think doctors and nurses should do everything within their means to try to save a terminally ill patient even when they know clearly all their efforts would mean nothing more than prolonging his suffering?

3 General Reading

I. Determine which of the following best states the purpose of the writing. A. To recount her horrifying experience of caring for a terminally ill patient. B. To make an appeal for a terminally ill patient's right to die.

C. To demand that nurses be given the right to issue a \ Key: B

Judge whether the following statements are true or false.

1 When Mac entered the hospital, he was apparently a normal person except for an enduring cough.

2 Despite his worsening condition, Mac still had a strong wish to live.

3 The medical community is divided on whether a patient's life should be extended as long as possible under all circumstances.

4 It can be inferred from the essay that doctors, not nurses, have the right to give a \

5 In Maura's eyes, Huttmann was a murderer for not pushing the code blue button in time.

Key: 1. T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F

Step 3 Key Points of the Text

1 self-righteous adj: having a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or superior

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2 meddle in: interfere in

E.g. Young people today do not like their parents to meddle in their lives. meddle with — touch or handle sth. without permission

E.g. You can use my room but you're not supposed to meddle with my stuffs, especially my computer.

3 to play God: to function as God, i.e. to decide when to terminate a person's life. Christians believe that only God has the right to decide when a person's life should end.

4 When Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton: When Mac had been reduced to a 60-pound skeleton

5 waste away : (of a person or a part of the body) become progressively weaker and more emaciated

E.g. She is dying of AIDS, visibly wasting away.

6 i.v. solutions: \and \patient for therapeutic purposes.

7 irrigate the big craters of bedsores: The verb \water to land or crops to help growth.\\8 suction the lung fluids that threatened to drown him: drain the excessive lung fluids that threaten his life

9 that seemed woven into the fabric of my uniform: that seemed to have become an element of the fabric of my uniform

10 weave sth. into : include sth. as an integral part or element (of a fabric); include an element in a story, an artistic work, etc.

E.g. Some golden threads are woven into the fabric.

Argumentative paragraphs are naturally woven into Huttmann's narration.

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11 to be liable for negligence: to be held responsible for failing to perform my duty 12 be liable for : to be responsible for by law, to be legally answerable to

13 be liable to : be likely to do or to be something, likely to experience sth. (unpleasant)

E.g. Once you have contacted the credit card protection scheme, you are no longer

liable for any loss that might occur.

He is suffering from hypertension and thus is liable to fall if he gets up too suddenly. The low-lying areas are liable to floods during the rainy season.

14 when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony: when his pain was so acute that no matter how much pain-relieving medication was used, his suffering could not be eased still vt. & vi.

E.g. He clapped his hands to still the agitated audience.

When night fell, the village which was boisterous with tourists in the daytime stilled.

15 I wondered about a spiritual judge.: I wondered if there was a spiritual judge (as against a legal judge), who would be supportive of my decision not to push the code blue button, thus to put an end to all this.

16 building character: developing his personal qualities (so that he could face up to the adversity better)

17 the blessed relief of coma: Coma refers to a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a prolonged period, caused especially by severe injury or illness. When in a coma, the patient is not conscious of any pain. That's why Huttmann thinks it is a blessed relief.

18 riddled me with guilt: filled me with a strong sense of guilt

The verb riddle here means %undesirable\

19 A clutch of panic banded my chest: I was so seized by panic that I felt simply

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suffocated clutch n. — grasp

band v. — surround (an object) with sth. in the form of a strip or ring, typically for reinforcement or decoration (usu. be banded )

E.g. The doors to the warehouse are all banded with iron to make them stronger.

20 a waxen pallor slowly transformed his face from person to empty shell: the unhealthily pale color of his face indicated that he was sinking

21 the legal twilight zone: Twilight zone refers to a situation of confusion or uncertainty, which seems to exist between two different states or categories. Thus the legal twilight zone Huttmann says she entered here refers to the situation in which her action of pushing the button to call code blue can be deemed either legal or not legal.

22 a death-denying society: a society where its members are not given the right to dieUntil there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the right to die ...: Until it becomes law that it is a criminal act to call a resuscitation team to save a patient who has voluntarily asked for the right to die ...

Step 4 Questions

1 There seems to be a contradiction in the title \Key: There are various kinds of crimes, but criminals can be anything but

compassionate. It is hardly possible to associate compassion with any crime and being compassionate with a criminal.

2 Huttmann begins her essay with a metaphor. Locate it and then explain it. (para. 3) Key: The first sentence of para. 3: It was the Phil Donahue show where the guest is a

fatted calf and the audience a 200-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones. Huttmann likens herself (the guest of the talk show) to a fatted calf,

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