BK6 教师用书 Unit 1推荐文档Word文档格式.docx

1、s soul. Although the memoir seems to have been written to prove that Chinese parents are better at raising children than Western ones, the cover text claims that instead it portrays a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory and how the Tiger Mother “was humbled by a 13-year-old.” As a ho

2、pelessly Western mother married into a Chinese family living in an area that generates immigrant prodigies as reliably as clouds produce rain, I was eager to observe the comeuppance of a parent who thought she had all the answers. And, in many ways, Tiger Mother did not disappoint. At night, I would

3、 nudge my husband awake to read him some of its more revealing passages, such as when author Amy Chua threatened to burn her older daughters stuffed animals if the child didnt improve her piano playing. What Chinese parents understand, Chua writes, is that nothing is fun until youre good at it. By d

4、ay, I would tell my own two daughters about how Chua threw unimpressive birthday cards back at her young girls and ordered them to make better ones. For a mother whose half-Chinese children played outside while the kids of stricter immigrant neighbors could be heard laboring over the violin and pian

5、o, the book can be wickedly gratifying. Reading it is like secretly peering into the home of a controlling, obsessive yet compulsively honest motherone who sometimes makes the rest of us look good, if less remarkable and with less impressive offspring. Does becoming super-accomplished make up for ye

6、ars of stress? Thats something my daughters and I will never find out. Chua is a law professor and author of two acclaimed books on international affairs, though readers of get only a glimpse of that part of her life, with airy, tossed off-lines such as Meanwhile, I was still teaching my courses at

7、Yale and finishing up my second book while also traveling continuously, giving lectures about democratization and ethnic conflict. Her third book abandons global concerns to focus intimately on Chuas attempt to raise her two daughters the way her immigrant parents raised her. There would be no play

8、dates and no sleepovers: I dont really have time for anything fun, because Im Chinese, one of Chuas daughters told a friend. Instead, there would be a total commitment to academics and expertise at something, preferably an instrument. Though Chuas Jewish husband grew up with parents who encouraged h

9、im to imagineand to express himself, he nonetheless agreed to let her take the lead in rearing the children and mostly serves as the Greek chorus to Chuas crazed actions. In Chinese parenting theory, hard work produces accomplishment, which produces confidence and yet more accomplishment. As Chua no

10、tes, this style of parenting is found among other immigrant cultures, too, and Im sure many Washington-area readers have seen it, if they dont employ it themselves. Chuas older daughter, Sophia, a pianist, went along with, and blossomed, under this approach. The younger daughter, Lulu, whose instrum

11、ent of Chuas choice was a violin, was a different story. The turning point came when, after years of practicing and performing, Lulu expressed her hatred of the violin, her mother and of being Chinese. Chua imagined a Western parents take on Lulus rebellion:Why torture yourself and your child? Whats

12、 the point? . I knew as a Chinese mother I could never give in to that way of thinking. But she nevertheless allowed Lulu to abandon the violin. Given that the worst Lulu ever did was cut her own hair and throw a glass, my reaction was that Chua got off easy in a society where some pressured childre

13、n cut themselves, become anorexic, refuse to go to school or worse. No one but an obsessive Chinese mother would consider her healthy, engaging and accomplished daughter deficient because the girl prefers tennis to the violinbut thats exactly the point. And, oh, what Chua put herself and her daughte

14、rs through before she got to her moment of reckoning. On weekends, they would spend hours getting to and from music lessons and then come home and practice for hours longer. At night, Chua would read up on violin technique and fret about the children in China who were practicing 10 hours a day. （Did

15、 this woman ever sleep?） She insisted that her daughters maintain top gradesBs, she notes, inspire a screaming, hair-tearing explosion among Chinese parents and the application of countless practice tests. She once refused to let a child leave the piano bench to use the bathroom. She slapped one dau

16、ghter who was practicing poorly. She threatened her children not just with stuffed-animal destruction, but with exposure to the elements. She made them practice on trips to dozens of destinations, including London, Rome, Bombay and the Greek island of Crete, where she kept Lulu going so long one day

