WEEK 04 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation

a. Achaean

Achaeans are the inhabitants of Achaea in Greece.
→ Greek troop 

b. Patroclus

In Greek mythology, as recorded in Homer's Iliad, Patroclus was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and Achilles's beloved comrade and brother-in-arms.
The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a key element of the myths associated with the Trojan War.Due to this strong relationship, the death of Patroclus becomes the prime motivation for Achilles to return to battle. The friendship of Achilles and Patroclus is mentioned explicitly in the Iliad. Whether in the context of a tender friendship or military excellence, Homer makes their strong connection clear.The death of Patroclus underpins a great deal of Achilles' actions and emotions toward the Trojan war for the rest of the poem. Achilles' strongest interpersonal bond is with Patroclus, whom he loves dearly.

c. Hephaestus

Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods. In another version, he was Hera's parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown out of heaven and down to earth.As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus' symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.

 

2.  prefix, root and suffix

 com- : together       eg. combat, compisition, compose
 voc- : to call            eg. provoke,evoke
 ad- : forward           eg. advantage, advance

WEEK 03 字源筆記

1. prefix, root and suffix

euphoric means feeling extremely happy, usually for a short time only. And "eu" stands for good, well or something positive. For example, eugenics "genic" stands for gene, so eugenic means the idea that society can be improved by allowing people to become parents only if they are likely to produce healthy and intelligent children.

sub- : under    eg. subsidize, subway, subject
Subsidize (v.) means to pay some of the cost of goods or services so that they can be sold to other people at a lower price.

ubi- : every     eg. ubiquitous
Ubiquitous (adj.) means everywhere.

cap : head      eg. caption, capitalism, capital, captial, captain 
Caption (n.) means words printed near or on a picture that explain something about the picture. 
Capitalism (n.) means an economic system in which property, businesses, and industry are owned by individual people and not by the government.

 2. extra information

a. How to learn English quickly 
→There have four words you need to keep in your mind: meaning, relevance, attention, memory

b. TED: Ted Technology Entertainment Design

How to learn any language in six months

note:
Principle! 
(1) Focus on language content that is relevant to you
(2) Use your language as a tool to communicate from day 1.
(3) When you understand the message you will acquire the language
(4) Language is not about accumulating a lot of knowledge but is rather a type of physiological training.
(5) Psycho-physiological state matters – you need to be happy, relaxed, and most importantly, you need to be tolerant of ambiguity. Don’t try to understand every detail as it will drive you crazy.
Action!
(1) Listen a lot
(2) Get the meaning first
(3) Start mixing
(4) Focus on core
(5) Get a language parents
(6) Copy the face
(7) Direct connect

  
 

WEEK 03 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation

a. Achille' s heel 

 

 In Greek mythology, when Achilles was a baby, it was foretold that he would die young. To prevent his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invulnerability, and dipped his body into the water. But as Thetis held Achilles by the heel, his heel was not washed over by the water of the magical river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. But one day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was lodged in his heel, killing him shortly after.

 b.The wedding of Peleus and Thetis

After Antigone's death, Peleus married the sea-nymph Thetis. He was able to win her with the aid of Proteus, who told Peleus how to overcome Thetis' ability to change her form. Their wedding feast was attended by many of the Olympian gods. As a wedding present, Poseidon gave Peleus two immortal horses: Balius and Xanthus. During the feast, Eris produced the Apple of Discord, which started the quarrel that led to the Judgement of Paris and eventually to the Trojan War. The marriage of Peleus and Thetis produced seven sons, six of whom died in infancy. The only surviving son was Achilles.

c. Judgement of Paris

The judgement of Paris was a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympos--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena--for the prize of a golden apple addressed to "the fairest".

d. heifer  母牛  bull  公牛→ Zeus

In Greek mythology Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origin of high lineage, and for whom the continent Europe was named. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a white bull was a Cretan story. Zeus took her to Crete island, and that' s why the name "Europe" came from.
Europa→ Europe

2.Conflict

3.Other stories

a. Ceres and Proserpina

→ pomegranate
  Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto (Jupiter's brother) to free Proserpina. Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to the world of the living. This meant that she would have to live six months of each year with Hades, and stay the rest with her mother.

 b. the rage of Achilles

In the first book of the Iliad, she has been enslaved, as a war prize, by Agamemnon who admits she is finer than his own wife Clytemnestra and refuses to allow her father, a priest of Apollo, to ransom her. Apollo then sends a plague sweeping through the Greek armies, and Agamemnon is forced to give Chryseis back in order to end it, so Agamemnon sends Odysseus to return Chryseis to her father. Agamemnon compensates himself for this loss by taking Briseis from Achilles, an act that offends Achilles, who refuses to take further part in the Trojan War.

c.Homer and story order
(1) Homeric epithet 荷馬稱號
"rosy-fingered", "swift-footed"
(2) flashback
(3) in medias res 倒敘
A tale beginning in medias res opens in the midst of action.Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, either through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events.
 Works that employ in medias res often, though not always, subsequently use flashback and nonlinear narrative for exposition of earlier events in order to fill in the backstory.


