VESUVIUS ERUPTS

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Unit One, Text I
VESUVIUS ERUPTS
Pliny the Younger
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Pre-reading elicitation

• Video show on volcanic eruption.
• What do you know about Vesuvius eruption?

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Violent eruptions of Mount Vesuvius
Year Destruction of cities Casualties
AD 79 Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae 2.000 killed
1631 5 towns 3.000 killed
1794 Torre del Greco
1906 2.000 killed
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Supplementary reading

• A letter of Pliny the Younger to the historian
  Tacitus
• Pliny the Younger, whose name in full is Gaius
  Plinius Caecilius Secundus, was born to a wealthy
  family in Como, Italy, in the year 62, and was
  adopted by his uncle, Pliny the Elder. His
  letters - 370 of which were published in a series
  of ten volumes - provide a clear view of ancient
  Rome at its height.
• In the letter to be read, he gave a contemporary
  account of the devastating eruption of Mount
  Vesuvius, located near Naples in Italy, and the
  death of the elder Pliny while inspecting the
  aftermath of this eruption.
• Read through the passage for 10 minutes and tell
  as much as you know from this letter, narrating
  his uncles death.

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While-reading interpretation

• First and last paragraphs

I
you
uncle
letter
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While-reading interpretation

• Read the rest of the paragraphs for the general
  information of Vesuvius eruption and underline
  those sentences that you cannot understand.

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Difficult sentences

• We were followed by a panic-stricken mob of
  people wanting to act on someone elses decision
  in preference to their own (a point in which fear
  looks like prudence), who hurried us on our way
  by pressing hard behind in a dense crowd.
• --- a panic-stricken mob of people a group of
  people who are horrified
• --- act on take action in accordance with, or as
  a result of
• --- in preference to rather than
• --- prudence carefulness

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Difficult sentences

• Close behind us was a big swarm of people,
  pushing hard to make their way out of this
  perilous spot. They were so horrified that they
  were obviously in a state of being uncertain of
  their own decisions, and so would rather follow
  others (a case where one, when extremely
  overwhelmed with fear, may become cautious.).

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Difficult sentences

• Why did P. use mob here instead of crowd or
  group? What other words denoting a multitude of
  people can you think of? How do they differ in
  their connotation?
• Mob connotes disorder, while crowd and
  group are neutral in their connotation.

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Difficult sentences

• The carriages we had ordered to be brought out
  began to run in different directions though the
  ground was quite level, and would not remain
  stationary even when wedged with stones.
• The carriages we had ordered to bring us out of
  the perilous spot began to shake violently
  though the ground was not tough at all, and it
  would not stop, or it kept shaking even when
  wedged with stones.

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Difficult sentences

• We also see the sea sucked away and apparently
  forced back by the earthquake at any rate it
  receded from the shore so that quantities of sea
  creatures were left stranded on dry sand.
• We also see the sea moved back from the shore so
  that a lot of sea creatures could be seen on
  seashore which had been dry by.

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Difficult sentences

• We replied that we would not think of considering
  our own safety as long as we were certain of his.
  
• --- We answered that it was not possible for us
  to consider how we should stay away from danger,
  unless we were sure that all was safe with him.

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Difficult sentences

• There were people, too, who added to the real
  perils by inventing fictitious dangers some
  reported that part of Misenum had collapsed or
  another part was on fire, and though their tales
  were false they found others to believe them.
• --- Some people made up stories, saying that part
  of Misenum had been destroyed or another part was
  on fire. These tales made a frightening situation
  even more frightening. Though they were mere
  rumors, there were still people who seriously
  took them as true.

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Difficult sentences

• I could boast that not a groan or cry of fear
  escaped me in these perils, had I not derived
  some poor consolation in my mortal lot from the
  belief that the whole world was dying with me and
  I with it.
• --- escaped (of a noise, words, etc.) to be
  produced or made, usu. unconsciously
• --- I could say without feeling guilty that in
  confrontation with such dangers, I uttered not a
  single sound of terror. That was because I was
  comforted by the thought that I was doomed to die
  together with the whole world, which was going to
  perish with me.

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While-reading

• Find out the descriptions of the volcanic
  eruption in the two texts centering around the
  following.

Darkness ashes, cloud, falling objects, etc.
Earth tremors or shaking
People panic-stricken or courageous
Fires and flames
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Descriptions of the volcanic eruption people

• We were followed by a panic-stricken mob of
  people wanting to act on someone else decision
  in preference to their own, who hurried us on our
  way by pressing hard behind in a dense crowd.
  (ll. 22-25)
• Without waiting any longer, our friend rushed off
  and hurried out of danger as fast as he could.
  (ll. 38-39)
• You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing
  of infants, and the shouting of men, some were
  calling their parents, others their children or
  their wives, trying to recognize them by their
  voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of
  their relatives, and there were some who prayed
  for death in their terror of dying. Many besought
  the aid of the gods, but still more imagined
  there were no gods left, and that the universe
  was plunged into eternal darkness forevermore.
  There were people, too, who added to the real
  perils by inventing fictitious dangers some
  reported that part of Misenum had collapsed or
  another part was on fire, and though their tales
  were false they found others to believe them.
  (ll. 52-60)
• Several hysterical individuals made their own and
  other peoples calamities seem ludicrous in
  comparison with their frightful predictions. (ll.
  73-75)

