paigns celebrating the Big Apple, those T-shirts with a heart design proclaiming “I love New York,”are signs, pathetic in their desperation, of how the m ighty has fallen. New York City used to leave the bragging to others, for bragg ing w as “bush” Being unique, the biggest and the best, New York didn’t have to assert how special it was.’t the top anym ore, at least if the top is m easured by who begets the styles and sets the trends. Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with Am erican politics. Once it was the nation’s undisputed fashion authority, but it too long resisted the incom ing casual style and lost its m onopoly. No longer so looked up to or copied, New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing Am erican trends, a place to escape Comm on Denom inator Land.ore and m ore evident. A dozen other cities have buildings m ore inspired architecturally than any built in New York City in the past twenty years. The giant Manhattan television studios where Toscanini’s NBCSym phony once played now sit empty m ost of the time, while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood, and the Johnny Carson show live, preem pt the airways from California. Tin Pan Alley has m oved to Nashville and Hollywood. Vegas casinos routinely pay heavy sum s to singers and entertainers whom no nightspot in Manhattan can afford to hire. In sports, the bigger superdom es, the m ore exciting teams, them ost enthusiastic fans, are often found elsewhere.–being regarded as unfriendly, unsafe, overcrowded, and expensive –but it is m aking som ething of a com eback as a tourist attraction. Even so, m ost Americans would probably rate New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington, or Disneyland higher. A dozen other cities, including m yhom etown of Seattle, are widely considered better cities to live in.any Europeans call New York their favorite city? They take m ore readily than do m ost Americans to its cosm opolitan com plexities, its surviving, aloof, European standards, its alien mixtures. Perhaps som e of these Europeans are reassured by the sight, on the twin fashion avenues of Madison and Fifth, of all those familiar international nam es – the jewelers, shoe stores, and designer shops that exist to flatter and bilk the frivolous rich. But no; what m ost excites Europeans is the city’s charged, nervous atm osphere, its vulgar dynam ism .share of articulate losers, it is also about m ockery, the put-down , the loser’s shrug (“whaddya gonna do?”). It is about constant battles for subway seats, for a cabdriver’s or a clerk’s or a waiter’s attention, for a foothold , a chance, a better address, a larger billing. To win in New York is to be uneasy; to lose is to live in jostling proxim ity to the frustrated majority.e. And though I have lived there m ore than half m y life, you won’t find m e wearing an “I Love New York”T-shirt. But all in all, I can’t think of m any places in the world I’d rather live. It’s not easy to define why.’s pleasures are m uch qualified in New York. You never see a star-filledsky; the city’s bright glow arrogantly obscures the heavens. Sunsets can be spectacular: oranges and reds tinting the sky over the Jersey m eadows and gaudily reflected in a thousand windows on Manha ttan’s jagged skyline. Nature constantly yields to m an in New York: witness those fragile sidewalk trees gamely struggling against encroaching cem ent and petrol fum es. Central Park, which Frederick Law Olm sted designed as lungs for the city’s poor, i s in places grassless and filled with trash, no longer pristine yet lively with the noise and vivacity of people, largely youths, blacks, and Puerto Ricans, enjoying them selves. On park benches sit older people,m ostly white, looking displaced. It has becom e less a tranquil park than an untidy carnival.our of the city, which never beckoned to m e from a distance, but itsopportunity –to practice the kind of journalism I wanted –drew me to New York. I wasn’t even sure how I’d m easure up against others who had been m ore soundly educated at Ivy League schools, or whether I could com pete against that tough local breed, those intellectual sons of immigrants, so highly m otivated and single-minded, such as Alfred Kazin, who for div ersion (for heaven’t sake!) played Bach’s Unaccompanied Partitas on the violin.ost banal and m arketable of one’s talents, still draws m any of the young to New York. That and, as always, the com pany of others fleeing som ething constricting where they cam e from. Together these young share a freedom, a community of inexpensive am