Unit Two Friendship

8 periods Teaching Objectives:

Ss will be able to:

1. Grasping the main idea (never delay expressing your true feelings to a friend) and structure of the text (developing a story around a letter);

2. Appreciating how English is spoken in daily life by native speakers;

3. Mastering the key language points and grammatical structures in the text;

4. Learning to cherish the friendship and keep in touch with old friends

Emphasizes and Difficulties:

1. The usages of “as if”-clause (in a statement and in the subjunctive mood)

2. The usages of “might just as well” (followed by the original form of verbs)

3.Collocation: noun+preposition

4. The speaking strategies of a conversation 5. Key words &. Expressions (Ref. the fourth step in in-depth reading)

Teaching Periods: 8 periods

Teaching Contents

I. Lead-in (25 minutes)

a) Quotations on friendship:

君子之交淡如水: A hedge between keeps friendship green. Friends agree best at a distance. 《庄子·外篇·山木》：“且君子之交淡若水，小人之交甘若醴。君子淡以亲，小人甘以绝，彼无故以合者，则无故以离。” 淡以亲：指淡泊但心地亲近。 甘以绝：指小人之交囡过于甜蜜因而往往断绝。

海内存知己，天涯若比邻A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near. 王勃《送杜少甫之任蜀州》

To Wang Lun --- Li Bai 赠汪伦

I'm on board; We're about to sail, 李白乘舟将欲行，

When there's stamping and singing on shore; 忽闻岸上踏歌声。

Peach Blossom Pool is a thousand feet deep, 桃花潭水深千尺，

Yet not so deep,Wang Lun,as your love for me. 不及汪伦送我情。

人生得一知己足矣，斯世当以同怀视之。Life is a bosom friend is sufficient.

b) A song on friendship: That’s what friends are for

That’s what friends are for

那就是朋友相处之道

And I never thought I'd feel this way 而我，从没想过会有这种感觉

And 对於我个人来说

I'm glad I got the chance to say 我很高兴有机会对你说：

我确信我是真的爱你

然而，如果我必须离去

Well then close your eyes and try 那麼，请你闭上双眼，试著

试著去感觉我俩今日的点滴

And then if you can remember 然后，如果你还记得的话……

保持微笑，继续灿烂

me 你永远都可以倚靠我

, that's what friends are for 请你相信，那就是朋友的真义

For 不管是欢乐或是悲叹

I'll be forever more 我将在你身旁，直到永远

That's what friends are for 那就是朋友的真义

me 你来到我身边，开启我心

And now there's so much more I see 如今，我比以往看得更多

I thank you 因此，我要向你说声谢谢

And then for the times when we're apart 在我们分开的日子里

Well then close your eyes and know 闭上你的眼睛，请你明白

These words are 这些都是我的肺腑之言

And then if you can remember…… 然后，如果你还记得……

Friendship 友谊

May our friendship be not like the tides, 或许我们的友情不似潮汐，

Tides rise, tides fall, 潮起还有潮落。

May it be like the ocean, 或许它更像那大海

Whose face may show smile, frown or anger, 海面时而现出微笑，时而阴霾，时而暴怒， But whose heart is at bottom unchanging. 可它的心在深深的海底，却始终如一。 May our friendship be not like the flowers, 或许我们的友情不似花朵，

Flowers bloom, flowers fade. 花开还有花谢。

May it be like grass and trees, 或许它更像那青草和树木，

But their roots live long. 叶儿会凋零，可它们的根却有长久的生命。

May our friendship be not like the moon, 或许我们的友情不似月亮，

The moon waxes, it also wanes. 月有阴晴圆缺。

May it be like the stars, 或许它更像那繁星，

They appear or do not appear in the sky, 它们在夜空里时现时隐

But always exist with mysterious light，可它们那神秘的光芒却亘古永存。

II. Text Study ( 200 minutes)

1. Background materials related to the text: ( might just as well be put off after the third period )

American traditional national holidays and festivals, such as the Halloween, Thanks-giving Day, Christmas Day.

Halloween 万圣节

Halloween is celebrated annually. It is on the night of 31 October, when people once believed that ghosts could be seen. Now, in Britain and America, it is a time when children have parties, dress up as witches, make lanterns out of pumpkins from which the inside has been removed, and play "trick or treat”. Trick or treat is a traditional activity at Halloween. Children dress in costumes and visit houses. At each house they say "Trick or treat". This means that they will play a "trick", or joke, on the people in the house unless they are given a "treat", e.g. sweets or money. Most people

prefer to give treats rather than having tricks played on them.

