2021-22学年第27期总第859期 (6版)
Winter tech ahead (P6)
安徽省宁国中学 秦迎

I. Prediction
• Look at the picture along with its caption and title. Can you predict what the passage is about?

It is about advanced technologies applied in the Beijing Winter Games, for example, snow-making.
 
II. Read for structure
• What’s the genre of this passage?
• Read the first and the last paragraph, along with the first sentence of each paragraph. Can you figure out the structure of this passage?
Part 1 (1)         Background information  
Part 2 (2-5)     Why was artificial snow used in the Beijing Winter Games?  
Part 3 (6-8)     Snow-making is eco-friendly in terms of energy consumption and water use. 

III. Read for details 
• Can you paraphrase this sentence in Para 2? 
“If you want to wait for nature to provide you with all of the required material to ski on, you risk not being able to organize a competition.”
It is likely that the competition cannot be held if you just rely on natural snow.

• What benefits does artificial snow have?
It is fairer and safer for athletes competing during each event. 
Certain traits of the artificial snow can be easily changed to meet the qualities and needs of different competition venues.

• How is snow-making eco-friendly in terms of water use?
Water used for snow-making only comes from rainfall and surface runoff, and it can be recycled. A sewage treatment station has also been established to process the sewage from the competition zone into reclaimed water for plant-watering and toilet use.

IV. Language focus
• Fill in the blanks
If you think natural snow can provide a 1. ___ (ski)  area which can meet the need of athletes, the answer is 2. ____ (absolute) no. What we need 3. ___ (be) artificial snow, which is 4. _____ (hard) and denser, and it can be easily changed to satisfy the requirements of the FIS.    
At Beijing 2022 Winter Games, snow machines all ran 5. ____ renewable energy. This is efficient in terms of energy 6. ____ (consume) and 7. ____ use of water. Water 8. ___ (use) at the Games 9. _____(make) snow comes from rainfall and surface runoff that is recycled. Even sewage has been processed 10. _____ it can be reused.  

Keys:
1. skiing             2. absolutely      3. is             4. harder             5. on 
6. consumption       7. the                8. used       9. to make          10. so that

• Find the following expressions in the article
1. 人造雪
2. 冒险做……事
3. 满足..……的要求
4. 可再生能源
5. 能源消耗
6. 污水处理站

Keys:
1. artificial snow 
2. risk doing something
3. meet the requirements of ...
4. renewable energy
5. energy consumption
6. a sewage treatment station

V. Assignment
Find more information about the technology used in the Beijing Winter Games and share with your classmates.