usements, a casualliving, and som e rough tim es. It can’t be the living conditions that appeal, for only fond mem ory will forgive the inconvenience, risk, and squalor. Comm ercial Broadway m ay be inaccessible to them, but there is off- Broadway, and then off-off-Broadway. If painters disdain Madison Avenue’s plush art galleries, Madison Avenue dealers set up shop in the grubby precincts of Soho. But the purity of a bohem ian dedication can be exaggerated. The artistic young inhabit the sam e Greenwich Village and its fringes in which the experim entalists in the arts lived during the Depression, united by a world against them. But the present generation is enough of a subculture to be a source of profitable boutiques and coffeehouses. And it is not all that estranged.ost respects from mainland America, but in two areas it remains dominant. It is the banking and the comm unications headquarters for America. In both these roles it ratifies m ore than it creates. Wall Street will advance the m illions to m ake a Hollywood m ovie only if convinced that a bestselling title o r a star name will ensure its success. The networks’ news centers are here, and the largest book publishers, and the biggest m agazines – and therefore the largest body of critics to appraise the films, the plays, the m usic, the books that others have created. New York is a judging town, and often invokes standards that the rest of the country deplores or ignores. A m arket for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.arkets and devising the catchy jingles that will m ove m illions from McDonald’s to Burger king, so that the adagency’s “creative director”can lunch instead in Manhattan’s expense-account French restaurants. The bankers and the admen. The m arketing specialists and a thousand well-paid ancillary service people, really set the city’s brittle tone— catering to a wide American public whose num bers m ust be respected but whose tastes do not have to shared. The condescending view from the fiftieth floor of the city’s crowds below cuts these people off from humanity. So does an attitude which sees the public only in terms of large, malleable numbers— as impersonally as does the clattering subway turnstile beneath the office towers.surprised by the lack of cynicism, particularly am ong the younger ones, of those who work in such fields. The television generation grew up in the insistent presence of hype, delights in much of it, and has no scruples about practicing it. Men and wom an do their jobs professionally, and, like the pilots who from great heights bom bed Hanoi, seem unmarked by it. They lead their real lives elsewhere, in the Village bars they are indistinguishable in dress or behavior from would-be artists, actors, and writers. The boundaries of “art for art’s sake” aren’t so rigid anym ore; art itself is less sharply defined, and those whose paintings don’t sell do illustrations; those who can’ get acting jobs do comm ercials; those who are writing ambitious novels sustain themselves on the m agazines. Besides, serious art often feeds in the popular these days, changing it with fond irony.e the newcom ers find or from their won worlds; Manhatten is m any such words, huddled together but rarely interaction. I think this is what gives the city itssense of freedom. There are enough like you, whatever you are. And it isn’t asnecessary to know anything about an apartm ent neighbor- or to worry about his judgm ent of you- as it is about som eone with an adjoining yard. In New York, like seeks like, and by econom y of effort excludes the rest as stranger. This distancing, this uncaring in ordinary encounters, has another side: in no other Am erican city can the lonely be as lonely.uch m ore needs to be said. New Your is a wounded city, declining in its am enities . Overloaded by its tax burdens. But it is not dying city; the streets are safer than they were five years age; Broadway, which seem ed to be succumbing to the tawdriness of its environm ent, is astir again.enace, the noise, the brusqueness- all confirm outsiders in their conviction that they wouldn’t live here if you gave them the place. Yet show a New Yorker a splendid hom e in Dallas, or a swimming pool and cabana in Beverly Hills, and he will be admiring but not envious. So m uch of well-to-do America now lives antiseptically in enclaves, tranquil and luxurious, that shut out the world. Too static, the New Yorker would say. Tell him about the vigor of your outdoor pleasures; he prefers the unhealthy hassle andthe vitality of urban life. He is hopelessly provincial. To him New