rip是什么意思大学思辨英语精读备课Unit3

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Preparatory Work

(1) According to Britannica, Luigi Pirandello was winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize for

Literature.

With

his

invention

of

the

“theatre

within

the

theatre”

in

the

play

Seipersonaggi

in

cercad’autore

(1921;

Six

Characters

in

Search

of

an

Author

),

he

became

an

important

innovator

in

modern

drama.

Influenced

by

his

catastrophic

personal experiences, he developed a literary style characterized by “the exploration

of the tightly closed world of the forever changeabl

e human personality” (Britannica).

“War”

reflects

this

style

of

psychological

realism,

for

instead

of

depicting

external

circumstances of the Great War, it chooses to underline the cruelty of war from the

perspective of the soldiers’ anxious, grieving pare

nts.

(2) The story was set in a train carriage at dawn. The war referred to in the story is

most

probably

World

War

I,

for

during

this

war

the

author

himself

was

a

psychologically tormented father, both of whose sons were captured as prisoners of

war.

The

World

War

I

was

an

international

conflict

that

resulted

from

clashes

of

interest

among

the

world’s

economic

great

powers

assembled

in

two

opposing

alliances,

the

Allies

(including

the

United

Kingdom/British

Empire,

France

and

the

Russian Empire) versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy

was

a

member

of

the

Triple

Alliance

alongside

Germany

and

Austria-Hungary,

though it did

not

join

the Central

Powers

(Willmott

15). It

is

generally believed by

historians that

World War

I

was

“virtuall

y

unprecedented in

the slaughter,

carnage,

and

destruction

it

caused”

(Britannica).

It

led

to

the

fall

of

four

great

imperial

dynasties (Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik

Revolution

in

Russia,

and,

in

its

destabilization

of

European

society,

laid

the

groundwork for World War II.

(3) Common symptoms of grief caused by bereavement include wistfulness, lethargy,

hysteria,

depression

and

so

forth.

According

to

the

psychologist

Elisabeth

Kü

bler-

Ross, people who have lost someone close usually go through five emotional stages:

denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

(4) Luigi

/lu?id?

i/

Perande llo

/?p?

r

?n?d?

lo

?; Italian ?pi r

ɑ

n?d?

ll

?

/

Fabriano/Italian

?

fabri

?

a

?

< br>no/

Sulmona /Italian sul

?

mona/

Critical Reading

I. Understanding the text

1.

(1) Their argument was about what attitude parents should take towards their children

going to war and killed in action. Of the passengers, the fat man appeared to have

the

strongest

argument,

who

suggested

that

parents

should

withhold

their

own

grief and feel proud and happy about their children who laid down their lives for

the Country.

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Unit 3 Bereavement and Grief

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(2) In Paragraphs 15 and 16, he is described as a “fat, red

-faced man with blood-shot

eyes

of

the

palest

gray”,

who

was

“panting”,

and

“from

[whose]

bulging

eyes

seemed

to

spurt

inner

violence

of

an

uncontrolled

vitality

which

his

weakened

body could hardl

y contain”. In Paragraph 17, it is revealed that his two front teeth

are missing. His eyes are once again mentioned in Paragraph 29, described to be

“bulging, horribly watery light grey”.

These physical traits might suggest that the fat man was in poor health, and was

grief-

stricken by his son’s death.

(3) The woman asked the question of the fat man because she was awed by his stoic

response

to

his

son’s

death.

She

found

it

extremely

diff

icult

to

cope

with

her

anxiety over her son’s departure for the front, and wished to confirm the fat man’s

feelings so that she might derive some strength from his example. She was the one

who asked the question, rather than one of the other passengers, because she,as a

focalized character whose inner consciousness was explored at great length, was

trying to emphasize with the fat man. The fat man reacted strongly to this question,

stupefied,

brought

into

painful

awareness

of

his

son’s

death,

and

reduced

to

uncontrollable

sobs.

This

reaction

indicates

that

the

fat

man,

instead

of

calmly

accepting the fact of his son’s death as he claimed, had been desperately rejecting

this horrible idea.

2.

(1) F(2) F(3) T(4) T

3.

