1、Unit 09 Who Killed Benny Paret?,Background information,Boxing in the United States Until late in the 19th cent., American fighters established their own rules, which were few. Early matches, some of them free-for-alls, featured biting and gouging(欺诈) as well as punching. In most instances they were
2、also illegal. In 1888, John L. Sullivan, a bare-knuckle champion and Americas first sports celebrity, won a clandestine (秘密的) 75-round match.,Background information,New York legalized boxing in 1896, and other states soon followed suit. Although the reign (191015) of the first African-American heavy
3、weight champion, Jack Johnson, disturbed the segregated society of the time, and although many continued to question boxings social purpose, its inclusion in the Olympic games in 1904, its use for military training in World War I, its emergence as a source of discipline for youth, its regulation by
4、state commissions, and its suggestion of national vitality,Background information,strengthened its claims to legitimacy (合法性) and bolstered (支持) its popularity through the 1920s and 30s. Heavyweight (over 190 lb/86.3 kg) champions Jack Dempsey (191926) and Joe Louis (193749) were national heroes, Lo
5、uis becoming one of the first black athletes to gain wide popularity.,Background information,Since World War II, boxing has proceeded amid corruption and, at times, chaos. Rising admission prices, restriction of title fights to closed-circuit television, the proliferation of organizations claiming t
6、o sanction fights and proclaim champions, financial scandals, ring injuries and deaths, monopolistic practices by promoters, and claims of exploitation of lower-class fighters have threatened its appeal, yet the sport continues to attract huge audiences and investment. Great fighters like Muhammad A
7、li elicit admiration and fascination, while controversy surrounds others like the repeatedly imprisoned Mike Tyson. Lennox Lewis is generally regarded as the current world heavyweight champion.,Background information,Amateur Boxing Amateur boxing, while not free from debate, has in recent decades ta
8、ken steps to ensure safety and objective judging. The Golden Gloves national tournament has long been a stepping stone for young fighters, but the Olympics are the most visible forum for amateurs. Olympic boxers wear eight-ounce gloves and padded head gear and fight just three rounds of three min. J
9、udges use electronic devices to record the scoring punches that determine the winner.,Background information,The rules of a boxing match (From Text III) The rules which now govern professional boxing were issued by the British Board of Control in 1929. For championships the ring is from 14 to 20 fee
10、t square and the gloves weigh 6 ounces. Fifteen rounds of 3 minutes duration are fought, with a minute interval between each. The bout is won by a blow to the chin, heart, or solar plexus which knocks out the opponent for not less than 10 seconds or a boxer may win on “points”, which are scored for
11、the number of blows or style of fighting. The winner of each round is given 5 points, the loser whatever proportion to this total he has earned. Points are scored for clean hits with the closed glove of either hand, and for skilful defensive work. Where two men are otherwise equal, the attacker bene
12、fits. Each boxer has a second (拳击员助手) whose duty it is to look after him between rounds, cooling him with a towel, sponging his face, and giving him advice it is an old boxing saying that a good second is half the battle.,Background information,The writer: Norman Cousins (1912-*), editor of The Satu
13、rday Review (1940- ), in which he expresses his humanitarian concern with democratic ideals, international understanding and world unity. His books include The Democratic Chance (1942), Who Speaks for Man? (1952), and The Last Defense in a Nuclear Age (1960). 2. The Saturday Review: (1924- ) An Amer
14、ican weekly journal, until 1952 subtitled of literature, still emphasizes book reviews and literary comment, but also deals with drama, recorded music, motion pictures, photography, travel, education and science. Editors have been Canby (1924-36), De Voto (1936-8, George Stevens (1938-40), and Norma
15、n Cousins (1940- ). The present article first appeared in the magazine on 5th May, 1962.,Background information,4.The Death of Benny ParetThe following account is entitled The Death of Benny Paret by Norman Mailer who watched the welterweight (次中量级拳击手) championship fight between Benny Paret and Emil
16、e Griffith as he sat at ringside the fateful night of March 25, 1962, the night of Parets last fight.Paret was a Cuban, a proud club fighter who had become welterweight champion because of his unusual ability to take a punch. His style of fighting was to take three punches to the head in order to gi
17、ve back two. At the end of ten rounds, he would still be bouncing, his opponent would have a headache. But in the last two years, over the fifteen-round fights, he had started to take some bad maulings.,Background information,This fight had its turns. Griffith won most of the early rounds, but Paret
