College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
经济管 理类博 士研究 生
英语课程教案
主讲教师：马
爽
教学团队：陈峰、车艳秋、Jeremy
2010-2013
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 1
Wall Street Is No Friend to Racial Innovation
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1.
What is Wall Street’s major role in the American Economics?
2.
Give some examples of some (in)famous Wall Street cases.
Background Information
Wall Street is the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the
eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in
Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial
markets of the United States as a whole, or signifying New York-based financial
interests. It is the home of the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock
exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies. Several other major
exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including NASDAQ, the
New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former
American Stock Exchange. Anchored by Wall Street, New York City is one of the
world's principal financial centers.
Words and Expressions
1. a wet blanket: 扫兴的人或物
2. incumbent: (of an official or regime) currently holding office
3. incremental:
function
a small positive or negative change in a variable quantity or
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4. paradigm: a typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model
5. fall on deaf ears: 对牛弹琴，听而不闻
6. writing on the wall: 灾祸将临的预兆, 不祥之兆
7. ROI: Return on Investment 投资回报率
8. howl: shout in disapproval in order to prevent a speaker from being heard
9. par for the course: 正常的事，意料之中的事
10. tough sell: 很难的推销
Language Points
1.
To the list of reasons to resent Wall Street, now add another: It’s a wet blanket on
innovation.
2.
She looked at the photography sector during the shift from film to digital
technology, and telecommunications after the advent of Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP).
3.
Adding insult to injury, that remained true even as the analysts’ advice to buy a
company’s securities turned to recommendations to sell.
4.
But given that a mix of success and failure is par for the course in innovation,
that’s a tough sell.
Main Ideas
1.
Innovation is not always welcome in Wall Street.
2.
Wall Street speaks, a company management listens.
3.
Major changes are coming to Wall Street.
4.
Analysts’ prediction is always changing.
5.
The Student’s finding is very meaningful.
6.
Those who take the gamble have an ongoing dilemma.
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7.
It’s a wonder incumbent firms survive technology disruptions.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, 7, and 10.
Recommended learning sources
1. The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/home-page
2. The Wall Street Journal (Chinese version) http://cn.wsj.com/gb/
After –Class Reading
Book 2010: The Effective Organization
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Unit 2
For LGBT Workers, Being “Out” Brings Advantages
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What is LGBT? Have you ever thought about the life and work of these groups of
people?
2. Based on your understanding, can “being out” really bring them advantages?
What about the situation in China, if different?
Watch video clips:
1. Hillary Clinton LGBT Speech
2. Barack Obama 为 LGBT 同性恋争取平等而战-明显拿政治前程当赌注
3. Hong Kong: 彩虹大道-55
4. London Pride Parade LGBT
Background Information
1. LGBT: (also GLBT) and variations are used to refer collectively to Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, and queer-identified people. Variations that are sometimes
used include—but are not limited to—adding "Q" for queer or questioning, "I" for
intersex, or "S" (or "A") for straight allies. While LGBT is often used as a short
way to refer to the various LGBT demographic groups, LGBT individuals
themselves usually identify by other labels (such as lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer), or by no label at all.
Around the world, government policies regarding LGBT people range from the
death penalty for sexual acts to civil marriages or partnerships for same-sex
couples. Living conditions around the world also range from near-unanimous
acceptance of public displays of affection.
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2. Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over
15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest
brokerage.
Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly
owned and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol (股
票代号) MER. Merrill agreed to a purchase by Bank of America on September 14,
2008, at the height of the 2008 Financial Crisis. It ceased to exist as a separate
entity in January 2009.
Words and Expressions
1. lesbian: of or relating to homosexual women or to homosexuality in women; a
homosexual woman
2. gay: (of a person, especially a man) homosexual
3. bisexual: sexually attracted to both men and women
4. transgender: any one that has changed his / her gender by surgery
5. hindrance: creating difficulties for (someone or something), resulting in delay or
obstruction
6. closet: secret; covert
7. out: so as to be revealed or known
8. bantel: joke between familiar people like close friends or relations
9. stall: .(of a situation or process) stop making progress
10. disparity: a great difference
11. fraternity: (N. Amer.)a male students' society in a university or college
12. take a toll: cause a loss
13. heterosexual: involving or characterized by sexual attraction between people of
the opposite sex
14. morale: [mass noun]the confidence, enthusiasm, and discipline of a person or
group at a particular time
15. boost: help or encourage (something) to increase or improve
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Language Points
1. Our research suggests that many are hindering needlessly and that “out” workers
may stand a better chance than closeted workers of being promoted.
2. LGBT workers who feel forced to lie about their identity and relationships
typically don’t engage in collegial bantel about such things as weekend activities
— bantels that forges important workplace bonds.
3.
There are so many things that you can’t say or you have to lie about, and you’re
constantly on guard.
Main Ideas
1. Companies
have
made
great
progress
creating
more-welcoming
environments for LGBT employees.
2. “Out” workers may stand a better chance than closeted workers of being
promoted.
3.
Comparison between being “out” and “closeted” .
4.
Attitudes toward sexual orientation remain a complicated issue.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Recommended learning sources
1. LGBT rights by country or territory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory
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2. Secretary Hilary Clinton’s Historical Speech on LGBT Human Rights
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NCuc-QtfwE4/
3. LGBT Pride 2012 in SF
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDE5Mjg3Nzgw.html
4. Obama Speaks At LGBT Gala Fundraiser
http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/55357953-1759886053.html
After –Class Reading
Book 2011: What the West Doesn’t Get About China?
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Unit 3
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What do you know about Steve Jobs?
2. Do you use Apple products and are you an Apple fan?
3. What can we learn from Steve Jobs esp. in terms of management?
Watch video clips:
1. Commencement address at Stanford University delivered by Steve Jobs, 2005
2. 苹果 1984 广告
3. 乔布斯 WWDC 之歌
4. 乔布斯配音版未公开版本苹果 Think Different 非同凡想广告--纪念乔布斯
5. 乔布斯之歌
Background Information
1. Steve Jobs: was an American entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder,
chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely
recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for
his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also
co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios…Jobs has
received a number of honors and public recognition for his influence in the
technology and music industries. He has widely been referred to as “legendary”, a
“futurist” or simply “visionary”, and has been described as the “Father of the
Digital Revolution”, a "master of innovation", and a “design perfectionist”.
2. Steve Jobs: Timeline of his life and career
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•
February 24, 1955: Steven Paul Jobs was born in California. He grew up in the
area that was to become known as Silicon Valley.
•
1974: Jobs worked as a technician with the video game maker Atari (雅达利).
He saved money and then traveled to India to find spiritual enlightenment.
•
April 1, 1976: Jobs and Steve Wozniak cofound Apple Computer after
working on the design of their first computer in the garage of Jobs' home.
They introduced the Apple I.
•
January 24, 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh, an all-in-one desktop
machine that is widely credited with revolutionizing the personal computer
industry.
•
September 1985: was ousted from Apple following a long-running dispute
with other top executives.
•
1986: Jobs formed a new software company called NeXT Inc., and bought a
computer animation studio from Stars Wars creator George Lucas. The studio,
Pixar, makes some of the most popular computer-animated films, including
Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo.
•
1997: NeXT struggled and was bought by Apple, which also had been losing
money. Jobs returned to Apple and eventually to his role as chief executive.
•
1998: Apple introduced its newest personal computer, the iMac, and returned
to profitability.
•
October 2001: Apple introduced the iPod, promoting the personal digital
music player as "1,000 songs in your pocket."
•
April 28, 2003: Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, an online store selling
200,000 songs for 99 cents apiece. The company also introduced an upgraded
iPod that was thinner and lighter, and capable of holding up to 7,500 songs.
•
August 2004: Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent
surgery.
•
October 2005: Apple introduced a new iPod that played videos in addition to
music. The iTunes stores sold one million videos in less than three weeks.
•
January 2007: Apple introduced the iPhone.
•
September 2007: Apple introduced the iPod Touch, which used a touch-screen
interface and had wireless networking capabilities.
•
June 2008: Apple introduced an updated iPhone, capable of running software
applications - apps - that are designed by other companies, creating a new
industry of phone apps.
•
July 2008: Apple created the App Store as the new iPhone 3G went on sale.
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More than 10 million apps were downloaded during the store's first few days.
•
February 2009: Jobs began a six-month medical leave of absence. It was later
revealed that he underwent a liver transplant.
•
January 2010: Apple introduced its first touch screen tablet computer, the iPad.
•
January 2011: Jobs took a second medical leave of absence but tells Apple
employees he would remain involved in major strategic decisions.
•
March 2011: Jobs appeared at an Apple event to introduce the iPad 2. The
Financial Times said Apple's stock rose about 2 percent in the minutes after he
began speaking.
•
August 10, 2011: Apple briefly surpassed oil company ExxonMobil to become
the world's most valuable company.
•
August 24, 2011: Jobs resigned as Apple chief executive. Tim Cook, Apple's
chief operating officer, took over as CEO.
•
October, 2011, Jobs died and the world mourned him.
3. Reality Distortion Field (RDF) 现实扭曲力场
a term coined by Bud Tribble at Apple Computer in 1981, to describe company
co-founder Steve Jobs’ charisma and its effects on the developers working on the
Macintosh project. Tribble claimed that the term came from Star Trek. The RDF
was also said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Steve Jobs’ ability to convince himself and
others to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado (逞能，
蛮干), marketing, appeasement (姑息政策) and persistence. RDF was said to
distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them
believe that the task at hand was possible.
Words and Expressions
1. saga: a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents
2. writ: one's writ)one's power to enforce compliance or submission; one's authority
3. oust: drive out or expel (someone) from a position or place
4. pantheon: a group of particularly respected, famous, or important people
5. petulant: (of a person or their manner) childishly sulky or bad-tempered
6. wistful: having or showing a feeling of vague or regretful longing
7. pad: [with adverbial of direction]walk with steady steps making a soft dull sound
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8. retreat: a period of seclusion for the purposes of prayer and meditation
9. decree: order (something) by issuing a ruler or authority that has the force of law
10. ingrain: [with obj.]firmly fix or establish (a habit, belief, or attitude) in a person
11. Zen: (宗)禅，禅宗
12. exasperate: irritate intensely; infuriate
13. feud: a prolonged and bitter quarrel or dispute
14. clutter: an untidy state
15. defer: put off (an action or event) to a later time; postpone
16. convolute: 回旋,卷绕,盘旋
17. sync: synchronization
18. glitch: a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment
19. fervent: having or displaying a passionate intensity
20. inscrutable: impossible to understand or interpret
21. relish: great enjoyment
22. cannibalize: (of a company) reduce (the sales of one of its products) by
introducing a similar, competing product
23. injunction: an authoritative warning or order
24. invoke: cite or appeal to (someone or something) as an authority for an action or
in support of an argument
25. empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
26. euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered
to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing
27. herald: be a sign that (something) is about to happen
28. impute: ascribe (righteousness, guilt, etc.) to someone by virtue of a similar
quality in another
29. guru: an influential teacher or popular expert
30. deferential: showing deference; respectful
31. balk: 畏缩不前, 犹豫
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32. scoop: a long-handled spoon-like surgical instrument
33. whisk: take or move (someone or something) in a particular direction suddenly
and quickly
34. emanate: originate from; be produced by
35. suck: [美俚]使人极度不快
36. bozo: (informal, chiefly N. Amer.)a stupid insignificant person
37. mediocre: of only moderate quality; not very good
38. velvet: 天鹅绒制的, 柔软的, 光滑的, 舒适愉快的
39. close-knit: 紧密的,组织严密的
40. emulate: imitate
41. baby: treat sb. like a baby
42. serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or
beneficial way
43. freewheel: act without concern for rules, conventions, or the consequences of
one's actions
44. minuscule: extremely small; tiny
45. salient: most noticeable or important; prominent; conspicuous
46. psychedelic: （尤指 LSD）迷幻药的
47. admixture: a mixture
48. confluence: an act or process of merging
49. misfit: a person whose behaviour or attitude sets them apart from others in an
uncomfortably conspicuous way
50. dispel: make (a doubt, feeling, or belief) disappear
Language Points
1. After he righted the company, Jobs began taking his “top 100” people on a
retreat each year.
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2. Job’s Zenlike ability to focus was accompanied by the related instinct to simplify
things by zeroing in on their essence and eliminating unnecessary components.
3.
There would be times when we’d rack our brains on a user interface problem,
and he would go, “Did you think of this?”
4.
They needed to signal that you could grad it with one hand, on impulse.
5.
And soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.
6.
He was fretting over the shape and color of the screws inside the iMac.
Main Ideas
1. Focus
2. Simplify
3. Take responsibility end to end
4. When behind, leapfrog
5. Put products before profits
6. Don’t be a slave to focus groups
7. Bend reality
8. Impute
9. Push for perfection
10. Tolerate only “A” players
11. Engage face-to-face
12. Know both the big picture and the details
13. Combine the humanities with the sciences
14. Stay hungry, stay foolish
Other materials
Steve Jobs Leadership Skills & Management Skills:
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What makes become such a sucessfull leader? What kind of leadership skills that
Steve Jobs has?
We think, the following 3 key traits of leadership skills may be the correct answer:
The ability to articulate the vision; 2. The right kind of ambition; 3. The ability to
achieve the vision
1) The ability to articulate the vision
Can the leader articulate a vision that’s interesting, dynamic, and compelling? More
importantly, can the leader do this when things fall apart? More specifically, when the
company gets to a point when it does not make objective financial sense for any
employee to continue working there, will the leader be able to articulate a vision that’s
compelling enough that the people stay out of curiosity?
I believe that Jobs’ greatest achievement as a visionary leader so far was a) getting so
many super talented people to continue following him at NeXT, long after the
company lost its patina; then b) getting the employees of Apple to buy into his vision
when the company was weeks away from bankruptcy. It’s difficult to imagine any
other leader being so compelling that they could do these back-to-back and this is why
we call this one the Steve Jobs attribute.
2) The right kind of ambition
Andy Grove once remarked that a company needs highly ambitious executives in
order to achieve its goals. However, it’s critical that those executives have “the right
kind of ambition”: ambition for the success of the company rather than the “wrong
kind of ambition”: ambition for the success of themselves.
One of the biggest misperceptions in our society is that a prerequisite for becoming a
CEO is being selfish, ruthless, and callous. In fact, the opposite is true and the reason
is obvious. The first thing that any successful CEO must do is get really great people
to work for her. Smart people do not want to work for people who do not have their
interests in mind and in heart.
