2020-2021学年度第40期总第832期
Exposing dark side (P2)
山东省烟台第二中学 孔洁

Activity 1 Lead-in
Have you ever bought a blind box?  

Blind boxes are a popular trend across the world where consumers pay a retailer to ship them a box with a random assortment of novelty items inside. The buyer doesn’t know exactly what they’re getting.

Why are blind boxes so popular?
•The mystery packaging means there is an element of surprise.
•Unlike most toys, blind boxes are affordable yet still offer quality.
•Blind boxes are fun, especially because of the delayed gratification.

What if you find the surprise is a live animal?

160 puppies and kittens have reportedly been rescued recently in an incident that has sparked outrage.
The animals were found in a warehouse where, according to local media, they were being shipped disguised as regular packages -- as what are called “blind box gifts”.

Activity 2 Skimming
What’s the main idea of the passage?
It introduces a pet blind box incident which sparked huge criticism recently.

Activity 3 Scanning
Read and answer.

1. What do you know about the pet blind box incident?
•On May 3, more than 160 living pets were found packed in blind boxes waiting to be shipped at an express station in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
•Live puppies or kittens were packed as common postal parcels, leading to terrible results for the animals. Four animals were already dead and many were infected with viruses.

2. What has been most people’s reaction to it?
•Many people accused the business of cruelty and called for harsh punishments for all parties involved.
•Volunteers from a local animal welfare group stopped the boxes from being mailed out and local officials investigated the matter. The service station and the delivery company ZTO Express that oversees it were fined 80,000 yuan in total.

3. Are there any laws to regulate purchasing live animals online?
•Yes. In March 2020, the State Post Bureau of China issued the latest regulations which announced that the delivery of wild animals, alive or dead, was prohibited, and the delivery of other living creatures must follow a set of strict rules, including going through quarantine.

4. Why do some express delivery companies treat live animals as common postal parcels?
• There may not be enough supervision of the online pet trade. And supervising administrative departments have barely taken concrete measures to ensure that the regulations on transporting living creatures are strictly followed;
• Punishments for violating related rules are too slight to address the problem;
• Delivery services are hard to supervise because the problems cannot be spotted easily when there are too many different kinds of parcels.

Activity 4 Deep thinking
Can we prohibit online animal purchasing? If not, what can we do to prevent tragedies like the pet blind box incident?  

It is impossible to prohibit online animal purchasing as e-commerce has been a trend in this digital era. But we can take effective measures to regulate it.
•Government: Make strict regulations and increase the punishment;
•Supervising administrative department: Strictly follow the regulations and use more advanced technology in supervision;
•Express delivery companies: Follow the transporting rules;
•Customers: Never purchase pet blind boxes;
•Sellers: Make sure the animal sold has a quarantine certificate and follow the according regulations.

Activity 5 Language focus
Analyze the following sentences.
1. The blind box phenomenon – in which consumers can buy a box with random items inside – has become popular.
•“盲盒” 现象——顾客可以买一个里面放有任意物品的盒子——已经非常流行。
•in which 引导的定语从句，修饰 the blind box phenomenon, 相当于where consumers can buy a …

2. Live puppies or kittens were packed as common postal parcels, leading to terrible results for the animals.
•活的小狗或小猫被包装成普通的邮包，给动物造成了可怕的后果。
•Leading to …为现在分词做结果状语。

Find the following expressions in the passage.

任意物品                random items
引发强烈的批评        spark huge criticism
普通包裹                common postal parcels
被感染……                be infected with
控告某人                accuse sb of
号召                    call for
寄出                    mail out
通过                    go through
采取具体措施            take concrete measures
解决问题                address the problem