Unit3IsTradeGoodforAmerica

2023年12月4日发(作者：闺蜜生日贺卡)

-

商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

Unit 3 Is Trade Good for America?

Teaching Objectives and Requirements: （教学目标与基本要求）

1. Let the students master some basic terms of international trade;

2. Let the students know some information about the novel: “The Choice: A Fable of

Free Trade and Protectionism” from which the text is taken;

3. Let the students remember and u new words and expressions

4. Explain language points in Text A and Supplementary reading “Excessive

Collaboration” taken from The Economists.

Focus: （教学重点）

Let the students know the basic knowledge of free trade and trade protectionism

Difficulties: （教学难点）

1. Term Study: free trade; trade protectionism; comparative advantage; opportunity cost;

2. Information about “The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism”;

3. Comprehension of the key ntences of text A “Is Free Trade Good for America”?

Teaching Procedures and teaching Time: （教学进程与学时分配）

Teaching time:200 minutes (4 periods)

Part I Pre-reading Questions: (Multi-media, 10 minutes.)

It can be ud as lead-in questions. For students, they can discuss with each other and

will have free answers.

(1) Should you feel guilty about purchasing foreign products?

(2) Do you believe “Buy Chine” is the path to national prosperity?

(3) Is free trade good for us and our country, or bad? Give your reasons.

Part II Extensive Reading

In this part, there are Text A and a supplementary reading taken from The Economists.

By reading the texts in limited time, teacher helps students understand the contents

and the reading methods to build reading abilities gradually.

Text A: Is Trade Good for America? (140 minutes)

a. Let the students read Text A as quickly as they can for the first time to get the

general idea (10 minutes)

b. Ask students to tell others the general idea of the text (10 minutes)

c. U some basic reading skills to read through the text again to find the answers

to the following questions (20 minutes)

1. Under what circumstances will the statement “If the Japan had stayed poor,

America would have become even richer” be true?

2. Why couldn’t the Olympic metaphor be applied to world trade？

3. How did Japane get wealthier than Americans between 1960 and the beginning of

1 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

the 1990s? Was it becau they lost World War II and could start from scratch with all

the newest technologies?

4. In Dave’ s opinion, what was the cret of Japane success between 1960 and the

beginning of the 1990s?

does the example of “Honda and Sony” tell us?

6. What does “resource” refer to ? How can we u resources in a wi way?

7. What does the author try to tell us by giving the example of “corn”?

8. According to Dave, under what circumstances will farmers plant corns by

themlves?

9. What would be the results of America’s import of Japane television?

10. What’s Dave’s purpo of comparing Americans losing jobs after the import of

Japane televisions with doctors losing jobs after the disappearance of all dias?

d. Check the answers to the questions (30 minutes)

1. Under what circumstances will the statement “If the Japan had stayed poor,

America would have become even richer” be true?

A: (L8) Only if there was a fixed amount of wealth in the world and the nations of the

world tussled over it.

2. Why couldn’t the Olympic metaphor be applied to world trade？

A: Becau world trade can be win-win while the Olympic Games are win-lo.

Evidence: (L9)The Olympic metaphor is misleading. If Japan wins the gold medal in

television production, America has somehow lost. In fact, Japan’s experti and

success frees up resources for America to specialize in other areas. Both countries are

then better off.

3. How did Japane get wealthier than Americans between 1960 and the beginning of

the 1990s? Was it becau they lost World War II and could start from scratch with all

the newest technologies?

A: (L15) Hardly. How could it ever be a good idea to let somebody destroy your

factory? If new technologies are superior to old, you can always junk your old factory

and adopt the new technology.

4. In Dave’ s opinion, what was the cret of Japane success between 1960 and the

beginning of the 1990s?

A: There was no cret. The road to wealth for a nation is quite simple. U your

resources wily.

Evidence: (L20-23) Some said it was the unique partnership between Japane

industry and its government. Japan had a government agency called MITI - the

Ministry of International Trade and Industry - that many people credited with creating

the Japane miracle.

does the example of “Honda and Sony” tell us?

2 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

A: (L25-28) MITI did back some winners with government funding and assistance.

They also picked some lors. They tried to discourage Honda from going into

automobile and hampered Sony’s activities in electronics. Honda and Sony were

eventually great success.

(L28-30) I believe that MITI’s role was not critical to Japan’s success. Japan also had

great economic success in times when MITI did not exist or was insignificant.

