Unit 9
• The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
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By Ursula Le Guin
Teaching Aims
• 1. Improving Reading Skills
• 2. Enriching Vocabulary
• 3. Improving Writing skills
Teaching Points
I. Background knowledge
II. Introduction to the passage
III. Text Analysis
IV. Writing Skills
V. Rhetorical devices
VI. Questions
I. Background Knowledge
• 1. Ursula K(roeber) Le
Guin (1929-)
• American writer of science fiction and
fantasy, poet and critical essays. Le Guin
has examined large ethical, moral, and
social issues in her work and her fame
has extended beyond the genre
boundaries.
• Her writings force us
to re-examine many
of the things that we
once took for granted,
like our cities, our
political and social
structures, etc. She
began writing during
the 1950s, but not
until the ‘60s did she
begin publishing.
• Her fourth novel, The Left Hand of
Darkness (1969) won her both the Hugo
and Nebula awards. The Tombs of Atuan
(1971) won the Newbery Honor Book
Citation and The Farthest Shore (1972)
won the National Book Award for
Children’s Literature.
• In The Word for World is Forest (1972)
she uses science fiction to explore
contemporary issues like colonialism and
the Vietnam War. In an interview with
Larry McCaffery the author explains why
she likes the science fiction form. She
says: “Science fiction allows me to help
people get out of their cultural skins and
into the skins of other beings.
• In that sense science fiction is just a
further extension of what the novel has
traditionally been. In most fiction the
author tries to get into the skin of another
person; in science fiction you are often
expected to get into the skin of another
person from another culture.”
• Ursula Kroeber:
• --- born on October 21, 1929.
• --- Her father, Alfred Kroeber, was an
anthropologist, her mother, Theodora,
a writer of children's stories
• --- She has three children and two
grandchildren.
• ---She is considered a great author,
but not a particularly tall one
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She studied literature
--- Bachelor of Arts degree at Radcliffe
--- M.A. from Columbia university, in 1952.
--- awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study
in France
• --- there she met Charles Le Guin, whom
she later married
• --- Mrs. Le Guin now lives in Portland,
Oregon.
Background Knowledge
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The works:
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
The Farthest Shore (1972)
The Dispossessed (1974)
The Beginning Place (1980)
Background Knowledge
• LeGuin said she has studied very little
hard science. "My science fiction tends to
be social science fiction," she said. "But I
try not to make mistakes."
Background Knowledge
• Her writing force us to re-examine many
of the things that we once took for
granted.
• --- cities
• --- political structures
• --- social attitudes
• --- conventional ideas about life
Background Knowledge
• She uses science fiction to explore
contemporary issues.
• She explains why she likes the science fiction
form.
• She says: “ Science fiction allows me to help
people get out of their cultural skins and into
the skins of other beings…in science fiction
you are often expected to get into the skin of
another person from another culture.”.
• 2. William James
(1842--1910)
• William James was
an original thinker
in and between the
disciplines of
physiology,
psychology and
philosophy.
• His twelve-hundred page masterwork,
The Principles of Psychology (1890), is a
rich blend of physiology, psychology,
philosophy, and personal reflection that
has given us such ideas as “the stream of
thought” and the baby's impression of the
world “as one great blooming, buzzing
confusion”
• It contains seeds of
pragmatism and
phenomenology, and
influenced generations
of thinkers in Europe
and America
• James made some of his most important
philosophical contributions in the last
decade of his life. In a burst of writing in
1904–5 (collected in Essays in Radical
Empiricism (1912)) he set out the
metaphysical view most commonly
known as “neutral monism,” according to
which there is one fundamental “stuff”
that is neither material nor mental.
• In “A Pluralistic Universe” he defends the
mystical and anti-pragmatic view that
concepts distort rather than reveal reality,
and in his influential Pragmatism (1907),
he presents systematically a set of views
about truth, knowledge, reality, religion,
and philosophy that permeate his writings
from the late 1870s onwards.
