Book 6 Unit 3
waste away — (of a person or a part of the body) become progressively weaker and more emaciated
e.g. She is dying of AIDS, visibly wasting away.
3. i.v. solutions: \
solutions\refers to the liquid substances infused directly into the vein of a patient for therapeutic purposes.
4. irrigate the big craters of bedsores: The verb \
land or crops to help growth.\In medicine, the word can be used to mean \apply a continuous flow of water or medication to an organ or a wound.\
5. suction the lung fluids that threatened to drown him: drain the excessive lung fluids that
threaten his life
6. that seemed woven into the fabric of my uniform: that seemed to have become an element
of the fabric of my uniform
weave sth. into — include sth. as an integral part or element (of a fabric); include an element in a story, an artistic work, etc.
e.g. Some golden threads are woven into the fabric.
Argumentative paragraphs are naturally woven into Huttmann's narration.
7. to be liable for negligence: to be held responsible for failing to perform my duty
be liable for — to be responsible for by law, to be legally answerable to
be liable to — be likely to do or to be something, likely to experience sth. (unpleasant)
e.g. Once you have contacted the credit card protection scheme, you are no longer liable for any loss that might occur.
He is suffering from hypertension and thus is liable to fall if he gets up too suddenly. The low-lying areas are liable to floods during the rainy season.
8. when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony: when his pain was so
acute that no matter how much pain-relieving medication was used, his suffering could not be eased
still vt. & vi.
e.g. He clapped his hands to still the agitated audience.
When night fell, the village which was boisterous with tourists in the daytime stilled.
9. I wondered about a spiritual judge.: I wondered if there was a spiritual judge (as against a
legal judge), who would be supportive of my decision not to push the code blue button, thus to put an end to all this.
10. building character: developing his personal qualities (so that he could face up to the
adversity better)
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11. the blessed relief of coma: Coma refers to a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a
prolonged period, caused especially by severe injury or illness. When in a coma, the patient is not conscious of any pain. That's why Huttmann thinks it is a blessed relief.
12. riddled me with guilt: filled me with a strong sense of guilt
The verb riddle here means \or permeate sb. or sth. esp. with sth. unpleasant or undesirable\
13. A clutch of panic banded my chest: I was so seized by panic that I felt simply suffocated
clutch n. — grasp
band v. — surround (an object) with sth. in the form of a strip or ring, typically for reinforcement or decoration (usu. be banded )
e.g. The doors to the warehouse are all banded with iron to make them stronger.
14. a waxen pallor slowly transformed his face from person to empty shell: the unhealthily
pale colour of his face indicated that he was sinking
15. the legal twilight zone: Twilight zone refers to a situation of confusion or uncertainty, which
seems to exist between two different states or categories. Thus the legal twilight zone Huttmann says she entered here refers to the situation in which her action of pushing the button to call code blue can be deemed either legal or not legal.
16. a death-denying society: a society where its members are not given the right to die
17. Until there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the
right to die ...: Until it becomes law that it is a criminal act to call a resuscitation team to save a patient who has voluntarily asked for the right to die ...
Questions
1. There seems to be a contradiction in the title \
Key: There are various kinds of crimes, but criminals can be anything but compassionate. It is hardly possible to associate compassion with any crime and being compassionate with a criminal.
2. Huttmann begins her essay with a metaphor. Locate it and then explain it. (para. 3)
Key: The first sentence of para. 3: It was the Phil Donahue show where the guest is a fatted calf and the audience a 200-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones. Huttmann likens herself (the guest of the talk show) to a fatted calf, and the audience to a flock of more than 200 vultures hungering to pick at the bones. With the metaphor she intends to tell the reader that the way she handled the case of Mac was strongly disapproved of by the general public, and that the concept of mercy killing was unacceptable to them.
3. Where in the essay can we find descriptions of Mac's condition when he was being treated?
Why do you think Huttmann is being so specific and detailed? (paras. 6 & 7)
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Book 6 Unit 3
Key: Mostly in para. 6, and the latter part of para. 7. She gives such detailed and specific descriptions of Mac's condition to make vivid to the reader the horrifying sufferings Mac had to endure, ultimately to support her argument that a patient in such condition should be given the right to die if he should so request.
4. Was it a difficult decision for Huttmann to make not to push the button in time? (para. 15)
Key: Obviously it was, as she relates in para. 15 \taken so much effort as it took not to press that code button.\
5. Where does Huttmann state her thesis? (para. 18)
Key: In the last paragraph: Until there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the right to die, we will all of us risk the same fate as Mac. For whatever reason, we developed the means to prolong life, and now we are forced to use it. We do not have the right to die.
