2017-2018学年度第17期总第697期高二教案
Great peak of literature (P1)
山东省烟台第二中学 赵娜娜
I. Lead-in  
Which mountains are these? 
The United Nations named 11 December as "International Mountain Day" and it’s been observed each year since 2003 in order to create awareness about the importance of mountains in life, highlight challenges and bring positive changes to the environment through global partnership.
II. Understanding-fast reading
Read the passage quickly and divide it into different parts.
PART 1 (para 1-3) •The relationship between mountains and literature
PART 2 (para 4-8) •The “peaks” of mountain literature
III. Scanning
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.
1. What’s the relationship between mountains and literature? Why?
There haven’t always been a lot of literary works that mention mountains. Because for a long time, people were scared of nature, believing it to be uncontrollable and dangerous.
2. What are the peaks of mountain literature? What are they?
The “peaks” of mountain literature are both at its very beginning and in more recent times.
Peak 1
The starting date of Western literature is considered to be the first millennium (千禧年) BC, when the greatest Greek authors produced their works.
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes.
Background information
Thetis played a key part in the events of the Trojan War. Beyond the fact that the Judgment of Paris, which essentially kicked off the war, occurred at her wedding, Thetis influenced the actions of the Olympians and her son, Achilles.
The goddess Thetis travels to Mount Olympus to get a suit of armor for Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, to help him.
Peak 2
In the writings of the Romantic poets of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, mountains reappeared in European literature.
1). Mont Blanc, Shelley
... The secret strength of things
Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome
Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee!
And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human mind's imaginings
Silence and solitude were vacancy?
In "Mont Blanc", Percy Shelley compares the power of the mountain against the power of the human imagination. Although he emphasized the ability of the human imagination to uncover truth through a study of nature, he questions the notion of religious certainty. The poet concludes that only a privileged few can see nature as it really is, and are able to express its benevolence and malevolence through the device of poetry.
2). The Magic Mountain
One of the most important modern appearances of a mountain is in German novelist Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924).
The hero, Hans Castorp, visits a hospital in the Swiss Alps to see an ill relative. But he contracts (感染) an illness himself and has to spend a long time there. Mann uses the lonely setting to explore many philosophical and political debates raised by modern society.
IV. Understanding-sentences
Analyze the following sentences and pay attention to the words in bold/red.
1. The UN’s International Mountain Day, which falls on Dec 11 each year, celebrates and raises awareness about the importance of mountains.
The Dragon Boat Festival, or the Duanwu Festival, falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.
端午节在五月初五
Raise awareness 提高意识
2. The thought of high mountains, in particular, terrified people. People didn’t even want to think about mountains, let alone write about them.
In particular=specifically
Terrified=scared
Let alone= not to mention
3.Today, we’re no longer afraid of mountains, or particularly in awe of (敬畏) them.
Particularly=in particular
Awesome令人敬畏的，极好的
Awe-inspiring 使人敬畏的，令人惊叹的
V. Homework
Read the poem Mont Blanc (1817) and share your feelings on it during the next class.

Painting great story (P4-5)
太原市外国语学校    王丽媛
I. Warming up
The Starry Night     
Do you like this painting?
What is the painter trying to express in this painting?

Who painted The Starry Night ? What do you know about him?
Vincent van Gogh（1853-1890, Dutch post-impressionist.

II. Pre-reading  
What do you know about Van Gogh’s works?
Vincent created 864 oil paintings, 1037 sketches and 150 watercolors throughout his life, and his watercolors were as good as his oil paintings.
He painted 35 self-portraits in his life.
His command of color is magnificent. With a strong, heavy color and a lurid (极具戏剧性的) brushstroke, he started a revolution on canvas.

III. Reading
Read the article, and try to answer the following question:
What is the article mainly about?
It is a brief introduction to the movie Loving Vincent, whose production background and main focus are introduced.

Try to answer the following questions:
1. When did the movie Loving Vincent come out in Chinese mainland cinemas?
On Dec 8.

2. How is the story of Van Gogh told in the movie?
The story is told through more than 130 of the artist’s greatest paintings and the characters from them.

3. What was important when producing the movie?
Simulating Van Gogh’s recognizable brushstrokes was important.

4. What did the painters of the movie do to help make their work more realistic?
The 125 painters spent a lot of time in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, studying the application of the paint, the drying times and the texture of Van Gogh’s artworks.

5. What is Loving Vincent’s focus?
Its focus is Van Gogh’s unconfirmed last days.
Try to judge whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the article you have read:
1. Loving Vincent is the first hand-painted animated movie in the world.                                  
2. The movie tells the story of the whole life of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.
3. 10 oil paintings are used in the movie per second.
4. Van Gogh was not recognized until a long time after his death.
5. Van Gogh expressed his anger and pain in his painting The Starry Night.
6. The movie’s storyline is based on hundreds of letterswritten by Van Gogh.
7. In the movie Loving Vincent, it is Van Gogh’ works that tell the story of what he had inside his heart, and what happened to him in the end.
Key: TFFFTTT

IV. Discussion
You can choose either Topic 1 or Topic 2:
Topic 1:
Do you like van Gogh’s paintings? Which one do you like most and why? Share with your group members your views on Van Gogh’s works.

Topic 2:
Who is your favorite artist? Which works of theirs do you like most and why? Share with your group members your views on the works of your favorite artist.

V. Writing
Choose either Topic 1 or Topic 2 according to the discussion you have chosen.
Topic 1:
Write an article to introduce your views on Van Gogh’s works.

Topic 2:
Write an article to introduce your views on the works of your favorite artist.