Most of us have experienced this in our careers: a bright, ambitious, hard working
executive that nobody good wants to work for and who, as a result, delivers
performance far worse than one might imagine.
Truly great leaders create an environment where the employees feel that the CEO
cares much more about the employees than she cares about herself. In this kind of
environment, an amazing thing happens: a huge number of the employees believe that
it’s their company and behave accordingly. As the company grows large, these
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employees become the quality control for the entire organization. They set the
standard of work that all future employees must live up to. As in, “Hey, you need to do
a better job on that datasheet—you are screwing up my company.”
3) Ability to achieve the vision
The final leg of our leadership stool is competence, pure and simple. If I buy into the
vision and believe that the leader cares about me, do I think she can actually achieve
the vision? Will I follow her into the jungle with no map forward or back and trust that
she will get me out of there?
I like to refer to this as the Andy Grove attribute. Andy Grove will always be my
model of CEO competence. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, wrote the best
management book that I’ve ever read (High Output Management), and tirelessly
refined his craft. Not only did he write exceptional books on management, he taught
management classes at Intel throughout his tenure.
In his classic book, Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove details the story of leading Intel
through the dramatic transition from the memory business to the microprocessor
business. In doing so, he walked away from nearly all of his revenue. He humbly
credits others in the company with coming to the strategic conclusion before he did,
but the credit for swiftly and successfully leading the company through the transition
goes to Dr. Grove. Changing your primary business as a 16 year old, large, public
company raises a lot of questions. As Andy describes in an incident with one of his
employees:
One of them attacked me aggressively, asking, “Does it mean that you can conceive of
Intel without being in the memory business?” I swallowed hard and said, ‘yes, I guess
I can.’ All hell broke loose.
Despite shocking many of his best employees with this radical strategy, ultimately the
company trusted Andy. They trusted him to rebuild their company around an entirely
new business. And that trust turned out to be very well placed.
Refer to: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/14/notes-on-leadership-jobs-grove-campbel/
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret 10 paragraphs into Chinese.
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Translation assignment
Para(s). 5, 6, 12, 23, 26, 27and 300.
Recommended learning sources
1. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
2. biography http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805
3. Steve Jobs Leadership Skills & Management Skills
http://www.oilpaintingcentre.com/painting2/html/100.html
4. Management the Steve Jobs way
http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/steve-jobs-management-style/
5. Harvard Business Review: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs/
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: Tsingtao’s Chairman on Jump-Starting a Sluggish Company
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Unit 4
Powerlessness Corrupts
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. We all agree that power does corrupt, but can you imagine powerlessness corrupts?
Why or why not?
2. How dangerous is powerless corruption?
3. How to prevent powerlessness corruption effectively?
4.
Why is corruption so common in China today?
Background Information
1.
Both power and powerlessness corrupt. We have this commonly held belief in
our society that power corrupts. In fact the opposite is true. What corrupts the
hearts and minds of men is our egoic belief that we are vulnerable and must
protect ourselves and our false belief systems for fear we may be overpowered.
The truth is that when you experience your true power, when you embrace the
truth that who you truly are is capable of absolutely anything, good and bad, that
humility settles into every fiber of your being. Those who use their perceived
power to control and manipulate and destroy what they see as a threat are in fact
the weakest of all our society. They protect their worldly identity and position
through intimidation and fear.
Those who understand the true nature of who they are, in fact, who we all are, are
those who have a magnetic presence that cannot be expressed through word or
deed. They automatically attract love, respect and draw people to them through
their overwhelming compassion, gentleness and understanding of the human
condition.
Ghandi was one such extraordinary man. These visionaries sometimes also cause
great fear in the hearts of those who experience powerlessness. The truly powerless
may seek to destroy these prophets, because they challenge their whole belief
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system and threaten to bring their precarious house of cards tumbling down.
Seek to realize your truly powerful nature through consciousness and your higher
self. Once you understand, you will have no more fear, only trust, because you will
know that no matter what happens, you are always safe. The struggle is of our own
creation because we have forgotten just how powerful we are. And once you
realize your infinite power, you see just how powerful everybody is, which brings
a sense of humility, peace and joy beyond anything you could possibly imagine.
Through your higher self, seek to discover your power, and when you realize it,
you will hold the key to everything you have ever dreamed. The perverse nature of
this realization is that, suddenly, all you desired and yearned for, suddenly becomes
completely unimportant.
2.
Lord Acton: Lord Acton is popularly remembered for
his pungent aphorisms – “Power tends to corrupt and
absolute power corrupts absolutely” – but of far deeper
significance was his lifelong study of the history of
freedom. It was a work never completed, for reasons
Professor Holland discusses in his introduction. But
Acton's brilliant insights, the fruit of his vast erudition,
were forthcoming on rare occasion, and never more
powerfully than in the two lectures published here.
These writings are a precious heritage for the promise
of civilization in our time and forevermore.
3.
Defensive pessimism: is a strategy used by anxious people to help them manage
their anxiety so they can work productively. Defensive pessimists lower their
expectations to help prepare themselves for the worst. Then, they mentally play
through all the bad things that might happen. Though it sounds as if it might be
depressing, defensive pessimism actually helps anxious people focus away from
their emotions so that they can plan and act effectively.
4.
Passive–aggressive behavior: is an umbrella term describing certain types of
behavior in interpersonal interactions. It is characterised by an obstructionist or
hostile manner that indicates aggression, or, in more general terms, expressing
aggression in non-assertive, subtle (i.e. passive or indirect) ways. It can be seen in
some cases as a personality trait or disorder marked by a pervasive pattern of
negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed, resistance in interpersonal or
occupational situations.
Words and Expressions
1. squeal: a long, high-pitched cry or noise
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2. screech: make a loud, harsh, squealing sound
3. cronyism: (derogatory) the appointment of friends and associates to positions of
authority, without proper regard to their qualifications 任人唯亲
4. virtuous circle vs. vicious cycle: (also referred to as a virtuous circle and a vicious
circle) are economic terms. They refer to a complex chain of events that reinforces
itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favorable results, while a
vicious circle has detrimental results.
5. egregious: outstandingly bad; shocking
6. aftermath: the consequences or after-effects of an event, especially when
unpleasant
7. cerebral: of the cerebrum of the brain
8. efficacy: the ability to produce a desired or intended result
9. averse: having a strong dislike of or opposition to something
10. tribute: an act, statement, or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect, or
admiration
11. vent: release or expression of a strong emotion, energy, etc
12. chastise: rebuke or reprimand severely
13. infighting: hidden conflict or competitiveness within an organization
14. sneak: move or go in a furtive or stealthy manner
15. burgeon: begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish
16. cubicle: a small partitioned-off area of a room, for example one containing a
shower, toilet, or bed
17. retaliate: make an attack or assault in return for a similar attack
18. sabotage: deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for
political or military advantage
19. veto: a constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a law-making
body
20. propel: drive, push, or cause to move in a particular direction, typically forwards
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Language Points
1. But if you call on cronyism, you perpetuate the problem.
2. While strategy is cerebral, springing from a few minds as a tidy plan, the messier
task of execution requires everyone’s coordinated actions.
3.
Hemmed in by rules and treated as unimportant, people get even by
overcontrolling their own turf.
4.
In an insurance company, a top officer known informally for a “big attitude
without big accomplishments” dressed people down in public for not working
hard enough.
Main Ideas
1. A vicious cycle of powerlessness undermines organizational effects.
2. Power corrupts, so does powerlessness.
3. Powerlessness is particularly apparent in the middle ranks.
4. Scarcity feeds resentment.
5. Managers should spread powerlessness by limiting information.
6. Powerlessness burgeons in blame cultures.
7. The powerless retaliate through subtle sabotage.
8. Every change can be an occasion for empowerment, in which people add their
own hopes and ideas to common goals.
9. Great leaders build confidence in advance of victory.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7.
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Recommended learning sources
1. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive%E2%80%93aggressive_behavior
2. Harvard Business Review: Column: Powerlessness Corrupts
http://hbr.org/2010/07/column-powerlessness-corrupts/ar/1
3. Demos: Powerlessness Corrupts
http://www.demos.co.uk/blog/powerlessnesscurrupts
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: The Happiness Factor
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Unit 5
My Inglorious Road to Success
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What factors do you think are crucial in one’s success?
2. Does family background count much in one’s career?
Background Information
1. Battle of the Bulge: (= the Ardennes Offensive ) (December 1944 –January 1945)
was a major German offensive, launched toward the end of World War II through
the densely forested Ardennes mountain region in Belgium.
In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely
depleted of men and equipment as survivors retreated to the defenses of the
Siegfried Line. For the Americans, with about 840,000 men committed and some
89,000 casualties, including 19,000 killed, the Battle of the Bulge was the largest
and bloodiest battle that they fought in World War II. However, it succeeded in
weakening Hitler’s military power so that German army could no longer prevent
the Allies’s advance.
2. The G. I. Bill【(美)退伍军人福利/权利法案】
(officially titled Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944,) was an omnibus bill
that provided college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans
(commonly referred to as G.I.s) as well as one year of unemployment
compensation. It also provided many different types of loans for returning
veterans to buy homes and start businesses. Since the original act, the term has
come to include other veteran benefit programs created to assist veterans of
subsequent wars as well as peacetime service.
3. The Matthew Effect
It denotes the phenomenon that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" and
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can be observed in various different contexts where "rich" and "poor" can take
different meanings. The effect takes its name from a line spoken by "the Master"
in Jesus' parable of the talents in the biblical Gospel of Matthew:
"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but
from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (Matthew
XXV:29, King James Version.)
Words and Expressions
1. proverbial: well known, especially so as to be stereotypical
2. hamster: a solitary burrowing rodent with a short tail and large cheek pouches for
carrying food, native to Europe and North Asia
3. booze: drink alcohol, especially in large quantities
4. shutter: close the shutters of (a window or building)
5. toil: work extremely hard or incessantly
6. meager: (of something provided or available) lacking in quantity or quality
7. angst: a feeling of persistent worry about something trivial
8. laureate: a person who is honoured with an award for outstanding creative or
intellectual achievement
9. caboose: (N. Amer.)a railway wagon with accommodation for the train crew,
typically attached to the end of the train
10. tenure: guaranteed permanent employment, especially as a teacher or lecturer,
after a probationary period
11. banish: get rid of, abolish, or forbid (something unwanted)
12. seminal: (of a work, event, moment, or figure) strongly influencing later
developments
13. provost: (Brit.)the head of certain university colleges, especially at Oxford or
Cambridge, and public schools
14. turbulent: characterized by conflict, disorder, or confusion; not controlled or calm
15. beget: cause; bring about
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16. miraculous: occurring through divine or supernatural intervention, or manifesting
such power
Language Points
1. I had an aching desire to make something of myself.
2. And my own share of good fortune, which I would not cast to the wind.
3.
My raw motivation came from a resolve to avoid the fate of my father, who spent
much of his life trapped in numbing jobs like a hamster on a wheel.
4.
He talked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology into accepting me into its
graduate program in economics.
Main Ideas
1. How a kid from a blue-collar family ever got so successful in his career
2. Whatever our motivations, each of us responds to the roles life offers us,
seizing good fortune.
3. Luck begets luck, like the rich getting richer in the Gospel of Matthew, those
with early success are rewarded with every-expanding opportunities.
4. All you did was work hard, get lucky, stay alive ---- and try to avoid your
father’s fate.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, and 5.
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Recommended learning sources
1. Book: How to Succeed in Academics
McCabe, Linda L./ McCabe, Edward R.
B. / 2000-1 /
2. How To Succeed At Work And In Career
http://pravstalk.com/how-to-succeed-at-work-and-in-career/
3. What does success mean to you?
http://www.lifesuccesszone.com/what-does-success-mean-to-you/
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: The Economics of Wellbing
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 6
How Will You Measure Your Life?
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What factors should be considered when measuring one’s life and career?
2. What are important in your life, family or career? Why?
Background Information
1. Disruptive technology: is a term coined by Harvard Business School professor
Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new technology that unexpectedly displaces
an established technology.
In his 1997 best-selling book, “The Innovator's Dilemma,” Christensen separates
new technology into two categories: sustaining and disruptive. Sustaining
technology relies on incremental improvements to an already established
technology. Disruptive technology lacks refinement, often has performance
problems because it is new, appeals to a limited audience, and may not yet have a
proven practical application. (Such was the case with Alexander Graham Bell's
“electrical speech machine,” which we now call the telephone.)
2. Jeff Skilling: (born November 25, 1953) was the former president of Enron
Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas. In 2006 he was convicted of
multiple federal felony [重罪] charges relating to Enron's financial collapse,
including the conviction for fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and insider trading,
and is currently serving a 24-year, four – month prison sentence at the Federal
Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colorado.
3. Enron Scandal: Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and
services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2,
2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's
leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies,
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with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000.Fortune named Enron
"America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. At the end of
2001, it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained
substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting
fraud, known as the "Enron scandal". Enron has since become a popular symbol
of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question
the accounting practices and activities of many corporations throughout the
United States and was a factor in the creation of the Sarba-nes–Oxley Act of 2002.
The scandal also affected the wider business world by causing the dissolution of
the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.
4. Frederick Irving Herzberg: (1923 – 2000) born in Massachusetts, was an
American psychologist who became one of the most influential names in business
management. He is most famous for introducing job enrichment and the
Motivator-Hygiene theory. His 1968 publication "One More Time, How Do You
Motivate Employees?" had sold 1.2 million reprints by 1987 and was the most
requested article from the Harvard Business Review. Herzberg proposed the
Motivation-Hygiene Theory ("激励因素—保健因素“理论），also known as the
Two factor theory （双因素理论) (1959) of job satisfaction
5. Marginal Cost: In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total
cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. That is, it is the
cost of producing one more unit of a good. If the good being produced is
infinitely divisible, so the size of a marginal cost will change with volume, as a
non-linear and non-proportional cost function includes the following: variable
terms dependent to volume, constant terms independent to volume and occurring
with the respective lot size, jump fix cost increase or decrease dependent to steps
of volume increase.
