Www.themegallery.com An Integrated English Course Book 4 Unit 16

www.themegallery.com

An Integrated English Course

An Integrated English Course

Book 4

Unit 16


Learning Objectives Learning Objectives By the end of this unit, you are supposed to • grasp the author’s purpose of writing• make clear the structure of the whole passage• be able to paraphrase difficult sentences• get a list of new words and structures and use

them freely in conversation and writing.


Teaching ProceduresTeaching Procedures

Pre-reading QuestionsText I. The Story of an Eyewitness

● Passage● Structure analysis● Main idea of the passage● Language points

● sentence studies ● vocabulary studies

Text II. Memories of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire


1) What do you think is the most destructive natural disaster?

2) What is the biggest natural disaster you have experienced?

Pre-reading questions


Text I: The Story of an Eyewitness

Text I: The Story of an Eyewitness


The Story of an Eyewitness

The earthquake shook down in San Francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of walls and chimneys. But the conflagration that followed burned up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property. There is no estimating within hundreds of millions the actual damage wrought.

Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories and fringe of dwelling houses on its outskirts. Its industrial section is wiped out. Its business section is wiped out. Its social and residential section is wiped out. The factories and warehouses, the great stores and newspaper buildings, the hotels and the palaces of the nabobs, are all gone. Remains only the fringe of dwelling houses on the outskirts of what was once San Francisco.

Within an hour after the earthquake shock, the smoke of San Francisco’s burning was a lurid tower visible a hundred miles away. And for three days and nights this lurid tower swayed in the sky, reddening the sun, darkening the day, and filling the land with smoke.

On Wednesday morning at quarter past five came the earthquake. A minute later the flames were leaping upward. In a dozen different quarters south of Market Street, in the working class ghetto and in the factories,


fires started. There was no opposing the flames. There was no organization, no communication. All the cunning adjustments of a twentieth-century city had been smashed by the earthquake. The streets were humped into ridges and depressions, and piled with the debris of fallen walls. The steel rails were twisted into perpendicular and horizontal angles. The telephone and telegraph systems were disrupted. And the great water mains had burst. All the shrewd contrivances and safeguards of man had been thrown out of gear by thirty seconds’ twitching of the earth-crust. By Wednesday afternoon, inside of twelve hours, half the heart of the city was gone. At that time I watched the vast conflagration from out on the bay. It was dead calm. Not a flicker of wind stirred. Yet from every side wind was pouring in upon the city. East, west, north, and south, strong winds were blowing upon the doomed city. The heated air rising made an enormous suck. Thus did the fire of itself build its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere. Day and night this dead calm continued, and yet, near to the flames, the wind was often half a gale, so mighty was the suck.


Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city. Dynamite was lavishly used, and many of San Francisco’s proudest structures were crumbled by man himself into ruins, but there was no withstanding the onrush of the flames. Time and again successful stands were made by the firefighters and every time the flames flanked around on either side, or came up from the rear, and turned to defeat the hard won victory. An enumeration of the buildings destroyed would be a directory of San Francisco. An enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses. An enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie medal fund. An enumeration of the dead — will never be made. All vestiges of them were destroyed by the flames. The number of the victims of the earthquake will never be known. South of Market Street, where the loss of life was particularly heavy, was the first to catch fire. Remarkable as it may seem, Wednesday night, while the whole city crashed and roared into ruin, was a quiet night. There were no crowds.


There was no shouting and yelling. There was no hysteria, no disorder. I passed Wednesday night in the path of the advancing flames, and in all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who wept, not one man who was excited, not one person who was in the slightest degree panic-stricken. Before the flames, throughout the night, fled tens of thousands of homeless ones. Some were wrapped in blankets. Others carried bundles of bedding and dear household treasures. Sometimes a whole family was harnessed to a carriage or delivery wagon that was weighed down with their possessions. Baby buggies, toy wagons and go-carts were used as trucks, while every other person was dragging a trunk. Yet everybody was gracious. The most perfect courtesy obtained. Never, in all San Francisco’s history, were her people so kind and courteous as on this night of terror. All night these tens of thousands fled before the flames. Many of them, the poor people from the labor ghetto, had fled all day as well. They had left their homes burdened with possessions. Now and again they lightened up, flinging out upon the street clothing and treasures they had dragged for miles.


