Unit 11 Text II A Debt to Dickens Pearl S. Buck

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Unit 11 Text II A Debt to DickensPearl S. Buck

• Learning Objectives

• Learn to identify any shift in tense in
  narration and see the implication in so doing.
• Learn to use descriptive words accurately.

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Organization and development of the text

• Section 1 (para. 1) Stating the writing purpose
  to express a feeling of warm gratitude to Charles
  Dickens
• Section 2 (para. 2-3) Explaining factors that
  contributed to her feeling of loneliness and
  alienation
• Para. 2 living environment of the seven-year-old
  child
• Para. 3 her feeling of being foreign, and her
  longing to know more about her own folk

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Organization and development of the text

• Section 3 (para. 4-7) Explaining how she had
  benefited from reading Dickens
• Para. 4 an extraordinary accident the
  discovery of Dickens works and thus the
  discovery of her playmates
• Para. 5 the discovery meant to that small,
  lonely child she entered into her own heritage
  by reading Dickens
• Para. 6-7 The reading program, which lasted for
  about ten years, has taught her a lot.

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Comprehension Questions

• In what way is her life experience unusual?
• from a missionarys family, brought up in China
• How would you describe Bucks childhood?
  (paragraph 2-3)
• Intensely solitary (alien from her own culture,
  not accepted by the Chinese culture either)
• solitary, isolated, lonely, alien, foreign
• wonder about her own folk, how they live, play
  etc.
• (pay attention to the literary descriptions about
  the childhood)

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Comprehension Questions

• How did Buck come across Dickens works?
• One August afternoon, (paragraph 4, detailed,
  vivid descriptions)
• Why did Dickens novels appeal so much to Buck?
• In reading Dickens, she found her way into her
  heritage. (She was able to identify herself with
  her culture, to regain her identity. ????
• Characters depicted in the novels

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Comprehension Questions

• Why is Buck so grateful to Dickens, regarding
  herself owing to Dickens a great debt?
• She has been reading Dickens for about 10 years
  (para 6)
• He opened my eyes to people, taught me to love
  all sorts of people
• give me the zest for life, that immense joy in
  life and in people.
• ( not only satisfy her longer for her own
  culture, but also taught her Christian faith and
  shaped her morals.)

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Language Points

• ache/pain/pang a bodily sensation that causes
  acute discomfort or suffering
• Pain may range in its application from a
  sensation that makes one uneasily aware of some
  bodily disturbance or injury to a sensation
  resulting from severe injuries or disease and of
  agonizing intensity from a sensation that is
  purely local to one that affects the entire body.
• e.g. a pain in the finger
• chest pains
• his body was wracked with pain.
• An ache is a steady, dull, and often
  generalized pain that is frequently associated
  with some underlying disorder.
• e.g. the ache of an abscessed tooth
• backache that accompanies kidney disease

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• A pang is a sharp, sudden, and usually transitory
  pain of great intensity, especially one that
  recurs in spasms.
• e.g. pangs have taken hold upon me
• attacking them fleas was a waste of time, and
  unless a particularly savage pang forced you into
  action, you just sat and let yourself be
  devoured.
• ache (v.) feel a continuous, but not very
  sharp pain there
• e.g. The noise of the traffic made my head ache.
• an aching back
• ache to do sth/for sth want to do or have
  something very much
• e.g. I was aching to tell him the good news.

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• pain
• a pain in the finger
• chest pains
• His body was wracked with pain.
• ache
• the ache of an abscessed tooth
• backache that accompanies kidney disease

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• ache (v.)
• The noise of the traffic made my head ache.
• an aching back
• ache to do sth/for sth
• I was aching to tell him the good news.

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• pang
• Pangs have taken hold upon me.
• Attacking them fleas was a waste of time, and
  unless a particularly savage pang forced you into
  action, you just sat and let yourself be devoured.

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• obligation
• You can look at the books without any obligation
  to buy.
• I have certain obligations to my family.
• to meet/fulfil an obligation
• be under an obligation to place sb under an
  obligation e.g.
• Signing a contract places you under a long-term
  obligation.

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• perch
• A house perched on a cliff above the town.
• treacherous (ground or situations) particularly
  dangerous because you cannot see the dangers,
  e.g.
• There are treacherous currents in the bay

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• Heritage is the most widely applicable of these
  words, for it may apply to anything (as a
  tradition, a right, a trade, or the effect of a
  cause) that is passed on not only to ones heir
  or heirs but to the generation or generations
  that succeed .e.g.
• our neglect of the magnificent spiritual heritage
  which we possess in our own history and
  literature
• but the war had left its heritage of povertyof
  disease, of misery, of discontent

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• Inheritance applies to what passes from parent to
  children, whether it be money, property, or
  traits of character. e.g.
• my fathers blessing, and this little coin is my
  inheritance
• Inheritance, but not heritage, may also apply to
  the fact of inheriting or to the means by which
  something passes into ones possession. e.g.
• come into possession of a property by
  inheritance
• the power of regulating the devotion of
  property by inheritance or will upon the death of
  the owner

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• dip into (a)
• to read short parts of a book, magazine etc,
  but not the whole thing (b) to use some of an
  amount of money that you have.
• Medical bills forced her to dip into her savings.
• Parents are being asked to dip into their pockets
  for new school books. (i.e. to pay for something
  with your own money)

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• unctuous (fml.) too friendly and praising people
  too much in a way that seems very insincere, e.g.
  
• There is something smug and unctuous about him.

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• gruff (a) unfriendly or annoyed, especially in
  the way you speak e.g.
• a gruff reply
• A gruff voice sounds low and rough as if the
  speaker does not want to talk

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• Diluted, undiluted
• The effect of his speech was diluted by the
  speakers nervousness.
• undiluted (literary) an undiluted feeling is
  very strong and not mixed with any other
  feelings e.g.
• undiluted joy.