Curriculum focus
Character building: developing students' interest in scientific research
Language skills: detailed reading; guessing meanings of words from the context

Pre-reading

1. Questions:
   a) Have you come across some daily phenomena about which confuses you?
   b) What do you do about it? Forget it? Or do something to clear up your confusion?
   c) Can you give us an example?
2. Get one student to read the information about the Mpemba effect to the class. Then ask the students about their opinions on this issue.
   They can work in groups to discuss and decide whether their group believe it or not.

While reading

1. Read the passage for the first time and complete the following sentences.
   1) Ye Shasha_________
   A. is a Senior 3 student from Shanghai High School.
   B. doubted about the Mpemba effect when she was in primary school.
   C. is one of the three girls who did the experiments.
   2) Huang Zengxin ___________
   A. was given first prize for an article about the Mpemba effect.
   B. is a physics teacher at Shanghai Xiangming Middle School.
   C. discussed his ideas about this issue with his students this year.
   3) The school ____________
   A. organized the science competition.
   B. found three students to do the experiments.
   C. bought advanced equipment to help them.
   4) Dong Jiawen ____________
   A. stays in school from Monday to Friday.
   B. spent all her spare time during the week working on the project.
   C. is Yu Shunxi's schoolmate.
   5) The Mpemba effect ________
   A. was proved to be right by the students.
   B. states that hot water freezes faster than cold water.
   C. can only be found in the book 100,000 Scientific Facts.
2. Read the passage again and decide whether the following sentences are right or wrong.
   ( ) 100,000 Scientific Facts is a book in which the Mpemba effect is listed as one of the scientific facts.
   ( ) The Mpemba effect is listed in many science books as it has been proved many times.
   ( ) The students didn't finish the experiments and analysis until they worked on the issue for four months.
   ( ) We should believe the facts that are printed in books.
   ( ) An article, written by Mpemba, a high school student in Africa, won the first prize in a Shanghai science competition.
   ( ) All the books in which the Mpemba effect is mentioned support the idea.
   ( ) More than 100 experiments were done before any conclusion was reached.
   ( ) In order to find the truth, we need to test it for ourselves.
3. Find the words and phrases in the passage which have the same meanings. Use the paragraph numbers to help you.
   1) something you can look at for information ( paragraph 9)
   2) to change the state from liquid to solid (paragraph 2)
   3) to conduct or perform (paragraph 9)
   4) a fact that exists and can be experienced by the senses. (paragraph 3)
   5) highly developed (paragraph 6)
   6) factual information, especially information used to reason or make decisions (paragraph 7)
   7) to turn over ( paragraph 1)
   8) a state of mind or a feeling (paragraph 10)

Post-reading

1. What do you think of what they have done? Can you use some adjectives to describe them?
2. Work in groups of four to find out a scientific fact which you all feel puzzled and would like to investigate.