They held on longest to their trunks, and over these trunks many a strong man broke his heart that night. The hills of San Francisco are steep, and up these hills, mile after mile, were the trunks dragged. Everywhere were trunks, with across them lying their exhausted owners, men and women. Before the march of the flames were flung picket lines of soldiers. And a block at a time, as the flames advanced, these pickets retreated. One of their tasks was to keep the trunk-pullers moving. The exhausted creatures, stirred on by the menace of bayonets, would arise and struggle up the steep pavements, pausing from weakness every five or ten feet. Often, after surmounting a heart-breaking hill, they would find another wall of flame advancing upon them at right angles and be compelled to change anew the line of their retreat. In the end, completely played out, after toiling for a dozen hours like giants, thousands of them were compelled to abandon their trunks. Here the shop-keepers and soft members of the middle class were at a disadvantage. But the workingmen dug holes in vacant lots and backyards and buried their trunks.


At nine o’clock Wednesday evening, I walked down through the very heart of the city. I walked through miles and miles of magnificent buildings and towering skyscrapers. There was no fire. All was in perfect order. The people patrolled the streets. Every building had its watchman at the door. And yet it was doomed, all of it. There was no water. The dynamite was giving out. And at right angles two different conflagrations were sweeping down upon it. At one o’clock in the morning I walked down the same section. Everything still stood intact. There was no fire. And yet there was a change. A rain of ashes was falling. The watchmen at the doors were gone. The police had been withdrawn. There were no firemen, no fire-engines, no men fighting with dynamite. The district had been absolutely abandoned. I stood at the corner of Kearney and Market, in the very innermost heart of San Francisco. Kearney Street was deserted. Half a dozen blocks away it was burning on both sides. The street was a wall of flame. And against this wall of flame, silhouetted sharply, were two United States cavalrymen sitting their horses, calmly watching. That was all. Not another person was in sight. In the intact heart of the city two troopers sat their horses and watched.


Surrender was complete. There was no water. The sewers had long since been pumped dry. There was no dynamite. Another fire had broken out farther up town, and now from the three sides conflagrations were sweeping down. The fourth side had been burned earlier in the day. In that direction stood the tottering walls of the Examiner Building, the burned out Call Building, the smouldering ruins of Grand Hotel, and the gutted, devastated, dynamited Palace Hotel.


The passage can be divided into three parts.

Part One: (Paragraphs 1- 3) • gives a brief introduction to what happened in

San Francisco in 190

Structure Analysis Structure Analysis


Part Two: (Paragraphs 4-13) • tells the reader in more detail what the author

witnessed on Wednesday morning, afternoon and night.

• describes what happened the next day, that is to say how the very heart of the doomed city was being completely destroyed by the spreading fire and why the surrender was complete.

Part Three: (Para. 14-16)


Main Idea of the passage Main Idea of the passage

The text is mainly about the disaster that happened in San Francisco in 1906. It described in detail how the city was completely destroyed by the earthquake and the great fire.


LANGUAGE POINTSLANGUAGE POINTS

• shake down

– cause to descend by shaking; bring down E.g. He shook some pears down from the tree.

• conflagration

– an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property

Back to the Text


• There is no estimating within hundreds of millions the actual damage wrought. – The actual damage the earthquake and the

conflagration brought must be more than hundreds of millions of dollars.

• wipe out– destroy completely; demolish

E.g. wipe out the enemy’s major military targets

Back to the Text


• … this lurid tower swayed in the sky, reddening the sun, darkening the day, and filling land with smoke…

– … the fire, moving back and forth slowly, make the sun redder and sky darker and covered the land with smoke.

• There was no opposing the flames. There was o organization, no communication.

– It was impossible to oppose the flames, and it was impossible to organize any battles against the fire or communicate with other people

Back to the Text

Back to the Text


• All the cunning adjustments of a 20th city had been smashed by the earthquake.

– Human ingenuity enabled people t make all kinds of adjustments to nature. However, the achievements of their efforts had been completely destroyed by the earthquake.

