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Unit 8
Cultivating a Hobby
I. Teaching objectives
1.
Use of
metaphorical language in exposition.
2.
Use of
synonymous expressions for vividness and
effectiveness
3.
Rhetorical use of parallelism.
II
Teaching
time: six class periods
III
Teaching Procedure:
Step 1
Warm-up questions
1.
Do you have
any hobbies? What are they? How did you cultivate
those hobbies?
2.
Do your hobbies do you any good? In
what ways?
3.
Can
you recall to your mind other pieces of classical
works by famous politicians
or
statesmen like Winston Churchill?
4.
How do you
understand the message that Churchill intends to
get across to us in
the present text?
5.
As
we
agree
that
Churchill
argues
for
the
importance
and
significance
of
cultivating
a
rightly
chosen
hobby,
but
he
starts
his
argument
by
giving
a
definition of “worry”, which seems
irrelevant
to the subject
matter of “hobby”.
How
do
you
explain
the
connection
between
the
definition
of
“worry”
and
the
point for argument, i.e. the importance
of cultivating a hobby?
6.
How would you define “worry” and how
does Churchill define “worry”?
7.
What phrases
are used in the first paragraph to refer to the
annoying state of the
mind? What effect
has been achieved by such alternative expressions?
8.
What
expressions are used to
refer to
“hobbies”?
Do
you
see any
difference in
changing the expression?
9.
Why
does
Churchill
classify
as
unfortunate
those
people
who
can
command
everything they
want? Can such people find relief from boredom by
cultivating a
hobby? Why not?
10.
Churchill
further classifies human beings into two classes
in paragraph 5. What
1
are
they?
What
is
the
essential
difference
between
the
two
classes
of
human
beings?
11.
Why is it
particularly important for people whose work is
their pleasure to cultivate a hobby?
Step 2
Relevant information
1.
About Winston
Churchill (1874 - 1965)
1)
A public man having a most colorful
political career:
early career as a
solider, war time correspondent
at 27, (in 1901) as Conservative MP
A
office held
including:
a.
President of the
Board of Trade
（商务部长）
b.
Home Secretary
（内政部长）
c.
First Lord of
the Admiralty
英国海军大臣
d.
Chancellor of
the Exchequer
(1922-24)
（财政部长）
B
a
political
outcast
(for
a
decade
between
late
1920’s
to
1940’s
）
,
not
holding
any
office
(The
Conservative
government
failed
to
cope
with
the
economic
crisis and lost power in 1929.)
C
returning to public life,
(on the outbreak of World War II), serving as the
First Lord of the Admiralty
D
becoming the
Prime
Minister(1940-1945), becoming a
symbol of British
resistance
in
the
darkest
days
of
the
conflict,
as
a
War
Leader,
fighting
against the Nazism
E
defeated in
the General Election of 1945 (ironically)
F
returning to office in
1951
G
finally resigned at
the age of 80 in 1955
2)
A man of
versatile talents
A
a powerful orator
(referring to Workbook p.127, Passage B, to
appreciate
2
the
power of Churchill’s
speech)
B
man of letter
(awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1953)
C
an
amateur painter (paintings were displayed in the
galleries of the Royal
Academy of Arts
in 1958
2.
Materials contributed by students
Winston Churchill in the Second World
War
“I have nothing to offer but my blood,
toil, tears and sweat.” This sentence was said
by Winston Churchill, a famous
politician in British history. He played an
important
role in the Second World War.
After Hitler
came into power in 1933, Churchill thought the
rule of Hitler would
bring a great
damage to the world. He advised British government
to prepare for the
war against Germany.
But because he had no power, so he couldn’t put
his thought
into action.
Then came the year 1940, he was
appointed as Prime minister. In his inauguration
speech,
he
vowed
to
fight
side
by
side
with
his
people
against
Nazism,
and
he
did
what he said.. In 1940, France gave in.
Britain was fiercely destroyed and was alone
facing
such
difficulties.
Churchill
was
determined
and
brave .He
said,
“Though
we
are on the disadvantageous part, we
won’t give in. We will carry through our fight.”
He stimulated his people into new
efforts, and so he received welcome among British
people, who thought he was a great
leader and could lead them to win the war.
Churchill
knew
that
Britain
had
to
cooperate
with
other
countries.
On
the
one
hand, he spared no effort in
reinforcing British army; on the other hand, he
tried hard
to gain support from other
countries. He persuaded America into combating
Germany
and the most important thing
was that, he turned to Soviet Union.
As
is
well
known,
Churchill
was
strongly
against
the
new
socialist
state
in
the
Soviet Union. In the October
Revolution, Churchill was enthusiastic in
repressing the
communist
party
in
the
Soviet
Union.
In
fact,
he
hated
the
socialist
state
in
Soviet
Union in all his life. But in the
Second World War, he suppressed his hatred, and
tried
3
hard to
persuade Soviet Union to become an ally, for the
interest of his country.
At
the same time, Churchill rejected Germany’s advice
for so
-called peace talk.
