Unit 7
The Fun They Had
Purposes
? To get students compare the advantages
and disadvantages to have a mechanical
teacher,
? To understand the purpose of writing and
organization of the text,
? To reinforce some basic linguistic
knowledge by doing various types of
exercises,
Living with Your Roommates
Despite what your parents and others try to make you believe,life at college may
not be the best experience you will ever live through,Why?
The simple one word answer is,Roommates,One has often heard about the guy
that never sleeps or the girl who always has her friends over or the one who
studies all the time and becomes very disturbed by the slightest movement you
make,Okay,they are not all that bad,So how do you get them to stop?
You can’t do it,It’s impossible,The only way you will be able to live with your
roommates is by compromising,If you like to have friends over,but your
roommates want to study,take your friends out,If you don’t like to listen to music
while you are studying but one of your roommates does,ask him to use
headphones,Talk about your habits and ask your roommates about theirs,
Respect your roommates and your roommates will respect you,
You may not be friends with your roommates by the end of the year but you may
be friends with them the year after,when you are no longer rooming together,This
is alright though,Sometimes it’s too difficult to try to live together and be good
friends at the same time,Roommates are not always meant to be your best friends,
Remember,Not only do you have roommates,you are a roommate,Be good to
your roommates,(大学英语听说教程 1） p44
Some useful sentences and structures that you might find handy in
discussing,
? Schools have been in existence for centuries as suitable places to educate
students,
? There are public schools,private schools and home schools,
? In home-schooling,home is the classroom and parents act as teachers,
? Some parents believe that private schools and home schools provide
better-quality education to their children/they can better develop their
children’s talents by teaching them at home,
? Some parents have opted for home-schooling because they are convinced
that they can give their children a better education/are disappointed with
the quality of education in public schools/are shocked by the high costs of
education/want to spare their children the severe competition at school for
at least part of their formative years,
? In some countries,a wide variety of materials are available,covering every
subject on the school curriculum,
? Some home-school programs offer complete curriculum packages,and
issue a diploma upon completion,
? Home-schooling is not only for children,Some people even home-school
through college,
? Home-schooled students are reported to do exceptionally well compared to
students at public schools,
10,By quality education we mean to train students to be creative and
imaginative/responsible to society,work,and family,
11,Education is not a list of skills or facts to be mastered/should go beyond
filling students’ minds with facts/should not make learning a burden on the
memory,
12,Education is more than filling a child with facts,It starts with posing
questions,
13,We should educate our children for life,not just for achievement tests,
14,Good educators should import knowledge imaginatively/encourage
students to study broadly besides intensively pursuing a major field of study,
15,School education is more disciplined,organized,standard,comprehensive,
as opposed to home-schooling,
16,School education is targeted at all school-age students who differ in
character,temperament,talents,and interests whereas home-schooling is
tailored to the needs and interests of individual students,
17,Home-schooling is more flexible,Children can be asked to study more
when they are in the mood or less when they are not,
18,Home-schooling is more effective,Children can cover their learning in less
time/have more spare time to develop their own interests in music,sports,or
painting than their counterparts at school,
19,Home-schooling is more relaxing,Children do not have the pressure to
compete with other children for higher grades,
20,Children are more motivated in home-school because their curriculum is
designed especially for them/is best suited to developing their talents,
21,Home-schooling is still relatively new and should be adopted with care,
22,It is feared that in home-schooling children may feel left out/may not be able
to rise above the level of academic achievement of their parents,
23,Not every father or mother is a good teacher/ is experienced in teaching/is
capable enough to teach all the subjects required at school,
24,It may be difficult to foster in home-schools a sense of the
collective/cooperation/teamwork/communicative skills,
Task,Arguments for or against popularizing home-schooling / the view that
children are better educated at home than at school / the view that home-
schooling is unsuitable for most families., 大学英语听说教程 4,p179
Think over,
1,How does school education differ from home-schooling?
2,Would you prefer to study at home or at school? Why?
3,When you have a child,would you like to educate him or her at home?
