Unit Five How to Celebrate HolidaysPreview assignment:1.Try to find the information about the Thanksgiving Day：the introduction, the origin, the specialmeals and the celebration.2.Preview the new words and expressions in the two texts.Objectives:Students will be able to:1.understand the main idea and structure of the texts;2.learn to memorize words in association;3.grasp the key language points and grammatical structures in the texts.Text A Writing Three Thank-you LettersI. Cultural notes1. Check on the previewed work (ask students to tell the information about the Thanksgiving Day )Thanksgiving :1) IntroductionThanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday in November. For many Americans it is the most important holiday apart from Christmas. Schools, offices and most businesses close for Thanksgiving, and many people make the whole weekend a vacation. The writer O. Henry called it the one day that is purely American. The holiday is a time of family reunion.2) OriginThanksgiving is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America. In 1620 the ship the Mayflower arrived, bringing about 150 people who today are usually called Pilgrims. They arrived at the beginning of a very hard winter and could not find enough to eat, so many of them died. But in the following summer Native Americans showed them what foods were safe to eat, so that they could save food for the next winter. They held a big celebration to thank God and the Native Americans for the fact that they had survived.3) Special MealToday people celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner with foods that come from North America. The meal includes turkey, sweet potatoes (also called yams) and cranberries, which are made into a kind of sauce or jelly. The turkey is filled with stuffing or dressing, and many families have their own special recipe. Dessert is pumpkin made into a pie.4) CelebrationsOn Thanksgiving there are special television programs and sports events. A number of professional and university football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. In New York there is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when a long line of people wearing fancy costumes march through the streets with large balloons in the shape of imaginary characters. Thanksgiving is considered the beginning of the Christmas period, and the next day many people go out to shop for Christmas presents.2.The teacher introduces other cultural notes:1)The PilgrimsThe Pilgrims were the 102 English people who sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Their group included 35 Puritans whose aim was to create a safe religious community in the New World. The Pilgrims probably landed at Plymouth Rock, and they established Plymouth colony.2) IndiansNative Americans were living in North America for many hundreds of years before Europeans reached the continent. For a long time white people called them Indians. Today many people do not like this name since it is based on a mistake: it was given to the people living in the America by Christopher Columbus who, when he arrived there, thought he had landed in India. Instead, people prefer to use the term Native Americans.3) The United States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is the US military service that is controlled by the US Department of Transportation but becomes part of the US Navy during a war. It was established in 1915. The Coast Guard stops ships suspected of carrying drugs and other illegal goods, and can make arrests. It also keeps watch to see that other laws of the sea are obeyed, rescues ships in danger and has a weather serviceII. DiscussionDiscuss the following topics with your partner, then, exchange your opinion with another two classmates. In the end, you are supposed to recommend several students to present your ideas to the whole class.1.We all know China has many traditional festivals. Can you name some? What aboutwestern ones?Tips: The Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, the Dragon-boat Festival, the Mid-autumn Festival, the Double Ninth Festival.St. Valentine’s Day, Easter，Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas.2. What kind of roles do festivals play in people’s life?Tips: Give people a chance to take some days off from their normal duties and relax, offer an opportunity for people to socialize with their family members and friends, a family reunion with parents and siblings, strengthen family bonds, people can take advantage of festivals to travel home and abroad, stimulate the economy …III. Teacher sums up and leads into the text by saying:Thanksgiving for Americans is much like Spring Festival for us, a time when families try to get back together. In America people often travel many miles to get back to their hometown, whether it’s from north to south.or from east to west. Quite often we take for granted the people who are nice to us, then we realize all too late that we have never expressed our appreciation. At other times, when we are away from the holiday rush, we are able to recall the true significance of a holiday -- a time to say how much we value others. The author of this text did exactly that.IV. Text structure:From the exercise, Text Organization on page165, we know that the text can be divided into four parts, now let’s find out the main ideas of each part.1) Where did the writer spend that Thanksgiving? Where was he going?.---He spent that Thanksgiving on a ship. He was going to a big base on the island of Tulagi in the South Pacific.2) Why do you think they were sailing there?---They were sending thousands of cartons of canned or dried foods and five-hundred-pound bombs there.3) What made him as a cook extremely busy on that Thanksgiving Day?---As a cook, he was preparing a traditional dinner featuring roast turkey. It was a lot of hard work to cook and serve a big meal, and clean up and put everything away.4) What was he thinking about on the deck after the day’s hard work?---He got to thinking about Thanksgiving, of the Pilgrims, Indians, wild turkeys, pumpkins, corn on the cob, and the rest.2.Ask several students to read part two and part three and then fill in the table with themain contents of the three letters:3. Students read part three and remark on the wishes of the author.---It is a good virtue to find the good in others and try any chance to praise it. By doing so, we can encourage others and in return we will be appreciated also. This can add to the friendship and the harmony between each other.V. Teacher sums up the whole story and ask the following questions:1. Whom will you thank in a holiday like Thanksgiving Day?---Parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, etc.2. Are holidays a good time to express gratitude? Which holidays are the most appropriate?---Yes. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Spring Festival, Mid-autumn Festival, Teacher’s Day, etc.3. Have you expressed your gratitude to the person(s)?If the answer is yes, what have you done?If the answer is no, what do you plan to do?VI. Assignments:1. Finish off the exercises after the text: exercises 1, 2 and 3 in Vacabulary and the exercise in Collacation.2. Review the text.The second two periods:I.Check on students’ assignment of exercises.II.Ask students to retell the story in the text.III.Introduce to students a good way of memorizing English words: Word-web We all want to expand our English vocabulary. An effective and efficient way is to memorize English words and phrases through association maps. Experiments have proved that it’s much easier for human beings to memorize things in meaningful groups than isolated items. For example:1. Think of as many words and phrases as possible about a ship.hooter 汽笛cabin 船舱boiler room 锅炉房wheelhouse 操舵室engine room 轮机舱deck 甲板propeller 螺旋桨rudder 舵mast 桅杆radar 雷达life buoy (jacket) 救生圈（衣）harbor 港口dock 码头crew 船员captain 船长chief officer 大副second officer 二副2. Think of the English equivalents for the following different types of “船”.独木舟canoe （大型）游艇yacht快速大帆船clipper 集装箱船container ship油轮oil tanker 巡洋舰cruiser驱逐舰destroyer 破冰舰icebreaker摩托艇motorboat 舢板sampan潜水艇submarine 气垫船hovercraft航空母舰aircraft carrierIV. Detailed study of the text:Explain the important language points in the text.1. under way: in position or operation, having started andmaking progressPreparations for the 2008 Olympic Games are now well under way.A battle to conquer nature is under way.Collocation: all the way自始自终any way无论如何by the way顺便说by way of 经由；通过……的方法2. I made my way out there, breathing in great, deep draughts while walking slowly about, still wearing my white cook’s hat.1)Analyze the structure of the sentence.在这个长句中有三个-ing分词：breathing、walking和wearing。
