An Integrated English Course Book 1 Unit 13

Learning Objectives Learning Objectives By the end of this unit, you are supposed to grasp the author’s purpose of writing and make clear the structure of the whole passage through an intensive reading of Text 1 Darkness at Noon. comprehend the topic sentences in Text 1 thoroughly and be able to paraphrase them. get a list of new words and structures and use them freely in conversation and writing.

Teaching Procedures Pre-reading Questions Text I. Never Say Goodbye ● Passage ● Structure analysis ● Main idea of the passage ● Language points ● sentence studies ● vocabulary studies Text II. He rocked, I Reeled.

Pre-reading questions Have you had any experience studying or working with the disabled? What kind of help did you offer the disabled?

Text 1. Darkness at Noon Blind from birth, I have never had the opportunity to see myself and have been completely dependent on the image I create in the eye of the observer. To date it has not been narcissistic. There are those who assume that since I can’t see, obviously also cannot hear. Very often people will conversely, people will also often whisper, assuming that since my eyes don’t work, my ears don’t either. For example, when I go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for assistance to the plane, he or she will invariably pick up the phone, call a ground hostess and whisper: “Hi, Jane, we’ve got a 76 here. I have concluded that the word “blind” is not used for one of two reasons: Either they fear that if the dread word is spoken, the ticket agent’s retina will immediately detach, or they are reluctant to inform me of my condition of which I may not have been previously aware. On the other hand, others know that of course I can hear, but believe that I can’t talk. Often, therefore, when my wife and I go out the dinner, a waiter or waitress will ask Kit if "he would like a drink” to which I responded that “indeed he would”. This point was graphically driven home to me while we were in England. I had been given a year’s leave of absence from my Washington law firm to study for a diploma-in-law degree at Oxford University. During the year I became ill and was hospitalized. Immediately after admission, I was wheeled down to the X-ray room. Just at the door sat an elderly woman --- elderly I would judge from the sound of her voice. “What is his name?” the woman asked the orderly who had been wheeling me. “What’s your name?” the orderly repeated to me. “Harold Krents.” he repeated. “When was he born?” “November 5, 1944.” I responded. “November 5, 1944.” the orderly intoned.

This procedure continued for approximately five minutes at which point even my saint-like disposition deserted me. “Look,” I finally blurted out, “This is absolutely ridiculous. Okay, granted that I can’t see, but it’s got to have become pretty clear to both of you that I don’t need an interpreter.” “He says he doesn’t need an interpreter,” the orderly reported to the woman. The toughest misconception of all is the view that because I can’t see, I can’t work. I was turned down by over forty law firms because of my blindness, even though my qualifications included a cum laude degree from Harvard College and a good ranking in my Harvard law School class. The attempt to find employment, the continuous frustration of being told that it was impossible for a blind person to practice law, the rejection letters, not based on my lack of ability but rather on my disability, will always remain one of the most disillusioning experiences of my life. Fortunately, this view of limitation and exclusion is beginning to change. On April 16, 1976, the Department of Labor issued regulations that mandate equal- employment opportunities of the handicapped. By and large, the business community’s response to offering employment to the disabled has been enthusiastic. I therefore look forward to the day, with the expectation that it is certain to come, when employers will view their handicapped workers as a little child did me years ago when my family still lived in Scarsdale. I was playing basketball with my father in our backyard according to procedures we had developed. My father would stand beneath the hoop, shout, and I would shoot over his head at the basket attached to our garage. Our next-door neighbor aged five, wandered over into our yard with a playmate. “He is blind,” our neighbor whispered to her friend in a voice that could be heard distinctly by Dad and me. Dad shot and missed; I did the same. Dad hit the rim; I missed entirely. Dad shot and missed the garage entirely. “Which one is blind?” whispered back the little friend. I would hope that in the near future when a plant manager is touring the factory with the foreman and comes upon a handicapped and no-handicapped person working together, his comment after watching them work will be, “which one is disabled?”

Structure Analysis The passage can be divided into three parts. Part One: (Paragraph 1) This paragraph tells us that the writer is both the narrator and the character of the text; it implies that the writer suffers from social prejudices.

Part Two: (Paragraphs 2-14) This part of the text tells about the writer’s personal disappointing experiences in an ascending order. – Para. 2 makes it clear that the writer, as a blind man, is not respectfully treated. – Para vividly illustrate the fact that others believe that the writer can’t talk, and so they do not talk to him directly, but through a third person. - Para. 14 presents the toughest misconception of all: because he can’t see, he can’t work either.

Part Three (Para ): Para. 15 points out that the prejudice of limitation and exclusion is beginning to change along with the issuing of regulations by the Department of labor. Para. 16 expresses the writer’s expectation: he is looking forward t the day when the blind are not prejudiced. Para. 17 indirectly makes know the writer’s hope that in the near future there will be no prejudice against the disabled in employment. Main Idea of the passage Always looked down upon, the writer has never been given any opportunities to prove his abilities, with the hope that in the near future there will be no prejudice against the disabled in employment.

LANGUAGE POINTS Darkness at Noon The title could be interpreted in different ways. The word darkness may be regarded as a pun. As a blind man, the writer actually sees darkness even at noon. The word darkness also suggests that the writer is surrounded by a dark world because he is always prejudiced against and no light of love ever shines on him. Therefore, the word darkness is used metaphorically.

opportunity – a favorable moment or occasion for doing sth. e.g. You should go and see this film if you get the opportunity. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work.

observer sb. who sees and notices; sb. who attends classes, meetings, etc. E.g. The statesman is an impartial observer of the current political scene. The United Nations sent a team of observers to the peace talk.

