综合教程第六册(第2版)Unit 4 mirtriculation fixation

1、Cover Page,Unit 4Matriculation Fixation,新世纪高等院校英语专业本科系列教材（修订版） 综合教程第六册(第2版) 电子教案,上海外语教育出版社,contents page,Contents,Learning Objectives Pre-reading Activities Global Reading Detailed Reading Consolidation Activities Further Enhancement,objectives,Learning Objectives,Rhetorical skill: narrative and des

2、criptive writing Key language full name William Henry Gates (1955 ). He co-founded Microsoft, a computer software company. He is one of the richest men in the world today.,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-David Geffen,David Geffen (Paragraph 12) (1943 ) a record executi

3、ve, film and theatrical producer, and philanthropist. He has been dubbed “Hollywoods first crossover business star.” Born to a Jewish family in New York, Geffen attended the University of Texas at Austin but soon dropped out.,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-Michael Del

4、l,Michael Dell (Paragraph 12) (1965 ) the chairman of the Board of Directors of Dell, the company he founded in 1984 with $1,000 and an unprecedented idea to build relationships directly with customers. In 1992, Mr. Dell became the youngest CEO ever to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500.,Text Introdu

5、ction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-Graydon Carter,Graydon Carter (Paragraph 12) (1949 ) Canadian-born American journalist and author. He is editor of Vanity Fair. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen, the satirical monthly magazine Spy in 1986.,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | A

6、uthor | Structure,G-R: CN-Madonna,Madonna (Paragraph 12) (1958 ) US pop singer and actress. Albums such as Like a Virgin (1984) and her image as a sex symbol brought her international stardom in the mid-1980s.,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-Ronald Reagan,Ronald Reagan

7、 (Paragraph 12) (19112004) 40th president of the US (19811989). He was a movie actor before entering politics and then served as the governor of California (19671974).,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-Warren Buffet,Warren Buffet (Paragraph 12) (1930 ) famous American in

8、vestor,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: CN-Fitzgerald,F. Scott Fitzgerald (Paragraph 12) US writer; full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (18961940). His novels, in particular The Great Gatsby (1925), provide a vivid portrait of the US during the jazz era of the 1920s.,Te

9、xt Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: author bio,Joe Queenan Joe Queenan (born November 3, 1950) is a humorist, critic and author from Philadelphia who graduated from Saint Josephs University. He has written for numerous publications, such as Spy Magazine, TV Guide, Movieline, Th

10、e Guardian and the New York Times Book Review.,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,G-R: structure analysis,Text Introduction | Culture Notes | Author | Structure,Part 1,(Para 1-2) introductory part in which the author uses an anecdote as a starting point of the essay.,Part 2,(Para

11、 3-9) a good university does not necessarily guarantee a successful career,Part 3,(Para 10-12) many people achieve huge success in this society without a degree from a prestigious university,Part 4,(Para 13-15) “life doesnt have just one act”,DR-p1-text,MATRICULATION FIXATION Joe Queenan 1.Two years

12、 ago, I was languishing in the waiting room of a Philadelphia hospital when a complete stranger unexpectedly began telling me about his daughters college plans. As my seventy-nine-year-old mother was recovering from major surgery that afternoon, I could not give him my complete and undivided attenti

13、on. But as the briefing session wore on, I did manage to garner most of the relevant details.,Detailed Reading,DR-p2-text,2.The girl, bright but not brilliant, had been accepted to a first-tier university without financial aid but had also been accepted to a local, second-echelon university where sh

14、e was promised a free ride. Money being tight, with other college-bound children in the family queue, the man had persuaded his daughter to accept the second universitys offer. Now he was worried that she would one day rue this decision. Because she would be graduating from a less prestigious instit

15、ution, fewer contacts would be made and fewer doors would be opened. Her degree would put her within striking distance of the yellow brick road, but not physically on the road itself.,Detailed Reading,DR-p3-text,3.As a man of the world accustomed to being told the most intimate details about complet

