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眼下正是毕业生求职应聘的旺季。想到高校谋职的同学们都免不了要过“试讲”这一关吧。你得长途旅行到某地，先笔试，然后领到讲课材料，用很短的时间备课，第二天（或同一天）登台讲课。是一件比较刺激肾上腺分泌的事，呵呵。
大家对“试讲”有啥甜酸苦辣，高招秘诀，都来聊聊吧。
我先抛砖：
我的体会是1.克服紧张情绪;
2.尽量带上笔记本电脑;
3.吃透讲课材料，形成自己的观点，集中火力，不要泛泛而谈。
贴上我的某次“试讲”，比较业余，大家批评指正哈。
讲课材料是Aldous Huxley的短文\"Selected Snobberies\"，很好找，就不贴了哈。
A Brief Lecture on “Selected Snobberies”
My lecture is to discuss “Selected Snobberies” by Aldous Huxley. Now that this essay has been represented repeatedly today, I hope that my presentation would shed some new light, if only a little.
1. Necessary Background Knowledge.
First of all, let’s take a brief look at some necessary background knowledge.
Aldous Huxley, the author of this essay which is an extract from Music at Night, is an English novelist and essayist who wrote in the first part of the twentieth century. He gained early fame by satirical novels and short stories. His works set forth poignant criticism of the modern world.
He was born into a well-established, prominent family. His grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was the outspoken biologist who helped develop the theory of evolution alongside Charles Darwin. Some extracts of his works was translated into Chinese by Yan Fu, known as “天演论”.
Famous English critic and poet Matthew Arnold is the father of his aunt.
John Keats is an English poet, who died of tuberculosis in Rome when he was only 25 years old. It is argued that if there is a man who dies before 25 years old and still can be named as a great poet, this man may Keats. We can take Keats as a romantic poet, as suggested in Huxley’s essay.
Marie Bashkirtseff is a Ukrainian painter, sculptor, and diarist, who also died young of tuberculosis. Her intimate diaries are published in 1887 and cited by the French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir as an archetypal example of 'self-centered female narcissism.”
American Prohibition: In 1919, the Congress of USA passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, which prohibits the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” Although Prohibition’s effects include a reduction in alcohol consumption across the country, the law proves to be unenforceable and contributes to the rise of bootleggers. Prohibition is repealed in 1933.
Old Master: refers to one of the famous painters, especially from the 15th to 18th century, or a painting by one of these painters.
2. The Main Idea of the Essay
The origin of snobbery is desire. The critics can hardly neglect the mordant criticism of the modern way of life in this essay. It focuses on the snobberies. Snobbery can be taken as a defect of human nature, which represents the undue, or evil, desire for wealth, fame, and eccentric vainglory. Huxley ingeniously selects and analyzes several types of snobbery, namely, disease-snobbery, snobbery of culture, booze-snobbery, and art-snobbery.
3. The Way by Which the Story Is Told
There’s no doubt that the ironic tone is the most salient feature of this essay. But the question is where does the irony derive from?
We can obverse that the overall structure of this essay is a way of understatement, that is to say, it seems to admit, to praise, or to justify, the snobbery, but never without undermining it. In another words, this essay is written in a roundabout way. This structure is the gist of any irony. Let’s take a closer look.
“All men are snobs about something.” This is the first sentence of this essay.
In many cases, the first sentence of a text is of great significance. Bacon opens his Of Studies with an aphorism, “Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.” The first line of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind is “O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being”. Herman Melville sets out his Moby-Dick with a powerful acclamation “Call me Ishmael.”
Likewise, Huxley’s starting point is as strong and meaningful as those mentioned above. It is a statement with affirmation, as well as suspicion. The affirmative “All men” is at odds with dubious “something”. We are inescapably puzzled and attracted by this sentence. Furthermore, the following sentences continuously reduce the power of the opening statement by opposing, doubting, and debating.
Then, Huxley turns to the discussion on disease-snobbery, which is hardly unfamiliar to us. Because in Chinese there are similar expressions like “富贵病” (maladies of the rich). He argues that there are certain disfiguring and diseases which can never be taken as an objective of snobbery. He is right. For example, we will never be proud of AIDS, however, we would like to feel somewhat self-important about fatty liver. Huxley dispels thexxx of tubercle-snobs by describing the miserable final stages of those suffering from tuberculosis. He dismantles the complacency of those who boast of their maladies of the rich, arguing that they are not worth pitying.
