Unit Eight

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TRAVEL

• Unit Eight

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Teaching Objectives

• Understand the main idea and structure of the
  text
• Appreciate the fluid and sensual writing style
• Grasp the key language points and grammatical
  structures in the text
• Conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking
  and writing activities

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Lead-in Activities

• Group Discussion
• What are some distinctive features of an
  out-of-the-way, inaccessible place such as a
  jungle, desert, or remote mountainous area?
• Why would such a place appeal to many people
  today?
• What are the characteristics of those people who
  are attracted to such places?
• If you have both time and money, what places do
  you like to visit most? Why?

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• Words to describe the features of an
  out-of-the-way, inaccessible place
• wild, beasts, danger, plants, animals,
  natural, mysterious, adventurous, etc.

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• Words used to describe the characteristics of
  those people who are attracted to such places
• curious, brave, fond of traveling, interested
  in nature, etc

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Lead-in Activities

• Play games with words
• Classify the following words into four
• categories
• Insects Birds Reptiles
  Fish
• nightjar tarantula moth firefly
• parrot anaconda boa crocodile
• butterfly ant heron kingfisher cuckoo
• paichi piranha eel

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Word Game
Birds
Insects
reptiles
fish
tarantula moth firefly butterfly ant
nightjar parrot heron kingfisher cuckoo
anaconda boa crocodile
paichi piranha eel
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IN THE JUNGLE
Annie Dillard
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Contents

• About the author
• Background information
• Text organization
• Understanding the text
• Language Points
• Useful Expressions
• Word Study

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1. About the author

• Annie Dillard (1945 )
• A nature writer and Pulitzer Prize winner.
• Text A is taken from Teaching a
• Stone to Talk (Expeditions
  and
• Encounters) (1988).

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2. Background Information
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Amazon (river) river in northern South America,
largely in Brazil, ranked as the largest in the
world in terms of watershed area.
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( ???) river in Ecuador.
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Andes(?????) a mountain system of western South
America extending more than 8,045 km along the
Pacific coast. The mountains reach into seven
countries Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
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The text is beautifully
written. There is an abundance of sensory
impressions in the essay. We feel the
coolness of the drinks and of the night. We
smell the sweetness in the air. We observe
the wonderful sights and graceful movements
on the river, on the lake and in the jungle.
We taste the delicious village food.
Now read the text and see how the writer uses
her pen to make all these scenes reflect in
our mind.
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3. Text Organization

• Part One (Para. 1-5)
• Description of the Napo River and
  surrounding jungle scenery at night, together
  with the authors reflections on it.
• Part Two (Para. 6-8)
• Recalling of what happened to her at
  their arrival at the village and what others felt
  about the Napo River and the people there.
• Part Three (Para. 9-18)
• Detailed description of journeying in the
  jungle and her feelings about it.

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4. Understanding the text

• Part One
• 1. What happened in this part?
• When?
• Where?
• Who?
• What?
• Why?

in the middle of the night. It was Feb. in the
middle of summer.
the Napo River in the Ecuadorian jungle, on the
headwaters of the Amazon.
the author, three North Americans, and four
Ecuadorians.
like any out-of-the-way place, the Napo River the
Ecuadorian jungle seems real enough when you are
there, even central.
out of the way of what?
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4. Understanding the text

• 2. Find the sensory expressions
• Hearing
• Smelling
• Tasting
• Seeing
• Feeling

A nightjar in deep-leaved shadow called three
long notes In the thatch house across the
clearing behind us came the sound of a recorder,
playing a tune that twined over the village,
Each breath of night smelled sweet.
We were holding cool drinks
Idly watching a hand-sized tarantula seize moths

That will do.
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5. Language Points

• (Para. 3) it coiled up the sandy bank and tangled
  its foam in vines that trailed from the forest
  and roots that looped the shore.
• ??????????,??????????????????????????
• coil move in a spiral course
• e.g. black smoke coiling up into the sky.
• ????????
• tangle mix together or intertwine in a confused
• mass
• trail extend, grow loosely over a surface
• e.g. vines trailing through the garden.
• ?????????????
• loop move in a loop or arc

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4. Understanding the text

• Part Two
• Not only does the author move
  effortlessly from one sensory impression to
  another, but she also handles the changes in time
  and place in a smooth, seamless way.
• Find the linking devices used to achieve
  coherence

Time Place What happened



Loosed my hair from its braids and combed it
smooth.
Later that night
In the tent
What happened on the arrival of the village.
That afternoon
At the village
Now (back to night)
Combed my hair, and listened to a free-lance
writer.
In the tent
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5. Language Points

• (Para 7) who were alternately staring at me and
  smiling at their toes.
• alternately doing ..and doing ..
• change between the two actions
• alternate
• (1)vi if two things alternate, or if you
  alternate them, they happen one after the other
  in a repeated pattern
• alternate between ??
• e.g. She alternated between happiness and
  depression. ?????,????
• alternate with ??
• e.g. Showers alternate with sunshine ????

