Book 4 Unit 5
Section A Choose to Be Alone on Purpose
Section B Roommate Conflicts
I. Teaching Objectives:
Students will be able to:
a. Share their ideas of personal relationships.
b. Learn to understand modern patterns of interrelationships, e.g. living alone, sharing a room with others and arranged marriage, etc.
c. Learn to understand and appreciate the ideas in the text.
d. Develop their ability in understanding reading texts and listening materials.
e. Develop their ability in expressing their ideas in both spoken and written form.
II. Teaching Time (6 periods)
III. Teaching Method
Task-based approach, communicative approach
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IV. Teaching Process
Step 1 Questions for Discussion
1) Do you sometimes want to be alone?
2) In what situation you choose to be alone?
3) What can you benefit from being alone?
4) What is the disadvantage of being alone?
Step 2 Background Information
Lonely Poets and Philosophers:
1. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) US thinker, essayist, and naturalist.
Thoreau graduated from Harvard University and taught school for several years before leaving his job to become a poet of nature. In the years 1845-1847, to demonstrate how satisfying a simple life could be, he lived in a hut beside Concord’s Walden Pond; essays recording his daily life were assembled for his masterwork,
Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854).
Famous quotations by Henry David Thoreau:
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* The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance (偶然, 恐怕), a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed (贮放柴薪的木棚) with them.
* Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
* Books, not which afford us a cowering (畏缩, 退缩) enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution--such call I good books.
* If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
* The heart is forever inexperienced.
* There is no remedy for love but to love more.
* In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
2. John Milton (1608-1674) English poet, one of the greatest poets of the English language.
Milton was born in London on December 9, 1609 as the son of a wealthy notary
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(公证人). He was educated at St. Paul's School. Milton received a Master’s degree from Cambridge University in 1632. In 1638, he undertook a European tour where he met many of the major thinkers of the day, especially in Italy.
On his return to England, Milton became a Puritan, and an opponent of the Catholics and of the Stuarts. He was also an ardent polemicist (善辩论者), a follower of Cromwell, and the latter’s foreign language secretary. In 1652 he became completely blind. His first wife died in 1652 and he remarried in 1656.
After the restoration of the Stuarts he suffered considerable persecution. He withdrew from active participation in politics and concentrated on his poetry. Paradise Lost was published in 1667, followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in
1671.
3. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) British poet, who spent his life in the Lake District of Northern England.
Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life. A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity.
Step 3 Text Study
1. General Idea
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The text focuses on a social phenomenon — choosing to be alone on purpose, what people think of living alone, who prefers living alone, the life of the solitary people, and what the writer advises for living alone.
Part 1 (para.1) Living alone– a common social phenomenon
Part 2 (Para.2) two different views on living alone [a sort of social disease / a characteristic of an American hero]
Part 3 (Para.3~10) Who prefers living alone
Who are often living alone?
- Poets and philosophers are for … in solitude. (William Wordsworth)
- Solitude is improved by being voluntary. (John Milton)
- Some artists choose to be alone while their loved ones prepare
comforts for them at home. (Henry Thoreau)
- The message from the people who choose to be alone: The lager the
ego, the more likely for them to live alone.
Part 4 (paras. 11-13) The comments on the phenomenon of solitude
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If you live with other people, their temporary absence can be
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refreshing.
- It is human that we need to talk to others.
- Scientific surveys show that those people who live alone will behave
ridiculously and talk at length to themselves and their pets and television.
- But it is different when you live alone: solitude strikes hard at you.
Part 5 (paras 14-16) Conclusion: The author advises people to stay rational, settle down and make themselves comfortable, not like a self-centered British poet. After all, there is no place like home.
Pay attention to the beginning and end paragraph:
* Here we are, all by ourselves, all 22 million of us by recent count, alone in our rooms, some of us liking it that way and some of us not. Some of us divorced, some widowed, some never yet committed.
* After all, here we are. It may not be where we expected to be, but for the time being we might as well call it home. Anyway, there is no place like home.
What does “here we are” mean? What’s significance of the two paragraphs in the expression of the main idea?
