单词注释

难句剖析

导读诱思

The plot of Pygmalion revolves around a bet between two upper-class Englishmen concerning the transformation1 of a cockney speaking flower girl into an upper-class English lady.Professor Higgins,a phonetic expert boasts to his colleague Colonel Pickering that in three months he could change a “creature” into a lady at an ambassador’s garden party.The “creature” is Eliza Doolittle,a flower girl who was brought up in the cockney speaking East London.Following this public boast,Professor Higgins accepts a challenge to teach the flower girl Eliza Doolittle to speak standard English and launch2 her into polite society. Through Higgins’ successful transformation of Eliza into a “lady”,and Eliza’s subsequent3 rebellion against Higgins’ attitudes and assumptions4,Shaw’s comedy explores questions of speech and class in England.