World says goodbye to Castro (P1)

山东省烟台第二中学  柳力文

 

I. Warming Up

The year 2016 has been full of changes and instabilities in leaders around the world. Do you know what happed to them?

lDavid Cameron announced his resignation on 24th June 2016, when Britain voted to exit the European Union, and stepped down on July 13th, 2016. He stood down as MP for Witney (牛津郡维特尼区的国会议员) with immediate effect on 12 September 2016. David Cameron was the leader of the Conservative Party. He became British Prime Minister in May 2010 aged 43, the youngest British PM for nearly 200 years. 

Although leaving Europe was not the path I recommended, I am the first to praise our incredible strengths.

I have said before that Britain can survive outside the European Union, and indeed that we could find a way. I love this country – and I feel honored to have served it.

And I will do everything I can in future to help this great country succeed.

lLONDON, July 13. British Conservative Party leader Theresa May was officially appointed the new prime minister of Great Britain.

lShe was appointed by a royal order after an audience (会见) with Queen Elizabeth II in the Buckingham Palace.

lMay is the 13th head of government during the rule of the current monarch (the queen).

lNEW YORK, Nov. 8. Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in a close race to win the 45th U.S. presidency early on, pulling off a major upset after a controversial (有争议的) and scandalous (涉及丑闻的) campaign. 

President Park Geun-hye of South Korea said on Nov. 29, 2016 that she was willing to resign before her term ends, after a devastating (毁灭性的) corruption scandal, or the “confidante scandal”, aroused massive anti-president rallies (集会) and turbulence (骚动) in the country. 

Do you know who this is? 

Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader of Cuba.

 

II. Skimming

1. What news is the article about? Please use one sentence to summarize it. 

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader, died on Nov 25 at the age of 90.

Match the paragraphs with their main ideas.

 

 

III. Scanning: read part by part

lPara 1~2

1. How did people feel when they heard the news of their leader’s death? Why did they feel that way?

They found the news hard to take because Castro basically rebuilt the country and was a hero in their hearts.

2. What did people do in memory of him?

They closed their bars and restaurants and would do it for nine days.

lPara 3~7

1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 3 and 4?

The two paragraphs tell the reader about Castro’s fight against the dictator Batista and his success in the end.

2. What good characteristics of Castro can you find? Give your reasons. 

He was brave, ambitious, determined, visionary and hardworking.

3. What does the writer indicate by saying “this wasn’t always a good thing for him” in Paragraph 5? 

After he became Cuba’s leader and made the country a socialist country, the interests of some countries and groups were under threat, which would bring him danger and even death.

lPara 8

What can we conclude from the last paragraph?

Castro’s ideas and Cuba’s communism will be continued.

 

IV. Language focus

Read the article carefully and fill in the blanks based on your understanding.

Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary leader, passed            aged 90. People could                take the news and would close their shops for nine days in a row to           him.             his legend at 26, Castro failed in the fight                the Cuban dictator and                   in prison. In 1956, he                     with others and started all over again.

Finally in 1956, he took over the of Cuba and made Cuba the first           country in the west.

Over the years, he was fortunate enough to         as many as 637 plans               to kill him as he was seen as a              to the interests of some. Meanwhile, he made great              to such fields as education, health care, sports and so on.

He believed that although he would die as everyone else would, the                of Cuba’s communism would               .

Key: away; hardly/ barely; honor/remember; Starting; against; ended up；teamed up；leadership； socialist；survive；intended；threat；contributions；ideals；remain

 

V. Learn to use

1. …, they would stay closed for nine days – in honor of Fidel Castro, … 

纪念：in honor/ memory of…, to memorize…/ to commemorate…

eg. A party was held in memory of the company’s founder.

2. He fought against Cuban dictator (专制者) Fulgencio Batista but failed and ended up spending 22 months in prison. 

1）如果你再这样抽烟，总有一天会抽死的。

If you go on smoking like this, you will end up dead one day.

2）他们长期的努力以失败告终。

Their long struggle ended in failure.

3. …, because the US government and terrorist groups saw Castro as a threat to their interests in Cuba. 

1）毒品对社会构成一大威胁。

Drugs pose a major threat to our society.

2）很多物种面临灭绝的威胁。

Many species are under threat of extinction.

3）她拿着一把枪威胁他。

She threatened him with a gun.

4）她屡次威胁要自杀。

She repeatedly threatened to commit suicide

 

VI. Discussion

1. We’ve learned that Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader of Cuba, had many good qualities. What qualities do you think someone needs to have in order to be a good leader in the future?

