《现代大学英语》精读2
Unit 3 Text A The Rite of Spring
Text Analysis and Appreciation
Objectives
You will learn to
identify elements of a descriptive essay
appreciate the language of the essay
About the Title
The
Rite
of
Spring
Rite：
a ceremony performed by
a particular group of
people, often for religious
purposes.
(Oxford Learner's Dictionaries)
About the Title
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
•Russian musician
•One of the greatest composers of the 20th century
•Ballet The Rite of Spring (1913)
•Revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design
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About the Title
The Rite of Spring
The author means to dedicate this essay to the coming spring.
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Descriptive Essay
 gives a detailed description
of the topic
paints a picture with words
in the reader’s mind
Descriptive Essay
1
Sensory Details
2
Figurative Language
3
Precise Language
4
Central Theme
5
Organized Structure
受喜爱的领导人
成为
Descriptive Essays
Sensory Details
Sensory details involve arousing the emotions of the readers and
creating an association with them.
Sensory Details
Descriptive Essays
Sensory Details
Para 1: I'd much rather eat something juicy and fat.
Like hot dogs. (taste)
Para 2: But inevitably
a morning arrives when, just
Sensory Details
as I am awakening, a scent wafts through the
window, something like earth-as-air, a scent that
seems to come up from the very center of this
planet. (smell)
Descriptive Essays
Sensory Details
Para 2: The birds begin screaming hysterically.
(sound)
Para 2: The sun means business, suddenly, and has
a different, deeper yellow
in its beams on the
Sensory Details
carpet. (sight)
Para 9: There are few sights quite as beautiful as a
vegetable garden glistening in the sun, all dewy
and glittering with a dozen shades of green at
seven in the morning.(sight)
Descriptive Essays
Figurative Language
The use of figures of speech and other literary devices creates the
character sketch of the subject.
Sensory Details
Descriptive Essays
Figurative Language
Irony conceals or contradicts its really meaning , typically for
humorous or emphatic effect.
Sensory Details
Para. 1 I'd much rather
eat something juicy and
fat. Like hot dogs.
Para. 2 Now, if you could raise hot dogs outside
your window, you'd really have something you
could justify without a second hesitation.
Descriptive Essays
Figurative Language
Para. 7 This is when my wife becomes —opening
now—mistress of the garden… selecting which
plant shall live and which she will cast aside.
The whole Paragraph 8
Descriptive Essays
Figurative Language
Personification is a figure of speech in which an idea or
thing is given human attributes or feelings or is spoken of as if it were
human.
Sensory Details
Para 2: And the sun means
business…
Para 2: The birds begin screaming hysterically,
thinking what I am thinking--the worms are
deliciously worming their way through the melting
soil.
Descriptive Essays
Figurative Language
Para. 6. As with beans and cucumbers, your children--as it were, begin to turn upon you in massive
numbers, growing more and more each morning and
threatening to followSensory
you into
Detailsthe house to strangle
you in their vines. (personification)
Descriptive Essays
Precise Language
Writing descriptively involves choosing your words carefully.
The effect of your essay depends on the type of language that you
have used in it.
Clearer
Less Clearer
Sensory Details
General
Vague
Ambiguous
Conceptual
New Terms
Clear
Exact
Specific
Concrete
Descriptive Essays
Central Theme
The central theme shapes and directs the essay’s content and
helps organize the details.
It should be well defined and focused on a single point.
Sensory Details
Descriptive Essays
Organized Structure
Organized structure is an essential element of this essay.
Also, the chronology, spatial location, and order play an important
role.
Sensory Details
Five Basic Elements
of a Descriptive Essay
Sensory Details
Figurative Language
Precise Language
Central Theme
Organized Structure
Assignment
Write down your own
experience and feelings of
gardening in a descriptive
way.
Use at least two figures
of speech in your essay.
>200 words
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