W T B R
Warming up
Warming up
Questions / Activities
Which of the following words can best describe this essay? Serious and matter-of-fact? Scientifically detached and objective? Hilariously humorous? Bitterly satirical? What is the main idea of this essay? What is the Darwinian theory? How does the author come to doubt this? Is that the result of scientific experiment? Is Mark Twain serious when he says that he has done many months of painstaking and fatiguing work in the London Zoological Garden? What effect do you think he hopes to achieve with this mock seriousness? How does the author contrast human beings with other animals?
(paras. 3–17) III. Conclusion (paras. 18)
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
I. Thesis statement (paras. 1–2) II. “research process” (paras. 3–17) III. Conclusion (paras. 18)
Check-on Preview
• Paraphrase the following sentences
• 1. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cat’s looseness with him, but had left the unconsciousness behind– the saving grace which excuses the cat. • 2. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
Unit 9 The Damned Human Race
Mark Twain
The Damned Human Race
Unit 9
W arming up
B ackground
T ext Analysis R einforcement
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้he Damned Human Race
Unit 9
Questions / Activities Check-on Preview Objectives
W T B R
I. Thesis statement (paras. 1~2) • Why does the author mimicking a scientific experiment? • What is the author’s research topic/purpose? • What is the hypothesis? • What theory does he check? • What is his research method? • Where does the research take place?
The Damned Human Race
Theme
Unit 9
Text Analysis
Structure
Detailed Analysis
W T
B R
Text Analysis
Theme
Within his essay of The Damned Human Race, author Mark Twain powerfully declares that the human race is both flawed and corrupt, and that people actually should be classified as "lower animals" rather than the formerly known "higher animals.”
Warming up
Objectives
• Understand the structure of the essay • Understand what the author really intends to say • Appreciate Mark Twain’s writing style • Reflect on the so-called “human nature”
Warming up
Check-on Preview
• Define the following words
• • • • • • • • renounce scruple inflict atrocity odds and ends brood over furnish conjecture
Warming up
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
• Vocabulary • Please find synonyms of the following words.
• • • • • • • • • Characteristics and temperament Shameful Force someone to… Abandon or give up Loyalty Guess Assumption, hypothesis Happen or exist In the process of…/on the way to …
Text Analysis
Detailed Analysis
Vocabulary
• Present itself: happen, appear, exist Eg. When a favorable opportunity presented itself he would submit his proposition.
W T
B R
The Damned Human Race
Author
Unit 9
Background
Social Background
W T
B R
Background
The author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel.“Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age,"[ and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."
W T B R
Warming up
Questions / Activities
• Please list the specific human traits and dispositions that he condemns in this essay.
• Why does he say that man is the cruel animal? What examples does he give to illustrate the point? What arguments does the author give to support his views? • Do you think we should take Mark Twain’s views seriously? Do you agree with him? Are we really that bad? Isn’t there some saving grace in the human race? • What devices does the author use to make the article interesting?