Halloween 的意思是“万圣节”，指每年的10月31日的夜晚。由于人们一直以来都相信每年的这个晚上可以看幽灵出现，因此把它定为“万圣节前夕”。在英美等国，每当这个节日来临，孩子们都采取不同方式来庆祝，他们举行假面晚会，把自己假扮成巫师，将南瓜掏空做成南瓜灯到各家各户玩“trick or treat”把戏。“trick”的意思是恶作剧，开玩笑，“treat”指宴请，款待；如果花了妆的孩子们到了邻居家没有受到好的款待，他们就会拿房间里的人开玩笑，当然人们不想成为被取笑的对象，因此大人们会给来的孩子一些糖果或零钱。这一传统一直保持到今天。

“万圣节”的英语是“All Saint’s Day”或“All Halloween’s Day”

Christmas 圣诞节

Annual Christian holiday commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Most members of the Roman Catholic Church and followers of Protestantism celebrate Christmas on December 25th; and many celebrate on the evening of December 24th as well. For most people the holiday season id characterized by gatherings among family and friends, feasting and gift giving.

2. Global understanding

(T guide Ss to do text structure exercises )

2) Questions and answers

a. What does the story begin with?

The story begins with the cab driver reading a letter.

b. What helped start a conversation between the cab driver and the passenger?

The letter tom wrote to his friend Ed.

c. What was their conversation centered on?

Their conversation was centered on the lifelong friendship between the driver and old Ed.

3) The following questions are what the narrator asked the cab driver. Put them in the right order.

1) Did you go to school together?

2) The letter must have made you feel good, didn’t it?

3) Is your cab available?

4) Is he someone you’ve known quite a while?

5) Is he dead?

6) I thought your friend was Ed. Why did he sign it Tom?

7) Is the letter from a child or a grandchild?

8) Did you two work at the same place?

(3 — 7 — 4 — 1 — 5 — 8 — 2 — 6)

3. In-depth reading

1) Comprehension of difficult sentences

a. He sounded as if he had a cold or something. (in Para1)

What can we infer from this sentence?

(This sentence implies the sad state of mind the taxi driver was in.)

b. It might just as well have been family. (in Para6)

Translate the sentence into Chinese.

(也可以算是一家人。)

c. But I take it he’s someone. (in Para7)

What does “I take it” mean?

(“I take it” means “I understand (that); I assume (that)”.

- As I take it, they won’t accept the proposal.)

d. But I realized that old Ed was still… (in Para16)

1) Paraphrase the sentence.

(But I realized that the taxi driver was still thinking of Old Ed when he spoke again. It seemed that he spoke more to himself than to me. He repeated that he should have kept in touch.)

2) Why did the driver repeat that he should have kept in touch?

(He could have let Ed know how he missed him.)

e. It had references to things that… (in Para21)

1) What does it refer to?

(It refers to the letter.)

2) What does reference mean here?

(It means the act of mentioning.)

3) Paraphrase the sentence.

(The letter mentioned something that might be important to the driver.)

f. Like it says there…about all we had to spend in …time(in Para23)

Paraphrase the sentence.

(“As the letter says there,” he answered, “though we didn’t have much money we had a lot of free time.”)

g. Every time I go…there are fewer and fewer still around (in Para25)

Paraphrase the sentence.

(Fewer and fewer of us are left alive.)

h. But for the last 20 or 30…Christmas cards(in Para28)

Paraphrase the sentence.

(But generally speaking we have sent only Christmas cards to keep in touch with each other for the last 20 or 30 years.)

2) Key words and phrases

be lost in / lose oneself in: be absorbed in; be fully occupied with

- He was lost in playing computer games so he was unaware of my entering the room. - I had lost myself in thought.

- 他忙于这项工作而对周围的一切都很漠然。(He was lost to the world in this task.)

available: adj.

1. able to be got, obtained, used, etc.

- If you don’t want to buy a kite, you can make your own using directions available in the book. - We have already used up all the available space.