17、 that the family missed seeing the palace at Knossos. Sometimes, youre not quite sure whether Chua is being serious or deadpan. For example, she says she tried to apply Chinese parenting to the familys two dogs before accepting that the only thing they were good at was expressing affection. Although

18、 it is true that some dogs are on bomb squads or drug-sniffing teams, she concluded, it is perfectly fine for most dogs not to have a profession, or even any special skills. On the one hand, she seems aware of her shortcomings: She is, she notes, not good at enjoying life, and she acknowledges that

19、the Chinese parenting approach is flawed because it doesnt tolerate the possibility of failure. On the other hand, she sniffs that there are all kinds of psychological disorders in the West that dont exist in Asia. When not contemptuous, some of her wry observations about Western-style child-rearing

20、 are spot-on:Private schools are constantly trying to make learning fun by having parents do all the work, and sleepovers are a kind of punishment parents unknowingly inflict on their children through permissiveness. Readers will alternately gasp at and empathize with Chuas struggles and aspirations

21、, all the while enjoying her writing, which, like her kid-rearing philosophy, is brisk, lively and no-holds-barred. This memoir raises intriguing, sometimes uncomfortable questions about love, pride, ambition, achievement and self-worth that will resonate among success-obsessed parents. Is it possib

22、le, for example, that Chinese parents have more confidence in their childrens abilities, or that they are simply willing to work harder at raising exceptional children than Westerners are? Unfortunately, the author leaves many questions unanswered as her book limps its way to a conclusion, with Chua

23、 acknowledging her uncertainty about how to finish it and the family still debating the pros and cons of her approach （anyone hoping for a total renunciation of the Chinese approach will be disappointed）. Ending a parenting story when one child is only 15 seems premature; in fact, it might not be po

24、ssible to really understand the impact of Chuas efforts until her daughters have offspring of their own. Perhaps a sequel, or a series （Tiger Grandmother!） is in the works. But while this battle might not have been convincingly concluded, its engagingly and provocatively chronicled. Readers of all s

25、tripes will respond to Tiger Mother.Structure of the TextPart I （Paras. 1-2）The author, an Asian living in the United States, introduces himself as a banana. Part II （Paras. 3-5）The author describes how he believes Asians are generally viewed in the United States and how he views Asian values himsel

26、f. It is clear that his overall attitude toward his cultural roots is negative.Part III （Paras. 6-8）The author agrees that Asians （especially Chinese） are over-represented in American elite schools and that, percentage-wise, more Chinese earn median family incomes than any other ethnic group in the

27、United States. However, he does not accept the idea that the Chinese are “taking over” top American schools. He particularly ridicules the idea that the United States has to worry about a more general Chinese “takeover”, as Amy Chuas book seems to suggest.Part IV （Paras. 9-14）In these paragraphs, th

28、e author tells the story of a Chinese American whose experience as a graduate of one of the most competitive high schools in the U.S. proves that while Asian overrepresentation in elite schools is a fact, the success of Asian students is not an indication of their higher intelligence but rather of t

29、heir constant practice of test-taking. The fear that U.S. schools might become “too Asian” （too test-oriented） in response, narrowing students educational experience, has aroused general concern.Part V （Paras. 15-22）The author points out that the ethnic imbalance in elite schools is not only resente

30、d by white students and educators, but that even Asian students are beginning to raise serious doubts. They are tired of the crushing workload and believe there must be a better way. They envy their white fellow students who finally get to the top - strong, healthy, with a high level of academic ach

31、ievement, and with time even for a girlfriend or boyfriend. They cannot help but still feel alienated in this society.Part VI （Paras. 23-28）In these Paragraphs, the author tells the story of another Chinese student who describes the subtle influence of his Chinese upbringing, which makes it difficult for him to be culturally assimilated. Part VII （Paras. 29-36）In these Paragraphs, the author discusses the problem of the “bamboo ceiling”the fact that in spite of high