the man in the water roger rosenblatt r einforcement einforcement t ext analysisext analysis the man...

The Man in the Water Roger Rosenblatt

R einforcement

T ext Analysis

The Man in the Water

B ackground

W arming up

Unit 4

Questions / Activities

Check-on Preview

Objectives

Warming up


Unit 4

Warming up Questions / Activities

•Do you know of any disaster(s) that happened in recent years or recently?

•When disaster happens, what do we usually want to know?

•We sometimes identify some heroes in disasters. What do you think about them?

Check-on Preview

• Match the words with their correct meaning in the text.

1. aesthetic2. chaotic3. commitment4. standoff5. impact

a. a determination to do what one considers to be his duty b. being central or most importantc. a situation in which neither side in a fight can gain an advantaged. the force of one object striking or hitting anothere. concerning beauty, esp. beauty in artf. a stop or pauseg. in a state of complete disorder and confusion

Warming up

Objectives

Through this lesson, students will

• be able to recap the basic facts of the plane crush and the following rescue efforts, esp. what the man in the water did;

• think about the question of heroism and the power of man;

• analyze the organization and the language style of the text;

• learn the related vocabulary and other useful words and phrases in the text.

Warming up

Background

Genre

The Disaster


Unit 4

Background The Disaster

Aircraft type: Boeing 737-222Operator: Air FloridaPassengers: 74Crew: 5Date: January 13, 1982Type: Crash on takeoffAccident site: Washington, D.C.Fatalities: 78 (4 on ground)Injuries: 10Survivors: 5


BW

T R


Summary of the crash• Bad weather conditions at Washington National

Airport when taking off• Delays, icing on the wings, poor decisions• Crash onto the 14th Street Bridge• Hampered rescue responses• Unlikely heroes


The Rescue Site

Responses in the media

• News media outlets followed the story with diligence; it made headlines

• "A Hero - Passenger Aids Others, Then Dies," Washington Post, January 14, 1982

• “the sixth man”, “the man in the water”

Background


"He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter's two-man Park Police crew he seemed the most alert. Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball. The man passed them to the others. On two occasions, the crew recalled last night, he handed away a life line from the hovering machine that could have dragged him to safety. … and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene, but the man was gone."

Background


• The man was later identified as Arland D. Williams Jr., a bank examiner working for the Federal Reserve system in Atlanta. The 14th Street Bridge was renamed in his honor.

• In June of 1983, Williams was awarded a medal by President Reagan.

Background

Background Genre

– What kind of article do we have for this lesson? Where do we generally find it?

– What does this article concentrate on? Does it focus on the description of the disaster or how people are saved? Why?

News fall into basic categories: hard news and soft news.

• “Hard news” includes stories of a timely nature about events or conflicts that have just happened or are about to happen, such as crimes, fires, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases.

• These stories have immediacy.

• “Soft news” is defined as news that entertains or informs, with an emphasis on human interest(人情味 ) and novelty(新奇 ) and less immediacy than hard news.

• “Soft news” can also be stories that focus on people, places or issues that affect readers’ lives. These types of stories are called“feature stories.”

Background Category of News

Which category do these fall into?

• flash (快讯 ) • features (特写 ) • urgent (急电 ) • anecdote (趣事；轶事 )• brief (简讯 )• personal profile (人物特写 )• breaking news (突发新闻 )

Background

News Feature

• A news feature does not cover all the details a news report has to contain and only focuses on certain aspects of the event on which the reporter has something to say. Though the details about the news event have to be true and exact, the reporter can add his/her own comment and interpretation of the event, which he/she is not allowed in a news report.

Background

Language Style

Journalistic articles: describe the fact with what is seen or heard; sometimes guesses are made, but often with model verbs and continuous tenses to make the description reliable and vivid.

Parentheses and short elliptical sentences to make the report vivid.

DetailedAnalysis

Structure

Theme

Text Analysis


Unit 4

Text Analysis Theme

What are the possible themes of the article?• heroism • moral power in time of crisis

Text Analysis Structure

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Main Idea

1. What was unusual about this air crash? Did it make the disaster more special than others?

2. What is the aesthetic crash? Is it really so?3. What was the cause of the air crash?4. What did people actually see in the disaster?


Part I: Sentence Paraphrase• Washington, the city of form and rules, turned

chaotic by a blast of real winter and a single slap of metal on metal. (para.1)

– The city of form and rules: the city that is neat and

beautiful. (Washington was the first carefully planned city in the world with parallel streets cut by diagonal avenues. Its design was considered a masterpiece. )

– Turn chaotic: become chaotic; be thrown into terrible confusion.

– A blast of real winter: a sudden strong really cold wind.– Slap: a quick blow with something flat.


Part I: Sentence Paraphrase• And there was the aesthetic clash as well—blue-and-

green Air Florida, the name of a flying garden, sunk down among gray chunks of ice in a black river.

(para. 1)

Paraphrasing: When the air crash occurred, it was not just a clash of metal against the bridge, but also a clash between colors: the blue-green color of the plane and the gray and black color of the ice and river.

As … go(es), …

compared with the average. 就 ······来说– As writers go, Oscar Wilde was not the

most talented, but he was among the most popular.

– $40 a ticket isn’t bad as football tickets go.

Rise to the occasion / challenge

to deal successfully with a difficult situation or problem, especially by working harder or performing better than usual – We are calling on all our employees to rise to

the occasion and become more efficient and productive.


Part I: Words & Expressions

Words PhrasesWords aesthetic; elements

Phrases on record; bring … to tears; in collision; as ever; bring down; rise to the occasion

Sentence Pattern

as disasters go, this one was terrible …; why, then, the shock here?

Grammar appositive clauses


Part I: Exercise

Translate the following sentences into English.1. 说起科幻电影，《阿凡达》堪称经典。 As sci-fi movies go, Avatar can be called a classic.

2. 就大学校园而言，北外小得出奇。 As university campuses go, that of BFSU is ridiculously small.

3. 中国的汽车行业必须应对挑战，找到存活和发展方向。 The auto industry must rise to the challenge and find its own way of

survival and development.

4. 在那样的困难时期，中国的科学家们争了气， 1964年 10月成功地在戈壁滩引爆了中国的第一颗原子弹。

Despite such hardships of the era, Chinese scientists rose to the occasion and successfully exploded China’s first atomic bomb in the Gobi desert.


Part II: Main Idea1. Who were able to account for what they did? 2. What did they do? And why did they do so?3. Who attracted most of people’s attention?4. What was “the man in the water” like?5. What did “the man in the water” do?6. What is the meaning of “the fact that he went

unidentified gave him a universal character”? What is this universal character?


Part II: Sentence Paraphrase

• ... delivering every hero’s line that is no less admirable for being repeated. (para. 3)

Paraphrasing: ... saying something every hero has said before, but although it has been said again and again, it is still admirable when we hear it.



• This man was described… as appearing alert and in control.(para. 4)

Paraphrasing: This man was described as a person who appeared to be able to think quickly and clearly; calm and with perfect presence of mind.



• The fact that he went unidentified gave him a universal character. (para. 4)

Paraphrasing: People did not know who he was. This made him a kind of symbol, a symbol of human courage. go + subject complement (adj. ed-participle, ing-participle,

prep. phrase): to remain in a state of…– All my letters went unanswered.– He hoped that his nervousness would go unnoticed.

Trans: 由于社会资源有限，很多犯罪都没有得到惩罚。 Due to limited social resources, many crimes have gone

unpunished.

EverymanIt was the title of the a play written by an unknown dramatist

probably a few decades before the end of the 15th century. All the events in the play are centered around the salvation history, but the play does not deal with the complete journey from the birth of Everyman to his death; it focuses only on the last phase of his life, the so-called death-journey of the soul to Judgment.

• Everyman is a typical human being. It conveys the idea that this anonymous man really represents the best of human nature. What he did was not the act of a supernatural being, but the act of an ordinary person. Yet, the author says here that “no man is ordinary”, because every person is capable of rising to the occasion and making history.


Part II: Words & Expressions

Words PhrasesWords account; admirable; commitment

Phrases in the line of duty; refer to; responsible for; known as; in control; go under

Sentence Pattern

Of the four, three…; He was seen clinging to…; Be described as …; Every time …, he passed it on; The fact that he went unidentified…

Grammar appositive clauses; Indefinite pronouns derived from “some”, “any”, “no”, “every”


Part II: Exercise

Translate the following sentences into English.

