Lesson Thirteen

1
Lesson Thirteen

• Christmas Day in the Morning
• Pearl S Buck

2
Teaching Procedures

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

3
About the author

• Pearl S. Buck (18921973) (???????), U.S.
  novelist Nobel Prize winner for literature in
  1938. She had first been brought to fame by the
  novel The Good Earth (??????), which is about
  a Chinese family. A daughter of missionaries,
  Pearl Buck grew up in China, married an American
  and lived in China for about 40 years.

4
About the author

• Birthday June 26, 1892
• Parents Absalom Caroline Sydenstricker
  (Southern Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in
  China )
• Came to China 3 months old
• Period of stay in China 40years
• Residential area Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province

5
About the author

• Pearls Works
• East Wind, West Wind
• The Good Earth
• Dragon Seed
• The Big Wave
• Satan Never Sleeps

6
About the author

• Pearls Special Contributions
• In 1942, Pearl and Richard founded the East and
  West Association, dedicated to cultural exchange
  and understanding between Asia and the West.

7

• The structure of the text

Part 1 (paras. 18)
Rob woke suddenly in an early Christmas morning.
Part 2 (paras.9-41)
Rob recalled the Christmas morning when he was
fifteen years old.
Part 3 (paras.42-46)
Rob celebrated this Christmas with his wife after
more than 50 years.
8
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him
  still! (Para. 1)
• It was strange how up to that moment he had
  continued doing things the way he had always done
  them from boyhood.

9
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• He slipped back in time, as he did so easily
  nowadays. (Para. 9)
• He had recently got into the habit of recalling
  things in the past/of reminiscing/of letting his
  thoughts go back to the old days.

10
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• He had never thought of it before, taking for
  granted the tie of their blood. (Para. 13)
• He had never thought of the fact that his father
  loved him because he took the relationship of
  father and son as a matter of course. He had
  never given this another thought.

11
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• there would be no more loitering in the
  mornings and having to be called again. (Para.
  13)
• he would never loiter in the morning and need
  no longer to be called again and again.

12
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• stumbling blind with sleep, and pulled on his
  clothes. (Para. 13)
• When he got up, it was still very dark and he was
  still very sleepy. He could hardly open his eyes
  and could not see or think clearly, so he walked
  or moved unsteadily and blindly.

13
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• Then Jesus had been born in a barn, bringing
  their Christmas gifts. (Para. 18)
• Bible And when they had come into the house,
  they saw the young child with Mary his mother,
  and fell down, and worshipped him and when they
  had opened their treasures, they presented unto
  him gifts gold and frankincense, and myrrh

14
Detailed Discussion of the Text

• he got up and crept downstairs, careful of the
  creaky boards (Para. 22)
• He had to be careful so that the boards would not
  make any noise and wake up his father, thus
  spoiling his plan.

15
Conclusion of the text

• The central idea of this story is expressed in
  the statement that love alone can waken love. It
  means that love is always mutual and always
  begins with giving. In view of the growing lack
  of human warmth partly due to the fierce
  competition in modern society, this idea appears
  all the more important. Of course it would be
  naïve to think that love is the answer to all our
  problems today, and in a world divided by class,
  racial and national conflicts, universal love is
  still unrealistic.