There
were
a
group
of
people
who
favored
the
proposal.
If
it
had
not
been
for
Churchill’s
determination
in
combating
Germany,
this
gro
up
of
people
might
have
surrendered, and
collaborated with the fascists. So it was sure
that without Churchill,
the
Second
World
War
would
have
ended
in
another
way,
which
might
bring
great
damage to the whole
world.
But
after
the
alliance
between
Britain
and
the
Soviet
Union,
Churchill
trod
another
path.
He
refused
Soviet
Union’s
demand
to
create
the
second
battlefield
against Germany,
and rejected to send troops to help Soviet Union.
Churchill aimed to
shift the
responsibility onto Soviet Union, and let Soviet
Union contribute the most.
Churchill
knew that, if Soviet Union won, it would stimulate
the socialist revolution,
and this
would do no good to him. And so, Churchill had
done many unwise things to
block
the
anti-fascist
war.
He
often
broke
his
promise
in
following
the
agreement
between the
alliances, and so he made the anti-fascist war
become more complex and
more difficult.
Churchill’s actions in the latter part of the war
caused his supporters
diminish. And
maybe this phenomenon was a great cause for his
failure in the election
in 1945.
We can see that during the Second World
War, Churchill played a strange part. In
the
first
part
of
the
war,
he
made
many
contributions,
and
because
of
these
contributions, he was welcomed by all
of his people. In the later part of the war, he
failed British people and did things
that people could not understand. In may conclude
that C
hurchill’s
contributions to the Second World War were his
well
-recognition of
the
threat
from
Germany,
his
determination
in
combating
the
fascist
and
his
enthusiasm in calling on the whole
world to fight against the fascist.
Churchill’s boyhood and college
days
Winston
Churchill
was
born
in
1874
in
Blenheim
Palace
near
Oxford.
This
palace was built for his ancestor the
Duke of Marlborough, a famous soldier, over 100
4
years before.
It is a very large and beautiful house in the
country.
Churchill’s
parents
did not spend much time with him when he was very
young.
They
had
a
lot
of
money
and
paid
a
governess,
a
woman
teacher
who
lived
in
the
house, to look after him until he was
sent to school. Her name was Mrs. Everest and
Winston was very fond of her. In fact,
he kept a photograph of her with him all his
life.
Churchill’s
father
was
called
Lord
Randolph
Churchill.
He
was
rich
and
extravagant and enjoyed going to
parties. His wife was a very beautiful, black-
haired
American girl called Jennie
Jerome. They agreed to marry only three days after
they
had met. It was obviously love at
first sight!
When Churchill was seven
years old, his parents sent him to a private
boarding
school. This is a school where
pupils live, sleep and eat, as well as study
during term
time. Churchill was a
difficult and unhappy child at school. His parents
had no time
for him and they never
visited him. He felt that they did not love him
and he was very
miserable.
He
was
always
quarrelling
with
his
teachers.
He
was
not
interested
in
learning anything. The headmaster was a
cruel man and he used to beat him with a big
stick. It is not surprising that he
hated school.
His parents sent him to
several different schools but it made no
difference. He
was
not
interested
in
learning
and
his
teachers
found
it
impossible
to
teach
him
anything.
When he was
fourteen, Churchill
was sent to an
ancient “public” school. Public
schools
in
England are,
in
fact,
private boarding
schools.
The
family has to
be rich
because
it
costs
a
lot
of
money
to
attend
one
of
these
schools.
The
school
which
Winston attended was called Harrow
School. It was for boys only.
Winston
was just as unhappy at Harrow as he had been at
his other schools and
his work was just
as bad as before. He did not behave as he should
and he was always
one of the worst
pupils in the class.
He used to write
very sad letters to his parents. “Please come and
visit me. I am
very
lonely
and
no-
one
here
is
nice
to
me.”
But
his
parents
always
made
excuses.
They had to go to
an important meeting, or a party, or someone was
coming to visit
5
them. It seemed that they never had
time for their son.
Churchill
was always short of money. “Why can't
they give me some more?” he
asked
himself. “All the boys here have much more money
to spend than me. It's not
fair!
The
other
boys
are
always
going
out,
traveling
and
buying
things
for
themselves!”
Unfortunately,
Winston's
parents
spent
so
much
money
on
the
mselves
that
they never had any left to give to their son.
Whenever his mother felt miserable,
she
would
travel
to
Paris
to
buy
a
new
dress.
She
thought
it
would
make
her
feel
happy again!
Winston did badly in his examinations
at school. “All that the exam
iners want
to
do is find out what
you
don't know. No-one's interested in finding out
what
you do
know!” he
exclaimed.
Winston's
main
hobby
was
playing
with
toy
soldiers.
He
used
to
study
how
famous battles had been fought. His
father found him at home one day, playing with
his soldiers and said, “Would you like
to become a soldier?”
“Yes,
I would,” replied Winston.
“Well, well see what we can do,” said
his father.
