Unit 2 When Cultures Meet
walkman是什么意思I.Unit overview
According to Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan, we are now living in a global village, indicating the entire world is becoming more and more interconnected. The 21st century has witnesd more frequent and active communication and interaction between different nations. Questions like how to better adapt to the intercultural communication and interaction are surfacing and becoming increasingly urgent at prent. This unit tends to discuss tho questions and provide certain answers.
Text A in this unit is an excerpt taken from Maxine Hong Kingston’s masterpiece, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, which tells us how eager Brave Orchid was as an immigrant in the U.S. to meet her younger sister after 30 years’ paration, while how indifferent her children brought up in America were indifferent to this meeting. Text B, written by the Asian American writer Amy Tan, reveals her understanding of the English ud by her immigrant mother and explores how the languages her mother has ud also influence her own identity and writing career. The two texts together demonstrate that when different cultures meet, conflicts and misunderstanding will be definitely emerging but mutual understanding and agreement are also possible. Communication among
cultures is never a one-way street, and nobody can escape from this intercultural involvement in the age of globalization, be it an active or a passive one.
II.Teaching plan
按照《指南》规定，综合英语总学时是64课时，每周4课时，每单元上8课时。有的学校每周6课时，每单元12课时。下表按8课时安排，12课时就按比例调整。
III.E xploring the topic
◆Teaching Tips
Norwegian sociologist Sverre Lysgaard hypothesized in 1955 that the inverted bell-curve is a common expat experience. His U-curve is a widely ud model for cultural adapting and adjustment. Though not many students have the experiences of travelling abroad, all the students are encouraged to think about their experiences when travelling to a new place, for example travelling from home to the city where their university is located.
◆Key to Exercis
1
2
Open-ended.
IV.T ext A
◆Background Information
1.Maxine Hong Kingston established her reputation as a writer with the publication of The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts in 1976, which has been widely taught and anthologized. This book is also possibly one of the most controversial works in Chine American literature. The word “memoir” ud in the title indicates the reader, especially the Western reader, a n of cultural “authenticity” about China,which has been verely criticized by other writers and critics like Frank Chin and Jeffery Paul Chan by accusing the book of providing the fake “authenticity” and negative Chine images.
2.Both Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan are Chine American writers. Generally speaking, Chine American writers refer to the Chine descendants who were born in the U.S. and write in English. Here are some well-known Chine American writers and their master pieces besides Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan.
Sui Sin Far（水仙花）: Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings (1912)
Jade Snow Wong（黄玉雪）: Fifth Chine Daughter (1945)
Chin Yang Lee（黎锦扬）: The Flower Drum Song (1957)
面子英文
payattentiontoLouis Chu（雷霆超）: Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961)普通高中课程标准实验教科书
Frank Chin（赵健秀）: Donald Duk (1991), Gunga Din Highway (1994)
Shawn Wong（徐忠雄）: Homeba (1979), American Knees (1995)
David Henry Hwang（黄哲伦）: M. Butterfly (1988), Chinglish (2012)
Gish Jen（任璧莲）: Typical American (1991), Mona in the Promid Land (1996), The Love Wife (2004), World and Town (2010)
Fae Myenne Ng (伍慧明): Bone (1993), Steer Toward Rock (2008)
Celeste Ng (伍绮诗): Everything I Never Told You (2014), Little Fires Everywhere (2017)
◆Teaching Tips
Syntactically, the excerpt in the textbook is not difficult to understand, but the teacher is suggested to guide the students to understand the cultural differences and generational differences in this excerpt which will be discusd in detail in the first part of Analytical Reading. For example, the differences between Brave Orchid, the immigrant mother and her American born children, the differences between Brave Orchid’s children and her Chine niece, the differences between Brave Orchid and her niece, etc. The students are encouraged to read in detail to figure out tho differences and think about the possible reasons which will also be further discusd in the Critical Thinking and Guided Writing.
The students are also encouraged to read more about the whole novel either in summary or in full, which will be of great help to better understand the cultural differences and the writing task of this unit.
◆Structure
I.Brave Orchid’s eager and anxious waiting for her sister Moon Orchid’s
coming at the airport lobby. (Paras. 1-3)
II.Brave Orchid’s impatience and anxiety in waiting for her sister at the arrival gate. (Paras. 4-16)
III.Brave Orchid finally met her sister Moon Orchid. (Paras. 17-28)
IV.The two si sters headed for Brave Orchid’s American home.(Paras. 29-31)
◆Detailed Study of the Text
1.The plane had to be light, so no matter how tired she felt, she dared not rest her spirit on a wing but continuously and gently pushed up on the plane’s belly. She had already been waiting at the airport for nine hours. She was wakeful. (Para. 1)职介是什么意思
The plane needed to be light, so even though Brave Orchid was very tired, she kept using her willpower to push the plane up. She was waiting at the airport for nine hours and she was not sleepy at all.
