Unit 6 Women, Half the Sky
Unit 6 Women, Half the Sky
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Lead-in
Text Analysis
Language Points
Presentation & Exercises
I.
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Lead-in
Background Information
Feminism
In the 1960s feminism (=the belief that
women and men are equal in abilities and
should have equal rights and opportunities)
became the subject of intense debate
when the women’s liberation movement
encouraged women to reject their
traditional supporting role and to demand
equal status and equal rights with men in
areas such as employment and pay.
Since then the gender gap between the sexes has been
reduced. However, the battle between feminist and
traditional views of a woman’s role continues. It is
widely accepted by younger people that women should,
if they wish, be allowed to develop their careers and
not give up work when they have a family.
Feminism has brought about many changes in the English
language. Many words for job titles that included
“man” have been replaced, for example “police officer”
is used instead of “policeman” and “chairperson” for
“chairman”. “He” is now rarely used to refer to a
person when the person could be either a man or a
woman. The title “Ms” is used for women instead of
“Miss” or “Mrs”, since it does not show whether a
woman is married or not.
The Brooklyn Bridge
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The Brooklyn Bridge, built in 1883, spans
the East River in New York City. The
bridge connects the densely populated
boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The
Brooklyn Bridge in New York City perhaps
best demonstrates the scale of building
made possible by the rapid expansion of
American industry and by American
ambition. The expression selling the
Brooklyn Bridge to somebody means
tricking somebody in a deal.
The Brooklyn Bridge
Discussion
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1 ) What do you think of Mao
Zedong’s famous saying that women
hold up half the sky?
2) Why is it more difficult for
women to move up in society? What
are their problems?
II. Text Analysis
Part division
Part
1
Lines
Main Idea
1 ~ 19 Despite her friend’s advice, the author,
unable to resist the temptation,
falls for superwomen stories again.
2
20 ~ 37
3
38 ~ 65 She tells about what prevents her from
Her encounter with a superwomen
and its impact on her.
becoming a superwoman herself.
Part division
Part
Lines
Main Idea
4
66 ~ 80
She analyzes why she is
still fascinated
by modern superwomen tales.
5
81 ~ 88 She comes to the conclusion
that to her, admiring a heroine
is something worth doing.
Comprehension
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Discussion: What does “the Brooklyn
Bridge” mean?
The Brooklyn Bridge means something
impossible or an incredible story.
Folktales about people who are so
gullible as to be persuaded by
confidence tricksters to buy wellknown landmarks are numerous in
America and elsewhere.
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Question & Answer:
1.
Why is the author still so
fascinated by modern superwomen
tales?
2. What different opinions do people
usually hold about men and women?
3. Does the author believe she could
become a superwoman someday?
4. What are the positive sides of
superwomen stories?
Writing Strategy
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There are three main ways of
achieving coherence in this text:
the use of transitional words and
phrases,
the repetition of key words and
phrases,
the use of parallel structure.
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1 ) Try to find transitional words like but,
however, yet, especially in Paras. 8 to 10.
2) The most striking feature of this text is
the repetition of key words and phrases. Try
to scan the whole text to find the following
key words and phrases and get the writer’s
purpose of repeating them.
3) There is no strictly parallel structure in
this essay. However, some may regard the
comparison between “my” daily struggle and
the achievements of Kate L., the daughter of a
politician, the woman executive, etc. as parallel.
Here
friend thought
the author gullible
III.the
Language
Points
enough to be persuaded to buy the bridge from
Sentences
her. She deliberately played on the meaning of
the1.
Line 6 ~ 8selling the Brooklyn Bridge to
expression
somebody
( tricking
somebody
in a deal)
 “A friend
said that
if I believed

everything in the report, she had a
bridge in Brooklyn she’d like to sell
me.”
What’s the implied meaning of this
sentence?
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2. “When, I wonder aloud, …? I
should have know better than to ask.”
What does “wonder aloud” mean?
And what’s the Chinese version?
--- If you wonder aloud, you express
your thoughts as they occur to you
rather than thinking first and then
speaking. 不由得惊问。
3. Line 59 ~ 61
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“Mostly I sink into a chair and stare
into space while I imagine how lovely
life would be if only I possessed the
organizational skills and the energy
of my superheroines.”
Paraphrase the sentence.
Translate the sentence.
What can you infer from the
sentence?
