Lesson One Calculating Machine E' B' White

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Lesson One Calculating Machine(E. B. White)
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Teaching Plan

• Time 10 periods
• Arrangement
• Introduction (1 period)
• Text analysis (5 periods)
• Interactive activities ( 1 period)
• Exercises (3 periods)

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Teaching aims

• Appreciate the humorous style of the essay
• Identify the authors writing purpose of this
  essay
• Analyze the authors view of man by comparing
  with Thoreaus Conclusion from Walden
• Be familiar with the rhetorical devices metaphor
  and irony
• Master the language points
• Recite Paragraphs 6 7

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Introduction

• Background information

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The author Elwyn Brooks White (18991985)

• Leading American essayist and literary stylist of
  his time
• Known for his crisp, graceful, and relaxed style
• Often writing from the perspective of slightly
  ironic onlooker
• One of the most celebrated children's authors of
  his time

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His Life

• He was born in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1899,
  and died on October 1, 1985.
• After graduating from Cornell University in 1921,
  E. B. White worked as a reporter for several
  newspapers.
• In 1924, he joined the New Yorker.
• He won many awards for his writing, including a
  special Pulitzer Prize in 1978.

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His subjects

• The complexities of modern society
• Failures of technological progress
• The pleasure of urban and rural life
• War and internationalism

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His major works

• Children's classics
• Stuart Little (1945)
• Charlotte's Web (1952)
• The Trumpet of the Swan(1970)

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The Elements of Style

• In 1959, White revised and published a standard
  style manual for writing, which became a mainstay
  of high-school and college English courses in the
  U.S.

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Quotations from Whites essays
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(I)

• Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more
  than half of the people are right more than half
  of the time.

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(II)

• Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get
  there in a car.

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(III)

• The trouble with the profit system has always
  been that it was highly unprofitable to most
  people.

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The essay
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General questions

• 1. What does the title calculating machine
  refer to? What kind of machine is it? What is its
  function and how to operate it?

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Lets see how!

• 1.Try it!
• http//www.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/
  
• 2. Flesch reading Ease
• http//csep.psyc.memphis.edu/cohmetrix/readability
  research.htm

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General questions

• 2. What is the authors attitude towards the
  machine? At what point in the essay are you
  certain of his opinion?
• 3. What are the other ideas the author retorts?
• 4. What is the central theme of the essay? How
  did the author establish his point?

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Text Analysis
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Questions for Para. 1

• 1. Whats the main idea of Para. 1?
• 2. What does perfect understanding refer to?
  How does General Motors try to achieve that?
• 3. How would you translate the name of the
  calculator into Chinese?

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Language points

• pocket- small enough to be carried in ones
  pocket
• a pocket handkerchief a pocket edition of a
  dictionary a pocket book/calculator/radio

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intelligible

• be intelligible to understandable
• This instruction book is only intelligible to an
  expert. It is full of jargons.
• Cf. legible, readable
• His handwriting is barely legible.

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to lose no time in doing

• I lost no time in viewing the film Crash after
  it won the Oscar.
• After seeing the advertisement, she lost no time
  in sending an application letter.

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Questions for Paragraphs 2-4

• 1. Whats the main idea of this part?
• 2.There is, of course, no such thing as reading
  ease of written matter. There is the ease with
  which matter can be read, but that is a condition
  of the reader, not of the matter. What does the
  author mean by saying so?

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• 3. Can you account for Whites disdain for the
  instruction to personalize your writing?
• 4. What is Whites opinion of the booklet
  entitled How to Write Better? Where are you
  first certain of that opinion?
• 5. Comment on the aptness of Whites figure of
  the bronco-like ability of the English
  language.

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Language points

• to get off to a good/bad start to have a
  good/bad beginning
• His performance got off to a bad start when he
  couldnt remember his first words.

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slovenly

• A. negligent of neatness especially in dress and
  person habitually dirty and unkempt, frowsy.
• A slovenly person is one who is too lazy to take
  trouble over his work or appearance.
• Slovenly condition/environment/appearance
• slovenly speech is a bad habit. ?????

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score

• V. to gain points in a game, competition, to win
• He scored 90 on TEM-4.
• No goals were scored in either half.
• The musical cat scored a great success.