16、e strangers marriages, careers, and hobbies, I had long ago acquired the requisite skills to mediate this crisis. I told the man that many of my high school classmates had graduated from the second-tier university in question and had gone on to live rich, full lives.,Detailed Reading,DR-p4-text,4.I

17、told him that I myself had graduated from a second-echelon Philadelphia university not unlike the one his daughter was entering, and had managed to carve out a nice little niche for myself. I told him that my college days had been among the happiest of my life, that the sun never set without my than

18、king God for the illumination and inspiration provided by my talented, dedicated professors. Pressed for biographical data, I explained that I was a freelance writer, ticked off a list of my credentials, and said I was pretty happy with the way my career had turned out.,Detailed Reading,DR-p5-text,5

19、.The man had never heard of me, had never read anything Id written. Though he tried to feign interest in my pathetic curriculum vitae, I could see that he was devastated. By following an academic path similar to mine, his daughter, who was also planning a career in journalism, was going to end up as

20、 big a failure as I.,Detailed Reading,DR-p6-7-text,6.I never did find out why he was visiting the hospital. 7.I mention this incident because it illustrates the neurotic gabbiness that afflicts parents when it comes time to send their children to college. I know whereof I speak. Next fall, my daught

21、er goes to college. Three years later my son will follow suit. I will be sorry to see them go; over the years they have proved to be remarkably amusing. But every dark cloud has a silver lining. Once my children have left the house, I will never again have to participate in a mind-numbing discussion

22、 about where my children or my friends children or my neighbors children are going to college, and why. On this subject, I am completely lapped out.,Detailed Reading,DR-p8-text,8.This lack of interest does not stem from pure selfishness or unalloyed contempt for other peoples offspring. Rather, I fe

23、el this way because I find almost all conversations about the college selection process to be banal, self-aggrandizing, self-flagellatory, or punitive. Id rather talk about cribbage.,Detailed Reading,DR-p9a-text,9.The most infuriating conversation is the one where the parent clearly seeks a decisive

24、, career-validating moment of emotional closure. Such individuals believe that securing admission to a top-flight university provides a child with an irrevocable passport to success, guaranteeing a life of uninterrupted economic mirth. Parents such as these upwardly mobile chuckleheads exude an almo

25、st Prussian3 belligerence when announcing their childrens destinations, congratulating themselves on a job well done, while issuing a sotto voce taunt to parents of the less gifted.,Detailed Reading,DR-p9b-text,For them, the hard part of child rearing is now over. Junior went to the right prep, made

26、 the right friends, signed up for the right activities, and is now headed for the right school. Now we can get the heck out of here and move to Tuscany.,Detailed Reading,DR-p10-text,10.But in reality, life doesnt end at age seventeen. Or twenty-one! In real life, some children get the finest educati

27、ons but still become first-class screwups. My own profession is filled with people who went to the right school but ended up in the wrong career. Some of those boys and girls most likely to succeed are going to end up on welfare or skid row. At which point theyll need parental input. Or cash. A pare

28、nts responsibility doesnt end once the kids leave. A parents responsibility never ends. Thats why Nature gives you the job.4,Detailed Reading,DR-p11a-text,11.A second, far more numerous class of obsessives consists of people who suddenly realize that their Brand X children arent going to make the cu

29、t. Seventeen years of unread textbooks, unvisited museums, and untaken AP courses are now finally taking their toll, and those grandiose delivery-room dreams of Amherst5, Bard6, and Duke7 are suddenly going up in smoke. Bashfully, shamefacedly, miserably, these parents now mumble the names of the gl

30、amourless institutions their progeny are skulking off to.,Detailed Reading,DR-p11b-text,Invariably, they are colleges you never heard of in towns no one wants to visit in states whose capitals only repeat winners on Jeopardy!8 can name. The market has spoken, the glum parental expressions seem to sa

