新编英语教程 4 For your promising future

Unit Seven

Objectives  1. to learn how to elaborate on one’s psychological development.  2. to grasp words such as take, except and peer.

Teaching Tasks and Process  I. Pre-reading questions

 Are you afraid of the little ants ？ Do you think that they will ever pose a threat to you? What do you think are the possible threats they can pose to you?

II Background Information  Ants and human beings have much in common, including that both species  have globally conquered the planet. We are both highly socialized creatures,  agriculturalists and ruthless in warfare. Both depend on forests for  sustenance.

 Ants have been on Earth for more than 140 million years and evolving from  wasps. There are about 12,000 species known and professor E. O. Wilson of  Harvard University estimates there about another 9,500 kinds still to be  discovered.  Currently there are about ten thousand trillion living ants. When combined,  all ants on Earth would weigh about as much as all humans.  There are currently about 750,000 known species of insects. There are about  15,000 species of highly social insects of which ants make up 12,000. Half  the living tissue of insects is made up of just two per cent of the species that  live in well organized colonies.

III Language points

 1. … great energetic ants that took no notice of him, but hurried and scurried towards the fighting shape…  take (no) notice of —pay (no) attention to  More examples:  Taking no notice of what was happening around him, Langston Hughes continued to sit on the mourners’ bench, waiting for Jesus Christ to come into his life.  At the Chinese Commodities Fair, people couldn’t fail to take notice of the rapid progress the Chinese people had made in producing machinery, textiles, silk, handicrafts, and food and beverages.

 2. It might have been lying there years, except that on the white bone there were pink fragments of flesh.  except (that)—not including (the fact); leaving (the fact) out  More examples:  I know nothing about him except that he has written an article on euphemisms.  He does not have any idea about symbiosis except that it is a term in biology.

 3. “I am not for you—not just yet, at any rate,”  at any rate—in any case, whatever happens, anyway  More examples:  If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll see you on Thursday at any rate.  You needn’t post the letter for me. I’m going to the post office this afternoon at any rate.

 4. He fancied that the ants turned and went away.  fancy—believe without being certain; imagine  More examples:  I fancy I have seen him before because his face strikes me as familiar.  She fancied she’d suffer from intense heat this summer.

 5. … he thought incredulously, remembering the liquid dark eyes of a buck  remember—keep in the memory; here, recall  Cf.: … and reminded himself: the ants must eat too!  remind—cause (someone) to remember 

 Ask the students to change these sentences using remember or remind.  1) Don’t forget to come early next time.  (Remember to come early next time.) 

 2) See that Clive brings along his birth certificate.  (Remind Clive to bring along his birth certificate.) 

 3) I’ll try and keep these words in mind when I next happen to be talking to him.  (I’ll try to remember these words. When I next happen to be talking to him.)

 4) Be sure to tell Louise to take her camera to the seaside.  (Be sure to remind Louise to take her camera to the seaside.)

 5) I don’t want you to forget the lesson that you were taught this summer by your friends at the tourist camp.  (I hope you’ll remember the lesson that you were taught this summer by your friends at the tourist camp.)

 6) Tell Mary that we are expecting her at our house at seven sharp Friday evening.  (Remind Mary that we are expecting her at our house at seven sharp Friday evening.)

Discussion/Exercises  A Discussion on the Psychology of the Boy in “A Sunrise on the Veld”  Suggestions:  The Boy’s Feeling The Reason for the Feeling

Assignments  Translation part in workbook