Transcript 幻灯片 1

Letter to a
B Student
Robert Oliphant
Teaching Points
• Pre-reading Questions
• About the Author
• Structural Analysis
• Language Points
• Key Words and Phrases
Pre-reading Questions
1. What grades do you mostly get for the
English courses you have been taking? Are
you happy or are you disappointed with the
grades you get?
2. Imagine yourself to be a teacher and that
you are to write a letter to a student who is
disappointed with the grades he gets. What
would you say to him in the letter?
About the Author
Robert Oliphant is an English
professor at California State
University at Northridge. The text is
an excerpt of a sensitive and
thoughtful letter to a student on
keeping a sense of perspective on
grades. It appeared in Liberal
Education in 1986.
• And the author’s purpose is to tell the
student what a grade really means and what
it doesn’t.
• Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Oliphant
studied Commerce and Finance at the University
of Toronto, graduating in 1978, with a Bachelor
of Commerce. While at university he rowed on
the Men’s Varsity Rowing Crew, was involved in
music and student politics. Upon graduating from
U of T, he returned to Sault Ste. Marie and
worked at Algoma Steel as an accountant in
computer systems development. Oliphant lives in
Cabbagetown, Toronto with his husband, Marco
Fiola, a Professor of Applied Linguistics at
Ryerson University. Oliphant married Fiola in
2005, soon after same sex marriage was legalized
in Canada.
Structural Analysis
The text is taken from a letter which is
from a teacher to a student. But it is
incomplete with only the first half of it.
It is composed of four parts and the main
idea of each part is as follows:
Part 1(Paragraph 1):
Introduction to the topic of the letter
Pert II (Paragraph 2-5):
Grades do not mean anything
Part III (Paragraph 6-8):
Getting a B in class does not mean one will always
be a B performer in life.
Part IV (Paragraph 9-10):
In a complex society like ours, labels are
necessary but they should be kept in perspective.
• The 1st paragraph serves as an
introduction, which introduces the
topic of the letter. The rest of the text
falls into three parts, each of which is
marked at the beginning by a key word or
words.
• 1. What change about grades has the writer
mentioned briefly?
• 2. What, according to the writer, has
caused the change?
• 3. Has the writer stated his purpose of
writing in this paragraph? Where is it?
• Part 2 (Paragraph 2-5)
• These four paragraphs constitute the first
main part of the letter.
• The writer’ purpose of writing in the first
sentence the 3rd paragraph :
• to put your disappointment in perspective
by considering exactly what your grade
means and does not mean.
• 1. What does the phrase “put something in
perspective” mean?
• 2. How does the writer explain the notion
of disappointment?
• 3. “…the essence of success is that…”
what does this mean?
• There does not exist the situation in which
all those who are involved will turn out
successful and no one feels disappointed.
Whenever there are winners, there are
losers. When someone feels happy about
his success, there must be someone else or
some others who feel disappointed. In a
highly competitive society where the
importance of winning is emphasized so
much, it is inevitable that whose who fail in
the competition will feel disappointed.
• 4. What does a grade mean and what does
it not mean?
• It means the successful completion of a
specific course at a certain level of
proficiency. It is an indication of the level
of the student’s performance of some
conventional tasks. It may also be an
indication of the knowledge the student
has acquired.
• It may not be a truthful indication of the
student’s knowledge, It does not represent
a judgment of the student’s basic ability or
of his character.
• Para 5: his critical attitude to the school
curriculum and the importance he attaches
to character building.
• Part 3 (Paragraph 6-8)
• What the writer aims to do in this part is to
show that there is a distinction between the
student as a performer in the classroom
and the student as a human being. He uses
his personal experience to illustrate his
distinction.
• Now, can you relate the writer’s experience?
• Part 4 (Paragraph 9-10)
• The focal point of this part is
“perspective”, i.e. the way we should regard
grades.
• Now, please think about the following
questions:
• 1. What is the writer’s view concerning
social labels?
• 2. How does the writer relate a student’s
academic performance with his future life?
Key Words and Phrases
1. far superior to: better in quality
than; better, more powerful, more
effective etc than a similar person or
thing, especially one that you are
competing against [≠ inferior]
The visiting team turned out to be far
superior to the host team in teamwork.
a superior officer / court
Mother superior( in charge of convent)
• very good: excellent, fantastic, wonderful,
great, terrific, neat, superb, amazing,
outstanding, brilliant, impressive, fine, firstclass, out of this world
• of good quality: high quality, top quality,
superior, deluxe, classy
• morally good: decent, virtuous,
respectable, honorable upright, beyond
reproach
2.Gentleman’s C: a decent grade.
A gentleman is supposed to be a man of
decency, i.e. decent in speech and behavior,
so Gentleman’s C simply means a decent
grade (尚可的、过得去的分数).
• gentleman's agreement
• an agreement that is not written down,
made between people who trust each other
• country gentleman
• gentleman farmer: a man belonging to a
high social class who owns and runs a farm,
but who usually hires people to do the
work
• 3.Norm: 1）the usual or normal situation,
way of doing something etc
• Joyce's style of writing was a striking
departure from the literary norm.