• James’s fascinating style and his broad
culture and cosmopolitan outlook made
him the most influential American thinker
of his day. His philosophy has three
principle aspects---his voluntarism (唯意
识论), his pragmatism (实用主义), and
his “radical empiricism (经验主义)”.
• James’s other philosophical writings
include The Will to Believe (1897),
Pragmatism (1907), A Pluralistic
Universe (1909), The Meaning of Truth
(1909), Some Problems in Philosophy
( 1911 ), and Essays in Radical
Empiricism (1912).
• 3. Allegory (寓言)
• in literature, is a symbolic story that
serves as a disguised representation for
meanings other than those indicated on
the surface. The characters in an allegory
often have no individual personality, but
are embodiments (化身、体现) of moral
qualities and other abstractions.
• The allegory is closely related to parable,
fable, and metaphor, differing from them
largely in intricacy and length. Although
allegory is still used by some authors, its
popularity as a literary form has declined
in favor of a more personal form of
symbolic expression.
II. Introduction to the
Passage
• Type of Writing:
• A piece of allegorical description
Introduction to the Passage
• The theme:
• What is the nature of happiness and on
what it depends ?
Introduction to the Passage
• Happiness is based on a just
discrimination of what is necessary, what
is neither necessary nor destructive, and
what is destructive.
Introduction to the Passage
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What is destructive?
Monarchy
Slavery
Stock exchange
Advertisement
Secret police
Bomb
Introduction to the Passage
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What is neither necessary nor destructive?
Central heating
Subway trams
Washing machines
Beer
Drug---droop
Devices not yet invented
Introduction to the Passage
• What is necessary?
• Beautiful city with avenues, green
meadows
• Houses with red roofs gardens
• Citizens were not simple but happy
• Lives were not wretched
• Contentment of life
• Based on the suffering of the child
Introduction to the Passage
• --- The terrible justice of reality
• --- People accept it
Introduction to the Passage
• --- In the last para. The writer seems to
have some doubts about this.
• --- A few young boys and girls do not
accept Omelas and walk away from it.
Introduction to the Passage
• The last para.
• The writer puts forward the problem but
does not supply the answers.
Introduction to the Passage
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Why are they leaving Omelas?
Who are these people?
Where are they going?
Are they frightened or dissatisfied with
Omelas?
• Are they going to found a new utopian
city not based on any misery or suffering?
Words and expressions
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a clamor of bells
n.喧闹, 叫嚷, 大声的要求
v.喧嚷, 大声的要求
clamorous
adj. 大喊大叫的
clamorously
adv.吵闹地, 鼓躁地
Words and expressions
• swallow
• n.[鸟]燕子, 吞咽, 喉
• vt.咽, 淹没, 吞没, 取消, 忍受, 轻信, 压制, 耗
尽
• vi.吞下, 咽下
• swallow-tail
• n. 1.凤蝶 2.燕尾 3.燕尾服
• swallow-tailed coat
• n.燕尾服
Words and expressions
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swallow a camel
默忍难于置信[容忍]的事
swallow an insult
忍受侮辱, 忍辱含垢
swallow down
吞下
swallow the bait
v.上钩, 上当
Words and expressions
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Puritanical
adj.清教徒的, 严格的
Puritan
n.清教徒 adj.清教徒的
puritanic
adj.清教徒的, 严格的
Puritanism
n.清教, 清教徒主义
puritanize
v.(使)成清教徒, 象清教徒般地行动, (使)举止
Words and expressions
• in communion with
• 与...有联络， 有共同利害关系
Words and expressions
• seep[si:p]
• v.渗出, 渗漏
• seep in 渗入
Words and expressions
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Cobweb
n.蜘蛛网, 蛛丝
cobwebbed
布满蛛网的； 蛛网状的
cobwebbery
n.蜘蛛网之形成, 蜘蛛网之结构
cobwebby
adj. 蛛网似的, 蛛网密布的
Words and expressions
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imbecile
adj.低能的, 愚笨的, 虚弱的
n.低能者, 痴呆, 愚蠢的人
imbecilic
adj.低能的, 愚笨的
imbecility
n.低能
III. Text Analysis
• 1. The Ones Who Walk Away from
Omelas may be called a piece of
allegorical description. Omelas is a
fictional city of happiness envisaged (正
视) by the writer. She describes
emotionally and colorfully the city of
Omelas and its citizens but it is a piece of
allegorical description.
