新世纪英语专业综合教程 unit 7 lecture notes.doc

Unit 7Unit 7 Letter to a B StudentSection One Pre-reading Activities. Cultural information1. QuoteHistories make men wise; poems witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Francis Bacon2. GradesGrades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, or F), as a range (for example 4.0 1.0), as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement), in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary institutions in some countries, as a Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA can be used by potential employers or further post-secondary institutions to assess and compare applicants. A Cumulative Grade Point Average is the mean GPA from all academic terms within a given academic year, whereas the GPA may only refer to one term.Section Two Global ReadingI Text analysis1. What issues does the writer of the letter intend to deal with?How should students regard grades, both good and bad? Are grades as important as they are assumed to be? Do good grades necessarily lead to achievements and bad grades result in failure in a students later life?2. Whats the theme of this piece of writing?It is explicitly stated in the first sentence of the third paragraph: to put a B students disappointment in perspective by considering exactly what the grade B means and doesnt mean.II Structural analysis1. Divide the text into parts by completing the table. ParagraphsMain idea1It introduces the topic of the letter.2-5Grades do not mean everything.6-8Getting a B in class does not mean one will always be a B performer in life.9-10In a complex society like ours, labels are necessary but they should be kept in perspective.2. Apart from the first paragraph, the rest of the text falls clearly into three parts, each of which is marked at the beginning by a key word or words. Try to find these key words.Paragraphs 25: DisappointmentParagraphs 6-8: The student as performer; the student as human being.Paragraphs 9-10: PerspectiveSection Three Detailed ReadingText ILetter to a B StudentRobert Oliphant1 Your final grade for the course is B. A respectable grade. Far superior to the “Gentlemans C” that served as the norm a couple of generations ago. But in those days As were rare: only two out of twenty-five, as I recall. Whatever our norm is, it has shifted upward, with the result that you are probably disappointed at not doing better. Im certain that nothing I can say will remove that feeling of disappointment, particularly in a climate where grades determine eligibility for graduate school and special programs.12 Disappointment. Its the stuff bad dreams are made of: dreams of failure, inadequacy, loss of position and good repute. The essence of success is that theres never enough of it to go round in a zero-sum game2 where one persons winning must be offset by anothers losing, one persons joy offset by anothers disappointment.2 Youve grown up in a society where winning is not the most important thing its the only thing.3 To lose, to fail, to go under, to go broke these are deadly sins in a world where prosperity in the present is seen as a sure sign of salvation in the future. In a different society, your disappointment might be something you could shrug away. But not in ours.43 My purpose in writing you is to put your disappointment in perspective by considering exactly what your grade means and doesnt mean. I do not propose to argue here that grades are unimportant. Rather, I hope to show you that your grade, taken at face value, is apt to be dangerously misleading, both to you and to others.4 As a symbol on your college transcript, your grade simply means that you have successfully completed a specific course of study, doing so at a certain level of proficiency. The level of your proficiency has been determined by your performance of rather conventional tasks: taking tests, writing papers and reports, and so forth. Your performance is generally assumed to correspond to the knowledge you have acquired and will retain. But this assumption, as we both know, is questionable; it may well be that youve actually gotten much more out of the course than your grade indicates or less. Lacking more precise measurement tools, we must interpret your B as a rather fuzzy symbol at best, representing a questionable judgment of your mastery of the subject.5 Your grade does not represent a judgment of your basic ability or of your character. Courage, kindness, wisdom, good humor these are the important characteristics of our species. Unfortunately they are not part of our curriculum. But they are important: crucially so, because they are always in short supply. If you value these characteristics in yourself, you will be valued and far more so than those whose identities are measured only by little marks on a piece of paper. Your B is a price tag on a garment that is quite separate from the living, breathing human being underneath.6 The student as performer; the student as human being. The distinction is one we should always keep in mind. I first learned it years ago when I got out of the service5 and went back to college. There were a lot of us then: older than the norm, in a hurry to get our degrees and move on, impatient with the tests and rituals of academic life. Not an easy group to handle.7 One instructor handled us very wisely, it seems to me. On Sunday evenings in particular, he would make a point of stopping in at a local bar frequented by many of the GI-Bill students. There he would sit and drink, joke, and swap stories with men in his class, men who had but recently put away their uniforms and identities: former platoon sergeants, bomber