女人嘛， 当然相信鱼与熊掌不能兼得——人们反复灌输的
不要好高骛远那一套。
4. Line 74 ~ 75
“Women, of course, have always
believed that we can’t have our cake
and eat it too--the old low-dream diet.”
Women
Paraphrase
the sentence
and believing
get
have always
expected little,
the
meaning.
that
youimplied
can’t have
everything at once. It
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implies that men are encouraged to achieve
their goals in life, but women know that they
can only achieve some goals at the expense
of other goals.
Line 78 ~ 79
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“ we working women are too
sophisticated for that.”
我们职业女性业已成熟，不再干这种傻
事。
“Too + adj. + for” can be used to
indicate that an amount or degree of
a quality is more than desirable or
acceptable.
Vocabulary
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undo：v.
1) (fml.) disturb or upset greatly
e.g. The news of your illness undid
him.
2) untie, open
e.g. His buttons were undone.
她解开了绕在包裹上的绳子。
---She undid the string round the
present
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hit home: (of remarks, etc.) have the intended
effect
e.g.
A lot of what he said hit home.
Your criticism hit home. I was totally
wrong.
Collocation:
Hit the roof/ceiling 勃然大怒
hit the nail on the head说得中肯；击中要害
hit on/upon无意中遇到；偶然发现；忽然想起
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3 . incredible: adj. that can’t be
believed
e.g.
The boy runs at an incredible speedeven faster than many adults.
There has been m incredible mount
of interest in the information
highway during the last few years.
consume: v.
 1) eat or drink
 e.g. The children consumed lots of
chocolate in the Spring Festival.
 2) use up
 e.g. The project consumed most of
my time and energy.
His old car consumed much gasoline.
 Time-consuming
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5.
care for:
1) take care of
e.g. The old man had a stroke a month ago.
His son hired a nurse to care for him.
The college students volunteered to
care for the elderly in their community.
2) 1ike or love (used in negative or
interrogative sentences)
e.g. I don't care much for country music.
I don't think he cares for his wife at
all my more because of her disloyalty.
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reproach: criticize (sb.)for failing to do
sth.
e.g. She loved her boyfriend so
much that she didn't reproach him
for breaking his promise.
He reproached himself constantly
for not having visited his sick mother
before she died
Pattern:
reproach sb. for sth.
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get one’s act together: (infml) organize
oneself and one’s activities so that one
does things in an effective way
e.g.
Hurry up! Get your act together or
you will miss the train.
You should get your act together and
don’t idle away all day if you want to
pass the exam.
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at intervals:
1) at particular periods of time, now and then;
at particular places, with gaps in between
e.g. Trains leave for Shanghai at short
intervals
He visits me at regular intervals.
2) used to state the precise gap in time or
distance between things
e.g. Trees are planted at intervals of
ten feet in the street.
He woke her old mother for her medicine
at intervals throughout the night.
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set aside: put (time or money)away for
a special purpose
e.g.
I have a little money set aside for
emergencies.
My husband set aside half an hour
every morning to do sports.
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sophisticated: adj.
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1) worldly-wise; showing knowledge of the world
e.g. a sophisticated girl
一个老于世
故的女孩子
a sophisticated columnist 老练的专栏作家
2) advanced or complicated
e.g.
the latest and most sophisticated
technology 最新最尖端的技术
sophisticated modern weapons 复杂的现代武
器
a sophisticated discussion
高深的讨论
sophisticated music 矫揉造作的音乐
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IV. Presentation and exercises
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Group Discussion
If you had a second life, which one would
you prefer to be, a man or a woman?
Why?
Can you persuade men that women should
have great control over their own lives
and over society? And for what reasons?
Should women have equal job opportunities
with men?
Line 59 ~ 61
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If only
--- We can use “if only” to say
that we would like things to be
different. The clause with “if only”
often stands alone without a main
clause.
Line 59 ~ 61
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Paraphrase the sentence.
---I find that these modern success
stories are no better than the old
fairy tales that had us waiting for
some man to come along to save us.
Translate the sentence
我大多瘫倒在椅子里，呆呆地凝视着前方，
想象着要是自己拥有哪些超级女英雄的组织
才能与旺盛精力，生活该会多么美妙。
Line 59 ~ 61
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What can you infer from the
sentence?
Many fairy stories, like Cinderella,
are about ladies being rescued from
danger or poverty by a handsome
prince, suggesting that a woman has
to rely on a man to take care of her.