BOOK 4 English TopicUNIT11.Talk about the power of humor and share the humorous story or typical joke with your classmates.A:People like to be considered humorous, but few of us actually have the sense of humor we hope we have. On the other hand, I wonder why we should bother to be humorous.B:I am afraid, You do not know the power of humor. We can notice that there is no great speaker in the world who is not humorous.C:Well. If you are humorous you will always attract a lot of people around you. So you will be a focus of attention and a center of a crowd.D.That‟s true.Humor is also the best way to solve some conflicts between friends. When people are about to quarrel, a humorous remark leading to help settle the problem.A.Oh, so can I make a conclusion that humor is a very important quality for a person or for getting along with others?B.Year! I have heard a joke . My friend read me a note she had just received from her boy friend :" To be with u , I would conquer wind and tide .No disaster could stop me from loving u .I would never forget u ." Then came the P.S. :"I will come to ur house on Sunday , provided it doesn't rain."C.I have one too. Aunt Hattie, putting on her hat after a visit to one of her married nephews, said to eight-year-old J ohnny, “And, young man, would you like to walk with me to the bus stop?”” No,” Johnny said.”Why not?” asked Aunt Hattie.”Because we're going to start eating dinner as soon as you go.”D.Oh,that‟s funny,these boys are really cute.Well, the power of humor is really amazing. And in my opinion there are many ways to learn how to be humorous. Being together with someone who is humorous is one way. Reading some books which contain humor or humorous stories is another.A.I get it. I think the most important way is that we should try to be optimistic about our life at present and, moreover, our life in the future.2.What is your favorite film and why do you like it so much?A .Hi, boys. Let‟s going to watch the film of Harry Potter this friday. It‟s my favorite s tory, Harry Potter is an unusual boy. He had some magical power. When he was a baby, a very evil man killed his parents. Fortunately, Harry Potter was saved.B. I like it too. Then all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: letters with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry — and anyone who reads about him — will find unforgettable. What‟s yours, Nancy?C.I.prefer.the.Chronicles of Narnia.It.present the adventures of children w ho play central roles in the unfolding history of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good battles evil. Each of the books ch ildren from our world who are magically transported to Narnia, where the -y are called upon to help the Lion Aslan .D.Yeah.The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for c hildren written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's liter ature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 120 million c opies in 41 languages. It have been adapted for cinema. I‟m one of the fans too.A. Well, everyone has his own favorite things. As for me, the young Harry Potter showed his brave and wisdom in the film. Finally, he has beaten the violence and built up his friendship.B. I always dreamed to have some strange power like Harry Port. I also think that I can learn many things from him, such as how to treat my friend, how to be an honest person.C. Yes, my film give me the same feeling. They told us how to achieve my personal goals and so on. Over the past fifty years, C. S. Lewis‟s book The Chronicles of Narnia has attract much attention.D. millions of fans have embraced the recent blockbuster hit movies The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I think the fantasy story will be continued and last long.UNIT2Is letter writing better than calling?A. Hi, Yoyo！You look so happy?!B. Yeah, look! I have got a letter from one of my best friend.C. Letter? Are there any person still use letters to send messages? As the development of scientific telephone is used more often than letters .We know, it is easier to make a call than to write a letter.D. You are right! But sometimes letters are inspiring, and sometimes they are encouraging. You can write a lot of things in a letter and it does not cost you much to send. But it is slow, you have to wait a long time to get a response from your friends.I agree with you! A note attaches more importance to our well-wishing. It is a matter of record, and our words can be reads more than once savored and treasured. So I think Writing a letter is more effective than making a phone call.B. Well! Some people like writing. Because when reading a letter, they feel warm and smile as if the person is talking to them face to face. When write letters. We should keep letters brief and to the point. Try to cover only one subject. Only in this way can we use letters more wonderful. But why, then, there are so few people upbeat note writers?C. My guess is that many who shy away form the practice are too self-conscious. They are afraid they will be misunderstanding, sound sentimental or insincere. Also writing takes time.D. So we must find the right way to say what we what to say. Letters do make a difference.Letter writing also offers constituents an opportunity to serve as consultants,A.Everything have two sides. We cannot just say writing is better than calling or calling is better than writing. We should choose the right way according to different cases.2.Talk about the most dangerous