现代大学英语第二册unit3 the rite of spring教案
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Unit 3 The Rite of SpringArthur Miller1.I have never understood why we keep a garden and why over 36 years ago when I bought myfirst house in the country, I started digging up a patch for vegetables before doing anything else. When you think how easy and cheap, relatively, it is to buy a bunch of carrots or beets, why raise them? And root crops especially are hard to tell apart, when store-bought, from our own. There is a human instinct at work here, a kind of back-breaking make-believe that has no reality. Besides, I don't particularly like eating vegetables. I'd much rather eat something juicy and fat. Like hot dogs.2.Now, if you could raise hot dogs outside your window, you'd really have something you couldjustify without a second's hesitation. As it is, though, I cannot deny that when April comes I find myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that miserable plot of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again. But inevitably a morning arrives when, just as I am awakening, a scent wafts through the window, something like earth-as-air, a scent that seems to come up from the very center of this planet. And the sun means business, suddenly, and has a different, deeper yellow in its beams on the carpet. The birds begin screaming hysterically, thinking what I am thinking—the worms are deliciously worming their way through the melting soil.3.It is not only pleasure sending me back to stare at that plot of soil, it is really conflict. Thequestion is the same each year—what method should we use? The last few years we put 36-inch-wide black plastic between the rows, and it worked perfectly, keeping the soil moist in dry times and weed-free.4.But black plastic looks so industrial, so unromantic, that I have gradually moved over to haymulch. We cut a lot of hay and, as it rots, it does improve the soil's Composition. Besides, it looks lovely, and comes to us free.5.Keeping a garden makes you aware of how delicate, bountiful, and easily ruined the surfaceof this little planet is. In that 50-by-70-foot patch there must be a dozen different types of soil.Tomato won't grow in one part but loves another, and the same goes for the other crops. I suppose if you loaded the soil with chemical fertilizer these differences would be less noticeable, but I use it sparingly and only in rows right where seeds are planted rather than broadcast over the whole area. I'm not sure why I do this beyond the saving in fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds.6.The attractions of gardening, I think, at least for a certain number of gardeners, are neuroticand moral. Whenever life seems pointless and difficult to grasp, you can always get out in the garden and get something done. Also, your paternal or maternal instincts come into play because helpless living things are depending on you, require training and encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cases, as with beans and cucumbers, your children—as it were—begin to turn upon you in massive numbers, growing more and more each morning and threatening to follow you into the house to strangle you in their vines.7.Gardening is a moral occupation, as well, because you always start in spring resolved to keepit looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July, you once again face the chaos of unthinned carrots, lettuce and beets. This is when my wife becomes—openly now—mistress of the garden. A consumer of vast quantities of vegetables, she does the thinning and hand-cultivating of the tiny plants. Squatting, she patiently moves down each row selecting which plants shall live and which she will cast aside.8.At about this time, my wife's 86-year-old mother, a botanist, makes her first visit to the garden.She looks about skeptically. Her favorite task is binding the tomato plants to stakes. She is an outspoken, truthful woman, or she was until she learned better. Now, instead of saying, "You have planted the tomatoes in the damp part of the garden," she waits until October when she makes her annual trip to her home in Europe; then she gives me my good-by kiss and says casually," Tomatoes in damp soil tend more to get fungi," and walks away to her plane. But by October nothing in the garden matters, so sure am I that I will never plant it again.9.I garden, I suppose, because I must. It would be intolerable