Unit8.ppt

Unit Eight   Go Traveling

Before Reading

1. Listening Comprehension

2. Background Information

Amazon

Ecuador

Andes

Orion

Hollywood

Manhattan

3. Warm-up Questions

Global Reading

1. Part Division of the Text

2. Further Understanding

For Part 1   Blank-filling

For Part 2   Table Completion

             Role Play

For Part 3   Blank-filling

Questions and Answers

3. Text Analysis

4. Group Work

Detailed Reading

After Reading

1. Useful Expressions

2. Brainstorming

3. Spot Dictation

4. Sentence Translation

5. Writing Practice

6. Talk about the Pictures

7. Role Play

8. Proverbs and Quotations

Supplementary Reading

       1. Culture Notes

       2. Reading

       3. Comprehension Task

Before Reading

1. Listening Comprehension

1.    Where is the author living?

(=the Niagara region)

2.    What was he/she surprised to learn when he/she went to university in Toronto?

(=Niagara is one of the top crop producers in not only Ontario, but also Canada. And many of the people I met who were from Toronto had never seen a farm before, or enjoyed the small pleasures of picking their own fruit or going for hikes in scenic areas.)

3.    How did he/she feel when he/she decided to stop by and take a look at the falls through the eyes of a tourist?

(=awed, mystified, a sense of wonder)

4.    Have you ever had the same kind of experience as the author did?

(This is an open-ended question.)

We live busy lives with so little time to enjoy the world around us that oftentimes we almost forget it is there.

Living in the Niagara region, an area that has so much to offer both scenically and historically, we forget about the diversity of nature and the fact that not everyone lives as we do.

Going to university in Toronto this year, I was surprised to learn that Niagara is one of the top crop producers in not only Ontario, but also Canada. I was even more surprised that many of the people I met who were from Toronto had never seen a farm before, or enjoyed the small pleasures of picking their own fruit or going for hikes in scenic areas. I realized that I was lucky to have experienced both the urban and rural life.

Intrigued by the question of how I felt about living so close to Niagara Falls, I decided to stop by after work one night and really look at them. I felt as though I was really seeing the falls for the first time, and they truly were everything that the tourists had promised. Staring into the never-ending cascades of water, I was mystified by it all.

Here I was, standing at the top of such a glorious sight that I had seen so many times before, but for the first time in my life, I was truly seeing it the way that it was meant to be seen; through the eyes of a tourist.

2. Background Information

Amazon (river)    

(Questions:

1.    What do you know about Amazon?

2.    According to the two pictures, describe the geographic location of Amazon. )

(文字材料)

Amazon river in northern South America, largely in Brazil, ranked as the largest in the world in terms of watershed area, number of tributaries, and volume of water discharged. Measuring 6,400 km (4,000 mi) from source to mouth, it is second in length only to the Nile among the rivers of the world. With its hundreds of tributaries, the Amazon drains a territory of more than 6 million sq km (2.3 million sq mi), roughly half of which is in Brazil; the rest is in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela. It is estimated that the Amazon discharges between 34 million and 121 million liters (9 million and 32 million gallons) of water per second and deposits a daily average of 3 million tons of sediment near its mouth. The annual outflow from the river accounts for one-fifth of all the fresh water that drains into the oceans of the world. The outpouring of water and sediment is so vast that the salt content and color of the Atlantic Ocean are altered for a distance of about 320 km (about 200 mi) from the mouth of the river.

Ecuador   

Ecuador republic in northwestern South America, bounded by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean on the west. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands (Colón Archipelago) in the Pacific, about 965 km (about 600 mi) west of the mainland. Ecuador straddles the equator (Ecuador is the Spanish word for “equator”) and has an area of 272,045 sq km (105,037 sq mi). Quito is the country’s capital.

Ecuador has a diverse population composed of people of European, Native American, and African descent. The majority are mestizos, individuals of mixed European and Native American ancestry. Most of the Native Americans live in poverty in the highlands region, where a small elite of European descent controls most of the land and wealth.

Ecuador was a Spanish colony until 1822, when independence forces won a decisive victory over Spain. Ecuador has had a democratically elected government since 1979, but historically the government has alternated between civilian rule and military dictatorship. Most political conflicts involved squabbles among groups within the upper classes who controlled the nation’s wealth.

Andes  

(Questions:

According to the picture, describe the geographic situation of Andes. )

(文字材料)

The Andes are the principal mountains of South America and one of the greatest mountain systems of the world. The Andes include some of the world’s highest peaks. More than 50 of them soar higher than 6,100 m (20,000 ft) above sea level. Only the Himalayas of south central Asia are higher. The lofty plateaus and high mountain valleys of the Andes contain some of the highest permanent human settlements in the world. The Andes are the longest system of high mountain ranges on earth. They extend for more than 8000 km (5000 mi) in a narrow belt along the western edge of the South American continent, from the coast of the Caribbean Sea in the north to the island of Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south. Along almost its entire length, the Andes rise abruptly from the Pacific coast. The mountains reach into seven countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

Orion   

Orion (astronomy), constellation located on the celestial equator east of Taurus. It is an oblong configuration with three stars in line near its center. It is represented on pictorial charts as the figure of Orion, the hunter in Greek mythology, standing with uplifted club. Three bright stars represent his belt and three fainter stars aligned south of the belt represent his sword. Alpha (α) Orionis, or Betelgeuse, is located in the left corner of the oblong, corresponding to Orion's shoulder. Beta (β) Orionis, or Rigel, is diagonally opposite Betelgeuse. A nebula surrounding the three stars marking Orion's sword is one of the most conspicuous bright nebulas in the heavens.

