Women, Half the Sky

1

• Women, Half the Sky
• Im Going to Buy the Brooklyn Bridge

Book 2 Unit 6 ???
2
Objectives

• Grasp the main idea and the structure of the
  text
• Appreciate how the author achieve coherence for
  her essay
• Master key language points and grammatical
  structures in the text
• Conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking
  and writing activities related to the theme of
  the unit.

3
Teaching tasks

• Pre-reading tasks
• While-reading tasks
• Global reading tasks
• Post reading tasks

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Pre-reading tasks

• Questions on the pre-reading listening material
• Cultural Notes
• Introduction

5
Pre-reading questions

• Why cant women be ignored?
• because of their huge numbers.
• What happens to women if you try to break their
  will?
• You can bend them but you can never break them.
  It only serves to make them more determined to
  achieve their final goal.
• What does the title Im Going to Buy the
  Brooklyn Bridge really mean?

6
Cultural Notes

• 1. Feminism the belief that women and men are
  equal in abilities and should have equal rights
  and opportunities. It has brought about many
  changes in the English language. Many words for
  job titles that included man have been
  replaced, for example, police officer is used
  instead of policeman and chairperson for
  chairman. The title Ms is used for women
  instead of Miss or Mrs., since it does not
  show whether a woman is married or not.

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Cultural Notes

• 2. The Brooklyn Bridge the bridge over the East
  River in New York City that connects Manhattan
  with Brooklyn. The expression selling the
  Brooklyn Bridge to somebody means tricking them
  in a deal.

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Introductory remarks

• Whether you like it or not, women in many
  cases have to take up more responsibilities than
  men. Thats why the author writes that men are
  encouraged to achieve their goals in life, but
  women know that they can only achieve some goals
  at the expense of other goals. However, there are
  superwomen in the real world who are capable of
  great deeds as well as enjoying life. It is they
  who give the average women the courage to go on.

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Language Study

• 1 Not long ago I received an alumni bulletin
  from my college. It included a brief item about a
  former classmate Kate L. teaches part-time at
  the University of Oklahoma and is assistant
  principal at County High School. In her spare
  time she is finishing her doctoral dissertation
  and the final drafts of two books, and she still
  has time for tennis and horse riding with her
  daughters. Four words in that description undid
  me in her spare time. A friend said that if I
  believe everything in the report, she had a
  bridge in Brooklyn shed like to sell me.

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item

• 1) a single piece of news
• e.g. There is a fascinating news item in todays
  China Daily.
• 2) a single article or unit on a list or among a
• set
• e.g. There are at least 50 items on her
  Christmas shopping list.

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undo

• 1) disturb or upset greatly
• e.g. My daughters idea about wealth undid me.
• The sight of the animals suffering undid
  me.
• 2) untie, open
• e.g. Its so warm inside. He undid his coat and
  took it off.
• Would you please undo this knot for me?

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Sentence

• she had a bridge in Brooklyn shed like to sell
  me Here she deliberately played on the meaning
  of the expression selling the Brooklyn Bridge to
  somebody.

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Language Study

• 2 My friends joke hit home. What an idiot Id
  been! I resolved to stop thinking about Kates
  incredible accomplishments and to be suitably
  skeptical of such stories in the future.
• 3 But like a dieter who devours a whole box of
  cookies in a moment of weakness, I found my
  resolve slipping occasionally. In weak moments
  Id comb the pages of newspapers and magazines
  and consume success stories by the pound. My
  favorite superwomen included a politicians
  daughter who cared for her two-year-old and a
  newborn while finishing law school and managing a
  company a practicing pediatrician with ten
  children of her own and a television
  anchorwoman, mother of two preschoolers, who was
  studying for a masters degree.

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Hit/strike home

• (of remarks, etc.) have the intended effect
• e.g. His criticism hit home. I was really
  selfish.
• I could see from her expression that his
  comments had hit home.

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Skeptical

• (in the habit of) doubting that sth. is true,
  right, etc.
• e.g. He presented his thesis at the conference,
  but some professors were skeptical about his
  findings.
• He is absolutely convinced that the plan
  will work, but Im still a bit skeptical about
  it.

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Sentence

• But like a dieter who devours a whole box of
  cookies in a moment of weakness, I found my
  resolve slipping occasionally But like a dieter
  who eats quickly a whole box of cookies when his
  determination to go on a diet was not firm, I
  sometimes found my resolve was not firm either.

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consume

• 1) eat or drink
• e.g. The children consumed lots of chocolate
  ice-cream at their birthday party.
• 2) use up
• e.g. The human body consumes energy in the form
  of carbohydrates.
• If consumers dont consume, then workers
  dont work.

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Language Study

• 4 One day, however, I actually met a
  superwoman face to face. Just before Christmas
  last year, my work took me to the office of a
  woman executive of a national corporation. Like
  her supersisters, she has a husband, two small
  children and, according to reports, a spotless
  apartment. Her life runs as precisely as a Swiss
  watch. Since my own schedule rarely succeeds, her
  accomplishments fill me with equal amounts of
  wonder and guilt.