to have to pass an unplantedfenced garden a few times a day. There are also certain compensations, and these must be what annually turn my mind toward all that work. There are few sights quite as beautiful as a vegetable garden glistening in the sun, all dewy and glittering with a dozen shades of green at seven in the morning. Far lovelier, in fact, than rows of hot dogs. In some pocket of the mind there may even be a tendency to change this vision into a personal reassurance that all this healthy growth, this orderliness and thrusting life must somehow reflect similar movements in one's own spirit. Without a garden to till and plant I would not know what April was for.10.As it is, April is for getting irritated all over again at this pointless, time-consuming hobby. I donot understand people who claim to "love" gardening. A garden is an extension of oneself—or selves—and so it has to be an arena where striving does not cease, but continues by other means. As an example: you simply have to face the moment when you must admit that the lettuce was planted too deep or was not watered enough, cease hoping it will show itself tomorrow, and dig up the row again. But you will feel better for not standing on your dignity.And that's what gardening is all about—character building. Which is why Adam was a gardener.(And all know where it got him, too.)11.But is it conceivable that the father of us all should have been a weaver, shoemaker, oranything but a gardener? Of course not. Only the gardener is capable of endlessly reviving so much hope that this year, regardless of drought, flood, typhoon, or his own stupidity, this year he is going to do it right! Leave it to God to have picked the proper occupation for his only creature capable of such self-delusion.12.I suppose it should be added, for honesty's sake, that the above was written on one of thecoldest days in December.。
我从来都不明白我家为什么会开辟一方菜园子,也不明白为什么36年前我第一次在乡下买了一处房屋后,我所做的第一件事是开垦一块地来种菜。
现在想想,买一堆胡萝卜或甜菜,相对来说,那么容易,而且又那么便宜,为什么还要自己种菜呢?尤其是块根蔬菜,商店里买的和自己种的并没什么区别。
这里肯定有人的本性在起作用。
人就喜欢脱离现实,毫无意义地瞎折腾。
再说,我并不是特别喜欢吃蔬菜,我宁可吃些油汪汪、香喷喷、一咬一口肉汁的东西,比如说热狗。
要说,如果能在窗外种热狗的话,那倒真的有了一种可以毫不犹豫为自己辩护的理由.可是在现在这种情况下,我无法否认,每当四月来临,我就会发现自己走出家门,倚着院子外的篱笆,望着那块倒霉的地,十分理智地下决心再也不去种它了。
然而,总有那么一天,当我早晨醒来的时候,就闻到窗外飘进的一缕香气,空气中有种泥土的气息,这香气仿佛从地球中心的地方飘来.这时,太阳似乎也突然认真起来,它投射到地毯上的光似乎比往常更加深黄。
那些鸟开始歇斯底里地鸣叫,心里和我一样,想着那些美味可口的虫子正从那融化的土中慢慢爬出来。
我欣喜地看着这块土地,但是心里也充满了矛盾。
每年的难题都一样--—用什么方式种呢?前几年我用的是36寸宽的黑色塑料薄膜,成效不错,干旱的时候土壤仍能保持水分,不生杂草。
但是黑色塑料薄膜看起来太工业化、一点浪漫的情调都没有,我开始慢慢用干草来覆盖。
我们收割了很多干草,干草腐烂后确实能改良土壤成分,而且看上去也很舒服,而且不用花一分钱。
家里有个菜园子能使你感觉到我们这个小小的星球的表面有多娇嫩,多丰饶,多容易被毁坏。
这块50英寸宽、70英寸长的田地肯定有十几种不同的土壤。
西红柿在某个地方张不好,但是在另外一个地方却长得很好,其他庄家也一样。
我想,要是你在地里洒满化肥,这种差别就不那么明显了,但是我用化肥很节省,只是放在播种种子的那些地方,而不是播撒在整片地里。
我不知道我为什么这么做,我只是想省点化肥,也不想给杂草占便宜.我觉得,至少对于某些人来说,园艺对人的吸引力是出于神经和精神方面的原因。
我从来都不明白我家为什么会开辟一方菜园子,也不明白为什么36年前我第一次在乡下买了一处房屋后,我所做的第一件事是开垦一块地来种菜。
现在想想,买一堆胡萝卜或甜菜,相对来说,那么容易,而且又那么便宜,为什么还要自己种菜呢?尤其是块根蔬菜,商店里买的和自己种的并没什么区别。
这里肯定有人的本性在起作用。
人就喜欢脱离现实,毫无意义地瞎折腾。
再说,我并不是特别喜欢吃蔬菜,我宁可吃些油汪汪、香喷喷、一咬一口肉汁的东西,比如说热狗。
要说,如果能在窗外种热狗的话,那倒真的有了一种可以毫不犹豫为自己辩护的理由。
可是在现在这种情况下,我无法否认,每当四月来临,我就会发现自己走出家门,倚着院子外的篱笆,望着那块倒霉的地,十分理智地下决心再也不去种它了。
然而,总有那么一天,当我早晨醒来的时候,就闻到窗外飘进的一缕香气,空气中有种泥土的气息,这香气仿佛从地球中心的地方飘来。
这时,太阳似乎也突然认真起来,它投射到地毯上的光似乎比往常更加深黄. 那些鸟开始歇斯底里地鸣叫,心里和我一样,想着那些美味可口的虫子正从那融化的土中慢慢爬出来。
我欣喜地看着这块土地,但是心里也充满了矛盾。
每年的难题都一样—--用什么方式种呢?前几年我用的是36寸宽的黑色塑料薄膜,成效不错,干旱的时候土壤仍能保持水分,不生杂草。
但是黑色塑料薄膜看起来太工业化、一点浪漫的情调都没有,我开始慢慢用干草来覆盖.我们收割了很多干草,干草腐烂后确实能改良土壤成分,而且看上去也很舒服,而且不用花一分钱。
家里有个菜园子能使你感觉到我们这个小小的星球的表面有多娇嫩,多丰饶,多容易被毁坏.这块50英寸宽、70英寸长的田地肯定有十几种不同的土壤.西红柿在某个地方张不好,但是在另外一个地方却长得很好,其他庄家也一样。
我想,要是你在地里洒满化肥,这种差别就不那么明显了,但是我用化肥很节省,只是放在播种种子的那些地方,而不是播撒在整片地里.我不知道我为什么这么做,我只是想省点化肥,也不想给杂草占便宜。
现代大学英语精读2Unit3ABcomparisonBoth text A the Rite of Spring and text B What My Garden Taught Me—the Hard Way are about the same topic, gardening. The authors introduce their private gardening in different ways, while there still similarity exist.For the same point, the two articles are not simply essay that teach you how to grow plant, but teach you the life experience and some deep meaning through this process. These articles are not surround on the surface, the author behind it possesses the heart to touch the temperature of life and eyes to search beauty. However, the main points of the two essays are different.For text A, through years of gardening, the author not only become excellent gardener, but also learn how to live. For text B, the experience to grow corn is so hard that the author tried so many times still failed at last. Looking upon on the this experience, the author tell himself to think twice before jump, and learn to communicate with experienced people beside him, which helps to the final success rate of the event.On writing skills, text A contains difficult words and complex grammar, which takes reader time to read carefully. On the contrast, text B is easier to read and understand.。