pilots, corporals, captains, lieutenants, commanders, majors even a lieutenant colonel,6 as I recall. They enjoyed his company greatly, as he theirs. The next morning he would walk into class and give these same men a test. A hard test. A test on which he usually flunked about half of them.8 Oddly enough, the men whom he flunked did not resent it. Nor did they resent him for shifting suddenly from a friendly gear to a coercive one.7 Rather, they loved him, worked harder and harder at his course as the semester moved along, and ended up with a good grasp of his subject economics. The technique is still rather difficult for me to explain; but I believe it can be described as one in which a clear distinction was made between the student as classroom performer and the student as human being. A good distinction to make. A distinction that should put your B in perspective and your disappointment.9 Perspective. It is important to recognize that human beings, despite differences in class and educational labeling, are fundamentally hewn from the same material and knit together by common bonds of fear and joy, suffering and achievement. Warfare, sickness, disasters public and private these are the larger coordinates of life. To recognize them is to recognize that social labels are basically irrelevant and misleading.8 It is true that these labels are necessary in the functioning of a complex society as a way of letting us know who should be trusted to do what, with the result that we need to make distinctions on the basis of grades, degrees, ranks, and responsibility. But these distinctions should never be taken seriously in human terms, either in the way we look at others or in the way we look at ourselves.10 Even in achievement terms, your B label does not mean that you are permanently defined as a B achievement person. Im well aware that B students tend to get Bs in the courses they take later on, just as A students tend to get As. But academic work is a narrow, neatly defined highway compared to the unmapped rolling country your will encounter after you leave school. What you have learned may help you find your way about at first; later on you will have to shift to yourself, locating goals and opportunities in the same fog that hampers us all as we move toward the future.Paragraph 1Questions1. What change about grades has the author mentioned briefly?The author has mentioned briefly the change in the way grades are regarded, i.e. the norm has shifted upward.2. What, according to the author, has caused the feeling of disappointment?It has to do with the general social climate where grades determine eligibility for graduate school and special programs. This is why the author says there is nothing he can do to remove the feeling of disappointment.3. Has the author stated his purpose of writing in this paragraph? If yes, what is it? If not, where is it stated in the text?The purpose of writing the letter is not stated in this paragraph. It is not specifically mentioned until the third paragraph.Words and Expressions1. norm n.1) an accepted standard or a way of behaving or doing things that most people agree withe.g. You must adapt to the norms of the society you live in.2) the norm = a situation or type of behavior that is expected and considered to be typicale.g. One child per family is fast becoming the norm in some countries.Derivation:normal a.normally ad.normalize v.normalization n.2. shift vt.& vi.1) to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightlye.g. She shifted (her weight) uneasily from one foot to the other.The wind is expected to shift (to the east) tomorrow.2) transfer sth.e.g. This simply shifts the cost of medical insurance from the employer to the employee.Collocation:shift sth. (from A to / onto B) 转移或转换某事物shift (your) ground （辩论中）改变立场或方法e.g. Hes annoying to argue with because he keeps shifting his ground.Derivation: shift n.shiftless a. Translation:1. 教师让学生们挪动了教室里的椅子，以便小组成员坐在一起开展讨论。The teacher asked the students to shift the chairs around in the classroom so that the group members could sit together for the discussion.2. 最近，媒体的注意力转移到了环境方面的问题。Media attention has shifted recently onto environmental issues.3. eligibility n. the qualifications or abilities required for doing somethinge.g. Ill have to check her eligibility to take part in this competition.Derivation:eligible a.eligible (for sth. / to do sth.)Translation:1. Her qualifications and experience confirm her eligibility for the job.她的资历和经验确定她适合做这项工作。 2. 只有在公司工作三年以上的人才能得到住房补贴。 Only those who have worked in this company for at least three years are eligible for housing allowance.Sentences 1. Im certain that nothing I can say will remove that feeling of disappointment, particularly in a climate where grades determine eligibility for graduate school and special program. (Paragraph 1)Translation: 我肯定无论我说什么都不会消除你的沮丧心情，特别是在我们生活的环境中，考试分数直接决定你是否有资格读研究生和申请一些特别的学习项目。