Unit 9 The Risks of Life

I. Warm-up Activities 1. Talk about 3 things that people can do to keep fit or live longer. 2. Talk about your living habits and what you think of them.

II. Key points in the text 1. risk Vt. take the chance of (losing … ) risk sth (e.g. one s life/one s health) risk doing sth. e.g. She risked her life trying to save the drowning child. By criticizing the boss he risked losing his job.

n. There is a risk / some risk of … (sb) be at risk (= in danger) take / run risks run the risk of (doing) sth … (=take the chance of) at one s own risk e.g. Anyone swimming in the lake does so at his own risk.

2. for better or (for) worse whatever happens; whatever you may think of it; whether one likes it or not e.g. It s been done, and, for better or worse, we can t change it now. Translation:

For better or worse, the computer has taken control of our lives. Compare: for the better / worse e.g. There s been a change for the better (= an improvement) in his health.

3. alter Vt. & Vi. to make or become different, but without changing into something else e.g. She has to have her clothes altered after losing weight. alteration n. [C, U] My new coat needs alteration. There have been a few alterations to the timetable.

4. anticipate Vt. 1) expect We anticipate (meeting) some difficulties in our project. We all anticipate the 2008 Olympics. We anticipate that we will meet some difficulties in our project.

2) To guess or imagine in advance and prepare for it. … e.g. In business, you ve got to anticipate how your competitor will act. ( … ) anticipation n. e.g. We waited at the station in (eager) anticipation of her arrival.

5. make sense 1) to have a clear meaning e.g. This sentence doesn t make (any) sense (to me). Your whole account of these accidents doesn t make sense.

2) to be a wise course of action e.g. It makes sense to take care of your health. Does it make sense to allow little children play computer games?

make sense (out) of sth: to understand … e.g. Can you make sense of what he is talking about? The letter was so badly written that I couldn t make any sense of it.

6. evident adj. plain, esp. to the senses; clear because of evidence e.g. It is evident that their plan has failed. She looked at the pretty girl with evident jealousy. evidently adv. evidence n.

7. assume Vt. 1) suppose e.g. We will start out at 8 am --- assuming that everyone comes on time. We can t just assume her guilt / that she is guilty before we get sufficient evidence.

2) take or claim for oneself (sometimes without the right to do so) ( ) assume power / control / duty / responsibility … The army has assumed control of the government.

3) begin to have (a quality or appearance) e.g. Don t let the matter assume too much importance for you. 4) pretend to have e.g. He assumes a look of surprise / innocence. He wrote under an assumed name.

assumption n. … e.g. They bought several apartments on the assumption that the housing prices would rise. His assumption of his father s debts is admirable. He opened the door with an assumption of surprise.

8. alike adj. the same; like one another ( ) be / look alike I believe the two brothers are alike in character. All music are alike to him.

adv. the same or similar treat sb. alike be dressed alike walk alike Great minds think alike.

9. monitor 1) Vt. to make continuous observation of … to monitor a patient s pulse / heartbeats / blood pressure … 2) n. a devise used to observe e.g. a heart monitor 3) n.

10. guarantee n. 1) a formal written promise by a manufacturer to repair or replace an article that becomes faulty, within a stated period of time The radio has / carries a two-year guarantee. We will repair it free of charge while it is still under guarantee.

2) a promise of any kind, or a reason to believe that something will certainly happen I can give you my guarantee that I will finish the work on time. Wealth is no guarantee of happiness.

Vt. 1) give a guarantee They guarantee the watch for three years. Our products are guaranteed to last for years. 2) to promise (that sth will certainly be so) Buying a train ticket doesn t guarantee you a seat. No one can guarantee that he will get a good job after college graduation.

Word formation in the text: infect ---- infectious ---- infection gene --- genetic ---- genetically constitute ---- constitution inherit ---- inheritance frequent ---- frequency ( infrequent - -- infrequency) regular ---- regularity prevent ---- preventive --- prevention

III. Post-reading activities: 1. Discuss the following questions: 1) What are the health risks that we are born with 2) What can people do to avoid the health risks? 3) If we can t change our genes, then what can we do to keep fit? 4) How do you understand individual variation in keeping fit?

2. For or Against? Your friend has the following arguments regarding the relationship between health and diet. Are you for or against them? Give your own arguments. 1) An old man is happily smoking on his 87 th birthday. He also drinks a lot every day. 2) Medical science is still not clear about how diet affects our health.

3) Diet may have something to do with health, but a good diet has to be developed early in life. I m well over 20 and it s too late to start a new lifestyle.

3. Written work and presentation: Choose to study how one of the following factors may contribute to health risks, write a a passage and make a presentation in class: smoking, overweight, pollution, chemical exposure, drug abuse, playing videogames, using cell-phone…

IV. Read more: Healthy Eating Key Points: 1 be aware of 2 there has been a growing interest in … 3 be rich / poor in … 4 compared with 5 rather than 6 little better than