新视界大学英语综合教程1_第8单元

Ringing the changes

Warming up Skimming Digging Interpreting Critical thinking Unfamiliar words Language in use Talking point

Warming up

1. Look at the words in the box and decide what the main ideas in the unit are.

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2. Work in pairs and discuss what are the most important ideas when talking about the environment. We can divide the problems into ones about land, sea and air. Or by the areas the problems may affect, for instance, health, food, power, availability of resources and so on. We can use general labels: global warming, damage to land, using resources too quickly, pollution for production and waste, endangering animal and plant species and so on.

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3. Tell other people in the class what you have done this week to help the environment. Not much I am afraid to say, but I do take care to use paper on both sides and carry my own bag when I go shopping. I do switch off lights and other appliances when I see them left on. I have stopped leaving things on standby. It is very wasteful. I am ashamed to say I cannot think of anything I did. I will try harder next week.

Warming up

Look at the first sentence of the passage and choose the best answer to the questions.Hello boys and girls around the world, and a Happy New Year to you all! 1 Who do you think the writer is? (a) A teacher writing in a school magazine. (b) A journalist writing in a newspaper.

Answer: b

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2 What do you think the message will be? (a) Let’s try and make the new year a happy one for everyone. (b) Let’s think about how we can enjoy ourselves.

Answer: a

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3 What do you think the style will be like? (a) Simple and fun. (b) Difficult and serious. Answer: a

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Watch the video and answer some questions.

More

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How do you understand “if you give up, they give up” in this video?

Watch the video about global warming.

What can you do to reduce the amount of carbon you use?

Skimming Task

◇ Browse the passage within 8 minutes to get a rough idea about it. ◇Answer the questions of Activity 2 and 3 on page 159. Check ( ) the claim made by Old Father Time.

1 Old traditions are being lost. 2 Wild animals are losing their homes. 3 There are no more birds in the Arctic.More

Skimming

4 The earth’s atmosphere is becoming warmer. 5 The weather is changing everywhere. 6 Energy from wind and the sun is very expensive. 7 We should all avoid travelling by air. 8 We can all do something to reduce global warming. 9 We haven’t got much time left to save the earth.The claim made by Old Father Time are:

2, 4, 5, 8 and 9

Skimming

Answer the questions.1 What is the main aim of the passage? To persuade people to care more about the environment. 2 Why does Old Father Time refer to the reindeer and polar bears? Because they are animals who live in the Arctic, where the ice is melting.More

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5 What advice does Old Father Time give to air

travellers? Give money to a scheme which helps cancel out the carbon dioxide generated by your plane journey. 6 What will happen by 2020 if we don’t act now? The ice cap at the North Pole will melt; the sea levels will rise and coastal regions and islands will be flooded; hot countries will become deserts; cold countries will become uncomfortably warm.More

Skimming

7 What does Old Father Time suggest children do at home?Remind people to switch off lights and electrical equipment which are switched on but not in use. Start a publicity campaign and let everyone know what they are doing.

DiggingMP3 译文

句子分析

Ringing the changes

1 Hello boys and girls around the world, and a Happy New Year to you all!

DiggingMP3译文

2 It’s that time again when we ring out the old year, and ring in the new! (I expect that some of you don’t even know where that expression comes from. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, we used to ring the church bells to say farewell to the past and welcome to the future.) But this year, I want to share with you some of the worries I have about the environment.

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3 You see, I’ve just been talking to my dear old friend Father Christmas, who has just got back home to the North Pole after delivering all your presents. He told me that one of his reindeer hurt a leg this year and almost missed the Christmas deliveries. It happened in the spring when the ice, which is always very thick, turned out to be much thinner than we expected, and she almost fell through into the Arctic Ocean.

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4 Father Christmas also told me that his friends the polar bears have to walk much further to find solid ice and snow, and the Arctic birds have been leaving and coming back at unusual times of the year. It seems that the problem is climate change.

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5 It has become apparent to scientists from around the world that the gas, oil and coal, which we all use to stay warm, stay cool, and travel around, release lots of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere of the earth. This causes the sun’s heat to build up in the earth’s atmosphere, 句子分析 and is called the greenhouse effect. It’s leading to all kinds of change... and as we know, some change is for the worst.

DiggingMP3 译文

6 So the weather is changing, and instead of gentle rain, we now have violent storms, which flood coasts and valleys. Even some big cities, such as New York and London, 句子分析 and some countries, like the Maldive Islands, are under threat. In other places, there’s a shortage of rain for crops, so some people are going to starve. And some of our favourite animals, such as elephants, tigers and lions, are losing their homes.

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7 But we can all make some change for the better. You see, these scientists then went on to tell me that we could combat climate change by generating most of our energy needs with resources which we can renew. For example, we can use wind tu

rbines to light and heat our homes and to provide electric power for cars.

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