• 2）generally accepted standards of social
behavior social/cultural norms
• above/below the norm
• normal( n.) the usual state, level, or amount:
abnormal
4. remove: to take away
Reference books are not to be removed
from the library.
The doctors decided to remove the
tumor on his liver immediately.
Do you mind if I ask you to remove
your hat so that I can have a better view
of the screen.
5. eligibility: the qualifications or abilities
required for doing something
eligible a. to be eligible to do something: to
be able or allowed to do something
Citizens above the age of 18 are eligible to
vote and to be voted
Only those who have worked in this company
for at least three years are eligible for housing
allowance.
Go round
merry-go-round: a machine that turns
around and around, and has model animals
or cars for children to sit on ( carousel )
• the endless Washington merry-go-round of
parties and socializing
• a series of similar events that happen very
quickly one after another
• enough/plenty to go around enough
for each person:
• Is there enough ice-cream to go around?
• There were never enough textbooks to go
around.
• 前来听讲座的人数远远超出原来的估
计，分发给大家的讲义不够了。
• As many more people came to the lecture
than expected, there were not enough
handouts to go round.
6. A zero-sum game:
a situation in which if one person gains
an advantage from it, someone else
involved in it must suffer an equivalent
disadvantage.
a situation in which you receive as
much money or advantages as you give
away
零和游戏/博弈
• Diplomatic negotiations often aim at a
zero-sum game.
• Job loss is not a zero-sum game, where
they win and we lose.
• This appears to be a zero-sum game,
because what one developing country gains
is at the expense of another.
• Zero-sum game theory and win-win game
theory-On the relations between the
peasant's increasing revenues and the
security of grain
• 变零和博弈为双赢博弈——试论农民
增收与粮食安全的关系
• A two-person zero-sum game is a game
with two players in which the sum of the
players' payoffs is identically zero.
7. offset: to counterbalance or
compensate for ; if the cost or amount
of something offsets another cost or
amount, the two things have an opposite
effect so that the situation remains the
same
The extra cost for traveling to work is
offset by the lower rent here.
What the company donates to charity can
be offset against tax.
• offset something against something
• to make something look better by being
close to it and different:
• His blonde hair offset a deep tan.
• Offset mortgage a type of mortgage given
by banks, in which the money someone has
in their bank account is taken away from
the amount they owe, reducing the total
amount of interest they have to pay
• 免息型房贷
8. .…winning is not the most important
thing—it’s the only thing:
This is a special type of negation. The
author is not negating the importance of
winning; rather, with the sentence that
follows the negative one, the author
gives the utmost emphasis to the
importance of winning.
Similar examples:
1.I have to admit that he is a smart guy.—
He is not smart, he is very smart.
2.You’d better bring enough food because
we will have to have a long journey.—It’s
not a long journey, it is a very long journey.
3.To improve your oral English, practicing
is not the most important thing—it’s the
only thing.
4. I heard that Professor Li is a difficult
teacher.—He is not difficult, he is very
difficult
• 9. Perspective: 1）a way of thinking
about something, especially one which is
influenced by the type of person you are or
by your experiences [↪ viewpoint]
• His father's death gave him a whole new
perspective on life.
• The novel is written from a child's
perspective.
• from a feminist/Christian/global etc
perspective
• wider/broader perspective
• historical perspective
• 2）a sensible way of judging and
comparing situations so that you do not
imagine that something is more serious
than it really is:
• The figures have to be put into perspective.
• get/keep something in perspective (=judge
the importance of something correctly)
10. take something at face value:1) to
accept a situation or accept what someone
says, without thinking there may be a
hidden meaning:
• I took their offer at face value and did not
suspect at all that they were trying to trick
me.
• You should never take what he says at face
value.
•
• 他的话你得好好想想，千万不要他说
什么你就信什么。
• Never take what he says at face value.
Think it over yourself.
• 2) the value or cost shown on the front of
something such as a stamp or coin
11. be apt to: to have the tendency to
The river is apt to over flow when there
is a heavy rain.
He is apt to get excited when people start
to talk about football.
This year we had quite a few apt students
in our class.
He made an apt comment that nicely
summed up what every one of us had in
mind.
• 'Love at first sight' is a very apt description
of how he felt when he saw her.
• 第一次来到异国的人往往感到自己周
围的一切及陌生，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.
• 12. transcript: 1）a written or printed
copy of a speech, conversation etc
• A transcript of the tapes was presented in
court.
• 2）an official college document that shows
a list of a student's classes and the results
they received
13. correspond to: to match, to be similar
or equal to
The American FBI corresponds to the British
M15.
His story of what happened that night does
not correspond with the witness’s version.
The date written on the letter does not
correspond with that stamped on the
envelope.
correspond with: to communicate with
by writing letters
For many years they have never stopped
corresponding with each other.
• 14. fuzzy：if a sound or picture is fuzzy,
it is unclear [↪ blurred]
• Some of the photos were so fuzzy it
was hard to tell who was who.
