Unit 4: Extraterrestrials

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Unit 4 Extraterrestrials
Tex A The Watery Place
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New College English Book 3Unit 4
Extraterrestrials

• Tex A
• The Watery Place

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1. Isaac Asimov(19201992)
• Russian-born American writer and
  scientist. He was a distinguished biochemist, but
  is more widely known as the author of many works
  of science fiction,books on science for
  non-scientists, and essays on a wide variety of
  subjects. Among his best-known science fiction
  are I, Robot(1950)and the Foundation trilogy
  (1951-1953). Building on Karel Capeks concept of
  the robot,in 1941 Asimov coined the term
  robotics(????,???).

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 2.Venus
• Venus is the second major planet in
  order of distance from the Sun.Also known as
  Hesperus, the evening star, or Phosphorus, the
  morning star, Venus can be the brightest object
  in the sky after the Sun and Moon and follows a
  near-circular path some 106 million kilometers
  from the Sun, taking 225 days to complete one
  orbit.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 3. Extra-terrestrial life
• It is the life-forms that may have
  evolved on other planets. There is no solid
  evidence at present that life exists other than
  on the Earth. Most UFOs have been satisfactorily
  explained as being natural or man-made, and the
  Viking missions to Mars were inconclusive in
  testing for the existence of life on that planet.
  Nevertheless, searches have been and are being
  made for signs that life has arisen in other
  parts of the universe. Certain knowledge either
  that life is confined to planet or has been found

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• elsewhere would have the profoundest
  philosophical implications for mankind.
  Factors contributing to any assessment of the
  probability that life exists elsewhere must
  include the size, age, and structure of the
  universe, and the conditions under which life as
  we know it can originate and evolve. Other
  factors of relevance in the search for
  extraterrestrial life include an assessment of
  the probability that intelligence leading to
  scientific and technological civilizations
  similar to our own may arise.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 4. Space exploration
• 1903--Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,
  developing ideas for space rockets fuelled by
  liquefied gas
• by 1926--USA Robert Goddard, successfully
  designed the first liquid fuelled rocket
• 1944--German research into rockets culminated
  (????) in the launch of the V-2 rocket.
• 1957--the Soviet Union surprised America by
  putting the first artificial satellite, Sputnik
  I, in orbit

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1958--the US Explorer I
• April 12, 1961--Yuri Gagarin became the first
  man in space. He piloted the spaceship Vostok 1,
  orbited earth one time at an altitude of 187¾
  miles for 108 minutes at 18,000 miles an hour.
• 1962--John Glenn followed Gagarin and became
  the second man in space

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1961--American President Kennedy proposed the
  Apollo Programme to achieve a manned lunar
  landing by 1970,
• 1966--while the Soviet Union concentrated on
  unmanned flights, the American Luna IX achieved a
  soft landing on the moon
• 1969--Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin landed on
  the moon
• Early 1970s--space stations launched by both
  the USA and the Soviet Union,

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1975--An Apollo capsule linked up with a Soviet
  Soyuz capsule and unmanned flights have been
  made to Venus and Mars.
• 19771989--the US probe, Voyager 2, was
  launched in 1977, reaching Neptune in 1989.
• 1981--The USA launched a space shuttle, the
  first reusable space craft
• 1986--the spaceship, Challenger, exploded on
  lift-off.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1986--The giant Soviet modular space station,
  Mir, was launched, with astronauts being ferried
  to the station by Soyuz spacecraft, followed in
  1987 by the placing in space of the powerful
  Energiya station.
• 1987--Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko set a
  space endurance record of 326 days in orbit.
• 1990--The Hubble space telescope, was launched
  from a US shuttle, producing images of other
  solar systems

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 1993--The faulty Hubble space telescope was
  repaired by astronauts in space shuttle
  Endeavour.
• 1990s--An international space station, Freedom,
  conceived by the USA in 1984, went into
  operation. Thus, space technology has resulted in
  numerous applications.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• Applications of space technology
• 1) Telecommunication satellites greatly
  improve global communications
• 2) Meteorological(??) satellites provide
  advance weather information
• 3) reconnaissance (??) satellites, register
  the earths resources and military information.
  

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• Recent years--
• Our knowledge of the Sun, planets,
  natural satellites, and comets in the solar
  system, as well as the interplanetary medium, has
  been greatly advanced in recent years by the
  Mariner, Venera, Pioneer, and Voyager series of
  spacecraft. More recently, space exploration is
  being extended by the launching of artificial
  satellites into Earth orbit carrying advanced
  technological packages to further our
  astronomical knowledge of the wider universe.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• 5.The Congress
• The US Constitution provides for (??) a
  federal government based on the principle of the
  separation of powers. It provides for three
  distinct departments of government Legislative,
  executive and judicial. All legislative power
  granted by the Constitution is given to Congress
  the executive power is given to the President
  and the judicial power is given to the Supreme
  Court and other federal courts.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• The Congress has two houses the Senate and
  the House of Representatives. The main job of
  Congress is making laws. Before a new law can be
  made, both houses have to pass it, and it must
  then have the approval of the President. In a
  system of government based on a series of checks
  and balances, the two houses of Congress act as a
  check on each other, as well as together forming
  a check on the powers of the executive branch,
  especially the President.

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I. Cultural Knowledge

•  6.The Supreme Court
• The judicial branch is one of the
  three branches of US federal government and
  operates the system of law courts. The Supreme
  Court in Washington, D. C. is the highest court
  in the US, and is very powerful. It has nine
  Judges, called justices. Traditionally, they are
  called the nine old men, although there has been
  one woman justice. The head of the court has the
  title of Chief Justice of the United States.
  Justices are appointed by the President, although
  the Senate

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I. Cultural Knowledge

• must give its approval to the choice. There
  has been only one African-American justice.
• 7. Income Tax
• The income tax is one paid according to
  a persons level of income, with people of higher
  incomes paying higher rates of tax. It is used by
  the government to help pay for things like health
  care and education. It is collected in Britain
  by the Inland Revenue(?????) and in the US by the
  Internal Revenue Service.

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II. Text Analysis Text organization

• 1. The text is divided into two parts, the second
  part being subdivided into four sections.
• Part 1 (Paras 1-3)
• The narrator claims that no
  extraterrestrials will ever land on earth.
• Part 2 (Paras 4-48)
• The narrator gives an account of his
  encounter with E.T.s, making it clear why he
  claims that they will return no more.

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II. Text Analysis-- Text organization

• 2. The second part of the text is the main part
  of the story. It is further divided into four
  sections according to the time sequence.
• Section 1 Paras 4-5 (before the ETs
  arrival) Busy with his complicated tax form,
  Bart got quite irritable.
• Section 2 Paras 6-11 (landing of flying
  sauce)
• The narrator was shocked at the sight of a
  flying saucer landing on Earth and two men
  getting out of it, while Bart didt notice this
  at all.

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II. Text Analysis Text organization

• Section 3 Paras 12-34 (meeting with the E.T.)
• Unaware of the guests identity and
  caught up with his tax forms, Bart talked to the
  guests with an impatient and sarcastic tone and
  turned down their requests rudely. Their
  conversation ended with the extraterrestrial
  guests promise of never coming back.
• Section 4 Paras 35-48 (after the E.T.s
  departure)
• After the E.T. left, the narrator got
  mad at Bart because of his irrational attitude
  toward the guests. Bart didnt realize his stupid
  error until it was too late.

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II. Text Analysis Speech style

• Language is full of holes,which people
  fill up with perceptions and assumptions. This
  saying is well illustrated by Sheriff Cameron.
  Because he judged the Venusians as Italians
  (Venetians) simply by their appearance,
  everything they said sounded Italian to him. He
  mistook Venus for Venice, a watery place on
  earth.
• When we learn another language, we must
  not learn it with the mindset of our mother
  tongue. Otherwise cultural misunderstandings will
  arise and lead to conflict.

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II. Text Analysis Speech style

• Sheriff Cameron usually spoke in a casual
  manner. Perhaps his town was so small that he
  knew all the townsfolk, therefore informal speech
  was proper. His sentences were short, colloquial,
  and sometimes incomplete. He preferred phrases to
  single, learned words. He liked shortened forms
  and abbreviations, with an occasional curse.

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II. Text Analysis Speech style

• The Venusians spoke formally, their
  sentences being long and involved, their word
  choice elaborate. They used passive voices and
  if structures. Perhaps it was because they
  believe in the utter importance of their mission,
  or they might not have learned to speak freely in
  a strange tongue.

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III. Language Study

• 1. (L3) Im not just being a pessimist.
• Here the -ing form of the verb be
  is used to show a state of being
  temporary.(??be???????????)
• --He is being kind and friendly today.
• 2. (L6) on account of (formal ) because of
• --The house isnt really suitable for an old
  person on account of all those stairs.
• --The president declined to deliver the
  speech himself on account of a sore throat.