18、 knocked Griffith down in the sixth. Griffith had trouble getting up, but made it, came alive and was dominating Paret again before the round was over. Then Paret began to wilt. In the middle of the eighth round, after a clubbing punch had turned his back to Griffith, Paret walked three disgusted st
19、eps away, showing his hindquarters. For a champion, he took much too long to turn back around. It was the first,hint of weakness Paret had ever shown, and it must have inspired a particular shame, because he fought the rest of the fight as if he were seeking to demonstrate that he could take more pu
20、nishment than any man alive. In the twelfth, Griffith caught him. Paret got trapped in a corner. Trying to duck away, his left arm and his head became tangled on the wrong side of the top rope. Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat. He hit him eighteen right hands
21、in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds, Griffith making a pent-up whimpering.,Background information,Background information,sound all the while he attacked, the right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpk
22、in. I was sitting in the second row of that cornerthey were not ten feet away from me, and like everybody else, I was hypnotized. I had never seen one man hit another so hard and so many times. Over the referees face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him, and then he lea
23、ped on Griffith to pull him away. It was the act of a brave man. Griffith was uncontrollable. His trainer leaped into the ring, his manager, his cut man (现场及时处理拳手伤口的工作人员), there were four people holding Griffith, but he was off on an orgy, he had left the Garden, he was back on a hoodlums street. If
24、 he had been able to break loose from his handlers (经理人) and the referee, he would have jumped Paret to the floor and whaled (猛击) on him there.,Background information,Background information,Background information,And Paret? Paret died on his feet. As he took those eighteen punches something happened
25、 to everyone who was in psychic range of the event. Some part of his death reached out to us. One felt it hover in the air. He was still standing in the ropes, trapped as he had been before, he gave some little half-smile of regret, as if he were saying, “I didnt know I was going to die just yet,” a
26、nd then, his head leaning back but still erect, his death came to breathe about him. He began to pass away. As he passed, so his limbs descended beneath him, and he sank slowly to the floor. He went down more slowly than any fighter had ever gone down, he went down like a large ship which turns on e
27、nd and slides second by second into its grave. As he went down, the sound of Griffiths punches echoed in the mind like a heavy ax in the distance chopping into a wet log.,I. Pre- reading questions,1. What role do sports play in our life? 2. Do you take part in sports activities more or watch more? 3
28、. What do you get from participating in sports activities or watching sports games? 4. Can sports become a threat to peoples health or even life? Why or why not?,Prizefight and terms related,1. prizefight: n.also spelt with a hyphen, prize-fight (in former times) a public boxing match for a money pr
29、ize, in which the two men fought with bare hands. AmE a professional boxing match 2. prizefighter: n. boxer prizefighting: n. 3. arena: n. an enclosed area used for sports, public entertainment 4. bout: n. a boxing match 5. canvas: n. Canvas is strong, heavy cloth usually made of cotton or linen. It
30、 is used for making things such as tents, sails, and bags. Here it is the canvas-covered mat, which forms the floor of the ring. 6. clean hit: an attack which is given fairly and according to the rules,Prizefight and terms related,7. count out: When a referee counts out a boxer who has been knocked
31、down, he counts to ten before the boxer can get up, so that the boxer loses the match. 8. dance: v. move with ones feet or body to dodge the blows of the opponent but seldom attack 9. dodge: v. move suddenly out of the way or out of reach in order to avoid being hit 10. feint: n. a misleading action
32、 or movement especially in boxing intended to confuse or deceive your opponent.Feint is also used as a verb e.g. The two bulls, after a great deal of skillful feinting, withdrew to opposite ends of the field.,Prizefight and terms related,11. fight: n. a boxing match 12. fight manager: n. manager in
33、charge of prizefighters and taking care of the prizefighters training and other activities. 13. jab: v. strike quickly from a short distancen. a sudden forceful push with something pointed 14. knockout: n. in boxing, wrestling, etc. A knockout is a blow that makes your opponent fall to the ground an
34、d unable to stand up before the referee has counted to ten. 15. mauler: n. a prizefighter who savagely attacks his opponent to injure him badly 16. mouthpiece: n. The mouthpiece of a prizefighter is a rubber guard held in the mouth by a boxer to prevent chipped teeth or cut lips resulting from hard
35、blows, or a plate or strip of soft waxy substance used by boxers to protect the teeth and gums.,Prizefight and terms related,17. parry: v. To parry a blow from your opponent who is attacking you, you push aside the opponents arm with your own arm so that you are not hurt. 18. prizefight promoter: n.
