1. 省级精品课程 《高级英语》第三版第二册 制作人：徐李洁

2. Lesson Fifteen Disappearing Through the Skylight --C.B Hardison

3. Teaching Objectives To know the features of scientific writing. To analyse the structure of the text. To understand the deeper meaning of the text. To appreciate the language features

4. The author O.B. Hardison, Jr. (1928 -1990) born in San Diego, California. He was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of Wisconsin. He has taught in Princeton and the University of North Carolina. the author of Lyrics and Elegies (1958), The Enduring Monument (1962), English Literary Criticism: The Renaissance (1964), Toward Freedom and Dignity: The Humanities and the Idea of Humanity (1973), Entering the Maze: Identity and Change in Modern Culture (1981) and Disappearing Through the Skylight (1980).

5. About the Book Disappearing Through the Skylight The book has a sub-title, “Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century”. “This book is about the ways culture has changed in the past century, changing the identities of all those born into it. Its metaphor for the effect of change on culture is disappearance”. As for the “disappearance”, the author says, “In the nineteenth century, science presented nature as a group of objects set comfortably and solidly in the middle distance before the eyes of the beholder….Today, nature has slipped, perhaps finally, beyond our field of vision.”

6. Background Knowledge Dada ( 达达主义） Dada or Dadaism was an international art movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland in the early 20 th century, with participants in Europe and North America. The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of WWI. Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art and literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. Dada is the ground work to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of anti-art to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.

7. Postmodernism ( 后现代主义） Postmodernism is a term used to designate a multitude of trends– in art, philosophy, religion, technology, and many other areas – that came after and deviated from the many 20 th - century movements that constituted modernism. The term has become ubiquitous in contemporary discourse and has been employed as a catchall for various aspects of society, theory, and art. Widely debated with regard to its meaning and implications. Postmodernism has also been said to relate to the culture of capitalism. In general, the postmodern view is cool, ironic, and it accepts the fragmentation of contemporary existence. According to Walter Moss, postmodernism tends to concentrate on surfaces rather than depths, to blur the distinctions between high and low culture, and as a whole to challenge a wide variety of traditional cultural values.

8. Neomodernism ( 新现代主义） Modernism is a term that has at times been used to describe a philosophical position based on modernism but addressing the critique of modernism by postmodernism. It is strongly rooted in the criticisms which Habermas has leveled at postmodern philosophy, namely that universalism and critical thinking are two essential elements of human rights and that human rights create a superiority of some cultures over others, that is, that equability and relativism are “mutually contradictory”. Neomodernists maintain that truth still exists in a universal form and directly refute postmodern viewpoints that the essence of an existent is formed in the observer’s bias. Neomodernists stand against the discrediting of the concept of authorial intent in postmodern hermeneutics. Instead, they state that a text written in simple terms can only have the meaning that the author intended, rather than finding that even the most straightforward text can have multiple interpretations.

9. Marcel Duchamp’s works

10. Pablo Picasso’s works

11. Joan Miro’s works

12. Theme of the text The article focuses on the ways modern culture has changed under the impact of modern science and technology in the past century, putting forward the central theme of “disappearing” as indicated in the title of this piece of writing – nature disappears, history disappears, and even solid banks disappear through their skylights.

13. Structure of the Text Part 1: paras. 1-6: The author states that there is a universalizing tendency of science and technology which makes the world and modern man more homogeneous, and using the automobile to illustrate the point. Part 2: paras. 7-15: The author discusses the universalizing effect of science and technology on modern culture and the consciousness of those who inhabit that culture, pointing out that modern culture enjoys a liberation resulted from the disappearance of history and thus displays a mobile extra- human plasticity which is often expressed through play. Part 3: paras. 16-19: The author describes the changes of modern banks and arrives at a conclusion that modern banks are disappearing through their own skylights.

14. Detailed study of the text Part One: Para.1-6 (para. 1) Science is committed to… Science is engaged in the task of making its basic concepts understood and accepted by scientists all over the world. A sign of this is that the more successful a science becomes, the broader the agreement about its basic concepts. As science becomes successful, more and more people accept its basic concepts. Science transcends national boundaries. For several decades of the twentieth century.. For many years, there were two schools of genetics—a Western school of genetics and a Soviet school of genetics.

15. (para. 2) As the corollary of science, technology also exhibits the universalizing tendency. As a natural result of science, technology also displays the tendency toward universalizing. That is why the spread of technology makes …homogeneous. Makes different countries and people look more similar. The world looks more homogeneous because it is more homogeneous. The world is more identical not only in appearance, but also in reality. Children who grow up in this world therefore experience it as a sameness rather than a diversity, and because their identities are shaped by sameness, their sense of differences among cultures and individuals diminishes. Children who grow up in this world feel that countries and people are more or less the same. As their thoughts and feelings are shaped by this sameness. Their sense of differences among cultures and people becomes weak.

16. (para. 3) The automobile illustrates the point with great clarity The automobile shows very clearly this universalizing influence of science and technology. The writer uses four paragraphs to develop the idea of this short topic sentence. A technological innovation like streamlining or all-welded body construction A technological breakthrough like streamlining or all-welded body construction may not be accepted at first by all car makers, but if it proves itself to be important in raising the efficiency or improving the economics of the car, it will reappear. Today’s automobile is no longer unique to a given company or even to a given national culture. Today’s automobiles do not display any unique features to show they are made by a certain company or country. In the old days, each car company has its unique features.

17. (para. 5) But the idea of a world car was inevitable. Although its model doesn’t exist any more, the idea of a world car persisted. It was inevitable that different parts of a car would be manufactured in different countries. Fiat workers refreshed themselves with Pepsi-Cola The Italian Fiat car company has set up a car manufacturing company in the Soviet Union, where workers drink the American Pepsi-Cola.

18. (para. 6) In a given cost range, the same technology tends to produce the same solutions. The same technology, costing about the same amount of money, produces similar kind of things. Today, if you choose models in the same price range Today, at a distance of 500 paces, one finds it difficult to see any difference in the various car models that are in the same price range. Traits that linked American cars to American history Special features in American cars that clearly displayed the special influence of American history and culture.

19. (para. 7) If man creates machines, machines in turn shape their creators. Man creates machines, and machines then turn around and change those have created them. As the automobile is universalized, it universalizes those who use it. Man creates the World Car and by driving this kind of car, the modern man himself is universalized. He is becoming a cosmopolitan. No longer quite the individual The modern man no longer has very distinct individual traits shaped by a special environment and culture. The price … of the word The disadvantage of being a cosmopolitan is that he loses a home in the old sense of the word. The benefit of being a cosmopolitan is that he begins to think the old kind of home probably restricts his development and activities. Detailed study of the text Part Two: Para.7-15

20. (para. 8) The universalizing … The compelling force of technology to universalize cannot be resisted. Barring..culture unless there should be a great disaster brought about by a nuclear war, the universalizing power of technology will continue to influence modern culture and the consciousness of people who inhabit that culture.

21. (para. 9) In writing about the early work of Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, Madame Gabriel Buffet-Picabia recalled how the machine aesthetic was discovered in 1949. In 1949, artists discovered that machines could also be beautiful. When every artist When every artist thought it was his duty to show his contempt for and objection to the Eiffel Tower which they considered an architectural structure that dishonored Paris, the center and arbiter of art and culture. The discovery and … The discovery and viewing of machines in a new and positive way soon originated new ideas and problems that could not be handled by the old ways of thinking, and above all produced a flexible and pliable quality that was beyond human power and absolutely new.

22. (para. 10) Art is, in one definition, simply an effort to name the real world. Art can also be defined as an attempt to give a name to things in the real world. Science has shown the insubstantiality of the world Science has shown that the world is not made up of solid material objects that we see with our eyes. This is the basis of the writer’s theme of “disappearance”. It has thus undermined an article of faith: the thingliness of things In the past, people firmly believed that the things they saw around them were real solid substances, but this has now been thrown into doubt by science.

23. At the same time, it has produced images of orders of reality underlying the thingliness of things. Science has produced images of many classes or categories of reality that lie beneath the objective image of things we see with our eyes. Science has produced images that are pure artifacts. Science has produced images of purely artificial character. Self-squared dragons A self-squared dragon is a four dimensional picture constructed by Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010), a French-American mathematician.

24. (para. 11) The skepticism of modern science about … which springs from the soul. Science’s doubt about the thingliness of things means that there is now a new evaluation of the humanity of art. Modern art opens on a world whose reality.. the soul or the mind Modern art does not depict the material objects in nature that we see with our eyes, but things that we see in our minds. In the middle distance The normal distance for the eye to observe objects (neither too far where the object becomes unclear, nor too close when it becomes distorted) It is a world radically emptied of history because it is a form of perception rather than a content. The world of nature that modern art reveals no longer contains the material objects that we were familiar with.

25. (para. 12) This disappearance is thus a liberation…absolutely new. This disappearance of history frees the mind from traditional concepts. Like science, modern art often expresses… Like science, modern art often shows the freedom from tradition through play. The Comedian as the Letter C The poem recounts Crispin’s voyage from Bordeaux to Yucatan to North Carolina, a voyage of hoped-for growth and self- discovery, representing according to one of Stevens’s letters “the sort of life that millions of people live.”

26. (para. 13) The playfulness of the modern aesthetic is, finally…feature. The playfulness of the modern aesthetic is its most striking and serious feature and, as a natural conclusion, it is also its most upsetting feature. The playfulness imitates the playfulness of science that produces game theory and virtual particles and black holes. A hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence. by introducing …. Science, in its playfulness, introduces human growth genes into cows and this forces students of ethics to redefine cannibalism. Does the eating of such cows with their human genes constitute cannibalism? It is announced in every city in the developed world… This playfulness of the modern aesthetic is fully displayed in every city in the developed world by the playful and fantastic buildings of postmodernism and neo-modernism.

27. (para. 14) Today modern culture include the geometries… Today modern culture includes the simple geometric designs of the International Style, the fanciful designs of facadism and the playfulness of theme parks and museum villages. It pretends at times to be static, but it is really dynamic. Modern culture at times seems on the surface to be stationary and motionless but in reality it is active and changing. Its buildings move and sway and reflect dreamy visions of everything that is going on around them. The buildings seem to move and sway and to reflect, as if in a dream, everything that is going on around them. It surrounds its citizens with the linear sculptures Modern culture displays to its citizens structures that reflect the straight lines of geometric designs, such as pipelines, interstate highways and high-tension electric wires.

28. The delicate virtuosities of the surfaces of the Chrysler Airflow and the Boeing 747. It also displays the fine artistic streamlining of Chrysler Airflow cars 克莱斯勒气流轿车 and Boeing 747 airplanes. The lacy weavings of circuits etched on silicon Modern culture also displays to its citizens the lace-like patterns of the integrated circuits on silicon chips, oil tankers and bulldozers, that ruthlessly demand your attention with their massive size. It abounds in images and sounds and values.. From a middle distance Modern culture is full of images, sounds and values that are quite different from those of natural things we see in the world around us with our naked eyes.

29. (para. 15) It is a human world, but one that is human in ways no one expected. Modern culture reflects a human world but human in ways quite different from what one expected. The image it reveals is not the worn and battered face… It is not the image of the self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci which looks worn and tired. Nor is it the image of one’s face in the bathroom mirror in the morning which looks blurred and dull. These are the faces of history These are old faces. They belong to the history.

30. It is, rather, the image of an eternally playful… It (the image it reveals) is the image of a power that is forever playful and youthful, a power that creates regular and harmonious arrangement of things not caring whether such arrangements already exist or not. having made one order… Having made one set of harmonious arrangements, this power is quite capable of putting it aside and creating an entirely different one just as a child playing with his Tinkertoy set might build one structure and then playfully without any evil intention take it apart and build another and yet another.

31. Detailed study of the text Part Three : Para.16-19 (para. 16) The banks of the nineteenth century tended to be.. The banks of the nineteenth century tended to be buildings made of solid materials like marble or granite with rows of big and heavy columns at the front, modeled on classic styles. We are solid. We are permanent. We are as reliable as history. Such buildings convey a message to customers and potential customers: As our buildings are solid, our bank is financially sound and dependable, and we will be here permanently. Today’s banks are airy structures of steel and glass. Today’s banks are different. They are light buildings made of steel and glass. A bank may be the front part of a store equipped with a device that looks like a slot-machine and can communicate with the computers in the bank’s central office.

32. (para. 18) The vaults have been replaced by magnetic tapes Money is no longer kept in vaults but is recorded and stored on magnetic tapes, which represents how a technical innovation influences our daily life. In a computer, money is sequences of digital signals … In a computer money becomes a series of electrical pulses representing numerical digits. These figures are handled and processed by the various computers. The statement of modern banks is “We are abstract like art and almost invisible like the Crystal Palace…” Today banks’ message is “The banks are like abstract art or like the Crystal Palace for they are no longer clearly visible buildings made of solid stones.” If we exist at all, we exist as an airy medium We are now light things (magnetic tapes and computers). These things can handle all your business and increase your wealth.

33. (para. 19) That, perhaps, establishes the logical limit of the modern aesthetic. That, perhaps, shows how far logically the modern aesthetic can go. The solid banks can become almost abstract and invisible. This is perhaps the furthest limit of how solid objective things may be disappearing. If so, the limit is a long way ahead, but it can be made out… over the road. If this is true, it will take a long time before the disappearance of the solid objects occurs, but a dim outline of this can now be seen through the faint mists that exist in the process. As surely as nature is being swallowed up the mind…their own skylights. As the objective images of nature are now fading from our minds, so the traditional banks are disappearing through their skylights.

34. Stylistic Features -- the text is intended for all the readers, nonscientists and scientists alike. -- exhibit certain features of scientific English, such as scientific and technological information -- a clear, concise and objective writing style --a third person point of view

35. Writing Skills Lexically, while dealing with scientific and technological information, the writer adopts a variety of terminologies in his writing, such as thermodynamics, genetic mutations, all-welded body, carburetor, etc. Syntactically, the article treats broad subjects and a variety of sentence structures are adopted to serve different writing purposes. The writer mainly uses short and succinct sentences when he tries to present his idea clearly, concisely and objectively. Besides, long and involved sentences are constructed so as to present complicated ideas or close-reasoned arguments. Simple present tense is adopted to express a universal statement. Rhetorically, the writer uses figurative language to convey his ideas vividly and forcefully so as to make them accessible to a wider audience, nonscientists and scientists alike. Different figures of speech can be found in the text, such as metaphors, analogies, rhetorical questions, repetitions and balanced structures, etc.