An Integrated English Course Book 4

1. An Integrated English Course Book 4 Unit Five The Tapestry of Friendship

2. Questions for general understanding • What’s the text about? • How do you understand the title The Tapestry of Friendship? • What type of writing is the text? • What’s the author’s purpose of writing? (p.69) • How many parts can we divide the text into? What are they?

4. About the text • This text distinguishes two kinds of friendship: that between men and that between women. • Open to discussion. • Argumentation. • Purpose of writing: to make a distinction between men and women as buddies and friends. • The text can be divided into four parts.

5. Text structure: Four parts • Paragraphs 1-2 serve as the Prelude, where the author reveals what kind of film the woman had just seen. • Paragraphs 3-6 are the Introduction, where the author advances the double standard of friendship on the basis of the personally observed shift of focus of cinema lens. • Paragraphs 7-18 are the Body, where the distinctions of the two types of friendship are detailed. • The last paragraph is the Conclusion, which summarizes the fundamental difference between the male companionship and the female friendship.

6. Part I: Prelude (Paragraphs 1-2) • In this part the author reveals what kind of film the woman had just seen and what attitude she had to it. • What kind of film did the woman see? • What attitude did she have towards the film?

7. Language work • 1. It was, in many ways, a slight movie.: -- In many aspects it was a simple, ordinary movie. • 2. big-budget chase scene: -- a car-chase scene that costs a lot of money

9. 3. cosmic: • 1) very great • This earthquake was a disaster of cosmic scale. • 2) relating to the universe • The other great cosmic reality is time. • Some people believe that what happens in their lives is influenced by cosmic forces. • 4. Slowly, it panned across the tapestry of friendship ...:-- Step by step it gave an all-sided view of the complex structure of friendship ...

11. Questions for discussion • 1) What kind of film did the woman see? • It was a movie that portrayed all aspects of the friendship between two women – its fragility, its resiliency and its connecting function. It was quite an ordinary film, without thrilling scenes like the long-time car chase or the fierce gunfight. The end was of no great significance either.

12. 2) What did the woman think of it? • The movie was gentle and moving to the woman, because, as the following paragraphs show, with the other two movies it brought about a new definition of friendship that stood against the traditional view of friendship.

13. Part II: Introduction (Paragraphs 3-6) • This part describes the woman’s observation of the shift of focus of the cinema and advances the argument for the distinction between the two types of friendship: that between men and that between women.

14. Questions for discussion (Part II) • 1) Why does the author list the movies the woman had seen? • 2) What led the woman to think that the cinema has drastically shifted its focus? • 3) What was the shift?

15. This wasn’t just another binge of trendiness, but a kind of cinema vérité. • Paraphrase: This was not simply a shift from one fashion to another, but a truthful description of friendship.

16. Language work • 5. across millions of miles of celluloid: -- in large numbers of movies • metonymy: celluloid(赛璐珞) for movie （电影胶片指代电影） 6. cull: choose from various sources采，摘，拣选 • Here are a few facts and figures I’ve culled from the week’s papers. • It’s a collection of fascinating stories culled from a lifetime of experience.

17. There had been something almost atavistic… • Paraphrase: These stories on men’s friendship were almost like being inherited from our grandfathers. It seemed that the producers of these movies had selected their stories from some popular anthropology books on friendship between them. • Translation • 这些对亲密关系的看法几近返古——似乎电影制片人是从讲述有关男性亲密关系的通俗人类学的书中挑选电影情节一样。

18. 7. ... only men ... inherited a primal capacity for friendship.: -- ... only men ... were born with the instinctive capacity of making friends. • inherit: • 1) receive (money, a house etc. ) from someone after they have died 继承 • All her children will inherit equally. • When I took on the job of manager, I inherited certain financial problems. • 2) be born with (a physical or mental quality that a parent, grandparent or other relative has) 遗传 • Rosie inherited her red hair from her mother. • The child has an inherited disease which attacks the immune system.

19. pick on • 1 If someone picks on you, they repeatedly criticize you unfairly or treat you unkindly. (INFORMAL) • His older brother always picked on him.他的哥哥老找他麻烦 • 2 If someone picks on a particular person or thing, they choose them, for example for special attention or treatment. (mainly BRIT) • I know somebody has to go and fetch some more logs, but why pick on me?我知道得有人再去捡些木柴，但为什么挑上了我？

20. Sentence –Para. 6 • That duality must have been mortally wounded in some shoot-out at the … • Paraphrase: The two sides must have been mortally wounded in the OK Corral gunfight. • the OK Corrala corral (=an area surrounded by fences where animals can be kept畜栏) in the town of Tombstone, Arizona. In 1881 it was the scene of a famous gunfight in which Wyatt Earp fought with his brothers Morgan and Virgil, who was the Marshal of Tombstone, and with Doc Holliday, against a group of criminals called the Clanton gang. Three of the Clantons were killed, and Virgil Earp lost his job as sheriff because the people believed that the Earps had murdered the Clantons.The phrase 'gunfight at the OK Corral' is sometimes used humorously when talking about a fight involving several people. • OK镇大决斗 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral(1957)

22. Questions for discussion • 1) Why does the author list the movies the woman had seen? • Because the three movies share the same theme: the friendship between women.

