Unit7-文档...-精品文档资料整理.ppt

Listening Comprehension DiscussionBackground InformationTopic-related Prediction Theme ParkFBIJean Paul SatreExistential PhilosophyAlbert CamusCadillacLas VegasRandom House Directions: Listen to the passage and answer the questions.Listening Comprehension1. Why do so many people become gamblers, according to the passage?2. Who benefited from the increasingly popular gambling?3. What problems may pathological gamblers bring? Gambling is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. Many people have friends or family members who have gambling problems. This increase can be attributed to the legalization of gambling in many countries and associated rapid increase in gambling facilities such as casinos and slot machines. It is true that gambling has brought income to some people such as American Indians, but it has brought very serious problems for both individuals and society as a whole. Increasing number of people are becoming addicted to gambling, bringing a whole gamut of problems. Pathological gamblers may develop stress related to medical conditions such as peptic ulcers, ulcers, depression, and alcoholism. Pathological gamblers may also evidence anti-social behavior, leaving regular employment and even engaging in criminal activities to support their habit. And they often cause harm to their families and friends. DiscussionDirections: Look at the pictures. Discuss in groups the following questions.1. How do the pictures strike you?2. What makes gambling so appealing to some people? 3. What might be the disastrous consequences of gambling? Albert Camus His philosophical view: There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that. His literary view: A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.the French writer and philosopher His life:born in Algeria, into a working-class family1913received his diploma from the University of Algiers in philosophy; joined the Communist Party1935 -1939a member of the French resistanceWorld War IIpublished the novel The Stranger, concerning the absurdity of the human condition1942a reader and editor; editted the newspaper Combat1943 resigned from Combat and published the novel The Plague1947won the Nobel Prize for literature1957died1960 Jean Paul Satre His philosophical view “existence is prior to essence”: we are responsible for the choices and for our emotional lives. In a godless universe life has no meaning or purpose beyond the goals that each man sets for himself. Only one who chooses to assume responsibility of acting in a particular situation makes effective use of ones freedom.the French novelist, playwright, philosopher, and literary critic His literary view: The goal of art is to recover this world by giving it to be seen not as it is, but as if it had its source in human freedom. His life:born in ParisJune 21,1905imprisoned in Germany, but released in 1941World War IIpublished Being and Nothingness1943published his best-known book of literary criticism: QUEST CE QUE LA LITTRATURE1947traveled in China1955published his philosophic work Critique of Dialectical Reason1960 was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, but he declined the award in protest of the values of bourgeois society1964was arrested because of selling on the streets the forbidden Maoist paper La cause du peuple1970died in ParisApril 15, 1980 Existential Philosophy A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of ones acts. Random House Random House is one of the worlds largest publishers of the English language and the general-interest books. It is a publishing subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG, a large German media conglomerate. Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary. It publishes today the Random House Websters Unabridged and Random House Websters College dictionaries. Random House owns many of the most prestigious and profitable book publishing companies in the United States. Random House has published books by a wide array of 20th century American writers. Cadillac A large and US make of car. Owning a Cadillac is seen by Americans as a sign of wealth and success. The Cadillac was first produced in 1903 in Detroit by the Cadillac Motor Car Company and is now made by the General Motors Corporation. Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. Revenue from hotels, gambling, entertainment, theme parks, resorts, and other tourist-oriented industries forms the backbone of the economy. The nightclubs, casinos, and championship boxing matches are world famous, and entertainment enterprises have led to an increasing array of music, sports, gambling, and amusement centers up and down the main “strip,” as the city succeeded in the 1990s in redefining itself as a family resort, complete with monorailLas Vegas monorail (opened in 2004). The city is also the commercial hub of a ranching and mining area and has diverse manufacturing, including gaming equipment. A theme park is an amusement park in which all the settings and attractions have a central theme, such as the world of the future. Typical examples are the Disneyland theme parks in California and Florida.Theme Park Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, is in charge of investigating all violations of federal laws except those assigned to some other federal agency. The FBI has jurisdiction over some 185 investigative matters, among which are espionage, sabotage, and other subversive activities; kidnapping; extortion; bank robbery; interstate transportation of stolen property; civil-rights matters; interstate gambling violations; and fraud against the government. Created (1908) as the Bureau of Investigation, it originally conducted investigations only for the Justice Department. FBI In 1935 it was designated the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI played an important role in raising the standards of local police units through its FBI Academy. Topic-related Prediction Text A is entitled “Going for Broke”. How do you understand the word “broke”? What will the passage be about, judging from the title? Part Division of the TextFurther UnderstandingText Analysis Further UnderstandingFor Part 2 Finding the InformationFor Part 3 True or FalseFor Part 1 Questions for Discussion PartsPara(s). Main Ideas114 2515 The authors give a brief account of the life experience of a hard-core gambler named Rex Coile.The authors expound the problem of gambling addiction, its causes and its attendant steep social price.Part Division of the Text PartsPara(s). Main Ideas31622Through further discussion of the example of Rex, the authors reinforce the essays thesis that the life of compulsive gamblers is a narrow box. Once trapped inside, they will never get out. Questions for Discussion1. How do the authors begin the passage?2. What did Rex use to be? How long has he been addicted to gambling?3. What changes have occurred in Rexs life since he became addicted to gambling?4. Why is Rex Coile nicknamed “Rex Trivia”?5. If he had not been addicted to gambling, what would Rexs life be like now? Finding the Information1. The prevalence of gambling in America:all over the country; nearly every state; from Las Vegas to Indian reservations, from the riverboats along the Mississippi to corner mini-marts2. The estimated number of gambling addicts:4.4 million compulsive gamblers; another 11 million problem gamblers; still soaring 3. The causes for the prevalence:governments sanction of some form of legalized gambling to raise revenues; loss of self-control of the gamblers; no remedy4. The bad consequences of gambling:1) money losses: 50.9 billion dollars a year; money vanishing 2) family problems:child abuse; murder; suicide; domestic violence; suffocating debts; exasperated, overwhelmed and humiliated spouses who fight the family problem alone, bleeding inside and even thinking of killing their husbands3) social harm: society paying a steep price; embezzlement, bogus insurance, bankruptcies, welfare fraud, other social and criminal ills; higher suicide rates True or False 1. Rex Coile has no alternative but to kill himself since he is heavily indebted.FHe is not about to kill himself, but occasionally thinks about it.( )2. Lost in gambling, Rex has come down in the world. Otherwise, he would have become successful in his career. T( ) 5. Rex finally decided to leave the poker table at 2 A.M. and quit gambling. F( )He hesitated for some time, but finally decided to continue with his gambling.3. Rex was arrested and put in prison for domestic violence and child abuse.F( )4. At a poker table in Gardena, Rex lost some money first but later he began to win.He was arrested and imprisoned for a short stint because he aided another gambler to rob a bank.T( ) Cohesive devices are important to achieve unity of the whole text. Analyze the text and find out how the three parts of the text are connected.In the text, restatement or partial repetition is used as cohesive tie to hold the three parts together an integral whole. It can be illustrated as following:1) Part II coheres with Part I by the first sentence of Paragraph 5: “And their numbers are soaring as gambling explodes across in America”, which corresponds with the last sentence of Paragraph 4 “Theres a lot of Rexes around these card rooms”. Text Analysis 2) In the same way, Part III coheres with Part II by the first sentence of Paragraph 16: “Rex Trivia is not about to kill himself ”, which corresponds with the ending part of Paragraph 15: “ showed significantly higher suicide rates than people ” The following article is based on a seven-month nationwide investigation of gambling in America. The stories