Unit Three

An American Love Affair

Brock Yates

Cars and Culture

The History of Cars

Can you guess what “an American love affair” refers to?

Do you know why Americans regard their cars as their love affair?

America is a society on the wheel. Almost every family has its own car or

cars.

Please list the brand names of cars American people usually have.

Cadillac Stutz Lincoln Buick Chrysler Dodgy Ford Pontiac Benz BMW Santana Passat Lexue Honda Mazda

Nissan Famous car brands

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3

Paragraph 4,5

Paragraph 6

Paragraph 7-10

Introduction

to the Author

Introduction

to the Text

Paragraph 11,12

Brock Yates: is one of the best-known, most respected automotive journalists in the world, who has achieved recognition in the field of magazine writing, books screenwriting and television commentary.

He is Editor-at-Large and featured columnist for Car and Driver magazine. He is also a commentator for the Speed vision of Motor sports Cable Network.

From 1984 to 1992 he co-hosted the award-winning sports series, The American Sports Cavalcade and also hosted his own show, The Great Drivers on the Nashville Network. He worked with CBS Sports as a color commentator form 1976 to 1984. Yates wrote the screenplays for The Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit Ⅱ, both starring Burt Reynolds.

His books include The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry (Empire Books, Random House, 1983), Dead in the Water (a novel, Farrar, Straus & Grioux, 1972) Sunday Driver (Farrar, Straus & Grioux, 1972)which concerned his racing experiences in the SCCA Trans-Am Series, and Enzo Ferrari (Doubleday, 1990) a biography of the Famed car builder.

The Critical Path (1996) published by Little, Brown chronicled the design and development of the Chrysler Minivan. His book about the social impact of Harley_Davids on motorcycles titled Outlaw Machine (Little, Brown), was published in 1999. A paperback edition is being published by Broadway Book.

Yates is a winner of the Ken Purdy Award for Automotive Journalism and a winner of the Playboy Magazine award for editorial excellence, as well as numerous other journalism prizes. He has written extensively for playboy, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, American Heritage, Reader’s Digest, American Spectator, the Washington Post Sunday Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. As well as numerous television documentaries.

He is also an active commentator on automotive industry matters and has appeared on a number of major television talk shows, including Today, The Tonight show, CBS Morning News and This week with David Brinkley on CNN and The News Hour with Brian Williams on MSNBC, The Fox News Network, PBS and countless radio talk shows around the nation.

While having retired from active competition, he remained close to automobile racing as a journalist and commentator. His leisure time is occupied with high speed boats, motorcycle riding, shooting and other outdoor sports. He collects and races vintage American racing cars.

He married Pamela Yates and has four children. They make their home in the tiny Upstate New York village of Wyoming, where his Cannonball Run Pub is part of wife’s business complex. They spend their summers in Alexandria Bay in the 1,000 Islands region of the St. Lawrence. He is listed in the 1995 of Who’s who in America.

Further Information from Brock Yates Himself

Introduction to the Text: American love their cares. More than just a

means of transportation, the automobile is an identity, a way of life, a symbol of freedom. The author of this essay describe his father not by his job or his appearance, but rather describes him as a “a Buick man” -- as if the brand of car owned was the primary aspect of his father’s identity. Although environmentalists may disapprove, Brock Yates argues that America’s love of cars in fact plays a key part in people’s lifestyles, the layout of cities, and the national economy.

But like any love affair, intemperance can breed trouble. Excessive reliance on the automobile has resulted in pollution, “urban sprawl” (the extension of urban areas farther and farther away from the city center), traffic jams, and countless deaths and injuries from into public transportation, such as buses and trains. Yates answers these critics by saying that the problems associated with cars can be solved through better technology, and in any case, Americans are not willing to give the freedom of their cars. “Like it or hate it,” Says Yates, “the car is here to stay.”

Paragraph 1 Some terms to know Questions to discuss Q1: What social and economic status did the

author’s father enjoy in his days? And how do you know?

Q2:For what reason did his father change from a Stutz man to a Buick man?

Q3: Why does the author say “To the day he died, his Buicks were more than mundane transportation modules”?

Q4: What is the main idea the author intends to tell us in this paragraph?

a Buick man, a Stutz man, a Pontiac man a man who drives a Buick/ Stutz/Pontiac car Great Depression A term applied, especially in the United

States, to the worldwide economic disaster of 1930s

automotive tastes tastes for automobiles

upward and mobile citizens people who try to rise from a lower to a

higher economic or social class mundane transportation modules ordinary tools for transportation class structure class status the social landscape the social hierarchy

a Buick man, a Stutz man, a Pontiac man a man who drives a Buick/ Stutz/Pontiac

car Great Depression A term applied, especially in the United

States, to the worldwide economic disaster of 1930s

automotive tastes tastes for automobiles

He enjoyed a middle-class status since the Buick man is better off than a Pontiac man, not as well off as a Cadillac man.

