Book IV
Unit 2
Section A
Charlie Chaplin
Tan Xiaochun
College of Foreign Studies
Book IV
Unit 2
Objectives of Section A
 Learn more about related background
information about Charlie Chaplin and his life;
 Grasp the main idea and structure of the text;
 Understand the important words, phrases and
sentence patterns in the text;
 Be able to conduct text-based written and oral
practices.
Book IV
Unit 2
Pre-class Task Checking
Text Understanding
Summary
Difficult Sentences
Writing
Words and Phrases
Post-class Tasks
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Unit 2
Text Understanding
Structure of the Text
Part I (Paras. 1-2): A general introduction to
Charlie Chaplin
Part II (Paras. 3-6) : Charlie Chaplin’s artistic
achievement
Part III (Para. 7-8): Charlie Chaplin’s emotional
life
Part IV (Para. 9): Incident after Charlie
Chaplin’s death
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Detailed Understanding
Biography of Charlie Chaplin
Part I. General Introduction
A poor area of south London
Place of birth: _______________________
Parents:
Mother — temporarily declared mad
___________________________________
Fame: a Hollywood comic star
Receiving permanent fame for the
1. __________________________
comic character of The Tramp.
__________________________
Winning reputation in other
2. __________________________
countries.
_____________
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Part II. Artistic Achievement
In the time of silent movies
The huge success: ___________
The Tramp
In the time of sound movies
The success: e.g. ______________
Modern Times
Secrets of great success
Why? __________________________
immensely talented man; the
__________________________
urge to explore and extend his
______
talent
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Unit 2
1. The Tramp
Special features of The Tramp:
famous comic beggar: sport
tiny …
a character revolted against
authority …
Critics towards The Tramp:
To many English people
— too crude; didn’t all that English; not how the
English behaved
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2. Modern Times
Specialties about his singing:
Nonsense
Language: __________
Effect of his singing:
To Chaplin:_______________________
Help to bring about his huge
_________
success
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Unit 2
Secrets of great success:
Immensely talented man;
The urge to explore and extend his talent
Evidences:
His script — Not written in advance
In his great comedy —
Physical senses / physical transformation:
Lifeless objects
other kinds of objects
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3. Gold Rush
Boots were boiled and their soles
eaten with salt and pepper like prime
cuts of fish (the nails being removed
like fish bones).
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Part III. Emotional Life
Chaplin’s emotional collision:
need to be loved & fear of being betrayed
Personal disaster;
The collision found its way into his comic creations.
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City Lights
Chaplin’s need to be loved.
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Difficult Sentences
1. Dickens might have created Charlie
Chaplin’s childhood.
Main structure: might have v-ed: used to say that
something was possible in the past, but it did
not in fact happen
Paraphrase:
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Unit 2
2. Sad to say, many English people in the
1920s and 1930s thought Chaplin’s Tramp a
bit, well, “crude”.
sad to say: 遗憾的是；很遗憾
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Unit 2
Words and Phrases
1. cut down
Meaning: to reduce
Collocation
cut down
e.g.
for sth.
to size
on sth.
• She cut the old stockings down for ankle sock.
• I have to cut my essay down to 2000 words.
• You should cut down on fatty foods.
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3. crude a.
Meaning: ① rude; ② in its natural state
e.g.
• He’s always telling crude jokes.
• crude oil 原油
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4. trip it up
Meaning: to cause sb. to fall or nearly fall over;
force someone to make a mistake by tricking them
Translation
• 李伸出脚把约翰绊倒了。
• Usually she was careful, but once she
tripped up by a plot.
Key
• Lee stuck out his foot and tripped John up.
• 她一向谨慎，但有一次还是中了圈套。
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5. all that
Meaning: very; particularly
Translation
• 事情并不那么顺利。
• He wasn’t all that older than we were.
Key
• Things aren’t all that good.
• 他并不比我们年纪大多少。
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6. sport v.
Meaning: to wear or show publicly and
sometimes proudly
e.g.
Back in the 1960s he sported bell-bottom
trousers, platform heels and hair down
past his shoulders.
Translation
回顾20世纪60年代，他那时穿着喇叭裤、
木屐式坡形
高跟鞋、蓄着
过肩的长发。
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8. come down in the world
Meaning: to have less money and a worse social
position than one had before
Translation
She felt she had really come down in
the world.
Key
她感到她的确已经穷困潦倒了。
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9. rouse v.
Meaning: to make sb. very angry, excited, interested;
to make sb. wake up;
e.g.
She was sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t
rouse her.
辨析
arouse 唤醒
arise 出现
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10. find one’s way
Meaning: to arrive or get somewhere after some time
Translation
• 条条江河通大海。
• It’s said that multimedia will soon
find its way into the home market.
Key
• Rivers find their way into the sea.
• 据说多媒体将很快进入家用市场。
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11. relief n.
Meaning: the easing of a burden
or distress
e.g.
What a relief! I pass the exam finally!
辨析
v. relieve
release 释放，放开
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12. find … in sb.
Meaning: to discover that sb. has certain qualities
Use It
Who is your idol?
What did you find in him/her?
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13. unfounded a.
Meaning: not based on fact
Use It
What would you like to react to the
unfounded rumors(谣言) to you?
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Summary
Chaplin is a great comic not only for his own mother country
but more for the world. Chaplin’s Tramp was considered a
crude and thought that he had too much of an eye for
little _____
appearance
the ladies and that his clothes gave him an __________
more like an Italian waiter than anything else. He resisted
talking movie until 1936 when he made up a
making a ______
nonsense language which sounded like no known
_________
nationality. Chaplin achieved great success because he
talented man and the kind of comic who
was an immensely _______
used his _______
physical senses to invent his art as he went along.
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Unit 2
collision between the need to be loved
However, the _______
and the fear of being _______
betrayed resulted in disaster in
his ________
emotional life which was shown in his movies.
Eventually, life gave Chaplin the stable _________,
happiness
that is, his marriage with Oona O’Neil. Chaplin died on
_________ Day 1977.
Christmas
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Unit 2
Writing
Structured Writing
One of the writing techniques is to
present specific details first, then
come to a general statement or a
conclusion based on the details.
Sample Section A Para8
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Writing Task:
Write your own paragraph, with specific details to a
general statement or a conclusion.
Topic:
Famous people shoulder more responsibilities.
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Post-class Task
Idea Sharing:
To know more about Charlie Chaplin,
the best way is to watch his films.
Choose one or more Chaplin’s films
and enjoy his show.
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Unit 2
Written Tasks:
1) Finish the Exercises on the textbook: Vocabulary,
Collocation; Word Building, Sentence Structure;
Translation, Cloze;
2) Write a passage with the given topic.