sentence(words) and the most powerful sentence(words).Why?A. Hello, everyone, as we know, words have huge power to influence our lives, today let‟s talk something about it. Will you?B. Yeah! Sounds good.A. It‟s you first, Yoyo. What do you think is the most dangerous sentence or word?B. Oh, let me see. In my opinion, I regard the sentence “You are the most stupid guy in the world” as the most dangerous sentence. When you hear it, you can‟t help yourself being sad.C. Yes, I agree. It was when I was young that my teacher always thought I was the most stupid student in our class. Because of that, I d idn‟t work hard on my class, even had no confidence in myself. What about you, Nancy?D. Well, I think the word “dishonest” is the most dangerous word. I hateanyone describing me like that. On the opposite, I prefer the word ”sincere”.A. I can‟t agree mo re. I attach much important to being a sincere person. So I‟ll try my best to treat everyone sincerely. And I also wish they treat me all the same. Well, let‟s throw away the bad things, are there any words you will never forget?B. En…The sentence ”You are one in a million!” has completely changed my life. It was told by my mum. She loved me so much and her words was so moving. From then on, I spare no effort to achieve high grades. Everyone can see your achievement.C. Yes, When one is worried about tests, when one is misunderstood or criticized by others, or when things go against our expectations, the inspiring sentences give a pat on our back. They remain us never let go of our dreams.D. As with you see, I think the following words give us great enco uragement:” How can see the rainbow without a storm? No one can succeed without effort”. With each challenge we learn to get over our problems more easily. You see, it‟s so powerful. I think we should be careful when talk with others, maybe the word will c hange others‟ hole lives.UNIT3What are the characteristics of the ideal wife and the ideal husband?Hello, Nancy, come here. We are appreciating the pictures of wedding ceremony. It is so romantic. The beautiful girl with a handsome boy, so perfectly.Oh, cool. That‟s the most important moment for the new couple. From then on, they may start to struggle to be ideal wife and ideal husband. As for me, I expect my future husband to be responsible, reliable and diligent.However, it is not an easy thing for them to be an ideal wife or an ideal husband. Like the people in the stories, they have to meet either difficulties which are unknown to all of us or exceptional set of circumstances calling for exercise of great courage and skill. Besides, it is the time that they begin to think for each other and give unconditional love and care to each other. They have been relatives, not only lovers. Couples should look on each other as their partner and friend, rather than their dependent.Yes, that‟s quite true. Li ttle girls and boys are so childish. They may regard beautiful appearance as the most important characteristic of ideal wife or ideal husband. But when they grow up, they may realize their mistakes. They all should have a strong sense of responsibility and endure hardships and failures.Year, for an ideal wife, firstly, she should be warm-hearted , intelligent and have some similar interests with her husband. While an ideal husbandshould be capable of supporting a family, it is basic element.En…You are ri ght. However, an ideal wife should also be virtuous and concentrate on her family especially her husband. As well, the husband should loyal to his wife.All of what you said are right.But maybe you forget a most important actor, it is either ideal wife or ideal husband should love their mate and their family.2.Who are teacher‟s pets, boys or girls? How to avoid gender bias in the classroom？A.Hi, Nancy, what are you doing?B.Oh, I am reading a magazine. Look, I am interested by this passage. According to a recent research, many teachers who thought they were nonsexist were amazed to see how biased they appeared in class.C.En… let me see. They were shown to call on males in class far more than on female students, this takes place even from nursery school to postgraduate course. Some people think it was not because teachers liked boys better, but because they think girls are afraid of losing face.D.Yes, as a matter of fact, the classroom is a man‟s world, where boys get two-thirds of the teacher‟s attention even when they are in a minority. They are allowed to tease the girls and they receive praise for sloppy work that would not be tolerated from girls.A.Besides, the research also showed that sometimes teachersunknowingly prevented girls from participating as actively as boys in class by assigning them different takes in accordance with stereotyped gender roles. This may have a great impact on girls.B.I quite agree! The girls are thus being deprived of a vital learning experience that would affect their entire lives or prevent them from going on to higher achievement. School can arrange boys and girls work in pairs, make them check each other‟exercises before handing in.C.A few schools have introduced single-sex groups for math and science which have foun d significant improvements in girls‟ results. However, it is not the most hopeful solution, I think.D.Year, separating boys and girls is not the best answer. Probably encouraging girls to be more active and positive can be better, they can learn to take advantage of their strengths .A.Well! Never use gender to group