The two ntences show Brave Orchid’s anxiety to meet her sister.
2.Brave Orchid had made two of her own children come too becau they could drive, but they had been lured away by the magazine racks and the gift shops and coffee shops. (Para. 2)
Brave Orchid asked two of her American children to come with her becau they could drive, but her
American children had been tempted by the magazine racks and the gift shops and coffee shops at the airport, refusing to sit and wait with her.
screwup
lure: to persuade someone to do something, especially something wrong or dangerous, by making it em attractive or exciting
lure sb./sth. away: to attract or entice someone or something away (from someone, something, or some action)
< Computer games are luring youngsters away from their lessons.
3.They hurried, folding up their mother’s encampment. She was glad her children were not uless. They must have known what this trip to San Francisco was about then. (Para. 4)
They came quickly and folded up their mother’s blanket. Brave Orchid was glad that her children were helpful and knew what this trip to San Francisco meant to their mother.
4.Brave Orchid saw an old, old woman jerk her head up, her little eyes blinking confudly, a woman who nerves leapt toward the sound anytime she heard “Mama!” Then she relaxed to her own business again. (Para. 17)
Brave Orchid saw a very old woman rai her head up suddenly, her small eyes blinking in confusion, who felt nervous whenever she heard the sound “Mama!” and felt relaxed again after the sound disappeared.
free 中国5.She was a tiny, tiny lady, very thin, with little fluttering hands, and her hair was in a gray knot. (Para. 17)
She was a very small lady, very thin, with small hands moving lightly and quickly, and her hair was tied in a gray knot.
flutter:
1)to move lightly and quickly; to make something move in this way
< Tom fluttered his hands wildly.
2)(of a bird or an inct) to fly somewhere moving the wings quickly and lightly
< The butterfly fluttered from one ro to another.
3)(of your heart, etc. ) to beat very quickly and not regularly
< I could feel a fluttering pul.
6.Brave Orchid momentarily saw, like a larger, younger outline around this old woman, the sister she had been waiting for. The familiar dim halo faded, leaving the woman so old, so gray. (Para. 17)
For a very short time, Brave Orchid recalled the different body shapes of her youthful
sister, but found the sister she was waiting for to be an old woman she felt unfamiliar with.
7.Instead Moon Orchid hovered over the unwrapping, surprid at each reappearance as if she were opening prents after a birthday party. (Para. 17)
Instead Moon Orchid waited around her opened luggage. She was surprid at everything in her luggage as if she were opening prents after a birthday party.
8.And at last Moon Orchid looked at her—two old women with faces like mirrors. (Para. 19)
Finally Moon Orchid looked at her sister—the two old women looked like each other so much, as if they were looking at their own reflection in the mirror.
9.Moon Orchid, who never understood the gravity of things, started smiling and laughing, pointing at Brave Orchid. (Para. 20)
Moon Orchid, who never understood how important and rious certain things and moments were, began smiling and laughing, pointing at Brave Orchid.
Here is a eming blame but also a doting comment from Brave Orchid on her sister’s personality.
gravity: the extreme and worrying riousness of a situation
< I could not hide from her the gravity of the situation.
10.Finally Moon Orchid gathered up her stuff, strings hanging and papers loo, and met her sister at the door, where they shook hands, oblivious to blocking the way. (Para. 20)
Finally Moon Orchid picked up her luggage, not bothering to repack it neatly, and met her sister at the door, where they shook hands without noticing that they were blocking the way.
oblivious to/of sth.: not knowing about or not noticing something that is happening around you
< She drove off, oblivious of the fences she had damaged.
Translation of Text A
见面dual life
汤亭亭
1.在勇兰68岁左右时，她请了一天假，到旧金山国际机场去等候那架要把她
folk妹妹带到美国来的飞机。她和月兰已经有三十年没有见过面了。在月兰的飞机从香港起飞前半小时，勇兰就起床开始在家等了。勇兰要把她的意志力注入到让飞机飞上天的力量中去。由于精神过度集中，她头痛欲裂。那架飞机一定要很轻，所以不管她感到多么疲倦，她都不敢在机翼上放松一下精神，而是持续不断地、轻轻地推动机腹。她在机场已经等了9个小时，还未曾休息过。
经济学家杂志2.月兰唯一的女儿坐在勇兰身旁，陪着她的姨妈一起等待。勇兰也叫来了自己
的两个孩子，因为他们会开车，但此时他们已经被杂志架、礼品店和咖啡店吸引走了。她的美国孩子无法久坐。他们不喜欢坐着，喜欢四处闲逛。她希