Rite of Spring (Arthur Miller)have never understood why we keep a garden and why over 36 years ago when I bought my first house in the country, I started digging up a patch for vegetables before doing anything else. When you think how easy and cheap, relatively, it is to buy a bunch of carrots or beets, why raise them And root crops especially are hard to tell apart, when store-bought, from our own. There is a human instinct at work here, a kind of back-breaking make-believe that has no reality. Besides, I don’t particularly like eating vegetables. I’d much rather eat something juicy and fat. Like hot dogs., if you could raise hot dogs outside your window, you’d really have something you could justify without a second’s hesitation. As it is, though, I can not deny that when April comes I find myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that miserable plot of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again. But inevitably a morning arrives when, just as I am awakening, a scent wafts through the window, something like earth-as-air, a scent that seems to come up from the very center of this planet. And the sun means business, suddenly, and has a different, deeper yellow in its beams on the carpet. The birds begin screaming hysterically, thinking what I am thinking—the worms are deliciously worming their way through the melting soil.is not only pleasure sending me back to stare at that plot of soil, it is really conflict. The question is the same each year—what method should we use The last few years we put 36-inch-wide black plastic between the rows, and it worked perfectly, keeping the soil moist in dry times and weed-free.black plastic looks so industrial, so unromantic, that I have gradually moved over to hay mulch. We cut a lot of hay and, as it rots, it does improve the soil’s composition. Besides, it looks lovely, and comes to us free.a garden makes you aware of how delicate, bountiful, and easily ruined the surface of this little planet is. In that 50-by-70-foot patch there must be a dozen different types of soil. Tomato won’t grow in one part but loves another, and the same goes for the other crops. I suppose if you loaded the soil with chemical fertilizer these differences would be less noticeable, but I use it sparingly and only in rows right where seeds are planted rather than broadcast over the whole area. I’m not sure why I do this beyond the saving in fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds.attractions of gardening, I think, at least for a certain number of gardeners, are neurotic and moral. Whenever life seems pointless and difficult to grasp, you can always get out in the garden and get something done. Also, your paternal or maternal instincts come into play because helpless living things are depending on you, require training and encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cases, as with beans and cucumbers, your children—as it were—begin to turn upon you in massive numbers, growing more and more each morning and threatening to follow you into the house to strangle you in their vines.is a moral occupation, as well, because you always start in spring resolved to keep it looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July, you once again face the chaos of unthinned carrots, lettuce and beets. This is when my wife becomes—openly now—mistress of the garden. A consumer of vast quantities of vegetables, she does the thinning and hand-cultivating of the tiny plants. Squatting, she patiently moves down each row selecting whichplants shall live and which she will cast aside.about this time, my wife's 86-year-old mother, a botanist, makes her first visit to the garden. She looks about skeptically. Her favorite task is binding the tomato plants to stakes.She is an outspoken, truthful woman, or she was until she learned better. Now, instead of saying, "You have planted the tomatoes in the damp part of the garden," she waits until October when she makes her annual trip to her home in Europe; then she gives me my good-by kiss and says casually," Tomatoes