The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

Science FictionDrama

Classroom Activities & Discussion

Act out the scene.What is the literary genre of this text? Can you name a few other books of science fiction? What do they have in common? What is the message conveyed in the text?

Message of the text

Title: Literal meaning of Monsters:

alien/ETs (extraterrestrial beings) Implied meaning: monsters actually

live in our own hearts.

Message of the text

Three fatal human weaknesses: Our deep suspicion and distrust of

one another, Our eagerness to find a scapegoat, Our readiness to turn into a mob.

Early science fiction:

18th-century

Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels', had strange alien creatures, (not in a real sense)

Voltaire's 'Micromegas' (1752) imagined a trip to the moon.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 'Frankenstein' (1817) merits being called a science-fiction.

science fiction

In the decades after 'Frankenstein'

partly science fiction

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville in the United States; Honore de Balzac in France; and

Samuel Butler and Edward Bulwer-Lytton in England.

science fiction

Later in the 19th century

Jules Verne raised science fiction to new heights and paved the way for the more innovative writings of H.G. Wells.

Verne

'Journey to the Center of the Earth' (1864), 'From the Earth to the Moon' (1865), and 'Twenty Thousand

Leagues Under the Sea' (1870).

The novels of H.G. Wells were published between 1895 and 1908.

science fiction

H.G. Wells

20th century (until the late 1930s).

After this time science fiction went in two directions until the late 1930s.

• Europe produced a more pessimistic science fiction because it had just gone through the tragedy of World War I.

• US, relatively untouched by the war, was more open to optimistic fantasy stories. In the United States most science fiction was published in cheap pulp magazines (so called because of the cheap quality of their paper) and written by dozens of hack writers for large audiences.

By the late 1940s

the American pulp magazines had been superseded by better monthlies. The Magazine of

Fantasy and Science Fiction was founded in 1949 and Galaxy Science Fiction in 1950.

The end of World War II

It inaugurated the atomic age, and the space age was shortly to follow. Science fiction burgeoned as literature and soon found its way into movies and television. The

television series Star Trek attracted a large following. The Star Wars series of

motion pictures gained huge audiences.

Science-fiction clubs had emerged in the 1930s and the first "world" convention was held in 1939. By the 1980s the World Science Fiction Conventions were drawing thousands of people yearly. Literary awards are given annually for the best science-fiction works. The Hugo award, named after Hugo Gernsback, was established in 1953 and the Nebula award in 1965.

               

• the father of science fiction: French author

• In 1863 he achieved his first real success with the publication of Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1869).

He forecast with remarkable accuracy many scientific achievements of the 20th century. He anticipated flights into outer space, submarines, helicopters, air conditioning, guided missiles, and motion pictures long before they were developed.

Verne, Jules (1828-1905)

His most popular books:

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864; trans. 1874),

From the Earth to the Moon (1865; trans. 1873),

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870; trans. 1873),

Mysterious Island (1870; trans. 1875), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873;

trans. 1873).

Around the World in Eighty Days is a novel about the adventures of Phileas Fogg and his servant Passerpartout. One day while Phileas Fogg is with some friends, he reads in a newspaper that it is possible to travel around the world in eighty days. No one believes this is true, except Phileas. Then Phileas bets them that he could make the journey in eighty or under days, and then leaves along with his servant immediately.

The thing Jules Verne concentrates most on during Around the World in Eighty Days is how precise Phileas Fogg is. In the beginning, Mr. Fogg fires his servant because the water he brought him to shave in was four degrees of the correct temperature. When Mr. Fogg hires Passerpartout, he instructs him exactly when to prepare breakfast, exactly how hot his water should be and many other silly things. When Phileas is talking to his friends after making his bet he told them exactly when he would return and exactly where he would be.

One thing about Around the World in Eighty Days, is this entire notion of taking eighty days to travel around the world. When Jules Verne wrote this book, he probably had no idea about how much the world would advance. Today, with the technology we have, we can physically travel around the world in about a day. But also today, we have the power to travel around the world in about eight seconds with computers.

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

• is about an eccentric old scientist named Professor Hardwigg that finds directions to the center of the earth in a old book. He sets out along with his nephew Henry, and a Icelandic guide named Hans to Iceland, where he enters a dormant volcano, that supposedly leads to the center of the earth. After many weeks of traveling, they come to a huge sea in the middle of the earth. Eventually they get out, by getting caught in a lava stream of a volcano that is about to erupt. When they come out, they find themselves thousands of miles away from their starting point.

Drama

Play, Act, scene, Setting/background, characters, Plot and dramatic conflictClimax

Detailed discussion of the text

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street Question:

Who are the monsters? Are they really responsible for all the troubles that happen on Maple Street? Where are the real monsters?

