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Unit 20 Lesson 9
The importance of money in life
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• read a passage and understood the writer's attitude
• talked about her writer's point of view, tone of voice and style of writing
• written a summary
A In pairs talk about the role of money and the importance of jobs in our life. Share your ideas with another pair. Write down the main points and be prepared to share them with the rest of the class.
B Now read the following text written in the nineteenth century by William Hazlitt. The text has been abridged for you. See what it says about money and jobs.
Literally and truly, one cannot get on well in the World without money. To be in want of it, is to pass through life with lithe credit or pleasure; it is to be despised; it is not to be asked out to dinner, or noticed in the street; it is not to have your - opinion consulted or else rejected -with 'contempt, it is to be scrutinised by strangers, and neglected by friends, it is to forego leisure, freedom, ease of body and mind, to be dependent on the good-will and caprice of others: it is to earn a precarious and irksome livelihood by some laborious employment; it is to be compelled lo stand behind a counter, or to sit at a desk in some public office, or to marry your landlady, or not the person you would wish; or to go out to the Hast or West Indies, to get a situation as judge abroad and return home with a liver' complaint, or to be deprived of the use of your fingers by transcribing Greek manuscripts; or lo try some of the Fine Arts, with all your pains, anxiety and' hopes, most probably to fail, or, if you succeed, after the exertions of years, and undergoing constant distress of mind and fortune, to be assailed on every side with envy, back-biting, and falsehood, or lo be a favourite with the public for-a-while, and then, thrown into the background; it is to be jostled by the rabble because you do not ride in your coach, or avoided by those who know your worth and shrink from it; it is to be a burden to your relations, or unable to do anything for them: to be ashamed to venture into crowds; to have cold comfort at home, to lose by degrees your confidence and any talent you might possess; to prow-crabbed, morose, dissatisfied with every one, but most so with yourself, and plagued out of your life, to look about for a place to die in, and quit the world. The wiseacres will possibly, however, crowd round your coffin, and raise a monument at a considerable expense, and after lapse of time, to your genius and your misfortunes!
(Wlliam Hazlitt, On the Want of Money- abridged)
Read the passage again and find answers to the following questions.
1 What literary form (e.g. story, essay, biography, etc) do you think this passage belongs to?
2 'Talk about the writer's altitude towards money and the problems of not having it.
3 Do you agree with the author's view of money?
4 Find out the writer's style of writing by discussing the following:
a Is the writer expressing his point of view explicitly?
b Why do you think the sentences are so long?
c The writer repeatedly uses a technique to get his meaning across. What is that?
d Is he gloomy, humorous, mocking, or bored? Or none of these?
e Explain the last sentence. What kind of altitude underlies this statement?
C Look at the underlined words in the text. The writer has used these rather old-fashioned and formal-sounding words because he was writing in the nineteenth century. Replace these with more commonly used words or phrases without changing the writer's main message.
D Write the central theme of this passage in about 2 sentences.
Focus:
Skills.
Reading,
speaking,
writing,.
Functions.
Understanding irony,
understanding
figurative language.
Grammar/Structure.
'To be (.something)'
used as
exemplification.
Vocabulary.
despise, scrutinise,
forego, caprice, '
precarious, irksome,
assailed, jostled,
rabble, crabbed,
morose, wiseacres,
commemorate.
This text will be replaced
Unit 20 Lesson 9
The importance of money in life
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• read a passage and understood the writer's attitude
• talked about her writer's point of view, tone of voice and style of writing
• written a summary
A In pairs talk about the role of money and the importance of jobs in our life. Share your ideas with another pair. Write down the main points and be prepared to share them with the rest of the class.
B Now read the following text written in the nineteenth century by William Hazlitt. The text has been abridged for you. See what it says about money and jobs.
Literally and truly, one cannot get on well in the World without money. To be in want of it, is to pass through life with lithe credit or pleasure; it is to be despised; it is not to be asked out to dinner, or noticed in the street; it is not to have your - opinion consulted or else rejected -with 'contempt, it is to be scrutinised by strangers, and neglected by friends, it is to forego leisure, freedom, ease of body and mind, to be dependent on the good-will and caprice of others: it is to earn a precarious and irksome livelihood by some laborious employment; it is to be compelled lo stand behind a counter, or to sit at a desk in some public office, or to marry your landlady, or not the person you would wish; or to go out to the Hast or West Indies, to get a situation as judge abroad and return home with a liver' complaint, or to be deprived of the use of your fingers by transcribing Greek manuscripts; or lo try some of the Fine Arts, with all your pains, anxiety and' hopes, most probably to fail, or, if you succeed, after the exertions of years, and undergoing constant distress of mind and fortune, to be assailed on every side with envy, back-biting, and falsehood, or lo be a favourite with the public for-a-while, and then, thrown into the background; it is to be jostled by the rabble because you do not ride in your coach, or avoided by those who know your worth and shrink from it; it is to be a burden to your relations, or unable to do anything for them: to be ashamed to venture into crowds; to have cold comfort at home, to lose by degrees your confidence and any talent you might possess; to prow-crabbed, morose, dissatisfied with every one, but most so with yourself, and plagued out of your life, to look about for a place to die in, and quit the world. The wiseacres will possibly, however, crowd round your coffin, and raise a monument at a considerable expense, and after lapse of time, to your genius and your misfortunes!
(Wlliam Hazlitt, On the Want of Money- abridged)
Read the passage again and find answers to the following questions.
1 What literary form (e.g. story, essay, biography, etc) do you think this passage belongs to?
2 'Talk about the writer's altitude towards money and the problems of not having it.
3 Do you agree with the author's view of money?
4 Find out the writer's style of writing by discussing the following:
a Is the writer expressing his point of view explicitly?
b Why do you think the sentences are so long?
c The writer repeatedly uses a technique to get his meaning across. What is that?
d Is he gloomy, humorous, mocking, or bored? Or none of these?
e Explain the last sentence. What kind of altitude underlies this statement?
C Look at the underlined words in the text. The writer has used these rather old-fashioned and formal-sounding words because he was writing in the nineteenth century. Replace these with more commonly used words or phrases without changing the writer's main message.
D Write the central theme of this passage in about 2 sentences.
Focus:
Skills.
Reading,
speaking,
writing,.
Functions.
Understanding irony,
understanding
figurative language.
Grammar/Structure.
'To be (.something)'
used as
exemplification.
Vocabulary.
despise, scrutinise,
forego, caprice, '
precarious, irksome,
assailed, jostled,
rabble, crabbed,
morose, wiseacres,
commemorate.