综合教程6unit12解析.doc

Unit 12: Disney World: Cities of Simulation as Postmodern Utopias TEXT COMPREHENSION IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text. …if the great myth … of America is the story of progress, then Disney World serves as the happy ending in which progress reaches the ideal state of utopia that goes beyond the limits of our physical world and changes the decadent state of nature, society and ourselves. … it does so by inviting us to return to an age of childhood happiness and innocence before we became aware of the harsh realities of life when we had no knowledge of the difficult truths of the people and society. LANGUAGE WORK I. Explain the underlined parts in each sentence in your own words. 1). On the thrill rides, they defy gravity, moving at speeds and in ways that seem to violate what common sense tells them should be possible. ? refuse to obey; act against 2). The effect is not unlike participating in a 365-day-a-year holiday, in which negative emotions are banished from life. ? taking part in 3). In Disney World, we transcend the mundane. ? go beyond the uninteresting everyday world 4). In all this, Disney undoes the dry “scientism” of the world view of contemporary societies. ? works against/reverses the effect of; present-day 5). ... we could realistically hope that technology would usher in an age of affluence ... ? lead in/bring in; prosperity 6). Disney World is a place that masquerades as the happy ending, in which progress culminates in a utopia of transcendence that undoes the fallen state of nature, society and ourselves. ? disguise itself as/appears to be; ends in 7). But unlike most others, which were rendered in fiction or put into practice in small communities, in Disney, a perfect world is seemingly brought to life with simulation and offered as a vacation paradise. ? presented; made more real and exciting 8). But it does so by inviting us to regress to a state of happiness before the fall from childhood, with si