Teaching Plan for Unit 3 Course: College EnglishUnit 3Section A Marriage Across NationsI. Warm-up Activity1. Topic Discussioni. Student’s Discussion(Teacher asks students to discuss the topic on the passage.）1) What are the possible factors you may take into account when you areseeking a girlfriend/boyfriend?― Educational background, job, financial status, personality, physical appearance, age, families, etc.2) Would you mind marrying a person from a different culture or nation?Why or why not?― Some people do. Because they think coming from different cultures or nations tends to bring about many problems or simply because they are sure that they will be in for opposition from family members.―Others may hold the opinion that it doesn’t matter to marry a person from a different culture or nation. They may regard it as following a fashion or something novel and exciting in life. Or they don’t see coming from different cultures as a problem, and they believe they can lead a happy life so long as they can learn to understand and tolerate each other and share mutual trust and respect.3) What do you think of interracial marriage?― Just as each coin has got two sides, interracial marriage has both advantages and disadvantages. As one of the results of cultural exchanges, interracial marriage can further promote the mutual understanding between people under different cultures. However, interracial marriages can cause many problems within the family, such as religion, values and traditions, etc.ii. Teacher’s SummaryAlthough people of different ethnics have been mixing for centuries, the subject of interracial marriage is still controversial. There is no doubt that interracial marriage is also the result of love which helps to develop the mutual understanding between two partners. However, such marriage tends to bring about problems. Even now, mixed couples may encounter many obstacles, even strong oppositions from both family members and friends. Due to the fact that the couple has a different family background, culture, custom, and social class level, many disagreements may occur. Religion can be a problem. If one has adifferent religion from the other, there is a problem. Because some religions celebrate certain holidays which contain different cultures, values and beliefs while others don’t. Their offspring will encounter problems, too. Children of mixed couples are not likely to be accepted in certain areas in a community.They often have a hard time fitting in.2. Questions on the topic and the passage1) What did Gail and Mark experience during their two years together?―They experienced the usual ups and downs of a couple learning to know, understand, and respect each other, which displayed the shortcomings and strong points of each other’s characters.2) Did different racial background influence their relationship?―Yes, it enhanced their relationship and taught them a lot about tolerance, compromise, and being open with each other.3) How did Gail and Mark feel about their future？― They knew clearly that they would encounter lots of difficulties in their future.But they would not give in because of their mutual respect and trust.4) What was the marriage of Gail’s parents?―After all, it was a failure. Her parents were going through a divorce after thirty-five years of marriage, for they had not known each other quite well when they got married in the expectation that marriage was an automatic way to make everything work out right.5) What was the attitude of Gail’ mother towards her marrying to Mark?― Gail’s mother, Deborah, harbored reservations about a mixed marriage. She was worried greatly that her daughter might be marrying Mark for the same wrong reasons that she herself married Gail’s father. So she suggested her daughter waiting for some time.6) What was the attitude of Gail’ father towards her marrying to Mark?？― Gail’s father, David, held strong opposition to their wedding plans for fear that mark might marry his daughter for some purpose and that they might encounter some marital difficulties in their future life. He also held the view that waiting did not hurt.7) What was Gail’s responses to her parent s’ oppositions？― Gail did not give in to their fierce oppositions. She told her mother that Mark and she had seen each other at their worst many times and that they felt deeply about each other. She made her father know that they would resolve all problems when the time came.II. Background InformationInterracial marriage: Before June 12th, 1967, interracial marriage was illegal and individual states in the US had the right to separate and punish interracial couples. These punishments included imprisonment of up to10 years. Violations includedmarriage, sex, and living together. On June 12th, 1967, interracial couples became legal thanks to the US Supreme Court decision entitled Loving v. Virginia.III.Text Structure AnalysisThe passage is a first person narrative about the writer’s own experience of a mixed marriage in America. The passage is generally organized according to time sequence, the first thing first and the second thing second. The whole text is madeup of two parts.Part One (Para 1-4): This part introduces to us the love between Gail, a white woman and Mark, a black man. Gail and Mark were preparing to get married as theywere sure of their love for each other, knowing each other’s weaknesses andstrengths. Furthermore, it is mentioned that their differences only enhanced theirrelationship, that they were prepared for their forthcoming difficulties as a mixedcouple in America, and that they were sure of avoiding the mistake of not trulyknowing each other. This part serves as a general background for us to see whatwill happen for a mixed marriage in America through the example of Gail andMark.Part Two (Para 5-21): This part can be further divided into two subparts, the opinions from Gail’s mother and the opinions from Gail’s father about Gail’s mixedmarriage. Both the father and the mother had reservations about Gail’s mixedmarriage and both of them tried to persuade Gail from marrying Mark.Therefore, these two subparts are compatible to each other in matchingrelationship as both of them held negative opinions on Gail’s mixed marriage.From Paragraph 5 to Paragraph 9, we can find the opinions from Gail’s mother. Gail’s mother tried to persuade Gail not to get married, while Gail wasarguing for herself. Even though Gail’s mother argued that Mark’s color is notthe problem, she clearly expressed her concern that Gail was making a wrongdecision. She concluded that Gail should wait and that there was no harm inwaiting.From Paragraph 10 to Paragraph 21, we can find the opinions of Gail’s father.Gail’s father suspected Mark’s intention in marrying Gail was to obtainAmerican citizenship. Then Gail’s father continued to quote statistics showingthat mixed couples had higher divorce rates than couples of the same race. Healso mentioned the hardships for the children of mixed marriages as an evidenceto support himself. This was also refuted by Gail. At last, he warned his daughterthat it was never too late to change her mind. From here we can see that someAmericans look at mixed marriages in a negative way.IV.Structured WritingA Paragraph of Denial of Some Opinions Followed by Some Other OpinionsA common way to present opinions or arguments is first to reject or correct some opinions or arguments and then on the basis of that, give the opinions or arguments that are intended to be conveyed. The writer uses this common way to present one’s opinion. Here we can study an analysis of Paragraph 7 to show how the mother presents her opinion in this way. The structure can be described in the following chart.Please look at the following chart again! The writer presented two different ideas: one about Gail’s mother’s early idea and the other about others people’s idea. Then she goes on to reject both of them. The two ideas and the rejections are parallel to each other. In text structure analysis, we call them a Matching Relationship of compatibility. In other words, the two parts compare with each other in their similarity. Both of the ideas are not correct and are followed by corrections. So, we can also call them parallel structure.write a paragraph which starts with a correction of one idea and goes on to present another idea. In this way, students can be familiar with the writing skill.V. Detailed Study of the TextWords and Phrases Study1. charactern.1) [C] qualities that make sb. a particular type of person 性格，个性What does her handwriting tell you about her character? 根据她写的字，你觉得她有什么样的性格？I choose my friends for their good characters. 我择友的标准是品格一定要好。
