1. Unit19
Modern
agriculture

2. Warming up & listening

3. Task:
The students are to read the statistic graph & discuss the changes that the graph shows.
Goals:
1) To cultivate the students’ ability to read & analyze the graph.
2) To cultivate the students’ ability of listening for information.

4. agriculture Task 1 Brainstorming
What will you think of when you see the word “agriculture”? Ask the Ss to give as many words about agriculture as possible.
agriculture

5. Task 2: Discussion
Ask the Ss: “How many meals do you have every day? Which meal do you think is the most important? Why?”
Now let’s have a discussion. (Divide the whole class into 2 groups.)
1 Group 1 & 2: What kind of food did we eat at breakfast, lunch & supper in the past?
Group 3 & 4: What kind of food do we eat at breakfast, lunch & supper at present time?

6. breakfast lunch supper In the past At present
Porridge & salted vegetables
Noodles
Rice & delicious dishes
At present
Milk, bread, fried bread, etc.
Fast food
2 Why do you think people always prefer fast food? (fast; busy) What can we learn from the differences between the food in the past & at present time? (Now people live a better life; people are busier than before, etc.)

7. Task 3: Now open your books
Task 3: Now open your books. Look at the graph on page 43 & answer the following questions.
Compared with the farm products from , we produced more grains, cottons … than before.
Why do we produce more farm products than before? (we live a better life; make more money; can afford more expensive food than before )
1 How are people’s eating habits changing over the years? Why do you think this happens?
2 How has agricultural product changed during
these years? What do you think caused these changes?
3 What effects do you think the changes in eating
habits will have on agriculture or nature?

8. Task 4: Listening 1) Pre listening
Ask the Ss: “What does agriculture depend on?” The Ss will give many different answers. After that, show the answer & the pictures on the screen.
(weather, places, water & other natural sources)
Question: If we changed the structure of agriculture, what do you think will happen to the nature?
(We will produce less or maybe we can’t get any food at all.)

9. 2) While listening
1 Listen to the tape. The passage you hear talks about
( ) history of farming ( ) farmers in America ( ) fishing
( ) protection of nature ( ) farmers in China ( ) pigs
( ) environmental problems ( ) trees ( ) dikes
2 Which of the following sentences are true & which are false?
1 In early times farmers in China moved around & burnt forests. ( )
2 All farmers in South America burn forests to create farmland. ( )
3 Flood & droughts are disasters that farmers cannot stop ( )
4 Some of the land in China is too wet to grow crops ( )
5 Fish farmers damage nature ( ) T F F T F

10. 3 Listen to the tape & complete the sentences by using your own words.
When farming goes against nature, ______________________________ are the result. The earliest farmers ___________nature. Their way of agriculture led to ______________ & _____________. It is an old truth that __________ should not ____________________. The land that Tan & Xiao Zao bought was _________ & could not be used for ____________. Instead they changed the fields into ______. On their farm they kept __________________ & grew _________.
all kinds of environmental problems
destroyed
floods
droughts
farming
go against nature
too wet
farming
fishponds
fish/ducks/chickens
fruit trees

11. 3) Post listening
Suppose you are Tan & Xiao Zao. Because of your successful farming on the field, you are invited to a big meeting that many local farmers will attend. You are asked to give a lecture about your experience telling how you have worked on the nearly deserted field & become a successful farmer.

12. Homework:
1 Listen to the tape, finish the listening part on WB (p107).
2 Preview the reading passage.