新编英语教程6课件.pptVIP

Unit Ten TEXT IStraight-A Illiteracy  James P. Degnan Pre-reading Activities Warming-up discussions on the next topics:1) What kind of student is a straight-A student? Is he/she generally admired for his/her excellent scholarship?2) What do you think Degnan refers to when he speaks of “straight-A illiteracy”? Don’t you think it paradoxical to call someone a “straight-A illiterate”?3)Why do you think Degnan brings up the subject “straight-A illiteracy”? A Straight-A Student vs.  A straight-A Illiterate A Straight-A Student is a student who gets As for all the courses he/she takes. Yes, he/she is. A straight-A Illiterate is a well-educated person, typically one Ph. D. degree, or working toward it, and with a high I.Q., but disable by long-term exposure to academic jargon to write in clear, plain English. Pleasure principle: Man is both a biological animal and social being. In keeping with his biological endowment, man tends to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. This truism is known as the pleasure principle. (Colliers Encyclopedia) Main Idea: Through description of his own teaching experiences, the writer exposes and condemns the use of professional jargon, which fills the reading materials that highly educated people are forced to read as they pursue their education Organization and Development: Introduction: (P1) The author calls our attention to the straight-A illiteracy. Body: (P2—P4) The author utilizes examples to examine the cause of this illiteracy. way of organizing his essay to attain the aim: In the first paragraph what Degnan does is to define the term straight-A illiteracy, which is highly necessary as it is a phenomenon little thought-of by the general public, and besides, the term itself is apparently paradoxical. Although there seem to be no obvious cohesive ties between the first and the second paragraph, they are closely connected in the sense that in the second parag