2019-2020学年度第42期总第795期

Overcome challenges (P2)

山东省烟台第二中学 赵娜娜

Lead-in
What do you know about the Government Work Report?

Every year, the Government Work Report is one of the highlights in the headline-making meetings of the National People's Congress (NPC, 全国人民代表大会) in Beijing.

This year, the NPC annual meeting opened on May 22. In front of nearly 3,000 NPC deputies (代表) who gathered at the Great Hall of the People, Premier Li Keqiang delivered the Government Work Report, which is “both a report card (成绩单) and a roadmap”, according to Xinhua.

Prediction
Overcome challenges

Read the title and predict what the passage is about.
What will be included in the “roadmap”?

Fast reading
Read the passage quickly and choose the main idea of the passage.
An introduction to the Government Work Report.
The difficulties China faces.
The development goal of China.

While-reading
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.
1. What's the difference this year, compared with previous years?
2. What challenges is China facing?
3. What's in the "roadmap"?

Reading for details
1. What's the difference this year, compared with previous years?
Different from previous years, China has not set a GDP growth target for this year.
Several forceful financial measures will be taken to shore up the economy, which has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. What challenges is China facing?
Unpredictable factors ahead:
Our country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment.

3. What's in the “roadmap”?
(1) Achieve development goals:
China will work to ensure (确保) achieving the development goals of winning the battle against poverty and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects (全面建成小康社会) this year.

(2) Focus on “ensuring stability on the six fronts (方面) and security in the six areas”:
“Stabilities on the six fronts” refers to employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and market expectations.
“Security in the six areas” refers to safeguarding employment, people’s livelihoods, the development of market entities, food and energy security, the stable operation of industrial and supply chains, and the smooth functioning of society.

(3) Cope with the job loss:
China will set a target of creating over 9 million new urban jobs this year. To stabilize employment, more than 35 million vocational (职业的) skill training opportunities will be provided and enrollment (录取) in vocational colleges will increase by 2 million this year and the next.

(4) Improve people's livelihoods:
Pollution will be curbed (抑制) in a law-based, scientific and targeted way and illegal hunting and trading of wild animals will be severely punished.

Post-reading
How do you understand the words of Li?
“The Chinese nation has never been daunted (畏缩) in the face of difficulties or obstacles (挫折). The Chinese people today have the ability and resolve (决心) to overcome all challenges before us.”
Can you give some examples?

Language Study
1. 设立增长目标   set a growth target
2. 采取有力措施做某事   take  forceful  measures to do sth
3. 由于不确定性   due to uncertainty
4. 和……有关   regarding
5. 战胜贫困   win the battle against poverty
6. 小康社会   a moderately prosperous society
7. 指的是   refer to
8. 督促某人做某事   urge sb to do sth
9. 采取措施处理……   adopt measures to cope with …
10. 改善人们生活   improve people's livelihoods
11. 职业院校   vocational colleges
12. 面对挫折   in the face of obstacles

Sentence analysis
1. In front of nearly 3,000 NPC deputies ..., Premier Li Keqiang delivered the Government Work Report, which is "both a report card (成绩单) and a roadmap".
2. Different from previous years, China has not set a GDP growth target for this year … to shore up (支持) the economy, which has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

这里的两个which引导非限制性定语从句。第一个which修饰前面的the Government Work Report，第二个which修饰前面的economy。

Homework
Write a passage introducing the Government Work Report to your partners and share your understanding of it.