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Teaching demoTeaching demo----

A Short StoryA Short Story

ByBy

Wang WenliWang Wenli

08/09/06 WANG

play

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Importance of the workImportance of the work

• (1924) winning the O’Henry Memorial Prize, the top short story prize in America

• Included as a classic into American primary school and high school textbooks and the world’s best short fiction anthologies

• Adapted into a dozen of films--- the latest one: Lethal Woman (1998); the best-known one: The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Best-remembered and most-studied ，One of the world’s best short stories

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Objectives: genre study Objectives: genre study (review)(review)

Elements of the short story:

• moral/theme • plot • character & characterization • setting • point of view

(reading technique ： close reading)

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Objectives: language & Objectives: language & writingwriting

• style: verbs, syntax, imagery, irony, personification…

• suspense• step-up: repetition, comparison and

contrast

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Outline: day 1 Outline: day 1 • Lead-in activities: task sheets • Objectives• Background information• Plot, characterization, setting,

themes• Further questions for discussion: (for

day 3)

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Day 2Day 2• Check on preview: language• Detailed study: part by part

Activities: blank filling, paraphrasing, translation, etc.

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Day 3:Day 3:

• Discussion• Sum-up• Extra exercise/ Quiz

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Preclass work

• Group Work: Please draw a map of the ship-

trap island and mark out Rainsford’s escape route according to the text.

Study para. 27 and para. 36 carefully. Try to figure out how Rainsford’s tricks work. Demonstrate them in class.

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Preclass work

• Individual work: 1) Produce a Venn Diagram to

compare Rainsford and Zaroff. Do you think the villain and the hero are radically different? If not, what do they have in common?

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Preclass work: Venn Diagram

Rainsford Zaroff

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Preclass work

• Individual work: 2) stylistic analysis: This hunting story is described as a

gripping horror narrative loaded with action. What stylistic features can you find in the text to support this description?

(verbs, syntax variation, imagery in setting and characterization, suspense, etc.)

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Preclass work

• Individual work: 2) stylistic analysis: This hunting story is described as a

gripping horror narrative loaded with action. What stylistic features can you find in the text to support this description?

(verbs, syntax variation, imagery in setting and characterization, suspense, etc.)

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Lead-in Activities: student representative

Order the Events

_____ Rainsford uses a Ugandan trick and kills Ivan.

_____ General Zaroff invites Rainsford to join his game.

_____ One of Zaroff’s dogs falls into the Burmese tiger pit and dies.

_____ Rainsford and Whitney talk about “Ship Trap Island.”

_____ Rainsford goes back to the chateau and kills General Zaroff.

_____ Rainsford spends the night in a tree.

_____ Rainsford jumps off a cliff

_____ Rainsford falls into the water and swims to the island.

_____ Rainsford makes a Malay man-catcher which hurts General

Zaroff on the shoulder.

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Death swamp

Ugandan trick

Ship-trap Island

N

W E

S

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Background information

I: Introduction to the author & his work

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Richard Connell(1893 - 1949)

Age 10: covered baseball games for his father’s newspaper at the

payment of 10 cents for each game Age 16: became city editor of the paper Age 22: graduated from Harvard Age 26: married and turned a professional

writer

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Achievements

One of the most prolific short story writers of the 20th century--- over 300 short stories published in top magazines of the time

Successful screenwriter and novelist Dozens of movies and TV series

based on his stories http://www.intercoursewiththedead

.com/concrit.htm

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Evaluation of the story

‘On one level it is adventure and high drama. On another it tackles questions about man's relation to the lower animals. On still another it evaluates existentialism.’

--- Dave McCourt Characterized by lofty or thrilling events/themes

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Historical background: 1920s

Big game hunting in African and South American countries is popular with wealthy Europeans and Americans. In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt and his son killed 512 animals on an African safari.

Right after WWI, “a war to end all wars”, the Bolshevik revolution that topples the old hierarchy of classes.

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Plot Plot • How many parts can we divide the

story into?

• In which part is the climax reached?

• The conclusion/resolution consists of only one sentence. Why?

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Plot Plot • How is tension built up?

suspense (study para.19)

sentence length and type (compare paras. 18, 34--36, 38 )

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Characterization Characterization

Russian,

aristocratic,

military,

maniac,

demonic

Professional hunter,

Obsessed with hunting,

Privileged class, Classist,

American,

(democratic)

civilian

Still “normal”, human

Zaroff Rainsford Stereotype,

Cossack Kindred spirits 志趣相

投

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Characterization: Characterization: the generalthe general

• Why is the general so obsessed with hunting?

• How do you understand his choice of men as prey?

• Do his profession and social class help to explain his belief and behavior?

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Characterization: RainsfordCharacterization: Rainsford

• Do you think Rainsford is better than the general?

• How is he different from traditional heroes?

ambivalence: similarity to Zaroff vehicle of irony: hunter-turned

huntee

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Irony Irony • “The world is made up of two

classes--the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.”

• “Who cares how a jaguar feels?" "Bah! They've no understanding."

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Characterization: Characterization: techniquestechniques

• Zaroff speech

• Rainsford thought

What does the difference suggest?

