Unit 6
The Human Touch
Teaching Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. grasp the main idea: Old Behrman saved Johnsy’s life at the expense of his own .
2. appreciate how the repeated use of clues helps weave a piece of narration together.
3. master the key language points and grammatical structures in the text.
4. conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking and writing activities related to the theme of the
unit.
Time Allotment
1st period:
2nd period:
3rd period:
4th period:
Pre-reading tasks; Text organization;
Text analysis and detailed explanation of the language points;
Continuation of text analysis and detailed explanation of the language points;
Post-reading tasks.
Pre-reading Tasks
1. T writes down on the blackboard the saying “Charity begins at home”.
2. T invites some Ss to interpret the saying.
3. Ss work in groups to discuss the question: Is it enough only to help those people we know?
4. T leads into the text by saying:
Maybe we should help both strangers and people who are close to us. In this unit, Text A tells
a story about how an old painter helped a young painter he knew, while Text B tells how a woman
helped a boy who had tried to rob her of her handbag.
Text A
The Last Leaf
Introduction of the Author
O. Henry (1862-1910)
Prolific American short-story writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of
ordinary people in New York City. Typical for O. Henry's stories is a twist of plot which turns on
an ironic or coincidental circumstance. Although some critics were not so enthusiastic about his
work, the public loved it.
"He wrote love stories, a thing I have always kept free from, holding the belief that the
well-known and popular sentiment is not properly matter for publication, but something to be
privately handled by the alienist and the florist."
O. Henry was born William Sydney Porter in Greenboro, North Carolina. His father,
Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was
raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of
fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He continued to
Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to
Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years. In 1887 he married Athol Estes
Roach; they had one daughter and one son.
In 1894 Porter started a humorous weekly The Rolling Stone. It was at this time that he began
heavy drinking. When the weekly failed, he joined the Houston Post as a reporter and columnist.
In 1894 cash was found to have gone missing from the First National Bank in Austin, where Porter
had worked as a bank teller. When he was called back to Austin to stand trial, Porter fled to
Honduras to avoid trial. Little is known about Porter's stay in Central America. It is said, that he
met one Al Jennings, and rambled in South America and Mexico on the proceeds of Jenning's
robbery. After hearing news that his wife was dying, he returned in 1897 to Austin. In 1897 he was
convicted of embezzling money, although there has been much debate over his actual guilt. Porter
entered in 1898 a penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio.
While in prison, Porter started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter
Margaret. His first work, 'Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking' (1899), appeared in McClure's
Magazine. The stories of adventure in the U.S. Southwest and in Central America gained an
immediately success among readers. After doing three years of the five years sentence, Porter
emerged from the prison in 1901 and changed his name to O. Henry. According to some sources,
he acquired the pseudonym from a warder called Orrin Henry. It also could be an abbreviation of
the name of a French pharmacist, Eteinne-Ossian Henry, found in the U.S. Dispensatory, a
reference work Porter used when he was in the prison pharmacy.
O. Henry moved to New York City in 1902 and from December 1903 to January 1906 he
wrote a story a week for the New York World, also publishing in other magazines. Henry's first
collection, CABBAGES AND KINGS, appeared in 1904. The second, THE FOUR MILLION,
was published two years later and included his well-known stories “The Gift of the Magi” and
“The Furnished Room”. THE TRIMMED LAMP (1907) explored the lives of New Yorkers and
included “The Last Leaf” - the city itself Henry liked to call “Bagdad-on the-Subway.” In one of
his stories, “One Dollar's Worth”, O. Henry deals with the judicial system.
Henry's best known work is perhaps the much anthologized “The Ransom of Red Chief”
published in the collection Whirligigs in 1910. O. Henry's humorous, energetic style shows the
influence of Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce. During his life time, O. Henry published 10
collections and over 600 short stories. His last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health, and
financial problems. He was a fast writer, like the Russian Anton Checkhov (1860-1904), but
drinking on average two quarts of whiskey daily, did not improve the quality of his work. In 1907
O. Henry married Sara Lindsay Coleman. The marriage was not happy, and they separated a year
later. O. Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910, in New York. Three more collections,
SIXES AND SEVENS (1911), ROLLING STONES (1912) and WAIFS AND STRAYS (1917),
appeared posthumously. In 1918 the O. Henry Memorial Awards were established to be given
annually to the best magazine stories, the winners and leading contenders to be published in an
annual volume.
While-reading Tasks
Text Analysis
1. Scenes in the story:
A story is composed of scenes. Normally a change of characters indicates a change in scene.
T asks Ss to divide the story into 7 scenes.
2. Threads in the story:
1) “The last leaf” threads throughout the story to make the latter a coherent piece.
2) “The doctor’s three visits” sum up three stages of Johnsy’s illness. Moreover, the doctor is
very convenient when Old Behrman’s sickness needed to be revealed.
3) “Soup” was refused by Johnsy when she decided to die with the fall of the last leaf. Yet when
she was shaken alive again by that undying last leaf, one of first desires was to drink some
soup.
4) Before Johnsy fell ill, she had wished to paint “the Bay of Naples”. Inspired by the last leaf,
she again looked forward t painting it.