1. 对国产奶粉的“信心荒”是造成市面上进口奶粉荒的原因。

“Shortage of confidence” in domestic brands is responsible for the shortage of import milk powder on the market.

2. 由于社会资源有限，很多犯罪都没有得到惩罚。Due to limited social resources, many crimes have gone

unpunished.


Part III: Main Idea

1. What does the writer want to reveal through the imagined scene?

2. “He watched everything in the world move away from him, and he let it happen.” What does the sentence imply? Did he just passively watch and let it happen? Could he stop it? What might be the reason?


Part III: Sentence Paraphrase

• Still, he could never have imagined such a capacity in himself. (para. 5)

Paraphrasing: However, it was impossible for him to know that he would be capable of such heroism. What the man did was the natural response to the critical situation.


Part III: Sentence Paraphrase

• For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not live if he continued to hand over the rope and ring to others. He had to know it, no matter how slow the effect of the cold. (para. 6)

Paraphrasing: Obviously it requires much more courage to face sure death

knowing that you have a choice (keep one of the rings for yourself) than to face the possibility of death by, for example, a stray bullet in battle. The man in the story did not act on impulse. He did not pass on his rings to others with a total unawareness of the consequences. At some point he must have known that he was freezing to death and would go under any moment. But he still gave the chance of survival to the next person.


Part III: Words & Expressions

Words PhrasesWords desperate; stunning; survivor

Phrases owe… to…; hand over to; take off

Sentence Pattern

So our man relaxed with the others, some of whom would ...

Grammar


Part IV: Main Idea1. What does “the essential, classic circumstance” refer to?2. “The one making no distinctions of good and evil,…

acting wholly on distinctions, principles and, perhaps on faith.” What is the author trying to say specifically?

3. “He was likewise giving a lifeline to those who watched him.” Why does the writer say so?

4. Why do we believe that man did not lose the fight against nature?

5. What kind of power do we see in “the man in the water”?


Part IV: Sentence Paraphrase

• He was there, in the essential, classic circumstance. (para.7)

Paraphrasing: What happened that day was a typical situation in which nature and man fought each other. And when nature begins to show its power, you always find man fighting back. He is always there. We can always expect to find such a hero.


Part IV: Sentence Paraphrase• Yet whatever moved these men to challenge death on

behalf of their fellows is not peculiar to them. Everyone feels the possibility in himself. (para.8)

Paraphrasing: Yet whatever made these men or gave them the power to challenge death for others is not unique. Indeed, every one of us has the potential to be a hero.


Part IV: Words & Expressions

Words PhrasesWords distinction; likewise; standoff

Phrases keep one’s thoughts on; go at; make distinction of; act on; on behalf of; let go of; set … against

Sentence Pattern

Yet whatever moved these men…

Grammar


Part IV: ExerciseTranslate the following sentences into English.1. 导游一时冲动辱骂了大陆游客，结果悲剧了。The tour guide acted on impulse and insulted those tourists from

Chinese mainland with abusive language, and she paid heavily.2. 你认为他作为央视主持人有权利在韩国代表亚洲向奥巴马提问吗？

Do you think he as a CCTV anchorman had the right to raise questions to Obama in Korea on behalf of Asia?

3. 虽然多年以来春晚饱受诟病，可央视就是不撒手！Even though the Spring Festival Gala has been severely criticized for

many years, CCTV just wouldn’t let go of it!

Reinforcement

RetellingRetelling

DiscussionDiscussion


Unit 4

Reinforcement Discussion

Work in groups of four and discuss the following questions:

1. What have you learnt from the text?2. What kind of people do you usually take as heroes?3. You are the kind of person you are in face of danger. Do you

agree with this statement? What do you think makes one a hero in time of crisis?

4. If similar things happen in China, what do you think would be the focus of our news features? What kind of cultural differences are reflected?

Reinforcement Retelling

Choose one topic

• Retell the story as “the man in the water”, or as one of the survivors who owes his life to “the man in the water”, or as one of the other three heroes who is able to account for what he did.

the man in the water roger rosenblatt r einforcement einforcement t ext analysisext analysis the man...

Documents

water background slide

hard news

news event

soft news

news report

rescue site slide

news fall

news feature