Unit 11 综合英语.pptVIP

Letter to a B Student Robert Oliphant Pre-reading Questions 1. What grades do you mostly get for the English courses you have been taking? Are you happy or are you disappointed with the grades you get? 2. Imagine yourself to be a teacher and that you are to write a letter to a student who is disappointed with the grades he gets. What would you say to him in the letter? About the Author And the author’s purpose is to tell the student what a grade really means and what it doesn’t. Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Oliphant studied Commerce and Finance at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1978, with a Bachelor of Commerce. While at university he rowed on the Men’s Varsity Rowing Crew, was involved in music and student politics. Upon graduating from U of T, he returned to Sault Ste. Marie and worked at Algoma Steel as an accountant in computer systems development. Oliphant lives in Cabbagetown, Toronto with his husband, Marco Fiola, a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Ryerson University. Oliphant married Fiola in 2005, soon after same sex marriage was legalized in Canada. Structural Analysis The text is taken from a letter which is from a teacher to a student. But it is incomplete with only the first half of it. It is composed of four parts and the main idea of each part is as follows: Part 1(Paragraph 1): Introduction to the topic of the letter Pert II (Paragraph 2-5): Grades do not mean anything Part III (Paragraph 6-8): Getting a B in class does not mean one will always be a B performer in life. Part IV (Paragraph 9-10): In a complex society like ours, labels are necessary but they should be kept in perspective. The 1st paragraph serves as an introduction, which introduces the topic of the letter. The rest of the text falls into three parts, each of which is marked at the beginning by a key word or words. 1. What change about grades has the writer mentioned briefly? 2. What, according to the writer, has caused the change