After Winston
left Harrow, he was offered a place at Sandhurst,
a very famous
military college. Winston
loved it there. It was all so adventurous, and
learning to be a
soldier was so much
better than sitting on a chair at school all day.
Now that he was
really enjoying the
work that he was doing, Winston worked extremely
hard. When he
finished his training, he
was the eighth best out of 150 students.
Winston's father died in 1895. After
his death, Winston's mother showed a little
more interest in Winston. She was a
very beautiful woman and Winston really loved
and admired her, but
they
were never very close to
one
another and Winston never
really had a
home. His mother soon started going out to parties
again and began to
spend money like
water.
Winston
did
not
feel
that
he
was
a
good-looking
man.
He
had
a
large
head,
a
narrow chest and a round body.
He once wrote from Sandhurst,
“Sometimes my body
feels so heavy
that I can hardly carry it.” Winston
also had difficulties when speaking.
He
often hesitated and could not pronounce his s's
properly.
6
When
he left Sandhurst, Winston became an officer in a
well-known regiment in the British
army. He spent the next three years in
India. Because he was only a young officer, he did
not earn
much money. However, he was
determined to do well. From India he wrote to his
mother, “I hope
my time in India is
successful
. If I do not do well, it
will break my heart. Ambition is all I
have.”
Step 3
Organization of the
text
Section 1 (Para. 1-2):
Raising the topic: what worry is and the
importance of a
hobby in attenuating
worry
Para.1
:
Explaining
the
notion
of
“worry”
by
resorting
to
alternative
expressions:
“insinuate
something
else
into
its
convulsive
grasp”
and
“illumination of another
field of interest”
Para
2
: Making the
thesis
statement: “The cultivation of a hobby and new
forms of interest is therefore a policy
of first importance to a public
man”.
Section
2
(Para.
3-5):
Classification
of
human
beings
and
the
importance
of
hobbies to them
Para.
3-4:Classification of human beings into
three classes:
those who are toiled to death;
those who are
worried to death;
those who
are bored to death.
(
Para.
4
:
For
the
unfortunate
people
who
can
command
everything
they
want, the most hopeful
path is discipline in one form or another.)
Para. 5
:Classification of
rational, industrious, useful human beings into
two
classes and the need of hobbies to
them:
those whose word is
work and whose pleasure is pleasure, and
those whose work and
pleasure are one.
Step 4
Language points
Words and
expressions
1. gifted:
adj.
endowed with great
natural ability, intelligence, or talent;
7
E.g.
a gifted child
a
gifted pianist
2. spasm:
n.
(a) a sudden, involuntary contraction
of a muscle or group of muscles;
(b) a sudden
burst of energy, activity, or emotion
E.g.
a spasm of
the stomach
-
mascular spasm
-a spasm of
anger/co
ughing/grief/excitement
…
3. insinuate:
v.
(a) to introduce (sth)
indirectly and subtly;
(b) to make a
way for sb / sth gently
E.g. to
insinuate (to sb) that a man is a liar
c.f. allude to/ refer to/ insinuate/
proclaim
allude to:
(
fml.
) to make an
indirect reference; to speak of but without going
straight to the point
E.g.
She didn’t say Mr. Smith’s name, but it
is clear that she was alluding to
him.
refer to :
(a) to mention;
to speak about;
e.g. He referred to
Paris in his speech about travel.
(b)
to direct to a source for help or information;
e.g. If you don’t know what it means,
refer to the dictionary.
(c)
to concern; to be directed towards;
e.g. The new law does not refer to land
used for farming.
The store referred
the complaint to the makers of the product.
insinuate:
to suggest (sth
unpleasant) by one’s behaviour
or
question;
E.g.
Are you insinuating that I’m not
telling the truth?
an insinuating
remark
proclaim:
to make
known publicly; declare officially
E.g.
proclaim the news of the end of the war
8
A national holiday was proclaimed.
4. convulsion:
n.
(a) violent irregular
movement of limbs or of the body (caused by
contraction);
(b) violent disturbance
E.g.
a convulsion of nature ( such as an earthquake)
civil convulsion
political
convulsion
5. undue:
adj.
(a)
exceeding what is appropriate or normal;
excessive;
(b) not just, proper, or
legal;
(c) not yet payable or due;
E.g. with undue haste
undue
influence upon sb
undue use of force
an undue loan
6.
recuperate:
get better again after an
illness or injury [+ from]
E.g.
A good night’s sleep was all I needed
to recuperate from the stresses of the
day.
6. hobby:
an activity that you enjoy doing in
your free time
c.f.
pastime/sport/ recreation
pastime:
(a) closer to
“hobby”;
an activity that occupies
one's spare time pleasantly;
(b)
indicating anything done to occupy one’s
leisure;
(c) by implication,
the word suggests activity of little intrinsic
worth
e.g. His painting was merely a
pastime.
sport:
a recreation
or pastime that is primarily a matter of physical
exercise;
e.g. country
sports
recreation:
(a) more
formal than “hobby”;
9