大学英语精读u why i teach.pptxVIP

Unit Three Why I TeachPeter G. BeidlerBackground InformationRalph Waldo EmersonAmerican philosopher and writer (1830-1882)Ralph Waldo Emerson was a leader of the philosophical movement of transcendentalism (先验说, 超越论). His essays had a strong influence on both American and European readers and writers in their study of man’s relation to life. In a speech entitled “the American Scholar,” he called upon American students to “Know Thyself” and “Study Nature. ” In the essay “Self-Reliance” he stresses the importance of sturdy independence in thought and action. Background Information Henry David Thoreau American writer, philosopher, and naturalist (1817-1862) Born in Concord, Thoreau was educated at Harvard University. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, he taught school and tutored in Concord and on Staten Island, New York. After graduation from Harvard University in 1837, Thoreau started a school that was perhaps the first in America to introduce field trips for nature study. In 1845 he built a small cabin at Walden Pond with his own hands and lived there until 1847, spending 27 cents a week for food to supplement the vegetables he raised. In 1854, he published his masterpiece Walden or, Life in the Woods. In Walden, Thoreau records his life in the woods and describes freshly and vividly the changing seasons and other natural events and scenes that he observed. Thoreau had kept a journal since 1837, and this journal formed the basis for several books published after his death.Background InformationAldous Huxley English novelist, essayist, critic, and poet (1893-1963) In his later works he expressed concern that the pursuit of material possessions was taking place at the expense of individual freedom and a respect or nature. He satirized such trends in Brave New World (1932), a novel set in a future world where individuality is deliberately stifled. In Island (1962), on the other hand, he presents his utopia, a libertarian community living in close harmony with its na