高级英语lesson3 Blackmail

1

Lesson 3 Blackmail

I. Background knowledge related to the text (2 periods)：

Arthur Hailey（1920-2004）was born and educated in Britain. He served in RAF（皇家空军）in 1939, and emigrated to Canada 1949.

His famous novels: Hotel 《大饭店》, Airport《航空港》The moneychanger《钱商》

II. Type of writing:

Fiction/novel, to be specific, a thriller, designed to hold the interest by the use of a

high degree of intriguey, adventure or suspense.

III. The outline of the text (1/2 period):

Part 1. Prelude (The chief house officer ...Ogilvie remained standing)

Section 1. The setting, main characters, and the suspension. (The chief

house ...that both might return at any moment.)

Section 2. The preliminary encounter between the house detective and the

Croydons. (A wave of cigar smoke...Ogilvie remained standing)

Part2: Process of unveiling the crime (Now then...the Duchess turned away）

Section 1. First round of clash. the Duke confessed his crime（Now then...Now

we're getting somewhere).

Section 2. Second round of clash.(Wearily, in a gesture...I can prove all I need to )

Ogilvie spelt out what he had found out about the activity of the Croydons and

tried to confirm all the details. The Duchess tried to win back the upper hand.

Section 3. The conviction was undeniable.(The Duke cautioned...the Duchess

turned away ).

The Croydons realized that they were convicted of the crime

Part 3. The Dirty Deal

Section 1. Eliminating the possibility of having the car repaired in New Orleans.

( Her husband asked...You people are hot).

Section 2. The interior monologue of the Duchess. Her judgement, analysis and

calculation of the situation, weighing the advantages and disadvantages. (The

duchess ...Or had they? )

Section 3. The Duchess' decision to gamble on the greed of the house

detective.(The Duchess faced Ogilvie... the silence hung )

Section 4. The ending.

The dirty deal reached.

IV. Detailed Study of the Text 2

1. (Title) Blackmail: blackmail: to demand money from someone by threatening to tell secrets

about them

2. (Para. 1) The chief house officer, Ogilvie, who had declared he would appear at the Croydon’s

suite an hour after his cryptic telephone call, actually took twice that time.: Ogilvie, who is the

detective employed by the hotel to take care of the hotel security, made a mysterious phone call

to the Croydons saying that he would be visiting them an hour later, but he was slow in coming, it

actually took him two hours to come over to the Croydons’ suite.

3. (Para. 1) As a result the nerves of both the Duke and Duchess were excessively frayed when

the muted buzzer of the outer door eventually sounded.: Because of all this (Ogilvie’s

mysterious phone call and his slowness in coming), the Duke and Duchess became over-strained

and extremely nervous, and after a long and unbearable wait, the suite’s doorbell, which was

muted to reduce the noise, finally rang.

4. (Para. 2) Earlier she had dispatched her maid on an invented errand: The Duchess had sent

her maid out to do an errand that was not necessary. The purpose of sending the maid out was

self –evident: The Croydons knew very well that Ogilvie would be here talking about something

that they didn’t want the maid to overhear.

5. (Para. 5) “Petty neat set-up you folks got...”:

1) neat: very good, pleasant, or enjoyable 好的，令人愉快的

2) set-up: here it refers to the way the furniture in the suite is arranged.

Ogilvie was uneducated and his language is ungrammatical, vulgar and slangy. He was making this

comment to start the conversation; at the same time, from the very beginning, he made it clear

that he knew that the Croydons were rich people, so the amount of money that he was going to

ask the Croydons to pay him for the favor he did them wouldn’t be a small sum.

6. (Para. 6) “I imagine you did not come here to discuss decor.” : I don’t think that the purpose

of your coming here is to discuss how the furniture in the suite is arranged. So come to the point

and don’t beat around the bush. The duchess used the French word “decor” in the place of “set

up”, she did it on purpose, from the very beginning , she wanted to be intimidating and get the

upper hand.

7. (Para. 7) The obese body shook in an appreciative chuckle.: Ogilvie was satisfied with the

current situation. He anticipated the way the Duchess was talking to him, appreciated the fact

that the Duchess was smart enough to be his adversary and was enjoying the fact that he was

able to do what he liked to.

8. (Para. 9) “In what conceivable way does our car concern you?” : I can’t imagine how our car

would have anything to do with you.

Attention should be paid to the Duchess’s educated and refined English, forming a sharp contrast

with the language used by Ogilvie.