• The streets were humped into ridges and depressions…

– The streets were no long smooth after the earthquake…

Back to the Text


• perpendicular – at an angle of 90º to a given line, plane, or surfa

ce

• shrewd contrivances– something cleverly devised or invented with ing

enuity, especially a mechanical device

Back to the Text


• The heated air rising made an enormous suck.

– It is commonly known that the hot air will rise up while the cold air goes down, which forms the air current. This sentence means the air heated by the fire rose to the sky and caused the cold current to pour in from other places. It seemed as if it was sucking the wind.

• Thus did the fire of itself build its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere.

– The fire automatically followed the heated air rising to the atmosphere, in the same way as the smoke and fire go up through the chimney.

Back to the Text


• …so mighty was the suck. – … the suck was extremely powerful.

E.g. The car pulled up outside the station.

• Wednesday night saw the destruction of the very heart of the city.– This is a personification in which Wednesday night

is regarded as a person who witnessed the disastrous destruction of the very heart of the city.

Back to the Text

Back to the Text


• crumble – break into small particles or crumbs

• …there was no withstanding the onrush of the flames. – …it was impossible to fight the enormous flames.– onrush: a surging rush forward

E.g. the onrush of the water/crowd

Back to the Text


• An enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses.– The buidings undestroyed in this disaster would be so limite

d in number that they could be counted as several addresses.

• …stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie medal fund.– The courageous deeds in the firefighting would fill up a libra

ry if related in writing and exhaust the Carnegie medal fund if rewarded.

Back to the Text


• hysteria– exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or exci

tement, especially among a group of people

• panic-stricken – Overcome with, characterized by , or resulting

from fear or panic

E.g. a panic-striking mother looking for her child

Back to the Text


• … a whole family was harnessed to a carriage … – … all members of a family fastened themselves with straps to a

carriage …

• Never, in all San Francisco’s history, were her people so kind and courteous as on this night of terror. – In all San Francisco’s history, her people had never been as kind

and polite as they were on this night of terror. – courteous: having or showing good manners; polite; gracious– courtesy: excellence of manners or social conduct; polite behavi

our

Back to the Text


• …flinging out upon the street clothing and treasures they had dragged for miles– Forcefully throwing the clothing and treasures away

on the street though they had dragged them for miles

– Fling: throw or cast with force, violence, or abandon E.g. Don’t fling out hard words against me.

• Before the march of the flames were flung picket lines of soldiers. – The soldiers were sent to keep the crowds of people

moving before the march of the flames.

Back to the Text

Back to the Text


• a heart-breaking hill– a steep hill that breaks man’s heart

• compel – force, or drive, especially to a course of actio

n

E.g. His horse was played out when a day’s hunting was over.

Back to the Text


• soft members of the middle class

– those people in the middle class who were weak both in body and spirit because of lack of effort or challenge

• at a disadvantage – in an unfavorable circumstance or condition

Back to the Text


• Everything still stood intact.– Everything still remained unbroken.

• And against this wall of flame, silhouetted sharply, were two United States cavalrymen sitting their horses, calmly watching.

– Two soldiers sat astride on their horses and watched the conflagration, their shapes contrasting sharply with the wall of flame when seen from their back.

Back to the Text


• the smouldering ruins– The ruins still burning without flames

E.g. a butt smouldering in the ashtray

• gut – destroy the interior of something

E.g. Fire gutted the building.

Back to the Text


Comprehension questionsComprehension questions

I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s purpose of writing.

A. To argue that the conflagration was more destructive than the earthquake.

B. To describe how the city was completely destroyed by the earthquake and the great fire.

C. To show how weak and fragile man is in the face of nature.


• Nothing remains of it but memories and fringe of dwelling houses on its outskirts. Except for some dwelling houses on its outskirts, San Francisco is no more in the material world though it is still lingering in the memories of its dwellers.

• …there was no withstanding the onrush of the flames. …it was very difficult or even impossible to resist the advancement of the flames.

• An enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bandrupt the Carnegie medal fund. The courageous and brave deeds in the firefighting would fill up a library if related in writing and exhaust the Carnegie medal fund if rewarded.