31、y. My child is an idiot.,Detailed Reading,DR-p12a-text,12.But once again, reality has a way of upsetting the worst-laid plans of mice and Mensa9. Some kids are late bloomers. Some kids are better off in a less competitive environment. Lots of people achieve huge success in this society without a deg

32、ree from a prestigious university. Just because your child has failed to clear the first, or even the twentieth, hurdle doesnt mean you should disown him. Matisse didnt get rolling until he was in his forties.10 Bill Gates11, David Geffen12, Michael Dell13, Graydon Carter14, and adonna15 are all col

33、lege dropouts.,Detailed Reading,DR-p12b-text,Ronald Reagan16 attended tiny Eureka college, while Warren Buffet17 went to Football U in Lincoln, Nebraska. Despite what you may have read in F. Scott Fitzgerald18 (who dropped out of Princeton in 1917), life doesnt have just one act.19 There is often Ac

34、t Two. And Act Five. Not to mention the sequels. Matriculation fixation reaches its dottiest form during the obligatory campus visit. Here it is never entirely clear what parents are looking for, particularly in high-profile institutions whose renown has in some way preceded them.,Detailed Reading,D

35、R-p12c-text,During a recent visit to MIT, I watched the first thirty seconds of an admissions office video poking fun at the universitys reputation as a nerd factory. While my wife and daughter watched the rest of the video, which assured applicants that MIT nerds were hard to find, I took a stroll

36、around the campus. I saw a lot of nerds. And I do not mean this as a criticism.,Detailed Reading,DR-p13-14-text,13.Later that morning, a guide showed a bunch of us around the campus. At one juncture, she pointed out a restaurant where students could grab a fast, inexpensive meal. “How much?” asked o

37、ne high-strung mother. “About eight bucks,” she was told. The woman shuddered, noting that forking over eight dollars for dinner every night could get pretty darned expensive. 14.“Its going to cost you forty grand to send your kid to school here,” I interjected. “Dont start worrying about dinner pri

38、ces.”,Detailed Reading,DR-p15-text,15.Since that visit this fall, this incident has become an invaluable part of my repertory. Now, whenever I am dragooned into the 30,000th interminable conversation about the college selection process, I indicate that sedulous monitoring of on-campus restaurant pri

39、ces should be a vital component of the winnowing procedure, particularly vis-vis panini. People who hear me say things like this cant decide whether I am insensitive or ornery or flat-out dumb. Well, lets just put it this way: I was never MIT material.,Detailed Reading,DR:p1-2 Analysis,Paragraphs 1-

40、2 Analysis These two paragraphs make up the introductory part in which the author uses an anecdote as a starting point of the essay.,Detailed Reading,DR:p3-4 Analysis,Paragraphs 3-4 Analysis As a response to the mans story, the author tries to give some advice by relating his own experiences, i.e. h

41、is high school friends, his university days, and his present career.,Detailed Reading,DR:p5-6 Analysis,Paragraphs 5-6 Analysis It should be noted that the man is not very responsive and interested in the authors account, which evokes the authors comment “I never did find out why he was visiting the

42、hospital.”,Detailed Reading,DR:p7-8 Analysis,Paragraphs 7-8 Analysis These two paragraphs play an important role in the essay. On the one hand, they are the authors comments elicited by the incident; on the other hand, they function as a transition to further discussion on the matter.,Detailed Readi

43、ng,DR:p9 Analysis,Paragraph 9 Analysis In this paragraph the author criticizes parents who use the conversation to boast of their success in getting their children into a good college.,Detailed Reading,DR:p10 Analysis,Paragraph 10 Analysis In this paragraph the author airs his view, which is differe

44、nt from that of the parents mentioned in the preceding paragraph. He argues that a good university does not necessarily guarantee a successful career, and asserts that parents responsibility does not end when their children leave home for university.,DR:p9 Analysis,Detailed Reading,DR:p11 Analysis,P

