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Wheels (1971),
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The Moneychangers (1975).
Though a Canadian himself, he set the scene of most of his works in the United States. Each of his books deals with one particular field of society. This is made clear by the titles of his books. It is this peculiarity of his that is value to those who are eager to learn about contemporary American society.
3. About the novel Hotel
The St. Gregory Hotel is the largest in New Orleans, Louisiana. For 4 days from Monday evening to Friday, the hotel goes through a succession of dramatic events. With the hotel’s
mortgage due by the weekend and with no chance of getting further renewal, the owner, Warren Trent, reluctantly makes up his mind to sell his hotel to a chain hotel owner, Curtis O’Keefe. Peter McDermott, the assistant general manager, has to tackle several other knotty problems: handling an attempted rape which has occurred in one of the hotel’s rooms; catching a
professional thief operating in the hotel; pacifying a whole convention of several hundred dentists to putting up a member of the convention--a black doctor. Then there is the Duke of Croydon. The Duke is an internationally famous statesman and the newly-appointed British ambassador to Washington. He and his wife occupy the best suite in St. Gergory. On Monday evening while driving back with his wife from a gambling house, the Duke and the Duchess, however, drive away. The hit-and-run becomes top sensational news in New Orleans. The hotel’s chief house detective Ogilvie notices the battered car when it comes back. Instead of reporting this to the police, he goes to see the Duke and the Duchess. He promises to keep quiet about what he knows and asks for a large sum of money in return for the favour. The Duke, now totally at a loss as to how to act, hides behind the skirt of her wife. The Duchess understands that to get themselves out of this mess, the car has to be driven out of the south where people are alerted about the
hit-and-run. So she offers to pay Ogilvie more than he has asked on condition that he drives the car to Chicago up in the north. The greedy detective agrees. At one o’clock Thursday morning Ogilvie gets the car out of the garage. He is seen leaving by one person only, by Peter McDermott, the assistant general manager. Though it strikes him as odd, Peter does not link this up with the hit-and-run until late that afternoon when he witnesses the funeral of the two victims of the
accident. He contacts police headquarters right away. By this time, Ogilvie has crossed Louisiana and Mississippi, driving by night and concealing the car by day. He thinks that everything is going smoothly, little knowing that he is already being followed by the Highway patrol cruisers. In Tennessee, he is caught and sent back to New Orleans.
At first the Duchess tries to deny everything, but doesn’t succeed in convincing the police. The Duke then decides to go over to police headquarters before they come for him, wishing to save the little shreds of decency left in him. He takes an elevator to go down. This elevator which has been out of order for some time and badly in need of repair breaks down. As it goes down, one set of clamps holds and the other fails. The elevator car twists, buckles and splits open, throwing the Duke nine floors down to the cement ground. He dies instantly.
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However, the novel ends with a pleasant surprise. A sick, old eccentric man staying in the hotel turns out to be an extremely wealthy man from Montreal, Canada. Earlier, he fell seriously ill and was saved by Peter and his girl friend. To show his gratitude and repay their kindness, he buys the hotel from its former owner and makes Peter the new executive vice-president, with complete authority to run the hotel as he thinks fit. II . Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of narration
---character, action, conflicts, climax and denouement 2. Main idea 3. Organization: ---introduction
---development ---climax
---conclusion
III . Effective Writing Skills
1.making effective use of specific words to make the narration vivid 2.vividly and carefully describing the actions of the characters 3.using the languages which suit the backgrounds of characters IV . Rhetorical Devices V . Special Difficulties
1. understanding the colloquial, and even slangy English
2. analyzing and commenting on the three characters VI . Questions
1. Did Ogilvie deliberately delay his call at the Croydon’s suite? Why? 2. Why did the Duchess send her maid and secretary out?
3. Why did the Duchess decide to make the detective drive their car north?2. Did Ogilvie accept the Duchess’ offer?
Detailed study of the text and language points:
Unit 7: The Age of Miracle Chips
I . Additional Background Knowledge 1. Time
2. Byzantine art 3. Oxford tutorial
II . Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of exposition 2. The purpose of a piece of exposition: --- to inform or explain
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3. Ways of developing the thesis of a piece of exposition:
--- comparison, contrast, analogy, identification, illustration, analysis, definition, etc.
4. The central thought or thesis III . Effective Writing Skills
1. making effective use of specific verbs and adjectives
2. employing various methods to make the science writing understandable and interesting
IV . Rhetorical Devices 1. antonomasia 2. metaphor 3. alliteration
V . Special Difficulties
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1. understanding the terms connected with computer 2. paraphrasing some complicated sentences VI . Questions
1. What does a miracle chip look like? What is it made of? 2. What is the significance of the computer revolution? 3. Is the computer a humanizing or dehumanizing factor?
2. The author tries to make his science writing interesting and popular. What are some of the methods
he employs to achieve this?
Unit 8: An Interactive Life
I. Additional Background Knowledge 1. Broadway
2. Peter Jennings 3. Newsweek II. Rhetorical Devices: 1. metaphor 2. simile
III. Introduction to the Passage
1. Type of literature: a piece of exposition
2. The purpose of a piece of exposition: to inform of explain 3. Ways of developing the thesis of a piece of exposition:
--comparison, contrast, analogy, identification, illustration, analysis, definition, etc.
4. The central thought or thesis IV. Effective Writing Skills:
1. making effective use of specific verbs
2. using elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect V. Special Difficulties
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1. Paraphrasing some sentences 2. Some computer terms
VI. Questions
1. What will an interactive life of the future be like? Describe some of its possible features. 2. Why should a person step into the past to get an idea of what the future might bring?
3. How would Peter Jennings become obsolete? 4. What is called ―fake interactive‖?
5. Why would video telephony mean an end of anonymous phone calls?
Unit 9: Mark Twain----Mirror of America
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. Mark Twain 2. Tramp printer
3. Confederate guerrilla 4. Philippine Moros II. Rhetorical Devices:
1. Antithesis 2. Alliteration 3. Personification
III. Special Difficulties
1. compound nouns and compound adjectives 2. Paraphrasing some sentences 3. Identifying figures of speech 4. Translating some sentences
IV. Effective Writing Skills:
1. The requirements of writing a summary
2. Using many elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect V. Questions
1. Why is Mark Twain one of America’s best-loved authors?
2. Give a brief account of Mark Twain’s experience before he became a writer. 3. When did Mark Twain become a pilot on a steamboat?
4. What story did he write that made him known as ―the wild humorist of the Pacific slope‖?
Unit 10: The Trial That Rocked the World
I. Additional Background Knowledge
1. Henry Louis Mencken
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