大学综合英语Unit1_fresh_start

Unit 1 Unit 1 Fresh Start

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

Watch the video clip and answer the following questions.

1. Why doesn’t the mother want her daughter to be a professional athlete? Because the shelf life of a professional athlete is short.

2. Why does Casey insist on becoming an ice-skater?Because she loves it.

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

Casey: Mom, I just want to compete at regionals. Mother: Why? What do you have to gain by this? Casey: I’m good. Mother: So, what are you saying? You wanna just blow off our whole plan for you, chuck the scholarship and become a professional athlete? Case, what was the shelf life on an ice-skater? Eight years? And then a few years touring with Has-Beens on Ice. And that’s it? That’s the end of your life? Casey: I love it, Mom. Mother: Case, there’s no shelf life on your mind. If I’d learned how to use mine a little sooner, if I’d gone to college when I was your age, maybe we wouldn’t be living like this. Casey: There’s nothing wrong with the way we live.

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

Mother: I’ve not been able to give you a quarter of the things that I wanted to. Casey: You’ve given me everything. Mother: Then you need to give me something now.

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

1. The importance of “face”―Face‖ is a sense of worth that comes from knowing one’s status and reflects concern with the congruency between one’s performance or appearance and one’s real worth.

―Face‖ stands for a very important sociological concept in Chinese culture. The concept of ―face‖ roughly translates as honour, good reputation or respect. The essence of ―face‖ lies in the drive for acceptance and approval of other people other than one’s real worth.

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

2. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde Being yourself is celebrating you, as an individual — learning to express yourself and be happy with who you are. For some people, it’s learning to love yourself. For others, it’s not hiding who you are or changing things about you to fit in.

Audiovisual Supplement

Cultural Information

3. Steps to be yourself ● define yourself ● stop worrying about how people perceive you ● be honest and open ● relax ● develop and express your individuality ● believe in who you are ● follow your own style

Structural Analysis

Rhetorical Features

This text is a piece of narrative writing, in which the author tells about her experience during the first year at university, which at first seems to be very awkward but turns out to be on the right track at last.

Structural Analysis

Rhetorical Features

In the text, three incidents are narrated by the author: the first is about her going into the wrong classroom; the second is about her falling down in the cafeteria; the last is about her witne

ssing the same embarrassing fall happening to someone admired by her.

Despite the differences between these three incidents, they actually revolve around one theme: The growth of the author, who is able to draw lessons from the mistakes she has made and finally succeeds in adjusting herself to the college life.

Structural Analysis

Rhetorical Features

Detailed descriptions of events are everywhere to be seen in this text, which is a dominant feature of narrative writing. Since the description of an event will involve a lot of movements or actions, compound sentences and compound-complex sentences have been used frequently in the text.e.g. I first began to wonder what I was doing on a college campus anyway when my parents drove off, leaving me standing pitifully in a parking lot, wanting nothing more than to find my way safely to my dorm room. (Paragraph 1)

Structural Analysis

Rhetorical Features

e.g. I settled into my chair and tried to assume the scientific pose of a biology major, bending slightly forward, tensing my arms in preparation for furious note-taking, and cursing under my breath. (Paragraph 5)

Detailed Reading

Fresh Start

Evelyn Herald1 I first began to wonder what I was doing on a college campus anyway when my parents drove off, leaving me standing pitifully in a parking lot, wanting nothing more than to find my way safely to my dorm room. The fact was that no matter how mature I liked to consider myself, I was feeling just a bit first-gradish. Adding to my distress was the distinct impression that everyone on campus was watching me. My plan was to keep my ears open and my mouth shut and hope no one would notice I was a freshman.

Detailed Reading

2 With that thought in mind, I raised my head, squared my shoulders, and set out in the direction of my dorm, glancing (and then ever so discreetly) at the campus map clutched in my hand. It took everything I had not to stare when I caught my first glimpse of a real live college football player. What confidence, what reserve, what muscles! I only hoped his attention was drawn to my air of assurance rather than to my shaking knees. I spent the afternoon seeking out each of my classrooms so that I could make a perfectly timed entrance before each lecture without having to ask dumb questions about its whereabouts.

Detailed Reading

3 The next morning I found my first class and marched in. Once I was in the room, however, another problem awaited me. Where to sit? Freshmen manuals advised sitting near the front, showing the professor in intelligent and energetic demeanor. After deliberation, I chose a seat in the first row and to the side. I was in the foreground (as advised ), but out of the professor’s direct line of vision. 4 I cracked my anthology of American literature …… 此处隐藏：4325字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……