Unit Seven The Call of the Wild (1)

I. Objectives --- to learn to guess the meaning of Wrds from

the context --- to learn the new words and expressions in

the text

e.g. New Year’s Day is thought of as a good time to make New Year’s resolutions ---the decisions to do better in the year just beginning than you did in the year just ended.

As the appositive, “the decisions to do better in the year just beginning than you did in the year just ended” means “resolutions”.

1.2 Antonym （反义词） clues Recognizing that certain words in the context

often signal an antonym clue can help you to understand new words.

Words or phrases like “or”, “but”, “while”, “as opposed to,” and “on the other hand” often sugnal antonym clues.

e.g. Although the Greeks were said to be democratic, slaves and women had few rights.

“slaves and women having few rights” means the Greeks were not so democratic. Thus we can infer that the word “democrtic” means “respecting people’s rights”.

2. Exercise Please finish the exercise on page 111-112 on

your textbook.

I. Background

Jack London ( 1876 – 1916)

1. Biography An American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a

pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He is best remembered as the author of White Fang and Call of the wild, set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories “To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and “The Sea Wolf”, of the San Francisco Bay area.

2. Comments

2.1 London was a passionate advocate of unionization （加入工会） , socialism, and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics.

2.2 London shared common Californian concerns about Asian immigration and “the yellow peril“( 黄祸 ), which he used as the title of a 1904 essay. This theme was also the subject of a story he wrote in 1910 called ”The Unparalleled Invasion”. Taking place in a fictional 1975, London describes a China with an ever-increasing population taking over and colonizing its neighbors, with the intention of taking over the entire Earth. The Western Nations respond with biological warfare and bombard China with dozens of the most infectious diseases. The genocide （种族灭绝） , described in considerable detail, is throughout the book described as justified and "the only possible solution to the Chinese problem".

The Call of the Wild • The story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon

during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch in California, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The story details Buck's struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives from humans, other dogs, and nature. He eventually sheds the veneer of civilization altogether and instead relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned to become a respected and feared leader in the wild.

II. Text structure

Call of the Wild (1)Part one (the 1st paragraph)1) Beautiful scenery2) Companions3) Self-content4) A great pet dog

Part two (para.2-12) Buck was sold and maltreated by his new

masters.

Part three (para.13-the end)It’s an account of Buck’s experience with his

new masters and his new companions on the way to the North.

Call of the wild (II)

Part one (para.1-20)Buck worked together with Spitz but they were

not in good terms. Part two (para.21-end)With his tactics, Buck defeated and killed Spitz in

a fight and he became the head dog.

III. Details in the texts

■How did Buck managed to adapt himself to the new life?

to adapt to: to adjust (someone or something, esp oneself) to different conditions, a new environment, etc.

(T) 巴克如何设法使自己适应了新的生活？

Paragraph1

■ Describe briefly Buck’s comfortable life in Mr. Miller’s house:

---large gardens and fields of fruit trees around the house ；

---the chief dog ；---playing with Mr. Miller’s kids and

grandchildren

Paragraph 2

• Why did men and dogs were hurrying to north-west Canada?

• What happened to Buck one day?

Paragraph 5

• For two days and nights the train traveled north, and for two days and nights Buck neither ate nor drank. For two days and nights buck got angrier and hungrier and thirstier.

Why do you think the author repeats “for two days and nights ” three times?

Paragraph 9

• Buck jumped at the man, sixty kilos of anger, his mouth wide open, eady to bite the man’s neck.

Can anger be measured? If not, how do you understand “sixty kilos of anger”?

Buck weighed 60 kilos (a big dog). Here the author emphasizes the degree of Buck’s anger towards the fat man who maltreated him.

(T) 巴克以六十公斤的愤怒之躯扑向胖子。它张开大口，朝他的脖子咬去。

Paragraph 10

• “Well, Buck, my boy,” he said in a friendly voice, “we’ve argued a little, and I think the best thing to do is to stop. Be a good dog and we’ll be friends. But if you’re a bad dog,…”

Do you agree with the fat man when he said that he and Buck just argued a little?

• Here London used a figure of speech called “understatement” ( 明抑暗扬的低调陈述 ) . On the surface it sounds less serious, but in fact the fat man had severely punished Buck with his club until it surrendered.

• More examples of “understatement”1) It took a few dollars to build this indoor

swimming pool. 2) For large number of people the absence of

work is harmful to the health.

Paragraph 13

• Buck was beaten (he knew that) but he was not broken.

(P) Buck knew that he was punished severely but he was not defeated. He would revenge when there was a chance.

(T) 巴克挨打了（对此它很明白） , 但是没有被打垮。

Paragraph 22

• They knew only the law of club and tooth. “the law of club and tooth” means a man with

a club in his hand and a dog with the sharpest teeth should be obeyed.

The Call of the Wild (2)

Paragraph 1

• The wild animal was strong in Buck, and as he traveled across the snow, it grew stronger.

“the wild animal” refers to the instinct or nature of a wild animal

(T) 巴克的骨子里有着强烈的野性。在穿越茫茫雪原的过程中，这种野性也与日俱增。

Paragraph 6

• They were all skin and bone, but hunger made them fight like wild things.

be all skin and bone: be very thin as a result of hunger 骨瘦如柴；皮包骨

(T) 这些狗个个骨瘦如柴，但饥饿使他们搏斗起来如野兽般疯狂。

• He threw himself on the next one, and then felt teeth in his neck.

throw oneself upon/at: rush violently at sb./sth. 向…猛扑过去

to feel teeth: to feel the bite of teeth (T)巴克向另外一只狗扑去，但这时它感觉到自己的脖子被咬住了。

Paragraph 9

• …and he hoped that his sledge-dogs had not caught rabies from the Indian dogs.

rabies: an acute, infectious, often fatal viral disease of most warm-blooded animals, especially wolves, cats, and dogs, that attacks the central nervous system and is transmitted by the bite of infected animals 狂犬病

Paragraph 10• It ran too fast to freeze. (T)The water in the river flowed so fast that it

had not frozen even in cold winter. 三十里河的河水湍急，没有结冰。

Paragraph 24

• The wild animal had made its kill. (P)Buck had finally killed Spitz, his formidable

enemy. (T) 这野性动物完成了它的杀戮。

IV. Personality analysis

Compare the two dogs: • Buck: tolerant, brave, clever, quick to learn, loyal,

hard-working • Spitz: wild, aggressive, greedy, skillful, adaptive, cold-

blooded, treacherous,

V. Exercise

• Why do people raise dogs?• ---company / companion • To protect your property and life • To show off • For its meat • To work for its master