(1) D(2) A(3) A

II. Critiquing the Text

(1) Instead of giving direct description of war action, the story depicts the emotional

turmoil on the part of the soldiers’ parents. The author intends to send a message

about

the

cruelty

of

war,

by

showing

that

war

imposes

great

suffering

in

more

ways than one, not only on the soldiers who go to the battlefield, but also on their

parents who are extremely worried about their safety and may have to endure the

pain of loss.

(2) The fat,

red-faced man started his

part of the argument by putting a stop

to the

other passengers’ debate over the correlation between the intensity of the parents’

anxiety and the number of children they have on the battlefield. He insisted that

parents gave life to their children not for their own benefit, and that they should

r

espect their children’s wish to go to the front. He ended his argument by claiming

that parents

should accept

their children’s death on the battlefield without

grief,

showing that he himself chose not to wear mourning for his son.

His argument is inconsistent, for at first he mentions all the glamour of youthful

life, including “girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties”, but then he talks about dying

“young and happy”, “without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of it, the

pettiness,

the

bitterness

of

disillusion”.

The

latter

statement

overlooks

the

good

sides of life mentioned in the former one. His argument is also somewhat illogical,

because

the

awareness

that

children

do

not

belong

to

their

parents

does

not

necessarily

lead

to

the

conclusion

that

parents

should

not

grieve

over

their

children’s death. Therefore, the reason he gave for not grieving was unconvincing.

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His

pause

and

hesitation

in

the

middle

of

the

sentence

“Our

sons

are

born

because…well, because they must be born” might be seen as a rev

elation of his

checked impulse to articulate his paternal affection. It is as if he were to blurt out

“Our sons are born because we love them”. He refrained from saying something

like this probably for fear that he could not check his emotion once letting it out.

(3) When he mentioned “girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties”, he was referring to the

elements

of

youthful

life

that

were

more

alluring

to

young

people

than

their

parents’ affection. He was trying to say that young people had so much to enjoy

that their lives would never be centered around their parents. His thoughts about

being

young

can

barely

support

his

subsequent

view

that

there

should

be

no

mourning for someone who died young and happy. On the contrary, the fact that

young people have many good things in store for them makes their death all the

more lamentable.

(4)

The

fat

man’s

feeling

for

the

“Country”

was

more

likely

to

be

a

cliché

conveniently used to advance his argument, for he used the “if” clause instead of

stating

it

as

a

matter

of

course.

This

indicates

his

awareness

that

the

Country

being a natural necessity is merely a popular notion. However, there might be an

element of sincerity in his feelings for the “Country”, as he repeatedly spoke of

“decent boys” that chose to fight for

their country. But on the whole, the notion

of

the

Country

might

just

be

a

convenient

platitude

to

veil

or

suppress

his

bitterness about his son’s death.

(5) The reasons offered by the fat man when he said a young man could die happy

were poorly grounded and hardly convincing. He was indeed trying to rationalize

the

death

of

his

son,

so

as

to

assuage

his

pain

of

bereavement,

but

the

rationalization was too

fragile to be of any comfort to him. The son might have

mixed

feelings

about

his

father’s

words.

On

the

one

hand,

he

might

be

able

to

understand

his

father’s

inner

struggle,

but

on

the

other,

he

might

feel

uncomfortable about his father saying he died satisfied.

(6) The question is considered “silly” and “incongruous” from the passengers’ point

of

view.

In

the

eyes

of

other

passengers,

the

fat

man

already

made

his

point

clearly,

and

the

woman

appeared

absent-minded.

Her

question

was

considered

silly

because

the

answer

was

already

evident.

And

it

would

seem

incongruous

with the whole atmosphere. While other passengers were voicing their agreement

with the fat man, the woman’s question was abrupt and unexpected.

This point of view has an emotional effect th

at reinforces the fat man’s loneliness.

He

had

to

battle

with

his

emotional

turmoil

all

on

his

own,

with

all

the

other

people believing he was coping really well.

(7) All these four definitions are common denotations of the word patriotism, which is

a controversial notion. It is morally valuable, for it can arouse noble sentiments of

heroism within people and unite them together as a whole nation. But whether it

should be mandatory is disputable, for it may be pushed to an extreme and require

people

to

sa

crifice

their

personal

interest

for

the

“greater

good”

that

might

sometimes be questionable.

(8) One possible version:

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