Selections from Freshman Readings in English

From National Southwest Associated University, a.k.a. NSAU.

Week 1

Basic Information

• Name: Ren, Xiaotao(任 晓涛)

• Email: xtren@ustc.edu.cn.

Texts to Study

• Barren Spring

• What Is Science?

• Why a Classic Is a Classic

• Every Man's Natural Desire to Be Somebody Else

• A Liberal Education

• The Durable Satisfactions of Life

• Habit

• A Word to Youth

• Evolution

Additional Reading Materials

• Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry;

• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Miller Hemingway;

• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.

Evaluation

• Attendance(30%)

• Small essays(3$\times$$\times$15%)(Week 5, 10, 15)

• Discussion on books(25%)

• Final essay(optional, to change her opinion on your performance)

Week 2

Text

Barren Spring

Language Appreciation and Analysis

Figure of Speech:

• Parallelism

• Personification

• Oxymoron¹

Parallelism

The repeated use of phrases, clauses or sentences that are similar in structure or meaning. Writers use this technique to emphasise important ideas, create rhythm and make their writing more forceful and direct.

Personification

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman.

But the land told nothing this year.

Such a despair had seized him as made him like a human without his reason.

Oxymoron

Apparent contradictory terms that are combined to produce epigrammatic²effect. A deliberate combination of two words that seem to mean the opposite of each other.

• Barren Spring

• feeble strength

• organised chaos

• deafening silence

Homework

Here are but suggestions. You can write whatever you want, but you must submit an essay every five weeks.

Week 2

Draw your family tree (at least 3 generations) and share a story of a particular forefather (using third person narrative).