Lesson Eight

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Lesson Eight

• Were Only Human
• Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger

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Teaching Procedures

• Introduction to the background knowledge
• The structure of the text
• Detailed discussion of the text
• Assignments

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About the author

• .Dr. Laura C. Schlesinger was born in Brooklyn.
  New York in 1947. She has a Ph.D. in physiology
  from Columbia University and a post-doctoral
  certification in marriage, family and child
  counseling from the University of Southern
  California, where, upon graduation, she became a
  faculty member and taught for five years. Dr.
  Laura Schlessinger is the recipient of many
  national awards and the author of many New York
  Times best-sellers, including Parenthood by
  Proxy Dont Have Them if You Wont Raise Them.

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About The Text

• The present text is and excerpt taken from the
  book Courage and Conscience, a book based on
  Schlessingers conversations with her radio
  callers (She runs a very successful radio
  program)
• This essay should be studied with more emphasis
  on the content. The author here is addressing the
  problem of moral principles, which is a very
  important part of our education, and should be
  particularly interesting for our students at a
  time when many feel confused and cynical.

fallacy
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• The structure of the text

Part 1 (para. 17)
Brief introduction of humanity
Part 2 (para.8-23)
Three core elements for a true human
Part 3 (para.24-29)
Pleasure principle
Part 4 (para.30)
Further probe into conscience
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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 1.Nobody is acknowledged to have victims in
  groups (1)
• People no longer admit that every person has a
  free will to decide to do or not to do, and
  therefore should be responsible for their actions
  or behaviors. According to the behaviorist
  theory, human behavior is a response to external
  stimulation, and therefore is genes-determined.
  In this sense human beings have no free will,
  they are all victims of these external causes as
  a group.

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• 2. As if ones humanness the animal kingdom (2)
• As if the fact that were human were a kind of
  detailed plan which determines how we react to
  situations. This reaction is instinctive and
  natural just like with all animals, insects,
  birds.

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• 3.We were put on the earth ro rise above the
  animal kingdom.(3)
• God made us to be better than animals. This
  sentence quoted from Bible is also what the
  author wants to say.
• 4. there is something extra survival of the
  me(5)
• there is sth. special about the human mind
  which can make us go beyond selfish actions which
  can only be explained by the need for survival.

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• 5self-advancement and self-indulgence and
  powerful drives (6)
• the desire to improve yourself, or achieve
  your purposes and the desire to enjoy life are
  very powerful, and natural, inborn and
  instinctive.
• 6. the investment concept (7)ofen people do
  things to benefit others ,so that some day those
  people will do things to benefit them in retort,
  so what they do to others today is basically a
  kind of investment. The author here is very
  critical about this, and she calls it the
  investment concept.

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• 7.character, which I once heard defined as what
  you are when no one else is looking.(8)
• If you do good things when no one is looking
  it means that you are doing what youre doing not
  for returns of any kind but because you feel
  happier do them. This is now character was once
  defined, and the author obvious agreed with it.
• 8.Bachelor party (9)(Ame E) a party for men
  only, esp the night before a mans wedding.

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• 9. entertainment type women (9) refers to
  strippers or prostitutes.
• 10.the inner drive toward self-indulgence over
  character(16)
• the desire to enjoy life rather than defend
  once character.
• 11.leap of faith (17) an act of on instance of
  accepting or trusting in something that cannot be
  easily seen or trusted.
• eg It requires a leap of faith to pursue
  this unusual step of transplanting an animal beat
  into a human patient.

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• 12.Courage is to life what broth is to soup
  (18).
• Courage is as important to life as broth is to
  soup more. More egs
• (1)The communication network is to the nation
  what the nerve system is to a human body.
• (2)Youre to me what water is to the fish.
• 13.quality time (27) the time you spend giving
  your full attention, esp time you spend with your
  children after work.

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• 14. a gainful pursuit (27) A pursuit is sth you
  spend a lot of time on such as sport, art, or
  academic work. A gainful pursuit is a pursuit
  from which you gain a lot.
• 15. internalized fear (30) fear that has become
  part of you through learning or socialization.
• 16.To impose on/upon sb to place sth unpleasant
  on sb.
• eg Teachers sometimes have no choice but to
  impose strict rules on the students.

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Assignments

• Finish the exercises after the text.
• Write a short essay of about 200 words on the
  topic.
• What it Mean to Be Human
• You are expected to
• 1) Provide a definition of the word
  human.
• 2) List two or three key qualities that
  convey what it
• means to be fully human
• 3) Use examples to illustrate each quality.