Section One Around the topic
Step 1 Topic introduction:
The theme of this unit is relationships between friends, relatives, families and so on. The significance of this topic is for students to understand, maintain and appreciate relationships.
Step 2 Your ideas
1.Listen to the song. Fill the blanks in the lyrics while listening.
I believe I can love
You give me your loving care
I believe in what we are
I don’t know where I would be
Without you staying with me
Sometimes, I’m lost in misery
You will take me all the way
I’m not afraid
Oh, you and me
hand in hand to everywhere
Amazing be my friend, oh friend
We are forever friends
Oh baby
You give me all the love I need
You are the only one
Play the song twice constantly and then encourage students to tell the answer by themselves. Step 3 vocabulary
A.Work in pairs and think of as many English words as possible that have
meanings similar to friendly and unfriendly. Compare your list with another
pair
This is a pair-work task. Ask students to brainstorm as many related words as possible.
Then ask them to exchange opinions with other pairs. You may let them read out the
words they have got in front of the class.
B.The underlined adjectives in the sentences below are all about friendliness.
Read them and work out the meanings.
Ask students to read these sentences carefully and discuss their meanings in pairs. Have
them explain the meanings in English.
Answers:
Friendly: acting or ready to act as a friend
Sociable: fond of making friends with people and enjoying being with others
Amiable: having a pleasant and friendly nature; good tempered
Intimate: close in relationship
Close: near in relationship, friendship
Warm: friendly in a pleasant way
Step 4 discussion
Put the class into small groups. Each group selects one student to note down the opinions of each speaker. After the discussion, you may collect their ideas by having some students give a report. This can be really interesting when show diverse opinions.
1). In your opinion, what is a friend? What does friendship mean to you? What do you
think are the most important factors that can keep a long-lasting close relationship with your friends?
2). What about with your family members and relatives?
3). How can we make our close relationships last long?
Step 5 listening and speaking
A: Do you have family members, relatives or friends who live in a faraway place? What do you do to keep in touch with them? Do you do the following?
●phone them
●write letters to them
●send them recorded cassettes
●send them postcards
●have flowers or other gifts delivered to them
●e-mail them
●send them text messages
●visit them during holidays
●chat with them online
B: listening: John lives in Manchester. His sister, Mary, is studying French in Paris. She’s been there for five weeks. He wants to visit her in Paris and he wrote to her about it through an e-mail. He’s just received a message on the answer phone from her.
This activity involves skills of both speaking and listening. Use the questions in task A to start a talk among students. The items listed in the text can give students some topics for continuing their talk.
After the activity in task A, move on to the listening section. At the same time, ask students to pay attention to decide whether they are true or false. Have a class feedback when they finish. Section 2 Reading: Bonded by loops and flares
The text Bonded by loops and flares is taken from the newspaper International Herald Tribune, written by David Brooks. Students may find the ideas expressed in this article quite new. Ask students to read the text carefully and have them do exercises individually. When they finish, ask them to exchange and discuss the answers with their partners.
Step 1 Pre-reading questions
Read these questions and then put students into small groups for a brief discussion. Give them a few minutes to prepare. Ask one or two groups to tell the whole class their conclusions and reasons when they finish.
Do you think people’s perception and thinking are greatly influenced by others? If so, by whom are people most probably influenced? Discuss these questions in groups.
Step 2 Text illumination
1) Ask several students to read the whole text in order to check whether they preview the text
and get a general understanding about it or not beforehand.
2) Ask students to summarize the text
3) The teacher can put the comprehension check either before or after illuminating the text
according to the needs of class and the students’ comprehension ability.
4) Illuminate the text, during the process of which the teacher can encourage students to
highlight or underline the important parts when they read the text in detail. Try to explain that it can help students to grasp the important details and review important points Language points:
1. loop n. a shape like a curve or circle made by a line curving back towards itself 环形，圈状
