Unit 1 Life and Value

By Fu Jinyu
What is Narrative?
 Narrative is “story”.
 “Narrative” is another word for “story”.
 The story may be realistic account with
true events and real people—known as
non-fiction ( 非小说类 ). Or it may have
made-up characters or events that are not
real—called fiction ( 小说 ).
 The type of narrative you choose to write
depends on the story that you have to tell
and the way you want to tell it.
Genres of Narrative Writings
 Adventures ( 奇 遇 、 冒 险  Humorous narratives ( 幽
故事 ) 默故事 )
 Animal stories ( 动 物 故  Multicultural narratives
事) ( 多元文化叙事 )
 Biographies ( 人物传记 )  Mysteries ( 推理小说 )
 Fantasies ( 幻想作品 )  Realistic narratives ( 写实
 Folklore ( 民间传说 ) 叙事 )
 Historical narratives ( 史  Romances ( 爱情小说 )
话、历史故事 )  Science fiction ( 科 幻 小
说)
Walk with a Wolf
 Janni Howker is
a British writer of adult
and children's fiction who
has adapted her own books
for the screen.
 Walk with a Wolf (Walker,
1997) —children's picture
book illustrated by Sarah
Fox-Davies
 Chewing the Cud (2001)
(autobiography)
 Ronald Gordon King-Smith OBE (27
March 1922 – 4 January 2011), was a
prolific English writer of children's
books, primarily using the pen
name Dick King-Smith.
 He is best known for The Sheep-
Pig (1983), or Babe the Gallant Pig in
the US. It was adapted as the
movie Babe (1995) and translations
have been published in fifteen
languages. He was awarded an
Honorary Master of Education degree by
the University of the West of England in
1999 and appointed Officer of the Order
of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010
New Year Honours.
 https://www.dickkingsmith.com/
 About
 Dick King-Smith
was a soldier, a
farmer, a family
man, a primary
school teacher and
most memorably to
his millions of fans,
a best-selling
children’s author.
The Tortoise and the Hare
 "The Tortoise and the
Hare" is one of Aesop's
Fables.
 The account of a race
between unequal partners
has attracted conflicting
interpretations. It is itself a
variant of a common folktale
theme in which ingenuity
and trickery (rather than
doggedness) are employed
to overcome a stronger
opponent.
Elements of Narratives
 Structure and Organization
 All narratives have a beginning, middle and
ending.
 The beginning must be interesting enough to
catch readers’ attention. It introduces the
subject of the narrative and sets the mood and
direction.
 The middle is called the main body. This
section contains the ideas, facts and events that
make up most of the story.
 The ending wraps up the story and satisfies the
reader by solving a problem or answering a
question.
 Elements
 Characters are animated beings with emotions,
motivations, and intention. Writers develop their
characters in four ways: through appearance, action,
dialogue and monologue.
 Setting includes the main features in terms of time,
place and situation.
 Plot is the sequence of events involving characters in
conflict situations in the beginning, middle and ending of
the story.
 Points of view is the angle from which the author
decides what the reader will see and know.
 Theme is the underlying meaning of a story.
Pre Exploration
 1 Make up your own story with
the following words
 1) apple,
 2) alligator,
 3) angry,
 4) ambulance,
 5) apologize
 Suggested Answers
 When I was enjoying my apple pie in the park, I
heard a cry for help. It looked like an angry
alligator was going to attack a naughty boy who
got too close, now frightened. The police and
ambulance were called but fortunately the
alligator swam away. The boy thanked everyone
and apologized for his misbehavior.
 The ambulance left and the parents were still
angry with the naughty boy who could have
been killed by attacking the alligator with an
apple core. The boy apologized to his parents
that he would never do it again.
 2
 1. Hare & Tortoise
 2. Tortoise challenged Hare to have a race.
 3. Hare raced off while Tortoise crawled slowly
behind.
 4. Hare stopped to took a nap while Tortoise
kept going.
 5. When Hare woke up, he ran as fast as he
could, but Tortoise passed the finishing line first.
 6. Perseverance is the key to success.
Part 1
 Activity 1
 Character(s)
 Main character(s): Kiwi
 Supporting characters: Tane-mahuta, birds
 Setting: forest
 Plot
 Beginning: Tanemahuta found the problem with the trees and asked
the birds if someone would come down and live on the ground, eat
the insects and save the trees.
 Middle: After the birds refused the god’s request to rescue the roots
of his trees, Kiwi stood out to help.
 Ending: Tane-mahuta rewarded Kiwi by making him the most
famous and most loved bird.
 Point of view: The omniscient point of view
 Theme: Sacrifices made for others will be rewarded eventually.
 Activity 3
 Task 1  Task 2
 1. F  1) It would protect his legs from the sticky
 2. T poison.
 3. F  2) It was very uncomfortable because the
pants were sticky at first and hardened
 4. F
after a while and it was covered with
poison. He felt “terrible” to put them back
on in the morning.