23. 2) What led the woman to think that the cinema has drastically shifted its focus? • It was the fact that at present there were many more movies about Female Friendship than movies about Male Buddiness. In contrast, in the past, the friendship between men had dominated the movies, giving a false impression that only men were capable of making friends.

24. 3) What was the shift? • On the surface, it was a shift from the friendship between men to that between women; but in nature the shift highlighted a different type of friendship: Male Buddiness is subtly distinct from Female Friendship.

25. Part III: Body (Paragraphs 7-18) • This part discusses in detail the distinctions between the Male Buddiness and the Female Friendship. • Q: What are the distinctions between the male buddiness and female friendship?

26. Language work • border on: come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality, or character; to be very close to being something extreme • to borderon another place, state, or country 接壤;与另一地方、州或国家接界 • The valley extends from the Salton Sea on the north to the Mexican borderon the south 该谷地从北部的萨尔顿海延伸到南面的墨西哥国境。 • He supported his local team with a fervor that borderedon idolatry. • 他是本地队的球迷, 狂热得到了近乎盲目崇拜的程度了 • His confidence bordered on arrogance.

27. Language work • 8. “through the wars” together – corporate or athletic or military: -- through the commercial, athletic or military strives together • 9. They had to soldier together ...: --They had to struggle together ...

28. 10. count: consider or be considered as • I count myself fortunate to have had such a good education. • I think we can count this meeting a great success. • I didn’t think his grudging (unwilling) remarks really counted as an apology. • Knowledge without common sense counts for little. • 光有学问而无常识，则这种学问无甚价值。

29. Sentence –Para. 11 • Buddies hang tough together; friends hang onto each other. • Paraphrase: Buddies hold on together in face of adversity; friends cling tightly to each other for emotional support. • hang together • 1. 团结一致 • If we all hang together, our plan will succeed. • 如果我们团结起来,我们的计划就会成功。 • 2. 符合 • Their accounts do not hang together. • 他们的叙述不相符合。

30. show off • 1 If you say that someone isshowing off, you are criticizing them for trying to impress people by showing in a very obvious way what they can do or what they own. • He wrote in that style just to show off.这种文体写文章，完全是为了卖弄文采。 • 2 If you show off something that you have, you show it to a lot of people or make it obvious that you have it, because you are proud of it. • Naomi was showing off her engagement ring. • Mike has only driven to the pub to show off his new car-he usually walks!麦克驾车来到酒店，只是为了向大家炫耀他的那辆新车，他平时总是步行来的！

31. Questions for discussion • 1) What’s the fundamental difference between buddies and friends? • Buddies are men’s companions; they are connected by common activities. Friends, in narrow sense in the text, are women’s companions; they are associated by emotional attachment. Without shared activities, there would be no buddies for men; without love there would be no true friends for women. /Male buddiness is action-oriented while female friendship is emotion-oriented. That is, it is based on the need for cooperation in the activities that men are engaged in or in the adverse situations they are confronted with. In contrast, the Female Friendship borders on love, the need for mutual emotional support.

32. 2) What are the conditions of men becoming buddies and of women becoming friends? • Men can become buddies only when they have weathered storms in commercial or athletic or military “wars” together, while women have to exchange at least three loathsome secrets before they consider themselves as friends.

33. 11. wretched with embarrassment:-- unhappy with embarrassment • wretched 可怜的, 卑鄙的, 不幸的 • She had had a wretched life as a child. • There can be few experiences as wretched as moving houses. • 12. made it better: -- reduced her unhappiness; made her less unhappy

34. Sentence –Para. 16 • The only relationship that gave meaning to the claustrophobic life of George Babbitt had been with Paul Riesling. • Paraphrase: What made the claustrophobic life of George Babbitt meaningful had been his relationship with Paul Riesling; without his relationship with Paul Riesling George Babbitt would have found his claustrophobic life meaningless.

35. But not once in the tragedy of their lives had one been able to say… • -- Neither of them had ever been able to say to the other: you are very important to me. • make a difference

36. make a, no, some, etc difference (to sb/sth) • (a) have an, no, some, etc effect (on sb/sth) 有﹑ 没有﹑ 有些...作用或影响: • The rain didn't make much difference (to the game). 这场雨（对比赛）没多大影响. • The sea air has made a difference to (ie improved) her health. 海上的空气改善了她的健康状况. • (b) be important, unimportant, etc (to sb/sth); matter （对某人[某事物]）重要﹑ 不重要等; 要紧﹑ 不要紧等: • It makes no difference (to me) what you say: I'm not going. 不管你怎麽说（对我来说）都无所谓, 反正我不去. • make a difference between treat differently 区别对待; 不同样对待: • She makes no difference between her two sons. 她对两个儿子一视同仁.

37. 3) What point is Paragraph 13 meant to illustrate? • It is meant to illustrate that friends hang onto each other and confess their worst to each other.

38. 4) What is the point put forward in Paragraph 14? • What men want to have is their buddies’ proof of their close relationship by actions; they don’t need words but actions. In contrast, women would accept their friends through verbal communications; they need words like “I love you,” “Honey,” and “Dear” to start and nourish their friendship.

39. 5) What is the point of Paragraph 15? • Men do things to show their closeness but never display their emotions by hugging each other. • 6) What point does the example in Paragraph 16 illustrate? • Even though men are emotionally dependent on each other, they never confess it.

40. 7) Why was the woman shocked by men’s description of friendship? • Because men’s standard of intimate friendship is so drastically different from women’s that under such circumstances as described in Paragraph 17 women would not count each other as close friends at all. • 8) What is the point of Paragraph 18? • For once women’s version of friendship was replacing men’s as the ideal.

41. Part IV: Conclusion (Paragraph 19) • This part is the Conclusion of the text, which restates the distinction between the two types of friendship. • What conclusion is drawn?

42. After all • (1) In spite of everything to the contrary; nevertheless:毕竟；仍然 • We chose to take a plane after all.我们仍然选择乘飞机 • (2) Everything else having been considered; ultimately: 终究；最终：所有的事情都已经过考虑；最终： • The old methods proved best after all. 采用老方法结果反而是某事物最好。

43. What conclusion is drawn? • Buddies are those you can do things together with in your lifetime, but friends are those with whom you can share roses and thorns in your life.

44. Text Comprehension III. • 1. She thought it was a trivial movie, particularly with regard to its dull plot. At the same time she found it gentle and affecting on the ground that the movie described in detail the characteristics of the friendship between two women.

45. 2. Because in the past men were exclusive images for friendship in movies and they were presented as the only inheritor of a primitive capacity for friendship. Women, on the other hand, were portrayed choosing each other as companions just as they picked berries with little genuine friendship involved. Nowadays, the female friendship was becoming a fashionable theme of movies to take the place of the male friendship.

46. 3. The male friendship, i.e. the bonding relationship between buddies, is established on the need for co-operation in the activities that men are engaged in or in the adverse situations they are confronted with. In other words, without the need to do things together, there would probably be no buddies at all. In contrast, the female friendship borders on love, the need for mutual emotional support. Women friends desire to be together as a result of spiritual attachment, regardless of whether they are involved in the same act or not.

47. 4. Men become buddies only when they have undergone together competitive, adverse or dangerous situations like sports games and wars, but women are not real friends unless they have exchanged three loathsome secrets. This fact shows again that the male friendship is activity-orientedwhile the female friendship is emotion-rooted. • 5. It is intended to illustrate that female friends exchange their confidences.

48. 6. Because what men described as friendship was nothing of the kind at all to the woman. As she saw it, when two women see each other only once a year, they cannot count as best friends; when two women do not call each other long distance without a real reason, they don’t count as intimates; and when two women don’t have dinner together alone without the company of their spouses, they don’t count as chums. But in such situations, men still describe them as bosom friends.

49. Text Comprehension -IV. • 1. Slowly, the movie gave a panoramic picture of friendship ... • 2. This was not simply a shift from one fashion to another, but a truthful description of friendship. • 3. The two sides must have been mortally wounded in the OK Corral gunfight. • 4. Buddies hold on together in face of adversity; friends cling tightly to each other for emotional support.

50. Structural analysis of the text • We can summarize the author’s viewpoint with the following sentence: A buddy is a fine life-companion but a friend is that part of the race with which you can be human. • The more specific differences between a buddy and a friend are given below: • 1. Buddies bonded, but friends loved. • 2. Buddies faced adversity together, but friends faced each other. • 3. Buddies seemed to “do” things together; friends simply “were” together.