Narcissistic possessing too great love for one’s own abilities or physical appearance. E.g. A narcissistic person is one who has too great love for his or her own abilities or physical appearance. She is so narcissistic that she remains single.

obviously clearly, evidently, plainly E.g. The key is obviously a wrong one. Obviously, he is telling lies.

conversely on the other hand E.g. The newspaper story could damage their reputation; conversely, it will give them a lot of free publicity.

whisper say or speak very quietly, so that only a person can hear E.g. The two children are whispering to each other in the corner.

Invariably always E.g. It invariably rains when I go there. Since its inception in London in 1851, the World Exposition has been invariably held in developed countries.

Pick up 1) take hold of sth. Small or light and lift it up from a surface E.g. I picked up a magazine that was lying on the table. 2) collect or gather together E.g. Please pick up all your toys when you’ve finished playing.

dread causing great fear or anxiety E.g. Death is the dread word for many old people, but not for me.

Reluctant Unwilling, and therefore perhaps slow to act E.g. He gave a reluctant promise because he was reluctant to do it.

inform Tell, give information or knowledge to E.g. I wasn’t informed of the decision until too late.

Previously Happening or existing before. E.g. This record had been previously held by a Chinese weightlifter.

Respond. say or write something in reply. E.g. They still haven’t responded to my letter. He responded that he would come.

This point was graphically driven home to me while we were in England. This point was made unmistakably clear to me during our stay in England. Graphically: in a graphic manner E.g. She described the events so graphically that I could almost see them.

TEXT 2: He rocked, I reeled Tama Janowtz In high school, I took a remedial English class --- maybe it wasn’t remedial, exactly, but without my knowing it, I had signed up for some kind of English class for juvenile delinquents. Well, it wasn’t supposed to be a class for juvenile delinquents, but somehow everybody but me know that that was who it was for; maybe it was listed in the course catalog as being for those students in the commercial program, the general program, whatever it was called to distinguish it from the academic precollege preparation program. But anyway, on the first day I figured out who this course was directed at: The students were surely and wore leather jackets, and the girls all had shag hairdos as opposed to straight and ironed, which was how the “nice” girls wore their hair.

Knowing me, I must have signed up for that class because it indicated that no work would be involved. And I was prepared for the worst, because somehow, having moved and switched schools so many times, I had been stuck in juvenile delinquent classes before. The juvenile delinquent classes generally meant angry teachers and angry students who never read the books assigned and never spoke in class, which was no wonder because the teacher was generally contemptuous and sneering. But this class ended up being different; the main thing was that the teacher, Mr.Paul Steele was a little distracted, a little dreamy, and most excellent. It was one of the few times up until that age I had a teacher who spoke to me --- and the rest of the class --- with the honesty of one adult talking to others, without pretense or condescension; there was no wrong or right, just discussion. In college, I had another great course – in geology, a subject for which I had no interest. Once again, I had sighed up for something that looked easy, a “gut course to fulfill the science requirement. But his guy – I believe his name was Professor Sand, an apt name for a geology teacher – was so excited and in love with rocks, with everything pertaining to the formation of the earth, that to this day rocks and everything pertaining formation of the earth still get me excited. Oolitic limestone, feldspar, gypsum, iron pyrite, Manhattan schist – the names were like descriptions of food, almost edible, and as around that time I was starting to become interested in writing, the enthusiasm that the teacher had for the subject was transferred to me into an enthusiasm for language.

And the names of the different periods --- the Jurassic, the Pre-Cambrian – even though I can’t remember much about them, the words still hold mystery and richness. At the end of the semester, there was a field trip up to the Catskills, to put into practice some of the techniques discussed in class. We were taken to a fossil bed of trilobites where due to the particular condition of the sedimentary bed, only the trilobite bodies had been preserved over the millennia. To me, all I had found was a rock with lump; but Professor Sand was totally amazed --- I was the only one ever to find a fossilized trilobite complete with head. Really, at that point there was little to sop me from becoming a geologist except for the fact that I knew I could never do anything involving numbers, weights or measurements, which I suspected would at some point have some bearing on the subject. I remember another teacher, in graduate school, Fancine du Plessix Gray, who taught a course called Religion and Literature --- another subject in which I had tinged. And because she was so interested in her topic, the students became interested, and the seminars were alive and full of argument. Of course, I had many other fine teachers along the way, but the ones who stand out in my mind were those who were most enthusiastic about what they were teaching. Many subjects in which I initially thought I was interested were totally destroyed for me by the teacher’s dry, aloof, pompous, disengaged way of speaking. But when the teacher was excited about the topic – as if he or she was still a little kid, rushing in form the yard to tell a story --- that was then the subject became alive for me.

Comprehension questions 1. What was the opinion of the author about the juvenile delinquent classes? 2. Why were the students in Mr.Steele’s class wiling to fulfill his assignments? 3. How did Mr.Steele use his teaching method effectively? 4. How did the geology teacher influence the author? 5. What major points does the author make about the motivation of the students? 6. What is suggested about the qualities of a successful teacher? 7. What does the title of the reading mean? 8. What was your favorite subject in school? Why ? What was your least favorite subject in school?

Main Idea The teacher was so interested in his topic and so enthusiastic about what he was teaching, the author became interested in the topic and enthusiastic about learning.