Picasso hits Beijing (P1)
哈尔滨市第一中学 张婳

I. Pre-reading
Do you know who this is?
 

II. Reading
1. Who was Picasso?
(He was probably the greatest artist of the 20th century, an artist who "defined modern art".)  
2. What did paintings look like before Picasso started a new style of painting?
(They looked like windows. They showed which objects were "close" to you and which objects were "far away", as if the picture were a window you were looking through.)
3. What was Picasso's answer to what a painting is?
(The answer was to show all the angles.)
4. Read this sentence: "Picasso could not have painted it without the skills he had learned during his cubist period." Did Picasso use the skills he had learned to paint it?
(Yes.)

III. Vocabulary
Look at these sentences and try to figure out the Chinese meanings of the underlined words.
1. They broke the guitar up into pieces.
打碎吉他
2. It was an analytical approach to art.
方法; 道路
注意与介词to搭配
your approach to learning English
3. A famous and terrifying painting, Guernica (1937) shows …
可怕的

IV. Structure
l Look at the sentences and pay attention to their structures.
Einstein's relativity (相对论) was proving what humans knew about time and space to be wrong.
What引导的是什么从句？
宾语从句
l 请分析下面句子中what引导什么从句。
1. What really matters is that she wore a pair of white shoes.
主语从句
2. People were perhaps more honest a long time ago when life was very different from what it is today.
宾语从句
3. Whether ways will be found to stop pollution or not is just what worries the public.
表语从句
4. They have no idea at all what he is working on.
同位语从句

V. Post-reading
Surf the Internet to find out more about Picasso's works and analytic cubism.

Finding our dark matter (P5)
I. Pre-reading
Brief discussion: Do you think one day aliens could attack us? Why or why not?

II. Skimming:
What is the article mainly about?
(Dark matter.)

III. Scanning:
1. Will aliens attack us, according to the article?
(No. The truth is that there is a high chance that aliens wouldn’t even notice us.)
2. Why is it unlikely that aliens would notice us?
(Because our planet is comparatively small in this huge universe and the universe is mostly made up of dark matter.)
3. How do we know that the universe is mostly made up of dark matter?
From Swiss astronomer Zwicky’s findings/discovery.
4. What did Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky find out in 1933?
(There must be something that can’t be seen and that has a very strong gravitational pull in the universe.)
5. Why do you think the author mentions aliens’ invasion of Earth at the beginning of the article?
(To get the reader interested in reading about the universe and basic physics.)
6. How can scientists find clouds of dark matter, according to the article?
(By picking up the light that passes through it.)
7. What do scientists know about dark matter?
(Dark matter makes up about 27 percent of the universe, while the things that we call “normal” matter only make up 5 percent. The rest is dark energy, which up to now has been a mystery. Scientists have mapped (or created a map of) a small amount of it in the universe.)
8. What is the scientists’ plan?
(To map one-eighth of our universe.)
9. What else can you say about the maps they’ve made?
(They are short of details./They have a basic/rough idea of where the dark matter is.)

IV. Language study
l Dark matter can’t be seen, so it’s also difficult to describe. How does the writer describe it and in what way does the author tell us how we can find it? Find the most important sentences and talk about them. What makes them good descriptions of dark matter? (This part could be discussed in Chinese.)
In one sense, dark matter is like the wind: We can’t see it, but we know it’s there. (Metaphor)
It turned out that dark matter does do one thing to give itself away. (personification) It bends the light that passes through it, just like light shining through a swimming pool. (Metaphor)
Metaphors and personification are used to make the description vivid and clear.
l How does the writer show that the maps are short of details?
By quoting a scientist’s words “It’s like saying you have a basic idea of the continents on Earth but what you’re really interested in is the shapes of the mountains and lakes”.
Again metaphor, as well as analogy, is used here.
l Fill in the blanks with the phrases in the box.
make up, a high chance of, in one sense, give away, short of
1. Don’t _____ my secret.
2. Women officers _____ 13 percent of the police force. 
3. Her father’s illness left the family _____ money.
4. _____, cancer is a side effect of evolution.
5. She has _____ a successful recovery.
 Key: 1. give away 2. make up 3. short of  4. In one sense 5. a high chance of

V. Homework: Recite 3-5 good sentences in this article.
21ST
Win small victories (Page 6)
I. Warming up
Brief discussion: Do you enjoy doing housework or chores? Why or why not?

II. Skimming
What is the author’s understanding of her aunt’s words, “I am always fighting”?
(If the students’ answers are different, this can be discussed again after the scanning task.)

III. Scanning
1. What was the author’s original plan for the day?
She planned to shop for groceries, pick up some dry cleaning, call her sister by noon and then do some writing.
2. What got in the way of the author’s plan?
Her husband broke the faucet handle off the wall.
3. Why did the author tell the shower story to her sister? 
She wanted to comfort her with the story.
4. How did the author feel at the end of the day?
She felt that her day had been quite rewarding.

IV. Put the following events in the right order:
A. The author’s husband broke the faucet handle off the wall.
B. The author started making lunch for her husband.
C. Mario and his brother Rico came over to help.
D. The author comforted her sister on the phone.
E. The author picked up the dry cleaning and shopped for groceries.
B-A-C-E-D
V. Discuss again
What is the author’s understanding of her aunt’s words, “I am always fighting”? What makes you think so?
We are always fighting to take care of our homes and those we love.  (The clues: the final paragraph; the way the author rushed around to help her husband, was not bothered by problems in the house and comforted her sister even though she was so busy.)

VI. Language work:
Break up into groups and find the expressions and sentences in the article that relate to “fighting” to get things done. 
E.g. I had several things to do …; I wanted to get it all done by noon so that I could do some writing.
“I rushed in.”
“Next thing I knew, it was time for dinner and I still hadn’t spent a minute writing.”
The last paragraph.
The headline (“Win small victories” – here, ask students to talk about whether this is a fitting headline and why they think so – it could be discussed in Chinse)
Also
Some sentence patterns students might have noticed:
… while … (showing I had to squeeze time.)
I did sth, did sth and did sth. Then I … (showing a series of things she had to do)

VII. Choose from the following two tasks:
1. Think about a day when you were very busy and write a paragraph to describe it, using the patterns or expressions you learned from this article.
2. According to the author, life can be measured both by major accomplishments and small moments. Talk to your partner about a small moment in your life that was significant to you.
21ST