Discovery of a Father

1、lesson 2 discovery of a fatherpart one warm upi. on the creation of fathers by god x listen to the passage and exchange your understandingwhen god created fatherswhen the good lord was creating fathers, he started with a tall frame. a female angel nearby said, “what kind of father is that? if you ar

2、e going to make children so close to the ground, why have you put the father up so high? he will be able to shoot marbles without kneeling, tuck a child in bed without bending, or even kiss a child without a lot of stooping.”and god smiled and said, “yes, but if i make him child size, who would chil

3、dren have to look up to?” and when god made a fathers hands, they were large and sinewy.and the angel shook her head sadly and said, “do you know what youre doing? large hands are clumsy. they cant manage diaper pins, small buttons, rubber bands on pony tails, or even remove splinters caused by base

4、ball bats.”god smiled and said, “i know, but they are large enough to hold everything a small boy empties from his pockets at the end of a day, yet small enough to cup a childs face.”then god molded long slim legs and broad shoulders. the angel nearly had a heart attack. “boy, this is the end of the

5、 week, all right,” she clucked. “do you realize you just made a father without a lap? how is he going to pull a child close to him without the kid falling between his legs?” god smiled and said, “a mother needs a lap. a father needs strong shoulders to pull a sledge, balance a boy on a bicycle or ho

6、ld a sleepy head on the way home from the circus.”god was in the middle of creating two of the largest feet anyone had ever seen when the angel could contain herself no longer. “thats not fair. do you honestly think those large boats are going to get out of bed early in the morning when the baby cri

7、es? or walk through a small birthday party without crushing at least three of the guests?”and god smiled and said, “theyll work. youll see. theyll support a small child who wants to ride a horse to banbury cross or scare off mice at the summer cabin, or display shoes that will be a challenge to fill

8、.”god worked through the night, giving the father few words, but a firm authoritative voice; eyes that see everything, but remain calm and tolerant. finally, almost as an afterthought, he added tears. then he turned to the angel and said, “now are you satisfied that he can love as much as a mother?

9、and the angel shut up.ii. enjoy a poemread the following poem my heroas i ponder the love that i saw in his eyes,a godly love, given without compromise.i recall many times that he stood by my side,and prodded me on with great vigor and pride.his voice ever confident, firm yet fair,always speaking wi

10、th patience, tenderness and care.the power and might of his hands was so sure, i knew there was nothing we couldnt endure.its true, a few other provided insight,yet, he laid the foundation that kept me upright.hes the grandest of men to have lived on this earth.although hes not royal by statue or bi

11、rth,hes a man of great dignity, honor and strength.his merits are noble, and of admirable length.hes far greater than all the other men that i know,hes my dad, hes my mentor, my friend and hero.iii. listen to a song there youll be ( omitted)part two: background informationi. author sherwood anderson

12、 (sep. 13, 1876march 8, 1941) was a great american writer, the author of 27 works and seven novels. he was also a poet and a playwright, a newspaper editor and a political journalisthis family backgroundsherwood anderson was born in camden, ohio, the third of seven children. his father had served in

13、 the union army in american civil war and later declined from the harness business into odd jobs of house and sign painting. his influenceanderson influenced a younger generation of important writers, including faulkner, hemingway, steinbeck and others. he made his name as a leading naturalistic wri

14、ter with his masterwork, winesburg, ohio (1919). william faulknera giant in american literature, a renowned mississippi writer, nobel prize winner for literature, acclaimed throughout the world as one of the twentieth centurys greatestwritersrepresentative works:the sound and the fury (in 1929) go d

15、own, moses (in 1942)as i lay dying, light in august,absalom, absalom! （the greatest novels ever written by an american） ernest hemingwayrepresentative works:the sun also rises a farewell to armsthe old man and the sea for whom the bell tollsjohn steinbeckamerican novelist, story writer, playwright,

16、and essayist, nobel prize winner for literature in1962, best remembered for the grapes of wrath (1939), a novel widelyconsidered to be a 20th-century classicother works:of mice and men (1937) the moon is down (1942)the pearl (1947)his workswindy mcphersons son, 1916 marching men, 1917mid-american ch

17、ants, 1918 winesburg, ohio, 1919poor white, 1920 the triumph of the egg, 1921horses and men, 1921 many marriages, 1923a story tellers story, 1924 dark laughter, 1925the modern writer, 1925 sherwood andersons notebook, 1926tar: a midwest childhood, 1926 a new testament, 1927 alice and the lost novel,

18、 1929hello towns!, 1929 nearer the grass roots, 1929the american county fair, 1930 perhaps women, 1931beyond desire, 1932 death in the woods, 1933 no swank, 1934 puzzled america, 1935kit brandon, 1936 plays, winesburg and others, 1937home town, 1940 sherwood andersons memoirs, 1942ii. american civil

