Unit 1: religion
British Religion
I. Objectives
II. Focal Questions
III. Procedures
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
I. Objectives
Students are supposed to acquire a good knowledge of:
· The history of British religion;
· Churches, especially the Church of England, and the Church
of Scotland;
· British religion and politics & British religion and education;
· Notable places of worship.
II. Focal Questions
· What has British religious history been characterized by ?
· What do you know about the structure of the Church of England ?
· What does it mean by saying that the Church of Scotland is
Presbyterian in policy ?
III. Procedures
· Presentation by students — Focal Questions;
· Lectures by the teacher;
· Class discussion — Exploitation Activities;
· Assignment for this chapter and the next chapter.
V. Contents
1. Related Names
· Presbyterian: a member of a branch of the Christian Protestant
Church that is the national Church of Scotland.
· Episcopal: (of a Christian Church) that is governed by bishops.
· Anglican: a member of the Church of England or of a Church
connected with it in another country.
· Kirk: a name often used for the official Church of Scotland.
· diocese: a district for which a bishop is responsible.
V. Contents
2. A Brief Introduction of the British Religious History
3. Introduction of Churches
1) The Church of England
The Church of England
The Archbishop of
Canterbury
The Archbishop of
York
2) The Church of Scotland
V. Contents
4. Religion and History
5. Religion and Education
6. Notable Places of Worship
1) Cathedrals in the UK
Canterbury Cathedral,
Mother church of the Province of Canterbury
and of the Anglican Communion worldwide
2) Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
Unit 2：People
I. Objectives
• In this chapter we will learn about the
ethnic composition of British people and its
demographic features, the evolutionary
process of English as a language, and the
makeup of British society.
II. Focal Questions
• Why are the British people regarded as "mixed
people"?
• What are the three main periods of English
Language?
• How many classes are there in British society
according to objective approach?
Procedures
•
Presentation by Students – Focal
questions
•
Lectures by the teacher
•
Class discussion – Exploitation
Activities
•
Assignment for the next chapter
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
1.Ethnic composition
1)Before the Norman Conquest
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Iberians
Celts
Angles
Saxons
Jutes
Scandinavians
French Normans
2) After the Norman Conquest
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Jewish
Lombard
Dutch
Flemish
Gypsies
Refugees from Europe
3) In the 20th century
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Refugees from Nazi occupied Europe
and white immigrants from old
Commonwealth countries
people from non-white New
Commonwealth nations
groups of Americans, Australians, and
Chinese
Europeans
Immigration from the South Asian
2. Demographic composition
• the 1086 Doomsday Book (最终税册)
Census
• the Black Death pandemic (黑死病大流行)
3.English language
1)Old English Period
•
The period of Old English is from the year of
450 to the year of 1150
•
four dialects in Old English times:
Northumbrian (诺森伯兰方言), Mercian (莫西亚
方言), West Saxon, and Kentish (肯特方言)
•
In general, the differences that one notices
between Old English and Modern English concern
spelling and pronunciation, the lexicon, and the
grammar.
2)Middle English Period
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after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The dialect of English spoken in London had been the
Standard English, which gave birth to (产生) the official
language.
•
French language also influenced the use of English.
•
The main change from Old English to Middle
English was in both its grammar and its vocabulary.
•
The most distinctive change from Old English to
Middle English was the decay (衰退) of inflectional
renderings.
3)Modern English Period
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By the end of the 15th century, the English spoken in London
had been accepted as a standard language in most parts of the country.
In the year of 1755, Samuel Johnson compiled the first English
dictionary
The great shift from Middle English to Modern English was the
shift of the vowel
The quality of the English language was greatly improved by
extensive borrowing
The expansion of the British Empire helped facilitate (促进) the
spread of English into many countries and places all over the world
It is also likely that pidgin (洋泾浜的) and creole (克里奥语的
) varieties of English will be increasingly widespread in those areas
where English is not a first language
4.Class structure
•
family background, main source of income,
place of residence, cultural tastes and political
affiliations (关系) were closely associated
•
Traditionally, the British class system was
divided into upper, middle and working classes
•
According to an “objective” approach, British
society is divided into occupational groups
arranged in a class hierarchy
5.British identity
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before the 18th century,four different nations
(England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and their
peoples
Concepts of Britishness were more widely used in the
19th century
In actual effect, the British identification was often
equated with English norms because of England’s
historical role and its preponderance within Britain.
with Britain’s decline in modern times, the old
concepts of England-centered Britishness have weakened.
the contemporary British are a very diverse people with
varying identities.
Way of life
I. Objectives
• In this chapter we will look at the British
way of life, including leisure activities,
sporting activities, arts, mass media, social
manners and etiquettes.
II. Focal Questions
• What are the common characters of the
women’s magazines?
• What are the differences between
broadsheets and tabloids?
• What is the origin of the Oxford-Cambridge
University Boat Race?
• What are Shakespeare’s famous plays?
• What is the difference between Rugby
League and Rugby Union?
III. Procedures
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
Leisure Activities
Tourism and Recreation
• They love the outdoors.
• They flock to seaside resorts on vacation.
• Several million vacationers visit Spain,
France, and other countries.
• Some enjoy automobile or bicycle trips
through the country.
• Spend much time in their gardens.
• 50% of the families in UK have a garden.
Festivals and Holidays
Holidays and Customs and their origins tell us
what is important in a culture.
Most holidays throughout the world provide
opportunities for families and friends to get
together to visit, eat, exchange good wishes and
enjoy each other’s company and hospitality.
