New English Course (Book 3)-
Unit15
Text I
Teaching Objectives:
• Get to know the seriousness of the pollution of the
earth ,and acquire a strong awareness if the
importance of environmental protection.
• Analyze the structure of the text.
• Master the important words and other language
points in the text.
1. Pre-reading Activities:
• Warming-up questions (10 minutes)
• 1) When you see the title “ A Fable for
Tomorrow”, what comes into your mind first?
• 2) What can this fable be about?
• 3) What are some of the problems relating to the
future most people are very concerned about?
2 While-reading Activities: (40 minutes)
• 1) Part I (lines1-14) of the text. Questions to ask the students:
• a. What’s the main idea of this part?
• b. What made the first settlers raise their houses, sink their
wells and build their barns in that locality?
• 2) Part II (lines15-34) of the text. Questions to ask the
students:
• a. What are the different words that the writer uses to repeat
the concept of blight in the third paragraph?
• b. What does the colon on line 16 signal to us?
• c. What is the topic sentence of the fourth paragraph?
2 While-reading Activities: (40 minutes)
• 3) Part III (lines35-39) of the text. Questions for the students
to answer.
• a. What’s the main idea of this part?
• b. What is the cause of the disaster?
• 4) Part IV (lines40-44) of the text. Questions for the students
to answer.
• a. What’s the main idea of this part?
• b. What is the implied meaning of “ A grim spectre has crept
upon us almost unnoticed, …”
3 Post-reading Activities: (40 minutes)
• 1) Questions for discussion:
• a. Why is this passage called a fable?
• b. What have learned from this fable?
• 2) Oral Work
• a. Role-play: City Transport
• b. Interaction Activities: Life in the Year 2050
Part Ⅲ:Text analysis
• a. The main ideas(pair work)
• It is urgent to preserve and protect the world.
Otherwise the world would be ruined.
• Part 1(lines1-14): All life in harmony with its
surroundings
• Part 2(lines15-34) The coming of a strange blight
• Part 3(lines35-39) The stricken world silence by
people themselves
• Part 4(lines 40-44) Warning against a grim
spectre/ stark reality
Part Ⅲ:Text analysis
• a. Questions
• 1) What was the town like before the strange
blight?
• 2) What did the blight do to the town?
• 3) Who cast the evil spell over the town with what?
• 4) What is the text telling us?
• 5) Do you think we have got similar places on the
earth now?
Part Ⅱ :Text analysis
• a. Sentence comprehension(individual work)
• 1)…all life seemed to live in harmony with its
surroundings
• 2) In autumn…a backdrop of pine.
• 3) Along the roads, …delighted the traveller’s
eye …
• 4) The countryside was, in fact, famous for the
abundance and variety of its bird life.
• 5) Some evil spell had settled on the community.
• 6) Mysterious maladies swept the flocks of
chickens.
Part Ⅲ:Text analysis
• 7) Everywhere was a shadow of death.
• 8) The feeding stations in the backyards
were deserted.
• 9) On the mornings…throbbed with the dawn
chorus of robins.
• 10)No witchcraft …in this stricken world.
• 11) A grim spectre…a stark reality.
d. Words and expressions
• fable
• in the heart of (center)
• live in harmony(harmonious, harmonize)
• in the midst of
• checkerboard
• prosperous/ prosper/ prosperity
• clouds of bloom
• drift/ float/ flow
Words and expressions
• a blaze of colour
• flame/ fire/flicker
• backdrop/ background
• delight/ delighted/ delightful
• feed /feed on
• an abundance of(in abundance/ abundant(supplies)
• blight
• evil spell
• malady
Words and expressions
• a flock of chicken
• a shadow of death
• at play/ at work
• moribund
• throb
• brood/ hatch
• litter(v./n)
• come into bloom
Words and expressions
• pollination
• angler/fishermen
• eave and shingle
• granular
• witchcraft
• silence(v./n)
• grim spectre
• stark reality
•
e. Writing techniques
• 1) Comparison and contrast
• 2)Vivid, poetic language
f. Distinction of literary terms
• Parable: a short single story that teaches a
moral or religious lesson, esp. one of the
stories told by Jesus in the Bible.
• Fable: a traditional story that teaches a
moral lesson, esp. a story about animals, e.g.
The Snake and the Farmer, The Hare and
the Tortoise, etc.
f. Distinction of literary terms
• Legend: an old well-known story, often about
brave people, adventures or magical events,
Beowulf
• Myth; an ancient story, esp. one invented in
order to explain natural or historical events.
• Tale: a story of imaginary events, esp. of an
exciting kind.
Text II
Text Ⅱ
l Pre-reading activities
• Group work: Do you still remember what the
year 2000 was like?
While-reading activities
l Questions:
• 1) Which part of the globe, the north or
the south, is more concerned about the
problem of overpopulation?
• 2)What is the proper way , according to
the author to stop overpopulation?
• 3)How do you understand the last
sentence?
• 4)Do you think the prediction in the text
have come true?
Words and expressions
• natural reserves/reserve(v.)
• conserve/conservation/conservationist
• divide up/divide into
• on a world-wide scale
• explode/explosive/explosion
• at an incredible rate/at exponential rates
• make one’s hair stand on end
• stable/stabilize/unstable/instability
• hypothesis/hypothesize
• level off
• potential workers
• in practical terms
•
Post-reading activities
Pair work: exchange ideas with your
partner to make predictions about different
aspects of life in the year 2050. You may hold
either of the two attitudes: pessimism or optimism
• --transport and travel
• --food and drink
• --housing
• --family life
• --medicine
• --environment
•
Assignment:
1. Finish all the exercises in the workbook;
2. Review Text I and prepare for the
dictation of words;