- Write a blogpost on what you do to improve your English. Think about it before you write it down. There may be a number of ways that you don't think of at first.
At the same time - let me tell you that in some cases I'm sort of worried. There are blogs that haven't seen a new post in months. Does that mean those people do a lot of written homework the traditional way, hand-written ... and I just don't get to see it? Why could that be? Do those people think their English will improve by magic? - Have a look at this text plus worksheet: George Mikes, "How to Panic Quietly".
You can do task 1 for warm-up, but you should write something for tasks 2, 3 and 4.
Either publish your work on your blog, or send it to me via mail - by Thursday 19th.
Montag, 16. Mai 2011
May 2011
Your homework this week consists of two parts.
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1. Paraphrases
AntwortenLöschenAt some time in the future, you will perhaps have to face one of these ...
The British hate the idea of joining the competition against all others.
2. Stylistic devices
The author uses a lot of different stylistic devices in order to achieve comic effects.
The first stylistic device is to be encountered in the headline already: “How to Panic Quietly”. Since it is obviously, and by definition, impossible to be filled with a “sudden irrational feeling of great fear” (OALD) and yet stay calm, it is all the more amusing that the author claims to know some technique to achieve the impossible. [Other examples of logical impossibility: “extreme moderates”, l.46; “`How would they fight a civil war?’ —`Very, very quietly.’”, ll. 43 f.]
The author’s description of how the British are expected to despair utterly or be extremely happy because of slight changes in the exchange rates is a good example of hyperbole (“sink into deep despondency“/“be overjoyed”, ll. 10-12). [Another example of hyperbole: the British are so quiet that “it is impossible ... to tell their panic from their ecstasy”, ll. 18 f.]
When the importance of civil wars is played down, the typically British attitude of attributing less weight to things than other people is used: understatement. Here it almost seems as if it did not make any difference whether “a civil war was fought” or not (ll.40 f.).
3. The British character (as seen by Mikes)
The summary should contain the following aspects :
— extreme calmness (ll.1-19): “no panic, no despair” (l. 3)— dislike of hard work and unwillingness to compete against others (ll. 20-25)— absolute necessity of a balance of powers (ll. 33-43)— moderation (ll. 45-47): “rabid middle-of-the-roaders” (l. 47)— outspokenness and rootedness in democratic tradition (ll. 48-52)
4. Composition/Essay
a) Composition: Introduction/well-structured argumentation/conclusion
b) One-word-essay: Introduction/funny or serious (or half-serious) treatment of topic/ conclusion