大学英语精读四Unit1

1、2. Background InformationMontgomery Ward & CompanySears, Roebuck & CompanyBefore ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading3. Minimum Wage1. DiscussionBefore ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading DiscussionLook at the following pictures. Talk about the pictures in small

2、groups. And answer these questions.1. What is happening in each picture?2. If you want to have a part-time job, which of the following do you like best? Why?3. Do your parents encourage you to get a part-time job? Why or why not?4. Whats your opinion about part-time job?Montgomery Ward & Company

3、 Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingFounder: Ward, (Aaron) Montgomery (1843-1913) He is an American merchant who established the mail-order business that bears his name in 1872.He was born in Chatham, New Jersey , USA in 1843 and died in Highland Park, Illinois, USA in 1913.3)

4、His policy in doing business is “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back”.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingSize:It has more than 500 retail stores and 700 catalog stores across the USA.Rank: It ranks as the second largest mail-order firm in the world.Important Events:In 18

5、72, the nations first mail-order house was established, providing merchandise for a largely agricultural market.2) In 1926, the first retail store was established.3) On August 2, 1985, the first mail-order catalog in the United States, the Montgomery Ward & Company catalog, which began in 1872,

6、was discontinued due to increasing costs.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingMontgomery Ward & Company is a United States retail and mail-order concern. Across the United States the company has more than 500 retail stores and 700 catalog stores. The company was founded as a

7、mail-order business in Chicago in 1872 by A. Montgomery Ward, who adopted the policy “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back”. The first retail store was established in 1926. Today, Montgomery Ward & Company ranks as the second largest mail-order firm in the world. Before ReadingGlobal Readi

8、ngDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingSears, Roebuck & Company Sears Tower: Erected between 1970 & 1974 for Sears, Roebuck and Company, the Sears Tower opened in Chicago, Illinois; with 110 stories and 443 m/1,454 ft high, it was the worlds tallest office building until 1996.Before ReadingGlobal Re

9、adingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingFounder: Sears, Richard Warren (1863-1914) In 1886, he founded his mail-order business in North Redwood, Minnesota, U.S.A.2) In 1893, he joined merchant Alvah C. Roebuck to establish Sears, Roebuck & Company in Chicago, Illinois.3) He was born in Stewartville, M

10、innesota, USA in 1863 and died in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA in 1914.Rank:It ranks as the largest mail-order firm in the world. Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingSears, Roebuck & Company is the largest mail-order concern in the world. The founder of the company is Richard Wa

11、rren Sears. He was born in Stewartville, Minnesota, USA in 1863 and died in Waukesha, Wisconsin USA in 1914. In 1886, he founded his mail-order business in North Redwood, Minnesota, U.S.A. Then in 1893, he joined merchant Alvah C. Roebuck to establish Sears, Roebuck & Company in Chicago, Illinoi

12、s. Almost 60 years after his death, a skyscraperSears Toweropened in Chicago, Illinois, which was the worlds tallest office building until 1996. Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingMinimum Wage The London Dockers (码头工人码头工人) Strike in 1889 was called by men whose casual (临时临时) em

13、ployment in the London docks exposed them to extreme poverty. As the result of the strike, their demands for a minimum wage of sixpence an hour, minimum casual employment of at least four hours, and fair overtime pay were largely met.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingThe minim

14、um wage is the smallest amount of money per hour that an employer may legally pay a worker. It is fixed by law, agreement, or other means. In the United States, minimum wage laws are made by the federal government and state and municipal governments. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, popularly k

15、nown as the Federal Wage and Hour Law, established a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. The minimum wage has since been increased by amendments to Fair Labor Standards Act in 1949, 1955, 1961, 1966, 1974, and 1977. The 1977 amendment raised the minimum wage in stages from $ 2.65 an hour in 1978 to $

16、3.35 an hour by 1981. By 1991, the minimum wage reached $ 4.25 an hour. And by Sept. 1997, it had reached $ 5.15.1. Part Division of the textBefore ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading2. Further Understanding For Parts 12For Parts 35For Parts 6DiscussionMultiple ChoiceRole PlayPart Div

