My Personal Manager

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My Personal Manager

• Margaret Goff Clark

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• Background
• Warming-up questions
• Text appreciation
• Language understanding
• Group activities

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Background

• Margaret Goff Clark is a productive author.
• She wrote stories about teenagers.
• Different themes
• mysteries
• science fiction
• human relationship
• wild animals

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Theme one mysteries

• Who Stole Kathy Young?It is about two girls who
  are cousins named Meg and Kathy. Meg and Kathy
  both live in Texas. The story is set in summer
  and Meg and Kathy always come for vacation. They
  saw two tourists that seemed a bit weird to them
  but didn't really think anything of it until they
  began to follow them. Next Meg sees Kathy a
  little further down the road being pushed into a
  van. Meg automatically thinks it must be those
  two tourists that they had seen earlier. Police
  search parties are sent out searching for Kathy
  but they can't find her. Meg decides that just
  waiting isn't helping, so she starts to search
  for Kathy herself with a boy named Julian. While
  all of this searching for Kathy is going on,
  Kathy herself is trying to escape.

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Theme two science fiction

• Barney and UFO
• Barney is afraid to tell his foster parents
  that he has seen a UFO behind the house even when
  a hasty promise to a space boy leads him into
  trouble.
• Barney on Mars
• When Barney's young friend's dog is taken to
  Mars, extraterrestrial acquaintance Tibbo helps
  them try to get it back.

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Theme three human relationship

• This book is a historical fiction about a family
  helping slaves escape to Canada.

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Theme four wild animals

• The Endangered Florida Panther
• There is a good mix of high-interest anecdotes
  about the panther(??)and the people who study and
  safeguard it, and of facts and photos that
  present basic information about the species and
  its ecological role. Habits and habitat are
  briefly discussed history focuses on the
  panther's endangered status and the efforts to
  protect it.

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• The Threatened Florida Black Bear
• In this companion book Clark gives basic
  historical and scientific facts with eyewitness
  accounts of the wildlife biologists who study and
  protect the animals. It is these anecdotes that
  create a sense of excitement and convey the
  tragedy of habitat loss that puts various species
  at risk worldwide. Full-color photographs provide
  information and a feeling ofrespect. Solidly on
  the side of wildlife conservation, Clark presents
  a balanced picture of the bear's relationship
  with the environment and with humans, discussing
  conflicts and compromise.

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Warming-up questions

• What is your favorite book and who is your
  favorite character in juvenile literature?
• What does a good story usually contain?
• In this text, Why doesnt the story directly
  begin from the first day I meet Carlos?

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Text appreciation

• Development of story
• Part I (para.1) suspense of the story
• Part II (para. 2-par.6) the first day I
  
• met
  Carlos.
• Part III (para.7-para.8) Carlos became
• my
  personal manager.
• Part IV. (para.9-end) the success of us.

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Text appreciation

• In-class discussion
• What troubles the hero and heroine in the story?
  What will it usually result in? How do they deal
  with it?
• If you were Karen, what would you do? And if you
  were Carlos? What would you do to help Karen?
• Do you have the similar problems? What is your
  way to resolve them?

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Text appreciation

• Main characters
• Carlos---being knee-high to a flea, I
  realized I was going to have to spend my life in
  this undersized skin. I just decided to make the
  best of it and concentrate on being myself.
• Karen ---No boy wants to date a girl taller
  than she is.

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Text appreciation

• Beginning of the story
• Which is how little Carlos Herrera took me and
  turned me into,well
• Which is how little Carlos Herrera took me and
  turned me into a cool, pretty, and popular girl.

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Text appreciation

• Chronological order
• Karen ran into something solid.
• Carloss suggestions
• appearance---let my hair grow,wear a fitted
  sweater and neat skirt
• manners---lift my head and sayHito everyone
  I was to volunteer to work on the school paper
  and go out for dramatics

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Text appreciation

• The end of the story
• Karen refused Reed,and decided to have
  dinner with Carlos.

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Text appreciation

• Humorous
• I'm going to be a promotion man. I may be
  short, but I can promote big things. Like me.
• (Carlos wants to promote big ideas or
  activities Karen saysDo you mean you can
  promote big things like me? )
• Take that seat,"Mr. McCarthy told Carlos,
  pointing to the only empty one, in the back of
  the room. Carlos grinned.But I need a couple of
  dictionaries.

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Text appreciation

• Karen ---It doesn't seem to bother youbeing
  short, I mean. Carlos---Of course I mind being
  short. I get a stiff neck every day from looking
  up at people like you.

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Text appreciation

• Shortness
• 1.to come back to earth/to come down to earthto
  return to reality, suddenly or with a shock to
  return to a normal way of thinking after a time
  when you are excited
• I'm glad Mary has come down to earth and stopped
  dreaming of being rich.

