Text A Old Father Time Becomes a Terror Unit 6 The Pace of Life Text A Old Father Time Becomes a Terror

Outline I Leading –in: questions and discussion II General Analysis 1 A brief introduction of the author 2 Stylistic analysis 3 Thesis and structure III Detailed Analysis (Part by Part ) IV Homework

I warming-up activities What time is it? How often do you check your watch /mobile phone/clock for time in a day on average?

Crusoe carves his cross on the beach to keep track of passing days, weeks and months

Time is gold and priceless时间是金，其值无价 Time is money.（时间就是金钱或一寸光阴一 寸金） Time flies.   （光阴似箭，日月如梭） Time has wings.（光阴飞逝） Time is life and when the idle man kills time, he kills himself.(时间就是生命，消耗时间就是 消耗自己的生命。或时间就是生命，节省时间， 就是延长生命） Time spent in vice or folly is doubly lost. （消磨于恶习或愚行的时间是加倍的损失）

labor-saving and time-saving devises

Mobile phone 1 Have you ever answered private phone calls or text messages at work or have you ever answered mobile phone calls or test messages from your superiors or colleges when you are off work 2 Have you ever been disturbed by mobile phone calls when you are asleep, or in a shower, or having meals?

3 When your phone battery needs to be charged, you would A) Charge it right away in any circumstances; B) Charge it right away as long as it’s convenient; C) Wait until your back-up battery is exhausted ;D) Leave it until someone or something reminds you to do so; E) Never charge it unless asked to do so Homework: Discuss with your classmates back home and give three examples in your life when time-saving devices actually caused you to waste or lose time. Then write three short paragraphs to replace the examples listed in the text with your examples.

Are you living your life in the fast lane? 1. Do people tell you that you talk too quickly? Often Sometimes Never 2.  When someone takes too long to get to the point, do you feel like hurrying them along?

3. Are you the first person to finish at mealtimes? Often Sometimes Never 4. When walking along a street, do you feel frustrated because you are stuck behind others? Never  

5. Would you become irritable if you sat for an hour without doing anything? Yes Uncertain No   6. Do you walk out of restaurants or shops if you encounter even a short queue?.  Often Sometimes Never  

7. When you are faced with an unfamiliar problem, what do you usually do? Address the problem immediately Think about what to do and then take action Sit back and let things work out for themselves  

Check your score Answer one 10 Answer two 5 Answer three 1 7 - 29 You are living life in the slow lane. Compared to most people you take things easy and don't tend to get stressed by the hustle and bustle of modern-day living 30-49 You have a medium pace of life. 50-70 You are living life in the fast lane, rushing around and trying to juggle many different activities and projects at the same time. You tend to be impatient, excessively time-conscious, and find relaxation difficult.

Part II General Analysis 1) The Author Richard Tomkins is chief feature writer of the Financial Times, a position he has held since 2006. Previously he worked as a columnist writing on consumer culture, as consumer industries editor and as a correspondent in the newspaper's New York bureau, among other positions.

2) Stylistic Analysis A ) A feature story vs A news story in-depth Opinionated

B) Stylistic traits 1) elaborate use of direct quotations “In the whole world of scholarship there were only a handful of scientific journals in the 18th century, and the publication of book was an event,” says Edward Wilson, honorary curator in entomology at Harvard University’s museum of comparative zoology.” 2) the language used is colloquial …You’ve got…(contractions) Everyone talks about it so much…. ..it’s…

B) What type of Writing is it? Features: to inform or explain focus on main topic logical supporting facts details, explanations, and examples strong organization clarity unity and coherence logical order smooth transitions

Five patterns of expository writing Cause and Effect Compare and Contrast Descriptive(examples) Process Narration Problem and Solution What is (are) the pattern(s) used in the text? Give evidence to support your answer.

Problem and solution P25 A more successful remedy may lie in understanding the problem rather than evading it…. Compare and contrast P8 A couple of centuries ago, nearly all the world’s accumulated learning could be contained in the heads of a few philosophers. Today, those heads could not hope to accommodate more than a tiny fraction if the information generated in a single day.

Thesis and structure Why---how---what---remedy Part One P1-11 Why we feel time-starved Part Two P12-18 How serious the problem is (who it affects…an effort to help readers to understand the complexity of the problem) Part Three P13-23 What reactions are provoked Part Four P24-28 Remedy (the key to the problem and the possible solution)

Game Odd man out: Pick out the sentence that does not belong in the paragraphs below. 1 Once upon a time, technology, we thought, would make our lives easier. 2 Machines were expected to do our work for us, leaving us with ever-increasing quantities of time to waste away on idleness and pleasure. 3 But instead of liberating us, technology has enslaved us. 4 Meanwhile, technology has not only allowed work to spread into our leisure time – the laptop-on-the-beach syndrome – but added the new burden of dealing with faxes, e-mails and voicemails. 5 Innovations are occurring at a bewildering rate: as many now arrive in a year as once arrived in a millennium. 6 And as each invention arrives, it eats further into our time.

1 Of course, not everyone is overstressed. 2 “It’s a convenient shorthand to say we’re all time-starved, but we have to remember that it only applies to, say, half the population,” says Michael Willmott, director of the Future Foundation, a London research company. 3 “Everyone talks about it so much that about 50 percent of unemployed or retired people will tell you they never have enough time to get things done,” he says. 4“You’ve got people retiring early, you’ve got the unemployed, you’ve got other people maybe only peripherally involved in the economy who don’t have this situation at all. 5 If you’re unemployed, your problem is that you’ve got too much time, not too little.”

homework A) Discussion What does the title mean? Is there any flaw in logic in the first part (pay special attention to p7 and p8) B) Writing At the end of his essay, Tomkins states: "It is not more time we need: it is fewer desires." Read the biographical information of the American essayist Henry David Thoreau : write a formal essay explaining how Thoreau's basic philosophy may be the answer that Tomkins suggests.(transcendentalism)

Thank you!