Book IV
Unit 1
(6 hours)
1. Teaching objectives
a.Understand the New Year’s resolution and the text structure.(What is the father going to change this year? How does he try to make this year different? Why the results all went contrary to his expectations?)
b.Learn the esntial elements of narration, such as “time quence, suspen, tone and style” Learn language points; appreciate the writing techniques and rhetorical devices.
c.Have a basic understanding of ambition in text 2.
d.Oral speaking practice
2.Teaching focus
a.Vocabulary: resolution; spontaneous; escape mechanism; swarm around; morality rapport
b.A brief summary of the ways to express futurity
c.Appreciate the narrative skills demonstrated in the text(the lections of the details, the conversational tone; idiomatic and straightforward writing style; the u of the exaggeration; the frequent u of the verb-preposition and verb-particle combination to make his writing very informal
d.The writer carried out his New Year’s resolution faithfully to improve himlf, but the results all went contrary to his expectations. Why?
3.Teaching Steps
TEXT I This Year It’s Going to Be Different
3.1. Pre-reading Questions
Starting from the Interaction Activities on page 16, ask the students to talk about their new term’s resolutions.
Conclusion: It’s often easier to make resolutions than to carry them out.
3.2. The Main Idea
The statement that best sums up the main idea is (3): “The writer carried out his New Year’s resolution faithfully to improve himlf, but the results all went contrary to his expectations.”
3.3. Language points
1. A brief summary of the ways to express futurity
1) The neutral future is formed by using the auxiliaries will/ shall and infinitive.
Examples:
Tomorrow will be his Sunday. (Level 3, Unit 3)
Is it possible to make an atomic engine that will be really safe in every circumstance?(Level 3,Unit 6)
2) The construction to be going to is ud to express future intention.
Examples:
This year it is going to be different.
I know what the kids are going to do.
Note: This construction cannot be ud for neutral futurity, which does not depend on any person’s will or intention. For Example, both the following ntences are wrong.
* Tomorrow is going to be his Sunday.
* If you go to the U.S.A., you are going to come across the remarkable, almost legendary hospitality of the American of the West.
3) The construction be to do (something) is ud to express arrangement or command.
Examples:
Now let all men know that crops are to be planted as usual. (Level 3, Unit 11)
Shaka ordered: “All women who are found with child are to be put to death with their husbands.”
4) The construction be about to is ud to express near future.
Examples:
Roy and Sammy were about to perform open-heart surgery on Mrs. Robinson with a scout knife.=Roy and Sammy were just going to do an open-heart operation on Mrs. Robinson with a scout knife.
She was about to tell us the truth when you entered the building.
2. The u of over in the text
1) I tiptoed over and kisd her on the back of the neck.
Over adv. ：across a distance or open space, either towards or away from someone/something.
More examples:
We asked Kate’s two sailor friends over to help us gain our point indirectly.
Go over to your Grandmother, my dear. She’s beckoning to you.
2)“What did you do over the holidays?”
over prep.—during, in the cour of (a period or an event)
More examples:
She likes to listen to some light music over the weekend.
Paul has become more mature over the years.
3) To ea the situation, I picked up her brand-new sweater from the floor and put it over
a chair.
Over prep. —resting on top of something and covering something partly or completely
More examples:
John was so tired that he was found sprawling on the floor asleep with his dripping raincoat over a sofa.
4) Take over one of your wife’s chores, she’ll love you for it.
Take over—take charge of
More examples:
The firm became more and more prosperous after the son took it over.
We expect Mr. Johnson will take over our class when Mr. Shaw retires.
3.resolution n (1) If you make a resolution, you decide to try very hard to do sth. e.g. I’m
always making resolutions, liking giving up smoking.
(2) Resolution is the determination to do sth. or not to do sth.
