中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Unit Eight
The Story of an Hour
Unit three Knowledge and Knowledge Transfer
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Learning objectives
Warm-up
Listen and respond
Text A
Exercises
Book Four
Learning objectives
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
A. Grasp the main idea and structure of the
text.
B. Master the key language points and
grammatical structure in the text.
C. Conduct a series of reading, listening,
speaking and writing activities related to the
theme of the unit
Book Four
1. Teaching Aims and Requirements
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
A. Grasp the main idea and structure of the
text.
B. Master the key language points and
grammatical structure in the text.
C. Conduct a series of reading, listening,
speaking and writing activities related to the
theme of the unit.
Book Four
Warm-up
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Divide the students into two groups, every
member of the group choose a character
in this story, and others can be the director,
photographer,etc.
Play it, with their own words and
understanding.
Book Four
Listen and respond
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
next 按钮不需要就删除,这部分大家可以自己找
材料，简单一点的填空联系，四级真题，模拟
题都可以的,书本上的原题都可以
Book Four
Text A The Rainbow of Knowledge
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Background information
Text organization
Text analysis
The rainbow of
knowledge
Summary
Book Four
Background information
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
About the Author — Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
U.S. writer
Born: February 8, 1850
Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Died: August 22, 1904 (aged 54)
Best known as: Novelist and short story writer
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
 Feminism
Feminism refers to the social movement that seeks equal rights for women.
Widespread concern for women’s rights dates from the Enlightenment; its
first important expression was Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792). The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, convened by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others, called for full legal
equality with men, including full educational opportunity and equal
compensation; thereafter the woman suffrage movement began to gather
momentum. From America the movement spread to Europe. American
women gained the right to vote by constitutional amendment in 1920, but
their participation in the workplace remained limited, and prevailing notions
tended to confine women to the home.
Book Four
2. Text organization
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
 Part 1
 Part 2
 Part 3
Para 1-8
Para 9-17
Para 18-23
 Part 1

Mrs.Mallard was shocked at the news of her husband’s death. She locked
herself in her room and lost in deep thoughts.
 Part 2

Although feel heart-broken, Mrs.Mallard gradually realized that she was set free
from the marriage. Compared with freedom, love, marriage, even her husband
means nothing to her. She finally live for herself.
 Part 3

Being thrilled at the prospect of her new life in front of her, Mrs. Mallard
shocked at her the return of her husband, who escaped from the terrible accident.
She died at the spot. The doctor claimed that she died of a heart disease-of great joy
seeing her husband.
Book Four
Text analysis
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

Knowing that Mrs Mallard was afflicted with a heart
trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as
possible the news of her husband’s death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken
sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her
husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was
he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence
of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently
Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed”. He had only
taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second
telegram, and had hastened to prevent any less careful, less
tender friend in bearing the sad message.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in
broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in
half concealing.
Paraphrase:
Her sister Josephine told her indirectly, with
some obscurity, the bad news of her husband’s
accident.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
afflicted with
受到···折磨
grievously affected，suffered
especially by disease
The poor old man was afflicted with
diabetes.
那可怜的老人受到糖尿病的折磨。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
veil
n. 面纱,面罩,借口,幕,帐,遮蔽物
vt. 戴面纱,隐藏,遮蔽,掩饰
vi. 蒙上面纱
a garment that covers the head and face
to obscure, or conceal with or as if with a veil
The bride's face was covered in a white veil.
新娘的脸上蒙着白色的面纱。
He tried to veil his contempt at my ignorance.
他试图掩饰对我的无知的蔑视。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
 hastened
 vt. 催促,加速
vi. 赶紧,赶快
 act or move at high speed
 The incident has hastened the disintegration of the
club.
这一事件加速了该俱乐部的解体。
 词义辨析
 quicken，accelerate，hasten，hurry，rush，speed
 这些动词均含“加快，使加快”之意。
quicken普通用词，指增加速度、速率。
accelerate着重指频率或速率运转加快。
hasten指由于事的紧迫性或突然性而加速。
hurry指赶紧或匆忙地做某事或催促别人做某事，隐含草
率或混乱意味。
rush含义与hurry相近，但显得更仓促更慌乱。
Book Four
speed侧重实际的快速行动。
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
 He had only taken the time to assure himself
of its truth by a second telegram, and had
hastened to prevent any less careful, less
tender friend in bearing the sad message.
 What did Richards do on hearing the news
of his friend’s death?
 Richards confirmed the news and take no
delay to call up Mrs.Mallard in order to
prevent any caleless friend from telling her the
bad news.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

She did not hear the story as many women have
heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept
its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild
abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of
grief had spent itself, she went away to her room
alone. She would have no one follow her.
 There stood, facing the open window, a
comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank,
pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted
her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
She did not hear the story as many women
have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability
to accept its significance.
What her reaction to the diaster of her husband?
Mrs.Mallard, unlike others, just crying loudly,
her respond was different. She wept suddenly
and fiercely in her sister’s arms.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
When the storm of grief had spent itself, she
went away to her room alone.
Paraphrase：
She felt in a great grief at first, and gradually,
she come to herself and awared the truthness
of the death of her husband . And she went into
her room alone.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

