Individual work
1. Read the text “The Book of the Century”( p. 73) from the section Supplementary Reading.
2. Be ready to discuss in groups the topics below:
Many people think “The Lord of the Rings” is an overrated novel.
“The Lord of the Rings” is more realistic than other novels.
The reason why the book is so successful is hard to explain.
The book’s style is very unusual for a 20th century novel.
3. Prepare a short talk about famous British writers and their works.
Unit 5 famous american writers and their works
PRE-READING TASKS
Task 1. With a partner discuss the following questions:
1. What American writers do you know?
2. Do you know any interesting facts about their biographies?
3. What was the last book by an American writer you read?
4. Why did you choose this book?
5. What genre of literature does it belong to?
6. Has it ever been staged or filmed?
7. Who were the main characters?
8. What was the plot of the story?
9. Did you enjoy the book more or less than you expected?
Task 2. Read the information about Benjamin Franklin. Then read and discuss the meanings of the proverbs from Poor Richard’s Almanack. Do you have any similar proverbs in your language?
American literature has a relatively short but colorful history. The first widely read American author was Benjamin Franklin, whose witty aphorisms and sound advice written in the yearly journal Poor Richard’s Almanack helped shape ideas of what it means to be an American. The name Benjamin Franklin should be included in any list of the greatest Americans. Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of seventeen children, Franklin was a writer, printer, inventor, scientist, and diplomat. He was one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and it was Franklin who persuaded the French to help the colonists in the American Revolution. In addition to his political activities, he discovered that lightning is a form of electricity and then invented the lightening rod to save buildings from fires caused by lightning. He went on to invent bifocal eyeglasses and the Franklin stove, which gave more heat than other stoves of the time and used less fuel. Franklin also started the first public library, the first fire department, and the first insurance company. His face appears on postage stamps and on the $100 bill.
Lost time is never found.
God helps those who help themselves.
Haste makes waste.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Fish and guests stink after three days.
Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
If you cannot follow, you cannot lead.
Be careful of your money; a small leak will sink a big ship.
Task 3. Choose two of the proverbs in the previous task and explain why they have meaning in your life.
Task 4. Work in small groups. Paraphrase the following quotations from “Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser. Do you agree with them? Why (not)? Discuss in pairs.
“People in general attach too much importance to words. They are under the illusion that talking effects great results. As a matter of fact, words are, as a rule, the shallowest portion of all the argument. They but dimly represent the great surging feelings and desires which lie behind. When the distraction of the tongue is removed, the heart listens.”
“When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.”
“A real flame of love is a subtle thing. It burns as a will-o'-the-wisp, dancing onward to fairy lands of delight. It roars as a furnace. Too often jealousy is the quality upon which it feeds.”
“Men are still led by instinct before they are regulated by knowledge.”
READING
1. Skim the extract from the book by Theodore Dreiser “Sister Carrie” to get the general idea.
Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser in which characters search for their own “American Dreams”– the ones offered by a growing and prosperous democratic country.
Carrie, a poor country girl, arrives in Chicago, filled with the expectations of acquiring the finer things in life. She imagines the elegant clothes she will wear, the exciting places to which she will go, and the fashionable people with whom she will associate, thinking that everyone who lives beyond the boundaries of her Midwestern state has achieved that higher status. Soon she starts realizing her own American Dream by first becoming a mistress to men that she perceives as superior and later as a famous actress.