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• (2) adj.
• e.g. alternate winter and summer????
• alternate seasons of the year
• alternately adv.
• e.g. He is alternately rude and polite.
• ??????????

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4. Understanding the text

• Part Three
• All through these movements there is
  overall coherence. There is an echo --- It would
  be worth it, The Napo River it is not out of
  the way. It is in the way.
• QA
• What is the point of going to the Napo River in
  Ecuador according to the author?
• It is simply to see what is there. We are
  here on the planet only once, and might as well
  get a feel for the place.

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4. Understanding the text

• What did they find along the Napo River?
• Parrots in flocks, anacondas, gray
  stripes of sandbar, palm-thatch shelter.
• What message does the author want to convey to
  the reader by her description of what was going
  on in the evening in that village?
• The Napo River is not out of the way. It
  is in the way.

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5. Language Points

• (Para. 9) We are here on the planet only once,
  and might as well get a feel for the place.
• may / might/could (just) as well do.
• (1) (informal) used when you do not particularly
  want to do something but you decide you should do
  it
• e.g. I suppose we may as well get started.
• (2) used to mean that another course of action
  would have an equally good result
• e.g. Since the taxi is so slow, we might just
  as well go by bus.

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5. Language Points

• (Para.17) The sun would ring down, pulling
  darkness after it like a curtain?
• ?????,??????????
• ring down the curtain
• to end a performance, event, or action
• ring up the curtain
• to begin a performance, event, or action

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6. Useful Expressions

• ??(?)
• ???
• ????
• ????????

be dying for / to do
braid ones hair
with open delight
to see the most spectacular anything
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• ????..
• ??????
• ????
• ??,????

to get a feel for ..
at the eye level
as far as the eye can see
catch the / ones heart
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7. Word Study

• spatter
• illumine
• dissolve
• disembark
• smear
• glide

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• spatter vt, vi
• to scatter (a liquid) in drops or small
  splashes.??
• (syn. splatter )
• spatter somebody/something with something
• e.g. The walls were spattered with blood.
• spatter something on/over etc something
• e.g. Dont spatter the paint over your
  sweatshirt.
• spatter on/across/over etc
• e.g. The first drops of rain spattered on the
  
• stones.
• Rain spatters on the pavement.
• ?????????

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• illumine (also illuminate)
• (1) to make a light shine on something, or to
  fill a place with light
• e.g. A single candle illumined his face.
• The river was illumined by the setting
  sun. ?????????
• (2) (formal) to make something much clearer and
  easier to understand
• e.g. His lecture illuminated and explained
  many scientific phenomena.

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• dissolve vt / vi
• 1?BECOME PART OF LIQUID?
• If a solid dissolves, or if you dissolve it,
  it mixes with a liquid and becomes part of it
• dissolve in
• e.g. Sugar dissolves in water.
• dissolve something in something
• e.g. Dissolve the tablet in water.
• 2?END?
• to formally end a parliament, business
  arrangement, marriage etc
• e.g. The monarch had the power to dissolve
• parliament.

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• 3?EMOTION?
• dissolve into/in laughter/tears etc
• to start laughing or crying
• e.g. I dissolved into helpless laughter.
• ?????????
• 4 ?BECOME WEAKER?
• to gradually become smaller or weaker before
  disappearing, or to make something do this
• e.g. After four days her hope of finding her
• son began to dissolve.
• ???,?????????????

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• disembark
• to go ashore from a ship
• e.g. The passengers disembarked at
• Southampton.
• embark vi /vt (opposite disembark)
• to go onto a ship or a plane, or to put or
  take something onto a ship or plane
• e.g. The plane has stopped to embark
• passengers.
• ???????????
• We embarked at Liverpool for New York.
• ?????????????

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• smear
• (1) to spread a liquid or soft substance over a
  surface, especially in a careless or untidy way
  ??
• smear something with something
• e.g. His face was smeared with mud.
• The child's face was smeared with
  chocolate.
• ?????????????????
• smear something on/over etc something
• e.g. Elaine smeared sun tan lotion on her
• shoulders.
• ?????????

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• glide
• (1) to move smoothly and quietly, as if without
  effort
• glide across/over/down etc
• e.g. The couples were gliding over the dance
  floor.
• The boat glided over the river.
• The years glided past.
• ??????????
• (2) if a bird glides, it flies without moving
  its wings if a plane glides, it flies without
  using an engine ??

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End