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III. Language Study

• Other expressions similar to on account of
• because of as a result of
• due to owing to
• thanks to
• 3. (L10) deputy the second most important
  person in a particular organization
• --A deputy was appointed in case the manager
  became ill.
• --After several years hard work he was
  promoted to deputy manager.

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III. Language Study

• 4. (L11) work up spend time and effort
  preparing
• produce or develop
  gradually
• --The head of the department asked me to work
  up some sample compositions and give them to the
  students.
• --Let's go for a walk to work up an appetite
  (to make ourselves hungry).
• 5. (L14) complicated difficult to understand or
• deal with
  see complex

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III. Language Study

• --The situation in Afghanistan is so
  complicated that people are uncertain what will
  happen next.
• cf. A thing or a structure may be complex but
  not necessarily complicated (difficult to
  understand) but if something is complicated, it
  is usually complex.
• 6. (L16) a bitter man
• If someone is a bitter man, he is
  always complaining and is cynical about things.

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III. Language Study

• 7. (L21) knock off (informal) stop working, usu.
  at the end of a day
• --He always knocks off at six oclock.
• --If I get this paper done I'll knock off
  early today.
• --When do you usually knock off for supper?
• 8. (L21) hit the sack (informal) go to bed
• --Time to hit the sack lights out!
• --Louise was so tired that he hit the sack
  soon after supper.
• cf. Hit the deck ??

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III. Language Study

• 9. (L47) locality a particular place the
  position of sth.
• --People living in this locality complain of
  traffic noises disturbing them at night.
• --Having lived in California for about ten
  years, they moved to another locality.
• 10. (L48) isolate set apart cut off from others
• --When Im angry, I find it best to isolate
  myself from other people for a little while.

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III. Language Study

• --In the early decades of its history, the
  United States was relatively isolated from Europe
  and other parts of the world.
• --It would certainly be unnatural for someone
  to totally isolate himself from the rest of the
  world.
• 11. (L50) spit it out (informal) to say what you
  you want to say quickly and briefly
• --Just spit it out! Dont keep us in suspense.

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III. Language Study

• 12. (L53) assume
• 1) take sth as a fact or as true without
  proof 2) take upon oneself 3) pretend to have
  or be
• --I assume that they will accept the terms
  without any objections.
• --Assuming it rains tomorrow, what shall we do?
• --When he goes away on holiday tomorrow, you
  will assume his duties.
• --He assumes a very informed manner but in fact
  knows very little.

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III. Language Study

• 13. (L54) the light break in on sb.
• If you see the light break in on someone,
  you see him begin/come to understand sth.
• --When the teacher posed the rather difficult
  question, light broke in on John and he came up
  with an amazing answer.
• 14. (L55) go for be attracted by like or prefer
• --What sort of music do you go for?
• --I dont go for his kind of bitter man. He
  is always complaining about things other people
  do.

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III. Language Study

• 15. (L60) regardless of without worrying about
  or taking account of despite in spite of
• --Regardless of the dangers he might face,
  Henson helped many slaves travel the Underground
  Railroad to freedom.
• --Each state has two senators in the Congress,
  regardless of population.
• 16. (Ls60-61) at ones service willing to help
  sb.
• --If you need any help, i'm at your service.
• --Would you fetch me my glasses from the
  kitchen, Rose?
• At your service, madam.

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III. Language Study

• Collocation
• be of service to sb ?????
• on service ??????
• in/out of service ???/?????
• in the service (of) ?(?)??
• 17. (L71) Speed is desirable It is better to be
  in a hurry. (????)
• --Patience and tolerance is desirable when we
  are dealing with people.

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III. Language Study

• 18. (L72) supreme greatest in power, rank or
  degree
• --The Supreme Court meets in Washington, D.C.,
  and the other federal courts are located in
  cities throughout the United States.
• --They argued that the Security Council was
  the supreme authority and the General Assembly
  had in fact no right to authorize peacekeeping
  activities.

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III. Language Study

• 19. (L74) go to pieces
• If you go to pieces, you are so upset
  or nervous that you lose control of yourself and
  cannot do what you should do.
• --Anne is a strong woman, but she nearly went
  to pieces when she heard her colleague died in
  the car accident.
• 20. (L76) come around visit someone at their
  house
• --Halfway through the party, a neighbor came
  around to complain about the noise.
• --Why didnt you come around while you were in
  Beijing on business?