• In reality, however, she discourses on a rather
provocative (煽动性的) theme---the nature of
happiness and on what it depends. She states
her views very clearly in one sentence:
“Happiness is based on a just discrimination of
what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor
destructive, and what is destructive”. What the
citizens of Omelas do not have or do not wish
to have may be classed as things, which the
writer thinks, are destructive of happiness.
• They did without monarchy and slavery;
they got on without the stock exchange,
the advertisement, the secret police and
the bomb; there would be no cars or
helicopters; one thing there is none of is
guilt; and they do without the clergy and
soldiers.
• In the middle category---that of the
unnecessary but undestructive---the
writer lists the following: central heating,
subway trams, washing machines, beer,
and even a not habit forming drug like
drooz, and all kinds of marvelous devices
net yet invented, floating light sources
fuelless power, a cure for common cold.
• As for things in the first category that of
the necessary the writer doesn’t mention
them specifically. We may, however,
make a list of the following: a brighttowered beautiful city by the sea
surrounded by snowy peaks, a city with
shady avenues, lush green meadows,
houses with red roofs, painted walls and
moss grown gardens.
• The citizens were not simple but happy; they
were not naive and happy children but mature,
intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were
not wretched (可怜的、肮脏的、悲惨的).
They have a feeling of a boundless and
generous contentment and the victory they
celebrate is that of life. The most important
thing on which the happiness of the people of
Omelas is based is the misery and suffering of
the child in the basement cellar.
• The writer calls this the terrible justice of
reality and the people accept it. In the last
paragraph, however, the writer seems to
have some doubts about this. A few
adolescent girls or boys and sometimes
an older man or woman do not accept
Omelas and walk away from it.
• To strengthen her views on happiness she also
sharply criticizes the pedants (学究式的人物)
and sophisticates (久经世故的人) who
consider happiness as something rather stupid.
She refutes (反驳、驳倒) the view that pain is
intellectual and evil interesting. She points out
evil is banal (平凡的、陈腐的) and pain is
terribly boring. She also says to praise despair
is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to
lose hold of everything.
• Finally, to make her Omelas more real and
acceptable, she introduces the misery and
suffering of a child imprisoned in a basement
cellar. The happiness of the many is based on
the suffering of a few. This seems to be the
pattern of society throughout the world, so the
writer describes it as the terrible justice of
reality and the people accept it. Yet the writer
seems to have her doubts as the final paragraph
shows. Omelas is, perhaps, not so perfect after
all.
• The whole material may be clearly divided into
five parts. Paragraphs 1, 4, 5 and 6 describe the
colorful celebrations of the Festival of Summer.
Paragraphs 2 and 3 describe the people of
Omelas and their (or the writer’s) views on
happiness. Paragraph 8 describes the misery
and suffering of the child. Paragraphs 9, 10 and
12 describe the attitude of most people and their
reactions to the child’s suffering.
• Paragraph 14 describes the different
attitude and reactions of a few. Finally,
there are manly short paragraphs (2, 7, 11
and 13) which serve to introduce new
topics or ideas. These short paragraphs
are more effective and forceful than
ordinary topic sentences. The writer
further punctuates her points by using
many rhetorical questions.
• For example, in paragraph 2 she uses the
question, “How is one to tell about joy?”
to prepare the reader for her provocative
views on joy, happiness, pain, evil, etc.
The second question states clearly she is
going to describe the citizens of Omelas.
• The last paragraph, however, stands out sharply
from among all the others. It is the most
interesting and thought provoking paragraph.
The writer puts forward the problem but does
not supply the answers, thus allowing the
readers to give free rein to their imagination.
