Unit 7 The Chaser

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Unit 7 The Chaser
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Contents

• Pre-reading questions
• Background information
• Structural analysis of the text
• Comprehensive questions
• Language points
• Sentence highlights
• Language appreciation
• Grammar points
• Comprehensive questions of Text II

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Pre-reading questions

• 1. Do you believe love can be fostered? How can
  you lure one into love with you?
• 2. What is likely to happen when a couple no
  longer love each other?

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Background information

• About the author and the text
• John Collier (1901-1980), British playwright,
  poet, and novelist. He was famous for numerous
  fantasies he had written in his lifetime. The
  Chaser was originally published in The New
  Yorker in 1940.

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• Siren(??)
• In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three
  dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses.
  Roman poets placed them on an island called
  Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized
  traditions the literal geography of the "flowery"
  island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa,1 is fixed
  sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the
  Sirenusian islands near Paestum or in Capreae.2
  All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and
  rocks. Sailors who sailed near were compelled by
  the Sirens' enchanting music and voices to
  shipwreck on the rocky coast. (From Wikipedia,
  the free encyclopedia)

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Structure analysis of the Text

• This short story, which combines elements of
  horror
• and love, is built almost entirely through
  dialogue
• between a young man, Alan Austen, who is deeply
  in
• love and wants to possess his lover entirely, and
  an
• unnamed old man who believes in a life free of
• romantic involvement. As the dialogue develops,
• Austens attitude towards the potion changes from
  
• skeptical and hesitant to excited and overwhelmed.

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• Part I
• Paragraph 1
• In this part, the protagonist, Alan Austen, has
  been introduced.
• Part II
• Paragraphs 2-12
• The old man is trying to sell his mixture.
• Part III
• Paragraphs 13-45
• Dialogue between the old man and Alan Austen.

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Questions for comprehension

• 1.  What is the implied meaning of the old mans
  remark. Young people who need a love potion very
  seldom have five thousand dollars. Otherwise they
  would not need a love potion? (para. 13)
• What the old man means is that the young men who
  fall in love one-sidedly are seldom rich enough
  to win a young girls heart. If they are rich, it
  will be easier for them to gain girls hearts,
  and they dont need to buy love potions. The old
  man suggests that money is an important factor
  for love.

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• 2. What are the effects of the love potion?
  Describe them in detail .
• The love potion has a powerful, everlasting
  effect. It will make a gay girl care nothing but
  her lover. She will feel jealous of him when her
  lover is with other girls. She will want to be
  everything to him. She will be only interested in
  her lover and take every concern of his. Even if
  he slips a little, she will forgive him in the
  end. In a word, she will love him deeply if she
  drinks the love potion.

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• 3.Why is the love potion priced so low while the
  glove-cleaner so high?
• The author seems to stress the great gap between
  the price of the love potion and the
  glove-cleaner. It is easy for people to fall in
  love, but it hard to keep it. Thats why he has
  to pay a colossal amount to get himself out of
  it. The other reason for the low price of the
  love potion may be that by doing so, the old man
  can attract more customers to his primary
  commodity, the glove-cleaner.

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• 4. What moral lessons can be drawn from the
  story?
• One of the moral lessons we can draw from the
  story is that anything precious, love included,
  is most likely to have an end. A person can
  easily fall in love and get married, but what
  awaits him/her could be endless remorse, and a
  wish tha tit might end as soon as possible. So
  one should be wise and keep their eyes open when
  they are in love though love is said to be blind.
  

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• 5. How do the speeches of the young man and the
  old man differ? How does that help to build up
  the theme?
• The young mans speech is short and changing. At
  first, he speaks in short sentences with
  hesitation, but later on his speech changes into
  a succession of cries with excitement. In
  contrast, the old mans speech tends to be long,
  stable and well-developed throughout the story.
  Their speeches form a sharp contrast which helps
  to bring out the two characters. The yound man is
  green, passionate, and hopelessly in love, while
  the old man is calm, sensible, and a bit
  satirical. It is by this contrast that the theme
  of the story is brought out more effectively.

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Language points

• Paragraph 1
• 1. peer to look very carefully or with
  difficulty, especially as if not able to see
  clearly
• She peered over my shoulder at the computer
  screen and asked about the figures. C.f. peep
• peep to look at something quickly and
  secretly, especially through a hole or other
  small openings
• e.g. Now and then she peeped to see if he
  was noticing her.

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• Paragraphs 2-12
• 2. make somebodys acquaintance to meet somebody
  for the first time
• e.g. He made her acquaintance at a dance.
• 3. imperceptible that cannot be noticed or felt
  because so small, slight or gradual
• e.g. an imperceptible change in temerature
• perceive v. , perception n. , perceptible a. ,
  imperceptible a., imperceptibly ad.

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• 4. Apprehensively full of anxiety about the
  future
• They looked at each other apprehensively.
• apprehensive a., apprehension n.
• e.g. She was apprehensive about/for her sons
  safety every tome he went out on his motorcycle.
• Students are waiting with apprehension for their
  final examination results.

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• Paragraphs 13-45
• 5. oblige
• do something a favor to fulfill the wishes of
• e.g. She asked him to lend his car, and he
  willingly obliged her.
• I should/would be obliged if you could speak
  louder.

