Lesson 3 Natural Disasters

Look at the following pictures and what are happening in the pictures? earthquakes

tsunami

floods

volcanic eruptions

hurricanes

forest fires

typhoon

landslides

What do you think of Sichuan earthquake? Discussion

Reading Strategies: Completing texts with sentence gaps Read the text to get the general idea. Read a paragraph with a sentence gap and identify the topic, e.g disasters.

Read the sentences before and after the gap and look for clues about the missing sentence, e.g. is it an example of what is mentioned before? Certain words may help you: time references (then), pronoun references (it, that ), linking words (however).

Decide which sentence goes in the gap. Check that it fits the sentences before and after it.

Use the Strategies to complete the gaps in the text (1-5) with these sentences (a- g). There are two extra sentences you do not need. a) But evidence shows that 73,000 years ago there was a much greater eruption.

b) Even Europe has suffered and large areas have been under water. c) That is probably not the most important factor either. d) Third, the other bits of land you might have been able to farm are now useless. e) On top of that add global warming.

The answers : 1.—b 2.– f 3.—g 4.—e 5.—a f) For example, the Yellow River, once famous for flooding, failed to reach the sea at all for 226 days in g) One answer is over-population.

Read the text again and answer these questions. 1. What is the attitude of the journalist towards the future ? Pessimistic. 2. Who are most likely to be the victims of natural disasters? Poor people.

3. Why are there now more hurricanes, floods and droughts ? Overpopulation and mismanagement of the world’s resources. 4. Why are volcanoes and earthquakes more dangerous now ? Because half the world’s population lives in cities within range of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

5. What could be the biggest threat to the planet in the future? A volcanic eruption. 6. What effects might this threat have? It might send the planet into winter for years.

Fill in the blanks about the text. In the last ___ years, there are more and more disasters such as _____, ________, thunderstorms, earthquakes, ________, volcanic _________and _____ fires all over the world. Why are so many disasters ? One of the reasons is over- __________. ten floods tsunamis typhoons eruptions forest population

__ addition, ______ change and global ________ caused by the mismanagement of the world’s resources can lead ___ the disasters or make them worse. At present, volcanoes and earthquakes are more _________ with the fast ______ of people. Inclimate warming to dangerous growth

Earthquakes take the lives of 1.6 million people in the last hundred years. What is worse, the disaster professionals predict that the things will get _____. worse

Decide if the underlined words in the sentences below are nouns or verbs. Then write down their Chinese meanings. 1. a). She put her arms around me to comfort me. b). The soldiers were armed with guns. noun 手臂 verb 武装

2.a). Heavy rains resulted in floods. b). His results were not as good as he had hoped. 3. a). He means well but just gets it wrong sometimes. b). The telephone is a means of communication. verb 引起 noun 结果 verb 本意是 … noun 方法

4. a). The children had fun sliding down the slide all afternoon. b). Penguins slide downhill over ice on their bellies. 5. a). Be careful! Don’t slip on the wet floor. b). Write your number on this slip of paper. noun 滑梯 verb 滑动 verb 滑倒 noun 纸条

6. a). What would you like on your bread roll for lunch? b). He rolled the ball across the floor to me. noun 面包 verb 滚动

Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the words above. 1. The ______ forces protected the city. 2. When will you get your exam ______? 3. Don broke his arm when he ______ and fell on the ice. 4. I ______ what I said. 5. What would be the best ______ of advertising our product? armed results slipped meant result

6. Would you like honey on your ______? 7. The house ______ down the mountain side in the flood last year. 8. The match ________ in a draw. They had 2 points each. roll resulted slided

1. result in=lead to=bring about 导致, 造成 昨天高速公路上的事故导致了 7 名乘客 的死亡。 The accident on the highway yesterday resulted in the death of 7 passengers. result from 因为 …… 而产生 The fire resulted from his carelessness. =His carelessness resulted in the fire. Language Points

1.The officer grabbed the thief by the arm. 2.I walked in the street with one of my good friends arm in arm that day. 3.The arms of the chair are broken. 4.Boys as young as 13 are taking up arms to defend the city. 5.The villagers armed themselves with stick and stones to fight with the wild animals. 6.Armed with the new machine, a search team went into the sea hoping to find buried treasure.

In the last three years, Indonesia has had a rough time, suffering several killer quakes and it is still recovering from the Asian tsunami caused by an offshore earthquake on December 26 th, 2004.

1.Give me a rough idea of your plans. 2. The car bumped along the rough road. 3. Her hands were rough with work. 4. They built a rough model out of sticks and wire. 5. The ship sailed in rough seas. 6. They lived a rough life on a small island.

This catastrophe is still very fresh in the minds of people worldwide who have not yet got over their separation from loved ones lost in the tsunami.

fresh in the mind The memories of the trip are fresh in my mind as if I never ever leave that place I belong to. The events of September 11 still fresh in her mind.

get over 1. She can't get over her shyness. 2. She seemed to get over the death of her husband in no time. 3. He'll get over the shock.

People in agricultural areas, without any means to earn their living, move to the cities, and then construct shabby homes from whatever materials they can find on poor clay soil.

An even greater number of people live at risk, to some degree, from earthquakes which have claimed more than 1.6 million lives in the last hundred years.

risk : vt./n. 冒险 e.g. You are to take risks to get what you want, but you must not risk your life ! at risk 处于危险之中, 作表语或者状语

at/ take/run the risk of 冒 …… 的危险 He saved my life at the risk of losing his own. They were ready to run/take the risk of being taken prisoner by the enemy.

They risked losing their jobs. By criticizing her boss, she risked losing her position. I don't think they will risk holding an election.

with 的复合结构 : with +n./pron. + adj./ adv./prep. phrases /n. /doing / done /to do with + object + object complement with 的复合结构在句子中可以做伴随 状语, 也可以做原因状语和后置定语 e.g. He walked along with his head down/ with his face red.

He is waiting for you with a magazine in his hand. With you monitor in my class, I will be in charge of the class easily. With nothing to do, I will go to the cinema. With his work finished, he went back home.

He lay there, with his eyes looking at the sky. Who lives in the room with the light on? (1) 他站在那里, 手被帮在一棵树上。 He stood there, with his hands tied to a tree. (2) 他头高昂着走了进来。 He came in with his head high.

wipe out: (1) get rid of / remove: 清除, 除去 e.g. Wipe out these unhappy things between you and her. (2) destroy completely: 毁灭, 消灭 e.g. At last, the army led by Mao Zedong wiped out the enemies. A disease almost wiped out the population of the island.

turn on sb. : attack 攻击, 变得与 …… 敌对 e.g. The dog turned on me and bit me in the leg. He turned on his brother, who, he thought, had deceived him.

at the rate of: 以 …… 的速度 ; 以 …… 的价格 e.g. The train was going at the (a) rate of 80 kilometers an hour. His house was sold at a high rate. for instance 相当于 for example

range: extent /distance between limits 范围、 幅度和差距 e.g. The annual ( 每年的 )range of temperature is from -10ºC-40ºC There are cotton fabrics in a wide range of colours. in/within the range of 在 …… 的范围 He lives in the range of 4 miles.