1、Module 1Part 1: Pygmalion the PlayThere is a classical Greek myth in which a king, Pygmalion, carves a statue of a beautiful woman. The statue comes to life, and the king falls in love with the woman he has created and marries her. Shaws most famous play, Pygmalion, is based on this myth.Pygmalion i
2、s a comedy about a pronunciation expert called Professor Henry Higgins. Higgins, as a kind of experiment, tries to make a lady out of an uneducated girl called Eliza Doolittle, who sells flowers in the street. He bets a friend called Pickering, that he can not only teach the girl to speak well, but
3、also to behave in a refined way, so that those who meet her believe she is a real lady. He decides to do this because he wants to prove that social class is about “appearance” only. Higgins believes that class is not connected with your true character, it is connected with how you appear to others,
4、how you talk and behave. Eliza goes to stay with Higgins and his friend Pickering, and helps to look after the house while receiving lessons from Higgins in how to speak correctly. She slowly changes, becoming a beautiful and charming young woman. Higgins introduces Eliza to polite society, which ac
5、cepts that is a “body”, and the professor wins his bet.However, Higgins is domineering in behaviour towards Eliza, and does not treat her well. The girl is half in love with Higgins, but to the professor, Eliza is more like a daughter or servant whom he needs and has become fond of. Eliza rebels aga
6、inst Higgins, who finally has to accept that she has become a strong and independent young woman. Realising that Higgins will never really love her, Eliza leaves the house and marries a young man who she knows cares a lot for her. They start a flower shop, helped by Higgins and Pickering, with whom
7、she remains good friends.As well as the theme of class. Shaw explores relationships between men and women. It is clear that Higgins treats women as objects. Eliza, however, insists that Higgins respect her and the story ends with her winning his respect. A famous film called My Fair Lady was made fr
8、om the play in 1964.Part 2: Extract from PygmalionPICKERING: gently What is it you want, my girl?ELIZA: I want to be a lady in a flower shop instead of selling on a street corner. But they wont take me unless I can talk better. He said he could teach me. Well, here 1 am ready to pay him and he treat
9、s me as if I was dirt.MRS PEARCE: How can you think you could afford to pay Mr Higgins?El IZA: Why shouldnt I? I know what lessons cost as well as you do; and Im ready to pay.HIGGINS: How much do you suggest you pay me for the lessons?ELIZA: Oh, I know whats right. I wont give more than a shilling.
10、Take it or leave it.HIGGINS: You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girls income, its a great deal of money. Its enormous! Its the biggest offer 1 ever had.PICKFRING: Higgins, Im interested. What about the ambassadors party? Ill say you
11、re the greatest teacher alive if you can take her to it, and make people believe shes a lady. Ill bet you that you cant do it. And Ill pay for the lessons.ELIZA: Oh, you are real good. Thank you, sir.HIGGINS: Shes so wonderfully dirty!ELIZA: Ah-oooo! I m not dirty! I washed my face and hands before
12、I come, 1 did. Im a good girl, I am.PICKFRING: Youre not exactly polite to her, Higgins.HIGGINS: becoming excited What is life but one challenge after another? The difficulty is finding them. Never lose a chance: it doesnt come every day. I shall make a queen out of this street girl!ELIZA: Ah-oo!HIG
13、GINS: Yes, in six months Ill take her anywhere and pass her off as anything. Well start today now! This moment! Take her away and clean her, Mrs Pearce.Bernard Shaw, perhaps more than most dramatists, used the characters in his plays to express his ideas. However, he often succeeded in creating very
14、 real characters, and Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins are two of Shaws most delightful creations.What is most interesting about Eliza is the way that she develops, both in appearance and personality. In his first description of her, Shaw describes her as “not at all an attractive person”
15、. He says that “she needs . a dentist”, and that “compared to the ladies she is very dirty”. Six months later, she looks very different. Her pretty complexion and sophisticated clothes make her appearance so beautiful that when she enters a room, everyone stands up!Eliza, taught by Henry Higgins, le
16、arns to speak correctly and to act like a lady. But what Higgins does not expect is the deep changes that take place in Eliza. When we first meet Eliza she has no manners, but says whatever comes into her head, without thinking. At the same time, she is unable to express herself. For example, when H
