Unit 2 Childhood memories

• I. Lead-in• Background information• II. Language Points • Sentence Study• Word Study • III. Guided Writing • IV. Presentation and Exercises

Lead-inBackground Information

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

• She is one of the major American poets of the 20th century

• She lived between 1932 and 1963.

• She seems to have been depressed and unhappy.

Ted and Sylvia

Sylvia with her kids

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) •Her works

•The Bell Jar (1963): her struggle with depression under her pseudonym Victoria Lucas

•Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (1979, written around 1952): a collection of short stories, essays and extracts from diaries. Superman is an extract from it.

Mecca

• A city in Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Islam, where Prophet Muhammad was born.

The name "Muhammad" in traditional Islamic calligraphy

Jerusalem A holy city for Jews (Judaism), Muslims (Islam)

and Christians (Christianity) The 2000 Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem lists

1204 synagogues (Jewish house of prayer), 158 churches, and 73 mosques within the city.

the Omar Mosquethe Belz Great Synagogue ( 犹太会堂；犹太教堂 )

the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ( 圣墓，耶稣之墓）

Salvador Dali (1904 -1989)• a Spanish surrealist painter known for his stra

nge dream-like paintings (Surrealism 超现实主义 )

The Persistence of Memory, 1931

Self Portrait as Mona Lisa, 1954

Salvador Dali

Icarus• In Greek mythology, Icaru

s was a man who tried to fly using wings held together with wax.

• When he got too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell to the ground and died.

Superman

a newspaper reporter in comics, films, and the 1940 radio series

special abilities to fly and fantastically strong

a special blue suit with a red capefights crime always turns up at the right moment to

solve problems

Language Points Sentences Study Sentence 1• ... I can recall the changing colors of

those days, clear and definite as a pattern seen through a kaleidoscope. (Para 1)

• As a metaphor, kaleidoscope means a view, situation or experience that keeps changing and has many different aspects.

Sentence 2

• … a breathless sense of having tumbled like Icarus from the sky and caught myself on the soft bed just in time. What does the writer feel as she comes out of her dream? What happened to Icarus?

She feels she has been falling out of the sky, like Icarus. But, unlike him, she caught herself on the bed to save herself, while Icarus fell and died in the sea.

Sentence 3• The sunset flaunted its pink flag above the

airport, and the sound of waves was lost in the perpetual droning of the planes. (Para 2)

• The sunset flaunted its pink flag means the pink color of the setting sun was like a flag which the sun was using to try to make everyone notice and admire it.

• To drone means to make a continuous low sound. Because Logan is an international airport, the noise of the planes continued all the time. So it was perpetual.

Sentence 4

• 4 During recess, David and I came into our own. (Para 6)

• To come into one's own means to have the opportunity to show how good or useful someone is. Here the two children are good at imaginative play with Superman games.

Sentence 5

• 5 ... the sallow mamma's boy on our block who was left out of the boys' games ... and skin his fat knees. (Para 6)

• To skin one's knees means to hurt one's knees by falling on a rough surface in a way that causes some skin to be removed.

Word Study kaleidoscope

• a) the kaleidoscope of the ages

• b) a kaleidoscope of colour and pattern

• c) the kaleidoscope of life

• d) the kaleidoscope of illusions

1. 时代的万花筒

2. 颜色和图案的千变万化

3. 人生万花筒

4. 瞬息万变的幻觉

n. a toy that shows changing patternsAs a metaphor, it means a view, situation or experience that keeps changing and has many different aspects.

Work in pairs. Translate the following into Chinese.

flaunt

• n. to deliberately try to make people notice something, e.g. your possessions, beauty, abilities etc, because you want them to admire you

• Examples:• —Lawrence didn’t flaunt his wealth – he lived a s

imple life.• flaunt yourself: • —Models flaunted themselves in tight designer j

eans.

Work in pairs. Translate the following into Chinese.

1. 有什么能耐施展出来瞧瞧

2. 购买昂贵的服务和商品以炫耀自己的财富。

3. 那位没有教养的妇人当众炫耀她的财富。

a) If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

b) Buy expensive services and products in order to flaunt your wealth.

c) The ill-bred woman flaunted her riches in public.

drone v.&n.a continuous low noise

a continuous low noisea type of male bee

that does not do any

work

a type of male bee

that does not do any

work

an aircraft that does not

have a pilot but is

controlled from the ground

an aircraft that does not

have a pilot but is

controlled from the ground

to make a continuous low sound

Bees drone.Bees drone.

Drones don’t work.Drones don’t work.

A drone bomber

A drone bomber

the drone of the ae

roplanethe drone of the ae

roplane

Work in pairs. Match the sentences/phrases with the meanings.

barren

a) barren or marginal farmland

b) writing of barren insight

c) the barren, inhospitable desert

1. 那片贫瘠的、荒凉的沙漠

2. 缺乏洞察力的作品

3. 荒芜或边远的农田

a. without any interesting or positive features, dry and empty

Work in pairs. Match the Chinese translation of barren.

tag• vt. to touch another player in some children’s games

• n. to fix a small piece of paper or other material to something to give information about it

Carol tagged Carl in the hide-and-seek. a price tag luggage tag May I have your tag, please? All her suitcases have been tagged with her

name and address.

Explain the meaning in the following phrases.

draft• vt. (often passive, AmE) to conscribe some

one into the army forces 征召（某人）入伍• vt. to write sth such as a legal document, s

peech, or letter that may have changes made to it before it is finished 起草， 草拟（法律文件、演讲或信件）

n. sth such as a plan, letter, or drawing that may have changes made to it before it is finished

（计划、信件或绘画等的）草稿 , 草案n. a system in which professional teams in some sports

choose players each year from among college students 运动员选拔制（某些职业运动队每年在大学生中选拔新队员 )

draft• Work in pairs. Translate the following into Ch

inese.a draft resolutionNBA draft To help her father and brother, Mulan was drafted. That is my first draft of the dissertation.

They are drafting a new constitution for the country.

决议草案

NBA 选秀

为帮助父兄，木兰被应征入伍。

那是我学位论文的初稿。

他们正在为国家起草一部新宪法。

marvel at

• Work in pairs. Translate the following into Chinese.

We marvel at their tremendous achievements.

People marvel at the accuracy with which we have been able to diagnose their handwriting.

to find sth surprising and fascinating

我们惊叹他们取得的巨大成就。

人们对我们能准确判断出他的笔迹而赞叹不已。

come into one’s own

• Work in pairs and explain the meaning of the following sentences.

Michael wrote successful novels before, but he really come into his own with the latest one. 

The shop owners at last came into their own. The scientific study of dreams has not yet

come into its own.

to show how effective and useful one can be to take possession of what is rightfully one's own property

Guided Writing

• When we describe our childhood or other habitual actions, routines and states in the past, we can use the past simple tense.

• However, it’s also very common to use would and used to to describe habitual actions and routines in the past.

• Remember that we can’t use would to describe a past state.

• For completed actions in the past, or to give more information about a habitual action, we use the past simple.

Presentation and Exercises