Finding inner conflicts (P4-5)

山东省烟台第二中学  柳力文

I. Leading-in   

1.What TV series is this article about?

2. Have you seen or heard of this TV series? What do you know about it?

 

II. Skimming

Read the article quickly and answer the question.

•What is the main idea of the article?

•The features of the TV series In the Name of People, and opinions and experience of Zhou Meisen, the writer of the novel of the same name.

 

III. Scanning

Read the article carefully and answer the following questions.

•1. What is the TV series In the Name of People about? How has it been received by the audience?

•It is a political-themed series mostly based on real corruption cases, or in short, about anti-corruption.

•It attracts both older and younger audiences.

 

•2. What are the features of the series?

•It is mostly based on real cases.

•It describes a deputy state-level official as a villain. 

•The novel not only shows the complexity and difficulty of the battle against corruption but also explores what makes a politician’s soul twisted.

 

•3. According to Zhou Meisen, what are the reasons for the officials’ corruption?

•Weakness of character;

•the temptations present in an official career;

•traps set by other people;

•the real reason: the development of human greed, with the power not being supervised properly.

 

•4. What did Zhou do to help his novel become better? How did this experience help him?

•He took a one-year job as a deputy secretary general in the city government of Xuzhou, Jiangsu, in 1994. 

①This job made him realize that power is something that one can easily become addicted to.

②It also enabled Zhou to describe his characters with more detail. 

 

IV. Language study

Translate the sentences. Pay attention to the sentence structures.

1.The novel not only unfolds the complexity, difficulty and versatility of the battle against corruption. Rather, Zhou makes a thorough inquiry into what makes a politician’s soul twisted.

•What makes a politician’s…是宾语从句，由于从句中缺主语，因此用what来引导。

•rather: 用在这里有递进的含义，此句可以用“not only … but also”的结构改写。

•这部小说不仅仅围绕反腐斗争中的复杂性、困难性和多变性来展开叙述。作者周梅森还进一步针对导致官员们心灵扭曲的原因做了细致深入的探究。

 

2.But actually, the ultimate reason is the unchecked development of human greed, with the power not being supervised properly. 

•with the power…是with引导的独立结构。宾语power与supervise是被动关系，且此处描述的是没有被监管的状态/现状，因此用进行时较好。

•greed：the desire to have more of something, such as food or money, than is necessary.  

•n. 贪婪

•greedy a.贪婪的

•但事实上，（腐败）根本的原因是人心不受抑制地变得越来越贪婪，而他们的权利又没有得到很好的监管。

 

3.I had no idea of what privilege was like until I became a deputy secretary general in the city government

•what引导宾语从句。until引导时间状语。

•直到我在市政府做了副秘书长，才知道特权是什么。

 

4. His government post made him realize that power is something that one can easily become addicted to.

•that引导定语从句。此处由something等不定代词做先行词，因此关系词不能用which。

•be addicted to 对…上瘾/着迷

•在政府担任职位让他意识到，人们很容易就会对权利上瘾。

 

5. But it was also this experience that enabled Zhou to describe his characters with more detail.  

•What sentence pattern is this?

•Emphatic sentence.

•但正是这次经历让周能更详细地描述他小说中的人物。

 

V. Learn to use

Translate the sentences with a proper word, phrase or sentence structure in the article.

1.这一罪行是以宗教的名义犯下的。

•The crime was committed in the name of religion.

2. 他对电脑游戏上瘾了。

•He became addicted to computer games.

3. 这些事实刚刚被揭露。

•The facts have only just been brought to light.

4. 这档节目将于下周二晚播出。

•The show will be aired next Tuesday night.

5. 这个故事围绕着一群辍学的中学生展开。

•The story is built around a group of high school dropouts.

6. 正是通过他，她才得到答案。

•It is through him that she finally got the answers.

7. 勇敢又聪明的她展示出毅力、真诚和勇气。

•Brave and smart, she shows perseverance, honesty and courage.

 

VI. Discussion

1. What do you think of corruption, and corrupt officials?

2. Do you have any suggestions on how to tackle corruption?

•The government? 

•The general public? 

•The educators?

•Ourselves?

•……

 

 

Don’t get too friendly (P5)

山东省烟台第二中学 朱洪图

 

I. Warming up

How much do you know about human-like devices? Can you give us some examples?

•Siri (/ˈsɪəri/ ) is speech-recognition software that's built into certain Apple devices. It has both speech input and output, meaning you can speak to it, and it can speak back to you. 

•Xiaodu

•It is a robot that can communicate with humans, recognize human faces, and so on.

 

Discussion: 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of human-like devices?

 

II. Skimming

Read the text and answer the question below. 

•What is the writing genre of this article ? c

•   A. Narration (记叙)

•   B. Description（描写）

•   C. Exposition（说明）

•   D. Argumentation（议论）

 

•Read the text again and try to work out its outline.