Religious Holidays
• Britain remains mainly a Christian nation,
however many do not go to church to
worship
• Many other religions
• Christian festivals are observed but adapted
to fit needs of a secular society
• Non-Christians and Christians participate in
activities for Christmas and Easter
CHRISTMAS
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December 25
Biggest and best loved holiday
Schools, businesses, and offices close
Celebration of birth of Jesus ChristChristmas mass-worship service. Son of
God to save the world from sin
CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
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Exchange gifts and cards
Holiday foods
Decorating homes/workplace
Christmas trees
Christmas lights/ornaments
SPECIAL BRITISH CHRISTMAS
TRADITIONS
• Christmas Pantomime-Panto a comical musical
play based on traditional children’s story, with
main character the “principal boy” played by a
young woman
• Queen’s Christmas message/past year & hopes
• Boxing Day-day after Christmas/old custom for
servants-now sales, food etc. most people don’t
know why
NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
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Queen’s birthday
Known as “Trooping the Colour”
Second Saturday in June
Buckingham Palace in London
Like a National Day
SAINT PATRICKS DAY
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Northern Ireland
Catholics
Patron Saint of Ireland-St Patrick
March 17
Tradition-drove out snakes or evil and used three
leaf clover/shamrock to explain Christian Trinity
(Father, Son and Holy Spirit) to Pagans Irish
HALLOWEEN
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Halloween – Oct. 31
Great feast of Pagan Celts
Arrival of winter
Some believe can commune with the dead
Mischief
Fortune-telling & masquerades
Food and Drinks
• British meals mean different things at
different times to different people.
• The first meal of the day is breakfast which is
now often hurried and informal.
• Traditionally it is a hearty meal eaten in many
homes throughout the country, particularly at
weekend.
• The traditional English breakfast is a fried or
grilled dish consisting of bacon, eggs and
sausage， mushrooms, tomatoes, black
pudding, and fried bread or potatoes.
• In recent years a light breakfast , usually
called continental breakfast has become
popular in Britain.
• A light breakfast has no cooked dish and
consists of fruit juice or cereal [`siәriә]谷类食品,
and marmalade [`ma:mәleid]果酱 and coffee.
Light
breakfast
• Lunch is a midday meal, usually eaten
between 12:00 and 2:00pm.
• For those who have supper in the evening, it
will usually be the main meal of the day.
• Dinner for lunch consists of meat, potatoes
and other vegetables.
Dinner for lunch
lunch Fish and Chips
• The evening meal varies from family to
family.
• If the dinner is taken in the evening, it is
usually sumptuous. 丰盛
• Supper means a light meal taken in the
evening.
• It is less grand and usually cold.
Supper
• Between lunch and evening dinner, there is a
light meal of afternoon tea in Britain, which is
taken between 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon.
• The light meal of afternoon tea is known as
high tea, which is actually a mixture of tea and
supper.
• High tea is prepared with a cooked dish or
sandwiches, and accompanied by a pot of tea.
• Now tea is a working class name given to the
evening meal.
Tea time
Evening Meals
• Drinks are various and may be taken at
different times. If you are invited to a drinks
party, the party will probably be before
dinner, 6:00---8:00 pm.
• Besides, Britons are also known as tea
drinkers.
• It is said that Britons drink a quarter of all
the tea grown in the world each year. Many
of them drink it on at least eight different
occasions during the day.
Sporting Activities
• Enthusiastic sports fans.
• The most popular sport is soccer, which the
British also call football.
• Thousands of fans jam the stadiums every
Saturday.
• Cricket has been popular in England for hundreds
of years.
• Other popular sports include archery, bowls ( a
sport similar to bowling), golf, hockey, horseback
riding, horse racing, rugby football, sailing and
tennis.
Arts
• The largest collections are owned by about
20 national museums and art galleries, most
of which are in London.
• British Museum is noted for its outstanding
collections in archaeology and other fields.
• The public library system serves people
throughout the country.
• The Royal National Theatre performs in
London’s South Bank.
British Media
Division of media
Media
Television
Radio
Newspapers, magazines
The UK Television
• The five national
networks (excluding
satellite)
• Cable and digital
• Five national networks
in the UK.
The main channels
• BBC 1 - since 1936, general interest programmes.
• BBC 2 - minority and specialist interests.
• ITV - broadcasting is approximately 33% informative and
66% light entertainment.
• Channel 4 - since 1982, 15% educational programmes,
encourages innovation and experiment.
Television viewing in Britain
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The most popular leisure pasttime
Average viewing time is over 25 hours a week
TV productions continue to win international awards
Half of the programmes are bought abroad
Children’s TV has been very active( Blue Peter on BBC 1)
“Youth TV” has been started recently
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
• Six national stations.
• Broadcasts: BBC 1, 2,
4, BBC News 24,
BBC Choice, BBC
Parliament.
• Radio Channels.
• No advertising.
• Worldwide television
services (BBC World,
BBC Prime)
The division of programmes
• Light entertainment (variety shows, soap operas, situation
comedies, game shows)
• News/current affairs
• Documentaries
• Children’s TV
• Music
• Sport
• Films/TV movies
• Drama/plays
British favourite TV shows
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“Are you being served?”
“Bless me father”
“Fawlty Towers”
“Mulberry”
“Yes, Prime Minister”
“Blackadder”
“Chef”
“Holmes”
The brief history of British radio
• 1922: BBC started daily
broadcasting on 2LO on
14 Nov. The first voice
was Arthur Burrows,
reading the news.
• 1922: 15 Nov: 5IT and
2ZY became first BBC
stations outside London.
• 1967: On 30th September,
BBC radio reorganisation
launched Radio's 1,2,3
and 4.
• 1967: "Third
Programme“
and"National
Programme" replaced
2LO. The "Regional
Programme", an
alternative service, started
later this year.