Activity
1. In the Phil Donahue Show Huttmann as a guest was accused of murder by most, if not all, of
the audience with regard to Mac's death. Put yourself in Huttmann's position and give a talk to defend yourself.
Sentence patterns for your reference It appears that ... but ... If you had ... you would ... Due to the reasons ...
2. Thirty years after the publication of Huttmann's essay, euthanasia is still an unsettled issue in
today's world. Form two groups, one for legitimizing euthanasia and the other against it, and have a debate on the issue.
Sentence patterns for your reference We hold that ... because ... Nevertheless ... To sum up, ...
Organization and Development
Argumentative Narration
What Is Argumentative Narration
If an essay is basically an argumentative one and the chief means used for argumentation is narration, it is called argumentative narration.
Text Analysis
Huttmann begins the essay with the incident that the TV audience lodged strong accusations against her for murdering a patient she was supposed to care for. But her response does not follow
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Book 6 Unit 3
immediately.
She withholds her response to the accusation until the last paragraph, where the audience's accusation of her is mentioned again, and her argument is presented.
Most of the essay is devoted to the narration of the painful dying process of a terminally ill cancer patient, which she witnessed. Based on the narrated incident her argument seems only a natural conclusion.
III. Text II
Text Study Text
A Hanging George Orwell
1 It was in Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages. Each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot for drinking water. In some of them brown silent men were squatting at the inner bars, with their blankets draped round them. These were the condemned men, due to be hanged within the next week or two.
2 One prisoner had been brought out of his cell. He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. Six tall Indian warders were guarding him and getting him ready for the gallows. Two of them stood by with rifles and fixed bayonets, while the others handcuffed him, passed a chain through his handcuffs and fixed it to their belts, and lashed his arms tightly to his sides. They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was there. But he stood quite unresisting, yielding his arms limply to the ropes, as though he hardly noticed what was happening.
3 Eight o'clock struck and a bugle call floated from the distant barracks. The superintendent of the jail, who was standing apart from the rest of us, moodily prodding the gravel with his stick, raised his head at the sound. \to have been dead by this time. Aren't you ready yet?\
4 Francis, the head jailer, a fat Dravidian in a white drill suit and gold spectacles, waved his black hand. \We shall proceed.\
5 \
6 We set out for the gallows. Two warders marched on either side of the prisoner, with their rifles at the slope; two others marched close against him, gripping him by arm and shoulder, as though at once pushing and supporting him. The rest of us, magistrates and the like, followed behind.
7 It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily. At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each
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shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
8 It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive. All the organs of his body were working — bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming — all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the gray walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned — reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone — one mind less, one world less.
9 The gallows stood in a small yard. The hangman, a gray-haired convict in the white uniform of the prison, was waiting beside his machine. He greeted us with a servile crouch as we entered. At a word from Francis the two warders, gripping the prisoner more closely than ever, half led half pushed him to the gallows and helped him clumsily up the ladder. Then the hangman climbed up and fixed the rope around the prisoner's neck.
10 We stood waiting, five yards away. The warders had formed a rough circle round the gallows. And then, when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out to his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of \but steady, rhythmical, almost like the tolling of a bell.
11 The hangman climbed down and stood ready, holding the lever. Minutes seemed to pass. The steady crying from the prisoner went on and on, \The superintendent, his head on his chest, was slowly poking the ground with his stick; perhaps he was counting the cries, allowing the prisoner a fixed number — fifty, perhaps, or a hundred. Everyone had changed color. The Indians had gone gray like bad coffee, and one or two of the bayonets were wavering.
12 Suddenly the superintendent made up his mind. Throwing up his head he made a swift motion with his stick. \
13 There was a clanking noise, and then dead silence. The prisoner had vanished, and the rope was twisting on itself. We went round the gallows to inspect the prisoner's body. He was dangling with his toes pointing straight downward. Very slowly revolving, as dead as a stone.
14 The superintendent reached out with his stick and poked the bare brown body; it oscillated slightly. \He's all right,\out a deep breath. The moody look had gone out of his face quite suddenly. He glanced at his wrist watch. \
15 The warders unfixed bayonets and marched away. We walked out of the gallows yard, past the condemned cells with their waiting prisoners, into the big central yard of the prison. The convicts were already receiving their breakfast. They squatted in long rows, each man holding a tin pannikin, while two warders with buckets march round ladling out rice; it seemed quite a homely, jolly scene, after the hanging. An enormous relief had come upon us now that the job was done. One felt an impulse to sing, to break into a run, to snigger. All at once everyone began chattering gaily.
16 The Eurasian boy walking beside me nodded toward the way we had come, with a knowing smile: \
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