to write about my private affairs. Without seeking it—through the success of my books—all the profits of them I have turned 7) which over to Hadley because of all this there is a great deal of talks. 8) talk I pay no attention to any of it and either must you. I have had 9) neither come back to me stories people have told about me of every fantastic and scandalous sort—all without foundations. These 10) foundation sorts of stories spring up about all writers—ball players—popular evangelists or any pubic performers.
Rhetoric
Exercises
1．Figures of Speech
1) In the following sentence, the phrase ―to fall into the money making trap‖ is a metaphor.
It is much more important for me to write in tranquillity, trying to write as well as I can, than to fall into the money making trap.
2) In the following sentence the comparison of the money making trap to a corn-husking
machine by the word ―like‖ is a simile instead of an ordinary comparison because the two things are basically different. …which handles American writers like the corn-husking machine handled my noted relative‘s thumb.
3) In the following sentence, the simile ―a little shot of loyalty as anaesthetic‖ means ―a little bit
of loyalty as a means to keep you from believing my alleged disreputability too readily‖.
On the other hand with a little shot of loyalty as anaesthetic you may be able to get through all my obvious disreputability.
4) The word ―monastic‖ in the following sentence compares the author to a monk who never
seeks worldly pleasures.
I have been leading a very monastic life and trying to write as well as I am able.
5) In the following sentence ―pandering‖ compares the author to a panderer/ pimp who provides a prostitute to a man seeking sexual pleasures.
You really are deceiving yourself if you allow any Fanny Butchers to tell you that I am pandering to sensationalism etc. etc.
6) In the following sentence, ―artery‖ and ―heart‖ are used metaphorically, ―artery‖ means main route or channel, and ―heart‖ refers to central part. The geographic core, in Twain‘s early years was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation‘s heart. 2．Passive Rhetoric
1) Find the topic sentence in the following passage and use it as a standard to identify the
irrelevant details.
It is surprising, in this era of laconic correspondents, that such a hoarder of words as Ernest Hemingway should have been so garrulous in his letters. After a day that produced perhaps 500 words, he might turn out a 3,000-word letter the same evening. In these evenings, besides writing letters, he also drank beer. And where in his work he labored to be as tight-lipped as possible, to intimate rather than describe emotion, in his correspondence he was profligate, expansive,
anecdotal. He often bought a lot of paper and very pretty stamps for his letters.
Topic sentence:
It is surprising, in this era of laconic correspondents, that such a hoarder of words as Ernest Hemingway should have been so garrulous in his letters.
Irrelevant details:
a. In these evenings, besides writing letters, he also drank beer.
b. He often bought a lot of paper and very pretty stamps for his letters.
2) Identify the devices that the author uses to achieve cohesion in the following passage.
Legendary for his public vanity, he was vulnerable in his letters; it was as if writing to friends provided an occasion to suspend his natural vigilance. Not that he didn‘t indulge in tiresome bluster or a self-congratulatory pose: Hemingway the outdoorsman, the lover, the intrepid adventurer declares himself with a disconcertingly hollow zeal. But apart from these ostentatious displays of manliness, the predominant voice is unguarded, self-revealing.
Pronouns: his, he, these
Reiteration: Hemingway, the outdoorsman, the lover, the intrepid adventurer Conjunction: not that, but
UNIT 3
Part 1 Text-processing
Teacher-aided Work
Lead-in
Listen to the recorder and take notes. Then fill in each gap in the following passage with ONE word according to what you have heard. Finish your work within ten minutes.
Tape script:
Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, the ―Altercation‖ web logger for MSNBC.com, and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the ―Think Again‖ column. Alterman is the author of many national bestsellers and a frequent lecturer and contributor to virtually every significant national publication in the US and many in Europe. In recent years, he has also been a columnist for mass media in London.
This article of Alterman‘s that we are going to study is about Hurricane Katrina.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans leaving the nation shocked at the destruction it caused.
About 1.3 million people live in New Orleans and its suburbs, and many began evacuating before sunrise on August 28, Sunday. Nearly 1 million people had fled the city and its surrounding parishes by Sunday night. Between 20,000 and 25,000 others who remained in the city lined up to take shelter in the Louisiana Superdome.
This selection of Eric Alterman was posted on The Nation, September 26, 2005 issue. It raises questions about racism, justice, and about how decisions are made and what people do in the face of tragedy. The Katrina disaster didn‘t just blow away the houses, it also blew the top off the racism in America. When one looks at who was damaged, dispersed, who lost their homes, died, by and large one notices that they are African Americans. One notices that the ninth ward had the least support in getting fixed. It really just showed the disparity along the lines of race in the US. So the Katrina disaster really helps people understand racism, which is regarded by many in the US as something of the past, or something to do with the Klan and not institutionalized power.
Passage for gap-filling:
Eric Alterman, Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, has written many national 1) bestsellers and has contributed to almost every major national publication in the US and many in Europe.
This article by him is about Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Lots of the city‘s 2) residents / inhabitants began leaving the city before daybreak on August 28, Sunday. Nearly 1 million people had fled the city and the areas around it by Sunday night. 20,000 to 25,000 others, mostly 3) blacks, who could not get away took shelter in the Louisiana Superdome.
This essay raises questions about racism, justice, and about how matters are 4) decided and what people do when tragedy strikes. The Katrina disaster really increases people‘s understanding of racism, which is thought of by many in the US as something that has 5) disappeared.
In-depth Comprehension 11. Questions
1) Para 1: What was the tone set by the likes of Jason DeParle?