- 对不起,这种外套没有你要的颜色和尺码。(I’m sorry. Those overcoats are not available in your color and size. )

2. able to be visited or seen; not too busy

- 律师现在没空。 (The lawyer is not available now.)

or something: used when you are not very sure about what you have just said

- The air fare was a hundred and ninety-nine pounds or something.

- Here’s some money. Get yourself a sandwich or something.

NB:

同义的短语：or something like that

go ahead: continue; begin (sometimes followed by with + n.)

- The board of directors will vote today on whether to go ahead with the plan.

- Henry will be late but we will go ahead with the meeting anyway.

estimate:

1. vt. form a judgment about (a quantity or value)

- Bill’s personal riches were estimated at $368 million.

- I estimate that the total cost for the treatment of the disease will go from $5,000 to $8,000. - 我估计她有35岁。 (I estimate her age at 35. )

2. n. approximate calculation or judgment made about a quantity or value

- According to some estimates, the number of farms has increased by 50 percent.

- My estimate of her character was wrong.

CF: estimate, evaluate & value

这组词都有“估计”或“估价”的意思。

estimate 指先于实际的测量、计算或测试而作的某种估计或估价，可以是经过仔细考虑，也可以是随意的。

- He estimated he would do the hundred miles by noon. (他估计自已到中午时能走完这一百英里路。)

- I asked three building firms to estimate for the repairs to the house. (我请三个建筑公司估计修缮房屋的费用。)

evaluate 很少表示用金钱来估计某物的市场价值，而是对其相对或内在价值的评定。

- The research project has only been under way for three months, so it’s too early to evaluate its success. (这个研究项目进行了不过三个月，所以要对它的效果作出评价为时尚早。 )

value 指估计某物的价值、价格。

- He valued the house for me at ￡3,500. (他为我给这幢房子估价，价值3,500英镑。) Put into each gap one of the above words. Change the form where necessary. their students’ work?

might / may (just) as well: If you say that you might / may (just) as well do sth., you mean that you will do it although you do not have a strong desire to do it and may even feel slightly reluctant about it.

- Anyway, you’re here; you might as well stay.

- The post office is really busy. We’ll have to queue for ages to get served. We might as well go home.

- 这道甜食我还是不吃了吧。 (I might as well give the sweet course a miss.)

not much of: not a good …

- 天气不是很好。(It is not much of a day. )

- Some people may think that doing housework for others is not much of a career.

- He is not much of a father, but he is an outstanding professor.

keep up: continue without stopping

- They risk losing their homes because they can no longer keep up the repayments.

- I was so hungry all the time that I could not keep the diet up for longer than a month. Collocation:

keep t 坚持；信守

keep up with 跟上；赶上

keep on 继续进行；反复地做

keep out of 躲开；（使）置身于…之外

keep off 避开；不让…接近

Put into each gap one of the above phrases. Change the form where necessary.

4. Don’t run — I can’t

correspondence: n.

1. the act of writing, receiving or sending letters (often followed by with + n.)

- His interest in writing came from a long correspondence with a close college friend.

- 敌人空袭后通信中断了。(The correspondence dropped after the enemy’s air raid. )

2. the letters that sb. receives or sends (used as an uncountable noun)

- Mary really never mentions her step-mother in her correspondence.

- The library bought all the correspondence between Queen Victoria and her daughters.

Collocation:

carry on correspondence

break off correspondence

business / commercial correspondence

personal correspondence

in correspondence with 进行通信 中断通信 商业书信 私人通信 与…有通信联系

practically: adv. almost, but not completely or exactly

- 她几乎每天上班迟到。(She’s practically always late for work. )

- He’d known the old man for practically ten years.

- I know people who find it practically impossible to give up smoking.

kind of / sort of: (“kind of” esp. AmE, “sort of” esp. BrE) a little bit; in some way or degree (used before verb or after a link verb)

- The boy’s description kind of gives us an idea of what’s happening.

- She wasn’t beautiful. But she was kind of cute.

- 她有点希望能受到邀请。 (She kind of hoped to be invited. )

lose touch (with sb.): meet and contact sb. less and less often, gradually stop writing to, telephoning, or visiting them

- I lost touch with my former classmates after graduation.

- In my job one tends to lose touch with friends.

a couple of: a few; more than one but not many

- Do you have a moment? There are a couple of things I’d like to talk to you about.

- They promised the students that they would find a substitute teacher in a couple of days.

on one’s mind: in one’s thoughts; of concern to one (If sth. is on your mind, you are worried or concerned about it and think about it a lot.)