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Setting Setting • Where is the story

set? a Caribbean island a Gothic chateau a jungle and a

swamp

• Do you find any symbolic meaning in this setting?

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ThemesThemes

• The hunter and the hunted• Social Darvinism• Classism, racism, elitism

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Questions for further discussion (day 3)

What will happen after Rainsford kills the general? Will he become another Zaroff?

Why does the general lose the game? Is he deliberately courting his own destruction?

What do you think of hunting, or, war in general, after learning the story?

In association with what we have learned in U3 & 4, what does this story say about history and racism?

(History is written by the winner/the stronger. Racism is discrimination based on the

classification of people)

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Detailed study: Part 1 (1-14)

In what way does the general speak? What is told by the discrepancy between what he says and what he does?

What kind of man is he, judged from his speech? (para. 13)

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Language Rest with, rest on (para. 6):

Success in management ultimately _________ sound judgment.

The final decision __________ the President.

It ________ the jury to decide the prisoner’s fate.

rests on

rests with

rests with

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Language Venture (para. 6): to ~ + n. 如果我能冒昧地说一下我的看法，我觉得这个计划需要

进一步的审核。 If I may venture an opinion, I’d say the plan needs closer

examination. to ~ + to-v. 我能斗胆提几个改进的建议吗？ May I venture to suggest a few improvements? to ~ + prep. 非典时期大家都不敢出门。 Nobody ventured out of doors during the period of SARS.

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Paraphrase Night found him legweary…

when night came, he was too tired to walk…

二十一世纪中国抱着前所未有的乐观态度拓宽了对外开放的尺度。

The 21st century has found China

___________________________________opening wider to the outside world with an unprecedented optimism.

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Part 2 (15-28) What animals are the two characters

compared to separately? (paras. 18, 20, 24, 27)

How does Rainsford’s awareness of his situation change step by step?

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Language Verbal phrases:

plunge along, strike off, stretch out, throw down, spur on

___________ by a sharp sense of shame, he had ___________, giving no heed to the passers-by who looked at him strangely. To get away from the hideous scene as far as possible, he _________ from the main street and blundered into one of those dark alleys, at the end of which he ___________ himself behind a trash can and finally ___________in a rest.

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Strike (para.18) 发现新的办法 strike _______ a new ___________ 想到这个可能，他心里突然充满了恐惧。 The __________struck terror _____ his heart. 他们都惊呆了，说不出话来。 They were _________________________. 我觉得很奇怪他居然不愿说出自己的名字。 It

__________________________________________.

prospect into

on approach

struck dumb with amazement

struck me as rather odd that he refused to give his name

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Ring (para.27) To blow a smoke ring His laugh rings through the jungle (review: echo, buzz, thunder)屋子里充满了孩子们欢乐的笑声The room rang with the laughter of happy children.整个城市到处流传着坏消息The whole city rang with bad news.他说的那些同情的话听上去空洞无力。His words of sympathy ring hollow.

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Part 3 (29--45) Why does the general identify each of his

rival’s tricks? Where have you read of a similar plot?

How does his estimation of Raisford change gradually?

What are the details that hint at his cold-bloodedness?

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Language Paraphrase: The pointed stakes found their mark.

(para.31)

hit their target--- “It found the spot all right”(L2)

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Language Hit (para. 36) We finally hit the exit after blundering about in the

darkness for a long time. 我偶然发现了有个办法可以解决我们的问题。 I hit upon a solution to our problem. 很多跨国公司深受经济萧条的影响。 Many multinational companies were hit hard by the

recession. 上个月的销售再创新高。 Last month’s sales hit a new high. a Broadway hit 百老汇热门的戏剧

To come upon or discover, especially by chance

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Part 4 (para.46) Who won the game in the end? What might have happened to the general? What moral does the general’s end tell? How would you take up the story?

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Sum-up Summarize the elements of the short story by

comparing the lesson with the other short stories we have learned during the year.

Find out how the writer steps up the tension by different techniques:

study paras. 15, 25, 38; paras.16, 24, 33;

paras. 22-23, 30

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His first thought made him feel sick and numb…

His second thought was even more terrible. It sent a shudder of cold horror through his whole being.

He had dug himself in in France when a minute’s delay meant death. That had been a placid pastime compared to his digging now.

Have you read similar writing somewhere

else?

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Writing assignment What good writing techniques have you

learned from the story? Can you produce a short story with suspense

and a surprising ending?

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THANK

YOU

！

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Check on preview Definition

1) a wild chance (34)

a bit of wild grapevine (36)

2) the dead black eyes (3)

the trees dead ahead (38)

3) the baying of the hounds (37)

a beast at bay (44)

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wild accusations; a wild guess.

The party being dead, we left early.

dead

silence, dead sure, the dead of winter/night

Based on little or no evidence or probability; ungrounded

Lacking animation, dull

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Usage of PPT in Intensive Reading Advantages:

interest, language learning, global understanding Disadvantages:

distraction, over-reliance, overloading

Key points:

size, text, pictures/audio-visual materials