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a Swiss watch

• Switzerland is famous for producing watches which
  are very precise.

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Language Study

• 5 On a shelf behind her desk that day were at
  least a hundred jars of strawberry jam, gaily
  tied with red-checked ribbons. The executive and
  her children had made the jam and decorated the
  jars, which she planned to distribute to her
  staff and visiting clients.
• 6 When, I wondered aloud, had she found the
  time to complete such an impressive holiday
  project? I should have known better than to ask.
  The answer had a familiar ring in her spare time.

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check

• 1) a pattern of squares, especially on cloth
• e.g. I dont like checks or stripes, just plain
  colors.
• 2) One of a set of printed pieces of paper that
  you can sign and use instead of money to pay for
  things
• e.g. Is it okay to pay by check?

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have a familiar ring

• If something has a familiar ring, you feel
• that you have heard it before.
• e.g. Jerrys excuse had a strangely familiar ring.

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Language Study

• 7 On the train ride home I sat with a jar of
  strawberry jam in my lap. It reproached me the
  entire trip. Other women, it seemed to say, are
  movers and shakers---not only during office
  hours, but in their spare time as well. What, it
  asked, do you accomplish in your spare time?
• 8 I would like to report that I am using my
  extra moments to complete postdoctoral studies in
  physics, to develop new theories of tonal harmony
  for piano and horn, and to bake cakes and play
  baseball with my sons. The truth o f the matter
  is, however, that I am by nature completely
  unable to get my act together. No matter how
  carefully I plan my time, the plan always goes
  wrong.

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lap

• 1) the flat area formed by your thighs when you
• are sitting down
• e.g. Sitting on her mothers lap, the little girl
  was very quiet.
• 2) a part of long journey, between two points
  where you stop
• e.g. The first lap of our trip is from Xingtai
  City to Shanghai City.

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movers and shakers

• People who have power and a lot of influence
• e.g. The movers and shakers in the stock market
  predicted a rise in share-dealing.

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get ones act together

• Organize oneself and ones activities so that one
  does things in an effective way
• e.g. Steve will have to get his act together if
  he is going to pass the exam. He cant just sit
  about doing nothing all day.

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Language Study

• 9 If I create schedules of military precision
  in which several afternoon hours are given over
  to the writing of the Great American Novel, the
  school nurse is sure to phone at exactly the
  moment I put pencil to paper. One of my children
  will have developed a strange illness that
  requires him to spend the remainder of the day in
  bed, calling me at frequent intervals to bring
  soup, juice, and tea.
• 10 Other days, every item on my schedule will
  take three times the number of minutes set aside.
  The cleaner will misplace my clothes. My order
  wont be ready at the butcher shop as promised.
  The woman ahead of me in the supermarket line
  will pay for her groceries with a check drawn on
  a Martian bank, only the manager (who has just
  left for lunch) can OK the matter. They also
  serve who only stand and wait, wrote the poet
  John Milton, but he forgot to add that they dont
  get to be superwomen that way.

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be given over to

• be used for a particular purpose
• e.g. The best land near the village was given
  over to vineyards.
• Two days were given over to the
  celebrations.

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at intervals

• 1) sth. that happens at intervals happens
  occasionally sth. that exists at intervals
  exists here and there
• e.g. The interview continued, with Smith breaking
  off at intervals to consult his notes.
• Trees have been planted at intervals
  along the waterfront.
• 2) used to state the precise gap in time or
  distance between things
• e.g. There were red warning lights at intervals
  along the street.
• She woke him for his medicines at
  intervals throughout the night.

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Sentence

• Only the manager can OK the matter Only the
  manager can give his approval for accepting the
  womans check.

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Language Study

• 11 Racing the clock every day is such an
  exhausting effort that when I actually have a few
  free moments, I tend to collapse. Mostly I sink
  into a chair and stare into space while I imagine
  how lovely life would be if only I possessed the
  organizational skills and the energy of my
  superheroines. In fact, I waste a good deal of my
  spare time just worrying about what other women
  are accomplishing in theirs. Sometimes I think
  that these modern fairy tales create as many
  problems for women as the old stories that had us
  biding our time for the day our prince would come.

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collapse

• 1) to suddenly sit down, especially because you
  are very tired
• e.g. I was so exhausted when I got home, I just
  collapsed on the sofa.
• 2) fall down
• e.g. The roof is in danger of collapsing.

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bide ones time

• wait patiently for a chance
• e.g. His political rivals are biding their time
  until after the election for a chance to attack
  his policies.
• She bided her time, planning revenge.

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Language Study

• 12 Yet superwomen tales continue to charm me.
  Despite my friends warning against being taken
  in, despite everything Ive learned, I find that
  Im not only willing, but positively eager to buy
  that bridge she mentioned. Why? I suppose it has
  something to do with the appeal of an optimistic
  approach to life---and the fact that
  extraordinary deeds have been accomplished by
  determined individuals who refused to believe
  that you cant was the final word on their
  dreams.
• 13 Men have generally been assured that
  achieving their hearts desires would be a piece
  of cake. Women, of course, have always believed
  that we cant have our cake and eat it too--- the
  old low-dream diet. Perhaps becoming a superwoman
  is an impossible dream for me, but life without
  that kind of fantasy is as unappealing as a diet
  with no treats.

