Unit 8 “We’re Only Human”

1) When some people say that they are only human, what do they mean?

2) Is human behavior biologically determined ( or genes-determined)?

Background knowledge

About the author:Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947. she has a PhD. in physiology from Columbia University and a post-doctoral certification in marriage, family and child counseling from the University of Southern California, where, upon graduation, she became a faculty member and taught for five years.

Text analysis

The text can be divided into 4 parts:

1. The first part explains altruism is representative of mankind in terms of moral observance.

2. The second part illustrates how CHARACTER is the human source of pleasure.

3. The third part describes the importance of courage for human moral development.

4. The fourth part profoundly and comprehensively explains how conscience works in human morality.

Words and expressions

(1). bachelor party(AmE) a party for men only, esp the night before a man’s wedding.

(2). vegetable: someone who can not think or move because their brain is damaged.

(3). to get in the way: to prevent somebody from doing sth

(4)blueprint: (technical)the pattern in every living cell, which decides how the plant, animal or person will develop and how it will look like.

(5)leap of faith: a belief or trust in something intangible or incapable of being proved, e.g.

It requires a leap of faith to pursue this unusual step of transplanting an animal heart into a human patient.

Grammar Focuses

object complementsas + noun phraseas + a what-clause, the object being “which”as + a gerund phrasean infinitive phrasea perfect present participlea passive infinitive phrasea comparative adjective phrasean adjective phrasea passive present participle phrase

Paraphrase

Do you agree that “pleasure is an event; happiness is a process. Pleasure is an end point; happiness is a journey. Pleasure is material; happiness is spiritual. Pleasure is self-involved; happiness is outer-and other-involved”?

Language points

1. bachelor party (AmE) a party for men only, esp. the night before a man’s wedding.2. vegetable: someone who can not think or move because their brain is damaged.

3. to get in the way: to prevent somebody from doing sth

Language points1. Nobody is acknowledged to have free will or responsibility any more. (Para 1) People no longer admit that every person has a free will to decide to do or not to do, and therefore should be responsible for their actions or behavior. 2. As if one’s humanness were a blueprint for instinctive, reflexive reactions to situations, like the rest of the animal kingdom. (Para 2)

As if the fact we are human were a kind of detailed plan which determines how we react to situations. This reaction is instinctive and natural just like with all animals, insects, birds. 3. I see being “human” as the unique opportunity to use our mind and will to act in ways that elevate us above the animal kingdom. (Para 2)

4.without which we are merely gigantic ants instinctively filling out our biologically determined destiny. (Para 4) 5.there is something extra special about the human mind that leads us …to take that extra step past some action that makes sense on only the basis of “survival of the fittest,” or “survival of the me”. (Para 5)

Post-reading discussions: Do you agree that “pleasure is an event; happiness is a process. Pleasure is an end point; happiness is a journey. Pleasure is material; happiness is spiritual. Pleasure is self-involved; happiness is outer-and other-involved”?