Hollywood

Dictation

Listen to the passage and fill in the blanks with the missing words.

Hollywood (California), unincorporated district in the northwestern part of the city of Los Angeles, southwestern California, famed as a center of the motion picture industry in the United States. It is also a major center of the U.S. television industry. The main thoroughfares, Sunset and Hollywood boulevards and Vine St., contain well-known restaurants, nightclubs, and broadcasting studios. The Hollywood Bowl, a natural amphitheater in the Hollywood Hills, is the site of numerous cultural events. The community was laid out in the late 1880s, after a real estate developer named Harvey Wilcox registered his 120-acre citrus ranch as Hollywood on February 1st, 1887, and started selling subdivisions of the property. Incorporated in 1903, it merged with Los Angeles in 1910. The first movie studio was established here in about 1911.

Manhattan 

Manhattan (New York), borough of New York City, coextensive with New York County, southeastern New York, at the head of Upper New York Bay. The main economic hub of New York City, Manhattan is one of the world’s leading commercial, financial, cultural, manufacturing, medical, and tourist centers. Manhattan Island, which makes up almost all of the borough, is bounded on the north and northeast by Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem River, which separate it from the borough of the Bronx; on the east by the East River, which separates it from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn; on the south by Upper New York Bay; and on the west by the Hudson River, which separates it from New Jersey. The borough, about 80 sq km (about 31 sq mi) in area, also encompasses a small exclave (Marble Hill) on the Bronx mainland; several islands in the East River, including Franklin D. Roosevelt Island (the site of a large modern housing complex), Randalls Island, and Wards Island; and Governors Island in Upper New York Bay.

3. Warm-up Questions

1. What are some distinctive features of an out-of-the-way, inaccessible place such as a jungle, desert, or remote mountainous area?

2. Why would such a place appeal to many people today?

3. What are the characteristics of those people who are attracted to such places?

4. What do you think San Mao’s travel through the Sahara Desert?

5. Have you ever been to such a place? If yes, say something about your travel.

6. If you have both time and money, what places would you like to visit most? Why?

Global Reading

1. Part Division of the Text

2. Further Understanding

For Part 1        Blank-filling

1. What happens in this part.

When: in the middle of the night; It was February, the middle of summer.  

Where: the Napo River in the Ecuadorian jungle; on the headwaters of the Amazon

Who: three North Americans, four Ecuadorians

What: Like any out-of-the-way place, the Napo River in the Ecuadorian jungle seems real enough when you are there, even central.

Why: Out of the way of what?

2. Find out the sensory impressions in this part.

Hearing:

1.  A nightjar in deep-leaved shadow called three long notes, and hushed.

2.    In the thatch house across the clearing behind us came the sound of a recorder, playing a tune that twined over the village clearing, muted our talk on the bank side, and wandered over the river, dissolving downstream.

Feeling:  This will do, I thought. This will do, for a weekend, or a season, or a home.

Smelling: Each breath of night smelled sweet.

Tasting: cool drinks

Seeing: idly watching a hand-sized tarantula seize moths

For Part 2  

1. Table Completion

Here the author handles the changes in time and place in a smooth way. Fill in the table and identify the linking devices used to achieve coherence.

2. Role Play

Four students form a group: one plays as the author, one as the freelance writer from Manhattan and the other two as Ecuadorians. Each talks about his or her life. Pay attention to the sharp contrast of the two different kinds of life.

 For Part 3        

1. Blank-filling

Find out the sensory impressions in Part III.

Hearing: …the unseen birds of twilight wistful, catching the heart.

Feeling: What is there is interesting.

Smelling: sweet air

Tasting: …eat chicken …, together with rice, onions and heaps of fruit.

Seeing:     Parrots in flocks dart in and out of the light.

2. Questions and Answers

1.   What is the point of going to the Napo River in Ecuador according to the author?

   (It is simply to see what is there. We are here on the planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place.)

2.   What did they find along the Napo River?

    (parrots in flocks, anacondas, gray strips of sandbar, palm-thatch shelters)

3.   Can you imagine the Indian’s life and why did they get up at three?

   (They were getting warm.)

4.   What did the tourist group see inside the jungle?

(the trees, butterflies, a swath of ants)

5.   What animals did they see while canoeing on one of the lakes?

   (herons, kingfishers, cuckoos, great turkey like birds, hawks, turtle)

6.   What did they eat that night in the village? And what did they see there?

(They ate chicken, together with rice, onions and heaps of fruit.

They saw the sunset, two nuns and children.)

7.    What message does the author want to convey to the reader by her description      of what was going on in the evening in that village?

(It is not out of the way. It is in the way.)

3. Text Analysis  

 “Out of the way of what?” asks the writer at the beginning of the text while talking about the Napo River. However, she finally comes to the conclusion that “it is not out of the way”. All through the text there is overall coherence. There is an echo—“It would be worth it”, “The Napo River: it is not out of the way. It is in the way”.

Skimming

Make a list of at least eight things that the author finds so attractive about life in the jungle.

1)________________________________________________ 2)________________________________________________

3)_________________________________________________

4)_________________________________________________

5)________________________________________________

6)________________________________________________

7)________________________________________________

8)________________________________________________

4. Group Work

Students move around the classroom, find a partner, recite or read aloud to each other their favorite sentences from the text, explain why, then move on to find another partner. By thus doing you can appreciate the aesthetic side of English.