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• (2) to make it necessary for somebody to do
  something
• e.g. The heavy snow obliged me to abandon the car
  and continued on foot.
• Eric felt obliged to resign after such an
  unpleasant quarrel with the vice president.

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• 6. substitute to put something or somebody in
  place of another.
• They were expected to substitute violence for
  dialogue.
• to substitute A for Bto replace B with A

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• 7. overwhelm
• to give somebody a particular feeling very
  strongly.
• e.g. The family of the victim was overwhelmed
  by/with grief.
• (2)  to make powerless by using force
• e.g. Government troops overwhelmed the rebels.

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• Overwhelming a. very large or very great
• e.g. The overwhelming majority of small
  businesses went broke within the first twelve
  months.

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• 8. fervently (formal) with deep sincere feelings
• e.g. It is a cause for which we have campaigned
  fervently these past four years.
• Fervent a., fervency n.

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• 9. be better off to have more money than one
  used to have or most other people
• e.g. Mr. Cooper was much better off when he
  got promoted, and even could afford foreign
  travel.
• Shell be 50 pounds better off.
• be better off doing/ to do something to be
  wiser to do something specified
• e.g. If youve got you bags you are better
  off taking/to take a taxi.
• be better off with somebody/something to be
  happier or more at ease with somebody/something
• e.g. Youd be better off with her as a roommate.
  

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Sentence highlights

• 1. Alan Austen, as nervous as a kitten, went up
  certain dark and creaky stairs in the
  neighborhood of Pell Street, one of the doors.
  (Para. 1)
• Paraphrase

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• 2. For indifference, they substitute devotion.
  For scorn, adoration. Give one tiney measure of
  this to the young lady- its flavour is
  imperceptible in orange juice, soup or
  cocktails-and however gay and giddy she is, she
  will change altogether. She will want nothing bu
  tsolitude and you. (para.23)
• Paraphrase

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Language Appreciation

• 1. He pushed open this door, as he had been told
  to do, and found himself in a tiny room, which
  contained no furniture but a plain kitchen table,
  a rocking chair, and an ordinary chair. On one of
  the dirty, buff-coloured walls were a couple of
  shelves, containing in all perhaps a dozen
  bottles and jars. (Para.2)
• This short description of the house depicts a
  gloomy atmosphere

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• 2) a. Do you mean it is a poison? cried Alan,
  very much horrifed.
• Call it a glove-cleaner if you like, said the
  old man indifferently. Lives need cleaning
  sometimes.
• I hope all your mixtures are not as expensive,
  said Alan apprehensively.
• (Paras. 8-17)
• Wonderful! cried Alan. (Para. 30)
• That is love! cried Alan. (Para. 32)
• I can hardly imagine Diana like that! cried
  Alan, overwhelmed with joy. (Para.34)
• That will not happen, said Alan fervently.
• Note the italicized words. They all reveal the
  emotional change of Alan

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• b. How carefully she will look after you! She
  will never allow you to be tired, to sit in a
  draught, to neglect your food. If you are an hour
  late, she will be terrified. She will think you
  are killed, or that some siren has caught you.
• The remark of the old man fully reveals the kind
  of love longed for by Alan and many other young
  people.

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Grammar points

• Nominal Clauses
• Nominal clause are clauses that are used as nouns
  in a sentence.
• e.g. My failure to pass the exam has brought an
  earthquake to my family.
• What made her so angry is now still a mystery.
• That she was chosen as the monitor made us happy.

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• Inversion
• I. Inversion of predicative
• An expensive thing it was.
• II. Inversion of object
• This conception of a hollow earth we know to be
  false.
• III. Inversion of adverbial
• At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with
  electric lights.

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Comprehensive questions of Text II

• 1. How was the hero vastly different from his
  roommate Petey Burch?
• The hero was a highly intelligent man as his
  brain was extremely powerful, precise and
  penetrating while Petey Burch was a very dumb man
  as he was emotional, unstable, impressionable
  and, worst of all, crazy about the fashion.
• 2. Why did the hero love Polly Espy?
• She was a beautiful and gracious girl, almost the
  right kind of wife in promoting a lawyers
  career, which was what he desired to pursue as
  his profession in the future, despite the fact
  that she was not intelligent enough, but he was
  determined that she would become smart under his
  guidence.

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• 3. What happened and how did the hero feel when
  he wasw working hard to get the girls mind up to
  the standard he required?
• The girl constantly missed the point in his
  instructions and made a lot of silly mistakes. He
  felt disappointed and vaguely felt that this
  project had no hope of success. A wave of despair
  swept over him and he almost concluded that he
  would not possible instill logic into her mind.
• 4. What happened when the hero believed that he
  should proceed to shift the focus of smartening
  the girl up to fostering the mutual love between
  them?
• When he tried various menas to suggest a knid of
  intimate relationship between them, the girl
  refuted him by pointing out different fallacies
  in his logic. He felt very much dismayed as very
  fallacy the girl pointed out was what he had just
  tried to make the girl recognize while he was
  teaching her how to be smart.

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• 5. What have you learnt from the text?
• One of the very important lessons contained in
  the text is that one should not be too calculated
  in everything, particularly in love which is th
  eresult of natural affection developed over a
  long period of time.