5) In Paras 18-19, we learn that Old Behrman was a failure career wise. He had always talked
about a “masterpiece”, yet he was unable to deliver it. In Para 20, there went he again, “Some
day I will paint a masterpiece …” Finally. He painted his masterpiece at the cost of his life.
3. O' Henry is famous for surprise endings or "twists" in his stories. In The Last Leaf, Johnsy
seems to be dying of pneumonia when the story begins, but it is Mr Behrman who dies in the end,
while Johnsy survives. Now we know how Mr Behrman died, think of these other points and
discuss them:
• What did Mr. Behrman paint before he died?
• Try to describe his masterpiece.
• What did Mr. Behrman's painting do for Johnsy to help her survive?
• What feeling did it give her?
• Why does Sue call "The Last Leaf" Behrman's masterpiece?
Post-reading tasks
1. Ss first do Text Organization Exercise 1, then discuss in pairs what other clues help connect
the story into a whole. Later some pairs report to class.
2. T guides Ss through some after-text exercises.
3. T checks on Ss’ home reading (Text B Thank You Ma’m).
4. Ss do Part IV: Theme-related Language Learning Tasks.
Essay Writing: write an essay about what you find most touching in the stories of this unit.
5. T asks Ss to prepare the next unit.
Language Study
1. in tune: harmonious(ly) (often followed by with; the opposite: out of tune)
---- His ideas are in tune with the times.
2. joint: held or done by two or more persons together
---- She had taken the money out of the joint account she had with her husband.
3. stalk: (of an evil force) move through (a place) in a threatening way; move quietly and
cautiously in order to get near
---- When night falls, danger stalks the streets of the city.
4. here and there: in various places
---- During the summer vacation he will do a bit of teaching here and there.
5. victim: person, animal, etc. suffering death, injury or loss
---- The Red Cross assists victims of natural and man-made disasters.
6. scarcely: not quite; almost not
---- I can scarcely remember when I last ate home-baked bread.
7. subtract: take (a number, quantity) away from
---- Passenger cars can be added or subtracted at either end of the subway train.
8. merry: happy; cheerful; bright and gay
---- From the other room, we could hear the merry sound of laughter and glasses clinking.
9. backward: with the back or end first
---- The helicopter can travel forward, backward, or sideways.
10. bare: without covering, clothing, or decoration
---- Soil held in place by plant roots is less likely to blow or wash away than bare soil.
11. dreary: dull; gloomy; causing low spirits
---- She had spent a dreary day in the dormitory writing the term paper.
12. in a whisper: in a low voice
---- He bent down and addressed her in a whisper.
13. hear of: be told about or have knowledge of
---- She called me as soon as she heard of the trouble I was in.
14. nonsense: foolish talk, ideas, behavior
---- I think the report is nonsense and nothing but a waste of paper.
15. turn loose: allow (sth.) to be free of control
---- The sick whale will be taken care of by the scientists before being turned loose.
16. look the part: have an appearance for a particular job, role, or positions
---- I think he must be a captain – he certainly looks the part.
17. masterpiece: a piece of work, esp. art, which is the best of its type or the best a person as done
---- The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is considered Mark Twain’s masterpiece.
18. to excess: to an extreme degree
---- His father never smoked or drank to excess.
19. for the rest: as regards other matters
---- The working conditions in my new job are excellent, but for the rest, I am not impressed.
20. fierce: 1) violent and angry
---- A fierce police dog was chained to a wall.
2) intense; strong
---- The world is becoming a global market, and the competition is fierce.
21. mock: ridicule; make fun of (used in the pattern: mock (at) sb./sth.)
---- They mocked him and called him a coward.
22. fancy: sth. Imagined; unfounded opinion or belief
---- The forecasts in his book were not wild fancies.
23. stream: move in a continuous flow, pour out
---- The river streamed past my house.
24. persistent: continuing; occurring again and again
---- The persistent growth of the EU countries has been remarkable.
25. mingle: mix (followed by with)
---- The singer’s style mingles jazz and country music.
26. pull up: raise
---- I sat at my desk, knees pulled up to my chin.
27. stand out: be easily seen above or among others
---- The working experience in Microsoft last year still stands out in my mind.
28. wear away: 1) (of time) pass gradually
---- They didn’t reach an agreement. Instead they wore the afternoon away in arguing.
2) (cause to) become thin or damaged by constant use
---- The steps have been worn away by the feet of thousands of visitors.
29. cling to: hold tight to
---- The child is clinging to his mother’s legs.
30. call to: attract the attention of (sb.) by speaking out
---- The fisherman called to the villagers on the shore.
31. sin: offence against God, religion or good morals
---- In Christian theology, the first sin was committed by Adam.
32. sit up: raise yourself into an upright sitting position after you have been lying down or leaning
back
---- The patient is well enough to sit up in bed now.
33. acute: 1) (of diseases) coming quickly to the critical stage
---- She was taken to the hospital suffering from acute appendicitis.
2) severe
---- The company is said to be suffering from acute financial difficulties.
34. be wet through: be wet all over
---- My mother came home wet through.
35. flutter: (cause to) move about in a quick, irregular way
---- The ugly duckling fluttered into the milk-pan, and splashed the milk about the room.