19、 wari. the american civil war (18611865) was the greatest war and the only war fought on american soil. 3,000,000 people fought600,000 people died. it brought an end to the constitution of slavery and paved the way for the capitalist development in america.iii. american civil warthe causesthe civil

20、war was caused by a myriad of conflicting pressures, principles, and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences and pride, and set into motion by a most unlikely set of political events. at the root of all of the problems was the institution of slavery. the american revolution had been fought to va

21、lidate the idea that all men were created equal, yet slavery was legal in all of the thirteen colonies throughout the revolutionary period. although it was largely gone from the northern states by 1787, it was still enshrined in the new constitution of the united states. at the constitutional conven

22、tion there were arguments over slavery. representatives of the northern states claimed that if the southern slaves were mere property, then they should not be counted toward voting representation in congress. southerners, placed in the difficult position of trying to argue, at least in this case, th

23、at the slaves were human beings, eventually came to accept the three-fifths compromise, by which five slaves counted as three free men toward that representation. by the end of the convention, the institution of slavery itself, though never specifically mentioned, was well protected within the body

24、of the constitution.in 1808, northern and southern members of congress voted together to abolish the importation of slaves from overseas, but the domestic slave trade continued to flourish. the invention of the cotton gin made the cultivation of cotton on large plantations using slave labor a profit

25、able enterprise in the deep south. the slave became an ever more important element of the southern economy, and so the debate about slavery, for the southerners, gradually evolved into an economically based question of money and power, and ceased to be a theoretical or ideological issue at all. it b

26、ecame an institution that southerners felt bound to protect. but even as the need to protect it grew, the ability, or at least the perceived ability of the south to do so was waning. in 1800 half of the population of the united states had lived in the south. but by 1850 only a third lived there and

27、the disparity continued to widen. while northern industrial opportunity attracted scores of immigrants from europe in search of freedom, the souths population stagnated. even as slave states were added to the union to balance the number of free ones, the south found that its representatives in the h

28、ouse had been overwhelmed by the norths explosive growth. the south found itself at the mercy of a government in which it no longer had an effective voice. nothing but bitterness and bad feeling could come of it. from such a position it was a short step to the proposition that if a state or section

29、of the country no longer felt itself represented in, or fairly treated by the federal government, then it had the right to dissolve its association with that government. it could secede from the union. the whole mess went up in smoke in the presidential election year of 1860. the democratic party sp

30、lit badly. stephen douglas became the nominee of the northern wing of the party. a southern faction broke away from the party and nominated senator john breckinridge of kentucky. the remnants of the whig party nominated john bell of tennessee. into this confusion the new republican party injected it

31、s nominee, abraham lincoln. lincoln was a moderate republican. as such he was a compromise candidate, everybodys second choice. he was convinced that the constitution forbade the federal government from taking action against slavery where it already existed, but was determined to keep it from spread

32、ing further. south carolina, in a fit of stubborn pride, unilaterally announced that it would secede from the union if lincoln was elected.to everyones amazement lincoln was victorious. he had gathered a mere 40% of the popular vote, and carried not a single slave state, but the vote had been so fra

33、gmented by the abundance of factions that it had been enough.south carolina, true to its word, seceded on december 20, 1860. mississippi left on january 9, 1861, and florida on the 10th. alabama, georgia, louisiana, and texas followed. on feb 9, 1861, the confederate states of america was formed wit

34、h jefferson davis, a west point graduate and former u.s. army officer, as president.at 4:30 a.m., april 12, 1861, the confederate army opened fire with 50 cannons upon fort sumter (萨姆特炮台) in charleston, south carolina. the civil war broke out. . but one of them would make war rather than let the nat

35、ion survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” american civil warthe endon april 9, 1865, gen. robert e. lee surrendered his confederate army to gen. ulysses s. grant at the village of appomattox court house in virginia. the union of the north finally succe

36、eded. part three: text appreciationi. text analysis 1.general analysisplot of the story setting of the story protagonists of the story writing techniques of the story theme of the story plot : the discovery of a father setting : on a rainy night protagonists : “i” and “ father” writing techniques :

37、go to writing devices theme of the story: 2.themethis is a story about an interesting character told by his son who later became a well-known writer. with well-selected anecdotes and using the tone of a little boy, the author gives a vivid character sketch of his father whom he used to despise but g

38、radually learns to understand and appreciate when he grows up.3.structurepart 1(para 1-25) description of fathers image before the discoverypart 2(para 26-41)about how the boy “discovered” a father.4.analysis of fathers imagescan the text and list out the related information.in the eyes of the son:

39、a failure a clown a loafer a windbagin the eyes of others: popular with othersmothers pride instead of complaintdiscovery of a father: generous kind-hearted a natural actor a born-story-teller5.the use of symbolstwo symbols:symbol one: the settinga wet nightfather coming back after being away for tw

40、o or three weeksclothes drippingdescription of fathersitting in a chair for a long time with the saddest looknot uttering a wordlooking at his son closely and seriouslywhat suddenly dawns on the boynot the irresponsible happy-go-lucky person he used to benot a windbag any morefather loves himsymbol

41、2 : swimming in the darkfather and son completely naked striking out together in the darksymbolic meanings: a man who is dignified, powerful, loving, ready to face the harsh lifedescription of fathercommunicating with the sontrying to give him courage and strengthwhat suddenly dawns on the boynot fo

42、olishnot a clown not a windbagjust too generoustoo kind-heartedloving life and peoplea natural actor, a born story-teller, a born writerii. writing devices1. syntactic anaphorasyntactic anaphora (repetition of beginning words)it was a feeling of closeness. it was something strange. it was as though

43、there were only we two in the world. it was as though i had been jerked suddenly out of my world of the schoolboy, out of a world in which i was ashamed of my father.(this is the most common kind of sentence repetition.)more examples:tenderly will i use you curling grass,it may be you transpire from

44、 the breasts of young men,it may be if i had known them i could have loved them, it may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers laps.and here you are the mothers laps. (walt whitman: song of myself) since that time, which is far enough away now, i have often tho

45、ught that few people know what secrecy there is in the young, under terror. i was in mortal terror of the young man who wanted my heart and liver; i was in mortal terror of my interlocutor with the iron leg, from whom an awful promise had been extracted; (c. dickens: great expectations) (the repetit

46、ion of the words brings out vividly the extent of the boys terror, increased by the fear that he might not succeed in keeping his promise.)2.syntactic epiphora (repetition of ending words)it was as though i had been jerked suddenly out of my world of the schoolboy, out of a world in which i was asha

47、med of my father.and then suddenly the machines pushed them out and they swarmed on the highways. the movement changed them; the highways, the camps along the road, the fear of hunger and the hunger itself, changed them. the children without dinner changed them; the endless moving changed them. they

48、 were migrants. and the hostility changed them. they welded them, united them (john steinbeck: the grapes of wrath)part four: language study i. word study 1. bitter1) not sweet, tasting like beergood medicine tastes bitter.2) hard to bear; causing sorrow that failure was a bitter experience for him.

49、3) filled with or showing envy, hatred, remorse or disappointment bitter quarrels/ words/ enemies /tears4) piercing colda bitter windfight to the bitter end 战斗到底 take the bitter with the sweet 接受顺境也接受逆境 n. bitterness antonyms grateful thankful2.broke adj. without any moneyhe went broke.synonyms bank

50、rupt penniless impoverishedcf. brokena broken home破裂的家庭 a broken promise背弃的诺言 a broken spirit消沉的意志 broken english 蹩脚的英语3.cover v.1) to place or hide sth. over in order to hide or protect he had to cover his ears when the noise became really unbearable.2) to have in size this national park covers rou

51、ghly 400 square miles of beautiful land. 3) to travel a certain distanceby sunset they had covered 30 miles.4) to include the 700-dollar rent does not cover water, electricity and telephone service.5) to protect sb. by aiming a gun at the enemy he began to move towards the house carefully, and bob c

52、overed him.6) (of money) to be enough for$1,000 will cover his needs for the journey.cf. coverage uncover5.credit n.1) delayed payment 赊账；信贷he bought this car on credit. the bank refused further credits to the company.2) praise 光荣；功劳 we must give her credit for our discovery. i think that he deserve

53、s all the credit for lifting the villagers out of poverty.3) sth. that can bring honor or pride to sb. these olympic gold medalists are no doubt a great credit to our country.4) recognition for a successfully completed course at the university the professor decided to give him full credit for the ex

54、am.5) money shown as owned by a person, company in a bank account you have a credit balance of $500.6) belief; trust; confidencethe rumor is gaining credit.adj. creditable6. dripv. to fall or let sth. fall in very small drops n. the drop-by-drop falling of a liquidthe tap is dripping. his paintbrush

55、 is dripping. its so hot that hes dripping with sweat. there was no noise except for the drip, drip, drip of water.7. druggist sb. who is trained to prepare drugs and medicines and works in a shoptake/use drugs 吸毒 drug abuse 滥用毒品drug addiction/addict 毒品上瘾 /上瘾者drug dealer 毒品贩子miracle drug 有奇效的药物drugstore 药店；杂货店synonyms chemist; pharmacist8.glimpse v. to see sb or sth. for a moment without getting a complete view of them i g