Unit7TheChaserTeachingplan综合教程三

Unit 7 The Chaser

Teaching Points

By the end of this unit, students are supposed to

1) grasp the author’s purpose of writing and make clear the structure of the whole passage

through an intensive reading of Text I The chaser.

2) comprehend the topic sentences in Text I thoroughly and be able to paraphrase them.

3) get a list of new words and structures and use them freely in conversation and writing.

Topics for discussion

1) Do you believe love can be fostered? How can you lure one into love with you?

2) What is likely to happen when a couple no longer love each other?

Cultural Background

1. Proposal of Marriage

 The proposal of marriage is an event where one person in a relationship asks for the other's hand in

marriage.

 If accepted, it marks the initiation of engagement.

 It often has a ritual quality, sometimes involving the presentation of an engagement ring and a

formalized asking of a question such as “Will you marry me?”

 Often the proposal is a surprise.

 In many Western cultures, the tradition has been for the man to propose to the

woman.

2. Engagement

 An engagement is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage –

which may be lengthy or trivial.

 During this period, a couple is said to be affianced, betrothed, engaged to be married, or simply

engaged.

 Future brides and grooms are often referred to as fiancée or fiancés respectively (from the French

word “fiancé”).

 The duration of the courtship varies vastly.

 Long engagements were once common in formal arranged marriages.

 In 2007, the average engagement time in the United States was 17 months, but the figure around the

world varies greatly depending on culture and customs.

Text I

The Chaser

John Collier

Global Reading

I. Text Analysis

The short story is a fable of love with a strong sarcastic tone. The protagonist, Alan Austen, wants to find

an easy solution to the problem of love by purchasing a love potion. However，it’s not the love potion

that the old man intends to sell primarily, but “life cleaner”.

The theme of “The Chaser” is the cynicism of experience, portrayed on a field of Alan’s youthful

naivety and the old man’s pessimistic certainty.

The title of this short story is somehow a pun. “A chaser” can be a person that pursues someone like in

“a woman chaser”. In addition, it can refer to a weaker alcoholic drink taken after a strong one. A

whisky, like the potion, intoxicates. A beer chaser, like the “life cleaner”, mollifies the harshness of the

spirits. The potion and the poison go together like a strong alcoholic drink and a chaser.

.

II. Structural Analysis

This short story, which combines elements of horror and love, is built almost entirely through dialogue

between a young man, Alan Austen, who is deeply in love and wants to possess his lover entirely, and an

unnamed old man who believes in a life free of romantic involvement.

In “The Chaser” John Collier uses:

 the dramatic irony of the title to initialize a cynical landscape;

 and the understatement of the ending to enclose the cynical world of the old man, a world which

Alan is entering.

Paragraph 1: In this part, the protagonist, Alan Austen, has been introduced.

Paragraphs 2-12: The old man is trying to sell his mixture.

Paragraphs 13-45: Austen got to know about the love potion and in the end bought it.

Detailed Reading

Questions

1. What is the image of Alan Austen in the first part? (Paragraph 1)

Alan Austen is depicted as a timid, skeptical and hesitant character. Through descriptions like “as

nervous as a kitten,” “peering about for a long time on the dim hallway”, the writer creates a sense of

apprehension.

2. Why do you think the old man told Austen about the life-cleaner before selling the love potion?

(Paragraph 7)

The sophisticated old man had encountered many young men who had been in the grip of romantic

desire before, but who eventually got tired of the possessive love they had experienced. He knew for sure

that Austen’s possessive love wouldn’t last long. It would eventually bore and repel him. He expected

that when his enthusiastic passion changed into hatred, Austen would come to him again, because he had

already seen those disillusioned customers return to buy the “chaser” so that they could be free from

the women for whom they had previously bought the love potion.

3. What is the implied meaning of the old man’s remark, “Young people who need a love potion very

seldom have five thousand dollars. Otherwise they would not need a love potion” (Paragraph 13)?

What the old man means is that a young man who falls in love one-sidedly is seldom rich enough to win a