New emojis for all races (Page 4)
辽宁大连开发区八中 程国良
I. Warm-up
Do you often communicate with your friends or family on online messaging platforms?
Do you think there are enough ways to fully express your thoughts, your emotions, and your feelings?
II. Skimming
What are emojis?
Small pictures used for online messaging.
What is the article mainly about?
New emojis for all races are being developed on Apple’s messaging platform.
III. Reading
Read the article carefully and find out
1.What do most users expect from emojis?
More human diversity in the appearance of emojis.
2.What did Apple Inc decide to do with them?
They put more diverse emojis into the developer version of the latest iOS 8.3.
3.How will Unicode improve the emojis?
Five symbol modifier characters will be added, and users will be offered a selection of skin tones.
IV. Practice
Find a word or phrase to match the following.
be different within certain limits   
express indirectly by an image    
supply with recent information    
offer what is desired or needed     
choose from a number of alternatives
Translate the following with a proper word or phrase from the article.
1.我们有30多种美丽的图案可供选择。
We have over 30 beautiful designs to select from.
2.老虎主要生活在亚洲，从印度到俄罗斯都有分布。
Tigers are native to Asia, and the countries you can find them in range from India to Russia.
3.这组大写字母代表什么？
What do these capital letters represent?
4.它们可以为我们提供鸡蛋和鸡肉。
They will provide us with eggs and meat.
5.您还应该更新任何受到这些变更影响的计划。
You should also update any plans you have that will be affected by these changes.
6. 你做的任何事情似乎可能带来一样的结果。
If you believe in what you do, you’re likely to make a difference.
V. Further thinking
Many modern means of communication are available these days. How many of them can you list? What do you think of them?
(Advantages and disadvantages)
Robots look for laughs (Page 5)
辽宁大连开发区八中 程国良
I. Warm-up
What do you know about robots?
What do you think robots can do for us in our daily lives?
II. Skimming
Look through the article and find out the following.
1. What's the article about?
British researchers tested a new robot.
2.What was the purpose of the test?
To see whether the robot’s stand-up comedy performance could be as funny as a human’s.
3.How did the researchers test RoboThespian?
They let the robot perform with comedians on stage.
III. Reading
Are these statements true or false?
1.__The robot is mainly used to record the response of each audience member.
2.__The robot can adjust its targets and gestures to entertain audiences.
3.__The robot itself can do impressions of the sounds of audiences and act out recorded pieces.
4.__The robot is easily disturbed by audiences.
5.__The robot has already written a lot of funny jokes.
6.__The author is optimistic about the Robothespian.
IV. Practice
Fill in the blank with a proper word from the article to complete the following.
1.His _____ to my question was an angry one.
2.The inventor tried his experiment hundreds of times, but it didn’t _____.
3.If you’re feeling bored with the way you look, why not _____ a new hairstyle?
4.A _____ is a movement that you make with a part of your body.
5. ______ is the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions as if they were your own.
6.If something or someone ____  you, they make you feel a strong emotion.
V. Exploration
Have you ever seen any films about robots?
You may want to see one or two in future.
Share your stories of watching films of this type and your impression of the robot(s).
Listening lesson (Page 6)
山东泰安东平高级中学 蔚晓华
I. Warming-up
A midnight call
If you receive a call at midnight, what’s your first reaction?
The writer in the passage received a call at midnight. What happened when she received it?
Do you think something urgent must have happened?
II. Fast-reading
Who was it that called the writer at such an inconvenient time?
A. the writer’s daughter
B. the writer’s husband
C. a taxi driver
D. an unknown girl
III. Careful-reading
1. "Hello?" My heart pounded. What’s the meaning of the underlined word?
A. sank suddenly  B. beat wildly  C. felt sad     D. wandered aimlessly
2. How did the writer feel when she heard the crying voice?
A. She felt sad and sympathetic for the girl.
B. She felt lucky it wasn’t her daughter crying.
C. She was angry to be interrupted.
D. She was indifferent because she felt it was none of her business.
3. When the voice on the phone called “Mama”, why did the writer’s thoughts immediately go to her daughter?
A. because she knew it was her daughter who was calling her.
B. because she realized that something bad had happened to her daughter.
C. because she knew her daughter was sleeping in her bedroom.
D. because she didn’t want to talk to the girl who was calling.
IV. Consolidation
Fill in the proper verbs and try to fully understand the writer’s feelings.
When she walked to the ringing phone at midnight, she felt panicky and she ____ the receiver. As she answered, her heart ______. When she realized that something wasn't right, she ____a sharp breath, ______her husband, and _____her hand against her forehead.
V. Discussion:
Why did the writer think that it might not have been such a wrong number?
VI. Language study
1. When I heard the sound of a young crying voice, I grabbed my husband.
I looked at our sleeping daughter, then back at him.
1) 现在分词做定语表主动; 单个分词前置, 短语后置
2) 过去分词作定语表被动; 单个分词前置, 短语后置
The kites _____ high in the sky are beautiful.
The girl _________ is Lucy.
2. I should have told you.
情态动词表示虚拟或责备的意义：
might have done      本可以
could have done      本可以
should have done     本应该
shouldn't have done  本不应该
needn't have done    本不必
would have done      本会
wouldn't have done  本不会
I shouldn’t have married you!
我真不应该嫁给你来着！
Choose the best answer!
1. I_____ have watched that movie —  it gave me horrible dreams for a week.
A. shouldn’t       B. needn’t
C. couldn’t         D. mustn’t
2. He paid for a seat, when he ____ have got in for free.
A. could     B. would      C. must    D. need
3. Mark ____ have hurried. After driving at top speed, he arrived half an hour early.
A. needn’t          B. wouldn’t
C. mustn’t         D. couldn’t