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1、LESSONONEThinkingasaHobby IIntroductiontotheText.IIDetailedDiscussionoftheText.IIIOralWork.IVWordUsagesVGrammarExercises.VIWritingExercisesVIIAssignmentI.Introduction to the Text The authors use of the word“hobby”is interesting.By using this word he means that thinking is not just for professional t
2、hinkers like philosophers.It is something all educated people should enjoy doing.This special interest is often referred to as“idle curiosity”,and it is considered one of the most precious qualities in young scholars.Students should play with ideas the way they play with balls.Both are important for
3、 their healthy development,one mental,and the other physical.The essay can be neatly divided into three parts.The first part tells us how the subject of thinking was first brought up to the author and how he came to understand the nature of what he calls“grade-three thinking”,which,he discovered,was
4、 no thinking at all,but a combination of ignorance,prejudice and hypocrisy.Unfortunately,according to the author,most people belong to this category.The second part deals with“grade-two thinking”.People who belong to this category can detect the contradictions of grade-three thinkers beliefs.They ca
5、n see their ignorance,prejudice,hypocrisy and lack of logic,which gives them great delight and satisfies their ego.However,grade-two thinking has nothing constructive to offer.It destroys without the power to create.Therefore has satisfaction it brings the thinker is limited and does not last.The an
6、swer to this in the third part in which the author discusses the definition of“grade-one thinkers”people who set out to find the truth and get it.It would be interesting to ask ourselves which of the three categories we belong to,and if,for some reason,we are not yet grade-one thinkers,whether we ha
7、ve any need or wish to move up to the next grade The author does not say explicitly what coherent system of thought he has finally developed which makes him a grade-one thinker.But he has given us very broad hints.Obviously his thinking is based on high moral standards and is opposed to such things
8、as big business,centralized government,wars,armies,heady patriotism,dishonest politicians,etc which he regards as mere trifles or pointless actions.We can also infer from his sarcastic description of those historical events and political figures where he stands in religion and politics.William Goldi
9、ng does not seem to have much confidence in mass wisdom.In fact he pities the nine tenths of the people who enjoy agreement“as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill”.William GoldingHe is particularly critical about young people who seem to him“particularly contented with the world”.
10、Is he justified in taking this attitude toward people in general and young people in particular?Despite the serious nature of the subject,the essay is written with a great sense of humor.We know that the authors purpose is to tell people how important it is to be able to think.But he does not adopt
11、the approach of a straight lecture.Instead,he tries to achieve this aim by making the unthinking people appear ignorant,illogical,self-contradictory and,generally,silly and ridiculous.In other words,laughter is his chief weapon,Through those hilarious anecdotes,he laughs at the headmaster and Mr.Hou
12、ghton,ridicules British and American politicians and teases his girlfriend Ruth.But he also laughs at himself as the disintegrated boy in school,and for this he uses the first person in his narration.It should be noted that self-mockery is a very important kind of humor and can have unusually powerf
13、ul effect.About the authorWilliam Golding(1911-1993),a British writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983,and who is known especially for his novel Lord of the Flies.Golding was born in Cornwall and educated at Brasenose College,Oxford.Before WWII,he worked as a writer,actor,and producer
14、with small theatre companies and as a teacher.During the war he served in the Royal Navy in command of a rocket ship.He returned to writing and teaching after the war.Lord of the Flies did not appear until 1954 when it was an immediate success.The intrinsic cruelty of man is at the heart of many of
15、Goldings novels.He often presents isolated individuals or small groups in extreme situations dealing with man in his basic condition stripped of trappings.creating the quality of a fable.His novels are remarkable for their strikingly varied settings.II.Detailed Discussion of the Text 1.I came to the
16、 conclusion that there were three grades of thinking(1)Draw students attention to the collocations of“conclusion”:to come to a;to reach a;to draw a;to jump to a,etcgrate:degree;level;stage in a process,e.g.low-grade steel;high-grade alloy;grade-one pupils;well-graded teaching material;to upgrade pro
17、ducts2.grammar school(2)In Britain,it refers to a school for children over 11 who are academically bright.Today,three are few grammar schools.Most secondary schools are called“comprehensive”and take in all children over 11 whatever their abilities.In the United States,a grammar school used to mean a