• unclear or confused [≠ clear]
• There's a fuzzy line between parents'
and schools' responsibilities.
• fuzzy hair is very curly and sticks
straight up
15. …when I got out of the service…:
when I got out of the army…
Usually the plural form “services” is used
to refer to the three armed forces, i.e. the
army, the navy, and the air force.
Military services: the system in which
every adult, or every male adult, in a
country has to spend a period of time in
the army, navy, or air force [↪ draft]
Cf: armed forces, the military, the services
• people in the army: soldier, troops,
infantry, G.I. ( AE) squaddy ( BE)
• to join the army:
join up/enlist
• to leave the army: be discharged, desert
without permission, get out of the services
• to make people serve in the armed forces:
call up, draft
• customer services
• Voluntary Service Overseas
16. handle: to deal with something or someone;
to control with hands; to be in charge of
He knows best how to handle a problem of
this type.
He found great fun in handling a yacht.
We have got to speak to the person who
handles the company’s accounts.
to deal with a person or behave towards
them in a particular way, especially in
order to keep them happy
• Some customers are quite difficult to
handle.
• She can't handle it when people criticize
her.
• 世界各国都有失业问题，但各国政府
处理这个问题的方法不尽相同。
• Unemployment exists in all countries, but
the governments vary in their way to
handle the problem.
17. make a point of doing something:
to take particular care to do something
He makes a point of jogging 6 miles every
morning, rainy or shiny.
To prevent loss of data, I always make a
point of making a copy on a floppy disk
of what I have done during the day.
不管他一天工作有多忙，他在睡觉前总
要看一下电子信箱里有没有新邮件。
No matter what a long day he has, he makes
a point of checking his E-mail box…
18. GI-Bill students:
GI (pl. GIs or GI’s) is an American
soldier, especially an enlisted one. GI-Bill
or the GI-Bill of Rights is the popular
name for the Servicemen’s Readjustment
Act of 1944, which provided US World
War II veterans with special assistance.
退伍军人权利法案
• 美国国会于1944年颁布了"退伍军人权利法案
",旨在帮助退伍军人在二战后更好地适应平
民生活.法案的基本内容有:美国国会授权联
邦政府,对在二战中服兵役超过90天的美国公
民提供医疗、卫生、住房等方面的优惠政策;
对因战争中断深造机会的美国公民提供资助,
让他们有机会接受适当的教育或训练.该法案
的颁布实施,使数百万美国退伍军人受惠,对
美国迅速从战时经济向民用经济转变提供了
智力支持和人才保证.
19. …men who had but recently put away
their uniforms and identities:…
Here “men who had…and identities”
refers to former GIs, who, like the
author himself, had taken off their army
uniforms and changed their identities
from servicemen to civilians. Many of
these men had been officers of various
ranks.
• 20. Flunk: 1) to give someone low marks
on a test so that they fail it [= fail]
• She hadn't done the work so I flunked her.
• 2) to fail a test
• Tony flunked chemistry last semester.
• flunk out : to be forced to leave a school
or college because your work is not good
enough
• Ben flunked out of college.
21. resent: to feel bitter or indignant at; to feel
angry or upset about a situation or about
something that someone has done, especially
because you think that it is not fair
He resented having to get up early to catch the
first train.
I strongly resent his snobbish manner in dealing
with different people.
She bitterly resented his mother's influence
over him.
Paul resented the fact that Carol didn't trust
him.
22. …shifting suddenly from a friendly gear
to a coercive one:
The word “gear” originally means a device in a
vehicle which controls the rate at which the energy
being used is converted into motion. While driving,
a driver sometimes shifts or changes gear. In our
sentence, the shifting or gear refers to the change
in the instructor’s manner of dealing with his
students. When drinking with the students in the
pub, he was easy going and friendly; but in the
classroom, he became stern and severe.
• 23. Coercive: using threats or orders to
make someone do something they do not
want to do
• This exercise of economic power could be
coercive, in the sense that A might prevent
B from enjoying certain economic benefits.
• coercive measures to reduce absenteeism
24. coordinate: 1)to make match.
When wear clothing, you want to
coordinate your pant and your shirt, so
you don't look silly.
2) n. one of a pair of numbers or letters that
show the exact position of a point on a
map or graph座标
These coordinates should show you your
position.这些座标将为你显示出你所在
的位置。
• 3) to make the parts of your body move
and work together well
• I couldn't get my brain to function or
coordinate my muscles.
• Her movements were beautifully coordinated.
25 .make a distinction: to say what the
difference is between two or more similar
persons or things
Most societies make a distinction between
the status of an unmarried woman and a
married one.
In the government’s education proposals
there is a clear distinction made between
academic and practical training.
26. hamper: to cause difficulty in activity, to
make it difficult for someone to do sth
Search efforts were hampered by strong
winds and fifteen-foot waves.
Staff problems are seriously hampering the
work of the government central computers.
She tried to run, but was hampered by her
heavy suitcase.
n. a large basket that you put dirty clothes in
until they can be washed
a basket with a lid, which is used for carrying
food or sending it to someone as a present: