Creative direction (P4-5)
中国人民大学附属中学  宋玖青

I. Warming up  
What is your favorite animated film? Why do you like it?

II. Pre-reading
Have you watched Isle of Dogs? From the following picture, can you guess what it’s about?

III. While-reading
Scanning
Read the article and answer the following questions.
1. Where does the story of isle of dogs take place?
In Japan.

2. Why didn’t Anderson use subtitles for the Japanese characters’ speech?
Because he wanted people to focus on his visuals.

Close Reading
Read the article and summarize the main idea.
What does the article mainly talk about?
Possible answer:
It’s mainly about a brief introduction to Isle of Dogs and Wes Anderson’s originality for making movies.

Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1.No director but Anderson uses the stop-motion technique in today’s CGI era.
2.Anderson always makes films based on new stories.
3.Sometimes it’s difficult for the audience to accept Anderson’s originality.
Key: FTT

How is Isle of Dogs different from other films? Fill in the form.
 

IV. Post-reading
Discussion
Think about your answers to the following questions, and discuss them in groups of four. Then, share your thoughts with the class.
1.Can you give an example to support the idea “One of the things that comes with originality is risk”?
2.How do you understand “films that are made to please everyone are rarely masterpieces – they’re usually quite mediocre”? Do you agree with this or not?

V. Homework
Choose one to complete:
Assignment 1:
Watch Isle of Dogs or do some research about it online and then write a movie review. The following questions may help you:
1. What is the main plot of the movie?
2. What are some interesting elements of the movie (the direction, the cinematography, the setting and so on)?
3. Is there any difference between Isle of Dogs and other cartoon films?

Assignment 2:
Do some research online about stop motion animation and write a report on it including the following points, as well as some others you think are interesting:
1. What is stop motion animation and how does it work?
2.What benefits are there to stop motion animation over regular animation? And what difficulties come from using it?
3. What are you personal views on stop motion animation? Do you prefer it over regular animation? Why?

Accidental discovery (P6)
邯郸市第一中学  王永仙

I. Warming up  
How important is luck in scientific discovery?  Can you give some examples?
British scientist Alexander Fleming accidentally found penicillin, one of modern medicine’s most important discoveries.

Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg accidentally found saccharin, the artificial sweetener that’s used worldwide.

II. Pre-reading
Read the title and predict what the article is about.
Accidental discovery
       Many of the world’s most important scientific discoveries were made by accident.

III. Fast-reading
Why does the author mention the team of international scientists who discovered a way to increase the effectiveness of plastic-eating bacteria by 20 percent in the passage?
To lead to the topic many of the world’s most important scientific discoveries were made by accident.  

IV. Close-reading
Read the article and answer the following questions.
1. What made the team of international scientists' work even more remarkable?
What made the scientists’ work even more remarkable, however, is that their discovery was completely accidental.

2. How many examples are given in the text to support the author's opinion?
Three: The discovery of a way to increase the plastic-eating bacteria’s ability, British scientist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovering penicillin, and Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg accidentally discovering saccharin.

3. Could we all be the potential discoverers of the next big thing in science?
Not exactly, but chance does play a huge part when it comes to great discoveries.
According to German scientist and intellectual Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). As he once famously said, “Discovery needs luck, invention, intellect – none can do without the other.”

Read the article and fill in the blanks with no more than three words.
 
 
 

V. Post-reading
Discuss in groups of four :
“When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.” Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above? Can you offer some examples to back your argument up?
For more information, please refer to this book.