《英语学习》Unit 5.pptVIP

Unit 5 Naming customs Contents Part I: More information about the Text Part II: More skills about Practical Writing Part III: Practice makes perfect--- Practical training Part I More information about the Text 1).Naming a child a. China b. Europe or America c. Western Africa 2). a song — Loneliness knows me by name 3). ATT Language Line Naming a child China In Chinese culture, a person’s name has an important role to play in determining his/her destiny. Because of this, Chinese parents will often spend a long time choosing their child’s name. A typical Chinese name has three words, in principle these are the family name, a name indicating the child’s generation and a personal name, though often the second ‘principle’ is not followed. Naming a child must take into consideration five principles: the name must have a favourable meaning (particularly favoured are meanings reflecting wealth or well-being) and names with negative possibilities should be avoided, the name must sound pleasant when spoken, the name must reflect favourable mathematical calculations, it must be harmonious with regard to yin and yang, and it must possess one of the five elements of metal, water, wood, fire and wood. When written, each Chinese name has a certain number of brush strokes, and each character’s number of brush strokes corresponds to a certain element. A two stroke character is associated with wood, three and four stroke fire, five and six strokes earth and nine and ten strokes water. The total number of strokes in a name can determine a persons fortune: for example twelve strokes bespeaks a life of illness and failure, while 81 strokes presages prosperity and a happy future. Europe or America For those who live a normal life in Europe or America, they have a given name their parents decided on and a family name or surname which they took from their father, who took the name f