文學(xué)史評(píng)論題

1、What We Cannot Afford to Lose CommunicationGood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!Can you imagine a day that you wake up to find yourself unable to move or talk and can only able to cry? What would you do then? Dont be afraid. These are the things that we all experienced when we were still babies

2、, and all of us successfully went through this. Actually, in the early months, babies wont think what kind of cry will let them get the things they want. They just cry, automatically, until one day when they realize that with a long cry, they can get fed and with a short weep, they can get diaper ch

3、anged. This marks the very beginning of our communication with the outside world, particularly, with our moms.But in the process of growing from toddlers into the university students, we gradually stop crying for things because we need more than food. We chat with our friends to get support and happ

4、iness; and we hug our parents to express our love and ask for tenderness; we bow to our teachers before class to show our gratitude and the education theyve supplied. This time, communicating with the outside world means to get support and love from the people around you on our way towards adulthood

5、.Then we try to step into the society, and we realize that with communication we can reach out to many more people. Last summer, I worked as a volunteer teacher and met a group of kids who had never been to any other places outside their village. “Teacher, what is a skyscraper?” A boy asked. I looke

6、d at his curious face and answered, “Oh, its just a tall building with many stories.” His confusion drove me to the blackboard. I drew a skyscraper for him, even though Im not a good painter, and beside it, I added several bungalows like the one he was living in. Immediately, I saw smile and expecta

7、tion from his face, and it suddenly dawned on me that I had just helped the boy with my communication to know about the skyscraper, something that he may not even have a chance to visit by himself, and whats more, I can use my ability of communication to help a lot more people to get to know about t

8、he outside world.From babies to grown-ups, we communicate to get help, support and love; we communicate to prove our value and therefore the meaning of our life. And today, Im standing here to communicate with you, to tell you that communication is just the thing that we can never ever afford to los

9、e.Thank you, thank you so much.專家點(diǎn)評(píng)A provocative, relevant question can effectively break the ice and connect the speaker immediately with his/her audience at the beginning of a speech. This speaker starts by asking her audience two simple questions: “Can you imagine a day when you wake up to find y

10、ourself unable to move or talk and can only be able to cry? What would you do then?” Upon those questions, the listeners spontaneously want to consider and respond. With this lead-in, the speaker naturally brings out her major concern today communication. Then she goes on to argue that throughout ou

11、r entire life communication constitutes an effective way for us to share ideas and exchange emotions with other people. To support this argument, she fondly relates one of her personal experiences as a volunteer teacher and then naturally concludes her speech. Structurally speaking, the whole speech

12、 is very fluid and neat, and this freely flowing style helps the audience focused more on the message she wants to convey.The delivery of this speech is one of the most impressive among all the prepared speeches. The speakers delivery style can be summed up as natural, sincere, and confident. Her ey

13、e contact with the audience shows her inner confidence and her willingness to share. Her natural gestures and body movements synchronize with the flow of her ideas. Her perfectly timed pauses and appropriate vocal inflections contribute greatly to the effective conveying of her message and therefore

14、 hold peoples attention.Besides, there is one additional merit I feel compelled to mention here the simple trumps the complex. The speaker uses very simple and almost conversational diction and straightforward anecdotes to illustrate her points. This seemingly effortless but effective strategy grabs

15、 our attention and awakens our awareness. We cant help joining her to explore the importance of communication.Just as Robert Sherwood has said, “Becoming a better speaker is less about diction and vocabulary, and more about learning a few tools the experts use.” Here, these tools are, namely, simpli

16、city, sincerity, confidence, and vital questions.However, there is still room for improvement. To me, the limitation seems to be a lack of good reasoning skills. It would be better if after the introduction the speaker could elevate the discussion to a higher level, e.g. what crucial changes communi

17、cation can possibly make to this world, rather than such a claim as “Then we try to step into the society, and we realize that with communication we can reach out to many more people” followed by another story. Frankly, that goes without saying and requires little burden of proof. On the contrary, i

18、n order to make an argument stand, one needs to offer at least the claim (or point), grounds (facts and data), and warrant (legitimacy assessment). A claim has yet to be proved, and a single anecdote can hardly prove a claim. Again: elevate the discussion! Remember, the movement of a good argument i

19、s spiral rather than flat.Comment on a street car named desireI had put off watching this video for sometime. I was afraid that I might be disappointed in this classic. Instead I was drawn into this marvelous film with its great Tennesse Williams' script.Williams doesn't let any of his chara

20、cters off. Brando's Stanley is a boorish, bullying, loudmouth. But he also possesses an extraordinary physical sexuality and also seems to be more than a little bit of a victim himself. Life has not been smooth for Stanley. No silver spoon here. Both his wife and sister-in-law put him down as a

21、crude "Polack" and other variations on that theme. Not that there isn't some obvious truth to their put downs. However, truly nice people (as opposed to "nice" people) do not engage in such speech. There's also the table scene where Stanley is eating chicken and receives

22、a harsh verbal reprimand from Stella. Whereupon he sees the tactics of class shame being used and he proceeds to blow up in a very physical and blue collar fashion. Stanley sexually assaults Blanche at he end of the film. Blanche was already hearing voices by this time in the film, and this act of a