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charm

• 1) v. attract give pleasure to
• e.g. I was charmed by her soft voice.
• 2) n. pleasing quality attractiveness
• e.g. Snow White and Seven Dwarfs has never lost
  its original charm.

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Sentence

• Despite my friends warning against being taken
  in, despite everythingshe mentioned Although
  my friend had warned me not to believe in the
  stories about any incredibly successful woman,
  Im willing to believe that they are true.

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a piece of cake

• sth. that is very easy to do
• e.g. Getting in touch with his overseas friends
  via email is a piece of cake for the old man.
• Shopping on line is a piece of cake for
  the five-year-old.

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Proverb

• You cannot eat your cake and have it.
• ????????

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Language Study

• 14 I know the idea of admiring a heroine is
  considered silly today we working women are too
  sophisticated for that. Yet the superwomen I read
  about are my heroines. When my faith in myself
  falters, it is they who urge me on, whispering,
  Go for it, lady!
• 15 One of these days I plan to phone my former
  classmate Kate and shout Well done! into the
  receiver. I hope she wont be modest about her
  achievements. Perhaps she will have completed her
  dissertation and her two books and moved on to
  some new work thats exciting or dangerous or
  both. Id like to hear all about it. After that
  Im going to phone the friend who laughed at me
  for believing all the stories I hear. Then I will
  tell her a story the tale of a woman who bought
  her own version of that bridge in Brooklyn and
  found that it was a wise investment after all.

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sophisticated

• 1) worldly-wise showing knowledge of the world
• e.g. Diana had become a sophisticated woman who
  knew all the rich and famous people in Paris.
• 2) advanced or complicated
• e.g. The missile has a sophisticated guidance
  system.

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move on to

• stop doing one thing and begin dealing with the
  next
• e.g. She ran this shop for ten years before
  deciding to move on to the real estate business.
• Moving on to the question of the concert,
  we still need volunteers to sell tickets.

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Sentence

• Then Ill tell her a story the tale of a woman
  who bought her own version of that bridge in
  Brooklyn and found thatThen Ill tell her about
  myself how I believed in superwomen tales and
  how this belief had encouraged me to attain my
  own goal.

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Global reading tasks

• Main idea of this text
• Text Organization
• Writing skill

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Main idea of this text

• The belief in superwomen encourages average women
  to achieve their goals.
• God helps those who help themselves.
• ?????
• Rome wasnt built in a day.
• ???????

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Text Organization
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Writing skill

• Three main ways of achieving coherence
• The use of transitional words and phrases like
  but, however, yet
• The repetition of key words and phrases as
  superwoman, in her spare time, modern fairy tale,
  etc.
• The use of parallel structure the comparison
  between my daily struggle and the achievements
  of Kate L., the daughter of a politician, the
  woman executive, etc.

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Post-reading tasks

• Poem appreciation
• Exercises

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Try, Try Again
T. H. Palmer

• Tis a lesson you should heed,
• Try, try again
• If at first you dont succeed,
• Try, try again
• Then your courage should appear,
• For, if you will persevere,
• You will conquer, never fear
• Try, try again.

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Exercises

• For each sentence there are four choices.
  Choose the ONE answer
• that best completes the sentence.
• 1. Bear in mind that a lazy man would never
  __anything.
• A. imagine B. appreciate C.
  accomplish D. recall
• 2. To keep up with the pace of the modern world,
  we must overcome the __ to new technology.
• A. resistance B. suppression C. charm
  D. reproach
• 3. George can hardly be labeled a radical he is
  a man of __ views.
• A. modest B. sensitive C.
  moderate D. tolerant
• 4. For more accurate data, we need more __
  equipment to do the research.
• A. systematic B. expensive C.
  speculative D. sophisticated
• 5. For generations the people in these two
  villages lived in perfect __.
• A. conflict B. distinction C.
  harmony D. regulation

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Exercises

• 6. Our new refrigerator__ 70 percent less
  electricity than our old model.
• A. conserves B. consumes C.
  conquers D. accommodates
• 7. __ a little earlier this morning! I missed the
  school bus by only a minute and had to wait in
  the cold for nearly an hour.
• A. If I had got up B. If only I get up
  C. If only I had got up D. If I got up
• 8. The shop assistant was dismissed as she was __
  of cheating customers.
• A. accused B. charged
  C. scolded D. cursed
• 9. Allen will soon find out that real life is
  seldom as simple as it is __ in commercials.
• A. permeated B. alleged
  C. depicted D. drafted
• 10. He could not __ ignorance as his excuse he
  should have known what was happening in his
  department.
• A. petition B. plead
  C. resort D. reproach

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Key to Exercises

• 1-5 CACDC
• 6-10 BCACB

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The end Thank you