in damp soil tend more to get fungi," and walks away to her plane. But by October nothing in the garden matters, so sure am I that I will never plant it again.9.I garden, I suppose, because I must. It would be intolerable to have to pass an unplanted fenced garden a few times a day. There are also certain compensations, and these must be what annually turn my mind toward all that work. There are few sights quite as beautiful as a vegetable garden glistening in the sun, all dewy and glittering with a dozen shades of green at seven in the morning. Far lovelier, in fact, than rows of hot dogs. In some pocket of the mind there may even be a tendency to change this vision into a personal reassurance that all this healthy growth, this orderliness and thrusting life must somehow reflect similar movements in one's own spirit. Without a garden to till and plant I would not know what April was for.it is, April is for getting irritated all over again at this pointless, time-consuming hobby. I do not understand people who claim to "love" gardening.A garden is an extension of oneself—or selves—and so it has to be an arena where striving does not cease, but continues by other means.As an example: you simply have to face the moment when you must admit that the lettuce was planted too deep or was not watered enough, cease hoping it will show itself tomorrow, and dig up the row again.But you will feel better for not standing on your dignity. And that's what gardening is all about—character building. Which is why Adam was a gardener. (And all know where it got him, too.)is it conceivable that the father of us all should have been a weaver, shoemaker, or anything but a gardener Of course not.Only the gardener is capable of endlessly reviving so much hope that this year, regardless of drought, flood, typhoon, or his own stupidity, this year he is going to do it right!Leave it to God to have picked the proper occupation for his only creature capable of such self-delusion.12.I suppose it should be added, for honesty's sake, that the above was written on one of the coldest days in December.。
Rite of Spring (Arthur Miller)1.I have never understood why we keep a garden and why over 36 years ago when I bought my first house in the country, I started digging up a patch for vegetables before doing anything else. When you think how easy and cheap, relatively, it is to buy a bunch of carrots or beets, why raise them? And root crops especially are hard to tell apart, when store-bought, from our own. There is a human instinct at work here, a kind of back-breaking make-believe that has no reality. Besid es, I don’t particularly like eating vegetables. I’d much rather eat something juicy and fat. Like hot dogs.2.Now, if you could raise hot dogs outside your window, you’d really have something you could justify without a second’s hesitation. As it is, thou gh, I cannot deny that when April comes I find myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that miserable plot of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again. But inevitably a morning arrives when, just as I am awakening, a scent wafts through the window, something like earth-as-air, a scent that seems to come up from the very center of this planet. And the sun means business, suddenly, and has a different, deeper yellow in its beams on the carpet. The birds begin screaming hysterically, thinking what I am thinking—the worms are deliciously worming their way through the melting soil.3.It is not only pleasure sending me back to stare at that plot of soil, it is really conflict. The question is the same each year—what method should we use? The last few years we put 36-inch-wide black plastic between the rows, and it worked perfectly, keeping the soil moist in dry times and weed-free.4.But black plastic looks so industrial, so unromantic, that I have gradually moved over to hay mulc h. We cut a lot of hay and, as it rots, it does improve the soil’s composition. Besides, it looks lovely, and comes to us free.5.Keeping a garden makes you aware of how delicate, bountiful, and easily ruined the surface of this little planet is. In that 50-by-70-foot patch there must be a dozen different types of soil. Tomato won’t grow in one part but loves another, and the same goes for the other crops. I suppose if you loaded the soil with chemical fertilizer these differences would be less noticeable, but I use it sparingly and only in rows right