17、ision of the TextMain IdeasLinesParts 1234561910363751528384100101115The father persuades boys to get a job.The boys get a job to hand-deliver ads because of a newspaper strike.The boys get into a difficult situation.The boys hire others to help and the father suggests a bonus program.The task is fu

18、lfilled after the boys solve the problemof their helpers “strike” for better pay.The two youngest sons want to make money byoffering “for sale or rent” their entire library.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading 1. Father found the ad _. A) in the newspaper B) on the doorknob C) i

19、n the magazines D) on the bag 2. The ad _. A) showed a way to avoid the indignity to ask for money B) offered an easy job for college students C) offered a way to make money easily by delivering ads D) taught children how to ask for money from their parentsBefore ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed Readin

20、gAfter ReadingKEY KEY Multiple Choice3. Father advised his two college-age sons to think about taking a job because_. A) his sons had asked for too much money B) his sons asked for money without minding the indignity C) he could not support his family D) he was pained to see his sons response to his

21、 suggestion4. What was Mothers attitude towards her husbands suggestion? A) She disliked it at all. B) She was neither for nor against it. C) She was all for it. D) She was pleased with it.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingKEY KEY 5. Why were the boys overjoyed to take the job

22、? A) Because they liked the job very much. B) Because they could visit 4,000 families. C) Because they could buy many pieces of cake. D) Because they thought they could get a lot of money with ease.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingKEY Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed Read

23、ingAfter ReadingRole Play Directions: In small groups of 5 students, students play as Father, Mother, two sons and a reporter from a local newspaper. The role play should cover the following points: the difficulties the boys met; the helpers they hired; Fathers suggestion of bonus program; the two h

24、ours strike; completion and the result of the job.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingDiscussionWhat caused the two youngest sons to offer their entire library “for sale or rent”?Why does the author mention the two youngest sons story at the end of the passage?Before ReadingGlob

25、al ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingTwo college-age boys, unaware that making money usually involves hard work, are tempted by an advertisement that promises them an easy way to earn a lot. The boys soon learn that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. “I dont mind the indignity

26、,” the older one answered.“I can live with it,” his brother agreed.“But it pains me,” I said, “to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longer embarrasses you.”“You ought to look into this,” I suggested to our two college-age sons. “It might be a way to avoid the indignity of h

27、aving to ask for money all the time.” I handed them some magazines in a plastic bag someone had hung on our doorknob. A message printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work (“Big Bucks the Easy Way!”) of delivering more such bags.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingBig B

28、ucks the Easy WayJohn G. HubbellThe boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on a business trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phone rang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone.“Great!” I enthused. “H

29、ow was your day?” I inquired.“Super!” she snapped. “Just super! And its only getting started. Another truck just pulled up out front.”“Another truck?” Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading“The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The second

30、brought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I dont know what this one has, but Im sure it will be four thousand of something. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to know whats happening.” Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingWhat I was being blamed for, it turned out,

31、was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. The company had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning.“Piece of cake!” our older college son had shouted.“Six hundr

32、ed bucks!” His brother had echoed, “And we can do the job in two hours!”“Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages,” my wife informed me. “There are thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of paper up the walk. What

33、do we do about all this?”“Just tell the boys to get busy,” I instructed. “Theyre college men. Theyll do what they have to do.”At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephone my wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more

34、truckloads of ad inserts. “Theyre for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller

35、 than your oldest son. Theres only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band around them and slide them into a plastic bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!” Her voice kept rising, as if wo

36、rking its way out of the range of the human ear. “All this must be delivered by seven oclock Sunday morning.”“Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and Ill talk to you later. Got a lunch date.”Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingBefore Read

37、ingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingWhen I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife.“Did you have a nice lunch?” she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew better by now than to say so.“Awful,” I reported. “Some sort of sour fish. Eel, I think.”“Good. Your college

38、 sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple of neighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In the language of diplomacy, there is movement. ” “Thats encouraging.”“No, its not,” she corrected. “Its very discouraging. Theyve been at it for

