standardizeUnit 7 Things The Throw-away Society

2021年1月20日发(作者：点阵图)
Unit 7




Things: The Throw-away Society

I. Teaching objectives
1.

Get the students acquainted with Alvin Toffler and his studies.
2.

Learn something about “future shock” and “futurology”.

3.

Learn more about the method of exposition by illustration and exemplification;
4.

Learn more about the method of comparison and contrast;
5.

Learn to make a clear thesis statement which states both your focus of attention
and your stand on the issue under discussion;
6.

Know
the
different
positions
of
the
thesis,
i.e.,
pre- position,
mid-position,
and
end- position.
7.

Understand the need to restate the thesis/idea (e.g., to keep the discussion coherent,
to make the idea emphatic).

II

Teaching time: six class periods
III

Teaching Procedure:


Step 1

Warm-up Questions
1.

In a piece of expositions / argumentation, there is always a clear controlling idea /
the main idea of the writer. This is the message that the author intends to explain
/illustrate.
We
refer
to
such
main
idea
as
the
“thesis”.
Where
can
we
find
the
thesis of the present article?
2.

What
is
the
most
common
position
of
the
thesis
statement?
Can
you
find
examples from texts we learn?
3.

Is there any advantage for the author to put his thesis statement until he has made
some introductions?
4.

Examine the present text and see how Toffler presents his thesis (i.e., the affluent
modern society is becoming more and more a throw-away society, the underling
cause
of
which
is
that
“man’s
relationship
with
things
are
increasingly
temporary”.).


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Step 2


Relevant information
1. Barbie Doll
the
best- known
/
best-selling
doll,
about
12,000,000;
introduced
in
1959
by
Mattel Inc.; made of plastic; looks like a female teenager (takes the shape of human),
about 12

inches tall.
2. Alvin Toffler

Alvin Toffler is best known for his first international best seller,
Future Shock
,
but has written many books since, including
The Third Wave
, about the massive wave
of
change
we're
going
through
at
the
moment;
unparalleled
in
human
history,
according to Toffler. It's a theme which has dominated his thinking for the past 10 or
15 years.




Alvin
Toffler
has
influenced
and
advised
world
leaders.
He
wrote
about
the
prospects of outsourcing, the communications revolution and corporate restructuring
years
before
anyone
else
cottoned
on.
Toffler
worked
in
factories
after
he
went
to
university, then went into journalism in Washington. But he's really made his mark as
a writer and thinker, always in collaboration with his wife.
The
term
“future
shock”
was
first
used
by
Alvin
Toffler
in
1965
in
an
article
published
in
Horizon.
Toffler
coined
this
term
to
describe
a
state
of
stress
and
disorientation
(the
loss
of
sense
of
direction)
caused
by
too
quick
a
succession
of
changes in society. After that, he spent 5 years visiting scores of universities, research
centers,
laboratories,
and
government
agencies,
reading
countless
articles
and
scientific papers and interviewing hundreds of experts on different aspects of change,
coping behavior, and the future. Then he came to the following two conclusions: First,
“future shock is no lon
ger a distantly potential danger, but a real sickness from which
increasingly
large
numbers
already
suffer.”
Second,
people
know
very
little
about
adaptivity. That is to say, “in the most rapidly changing environment to
which man
has ever been exposed, we
remain pitifully ignorant of how the human animal copes.”

In 1970, Alvin Toffler published the book
Future Shock
. “This is a book about what happens
to people when they are overwhelmed (overcome completely) by change. It is about the ways in
which we adapt
—
or fail to adapt
—to the future.” “The purpose of this book is to help us come to

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terms with the future
—
to help us cope more effectively with both personal and social change by
deepening our understanding of how men respond to it.”


