Unit 2

Unit 2 The environment

Task Designing a poster

reading for information Skills building 1: reading for information Why we want to read the following? Discussion a news paper / a website / a plane ticket / a bus timetable / a magazine / an advertisement

to find out about the day’s news to find out about the weather to find out departure / arrival times to find out the seat number

to find out about the latest fashions to find out more about a particular topic, such as gardening to search for information to find out the latest news

to find out departure / arrival times to find out where the bus stops to find out more about a product topic, such as gardening to find out where you can buy a product

B Read the newspaper on page 32 and underline the information which answers the questions that follow. 1. At what time can you see This Is It? 2. What is the weather like in Hangzhou? At 14:30 and 18:00. Rainy.

The city’s Modern Art Museum. 3. What has just opened? 4. How many people went to the opening? The city’s Modern Art Museum. Over 10,000 people.

reading a scientific article Step 1: reading a scientific article A Your Science teacher has asked you to read the article about desertification on page 33. Read it and underline all of the solutions to desertification.

Pair work Have a discussion with your partner to think of things we can do to help stop desertification, which can be included in our poster.

Solutions to desertification: To encourage farmers to building fences. To provide money to plant more trees and bushes in dry areas. To do scientific research on the problem. To have a better management of the potential desert.

listening and drawing conclusions Skills building 2: listening and drawing conclusions If you hear ‘Yet another skyscraper has been built in Shanghai.’ What can you conclude? There are already some skyscrapers in Shanghai.

If you hear the following dialogue Man: The train is going to be late today. Woman: I’m not surprised. What can you conclude? The train is often late.

A Read these short descriptions from news reports and draw a conclusion about what kind of disaster occurred in each situation. earthquake typhoon flood fire Answers: 2. fire 1. flood 3. earthquake 4. typhoon

B Listen to the news report. Tick (√) the box of the conclusions that can be drawn from it. 1. The fires have been burning for quite some time. 2. Many people have lost their homes. √ √

3. The police believe people in Los Angeles started the fires. 4. The reporter thinks it is very sad that old trees will be burnt. 5. The fire department has given up hope of stopping the fires. √

Step 2: Listening to a lecture A Listen to your teacher’s lecture to learn more desertification. 1. How many people are affected by desertification every year? _____________________________ It affects around two hundred and fifty million people every year.

2. Where does it happen? ________________________________ 3. How are the people living in desert areas affected by it? ________________________________ Although desertification can happen everywhere, it is an especially big problem in Africa and parts of South America and China. They may lose their homes and farms because the land is too dry to use; many families starve and others move to the cities to find work.

Everyone should be concerned. 4. Why does it happen? _________________________________ _________________________________ 5. Who should be concerned? _____________________________ Some parts of the world are becoming drier because the weather has changed. People plant too much on the land without giving it a rest; too many animals all depend on the same land to eat; and people cut down trees for full and to make space for more farms. Everyone should be concerned.

B Check your understanding of what you have just heard B Check your understanding of what you have just heard. Read the following statements and match them with the conclusions that can be made from them.

1. Your teacher wants you to help educate people about desertification. 2. A desert is an area of dry land. Desertification happens when land turns into desert. a. The ending -ification means a process. b. Many people around the world do not know about desertification.

c. Some people become ill after breathing this air. d. One way to stop desertification is to allow the land a chance to rest. 3. People plant things without giving the land a chance to rest. 4. The wind carries sand from the deserts to the cities, causing air pollution.

To train people in responsible water usage To share information and solutions between countries To use satellites to pick out areas likely to be affected by desertification

presenting your point of view Skills building 3: presenting your point of view When you present your point of view, you usually want people to accept your ideas. There are certain things you can do to make what you say more polite so that people will be more likely to agree with you.

You can use these expressions to help you introduce your point of view: I think / believe that… From my point of view it seems that… It seems to me that… Personally, I agree / disagree because…

You can use these expressions to explain your point of view: because… as a result of… due to…

Answers to page 36: A 1 c 2 a 3 d 4 b 5 f 6 e B 2 3 8 5 6 7 4 1 Step 3: designing a poster

Desertification is caused by people cutting down trees and digging up bushes. People should not keep on planting things on the same piece of land. The land needs to rest! Deserts form naturally. We shouldn’t worry about desertification. It will fix itself. We must stop building factories. They pollute the water and all the plants die. Then the land turns into desert.

We need to learn how to use water better We need to learn how to use water better. If we are careful, we’ll have enough water for people, animals and plants and then no deserts will form. Farmers should stop letting their animals eat all the grass. If there is no grass, a desert will form. Out-of-dated farming methods cause desertification.

You have decided to focus on the following areas in your poster You have decided to focus on the following areas in your poster. Discuss the questions below with your group. 1. How can desertification be prevented? 2. Can a desert be turned back into land that can be used for farms and forests?

3. Is desertification a worldwide problem? 4. Why is it important to fight desertification? 5. What progress has been made in fighting desertification so far? 6. Can young people do anything to help fight this problem?

Discuss the content and format of your poster with your group. Title _______________________ Content _______________________ Pictures / format_________________

Homework 以 The Importance of Water 为题，写一篇100词左右的短文，要点如下： 1. 没有水便没有生命； 2. 随着现代工农业的迅速发展，越来越需要更多的水。现在许多地方的水已经变得越来越缺乏；

3. 许多河流和湖泊开始被工厂排出的污 水所污染； 4. 为了保护水资源，防止水污染，我们 必须采取措施，与各种污染作斗争。