Unit 12 Roots About “Sense” and “Sensibility”
Lecture 1
Roots about “Sense” and “Feeling”
1. Warming-up 课程准备
The lecture begins with an introduction of Jane Austen, one of the greatest English novelist, and her famous novel Sense and Sensibility to lead to the root word sens and sent in this lecture. Consensus, senseless, nonsense, sense, sensible, sensitive, hypersensitive, oversensitive, sensational, sentiment, assent, dissent, and sentence are the examples including the root word “sens” and “sent”.
2. Words to Watch 词汇锦囊
Root “sens” an d the words: consensus, senseless, nonsense, sense, sensible, sensitive, hypersensitive, oversensitive, sensational.
Root “sent” an d the words: sentiment, assent, dissent, sentence.
1)consensus
n. 一致，一致同意
e.g. T here’s no consensus on what are male or female values.
2)senseless
adj. 无知的，无意义的
e.g. It's senseless to get angry over such a trifle.
3)nonsense
n. 胡说，废话
e.g. Surely it is an economic nonsense to deplete the world of natural resources.
4)sense
n. 理智，头脑，良好的判断力
e.g. When one way doesn't work, people sometimes have the sense to seek help.
5)sensible
adj. 明智的，合乎情理的
e.g. His advice was always sensible and his energy unbounded.
derivative: sensibility
6）sensitive
adj. 敏感的，感觉的
e.g. The elderly are more sensitive about their health.
derivative: sensitivity, sensitively, insensitive
7) hypersensitive
adj. 过分敏感的，过敏的
e.g.Student teachers were hypersensitive to any criticism of their performance.
Some people are hypersensitive to nuts.
8) oversensitive
adj. 过分敏感的
e.g.I don't tend to sympathize with those family heads who are oversensitive.
9) sensational
adj. 轰动的，耸人听闻的
e.g. Experts agreed that this was a truly sensational performance.
10）sentiment
n. 感情，情绪
e.g. Political life has been infected by growing nationalist sentiment.
derivative: sentimental
11) assent
v. 赞成，同意
e.g. I assented to the request by Reader’s Digest to actually write a movie review on the movie Sense and Sensibility.
12) dissent
v. 不同意，歧义
e.g. No one dissents from the decision to unify.
derivative: dissension, dissenter, dissentient
13) sentence
n. 句子
e.g. Please read this sentence in English.
v. 宣判，判决
e.g. He stood emotionless as he heard the judge pass sentence.
3. Cultural Notes 文化采撷
1) Jane Austen
Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism.
本文来自: 维基百科https:///wiki/Jane_Austen
2）Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously;By A Lady appears on the cover page where the author's
name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, both of age to marry.
The novel follows the young women to their new home with their widowed mother, a meagre cottage on the property of a distant relative, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The novel is set in southwest
England,London and Sussex between 1792 and 1797.
The novel sold out its first print run of 750 copies in the middle of 1813, marking a success for its author, who then had a second print run later that year. The novel continued in publication throughout the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.
本文来自: 维基百科https:///wiki/Sense_and_Sensibility
4. Critical-Thinking Questions 思辨问题
How do you think about the novel Sense and Sensibility?。