新标准大英语综合教程4-unit2.doc

Unit 2 Active reading (1) Danger! Books may change your life Culture points Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) is the pen-name of Charles Dodgson. He was a priest, a mathematician who taught at Oxford University, a photographer, humorist and writer of children’s literature. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) was immediately successful, a masterpiece which revolutionized children’s literature, giving coherence and logic through wit and humour to unlikely or impossible episodes in which imaginary creatures embody recognizable human characteristics. He is also known for Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there (1871) and nonsense poems, such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876). William Cowper (1731–1800): a notable English poet, writer of hymns and letter-writer. He wrote gentle, pious, direct poems about everyday rural life and scenes of the countryside which have been seen as forerunners of the Romantic movement: Coleridge called Cowper “the best modern poet”. He translated Homer’s Greek epics. The Odyssey and The Iliad into English. Another example of his verses which have become common sayings is “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform…” John Steinbeck (1902–1968): American novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a well-known, long tragic novel about an American family of farmers who are driven off their land in Oklahoma by soil erosion in the famous “dust bowl” era. They flee to California to what they hope will be a better life. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film in 1940. Other well-known novels include Of Mice and Men (1937), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden (1952) and an account of a personal rediscovery of America, Travels with Charlie (1962). John Irving (1942– ): American novelist and screenwriter who taught English at college and was a wrestling coach. The Fourth Hand (2001) is a comic-satirical novel about a TV journalist, Wallington, whose h