18、n elementary school,but it is now considered old-fashioned.Onewasaladywearingnothingbutabathtowel.(2)nothing but:nothing except;only,e.g.The doctor told her that it was nothing but a cold.He cared for nothing but his name and position.He was nothing but a coward.Sheseemedfrozeninaneternalpaniclestth
19、ebathtowelslipdownanyfarther(2)lest:(fml)forfearthat;tomakesurethatsthwouldnothappen,e.g.Weranasfastaswecouldlestwemissthetrain.Hedidnottellhisfatherabouttheexamlesthegetmadathim.Note:Thesubjunctivemoodisusedintheclauselest introduces.Donotmixup“farther”with“further”.Theformerreferstophysicaldistanc
20、ewhereasthelattertodegree,timeandallotherfigurativeuses,e.g.Thenextvillageturnedouttobemuchfartherthanwehadthought.Wewilldiscussitfurthertomorrow.Furtherdevelopmentofoureconomywillstrainourresourcestoo.Often“further”isusedtoooftenintranslationfromtheChineseandisnotneeded.SeeThe Translators Guide to
21、Chinglish(中式英中式英语语之之鉴鉴，外，外语语教学与研究出教学与研究出版社，版社，2000年年5月月)byJoanPinkham,pages47,53,54 5.she was in an unfortunate position to pull the towel up again.(2)(not)to be in a position to do sth:(not)to be able to do sth because you(do not)have the ability,money or power to do it,e.g.Im sorry,but I am not in
22、 a position to answer that question.For the first time in history,man is now in a position to destroy the whole world.We are now in a better financial position to deal with our social problems.6.Nexttoher,crouchedthestatuetteofaleopard,readytospringdownatthetopdrawerofafilingcabinet(2)nextto:situate
23、dveryclosetosb/sthwithnobody/nothinginbetween,e.g.Doyouknowthegirlstandingnextgotheteacher?Thetwotallbuildingusedtostandrightnexttoeachotherhere.7.Beyondtheleopardwasanaked,musculargentleman.(2)Payattentiontothefollowingwordsinwhich“-ed”ispronouncedas/-Id/:anakedman,alearnedprofessor;thatblessedmorn
24、ing;awickedboy;thewretchedlife;ourbelovedcountry;raggedpants;myagedparents(Butnotin“amanaged45”);ruggedindividualism;doggedefforts8.delinquent children(3)delinquent:falling to do what is required by law or obligation,e.g.delinquent behavior;delinquent students;young delinquents;juvenile delinquencyI
25、n the original text(The present text is an abridged version.),the author mentioned some of his“delinquent”behavior for which he was punished:breaking a window,failing to remember Boyles Law and being late for school.But he said,“I had broken the window because I had tried to hit Jack Arney with a cr
26、icket ball and missed him;I could not remember Boyles Law because I had never bothered to learn it;and I was late for school because I preferred looking over the bridge into the river.”9.because they symbolized to him the whole of life.(3)because they represented/stood for the whole of life to him.(
27、The leopard stood for all animal needs or desires;Venus stood for love and the Thinker stood for thinking as a uniquely human feature)10.The naked lady was Venus.(3)Venus:(Roman mythology)the goddess of love and beauty,identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite11.She was just busy being beautiful.(
28、3)to be busy doing sth:I this pattern,what follows the word“busy”is usually an action verb.This sentence means that from the boys that from the boys point of view,the Goddess of Love was simply trying to remain beautiful.12.Rodins Thinker(3)This is the most famous piece of art by the French sculptor
29、 August Rodin.It is said to be the statue that most clearly shows the abstract idea of thinking.The thinker is pondering so intensely that his toes are tightly clutching the ground.13.I was not integrated.I was,if anything,disintegrated.(4)integrated:forming a part of a harmonious groupdisintegrated
30、:Here,it is used by the author to mean the direct opposite of“integrated”,and therefore means some kind of a trouble-maker.Note:This is not the way the word is normally used.if anything:on the contrary,e.g.He is not known for his generosity.He is,if anything,quite miserly.The weather forecast says t
31、hat it will not be warmer this winter.It will,if anything,even colder than last year.14.“What are we going to do with you?”(6)Well,what were they going to do with me?(7)When the school headmaster asked,“What are we going to do with you?”he meant“How can we make you mend your ways and become a nice b
32、oy?”But when the boy mused,“Well,what were they going to do with me?”he was wondering how the school authorities were going to punish him this time.15.the muscular gentleman contemplated the hindquarters of the leopard in endless gloom(9)to contemplate:to think for a long time in order to understand
33、 betterthe hindquarters:the rump;the back part of an animalNote the humorous way the boy viewed the image of The Thinker-looking at andcontemplating the rump of an animal in this gloomy manner.It didnt make any sense to him.16.His spectacles caught the light so that you could see nothing human behin