2. What do you think of the year’s news about the leaders of Britain, America, South Korea and Cuba? What will happen to the countries in the future? Choose one to comment on.

 

World stands still (P4-5)

中国人民大学附属中学  宋玖青

 

I. Warming up

Look at the pictures below. What do you think these people are doing?

The Mannequin Challenge

 

II. Pre-reading

Can you guess from the pictures and the title of the article what the Mannequin Challenge is about?  

 

III. While reading

lScanning

Read the article and answer the following questions.

1. What is the Mannequin Challenge about?

A group of people hold creative poses for one minute while someone records them. 

2. Who started the Mannequin Challenge?

A bored US teenager.

3. What is the biggest reason for the success of the challenge, according to Kevin Allocca?

The fact that the challenge is so simple. 

lClose reading

Decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1.The Mannequin Challenge asks people to act like a frozen person for 5 minutes.

2.The Mannequin Challenge was designed to raise money.  

3.The challenge is popular only among teenagers.

4.You can be creative while doing the Mannequin Challenge.

Key: FFFT

Read the article again. Try to distinguish the two different ideas about the success of the Mannequin Challenge, then summarize these ideas in your own words.

Possible Answer:

    The Mannequin Challenge is now a social media craze. However, people hold different ideas about why it has become popular.

    Kevin Allocca thinks that the Challenge has become so popular because it’s so simple. You can do it anywhere you like, and you can add your own ideas to it in order to make it more fun.

    However, Arwa Mahdawi thinks its success comes from perfect timing. She thinks that nowadays, people are very tired and need a rest. This challenge gives them a chance to do nothing and have a little rest.

 

IV. Post-reading

Discussion

Discuss the following questions with your classmates.

1.Have you ever tried the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Mannequin Challenge? Do you think they are interesting ideas? 

2.Why do you think people launch and spread these kinds of challenges? Are they “meaningful” or “meaningless”?

3.If you were going to launch a campaign like this, what would you do?

 

V. Homework

Report

Find at least four news reports about the Mannequin Challenge. Write a report summarizing their viewpoints and give your own opinion on it. 

 

Problem photos (P6)

广东广雅中学  温东瑜

I. Warming up 

What can you tell from these photos?

    

From the Lu Han mailbox incident, we can see pop stars have a strong influence on society, especially the young. What might followers do when they see these pop stars?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. Fast reading 

Why does the author say that “famous people having their photos taken with exotic animals is actually damaging”?

Some bad businesspeople are trying to make big profits from them by doing so, and also making use of their influence on their followers.

 

III. Scanning

1. What happens to the tigers and elephants mentioned in the passage?

The tigers are made use of as a tool to make money by letting visitors take photos with them. When they are bigger, they are kept in the cages or even killed. The elephants are trained cruelly.

2. What contributes to this phenomenon?

Famous people having photos taken with animals.

3. Who are the target readers of this passage?

All people, but especially followers of stars.

lDetailed discussion:

What's the real purpose of Tiger Temple?

lMind Map

 

 

IV. Post-reading

Choose from the following activities:

lDiscussion: (choose either topic) 

 1. What will happen to the animals if they are visited frequently by people wherever they are?

 2. What can we do to protect animals? (individuals, communities, governments...)

lRole play:

One student plays Teens’ reporter, another plays the author. They talk about the effects of celebrities having photos taken with exotic animals.

lWriting: Sum up the article in your own words and give your opinion.

 

V. Word bank

1. Famous people have a lot of influence on cultural trends ,...

trend  潮流、趋势 (a change or development towards something new or different) 

学习搭配：

Our school is backing this trend. 我们学校支持这个趋势。

Young people started a trend of living in the downtown area. 

There was a general trend toward marriage at a younger age. 

This prediction is based on current economic trends.

2. … while on vacation invariably have good intentions...

intention目的，意图 (= purpose)

What do you think was the author‘s intention in this passage? 

They have no intention of getting married at present.

相关动词：intend 

intend to do sth 打算做什么

= plan to do sth/ mean to do sth 

常用短语：be intended to do（被设计的）目的是去做...

          be intended for sb（被设计的）目标对象是...

This activity is intended to increase students’ awareness of the importance of protecting animals. 

本次活动的目的是要引起大家保护动物的意识。

This activity is intended for Senior Three students.

本次活动的参加对象是高三的学生。