Words and Expressions
1. recalibrate: 重新刻度;再校准
2. sucker: (informal)a gullible or easily deceived person
3. cogent: (of an argument or case) clear, logical, and convincing
4. demean: cause a severe loss in the dignity of and respect for (someone or
something)
5. shortchange: (找钱时故意)少找零头,欺骗
6. alienate: cause (someone) to feel isolated or estranged
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7. estrange: cause (someone) to be no longer close, on friendly terms, or in
communication with someone
8. rudder: 舵
9. balanced scorecard: 平衡积分卡（用于团队考核、绩效管理）
10. buffet: guaranteed permanent employment, especially as a teacher or lecturer,
after a probationary period
11. inadvertently: not resulting from or achieved through deliberate planning
12. propensity: an inclination or natural tendency to behave in a particular way
13. predisposition: a liability or tendency to suffer from a particular condition, hold a
particular attitude, or act in a particular way
14. entail: involve (something) as a necessary or inevitable part or consequence
15. integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral
uprightness
16. extenuate: make (guilt or an offence) seem less serious or more forgivable
17. alluring: 诱惑的, 迷人的
18. infidelity: the action or state of being unfaithful to a spouse or other sexual partner
19. varsity: (chiefly N. Amer.)a sports team representing a university or college
20. deprecate: another term for depreciate
21. yardstick: standard used for comparison
Language Points
1. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the
microprocessor business, I’d have been killed.
2. And then, more often than not, they’d say, “I got it”.
3.
I open my own life to them as a case study of sorts.
4.
Deep rewards come from building up people.
5.
It basically says that being a visionary manager isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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6.
We worked our tails off and finished the season undefeated.
7.
One characteristic of these humble people stood out: they had a high level of
self-esteem.
8.
They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.
Main Ideas
1. Learn how to measure your life.
2. Create a strategy for your life.
3. Allocate your resources.
4. Create a culture.
5. Avoid the “Marginal Cost”.
6. Remember the importance of humility.
7. Choose the right yardstick.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 8, 9, 12, 17, 27 and 28.
Recommended learning sources
1. Disruptive Technology
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/disruptive-technology
2. The 10 Most Disruptive Technology Combinations
http://www.pcworld.com/article/143474/the_10_most_disruptive_technology_co
mbinations.html
(10. DVRs + Entertainment on Demand; 9. YouTube + Cheap Digital Cameras
and Camcorders; 8. Open Source + Web Tools; 7. MP3 + Napster; 6. Blogs +
Google Ads; 5. Cheap Storage + Portable Memory; 4. Cloud Computing +
Always-On Devices; 3. Broadband + Wireless Networks; 2. The Web + The
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Graphical Browser; 1. Cell Phones + Wireless Internet Access )
After –Class Reading
Book 2011: Have you Restructured for Global Success?
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 7
No, Management Is Not a Profession
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What is a profession? What features do all kinds of professions have in common?
2. Illustrate why the author says management is not a profession.
Background Information
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people
together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources
efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing,
leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people
or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing
encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial
resources, technological resources and natural resources.
Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as
human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from
a system. This view opens the opportunity to “manage” oneself, a pre-requisite to
attempting to manage others.
Words and Expressions
1. beguiling: 欺骗的;诱人的
2. mantle: a covering of a specified sort
3. laureate: a person who is honoured with an award for outstanding creative or
intellectual achievement
4. asymmetry: lack of equality or equivalence between parts or aspects of something
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5. transient: lasting only for a short time; impermanent
6. threshold: (chiefly Brit.)a level, rate, or amount at which something such as a tax
comes into effect
7. discrete: individually separate and distinct
8. requisite: made necessary by particular circumstances or regulations
9. antithesis: a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something
else
10. stark: complete; sheer
11. indefinable: not able to be defined or described exactly
12. aptitude: a natural ability to do something
13. imbue: inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality
14. novice: a person new to or inexperienced in the field or situation in which they are
placed
15. alumna: a female former pupil or student of a particular school, college, or
university
16. intrinsical: 本质的,固有的
17. pedagogical: of or relating to teaching
18. explicit: stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt
19. implicit: implied though not plainly expressed
20. immersion: the action of immersing someone or something in a liquid
21. contentious: causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial
22. subset: a part of a larger group of related things
23. dysfunctional: abnormality or impairment in the operation of a specified bodily
organ or system; disruption of normal social relations
24. homogenize: make uniform or similar
25. incubator: an apparatus used to hatch eggs or grow micro-organisms under
controlled conditions
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Language Points
1. In like vein, a school becomes a professional school only when it infuses those
ideals into its graduates.
2. It would amount to hiring two lawyers to do the work of one.
3.
In practice, our lawyer herself implicitly assures us that we can rely on the legal
advice she is giving.
4.
They have, in effect, a contract with society at large.
5.
In general, the professional is an expert, whereas the manager is a
jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none ---- the antithesis of the professional.
Main Ideas
1. That perception has fueled criticism of business schools during the recent
economic crisis..
2. True professions have codes of conduct, and the meaning and consequences
of those codes are taught as part of the formal education of their members..
3.
Unlike doctors and lawyers, adhere to a universal and enforceable code of
conduct.
4.
The calls to professionalism are hardly new.
5.
Professions are made up of particular categories of people from whom we see
advice and services because they have knowledge and skills that we do not.
6.
Most nonprofessional providers of goods and services also have knowledge
that we don’t.
7.
Professional bodies hold a trusted position
8.
Neither the boundaries of the discipline of management nor a consensus on
the requisite body of knowledge.
9.
The inherent differences between the professions and management have
direct implications for the design of education in each.
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10. Professional education is about taking a given individual on the journey from
having little or no knowledge or experience to becoming qualified.
11. First and foremost, business education should be collaborative.
12. Management educators need to resist the siren song of professionalism.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret 10 paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 11, 15, 17, and 21.
Recommended learning sources
1. 管理是不是一门职业
2.
http://www.huajiemba.com/Article/HTML/29535.html
Emerald Article: Is Facilities Management a Profession?
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=843913&show=abstract
3. Harvard Business Review Article: No, Management Is Not a Profession
http://hbr.org/product/no-management-is-not-a-profession/an/R1007C-HCB-ENG
?N=0&Ntt=Richard+Barker
After –Class Reading
Book 2011: First, Let’s Fire All the Managers
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 8
Where Does a Company’s Responsibility End?
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What are important factors to a company? Is profit the only thing a company
should pursue?
2. What kinds of responsibilities does a company have? And how can a company
earn all stakeholders’ respect?
Background Information
Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an
organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social
responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to
maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem. A trade-off always
exists between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the
society and environment. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium
between the two. It pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone
whose any action impacts the environment. This responsibility can be passive, by
avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts, or active, by performing activities that
directly advance social goals.
Businesses can use ethical decision making to secure their businesses by making
decisions that allow for government agencies to minimize their involvement with the
corporation. (Kaliski, 2001) For instance if a company is and follows the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for emissions on
dangerous pollutants and even goes an extra step to get involved in the community
and address those concerns that the public might have; they would be less likely to
have the EPA investigate them for environmental concerns. “A significant element of
current thinking about privacy, however, stresses "self-regulation" rather than market
or government mechanisms for protecting personal information” (Swire, 1997)
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According to some experts, most rules and regulations are formed due to public
outcry, which threatens profit maximization and therefore the well-being of the
shareholder, and that if there is not outcry there often will be limited regulation.
Critics argue that Corporate social responsibility (CSR) distracts from the
fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than
superficial window-dressing; others argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of
governments as a watchdog over powerful Tricorp corporations though there is no
systematic evidence to support these criticisms. A significant number of studies have
shown no negative influence on shareholder results from CSR but rather a slightly
negative correlation with improved shareholder returns.
Words and Expressions
1. accountability: (of a person, organization, or institution) being required or
expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible
2. externality: (Economics) a side effect or consequence of an industrial or
commercial activity which affects other parties without this being reflected in the
cost of the goods or services involved, such as the pollination of surrounding crops
by bees kept for honey
3. incentive: a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something
4. abatement: Law)lessen, reduce or remove (a nuisance)
5. receivable: able to be received
6. piracy: the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea
7. jeopardy: danger of loss, harm, or failure
8. unappealing: not inviting or attractive
9. spillover: an unexpected consequence, repercussion, or by-product
10. province: (one's province)an area of special knowledge, interest, or responsibility
11. spectrum: used to classify something, or suggest that it can be classified, in terms
of its position on a scale between two extreme or opposite points
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Language Points
1. In a roundtable on HBR. Org business thinkers weighed in on the boundaries of
corporate social responsibility. .
2. Leadership in the Age of Transparency, kicked off the debate.
3.
We need to trade in Powerpoint for real action.
4.
Many executives think that a systems perspective is too much work and places too
many unappealing restrictions on their business.
Main Ideas
1. Externalities is an economic term which … is “an effect of a purchase or use
decision by one set of parties on others who did not have a choice and whose
interests were not taken into account”.
2. Businesses are given the right to exist by the community, which provides
them with not only tax incentives, but rule of law, which allows them to
collect receivables, protect employees, and ship products without fear of
piracy.
3. Companies that ignore the systems of which they are a part and in which
they have a dynamic effect will reap the consequences.
4. Positive externalities are crucial to growth.
5. The positioning of NGOs between governments and for-profit companies
suggests a series of positions on a spectrum, strengthening the idea that
corporations can gradually move toward a more balanced set of benefits.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, and 3.
Recommended learning sources
1. Wikipedia: Social Responsibility
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_responsibility
2. Wikipedia: Externality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externalities
3. Book: The Relational Company: Responsibility, Sustainability, Citizenship
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=hWa98_zwFkAC&printsec=frontcover&lr=&hl=zh-CN
#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. The impact of business education on business students’ attitude towards the responsibility of
business in society
http://www.docin.com/p-26878877.html
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: Retail Doesn’t Cross Boarders
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 9
The Secret to Job Growth: Think Small
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Which kind of companies do you prefer to work in, a big one or a small one, why?
2. Why small companies may have better job growth?
Background Information
1. A smokestack industry is a basic, usually cyclical, manufacturing industry. [1]
The factories stereotypically used in such industries have flue gas stacks, hence the
name, and produce a high volume of pollution. Example industries include: Iron
and steelworks, Automotive industry, Chemical industry, etc.
2. Spillover effects are externalities of economic activity or processes that affect
those who are not directly involved. Odours from a rendering plant are negative
spillover effects upon its neighbours; the beauty of a homeowner's flower garden
is a positive spillover effect upon neighbours. Adaptation of machinery used
originally in one activity to some other industrial use.
In the same way, the economic benefits of increased trade are the spillover effects
anticipated in the formation of multilateral alliances of many of the regional
nation states: e.g. SARC (South Asian Regional Cooperation), ASEAN
(Association of South East Asian Nations)
In reference to psychology, the spillover effect is when one's emotions affect the
way one perceives other events. For example “arousal from a soccer match can
fuel anger, which can descend into rioting or other violent confrontations” An
effect of one person on another is also referred to as crossover effect. (See also:
emotional contagion, partner effects)
In the context of work-life balance, spillover refers to positive or negative effects
of an individual's working life on their personal life or family life and vice versa.
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Examples are work-family enrichment and work-family conflict.
Spillover effects are those variables in every economy that cannot be adjusted by a
single policy monitored by the government.
The term “spillover effects” when used in Media refers to the reinforcement of a
conflict. The news event mobilizes groups that identify with parties of the conflict,
and magnifies the event globally.
Words and Expressions
1. smokestack: a chimney or funnel for discharging smoke from a locomotive, ship,
factory, etc.
2. skew: neither parallel nor at right angles to a specified or implied line; askew;
crooked
3. spillover: an instance of overflowing or spreading into another area
4. perpetuate: make (something, typically an undesirable situation or an unfounded
belief)
Language Points
1. With job growth continuing to lag even as the economy picks up, local
communities will be tempted to resume “smokestack chasing”.
2. It allowed us to adjust for the effects of each city’s and industry’s overall growth
rate, among other things.
3.
Politicians are all too likely to guess wrong about which industries are worth
attracting.
Main Ideas
1. Local communities are using tax breaks to attract big employers and this is a
misguided approach.
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
2. Regional economic growth is highly correlated with the presence of many
small, entrepreneurial employers, not a few big ones.
3. It’s reasonable to wonder whether industry structure, tax policy, or some
other special circumstance skewed the results.
4. What’s more, large corporations often generate little employment growth
even if they are doing well.
5. A little work in that direction goes a long way. Once entrepreneurship gets
established, it tends to be self-perpectuating.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, and 3.
Recommended learning sources
1. Is corporate America the key to US job growth?
http://www.szsky.com/article-168491-1.html
2. The Secret to Getting Hired In Today's Job Market
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2010/12/04/secret-to-getting-hired-in-todays-job-market/
3. 10 best job growth areas in America
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/06/22/10-best-job-growth-areas-in-america/
4. Obama vows to make job growth his top priority
http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/international/11020308/20100128/15796738.html
5. New York Times: Where the Job Growth Is: At the Low End
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/where-the-job-growth-is-at-the-low-end/
6. Reuters: Analysis: As job growth accelerates, wages may follow
http://cn.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKTRE74554E20110506?symbol=MAN
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7. CCTV.com: China sees stable job growth
http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20120926/101815.shtml
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: How Managers Become Leaders
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 10
The Case for Executive Assistants
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Do you think EAs are necessary for executives, why?
2. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of hiring an EA.
Background Information
1. Secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of
supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project
management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be
entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit of more
than one. In other situations a secretary is an officer of a society or organization
who deals with correspondence, admits new members and organizes official
meetings and events.
A secretary has many administrative duties. Traditionally, these duties were
mostly related to correspondence, such as the typing out of letters, maintaining
files of paper documents, etc. The advent of word processing has significantly
reduced the time that such duties require, with the result that many new tasks have
come under the purview of the secretary. These might include managing budgets
and doing bookkeeping, maintaining websites, and making travel arrangements.
Secretaries might manage all the administrative details of running a high-level
conference or arrange the catering for a typical lunch meeting. Often executives
will ask their assistant to take the minutes at meetings and prepare meeting
documents for review
2. Phone tag is a phenomenon in which two parties attempt to contact each other by
telephone, but neither is able to get a hold of the other for a conversation. Both
parties may leave a message on the answering machine or voicemail of the other,
and request a call back. This continues for a period of time, often with the two
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
parties exchanging attempts to have a real-time conversation.
Phone tag has increased with the advent of messaging technologies. It is seen as
having advantages in that people can leave and receive messages at their
convenience rather than having to find a common time with the other party to
have a conversation.
With phone tag being possible, people have a choice of when they want to return
calls they've received. They may also decide which calls they wish to return and
which to not (similar to call screening). Many recipients of messages simply
choose to not return certain calls
3. trickle-down-effect: is a marketing phenomenon that affects many consumer
goods. Initially a product may be so expensive that only the wealthy can afford it.
Over time, however, the price will fall until it is inexpensive enough for the
general public to purchase.
When applied to fashion, this theory states that when the lowest social class, or
simply a perceived lower social class, adopts the fashion, it is no longer desirable
to the leaders in the highest social class.
