1. Writing Techniques: description
2. Rhetorical Devices: 1) hyperbole; 2) litotes; 3) sarcasm
3. Stylistic Features: 1) bombastic style and acid tongue; 2) over-rhetorical
Translate the following sentences.
1. 这种行为简直是愚蠢。
2. 不要将所有的不幸都归因于命运。
3. 回想起来，他所作的一切都是为了让我们全家过上像样的日子。
Key:
1. Such behavior was sheer foolishness.
2. Don’t put down all your misfortunes to fate.
3. In retrospect, everything he did was to make our family live a decent life.
Read the following paragraph and prepare to discuss: 1 ) What is the topic sentence of the paragraph? 2) In what pattern are the specific details arranged?
The “Band Wagon” is a device to make us follow the crowd, to accept the propagandist’s program en masse. Here his theme is “Everybody’s doing it.” His techniques range from those of the medicine show to dramatic spectacle. He hires a hall, fills a great stadium, marches a million men in parade. He employs symbols, colors, music, movement, all the dramatic arts. He appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to “follow the crowd.” Because he wants us to "follow the crowd" in masses, he directs his appeal to groups held together by common ties of nationality, religion, race, environment, sex, vocation. Thus propagandists campaigning for or against a program will appeal to us as Catholics, Protestants, or Jews; as members of the Nordic race or as Negroes; as farmers or as school teachers; as housewives or as miners. All the artifices of flattery are used to harness the fears and hatreds, prejudices and biases, convictions and ideals common to the group; thus emotion is made to push and pull the group on to the Band Wagon. In newspaper article and in the spoken word this device is also found. “Don’ t throw your vote away. Vote for our candidate. He’s sure to win.” Nearly every candidate wins in every election—before the votes are in.
Key:
The topic sentence is: The “Band Wagon” is a device to make us follow the crowd, to accept the propagandists program en masse. The paragraph beginning with a topic sentence is a high level generalization. Each sentence in the rest of the paragraph states specific details that develop the main idea. This paragraph has a simple deductive arrangement.