34、d them.Therewas no possibility communication.(9)to catch the light:to have the light shine on it brightly and suddenlyThe teachers glasses caught the light and therefore the boy could not see the teachers eyes.He could not have any eye contact.He could not have any communication with him.Readers kno
35、ws of course that they could not communicate,not because of this but because of the teachers lack of understanding of the boy.17.On one occasion the headmaster leaped to his feet,reached up and put Rodins masterpiece on the desk before me.(13)to leap to ones feet:to jump upRefresh students memory of
36、:to rise to ones feet;to struggle to ones feet;to stagger to ones feet;to help sb to his feet;to pull sb to his feetto reach up:to move a hand or arm upward in order to touch,hold,or pick up sth.Also:to reach sth down;to reach out(for);to reach into 18.Nature had endowed the rest of the human race w
37、ith a sixth sense and left me out.(15)a sixth sense:a keen intuitive power.Here,the author means the ability to think.to endow sb with sht:to provide sb with a natural quality or talentShe is one of those lucky women who are endowed with both a sharp brain and great beauty.God has not endowed him wi
38、th much humor.The whole sentence means:Everybody,except me,are born with the ability to think.19.But like someone born deaf,but bitterly determined to find out about sound(15)bitterly determined:extremely determined because of the resentfulness of being born deaf20.Or was there more sense in drinkin
39、g than there appeared to be?But it not,and if drinking were in fact ruinous to heath-and Mr.Houghton was ruined,there was to doubt about that-why he always talking about the clean life and the virtues of fresh air?(16)Remind students of some variations of the“There+be”pattern such as:There seems to
40、be;There are supposed to be;There was said to be;There were believed to be;There are likely to be;There are bound to bethe clean life:It normally refers to life without vices or moral sins.the virtues of fresh air:the advantages of fresh airMr.Houghton obviously did not practice what he preached.He
41、was a hopeless alcoholic which had ruined his heath,and he obviously did not like outdoor life.Yet he kept talking about a clean life and the virtues of fresh air.21.Sometimes,exalted by his own oratory,he would leap from his desk and hustle us outside into a hideous wind.(17)Sometimes he got carrie
42、d away and would leap from his desk and hurry us outside into a cold and unpleasant wind.exalted:filled with a great feeling of joyoratory:art of public speakingto hustle:(in fml)to hurry along22.You could hear the wind,trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnatural impediments.His body
43、would reel with shock and his face go white at the unaccustomed visitation.He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there,useless for the rest of the morning(19)struggling with all the unnatural impediments:The fresh air had to struggle with difficulty to find its way to his chest because he w
44、as unaccustomed to this.His body would reel and his face go white:He would stagger or be thrown off balance,and his face would go white.useless for the rest of the morning:unable to do anything for the rest of the morning Note the humorous effect achieved through the use of exaggeration and formal s
45、tyle.23.Mr.Houghton was given to high-minded monologues about the good life,sexless and full ofduty.(20)to be given to:to be habitually inclined to do(sth)e.g.He is much given to blowing his own trumpet.She was given to hasty decisions.They were much given to senseless gossip.high-minded monologue:a
46、 highly moral speechObviously in Mr.Houghtons clean life,there is no place of alcoholic drink,sex,and otherworldly pleasure.This is,of course,ironical.The use of the word“sexless”is particularly funny inview of the fact that his eyes are always riveted on the pretty young girls passing by.24.Yet in
47、the middle of these monologues,if a girl passed the window,his neck would turn of itself and he would watch her out of sight.In this instance,he seemed to me ruled not by thought but by an invisible and irresistible spring in his neck.(20)to turn of itself:to turn by itself;to turn on its own(Note:“
48、by itself”is the usual expression.)to watch sb out of sight:to watch sb until he/she is out of sight(can he seen no more)Note that the author here is not laughing at the teachers interest in young girls.Rather,he is ridiculing the contradiction between his high moral tone and the working of his gene
49、s which compels him to turn his head toward young girls.25.But Mr.Houghton had fought in the First World War alongside Americans and French,and had come to settled detestation of both countries.(20)We can infer from this that Mr.Houghton is British and fought“alongside Americans and French in the Fi
50、rst World War”.had come to a settled detestation of both countries:had developed a fixed dislike of both the United States and France26.If either happened to be prominent in current affairs,no argument could make Mr.Houghton think well of it.(21)If either country become the center of attention,nobod