Unit 13 Christmas
? Contents
? I Background
? II Questions
? III Text structure
? IV The Writing style
? V Language points
? VI Discussion
? VII Homework
I Background
? About the author,
Floyd Dell (1887—
1969 ),U.S,versatile
and prolific writer and
an editor for several
newspapers and
magazines,
“Christmas” is an
excerpt from his
Homecoming— An
Autobiography (1933).
About the author
? Floyd Dell was born on 28th June,1887 in Pike
County,Missouri,His father,Anthony Dell,found
it difficult to find regular work and the family
experienced a great deal of poverty,At school
Dell developed a love of reading,He later
claimed that it was books by William Morris and
Frank Norris helped convert him to socialism,At
sixteen,he joined the Socialist Party and gave
speeches on street-corners about his political
beliefs,He also produced material for a small
Socialist monthly,Tri-City Workers' Magazine,
About the author
? Dell believed that the everyday life of the middle and
working classes provided subjects worthy of serious
literary treatment,Dell valued authenticity and accuracy
of detail and welcomed those like Russell and Phillips
who wanted to use literature to bring about social reform,
? Dell,like most of the people working with The Masses,
was opposed to USA involvement in the WWW I,After
the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917,
The Masses came under government pressure to
change its policy,When it refused to do this,the journal
lost its mailing privileges,
About the author
? After the war Dell published the best-selling
autobiographical novel,Moon-Calf (1920),Other
novels such as The Briary-Bush (1921),Janet
Marsh (1923) and Runaway (1925),were less
successful,
As well as writing for the left-wing magazines
such as the New Masses (1924-39) Dell
produced several non-fictional works including
Upton Sinclair (1927),Love in the Machine Age
(1930) and an autobiography,Homecoming
(1933),Floyd Dell died in 1969,
II Questions
? 1,What association of ideas does the word bring
to you?
? 2,How do people in the West usually celebrate
Christmas?
? 3,How did the child react to what the Sunday
Scholl superintendent said?
? 4,Why wouldn’t the child’s mother look
distressed when she learned that he had written
his name on the envelope?
? 5,What are your impressions of the child?
III Text Structure
? The text can be divided into six parts:
? Part one(Line1—30 ),Those were hard times,poor children did not
have enough to eat,The boy brought food and money to Sunday
school as he was told,
? Part two (Line31—46):The boy left school,He was anxious and
frightened when Christmas is approaching,
? Part three (Line 47—58),On Christmas Eve,the family was in the
queer mood,
? Part four (Line 59—74),The boy began to be aware of the family’s
plight.
? Part five (Line 75—84),The boy felt the cold emotion of renunciation.
? Part six (Line 85—89),The second morning the boy received the
present,but he no longer desired anything.
IV The Writing Style
? The story is told in the first person by the child himself,It
is informal in style and reflects a child’s thinking and
manner of expression,
? 1) The writer uses plain words,simple,unadorned
sentences,short paragraphs,simple grammatical
structures an clear and straightforward statements,He
concentrates on narrating events with a minimum
amount of comment and description.
? 2) The style is distinctly conversational in tone.
? 3) A considerable number of sentences begin with And
or But to show the boy’s attempts at narrative,
? 4) The writer produces a certain tension in the narrative
by keeping the boy in the dark about his own plight while
the reader is all the time being told the truth about it,
V Language points
? 1,Hard times,times of money shortage,unemployment
and times when the poor suffer a great deal,Times,
when plural,is used to refer to the conditions of life,the
circumstances of a period characterized by certain
qualities,or a period of time,more or less definite,
associated with certain events,circumstances,etc.,e.g.,
terrible times,bad times,prehistoric times,the good,old
times,The hard times mentioned in this excerpt most
probably refer to 1893,when the United States suffered
from a severe and prolonged depression,
? 2,I supposed the poor children’s mothers would make
potato soup out of them.
? …out of —with (a material)/from (a material)
Language points
? More examples:
? Scarlet made herself a pretty dress out of the curtain
material.
? The stool was made out of the bits of wood the furniture
factory had disposed of.
My father was out of work and we hadn’t any money,
e.g,The enemy surrendered as they ran out of rice,water
and ammunition,
He was out of breath when he climbed to the top of the
mountain without stopping.
Language points
3,She wouldn’t tell me how much money she had put in it,
but it felt like several dimes.
feel like —seem like when touched
e.g.,In pitch darkness when the wounded soldier touched
the ground,it felt like water everywhere,Early next
morning,his comrades-in-arms found him lying in a pool
of blood,
On Christmas Day my uncle gave me a parcel which
contained something that felt like bars of chocolate,
Feel like (doing) sth,means be inclined to do something,
Peter is down with measles,He does not feel like eating
anything.
Language points
? 4,Some expressions and saying related to poverty:
? 1) live hand-to-mouth
? 2) eke out a living
? 3) make both ends meet
? 4) tighten one’s belt
? 5) Poverty is no sin,
? 6) Poverty is not a shame,but feeling ashamed of it is.
? 7) lead a dog’s life
? 8) be in financial straits
? 9) be in a wretched plight
Language points
? 5,up in the left-hand
corner—Another way
of saying this is,in
the upper left-hand
corner” 在左上角。
? 6） Quincy-- a
suburban town near
Boston，
Massachusetts
Language points
? 7,the Santa Clauses and holly wreaths in the
advertisements—In Western countries,during the
Christmas season,there are always pictures of Santa
Claus and holly wreaths in the advertisements,Santa
Claus is an imaginary old man in read clothes with a long
white beard,believed by children to come down the
chimney on Christmas Eve to put presents in their
stockings,The holly wreath is a ring of holly,an
evergreen shrub with prickly leaves,small green flowers,
and red berries,It might be said that Santa Claus and
holly wreaths are symbols of Christmas.
Language points
? 8,I didn’t want my father to have to keep
on being funny about it—The two
infinitives used here may seem confusing,
The fact the boy was referring to was that
his father,had to keep on acting strangely”
about it,but the boy did not want his father
to do so,
Language points
? 9,My body knew before my mind quite did,
This sentence sums up the ideas
expressed in the preceding paragraph,
The boy was numb,He felt as if he had
been hit by something,He found it hard to
breathe,And he ached all over,When the
pain in his body was gone,his mind began
to work out the truth,and he was greatly
shocked.
Language points
? Ann Arbor is a very
beautiful city which
attracts tourists from all
over the world each year,
The education there is
good,hence many people
would like to have their
children attend the
schools there,esp,the
University of Michigan.
? 10,Ann Arbor,the site of
the University of Michigan,
one of the best-known
universities in the United
States,It had been the
boy’s wish to go to Ann
Arbor to attend the
University.
University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor
VI Discussion
? 1,Discuss the boy’s life as reflected in the
text,Why does not he know the real
picture of the life?
? 2,How did his parents reveal the practical
life to the boy?
? 3,What do you feel after you read this
story?
Homework
? 1,Finish the exercise in the workbook.
? 2,Surf on line and find out the author’s
autobiography,Then express the main
idea of it.
? 3,Imitate the author’s writing style,and
give account of one event happened in
your childhood.
? Contents
? I Background
? II Questions
? III Text structure
? IV The Writing style
? V Language points
? VI Discussion
? VII Homework
I Background
? About the author,
Floyd Dell (1887—
1969 ),U.S,versatile
and prolific writer and
an editor for several
newspapers and
magazines,
“Christmas” is an
excerpt from his
Homecoming— An
Autobiography (1933).
About the author
? Floyd Dell was born on 28th June,1887 in Pike
County,Missouri,His father,Anthony Dell,found
it difficult to find regular work and the family
experienced a great deal of poverty,At school
Dell developed a love of reading,He later
claimed that it was books by William Morris and
Frank Norris helped convert him to socialism,At
sixteen,he joined the Socialist Party and gave
speeches on street-corners about his political
beliefs,He also produced material for a small
Socialist monthly,Tri-City Workers' Magazine,
About the author
? Dell believed that the everyday life of the middle and
working classes provided subjects worthy of serious
literary treatment,Dell valued authenticity and accuracy
of detail and welcomed those like Russell and Phillips
who wanted to use literature to bring about social reform,
? Dell,like most of the people working with The Masses,
was opposed to USA involvement in the WWW I,After
the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917,
The Masses came under government pressure to
change its policy,When it refused to do this,the journal
lost its mailing privileges,
About the author
? After the war Dell published the best-selling
autobiographical novel,Moon-Calf (1920),Other
novels such as The Briary-Bush (1921),Janet
Marsh (1923) and Runaway (1925),were less
successful,
As well as writing for the left-wing magazines
such as the New Masses (1924-39) Dell
produced several non-fictional works including
Upton Sinclair (1927),Love in the Machine Age
(1930) and an autobiography,Homecoming
(1933),Floyd Dell died in 1969,
II Questions
? 1,What association of ideas does the word bring
to you?
? 2,How do people in the West usually celebrate
Christmas?
? 3,How did the child react to what the Sunday
Scholl superintendent said?
? 4,Why wouldn’t the child’s mother look
distressed when she learned that he had written
his name on the envelope?
? 5,What are your impressions of the child?
III Text Structure
? The text can be divided into six parts:
? Part one(Line1—30 ),Those were hard times,poor children did not
have enough to eat,The boy brought food and money to Sunday
school as he was told,
? Part two (Line31—46):The boy left school,He was anxious and
frightened when Christmas is approaching,
? Part three (Line 47—58),On Christmas Eve,the family was in the
queer mood,
? Part four (Line 59—74),The boy began to be aware of the family’s
plight.
? Part five (Line 75—84),The boy felt the cold emotion of renunciation.
? Part six (Line 85—89),The second morning the boy received the
present,but he no longer desired anything.
IV The Writing Style
? The story is told in the first person by the child himself,It
is informal in style and reflects a child’s thinking and
manner of expression,
? 1) The writer uses plain words,simple,unadorned
sentences,short paragraphs,simple grammatical
structures an clear and straightforward statements,He
concentrates on narrating events with a minimum
amount of comment and description.
? 2) The style is distinctly conversational in tone.
? 3) A considerable number of sentences begin with And
or But to show the boy’s attempts at narrative,
? 4) The writer produces a certain tension in the narrative
by keeping the boy in the dark about his own plight while
the reader is all the time being told the truth about it,
V Language points
? 1,Hard times,times of money shortage,unemployment
and times when the poor suffer a great deal,Times,
when plural,is used to refer to the conditions of life,the
circumstances of a period characterized by certain
qualities,or a period of time,more or less definite,
associated with certain events,circumstances,etc.,e.g.,
terrible times,bad times,prehistoric times,the good,old
times,The hard times mentioned in this excerpt most
probably refer to 1893,when the United States suffered
from a severe and prolonged depression,
? 2,I supposed the poor children’s mothers would make
potato soup out of them.
? …out of —with (a material)/from (a material)
Language points
? More examples:
? Scarlet made herself a pretty dress out of the curtain
material.
? The stool was made out of the bits of wood the furniture
factory had disposed of.
My father was out of work and we hadn’t any money,
e.g,The enemy surrendered as they ran out of rice,water
and ammunition,
He was out of breath when he climbed to the top of the
mountain without stopping.
Language points
3,She wouldn’t tell me how much money she had put in it,
but it felt like several dimes.
feel like —seem like when touched
e.g.,In pitch darkness when the wounded soldier touched
the ground,it felt like water everywhere,Early next
morning,his comrades-in-arms found him lying in a pool
of blood,
On Christmas Day my uncle gave me a parcel which
contained something that felt like bars of chocolate,
Feel like (doing) sth,means be inclined to do something,
Peter is down with measles,He does not feel like eating
anything.
Language points
? 4,Some expressions and saying related to poverty:
? 1) live hand-to-mouth
? 2) eke out a living
? 3) make both ends meet
? 4) tighten one’s belt
? 5) Poverty is no sin,
? 6) Poverty is not a shame,but feeling ashamed of it is.
? 7) lead a dog’s life
? 8) be in financial straits
? 9) be in a wretched plight
Language points
? 5,up in the left-hand
corner—Another way
of saying this is,in
the upper left-hand
corner” 在左上角。
? 6） Quincy-- a
suburban town near
Boston，
Massachusetts
Language points
? 7,the Santa Clauses and holly wreaths in the
advertisements—In Western countries,during the
Christmas season,there are always pictures of Santa
Claus and holly wreaths in the advertisements,Santa
Claus is an imaginary old man in read clothes with a long
white beard,believed by children to come down the
chimney on Christmas Eve to put presents in their
stockings,The holly wreath is a ring of holly,an
evergreen shrub with prickly leaves,small green flowers,
and red berries,It might be said that Santa Claus and
holly wreaths are symbols of Christmas.
Language points
? 8,I didn’t want my father to have to keep
on being funny about it—The two
infinitives used here may seem confusing,
The fact the boy was referring to was that
his father,had to keep on acting strangely”
about it,but the boy did not want his father
to do so,
Language points
? 9,My body knew before my mind quite did,
This sentence sums up the ideas
expressed in the preceding paragraph,
The boy was numb,He felt as if he had
been hit by something,He found it hard to
breathe,And he ached all over,When the
pain in his body was gone,his mind began
to work out the truth,and he was greatly
shocked.
Language points
? Ann Arbor is a very
beautiful city which
attracts tourists from all
over the world each year,
The education there is
good,hence many people
would like to have their
children attend the
schools there,esp,the
University of Michigan.
? 10,Ann Arbor,the site of
the University of Michigan,
one of the best-known
universities in the United
States,It had been the
boy’s wish to go to Ann
Arbor to attend the
University.
University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor
VI Discussion
? 1,Discuss the boy’s life as reflected in the
text,Why does not he know the real
picture of the life?
? 2,How did his parents reveal the practical
life to the boy?
? 3,What do you feel after you read this
story?
Homework
? 1,Finish the exercise in the workbook.
? 2,Surf on line and find out the author’s
autobiography,Then express the main
idea of it.
? 3,Imitate the author’s writing style,and
give account of one event happened in
your childhood.