6. What does “resource” refer to ? How can we u resources in a wi way?

A: (L36) Not fertile land, but the know-how, education, ingenuity, and drive of the

people.

(L38）Using your resources wily means giving the people the incentive to work

hard, to innovate, and to take risks. How can we u resources in a wi way?

7. What does the author try to tell us by giving the example of “corn”?

A: The roundabout way to wealth, opportunity Cost of a choice and comparative

advantage

Evidence: (L51) It looks like growing your own corn is incredibly cheap. ou just have

the cost of a little ed. But growing your own corn is in fact incredibly expensive

becau of the time it takes to weed, water, and fertilize. That time appears to be free,

but it is costly. You have lost the opportunity to work at some other activity, earning

money , and using that money to buy corn. Or having the time for leisure. If you think

of your houhold as a nation, you import corn. You produce it in the roundabout way

just like America produces televisions.

8. According to Dave, under what circumstances will farmers plant corns by

themlves?

A: (L 61) It depends on whether it takes fewer minutes to grow an ear directly, or to

earn enough money to buy corn by working at some other job using the roundabout

way.

9. What would be the results of America’s import of Japane television?

A: TS: (L 68) The television jobs are gone.

Supporting evidence:

a. Americans would be freed to gain more valuable opportunities.

(L 66) You have lost the job of growing corn and gained a more valuable opportunity.

American youngsters would focus their attention on jobs in more profitable

industries.

(L 82) But the biggest change caud by that technology was invisible. The dreams of

farmers’ children changed.

(L85) Even though their parents and grandparents had been farmers, ... farming was

going to be less profitable than it had been. They made plans to become salesmen,

engineers, chemists and pilots.

c. The overall number of jobs incread tremendously.

(L66) But they have been replaced by others.

3 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

(L88)But jobs didn’People took different types of jobs.

(L90) Some even went into a new industry called television.

d. Americans would get less expensive televisions.

(L104) American gets less expensive food„That is the important change.

10. What’s Dave’s purpo of comparing Americans losing jobs after the import of

Japane televisions with doctors losing jobs after the disappearance of all dias?

A:To illustrate that losing the jobs of producing televisions can also make America

better off; To justify that imports are good for America, even if they destroy the

domestic television industry.

Evidence:

(L115) Oh come on, Dave. If we could get rid of dia, doctors shouldn’t stand in

the way.

(L121) But the principle is the same. Would a doctor have a right to force a person to

stay sick so the doctor could continue earning the living the doctor was accustomed to?

Does a television manufacturer have the right to force a consumer of televisions to

pay a higher price to sustain high wages for his workers? ...Certain types of jobs are

lost. ...People who would have been doctors would now apply their skills to other

activities and enrich our lives. Paradoxically, America would lo the high-paying

jobs in health care but still become wealthier.

e. Study words and expressions in the text (30 minutes)

1. tussle v. to try to beat each other in order to get something; to struggle or fight (with

sb.); to wrestle (with sb.)

2. experti knowledge or skill, especially in a particular field; know-how

3. know-how n. the technical knowledge and skill required to do sth.; experti

4. ingenuity n. the power of creative imagination; the ability to invent things or solve

problems in clever new ways ; inventiveness

5. drive n. energy and determination 心

6. incentive n. something that encourages somebody do something; stimulus; motive；incitement, impul, encouragement

7. roundabout n. If you do or say something in a roundabout way, you do not do or

say it in a simple, clear, and direct way; indirect

8. Opportunity Cost of a choice: the value of the best alternative forgone, in a

situation in which a choice needs to be made between veral mutually exclusive

alternatives. Assuming the best choice is made, it is the "cost" incurred by not

enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the cond best available

choice.

机会成本或择一成本, 在面临多方案择一决策时，被舍弃的选项中的最高价值者是本次决策的机会成本。

9. Comparative advantage比较优势 The ability of a party (an individual, a firm, or a

country) to produce a particular good or rvice at a lower opportunity cost than

another party.

4 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

10. 当某一个生产者以比另一个生产者以更低的机会成本来生产产品时，我们称这个生产者在这种产品和服务上具有比较优势。

f. Analyze writing style of the text (15 minutes)

1. Dialectic approach : question + answer:

It’s easy for the readers to imagine that Ricardo reprents Roberts as professor and

Ed reprents every students who ever raid questions in his class. Ed raid

questions bad on his traditional thinking on protectionism. In this dialect approach ,

the author us some numbers and ca studies to illustrate what happens when trade

is free and when it is not.

