Unit 9 The Damned Human Race
Mark Twain
I Background Information
Author
Mark Twain (1835-1901):
II Questions to the text暑假补习班
1. Which of the following words can best describe this essay? Serious and matter-of-fact? Scientifically detached and objective? Hilariously humorous? Bitterly satirical?
2. What is the main idea of this essay? What is the Darwinian theory? How does the author come to doubt this? Is that the result of scientific experiment?
3. Is Mark Twain rious when he says that he has done many months of painstaking and fatiguing work in the London Zoological Garden? What effect do you think he hopes to achieve with this mock riousness?
4. How does the author contrast human beings with other animals?
5. Plea list the specific human traits and dispositions that he condemns in this essay.
6. Why does he say that man is the cruel animal? What examples does he give to illustrate the point? What arguments does the author give to support his views?
7. Do you think we should take Mark Twain‟s views riously? Do you agree with him? Are we really that bad? Isn‟t there some saving grace in the human race?
8. What devices does the author u to make the article interesting?
III Detailed explanation to the text
Questions to paras. 1~2
1) Why does the author mimicking a scientific experiment?
2) What is the author‟s rearch topic/purpo?
3) What is the hypothesis?
4) What theory does he check?
5) What is his rearch method?
6) Where does the rearch take place?
1. I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the “lower animals”, and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. (→1)
Paraphra:
traits and dispositions:
humiliating:
2. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals and to name it the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals. (→1)
Paraphra:
to oblige sb to do sth:
to renounce:
allegiance:.
3. In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guesd or speculated or conjectured, but have ud what is commonly called the scientific method. (→1) Paraphra:
to proceed toward a conclusion:
to guess or speculate or conjecture:
what is commonly called the scientific method:
4. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that prented itlf to the crucial test of actual experiment. (→2)
Paraphra:
to subject sth/sb to sth:
Postulate:
that prented itlf:.
5. The experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many moths of painstaking and fatiguing work. (→2)
the London Zoological Gardens (i. e. the London Zoo):
to cover:
Questions to Para. 3
1) In this part, the author compares _______ with ______.
2) What gives him the idea to make such a comparison?
3) How does he make the comparison?
4) What conclusion does he come to?
6. Some of my experiments were quite curious. In the cour of my reading, I had come across a ca where, many years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the ent
ertainment of an English earl---that, and to provide some fresh meat for his table. (→3)
词根记忆法
the Great Plains:
earl:
duke; marquis；earl (count)；viscount；baron
for his table:
7. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl---if any---I caud ven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. (→3)
if any:
to cau ven young calves to be turned into…:
calf:
Plea find more examples like “calf”
8. The facts stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t. (→3)
to stand:
9. It also emed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition. (→3)
Paraphra:
to be descended from sb:
Questions to Para. 4
1) In this part, the author compares human race with ______.
2) What gives him the idea to make such a comparison?
3) How does he make the comparison?
4) What conclusion does he come to?
10. I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever u have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor savings in order to partially appea that appetite. (→4)
Paraphra:
rabid:
to have not scrupled to do sth:
cheat sb out of sth:
the ignorant and helpless:退役士兵无息贷款
to appea:
11. The experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals; he is avaricious and mirly, they are not. (→4)
avaricious:
立木为信的故事
Questions to Para. 5
1) In this part, the author compares human race with ______.
2) What conclusion does he come to?
12. … among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals. (→5)
Paraphra:
to harbor:
资金使用计划to brood over:
to take revenge:
Questions to Para. 6
1) In this part, the author compares human race with ______.
2) What the difference between them in keeping harems? Why roosters are innocent while man is not?
3) Conclusion?
13. Roosters keep harems, but it is by connt of their concubines; … Men keep harems, but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious laws which the other x were allowed no hand in making. (→6)
connt:
brute force:
to allow sb no hand in doing sth:
Questions to Para. 7
1) In this part, the author compares human race with ______.
2) What‟re the similarity and difference between cats and man?
3) Why cats can be excud but man cannot?
4) What conclusion does he come to?
14. Cats are loo in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cat’s looness with him but ha s left the unconsciousness behind—the saving grace which excus the cat. (→7)
Paraphra:
to be loo in morals:
the saving grace:
Questions to Para. 8
1) What point does the author want to make in this paragraph?
2) According to the author, what‟s wrong for man being the only animal that blushes?
15. Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity—the are strictly confined to man; he invented them. (→8)
the are strictly confined to man; he invented them:
16. Man, with his soiled mind, covers himlf. (→8)
错误619Paraphra:
soiled:
17. … so alive are he and his mates to indecent suggestion. (→8)
Paraphra:
to be alive to:
indecent suggestion:
18. Man is “The Animal that Laughs.”But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass. (→8)
Paraphra:
the laughing jackass:
19. No---Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is the only one that does it --- or has occasion to. (→8) Paraphra:
to have occasion to do sth:
According to Mark Twain, why only man needs to blush?
Questions to Para. 9小草的特点
沥青道路施工1) In this part, the author compares human race with ______. 2) What gives him the idea to make such a comparison? 3) How does he make the comparison?
4) What conclusion does he come to?
Match the cruelty
5) Pay attention to the ten. What does prent ten suggest?
20. At the head of this article we e how “three monks were burnt to death” a few days ago, and a prior “put to death with atrocious cruelty”. (→9)
Note: As this is a slightly abridged version, the part about the three monks is not to be found in the prent text.
prior: (n.)
(Note: Do not mix up this word with the adjective “prior ” which means “before ”.) to be put to death:
21. … the prior was subjected to unprintable mutilations. (→9) to be subjected to:
Compare:
to project (pro-: ); to inject (in-: ); to reject (re-: ); to eject (e-: ); to