The theory also exists in social behavior. For instance, the urban middle and
upper class of Europe adopted the bicycle, both for distinction purposes and for
the green values it represents, in contrast to everyone's polluting car. Street
designs are increasingly bicycle-friendly, with bikeways, cycling infrastructure.
Some cities even decide to fund a public bicycle sharing system, despite the low
attendances recorded.
4. The trickle-up effect is an economic theory used to describe the flow of wealth
from the poor to the affluent; it is opposite to the trickle-down effect.
Words and Expressions
1. chord: a straight line joining the ends of an arc
2. trickle: with adverbial of direction](of a liquid) flow in a small stream
3. alas: (chiefly poetic literary or humorous)an expression of grief, pity, or concern
4. genuine: truly what something is said to be; authentic
5. disallow: refuse to declare valid
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Language Points
1. Companies have hurt productivity by cutting back too far on administrative help
— struck a chord with readers .
2. For the past five years, my request for an EA has continued to fall on deaf ears.
3. It’s not that I find administrative work beneath me, but does it really make sense
to pay me to copy and paste data into forms or play phone tag to schedule
meetings.
4. The excuse I get is that it would add to head count.
5. I don’t see how I can add more value to the company if I were freed from these
tasks.
6. It holds out the promise that corporations can support shared values without pain.
Main Ideas
1. Does it really make sense to pay me to copy and paste data into forms or play
phone tag to schedule meetings?
2. The question about EAs’ doing personal tasks really depends on the
relationship.
3. Some executives expect that their EAs will manage both their business and
their personal lives.
4. Never work for someone you don’t respect, admire, or trust.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1 and 2.
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Recommended learning sources
1. Executive Assistant Salary
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Executive_Assistant/Salary
2. Become an Executive Assistant
http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/becomean-executive-assistant/article.aspx
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs
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Unit 11
The Early Bird Really Does Get the Worm
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What does “the early bird gets the worm” imply?
2. What kind of “bird” are you? Early bird or night owl? What’s your advantages and
disadvantages?
3. Does physiology play a role in job performance?
4. Can your biorhythms actually make or break your career?
Background Information
the early bird gets / catches the worm: proverb, meaning that whoever arrives first
has the best chance of success; some opportunities are only available to the first
competitors
Words and Expressions
1. undisciplined: lacking in discipline; uncontrolled in behaviour or manner
2. correlation: a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things
3. immutable: unchanging over time or unable to be changed
4. chronotype: 决定在早上还是晚上比较有活力的生理时钟等因素
5. circadian: (Physiology)(of biological processes) recurring naturally on a
twenty-four-hour cycle, even in the absence of light fluctuations
6. ingrain: firmly fix or establish (a habit, belief, or attitude) in a person
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7. pervasive: (especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect) spreading
widely throughout an area or a group of people
8. accommodate: (of physical space, especially a building) provide lodging or
sufficient space for
9. conscientious: (of a person) wishing to do what is right, especially to do one's
work or duty well and thoroughly
10. lookout: a person stationed to keep watch for danger or trouble
11. extroversion: an outgoing, socially confident person
Language Points
1. They’re out of sync with the typical corporate schedule.
2. Morning people hold the important cards.
3. Morning people tend to get up at about the same time on weekends as on
weekdays, whereas evening people sleep in when they get a chance.
4. Children show a marked increase in eveningness from around age 13 to late
adolescence, and on balance, more people under 30 are evening types.
5. The result is that the vast majority of school and work schedules are tailored to
morning types.
Main Ideas
1. Though evening people do have some advantages, they tend to be smarter
and more creative than morning types.
2. People whose performance peaks in the morning are better positioned for
career success, because they’re more proactive than people who are at their
best in the evening.
3. The difference between workday and free-day wake-up times is definitely
correlated with morningness and eveningness.
4. Morning types are capable of understand the value of chornotype diversity.
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5. Evening type may no longer serve as our midnight lookouts, but their
intelligence, creativity, humor, and extroversion are huge potential benefits
to the organization.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, and 7.
Recommended learning sources
Extensive reading task:
I may not have been an early bird since birth, but after years of training myself to
jump-start my day, my body naturally wants to get a move on as soon as it’s light
outside. In fact, I’m now almost incapable of sleeping past 8 a.m.
Some people may consider that a tragic flaw, but I enjoy getting up early. I like
not being rushed as I prepare for work, and I enjoy the morning hour when I’m alone
in the office. For some people, waking up early isn’t the easiest lifestyle to sustain,
but for those who can stick it out, it offers a bevy of benefits.
More “Me” Time
While my fiancé is hitting the snooze button repeatedly, I’m taking a leisurely
shower, tidying up around the house, and catching up on last night’s Daily Show.
When you wake up early, without phone calls, emails, or pestering family members,
the time is yours to spend as you please, whether you meditate, exercise, read, or
simply watch that television show your spouse hates. Many parents of young children
find that the early-morning hours provide their only chance to enjoy a cup of coffee or
relax alone before the day begins.
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Regular Workouts
People’s motivation to exercise is high first thing in the morning. Many report
that they are more likely to stick to a morning workout routine than to an afternoon or
evening one, since distractions have a way of derailing later plans to get to the gym.
Also, although it hasn’t been proven, some exercise physiologists believe that
exercising in the morning on an empty stomach forces the body to burn stored fat,
instead of other calories.
A study published in the November 2006 issue of the journal SLEEP found that
exercising in the morning led to better sleep at night. The researchers theorized that
the morning activity helped to properly align the body’s circadian rhythms. Test
subjects who postponed exercise until the evening actually had a more difficult time
falling asleep.
An Easier Commute
In some cities, the difference between a breezy, quick commute and total
gridlock can be as little as fifteen minutes. Getting up early to beat traffic makes
commuting not only more relaxing and peaceful, but also safer. Stressed driving,
either because of traffic conditions or because the driver is running late, can lead to
aggressive behavior, speeding, and poor decision making, increasing the chance of
accidents. For those who rely on public transportation to get to work, getting up early
can mean the difference between grabbing a seat on a nearly empty train or bus and
cramming in next to strangers, holding on to the strap for dear life.
The Benefit of Breakfast
When you sleep in and hurry out the door, breakfast is often one of the first parts
of the morning routine to go, and many people who sleep in very late end up skipping
breakfast altogether and waiting until lunchtime to eat. Yet countless studies have
demonstrated the positive effects of eating a healthy breakfast: people who do so tend
to feel fuller, make better food choices throughout the day, and be a healthier weight
than non–breakfast eaters. Waking up early gives us the benefit of time and energy to
put together a healthy breakfast, instead of grabbing fast food or forgoing the meal
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entirely.
Family Matters
When you have time in the morning to tidy up the house, start prepping for
dinner, or do errands, you can use the extra evening hours to relax and have fun with
your partner, your kids, or your friends. Most people would probably rather spend
their evenings enjoying a movie or eating a leisurely family dinner than doing
housework. Getting your chores done at the beginning of the day makes those
activities more possible.
High Productivity
In 2007, Yahoo! Finance surveyed twenty CEOs and high-powered executives at
companies like Pepsi, Motorola, Avaya, and Xerox. One thing that all of them had in
common was that they were all awake before 6 a.m. They used that time to get ahead
on email, exercise, read the paper, or take care of family chores. All of the survey
respondents said that getting up early was absolutely essential to their productivity.
A Brainpower Boost
There’s also some evidence that our brains are at their peak performance in the
morning hours. In a study conducted at the University of North Texas, college
students who reported getting up early had higher GPAs than students who slept in
regularly.
Less Stress
When you get up early, you set a relaxed and comfortable pace for the whole day.
Between getting yourself ready for work, getting your kids ready for school,
commuting to work, and doing all the other things that have to happen before 9 a.m.,
things can get pretty stressful. Reducing stress has a big effect on health, since stress
can result in headaches, stomachaches, hair loss, high blood pressure, and anxiety and
can exacerbate other chronic ailments. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) estimates that stress-related conditions cost American
businesses about $300 million every year. When you build extra time into your
morning routine, you don’t feel like you’re rushing everywhere.
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The biggest benefit of being a morning person is that the world operates on your
schedule. Night owls may love sleeping till noon, but it’s a fact that most of life
happens during the daytime, and if you’re not awake and ready, opportunity can pass
you by. Waking up early isn’t the easiest thing to do, and even those of us who enjoy
being early birds occasionally have days when we’re tempted to hit the snooze button
(again). But it’s nice to know that once we’re out of bed, the world is ours for a few
brief, shining moments … at least, until everyone else wakes up.
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: Candor, Criticism, Teamwork
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Unit 12
Zappos’s CEO on Going to Extremes for Customers
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Is it necessary for corporations to go to extremes for customers? Why or why not?
2. What, in your opinion, should a corporation do if it wants to cater to its customers?
Background Information
1. Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson,
Nevada. Zappos was founded by Nick Swinmurn in 1999. The initial inspiration
came when he couldn’t find a pair of brown Airwalks at his local mall. That same
year, Swinmurn approached Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin with the idea of selling
shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical, and almost deleted Swinmurn’s voice
mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that “footwear in the US is a 40 billion dollar
market and 5% of that is already being sold by paper mail order catalogs,” Hsieh
and Lin decided to invest $500,000 through their investment firm Venture Frogs.
The company was officially launched in June 1999, under the original domain
name “ShoeSite.com.”
A few months after their launch, the company's name was changed from ShoeSite
to Zappos (a variation of “zapatos,” the Spanish word for “shoes”) so as not to
limit itself to selling only footwear.[10] In January 2000, Venture Frogs invested
additional capital, and allowed Zappos to move into their office space. During this
time, Hsieh found that he “had the most fun with Zappos” and came on board as
co-CEO with Nick Swinmurn. After minimal gross sales in 1999, Zappos brought
in $1.6 million in revenue in 2000.
Growth in 2001, Zappos more than quadrupled their yearly sales, bringing in $8.6
million. In 2002, they opened their own fulfillment center in Shepherdsville,
Kentucky. Advertising costs were minimal, and the company grew mostly by
word of mouth. It was around this time that Hsieh and Zappos executives set
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long-term goals for 2010: achieve $1 billion in sales and receive inclusion on
Fortune’s list of The Best Companies to Work For.
In 2003, Zappos reached $70 million in gross sales and abandoned drop shipping,
which accounted for 25% of their revenue base. The decision was based on
supplying superior customer service, as Hsieh says "I wanted us to have a whole
company built around [customer service] and we couldn’t control the customer
experience when a quarter of the inventory was out of our control." In 2004,
Zappos did $184 million in gross sales, and received their first round of venture
capital, a $35 million dollar investment from Sequoia Capital. That same year,
they moved their headquarters from San Francisco to Henderson, Nevada.
Over the next three years, Zappos doubled their annual revenues, hitting $840
million in gross sales by 2007. They expanded their inventory to include handbags,
eyewear, clothing, watches, and kids’ merchandise. Hsieh summarized this
transition, saying "back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that
offered great service. Today, we really think of the Zappos brand as about great
service, and we just happen to sell shoes."
In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an
all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has
grown to be the largest online shoe store.
2. An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor)
is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in
exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number
of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to
share research and pool their investment capital.
Words and Expressions
1. caliber: the quality of someone's character or the level of someone's ability
2. fajitas: a dish of Mexican origin consisting of strips of spiced beef or chicken,
chopped vegetables, and grated cheese, wrapped in a soft tortilla and often served
with sour cream
3. poster child: 作为模范和榜样的人物
4. temp: a temporary employee, typically an office worker who finds employment
through an agency
5. maniacal: a person exhibiting extreme symptoms of wild behaviour, especially
when violent and dangerous
6. cajole: persuade someone to do something by sustained coaxing or flattery
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7. buzz: a low, continuous humming or murmuring sound, made by or similar to that
made by an insect
8. protract: prolong
9. persona: the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by
others In psychology, often contrasted with anima. In psychology, often contrasted
with anima
10. quirky: characterized by peculiar or unexpected traits
11. uproot: pull (something, especially a tree or plant) out of the ground
12. high-touch: 高触派
Language Points
1. I’d gotten involved with the company as an investor after LinExchange.
2. We got the whole sales pitch and listened in on sample calls.
3. At Zappos, we don’t hold reps accountable for call times.
4. The rep was a bit confused by the request, but she quickly recovered and put us on
hold.
Main Ideas
1. In search of high caliber employees to staff its call center, Zappos relocated the
entire company from San Francisco to Las Vegas in 2004. Here’s why the move
made sense.
2. As unsexy and low-tech as it may sound, the telephone is one of the best
branding devices out there.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret some paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
No.
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Recommended learning sources
1. Zappos：卖鞋的亚马逊
2. Zappos website
http://tech.qq.com/a/20091024/000137.htm
http://www.zappos.com/
3. 专访 Zappos 创始人：年薪还是 3.6 万美元
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2010-09-30/22534713201.shtml
4. CNN：The 10 Commandments of Zappos
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/21/news/companies/obrien_zappos10.fortune/
5. 案例：Zappos 的社会化营销实践
http://learning.sohu.com/20090114/n261741072.shtml
6. 我为什么卖掉了 Zappos
http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/113229.htm
After –Class Reading
Book 2012: What Business Schools Can Learn from the Medical Profession
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人文类 博士研 究生
英语课程教案
主讲教师：陈
锋
教学团队：马爽、车艳秋、Jeremy
2010-2013
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 1
How To Grow Old
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Did all Russell’s ancestors live to a ripe old age?
2. What, in the opinion of the author, is the best way for an old person to overcome
the fear of death?
3. Do you agree with the author’s views on old age and death? State your reasons.
Background Information
1. Bertrand Arthur William Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a
British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At
various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist,
but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense.
He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic
families in Britain. Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early
20th century. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along
with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is
widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. He co-authored,
with A. N. Whitehead, Principia Mathematica, an attempt to ground mathematics
on logic. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a
"paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable influence on logic,
mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science, and
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philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed anti-imperialism and
went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Later, he campaigned against
Adolf Hitler, then criticized Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the involvement of
the United States of America in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken
proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he
champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
2. Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of
Cambridge. It was England's first residential college for women, established in
1869 by Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley of Alderley. The full
college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of
women to the university. In 1976, it was Cambridge's first women's college to
become coeducational. As of 2010, the college's net assets were valued at £104.5
million, including £49 million of endowment, and in 2009-10 it admitted 674
full-time undergraduates and postgraduates. The college's formal governance is
assured by a Mistress, currently Susan J. Smith.
Words and Expressions
11. justification: an justification for something is an acceptable reason or explanation
for it.