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be entitled to

• have the right to
• Diplomats are entitled to special treatment at
  airports.
• All the firms employees are entitled to at least
  a fortnights holiday with pay each year.

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as lief as

• Archaic use as willingly as
• I would as lief go as stay.

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aid

• N. sth. that helps
• Deaf-aid/visual aid
• Katrina victims lived on government aid for a
  period of time

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cocksure

• too sure overconfident
• He is an arrogant and cocksure materialist.

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toss

• (cause) to move about in an aimless or violent
  way
• The boat was tossed this way and that in the
  stormy night.
• Jane was tossing about all night. She couldnt go
  to sleep.
• To toss a coin before the match

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gay

• bright and pleasant
• a gay hello /a gay sunny room/a gay smile
• full of or showing high-spirited merriment
• when hearts were young and gay" "a poet could
  not but be gay, in such a jocund company"-
  Wordsworth

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Figures of speech (para. 1-4)

• 1. metaphor the brier patch of English usage
  broncolike ability of the English language
• 2. irony I would as lief simonize my grandmother
  as personalize my writing./ Sir, it is more
  comfortable than standing up.

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Paragraphs 5-6

• 1. Whats the main idea of this part?
• 2. Do you know any English jokes?

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English jokes

• Q What is the strongest day of the week?
• A Sunday, because all the others are week (weak)
  days.
• Q Why do people call their own language their
  mother tongue?
• A Because their fathers seldom get a chance to
  use it.

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Language points

• Contend
• The official in the tax office contended that the
  shopkeeper was innocent.
• ????????????????
• contend for hegemony ?? (strive for)
• contend with others for a prize ???????
• contend with poverty??????

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ascend

• V. ant. descend
• N. ascent descent
• Rather formal to move upward upon or along
  climb
• He ascended the stairs.
• to rise from a lower level or station advance
• - ascend from poverty to great wealth ascend to
  the throne

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discard

• To get rid of, reject
• To discard an old coat
• One should never discard old friends.

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dulcet

• A. sweet and calming, pleasing to the ear
• Mother always speaks in dulcet tones.
• the dulcet tones of the cello

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feeble

• A. frail, Weak
• My grandmother is a lot feebler than she was last
  year.
• A feeble suggestion/excuse

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grope

• To try to find something by feeling with the
  hands in a place one cannot see
• He groped in his pocket for the ticket.
• Feeling by outstretched hands (as if) in the dark
• I groped my way to a seat in the dark cinema.

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Paragraphs 7 - 8

• What is the relationship of Thoreaus words in
  Conclusion from Walden to Whites central
  theme?

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Henry David Thoreau (18171862)

• A US writer and philosopher best known for his
  book Walden, or Life in the Woods, in which he
  describes his simple life in the countryside
• naturalist
• transcendentalist

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Walden
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Whites comment on Walden

• Walden is the only book that I own, although
  there are some others unclaimed on my shelves.
  Every man, I think, reads one book in his life,
  and this one is mine. It is not the best book I
  ever encountered, perhaps, but it is for me the
  handiest, and I keep it about me in much the same
  way one carries a handkerchief, for relief in
  moments of defluxion or despair.

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Language points

• Lest
• for fear that, subjunctive mood in the
  subordinate clause
• They spoke in whispers lest they should be heard.
• Take good care of yourself lest you catch cold.
• fear/be afraid, etc.
• We were afraid lest he should come late.

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• Translate the quoted words
• ????????????????,????????????????????????,????????
  ??!...????????????????????????????????????????????
  ????????????????--Henry David Thoreau
  (???????,???)

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Discussions

• 1.How do you like Whites informal style of
  humor? Point to specific words, phrases and
  sentences that contribute effectively to setting
  the tone of the essay.
• 2. What does the essay tell you about Whites
  view of man?

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Interactive Activities

• http//www.teachervision.fen.com/fiction/34343.htm
  l?detoured1
• Read the first chapter of Charlottes Web from
  the website listed above and compare the style of
  Whites essay and the childrens book.

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Web links for reference

• http//www.ebwhitebooks.com/
• http//www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebwhite.htm
• http//www.teachervision.fen.com/fiction/34343.htm
  l

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Exercises

• 1. Write a summary of the essay.
• 2. Finish the exercises attached to the text.