- Dealings on the stock market have been on his mind all the time.

- This travel plan has been on my mind all week.

- You are always on my mind.

keep in touch (with sb.): If you keep in touch with someone, you write to, phone, or visit each other regularly.

- The old man kept in touch with his children while living in a nursing home.

- While doing the research work in the Antarctic, the professor kept in touch with his students via email.

Collocation:

stay in touch with 与…保持联系

get in touch with 与…取得联系

come up:

1. happen or occur, esp. unexpectedly

- Sorry, I am late — something came up at home.

- Other projects came up and the emphasis of my work changed.

2. be mentioned or discussed

- The issue of safety came up twice during the meeting.

- News about Project Hope has come up a lot after the earthquake in various media.

Collocation:

come across 偶遇，碰到

come along 进展；出现

come down 流传下来；落魄，失势

come over 从远处来，过来；短暂造访

come through 经历（困难），安然度过

come up with 想出（计划、答案、回答等）

Put into each gap one of the phrases. Change the form where necessary.

1. He couldn’t

2. How’s your work

5. We’ve justan old friend we haven’t seen for ages.

urge: vt. try very hard to persuade

- They urged the local government to approve plans for their reform program.

- Sir Fred urged that Britain (should) join the European Monetary System.

- 当老朋友布赖恩怂恿我接受一支香烟时，我实在忍不住了。(When my old friend Brian urged me to accept a cigarette, it was more than I could bear. )

Pattern:

urge sb. to do sth.

urge + that-clause. (In the that-clause, “should” or the base form of a verb is used.)

postpone: vt. delay (usu. followed by n. / gerund)

- The couple had postponed having children to establish their careers.

- 我们把比赛从3月5日推迟到3月19日举行。 (We postponed the match from March 5th to March 19th. )

CF: postpone & delay

这组词都有“延缓”或“耽搁”的意思。

postpone 指将某事推迟或耽搁延后进行，也可以用来比喻将某人或某物置于次要地位。例如：

- The ball game was postponed because of the rain. (球赛因雨延期。 )

- It is not right for him to postpone the public interest. (他将公众利益放在后面是不对的。 ) delay 指由于干扰或意外事故而延误，特别是延误了某事的预期完成或某人某物的按时到达。有时也可能是由于主观原因故意造成的拖延或耽搁。例如：

- The flood seriously delayed the train service. (洪水严重延误了铁路运输。 )

- Our debtor delays payment from day to day. (欠我们债的人一天又一天地拖延还款。 ) Put into each gap one of the above words. Change the form where necessary.

reference: n.

1. the act of talking about sb. / sth., or mentioning them (usu. followed by to)

- It was strange that he made no reference to any work experience in his resume.

- His recent book makes references to the political events of those days.

2. sth. that shows you where else to look for information, for example the page number of another place in a book

- Make a note of the reference number shown on the form.

3. the act of looking at sth. for information

- Use the dictionary for easy reference.

- Keep their price list for further reference.

Collocation:

a reference book 参考书，工具书

a reference library （不外借书的）参考书阅览室

for reference 作参考

in / with reference to 关于

reunion: n. a party attended by members of the same family, school, or other group who have not seen each other for a long time

- Before she went abroad for further study, the whole family had a big family reunion. - The soccer club holds an annual / a yearly reunion.

Collocation:

a class reunion 毕业后的同班同学聚会

a family reunion 家人团聚

hang out:

1. (infml; used mainly in AmE) stay in or near a place, for no particular reason, not doing very much

- I often hung out in coffee bars while I was unemployed.

- We can just hang out and have a good time.

- That’s the corner where all the kids hang out.

2. hang clothes on a piece of string outside in order to dry them

- I was worried that I had no time to hang out my washing.

- What a pain! — It’s raining and I’ve just hung the washing out.

Collocation:

hang about / around （在…）闲逛

hang on （打电话时用语）不挂断；坚持下去

hang over 挂在…上；笼罩，威胁

hang up 挂断电话；搁置，拖延

Put into each gap one of the above phrases. Change the form where necessary.

2. I’m afraid that the line is busy

4. Don’t

(every) now and then: (every) now and again; sometimes; at times

- Every now and then I have a desire to quit my tedious job.

- I still see Jane for lunch every now and then, but not as often as I used to.

