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Unit 4
A Man from Stratford—William Shakespeare
Objectives:
• 1. Life and career of Shakespeare
• 2. The writing of biography
• 3. Vocabulary and structures
Teaching Tasks and Process
Pre-reading Questions
• How is Shakespeare related to Stratford? Is Stratford the place where he wrote most of his plays?
• Is the text about Shakespeare’s life and career? If so, what do you expect to be told?
• Is the text about Shakespeare’s personality? If so, what kind of person do you expect Shakespeare to be?
• Is the text about Shakespeare’s works? If so, which of his plays do you like to see commented on and analyzed?
Background information
• William Shakespeare (1564 –1616 )
Birth place—Stratford-upon-Avon
The home of Mary Arden, wee Willy Shakespeare's mother's house
Anne Hathaway's [Shakespeare's wife] cottage
The Avon River, near Stratford-upon-Avon.
Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon
Four Tragedies
• Hamlet
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Othello
Comedies
• All's Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It
• The Merchant of Venice
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night
Sonnet 18
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
• Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
• Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
• And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
• And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,
• And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
• Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
• Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
• When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Language Points
• be comfortably off: a man who has enough money to live in comfort
• be well off/ badly off/ better off/ worse off
Shakespeare’s birthplace ,…had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen for a long time.
• make a thriving business out of: make use of one’s reputation to earn a lot of money
To plot Shakespeare’s life is to become involved in a kind of detective story where…
• to plot Shakespeare’s life: to form the main story of a book, film, etc.
• to plot (out) an idea for dong something
• “I began plotting novels at about the time I learned to read.” (James Baldwin)
…, realized in a flash that this was the life for him…• in a flash: immediately, at once
• On the Mid-autumn day I was still engaged in my work and I realized in a flash that I should have sent messages to my old friends.
…and other influential people to refer to him in writing.
• influential: powerful and wealthy
• refer to: mention, speak about
• When I said some people were stupid, I wasn’t referring to you.
• The scientist referred to the discovery as the most exciting new development in this field.
• Which company was she referring to when she spoke of competing firms?
…he rapidly made a name for himself…• made a name for oneself:
establish himself/ his fame/ his reputation
• He first made a name for himself as an actor.
Text II—William Shakespeare
• What was known about Shakespeare’s early schooling?
• What are the two legends about Shakespeare’s life between the time he left school and his departure for London?
• Why is the world grateful that he left the town of his birth?
• What are some of the best-known plays Shakespeare wrote in the early part of the 17th century?
• What curse was engraved on Shakespeare’s gravestone? Why did Shakespeare want to have this done? What is the writer’s comment on this curse?
Paragraph writing
• Narration in Chronological order
Letter Writing—Conclusion and Ending
• I look forward to seeing you soon.
• I hope you’ll get well soon.
• Please remember me to your mother.
• I will be waiting anxiously for an early reply.
Discussion/Exercises
• ORAL WORK
• Role-play—Theatre and Cinema
Assignments
• Exercise on the Work Book