1. Lesson 2Holidays /Traveling Pre-class preparation: Vocabulary concerning holidays/festivals Activities you do during vacation What you like about (what you can get from) these activities

2. vocabulary 新年 New Year 元旦 New Year’s Day 春节 Lunar New Near International Women’s Day 妇女节 Tree-planting Day 植树节 (International) Labor Day/ May Day( 国际 ) 劳动节 / 五一劳动节 Youth Day 青年节 (International) Children’s Day anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China 七一 / 中国共产党建党纪念日 Army Day/August 1/anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army 八一建军节 / 八一 / 建军节 Teacher’s Day 教师节 (thank-teacher card) National Day/October 1 国庆节 / 十一 gala parade 庆祝游行 float 彩车 placard 标语牌 banner 横幅 illuminations 灯饰

3. Traditional festivals 春节 Spring Festival 除夕 New Year’s Eve 灶王爷 kitchen god 门神 door-god 爆竹 firecracker 鞭炮 a string of small firecrackers 钟馗 Zhong Kui, a deity supposed to be a chaser of demons 大扫除 year-end household cleaning 窗花 paper-cut for window decoration 年画 New Year picture 吉祥文字 auspicious words 春联 Spring Festival couplets (conveying best wishes for the year) 上 / 下联 the first/second line of a couplet 横批 a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription 压岁钱 money given to children as a Lunar New Year gift 年夜饭 family reunion dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve 拜年 paying a New Year call

4. 庙会 temple fair; fair 社火 village theatrical performance 狮子舞 lion dance 龙灯舞 dragon lantern dance 耍猴 monkey show 踩高跷 walking on stilts 观灯 viewing the lantern 灯谜 lantern riddles (solve riddles ) 糖葫芦 sugar-coated haws on a stick 跑旱船 boat that runs on land (a folk dance) 风车 pinwheel 清明节 Tomb-sweeping Festival; Qingming paying respect to the dead 扫墓 revolutionary martyr’s cemetery 烈士陵园 the tomb of a revolutionary martyr 烈士墓 wreath 花圈 cinerary casket 骨灰盒 paper money 纸钱 spring outing 踏青 / 春游

5. 端午节 Dragon Boat Festivaldragon boat race 龙舟赛 realgar wine (to ward off poisonous creatures) 雄黄酒 A pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves 粽子 moon cake 月饼 enjoying the full moon 赏月 重阳节 Double Ninth Festival 登高 hill climbing 赏菊 enjoying chrysanthemum 腊八节 the Laba Festival (the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month) 腊八粥 laba porridge (rice porridge with beans, nuts and dried fruit, eaten on the Laba Festival)

6. Sites for supplementary reading http://www.insightin.com/reading/reading_of_week_ history.shtml ( some holidays in US) http://www.xiangtan.co.uk/usaholidays.htm (American holidays and festivals) http://www.insightin.com/reading/read.php?id=165 (celebration of the Chinese New Year)

7. Holidays 1. How do you usually spend your holidays? 2. How did you spend the spring Festival/May Day? 3. What do you think is the best way to spend your holidays? And why? 4. What were some of your Spring Festivals like as a child? 5. How do you prefer to spend your holidays, with your parents or with your friends? Why? 6. Do you think we have too many holidays? Why do you think that way?

8. A-1 Please talk about the advantages of week-long holidays according to the outline given below: Advantages ---- more time to relax: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. to travel to pursue one’s hobbies to visit friends to read, etc.

9. A-2 Please talk about the advantages of week-long holidays according to the outline given below: Advantages ----more time to study to review one’s lessons to learn English to broaden one’s horizons through visiting museums, art galleries, exhibitions, etc.

10. A-3 Please talk about the disadvantages of week-long holidays according to the outline given below: Disadvantages: ----negative effect on study: Too much play makes idle minds. less time for study tendency to forget what has been learned, esp. English post-holiday fatigue

11. A-4 Please talk about the disadvantages of week-long holidays according to the outline given below: Disadvantages: ----pressure on students who are financially disadvantaged no money for travelling no money to eat out feeling of inferiority strong feeling of loneliness

12. As a student, do you prefer week-long holidays or shorter holidays?

13. 1. During the discussion, why did you say that …? 2. What do you think of students who sleep away the whole day in their dormitories? 3. Do you think that frequent holidays will make people lazy? Why/Why not? 4. What do you think of our government’s decision to lengthen holidays? 5. Do you think week-long holidays will increase pressure on transportation? Why/Why not? 6. Do you think we have too many holidays? Why do you think that way?