1. 大学英语精品视频公开课——跨国婚姻
主讲教师：外国语学院 姚志英

2. Marriage Across nations

3. contents Lead-in Background Information Text Study Exercise
Assignments

4. Lead-in
1. In your opinion, what will be the main barriers to marriage across nations?
Language barrier;
The cultural differences;
Different patterns of seeing things;
Different dietary habits;
Different principles of conduct;
Different social values; …

5. Lead-in
2. According to your opinion , what are the main merits and demerits of marriage across nations?
Merits:
Facilitate the couples to speak new languages;
Have more chances to get insight into new cultures;
Have more opportunities for overseas travels;
Their children tend to be healthier and brighter;
The edge of their children over the other children in terms of language learning; …

6. Lead-in
2. According to your opinion , what are the main merits and demerits of marriage across nations?
Demerits:
More obstacles to overcome with regard to culture and customs;
More complex procedures to go through to be united as a lawful couple;
Their children’s undergoing many more hardships;
More chances of breakup due to cultural differences;
More tendency to leave single-parent children as a result of their divorce; …

7. Background information
Interracial marriage
Before June 12th, 1967, interracial marriage was illegal and individual states in the US had the right to separate and punish interracial couples. These punishments included imprisonment of up to 10 years.
On June 12th, 1967, interracial couples became legal thanks to the US Supreme Court decision entitled Loving v. Virginia.

8. Text Study Ⅰ. Main Idea Ⅱ. Understanding Ⅲ. Structure Analysis
Ⅳ. Summary
Ⅴ. Discussion & Exercise

9. Text Study
Main idea
According to type of literature, the passage is a story. The writer uses a first-person narrative to tell us his own experiences of a mixed marriage in America.

10. Text Study
Understanding
Answer some questions based on the comprehension of the text
What How many characters are there in the story? Who are they? What personal information (race, nationality, ect.) do you know about them?
Gail, a white woman, American Citizen，the writer’s girlfriend,
(in paragraph 1&2)
Mark, “I”, a black man, non-American Citizen (in paragraph 2&7)
Deborah, Gail’s mother (in paragraph 5)
David, Gail’s father (in paragraph 10)

11. Text Study
Understanding
2. What did Gail and Mark experience during their two years together?
ups and downs understand and respect each other
confront weaknesses and strengths (paragraph 1)

12. Text Study
Understanding
3. Why do Mark and Gail decide to get married? Or how does Mark feel about his relationship with Gail?
He thinks that both of them can honestly confronted the weaknesses and strengths of each other’s characters by experiencing the usual ups and downs.
So they decide to get married. (paragraph 1)

13. Text Study
Understanding
4. What did Mark and Gail learn from their racial and cultural differences?
In Mark and Gail’s opinion, their racial and cultural differences enhance their relationship and teach them a great deal about tolerance, compromise, and being open to each other.
(paragraph 2)

14. Text Study
Understanding
5. According to paragraph 4, why are Gail’s parent’s, after thirty-five years of marriage, going through a bitter and painful divorce?
In the eyes’ of our writer, they hardly take time to know each other, their hope that everything will go right automatically when they lived their married life.

15. Understanding Deborah’s friends’ attitude The reasons:
6. What were Gail’s mother’s friends attitude towards their marriage？
Deborah’s friends’ attitude
The reasons:
They were shocked at Gail’s action and they talked a lot.
1) they had prejudice against blacks.
2) They lived in a different world.

16. Text Study
Understanding
7. What was Gail’s mother’ reaction when Gail discusses their wedding plan with her family? Why？
When Gail’s mother heard the news, instead of congratulations, she counseled Gail to reconsider their marriage. Though she regarded Mark as a charming and intelligent young guy, she was afraid that Gail may be marrying Mark for wrong reasons.
The reason is that At that time, she was going through a bitter and painful Divorce and she didn’t want her daughter to make the same mistake
(paragraphs 5, 6 7, 8 and 9 )

17. Text Study
Understanding
8. When Gail’s father learns of Mark’s problems in getting citizenship, what was his reaction? Why?
He approached Mark and Gail ‘s decision with a father-know-best attitude. He doubted that Mark was marrying in order to remain in the USA , for he had problems with the Citizenship Department. So, he suggested that Gail should be sure that she was doing the wrong thing and she may change her mind.
Reasons:1) He suspected that Mark married his daughter in order to remain on the United States.2) Mixed couples had higher rates than couples of the same race.3) The children would go through the hardships, for people could be cruel toward children from mixed marriages. (paras. 10—21 )

18. Text Study
Structure Analysis
The passage consists of 21 paragraphs and, according to the sequence of the story in space and time, it can roughly fall into three parts.

19. Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Text Study
Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Part I (paras.1-4)
The author tells the reader the mixed marriage plan --Gail and Mark were prepared to have a quiet wedding as they believed that they knew each other well.

20. Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Text Study
Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Part II(paras.5-9)
Gail’s mother’s reaction to their wedding plan is revealed by employing the device of argumentation.

21. Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Text Study
Structure Analysis — Main Idea of each part
Part III(paras.10-21)
The pattern of dialogue is employed to help depict vividly the contrasts of attitudes between Gail and her father.