The brief history of British radio
• 1973: Birth of
independent (commercial)
radio, with LBC and
Capital Radio in London.
• 1988: First commercial
station 'split' frequencies.
• 1990: IBA split into ITC
1991: Radio 1 goes 24
hours on 1 May.
• 1992: Launch of Classic
FM, Britain's first national
commercial radio station.
• 1993: Launch of
Virgin 1215.
• 1995: Talk Radio
began broadcasting on
14 Feb.
• 1996: New rules on
cross-media
ownership heralds
further change in the
radio industry.
The most popular British radio
stations
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Clare FM
Anna Livia
Live 95
Welsh Radio International
Imperial College radio
Capital FM
BBC Radio 2
The division of newspapers
British newspapers
Daily
Regional
National
Morning
Evening
Sunday
"The Sunday Times"
Tabloids
"Daily Mirror"
The circulation of national
newspapers
18
17.5
17
On
weekdays
On
Sundays
16.5
16
15.5
15
14.5
Copies
The most important newspapers
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Belfast Telegraph
The British Media Review
The Electronic Telegraph
The Guardian/The
Observer
The Independent
The Mirror
North Wales Newspapers
Online
The Scotsman
The Times
Some of British tabloids
• Anorak
an irreverent tabloid
• The Daily Mail
light-weight daily
• The Mirror
• The Daily Star
Not exactly high
brow!
• The Telegraph hard
to hold, easy to read
Periodicals in Britain
• 7,000 different periodicals
• Classified as “ consumer general interest” ,
“special interest”, “ business to business”
Marriage
• According to English law , no child can get
married below the age of 16. If they are
between 16 and 18 the parents’ consent 同意
，准许to the marriage is necessary, but over
the age of 18 the parents’ consent is
unnecessary.
• Most girls and nearly all men are over 18
when they get married.
• Marriage marks the beginning of a new and
independent family.
• Now British society is considered to be
permissive, which allows a considerable
amount of freedom.
• In terms of marriage the young people do not
like to have control placed on them by other
family members.
• It is quite normal for a girls of 16 to go out
with a boyfriend.
• If they are together for a long time and know
each other well, the girl would invite her
boyfriend to her house to meet her parents.
• If they had made private promise to marry,
the boy will buy an engagement ring 订婚戒指
for the girl.
• The engagement ring is placed on the third
finger of the girl’s left hand.
• If the girl changes her mind, she usually
returns the ring.
• If they continue getting along well, the
engagement ring will be replaced by the
wedding ring of plain gold.
• For the wedding, most British couples,
whether religious or not, will go to church to
have the ceremony.
• Other couples may go to a registry 登记office
to have the ceremony 典礼, where the
ceremony is usually less formal and more
purely legal.
• For the church ceremony the bride dressed in
a long white dress and attended by her close
friends and relatives.
• A churchman will ask whether they are
willing to marry each other and they have to
make promises of loyalty to each other.
• Ironically, Britain is one of the countries with
highest divorce rate in the developed country.
Social Contact
• Much social contact in Britain takes place in
people’s homes.
• On Sunday afternoons often families have
friends or relations in for tea, and there is
some entertainment in private houses in the
evening, too.
• Some people may like to visit a pub
regularly and may talk with the same people
there week after week.
• Middle and upper class people tend to favor
dinner parties and cocktail parties.
• Among the middle classes, people who have
children often fill their houses with children’s
parties.
• Games are organized for 20 or 30 children
before and after the Tea, which is called by
that name although there is no tea to drink,
only fruit drinks, sandwiches, ice-cream and
innumerable cakes.
• Many parents dislike such parties for they
cause much confusion in their houses.
Conservatism and Temperament
• The British people are usually considered
rather conservative.
• Their conservative attitude usually includes
two aspects: an acceptance of things that are
familiar, and an inclination to be suspicious of
anything that is strange or foreign.陌生的
• In much the same way most English people
have been slow to adopt rational 合理 reforms
such as the metric system.公制
• They suffered inconvenience from adhering to
old ways.
• English people tend to be hostile when they
hear any suggestion that some modification of
their habits, or the introduction of something
new and unknown into their lives, might be to
their advantage.
• Modern methods of cooking , by electricity or
gas, were accepted long ago, and few people
would now favor the old type of coal-fired
grate.炉架
• Modern methods of cooking, by electricity or
gas, were accepted long ago, and few people
would now favor the old type of coal-fired
grate.
• Self-control, the quality of not being excited,
not losing one’s temper, is extraordinarily
highly valued in Britain.
• Quarrelsomeness, violence, truculence,野蛮
[`trʌkju:lәns] trouble-making are profoundly
taboo.
• The quiet queue for buses is usually cited 引
用 to show the English spirit of control and
patience.
• The English people had a reputation for
being cold and reserved.
• The English hardly greeted each other
though they might know one another.
• There is little gossip in public places. You
would find most people sat reading
newspapers when you took on train.
• English people rarely shake hands except
when being introduced to someone for the
first time.
Privacy
• The English people are very strict about
privacy. If you ask an Englishman “Where
are you going?” or “ Have you eaten?” he
might think you are very rude.
• It is impolite to be curious about the private
affairs of others, even your friend.
• It is exceedingly improper to read their
letters or papers.
Customs
Connected
with the King or Queen
• Now there is a Queen in Britain. If you attend
important public occasions, you will
commonly hear the solemn song “ God Save
the Queen”.
• When this national anthem is played, still
most English people stand up.
• If you were at an important banquet, when
you drink wine, the first toast [toust] is
always to the Queen.
• In America one can criticize or joke about the
President, but In Britain people are never
allowed to joke about the King or Queen.
