Transcript Chapter Nine

Lesson 10
The Telephone
Study Focus
 1. To learn something about the Arab
culture.
 2. To appreciate the use of figure of
speech esp. with a local flavor, e.g.
metaphor, paradox and etc.
Part One Pre-reading Tasks
Warm-up Activities
Background Information
Evolution of the Telephone
 On March 10, 1876, Alexander Bell
invented the first telephone in the
world.
 In 1973, the first mobile phone
weighing 1.9 kg was born in New York.
 Nowadays, pretty tiny cell phones
prevail all over the world.
Proverbs
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Every medal / coin has two sides.
Every medal has its reverse.
Every advantage has its disadvantage.
(Globalization) is a double-edged
sword.
 (Globalization) cuts both ways.
Arab League
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Algeria阿尔及利亚
Bahrain巴林
Comoros科摩罗
Djibouti吉布提
Egypt埃及
Iraq伊拉克
Jordan约旦
Kuwait科威特
Lebanon黎巴嫩
Libya利比亚
Mauritania毛里塔尼亚 Morocco摩洛哥
Oman阿曼
Palestine巴勒斯坦
Qatar卡塔尔
Saudi Arabia沙特阿拉伯
Somalia索马里
Sudan苏丹
Syria叙利亚
Tunisia突尼斯
United Arab Emirates阿联酋 Yemen也门
The Republic of Lebanon
 Independence Day: November 22nd,
1943
 Religion: 46% Christians, 54% Muslims
 Capital: Beirut
Part Two While-reading Tasks
Preview Questions
Structure of the Text
Language Study
Idiomatic Expressions
Preview Questions
 1. Is the narration given in the first person
or the third person? Is the tone of the
article serious or humorous?
 2. Where did the narrator grow up? What
was the overall picture of the village
before the telephone arrived?
 3. Did the villagers use any real calendar
or clock? Why ? How did they keep track
of the important events in their lives?
 4. How old was the oldest woman in the
village? How did other people describe
her age?
 5. Why did the narrator say that the year
of the drought was one of the best years
for him personally? What interesting
things did he remember vividly as a boy
that year?
 6. Why did he say that it was also one of
the worst years for him?
 7. Why does the author introduce the
subject so late in the article?
 8. How was the decision made to install a
telephone in the village? Was there any
objection?
 9. What changes did the telephone bring
to the village? (positive & negative)
 10. Where had the village center been in
the past? And now?
 11. Why did the telephone end the
narrator’s business?
 12. To sum up, what is the view of the
author about the coming of the
telephone into the village?
Structure of the text
 Part I (Para. 1-10): detailed description
of the villagers’ way of life before the
telephone came.
 Part II (Para. 11-25): how the telephone
was installed, and what changes it
brought about in the village.
Language Study
 (to the) east of some place
 in / to/ on the east of some place
 to keep track of sth.: to keep oneself
informed about a person, a situation, etc.
 他们打算了解IT业所有的新发展情况。
 They plan to keep track of all the new
developments in the IT industry.
 C.f. to lose track of
 每次上网他都会忘记时间。
 He loses track of time whenever he surfs
the internet.
 to have need of
 医生说他太累了，他唯一需要的是充分的休
息。
 The doctor said that he was exhausted
and the only thing he had need of was
enough rest.
 “The seasons rolled by”:
 The seasons came and went in steady
succession.
 年复一年，村民们仍然过着原来的生活。
 The years rolled by, and the villagers still
lived in their old way of life.
 sow, sowed, sowed / sown
 to harvest / reap / gather in sth.
 As a man sows, so he shall reap.
 Whatever a man sows, that shall he
reap.
 Cultural note about the intermarriage
among cousins
 In the ancient times, the Arabs were
mostly nomadic herdsmen; there were
very few options open to young people
in the choice of spouse.
 Today, this marriage saves trouble of
exchanging dowries and spares people
from the transfer of their property.
 divine (adj.) having the qualities of a
god or connected with, or coming
from God
 crack (v.) to break with a sharp,
snapping sound
 I know that this nut is hard to crack.
 Don’t put the delicate china in the
dishwasher – it may crack.
 “and that’s the way…”
 And that’s how we kept track of the
important events in our little village for
as long as the oldest people could
remember.
 “until it was…”
 Until the event became one of the things
by which we kept track of the important
events in our lives.
 to incorporate something into sth.: to
add or include something as part of
sth. else.
 We’ve incorporated many
environmentally– friendly features
into the design of the building.
 C.f. to integrate sth. with sth.
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to integrate into sth.
 “slowed to a trickle”: gradually there was
only a small amount of water coming
slowly out of the spring
 to (prep.) : used for stating what
condition or state somebody or
something is after a change
 The disease has reduced the patient to a
bag of bones.
 After years of neglect the palace has
been restored to its former glory.
 to be packed with / packed full of sth.:
containing a lot of a particular kind of
thing
 pack (v.)
 They packed as many people as
possible onto the bus.
 She packed her suitcase and headed
for the airport.
 Pack the newspaper around the china
so that it doesn’t break.
 sinewy (adj.) lean and muscular
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to play tag /hide-and-seek
to play tug-of-war
to play on/ at a seesaw
to play on the slide
to play marbles
rope jumping/skipping
 wet babies: the babies who were breast
fed
 wet nurse
 to be wet behind the ears
 C.f. He was so scared that he nearly
wet himself.
 escalate (v.) to increase in intensity or
extent
 他们不想让这场斗争升级为全面的战争。
 They don’t want the fighting to escalate
into a full-scale war.