students. Facing and working with people of same gender could be rather boring. In the way you have said is good but it require collaboration. However, I think we can do well. Unit 41.Which should be emphasized in education, knowledge or creativity? A:With the development of society, an increasing number of importance is attched to education.Experts in education regard knowledge as one of the most important factors. However,some other expert s don‟t agree with it.In their opinons,these approaches should be able to encouragecreativity in their students.And how do you think,**?B:Obviously,creativity is much more important,at least I think so. Just as some experts said that creativity plays an extremly important role on one‟s way to success and is the key to a brighter future. Anyone who have benefited from creativity can discover a number of ways to solve problems and to fully take advantage of the resources they have.C.Yes,I agree with you.As was pointed out by Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge as knowledge is limited while imagination contains all the achievements in the world.It‟s the source of knowledge evolution and promotes the advance of the world.” Here imagination is an important part creativity .D.I‟m sorry I really don‟t agree with you.Creativity is not something one is just born with,nor is it necessarily a characteristic of high intelligence.Just because a person is highly intelligent does not mean that he uses it creativily.Creativity is the matter of using the source one has to produce original ideas that are good for something.A.In my opinion,I think both are equally important . Knowledge is the summing-up of our ancestors‟ wisdom and the basis of c reative thinking .Creativity allows you to make use of knowledge creatively and do original things.It‟s the source of knowledge.B.I still persist in my former opinion .If we only learn from our teachers we will never go any further than them,As a matter of fact ,we are justrepeating what others have already done Human beings are supposed to be creative ,that‟s where we are different from other living creatures.C.Yeah,on the other hand , internet enables us to search for all kinds of information,to have various educational programs,to take part in global discussion on certain topics and so on. The standard to judge a talent is the ability one has to search and use knowledge creativily.D.Knowledge is symbolized by a clenched fist as power. It‟s often said we are entering a age of information . For example,if one wants to work in IT field,one needs to improve his knowledge constantly .What;s more,knowledgable people can get quick promotion in their work.2.How can universities improve stydents‟ scientific a nd technological abilities for innovation?Over the recent years, creativity has already been valued above knowledge in education.Creativity means considering ordinary things in ways different from cators are trying many ways to promote creativity in students.Unfortunately, many schools have not tended to promot crativity . In some schools ,however, educators are recognizing the problem and are developing new approaches to teaching which can encourage creatiivty in their students.Quite of ten st udents‟inspiration may come from a daily incidents or books they read after school.As to the teachers,even they can‟t givestudents specific assistance,they should let students know that they are onto something if they persist in working on it.Another thing teachers can do is to reduce the amount of memory work..If students are always asked to memorize something ,they tend to be confined by them .Instead,students can learn how to search for information and how to do research independently.A . In the classroom as well as at home,children must have the right to have crazy thoughts,experts say. Then it‟s up to parents and teachers to work with the children to develop the thoughts into workable ideas.Experts say it‟s important to create an atomosphere in whic h there is no risk in being creative.B . Yeah,from now and then students are supposed to be invited to go out to observe nature.When they have more experience they will think more creatively and work more independently .Meanwhile wild ideas should be valued and horored ,never scorned or dismissed.C. There are things that paents can do at home to encourage creativity.They can involve children in decision making and ask them for suggestion.They can also help their children to understand the consequences of various decision they have made in the situation.D. To have a creative life ,we must lose our fear of being wrong.Experts around the country say we ought to be following with our children both at home and at school.The feeling is that if we teach them to be creatively,they will function well in tomorrow‟s society .There are no problems,only opportunity to be creative.UNIT51.What is your favorite sport? How do you benefit from it?A.Oh, it‟s time to have badminton class!C.Well, you have chosen the badminton as your selective coure in this semester?A.Yeah, my favorite sport is playing badminton because it costs little money and needs very few equipments. You just need a racket and balls. Besides, it‟s very convenient and can be done anywhere.B. I like badminton too. But I …ve chosen the tennis as my favorite sport. And I always take active part in this exercise. It has a great attraction to me since I‟ve never played it before. I like running in the sunshine and enjoy the feeling of dripping with