22. A. Narrations combined with quotations
Text Study
Structure Analysis — The Way to Develop This Passage
A. Narrations combined with quotations
How do the parents react to their daughter’s wedding plans to a guy
from different cultures and racial background? The writer narrates this
story with quotations.
Can you identify the quotations from the narration?

23. Paragraphs Ways of Development
Text Study
Paragraphs
Ways of Development
1~5
__________
6~9
___________ 10
Narration
11~13 14
15~21
Narration
Quotations
Quotations
Quotations

24. Structure Analysis — The Way to Develop Paragraphs
Text Study
Structure Analysis — The Way to Develop Paragraphs
Major writing techniques
– Parallel Structure
One of the common ways to present opinions is first to reject or correct some opinions and then on the basis of that, we have the opinions that are intended to be
conveyed.

25. Text Study
Make an analysis of Paragraph 7 and find out how the mother presents her opinion in this way.

26. Para. 7 — How the mother presents her opinion
The mother’s original opinion:
To start with, I must admit that at first I harbored reservations about a mixed marriage, prejudices you might call them.
The mother presents others’ opinion:
Yes, my friends talk. Some even express shock at what you’re doing.
The mother corrects her original opinion:
But when I met Mark I found him a charming and intelligent young guy. Any mother would be proud to have him for a son-in-law. So, color has nothing to do with it.
Then the mother rejects that opinion, too:
But they live in a different world. So you see, Mark’s color is not the problem.

27. The mother presents her opinion:
My biggest worry is that you may be marrying Mark for the same wrong reasons that I married your father.
An example to support her points of view:
When we met I saw him as my beloved, intelligent, charming, and caring. It was all so new, all so exciting, and we both thought, on the surface at least, that ours was an ideal marriage with every indication that it would last forever. I realized only later that I didn’t know my beloved, your father, very well when we married.

28. Summary of the Text
Give the summary orally:
clue: experience, ups and downs, confront, weakness and strengths, tolerance, compromise, open, incompatible, personality conflicts, mother, counsel, father, suspect, statistics, divorce rate, realistic, mixed marriage

29. Summary understand and respect resistance wait opposed problems
Text Study
Summary
Gail and Mark had been together for two years and had learned to ____________________ each other. Recently they decided to get married and they told the news to Gail’s parents. To their surprise, they met with some _________. Gail’s mother was worried that they might be marrying for the wrong reasons and advised her daughter to ____. Gail’s father also ________ the marriage because he thought that Mark was marrying her daughter so that he could remain in the United States. Such _______ are understandable.
After all, marriage
across nations may have its ________ of one kind or another.
understand and respect
resistance
wait
opposed
problems
concerns

30. Discussion
In your eyes, what’s the most important element for a happy marriage?

31. Standard from women ①responsible ②considerate ③healthy ④pretty
⑤She loves husband & children more than herself.
⑥house
⑦humorous
⑧ share housework ⑨

32. Standard from men ①healthy ②gentle ③responsible ④ considerate
⑤no bad habit
⑥humorous
⑦slim
⑧good cook and be able to do some housework

33. Exercise Translate some important sentences in the text
Text Study
Exercise
Translate some important sentences in the text
1. During our two years together we had experienced the usual ups and downs of a couple learning to know, understand, and respect each other learning to know, understand, and respect each other.(para.1)
在一起相处的两年中，我们经历了一对情侣在学着相互了解、理解和尊重时常常出现的磕磕碰碰。

34. Text Study
Exercise
2. We wanted to avoid the mistake made by many couples of marrying for the wrong reasons, and only finding out ten, twenty, or thirty years later that they were incompatible, that ...(para.4)
在许多夫妻因为错误的理由结了婚, 结果在 10 年、20 年或 30 年后才发觉他们原来是合不来的。他们在婚前几乎没有花时间去了解彼此，他们忽视了严重的性格差异，指望婚姻会自然而然地解决各种问题。我们希望避免重蹈覆辙。

35. Text Study
Exercise
3. To start with I must admit that at first I harbored reservations about a mixed marriage,…. But when I met Mark, I found him a charming and intelligent young guy. (para.7
首先我必须承认，刚开始我对异族通婚是有保留的,···但当我见到马克时,我发现他是一个既讨人喜欢又聪明的年轻人。

36. Text Study
Exercise
4. In fact, he made it very clear when we were discussing marriage that if I had any doubts about anything, I should not hesitate to cancel our plans.(para.13)
事实上，当我们在讨论结婚的时候，他清楚地表明了一点：
如果我对任何事情有怀疑，我完全可以取消我们的计划。

37. Text Study
Exercise
5. If we had to resolve all doubt before we acted, very little would ever get done. (para.20)
假如我们在做任何事情之前,必须把所有的疑难问题全部
解决的话,那么我们几乎就什么都干不成了。

38. Assignment 1.Finish all the exercises in Unit 3.
2. Write a paragraph about 100 words which starts with a correction of one ideal and goes on to present another ideal on one of the following topics.
Use the writing skill we just
learned above.
Topic
1.Success comes from hard work.
2. Money is not everything.

39. Thank You！