 3) It was hard work and he learned to deal
with it from young.
PART 2
The Story of My Life

Helen Keller
 Introduction
 Helen Keller (1880-1968)
American lecturer and writer who
overcame severe physical
disabilities, inspiring many other
people to similar
accomplishments. Deaf and blind
from the age of 19 months, Keller
learned to communicate with the
help of her teacher, Anne
Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller to
read Braille and to “listen” by
feeling a speaker’s face. Keller
graduated from Radcliff College
in 1904 and authored a number
of books about her experiences.
 Helen Keller’s Main Works
 The Story of My Life
(1902)
 The World I Live In
(1908)
 Out of the Dark (1913)
 Midstream—My Later Life
(1930)
 Let Us Have Faith (1940)
 Teacher: Anne Sullivan
Macy (1955), and
 The Open Door (1957).
 Helen Keller is more than a legend. She is
a role model for millions of people and her
life has been put on stage for times, as the
subject of a motion picture, The
Unconquered (1954), and a play, The
Miracle Worker (1959; motion picture,
1962), by American author William Gibson.
 Braille System
( 布莱叶盲文 )
method of
printing books
for use by the
blind, consisting
of a system of
raised dots
embossed in
paper by hand or
machine and
read by touch.
 Resources
 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yp411d7Zs?
from=search&seid=12262576233207677660&spm_id_fro
m=333.337.0.0 (mini bio)
 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vx411H7q7?
from=search&seid=12262576233207677660&spm_id_fro
m=333.337.0.0 (Helen speaks)
 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1UJ411K7JZ?
from=search&seid=12262576233207677660&spm_id_fro
m=333.337.0.0 (how Hellen speaks)
 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1qJ411d7Sd/?
spm_id_from=333.788.recommend_more_video.-1
(learning)
 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1UJ411K7JZ/?
spm_id_from=autoNext (learning)
 Text A task 1
 1) Helen met Miss Sullivan on the third of March,
1887.
 2) Miss Sullivan led Helen into her room, gave
Helen a doll and spelled into her hand d-o-l-l.
 3) Miss Sullivan put Helen’s hands under spout
and spelled into her hand w-a-t-e-r.
 4) An awareness of the live meaning of “w-a-t-e-
r” awakened Helen’s soul, gave it light, hope,
joy, set it free!
 Task 2
 1) She could not see nor hear anything.
 2) open
 3) She was interested in this figure play
and imitated it.
 4) It is the start of her education, the life-
changing event in her life.
 5) open
Post-Reading Exercises
 Complete the outline of this
passage.
 Introduction of the most important in her life. (Para. 1)
 (Paras. 2—3)
 The first encounter with her teacher. (Para. 4)
 (Paras. 5—9)
 Her initial success in learning: she learned the spelling of
a few words. (Para. 5)
 The difficulties encountered in
(Para. 6)
 Her new insight: Everything had a name and each name
gave birth to a new thought. (Paras. 7—8)
 before she fell
asleep that night after her trip to the well-house. (Para.
9)
 Complete the outline of this
passage.
 2. Her feelings before her teacher
arrived / her education began.
 4. How she discovered words.
 B. The difficulties encountered in learning
the meanings of words and her reaction.
 D. Her feelings and her new outlook on
life before she fell asleep that night after
her trip to the well-house.
 Answer the following questions
 1. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast
between the two lives which it connects (Para. 1)
 A. What do the two lives refer to?
 B. What does it refer to?
 C. What is the immeasurable contrast?
 2. On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb,
expectant. (Para. 2)
 3. Why did Helen consider the day an eventful day?
 … when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the
great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with
plummet and sounding-line … (Para. 3)
 A. White and dark are opposite in meaning. Then what does white darkness
mean?
 B. What does her refer to?
 4. I was like that ship before my education began … (Para. 3)
 How did Helen feel before her education begin?
 5. … and tried to make me understand that “d-o-l-l”
applied to both. (Para. 6)
 What does both refer to?
 6. Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that
“m-u-g” is mug and that “w-a-t-e-r” is water, but I
persisted in confounding the two. (Para. 6)
 What does the two refer to?
 7. … and somehow the mystery of language was
revealed to me. (Para. 7)
 What is the mystery of language?
 8. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light,
hope, joy, set it free! (Para. 7)
 What does that living word mean?
 9. … words that were to make the world blossom for
me, like “Aaron’s rod, with flowers.” (Para. 9)
 Why did Helen compare the world to “Aaron’s rod”?
 Reading Comprehension
 1) A. The two lives she lived before and
after the teacher came.
 B. The day when her teacher came to her.
 C. Before the teacher came, she lived in a
still, dark world in which there was no
strong sentiment or tenderness. From that
day on, she began to learn not only words
but also love and a new sight for life.
 2) Because the day marked a turning point
in her life. On that day, the teacher came
to reveal all things to her, including love.
 3) A. White darkness refers to a feeling of
being lost in a silent and dark world. Helen
compares herself to a ship lost in a dense
fog, and is unable to find her way.
