Unit-13-The-Battle-of-the-Ants-练习答案Word版.doc

Unit 13 The Battle of the AntsConsolidation ActivitiesI. Text Comprehension1. The authors purpose of writing this essay is to conclude that ________.A. ants are pitiless, barbarous, uncontrollable animalsB. man is enlightened by ant warC. Greek mythology originates in a degree from ant battleD. ant battle resembles human battle, but is at times more ferocious, savage, and resoluteKey: [ D ]2. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.1). A fierce fight the author observed one day was going on between two large ants, the one red and the other black, much larger. [ T ]2). The author watched a couple that were fast locked in each others embraces in a little river valley at noonday, prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out. [ F ]3). From afar the single red ant found this combat was unfair because the blacks were nearly twice the size of the red. [ T ]4). The author had no doubt that the ants had their respective musical bands playing their national anthems to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants. [ F ]5). Having quoted Kirby and Spence, the author intends to argue that the ant battle he witnessed signifies equally any other one ever recorded in human history. [ T ]II. Writing StrategiesThis can be partly read as a descriptive satire on the brutality of war. In the capacity of the authoritative omniscient narrator, the American writer Thoreau describes vividly the battle of the ants at great length. The writer presents general and specific descriptions of the engagement of the ants, concentrating on the cruel battle the two red ants and the huge black one engaged in. Concrete words, particularly dynamic verbs, graphic expressions and sentences, are properly employed so as to create ghastly, savage scenes of the battle. Such rhetorical devices as allusion, personification, sarcasm, metonymy, exaggeration, etc. are appropriately utilized to bring about special effects. Also, it is to be noted that the writer inserts his opinions and expresses his feelings throughout.The two questions below are worth answering:(1) What do you think of the style of the text?In the light of the words, phrases and sentences used in the text, it is not difficult to judge that the style is formal and at times satirical.(2) Which major rhetorical devices are employed in the text? Illustrate them with examples from the text.There are various rhetorical devices employed in the story. The major ones are stated and illustrated below. 1) Personification is widely used in the story. The ants, which are personified, are described as combatants. The most typical examples of personification are personal pronouns used to stand for the ants. It is made clear that the red ants represent the republicans, while the black ones stand for the "imperialists". The following are specific examples from the story: a) "The smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversarys front, and through all the tumblings on that field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by the board; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side, and, as I saw on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of his members." b) "Neither manifested the least disposition to retreat." c) "?for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it. Or perchance he was some Achilles, who had nourished his wrath apart, and had now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus." d) "He saw this unequal combat from afar -- for the blacks were nearly twice the size of the red -- he drew near with rapid pace till he stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants; then, watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the black warrior, and commenced his operations near the root of his right foreleg, leaving the foe to select among his own members..." e) "Holding a microscope to the first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near foreleg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the sufferers eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite." f) "They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and when I looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still living heads were hanging on either side of him like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow, still apparently as firmly fastened as ever, and he was endeavoring with feeble struggles, being without feelers, and with only the remnant of a leg, and I know not how many other wounds, to divest himself of them, which at length, after half an hour more, he accomplished." g) "I r。