Match the paragraphs to the descriptions below.

 

III. Scanning

Answer these questions below.

1. What did researchers from the University of Kansas find out?

2. How many experiments were the participants asked to do? What were they?

3. In what ways do people normally reduce the feeling of loneliness, according to Jenny Olson?

4. What is the importance of this study?

 

1.What did researchers from the University of Kansas find out?

Human-like devices keep people from seeking out normal human interaction when they feel lonely. 

 

2. How many experiments are the participants asked to do? What were they? 

uParticipants were asked to write about a time when they felt lonely.

uThey also took part in an online game of “catch” against a computer program.

uParticipants were then introduced to human-like products, including a vacuum cleaner designed to appear as if it were smiling. 

uThey were also asked to think about their phone in human-like terms.

 

3. In what ways do people normally reduce the feeling of loneliness, according to Jenny Olson?

According to Jenny Olson, normal ways include increasing their number of social media friends or engaging in behaviors to seek out interaction with other people.

 

4. What is the importance of this study?

Firstly, researchers believe the results are important for consumers to realize how these types of products could affect their social interaction with real people, especially because so many new products feature interactivity. 

   Secondly, the study could also help companies design products that can increase the well-being of people who feel lonely, without sacrificing normal social interaction.

 

IV. Language points

Match the words with their definitions.

Use the correct form of the words below  to complete the sentences.

comfort /interact/seek out/go away /feature/well-being

•While he was at the library, Steve decided to seek out some information on the history of the area.

•The newspaper featured health care on its front page. 

•Singing can create a sense of well-being.

•She looked depressed so I tried to offer a few words of comfort.

•The singer liked to interact with the audience at her concerts.

•The smell still hasn't gone away.

 

V. Discussion

The movie HER follows Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer who develops an unlikely relationship with software designed to meet his every need. 

Do you think interaction with human-like devices could replace interaction with humans in the future? Why or why not?

 

No regrets to parenting (P6)

河北保定外国语学校   郝建博

I. Warming up

Have you ever done anything that made you feel a lot of regret?

There is no such thing as a life without any regrets. 

 

Pre-reading

Read the title and guess what the regrets of a parent could be.

 

II. Skimming

Read the text quickly and answer true (T) or false (F).

1. The author and Kate went into Starbucks for the same reason. (   )

2. The author realized that he would feel just the same as  Kate after 15 or 20 years. (   )

3. Kate felt happy and proud when they were talking about their children's younger years. (   )

4. Parents' regrets have a great influence on their children.

    (   )

FTTF

 

III. Scanning

Read the article and answer these questions.

1. Why did the author walk into a local Starbucks?

2. Why did Kate seem to be sad about the author's complaint?

3. What did the author learn from Kate's words?

4. What did Kate do to make the author think about his parenting regrets?

5. What is the author's attitude toward parenting regrets?

 

•1. Why did the author walk into a local Starbucks?

Because he wanted to find a space where neither his clients nor children would ask him to do something.

•2. Why did Kate seem to be sad about the author's complaint?

Because her daughter was in San Francisco and she felt that she was not needed any more.

•3. What did the author learn from Kate's words?

He realized that although he might often feel in high demand, there would come a day when he’d actually miss that same stress he now complains about.

•4. What did Kate do to make the author think about his parenting regrets?

Kate talked about her regrets in raising her children.

5. What is the author's attitude toward parenting regrets? 

People will always wish they could have done things differently. But the past can't be changed and neither should it.

 

IV. Language points

Match the words with the definitions

 

 

Choose from the following words and fill in the blanks.

    assume     run into    significant    in demand    advocate

1. Luxury designer brands are the most _________in Paris.

2. Let's ______ that he is innocent as we have no solid evidence against him.

3. The establishment of the Xiongan New Area is a ________ move for China.

4. Emma Watson is a passionate _______ for women’s rights.

5. It’s so nice to ________ an old friend in a foreign country.

 

1. I brought it up to explain that whether at home or at work, I was constantly in demand...

1)bring  up   提出   e.g.,  Every time I bring this matter up, he changes the subject quickly.

2)教育，培养    e.g.,  Yuan Longping was brought up in China.

3)呕吐  e.g.,  He brought up all his dinner because of his illness.

 

2. It turned out that all of them thought they could have done it better.

It turns/turned out that  原来，事实证明   e.g.,  It turns out that the Chinese think that pickup trucks are for farmers.

could have done  本来能、本来可以（但却没有）   e.g., He could have entered for free but he paid for a seat anyway.

 

V. Discussion

Discussion: 

What is your biggest regret in life? 

How do you think we should deal with regret? 

•I try not to think “what if”.

• I find something better.

• Breathe, reflect, learn from it, forgive myself, and move on.

• I do things differently the next time, then there is nothing to regret.

• Regret is a waste of time. 

• I try to think of all of the positives that came out of that situation.