36、 also a boxing promoter, one who helps to organize and finance the boxing match 19. referee: n. a judge in charge of some games. (USAGE)Referee is used in connection with basketball, boxing, football, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, snooker, squash, and wrestling. Umpire is used in connection with badminto
37、n, baseball, cricket, swimming, tennis, and volleyball.,Prizefight and terms related,20. ring: n. boxing ring, the small square central space closed in with ropes in which people box or wrestle 21. round: n. in boxing, wrestling, any of the periods of fighting in a match, separated by short rests. 2
38、2. (boxers) second: n. a person who helps someone who is fighting in a boxing match 23. slugger: n. a person who hits very hard 24. weave: v. to move along or make ones way by turning and changing direction frequently,This is the faade of the arena (1),This is the faade of the arena (2),Whats this?
39、The ring,The dancing of the boxing artists,What are they doing? Feinting and weaving.,Unit 9,NORMAN COUSINS: EDITOR AND WRITER(1915-1990) The lifelong concerns of Norman Cousinswriter, editor, citizen diplomat, promoter of holistic healing, and unflagging optimistwere large indeed: world peace, worl
40、d governance, justice, human freedom, the human impact on the environment, and health and wholeness. His primary platform for promoting his views was as editor of Saturday Review for the better part of forty years. He was also the author of a dozen books and hundreds of essays and editorials.,Who ki
41、lled Benny Paret?,Who killed Benny Paret?,Mike Jacobs, the prizefight promoter, the most powerful figure in the boxing world.,Don King (middle),III. Skimming for the main idea of the text,Read the following incomplete sentences as clues, then skim the text as quickly as possible to find out the miss
42、ing information in each sentence.,III. Skimming for the main idea of the text,Para 1-2 The writer had an interview with Mike Jacobs, who was ( ) Number One in the boxing world. Para 3-5 The only important element in successful boxing promoting is ( ). People come out to see ( ) . Para 6-8 Benny Pare
43、t was killed in ( ) . The direct cause of his death was ( ),the prizefight promoter,to please the crowd,the knockout,the ring,hemorrhage in the brain.,a massive,III. Skimming for the main idea of the text,Para 9 The prime responsibility for Parets death lies with () Para 10 The blame should be put o
44、n (),the people who pay to see,a man hurt.,the prevailing mores that regard prize- fighting as a perfectly proper enterprise and vehicle of entertainment.,IV. Questions for detailed reading,1. Why does the writer call himself a “fledging newspaper reporter”? 2. What is the implied meaning of “who so
45、unded the way Napoleon must have sounded when he reviewed a battle”? 3. What does the writer mean by “His saying something made it true”? What does it refer to?4. What is the implied meaning of “ and you wind up counting your empty seats”?,IV. Questions for detailed reading,5. Finish vocabulary exer
46、cises on P104-105. 6. Finish exercises on P107. 7. Do you think that prizefighting should be declared illegal？Give reasons to illustrate your point of view.,Unit 9,1. Colossus2. adequate3. lacework4. exquisitely5. intricate6. encase,1. a person or thing of very great size, importance or ability 2. j
47、ust enough (for the purpose)3. a netlike ornamental cloth made of delicate threads4. almost perfectly5. complicated6. put into a case,Unit 9,7.withstand 8. futile 9.intervene10. boo11. squirt12. wobble,7. remain unharmed 8. useless 9. take action (in order to) prevent something from happening 10. ex
48、press disapproval or strong disagreement by saying boo 11. gush out in a thin fast stream 12. move unsteadily from side to side,Unit 9,1. promoter noun C 1. someone who tries to encourage something to happen or develop: a promoter of peace/sexual equality 2. a person who organizes and arranges finan
49、ce for sports and musical events: a boxing/rock concert promoter,Unit 9,2. fledgling (NEW), fledgling adjective before noun new and lacking experience: The current economic climate is particularly difficult for fledgling businesses.3. beat (AREA) noun C usually singular an area for which someone, su
50、ch as a police officer, has responsibility as part of their job: Bob has worked as an officer on this particular beat for 20 years.,Unit 9,4. bland adjective USUALLY DISAPPROVING lacking a strong taste or character or lacking in interest or energy: I find chicken a little bland. Pop music these days is so bland. a bland little man: a pleasantly gentle or agreeable ordinary person. Little here suggests “of no importance”; it is used in contrast to the word colossus, which means “a person of great importance”.,
