新编英语教程5Unit6教案

Unit SixTEXT 1... MEANWHILE, HUMANS EAT PET FOODEdward H. Peeples, Jr.Objectives: to solve problems independently: interpreting at least 60% of the text independently,about 80% of the text with peer collaborations, and understanding the text fully with the teacher’s aid.to translate one para. into Chinese and then from this Chinese translation into English to compare the different use of language.Pre-class work1.Library work 1: American welfare & American people’s pet2. Library work 2: Collect some brief information on the location and living conditions of the following places – the south of the USA, Cleveland, Great Lakes, Illinois, Richmond, Philadelphia, Ozarks, Indian reservations3. Understand the author’s personal experiences of consuming pet food and his observations on human consumption of pet food by identifying the time, the place, the reason, and the feelings.4.LW 6 & comp. 3Pre-reading questions:1.American welfareFor the poor and the unemployed, provided by the govt or religious groups, some People dependent, some ashamed because a failure in career, self-sufficient.2.American people’s pet--- What is a pet? What ‘pet food’ might be? (Pre-class work 1)A pet is an animal kept as a companion, treated with care and affection, usually a cat or a dog. Pet food is tinned or canned food for pets.--- Is pet food meant for humans to eat? If not, under what circumstances might humans eat pet food? Is it harmful for humans to eat pet food? (Pre-class work 2) Pet food is not for humans to eat. Humans eat pet food when they cannot afford to buy decent food. Pet food may not be harmful for humans, but it is made of ingredients not meant for humans.--- How can humans be prevented from eating pet food?One way is to guarantee people job opportunities so that they can make a living.In-reading interpretationStep one: (paras. 1-7)This article seems to be a narration, telling the author’s personal experiences of consuming pet food and his observations on human consumption of pet food in the order of time sequence / in a chronological order. Try to understand his own experiences and observations one after another by completing the table below.feeling …’ etc. Besides, the following discussion and explanations are needed.1st time: (para. 1)1.What do you know about the South of USA?Refer to Lib. Work.2.What was the poor living conditions in the South described in the 1st para.?People lived in dilapidated houses with no running water, no refrigerator, no heat, no toilet and with the unrelenting stench of decaying insects (= a bad smell given off from decaying insects that does not go away).3.It was not uncommon and startling to see …In other words, eating pet food was the common diet practice in the South at that time. A lot of people was still poverty-stricken.2nd time in 1953: (paras. 2-4)1.Tell what you know about Cleveland.Refer to Lib. Work.2.Why did he go to Cleveland? Why couldn’t he get a job?He went there to seek his fortune, but he couldn’t get a job because he was considered as a hillbilly (= a person from a backward area, here, a poor white from the south of the US).So he saw no hopes. All the factories he asked for a job werepot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow factories (Note 1)Because of his unemployment, his nest egg (= an amount of money saved for future use, savings) dwindled to nothing and at the same time his hunger grew. Therefore, he had to have pet food as his principle ration for several weeks.3.Why did he feel humiliated and why did he guarded the secret from others?He felt humiliated because pet food was considered as the food consumed by the ‘trash’ (i.e. poor whites in the South – Note 2). He carefully guarded the secret from everyone because he feared being judged a failure.It is generally accepted that failure is due to not working hard. Because of the failure in their career, they can’t get good pay. So they have to eat pet food if they are in a shortage of money. So those who eat pet food are considered as not diligently working people, as incapable people who fail in their career.4 A merciless pride … or family for help. In what sense is his ‘pride inself-sufficiency’ referred to ‘merciless’? (i.e.why ‘merciless’)(LW 6 & comp. 3-3)I was so extremely proud of being independent financially that I had no intention of getting help from charity or from my friends or family.He took so much pride in finding by himself the means for sustenance that he would not think of living on charity and asking for help. Consequently he would either have to starve or be reduced to eating pet food.Next time in 1956 (para. 5)1.summer session2.