She could see in the open square before her house
the tops of trees that were all full of the new spring
life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the
street below a peddler was crying his wares. The
notes of a distant song reached her faintly, and
countless birds were singing.
 There were patches of blue sky showing here and
there through the clouds that had met and piled one
above the other in the west facing her window.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
She could see in the open square before her house the
tops of trees that were all full of the new spring
life.······
What the author’s intention of the description of the
scenary outside her window?
By vividly descript the scenary, the author want to
convey the innerside thoughts of Mrs.Mallard, of how
she pull herself out of deep sorrow.
The beautiful scenary of spring stands for the new
propsect of her new life.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

She sat with her head thrown back upon the
cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a
sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child
who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its
dreams.
 She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines
betrayed repression and even a certain strength. But
now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze
was fixed on one of those patches of blue sky. It was
not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a
suspension of intelligent thought.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
 Sob
 vi. 啜泣,呜咽
vt. 哭诉,哭得使
n. 啜泣,呜咽
 weep convulsively
 He tried to restrain his sobs.
他竭力抑制哭泣声。
 词义辨析
 cry，weep，sob
 这3个动词均有“哭”之意。
cry普通用词。指因痛苦、悲哀或伤感等出声地哭。
weep书面用词，指小哭或无声地哭，侧重流泪。
sob指抽泣、呜咽。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
whose lines betrayed repression and even a
certain strength.
Paraphrase
The wrinkles on her face revealed her
pressures of a long time and an unbeaten
power beneath it.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
It was not a glance of reflection, but rather
indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
What implied in this sentence?
Mrs.Mallard does not let herself in a deep
grief of losing her husband, instead, she
start to feel being freed from the marriage,
which confined her for a long time. She
feel refreshed by the thought.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

There was something coming to her and she was
waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not
know; it was too subtle and vague to name. But she
felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her
through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the
air.
 Now her bosom rose and fell impulsively. She was
beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her,
and she was striving to
beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two
white slender hands would have been.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Something here refers to what?
It refers to Mrs.Mallard’s idea of renew herself.
She looks forward her new life and no longer
suffered the deep grief of her husband’s death.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程




Strive
vi. 努力,奋斗,斗争
attempt by employing effort or to exert much effort or energy
She strove for recognition as an artist.
她为获得艺术家的声誉而奋斗。
 词义辨析
 attempt，try，endeavour，strive
 这些动词均含有“试图，努力，力图”之意。
attempt较正式用词，侧重已经开始，且希望完成，但常隐含着不一
定有预期的结果。
try普通用词，可与attempt换用，但强调努力或尝试，后跟不定式表
示努力或争取；后跟动名词表示尝试。
endeavour正式用词，指尽最大努力、认真地克服困难去做某事。
strive和endeavour一样，表示付出巨大努力，但strive侧重劳累与
紧张，而不强调努力的结果。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

When she abandoned herself a little whispered
word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over
and over under her breath: “free, free, free!”
The
vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it
went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her
pulses beat fast, and the running blood warmed and
relaxed every inch of her body.
 She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a
monstrous joy that held her.
A clear and exalted
perception enabled her to dismiss her husband’s death
as trivial.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Monstrous['mɔnstrəs]
 a. 巨大的,畸形的,怪异的,可怕的
A monstrous tidal wave.
一股巨大的浪潮
Exalt
praise, glorify, or honor
He was exalted to the most eminent
station.
他被提升到最显赫的地位。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the
kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never
looked save with love upon her,
fixed and gray and dead.
But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of
years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she
opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
 There would be no one to live for during those coming
years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful
will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and
women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon
a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made
the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief
moment of illumination.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often
she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the
unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession
of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as
the strongest impulse of her being!
 “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
 Josephine was kneeling before the closed door
with her lips to the keyhole, begging for admission.
“ Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door — you
will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise?
For heaven’s sake open the door.”
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No, she was
drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
 Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.
Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would
be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.
It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life
might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door. There was a
feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself like a
goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together
they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at
the bottom.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Elixir
n. 炼金药,不老长寿药,万能药;酏剂
a hypothetical substance that the alchemists
believed to be capable of changing base
metals into gold
Descend
vi. 下降[(+from)],传下,遗传;屈尊,降格,堕落
move downward and lower, but not
necessarily all the way
He is directly descended from royalty.
他是皇室的直系后裔。
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程

Someone was opening the front door with a key. It
was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travelstained, carrying his briefcase and umbrella. He had
been far from the scene of accident, and did not even
know there had been one. He stood amazed at
Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to
screen him from the view of his wife.
 But Richards was too late.
 When the doctors came, they said she had died of
heart disease — of joy that kills.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
of joy that kills
Is it really the joy that kills Mrs.Mallard?
Actually no, it is the dramtic shock from seeing her
husband’s return. She was intending to begin a new
life of her own, and dragged herself out of the grief,
and the next moment, she found her husband standing
in front of her. She can not bear the change so
dramatically and died of her heart disease soon.
Book Four
5 summary of text A
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Mrs.Mallard is a young and pretty woman
but in poor health. She lives a comfortable
life but her marriage is an unhappy one.
She felt herself been set free from it when
she heard the news of her husband’s
death. She started to look forward her new
prospect and felt renewed. However, when
her husband come up in front of her, she
can’t bear the shocking and died of the
heart disease.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
马拉得夫人年轻又漂亮，然而婚姻生活却
很不幸福。因此当她听说丈夫遇车祸去世
的时候，心里十分憧憬未来自由美好的生
活。然而当丈夫出现在她面前时， 她无法
承受巨大的冲击，而死于心脏病。
Book Four
Exercises
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程
Write a short story:
A story of an hour
You should write a short story of 200 words
with the title “a story of an hour”.
Book Four
中国地质大学江城学院精品课程