Who are these people? Are they idealists,
nihilists (虚无主义者), revolutionaries or
perverts? Why are they leaving Omelas? Are
they disgusted, frightened, saddened or just
dissatisfied with Omelas?
• Where are they going? Are they going to
lead a life of seclusion in a monastery (修
道院) or hermitage (偏僻的寺院) far
from this maddening world or are they
going to found a new utopian city not
based on any misery or suffering or what?
• The writer uses a lot of specific words
describing sound and color to paint a verbal
picture of the city of Omelas and to describe the
joyous celebrations that were being held. Here
are a few examples: bright towered, sparkled
with flags, red roofs, painted wails, robes of
mauve and grey, Green Fields, streamers of
silver, gold and green, burned with white-gold
fire, sunlit air, dark blue sky, a shimmering of
gong and tambourine, a cheerful faint
sweetness of the air, joyous clanging of bells,
etc..
• Similarly she successfully paints a very
vivid and poignant (刺激的、辛辣的)
picture of the misery and suffering of the
child. There is also a variety of sentence
structure to be found: long periodic or
loose sentences with a string of participial
phrase modifiers, varied with short
powerful sentences, short elliptical
sentences, rhetorical questions, absolute
constructions, etc.
• Besides these, there are also many
figures of speech to be found, such as,
similes and metaphor.
• For a fuller explanation of descriptive
writing refer to Detailed Study of the Text,
point 1 of lesson 7, The Libido for the
Ugly.
• 2. With a clamor…by the sea: The loud
ringing of the bells, which sent the frightened
swallows flying high, marks the beginning of
the Festival of Summer in Omelas.
• bright to---red by the sea: Omelas is a port
city by the sea. It had white towers that shone
bright in the sun.
• 3. The rigging…with flags: The lines and
chains on the ships were decorated with flags
which were shining in the sun.
• rigging: lines and chains used aboard a
ship especially in working sail and
supporting masts and spars
• 4. In the sweets…processions moved: a
good example of a long periodic sentence
(圆周句 (指主要意义至句尾始明白的
句子)) sentence, preceded by a string of
modifiers. The next sentence is a long
loose sentence. The writer uses a vast
variety of sentence structures.
• 5. In the streets…public buildings: The
streets were lined with houses with red
roofs and painted walls. Between the
houses there were old moss (苔藓) grown
gardens. There were also avenues lined
with shady trees. The city had many big
parks and public buildings.
• 6. processions moved: This is the main
sentence. There were many processions
moving through the struts and avenues.
• 7. Some... decorous (有礼貌的): The
main sentence of a long loose sentence.
Some of the processions were marked by
propriety (适当) and good taste.
• 8. old people ... they walked: These
processions were decorous because they
were made up of old people, grave master
workmen and women carrying babies.
There were no children or young people
among them.
• 9. In other struts…a dance: In other
streets the processions were different. The
music was much faster and one could see
the glimmering light reflected from gongs
and tambourines (小手鼓). The young
people danced to the music as they
moved forward. The whole procession
was a dance.
• shimmering: shining with a soft
tremulous (震颤的) light; glimmering
• 10. Children... out: the children ran about
playfully.
• 11. their high…singing: a simile. The shouting
of the children could be heard clearly above the
music and singing like the calls of the swallows
flying by overhead. flight: rising, settling or
flying in a flock
• All the processions wound…city: The streets
twisted and turned so the processions also
twisted and turned as it moved forward.
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• wound [waund]: past participle of the
verb wind [waind] to make (one’s way) in
a winding or twisting course. Pay
attention to the pronunciation of the word.
• 13.Naked…arms: This shows the boys and
girls were very natural and unsophisticated.
They did not feel there was anything wrong in
being naked and barefeet.
• 14. exercised... race: The riders were putting
the horses through some exercises because the
horses were eager to start and stubbornly
resisting the control of the riders.
• restive (难控制的): stubbornly resisting
control
• 15. Their manes…green: the manes (鬃
毛) of the horses were also decorated
with small silver, gold and green flags.