Questions:
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1) Why is loneliness a sort of national disease in the US? [Because there are altogether 22 million of people living alone in their rooms in the US.]
2) Why do poets like solitude? [Because they get inspiration from it, and they feel good about themselves for seeking it out.]
3) What can be learned from Thoreau’s choice of the solitary way of life? [The more positive one is toward oneself, the less the need for staying with others.]
4) Why is it important for a person living alone to talk to others? [Because it is a basic need of a solitary person.]
5) Who may the person living in solitude talk to? [They may call friends to tell them important things, or talk to himself, his pets, the television, or even to strangers in the supermarket.]
2. Words and Expressions
独自地 all by oneself
据最近的统计by recent count
赶出去 cast out
拥护，赞同be for: support; be in favor of be against
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高度评价speak highly of speak ill/ bad of（说坏、好话）
蹑手蹑脚地走开 creep away
装满 fill up
熬夜 stay up late
一口气地 at one sitting
按自己的节奏 at one’s own pace
堵塞，支持 back up
详尽地谈 talk at length
安静下来；定居 settle down
暂时 for the time being
3. Language Points
1) No doubt about it, solitude is improved by being voluntary. (p5)--- Undoubtedly, one can find pleasure in living alone if they choose it according to their own free will.
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2) The American high priest of solitude was Thoreau. (p8)--- The American representative figure of the solitary way of life is Thoreau.
Here “high priest” is a person who has a leadership position in a certain field.
3) I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. (p9)---solitude can be as pleasant to be with as a companion.
4) Thoreau had his own self-important for company. (p10)--- Thoreau’s life was self-content; he enjoys being alone.
5) Those absent will be back. Their waterproof winter coats are in the closet and the dog keeps watching for them at the window. (p11)--- Those who are staying away from you will be back. They have their winter coats kept in the closet and even the dog keeps watching at the window for their coming back.
6) While the others are absent …at your own pace.(p11)---While the others are away, you can relax and enjoy your freedom fully. You may come and go at will without worrying that it may bother others, or you can read late into the night, or enjoy the pleasure of bathing, or eat up a whole pint of ice cream at one time, or move at your own pace.
7) But when you live alone, the temporary absence of your friends and acquaintances leaves a vacuum; they may never come back. (p11)--- But if you live alone and your friends and acquaintances leave for a short time, you may have a feeling of emptiness, and you fear they may never come back.
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8) The condition of loneliness rises and falls, but the need to talk goes on forever. (p12)--- Sometimes you feel you are lonely, while sometimes you do not. But man always has a need to talk.
9) It’s the daily succession of small complaints and observations and opinions that backs up and chokes us.(p12)--- It’s the series of complaints and observations and views every day that overwhelm us and make us feel uneasy.
10) It’s important to stop waiting and settle down and make ourselves comfortable, at least temporary, and find some grace and pleasure in our condition, not like a self-centered British poet but like a patient princess sealed up in a tower, waiting for the happy ending to our fairy tale.
Here “grace and pleasure” refers to the state of human mind.
Step 4 Consolidation
1. Summary
While loneliness is very common in the U.S., few people care to admit to it because it is perceived as (1)some sort of social disease. It is seen as admirable for American heroes to bravely go alone into the wilderness and for poets and philosophers (2)to seek out solitude. Some poets and philosophers, like William Wordsworth and John Milton and Henry David Thoreau, enjoy (3)inspiration from solitude. When an individual is not solitary out of choice, the experience is (4)both less enjoyable and productive. It is (5)our basic need to talk to someone not only about
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the big things but also about the little daily things. As a consequence, lonely people will talk about the little things to themselves, the cat, the dog and, (6)most embarrassingly, to total strangers. Therefore, it’s important for ordinary people to (7)stay rational, make themselves comfortable at least temporarily, and find some grace and pleasure in their home.
2. After-Reading Topic:
1) In your opinion, which is better for the old, living with their children or living alone?
2) Comparing people living alone on purpose and people who have to live alone
Step 5 Homework
1. Read Section B and finish ex. 1.
2. Finish the exercises in Section A.
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