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Text appreciation

• 2. to make the best of it/to make the best of a
  bad job/to make the best of a bad situationto
  accept a sad or unsatisfactory situation that you
  cannot change and do the best that you can in the
  circumstances
• We'll have to spend the night in this awful
  place, so we might as well make the best of it.

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Text appreciation

• 3. to go through with sth. to carry out refuse
  to be prevented from sth.
• I can't go through with this performance. I'm so
  nervous.
• 4. to know better informed about sth./ to know
  better than to do sth. ,be wise enough to
  behave in a more responsible and acceptable way
• She's only six, but she's old enough to know
  better than to run out into the traffic. I'm
  surprised at your behaving so badlyyou ought to
  know better.

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Language understanding

• 1. annoy, irritate, bother
• annoy refers to mild disturbance caused by an act
  that tries one's patience
• irritate is closely related but somewhat stronger
• bother implies troublesome imposition

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Language understanding

• 1) Hasn't he ______them enough with his phone
  calls?
• 2)I was ______ by his bad manners.
• 3) Your interruptions only serve to _____the
  entire staff.
• 4) Pardon me for _______ you with such a small
  matter.

bothered
annoyed
irritate
bothering
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Language understanding

• 2. cast
• The fisherman cast his net into the sea.
• She cast an eye in his direction.
• It cast a new light on the problem.
• He seemed to be cast down.
• He cast his vote against the new tax law.
• stake everything on the single cast of a dice
• 
  ????
• This is a play with an all-star cast.

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Language understanding

• 3. knee
• beat sb. to his knees/bring sb. to his knees
• ( force sb. to
  submit)
• bend one's knee before /to sb.
• The water was knee-deep.
• The grass was knee-high.

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• 4. plead
• to ask earnestly beg
• The boy pleaded for mercy.
• She pleaded with the officer not to give her a
  ticket.
• to assert as defense or excuse claim as a plea
• plead ignorance ?????????
• to put forward a plea of a specific nature in
  court, claim
• plead guilty ??
• argue earnestly in favor of
• pleading the rights of the unemployed
• ???????????

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• 5. under-
• Beneath or below in position
• underground, undergarments, undercurrent
• Inferior or subordinate in rank or importance
• undergraduate, undersecretary
• Less in degree, rate, or quantity than normal or
  proper
• undersized, underdeveloped, underpaid,
  underdone, undernourished

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• 6. know better than to do
• be wise enough not to do
• She is old enough to know better than to
  spend all her money on clothes.
• I know better than to lend him any money.
• He ran away from school. He ought to have
  known better.

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Language understanding

• 7. be through (with)
• Are you through with your work?
• I am through talking to her.
• 8. worth
• for all one is worth ??
• for what it is worth ????
• get one's money's worth ????,
• We never know the worth of water till the well
  is dry. (proverb) ?????????

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• 9. laugh
• laughing-stock ??
• no laughing matter ????
• laugh off an embarrassing situation ????
• laugh in ones face ????
• laugh in one's sleeve ????????????
• He laughs best who laughs last.

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Language understanding

• 10. laugh, smile, grin, chuckle, sneer, giggle
• grinsmile broadly showing the teeth ????
• chuckleto laugh quietly or to oneself ????
• sneerto assume a scornful, contemptuous facial
• expression
  ????
• giggle to laugh with repeated short sounds ????

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Language understanding

• At that moment, everybody began to laugh and
  sing.
• He grinned from ear to ear.
• He was chuckling to himself over what he was
  reading.
• The inn-keeper smiled and immediately went out.
• James sneered at my old bicycle. He has a new
  one.
• The funny man amused the girls, so they giggled.

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Language understanding

• 11. best
• make the best of a bad job ????
• to the best of one's ability ????
• The best is the enemy of the good.
• ??????? ?????????
• to the best of my knowledgeas far as I know
• Strive for the best, prepare for the worst.
• ??????,????????
• She spent the best part of an hour writing a
  letter.
• ?????????????

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• 12. come back to earth
• like nothing on earth ?????
• bring sb. back down to earth
• ???????????
• down to earth ???, ?????

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• 13. let loose
• at /in the (very) loose???????
• break /get loose?? ??
• give (a) loose ??
• on the loose ??

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Language understanding

• 14. brain
• brain wave
• ??????? ?????
• beat ones brains ????
• have something on the brain ?????
• rack ones brains ????

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Group activities

• Group discussion
• How do you think Karen will choose between Reed
  Harrington and Carlos as her boyfriend according
  to story? Why do you think so? If you were
  Karen, which one would you choose?
• Dramatize the story.

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Writing

• Write a story.
• Pay attention to the plot and dialogue.