  

WEEK 02 字源筆記

1. prefix, root and suffix

pre- : before     eg. preface, predict
context   "con" stands for with or together
finish  "fin" stands for ending  eg. final
-cide : kill      eg. suicide, pesticide
mortgage  "mort" stands for death and "gage" means pledge
(n.)= an agreement under which a person borrows money to buy property, esp a house, and the lender may take possession of the property if the borrower fails to repay the money
eg. mortician, morgue, mortify

2. The World of History 

Where do English words come from?
Latin : exit, circus, video
Greek :  psychology, telephone, cinema
French :  biscuit, garage, restaurant
Italian :  piano, concerto, spaghetti
Indian :  curry, bungalow, pyjamas
Spanish : guitar, tango, banana
Native American languages : tomato, potato, tabacco
German : hamburger, frankfurter, kindergarten 

3.How languages evolve ?

 

 

WEEK 02 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation

a. blood moon

For starters, the first blood moon eclipse coincided with the Jewish holiday of Passover, a pivotal event that commemorates the ancient Israelites’ Exodus from slavery in Egypt.

b. lyre  →  lyric
  Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo.

c. Oedipus

Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes, the son and killer of Laius, son and consort of Jocasta, and father and sibling of Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled the prophecy, despite his efforts not to, that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. When the truth was discovered, his wife-mother hanged herself, and Oedipus gouged out his own eyes.

d. owl, Athena and wisdom

In Greek mythology, a little owl baby (Athene noctua) traditionally represents or accompanies Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom, or Minerva, her syncretic incarnation in Roman mythology.Because of such association, the bird — often referred to as the "owl of Athena" or the "owl of Minerva" — has been used as a symbol of knowledge, wisdom, perspicacity and erudition throughout the Western world.

e. ancient greek orchestra

parodos is a term used in the theater of ancient Greece, referring either to a side-entrance, or to the first song sung by the chorus after its entrance from the side wings.
The skene served as another "hidden stage." At times some of the action went on inside, in which case it was up to the audience to decide what was happening based on the noises coming from the inside.

2. prefix, root and suffix

e-: out     eliminate, evacuate
dia: go through      dialogue, dialect, diagnosis
de:away from 　decline, depreciate
mono-:one       monotheistic, monopoly
poly- :many      polytheistic, polygamy

WEEK 01 字源筆記

1.Introduction

Etymology is the study of the history of words.
Prefix : a group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. For example, the prefix ‘un-’ is added to the word ‘tidy’ to form ‘untidy’.
Root   :  the most basic form of a word, or a word that is the base for other words
Suffix : a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to make a different word. For example, the suffix ‘-ness’ is added to ‘great’ and ‘happy’ to make ‘greatness’ and ‘happiness’

2.orientation 

analogy
A:B=C:D
eg. prey: predator= lamb: lion
 
de-:down,away
eg. depreciate, detriment, descend
-meter: measure
eg. kilometer, thermometer, hydrometer

3.The World of English

William Caxton set up the first English printing press in 1475.
This was very important.It fixed the language in a sort of "official" form.
From that time, English changed more slowly.
1806, Noal Webster wrote a dictionary with new American Speaking.

4.The History of English in Ten Minutes

 

Chapter 1. Anglosaxon
Chapter 2. The Norman Conquest
Chapter 3. Shakespeare
Chapter 4. The King James Bible
Chapter 5. The English of Science
Chapter 6. English and Empire
Chapter 7. The Age of Dictionary
Chapter 8. American English
Chapter 9. Internet English
Chapter 10. Global English

WEEK 01 西概筆記 (Western Literature)

1. three questions in your mind

(1) What is that?
(2) What is that for?
(3) What should we care?

2 .vocabulary

 allusion  (n.)
 (1) a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication
 (2) the act of alluding; the making of a casual or indirect reference to something
 (3) obsolete. a metaphor or parable
eg. biblical allusion, classical allusion, literaral allusion 

3.Roman numerals 

1	5	10	50	100	500	1000
I	V	X	L	C	D	M

  

   tips.      4,9 減   其餘數字 加 

ex.   4:IV   9:IX    99:XCIX

 4.Intro to American Literature 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgZOQVJtvR8

  

  (1) What is literature?

  (2) Why do people read literature?

  (3) Why is necessary for you to study literature?

  (4) How to define American Literature?

  (5) Basic qualities of American writers?

  (6) How to study literature?

5.film: Helen of Troy ,2003