45、aragraph 11 Analysis In this paragraph the author gives an illustration of the second category/group of people who are obsessed with college selection. They are disillusioned parents whose children are unlikely to enter prestigious universities.,Detailed Reading,DR:p12 Analysis,Paragraph 12 Analysis

46、 In this paragraph the author argues that entering a prestigious university is not a criterion to judge a persons success, because “Some kids are late bloomers. Some kids are better off in a less competitive environment. Lots of people achieve huge success in this society without a degree from a pre

47、stigious university.” In addition he offers the reassuring advice that “. life doesnt have just one act. There is often Act Two. And Act Five.”,Detailed Reading,DR:p13-14 Analysis,Paragraphs 13-14 Analysis The talk about dinner prices in these two short paragraphs seemingly has something to do with

48、affordability, it is actually an anecdote the author uses to poke fun at those anxious parents.,Detailed Reading,DR:p15 Analysis,Paragraph 15 Analysis In this concluding paragraph the author humorously expresses his attitude towards college selection by saying “People . cant decide whether I am inse

49、nsitive or ornery or flat-out dumb.”,Detailed Reading,DR-Question-p2,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 2: Question What does the sentence “. fewer contacts would be made .” mean?,The sentence means that since it was a local university, there would be fewer chances to establish a network of interpersonal re

50、lationships that could be potentially helpful in the future.,DR-Question-p4,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 4: Question What does the author mean by “. the sun never set without my thanking God for.”?,The author says that every day he felt grateful to God for what he learnt from his talented and dedicate

51、d professors. Here he exaggerates to give comfort to the father.,DR-Question-p7,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 7: Question Why does the author say that he will never participate in a mind-numbing discussion about the college selection process, once his kids have left home?,The author believes that such

52、discussions are meaningless or even harmful. Here, he seems to suggest that for those parents who happen to make the right selections for their children or whose children go to prestigious universities such a topic would be self-aggrandizing, but for those who fail to make the right selections or wh

53、ose children go to less prestigious universities such a topic would be self-flagellatory.,DR-Question-p8,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 8: Question What does cribbage stand for?,Cribbage is a simple card game that does not offer much scope for interesting discussion. So if talking about cribbage is pref

54、erred, then discussions about the college selection process must be very boring indeed.,DR-Question-p9,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 9: Question How do those parents feel when their children enter a top university?,They feel that their childrens future is guaranteed and their mission as parents fulfill

55、ed.,DR-Question-p11,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 11: Question What does the author mean by “. those grandiose delivery-room dreams of Amherst, Bard, and Duke are suddenly going up in smoke”?,The author means that beautiful dreams which those parents have cherished since their children were born are no

56、w totally smashed and have disappeared. “Amherst, Bard, and Duke” are three prestigious private universities in the United States.,DR-Question-p12,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 12: Question What is the admissions office video intended to convey? And what did the author find?,The admissions office video

57、 is intended to dismiss the saying that MIT is a factory that produces boring and unfashionable people who are not good at communicating with other people in social situations. However, the author saw a lot of such people on the campus.,DR-Question-p14,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 14: Question What is

58、 the meaning of the authors remark “Dont start worrying about dinner prices”?,The author means that dinner prices would be trivial compared with the total cost of MIT.,DR-Question-p15,Detailed Reading,Paragraph 15: Question Why does the author say “I was never MIT material”?,This is a humorous way o

59、f saying that he was not a “nerd”: I never prepared myself for a prestigious university such as MIT, yet, I am a successful man.,LPT-but as the brief session wore on,Detailed Reading,“But as the briefing session wore on, I did manage to garner most of the relevant details.”,Paraphrase, Though I listened absent-mindedly to the stranger who was telling me about his daughters college plans, I managed to grasp most of the important information in his speech.,LPT-wear on,Detailed Reading,wear on if time we