2. Conci, simple , well-written narrative

It’s a rather short with only 104 pages of the whole novel and written in a clear and

clean style so it will be a quick read for most people. Ricardo does an excellent job of

getting across some complex international trade concepts in a very enjoyable way. He

explains the most important concepts in economics- the importance of fee trade and

demerits of trade protectionism.

3. Free from den economic theory and technical jargon

Unlike most economists, Roberts clearly states the ca for free trade without falling

back on den economic theory and technical jargon.

g. Assignments: (5 minutes)

1. Do exercis II and III.

2. Preview the Supplementary Reading: Excessive Collaboration and write a short

summary of about 50 words to express its main idea

h. Exercis checking: (20 minutes)

Supplementary Reading: Excessive collaboration (50 minutes)

a. Ask students to have a group discussion on their summary of “ Excessive

collaboration” (15 minutes)

b. Word study and ntence comprehension (30 minutes)

1. “THE INTERNSHIP”, a film about two middle-aged no-hopers who land work

experience at Google, is a dire offering even by the standards of Hollywood summer

comedies.

land v. (informal) to succeed in getting a job, etc., especially one that a lot of other

people want 得到

dire (informal) adj. very bad; terrible; horrible 可怕的；令人沉闷的

offering n. something which is being sold 出售；（本文指上映）

[翻译] 《实习大叔》(The Internship)是一部讲述两个碌碌无为的中年人在谷歌找到一份工作的电影。即使以好莱坞夏季喜剧的标准来看，这也是一部极差的作品。

2. Time was when firms modelled themlves on the armed forces, with officers (who

5 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

thought about strategy) and chains of command. Now many model themlves on

learning-through-play “Montessori” schools.

to model onelf on: to copy the behavior, style, etc. of somebody you like and

respect in order to be like them 效仿

[翻译] 曾有一时，企业会效仿军队，让公司既有长官（出谋划策），又有一系列

指挥部门。而现在，企业却效仿寓教于乐的 “蒙特梭利”学校。

[背景]Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian

physician and educator Maria Montessori bad on her extensive rearch with

"special needs" children and characterized by an emphasis on independence,

freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and

social development.

3. It is not just rich-world business that are buying into this philosophy:

buy into: (informal) to believe something, especially an idea that many other people

believe in 相信

[翻译] 推崇这一理念的不仅仅是发达国家的企业。

4. Mr. Bezos is also an enthusiastic employer of ex-military personnel.

[翻译]贝索斯先生（Bezos） 也非常喜欢雇佣卸任的军事人员。

[翻译策略] 指出英汉语言差异特征之一：英语喜静，汉语好动。英汉互译过程中的静态动态之转换，并举例说明。

5. It was the unthinking and indiscriminate application of child-centred education

techniques, with little attention paid to outcomes, which eventually brought about a

backlash.

indiscriminate: random , arbitrary任意的; 不加选择的

backlash: an adver reaction to something or occurrence 强烈抵制

[翻译] 由于缺乏考虑、随意套用以儿童为中心的教育方法并且不重视结果，蒙特梭利教育法最终引发了强烈反对。

6. The more thoughtful critics did not wish to turn the clock back entirely and return

to rote learning and tyrannical teachers; they simply said that structure and order have

their place too.

to turn /put the clock back: (disapproving) to return to old-fashioned methods or ideas回到过去；开历史倒车

rote learning: the process of learning something by repeating it until you remember it

rather than by understanding the meaning of it死记硬背

tyrannical: using power or authority over people in an unfair and cruel way ;

autocratic, dictatorial 残暴的；暴君的；专横的

[翻译] 深思熟虑的批评者并不希望让时光倒流，回到死记硬背且教师专断的时代，他们只是表示，仍然要注重等级和秩序。

6 商务英语阅读教案（商务英语专业 高月琴）

d. Assignments: (2 minutes)

Finish all exercis in this unit and preview unit 7

Part III. Critical Thinking (课后思考题）（3 minutes)

After reading this text, do you think trade is good for America ? Why? Write a

composition about 120 words on it.

Part IV. References: （主要教学参考资料）

1. 《商务英语阅读教程II》

2. 《牛津英汉双解词典》

3. Excessive Collaboration (The Economists)

7

-