York- despite its faults,which her will impat iently concede (“so what else is new?”) — is the spoiler of all other American cities.erican cities to visit first-rate art m useum s, to hear good m usic and see lively experim ental theater, to m eet intelligent and sophisticated people who know how to live, dine, and talk well; and to enjoy all this in congenial and spacious surroundings. The New Yorkers still wouldn’t want to live there.issing is what m any outsiders find oppressive and distasteful about New York –its rawness, tension, urgency; its bracingcom petitiveness; the rigor of its judgm ents; and the congested, dem ocratic presence of so m any other New Yorkers, encased in their own worlds, the defeated are not hidden away som ewhere else on the wrong side of town. In the subways, in the buses, in the streets, it is impossible to avoid people whose lives are harder than yours. With the desperate, the ill, the fatigued, the overwhelm ed, one learns not to strike upcon versation (which isn’t wanted ) but to m ake brief, sy m pathetic eye contact, to include them in the hum an race. It isn’t m uch, but it is the fleeting hospitality of New Yorkers, each jealous of his privacy in the crowd. Ever helpfulness is often delivered as a taunt: a m an, rushing the traffic light, shouts the m an behind him. “ You want to be wearing a Buick with Jersey plates?” — great scorn in the word Jersey, hom e of drivers who don’t belong here.’s definition, New York is m ongrel city. It is in fact the first truly international m etropolis. No other great city- not London, Paris, Rom e or Tokyo- plays host (or hostage) to so m any nationalities. The m ix is m uch wider- Asians, Africans, Latins - that when that tumultuous variety of European crowded ashore at Ellis Island.The newcom ers are never fully absorbed, but are added precariously to the undigested many.20 New York is too big to be dom inated by any group, by Wasps or Jews or blacks, or by Catholics of m any origins —Irish, Italian, Hispanic. All have their little sovereignties, all are sizable enough to be reckoned with and tough in asserting their claim s, but none is powerful enough to subdue the others. Characteristically, the city swallows up the United Nations and refuses to take it seriously, regarding it as an unworkable m ixture of the idealistic, the impractical, and the hypocritical. But New Yorkers them selves are in training in how to live together in a diversity of races- the necessary initiation into the future.education in sights and sm ells. There is wonderful variety of places to eat or shop, and though the m ost successful of such places are likely to touristy hybridcom prom ises, they too have genuine roots. Other Am erican cities have ethnic turfs jealously defended, but not, I think, such an adm ixture of groups, thrown together in such jarring juxtapositions . In the sam e way, avenues of high-rise luxury in New York are never far from poverty and m ean streets. The sadness and fortitude of New York must be celebrated, along with its treasures of art and m usic. The com bination is unstable; it produces friction, or an uneasy forbearance that som etimes becom es a real toleration.es a m atter of alternating m oods, often inthe sam e day. The place constantly exasperates , at times exhilarates . To m e it is the city of unavoidable experience. Living there, one has the reassurance of steadily confronting life.(from the Atlantic, Sept. 1978)NOTES1. Griffith: Thom as Griffith (1915--), Am erican writer and editor. Since 1974 he has been press colum nist, Time magazine; staff contributor, For-tune magazine; colum nist, Atlantic Monthly. He is an uprooted westerner who now calls New York hom e. Publications: The Waist-High Culture; How True? --A Sceptic 's Guide to Believing the News.2. the Big Apple: any large city; specifically New York City3. bush: rustic, countrified, belonging to sm all towns4. Comm on Denom inator Land: uniformity, comm onness, sam eness, the m onotonous, the hum drum5. sitcom s: situation com edies; a radio or television series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of unconnected episodes6. cloned: grown like a clone, all the descendants being derived asexually from a single individual. Cloned and canned: produced and packed, all ready for immediate consum ption (showing).7. Johnny Carson: a m an who runs a late night talk show8. Nashville: Capital of Tennessee State, center of rock-and-roll9. Vegas: sam e as Las Vegas. See text I, exercise I.10. superdom es: extra big sport stadiums11. convention city: city where conventions (assem blies of