Collocation:

now and again 不时地

now or never 勿失良机

NB:

表示“偶尔、有时”的词和短语： 5. from

mostly: adv. almost all; generally

- They have invested their money mostly in expensive real estate.

- The guests at the wedding party are mostly friends of the bride.

awful: adj. (used to add force) very great; very bad or unpleasant

- I have got an awful lot of work to do.

- I can’t bear the awful smell of cigarette smoke.

choke up: become too upset to speak

- Losing my job left me completely choked up.

- When he learned the news of his friend’s sudden death, he was so choked up that he couldn’t say a thing.

skip: vt. pass from (one point, etc.) to another, disregarding or failing to act on what comes between

- 报纸读者可以选择自己感兴趣的新闻,略过自己认为是枯燥的或无关的消息。 (A newspaper reader can select what he is interested in and skip what he thinks is boring or irrelevant. )

- The teacher said: “First skim the text to obtain a general impression of it. Then scan the first three paragraphs and locate the birth dates of the main characters. And as time is limited, we will have to skip some of the exercises.”

right away: at once

- Tom has got a high fever; he should go and see a doctor right away.

- I wrote him a letter and posted it right away.

NB:

表示“立即、马上”的词和短语：

3) Usage

Ways of making an opinion sound less definite: something, or something, kind of/sort of, more or less

When you are describing something in a vague or uncertain wa you often use the following expressions: something, or something, kind of/sort of, more or less

Finish the exercise on page 42.

4) Text Review: vocabulary; expressions; structure.

完全沉浸于 be completely lost in

引起…的注意 get sb.’s attention

坐进后座 settle into the back seat

得了感冒什么的 have a cold or something

不着急 in no hurry

接着，继续 go ahead

记住了，能背出来 know sth. by heart

家书抵万金。 Letters from home always mean a lot.

老是在外旅行 be on the road so much

不大会… not much of a hand at …

保持通信往来 keep up correspondence

从小学一直到高中 all the way through both grade and high school

老街坊 an old neighborhood

沉默 in silence

失去联系 lose touch

老同学聚会 a class reunion

时间不饶人。 Time goes by.

在一起闲逛 hang out on the same corner

点头称是 nod in agreement

在远处 in the distance

(T gives a phrase or an expression in Chinese and Ss should speak out the equivalent they have learnt in the text)

5) Summary

Complete the exercise of Cloze A . (page 43.)

III. Further Development ( 45 minutes)

1. Group work: How can you keep in touch with your old friends with the time passing by? e-mail, telephone,QQ

2. Text analysis:

1). Find out sentences from Text A similar in meaning to those given below.

(1) Go on reading your letter. (Go ahead and finish your letter.)

(2) I’m not used to writing letters. (I’m not much of a hand at writing.)

(3) We were friends since our childhood. So our friendship has a long history. (We were kids together, so we go way back.)

(4) For one reason or another you lose touch even though you never forget. (You kind of lose touch even though you never forget.)

5) It is painful to lose any friend. (It’s no fun to lose any friend.)

2). Try to make the following sentences complete.

(1) From a child or maybe a grandchild? (Is the letter from a child or maybe a grandchild? )

(2) Went to school together? (Did you go to school together?)

(3) Died a couple of weeks ago. (He died a couple of weeks ago.)

(4) Enjoyed talking with you. (I’ve enjoyed talking with you.)

3). What characteristics do the sentences from the text share?

(They are very colloquial.)

4). Say something about the differences between spoken English and written English.

(Most of this text is actually a re-creation of the conversation between a taxi driver and the narrator. Therefore it provides ample examples of how English is spoken in daily life by native speakers.

In spoken English sentences tend to be short and simple. Some sentences are incomplete. Besides, some words or phrases do not usually find their way into written English, for example, sort of, kind of, you know, I think, I guess, I take it, well, go ahead, hang out, it’s no fun to do sth., not much of a hand at doing sth., a couple of, every now and then, an awful lot, etc. )

IV. Exercises Explanation (90 minutes)

Explain after-text exercises

Reference:

1.大学英语综合教程教师用书，上海外语教育出版社，20xx年4月第二版

2.大学英语课文辅导，中国致公出版社，20xx年6月第二版

3.大学英语课文辅导，吉林出版社，20xx年8月第二版 1-4册在线辅导