12. justifiably 无可非议地
13. abject: You use abject to emphasize that a situation or quality is extremely bad.
14. her recipe: her way of doing things
15. impersonal 超脱个人感情影响的
16. ego: Someone's ego is their sense of their own worth. For example, if someone
has a large ego, they think they are very important and valuable.
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17. brevity: The brevity of something is the fact that it is short or lasts for only a
short time.
18. reincarnation 轮回 If you believe in reincarnation, you believe that you will be
reincarnated after you die.
19. carnation:康乃馨
20. carnage:大屠杀 Carnage is the violent killing of large numbers of people,
especially in a war.
Language Points
a) cut off in the flower of his youth: A euphemism for died in the prime of youth’’
or “died young.” Of course Bertrand Russell was being humorous when he said
this.
b) “madre snaturale”: (Italian) literally, an unnatural mother. The phrase means here
“What an extraordinary mother!
c) clinging to youth: used predicatively, the phrase means showing undue interest in
one’s children after they have grown up.
d) until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede: until gradually a person becomes one
with the universe·.
e) Although both my parents died young.
Main Ideas
8.
Wide and keen interests and activities are recipes for remaining young.
9.
Undue absorption in the past is a psychologically dangerous.
10. Clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality is wrong.
11. A successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests
involving appropriate activities.
12. An individual human existence should be like a river
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Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, 4
Recommended learning sources
4. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
5. Famous quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Bertrand_Russell
After –Class Reading
Essay: The road to Happiness
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 2
The Beauty Industry
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Is the author’s view of the beauty industry positive or negative? State the reasons he
proposes in the text.
2. What are the criteria for human beauty according to the author?
3. What aspect of the modern western society is the author criticizing in this essay? Is
his criticism well-grounded?
Background Information
1. Aldous Leonard Huxley: he was an English writer and one of the most
prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels
including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also
edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel
writing, film stories and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in the United
States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. Huxley was a humanist,
pacifist, and satirist. He later became interested in spiritual subjects such as
parapsychology
and
philosophical
mysticism,
in
particular
Vivekanda's
Neo-Vedanta and Universalism. He is also well known for his advocacy and
consumption of psychedelic drugs. By the end of his life Huxley was widely
acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time.
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2. The beauty industry encompasses sales of cosmetics, perfume, and products for
skin and hair care. Beauty salons and spas are considered the service sector of the
beauty industry. In addition, some economists include health clubs and cosmetic
surgery in their definition of the market. Worldwide sales of beauty-related
products and services are estimated to be in excess of $159 billion US dollars
(USD) each year. Most research shows that sales to women account for a huge
majority of the sum.
Words and Expressions
1. aesthetics: the study of beauty, especially beauty in art
2. avarice: a desire to have a lot of money that is considered to be too strong
3. crone: an ugly or unpleasant old woman
4. emphatically: 有力地
5. lascivious： showing strong sexual desire
6. monomania: an unusually strong interest in a particular idea or subject
7. paraffin wax: 石蜡
8. repellent: nasty or very unpleasant
9. ruddle: to color, or be as if marked with red ocher
10. transfigure: to change the way someone looks
Language Points
5.
Europe is poor, and a face can cost as much in upkeep as a Rolls-Royce.
6.
In any case, the more costly experiments in beautification are still as much
beyond most European means as are high-powered motor-cars and electric
refrigerators.
7.
Hence, among other things, the fortunes made by face cream manufacturers and
beauty-specialists, by the vendors of rubber reducing- belts and massage machines,
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by the patentees of hair-lotions and the authors of books on the culture of the
abdomen.
8.
So long as such disharmonies continue to exist, so long as there is good reason
for sullen boredom, so long as human beings allow themselves to be possessed by
monomaniacal vices, the cult of beauty is destined to be ineffectual.
Main Ideas
1. Beauty that is merely the artificial shadow of these symptoms of health is
intrinsically of poorer quality.
2. For real beauty is as much an affair of the inner as of the outer self.
3. All men and women will be beautiful only when the social arrangement give to
every one of them an opportunity to live completely and harmoniously.
4. The campaign for more physical beauty seems to be both a tremendous success
and a lamentable failure.
5. Still commoner and no less repellent is the hardness which spoils so many pretty
faces.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, and 5.
Recommended learning sources
1. Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley
2. Film: Brave New World, adapted from Huxley's work
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After –Class Reading
Book: On the Margin
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Unit 3
At the Tailors
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Why does the author feel apologetic whenever he goes into his tailor’s？
2. What does the author mean when he says “They have so little common humanity,
these artists of the pins and chalk, that it must be difficult to wring out of nine of
them folly and friendliness enough to make an ordinary citizen”?
3. Priestley “has the uncommon gift of writing about dullness without making it dull
for an instant”. Do you come to the same conclusion after you read the essay?
Why?
Background Information
1. John Boynton Priestley, (13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984), known as J. B. Priestley,
was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The
Good Companions (1929), as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls (1946).
His output included literary and social criticism.
Words and Expressions
1.
chaos: a state of total confusion and lack of order
2.
Regent Street; New Bond Street: Both are busy streets in the fashionable West End of
London.
3.
Bustle: hurried and busy activity
4.
Sales: Bargain sales at which goods are sold at reduced prices. The word is often capitalized
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when used in this sense.
5.
loiter : move slowly, stand or wait, esp. in a public place without an obvious reason
6.
catch sight of: see for a moment
7.
sober: serious and calm
8.
transaction: doing and completing a business activity
9.
Savile Row, Conduit Street, Maddox Street: these streets are the region of the tailors who
cater to the wealthy and fashionable people in London.
10. shrivel up: become dry and wrinkled ( usually because it loses moisture in the heat )
11. audacity: bravery
Language Points
1. He regards me with about the same amount of interest that I give to another man’s coat.
---- He is not interested in me, just as I’m not interested in another man’s coat – but the
comparison here is obviously not all that honest and serious!
2. who is at a public school ---- A public school in Britain is in fact a very expensive private
school for the children of wealthy families. The coat man whose son is at a public school
regards himself as a member of the upper class and wants to be treated as such. That’s why
‘condescended’ is used, as the word means ‘treat someone in a way which show that you
consider yourself to be better and cleverer’: I know you’re a post-graduate now, but will you
still condescend to join us for lunch?
3. Almost sharing the honours with my coat ---- In the eyes of the coat man, I appear so
insignificant when compared with my coat. But now I feel that we (my coat and I) are almost
standing on the equal footing, how can I not feel flattered and honored?
4. But then he became serious again and took out a pin somewhere and made another
chalkmark. ---- Anyway, the message (that his son is in a public school) has been passed on.
And, moreover, one cannot condescend to another for long, can they?
5. Nine tailors make a man ---- This is an old expression of contempt at the expense of tailors.
It implies that a tailor is so much more feeble than anyone else that it would take nine of them
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to make a man of average stature and strength.
6. For them the smallest seam they sew: this is a parody of two lines from Wordsworth’s 0de
On Intimations of Immortality:
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
7. trousers are beauty, beauty trousers: this is apparently a parody of two lines from Keats’s
poem Ode On a Grecian Urn：“Beauty is truth, truth is beauty,”; That is all Ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know
Main Ideas
1. Nine tailors make a man.
2. In a new world in which anything will do so long as it arrives quickly and easily,
this region has fallen sadly behind the times. It is still engaged in the old quest for
perfection.
3. A tailor who is a mere shopkeeper fits you until you are satisfied.
4. I never walk into my own tailor’s without feeling apologetic.
5. By the time I have been inside one of those places ten minutes I have not a shred
of self-respect left. It is worse than being at the barber’s, and fully equal to being
at the dentist’s.
6. Will they accept these few words of tribute from a pocket-stuffer, a rumpler and
crumpler, a bagger?
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 4, and 7.
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Recommended learning sources
4. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Priestley#Novels
5. Film: The Good Companion
After –Class Reading
普里斯特利散文选（2009）
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Unit 4
The Luncheon
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What is the personality of the man in the story?
2. What is the personality of the woman?
3. Say something about the story from the perspective of stylistics in the aspects of
conversation, narration, repetition and coherence.
Background Information
1. William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British
playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era
and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. After losing both his parents by the
age of 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to
become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a
doctor. The first run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that
Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. During the First World War, he served with the
Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret
Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia; all of
these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.
2. Semite: In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language
family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This
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family includes the ancient and modern forms of Ahlamu, Akkadian, Amharic,
Amorite, Arabic, Aramaic/Syriac, Canaanite/Phoenician/Carthaginian, Chaldean,
Eblaite, Edomite, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Mandaic, Moabite, Sutean, Tigre and
Tigrinya, and Ugaritic, among others. As language studies are interwoven with
cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and
ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close
geographic and linguistic distribution.
3. Caviar: according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, is a product made
from salt-cured fish-eggs of the Acipenseridae family. The roe can be "fresh"
(non-pasteurized) or pasteurized, with pasteurization reducing its culinary and
economic value. Traditionally the term caviar refers only to roe from wild
sturgeon in the Caspian and Black Seas (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars).
Depending on the country, caviar may also be used to describe the roe of other
fish such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish, and other species of
sturgeon. Caviar is considered a luxury delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a
spread. In 2012, caviar sold for $2,500 per pound, or $3,000 to $5,500 per kilo.
4. Jehovah: the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, which has
also been transcribed as "Yehowah" or "Yahweh".
Words and Expressions
1. vindictive: If you say that someone is vindictive, you are critical of them because
they deliberately try to upset or cause trouble for someone who they think has
done them harm.
2. Stone: A stone is a measurement of weight, especially the weight of a person,
equal to 14 pounds or 6.35 kilograms
3. ingratiating: f you describe someone or their behavior as ingratiating, you mean
that they try to make people like them.
4. asparagus 笋
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5. Semite: 人，闪米特人（包括希伯来人、阿拉伯人、巴比伦人等，今特指犹
太人）
6. voluptuous: something that is voluptuous gives you a great deal of pleasure from
the rich way it is experienced through your senses.
7. mortifying: If you say that something is mortifying, you mean that it makes you
feel extremely ashamed or embarrassed.
8. palate: Your palate is the top part of the inside of your mouth
9. fare: The fare at a restaurant or caff is the type of food that is served there.
10. effusive: If you describe someone as effusive, you mean that they express
pleasure, gratitude, or approval in a very enthusiastic way.
11. caviar: 鱼子酱
Language Points
5. She was in fact a woman of forty (a charming age, but not one that excites a
sudden and devastating passion at first sight), and she gave me the impression of
having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any
practical purpose.
6. “I never eat anything for luncheon,”; “I never eat more than one thing.”
7. When my mutton chop arrived she took me quite seriously to task.
8. A happy smile spread over his broad, priestlike face, and he assured me that they
had some so large, so splendid, so tender, that it was a marvel.
9. The smell of the melted butter tickled my nostrils as the nostrils of Jehovah were
tickled by the burned offerings of the virtuous Semites.
10. But I have had my revenge at last. I do not believe that I am a vindictive man, but
when the immortal gods take a hand in the matter it is pardonable to observe the
result with complacency. Today she weighs twenty-one stone.
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Figure of Speech
1. Rhetorical question: Did I remember?
2. Contrast: She ate the caviar and she ate the salmon. She talked gaily of art and
literature and music. But I wondered how much the bill would come to.”
3. Parallelism: she ate the caviar and she ate the salmon….…she talked gaily of art
and literature and music.
4. Understatement: We’re none of us getting any younger.
5. Personification:
The peaches had the blush of an innocent girl
6. Hyperbole: she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large
and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Recommended learning sources
1. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham
2. Maugham’s biography and works:
www.online-literature.com/maugham
3. Figure of Speech: http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/figuresterms.htm
After –Class Reading
Book: The Moon and Sixpences
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Unit 5
On Human Nature and Politics
Students’ presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. The author thinks that acquisitiveness is the mainspring of the capitalist system.
Comment on this.
2. Do you agree that love of power is by far the strongest motive in the lives of
important men?
3. What is the suggested purpose of artificial waterfall?
Background Information
1. Esthonia: is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the
north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia
(343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). Across the
Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of
Estonia covers 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), and is influenced by a humid
continental climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language,
Estonian, is a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish, and distantly to
Hungarian.
2. Rockfeller: John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an
American industrialist and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil
Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business
trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure
of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded Standard Oil Company and
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aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.
3. Muhammadan: is an obsolete term for a follower of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or
relating to, either Muhammad or the religion, doctrines, institutions and practices
that he established. The word was formerly common in usage, but the terms
Muslim and Islamic are more common today.
4. Renaissance: The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period
roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle
Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and
the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the
later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly
experienced across Europe.
Words and Expressions
21. viands: 食物，粮食
22. acquisitive: If you describe a person or an organization as acquisitive, you do not
approve of them because you think they are too concerned with getting new
possessions.
23. potency: Potency is the power and influence that a person, action, or idea has to
affect or change people's lives, feelings, or beliefs.
24. princeling: 幼年王子，青年王子
25. insatiable: If someone has an insatiable desire for something, they want as much
of it as they can possibly get.
26. potentates: A potentate is a ruler who has complete power over his people.
27. actuate: If a person is actuated by an emotion, that emotion makes them act in a
certain way. If something actuates a device, the device starts working.
28. decry: If someone decries an idea or action, they criticize it strongly.
29. rudiment:基本原理；雏形； 萌芽
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30. intoxicating: If you describe something as intoxicating, you mean that it makes
you feel a strong sense of excitement or happiness.
Language Points
1. But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that
he has desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified,
and which should keep him restless even in Paradise.
2. Similarly the Arab chieftains could not forget the desert, and hoarded riches far
beyond any possible physical need.
3. Red Indians, while they were still unaffected by white men, would smoke their
pipes, not calmly as we do, but orgiastically, in haling so deeply that they sank
into a faint.
4. When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer
them all kinds of benefits, from the light of the Gospel to pumpkin pie.
Main Ideas
1. But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that
he has desires which are, so to speak, infinite.
2. Acquisitiveness has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for
necessaries.
3. Rivalry is a much stronger motive than acquisitiveness.
4. Vanity is a motive of immense potency.
5. Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power, and this applies to
petty power as well as to that of potentates.
6. Civilized life must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote
ancestors satisfied in hunting.
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Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7.
Recommended learning sources
1. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
2. Famous quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Bertrand_Russell
3. About happiness: http://www.superhappiness.com/bertrand-russell.html
After –Class Reading/Watching
Movie: Seven Deadly Sins
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Unit 6
The Open Window
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What disease was Mr. Nuttel suffering from?