…fearing that … or that others who had ever less than I would feel...Sentence structure.Meaning : (Note 4)Later in the late 1950’s: (para. 6)1.What do you know about the Great Lakes?Refer to Lib. Work.2.Why does the author claim he is not a disciplined scientist?a disciplined scientist = Note 5I am not a scientist who does everything scientifically, accurately, based on experiment. So the data below is got from my rough estimation.Later experience: (para. 7)1.RichmondPhiladelphiaOzarksIndian reservationsStep two: (paras. 8-9)After giving these examples of human eating pet food, what else does the author want to say in the following paras.?1.While there do exist … consume pet food. (LW 6-2)In spite of the fact that there are occasional scientific reports and commentary onthe harm laundry starch and clay may do to our health if they are used as food, there is a lack of reliable statistics on the exact proportion of American families that do eat pet food.Or, although there are a lot of reports and commentary on the danger and harms of eating such things as …, there is little evidence to show the exact percentage of American families eating pet food. No one can tell the exact number of people consuming pet food.2.What is the author’s estimate based on his experience and research?His conservative estimate is that at least 225,000 American households or some 1,000,000 persons have pet food as a major / significant part / proportion of their everyday diet. And there are many more million people who supplement their diet with pet food / who have pet food as a subsidiary part of their everyday diet. So human consumption of pet food is widespread in the US.3.… current economic conditions … and our older citizens.--- How is the economic conditions? Worse and depressing.--- What is the effect on people? More people will eat more pet food, the unemployed, poor people and the older citizens.4.Isn’t it sufficient to know … must be done? (LW 6-3)If there is only one child or one senior citizen in America who is compelled to eat pet food or is left unprotected from poison, there is every reason to take some drastic measures to prevent it from happening.5.What does the author try to tell in paras. 8 & 9?Para. 8: ‘there is little solid epidemiological evidence…’ All the examples givenabove are based on my own experiences and observations rather than on scientific investigation; all the statistics come from my rough estimation rather than scientific research.Para. 9: As long as the problem of hunger and malnutrition exists, we must do something to solve it no matter how many people eat pet food, one person or a billion.I.e. even though we do not have enough hard data on human consumption of pet food,we should do something to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in America. Seeing one child or a single elderly person consuming pet food is sufficient for us to take measures to do away with the problem.Post-reading discussionp. 1--- Main idea: The present lack of hard data on human consumption ofpet foodshould not be a reason for not taking immediate measures to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the US. (B)The author shows his personal experiences of consuming pet food and his observations on human consumption of pet food (paras 1-7) and urges to take immediate measures to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition although we haven’t got enough hard data on human consumption of pet food (paras. 8 & 9).. & Devl.paras. 1-7:--- How does the author arrange all these details of his personal experiences of consuming pet food and his observations on human consumption of pet food?By following the time sequence, using the words and phrases in the WHEN column in the Table.--- Apart form being temporal, the ordering of the evidence helps to make the reader feel more and more acutely the severity of the problem. How is this achieved? (By following the order of seriousness. How is the severity increased?When he first observed people eating pet food, it was among his neighbors and acquaintances in the South. Then he had the personal experiences of eating it. But later he found it common among a larger number of people. And what’s more, some ate things worse than pet food. His experiences and observations, apart from following the time order, also follow the order of increasing severity.(Poor South --- prosperous Cleveland in the North --- well-educated --- a larger number of people --- things worse than pet food)Paras. 8-9:--- As we know the evidence is based on P’s own experiences and observations. There is a lack of hard / incontrovertible data on human consumption of pet food as the author says in line 41, ‘there is little solid epidemiological evidence’, for he was ‘not yet a disciplinedscientist.’ The data are his conservative estimation. Does the evidence weaken P’s argument, or are the estimated data not so convincing?P’s seems to think the data and evidence available at present are already sufficient to draw the conclusion. As he says near the end, it would be sufficient to know that there is one child or a single elderly person in the US who is reduced to eating pet food.However, theses details, compared with those carefully investigated or confirmed and the proven facts and the data from experiment, are moew likely to be open to attack, not so reliable, less convincing.