 (n.) escalation escalator
 full-blown (adj.) fully developed or
matured
 a full-blown flower; a full-blown war;
full-blown AIDS
 to call somebody names: to abuse
them by insulting words
 tingle (vi.) to feel uncomfortable
 My cheeks were tingling with the cold.
Arabic clothes
 The traditional robe Arab women wear
outdoors is a three-piece garment:
 A long-sleeved black dress reaching to
the heels;
 A large black shawl to hide the hair and
to wear over the shoulders;
 A black, nontransparent veil to cover
the face showing only the eyes.
Arab Women
Arabic Wedding
 to get anywhere/ somewhere/ nowhere:
to make some/ no progress
 你的项目有进展了吗？
 Have you got anywhere in your project?
 如果你坚持下去，你一定会成功的。
 You’ll surely get somewhere if you
persist in it.
 C.f. not to get somebody anywhere: will
not help somebody to succeed
 Losing your temper won’t get you
anywhere.
 to talk somebody into / out of (doing)
sth.: to persuade somebody to do / not
to do sth.
 他终于说服了她接受这个工作。
 Finally he talked her into accepting the
job offer.
 一旦她想做什么，就没有人可以让她停下
来。
 Once she wants to do something, no
one can talk her out of it.
 to persuade somebody into doing sth.
 to convince somebody to do sth.
 outnumber, outshine, outlive, outshout,
outrun
 The north outnumbered the south.
 Women usually outlive men.
 at somebody’s elbow, at the elbows of
sb. = very close to or beside sb.
 proceed (vi.)
 to proceed with sth., to proceed to do
sth.
 他停下看了看笔记，接着问他的问题。
 He paused to consult his notes, then
proceeded with his questions.
 我们现在可以继续谈合同了。
 We can now proceed to negotiate the
contract.
Communion
 It refers to the celebration of the Lord’s
supper in the Christian Church. In this
religious ceremony believers eat bread
and drink wine as signs of Christ’s
body and blood.
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to wriggle one’s way
to wriggle out of/ under/ through/ into sth.
门口太窄了，他不得不扭动身体钻出来。
The doorway was so narrow that he had
to wriggle his way out.
The eel wriggled out of my fingers.
Stop wriggling (about) and sit still!
C.f. to wind (one’s way) through/ along
Highway 99 winds its way along the
coast.
 supposedly (adv.) used when saying
what many people say or believe is
true, esp. when you disagree with
them.
 1912年4月，号称永不沉没的泰坦尼克
号轮船撞上了冰山。
 In April 1912, Titanic, the supposedly
unsinkable ship, hit an iceberg.
 crank
 jet-black
 to charge somebody some money (for
sth.)
 to charge for sth.
 餐馆收了我们40美元酒水费。
 The restaurant charged us 40 dollars for
the wine and soft drinks.
 如果你现在付款，我们就可以免费送货上门。
 We won’t charge for delivery if you pay
now.
 Compare other meanings:
 She was charged with malicious
destruction of public property.
 The general charged the soldiers to
cross the river.
 They charged the enemy three times.
 The battery needs to be charged.
 Please charge my account.
 to keep somebody out of somebody’s
hair
 to get in somebody’s hair: (inf.) to
annoy somebody esp. by always being
near them
 confessor (n.) one who listens to a
confession and gives forgiveness
 troubleshooter (n.)
 to shoot the trouble
 bustling (adj.) busy (place)
 bustle (vi.) to move around quickly,
looking very busy
 He bustled round the room putting
things away.
 a bustle of people coming and going
 C.f. hustle
 to deliver somebody from sth. : (literary
or Biblical) to help somebody escape
from something bad or evil
 E.g. to deliver sb. from temptation
 errand (n.) a short journey in order to do
something for somebody for example
delivering or getting something for them
 I have a couple of errands for you.
 to send somebody on an errand
 to run an errand
 to trail off/ away: (of somebody’s
voice, speech) to become gradually
quieter and then stop
 C.f. to die down: to become gradually
less strong, loud, noticeable
 A solid three minutes passed before
the applause died down.
 deli, delicatessen, delicacy
 to be /become a skeleton /shadow/
ghost of one’s former self:
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not to be at all like the cheerful,
healthy, strong etc. person that one
used to be
 “Magdaluna became a skeleton of its
former self, desolate and forsaken, like
the tombs, a place to get away from.”
 With the healthy, the young, and the ablebodied all gone, Magdaluna was no
longer alive with laughter and the loud
voices of the people talking, laughing
and arguing. It became a much-deserted
place, a place to escape from, like a
graveyard or cemetery.
 “Like the others who left Magdaluna
before me, I am still looking for that
better life.”
 The search for a better life seems to be
endless. Having achieved some success
and attained a little fame, the writer is
still striving to satisfy the human need to
feel worthwhile and the need to get the
maximum reward from his life experience.
Idiomatic Expressions
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to keep track of time
The sun rises and sets.
Seasons roll by.
to sow seeds
to cave in
to be incorporated into sth.
to be packed full of sth.
to play tag /hide-and-seek / marbles
to shoo flies
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wet babies
to be wet behind ears
to escalate into
to grab sb. by the hair
to call somebody names
to fetch water
to get somewhere/ nowhere/anywhere
to talk somebody out of doing sth.
to come into view
at the elbows of sb.
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to chime in
to wriggle one’s way
to charge sb. some money for sth.
to wring one’s hands
to keep sb. out of one’s hair
to attend to endless chores
to be exhausted from sth.
back and forth
to deliver sb. from sth.
to run errands
to trail off
Part III After-reading Discussion
 Should we always embrace the new
because what is new always means
progress, and what is progress is
good?