2. Why did the girl say that the tragedy happened “three years” ago to a day? Why
not four or five year ago?
3. Do you think the girl’s way of making up the story logical? Why or why not?
Background Information
1. Hector Hugh Munro: (18 December 1870 – 13 November 1916), better known
by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer
whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian
society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often
compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis
Carroll, and Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P. G.
Wodehouse.
2. The Open Window Historical Context: Saki does not specify when his story
takes place, but it is obvious that the story is set in Edwardian England, the period
of time early in the 20th century when King Edward VII ruled England. During
this time, England was at the peak of its colonial power and its people enjoyed
wealth and confidence because of their nation's status in the world. The wealthy
leisure class was perhaps overly confident, not seeing that political trends in
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Europe, including military treaties between the various major powers, would lead
to World War I and the resulting destruction of their comfortable way of life. It is
this complacency that Saki often mocks in his stones. "The Open Window" is set
at the country estate of a typical upper-class family of the time.
Words and Expressions
1. self-possessed: Someone who is self-possessed is calm and confident and in
control of their emotions.
2. communion: Communion with nature or with a person is the feeling that you are
sharing thoughts or feelings with them.
3. rectory: A rectory is a house in which a Church of England rector and his family
live.
4. masculine: Masculine qualities and things relate to or are considered typical of
men, in contrast to women.
5. treacherous: If you describe someone as treacherous, you mean that they are
likely to betray you and cannot be trusted.
6. bog: A bog is an area of land which is very wet and muddy.
7. falteringly: A faltering attempt, effort, or movement is uncertain because the
person doing it is nervous or weak, or does not really know what to do.
8. spaniel: A spaniel is a type of dog with long ears that hang down.
9. bustle:
If someone bustles somewhere, they move there in a hurried way, often
because they are very busy.
10. infirmity: A person who is infirm is weak or ill, and usually old.
Language Points
1. An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine
habitation.
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2. ……announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably wide-spread delusion
that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’
s ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure.
3. Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to
convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open
window with dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton
swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.
4. Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and
the front gate were dimly-noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming
along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid an imminent collision.
5. Romance at short notice was her specialty.
Plot and Summary
Framton Nuttle, a nervous young man, has come to stay in the country for his health. His sister,
who thinks he should socialise while he is there, has given him letters of introduction to families
in the neighbourhood who she got to know when she was staying there a few years previously.
Framton goes to visit a Mrs. Stapleton, and while he is waiting for her to come down, he is
entertained by her fifteen-year-old niece. The niece tells him that the French window is kept open,
even though it is October, because her aunt's husband and her brothers were killed in a shooting
accident three years ago, and Mrs. Stapleton believes they will come back one day. When Mrs.
Stapleton comes down she talks about her husband and brothers, and how they are going to come
back from the shooting soon, and Frampton, believing she is deranged, tries to get her to distract
her by talking about his health. Then, to his horror, Mrs. Stapleton points out that her husband and
brothers are coming, and he sees them walking towards the window, with their dog. He thinks he
is seeing ghosts, and runs away. Mrs. Stapleton can't understand why he has run away, and when
her husband and brothers (who of course are not ghosts) come in, she tells them about the odd
young man who has just left. The niece explains that Frampton Nuttal ran away because of the
spaniel, he is afraid of dogs since being hunted by a pack of pariah dogs in India. (the niece enjoys
making up stories about people).
Structure and Symbolism:
The most remarkable of Saki's devices in "The Open Window" is his construction of the story's
narrative. The structure of the story is actually that of a story-within-a-story. The larger "frame"
narrative is that of Mr. Nuttel's arrival at Mrs. Sappleton's house for the purpose of introducing
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himself to her. Within this narrative frame is the second story, that told by Mrs. Sappleton's niece.
The most important symbol in "The Open Window" is the open window itself. When Mrs.
Sappleton's niece tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to
symbolize Mrs. Sappleton's anguish and heartbreak at the loss of her husband and younger
brother.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2, 7, and 10.
Recommended learning sources
1. Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki
2. Selected Short Stories:
http://www.americanliterature.com/twenty-great-american-short-stories
3. About O Henry: http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/
After –Class Reading
A comedy play by Saki: The Watched Pot
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Unit 7
A Last Visit from Aldous
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What made Julian and Juliette Huxley think that there was something wrong with
Aldous when they met him at Heathrow Airport in August 1963?
2. Why was it particularly difficult for Sybille Bedford to write Aldous Huxley’s
biography?
3. What do you think were Aldous Huxley’s noble qualities?
Background Information
1. Aldous Leonard Huxley: he was an English writer and one of the most prominent members
of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a
wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published
short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in
the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. Huxley was a humanist,
pacifist, and satirist. He later became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology
and philosophical mysticism, in particular Vivekanda's Neo-Vedanta and Universalism. He is
also well known for his advocacy and consumption of psychedelic drugs. By the end of his
life Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time.
2. Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary
biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a
leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis. He was Secretary of the
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Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding
member of the World Wildlife Fund. Huxley was well known for his presentation of science in
books and articles, and on radio and television. He directed an Oscar-winning wildlife film.
He was awarded UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the popularisation of science in 1953, the
Darwin Medal of the Royal Society in 1956, and the Darwin–Wallace Medal of the Linnaean
Society in 1958. He was also knighted in that same year, 1958, a hundred years after Charles
Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announced the theory of evolution by natural selection. In
1959 he received a Special Award of the Lasker Foundation in the category Planned
Parenthood – World Population. Huxley was a prominent member of the British Eugenics
Society and its president from 1959–1962.
3. The Huxley family is a British family of which several members have excelled in scientific,
medical, artistic, and literary fields. The family also includes members who occupied senior
public positions in the service of the United Kingdom. The patriarch of the family was the
zoologist and comparative anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley (referred to here as THH). THH's
grandsons include Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World and Doors of Perception, his
brother Julian Huxley, evolutionist and first director of UNESCO, and Nobel laureate
physiologist Andrew Huxley.
4. medieval: In European history, the Middle Ages, or Medieval period, lasted from the 5th to
the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the
early modern period. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the traditional division of
Western history into Antiquity, Medieval, and Modern periods. The period is subdivided into
the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages.
5. Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval
period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance
architecture.
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Words and Expressions
1. complexion: When you refer to someone's complexion, you are referring to the
natural colour or condition of the skin on their face.
2. tinder: Tinder consists of small pieces of something dry, especially wood or grass,
that burns easily and can be used for lighting a fire.
3. catastrophe: A catastrophe is an unexpected event that causes great suffering or
damage.
4. panorama: A panorama is a view in which you can see a long way over a wide
area of land, usually because you are on high ground.
5. hoard: If you hoard things such as food or money, you save or store them, often
in secret, because they are valuable or important to you.
6. medieval: Something that is medieval relates to or was made in the period of
European history between the end of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and about
1500 AD.
7. fortress: A fortress is a castle or other large strong building, or a well-protected
place, which is intended to be difficult for enemies to enter.
8. interlude: An interlude is a short period of time when an activity or situation
stops and something else happens.
9. meteorology: Meteorology is the study of the processes in the Earth's atmosphere
that cause particular weather conditions, especially in order to predict the weather
10. apprehension: Apprehension is a feeling of fear that something bad may happen.
11. gland: A gland is an organ in the body which produces chemical substances for
the body to use or get rid of.
12. metastasizing: spread throughout the body
Language Points
1. In less than an hour, all their tangible past had vanished.
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2. Aldous never complained, but ruefully compared himself with a man who, having
lost his past, had also lost his present and the basis for a planned future.
3. The library was a place of silence--striking in its harmony and beauty, its scholarly
atmosphere and the essence of so much that Aldous loved.
4. ......and I shall always remember Aldous, tall and so pale, wandering round the
rooms and grounds, and stooping to smell the scented roses.
5. Yet all the time, he was carrying this heavy burden of doom.
6. You must be back from Africa, I imagine, by now--but meanwhile Africa has
come to us, with a vengeance, in a frightful heat wave with temperatures day after
day of 105, and 80 degrees at night. I
7. I hope this hoarseness may be only temporary, but rather fear I may carry it to the
grave.
8. He died on 23 November 1963--and a light went out of our lives.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, 6, and 9.
Recommended learning sources
1. The Huxley family:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Huxley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huxley_family
2. Famous quotes by Aldous Huxley
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aldous_huxley.html
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After –Class Reading
Book: The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
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Unit 8
The Nightingale and the Rose
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Is “The Nightingale and the Rose” a “love story”? Why or why not?
2. What is the value of the story from the perspective of Literary, Aesthetic and
Philosophical Points of View.
3. Do you know any other Oscar Wilde’s stories? What is Wall Street’s major role in
the American Economics?
Background Information
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish
writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's
most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his only
novel, his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.
Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in
French and German early in life. At university Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an
outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the
rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After
university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman
for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems,
lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then
returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit,
flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities
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of his day.
Words and Expressions
1. holm-oak: 圣栎
2. hyacinth: A hyacinth is a plant with a lot of small, sweet-smelling flowers
growing closely around a single stem. It grows from a bulb and the flowers are
usually blue, pink, or white.
3. emerald: An emerald is a precious stone which is clear and bright green.
4. opal: An opal is a precious stone. Opals are colourless or white, but other colours
are reflected in them.
5. courtier: Courtiers were noblemen and women who spent a lot of time at the
court of a king or queen.
6. sun-dial: 日晷
7. mermaiden： 美人鱼
8. scythe: A scythe is a tool with a long curved blade at right angles to a long handle.
It is used to cut long grass or grain.
9. chariot: In ancient times, chariots were fast-moving vehicles with two wheels that
were pulled by horses.
10. frankincense: 乳香
11. girdle: 束带
12. cavern: 大山洞，凹处
13. Chamberlain: A chamberlain is the person who is in charge of the household
affairs of a king, queen, or person of high social rank.
Language Points
1. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than
Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty.
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2. Flame-coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are
sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense.”
3. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not
sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that
the arts are selfish.
4. Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the
Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb.
5. ……and he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a
cart-wheel went over it.
6. “What a silly thing Love is,” said the Student as he walked away. “It is not half
as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of
things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true.
In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I
shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics.”
Plot and Summary
An allegorical fable of love, sacrifice and selfishness. As with all of Wilde's short
stories it embodies strong moral values and is told with an effervescence akin to that
of the 1001 nights. It is the tale of a lovestruck student who must provide his lover
with a red rose in order to win her heart. A nightingale overhearing his lament from a
solitary oak tree is filled with sorrow and admiration all at once, and decides to help
the poor young man. She journeys through the night seeking the perfect red rose and
finally comes across a rambling rose bush but alas, the bush has no roses to offer her.
However, there is a way to MAKE a red rose, but with grave consequences.
Analysis on Irony
Situational Irony is very evident in “The Nightingale and the Rose”. The outcome of
the story is far from what readers expect. First, the readers would assume that there is
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actually true love between the student and the Professor’s daughter and that the in the
end of a story lies a happy ending for the two. From the introduction to almost the end
of the story (except the last 6 paragraphs from 57-62), the author tries to establish that
the story is about true love- understanding it, finding it, and sacrificing to get it. From
paragraph 3, the student gives us the impression that he has a deeper understanding or
meaning for true happiness, he thinks that happiness must not depend on such a little
thing like a single red rose. Furthermore in paragraphs 5, 7 and 37, we see how the
student’s life seems to revolve around the Professor’s daughter. More than anything,
he wants to find this red rose that will allow him to share a dance with this girl and be
able to profess his “true love” for her because not being able to do so will break his
heart “But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely and she will pass me
by. She will have no heed of me, and my heart will break” and he flung himself down
on the grass and buried his face in his hands, and wept]. However, there is a great
irony waiting in the end of the story. As we are given hope that the impossible might
be possible when the student is able to get a red rose, unexpectedly, as he gives it to
the girl, they still do not share a romantic moment together. Rather, the girl seems
indifferent [paragraphs 57-60], saying that she wouldn’t go the ball because she
doesn’t like her dress and not even showing the smallest appreciation for the red rose
she requested.
Figure of Speech
1. Personification: Personification is a figure in which inanimate objects or
abstractions are endowed with human form.
Example 1
“Here at last is a true lover," said the Nightingale. "Night after
night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his
story to the stars and now I see him…”
Example 2
But the Oak-tree understood and felt sad, for he was very fond of
the little Nightingale, who had built her nest in his branches. “Sing me one last
song,” he whispered; “I shall feel lonely when you are gone.”
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Example 3
Then she gave one last burst of music. The white Moon heard it,
and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky.
2． Metaphor：Metaphor is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two
unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated.
So a metaphor is called “a compressed or condensed simile”.
Example 4
His hair is dark as the hyacinth(风信子)-- blossom, and his lips are
red as the rose of his desire.
Example 5
My roses ale white，as white as the foam of the sea，and whiter than
the snow upon the mountain．
Example 6 My roses are yellow．as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden，and
yellower than the daffodil that blooms in the meadow．
Example 7 My roses ale red，as led as the feet of the dove，and redder than the
great fans of corm．
Example 8 …and a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose．1ike
the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kissed the lips of the bride．
Example 9 …crimson was the girdle of petals，and crimson as ruby was the
heart．
3. Repetition：Repetition is an important figure of speech. It usually repeats the same
word, phrase, and sentence to intensify the mood, emphasize the idea, and show the
strong feelings.
Example 10. “Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past
him with his tail in the air.；“Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering
about after a sunbeam.；“Why, indeed?” whispered a Daisy to his neighbour, in a
soft, low voice.
Example 11. “Give me a red rose,” she cried, “and I will sing you my sweetest
song..”；But the Tree shook its head. “My roses are white,” it answered; “as white as
the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snow upon the mountain. But go to my
brother who grows round the old sun-dial, and perhaps he will give you what you
want.” So the Nightingale flew over to the Rose-tree that was growing round the
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old sun-dial.；“Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song.”
Example 12. “She sang first of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl”;
She sang of the birth of passion in the soul of a man and a maid…”; “She sang of the
love that is perfected by death…”
4. Parallelism：Parallelism is derived from the Greek word “parallelisimos”, meaning
“alongside one another”. Parallelism is “the similarity of construction of adjacent
word groups equivalent, complementary or antithetic in sense, esp. for rhetorical
effect or rhythm.”
Example 13 “…But the winter has chilled my veins, and the frost has nipped my
buds, and the storm has broken my branches, and I shall have no roses at all this
year.”
Example 14 “…you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with
your own heart’s blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a
thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your
heart, and your life-blood must flow into me veins, and become mine.”
5. Anticlimax: a drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or important
idea or situation to a trivial one or a descent from something sublime to something
ridiculous.
Example 15 …But the Nightingale’s voice grew fainter…Fainter and fainter.
Grew her song…she was lying dead in the long grass…he (young student) threw the
rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cartwheel went over it.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 2, 3 and 4.
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Recommended learning sources
1. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde
2. Quotes: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Oscar_Wilde
After –Class Reading
Book 2012：王尔德短篇小说集（双语版）
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Unit 9
The Fly
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. Did Mr. Woodifield and the Boss love their sons and daughters?
2. What is implied by “killing a fly” in terms of human nature?
3. What is symbolic of “the death of the fly” in terms of human destiny?
Background Information
1. Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp Murry (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923)
was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in
colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.
When she was 19 Mansfield left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom,
where she became friends with modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and
Virginia Woolf. During the First World War she contracted extrapulmonary
tuberculosis, which led to her death at the age of 34.
2. Financial Times is one of the world's leading business news and information
organisations. The FT is owned by Pearson PLC. The FT has an average daily
readership of 2.2 million people worldwide (PwC audited figures, November
2011). FT.com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital
subscribers, as well as 600,000 paying users. FT Chinese has more than 1.7
million registered users. The world editions of the Financial Times newspaper had
a combined average daily circulation of 293,000 copies (88,000 for the British
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version of the newspaper), for the period 1–28 October 2012. The average daily
circulation of all the world editions, combined, of the Financial Times newspaper
in May 2013 was 256 thousand copies.
3. Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of
Berkshire. The castle is notable for its long association with the British royal
family and for its architecture. The original castle was built in the 11th century
after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I, it
has been used by succeeding monarchs and it is the longest-occupied palace in
Europe. The castle's lavish, early 19th-century State Apartments are architecturally
significant, described by art historian Hugh Roberts as "a superb and unrivalled
sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of
later Georgian taste". The castle includes the 15th-century St George's Chapel,
considered by historian John Robinson to be "one of the supreme achievements of
English Perpendicular Gothic" design. More than five hundred people live and
work in Windsor Castle. Originally designed to protect Norman dominance
around the outskirts of London, and to oversee a strategically important part of the
River Thames, Windsor Castle was built as a motte and bailey, with three wards
surrounding a central mound. Gradually replaced with stone fortifications, the
castle withstood a prolonged siege during the First Barons' War at the start of the
13th century. Henry III built a luxurious royal palace within the castle during the
middle of the century, and Edward III went further, rebuilding the palace to
produce an even grander set of buildings in what would become "the most
expensive secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England".
Edward's core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII
and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for
diplomatic entertainment.
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Words and Expressions
1. pipe: If someone, especially a child, pipes something, they say it in a high-pitched
voice.
2. pram: A pram is a small vehicle in which a baby can lie as it is pushed along.
3. box up: 装箱，装起来
4. at the helm: You can say that someone is at the helm when they are leading or
running a country or organization.
5. wistful: Someone who is wistful is rather sad because they want something and
know that they cannot have it.
6. muffler: A muffler is a device on a car exhaust that makes it quieter.
7. treacle: Treacle is a thick, sweet, sticky liquid that is obtained when sugar is
processed. It is used in making cakes and puddings.
8. spectral: If you describe someone or something as spectral, you mean that they
look like a ghost.
9. swoop: If police or soldiers swoop on a place, they go there suddenly and quickly,
usually in order to arrest someone or to attack the place.
10. sacrilege: Sacrilege is behaviour that shows great disrespect for a holy place or
object.
Language Points
1. All the same, we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.
2.
As a matter of fact he was proud of his room; he liked to have it admired,
especially by old Woodifield. It gave him a feeling of deep, solid satisfaction to be
planted there in the midst of it in full view of that frail old figure in the muffler.
3. The door shut, the firm heavy steps recrossed the bright carpet, the fat body
plumped down in the spring chair, and leaning forward, the boss covered his face
with his hands. He wanted, he intended, he had arranged to weep...
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4. .But the fly had again finished its laborious task, and the boss had just time to refill
his pen, to shake fair and square on the new-cleaned body yet another dark drop.
What about it this time? A painful moment of suspense followed. But behold, the
front legs were again waving; the boss felt a rush of relief. He leaned over the fly
and said to it tenderly, "You artful little b..." And he actually had the brilliant
notion of breathing on it to help the drying process. All the same, there was
something timid and weak about its efforts now, and the boss decided that this
time should be the last, as he dipped the pen deep into the inkpot.
5. The boss lifted the corpse on the end of the paper-knife and flung it into the
waste-paper basket. But such a grinding feeling of wretchedness seized him that he
felt positively frightened. He started forward and pressed the bell for Macey.
Plot Summary
Woodifield, an old and rather infirm gentleman, is talking to his friend, "the boss", a
well-to-do man five years older than he is and "still going strong". The boss enjoys
showing off his redecorated office to Woodifield, with its new furniture and electric
heating (with an old picture of a young man, whom we learn is his deceased son).
Woodifield wants to tell the boss something, but is struggling to remember what it
was, when the boss offers him some fine whisky. After drinking, his memory is
refreshed and Woodifield talks about a recent visit that his two daughters made to his
son's grave, saying that they had come across the boss's son's grave as well. We now
come to know that the boss's son had died in the war six years ago, a loss that affected
the boss heavily.
After Woodifield leaves, the boss sits down at his table and informs his clerk that he
does not want to be disturbed. He is extremely perturbed at the sudden reference to his
dead son, and expects to weep but is surprised to find that he can't. He looks at his
son's photo, and thinks it bears little resemblance to his son, as he looks stern in the
photo, whereas the boss remembers him to be bright and friendly. The boss then
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notices a fly struggling to get out of the inkpot on his desk. The boss helps it out of
the inkpot and observes how it dries itself. When the fly is dry and safe, the boss has
an idea and starts playing with the fly by dropping ink on it. He admires the fly's
courage and continues dropping ink on it, watching it dry itself continuously. By this
time, the fly is weak and dies. The boss throws the dead fly, along with the blotting
paper, into the wastepaper basket, and asks his clerk for fresh blotting paper. He
suddenly feels a wretchedness that frightens him and finds himself bereft. He tries to
remember what it was he had been thinking about before, but has no recollection of
what he was thinking about before the fly.
Themes
The inevitability of death and man's unwillingness to accept this truth. The story can
also be read as an indictment of the brutal horror of World War I. Much attention has
been paid to the central character of the boss.Many of the critics think that the fly
actually symbolizes the Boss who is fighting with his life. He has been seen as a
symbol of malignant forces that are base and motiveless, a representative of the
generation that sent its sons to their slaughter in a cruel war. The Other Major Theme:
Time is a great healer, vanquisher of all the grief’s and sorrows of man; six years have
passed since the death of the boss's son, and he has now lost his acute emotions and
memories.
Symbolism of Fly
The fly, first and foremost, is a symbol of the young men who went to war not
knowing what horrors awaited them. We are given a glimpse into the fly’s point of
view in the line which reads, “The horrible danger was over; it had escaped; it was
ready for life again” (75). Likewise, no young men who are sent off to war believe
that they are going to die. Just as the fly escapes one close scrape with death only to
find itself doused with one blot of ink, then another, and another, many of the young
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soldiers in World War One were thrust forward into battle again and again until they,
like the fly, were killed. As the fly is the boss’s plaything, able to live or die based on
the latter’s whim, the soldiers were little more than pawns in a game waged by old
men who knew nothing of what the war was truly like on the frontline.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, and 9.
Recommended learning sources
1. Realism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts)
2. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mansfield
After –Class Reading
Book：The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield
College of Comprehensive Foundations Studies
Unit 10
Once More to the Lake
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What sensation did he often have after he returned to the lake? Why did he say he
had a dual life?
2. What made the author say that those times and those summers had been infinitely
precious and worth saving?
3. Apart from the weather (which might be counted as a factor), what made the
author return to the lake?
Background Information
Elwyn Brooks, “E. B. White” (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985), was an American
writer. He was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the
English language style guide, The Elements of Style, which is commonly known as
"Strunk & White". He also wrote books for children, including Charlotte's Web, Stuart
Little and The Trumpet of the S wan. Charlotte's Web was voted the top children's
novel in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, not for the first time.
Words and Expressions
1. ringworm: 癣，癣菌病
2. placidity: A placid person or animal is calm and does not easily become excited,
angry, or upset.
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3. mar: To mar something means to spoil or damage it.
4. partition: A partition is a wall or screen that separates one part of a room or
vehicle from another.
5. cathedral: A cathedral is a very large and important church which has a bishop in
charge of it.
6. primeval: You use primeval to describe things that belong to a very early period
in the history of the world.
7. crop up: If something crops up, it appears or happens, usually unexpectedly.
8. alight: If something is alight, it is burning.
9. hover: To hover means to stay in the same position in the air without moving
forwards or backwards. Many birds and insects can hover by moving their wings
very quickly.
Language Points
1. I began to sustain the illusion that he was I, and therefore, by simple transposition,
that I was my father.
2. This sensation persisted, kept cropping up all the time we were there. It was not an
entirely new feeling, but in this setting it grew much stronger. I seemed to be living
a dual existence.
3.
It was the arrival of this fly that convinced me beyond any doubt that everything
was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage and there had been no
years.
4. Summertime, oh summertime, pattern of life indelible, the fade proof lake, the
woods unshatterable, the pasture with the sweet fern and the juniper forever and
ever, summer without end; this was the background, and the life along the shore
was the design, the cottages with their innocent and tranquil design, their tiny
docks with the flagpole and the American flag floating against the white clouds in
the blue sky, the little paths over the roots of the trees leading from camp to camp
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and the paths leading back to the outhouses and the can of lime for sprinkling, and
at the souvenir counters at the store the miniature birch-bark canoes and the post
cards that showed things looking a little better than they looked.
5. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death. To the list
of reasons to resent Wall Street, now add another: It’s a wet blanket on innovation.
Plot Summary
E.B. White wrote Once More to the Lake in 1941 as a reflective piece on the power of
memory and the chill of mortality. Recounting a visit he takes with his son, White
recalls how so many of the details he now experiences with his son are the same as
those he experienced with his father a generation ago. In fact, he often mentions he
cannot at times distinguish the memory from the current experience. Later, White
suggests that in particular, the combination of summertime, lake cabins, and family
get-togethers describes Americans at play and this represents much that is good,
peaceful, and joyful in our lives. Yet, by the essay's conclusion, after bringing his
readers back to the present, White remembers that time has indeed marched on, and
his father will soon die and his father will become just another memory.
Themes
On the surface, E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake" seems to simply be a
recollection of a man's childhood vacations and his attempt to relive them with his son.
Upon deeper reading lurks something we can all relate to which is the fear of death
being brought upon us due to changes that occur around us. Expecting a peaceful
return to nature, he finds that his childhood utopia has been altered by modern man,
and through his son, realizes that his youth has slipped away. We first see this when
White grasps the idea that nature is forever but man is not.
In White's mind, the lake being the most prominent piece of nature is his possession,
nonexistent without his presence. This is unmistakably seen when he claims that "it
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was all that same as he left it" and there was "summer without end." This is derived
from the nature's untouchable beauty and oblivious consistency. A tree does not know
that it is a tree or why. It does not long for the time when it was half as big as it is now,
and unlike humans, it does not dwell on its inevitable demise. Tragically, some
memories of nature actually did turn up skewed when White and his son came across
the missing track in the road. Though track this may have meant nothing to him as a
child, it represents one memory that he can no longer relive. Although the lake itself
had not changed, the sanctity it once possessed is forever lost due to the obnoxious
screams of the outboard motors. This creation of man truly shattered the ambience
White had once found at the lake.
There is a conflict amongst men occurring in this story as well. It is between the
intuitive, who would come to enjoy what nature has to offer, and the ignorant, who are
unsatisfied unless everything coincides with their schedule. They are also unable to
detach themselves from modern lifestyles and its high end products. As well as
technology, due to the growing population of car owners, man's companionship with
nature is being overpowered by human isolation. Eventually due to these
modernizations, the relationships between families will soon suffer as well.
Regardless of accessibility or efficiency, while the majority of mankind progresses in
modern civilization, others will yearn for simpler times, or at least, the unaffected.
White begins to notice changes through his son as well. Describing the feeling as
living a "dual existence", he feels as if he is living as his father and as his son in the
same moment. This feeling becomes so intense that it manifests itself physically
during his encounter with the dragonfly. Attempting more so to experience the trip
through his son's eyes, he realizes he is now and forever stuck playing the father's role.
Even more startling to him is the realization that he is not his father, but E.B. White
himself, washing ashore as he describes "a creepy sensation." He finally reaches the
inevitable conclusion that he is unable grasp the childhood awe he had return to this
place to retrieve. During the thunderstorm White claims that the "gods are grinning",
as if he is feeling spite toward his all-knowing creator(s), resenting the higher power
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that has deprived us of superior comprehension. He witnesses the campers yelling
toward the children, presenting the "deathless joke" that the now-mature parents have
lost touch with what these children are experiencing. Finally, as he glances over to his
son freeze in his cold swim trunks, a voice within his subconscious erupts, finally
culminating the "creepy sensation" he experienced into what he calls a "chill of death".
Almost instantly as he attempts to come to terms with the loss of his youth, he is
conflicted yet again by the fear of his inevitable end. The passage of time didn't wait
for him, and will not stop for him either.
During this existential pilgrimage that E.B. White unexpectedly stumbled upon, he
learned that as human beings, we cannot transcend time. We cannot relive or recreate
our childhood, only visit the locations it took place. When he manages to find solace
in his recollection of inboard boat skills, he realizes that his memories can be
comforting, and even passed on, but never relived. Not allowing the passing of time
come into play solidifies the fact that these delicate memories will be locked in his
childhood forever. On another interesting note, White may have felt that his son was
not as appreciative toward the experience as he was as a child. Whether this is true or
not, through White's father's eyes; White himself may not have been either. Ironically
it is the aimless awe of a child that creates the beauty of childhood that we pine to
return to as we grow old. Unfortunately, most of us are not aware of these thoughts
until a turning point in our life such as parenthood. It seems as if when we have
children we also unknowingly begin to die. White himself is destined to die some
October day forty-four years from this trip but following this trip, the thoughts White
may ponder could be -- What is the meaning of all this -- all this effort we exert -- all
these wars we fight - all these complications we create for our self? Some people can
handle not knowing and live day to day, oblivious of these thoughts. Some believe
that death is merely a horizon and have faith that their higher power will be waiting
for them to arrive on that final hour. Due to the fragility of the human condition, some
may become overwhelmed by this psychological torture. Though I do not condone
destructive lifestyles especially suicide, I can now understand if some people have
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grown impatient to answer these questions.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1 and 2.
Recommended learning sources
1. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._White
2. Writing style: http://descriptedlines.com/e-b-white-on-style
After –Class Reading
Book: The Charlotte's Net
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Unit 11
The Lottery
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1. What type of atmosphere does Jackson create at first, and how does that change?
2. Why are the townspeople holding the lottery?
3. How does "The Lottery" prevent the breakdown of society in this community?
4. Make moral judgments on the sacrifice rituals of other cultures.
Background Information
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American
author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from
literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman,
Stephen King, Nigel Kneale and Richard Matheson. She is best known for the short
story "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests a secret, sinister underside to bucolic
small-town America. In her critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes
that when "The Lottery" was published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker,
it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received". Hundreds of
letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment,
speculation and old-fashioned abuse".
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Words and Expressions
1. boisterous: Someone who is boisterous is noisy, lively, and full of energy.
2. reprimand: If someone is reprimanded, they are spoken to angrily or seriously for
doing something wrong, usually by a person in authority.
3. manfolk: When women refer to their menfolk, they mean the men in their family
or society.
4. jovial:
If you describe a person as jovial, you mean that they are happy and
behave in a cheerful way.
5. scold: If you scold someone, you speak angrily to them because they have done
something wrong; or used as noun to describe a person who often scolds others.
6. paraphernalia: You can refer to a large number of objects that someone has with
them or that are connected with a particular activity as paraphernalia.
7. splinter: something splinters or is splintered, it breaks into thin, sharp pieces.
8. underfoot: You describe something as being underfoot when you are standing or
walking on it.
9. perfunctory: A perfunctory action is done quickly and carelessly, and shows a
lack of interest in what you are doing.
Language Points
1. The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the
Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic
activities.
2.
The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three- legged stool, and the
stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down
on it.
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3. here was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box
that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled
down to make a village here.
4.
Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box,
but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done.
The black box grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black
but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some
places faded or stained.
5. Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they
still remembered to use stones.
Themes
Ritual
A ritual is a ceremony performed in accordance with tradition. The "lottery" of
Jackson's story is a human sacrifice ritual where a community member is chosen by
random chance to be stoned to death. The purpose of rituals of this kind is to transfer
the sins of the community to one of its members, who is then killed, thereby purging
the bad feelings or sins, and bringing good fortune to the community.
The Family
In the story, the Hutchinson family forms the center of the action, first when Tessie,
the mother, is late to the lottery event, and with the characters of the husband-father
Bill Hutchinson, as well as the son "little Davy" Hutchinson. The story concludes with
the image of Davy receiving pebbles from other boys, in order to hasten the stoning of
his own mother, Tessie. This thick irony shows that family roles can be easily
overwhelmed by the violent mob mentality.
"Twice makes a tradition"
Community members question the lottery and its use, but ultimately go through with
the ritual to its grisly end. This shows that people may have a tendency to hold to a
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tradition despite logical arguments against it.
Summary and Analysis
Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery", aroused much controversy and criticism
in 1948, following its debut publication, in the New Yorker. Jackson uses irony and
comedy to suggest an underlying evil, hypocrisy, and weakness of human kind.
The story takes place in a small village, where the people are close and tradition is
paramount. A yearly event, called the lottery, is one in which one person in the town is
randomly chosen, by a drawing, to be violently stoned by friends and family. The
drawing has been around over seventy-seven years and is practiced by every member
of the town.
The surrealness of this idea is most evident through Jackson's tone. Her use of
friendly language among the villagers and the presentation of the lottery as an event
similar to the square dances and Halloween programs illustrates the lottery as a
welcomed, festive event. Jackson describes the social atmosphere of the women prior
to the drawing: "They greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip…". The
lottery is conducted in a particular manner, and with so much anticipation by the
villagers, that the reader expects the winner to receive a prize or something of that
manner. It is not until the every end of the story that the reader learns of the winner's
fate: Death, by friends and family.
It seems as though Jackson is making a statement regarding hypocrisy and human evil.
The lottery is set in a very mundane town, where everyone knows everyone and
individuals are typical. Families carry the very ordinary names of Warner, Martin and
Anderson. Jackson's portrayal of extreme evil in this ordinary, friendly atmosphere
suggests that people are not always as they seem. She implies that underneath one's
outward congeniality, there may be lurking a pure evil.
Though the story does not become pernicious until the end, Jackson does in fact
foreshadow the idea through Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. Mr. Summers is the man
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in charge of the lottery. He prepares the slips of paper to be drawn and he mediates the
activity. He is described as a respected man, joking around with the villagers and
carrying on this foreboding event with no conscience at all. "Mr. Summers was very
good at all this; in his clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting
carelessly on the black box, he seemed very proper and important as he talked
interminably to Mr. Graves and the Martins. The name Summers subtly identifies the
mood of the short story as well as the administrator himself, "jovial", auspicious, and
bright. Mr. Summers is the man in front, the representative of the lottery, as his name
symbolizes the up front, apparent, tone of the event. Mr. Graves, on the other hand,
symbolizes the story's underlying theme and final outcome. Mr. Graves is Mr.
Summer's assistant, always present but not necessarily in the spotlight. The unobvious
threat of his name and character foreshadows the wickedness of the ordinary people,
that again, is always present but not in the spotlight.
Along with hypocrisy, "the Lottery" presents a weakness in human individuals. This
town, having performed such a terrible act for so many years, continues on with the
lottery, with no objections or questions asked, and the main purpose being to carry on
the tradition. "There's always been a lottery", says Old Man Warner. "Nothing but
trouble in that," he says of quitting the event. However, the villagers show some
anxiety toward the event. Comments such as "Don't be nervous Jack", "Get up there
Bill" and Mrs. Delacroix's holding of her breath as her husband went forward
indicate that the people may not be entirely comfortable with the event. Yet everyone
still goes along with it. Not a single person openly expresses fear or disgust toward
the lottery, but instead feigns enthusiasm. Jackson may be suggesting that many
individuals are not strong enough to confront their disapproval, for fear of being
rejected by society. Instead they continue to sacrifice their happiness, for the sake of
others. The failure of Mr. Summers to replace the black box used for the drawing
symbolizes the villagers' failure to stand up for their beliefs. "Mr. Summers spoke
frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset tradition
as was represented by the black box." The box after so many years is "Faded and
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stained" just as the villagers' view of reality has become tainted and pitiful. An
intense fear of change among the people is obvious.
Jackson uses the protagonist, Mrs. Hutchinson, to show an individual consumed by
hypocrisy and weakness. Though it is hinted that she attempted to rebel and not show
up to the event, Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late, with a nervous excuse of "forgetting
what day it was". It is ironic that she, who almost stood up for her beliefs, is the one
who wins the lottery, and is fated to be stoned. What is perhaps the most disturbing
about Mrs. Hutchinson, however, is her sudden unleashing of her true self. Before the
drawing she is friendly with the other women, pretending to be pleased to be present.
The very moment that she sees is her family that draws the black dot, though, her
selfishness is evident. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted.
I saw you. It wasn't fair!". Then she turns on her own daughter. "There's Don and
Eva," she yelled maliciously, "Make them take their chance!". She continues to
scream about the unfairness of the ritual up until her stoning. Mrs. Hutchinson knew
the lottery was wrong, but she never did anything about it. She pretends as much as
she could to enjoy it, when she truly hated it all along. Perhaps Jackson is implying
that the more artificial and the more hypocritical one is, the more of a target they are.
Mrs. Hutchinson was clearly the target of her fears.
Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 2 and 3.
Recommended learning sources
1. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson
2. Life and work: http://www.reagan.classicauthors.net/sjackson/
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After –Class Reading
Book: The Haunting of Hill House
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Unit 12
The Catbird Seat
Student Presentation
Warm-up
Discussion topics:
1.
What stereotypes has our culture constructed surrounding the way men and
women are expected to behave and think?
2.
What humour has James Thurber explored and exploited in "The Catbird Seat"?
3.
Give a general outline of the personality of Mr. Martin.
Background Information
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American
author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and
short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine and collected in his
numerous books. One of the most popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated
the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people.
Words and Expressions
1. quacking: When a duck quacks, it makes the noise that ducks typically make.
2. studious: Someone who is studious spends a lot of time reading and studying
books.
3. peccadillo: Peccadilloes are small, unimportant sins or faults.
4. wheeze: someone wheezes, they breathe with difficulty and make a whistling
sound.
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5. jabber: If you say that someone is jabbering, you mean that they are talking very
quickly and excitedly, and you cannot understand them.
6. andirons: 铁制柴架
7. gulp: If you gulp something, you eat or drink it very quickly by swallowing large
quantities of it at once.
8. buzzard: A buzzard is a large bird of prey.
9. catapult: A catapult is a device for shooting small stones. It is made of a
Y-shaped stick with a piece of elastic tied between the two top parts.
Language Points
1. Man is fallible but Martin isn't." No one would see his hand, that is, unless it were
caught in the act.
2. "Are you lifting the oxcart out of the ditch? Are you tearing up the pea patch? Are
you hollering down the rain barrel? Are you scraping around the bottom of the pickle
barrel? Are you sitting in the catbird seat?"
3. It was at this point that the door to the office blew open with the suddenness of a
gas-main explosion and Mrs. Barrows catapulted through it.
Plot Summary
Mr. Martin is working a firm called F & S for twenty-two years. He is known to be a
very concentrated and efficient worker, who never smokes nor drinks, and has two
assistants, Miss Paird and Mr. Hart. All his life, he has been devoting himself to the
company F & S.
One day, a new worker, who was the special advisor of one of the presidents Mr.
Fitweiler, was employed. It was a woman of the name Miss Barrows. She has been
reordering the whole firm and that’s why, many people have been fired or quitted their
work, there. Mr. Martin sees her as a threat to the company and he made a plan, a very
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well-thought-out plan (he went over it hundredth of times and took every possible risk
into account) to kill Miss Barrows.
One late evening, he was at her apartment, ready for the kill. But when he got there, he
realized that his plan is crazy.
Miss Barrows was preparing him and herself a drink and Mr. Martin let it be and took
a sip of his vodka-soda mixture. He also took out his cigarettes (he smokes secretly)
and lit one. He began to tell weird things to Miss Barrows, such as blowing up Mr.
Fitweiler, insulting him and so on.
Miss Barrows was shocked by the things she heard him say and told him to go home.
At the door, he made untypical gestures like placing the index finger in front of his
mouth and saying to her she must not say anything to Mr. Fitweiler.
The next day, Miss Barrows told everything to Mr. Fitweiler. Of course, he did not
believe her as she was speaking very nervously and Mr. Martin is his best worker and
the things she told to him are too untypical for Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin went to Mr. Fitweiler's office. The president of the company told Mr.
Martin what weird things Miss Barrows was claiming he did. He asked Mr. Martin
where he has been last night and he answered that he was at Mr. Scharfft’s (who was
the other president of the company F & S), which he really did and that he had a walk,
read a magazine and fell asleep early last night (before 11 p.m.). Mr. Fitweiler
believed him with no doubt and excused for her manner.
He told Mr. Martin that Miss Barrows is suffering from psychological stress and that
he also called his friend who was a psychiatrist that she should see him.
Miss Barrows burst into the room, yelling that Mr. Martin is lying that he was playing
a game etc. She was taken out of the buildings by three people and was fired (most
probably).
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Themes
Men and Women
One of the more important themes of “The Catbird Seat” is the struggle for men and
women to understand each other and live together. In Thurber’s work, the battle is
always between a weak, nervous man and a strong, domineering woman. It was a
recurring theme in his work, most notably in fictional works like The Owl in the Attic
(1931) and the “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1939). When “The Catbird Seat”
was adapted as a movie in 1960, the film was called The Battle of the Sexes.
Many of Thurber’s stories and drawings explore the struggles between men and
women in marriage. In “The Catbird Seat” the arena is the workplace. In Thurber’s
world, men and women can never understand each other. Like Mr. Martin and Mrs.
Barrows, they speak different languages; moreover, women always want to change
things.
In this story, many of the traditional male and female characteristics are reversed. It is
Mrs. Barrows who drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes, and follows baseball. Mr. Martin
drinks milk, has never smoked, and does not know who Red Barber is. Mrs. Barrows
is loud, with a commanding presence. Mr. Martin “maintains always an outward
appearance of polite tolerance.”
So if conventional behaviors are considered, Mrs. Barrows is the more “masculine” of
the two, and Mr. Martin the more “feminine” Martin himself finds her masculinity
offensive. Though he tries to “keep his mind on her crimes as a special adviser,” he
cannot help dwelling on “the faults of the woman as a woman.”
The stereotype of the feminist who emasculates men is common in twentieth-century
fiction. Yet Mrs. Barrows does not strip Mr. Martin of his manhood, but actually
forces him to solve his own problem — to “act like a man,” for the first time. The
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moral of the story seems to be that strong women should be eliminated in order to
maintain the status quo.
For Jesse Bier, author of the critical history The Rise and Fall of American Humor
(1968), “The Catbird Seat” represents the ultimate victory of put-upon man over
matriarchism. Thurber’s work is a joyfully vengeful and tireless attack on
womanhood.... Thurber’s stories . . . are the very acme in our literature of controlled
wish fulfillment and triumphant, sustained position to everything that Woman,
especially the aggressive American woman, stands for.”
Many critics sense this anger in Thurber; but others find him cheerfully resigned to the
battle of the sexes. Catherine McGehee Kenney’s Thurber’s Anatomy of Confusion
describes his handling of the theme as “both bright and melancholy, enlightening and
saddening, amusing and frightening.”
Alienation and Loneliness
Underlying the inability of men and women to communicate is a deeper truth: all
people are essentially alone. Men cannot communicate with women, but they cannot
communicate with each other, either. The “battle” between men and women is simply
the most visible demonstration of how isolated people are from one another.
In eliminating Mrs. Barrows, what is Martin protecting? The same job he has held for
twenty-two years, working for a boss who barely knows him and still calls him by his
last name. When he steps out of his routine to buy cigarettes, the clerk does not even
glance at him.
In fact, Martin relies on this isolation and anonymity to carry out his plan unnoticed.
Only the reader will note that once Martin has achieved the greatest victory of his life,
he has no one to share it with.
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Interpreting
Students are asked to interpret all paragraphs into Chinese.
Translation assignment
Para(s). 1, 3, 7, and 10.
Recommended learning sources
1. Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thurber
2. His works:
http://thurber.sitesz.com/
After –Class Reading
Short story: The Dog That Bit People