1、Stylish GeniusesTopic CPRENEXTCONPRENEXTPRECONNEXTPREReading: The Five Most Stylish Geniuses of All Times15 A fashion magazine selected the following people as the most stylish geniuses of all time. Study these pictures, captions and the background information. Select one of them as your favorite an

2、d give reasons for your choice. I like _ best. The reasons: _1. J. Robert Oppenheimer (19041967) A leading US researcher in the atomic bomb project during the Second World War. “I am becoming dapper.” The pipe and boxy suit16 are perfect for taking tea or designing weapons of mass destruction.2. Sig

3、mund Freud (18561939) Austrian neuropsychologist, founder of psychoanalysis, and one of the major intellectual figures of the 20th century. The height of fin de sicle chic17. The neatly trimmed beard, the fedora18, the round glasses, the suit.3. Samuel Beckett (19061989) Irish playwright, 1969 Nobel

4、 Prize Laureate for literature. He was best known for his play Waiting for Godot (1952). Marked by minimal plot, the play typifies the theater of the absurd. A man of crisp suits and turtlenecks. But if hed put on his glasses, hed have seen things with more ease.4. Johannes Kepler (15711630) German

5、astronomer. He was credited with Keplers laws of planetary motion and explanations of what happens to light in eyes, eyeglasses and telescopes. The neck ruffles were to the 16th century Austria as the monochrome tie was to the early 21st century America. The ladies loved them.5. Enrico Fermi (190119

6、54) Italian-US physicist. He was awarded a 1938 Nobel Prize. After receiving the prize in Sweden, he never returned to fascist Italy, but instead moved directly to the US where he became an important figure in the development of the nuclear bomb. Element 100, fermium, was named in his honor. As bold

7、 with wardrobe as he was with his equations. Like his beta-ray emission theory, this pom-pom ensemble has stood the test of time.Background Information of the Five Geniuses 191. J. Robert Oppenheimer (19041967): US theoretical physicist. He was born in New York City, graduated from Harvard Universit

8、y, did research at Cambridge University and earned a doctorate from Gottingen University in Germany. He returned to the US to teach and trained a generation of American physicists. In World War II he was named director of the Armys atomic-bomb project, later known as the Manhattan Project, and set u

9、p the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, that remains a principal weapons-research laboratory. He directed the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton between 19471966. He strongly opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and in 1953 he was suspended from secret nuclear researchAs an alleg

10、ed communist and security risk; the case became a worldwide cause clbre20. In 1963 he was reinstated and awarded the Enrico Fermi Award.2.Sigmund Freud (18561939): Austrian neuropsychologist, founder of psychoanalysis, and one of the major intellectual figures of the 20th century. Trained in Vienna

11、as a neurologist, Freud went to Paris in 1885 to study with J.-M. Charcot, whose work on hysteria led Freud to conclude that mental disorders might be caused purely by psychological rather than organic factors. Returning to Vienna (1886), Freud collaborated with the physician Josef Breuer (18421925)

12、 in further studies on hysteria, resulting in the development of some key psychoanalytic concepts and techniques, includingfree association, the unconscious, resistance (later defense mechanisms), and neurosis. In 1899 he published The Interpretation of Dreams, in which he analyzed the complex symbo

13、lic processes underlying dream formation: he proposed that dreams are the disguised expression of unconscious wishes. In his controversial Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) he delineated the complicated stages of psychosexual development (oral, anal, and phallic) and the formation of th

14、e Oedipus complex. During World War I, he wrote papers that clarified his understanding of the relations between the unconscious and conscious portions of the mind and the workings of the id, ego, and superego. Freud eventually applied his psychoanalytic insights to such diverse phenomena as jokes a

15、nd slips of the tongue, ethnographic data, religion and mythology, and modern civilization. Works of note include Totem and Taboo (1913), Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), The Future of an Illusion (1927), and Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). Freud fl ed to England when the Nazis annexed

16、 Austria in 1938; he died shortly thereafter. Despite the relentless and often compelling challenges mounted against virtually all of his ideas, both in his lifetime and after, Freud has remained one of the most influential figures in contemporary thought.3. Samuel Beckett (19061989): Irish playwrig

17、ht. After studying in Ireland and traveling, he settled in Paris in 1937. During World War II he supported himself as a farm-worker and joined the underground resistance. In the postwar years he wrote, in French, the narrative trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951), and TheUnnamable (1953). His p

18、lay Waiting for Godot (1952) was an immediate success in Paris and gained worldwide acclaim when he translated it into English. Marked by minimal plot and action, it typifies the theater of the absurd. His later plays, alsoabstract works with minimal sets that deal with the mystery and despair of hu

19、man existence in a comic spirit, include Endgame (1957), Kapps Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days (1961). In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize.4. Johannes Kepler (15711630): German astronomer. Born into a poor family, he received a scholarship to the University of Tubingen. He received an MA in 1594

20、, after which he became a mathematics teacher in Austria. Kepler was the first to explain accurately how the eye sees, how eyeglasses improve vision,and what happens to light in a telescope. In 1609 he published his finding that the orbit of Mars was an ellipse and not the perfect circle hitherto pr

21、esumed to be the orbit of all celestial bodies. This fact became the basis of the first of Keplers laws of planetary motion. He also determined that planets move faster as they near the sun, and in 1619 he showed that a simple mathematical formula related to the planets orbital periods to their dist

22、ance from the sun.5. Enrico Fermi (19011954): Italian-US physicist. As a professor at the University of Rome, he discovered neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was awarded a 1938 Nobel Prize. After receiving the award in Sweden, he never returned to fascist Italy butinstead moved directly to

23、 the US, where he joined the faculty ofof Columbia University and soon became one of the chief architects of practical nuclear physics. A member of the Manhattan Project, he was an important figure in the development of the atomic bomb; in 1942 he directed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction

24、. He received the Congressional Medal of Merit in 1946.In 1954 he became the first recipient of the US Department of Energys Enrico Fermi Award. Element number 100, fermium, was named in his honor.Task 1 Questions for discussion1. What is your impression of Oppenheimers appearance? Would you think o

25、f him as a first class scientist of the atomic bomb?2. Are the round glasses very important for Freud to look like a whole person?3. What is unique in Becketts dress?4. Do you think that Kepler would be a lady killer in that dress? And why?5. What does the writer really mean by “pom-pom ensemble has

26、 stood the test of time”?Task 2 Focused study: Capturing characteristics Study the descriptions and the background information again about the five most stylish geniuses in history. Find the expressions in them that can capture their characteristics. Give reasons for your choices.Task 2 Focused stud

27、y: Capturing characteristics1. J. Robert Oppenheimer: _2. Sigmund Freud: _3. Samuel Beckett:_4. Johannes Kepler: _5. Enrico Fermi:_Keys1. J. Robert Oppenheimer: His pipe and boxy suit reminds us of the gun and the box used to hold weapons. The reason: He was a leading US researcher on the atomic bom

28、b project. The pipe and boxy suit are perfect for taking tea or designing the weapons of mass destruction.2. Sigmund Freud: fin de sicle chic, which suggests that he was an important figure of the 19th century. The reason: He was a neurophysiologist of the late 19th and early 20th century. But his dress, chic and neatly trimmed beard, a fedora, round glasses and a well-tailored suit, make him look more like an important figure of the 19th ce