现代大学英语精读4lesson2_text_appreciation

Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

Part Three

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ENTER

Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

Text AppreciationI. Text Analysis1. Setting2. Characters 3. Structure 4. Further Discussion

II. Writing DictionHumor

III. Sentence ParaphraseW B T

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

I.

Text AnalysisSettingThis story is set in a boarding house where life, especially evening life, is notoriously dull for the odd collection of people who live there. But one of the guests manages to think of something which does stir up quite a bit of interest.

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The end of Setting.

Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

I.

Text AnalysisCharactersPlease find supporting details of the character sketches in the text.

Mrs. Mayton

landlady

try to keep everyone talking

Mr. Monty Smith Miss Wicks

as polite as pale

keep any ball rolling

oldest

knitting all the time

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisCharactersyoung lovelyPlease find supporting details of the character sketches in the text.

Bella

not particularly smart

Mr. Calthrop

middle-aged

walk in sleep, doze all the time have a chilling effect possess a brainThe end of Characters.

Mr. Penbury

eccentric intelligentT

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisStructurean idle discussion about where Mr. Wainwright has gone and serving to introduce the characters who live in the boarding-house.

Part I (Paras. 1—11)

Part II (Paras. 12—33) Mr. Penbury announces that Mr. Wainwright is dead. Part III (Paras. 34—88) Mr. Penbury direct a general rehearsal of their alibis while waiting for the police. Part IV (Paras. 89—91) a suspense endingW B T

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The end of Structure.

Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisHow is the story started?Read the first part of the text for details.

The story starts with a question from the landlady Mrs. Mayton. This as an appropriate and direct beginning. The question immediately arouses the attention of the boarders gathered in the drawing room. This first bit of conversation is actually the beginning of an idle conversation conducted by bored people to kill time. But this part gives us a brief introduction of all the boarders and prepares us for an unexpected turn of events.W B T

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisWhy did Mrs. Mayton ask this question?Read the first part of the text for reference.

It didn’t matter to her in the least where Mr. Wainwright had gone. What she is really interested in is the money paid by the boarders. And sometimes, as a landlady, she felt obliged to whip up a little interest to start an idle conversation.

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisWhat did Mr. Penbury say that got everybody’s attention? What was his purpose by doing this?Read the se

cond part of the text for reference.

He announced that Mr. Wainwright is dead, which shocked everyone except Miss Wicks. He might feel too bored at such an evening hour and tried to stir up some interest to kill time, so he can be described as the director of this little melodrama.

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisWhat was Mr. Penbury’s suggestion? What effect did he want to cultivate?Read the second part of the text for reference.

He told them he had phoned the police and propose that they consider their alibis while waiting for the police to come. By directing a general rehearsal of their alibis, he tried to arouse everybody’s attention and created an atmosphere of tension and horror, which might be better than boredom.

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisWhat did everyone respond to Mr. Penbury? How did they try to offer their alibis?Read the third part of the text for details.

Most of them tried hard to clear up a little ground by considering their alibis, though they are nervous, excited, anxious, impatient, angry, … Being the only person to know the inside story, Miss Wicks responded to Mr. Penbury’s conspiracy amusedly by making up a vivid plot of killing “Mr. Annoyance”.

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

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Text AnalysisRead the last three paragraphs for reference.

What was the end of the story? Did it surprise you?The story ends when they hear footsteps entering and hear Mr. Wainwright’s cough. It really has all the basic qualities of a little mystery story and keeps us readers guessing who has killed Mr. Wainwright until we come to this surprise ending. We suddenly realize that the almost everyone including we readers have been fooled.W B T

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The end of Text Analysis.

Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

II.

Writing DictionHumor

The author skillfully mixed humorous elements in his story, which help to make the characterization and the plot more vivid and interesting. Read the following examples from the text and try to analyze the humorous effects.

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Lesson 2—Waiting for the Police

II.

Writing DictionHumor

He was as polite as he was pale. (be polite because of being pal …… 此处隐藏：4333字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……