• 16. They flared…another: The writer
uses personification here by treating the
horses as human beings. The horses
dilated (扩大) their nostrils, pranced (腾
跃) about and seemed to be boasting to
one another. All this shows the horses
excitement before the race.
• 17. the horses being... own: a nominative
absolute construction and a continuation of
personification. The horse was the only animal
that considered the ceremonies of human beings
as also their ceremonies.
• 18. the snow... of the sky: a very beautiful
metaphor describing the sunlit snow peaks. The
white snow peaks glowing with golden sunlight
seemed to be oil fire. The dark blue of the sky
makes the golden peaks stand out more clearly.
• 19. one could hear... the bells: another
beautiful metaphor but describing the beautiful
music. The music through the streets far and
near was as pleasant as the sweet perfume of
flowers. The music was sometimes faint and
distant but sometimes gathered in strength and
finally climbed in the joyous clanging of bells
• winding: cf. wound, point 12
• 20. Joyous! ... Omelas?: The very short
paragraph is a special feature of this piece
of writing. The writer uses two short
questions to introduce two important
subjects. In the next long paragraph she
describes the people of Omelas and
expresses her views on joy and
happiness, which is the main theme of the
writer.
• 21. We do not…any more: The people of
Omelas do not mention words like happy and
joy because being happy is their way of life and
is no longer a problem.
• 22. All smile…archaic: Smiling to show one’s
happiness is old fashioned for theire is no need
of it now.
• 23. Given... assumptions: After reading the
above description the reader is likely to assume
certain things.
• 24. Given... slaves: After reading the
above description the reader may assume
that Omelas is a feudal kingdom where
one can see the king riding a beautiful
horse surrounded by noble knights or
followed by a golden litter carried by
strong well-built slaves.
• Litter (轿子): a revered and curtained
couch provided with shafts and used for
carrying a single passenger
• 25. I do not know...singularly few: I do not
know what the rules and laws of their society
are but I guess they were exceptionally few.
• singularly: exceptionally, unusually
• 26. These were not... bland utopians: The
citizens of Omelas were not simple people, not
kind and gentle shepherds, not savages of high
birth, nor mild idealists dreaming of a perfect
society.
• 27. The trouble is ... rather: The writer
begins to criticize the views of pedants
and sophisticates. Ordinary people have
got into the bad habit of considering
happiness to be something stupid. This
view was encouraged by people who
consider themselves learned and worldlywise.
• 28. Only pain... interesting: These
pedants and sophisticates declare that
only pain stimulates the intellect and only
evil arouses the interests of people.
• 29. This is the treason... of pain: An
artist betrays his trust when he does not
admit that evil is nothing fresh nor novel
and pain is very dull and uninteresting.
• 30. If you… join’em: If you cannot beat
evil then become evil yourself. This idea
is put forward as an aphorism(格言、警
句、谚语).
• 31. If is hurts... repeat it: If something
hurts then repeat it and you will not feel
the
• pain as strongly as you did at first. Another
aphoristic statement.
• 32. But to praise... everything else: The writer
declares if you praise despair (can’t lick ‘ em)
then you condemn delight and if you accept
violence (repeat it) then you, in reality, give up
everything else.
• 33. They were... happy: The people of Omelas
were not like happy, simple and innocent
children, though their children were happy.
• 34. They were mature... not wretched:
They were fully developed and intelligent
grown-up people full of intense feelings
and they were not miserable people.
• 35. a city in a fairy tale... a time: Fairy
tales generally begin in this way: “Once
upon a time, long long ago in a country
far away...”
• 36. Perhaps it would be best... occasion:
Perhaps it would be best if the reader
pictures Omelas to himself as his
imagination tells him, assuming his
imagination will be equal to the task.
• 37. for certainly…you all: For certainly
I cannot describe Omelas in such a way
as to satisfy all of you.
• 38. Happiness is based…destructive:
This is the writer’s basic view on
happiness. To achieve happiness one must
be able to distinguish properly what
things are necessary, what things are
neither necessary nor destructive, and
what is destructive.