39、 hours. Plastic bags have been filled and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasnt made a dent, not a dent, in the situation! Its almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves!”“Another thing,” she continued. “Your college sons must learn that one does not get the best out of employees by thr

40、eatening them with bodily harm.”Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingObtaining an audience with son No. 1, I snarled, “Ill kill you if you threaten one of those kids again! Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every hour to the worker who fills the most bags.”“But th

41、at would cut into our profit,” he suggested. “There wont be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time. If they dont, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be no eating or sleeping until it is removed.”There was a short, thoughtful s

42、ilence. Then he said, “Dad, you have just worked a profound change in my personality.”“Do it!”“Yes, sir!”Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingBy the following evening, there was much for my wife to report. The bonus program had worked until someone demanded to see the color of ca

43、sh. Then some activist on the work force claimed that the workers had no business settling for $5 and a few competitive bonuses while the bosses collected hundreds of dollars each. The organizer had declared that all the workers were entitled to $5 per hour! They would not work another minute until

44、the bosses agreed. The strike lasted less than two hours. In mediation, the parties agreed on $2 per hour. Gradually, the huge stacks began to shrink.As it turned out, the job was completed three hours before Sundays 7 a.m. deadline. By the time I arrived home, the boys had already settled their acc

45、ounts: $150 in labor costs, $40 for gasoline, and a like amount for gifts boxes of candyBefore ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Readingfor saintly neighbors who had volunteered station wagons and help in delivery and a dozen roses for their mother. This left them with $185 each about two-t

46、hirds the minimum wage for the 91 hours they worked. Still, it was “enough“, as one of them put it, to enable them to “avoid indignity” for quite a while.All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was drawn to the odd goings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying c

47、arton after carton from various corners of the house out the front door to curbside. I assumed their mother had enlisted them to remove junk for a trash pickup. Then I overheard them discussing finances.“Geez, were going to make a lot of money!”“Were going to be rich!”Investigation revealed that the

48、y were offering “for sale or rent” our entire library.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading“No! No!” I cried. “You cant sell our books!” “Geez, Dad, we thought you were done with them!”“Youre never done with books,” I tried to explain.“Sure you are. You read them, and youre done

49、with them. Thats it. Then you might as well make a little money from them. We wanted to avoid the indignity of having to ask you for .”“You ought to look into this,” I suggested to our two college-age sons. “It might be a way to avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all the time.” I handed

50、them some magazines in a plastic bag someone had hung on our doorknob. A message printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work (“Big Bucks the Easy Way!”) of delivering more such bags.Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingBig Bucks the Easy WayJohn G. Hubbell“I dont mind th

51、e indignity,” the older one answered.“I can live with it,” his brother agreed.“But it pains me,” I said, “to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longer embarrasses you.”The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on a business trip. By

52、 midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phone rang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone.“Great!” I enthused. “How was your day?” I inquired.“Super!” she snapped. “Just super! And its only getting started. Another truck just pulled up out front.”“Anot

53、her truck?” Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter Reading“The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The second brought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I dont know what this one has, but Im sure it will be four thousand of something. Since you are resp

54、onsible, I thought you might like to know whats happening.” Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingAt noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephone my wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckload

55、s of ad inserts. “Theyre for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller than you

56、r oldest son. Theres only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band around them and slide them into a plastic bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!” Her voice kept rising, as if working its

57、 way out of the range of the human ear. “All this must be delivered by seven oclock Sunday morning.”“Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and Ill talk to you later. Got a lunch date.”Before ReadingGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingAfter ReadingWhat I was being bla

58、med for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. The company had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning.“Piece of cake!” our older college so

59、n had shouted.“Six hundred bucks!” His brother had echoed, “And we can do the job in two hours!”“Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages,” my wife informed me. “There are thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of

60、paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?”“Just tell the boys to get busy,” I instructed. “Theyre college men. Theyll do what they have to do.”When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife.“Did you have a nice lunch?” she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew better by now than to say so.“Awful,” I repo