where seeds are planted rather than broadcast over the whole area. I’m not sure why I do this beyond the saving in fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds.6.The attractions of gardening, I think, at least for a certain number of gardeners, are neurotic and moral. Whenever life seems pointless and difficult to grasp, you can always get out in the garden and get something done. Also, your paternal or maternal instincts come into play because helpless living things are depending on you, require training and encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cases, as with beans and cucumbers, your children—as it were—begin to turn upon you in massive numbers, growing more and more each morning and threatening to follow you into the house to strangle you in their vines.7.Gardening is a moral occupation, as well, because you always start in spring resolved to keep it looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July, you once again face the chaos of unthinned carrots, lettuce and beets. This is when my wife becomes—openly now—mistress of the garden. A consumer of vast quantities of vegetables, she does the thinning and hand-cultivating of the tiny plants. Squatting, she patiently moves down each row selectingwhich plants shall live and which she will cast aside.8.At about this time, my wife's 86-year-old mother, a botanist, makes her first visit to the garden. She looks about skeptically. Her favorite task is binding the tomato plants to stakes. She is an outspoken, truthful woman, or she was until she learned better. Now, instead of saying, "You have planted the tomatoes in the damp part of the garden," she waits until October when she makes her annual trip to her home in Europe; then she gives me my good-by kiss and says casually," Tomatoes in damp soil tend more to get fungi," and walks away to her plane. But by October nothing in the garden matters, so sure am I that I will never plant it again.9. I garden, I suppose, because I must. It would be intolerable to have to pass an unplanted fenced garden a few times a day. There are also certain compensations, and these must be what annually turn my mind toward all that work. There are few sights quite as beautiful as a vegetable garden glistening in the sun, all dewy and glittering with a dozen shades of green at seven in the morning. Far lovelier, in fact, than rows of hot dogs. In some pocket of the mind there may even be a tendency to change this vision into a personal reassurance that all this healthy growth, this orderliness and thrusting life must somehow reflect similar movements in one's own spirit. Without a garden to till and plant I would not know what April was for.10.As it is, April is for getting irritated all over again at this pointless, time-consuming hobby. I do not understand people who claim to "love" gardening. A garden is an extension of oneself—or selves—and so it has to be an arena where striving does not cease, but continues by other means. As an example: you simply have to face the moment when you must admit that the lettuce was planted too deep or was not watered enough, cease hoping it will show itself tomorrow, and dig up the row again. But you will feel better for not standing on your dignity. And that's what gardening is all about—character building. Which is why Adam was a gardener. (And all know where it got him, too.)11.But is it conceivable that the father of us all should have been a weaver, shoemaker, or anything but a gardener? Of course not. Only the gardener is capable of endlessly reviving so much hope that this year, regardless of drought, flood, typhoon, or his own stupidity, this year he is going to do it right! Leave it to God to have picked the proper occupation for his only creature capable of such self-delusion.12. I suppose it should be added, for honesty's sake, that the above was written on one of the coldest days in December.。
课堂教学设计首页 课程名称 综合英语 教学班次 人数 章节名称 Unit Three Text A / 第三单元 课文A The Rite of Spring 教学时数 8学时
教学内容及要求
内容及要求 时 间 1. 热身; 2.作者:教育与背景;主要着作;创作观; 3.作品赏析:结构分析;如何赏析文学作品;通过深刻理解文章内涵,培养学生社会洞察力和相关的讨论能力; 4.写作技巧:省略疑问句和修辞疑问句;倒装句;
5.语言理解:长难句解析;核心词汇学习;介词练习;构词法:前缀; 6.课堂讨论; 7.练与讲。
10 minutes 40 90
30 120 40 70
重点难点 1. 文学作品的赏析; 2.文学中的修辞手法 3.构词法:词缀
教学方法 结合实际吸收各种教学法(讲授、问答、讨论、模仿、练习、多媒体使用)的优点。
教学手段 传统教学手段与多媒体运用相结合
回顾和小结 作业
