1. Unit 10The Sad Young Men by Rod W. Horton & Herbert W. Edwards

2. Aims:  1. Improving Reading Skills  2. Enriching Vocabulary  3. Improving Writing skills

3. Teaching Activities  Vocabulary 1 hour  Text Analysis 6 hours  Discussion 1 hour  Practice 2 hours

4. Teaching Process  I.Warming up  II ． Introduction to Additional Background Knowledge  III. Text Analysis  Introduction to the Passage  Effective Writing Skills  Rhetorical Devices  Special Difficulties  IV. Questions

5. Teaching Process  Introduction to Additional Background Knowledge  1. Some terms:  --The Sad Young Men  --The Lost Generation  --The Beat Generation  --The Angry Young Men  --Greenwich Village  2. Some literary figures:  --Gertrude Stein  --E. Hemingway  --F. Scott Fitzgerald

6. Text Analysis  Introduction to the Passage  1. Type of literature: a piece of expositive writing  2. The thesis stated in the last paragraph of the essay  3. The structural organization of this essay: clear and simple  --para. 1: introducing the subject  --paras. 2-9: supporting and developing the thesis  --paras. 10-11: bringing the discussion to an end

7. Effective Writing Skills  1. Effective use of topic sentences  2. Developing a new but related aspect of the thought stated in the thesis in each paragraph or paragraph unit.

8. Rhetorical Devices  1. metaphor  2. personification  3. metonymy  4. transferred epithet

9.  Special Difficulties  1. Identifying and understanding Americanisms in this essay  --speakeasy  --sheik  --drugstore cowboy  --Babbitry  --flapper  --soap opera

10.  2. Understanding some terms  --Puritan morality  --provincial morality/artificial walls  --Victorian  --Prohibition  --the stalemate of 1915 – 1916  --Greenwich Village  --The Sad Young Men/The Lost Generation  --keep up with the Joneses

11.  3. Prefixes “-un” and “-in” (-im, -il, -ir) bearing a negative meaning  4. Paraphrasing some sentences  5. Identifying figures of speech

12. Questions  1. How did World War I affect the younger generation?  2 Why did young intellectuals of this period emigrate to Europe?  3. Why were these writers called the “lost generation”? Were they really lost? convincing facts and details?  4 How does the writer develop his central thought Does he support his opinions?  5 Do you agree with the conclusion of the writer? Give your reasons.

13. Text Analysis  1. This is a piece of expository writing (for fuller explanation of expository writing see Lesson 2, Detailed Study of the Text, point 1) by two American writers explaining a certain period in American literary and social history. It focuses especially on the attitudes and revolt of the young people who returned from World War I, disappointed and disillusioned. In this revolt the young intellectuals, writers and artists, stood in the van ( 先锋、前卫 ) and was the most vocal group. Many of these intellectuals lived abroad, especially in Paris, as expatriates, but most of them later returned to the United States voluntarily. These intellectuals were called “Sad Young Men”, or “The Lost Generation”, because they were critical and rebellious. However, they were never lost because they were also very creative and productive and as this essays: “gave the nation the liveliest, freshest, most stimulating writing in its literary experience.” 

14.  The structural organization of this essay is clear and simple. The essay divides logically into paragraphs with particular functions: to introduce the subject (introduction) in paragraph l, to support and develop the thesis (the body or the middle) in paragraphs 2 though 9, to bring the discussion to an end (conclusion) in paragraphs l0 and 11.  In “The Sad Young Men,” Horton and Edwards state their thesis in the last paragraph of the essay: “The intellectuals of the twenties the “sad young men,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald called them, cursed their luck but didn’t die; escaped but voluntarily returned; flayed ( 严厉批评 ) the Babhits ( 市侩 ) but loved their country, and in so doing gave the nation the liveliest, freshest, most stimulating writing in its literary experience.”

15.  They support their thesis by providing historical material concerning the revolt of the younger generation of the twenties in a series of paragraphs and paragraph units between the introduction and conclusion. Each paragraph or paragraph unit develops a new but related aspect of the thought stated in the thesis. Frequently the first sentence of these middle paragraphs states clearly the main idea of the material that follows and indicates a new but related stage of the developing thought. For example:

16.  The rejection of Victorian gentility ( 有教养、文雅 ) was, in any case, inevitable. (Paragraph 3)  The rebellion started with World War I. (paragraph 5)  Greenwich Village set the pattern. (Paragraph 7)  Meanwhile the true intellectuals were far from flattered. (Paragraph 9) in “The Sad young Men”, the function of the first paragraph is introductory. Horton and Edwards begin by mentioning the interest in the Twenties by young people today. In addition, they discuss the questions that present-day students are asking their parents and teachers: Was there really a Younger Generation problem? Were young people really so wild? Their answers are yes and no.

17. 2. The Sad Young Men: See Notes to the Text, point 2. These young intellectuals or writers were unhappy because they were disillusioned with the war that was “to make the world safe for Democracy”. They could not integrate themselves with the society and social life they found in post war United States. They felt alienated from everything they saw in their homeland, so they went to Europe and lived as voluntary expatriates.