• 39. In the middle…washing machines:
In the middle group---things that are
neither necessary nor destructive, things
that bring comfort, luxury, abundance, etc.
-- they could have such things as central
hearing, subway trains, washing
machines,
etc.
• 40. all kinds... common cold: All kinds
of marvelous things not yet invented here,
such as, light that is provided by a device
that is not fixed in one place, power that
does not require the use of any fuel and a
cure for the common cold.
• 41. Or they... matter: It doesn’t matter
whether they have these things or not.
They can be just as happy without them.
• 42. As... it: Picture Omelas to be as you
like it to be or as your fancy bids (祝愿).
• 43. I thought... puritanical: At first I
thought there would be no drugs but that
is being too severe and rigid.
• puritanical: too rigid and severe
morally
• 44. the faint…city: The faint but
compelling sweet scent of the drug drooz
may fill the streets of the city.
• 45. which first…limbs: The drug first
makes your hands and feet seem light and
your mind more keen and alert.
• 46. Then after... Universe: After some
hours you fall into a lazy dream and have
wonderful visions revealing the most
mysterious and deepest secrets of the
universe.
• arcana: plural of arcanum, secret or
mysterious knowledge known only to the
initiate
• 47. as well as... belief: It also increases
the pleasure of sex enormously.
• 48. For more... beer: For those people
who consider drugs to be too strong there
will be beer.
• modest: moderate or reasonable; not
extreme
• 49. The joy built… joy: The joy that is
based on successfully killing a lot of
people is not the right kind of joy.
• 50. A boundless… that of life: What fills
the hearts of the people of Omelas with
joy and pride is a feeling of great and
unlimited contentment. They also feel a
courageous triumph not over some outer
enemy but in sharing with all that is fine
and fair in the souls of all men and in the
grandeur of the world’s summer.
The
triumph they celebrate is the victory of
life.
• 51. The aces... entangled: The laces of the
likeable children are sticky from eating sweet
things and there are also crumbs of rich pastry
(馅饼) in the grey beard of a kind and gentle
old man. Notice the use of amiable and benign
as transferred epithet.
• 52. never sees... the tune: The child playing the
flute doesn’t notice the people who stop to listen
to his playing for his eyes artfully concentrated
in the sweet and lightly enchanting (迷人的、
妩媚的) tune he is playing.
• 53. As if... signal: When the child stopped
playing the flute there ensued (跟着发生) a
short silence and it seemed to be a signal for the
horse race to start.
• 54. All at once…piercing: Suddenly from a
pavilion (亭阁) near the starting line of the
horse race, a commanding, sad and shrill note
of a trumpet sounds.
• 55. Some of them... in answer: Some of the
horses seem to neigh (嘶叫) in answer to the
call of the trumpet
• 56. “Quiet...my hope”: The riders calm their
horses and tall them tenderly my beautiful horse,
my hope for winning the race...
• 57. The crowds…in the wind: a simile. The
crowds moving about along the racecourse
were swaying back and forth like grass and
flowers in the wind.
• 58. Do you believe? ...thing: another short
paragraph to introduce the next important
subject: the suffering and misery of a child
upon which is based the joy and happiness of
the citizens of Omelas
• 59. A little light…the cellar: A little light
that appears in the dusty room does not
come directly from a window for the
room has no windows but from a
cobwebbed (布满蜘蛛网的) window
across the cellar. This light seeps (渗出、
渗漏) into the room through the cracks in
the boards of the room.
• 60. a couple of mops ... heads: The
heads of the mops have become stiff thick
lumps and evil smelling (because they
have not been rinsed clean after constant
use).
• head: the highest or uppermost part of a
thing
• 61. The floor is... touch: The floor of the cellar
was compacted earth and felt damp when you
touched it.
• dirt: earth or garden soil; compacted earth
• 62. a mere broom...room: It was nothing more
or other than a small room for keeping brooms
or a tool room no longer in use.
• mere: nothing more or other than; only
• 63. Perhaps it was born…neglect: Perhaps the
child was mentally retarded (智力迟钝的、发
展迟缓的) because it was born m or perhaps it
has become very foolish and stupid because of
fear, poor nourishment and neglect.
• 64. It picks… genitals (生殖器): The
subnormal (低能儿童) child uses its fingers to
remove things from its nose and sometimes
without any specific intention plays with its
toes or sex organs as it does not know what to
do.
• 65. the child has ... interval: Tile child doesn’t
understand what time means and has no idea of
how much time has passed from one incident to
another.
• 66. It is so thin... protrudes: The child’s legs
are very thin with no calves but its stomach is
swollen. This is due to undernourishment and
disease. It is perhaps suffering from dropsy.
• 67. Its buttocks (臀部)... continually:
The buttocks and thighs of the child are
covered with sores (疼痛、痛处) that are
filled with pus (浓、浓汁) because of the
unsanitary conditions as it sits continually
on its own excrement.
• excrement (排泄物、大便): waste
discharged from the body; feces
• 68. They feel…superior to: The people
who come to see the child feel disgust, a
feeling which they had thought they were
unaffected by.
• 69. Those... terms: All the prosperity and
beauty and delight of Omelas depend on
one condition -- they must do nothing to
lighten the terrible misery of the child.
• terms: conditions of a contract,
agreement, sale, etc.--that limit or define
its scope or the action involved
• 70. that would... indeed: To throw away
the happiness of thousands for the chance
of the happiness of one would be a
criminal thing to do. This would bring
guilt into Omelas where there was none
of it previously.
• 71. Often the young... paradox: Often the
young people, when they have seen the child,
go home crying for they feel pity and
compassion and want to do something to help it
but they cannot or they feel great anger and
outrage because they feel helpless, bound by
strict and absolute terms -- they may not even
say a
kind word to the child, if they do they
will lose everything. This is the paradox, the
contradictory situation.
• 72. Its habits... treatment: The habits of the
child arc so crude and uncultured it will show
no sign of improvement even if it is treated
kindly and tenderly.
• respond: to have a positive or favorable
reaction
• 73. Their tears... of reality: They shed tears
when they see how terribly unjust they have
been to the child but these tears dry up when
they realize how just and fair though terrible
reality was.
• 74. it is their tears... their lives: However, it is
their tears, which are shed when their
generosity is put to the test, and their anger,
when they realize their helplessness, that truly
makes their lives splendid and grand.
• try: to put to the proof; test
• 75. Theirs is no...happiness: Their happiness is
not dull and uninteresting and it carries
responsibilities with it.
• 76. It is the existence... their science: The
existence of the child and their knowledge of its
existence is the reason that makes their
buildings grand and impressive, their music
moving and their science have great intellectual
depth.
• noble: grand, impressive
• poignant: emotionally touching or moving
• profundity (深度、深刻、深奥): intellectual
depth
• 77. At times…from Omelas: This is the
most thought provoking paragraph. What
kind of people are these who walk away
from Omelas? Why are they leaving?
Where are they going? What are they
going to do? Tile writer leaves it to the
reader to answer these questions.
IV. Writing Skills
• 1. Uses of specific words
• --bright-towered, sparkled with flags, red
roofs, painted walls, burned with…
• 2. Variety of sentence structures
• 3. Using figurative language freely to
make ideas more vivid and forceful
IV. Rhetorical Devices
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. metaphor
2. analogies
3. repetition
4. balanced structures
5. ellipsis
6. rhetorical questions
Special Difficulties
• 1. Some terms
• 2. The use of topic sentences
• 3.The use of present tense and universal
statements
• 4. Paraphrasing some sentences
• 5. Identifying figures of speech
V. Questions
• 1. Describe the physical features of
Omelas.
• 2. What are the people of Omelas like?
• 3. In what kind of a room is the child
imprisoned?
• 4. How do you understand happiness?
Assignment
• Finish all exercises.