Unit 3
A taste of English humour
reading
Look at the following pictures.
Which picture can make you laugh?
I want to lose my weight.
I’m driving at a high speed.
any mouse I like
Brainstorming:
Chinese humors
Pantomime（哑剧）
Funny plays
Cross talk
Jokes
Doggerel（打油诗/顺口溜）
English humors
Nonverbal
Mime （哑剧）
Farce（滑稽剧）
Verbal jokes
Funny stories
Funny poems
varieties of humors
mime
Charlie Chaplin
What kind of humour do these
pictures show us?
mime
Mr Bean is funny because he
makes funny faces and acts silly
behaviour.
哑剧,滑稽剧
(funny stories)
Mark Twain was the popular
and humorous American
author.
adj. 幽默的
Do they have anything in common?
humorous
sketch
crosstalk
Two or more speakers
make many jokes and
funny conversation.
Ma Ji is a well-known artist of crosstalk shows in China. His crosstalk shows always make his audience shout with laughter.
pantomime刘全和 刘全利
1. Policeman: You can’t park here.
Driver: Why can’t I ?
Policeman: Read the sigh there.
Driver: It says, “Fine for Parking,” so
I parked.
Enjoy some verbal jokes:
罚款
2. Girl : If we marry, will you give me a ring ?
Boy: Of course, What’s your telephone
number?
3. Daughter: Auntie kissed me this morning,
Mum! Mum: How nice! Did you kiss her back, dear? Daughter: Of course not. I kissed her face.
Customer: What’s that fly(苍蝇)
doing in my soup?
Waiter: Swimming, I think!
joke
POLICEMAN: Why did you have to
break into the same shop three times?
THIEF: Well, I stole a dress from that
shop but my wife didn’t like it. So I
had to go back and change it twice!
What is a punchline? Find the jokes’
punchlines.
Punchline
The words that form the climax of a joke.
TEACHER: You say that John Jones
has a cold and cannot come to school
today. Who am I speaking to?
VOICE: Oh, this is my father.
Punchline
Pantomine
(哑剧)
cross talk
jokes
doggerel
(打油诗)
Reading
NONVERBAL HUNOUR
Charlie Chaplin —
The Gold Rush
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin—The Gold Rush
1. What do you know about Charlie
Chaplin?
2. What do you know about his film?
What is so interesting about them?
Pre-reading
The Gold Rush
a small
black hat
a moustache
a stick
very wide
trousers
Little Tramp
The Little
Tramp was
a _____ and
___________
person.
poor
homeless
The whole text introduces a world-
famous actor---Charlie Chaplin and
his excellent performances, making us
understand more about nonverbal
humour.
3. Look at the title and write down
your idea in one sentence. Then skim
the passage and see if you were right.
A MASTER OF NONVERBAL HUMOUR
Reading
The main idea of each paragraph
Paragraph 1:

Paragraph 2:

Paragraph 3:
Why people needed cheering up
What Charlie’s childhood was like
What his most famous character was like
Fast Reading
Paragraph 4:

Paragraph 5:
An example of a sad situation that he made funny
His achievements
Para 1: Why did people need cheering up?
Careful Reading
Para 2: Finish the chart.
died
worse off
sing
dance
actors
humour
Complete the notes about Charlie Chaplin.
1889
actor
mime
little tramp, a poor and
homeless person
large trousers, worn-out
shoes, small round black
hat and a walking stick
Para 2-3
charming, social failure with a determination to overcome difficulties and always kind
1977
Para 4: Put the events in the right order.
( )Chaplin tried cutting and eating the bottom of
the shoe.
( )Chaplin and his friend washed sand and expected
to pick up gold, but they failed.
( )They were so hungry that they boiled a pair of
leather shoes.
( )They were caught in a small wooden house.
( )Chaplin cut off the leather top of the shoe.
( )Chaplin picked out the laces and ate.
6
1
3
2
5
4
Para 5: What were his achievements?
Charlie Chaplin
Para.1
Retell the text according to the chart.
1. Charlie Chaplin was poor when he
was a small boy.
2. People who don’t know English
cannot enjoy Chaplin’s films.
3. The Gold Rush is set in California
in the late of the nineteenth century.
T
F
F
True or false?
4. In The Gold Rush Chaplin and his
friend are fortunate to find some gold .
5. In the film the meal he eats is hard to
chew.
6. Chaplin not only acted in films but
wrote and directed films as well.
F
T
T
How do you understand the sentence
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from
the human face.”?
A. Laughter is the power to drive winter
away and welcome warm spring.
B. Laughter can keep one’s face warm,
especially during freezing winter.
C. Laughter can make people forget their
problems and make them feel happy.
C
Choose the best answer.
2. The Gold Rush, one of Chaplin’s most famous
films, was made in ____.
A. America B. Britain
C. Canada D. Australia
3. The story of The Gold Rush happened ____.
A. in the 1750s B. in the 1850s
C. in the 1890s D. in the 1950s
A
B
4. In The Gold Rush, Chaplin and his
friend eat a pair of shoes because ___.
A. they are interested in it
B. the shoes are delicious
C. they want to make the people
laugh
D. they are very hungry
D
5. Which is NOT true?
A. Charlie was a master of non-verbal
humor.
B. Charlie showed humanity and
kindness in his movies.
C. Charlie was a social failure, so he
could play that character well.
D. Charlie must have experienced sad
situations when he was a child.
C
6. People enjoy seeing other people’s bad
luck because _________.
they enjoy doing so.
it makes people more worried about
their life.
C. it makes people more content with
their life.
D. there’s much fun in doing so.
C
7. The Little Tramp is well known because ____.
Chaplin played a poor and homeless person.
B. The character was social failure.
C. Chaplin wore large trousers, worn-out
shoes and a small round black hat and
carried a walking stick.
D. Chaplin play a role as a man who determined
to overcome difficulties and was kind even
when people were unkind to him.
D
8. What’s the main idea of the text?
A. The history of English humour.
B. The films that Chaplin made.
C. The humour Chaplin made in his films.
D. The Gold Rush in California.
C
The writer mentioned that Charplin’s character
“little tramp” is charming and lovable, and he
won an Oscar for a lifetime of outstanding work,
which proves that the writer likes Charplin and
appreciates his work.
9. What’s the author’s attitude to Charlie
Charplin?
A. positive B. negative
C. serious D. appreciative
D
Discussion
1. What’s behind fun?
Not all humour is kind. Although we also laugh when we see someone slide on a banana skin, it’s really dangerous to those who slide on the banana skin, especially to those old people. So when we think about it we will find it’s not funny.
2. Why did people like The Little Tramp?
Because it gives people courage to
overcome difficulties.
3. Do you think Chaplin’s eating boiled
shoes funny? Why?
Yes. Because he made the terrible situation
“real” for his audience. And he was able
to show the humanity and kindness in
the most difficult circumstances.
4. Why could Charlie Chaplin make terrible
situations (like poverty and starvation) funny?
Because he had experienced the bad situation
and made them “real” for his audience.
5. Why did he get a special Oscar?
Because of his outstanding work in films and
life long contribution.
Fill in the blanks.
Do you find it funny to see someone ______ on a
Banana ____, ________ into someone else round a
_______, or ______ down a hole in the road? If you do,
you are not _____. Some humour can be_____. Perhaps
it makes us feel more ______ with our life because we
feel there is someone else ______ ____than ourselves.
Charlie Chaplin was born in _______ in 1889 and at
that time films were ______. He became famous for
using a _________ form of acting, including _______
and ______.
sliding
skin
bumping
corner
falling
alone
cruel
content
worse
off
poverty
silent
particular
mime
farce
We should be optimistic(乐观) no matter what
difficulties you meet with, just as Charlie
Chaplin was.
Set up an aim
Do our best
Pay more time then others
Never give up/ lose heart
Insist on what we pursue
... and up to now nobody has been able to
do this better than Charlie Chaplin.
句中up to now = up till now, 表示“到现在
为止”, 常与现在完成时连用。如：
I haven’t got any letters from him up to now.
直到现在我还没收到过他的信。
Language Points
Her life has run smoothly up to now.
她的生活到目前仍一帆风顺。
【拓展】
up to 达到……程度或数量
be up to sth 能胜任某事; 忙于某事或
从事于某事
be up to sb 该由某人做出决定; 取决于某人
… so they could feel more content with
their lives.
1) content adj. 满足; 满意; 知足
常见搭配: be content with sth.
be content to do sth. 如：
Are you content with your present salary?
你对你现在的工资待遇满意吗？
She is quite content to stay at home looking
after her children.
她呆在家里照顾孩子感到非常知足。
区别: content; contented; satisfied
content与contented意思接近, 指“虽然各种愿望
没有实现, 但人应安于现状不再多求”,
content 一般作表语, 而contented一般作定语;
satisfied指“愿望、渴望或需求都得到了满足,
因而心满意足了”。
She has a contented look. 她显得满意的样子。
2) content n. 所含之物, 内容 如：
I like the style of the book but I don’t like
the content.
我喜欢这本书的文体, 但我不喜欢它的内容。
We sat there, ______with what we listened to.
satisfying B. to satisfy
C. contented D. content
解析: 本题考查动词用法。
satisfied表示“感到满意的”, 把A、B两项
排除; content既是形容词, 又是动词,
be content with对……满足。
D
3) content vt. 使满足 (+with)
e.g. Her answer seemed to content him. 她的回答好像令他满意。
3. Not that Charlie’s own life was easy!
卓别林自己的生活并没有那么容易！
本句为not构成的倒装句。that为副词, 修饰
形容词easy。
在英语中, 有时为了强调某一成分而将具有
否定意义的副词置于