17、iggins is rude lo her, she cries “Aa-oo” rather than make an actual reply. However, by the time of the ambassadors party, Eliza is a very different creature, able to express her deepest feelings. She has become strong and independent, a young woman who is able to ask for what she needs and wants.Sha
18、w describes Professor Higgins as a well-built, lively man in his early forties. He has a beard and a moustache and a high forehead, “the scientific type . careless about himself and other people, including their feelings”. Higgins does not change in the way that Eliza does. He learns to respect Eliz
19、a, but it is clear that he will never love her the way that she could love him, if he allowed it. However, the professor is extremely honest, amusing and confident, with no real unkindness, and as a result he is very likeable. We recognise Higgins as a certain type of person who we all know, the ins
20、ensitive but brilliant professor who is interested in ideas rather than people.ELIZA: crushed by superior strength and weight Whats to become of me? Whats to become of me?HIGGINS: How the devil do I know whats to become of you? What does it matter what becomes of you?ELIZA: You dont care. I know you
21、 dont care. You wouldnt care if I was dead. Im nothing to you not so much as them slippers.HIGGINS:thundering Those slippers.ELIZA: with bitter submission Those slippers. I didnt think it made any difference now.A pause. Eliza hopeless and crushed. Higgins a little uneasy.HIGGINS: in his loftiest ma
22、nner Why have you begun going on like this? May I ask whether you complain of your treatment here?ELIZA: No.HIGGINS: Has anybody behaved badly to you? Colonel Pickering? Mrs Pearce? Any of the servants?ELIZA: No.HIGGINS: I presume you dont pretend that I have treated you badly.ELIZA: No.HIGGINS: I a
23、m glad to hear it. He moderates his tone. Perhaps youre tired after the strain of the day. Will you have a glass of champagne? He moves towards the door.ELIZA: No. recollecting her manners Thank you. HIGGINS: good-humoured again This has been coming on you for some days. I suppose it was natural for
24、 you to be anxious about the garden party. But thats all over now. He pats her kindly on the shoulder. She writhes. Theres nothing more to worry about.ELIZA: No. Nothing more for you to worry about. She suddenly rises and gets away from him by going to the piano bench, where she sits and hides her f
25、ace. Oh God! I wish I was dead.HIGGINS: starting after her in sincere surprise Why? In heavens name, why? reasonably, going to her Listen to me, Eliza. All this irritation is purely subjective.ELIZA: I dont understand. Im too ignorant.HIGGINS: Its only imagination. Low spirits and nothing else. Nobo
26、dys hurting you. Nothings wrong. You go to bed like a good girl and sleep it off. Have a little cry and say your prayers: that will make you comfortable.ELIZA:I heard your prayers. “Thank God its all over!”HIGGINS:impatientlyWell, dont you thank God its all over? Now you are free and can do what you
27、 like.ELIZA: pulling herself together in desperation What am I fit for? What have you left me fit for? where am I to go? What am I to do? Whats to become of me?HIGGINS:enlightened but not at all impressed Oh, Thats whats worrying you, is it? He thrusts his hands into his pockets, and walks about in
28、his usual manner, rattling the contents of his pockets, as if condescending to a trivial subject out of pure kindness. I shouldnt bother about it if I were I should imagine you wont have much difficulty in settling yourself somewhere or other, though I hadnt quite realised that you were go away. She
29、 looks quickly at him: he does not look at her, but examines the dessert stand on the piano and decides that he will eat an apple. You might marry, you know. He bites a large piece out of the apple, and munches it noisily. You see, Eliza, all men are not confirmed old bachelors like me and the Colon
30、el. Most men are the marrying sort (poor devils!); and youre not bad-looking; its quite a pleasure to look at you sometimes not now, of course, because youre crying and looking as ugly as the very devil; but when youre all right and quite yourself, youre what I should call attractive. That is, to th
31、e people in the marrying line, you understand. You go to bed and have a good nice rest: and then get up and look at yourself in the glass; and you won t feel so cheap.Eliza again looks at him, speechless, and doers not stir.The look is quite lost on him: he eats his apple with a dreamy expression of
32、 happiness, as it is quite a good one.HIGGINS: a genial afterthought occurring to him I dare say my mother could find some chap or other who would do very well.ELIZA: We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road.HIGGINS: waking up What do you mean?ELIZA: I sold flowers. I didnt sell myse
33、lf. Now youve made a lady of me. Im not fit to sell anything else. I wish youd left me where you found me.Doolittles MonologueEliza Doolittles father is a poor, dishonest but very amusing man. As a result of a meeting with Henry Higgins, he becomes a rich man. In the monologue below, he complains am