23、ggression pushes her over the edge. Brando's performance was really superb.Hunter's Stella is by far the most likeable character of the major 3 players. She's honest, kind, sexy, and very much in love with Stanley-despite his obvious faults. The depiction of the physical love and lust be

24、tween Stanley and Stella is classic. She also loves her sister and wants what's best for her. She and Blanche collude to some extent against Stanley which provides much of the film's strongest tensions. Stella is financially and sexually/emotionally dependent on Stanley, but she's also a

25、 strong character in her own right. We don't really know for sure if she'll go back to Stanley at the end of the film after the baby and the sexual aggression against Blanche. We do know that Stanley for all his macho swagger is extremely emotionally dependent on her.Vivien Leigh's chara

26、cter was a revelation. I thought the most brilliant moments in the film were towards the end when her character was speaking. I didn't really think Leigh's accent was all that great, but hey, when you can act like that who cares? Blanche is a victim, but Blanche is anything but innocent. She

27、 was having sex with one of her high school English lit students back in Mississippi. Naturally, the small town locals did not take a shine to such behavior. Also, she was more than just a bit on the promiscuous side for a high school teacher in mid-century small town America. It's not surprisin

28、g that she got chased out of her small town teaching job. There's also the touching scene where she asks for and gets a kiss from the boy who is collecting for the newspaper. It's all tied in to her love for the boy who killed himself over her when she was 16. She said some very cruel words

29、to him about being weak which led to the boy's suicide. She's not an innocent-by any means. The sexual attraction between Stanley and her is noticeable in a number of scenes. And yet for all her pretentiousness, lies, and putting on airs, the audience is drawn to her. Her fading beauty, vuln

30、erability, and weakness can hardly help but elicit a sympathetic response. Blanche is the human condition writ large. In some respects there is some of Blanche in all of us: hidden ugliness from the past, both emotional and sexual neediness, and just plain old human weakness. I think Leigh's per

31、formance was really brilliant. And thank God for Tennnessee Williams and his ability to portray people more as we are than as we would like to be.I do agree with at least one of the previous viewers that the term "nymphomaniac" seems somewhat out-of-date in describing Blanche. Blanche uses

32、 sex in a promiscuous fashion to escape from her loneliness. I think this is the same pathology that both men and women engage in when having "casual-such a strange contradiction in terms-sex". I certainly don't think that Williams saw her as either a "nympho" or a "slut

33、". Rather, just a lonely, tortured individual.Comment on a cask of Amontillato Although the subject matter of Poe's story is a murder, "The Cask of Amontillado" is not a tale of detection like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" or "The Purloined Letter" there is n

34、o investigation of Montresor's crime and the criminal himself explains how he committed the murder. The mystery in "The Cask of Amontillado" is in Montresor's motive for murder. Without a detective in the story, it is up to the reader to solve the mystery.5Montresor never specifies

35、 his motive beyond the vague "thousand injuries" and "when he ventured upon insult" to which he refers. Some context is provided, including Montresor's observation that his family once was great (but no longer so), and Fortunato's belittling remarks about Montresor's

36、exclusion from Freemasonry. Many commentators conclude that, lacking significant reason, Montresor must be insane, though even this is questionable because of the intricate details of the plot.5There is also evidence that Montresor is almost as clueless about his motive for revenge as his victi

37、m.6 In his recounting of the murder, Montresor notes "A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its reddresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong." After Fortunato is chained to the wall and nearly entom

38、bed alive, Montresor merely mocks and mimics him, rather than disclosing to Fortunato the reasons behind his exacting revenge. Montresor may not have been entirely certain of the exact nature of the insults for which he expected Fortunato to atone.6Additional scrutiny into the vague injuries and ins

39、ults may have to do with a simple matter of Montresor's pride and not any specific words from Fortunato.7 Montresor comes from an established family. His house had once been noble and respected, but has fallen slightly in status. Fortunato, as his name would seem to indicate, has been bless

40、ed with good fortune and wealth and is, therefore, viewed as unrefined by Montresor; however, this lack of refinement has not stopped Fortunato from surpassing Montresor in society, which could very well be the "insult" motive for Montresor's revenge.7There is indication that Montresor

41、 blames his unhappiness and loss of respect and dignity within society on Fortunato.8 It is easy to ascertain that Fortunato is a Freemason, while Montresor is not, which could be the source of Fortunato's recent ascension into upper class society. Montresor even imparts this blame to Fortu

42、nato when he states, "You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was." This interchanging of fortunes is a suggestion that, since the names Montresor and Fortunato mirror one another, there is a psychological reciprocal identification between victim and executioner

43、.8 This identification reciprocity is further suggested when one takes into consideration that Montresor entombs Fortunato in the Montresor family catacombs rather than dispatching him elsewhere in the city amidst the chaos of the Carnival. It is with this converging of the two characters that

44、one is able to see the larger symbolism of the Montresor crest the boot steps on the serpent while the serpent forever has his fangs imbedded in the boot heel.8Upon further investigation into the true nature of character, double meaning can be derived from the Montresor crest.6 It is the position of Montresor to view himself as the owner of the righteous boot that is crushing the insolent Fortunato serpent and his "thousand injuries" that progress into insult. A more allegoric meaning of Poe's places the actors in reverse.6 The blind oaf Fortunato has uni