• Sometimes a whole family was harnessed to a carriage or delivery wagon that was weighed down with their possessions. Sometimes all members of a family fastened themselves with straps to a carriage or delivery wagon that was heavily loaded with their possessions.

• And against this wall of flame, silhouetted sharply, were two United States cavalrymen sitting their horses, calmly watching. Two soldiers sat astride on their horses and calmly watched the conflagration, their shapes contrasting sharply with the wall of flame when seen from their back.


TEXT II: Memories of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire

TEXT II: Memories of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire

DeWitt C. Baldwin Shortly after five the morning of April 18, 1906, I woke up to dr

ess quickly and have an hour’s practice on the piano. At about five fifteen, I had gotten as far as sitting up with my feet over the side of the bed when totally unexpectedly the house began to shake violently. I heard dishes break from different parts of the house; furniture moved at the violence of the shock.

I ran across the hall to our parlor from which I had heard crockery and glassware falling off a shelf or a glass cabinet. There I saw the upright piano where I was about to practice on. It shifted

about a foot and a half away from the wall.


Then I quickly dashed down the hall to see the effects of the earthquake. I especially wanted to talk to my parents. My elder sister Helen was awakened by the earthquake, but she was still in her room. When I saw her I asked her where our parents and my baby sister were. She hurriedly informed me that “Mother grabbed Virginia and they ran downstairs for safety under the front door.” I was quite excited so I raced to the front windows to look out. There I noticed some people running up and down our street while others were curiously peering out their windows. We all hurried back to our rooms to get dressed. Mother and Father hastily got breakfast ready. Around quarter of eight we were at our table eating and talking over immediate plans when suddenly a second fairly strong earthquake shook the house again. Very soon after the second tremors sirens began to wail at different directions of the city. This indicated to us that local fires had started. As soon as breakfast was over I requested Mother’s permission to go outside our back wooden stairs. (School had already been called off that time.) I was curious to see the nearest fire at the corner of 22nd Street and Mission Street.


As I ran across Valencia St., I noticed on my left down Valencia St. a small old three-story hotel. The first story had partly sunk in the earth while the second and third had fallen out into the street. That was the first structural destruction I had witnessed. I had hardly gone on to Mission St. when I came across a large crowd watching a huge department store ablaze. I observed how the firemen desperately attempted to bring the fire under control. After surveilling some time and listening to tales from different folks who were there to see the fire, I turned back home and on the way collected information about other fires from distant places in the city. Not until mid-afternoon did the first grim experience of the earthquake and the subsequent fires strike me. As I went out on our street, Dolores St., the sidewalk began to fill up with people from all parts of the city. They were carrying a load of possessions they considered important to them. There were sights that were a bit laughable to me as a boy. It seemed that some had left their homes quite hurriedly that they had not selected carefully the things to carry with them or that some had not


expected to return that they were carrying their whole possessions with them. Folks were carrying bundles, boxes, trunks and even a bird cage. I saw mothers carrying their babies and little children hanging on to their parents’ hands. These lines of people overflowed the sidewalks and were going toward the mountains beyond the Mission area of the city. As the day went on I saw many things that entertained me. My parents forbade me to go down near the Ferry building or any distant part of the city. They thought it far too dangerous for any boy to be wandering about, but still I was out on the street most of the time. Father was too busy downtown and Mother’s hands were too full with the baby to take care of, so I managed to be where the action was. With boys my own age, I wandered as far as I dared to explore some destruction sites and get a view of local fires. In some places there were gaps on the ground. Some were about one foot to five feet wide narrowing toward the inner earth. They seemed anywhere from two feet to over twenty-five feet deep just like a crevice. Sometimes when I dared to peer down the fissure I would see fallen things inside. At times I couldn’t see anything because the crack was frightfully deep and dark.