34、usingly about the problems of having money. Doolittle is a working-class man and speaks working-class English. See the notes below for expressions that are hard to understand.Doolittle: It aint1 the lecturing I mind, Its making a gentleman of me that I object to. Who asked him to make a gentleman of
35、 me? I was happy. I was free. Now I am worried, tied neck and heels; and everybody touches2 me for money. Its a fine thing for you, says my solicitor. Is it? says31. You mean its a good thing for you,I says4. When I was a poor man and had a solicitor once, he got shut of me5 as quick as he could. Sa
36、me with the doctors: used to shove me out of the hospital before I could hardly stand on my legs, and nothing to pay. Now they finds6 out that Im not a healthy man and cant unless they looks7 after me twice a day. In the house Im not let do a hands turn for myself: somebody else must do it and touch
37、 me for it. A year ago I hadnt a relative in the world except one or two that wouldnt speak to me. Now Ive fifty, and not a decent weeks wages among the lot of them. I have to live for others and not for myself: thats middle class morality. You talk of losing Eliza. Dont you be anxious: I bet shes o
38、n my doorstep by this evening: she that could support herself easy by selling flowers if I wasnt respectable. And the next one to touch me will be you, Enry Iggins8. Ill have to learn to speak middle class language from you, instead of speaking proper English. Thats where youll come in; and I dare s
39、ay thats what you done9 it for.1 isnt2 Asks for money3 said4 Said5 Got rid of me6 find7 look8 Henry Higgins9 didA The musical My Fair Lady D Prizes won by the filmB The film of the musical E Why the musical was a successC The original play Pygmalion1_George Bernard Shaw always believed that women we
40、re far more sane and loving than men. His most famous play, pygmalion, shows the hero, Professor Higgins, as selfish and rather cold, and the heroine, Eliza Doolittle ,as strong and loving. This did not stop the play from being hugely successful when it first appeared on the stage in 1912. Its popul
41、arity continued and in 1938 the play was made into a film, with Shaw himself writing the screenplay.2_At this point writer Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe started work on a musical version of the play. It took them several years, but finally in 1956, they had a new script, a new titleMy
42、 Fair Lady and 13 songs. The show opened in New York and stayed open until 1962, a theatrical record, It won every theatrical award and made musical theatre history because it was produced in 11 languages and 21 countries. The role of Eliza Doolittle was considered one of the greatest stage roles in
43、 the theatre.3_Part of the success of the musical was due to the fact that Lerner had changed the story. In the original story, the drama came from the fact that a professor was trying to change a street girl into a “lady”. However, the musical My Fair Lady is above all an enchanting love story in w
44、hich the heroine falls in love, the hero is not interested, she is transformed, he falls in love, she leaves but returns to him. The songs, which were both clever and witty, also played a large part in the musicals success. Songs such as “The Rain in Spain” and “I Could Have Danced All Night” are st
45、ill immensely popular today, many years later.4_Eventually, a film based on the musical was made. Director George Cukor kept many elements of the musical, including the songs and the new ending. It was expensive to produce, costing 17 million US dollars, but was one of the top five most successful f
46、ilms of 1964. Film star Rex Harrison, who had starred in the musical, played Professor Higgins, and the established film star Audrey Hepburn played Eliza. It was generally agreed that the famously slim and elegant Hepburn was perfect in the role of Eliza. However, the star herself was most disappoin
47、ted that despite months of singing practice, the producers decided that her voice was not good enough for the songs, and in the film it is the voice of Marni Nixon that we hear.5_The film, which was wonderful to look at, won eight Academy awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Rex Harrison),
48、 Best Director and Best Costume Design. Would Bernard Shaw have been pleased? We will never know.Module 2DNA the Secret of LifePart 1On February 28,1953,two scientists named James Watson and Francis Crick astonished the scientific community by saying, “We have discovered the secret of life.” It was
49、true. Crick and Watson had found the answer to one of the most important questions of biology how do living things reproduce themselves?The answer is in a chemical in the human body called DNA. Every cell in our bodies contains our genes, which pass hereditary characteristics on to our children. Genes are made of the