Paragraphs 2-5Questions1. What does the phrase “put sth. in perspective” mean? (Paragraph 3)It means “judge the importance of sth. correctly.” So what the author wants to do is to show the students how they should regard / view their disappointment correctly.2. How does the author explain the notion of disappointment? (Paragraph 2)Refer to Paragraph 2. Disappointment is a negative feeling. It is the stuff bad dreams are made of. What deserves our attention here is that the author explains disappointment in relation to success.3. How do you interpret the second sentence in Paragraph 2 “The essence of success is that ”? (Paragraph 2)There does not exist the situation in which all those who are involved will turn out successful and no one feels disappointed. Wherever there are winners, there are losers. When someone feels happy about his success, someone else may feel disappointed at his failure. In a highly competitive society where the importance of winning is emphasized so much, it is inevitable that those who fail in the competition will feel disappointed.4. Try to find out what a grade means and what it does not mean. (Paragraph 5)It means the successful completion of a specific course at a certain level of proficiency. It is an indication of the students performance of some conventional tasks. However, it may not be a truthful indication of the students knowledge. It does not represent a judgment of the students basic ability or of his character.Words and Expressions4. inadequacy n.1) being too low in quality or too small in amount e.g. The inadequacy of water supply for city people has already been a problem no government can take lightly.2) fault or failing; weaknesse.g. I always suffer from feelings of inadequacy when Im with him.Derivation:inadequate a.inadequately ad.Antonym:adequacy Exercise: Use the following words to fill in the blanks.inadequacy inadequately adequacy adequate adequately1. Unemployment can often cause feelings of _ and low self-esteem. (inadequacy)2. He doubted her _ for the job. (adequacy)3. Will future oil supplies be _ to meet world needs? (adequate)4. While some patients can be _ cared for at home, others are best served by care in a hospital. (adequately)5. Our scientific research is _ funded. (inadequately)5. essence n. the most basic and important idea or qualitye.g. The essence of his argument was that education should continue throughout life.Yet change is the very essence of life.Collocation:in essence 本质上，大体上e.g. In essence, both sides agree on the issue.of the essence 非常重要的，不可缺少的e.g. In any of these discussions, of course, honesty is of the essence.Derivation:essential a. & n.essentially ad.6. offset vt. to counterbalance or compensate fore.g. In basketball, he offsets his small size by his cleverness and speed. Forests can help offset human-caused climate warming, and scientists want to know how big a role these particular forests will play. Collocation:offset sth. by sth. / doing sth.Translation:1. The extra cost of travelling to work is offset by the lower price of houses here.此处的低房价可以抵消从这里去上班时交通方面的额外支出。2. He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。7. go under to fail; to be overwhelmede.g. His business went under because of competition from the large corporations.Poor Donaldson had no head for business, and it was not long before he went under.8. go / be broke to become penniless; to go bankrupte.g. The business kept losing money and finally went broke.I cant afford to go on holiday this year Im broke. A lot of small businesses went broke during the recession.经济不景气，很多小公司都倒闭了。9. perspective n. a way of regarding situations, facts, etc.e.g. His fathers death gave him a whole new perspective on life.The novel is written from the perspective of a child.Collocation:in / out of perspectivee.g. The background of this picture is all out of perspective.e.g. He sees things in their right perspective.put / see / view sth. in perspective to compare something to other things so that it can be accurately and fairly judgedget / keep sth. in perspective to think about a situation or problem in a wise and reasonable way e.g. You must keep things in perspective the overall situation isnt really that bad.10. take at face value to accept something for what it appears to bee.g. She took his stories at face value and did not know he was joking.If you take his remarks only at their face value, you will not have understood his full meaning.Translation:1. 如果这一生中我学会了一件事的话，那就是绝不要听什么就相信什么。If there is one thing I have learned in life, it is never to take anything you are told at face value. 2. 我们不应只看到失败的表面，而要从失败中得出经验教训。We shouldnt take failures at face value. Instead, we should learn from our failures.11. be apt to to have the tendency toe.g. A careless person is apt to make mistakes.My pen is rather apt to leak.Synonym:be inclined tobe likely toTranslation:1. 第一次来到异国的人往往感到自己周围的一切既陌生又有趣。Anyone who has come to a foreign country for the first time is apt to find everything around him both strange and interesting.2. 正如醉汉易认为自己很是清醒，年轻人往往认为自己十分聪明。Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.12. proficiency n. skill; abilitye.g. It said in the job ad that they wanted proficiency in at least two languages.You have to take a test of proficiency in English before you can apply for the job.Collocation:proficiency (in sth. / doing sth.)Derivation:proficient a. proficiently ad.13. conventional a. traditional and ordinarye.g. conventional behavior / attitudes / clothes / methodI find his art rather dull and conventional.Derivation:convention n.conventionally ad.conventionalize v.conventionality n.Antonym:unconventional 14. correspond to to match; to be similar or equal toe.g. The wing of a bird corresponds to the arm of a man.The American Congress corresponds to the British Parliament.15. assumption n.what is thought to be true or will happen, without any real proofe.g. These calculations are based on the assumption that prices will continue to rise.Im working on the assumption that the money will come through.Collocation:assumption of sth. Translation:1. 这一理论是以一系列错误的设想为根据的。The theory is based on a series of wrong assumptions.2. 看见不明飞行物时，有些人就设想在其他行星上有生命。Some people assume that there is life on other planets when they see UFOs. Activity: Fill in each blank with the proper form of the following words or expressions.inadequacy assumption correspond to essence offset conventional go under perspective proficiency be apt