1、Pre-class work:What do you know about Mark Twain?Can you name some books he wrote?About the author:Mark Twain(1835-1910)was born Samuel Langhorne Clements in Florida,Missouri,but lived as a child in Hannibal,Missouri,on the Mississippi River.He took the pen name Mark Twain from the call of the pilot
2、s on the river steamers,which indicated that the water was twelve feet deep,a safe depth for a steamer.During his early years,he worked as a riverboat pilot,newspaper reporter,printer,and gold prospector.But then he turned to writing,and became one of the greatest of American writers.His masterpiece
3、:Innocents Abroad 1869傻子出国记为通讯集，是马克吐温的旅欧报道。写天真无知的美国人在欧洲的旅游见闻，滑稽、诙谐，表现出美国人在欧洲封建社会傻子出国记为通讯集，是马克吐温的旅欧报道。写天真无知的美国人在欧洲的旅游见闻，滑稽、诙谐，表现出美国人在欧洲封建社会及其印记面前的优越感。The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1876本书描写了十九世纪密西西比河畔一个小镇人民的生活，可以说是当时美国社会生活的一个缩影。小主人公汤姆索亚和他的小伙伴幼稚而又认真的言行可以给我们很深的启示他们讨厌牧师骗人的鬼话不喜欢学校枯燥的教育与循规蹈矩的大人和孩子唱对台戏他们聪明活泼
4、正直勇敢尤其是在一些重大事件发生的时候在正义与邪恶一较量中在危机降临的时刻他们能义无反顾地挺身而出。His writing style:hilariously humorous bitterly satiricalAbout the story:The author writes about ugly human traits and dispositions.In his opinion,human beings are not ascended from the lower animals but descended from the higher animals.Detailed Dis
5、cussion of the TextParagraph 11.I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the“lower animals”,and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man.I find the result humiliating to me.I have been studying the characteristics of the so-called lower animals in comparison with those of
6、man.The result of this study makes me,as a man,feel terribly ashamed.traits and dispositions:characteristics;features;nature;qualities;personalitieshumiliating:making me feel ashamed;embarrassing;mortifying Notice the tongue-in-cheek(as a joke,not seriously)way the author expresses his ideas.He make
7、s it sound as if he were conducting and reporting on the result of a scientific investigation.In other words,he is deliberately using a pompous style to achieve humor.2.For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals and to name it the
8、Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.Because the result of my study forces me to give up(to abandon)my loyalty to(firm belief in)Darwins theory of evolution and to change the theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals to the theory of the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.to oblige sb
9、 to do sth:to force sb to do sth;to make it necessary for sb to do sthto renounce:to abandon or give up;to reject or disown allegiance:loyalty,esp.to a nation or a cause Paragraph 31.It also seemed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda,and had lost a good deal in the transition.It
10、 also seemed to show that the earl came from the anaconda and had lost a lot of the anacondas good qualities in the process.to be descended from sb:to be related to sb who lived a long time agoParagraph 41.I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use h
11、ave shown a rabid hunger for more,and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor saving in order to partially appease that appetite.I knew that many men who have more money than they can ever use have shown a mad desire to get more,and they have not hesitated to cheat
12、 poor people and their few saving in order to satisfy that desire.rabid:uncontrollable(Note:it is related to rabies,which is an acute,infectious and often fatal disease of dogs,also known as hydrophobia,transmitted by the bite of the infected animal)to have not scrupled to do sth:to be willing to do
13、 something even though it may be wrong or may upset people to cheat sb out of sth:to trick or deceive sb in order to get an advantage,e.g.to cheat sb out of his money or job or land,etcthe ignorant and helpless:the uneducated and powerless people;the poor laboring people in generalto appease:to sati
14、sfy or relieve(hunger,thirst,desire,etc)Paragraph 71.Cats are loose in their morals,but not consciously so.Man,in his descent from the cat,has brought the cats looseness with him but had left the unconsciousness behindthe saving grace which excuses the cat.Cats are immoral,but they do not know it.Th
15、ey just cant help it.Man has inherited cats looseness,but not their innocence,which is what excuses the cat for its low morals.to be loose in morals:immoral the saving grace:the one good thing that makes someone or something acceptable His sense of humor was his only saving grace.Paragraph 81.Indece
16、ncy,vulgarity,obscenity-these are strictly confined to man;he invented them.These are only mans problems.They are limited to man.They only happen to man 2.No-Man is the Animal that Blushes.He is the only one that does it-or has occasion to.No,man is not the only animal that laughs,but it is true tha
17、t man is the animal that blushes.He is the only animal that does it or has the need to.to have occasion to do sth:to have the need or necessity to do sth Notice that Mark Twain is saying here that only man needs to blush because he consciously does bad,immoral things.Paragraph 91.Man-when he is King
18、 John,with a nephew to render untroublesome,he uses a red-hot iron;In the case of King John who wanted to get rid of his nephew he used a red-hot iron to torture him.to render sb untroublesome:to cause sb to become untroublesome;to prevent sb from making trouble for him(King Johns throne had been st
19、olen from his nephew.Therefore he thought his nephew posed a threat to him.)2.in the first Richards time he shuts up a multitude of Jew Families in a tower and sets fire to it;to set fire to:to make sth start burning Notice that it does not mean the same as“to make/light a fire”or“to build a fire”.3