Huxley indicates that the great multitude of snobberies is shifting with time. And he stops for a while to talk about an interesting and eccentric snobbery, namely, the booze-snobbery. Human beings are ridiculous. When they are banned to drink, their desire makes booze (alcoholic drink) an idol to worship. Even those Frenchmen, who have plenty of fine wines to taste, become drunken bullies.
As for the art-snobbery, it is a far more delicate and sensitive case. Huxley’s attitude seems in the balance. Superficially, he praises the value of art-snobbery, saying that it can help the artists to make a living. But his tone is scornful, revealing his underlying attitude. He points out that a collection of works of art is a collection of culture and wealth symbols. He is right again. As we know, many masterpieces of so-called old masters are in the hands of Japanese billionaires. They are eager to show their wealth and power, and the art works is the proper instrument.
We do not know how to get to grips with Huxley’s concluding passage. Again, this is an ironical statement. His words of praising are bitter and repulsive. “A society with plenty of snobberies is like a dog with plenty of fleas”, at this point, irony turns out to be heavy sarcasm. The desire is behind all kinds of snobberies, and makes them go around.
4. Diction and Wording
Huxley’s diction and wording are highly refined and delicate, which play a part in accounting for the ironic tone of the essay. So, it’s hardly surprising to find that this essay is loaded with difficult “words”. Let’s discuss several examples.
First of all, the keyword “snob” is very interesting. Its etymology is from slang, meaning cobbler or shoemaker. It appeared for the first time in Hone’s Every-day Book in 1781, “Sir William Blasé, a snob by trade.” In early twentieth century it refers to one who despises those who are considered inferior in rank, attainment, or taste, in which meaning Huxley applied the word. Oxford English Dictionary quotes the following sentence from Huxley: “I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs. … these ingenuous young tubercle-snobs”. We can see that the word “snob” itself is an objective of scorn because it implies a person of lower social status who vulgarly admires and imitates those of superior rank or wealth.
In the first paragraph, “these ingenuous young tubercle-snobs” has manifold implications. The word “ingenuous” [different from “ingenious”] has its origin from Latin, “having the quality of native, freeman, noble”. “tubercle-snob”, is surprisingly satiric, because it implies “worshiper of a certain kind of bacillus” (“结核杆菌崇拜者”). And “tubercle” is also from Latin origin. Thus, the overall expression “these ingenuous young tubercle-snobs” is an ironic parody of the adolescent romanticxxx of disease-snobbery.
A more interesting example of Huxley’s choice of words is in the second paragraph. “For snobberies ebb and flow”, clearly echoes the verse lines of the father of his aunt, Matthew Arnold, in the famous poem “Dover Beach”:
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Agaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery;
“Ebb and flow” is usually applied to describe the movement of the waves in the sea. So, Huxley and Arnold both use this phrase figuratively. “Snobberies ebb and flow” has a hint of irony, but it shares the solemnity of “ebb and flow of human misery”.
5. Some Stock Phrases
have/take pride of place:
if something has or takes pride of place, it is put in the best place for people to see because it is the thing you are most proud of.
[Disease-snobbery is only one out of a great multitude of snobberies, of which now some, now others take pride of place in general esteem.]
make headway
a) to make progress towards achieving something - used especially when this is difficult
[… even is France the American booze-snobbery, … is making headway among the rich.]
consist in something [phrasal verb]
to be based on or depend on something:
[The value of snobbery in general, its humanistic “point”, consists in its power to stimulate activity.]
Happiness does not consist in how many possessions you own.
demand something of somebody
It seemed that no matter what she did, more was demanded of her.
[Every snobbery demands of its devotees unceasing efforts, a succession of sacrifices.]
! Do not say 'demand for something'. Say demand something: I demand my money back! (NOT I demand for my money back!).
6. Question for discussion:
What are the author’s points about snobberies?
Comment on any snobbery not discussed in this essay.
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发表于 2008-1-12 16:01:53
发表于 2008-1-12 16:25:37
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发表于 2008-4-4 12:58:51