sweat. And you, Yoyo?C.Skating is my favorite sport. Some people may think it is a very costly and dangerous sport. Yes, it‟s very expensive and you may break a leg doing it. But I really like it because it is fast and exciting.D.I‟m worshing of your passion. As for me, I prefer to jog, because it costs no money and needs no equipment. It‟s very convenient and can be done anytime and anywhere. While jogging I can enjoy the fresh air outside and it‟s good for my health.A.Aha, since I was very young, I used to play badminton with my father.He was also very keen on it and he taught me a lot. As we known, taking sports, we can exercise a lot.B. I agree with it. Physical exercises benefit people in many aspects. As regards tennis, if I can keep playing it everyday or just once a week, I can definitely improve my health andition.C.Peferct! All things we gain from sports can improve the quality of our lives. We are undergoing, fast physical development, lack of physical exercise may produce disastrous influence on life. For example, when you skate, you may feel you‟re flying like a bird, it‟s very fantastic and you can enjoy the beautiful scenery.D.Nowadays, we have a lot of spare time at college, and we can devote the time to building up our constitution. Many other sports activities are also good, such as football and basketball, they can train our cooperative spirits.2.Should athletes be role models?Nowadays it becomes more and more popular that people look at athletes as role models. But this problem caused a large-scale argument. Some people hold such an opinion that athletes shoud not be role models. Yet others complain against it. I prefer the former one, what about you, Nancy?Well, as for me, I agree with the latter opinion. Whether we like it or not athletes are role models. They are always the focus of attention, we canwatch their performance on TV or read about them in the newspapers. We can talk about them with our friends. Acturally, they have made a subtle influence on our decisions.I also have the same idea, most athletes are examples of good qualities. We can learn a lot from them, such as: being tough, strong willpower, self-confidence, a great sense of responsibility, In order to win and adjust ourselves to this increasingly competitive world,we need these qualities. Stop a minute, you have a positive mind. But we can see, some athletes, however, do not measure up to our expectations. There are many stories about the criminal activities of athletes, some even take advantages of stimulants or drug to win.Correctly, what is role model? What it means to people, especially to those young people? They consider the successful athletes as superstars in mind, but now many athletes not accept the responsibility of being role models while they accept all the glory and the money.I think it‟s individual phenomenon. A positive role model influences people‟s life in a positive way. Sometimes they can inspire us by their courage and determination when we are discouraged.So in my opinion, we should choose the better athletes as role models. At least athletes are public people we can benefit as much as we can from their good qualities. As for negative models we can pull ourselves away from bad qualities.While we also can say not every athletes do well in this part. Those athletes should keep in mind that they have no right to choose whether to be a role models or not. They can not deny the responsibility of it because children and adults are watching them.Why would people like to take risks?A: 〝adventure〞has become a new form of holiday experience today. From ice climbing to bungee jumping, why are people are always absorbed in dangerous, even life-threatening things?B: Usually men are more likely to be addicted to taking risks, I suppose it was because men are more curious and conversely, women are more rational.C: I agree with you. Men just want to feel extremist, take things to the edge, and get their adrenaline up high.D: We have only one life. It is foolish for me to give up your life for thrills for satisfying our curiosity?A: People who like to do risky things usually are daring and extremist. Also, they could be addicted to it; the more they do it, the more they want to do it.B: I don't know anybody personally who takes things to the edge, but I guess that they do dangerous things such as bungee jumping for the thrill. C: In my opinion, risk takers always have very similar qualities. They want to try something new and enjoy the thrill.D: I wonder what it would be like to do some of the risky things, but I am sure that I wouldn't try them because my fear would be much bigger than the desireA: I think it is a kind of need for them. Sometimes it‟s just like a kind of drug, the more you take it, the more you want.B: That‟s right; our body produces a chemical while we are doing extreme things. The more you do it, the more you want to do it.C: The first time they do something, many people feel scared to do extreme sports; but when they do it several times, they feel excited and thrilled.D: Only the first time is difficult. If you did it once, it would be easy, and then, you get into addition.A: So addiction is the biggest reason. When they do that, they feel the thrill of the rush. If they didn't enjoy taking risks, they would never do it. B: And when they get into addiction, it‟s not easy for them to quit them, I think.C: Yes, if they consider themselves extremists, the will always find something riskier and try it.。
