B2L9课文详解
副部级大学
Lesson Nine Quick Fix Society
Introduction to the Text
修葺
1.Structure
The tree parts of the essay are clear-cut.
Introduction (para.1-3): Her ride on fast roads and her return trip of a country road。the writer compares her ride on fast roads to West Virginia and her return trip of a different route. The contrast t her thinking whether there was something wrong with American?s quick-fix lifestyle. The last ntence of the ction “Our country has become a nation in arch of the quick fix---in more ways than one.” rves as a transition from the introduction to the body Body(para.4-6): she lists three ways Americans ek a quick fix. In the conclusion Now instead of later
faster instead of slower
金融英语Superficially instead of thoroughly
Conclusion (para.7-8): the three rhetorical questions in Paragraph 7 prepare the reader for what the writer summarizes in the last ntence of the paragraph. The thesis (= the central idea) is stated in the last two ntences of Paragraph 8: Let?s slow down and enjoy what nature offers us and what mankind has left us and rediscover life. Slow down and rediscover life
2.Writing Skills
This is a piece of explanatory writing. Its purpo is to explain or clarify a certain point. The writer chiefly us two patterns to develop the central idea.
1)Comparison-contrast
Comparison-contrast is a way of developing an essay. It means explaining the similarities and/or differences between events, people, ideas, and so on. In this essay, the writer concentrates on differences rather than similarities. In the first two paragraphs, she contr
asts her featureless ride driving on fast roads and the pleasure of the return trip of a different route.
visitors
In Paragraph 4, she points out how American?s lifestyle has changed from “saving for a rainy day” to “relax now, pay later”, and what they did in the past when they wanted to lo weigh, and how they try to get quick results today.
2)Examples
Using an example or examples is a one of the simplest ways of explaining anything. In Paragraph 5, veral examples are given to illustrate how the “I-hate-to-wait”attitude is reflected in various aspects of American life. In the next paragraph, the writer lists facts to show how the iceberg principle applies to the way many Americans live their lives.
3)Rhetorical Questions
lrcpRhetorical questions in the essay are chiefly ud in Paragraph 3, 5 and 7. we could ask the students to think about what purpos such questions rve.
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4)Repetition
burndown(1)Of Structure: In Paragraph 4, four if-claus are ud to contrast the way Americans did
ction什么意思
things in the past (the first three) and the way they ek a quick fix today (the last one)
(2)Of Words: The writer repeats the word “fast”throughout Paragraph 5 with negative
implications.
/doc/8c4740190.html,nguage and Style
Unlike some previous essays such as “More Crime and Less Punishment” and “The Man in the Water”, this is an informal essay. We don?t find long and complicated ntences and the vocabulary mainly consists of plain words, everyday expressions and phrasal verbs. Another feature we notice is the u of number of contemporary expressions and abbreviations (= shorter forms of a word or phra) such as “faxed”, “quality time”, CD, V
CR, etc, which are facets of contemporary life connected with the quick-fix way of life in the U.S.
Detailed Discussion of the Text
1.Of cour, we couldn’t wait to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a
couple of interstates.(1)
Becau we wanted/were eager to get there as soon as we could, we took roads for the u of fast-travelling traffic.
can’t wait/can hardly wait: ud when you are emphasizing that sb. is very excited about sth.
or keen to do it, e.g.
When she received the letter of admission from Qinghua University, she couldn?t wait to tell her parents the good news.
The Night before the reunion, I could hardly wait to go back to my Alma Mater (母校) interstate (n.): an interstate highway funded by the federal government
成都教育Cultural Note: There are many different names for fast roads in the U.S. Highways usually connect cities. Sometimes they have only two lanes (车道) especially in country areas, but near cities they may have three or four lanes going in each direction. A road with many lanes is sometimes called a superhighway. Interstate highways connect cities in different states, and sometimes go through veral states. Freeways are roads within a city on which you can drive very fast without stopping, and they usually have three or more lanes going in each direction.
太晚了