 B. The ship.
 4) She felt tense and anxious, waiting for
something to happen with a beating heart.
 5) Both the new doll and the big rag doll.
 6) The words and the real objects.
 7) Words are the names of things, in other
words, everything has a name.
 8) It suddenly dawned on Helen that the
word “water” referred to the wonderful
cool spout flowing over her hand and the
world itself became alive.
 9) Because the love from the people these
words—father, mother, sister and teacher
—stood for, could work wonders fro
Helen, just like “Aaron’s rod”.
 Aaron’s rod
 Aaron's rod ( 亚伦的杖 ) from The Book of
Exodus ( 《 出 埃 及 记 》 ) "And you shall
write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi, for
there shall be one rod for the head of
each father's house."
 Aaron’s rod means to have great power.
 e.g. What do you want if you are given
Aaron's rod?
 Fill in the Table
 1. She stood on the porch, waiting for the
teacher to come.
 2. interested
 3. pleasant and proud
 4. The teacher tried to teach her the
connection between words and things.
 5. she felt the fragments of the broken
doll at her feet.
 6. pleasant / happy
 7. She finally discovered words in the well-
house.
 8. She tried vainly to put the broken doll
together.
 Key Sentences
 I guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs and
from the hurrying to and fro in the house that
something unusual was about to happen.
(Para. 2)
 to and fro adv. moving backward and forward,
moving about here and there back and forth
 e.g. I was disturbed by the people walking to
and fro outside the office.
 He traveled back and forth between Los Angeles
and New York.
 be about to be on the point of doing sth
 e.g. The game was about to start.
 Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me
continually for weeks and a deep languor had
succeeded this passionate struggle. (Para. 2)
 prey upon to cause sb trouble
 e.g. The problem preyed upon his mind.
 languor sleepiness, laziness
 succeed come next to or to replace sth
 e.g. Mary succeeded him as president over a
year ago.
 Q: Paraphrase the top sentence.
 * For weeks, I have been feeling uneasy and
struggling in anger and bitterness. And now I
became losing this passion and tired.
 In despair she had dropped the subject
for the time, only to renew it at the
first opportunity. (Para. 6)
 for the time for the time being,
contemporarily
 at the first opportunity as soon as
possible
 e.g. They will contact us at the first
opportunity.
 There were barriers still, it is true, but
barriers that could in time be swept
away. (Para. 7)
 in time sooner or later, eventually, at last
 e.g. You’ll learn how to do it in time.
 sweep away get rid of, completely
destroy sth or make sth disappear
 e.g. A sudden feeling of nostalgia swept
all my anger away.
 It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I
was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day
and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the
first time longed for a new day to come. (Para 9)
 at the close of at the end of
 e.g. At the close of 19th century Britain was a rich
country.
 live over recall vividly
 e.g. Parents often live over the first words or steps of
their children.
 long for want sth badly, to have a strong desire or
yearning for sb or sth, especially sb or sth unattainable
or not within immediate reach
 e.g. She longed for a bit of excitement in her life.
 He longed for the winter to be over.
 She longed to see him again.
The Necklace

Guy de Maupassant
 Guy de Maupassant
莫泊桑
 Henri René Albert Guy
de Maupassant (5
August 1850 – 6 July 1893)
was a French writer,
remembered as a master
of the short story form,
who depicted human lives
and destinies and social
forces in disillusioned and
often pessimistic terms.
 The Necklace
 "The Necklace" or "The Diamond
Necklace" (La Parure) is an 1884 short
story, known for its twist ending, which
was a hallmark of de Maupassant's style.
 The story has been adapted to film and
television several times.
 Text B Task 1
 1) Mathilde felt sad because she was poor.
 2) Mathilde’s husband got a select invitation to a ball.
 3) Mathilde was irritated about the news.
 4) Mathilde’s husband agreed to give her 400 francs to
buy a suitable gown.
 5) Matilde borrowed a diamond necklace from her friend.
 6) Mathilde was a great success at the night of the ball.
 7) She left the ball about four o’clock in the morning.
 8) Mathilde found that she lost the diamond necklace.
 9) Mathilde and Loisel bought a diamond necklace,
returned it to Madame Forestier and had a hard life since
then.
 10) Ten years later, Mathilde learned the diamond
necklace she had borrowed was not real.
 Task 2
 1) Young and good-looking as she was, she yearned for a
luxurious life, but she was married to a government clerk with
limited income. Her life was far from her expectations.
 2) She was frustrated as she did not have a proper gown to
wear to the ball.
 3) She and her husband paid 3400 francs for a diamond
necklace that she could return it to Madame Forestier. They
had to work very hard and lead a miserable life in order to
pay off the debts.
 4) The primary cause of Mathilde’s misfortune is her vanity
and desire for a luxurious life. Unsatisfied with her plain life as
a clerk’s wife, she was eager to show her beauty at the grand
ball, earning admiration from others.
 5) open