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Descriptions of the volcanic eruption Earth
tremors

• The shocks were so violent that everything fell
  as if it were not only shaken but overturned.
• The buildings around us were already tottering.
• The carriages we had ordered to be brought out
  began to run in different directions though the
  ground was quite level, and would not remain
  stationary even when wedged with stones. (ll.
  26-29)

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Descriptions of the volcanic eruption Darkness

• By now it was down, but the light was still dim
  and faint. (ll. 19-20)
• Soon afterwards the cloud sank down to earth and
  covered the sea it had already blotted out Capri
  and hidden the promontory of Misenum from sight.
  (ll. 40-41)
• Ashes were already falling, not as yet very
  thickly. I looked around a dense black cloud was
  coming up behind us, spreading over the earth
  like a flood. (ll. 46-48)
• We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness
  fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night,
  but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed
  room. (ll. 50-52)

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• At last the darkness thinned and dispersed into
  smoke or cloud then there was genuine daylight,
  and the sun actually shone out, but yellowish as
  it is during an eclipse. (ll. 68-69)
• Then darkness came on once more and ashes began
  to fall again, this time in heavy showers. We
  rose from time to time and shook them off,
  otherwise we should have been buried and crushed
  beneath their weight. (ll. 62-64)

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Descriptions of the volcanic eruption Flames

• On the landward side a fearful black cloud was
  rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame, and
  parted to reveal great tongues of fire, like
  flashes of lightning magnified in size. (ll.
  31-33)
• A gleam of light returned, but we took this to be
  a warning of the approaching flames rather than
  daylight. (ll. 60-61)

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Description in narration

• Description and narration are often used
  together, probably because space and time are
  often perceived together.
• Description deals with objects (buildings, cloud,
  etc., as in the text), persons (women, infants,
  etc.,) or events (the eruption) that exist in
  space.
• By using description, writers are able to draw
  concrete pictures of things and consequently,
  lifelike scenes are produced. Description,
  therefore, aids in creating real images in space
  and evoking responses from senses as well.

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Time-markers

• Narrative discourse is usually organized
  temporally, i.e., the events included in it are
  related in a sequence of time. The succession of
  events is often marked linguistically with words,
  phrases, or clauses indicating time, e.g.,
  subsequently, three days later, when the war came
  to its end.

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Time-markers

• Identify all the time-markers / time-indicators
  used in Text 1.
• Para. 1 --- After my uncles departure...
  Then... and then...
• 2 --- By now it was dawn
• 3 --- At this point
• 5 --- Soon afterwards... Then...
• 6 --- At last

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Time-markers

• What other means apart from time-markers is / are
  used in Para. 5 to make it temporally coherent?
• --- Instead of explicit time-indicators, the
  progression of events itself can conversely point
  to the sequence of time.
• --- The changes of the dark cloud and
  consequently the varying degrees of darkness
  serve as a clue to the passage of time.

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Post-reading

• Language V, VI
• Language IV

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Post-reading activities

• Find from different sources the information about
  natural catastrophes (e.g., volcanic eruptions,
  earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods,
  fires, landsliding, or any other disasters) and
  their prediction and prevention, then sort out
  the information and write an essay about 1,000
  words on any aspects of the topic.

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The Birth and Death of Islands

• 1. the birth of volcanic islands (paras.
  1, 4)
• 2. the difference between volcanic
  islands and the
• continents (para. 2)
• 3. the perceivable signs of submarine
  eruptions (para. 6)
• 4. the features of Ascension, Grahams
  Reef, Falcon
• Island and South Trinidad respectively
  (paras. 7-12)
• 5. the descriptions of the explosion of
  Krakatoa (paras.
• 13, 14)
• 6. the reasons for the death of volcanic
  islands (paras. 9-
• 14)

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Once a thriving city in ancient Italy, Pompeii
literally disappeared with the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in ad 79. After a devastating earthquake
in ad 63 decimated the city, Vesuvius emitted
poisonous gases into the atmosphere and covered
Pompeii with ash and mud. The ash mixed with rain
and settled around the volcanos victims,
creating molds that remained intact long after
the bodies had decayed. Archaeologists poured
liquid plaster into the forms, preserving the
exact shapes of the bodies at the moment of death.
Photo Researchers, Inc./Leonard Von Matt
Victims of Mount Vesuvius
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View of Vesuvius from the site of Pompeii.
                                                  
               Mount Vesuvius prior to the
eruption of A.D. 63.
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          Il Vesuvio-Cratere in eruzione.
Postmarked 1912 (probably 1875-1906 eruption).
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         Napoli - Panorama
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Vesuvius Somma
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Difficult sentences

• On the landward side a fearful black cloud was
  rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame, and
  parted to reveal great tongues of fire, like
  flashes of lightning magnified in size.
• rent p.p. of rend, meaning split.