--- How does he qualify his conclusion, i.e., state the degree of their probability? How does he relate this qualification to his purpose in writing?With regard to numbers, he avoids being too exact and specific, knowing full well that he can hardly afford to be so. Note his use of words like ‘conservative, estimate, at least, some’, and also the sentence ‘Who knows how many more millions supplement their diet with pet-food products?’ Such qualifications do no t weaken his argument. He seems to think the data available at present are already sufficient to draw the conclusion. As he says near the end, it would be sufficient to know that there is one child or a single elderly person in the US who is reduced to eating pet food.3.Analysis - Argument1) What’s the purpose of writing an argument? (to persuade the reader into believing that something is true.)2) What are the major factors in organizing an effective argument? (logical reasoning and sound evidence. i.e. reasons and supporting facts)3) What are the usual ways to organize an argument / to convince the reader of the thesis? (inductive way - from facts to conclusion; deductive way - vice versa.This article is written in an inductive way.)4) What should be noticed in choosing supporting details or facts? (true and relevant. typical examples and statistics are more convincing and reliable.)TEXT 2THE INVISIBLE POORMichael Harrington1.Identify the key sentences that show the reasons that make the other America (=that part of American people who are suffering from poverty) an invisible land and the paragraphs concerned with them.--- Poverty is often off the beaten track.(paras. 4-6)rural poverty is hidden away from tourists who normally travel on highways without penetrating into the country, and sometimes is masked by its natural beauty.--- The very development of American society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. (paras. 6-10)Urban transformation leads to the distributional segregation of poverty, and urban renewal creates the false impression about the existence of the poor.--- Clothes make the poor invisible too.(paras. 11-12)Mass production of garments enables even the poor to be decently dressed.--- Many of the poor are the wrong age to be seen. (para. 13)Most poor people are aged; they are less mobile and thus less visible.--- The poor are politically invisible.(paras. 15-18)Politically, the poor are not adequately represented; and their voice is not heard and attended to in the political life of the nation.2.Provide the evidence or details that support each of the reasons.--- the main highway: the hills, the streams, the foliage; even a run-down mountain house, fortunate to be so close to nature in their living and lucky to be exempt from the stains and tensions of the middle class.Off the beaten track: backward like the movie in the thirties, the company housesin rows, the rutted roads, black and dirty, unemployed men in the bar, women working in a runaway sweatshop, undereducated, underprivileged, lack medical care, misfit for city life…--- the poor living in the miserable housing / slums / tenements or hovels in the central area surrounded by towering, modern buildings so that they are inconspicuous of the sight of anyone else; almost everyone passed through the Negro ghetto or the blocks of tenements, middle-class women on the way to an evening at the theater, the business or professional men driving downtown to work, but their children were segregated in suburban schools;--- much easier to be decently dressed than to be decently housed, fed, or doctored. Even people with terribly depressed incomes can look prosperous. No work clothes in the factory but slacks and white shirts; shoes and stylishly cut suit or dress, yet hungry;--- the aged above 65 are often sick and cannot move, so invisible; the young below 18 sit in rented rooms, not disturb the quiet street of the middle class and rarely appear in a lurid tabloid story because of crimes so that they are invisible.--- no unions, no fraternal organizations, no political parties, no lobbies of their own, no legislative program; so atomized no face, no voice;In conclusion, if the poor still remain unseen / invisible to others, they cannot improve their life for no one will come to help them.3. The passage is an extract from a book written in the early 60’s. Do you think things have improved since then? Have you read anything or come across any figures that will help picture the situation in present-day America?The author’s personal experiences of consuming pet food and his observations on human consumption of pet food。