教学后记 主要内容栏 The Rite of Spring By Arthur Miller Part I Warming up: Will you be a good gardener A quick quiz! 1.Where is the best location to plant tall or climbing plants A. North side of the garden B. East side of the garden C. South side of the garden D. West side of the garden 2.Tomato plants that are “determinate” are more bushy plants, and tomato plants that are 'indeterminate' are more viny plants True False 3.Potatoes are in what family A. Carrot Family (Umbelliferae) B. Tomato Family (Solanaceae) C. Pea Family (Leguminosae) D. Morning Glory Family (Convolvulaceae) 4.What is the best level of soil ph for MOST plants A. - B. - C. - D. - 5.Pine needle mulch lowers the ph level of soil while peat moss raises the ph level. True False 6.When a plant has beautiful lush foliage, but almost no fruit, the plant has an overdose of: (Ans: One 8-letter word) 7.Tomato leaves that are purple and thin is a pretty good sign that they are lacking Potassium. True False 8.Potato plants want lots of organic matter in the soil for the potatoes to grow better. True False Now Check Your Answer! 1. North side of the garden. When the tall plants are planted on the north side, they don't block the sun from other smaller plants and also keep down the north winds. 2. True.If you don't want to stake, you will want determinate. If not, go with indeterminate. 3. Tomato Family (Solanaceae).Eggplant, Tomato, Tomatillo,
备注栏 Potato, and Pepper are all in the tomato family. 4. - .Most plants require ph levels of 6-7, but a few can tolerate like corn, carrots, and potatoes. Others can grow well in soil ph of like cabbage and cauliflower. 5. False. Pine needle mulch and peat moss are good for alkaline soils because they lower the ph level. 6. Nitrogen. Nitrogen will help produce lush foliage, but too much will make the plant concentrate on the leaves instead of the fruit. 7. False. They lack phosphorus when the plants look like that. 8. False. Too much organic matter will cause scabbing on the potatoes.
Part II Background Information Arthur Miller 1915-2005 A Harlem-born Polish-Jewish boy Majored in journalism at University of Michigan Wrote first play in 1936 Received BA in English in 1938 First successful play: All My Sons, 1946 Huge success: Death of a Salesman, 1949 The Crucible, 1953 About Salem Witchhunt in 1692 HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), anti- communist McCarthyism Attended a HUAC hearing in 1956, refusing to give names; sentenced to a $500 fine or thirty days in prison, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport Conviction overturned in 1958 Return to theatrical success: The Price, 1968 Experimental drama in 1970s, unsuccessful Kept writing until 2004 One of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century Politically engaged, commercially successful, social plays Numourous awards and honors: Three Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prize for Death of the Salesman in 1949 1965, Elected the first American president of International Pen 1993, awarded theNational Medal of Arts 2001, selected for theJefferson Lecture, the government's highest honor for achievement in thehumanities his marriage Mary Slattery, college sweetheart, 1940
备注栏 Marilyn Monroe, 1956 Brief affair in 1951 Accompanied Miller to his 1956 trial Made The Misfits with Miller as the scriptwriter Divorced in 1961 Inge Morath, 1962 Son Daniel born with Down Syndrome; institutionalized at Miller’s insistence Son-in-law, English actor Daniel Day-Lewis
Part III Text Understanding 1. Structure I. Gardening as a celebration of the coming spring (1-2). II. Why gardening (3-10) Gardening involves conflict and choice-making. Gardening teaches you about nature. Gardening is neurotic and moral. Gardening helps character building. III. Gardening enables people to stay hopeful for the future. (11-12)
2. Genre Essay A short piece of prose often written from the author’s personal point of view Vague definition, great variety: literary, political, academic, journalistic, argumentative, expository, etc. Aldous Huxley: a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything Personal and the autobiographical: these use "fragments of reflective autobiography" to "look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description ". Objective and factual: in these essays, the authors "do not speak directly of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or scientific or political theme". Abstract-universal: these essays "make the best ... of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist".