1. 了解美国作家、小说家、诗人、剧作家和社会活动家詹姆斯·鲍德温（James Arthur Baldwin）其人其作；
2. 掌握“身为一个美国人是一种复杂玄妙的命运”（亨利·詹姆斯语）的深刻内涵以及metaphor、simile等修辞方法；
3. 理解课文内容，熟悉文章主题思想和语篇结构；
4. 掌握说明文(exposition)写作特点，并能使用文体分析方法对其进行赏析。
1. 课前收集有关詹姆斯·鲍德温（James Arthur Baldwin）其人其作、美国种族歧视方面的资料，通过查阅工具书和参考书，理解课文中的语词并熟悉课文主旨内容；通过教师课上讲解和操练，理解课文中的长难句，掌握文章写作技巧和修辞方法，熟悉课文语篇结构；完成教师指定的课后练习和知识拓展练习。
2. 单元重点
metaphor、simile等修辞方法；说明性文体的写作手段。
3. 单元难点
作为一名黑人，作者詹姆斯·鲍德温对美国的种族问题给予了特殊关注。
1. Background Information
James Arthur Baldwin (1924–1987), an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic, is a major spokesman for his race in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Baldwin’s essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnameable tensions. Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work(1976).
2. Text Analysis
“The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American” is a piece of expository writing. In this text, Baldwin discovers in Europe that the American is different from the European and that it is a complex fate to be an American. He also discovers that all Americans, white or black, loved their country and were not at home in Europe; that Americans knew more about each other than any European ever could; that Europe was part of their identity and part of their inheritance.
3. Structure of the Text
The text is divided into three parts:
Part 1 (Para.1-2)
Why I left America.
Part 2 (Para. 3-19)
What I found in Europe as an American Negro writer.
Part 3 (Para.20-29)
What made me go back to America.
4. Key words and expressions
aspiration, peculiar, profound, stubborn, controversial, motley, inheritance, cadence, reconcile, breakthrough, unpredictable, lukewarm, paranoia, sojourn, incorrigible, intangible, a couple of, break down, cut across, take it for granted, regardless of, at odds with, carry off, on the country
5. Analysis of Rhetorical Devices
metaphor, simile
6. Writing Techniques
1) the definition of exposition
2) effective writing skills
Paraphrase:
1. …it is easier to cut across social and occupational lines there than it is here. (Para.13)
2. A man can be proud of being a good waiter as of being a good actor, and in neither case feel threatened. (Para. 14)
3. I was born in New York, but have lived only in pockets of it. (Para.17)
Key:
1. It is easier in Europe for people of different social groups and occupations to intermingle and have social intercourse.
2. In Europe a good waiter and a good actor are equally proud of their social status and position. They are not jealous of each other and do not live in fear of losing their position.
3. I was born in New York but have lived only in some small areas of the city.
教学模拟：解析美国的某一社会问题，要求：使用PPT辅助陈述，时间不少于8分钟；就陈述内容设定2~3个问题，陈述结束后随机选择班级中的同学予以回答。
Written work:
Write a composition on: The Global Village: Integration of East and West.
Key:
No term is more appropriate than “the Global Village” to describe the modern world. East and West have met in business, education, arts and many other fields. Some argue that these meetings leave us with a choice between East and West, but it is indeed the case that the best future lies in the creative combination of both worlds.
The fusion of both worlds is mainly embodied as follows. For one thing, we can make western ideas, customs and technology our own and adapt them to our own use, and vice versa. Similarly, we can enjoy the best of both worlds, because our tradition is good at selecting the best and making it our own. It’s true of the western countries. Take American independence and creative ability as an example. These qualities are just what we are supposed to learn from West. For another, there is no denying the fact that this trend will result in culture shock to both westerners and easterners. One of the best ways of dealing with the problem is to learn to respect beliefs and practices that are not shared in one’s own culture. Although difficulties may arise from the integration, culture exchange does provide many benefits for all peoples.
From what has been analyzed above, we can see it is inevitable to integrate East and West. At this moment, both worlds are standing hand in hand, side by side, making every endeavor to make the world a better place in which to live.
Read the following paragraph and explain the method of development.
An overdressed woman is like a circus horse. Just as the circus horse is bedecked with gaudy plumes and fine trappings, so the overdressed woman turns herself out in flashy furs and tight, shiny dresses. The circus horse is dressed for a performance. In the same way, an overdressed woman intends to display her “beauty” and to dazzle and delight all her spectators. But, just as the circus horse entertains by its novelty, so the overdressed woman amuses the people who watch her—not by her loveliness or her grace but by her burlesque of real beauty.
Key:
This is a point by point analogy. Analogies are used to explain the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar. They are used to explain unfamiliar ideas or describe unfamiliar things in point-by-point comparison with something the reader is familiar with.
1. Why is the first sentence an effective way of beginning this essay?
2. How does the writer explain the paradox at the beginning of paragraph 13?
Key:
1. Because beginning an essay with a quotation lends authority and force to what one intends to say. So, this proper and well-chosen quotation is very effective.
2. By this paradox, the writer implies that it is difficult to intermix in America because everyone thinks he has status and yet no one is sure just what his status is. In Europe class lines are clear and everyone accepts naturally their social status, so intermixing without much friction is possible in Europe.