it tells offer a grim picture of what can happen to those who become addicted to gambling. Rex Coiles life is a narrow box, so dark and confining he wonders how he got trapped inside, whether hell ever get out.Going for BrokeMatea Gold and David Ferrell1 He never goes to the movies, never sees concerts, never lies on a sunny beach, never travels on vacation, never spends Christmas with his family. Instead, Rex shares floor space in cheap motels with other compulsive gamblers, comforting himself with delusional dreams of jackpots that will magically wipe away three decades of wreckage. He has lost his marriage, his home, his Cadillac, his clothes, his diamond ring. Not least of all, in the card clubs of Southern California, he has lost his pride.2 Rex no longer feels sorry for himself, not after a 29-year losing streak that has left him scrounging for table scraps to feed his habit. Still, he agonizes over what he has become at 54 and what he might have been. Articulate, intellectual, he talks about existential philosophy, the writings of Camus and Sartre. He was once an editor at Random House. His mind is so jam packed with tidbits about movies, television, baseball and history that card room regulars call him “Rex Trivia,” a name he cherishes for the remnant of self-respect it gives him. “Theres a lot of Rexes around these card rooms,” he says in a whisper of resignation and sadness. 34 And their numbers are soaring as gambling explodes across America, from the mega-resorts of Las Vegas to the gaming parlors of Indian reservations, from the riverboats along the Mississippi to the corner mini-marts selling lottery tickets. With nearly every state in the union now sanctioning some form of legalized gambling to raise revenues, evidence is mounting that society is paying a steep price, one that some researchers say must be confronted, if not reversed.5 Never before have bettors blown so much money a whopping $50.9 billion last year five times the amount lost in 1980. Thats more than the public spent on movies, theme parks, recorded music and sporting events combined. A substantial share of those gambling losses an estimated 30% to 40% pours from the pockets and purses of chronic losers hooked on the adrenaline rush of risking their money, intoxicated by the fast action of gamblings incandescent world.6 Studies place the total number of compulsive gamblers at about 4.4 million, about equal to the nations ranks of hard-core drug addicts. Another 11 million, known as problem gamblers, teeter on the verge. Since 1990, the number of Gamblers Anonymous groups nationwide has doubled from about 600 to more than 1,200.7 Compulsive gambling has been linked to child abuse, domestic violence, embezzlement, bogus insurance claims, bankruptcies, welfare fraud and a host of other social and criminal ills. The advent of Internet gambling could lure new legions into wagering beyond their means.8 Every once in a while, a case is so egregious it makes headlines: A 10-day-old baby girl in South Carolina dies after being left for nearly seven hours in a hot car while her mother plays video poker. A suburban Chicago woman is so desperate for a bankroll to gamble that she allegedly suffocates her 7-week-old daughter 11 days after obtaining a $200,000 life-insurance policy on the baby.9 Science has begun to uncover clues to compulsive gambling genetic predispositions that involve chemical receptors in the brain, the same pleasure pathways implicated in drug and alcohol addiction. But no amount of knowledge, no amount of enlightenment, makes the illness any less confounding, any less destructive. What the gamblers cannot understand about themselves is also well beyond the comprehension of family members, who struggle for normality in a world of deceit and madness.10 Money starts vanishing: $500 here, $200 there, $800 a couple of weeks later. Where is it? The answers come back vague, nonsensical. Its in the desk at work. A friend borrowed it. It got spent on family dinners, car repairs, loans to in-laws. Exasperated spouses play the sleuth, combing through pockets, wallets, purses, searching the car. Sometimes the incriminating evidence turns up a racing form, lottery scratchers, a map to an Indian casino. Once the secret is uncovered, spouses usually fight the problem alone, bleeding inside, because the stories are too humiliating to share.11 “Anybody who is living with a c o m p u l s i v e g a m b l e r i s t o t a l l y overwhelmed,” says Tom Tucker, president of the California Council on Problem Gambling. “Theyre steeped in anger, resentment, depression, confusion. None of their personal efforts will ever stop a person from their addiction. And they dont really see any hope because compulsive gambling in general is such an under-recognized illness.”12 One Los Angeles woman, whose husband