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1、UNIT 9 Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts,An Introduction,About the Author,Bruce Catton,Bruce Catton (1899 1978) was a journalist and a notable historian of the American Civil War. He won a Pulitzer Prize for history in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox, his study of the final campaign of the war
2、in Virginia.,American Civil War,The American Civil War was fought from 1861 until 1865 between the United States forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession.,
3、The North: Industrialized,The South: Slavery,Rich,Poor,Division of the Country,Blue represents Union states, including those admitted during the war; light blue represents Union states which permitted slavery; red represents Confederate states. Unshaded states had not been admitted to the Union at t
4、he time of the War.,Ulysses Simpson Grant,An American Civil War general deeply moving e.g. The photograph awakens poignant memories of happier days.It is especially poignant that he died on the day before the wedding.,Para.3,They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represen
5、ted the strengths, of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision.,Note that this paragraph serves as the preliminary step leading to the process of contrast and comparison.,Para.4,1Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow su
6、rvive and be dominant in American life.,1Back of: behind, at the back of ( The sentence means “what backs Lee up was the belief that ”),Para.5,1Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition the age of 2chivalry transplanted to a New World which was making its
7、own legends and its own myths. 3He embodied a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood and the English country squire.,1Lee was tidewater Virginia: Lee was representative of the better-developed coastal region of Virginia.,2chivalry : the qualities of knights and institutions and
8、 values of the mediaeval Europe,3. Lee represented a way of life embedded in the tradition of aristocracy and feudalism.,America was a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated to nothing much more complicated than the rather 4hazy belief that all men had equal rights and should have an equa
9、l chance in the world. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a 5pronounced inequality in the social structure.,4hazy: vague, indistinct, unclear e.g. Hazy sunshine Hazy memories,5pronounced : adjectivevery noticeable; strongly marked or ce
10、rtain:Im told I have a very pronounced English accent when I speak French.Shes a woman of very pronounced views which she is not afraid to air.,There should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be 6keyed to the land as the chief source of wealth and influen
11、ce. It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged.,6keyed to: look to ;dep
12、end on,be in harmony with,What is the logic reasoning behind this statement? (The implication),Society depends on the land. But land is in the hands of the leisure class. Therefore, society depends on the leisure class.,From them the country would get its leadership; to them it could look for the hi
13、gher values - of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment - to give it strength and virtue.,The implication of this statement: They were the very people who were capable of steering the country to the right direction and who set the nation fine examples in terms of thought and behavior.,Para.6,Le
14、e embodied the noblest elements of this aristocratic ideal. Through him, the 1landed nobility justified itself. For four years, the Southern states had fought a desperate war to uphold the ideals for which Lee stood. 2In the end, it almost seemed as if the Confederacy fought for Lee; as if he himsel
15、f was the Confederacy. the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could ever have to offer.,1. The noble class with land in its control proved its value of existence.,2. The implication:Lee almost became the incarnation of the Confederacy.,3He had passed into legend before A
16、ppomattox. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die.,3. Paraphrase: He had become a legendary hero before the meeting for the surrender at Appomattox.,But they could not quite put this feeling into words. If the Lost Cause, 4sanctified by so much heroism and so many deaths, 5had a living jus