• However, we must see clearly that the social
changes have taken place in Britain during the
past forty years.
• The pop revolution of the 1960s, greatly
changed the pattern of English life.
• Four Liverpool boys joined together in a group
and called themselves “the Beatles”.
• They represented anger and bitterness of youth
struggling for freedom against authority, and
for this reason they were regarded by some
people as the personification 象征 of the
permissive 自由的 society.
Who's who
I. Objectives
• In this chapter we will learn about some
famous British figures
II. Focal Questions
• Who was the Prime Minister of Britain during
WWII?
• Who was the author of David Copperfield?
• Who earned the nickname "The Iron Lady"?
Procedures
•
Presentation by Students – Focal
questions
•
Lectures by the teacher
•
Class discussion – Exploitation
Activities
•
Assignment for the next chapter
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
1. Politicians
2. Natural scientists and social scientists
3. Celebrities in social life
1.Politicians
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Alfred the Great
Oliver Cromwell
Winston Churchill
Edward VIII
Elizabeth II
Margaret Thatcher
Tony Blair
1)Alfred the Great
• Alfred the Great was king of the southern
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex
• Alfred is noted for his defence of the
kingdom against the Danish Vikings
• Alfred was the first King of the West
Saxons to style himself “King of the
English”
2)Oliver Cromwell
• Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector (护国
公) of England for much of the 1650s
• By 1653, Parliamentary squabbling (争吵)
led Cromwell to take control as head of
state
3)Winston Churchill
• He led Great Britain to victory in World
War II
• One of the 20th century’s most quotable
wits, Churchill wrote a plethora of histories,
biographies and memoirs
• In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature
4)Edward VIII
• Edward VIII gave up his throne to marry an
American divorcee in 1936
• He served as Governor of the Bahamas
from 1940 to 1945
5)Elizabeth II
•
Elizabeth II is the Queen of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland
•
Her coronation, on 2 June, 1953, was the
first to be televised
•
In 1992 Elizabeth, the wealthiest woman
in England agreed to pay income tax for the
first time
6)Margaret Thatcher
•
Margaret Thatcher was the United
Kingdom’s first woman Prime Minister
•
She held the office of PM for 11 years
— longer than anyone in the 20th century
•
She led the country through the
Falklands War with Argentina
• She earned the nickname “The Iron Lady”
7)Tony Blair
• Tony Blair became the youngest British
Prime Minister of the 20th century
• Blair was soon a rising star of what became
known as the “New Labor” movement
• He became leader of the Labor Party in
1994
2.Natural scientists and social scientists
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Isaac Newton
Charles Dickens
James Watt
Alexander Graham Bell
Ian Fleming
Peter Cook
Isaac Newton
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Early life
Newton and Optics
Physics
Newton’s Legacy
Writings by Newton
Early life
• In 1661 he joined Trinity College,
Cambridge
• In 1665 he discovered the binomial theorem
• Newton became a fellow of Trinity College
in 1667
• In the same year he circulated his findings
in
Newton and Optics
• From 1670 to 1672 he lectured on optics
• During this period, he investigated the
refraction of light
• He invented the reflecting telescope
• Newton argued that light is composed of
particles
Physics
• In 1679, Newton returned to his work on
gravitation
• He published his results in De Motu
Corporum (1684)
• Newton stated the three universal laws of
motion that were not to be improved upon
for the next 300 years
Newton’s Legacy
• Newton’s laws of motion and gravity provided a
basis for different scientific or engineering
situations
• His calculus proved vital to the development of
further scientific theory
• Finally, he unified many of the isolated physics
facts into a satisfying system of laws
Writings by Newton
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Method of Fluxions (1671)
De Motu Corporum (1684)
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (1687)
•
Opticks (1704)
•
Arithmetica Universalis (1707)
• An Historical Account of Two Notable
Corruptions of Scripture (1754)
2)Charles Dickens
• Lifetime
• Novels
Lifetime
• Charles was born in Portsmouth, England
• His early years were an idyllic time for him
• In his early 20s, he made a name for himself
with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers
• On June 9, 1870, he died. He was buried in
the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey
Novels
• Dickens’ writing style is florid and poetic,
with a strong comic touch
• Among his best-known works are Great
Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver
Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and A Christmas
Carol
• At least 180 movies and TV adaptations
have been based on Dickens’ works
3)James Watt
• Engineering Achievements
• Legacy
• Remembrance
4)Alexander Graham Bell
• Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847August 2, 1922) was a scientist, inventor,
and founder of the Bell Telephone
Company
• In 2004, Alexander Graham Bell was
nominated as one of the top 10 “Greatest
Canadians” by viewers of the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation
5)Ian Fleming
• Biography
• James Bond Novels
• Children’s Story
Biography
• He worked as a journalist and stockbroker
before the Second World War
• Besides the 12 novels and nine short stories
he wrote,Fleming is also known for the
children’s story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Fleming worked in UK Naval Intelligence
during World War II
James Bond Novels
• Casino Royale (1953; first U.S. publication title: You
Asked for It)
• Live and Let Die (1954)
• Diamonds Are Forever (1956)
• From Russia with Love (1957)
• For Your Eyes Only (a collection of short stories, 1960)
• The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963)
• You Only Live Twice (1964)
• The Man With The Golden Gun (1965; allegedly finished
by Kingsley Amis)
Children’s Story
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964)
6)Peter Cook
• Peter Edward Cook was a British satirist,
writer and comedian
• He is widely regarded as the father of the
British satire boom of the 1960s
• Peter Cook’s first regular television spot
was on Granada Television’s Braden Beat
with Bernard Braden
3.Celebrities in social life
•
•
•
•
Film and Television
Music
Sports
Others
1)Film and Television
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Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
Eric Morecambe (1926-1984)
Julie Andrews (1935- )
Michael Crawford (1942- )
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
• Charlie Chaplin was an Academy Awardwinning English comedic actor and
filmmaker
• Chaplin became one of the most famous
actors as well as a notable filmmaker,
composer and musician in the early to mid
“Classical Hollywood” era of American
cinema
Eric Morecambe (1926-1984)
• Eric Morecambe was an English comedian
who together with Ernie Wise formed the
award-winning double act Morecambe and
Wise
• He is best remembered for the television
series The Morecambe & Wise Show
Julie Andrews (1935- )
• He is an award-winning English actress,
singer, author and icon
• She is the recipient of Golden Globe,
Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People’s Choice
Award, Theatre World Award, Screen
Actors Guild and Academy Award honors
Michael Crawford (1942- )
• Michael Crawford, is an English actor and
singer
• He has won critical acclaim and numerous
awards during his career, which includes
radio, television and stage
2)Music
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Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
John Peel (1939-2004)
John Lennon (1940-1980)
Paul McCartney (1942- )
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Bob Geldof (1951- )
Bono (1960- )
Robbie Williams (1974- )
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
• Sir Edward William Elgar, first Baronet,
OM, GCVO was an English romantic
composer
• Several of his first major orchestral works,
including the Enigma Variations and the
Pomp and Circumstance Marches, were
greeted with acclaim
• He was appointed Master of the King’s
Music in 1924
John Peel (1939-2004)
• He was an English disc jockey, radio
presenter and journalist
• Known for his eclectic taste in music and
his honest and warm broadcasting style,
John Peel was a popular and respected DJ
and broadcaster
• He was one of the first to play American
psychedelic rock, reggae and punk on
British radio
John Lennon (1940-1980)
• John Winston Ono Lennon was an English
rock musician, singer, writer, songwriter,
artist, actor and peace activist who gained
worldwide fame as one of the founding
members of The Beatles
• Lennon won the 1982 Grammy Award for
Album of the Year
• One month later Lennon was murdered in
New York City on 8 December 1980
Paul McCartney (1942- )
• He is a multiple Grammy Award-winning
English singer-songwriter, poet, composer,
multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record
producer, film producer and animal rights
activist
• He gained worldwide fame as a member of
The Beatles
• His song Yesterday is listed as the most
covered song in history
George Harrison (1943-2001)
• He was an English rock guitarist, singersongwriter and film producer
• He achieved international fame as a lead
guitarist in The Beatles
• Often referred to as “the quiet Beatle”,
Harrison embraced Indian mysticism, and
helped broaden the horizons of the other
Beatles as well as their Western audience
Bob Geldof (1951- )
• Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, KBE
known as Bob Geldof, is an Irish singer,
songwriter, actor and political activist who
became famous as a member of the rock
band The Boomtown Rats
• Geldof’s most notable compositions include
Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays
Bono (1960- )
• Paul David Hewson also known by his stage
name Bono, is the main vocalist of the Irish
rock band U2
• Bono writes almost all U2 lyrics, often
using political, social and religious themes
• Bono has been nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize
Robbie Williams (1974- )
• Robbie Williams is a Grammy Award-nominated
and 10 time BRIT Award-winning English singersongwriter
• Robbie Williams as a solo artist has sold more
albums in the UK than any other British solo artist
in history and has won more BRIT Awards than
any other artist to date
• His album sales stand at over 55 million
worldwide
3)Sports
• Donald Campbell (1921-1967)
• David Beckham (1975- )
Donald Campbell (1921-1967)
• Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a
British car and motorboat racer who broke 8
world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s.
• He remains the only person to set both land
and water speed records in the same year
(1964)
David Beckham (1975- )
• wice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year
and in 2004 was the world’s highest-paid
footballer, Beckham is the first British footballer
to play 100 Champions League matches
• He was Google’s most searched of all sports
topics in both 2003 and 2004
• Beckham was captain of England from 15
November 2000 until the 2006 FIFA World Cup
finals, during which he played 58 times
4)Others
• Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
• Diana (1961-1997)
Florence Nightingale
• Florence Nightingale came to be known as “The
Lady with the Lamp”, was a pioneering nurse,
writer, and noted statistician
• In 1853. Later, the Crimean War began,
Nightingale oversee a team of nurses in the
military hospitals in Turkey,With her nurses, she
greatly improved the conditions and substantially
reduced the mortality rate
• In 1860 she established the Nightingale Training
School for nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital in
London
Diana
• A public figure from the announcement of
her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana
remained the focus of near-constant media
scrutiny in the UK and around the world
• Her sudden death in a car crash was
followed by a spontaneous and prolonged
show of public mourning.
Religion
I. Objectives
• In this unit we will explore the major
religions, the religious diversity and the
characteristics of US religious belief.
• We will do research in the trend of
secularization. Prospects in the US.
re lig iou s b e lie f w ill b e d isc u s s e d .
II. Focal Questions
• What are the major religious groups in the US?
• How has religion influenced the American
society?
• What is the significance of the Separation of
Church and State in American politics and
religion?
III. Procedures
•
•
•
•
Presentation by Students – Focal questions
Lectures by the teacher
Class discussion – Exploitation Activities
Assignment for the next chapter
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
Major groups
Christian churches
Religion in the United States has a history of diversity, due in
large part to the nation’s multicultural demographic makeup.
The largest religion in the U.S. is Christianity, practiced by
the majority of the population (nearly 76.5% in 2001).
Christian churches
• Protestants
• Americans are largely protestant and belong
to a few major denominations —Baptist,
Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and
Episcopalian.
Christian churches
• Roman Catholics
• Roman Catholicism is by far the largest
unified religious body. More than 50
million Americans are of the Roman
Catholic faith.
Christian churches
• Eastern Orthodox churches
• There are more than five million members
of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the
United States, mainly descendants of people
who migrated from Russia, or Greece or
from other parts of Orthodox Eastern
Europe.
Non-Christian churches
• Judaism
• After Christianity and no-religion, Judaism
is the third-largest religious preference in
the U.S. Jews have been present in the U.S.
since the 17th century, though large scale
immigration did not take place until the
19th century, largely as a result of
persecutions in parts of Eastern Europe.
Non-Christian churches
• Islam
• Over 2.5 million members of the Islamic
religion live in America, including a large
community of black Americans who have
converted to Islam.
Non-Christian churches
• Buddhism
• Buddhism entered the US during the 19th
century with the arrival of the first
immigrants from Eastern Asia. Furthermore,
US intellectuals started to take interest in
Buddhism.
Non-Christian churches
• Hinduism
• Many Hindu groups have also begun to rise
with the large number of immigrants from
India.
Distinctive characteristics
• Freedom and toleration
• It is a popular notion that each dissenting group
that came to colonial America wanted religious
freedom for itself. Freedom and toleration were
only very gradually established in the face of the
rival imperialism of sectarian groups, each holding
staunchly to its own cherished version of the true
faith, and, in most cases, utterly impatient of
dissent.
Distinctive characteristics
• Pluralism and diversity
• The American traditions of individual freedom
and tolerance have accommodated a remarkable
variety of religious practices and beliefs. Although
about four of five Americans identify themselves
as Christian, even this majority encompasses
many denominations, among them Catholic,
Baptist and Lutheran — some of which have
further divided into subgroups even as movements
like fundamentalism and evangelicalism transcend
denominational differences.
Prospects
• The Fundamentalist revival
• Fundamentalism refers to a belief in, and
strict adherence to, a set of basic principles.
It was originally coined to describe a
narrowly defined set of beliefs that
developed into a movement within the
Protestant community of the United States
in the early part of the 20th century.
Prospects
• The Popularity of the Cyber Church
• New telecommunication technologies and
general trends towards the privatization of
religion would boost cyber churches as well
in the 21st century — especially among
professionals, baby boomers, and perhaps
large segments of the elderly in the U.S.
Prospects
• The Rise of Islam
• Islam in the U.S. has considerably more adherents
than most people guess. The number is estimated
to be anywhere between three million and six
million. Muslims are one of the fastest-growing
religious groups in the U.S. Slightly over half of
all Muslims are immigrants, a number that has
doubled in the past two decades.
Prospects
• The Secularization of Religion
• Secularization of religion refers to the
replacement of spiritual concerns with
concerns about this world. American culture
has been secularized, that is, the influence
of religion on public affairs has greatly
lessened.
Who's who
I. Objectives
• In this chapter we will learn about some
famous American figures
II. Focal Questions
• Who was the only US president that has served
more than two terms?
• Who was the youngest man elected to president
and the youngest to die?
• Who is the author of The Old Man and the Sea?
Procedures
•
Presentation by Students – Focal
questions
•
Lectures by the teacher
•
Class discussion – Exploitation
Activities
•
Assignment for the next chapter
IV. Teaching Hours
V. Contents
1. Politicians
2. Writers and Scientists
3. Celebrities in Social Life
1.Politicians
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Richard Milhous Nixon
George Walker Bush
Barack Hussein Obama
Benjamin Franklin
Martin Luther King
1)George Washington
• He was the first President of the United
States of America
• When the Revolutionary War began, the
Continental Congress asked George
Washington to be the commander in chief
of the Continental army.
• He was elected to a second term, but
refused to run for a third term as president
2)Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln is a perfect example of a self-made man
• Through natural ability, determination, and study at home,
he became one of the most learned men in the world of his
time
• In 1860,He won the election, and was the first member of
the young Republican Partyto become President of the
United States
• Lincoln became President of the United States at the
moment of the nation’s greatest crisis since 1776
• Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (解放奴隶
宣言) which freed all black persons from slavery.
• On April 14, 1865, he was shot by an assassin
3)Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• He was the 32nd President of the United States
• He served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S.
President to have served more than two terms
• During the Great Depression (大萧条) of the
1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal
• Roosevelt led the United States as it became the
“Arsenal of Democracy” in WWII
• As the Allies neared victory, Roosevelt played a
critical role in shaping the post-war world
4)John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Kennedy was the youngest man elected
President; he was also the youngest to die
• Winning by a narrow margin in the popular
vote, Kennedy became the first Roman
Catholic (天主教会的) President in 1960
• His Inaugural Address offered the
memorable injunction, “Ask not what your
country can do for you; ask what you can do
for your country.”
5)Richard Milhous Nixon
•
During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in
ending American fight in Viet Nam and improving
relations with the U.S.S.R. and China
•
But the Watergate scandal brought fresh
divisions to the country and ultimately led to his
resignation
•
In 1950, he won a Senate seat. Two years
later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, aged
39, to be his running mate
6)George Walker Bush
• He was 43rd President of the United
States,re-elected on November 2, 2004
• On the morning of September 11, 2001,
terrorists attacked the United States.
• President Bush believed the strength of
America lies in the hearts and souls of their
citizens,
7)Barack Hussein Obama
•
Barack H. Obama (1961- ) is the 44th
President of the United States
•
His story is the American story — values from
the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a
strong family, hard work and education as the
means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a
life so blessed should be lived in service to others.
•
President Obama’s years of public service
are based around his unwavering (坚定的) belief
in the ability to unite people around political
purposes
8)Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin’s careers included printer,
moralist, essayist, civic leader, scientist,
inventor, statesman, diplomat and
philosopher.
• At the age of 70, he signed the Declaration
of Independence
• He read treatises on electricity which led to
his flying a kite with a wire attached to a
key
9)Martin Luther King
• Congress declared a national holiday in January to
remember his life
• It was on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King
give his speech, “I Have a Dream”
• In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was approved. The
success of King’s work toward equality was
finally written into law
• The legacy of Martin Luther King lies in his
success to bring equality to black Americans
through non-violent means
2.Writers and Scientists
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Washington Irving
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson
Mark Twain
Ernest Miller Hemingway
Edgar Parks Snow
Thomas Alva Edison
Henry Ford
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Albert Einstein
Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin
1)Washington Irving
• Washington Irving (1783-1859) was
America’s first man of letters, devoting
much of his career to literature
• He was the first American writer of
imaginative literature to gain international
fame
• The short story as a genre in American
literature probably began with Irving’s The
Sketch Book
2)Walt Whitman
• Whitman (1819-1892) was one of the great
innovators in American literature
• In the cluster of poems he called Leaves of
Grass (1855) he gave America its first
genuine epic poem
• The poetic style he devised is now called
free verse.
3)Emily Dickinson
• Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote her
whimsical, darting verse with sublime
indifference to any notion of being a
democratic or popular poet
• Her work, far different from that of either
Whitman or Longfellow, illustrated the fact
that one could take a single household and
an inactive life, and make enchanting poetry
out of it
4)Mark Twain
•
Mark Twain (1835-1910) is the pen name of
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who the writer H. L.
Mencken called “the true father of our national
literature”
•
Twain made a more extensive combination of
American folk humour and serious literature than
previous writers had done
•
Twain’s work does not suffer from being over
genteel (上流社会的), and his satirical writing is a
sharp attack on society
5)Ernest Miller Hemingway
• His subjects were often war and its effects on
people, or contests, such as hunting or
bullfighting, which demand stamina (毅力) and
courage.
• Hemingway’s style of writing is striking. His
sentences are short, his words simple, yet they are
often filled with emotion
• The Old Man and the Sea (1952) helps toward
restoring his literary image, so that he wins the
Nobel Prize in 1954
6)Edgar Parks Snow
• The publication in 1937 of his book Red
Star Over China quickly earned Snow the
reputation of the Western world’s expert on
Communists in China
7)Thomas Alva Edison
• In his lifetime of 84 years, Edison shared in the excitement
of America’s growth into a modern nation
• The story of his life takes us back to that “heroic age of
invention” as the last of the 19th century has been called
• No one but Edison knew how hard and long he had worked
to achieve his great victory with the light bulb
• The whole United States turned off its electric lights for
one minute, in honour of him after his death
8)Henry Ford
• Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the American
founder of the Ford Motor Company and
father of modern assembly lines used in
mass production
• Henry’s greatest task was to produce a
gasoline engine that would be the power for
his cars. He finally produced one in the
kitchen sink in his house. He worked so
many hours each day that his friends called
him crazy Henry
9)Wilbur and Orville Wright
• The Wright brothers, Orville (1871-1948)
and Wilbur (1867-1912), were two
Americans who are generally credited with
inventing and building the world’s first
successful airplane and making the first
controlled, powered and sustained heavierthan-air human flight on December 17,
1903
10)Albert Einstein
• Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of
the problems of physics and the determination to
solve them
• His special theory of relativity stemmed from an
attempt to reconcile (使一致) the laws of
mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic
field (电磁场)
• Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate
degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from
many European and American universities
11)Neil Armstrong and Edwin
Aldrin
• On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft
was sent into the sky by powerful rockets.
Three astronauts were inside: Neil
Armstrong (1930- ), Edwin Aldrin (1930- )
and Michael Collins (1930- ).
• Neil and Edwin stepped on the moon. Neil
looked at the camera and said, “That is one
small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.”
3.Celebrities in Social Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
John Davison Rockefeller and Family
Ray Kroc
Walt Disney
Marilyn Monroe
Elvis Aaron Presley
Steven Allan Spielberg
William Henry Bill Gates
Michael Jeffrey Jordan
Michael Fred Phelps
1)John Davison Rockefeller
• John made his money in the oil business in
Cleveland, Ohio. He founded a business in 1870
which was called the Standard Oil Company of
Ohio. It became the world’s largest oil company in
the last part of the 19th century.
• Due to his great personal wealth, he decided to
give one half of his money away to various
organizations which caused him to start the
Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research
2)Ray Kroc
• Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s in 1955 in
Des Plaines, Illinois
• In 1965 McDonald’s went public and Ray Kroc’s
wealth shot up into the hundreds of millions —
making the earlier deal with the McDonald’s stand
out as one of the great business deals of the
century
• By 1967 McDonald’s decided to branch out —
first to Canada, then to Europe, then to Asia and
the rest of the world
3)Walt Disney
• Walt Disney (1901-1966) was a multiple
Academy Award winning American film
producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor,
animator, entrepreneur and philanthropist
• In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees
(the first colour cartoon) won Walt the first of his
studio’s Academy Awards.
• Walt Disney’s dream of a clean and organized
amusement park came true, as Disneyland Park
opened in 1955.
4)Marilyn Monroe
•
Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), Hollywood
legend, famous even among the famous, began life
as plain or not so plain Norma Jean Baker
•
Her first big break came alongside Jane
Russell in Gentleman Prefer Blondes. It was
enough of a success for her to join the stars whose
hand-prints are set in concrete on Sunset
Boulevard.
•
Suddenly in August 1962 she died, apparently
from an overdose of barbiturates (安眠药).
5)Elvis Aaron Presley
•
Elvis A. Presley (1935-1977) was an American singer,
actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly
known simply as “Elvis”, and is also sometimes referred to
as “the King of Rock and Roll” or “the King”
•
Elvis began a singing career that led him to a
performance on “The Grand Old Opry”, probably the best
country music radio program.
•
Elvis’ greatest hits were “Hound Dog”, “Do not Be
Cruel”, “Love Me Tender” and “All Shook Up”. He could
sing softly with great compassion or wildly with great
energy. He truly became a teenage idol.
6)Steven Allan Spielberg
• Steven A. Spielberg (1946- ) is one of the most
critically acclaimed, successful and influential
film directors in international filmdom.
• Despite numerous critics’ attacks on his directing
style and several of his films, he has 24 films
under his belt, including some major blockbuster
hits
• He has accumulated six Academy Award
nominations for Best Director, and won two for
Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan
7)William Henry Bill Gates
• William Henry Bill Gates (1955- ) is an
American business magnate (商业巨头),
philanthropist, author, the world’s third
richest person (as of February 8, 2008) and
chairman of Microsoft
• Gates was the richest person in the world
for 15 consecutive years
8)Michael Jeffrey Jordan
• Michael Jeffrey Jordan (1963- ) is a retired
American professional basketball player
and active businessman
• Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball
player of all time. Jordan was one of the
most effectively marketed athletes of his
generation
9)Michael Fred Phelps
• Michael F. Phelps (1985- ) is an American
swimmer
• He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals,
the most by any Olympian
• By the end of 2008, he held seven world
records in swimming.
Chapter 3
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE
UNITED STATES
Racial Problems
• Unlike most other peoples, Americans are primarily a
nation of immigrants. The citizens or their ancestors
immigrated from many parts of the globe. Though people
all share a common American culture, the nation contains
many racial and ethnic subcultures with their own
distinctive characteristics. These differences might seem
trivial or irrelevant to outside observers, but they have
contributed to racial conflicts that have been a persistent
social problem to American society.
• The United States was founded on the principle of human
equality, but in practice the nation has fallen far short of
that ideal. Particularly since the civil rights demonstrations,
ghetto riots, and other unrest in the 1960s, race and ethnic
relations have been a major preoccupation of social
scientists, politicians and the general public.
Racial Problems
• The 1960s saw the great civil rights movement whose
goals were to end segregation laws completely and fight
for the equal rights for the colored people.
• The current status of black Americans presents a mixed
picture. The elimination of legal barriers to their
advancement has been a major gain, but institutionalized
discrimination is still rife.
• Race relations between black and white still leave much to
be desired, although there is unmistakable evidence of
some improvements in attitudes.
the Watts Riot
in 1965
The Slave Auction
Poverty
• By many standards the United States is the most favorably
wealthy society in history. Yet over 24 million people,
more than 1 American in 10, are living at or below the
official poverty line, on incomes that the federal
government considers insufficient to meet basic
requirement of food, clothing, and shelter. Further more,
the affluent majority sometimes seems indifferent to the
problems of the poorest section of the population.
• Poverty in the United States does not simply mean that the
poor do not live quite as well as other citizens. Poverty can
also mean low self-esteem, despair, and stunting of human
potential.
Poverty
• The problem of poverty in the United States is aggravated
because it occurs in a society in which the overall
distribution of wealth and income is very unequal.
• The continued existence of poverty in a generally affluent
American society raises serious moral questions—and
inevitably creates fierce confliction of interest and many
political controversies.
Drug Abuse
• Drug abuse in the United States has come to be regarded as
one of the most challenging social problems facing the
nation.
• Drug abuse in the United States is a social problem
because it has a wide range of social costs, or dysfunctions.
• 1.Crime. There is a strong association between forms of
drug use and crime.
• 2.Automobile accidents. Alcohol use is directly
responsible for tens of thousands of highway accidents and
injuries; the drug is blamed for half of the annual total of
road traffic fatalities.
Drug Abuse
• 3. Effects on individuals. Drug dependence takes a significant
toll in terms of personal health and safety.
• 4. Economic losses. The cost of
alcohol abuse alone takes over
$43 billion a year in accidents,
medical bill, lost production, and
so on.
Crime
• Crime is one of the most serious problems facing the
nation.
• It is generally agreed that serious, violent crime has
reached alarming proportions in the United States.
• Those arrested for crimes are disproportionately likely to
be male, young, a member of a racial minority, and a city
resident.
• It must be noticed that the Serious Crime Index of UCR
focuses on crimes which are more apt to be committed by
persons of lower social and economic status.
The Abuse of Power
by Government and Corporation
• A crucial problem of government and corporations
concerns power—and the abuse of it.
• Government and corporations are widely distrusted in
the United States.
• The scandal provoked congressional investigations of
the FBI and the CIA that turned up literally thousands
of illegal acts in the executive branch of government.
The Abuse of Power
by Government and Corporation
• As for corporations, they are widely believed to be more
concerned with their own profits than with social responsibility,
and the quality or price of their products, or the truth of their
advertising.
Questions for Thought
• 1.The author says that the United states was founded on
the principle of human equality, but in practice the nation
has fallen far short of that ideal. Illustrate this point with
what you have learned from this book.
• 2.Discuss the origins, development and current situation of
the black-white relations in the United States.
• 3.Why does the drug issue always excite the strong
emotion among Americans? Why is it perceived as a major
threat to American society?
• 4.Pick up some examples from the text to show how the
government and corporations have abused power in the
United States?