Step 3


Organization of the text
Section
1
(para.
1-3):
introductory
section:
exemplification
(of
Barbie
Doll
in
para. 1 & para. 2) to introduce the thesis statement (para.3)






Para. 1: an illustration to point out a phenomenon that exists today in the USA
–

the widespread popularity of Barbie Doll





Para. 2: more recent news about Barbie Doll
–
trade-in allowance





Para. 3: clearly states Toffler’s idea: “…that man’s relationships with
things
are
increasingly
temporary”
(which
is
the
underlying
cause
for
a
throw-away society, as will be illustrated below)

Section 2 (para. 4
—
6): generalization / elaboration on the thesis statement: the
profusion
of
man-made
objects,
their
importance
to
the
individual
(i.e.,
functional
utility
and
psychological
impact),
and
the
attitudes
induced.
Para. 4: technologically produced environment vs. natural environment (popular
materialism)
Para. 5: functional utility vs. psychological impact on pace of life
Para. 6: contrast in basic value judgments between the new breed of little girls
and their mothers and grandmothers (
comparison and contrast
between past
and future, between societies based on permanence and the new society based
on
transience
–

echoing
the
idea
in
para.
3:
temporary
relationships
between
man and things)

Section 3 (7-12): more examples and illustration to support the argument
Para.
7:
a
long
list
of
throw- away
objects
for
daily
use,
to
illustrate
the
throw-away
culture
in
which
the
younger
generation
are
embedded


3














(Para. 8
—
12: Factors contributing to the throw-away mentality)
Para. 8:

the resistance of the French housewife to use disposable products
(as the idea of using disposable products runs counter to the belief
and
practice
of
people
who
have
long
suffered
from
poverty),
to
show that the throw-away mentality is related to the affluence of a
society
Para. 9: the rapid shift to a throw-away society in Sweden, Japan, England,
and France, to
show (a) The richer
you are, the more likely
you
are to throw away things; and (b) The more advanced the society
is, the more popular is the practice.
Para.
10-12:
the
popularity
of
paper
clothes
(convenient,
economic),
to
show people’s psychological need for throw
-away things and the
trend
to
maintain
a
transient
relationship
between
man
and
man-made objects

Section 4 (para. 13): conclusion: the causal chain
throw
away
products
→
throw
away
mentality

→
a
set
of
radically
altered
values
with
respect
to
property
→
decreased
durations
in
man-
thing relationships → a throw
-away society




Step 4

Language points


Words and expressions
1. adore
: feel great admiration and love for (=IDOLIZE); like very much
E.g. She adored her sister.
People will adore this film.
2. eminent:
(a) distinguished / notable;
(b) (of qualities) remarkable in degree
E.g. The bishop is eminent for his piety and good works.
The general is eminent for valor.
Those who attended the seminar are mostly men eminent in science, learning

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and art.


c.f.
eminence



E.g
. to rise to eminence in one’s profession

to achieve eminence
to attain eminence in mathematics
to reach eminence as a doctor (statesman, writer)
a man of great scientific eminence
a poet of eminence





a man of international musical eminence

3. wear:

n.
clothing, especially of a particular kind or for a particular use. Often used
in combination.
E.g. foot wear/sports wear/swim wear
4. version:

n.
(a) a particular form or variation of an earlier or original type ( in the



text, it means a new model of Barbie Doll); (b) a description or an account from one
point of view, especially as opposed to another. (c) an adaptation of a work of art or
literature into another medium or style.
E.g. Let me have your own version of the affair / story / event.
There have been different versions of the tale.
a stage / movie / screen version of the novel

5. humanoid:
adj.
having human forms or characteristics; humanlike;
“
-
noid
”: “
-
like”

6. trade-in allowance:
the amount of money a shop deducts from the price of a new
thing which a customer buys when he turns in to the shop an old thing
7. turn in
vs.
trade in
turn
sth
in:

(a)
to
give
back
(something
no
longer
needed,
such
as
unwanted
tickets, goods, official clothing); (b) stop doing sth; abandon sth
turn sb in:
hand sb over to the police to be arrested
E.g. Tickets may be turned in at the box office, or exchanged for ones for the new

5
show.
Don’t forget to turn in your gun when you leave the police force.

The escaped criminal decided to turn himself in.


trade in:
(
AmE
) to exchange (goods) for part of the value (of a newer object)
E.g. Will the dealer allow us to trade in the car for the latest model?
Some
manufacturers
of
washing
machines
allow
their
customers
to
trade
in
old ones for technological improved ones.

8. matter to / for:
to be important to
E.g. Does it matter to you what people say?



My health matters more to my doctor than to my family.
9. texture:
degree of roughness or smoothness, coarseness or fineness of a material
E.g
. to feel the texture of one’s garments

coarse / fine / light texture
clothes of loose / close texture
be of fine texture

10. iridescent:

adj.
showing colors like those of the rainbow; changing color as light
falls from different directions;
c.f.
glister
: reflected light


luminous
: reflected stars


gleaming
: reflected sunlight. e.g., the skyscraper’s gleaming wall of glass

glisten
(v.): (a) shine or sparkle, usually because it is smooth, wet, or oily.




















E.g. His face glistened with sweat.
…gold sovereigns glistening in the sunlight

glistening lips
(b) (of eyes) be bright and express a particular emotion












E.g. His eyes glisten with contempt.
11. staggering:
stunning, wondrous, breathtaking
12. cityscape:
a view of a city; city scenery;

6
13. materialist:
A materialist is someone who wants a lot of money and possessions
and believes that these are the only important things in life.



E.g.

A lot of people are prepared to turn their back on the materialist way of life.

14. deride:
v.
to laugh at contemptuously; to show scorn
n.
derision
c.f.: ridicule/mock
: all mean to make a person or thing the object of laughter
ridicule
:
implies
deliberate
and
often
malicious
belittling
of
the
person
or
thing ridiculed


E.g. The man who wants to preserve his personal identity is ridiculed as an
eccentric.
deride
: implies a bitter or contemptuous spirit


E.g.
He
took
his
revenge
on
the
fate
that
had
made
him
sad
by
fiercely
deriding everything.
mock
:
stresses
scornful
derision
and
usually
implies
words
or
gestures
or
sometimes acts expressive of one’s defiance or contempt



E.g. Nowhere can men be entirely happy while
human nature is still being
mocked and tortured on other parts of the globe.

15. functional utility
: useful in practice; quality of being useful; (utility=usefulness)
c.f.
utilize

v.
/
utilitarian
n.

utility
(countable noun): an important service such as water, electricity, or gas that
is provided for everyone, and that everyone pays for
E.g. the development of roads and utilities
16:
foreshorten:

to
show
/
portray
(an
object)
with
the
apparent
shortening
due
to
visual perspective

17. disintegrate:
break apart
18.
transience:

(
fml
.)
When
there
is
transience
in
a
society,
situation,
etc,
people’s
arrangements
tend
to
last
only
a
short
time,
because
the
society
is
changing

7
rapidly
transient:
= fleeting

e.g. a transient phase
19. at a rapid clip
: at a fast speed

20. inextricably:
inescapably; unavoidably
21.

be
embedded
in:

(a)
to
be
fixed
firmly
in;
(b)
so
deeply
involved
that
it
is
impossible to get free
E.g. The magic sword was embedded in the stone.
A piece of broken metal had embedded itself in his leg when he was wounded
in the war.
I had such strange ideas about you embedded in my mind.
The study of culture is embedded in a language class.

22.

run counter to
: to conflict with; to be opposite to
E.g
. The government’s action run
s counter to their election promises.



grain
: the natural arrangement of the lines of fibre in wood, etc., as seen on the
surface what has been sawn
木材等的纹理

run counter to the grain
or
go against the grain
: be contrary to one’s inclination
or disposition

23.

be steeped in:
(a) to soak in liquid in order to cleanse, soften, or extract a given
property from; (b) to give one’s whole attention; fill something
with a quality.
E.g. If the clothes are very dirty, steep them in soapy water over night.



I have to write a paper on Eugene O’Neill, so first I must steep myself in his
book.



Xi’an is a place that is steeped in history.


24.

be astounded by
vs.
be awed by

be astounded by
: to be shocked with surprises
E.g. Although small, he showed astounding strengths.
He was astounded when he heard he had won.

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