Unit 2 Why My Great-uncle Gave Up the Ministry

Part I Listening & Speaking 1 Brainstorming Work with your group to think of at least five words/phrases/expressions regarding the following topics. Write them down in the blanks below.

1 Brainstorming 1. Expressions for general impressions of a person: 2. Expressions for describing someone ’ s emotional changes : 3. Expressions for behavior: 4. Expressions for social positions or titles: 5. Expressions for commenting on personalities

2 Listening Telling a story Listen and answer the following questions: 2. What happened in the office of the nursing home? 3. How did the old lady strike John? 4. What happened weeks after John ’ s visit? 1. Why did John visit an old people ’ s nursing home?

Telling a story Answers to the questions: 1. John had to write an essay. The essay would be about an elderly person, but John knew little about old people, John ’ s teacher advised him to visit an old people ’ s nursing home. 2.John felt nervous when he first entered the office, but the director was very nice to him. She showed him a list of the old people living there and helped him to choose an old lady to visit.

Telling a story 4. John received a package in which he found a wool sweater. A note from the director of the nursing home said that it was given to him by the old lady as a gift for visiting her. The old lady was very happy when she died a few days before. 3. John found that the old lady was a bit deaf and clumsy, but that she was diligently knitting. She didn ’ t speak very much, and didn ’ t seem to know what she was doing. John decided that she was crazy.

Part II Reading Presentation Pre-reading Questions 1. Have you ever been haunted by a guilty conscience for something you accidentally did? 2. What do you think is the best policy if you have unintentionally committed a folly?

Listening Give the reason(s) why the narrator ’ s great uncle gave up the ministry? Write your answer below. The kindly and gentle minister decided to retire from the ministry because his clumsiness brought about two accidents which made him suffer from a guilty conscience.

First reading Read the text quickly and summarize the paragraphs

The first paragraph: It ’ s a general description of the narrator ’ s great-uncle and his accidental killing of a small dog because of his clumsiness.

The third paragraph: It ’ s an account of how his clumsiness led to a terrible mess in the guest room during his visit to the lady.

The fourth paragraph: It describes how the narrator ’ s great- uncle damaged a beautiful candlelabra when he rushed downstairs.

Detailed study of the text Vocabulary Jolly, beloved, concern, clumsy, inadvertently, panic, devastated, bring oneself to do something, resolve to, retire, knock over, grope, in search for, retrace one ’ s steps, smudge, crisp, mount, fixture, rip … from, clutch, topple, rise to one ’ s feet, demolish, reverence

Structures Expand a sentence with infinitive to- structure and the structure for (doing) something expressing “ purpose ”.

Writing tips

Homework Writing task