m embers or delegates of a political, social, professional, or religious group) are regularly held.12. Madison: Madison Avenue13. Fifth: Fifth Avenue, fam ous for fashionable shops14. Whaddya gonna do?: What are you going to do? Connoting a cool lack of concern; indifference; nonchalance.15. Jersey: Jersey City16. Ivy League schools: referring to prominent north-eastern universities in the U.S., such as, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Colum bia and others. It connotes a certain degree of wealth, sophistication, re finem ent, social prominence, and the like.17. Kazin: Alfred Kazin (1915)), Am erican critic. Publications: On Native Grounds ; The Inm ost Leaf; Contemporaries ; and Bright Book of Life.18. Commercial Broadway: The New York comm ercial theater or entertainment industry19.off-off-Broadway: an avant-garde theatrical m ovem ent in New York that stresses untraditional techniques and radical experim entation. Its relation to off-Broadway being analogous to the relation of off-Broadway to Broadway.20. Soho: a district in New York. By the early 1970s the artist colony had shift- ed from Greenwich Village to Soho.21. best-selling title: title of best-selling books22. star nam e: nam e of star actor or actress23. networks: radio and television networks24. McDonald's : McDonald' s chain restaurant selling hamburger25. Burger King: a chain restaurant whose specialty is hamburger26. lunch in expense-account French restaurants: to lunch in expensive French restaurants with the bill being paid by the com pany or em ployer27. hype: extravagant prom otional advertising28. popular: pop art; a realistic art style, using techniques and popular subjects adapted from commercial art and the mass communications m edia29. Beverly Hills: city in California, surrounded by Los Angeles, fam ous for luxurious hom es of rich Hollywood actors and actresses30. So what else is new?: there is nothing new in what you say; connoting the listener is not im pressed nor interested31. You want to be wearing a Buick with Jersey plates?: Do you want to be knocked down by a car carrying a Jersey license plate? Connoting that the m an should have som e pride in being a New Yorker and not let him self be run over by a car from Jersey.32. touristy hybrid com prom ises: a m ixture of different racial characteristics which attracts tourists33. ethnic turfs: districts or areas inhabited by foreign-born Am ericansAims1)Im proving students’ability to read between lines and understand the text properly;2)Cultivating students’ability to m ake a creative reading;3)Enhancing students’ability to appreciate the text from different perspectives;4)Helping students to understand som e difficult words and expressions;5)Helping students to understanding rhetorical devices;6)Encouraging students to voice their own viewpoint fluently and accurately.Teaching Contents1)Background Knowledge2)Exposition3)Detailed Study of the Essay4)Organization Pattern5)Style and Language Features6)Special Difficulties课文讲解部分1. Background Knowledge1) About the author Thom as Griffith2) About New York City2. Exposition/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html3. Detailed study on Loving and hating New YorkPara.1-5 General introduction — setting forth the present status of New York in the United States and in the eye’s of foreignersTask: Collect evidence to show that “ How the m ighty has fallen.”New York = Big Apple = Mighty—Advertising campaigns publicly praise New York;—Many New Yorkers wear T-shirts with a heart design and the works “ I love New York”—New York is trying desperately to regain her lost prestige and status.Para.2-3: New York: Yesterday & TodayNew York CityYesterday TodayTop, highest, biggest isn’t any m oreLeading city sets styles and trends of nation out of phase with ______ as out of step withUndisputed fashion authority lost its undisputed leadershipLooked up to and im itated no longer so“Nowadays New York is out of phase with Am erican taste “—Nowadays New York connot understand nor follow the taste of the Am erican people and is often in disagreem ent with American politics.“No longer so looked up to or copied, New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing American trends” —Since New York is no longer looked up to or copied as the undisputed fashion authority, it now boasts that it is a city that resists the prevailing trends (styles, fashion) of America, that it is a place where people can escape from uniformity and comm onness.Question:1) From where we can see New York’s deficiencies as a pacesetter are m ore and m ore evident?