Back

Because of the Great Depression and the consequent tragic shift in the economy.

Back

Because the Buicks not only served as ordinary transportation tools, but also stated his social status.

Back

The car one drives can immediately shows one’s social economic status.

Paragraph 2 Questions Q1:What does ‘loyalties’ mean? Q2:Can you give other words or expressions

which are related with such a feeling (loyalties)?

Paraphrase

It refers to faithfully buying and/or praising a particular brand of car.

Back

love revere social amulets brag electrify smart Black Beauty mysterious machine What’s the topic sentence of this paragraph? Americans revere these machines above all

others.Back

Please paraphrase the first sentence of this paragraph.

The loyalties, which are difficult to win and are greatly appreciated, form a solid foundation for the special link we Americans enjoy with our cars.

… lent credence to my nicknaming the smart beast Black Beauty…

…gave validity to the nickname Black Beauty,Which I called my first Buick…

credence: quality of sth. which makes people believe it is true

Examples 1. His bruises lent/added credence to his

statement that he had been beaten. 2. Those views were too extreme to gain

credence from the practical-minded.

(nicknaming)… after the mysterious machine piloted by the green Hornet inside the recesses of the family Philco

(nicknaming) after the mysterious machine (the car) driven by the Green Hornet (a cartoon figure). Philco was a brand of radio. Inside the recesses of the family philco refers to the sounds the program produces through the radio to help people imagine a mysterious car being driven by the main character.

Paragraph 3 Q:What’s the difference between cars and

other high-tech products, such as the telephone, the television, the personal computer, etc.?

Give the main idea of the first three paragraphs.

The difference lies in the fact that cars enjoy anthropomorphic status. They are treated as members of the family and have their own names. People curse them when they fail and feel sorry for them when they trade them in. (words related: become, give, preen, curse and lament)

trade in: buying a new car at a reduced price by giving an old car

Back

Americans cherish their cars above all others and cars enjoys anthropomorphic status.

Paragraph 4,5 Q1: Why does the Americans love affair annoy

environmentalists, safety advocates and social engineers?

Q2:What do they hope for? Q3: What does the author intend to mean by the

example of “the Duke of Wellington”? The main idea of this paragraph 4. What has contributed to the expansion of

metropolitan complexes? Why? What does the last sentence of this paragraph

imply? What’s the main idea of these two paragraphs?

Because they think that automobiles pollute, kill, maim and displace population at a contemptible rate.

Back

1. Mass transit 2. Futuristic bicycles 3. Excising the automobile from the planet as soon as possible

Back

The author gives the example of the Duke of Wellington to illustrate how the privileged classes did not encourage common people to have the freedom to move around.

Back

Environmentalists, safety advocates and social engineers see automobiles negatively.

Back

Automobiles have contributed to the expansion of many metropolitan areas because they make monumental population shift possible, thus resulting in expanding cities.

Back

While environmentalists worry about the effects of cars, the majority of people continue to drive them unconcernedly.

Back

While environmentalists fret, the multitudes drive on.

Paragraph 6 Q:What can we infer from the following

group of numbers? 175 million licensed drivers 200 million vehicles over 3.9 million miles of roads and streets 2.4 trillion miles every year about 15 million brand-new cars and light

trucks 2.3 million automobile workers

These numbers support the meaning of last sentence “While environmentalists fret, the multitudes drive on” in paragraph 5. So paragraph 6 is a supporting paragraph.

In paragraph 7,8, 9 and 10, the author deals with the problems caused by automobiles and their possible

solutions. What are they? Problem 1: Car hurt people. Solution: Automobiles have been made much safer by means of various technological advances. Problem 2: Cars pollute. Solution: a. Advances in fuel quality and efficiency and in microprocessed engine technology b. The elimination of poorly tuned, aging cars or vehicles from the highways

In paragraph 7,8, 9 and 10, the author deals with the problems caused by automobiles and their possible

solutions. What are they? Problem 3: Cars are the source of traffic jams and urban sprawl. Solution: a. People take the buses and trains the government has so thoughtfully provided. b. People behave properly.(If only…)

Paragraph 9-10 Q1: Why are millions of drivers reluctant to

give up their freedom of movement? Q2: Why will automobile continue to be the

essential means of individual transport?

Because they highly value their freedom and want to control their own destiny. In the world today people have fewer and fewer choices and this is their own choice, though it is not perfect.

Back

Because the modern automobile offers such freedom that it will remain integral to modern life.

Paragraph 11--12

What is the conclusion the author has made about the future of automobiles?

We will live with the automobile despite all the problems it has brought with it.

What’s the purpose of the last paragraph? 1) echoing with the beginning 2) Cars will exist

forever.

Open Discussion Are cars making our life more convenient or

more troublesome?

To Love me, or not to Love me, that is the question!