现代大学英语精读4 Lesson 14 (课件).ppt

About the Author Louis Simpson (1923- ) was born in Jamaica, West Indies. The son of a lawyer of Scottish descent and a Russian mother, he emigrated to the United States when he was 17 and went to study at Columbia University in New York city. He served in the Second World War on active duty in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. When the war was over, he returned to Columbia University to finish his studies. After that he became a teacher at that school and later at the University of California, Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Louis Simpson has published 17 books of poetry and is widely acclaimed as a literary critic. Introduction to the Text War, this complex phenomenon in our life, has been one of the most favorite subjects in art and literature as well as in serious academic studies. And although we have now entered the third millennium, we do not see any reason why it will not remain so. In literature, war has been described as a conflict between justice and evil; a battle of wits and a demonstration of military powers; a display of noble patriotism and encourage as well as a revelation of human wickedness, cruelty and stupidity. The text, however, does not deal with any of this. It is a first-person narration of a World WarⅡ veteran about his personal experience , his feelings and sufferings during the war and the physical and psychological scars the war left him with. Detailed Discussion .If the sounds continue, the men will be seen scraping the surface of the earth with shovels and burying themselves in it until, like a species of animal, they vanish from sight. (Para1) Obviously the soldiers are being bombarded. If the sound of planes does not stop, that is, if the planes do not drop their bombs, the men will be seen digging in until they disappear into the foxholes. to scrape: to remove sth from a surface to vanish: to disappear suddenly Writing skills oxymoron: It was hell on earth. Metaphor: I slipped