—Building—Manhattan television studios—Tin Pan Alley—Hiring singers and entertainers—Sports2) The technique used to support author’s view is___________.Para.4: New York: in the eyes of AmericansCom eback: 1 a : a sharp or witty reply : retort b : a cause for com plaint 2 : a return to a form er position or condition (as of success or prosperity) :recovery, revival Para5 New York: in the eyes of foreigner.Question: Why do m any Europeans call New York their favorite city?—Cosm opolitan complexities—European standards—Mixture of m any foreigners—Many jewelers, shoe stores and designers shops—Familiar international nam es—Tense, restless atm osphere; its energetic pulse“… and designer shops that exist to flatter and bilk the frivolous rich.”These shops are set up to cheat and gratify the vanity of the silly rich peoplePara 6 New York: energy, contention and strivingConvention: angry disagreem entStriving: trying very hard to achieve or to defeat the othersPut-down: ( inform al) a remark or criticism intended to m ake the others feel stupid (令人难堪的话，噎人的话)“To win in New York is to be uneasy; to lose is to live in jostling proxim ity to the frustrated majority.”— A person who wins in New York is constantly disturbed by fear and anxiety ( because he is afraid of losing what he has won in the fierce competition); a person who loses has to live am ong the defeated, who are in the m ajority in New York.Para.7: New York in author’s eyes.“New York was never Mecca to m e”Rhetorical devices em ployed in this sentence are: __________ and ___________.The author com pares New York to Mecca; and Mecca is standing for _______________.A place of holy pilgrimage, of a place one yearns to go.Para 8: New York: NatureQuestions:1) The topic sentence is ___________________.2) The rhetorical device employed in “ Nature constantly yields to m an in New York” is __________.3) Are there any other places uses the sam e rhetorical device as m entioned above? What’s the function of it?Para.9 New York: Opportunities & uncertainnessQuestions:1) What do “Ivy League Schools” refer to?2) Why did writer go and live in New York?Para.10: New York : in young people’s eyesQuestion: Why do young people still go to New York?—testing themselves—unwilling to surrender to their m ost comm on and easily sold talents—the fierce competition and challenge—standards of excellence dem anded“But the purity of a bohem ian dedication can be exaggerated.”—But a pure and wholehearted devotion to a Bohem ian life style can be esaggerated. “But the present generation is enough of a subculture to be a source of profitable boutiques and coffeehouses.”As these young writers and artists have distinct cultural patterns of their own, m any businessm en open up profitable boutiques and coffeehouses to cater to their special tastes and interests.“And it is not all that estranged” “It” probably m eans _______________.Para.11: New York: A judging town“A m arket for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.”—In New York, a shrewd understanding or ability to appraise things is appreciated and paid for and skill and learning by themselves are not considered valuable.Para12: New York: An advertising CenterQuestion:1) The rhetorical device used in “The condescending view from the fiftieth floor of the city’s …” is _________. And “ The condescending view is the view of __________.2) In sentence “So does an attitude which sees….” The author com pares ______ to ______.Para 13: New York : Lack of cynicismTask: Collect evidence to show New York is lack of cynicism In sentence “ Men and wom en do their jobs professionally and, like pilots who from great heights bombed Hanoi …” the author compares_______ to ______.Para 14: New York: FreedomWhat gives the city its sense of freedom?Para 15: New York: Wounded not dyingAmenity: the attractiveness and value of real estate or of a residential structureTo succum b to: to fail to resist an attack, illness, temptationPara 16-18: New York: N ew Yorkers’ LoveNew Yorker who sees all the faults of the city still prefer to live in New YorkNew York’s faults:—Trash-strewn streets—Unruly school—Uneasy feeling or m enace—The noise—The brusqueness“He is hopeless provincial”—He will always be a New Yorker. His attitude towards and his love for New York will never change“New York … is the spoiler of all other American cities”—New York has spoiled all the other American cities for him.Para 19-10 New York: International MetropolisWhy is New York called an international m etropolis?Para.22: Loving and Hating New York1. exasperate: to excite the anger of; to cause irritation or annoyance to2. exhilarate: to m ake cheerful; to excite“The place constantly exasperates, at times exhilarat es.”