Unit 15 Salvation

Contents Pre-reading questions Background information Language points of Text I Structure analysis

Pre-reading questions 1. (1) You haven’t listened to a preacher’s preaching, have you ? Are you interested in it ? (2) Have you ever read any stories from the Bible? What kind of figure do you think Jesus Christ was? (3) What religion, in your mind, is Christianity?

Background Information 1. Some stories on the Christian religion : The Jewish legend of the Creation of the world; The born of the Christ. etc. The world was created by Jehovah. In the beginning the world just floated in space, with no land, only endless waters.One day, Jehovah came and brooded over the sea, somberly silent and dark. He was unhappy about this.

So he commanded light which he called day and the end of it night. heaven was made the next day for the clouds to float on and the winds to blow across. On the third day land emerged form the waters with grass, trees and shrubs growing on it. Then Jehovah said : Background Information

‘ let the heavens be filled with stars so that the seasons and days and the years may be marked. ’ this was done,thus ended the fourth day. The fifth day saw the creation of fishes in the waters and birds in the sky, among them the mighty whale and the tiny minnow, the giant ostrich and the little sparrow, then came the most important creation of all –after Jehovah ordered the world to be full of creatures that creep and those that walk on legs, Background Information

he took some of the dust of the soil and mounded it into an image just like himself. He gave it life and called it man. this was the sixth day,and Jehovah was contented. The next day he took arrest.. Background Information

The eighth day sea the man, Adam, feeling lonesome, as all other creatures had been given the companionship of their won kind, but he was alone. Jehovah took a rib from his body and out came eve.thus Jehovah completed his great mission of creation Background Information

Structure analysis The essay is organized chiefly by means of the following methods 1) The story is organized in the chronological order, with a flashback in the second paragraph. 2) Plenty of vivid and interesting descriptions in the whole text.

Text Organization This story, which is a narrative text organized mainly in the chronological order, is the author’s recall of an experience in his youth. The revival is the trigger that sets off the whole story.it is within the conflict between “being saved” and “not being saved” that the story zigzags its course to the conclusion.

The first paragraph serves as the introduction, providing the background. Paragraphs 2-14 may be regarded as the body of the story,relating and describing the special meeting held for the “young lambs” who were saved.Paragraph 15 is the concluding part,revealing the writer’s psychological feelings. Text Organization

Structural analysis Structural analysis 1 1. How is the story organized? The story, which is told in the first person, is mainly organized in chronological order, with a flashback in the second paragraph and plenty of vivid and interesting descriptions in the whole text.

2. Work out the structure of the text by completing the table. Paragraph(s)Main idea It introduces the background. It relates and describes the special meeting held for the “young lambs” to be saved. Structural analysis 2 It reveals the writer’s psychological feelings with regard to what happened to him at the revival.

What is the story narrated in the text about? Main idea Global Reading-Text analysis The story is the author’s recall of an experience in his childhood. He had heard from old folks about the myth of Jesus saving, and as a child, held a sincere and naïve in it. His attendance at the resulted in his total. He wants to tell his readers that there is no, and that only by can black people deliver themselves from misery and suffering. relying on their own struggle _______________________________ revival ________ one’s soul ___________ disillusionment _________________ almighty Savior _________________ belief _______

Detailed Reading

Detailed reading 1. I was saved from sin …: I was rescued from sin… The word sin, with an exclusively religious connotation, refers to any offence against God or a religious law. However, the word crime refers to an act committed in violation of a law prohibiting it.

2. to bring the young lambs to the fold: According to Christianity, Jesus is the Lamb of God, any Christian is a lamb, and the preacher is a shepherd. In the text, the young lambs refer to children. “ fold” literally means an enclosure for sheep. Here it means a group of people who are Christian. So “ to bring the young lambs to the fold” means to bring the children into the Christian community. Detailed reading

3. mourners’ bench: a frond row of seats at a revival meeting, reserved for those who are to make professions of penitence. Detailed reading

4. Salvation: saving of the soul from sin The word salvation has a strong religious connotation. In the Christian religion, salvation of a person or his spirit is the state of being saved from evil and its effects by death of Jesus Christ on a cross Detailed reading

5. I was saved when I was going on thirteen: I was set free from the power of sin and evil shortly before my thirteenth birthday. Detailed reading

revival: a serious of meetings, characterized by public confession of sins and declaration of renewed interest in religion, intended to encourage this to happen.

preach: deliver a religious speech A bishop preached to the assembled mourners. Our local priest preached a sermon on the need for forgiveness.

hardened: lacking in human feelings and showing no signs of shame or regret for wring doing He was described in court as a hardened criminal.

by leaps and bounds: very quickly She has come on by leaps and bounds with her reading. Her English is improving by leaps and bounds.