The Most Dangerous Game现代大学英语课件.ppt

II. Introductions 1. Note 1 to the Text ( P. 269 ) 2. About the Story This story is often used by teachers in the United States to illustrate the important features of good fiction: a dramatic plot, vivid characterization and beautiful description. In the West, many people—mostly males, are greatly attracted to hunting. They kill animals and birds for sport. Indeed for many people, human society is nothing but a hunting ground, ruled by the law of the jungle, and the people are divided into the strong and the weak, the fit and the unfit, the hunters and the hunted, who are all engaged in the fierce struggle for survival. The rich and the powerful, like General Zaroff and Rainsford, too, have always regarded themselves as born hunters. To them, to hunt the weak down, exploit them, overpower them, capture them and enslave them, or even kill them, is merely an interesting game. But just as the story shows, hunting human beings is the most dangerous game because in this game, the hunter can suddenly turn into the hunted, and the victimizer can suddenly become the victim. do but swim in the direction of a spot in the distance which he had noticed a moment ago. Luckily for him, just when he was exhausted, his feet touched the bottom and he found himself on a small island where he met the only inhabitants, General Zaroff and his servant. The general lives in a French chateau, and treats Rainsford as a distinguished guest. At dinner, he tells Rainsford his story. Zaroff was a Cossack general in Czarist Russia. After the Russian revolution in 1917 he fled the country and traveled from country to country, as he was an avid hunter and liked to hunt every kind of big game. captured sailors from wrecked ships to serve as game. He even trained his captives so that they would become experienced in living in the jungle and could give him a greater challenge when he hunted them. None of those poor sailors had survived the game. Now Rainsford is on his island,