2. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring Part Three ENTER

3. BTLEW Text Appreciation Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I. Text AnalysisText Analysis 1. ThemeTheme 2. StructureStructure 3. Further discussionFurther discussion II. Writing DevicesWriting Devices 1. DictionDiction 2. AntithesisAntithesis 3. Alliteration & assonanceAlliteration & assonance 4. Rhetorical questionRhetorical question 5. MetaphorMetaphor 6. ParallelismParallelism III. Sentence ParaphraseSentence Paraphrase

4. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Out of his ignorance and lack of concern for the integrity of nature, man is tampering with nature by abusing chemicals, causing irrecoverable harms on environment and people. Theme of the story The end of Theme.

5. BTLEW Part 1 (paras. 1—2) about: Part 2 (paras. ) about: Part 3 (paras. ) about: Part 4 (paras. ) about: Part 5 (paras. ) about: Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Structure of the text 3—5 6 — 9 10—23 beauty and harmony enjoyed by both nature and all its life evil spell transitional paragraphs, directing readers’ attention to the very cause of the nationwide disaster— a white powder, the chemical explanation of how the ecological disasters were created 24—25 proper solution to the disasters The end of Structure.

6. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Before the use After the use Before & after the use of chemicals all life in harmony with its surrounding people’s life: the town in the midst of prosperous farms; fishing the streams plants: blooming flowers; growing on green field; oak, maple, birch flaming and flickering with life animals: birds feeding on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow; floods of migrants pouring through; sweet singing of birds Scan the text and list out the related information. To be continued on the next page. loss of life: mysterious diseases sweeping the flock of chickens; sickening and killing cattle and sheep and fish; several and unexplained deaths of adults and children; birds trembling violently and being unable to fly; soundless birds; browned and withered vegetation

7. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Before & after the use of chemicals Discuss in groups. Before the use After the use colorful nature: brown, withered To be continued on the next page. colorful nature: in spring:white clouds of bloom, green fields, in autumn: oak and maple and birch setting up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered in winter:white snow Through much of a year: laurel, ferns, wildflowers

8. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Before & after the use of chemicals Discuss in groups. Before the use After the use silent nature: Sound: stillness, a spring without voices Movement: backyards deserted, birds trembled violently and could not fly, fish died To be continued on the next page. active nature: Sound: barking of the fox, birds ’ chorus in the morning Movement: drift, flame, flicker, silently cross the fields, fly and feed, pour through, observe, flow, lie, raise houses, sink wells, build barns

9. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Evil Spell In Para. 3,4,5 Question: What is the evil spell? Spell is a bewitched state, a state completely captured by magic power. Mysterious diseases swept the flocks of chickens; cattle and sheep sickened and died; birds trembled and could not fly; fish died in the streams. People were infected with new diseases with several sudden and unexplained deaths. Vegetation withered and got browned. No life was on the road, in the stream; silence lay over the fields, the woods and marsh. To be continued on the next page.

10. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Relations: organisms & nature To be continued on the next page. Naturalselectionman’s tampering with nature Mutual interaction between organism and environment, but mainly surroundings mold organisms (Nature, to a great extent, determines the physical form, the habits of the earth’s vegetation and animal life.) Slight modifying of nature by organism, but in the past quarter century, the only man impetuously upsetting the balance of ecology, thus changing the very nature of the world. Hundreds of millions of years needed for the natural production of organism Little time needed for the unnatural or synthetic creation

11. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Relations: organisms & nature To be continued on the next page. Naturalselectionman’s tampering with nature Hundreds of millions of years allowing for the retaining of the ecological balance—adjustment by both environment and organism New unnatural creation (invented in laboratories) having no counterparts in nature, leaving no room for nature to adjust properly Interaction taking place at a very slow and careful pace Changes taking place at an impetuous, fast pace, leaving nature no time to resume its balance

12. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Question: Why did Carson call man’s tampering with nature a war against nature? A war involves the killing of hundreds of thousands of people—the “bad people or good people”—with their invented weapons. Insects, birds, plants, fish, even “pests” are all part of nature. By creating and using chemical “weapons”, man killed every insect the ”good” or “bad”, stilled the song of birds and the leaping of fish, coated the leaves with a deadly film, and ruined the soil. The whole ecology of nature was upset. To be continued on the next page.

13. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis For Reference Question: Why did Carson say the chemical war is never won? Chemicals kill indiscriminately, reduce biodiversity and contaminate the entire environment. They cannot solve the pest problem, for pests can adapt to the chemicals and evolve into super races immune to chemicals, and they can undergo a “flare-back”. The vicious circle will never end until man is killed along with other lives. To be continued on the next page.

14. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Question: In Carson’s opinion, what led to the insect problem? Nature had built-in checks and balances to hold the varieties of species within bounds. Man’s tampering with nature disturbed the balances. Insect problems arose with the intensification of agriculture—the devotion of immense acreage to a single crop and the spreading of thousands of different kinds of organisms from their native homes. To be continued on the next page.

15. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Question: What is the difference between the natural spreading of species and the man-assisted process? And how does this process contribute to the pest problem? The natural spreading of the species involves the restraining hand of natural enemies that keep down its numbers in its native land. An alien species is introduced by man into a new territory finds no natural enemies, thus becoming enormously abundant in number. To be continued on the next page.

16. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Question: What should we do to solve pest problems? We should try to have the basic knowledge of animal population and their relations to their surroundings to promote an even balance, control the power of outbreaks of insects and reduce new invasions rather than seeking new technology to suppress this plant or that animal. To be continued on the next page.

17. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring I.Text Analysis Question: What is Carson’s contention? Nature is an integral nature. We should promote our knowledge of relation of chemicals and ecology. Before we use chemicals, we should know clearly about their effect on environment and people and make reasonable use of them. To be continued on the next page.

18. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring What have people done to nature? What does nature actually mean to man? In what ways has man disturbed the balance of nature? Why have people created more and more poisonous chemicals? What can we do to avoid the vicious cycle of abusing chemicals? I.Text Analysis Further discussion about the text To be continued on the next page.

19. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring How does man tamper with nature? What are the consequences? How much does man know about nature? Do you think that man has been endowed with the unique power to change nature? What would man’s tampering of nature bring about? What should man do to redress the balance of nature? I.Text Analysis Further discussion about the text The end of Further discussion.

20. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Polysyndeton In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a background of pines. (1) … only silence lay over the fields and the woods and marsh. (4) To be continued on the next page. Stress each details Polysyndeton: repetition of conjunctions in close succession, which has an cumulative effect

21. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Polysyndeton To be continued on the next page. … the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. (10) Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, … (11)

22. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Emotive & specific words In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a background of pines. (1) To be continued on the next page. The town lay in the midst of prosperous farms, where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. (1) Emotive words: words that connote people’s feelings about things or ideas Impress and move feelings Colorful description of nature

23. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Emotive & specific words … where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. (2) To be continued on the next page. Specific words stressing abundance and variety of species Along the roads, laurel, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye... (2)

24. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Emotive & specific words Others came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. (2) To be continued on the next page. … and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring… (2) Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the field. (1) Specific words make the description vivid and lively.

25. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Emotive & specific words The few birds seen anywhere trembled violently and could not fly. (4) To be continued on the next page. … mysterious diseases swept the flocks of chicken; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. (3) … that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. (4)

26. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Qualifying phrases Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, had been relatively slight. (10) To be continued on the next page. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. (10) Qualifying phrases stress precision. Only in the present century has one species— man—acquired significant power to alter the nature of this world. (10)

27. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Diction Concrete words The end of Diction. Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. (11) Pure factual description Concrete words describe identifiable qualities of particular things, feelings or events.

28. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Antithesis The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. (13) Antithesis: the relation between successive units that are put in contrast a pair of antitheses “drastic and rapid pace of man” vs. “slow and careful pace of nature” To be continued on the next page.

29. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Antithesis: more examples  This imagined tragedy may easily become a harsh reality we all shall know. (8) Try to find more examples in the text. The end of Antithesis.

30. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Alliteration & assonance In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a background of pines. (1) …, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them,... (8) Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds or of different vowel sounds at the beginning of words. To be continued on the next page.

31. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Alliteration & assonance: more examples There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children. (3) Others came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. (2) The use of alliteration and assonance helps achieving sensory impressions. Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. The end of Alliteration & assonance.

32. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Rhetorical question Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a large number of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? (16) How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to his own kind? (18) Rhetorical question is a question asked to imply a definite answer. Rhetorical question is often used in argument & persuasion. The end of Rhetorical question.

33. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices The town lay in the midst of prosperous farms, where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. (1) metaphor: a figure of speech containing an implied comparison in which one thing is described in terms of another. Metaphor More examples To be continued on the next page.

34. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Metaphor: more examples In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a background of pines. (1) The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants were pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. (2) Metaphor is used to heighten effect and clarity. To be continued on the next page. Metaphor used together with alliteration stressing the striking display of colors

35. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; … (4) Metaphor: more examples The end of Metaphor.

36. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring II.Writing Devices Parallelism These chemicals are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes, killing every insect, the “good” and the “bad”, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil… (16) Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. (11) Parallelism involves balancing the structural elements of a sentence. Clear and effective The end of Writing Devices.

37. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 1 The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. (13) Parallel structure: introduced by correlative conjunctions, such as either…or, both…and, not only…but also, whether…or, rather than More examples go to 2 The rapid change of the environment takes place as a consequence of man’s drastic and reckless alteration of nature. It does not occur as a result of slow and careful working of nature. To be continued on the next page.

38. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase These chemicals are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes, killing every insect, the “good” and the “bad”, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. (16) back to 1 The purpose of the wide use of the chemicals in farms, gardens, forests and homes is to kill some weeds or insects. But the fact is that they claim the lives of birds, fish and leaves and have a delayed effect in soil. Paralleled structures used as adverbial of results

39. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 2 Given time—time not in years but in millennia—life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. (12) It takes thousands of years for life to adapt itself to environment. Actually it so happens that life adapts and a balance has been reached. Participle phrase used as adverbial of conditions go to 3 More examples If life is given time To be continued on the next page.

40. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 1. Given opportunities, the will make a good artist. 2. Cooked in the Chinese styles, pork tastes like fish. back to 2

41. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 3 And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream. (14) Even if life did adjust to the chemicals by some miracle, it would be useless, because the new chemicals are continuously created and produced. Unreal conditional clause in which “were” is placed at the beginning of the clause go to 4 More examples If it were…possible To be continued on the next page.

42. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 1. Were an expert given the job, he would adopt a different approach. 2. Were this allowed to happen again, no one would respect the law. back to 3

43. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 4 The chemicals are the synthetic creations of man’s inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature. (13) Man-made products Man’s creative power There are no such things as chemicals in nature. go to 5

44. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 5 The whole process of spraying seems caught up in an endless spiral. (17) The whole process of spraying chemicals to kill insects is a vicious cycle of chemical abuse. The more deadly chemicals are used, the more resistance they meet from the insects. Get involved inNever-ending process of increasing abuse of chemicals go to 6

45. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 6 Thus it is no accident that our most troublesome insects are introduced species. (23) It is certain, unavoidable That’s why the most troublesome insects in our country are brought in from other places. “it” used as an anticipatory subject go to 7

46. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 7 I am saying, rather, that control must be geared to realities, and that the methods employed must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects. (19) On the contrary I am saying that the control should be determined by the actual environment and that the methods should not be harmful to humans that they die along with the insects. Formal structure so…that go to 8 More examples Be adapted to To be continued on the next page.

47. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 1.The defeat is such that they won’t be able to recover from it for some time. 2.The president’s tone of voice was such that the students knew that the university authority took the incident seriously. back to 7

48. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 8 … instead we need the basic knowledge of animal populations and their relations to their surroundings that will “promote an even balance and damp down the explosive power of outbreaks and new invasions”. (24) Instead we need the basic knowledge of animal populations and their relations to their surroundings. This knowledge contributes to retaining an equal balance and reducing their mass-breeding and invading power. go to 9

49. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 9 we have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their acknowledge. (25) We have made enormous numbers of people contact with these poisons. make sb. experience, suffer go to 10

50. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 10 Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a large number of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? (16) Such a number of poisons stored on the surface of the earth will surely make it unfit for all living things. Rhetorical question store for future use go to 11

51. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring III.Sentence Paraphrase 11 Such a system set the stage for explosive increases in specific insect populations. (20) Such a way of farming creates favorable conditions for the rapid increase of particular insects. The end of Sentence Paraphrase.

52. BTLEW Lesson 11 – Silent Spring Part Three This is the end of Part Three. Please click HOME to visit other parts. HOME