It was a tone of sympathy with the poor blacks and indignation at the officials. While poverty and neglect left the poor black people trapped in the flood, trembling in hunger, disease and fear, the officials, quite secure from the disaster themselves, were quite indifferent to the lot of the poor black people.
2) Para 1: Why didn‘t Wil Haygood simply say ―their money‖ instead of ―their nickels and
dimes and dollar bills‖?
Nickels and dimes and dollar bills are all small cash. He said so to emphasize the poverty of these people.
3) Para 2: Why does the author mention the Lower Ninth Ward?
The author mentions it as a typical example to show that New Orleans was a far poorer, blacker and more dangerous city than most Americans imagined
4) Para 2: What did Brian Wolshon say about the city‘s evacuation plan? What does it reveal?
Brian Wolshon told the Times that the city‘s evacuation plan paid little attention to its ―low-mobility‖ population—the old, the sick and the poor with no cars or other way to get out of town. It reveals that the underbelly of society was simply ignored by the government.
5) Para 3: Why does the author call the cable news journalists ―whores‖? What does the ―fever‖
refer to? Why does the author use the word ―unapologetically‖?
―Whores‖, used figuratively here, means ―people who engage in faithless, unworthy or idolatrous practices‖. The author calls the cable news journalists ―whores‖ to show that they usually cater for the white, the wealthy, and the powerful for the sake of benefits. ―Fever‖, also used figuratively, refers to the widespread indignation and fury burning in the media. The author uses the word ―unapologetically‖ to imply that these people should have apologized for their past performance, but actually they now were acting as if they had been justice itself. 6) Para 4: Who is Condoleezza Rice? Why did MSNBC choose to interview her?
Condoleezza Rice is the Secretary of State of America. MSNBC chose to interview her because of both her political position and her black heritage.
7) Para 4: What was Rice doing the day before? What does it reveal?
As the text tells us, she was shopping for shoes. Like President Bush, the Secretary of State had been on vacation during the Hurricane Katrina crisis, with Rice enjoying her downtime in New York. The day before, Rice went shopping at Ferragamo on Fifth Ave. While thousands of her people were dying or became homeless, she was still in the mood for shopping, which reveals her indifference to her people‘s suffering.
8) Para 4: What does the author think of Rice‘s response? What does it suggest?
The author thinks Rice‘s response was idiotic and shamed her heritage as well as her PhD. It suggests that even a black, when he or she has attained a high status and become wealthy, may become blind to widespread race and class prejudices in the US
9) Para 4: The word ―out-to-lunch‖ may mean absent-minded, daydreaming or stupid, why does
Note 24 choose the first meaning?
That depends on how people will typically act towards other matters when shopping. When she faced the camera, her attention must have been distracted by the shoes and answered the questions raised by the journalists in an absent-minded way.
10) Para 5: Why do you think the author says that CNN‘s aggressive and impassioned reporting
was the biggest surprise?
The author says so because, as is shown in Para 3, the CNN journalists are what he calls
―whores‖, who usually cater for the upper classes, but this time they spoke up for the lower classes in an aggressive and impassioned way.
11) Para 5: What does the author mean by ―. . . Michael Brown, who pretends to direct FEMA?‖
And why was he ―hapless?‖
Michael Brown is the director of FEMA, but he didn‘t do what he should have done in this time of crisis. He is said to be ―hapless‖ because Paula Zahn tormented (grilled) him for blaming the victims.
12) Para 6: Is ―the media‘s Bush propaganda wing‖ part of Bush‘s government? If not, what is it?
The structure of the phrase itself shows that ―Bush propaganda wing‖ is part of the media, and not part of Bush‘s government. This wing or faction of the media, doing propaganda in favor of Bush, is opposed to the other wing, which assumes a critical attitude towards Bush. 13) Para 6: How did Bill O‘Reilly of the Fox Broadcasting Company explain the fact that the poor
blacks stayed?
He said the poor blacks stayed in order to do destruction to the city and to loot.
14) Para 6: What does ―their cavalier choice of domiciles‖ mean? What did Fred Barnes think of
it?
―Their cavalier choice of domiciles‖ means that the people in need had carelessly chosen the sites of their houses in places where they were certain to be flooded. Fred Barnes thought that they had done it on purpose so that they could cheat taxpayers out of their money. 15) Para 6: Which sentences show the author‘s attitude toward Fox?
a. Yet in the media‘s Bush propaganda wing, Fox was still Fox.
b. Indeed, aside from the surprisingly passionate Shephard Smith, much of Fox‘s reporting could have been datelined ―Neverland‖.
c. But for once, the rest of the media did not follow them into the sewer and instead gave their faux-news phonies a chance to see how real journalists do the job. 16) What was found in the flood?
Racism.
12. Multiple-choice Questions
1) Poor people in America, as implied by the author in the first sentence, were _____C_____.
A. totally invisible
B. returning to American television screens and newspaper front pages
C. usually treated by the media in a condescending and condemnatory manner D. condescending and condemnatory Explanation:
―. . . the return to American television screens and newspaper front pages of poor people . . .‖ means that the media covered poor people once again in a manner that was neither condescending nor condemnatory. This implies that poor people in America were usually treated in a condescending and condemnatory manner.
2) ―. . . Poor black people, growing more hungry, sick and frightened by the hour as faraway
officials counseled patience and warned that rescues take time.‖ (Para 1) Here Jason DeParle implies that the officials were ______D_____.
A. sympathetic with the lot of the poor black people
B. glad to help but could not, because they were far away from the flood C. trying every possible means to help those trapped