20、.The cat is moderate-unhumanly moderate,she doesnt dig out its eyes,or drive splinters under its nails-man-fashion;when she is done playing with it,she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble.unhumanly moderate:reasonable,not so violent,not so excessive or extre m e,un l i ke hum a
21、n beings(Unhumanly is not to be mixed up with inhuman.It is actually a word coined by the writer.)man-fashion:like man;as man does to be dong doing sth:to finish doing sthto make a meal of:to eat it upto put sb out of his trouble:to end sbs trouble Paragraph 111.There is not an acre of ground on the
22、 globe that is in possession of its rightful ownerNot a single pieces of land is in the hands of its original owner.Every piece of land has been stolen.Mark Twain is referring to the fact that the world has been,in the course of history,divided and re-divided countless times through war.Paragraph 12
23、1.Man is the only Slave.And he is the only animal who enslaves.He has always been a slave in one form or another,and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another.Mark Twain is referring to the idea that in the history of human civilization,our society has always been based
24、 on some kind of exploitation of man by man.No one is free.Everyone is a slave of one form or another and at the same time enslaved those under him.to hold sb in bondage:to keep sb in the state of being a slave Paragraph 131.and in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands an
25、dworks for“the universal brotherhood of man”-with his mouth.and when they are not fighting each other,they will start talking about peace and universal brotherhood,but without any sincerity.Man,according to Mark Twain,is not only cruel and warlike,but also hypocritical.to work for with his mouth:to
26、pay lip service to;to give empty promises tothe universal brotherhood:the idea that all living human beings are brothers and sisters to each other四海之内皆兄弟的思想；博爱Note that the word man=humankind（men and women）。）。The world brotherhood also includes women in this sense.Paragraph 14 1.Man is the Religious
27、 Animal.He is the only Religious Animal.He is the only animal that has the True Religion-several of them.Man claims to be the only animal capable of religious belief.Religion of course is considered here something much more important and noble than animal instincts because it emphasizes the spiritua
28、l and moral life of human beings.But Mark Twain sneers at this because the different religious in the world have resulted in endless religious suppressions,persecutions and wars.2.He was at it in the time of the Caesars,he was at it in Mohammeds time,he was at it in the time of the inquisition,he wa
29、s at it in France a couple of centuries,he was at it in England in Marys day,he had been at it ever since he first saw the lightto be at sth:to be engaged in a certain activityThe Caesars:in the times of Caesars,the early Christians were cruelly persecuted by the Romans.Julius CaesarMohammed:in Moha
30、mmeds time,the Muslims were cruelly persecuted.Inquisition:it means that“inquiry”or“investigation”.Specifically,it refers to the former tribunal in the Roman Catholic Church directed at the suppression of heresy.(Queen)Mary:in Marys day,the Protestants were persecuted.to see the light:to come into e
31、xistence,to be born.Mary Tudor:commonly known as Bloody Mary,Queen of England.Paragraph 171.And so I find that we have descended and degenerated,from some far ancestor-some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perhaps down the long highway of perf
32、ect innocence,tillAnd so I find that without knowing it,we have descended and deteriorated from our ancestor-some tiny atom which moved about freely and happily in the huge world of a drop of water perhaps perfectly innocence during this long process of change until we have fallen to the bottom,to t
33、he lowest stage of our development and become human beings.to do sth at ones own pleasure:to do sth when you want to microscopic:extremely small,only seen under a microscope mighty:awesomely hugethe long highway of perfect innocence:the long process of our change from one insect into another,one ani
34、mal into another and one reptile into another,all completely innocent,until we become human beings and lose all our innocence.Organization of the text:This slightly abridged essay is organized like a paper to report results of a scientific experiment.It has a thesis statement at the beginning and a
35、brief summing-up at the end.The main body is arranged according to the various straits and disposition of human beings as contrasted to the“higher animals”.However in the second part of the body the author begins to use a polemic tone.He seems to be arguing with people who believe in mans superiorit
36、y because they can reason,have moral principles and religion,and love their neighbors and country.Conclusion of the text:It is wrong to think that Mark Twain is pessimistic or cynical.He is neither.Behind all the bitterness is a warm and human heart.Mark Twain does not really believe that human bein
37、gs are incurably cruel,greedy and wicked.Otherwise he would not have bothered to write those essays.He writes about ugly human traits and dispositions precisely because he thinks human beings are capable of mending their ways if they can open their eyes to their own weaknesses and understand the con
38、ditions that give rise to them and nurture them.In other words,his policy is to frighten in order to enlighten.Homework:In Book 3,there is a text entitled“We Are Only Human”in which the author strongly argues that we human beings should be and can be superior to other animals.But in this article,the author feels strongly that human beings are the least fit for survival.What do you think of these two authors views?
