Unit Ten Text I Things: The Throw-Away Society

Before Reading: Background Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer

and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. A former associate editor of Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact (through effects like information overload). Then he moved to examining the reaction of and changes in society. His later focus has been on the increasing power of 21st century military hardware, weapons and technology proliferation, and capitalism. He is married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist.

A few of his well-known works are:

Future Shock (1970) • The Third Wave (1980) • The Eco-Spasm Report (1981) • Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and

Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century (1990)

• War and Anti-War (1995)

Before Reading: Background

• Barbie

Quotes from Alvin Tofler

• Society needs people who take care of the elderly and who know how to be compassionate and honest. Society needs people who work in hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skill that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone.

Quotes from Alvin Tofler

The Second Wave Society isindustrial and based on mass production,mass distribution,mass consumption,mass education,mass media,mass recreation,mass entertainment,and weapons of mass destruction. You combine those things with standardization, centralization, concentration, and synchronization, and you wind up with a style of organization, we call bureaucracy.

Global Reading: Theme

• the discovery of a consumerist society

• a thorough analysis of new type products and its psychological influences on people’s mentality

decreased durations in man-thing relationships

Detailed Reading: Language Points

• 1.trade-in—If you trade-in sth.such as an old car, you give it to a dealer when you buy a new one so that you get a reduction of the price

• eg. Now we can trade washing machines in for a new one.

Trade-in ; trade-ins (n.): a business deal like this

• eg. What’s the car’s trade-in value?

Language Points

• 2. the new version—the new model, the new form• Version has different meanings in different context

s.• eg. 1)Several versions (styles) of clothes for outing are on di

splay.• 2)What he said is a completely different version (account) f

rom what we read in the newspaper. • 3)A modern version (rendering)of the Shaoxing Opera attr

acted a large audience.• 4)I was only able to read the English version (translation ) of Goeth

e’s works.

Language Points

• 3.staggering vision—stunning scene• eg. The cost has climbed to a staggering price.

• Stagger (verb): an event that staggers (astounded) the world

Language Points

• 4.It is the technologically produced environment that matters for the individual.

• —Man-made or produced products form a very important role in people’s daily life.

Language Points

• 5. Man-made things enter into and color our consciousness.

• — His minds is filled with and influenced by artificial things.

• Consciousness — (one’s) mind and thoughts.

• eg. Doubts about his trustworthiness never entered my consciousness.

Language Points

• 6.clutch lingeringly and lovingly to the same doll• —hold on to the same old doll faithfully/devotedly

/persistently/with devotion and with love.• Lingering—The literal meaning of this word is “slo

w to disappear”.• eg. A lingering illness; a lingering hope; a lingering sense of g

uilt• In this context, lingeringly means “clinging to wi

th devotion or clasping with love.”

Language Points

• 7. the new breed of little girls —the new type of little girls. • The word breed has different meanings in the

following contexts:• breed horses—rear• In a breeding season, animals breed offspring.—repr

oduce• Thieves breed thieves. –generate• He was American born and bred.—brought up

Language Points

• 8. she is inextricably embedded in a throw-away culture.

• —She becomes a part of the throw-away society from which she cannot break away.

• inextricably—inseparably• eg. High birth rate and low life expectancy used to be inextric

ably linked In our country, but it is no longer so today.• embed—fix firmly and deeply in a mass of surroun

ding substance.• eg. He exerted so much strength that his knife got embedded

in the chopping block.

Language Points

• 9. run counter to the grain• – be contrary to one’s inclination or

disposition.

• eg. run counter to the traditional ideology

Language Points

• 10. individuals steeped in a heritage of poverty

—people who have long suffered from poverty

• steep—submerge; • eg. The subway in New York is steeped in v

iolence.

Language Points

• 11. lo and behold —expression to draw attention in a lit

erary or humorous way to a surprising or an interesting event lo: an archaic way of expression.

• eg. The man from East stick needles in you and, lo and behold, you feel no pain and are healed.

Language Points

• 12. disposable products --things to be used once and then thrown a

way• eg. disposable paper-cups, disposable bib • dispose of: throw away• eg.Nowadays people tend to use paper cups which

they can dispose of after one use.

Language Points

• 13. breathtaking—stunning,overwhelming,unbelievable• eg. breathtaking scenery• 14. sumptuous• —grand and expensive• eg. Sumptuous furniture/ meal/ evening d

ressing

Language Points

• 15. with respect to —concerning (used especially to intro

duce a new subject of one that has been mentioned earlier.

eg. With respect to you’re application for the job, we’ll soon let you know our decision.

Global Reading: Organization and Development

The thesis of the essay is: the relationship between man and things are temporary. In order to explain his thesis, the writer employs the method of illustration and example. In the first three paragraphs, he mentions the production of Barbies.In para.7 he provides a list of throw-away objects for daily use to illustrate the throw-away culture in which the younger generation are embedded. In para.9 he gives examples of other industrialized countries in which the throw-away culture has been gradually fostered since the late 1950’s. In para.10-12 he gives the example of the introduction of paper clothes products to show people’s psychological need for throw-away things and the trend to maintain a transient relationship between man and man-made objects.

Organization and Development

In order to explain his thesis, the writer also employs the method of comparison and contrast. In para.6 this method is used to show the difference between two generations in their value judgments. In para.9 the United States and Sweden are contrasted to show how the latter, following in the footsteps of the former was gradually transformed from a more traditional society into a throw-away society in the 1950’s-1960’s.

After Reading: Questions for group discussion

 11.What has given rise to the profusion of disposable products?

2. Do you speak against or for disposability?

3. What’s the writer’s implied meaning of the author’s?

4. Is the throw-away mentality an indication of social development?