All through the night of the first day great numbers of people were constantly passing by our house evacuating toward the Mission area. On the second day U. S. soldiers were dispatched to every part of the city to keep peace and order, to prevent looting, and to implement emergency regulations set by the Mayor and the City Council. The morning of the third day came and many fires were still in progress. Many structures in our neighborhood were destroyed and leveled to the ground such that one could stand at the foot of Market St. and look as far as the eye could see to the east and to the west. By this time fires were still raging to the east of Market St. and toward the Mission area, likewise in several areas reaching toward the Golden Gate Park. Later that day as the fires continued, we were ordered to evacuate our homes and find shelter on the hills. At this point the gravity of the situation began to dawn on me. “This is getting serious,” I said to myself. The fire had threatened the very place we lived. The whole situation set me thinking of the frailty or the incompleteness of the power of man relative to the power of nature.


Our family was very fortunate to be provided with a small market wagon. My father being an officer of the United Railroads of San Francisco, was able to get us what we called a spring wagon to take us and all important possessions on our journey. Hastily Mother packed a small trunk with all the baby’s needs that we could bring, a few blankets and some provisions. Soon all of us were on the wagon. Going by Valencia St. looking as far as I could see down the road, I watched the flames bursting on both sides meeting each other on the street. That sight and the knowledge that soon the flames would reach our home before morning really gave me serious thoughts about the uncertainty of life. My heart developed sober seriousness as to what the situation would mean to us and what it had meant to others. As a boy of eight I had been around the city many times. I was acquainted with the city and I loved it. San Francisco was really a part of me and to say good-bye to it like that surprised me and made me think of what was ahead of us. One of the other sad thoughts I had was this. I began to feel sorry that others did not have the same transportation. For me as a boy, the seriousness of the fire and all that it meant was gradually flooding my mind. My mind was then filled with genuine concern for others. I felt so desirous to help in whatever way I can.


of the fire and all that it meant was gradually flooding my mind. My mind was then filled with genuine concern for others. I felt so desirous to help in whatever way I can. Two lasting impressions were imbedded in my mind the third day. As I looked beyond Mission St., I saw a powerful blaze consuming everything before it. I began to think of the destructive power of fire and realized that fire was more destructive of man and his environment than any cause I had known then. Later that day when we were ordered to leave our houses to find places of refuge somewhere on the hills so the authorities could better handle the spreading menace, I began to realize as never before the importance of food, shelter and protection. By daybreak of the fourth day folks stirred and started the day with the problem of finding the water for their needs. In the middle of the day a man arrived on horseback to communicate to us the good news from one of the centers of command in the city. We learned that the night before, a decisionwas reached to dynamite every house on the block ahead of the fire to make it difficult for the flames to spread across the street. Consequently the fire was controlled at the block of the 20th St. and those who lived beyond that block were allowed to go back to their homes.


• Comprehension questions• Compare Text II with Text I in this unit to see whether

the two descriptions of the same event are mutually supportive.

• The author of Text I looks at the destruction caused by the earthquake from the perspective of an adult whereas the author of Text II does it from the perspective of a child. Try to find their differences in attitude towards what they witness.


• Notes to text II

• About this the text: It is abridged from an article with the same title. This article can be found in the Museum of the City of San Francisco.

• About the author: When the earthquake took place, the author was only eight years old. In this article written in 1988, he also said the following things to tell the reader how he felt about the earthquake as a child: “These eighty-two years later I find it difficult to describe my own personal feelings about the earthquake that day. As an eight-year-old boy I was not frightened then by the actual earthquake. The tremor and the noise of the breakage did not disturb me. That for me was just a more destructive one than I had known. The rest of the family were quite excited and nervous, but I was not afraid. I guess I felt secure in the knowledge that the house and the family would be all right. Even so, I sensed the seriousness of the situation and I saw the severity of it for many people. My attitude was one of excitement, curiosity and a great desire to see and hear all I could.”

• second tremors (Paragraph 5): another round of earthquake


• grim experience (Paragraph 9): very unpleasant experience• destruction sites (Paragraph 11): places that had been destroye

d• like a crevice (Paragraph 11): like a narrow opening• …many fires were still in progress. (Paragraph 13): …many fire

s were still going on.• relative to the power of nature (Paragraph 14): compared with t

he power of nature• to find places of refuge (Paragraph 18): to find shelters from th

e spreading fire

Documents

Www.themegallery.com An Integrated English Course Book 4 Unit 16