English for Teachers/Unit 8/Chapter 4
Unit 8
Chapter 4
I. Reading
from Motherland Should be a Dirty Word
I don't care a fig about women's rights. Women's rights, however, are directly tied to the number of babies which are born. The biggest argument in favor of the women's liberation movement is not that women should have more opportunities, be happier, or live fuller lives. The biggest argument is that they should stop thinking of motherhood as the highest career to which they can aspire.
Two children per family is considered about right in terms of the country's ability to adjust to its growing population. If the U.S. population reaches 280 million by the year 2,000—which it is expected to do at the present rates—this will be like adding nearly 4 billion Indians to the world's population. This idea was expressed well by Dr. Reid A. Bryson. According to him, the United States averages about sixty people per square mile. But when you consider how nany cars, washing machines, and electric lights each of these people uses, it is as if each person had 150 slaves. Each gadget requires food—in the form of fuel—and each throws off metabolic wastes.
- Henry W. Pierce
II. Activity
Apply to the above reading the following exercises from Unit 4, Chapter 4:
1) Vocabulary Exercises A, B, C, D, and E
2) Writing Exercises A and B
III. Poetry
Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light.
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
IV. Activities
A. Poetry, even more than prose, requires drawing inferences. Draw inferences to list reasons why "we" of the poem admired Richard Cory.
B. List five reasons why you admire someone.
C. Compare the differences and similarities between your two lists using techniques learned in Unit 5.
D. What does the last line say about Richard Cory? Write two or three of your opinions of Richard Cory. Exchange papers and agree or disagree with each of the opinions.
V. Proverb/Quotation
Death is the grand leveler.
- Fuller 1732
For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court.
- Shakespeare, Richard II
VI. Activities
A. Restate the above proverb or quotation in your own words.
B. What do your restatements say about death? Write three sentences giving an opinion of death drawn from your restatements.