Unit 4

Pygmalion

Unit 4 Pygmalion

Made by ling ming

6th, May, 2006

PICTURE 1: Pygmalion, an artist, dislike women.one day he makes a statue of a beautiful woman

PICTURE 2: When he finishes the statue, he falls in love with it and goes to the Greek Goddess to ask her to make the statue into a real woman.

PICTURE 3: As a result of his prayers, the Goddess agrees to help him and makes the statue into a woman

PRE-READING

2 Have you seen the film My fair lady ?

If you have, did you like it? Give reasons.

1 Theme of the Greek story: Pygmalion, an artist create a statue from stone and make it have a new life . Theme of My fair lady: Higgins, a phonetics create a new girl Eliza from lower class to upper class by teaching her english.

3 Read the information on the main characters below. Think a minute of a possible plot. Then begin to read the play and see whether you have got the right idea.Main characters:

Eliza Doolittle (E): a poor flower girl who is ambitious to improve herself.

Professor Higgins (H): an expert in phonetics, convinced that the quality of a person’s English decides his/her position in society.

Colonel Pickering (P): an officer in the army and later a friend of Higgins’ who sets him a task.

FIRST READING

Read the passage quickly while you are listening to the tape , try to underline the different expressions that Eliza used in her words.

Correct all these sentences in terms of grammar, spelling, etc, so that Eliza can use them properly.1.Come over’ere, cap’in, and buy me flowers off a poor girl.

2. I ain’t done nothing wrong by speaking to that gentleman

3.I thought maybe you was a policeman in disguise.

4. how do I know whether’ou took me down right?

5. A shop assistant? Now that’s sommat I want, that is!

come over here, captain, and buy some flowers from a poor girl.

I haven’t done anything wrong by speaking to that gentleman.

I thought maybe you were a policeman in disguise.

how do I know whether you took me down right?

A shop assistant ? Now that’s something I would like to be!

SECOND READING

Read the passage carefully and finish the comprehending exercises.

Character Position in society

Evidence in the play

Eliza Lower class

Henry Higgins

Middle class

Colonel Pickering

Upper class

Behavior: respectful to people of higher classLanguage: calls gentleman “sir” and “cap” in

Behavior: rude to lower classLanguage: calls Eliza “you silly girl”

Behavior: generally confident and polite; but ignores ElizaLanguage: prepared to begin a conversation with Henry, whom he does not know

Choose those adjectives in the list which best describe each character in the play. In pairs discuss them and then place them in the boxes below. Not all need to be used and some can be used more than once

Impatient kind polite rude confident anxious eager enthusiastic emotional self-important ambitious generous unsure superior

• Henry higgins Colonel Pickering Eliza

Impatient,

rude

confident

superior

Self-important

Kind

polite

generous

enthusiastic

eager

confident

Anxious eager

Emotional

Ambitious

unsure

HOME WORK

Finish the comprehending exercises.

Review the text.

Try to act out the play.