Unit 3 Under the sea Learning about language课时作业

第一节 阅读理解

　　Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is an absolute classic. And even if you don't want to write exactly like Dickens, there's something-a technique, an idea, a theme, etc.-that every writer can pull from Dickens' writing.

　　"Make them laugh, make them cry and make them wait." was Dickens' motto and his method. Unfortunately, the use of humor escapes many writers today, especially those who seek to write serious fiction. Dickens was a master of high humor, satire, puns, wordplay, and a curious method of characterizing that made fun of his own creations even as he fleshed them out with life.

　　You can use the same techniques employed to such good effects by Dickens to add humor to your work. Try to exaggerate your characters a bit. Underline passages that strike you as particularly funny. Then use a similar tone or approach when describing one of your own characters, especially people you wish to make fun of. This type of humor will not, it is important to stress,detract from the high tone or seriousness of your subject. Instead, it will add a much appreciated human element to otherwise serious writing.

　　The second element of Dickens' famous motto focuses on his use of strong emotions. As Aristotle pointed out in his Poetics, emotional appeals are one of the chief devices of the lecturer and, by extension, of the novelist. Novels weren't invented back in Aristotle's time, but drama was, and he pointed to examples from the ancient Greek dramatists where arousing the audience's pity and fear was planned in advance by the dramatist. In a similar way, a novelist can learn from Dickens how to make readers feel strong emotions.

We may find it harder to cry, but Dickens was a master of situations that brought on the sympathy needed to cause readers' emotion. The very memorable death of Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841)had greatly moved American readers. In composing that scene, he went back in his mind to the great pain he had suffered when he watched helplessly as seventeen-year-old Mary Hogarth, his sister-in-law, died in his