Unit Two Friendship
Teaching objectives:
After studying the second unit
Students can
1. appreciate characteristic features of spoken English as demonstrated in Text A (spoken language is much more informal than written English);
2. learn to use words and phrases: absolutely, available, awful, choke, correspondence, destination, estimate, postpone, practically, skip, tough, urge, a couple of, be lost in/ lose oneself in, come up, keep in touch with, hang out, kind of, learn by heart, might as well, on one’s mind, right away, or something, etc.
3. write a personal letter in an appropriate way
4. express themselves more freely on the theme of Friendship
Text A All the Cabbie Had Was a Letter
Teaching procedures:
1. Speaking activity
Question discussion: Do you often write letters to friends? Why or why not?
2. Listening practice
Listen to a short story about friendship, and then finish the listening exercises and understand the meaning of real friendship.
3. Reading practice
Skimming and scanning
Students work in pairs to find out how many questions the narrator asked the cabbie and what were the latter’s responses.
Close reading
Ask the students to read the passage closely and tell them the story is built around the letter. After reading, let students divide the text into parts and do text organization exercise.
3.3 Summary
Text B Never Let a Friend Down
Activity 1:Scan the passage and fill the information about Bill and Royce in the blanks of the following table.
Bill McIntosh |
Royce Wedding | |
Ages |
||
Jobs |
||
What were their plans when they met on the hot day? |
||
What happened to the two men when the fire was on them? |
||
What did they say when Bill found Royce in the flames? |
||
How serious were their injuries? |
||
What did they do when they were out of the fire? |
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What did they do on the way to the hospital? |
Key:
Bill McIntosh |
Royce Wedding | |
Ages |
79 |
59 |
Jobs |
Hunting foxes and rabbits |
Helping run the Wedding family’s farm |
What were their plans when they met on the hot day? |
Coming to a football match |
Burning off the weeds on one of the fields |
What happened to the two men when the fire was on them? |
Flung through the car |
Pinned against the steering wheel |
What did they say when Bill found Royce in the flames? |
“I’m not leaving you here.” |
“I’m stuck. Get yourself away!” |
How serious were their injuries? |
Pieces of blackened flesh and skin hung from his forearms, hands and legs. |
His stomach and left hip were covered in deep burns. His fingers were burned completely out of shape. |
What did they do when they were out of the fire? |
Get help |
Feel despair |
What did they do on the way to the hospital? |
Try to keep their spirits up by joking |
Grinned weakly |
Activity 2: Rearrange the following sentences into a correct order and retell the story.
a. Driving slowly from the southern edge of the field, they worked their way upwind, leaving behind them a line of burning weeds.
b. The gasoline tank exploded. Bill was flung through the air and then fell to the ground, while Royce was stuck in the car.
c. They tied an old tire to the tow bar with a 50-foot chain. Soaking the tire with gasoline, Bill put a match to it and jumped in the car.
d. Bill dragged Royce out of the car just before a second explosion rocked the car. Both of them were seriously wounded.
e. Bill walked about two miles to get help. They were sent to the hospital in Horsham.
f. A light breeze was blowing from the north, making conditions perfect for the burn. Royce and Bill drove to the weed-choked field.
g. Half way up the field, and without warning, the car pitched violently forwar, d, plowing into a hidden bank of sand.
h. The breeze suddenly swung around to their backs and began to gather strength. Fanned to white heat, the fire line suddenly burst into a wall of flame, heading directly toward them.
i. Royce tried to back the car out of the sand bank, but he failed.
Key:f → c → a → g → h → i → b → d → e
1. Fill in the gaps with words or phrases given in the box. Change the form where necessary.
available, go ahead, keep in touch, absolutely, urge, estimate, reunion, hang out, destination, or something, go by, every now and then, mostly, know by heart, right away, reference |
1) There was no wind and the oak tree behind the house as standing _________ still. (absolutely)
2) If you don’t want to buy a kite, you can make your own using directions ________ in books at your local library. (available)
3) The girl walked steadily north, pausing ___________ to check her direction. (every now and then)
4) The trade unions ____________ employers to invest more money in staff training. (are urging/ urged)
5) As a sailing ship has a ___________, so we must have a definite goal in our life. (destination)
6) Before people knew how to make and use metals, engineering constructions were ________ built of wood or stone. (mostly)
7) You’ll probably find Dave at the school disco--- he often __________ there. (hangs out)
8) If your house has been broken into, don’t touch anything. Call the police __________. (right away)
9) We had a family ____________ where I saw relatives I hadn’t seen for 20 years. (reunion)
10) I guess Henry has been busy writing an article _________ recently. That’s why he couldn’t accept the invitation. (or something)
11) Scientists _________ that smoking reduces life expectancy by around 12 years on average. (estimate)
12) Although it is unlikely that everyone will be able to come, they are still ________ with the plan to hold a class reunion. (going ahead)
2. Translate the sentences into English, using the words or phrases in brackets.
1) 半个小时过去了,但末班车还没来。我们只好走回家。(go by)
Half an hour had gone by, but the last bus hadn’t come yet. We had to walk home.
2) 玛丽看上去对汉语考试很担心,因为她还没有背熟课文。(lean… by heart)
Mary looks as if she is very worried about the Chinese exam because she hasn’t learned the texts by heart.
3) 既然篮球赛已被推迟,我们不妨去参观博物馆。(postpone)
Since the basketball match has been postponed, we might as well visit the museum.
4) 整个二次世界大战期间他一直和父母住在澳大利亚。(all the way)
He stayed in Australia with his parents all the way through World War II.
5) 自1985年从南京大学毕业至今,可以说我与我的大学同学失去了联系。(kind of, lose touch)
Since I graduated from Nanjing University in 1985, I have kind of lost touch with my classmates.