—New York constantly irritates and annoys very m uch but at tim es it also invigorates and stimulates.Oral practice: Talking about the following questions:1. What is the main them e of this article? Where is it specifically stated?2. What technique does the writer use to develop his m ain them e? Is the technique effective? Cite exam ples.3. Comm ent on the diction of the writer. Pick out term s and phrases that you think are peculiarly American.4. Does the writer really both love and hate New York? Cite exam ples to back up your analysis.5. How m any paragraphs would you regard as being the introductory paragraphs. Why?6. What is the topic sentence of paragraph 8? How is the paragraph developed?7. Explain fully the following sentence from paragraph 11: “A m arket for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.”8. Pick out som e figures of speech which you think the writer has usid m ost effectively. Cite your reasons.Paraphrase:1. Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste (Para 2)2. New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing American trends. (Para 2)3. Sitcom s cloned and canned in Hollywood, and the Johnny Carson show live, pre-empt the airwaves from California (Para 3)4. It is m aking som ething of a com eback as a tourist attraction (Para 4)5. To win in New York is to be uneasy (Para 6)6. Nature’s pleasures are m uch qualified in New York. (Para 8)7. The city ‘s bright glow arrogantly obscures the heavens (Para 8)8. But the purity of a bohem ian de dication can be exaggerated. (Para 10)9. In both these roles it ratifies m ore than it creates. (Para 11)10. The television generation grew up in the insistent presence of hype (Para 13)11. Those who are writing am bitious novels sustain them selves on the m agazines. (Para 13)12. Broadway, which seem ed to be succum bing to the tawdriness of its environm ent, is astir again (Para 15)13. He prefers the unhealthy hassle and the vitality of urban life (Para 16)14. The defeated are not hidden away som e where else on the wrong side of town. (Para 18)15. The place constantly exasperates, at tim es exhilarates. (Para 22)4. Organization Pattern1) The thesis: Loving and hating New York or m ore specifically: Loving and hating New York becom es a m atter of alternating m oods, often in the sam e day.2) The thesis developed by both objective and em otional description of New York and the life and struggle of New Yorkers3) The structural organization of this essay: clear and sim ple5. Style and Language Features1) Full of Am erican English terms, phrases and constructions.T-shirtholdoutcom ebackput-downexpense-accountadmanhigh-risemeasure up2) Use of various rhetorical devices:metaphorpersonificationmetonym ytransferred epithetalliterationsim ilesynecdocheironyeuphem ism/carroll/faq3.htmlto6. Special Difficulties1) Identifying and understanding Am ericanisms in this essay2) Som e terms/phrases/structuresout-of-phasetelevision generationeconom y of effortwrong sidesitcom s cloned and cannedMeccameasure up againstIvy League schoolscommercial Broadway/off-Broadway/off-off-Broadway Madison Avenue/Wall Streetlike seeks likeWasps词汇(Vocabulary)bush (adj.) : rustic，countrified，belonging to small towns粗俗的；乡土气的；乡下的beget (v.) : bring into being；produce使产生，引起，招致holdout (n.) : [Americanism]a place that holds out [美语]坚固据点deficiency (n.) : the quality or state of being deficient; absence of something essential；a shortage 缺乏，缺少，欠缺；缺陷，不足之处pacesetter (n.) : a person that leads the way or serves as a model标兵sitcom (n.) : [口]situation comedy的缩略clone (v.) : derive all the descendants asexually from a single individual无性繁殖preempt (v.) : radio and TV]replace(a regularly scheduled program)[广播、电视]先占，先取得casino (n.) : a public room or building for entertainments．dancing，or，now specifically，gambling 俱乐部，娱乐场；(现尤指)赌场nightspot (n.) : nightclub夜总会bilk (v.) : cheat or swindle；defraud欺骗，蒙骗dynamism (n.) : the quality of being energetic，vigorous，etc．推动力；活力，精力，劲头put—down (n.) : [American slang]a belittling remark or crushing retort[美俚]贬低的话；反驳；无礼的回答foothold (n.) : a secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged立足点，据点jostle (v.) : bump or push，as in a crowd；elbow or shove roughly(在人群中)拥挤；用肘推；撞proximity (n.) : the state or quality of being near；nearness in space，time，etc．最近；接近；(地方，时间等)最接近obscure (v.) : darken；make dim使黑暗；使朦胧tint (v.) : give a color or a shading of a color to着上(淡)色gaudy (adj.) : bright and showy, but lacking in good taste；cheaply brilliant and ornate华丽而俗气的，炫丽的。