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III. Language Study

• Phrases with the meaning of visit
• call at a place ??????
• call upon sb ??????
• call in ?????????
• drop in ????
• drop in on sb. ??????
• stop by/in ????
• tour a place ????
• be on a tour of a place ????
• Call off ?? visit on sb ?????

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III. Language Study

• 21. (L85) leave alone allow one to be by
  oneself allow sb. or sth. to remain untouched or
  unchanged
• --Its useless to talk to her since she is so
  upset just leave her alone.
• --I told you to leave it alonenow youve
  broken it.
• 22. (L102) wit (also wits) quick understanding,
  intelligence
• --He lacked the wit to respond in time.
• --Peter hadnt the wits to realize the
  danger.

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III. Language Study

• --The policeman used his wits more than his
  gun to tame the local criminals.
• Collocations
• collect/gather ones wits ???????
• display ones wits ????/???
• lose/regain ones wits ????/????
• rack ones wits/brain ????????
• a man of wits ????????
• at ones witsend ????????
• frighten/scare sb. out of his wits
• ?????????

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III. Language Study

• 23. (L103) make like (informal) pretend to be
  act as if one were
• Pattern make like sb./sth.
• make like clause
• --The old man made like a mokey to amuse the
  children.
• --Bob made like he was a fish blowing bubbles.

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III. Language Study

• 24. (L103) knock down
• l) cause someone to fall to the ground by
  pushing or hitting them
• 2) destroy and remove sth.
• --The driver was in serious trouble for
  knocking down a pedestrian on a pedestrian
  crossing.
• --The house is being knocked down to make way
  for a new road.
• --Were planning to knock the dividing wall
  down so as to make one large room.

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III. Language Study

• 25. fade out disappear gradually
• --As it was getting colder and colder their
  enthusiasm for doing sports in the morning faded
  out.
• --My daughters interest in drawing has now
  almost completely faded out.
• fade in (?) ????
• fade away ????????

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• The speech style
• Language is full of holes,which people
  fill up with perceptions and assumptions. This
  saying is well illustrated by Sheriff Cameron.
  Because he judged the Venusians as Italians
  simply by their appearance (They had on black
  shoes and black hats. They had dark complexions,
  black wavy hair and brown eyes.), everything they
  said sounded Italian to him. He mistook Venus for
  Venice, a watery place on earth.
• --- You guys foreigners?
• --- Foreigners? Indeed we are. We come from the
  watery place your people call Venus.

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• Sheriff Cameron usually spoke in a
  casual manner. Perhaps his town was so small that
  he knew all the townsfolk, therefore informal
  speech was proper. His sentences were
  short,colloquial,and sometimes incomplete. He
  preferred phrases to single, learned words.He
  liked shortened forms and abbreviations,with an
  occasional curse.
• The Venusians spoke formally. Their
  sentences were long and involved, their word
  choice elaborate. They used passive voices and
  if structures. Perhaps it was because they
  believe in the utter importance of their
  mission,or they might not have learned to speak
  freely in a strange tongue.

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Example

• C My people? All I gots a wife. Whats she been
  doing?
• C I you dont get the hell out here
• C so spit it out
• E Speed is desirable.
• E If they will help, sheriff.
• E We would like to have make immediate
  arrangements for the important men of your USA,
  as you call it, to be brought here for
  discussions leading to your people joining our
  great organization.

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• ??????
• ???????,????7.9????????,????????,??????,??????,???
  ?????????,???????
• ??????
• ????11.2??/?????,?????????,????,???????,??????????
  ??,???????
• ??????
• ????16.7????????,???????????????,?????????????

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Translation

• The E.T.(extraterrestrial) has been a topic
  of interest to experts and laymen/non-professional
  s. And researchers of different countries and
  organizations are adopting various modes to
  search for them/in search for them/in pursuit of
  them. Some researchers closely observe stars with
  an extremely high level of rare, radioactive
  elements. They believe that those elements
  come/result from
• Extraterrestrial technology that is still beyond
  human wit/understanding.

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• Some try to isolate radio signals from the
  noise in the universe. And some others claim
  that they have caught sight of extraterrestrials
  and that they can describe the appearance of them
  in detail. Researchers have worked up the
  complicated data they have collected into a
  series of reports and books. Though no definite
  answer has been found, there is no
  indication/sign that the explorers hope is
  fading out on account of their frustrations.They
  hold to the belief/They firmly believe that their
  hard efforts will prove worthwhile.