Detailed discussion of the text

to be due: to be expected to happen or arrive at a particular time

The train is due in 25 minutes.The meeting is due to start at 10 o’clock.

a Good Humor man a man who sells Good Humor products

or works for Good Humor company

Another man waters his lawn. (n. v.)

The workers are landing goods from a ship.

She slowly backed the car into the garage.Before we move in we have to paper the

room first.Would you please book a ticket for me?

A flash of light plays on his face, … If light plays on something, it shines on

it and moves about on it.

…the man…stands there speechless. The sun was burning hot. He was lying there, fast asleep. Three months later, she came back

home, penniless.

We will get this all straightened out. straighten out: to settle a difficult situation by

dealing with the things that cause problems or confusion.

We still need to straighten out a few things before we sign the contract.

It will take a while before the two countries can straighten out their difference.

Whatever gave you that idea? (emphatic) What on earth gave you that idea?

A policeman came? Whatever did he want? It can’t be done? Whatever do you mean?

Why, there is no telling the sort of stuff it can do. Why: interjection: His son is so young. Why,

he is not yet six. It is impossible to know what has happened or what

will happen next.

The general impression holds that.. Most people believe that… hold: formal

a practical joke: a trick that is intended to give

somebody a surprise or shock and make other people laugh

I just don’t understand it .. Any more than any of you do! I don’t earn any more than you do.

Why do I have to pay more? I don’t like him any more than you do.

Word Formation

Awful adj. Awfulness n. Awe v. n. Comic adj. Comic n.Concern n. Concern v. concerned, concerning adj.Conscious adj. consciousness n.Crash n. Crash v.Criminal n. criminal adj. crime n.Desperate adj. Desperation n.Exchange v. exchange n. exchangeable adj.Gossip v. gossip n. Impression n. impress v. impressive adj.Lighten v. lightening n.Menace v. menacing adj. menace n.

Optimistic adj. optimize v. optimism n.Persistently adv. Persistent adj. persist v. persistence n.Precisely adv. Precise adj. precision n.Reluctant adj. reluctance n. reluct v.Residential adj. reside v. residence n. resident n.Sense n. sense v. Sensitive, sensible,

sensual, sensory adj.Space n. Spatial adj.Weird adj. weirdness n. Whirl v. whirl n.

Word Study

consciousness, conscience a movement aimed at raising the

general public's consciousness of social injustice.

His conscience troubled him after he took the money.

concern v. to have to do with or relate to: 涉及与…有关或相关：

an article that concerns the plight of homeless people. to be of interest or importance to: 关心有兴趣的或有重要性的：

This problem concerns all of us. 这个问题攸关我们全部人 to engage the attention of; involve: 参与集中注意力于…；卷入：

We concerned ourselves with accomplishing the task at hand.

to cause anxiety or uneasiness in: 使担忧引起焦躁或不安： The firm's weak financial posture is starting to

concern its stockholders.concern n. The managing director's only concern was how to

improve the quality of their products.

crash, gossip, whirl The cars crashed into each other. The car hit the tree with a crash. Gossiping and lying go together. You shouldn’t listen to gossip. The earth whirls on its axis. 地球绕轴

自转。 My brain whirled. 我的头眩晕。

residential, resident, residence, reside Their residential building is located next to the

park. The real resides in the people. He has a residence in the country. City residents complain that migrant workers

have threatened to take already scarce urban jobs.

the resident population adj. 现住人口

He sensed that his proposals were unwelcome.A sense of humour is a great asset for a person. ( 喻 )

in a sense 在某一方面；就某种意义来说 make sense 有 意义；意思清楚；有道理 make sense of 理解；懂；明白 There is no sense in … 是没道理的

the senses (=the five senses) 五官a sense of sight [hearing, smell, taste, touch]a sense of humour 幽默感a sense of duty 责任感sense of righteousness 正义感the sense of locality [direction] 对方位 [ 向 ]的识别力a man of sense 有理智的人common sense 常识 [ 理 ]good sense 通情达理keen [dull] sense of smell 敏锐 [ 迟钝 ] 的嗅觉have plenty of sense 富有见识

sense ： sensible, sensory, sensitive, sensual If you are _____, you will say nothing to

your boss. She is _____ to what people think of her. Some religions condemn ____ pleasure as

evil. There is something wrong with his _____

nervous system.

sensible

sensitive

sensual sensory

phrases

Lean against sth. Cut through a placeA couple of make senseCheck with sb. Go off (said of power)Play on one’s face (said of light) get sth. Straightened outFill up gas turn on/off the switchBe out of sth. In a toneScrew in a bulb get down off a stoolCome by be at the wheelKneel down turn over (said of an engine)Shut off start up back awayWhirl around demand for be conscious of cut inMake up a story hear of get the same dealPrepare for sth. Be caught in the middle of sth.