新视野大学英语读写教程第三版电子教案Book 1 Unit 1

1

Unit 1

Fresh Start

Understanding and Learning

Overview

The first unit of the first book of our series meets students who have just entered college or

university and are beginning a new phase in their lives. We hope that students will be able to talk

about their expectations of their college experience, and they will be aware of the expectations

their parents and their educators have of them.

Text A is a university president’s welcome speech, in which the president gives valuable

guidance to and expresses expectations of freshman students.

Text B is a letter written by a father to his child who is about to start college, in which the

father expresses his expectations of the child. We hope that the two texts will stimulate students to

share their own expectations regarding their college experience; and we also hope the two texts

will help students look from a new perspective at the expectations their educators and their parents

have of them

Text A shows characteristics of a speech. Pronouns I, we and you are more frequently used

than in other kinds of writing because the speaker is addressing the audience directly, hoping to

motivate the audience and to gain their support and understanding. In a speech, the speaker can

employ a variety of figures of speech to make his speech vivid and powerful, such as simile,

metaphor, contrast, parallelism(排比), and repetition. A very common figure of speech is

parallelism. In parallelism, coordinate ideas are arranged in words, phrases, sentences, and

paragraphs to emphasize and point out relations. In Text A, for example, the president uses many

sentences of parallel structure. This makes his speech powerful, persuasive, and

thought-provoking. It can even produce humorous effect as in the example: ―You may have cried

tears of joy to be finally finished with high school, and your parents may have cried tears of joy to

be finally with doing your laundry!‖

The most obvious feature of Text B is that it contains many imperative sentences, and these

sentences tend to be brief. An imperative sentence advises, instructs, requests, or commands. It

begins with a verb; the implied subject is you. In Text B, a father makes use of imperative

sentences to give advice and instructions to his child who has just left home for college. For

example: ―Don’t be bound by what other people think.‖ ―Pick friends who are genuine and

sincere.‖ ―Become the great thinker you were born to be.‖ In class the teacher can make the

students compare the writing styles of Text A and Text B. Class activities may include pair work,

group discussions, and mini-surveys about students’ high school experience, their families and

friends, and their expectations of college life.

Section A

Toward a brighter future for all

Background information

1. American higher education

In the United States, students can choose to go to college after high school. (They can

also choose to go straight to the workforce after high school.) They have the option of attending a

two-year community college before applying to a four-year university. Admission to community 2

college is easier, tuition is lower, and class sizes are often smaller than at a university. Community

college students can earn an associate agree and transfer up to two years of course credits to a

university.

College and university students need to pay tuition, but many earn scholarships or receive

loans. Although admissions policies vary from one university to another, most determine

admission based on several criteria, including a student’s high school course of study, high school

Grade Point Average (GPA), participation in extracurricular activities, SAT(Scholastic Assessment

Test) or ACT (American College Testing) exam scores, a written essay, and possibly a personal

interview with a representative from the admissions office.

Most students in the United States take the SAT Reasoning Test or the ACT during their final

year of high school. Each university sets a minimum SAT or ACT score that a student must

achieve in order to gain admission. These are standardized quantitative examinations. The SAT

tests critical reading, mathematics, and writing skills, The ACT tests English, mathematics,

reading, science reasoning, and includes an optional writing test.

Extracurricular activities may include scholastic clubs, athletic teams, student government,

and philanthropic clubs. Voluntary participation in these kinds of activities is an indication that a

student has learned valuable life lessons, such as teamwork, leadership, or civic responsibility.

University students pursuing a bachelor’s degree are called ―undergraduates‖; students