What College Professors Do
College professors are often believed to lead easy lives of quiet thinking
while teaching one or two classes every week,But college professors do
much more than go to class,The average professor spends between six
and fifteen hours in the classroom weekly,And that same college professor
works from sixty to eighty hours a week,
Because they must remain current in their fields,professors spend part
of that time reading,reading,reading,That leads to additional hours during
which they revise and update their class lecture notes,It takes far longer to
prepare notes than to deliver them in class,Professors may spend time
conducting experiments,working on college projects,or advising students,
They may be writing books articles,or papers for delivery at conventions,
When not in the classroom or in the office,professors are still working,
behind closed doors in committee sessions or at home grading papers and
preparing for tomorrow’s classes,To accept this sort of schedule willingly,
they must feel strongly about the importance of the college experience,
About the text
1.What does the narrative text tell us?
2,How is it organized?
Structural analysis of the text
? Main idea of each part,
? Part One 1 --- serving as the background of
the story,telling us the date,the leading
characters and the real book
? Part Two (2-31) --- Margie hates school and
through the conversation with Tommy Margie
gets to know about the kind of school where
human beings served as teachers centuries ago,
? Part Three (31-35) --- telling us something about
the schoolroom and the mechanical teacher,
some difficult sentences,words or
phrases
? 1,Her mother sent for the County Inspector,
? Explain,Her mother asked the County Inspector to come
over,
? 2,The mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time,
? Explain,The mechanical teacher finished the calculation of
the mark very quickly,
? 3,Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes,
? Explain,Tommy looked at Margie with an air which
suggested he knew far better about school than others,
? 4,A teacher has to be adjusted to fit the minds of each boy
and girl it teaches,
? Explain,A teacher,a computerized teacher on net,has to
be changed slightly so as to be suitable for each boy and
girl to learn from,
Words to study
head
? Sally headed the class in the examination,
? He was chosen to head the firm,
? We saw him heading for us,so we
stopped aside,
? He lost his head completely and behaved
like a child,
? The boy kept his head in this accident,
send for
? He sent the waiter for a packet of cigarettes,
? One of our water pipes has burst,We must
send for the plumber,
superior
? They occupy a very superior position on
local society,
? It is superior in speed to any other
machine,
? This carpet is superior to ( be inferior to)
that one in quality,
? The superiority of these goods is easy to
see,
adjust to
? She must learn to adjust herself to new life,
? Astronauts in flight must adjust to
weightlessness,
? An adjustable lamp can be placed in
various position,
? They have made a most satisfactory
adjustment to their environment,
Translation exercises
1.Yesterday a government delegation headed by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs arrived in South Africa and began a three-day
friendly visit to the country,
2,It is awfully funny and splits your ideas with laughter to
observe these caricatures which satirize social ills,
3.Computers are one of the most useful teaching aids,for all
your lessons as well as all the questions asked and all the
answers provided can be shown on a screen,
4,As soon as his mother fell ill suddenly the day before
yesterday,Xiao Zhang sent for a doctor,who came and
diagnosed and treated his mother,
5,He failed in the college entrance examination last year,but he
did not feel disappointed,Instead,he continued to study hard,
passed the examination successfully and became a student in a
famous university this year,
Translation exercises
6.There are many English words that this middle school student can not
pronounce correctly,Therefore,he has to make great effort to
learn the phonetic symbols well and acquire standard English
pronunciation,
7.In this new era marked by knowledge explosion and information
explosion,we have to pursue constant study and take particular
care to renew our knowledge,Only thus,can we become adjusted
to the requirements of our specialized work,
8,With his shirt tucked into the top of his trousers and a leather bag
tucked under his arm,the boy looked just like a boss,
9,Although she is only eight years old,the little girl is already very good
at calculating fractions,No wonder her parents feel very proud of
her,
10,All the neighbourhood have heard about the news,but you haven’t,
Don’t you think it is very strange?
Dictation
Children learn almost nothing from television,and the
more they watch,the less they remember,They regard
television purely as entertainment,resent programs that
make demands on them and are surprised that anybody
should take the medium seriously,Far from being over-
excited by programs,they are mildly bored with the whole
thing,These are the main conclusions from a new study of
children and television,Its author confirms that the modern
child is a dedicated viewer,The study suggests that there
is little point in the television company’s attempts to isolate
adult viewing in the later hours,More than a third of the
children regularly watched their programs after 9 a.m,All
11 year-olds had watched programs after midnight,
Task
1,Students are divided into groups to discuss 1) The
mechanical teacher of the future world’s school
must be great fun,2) The advantages and
disadvantages of the fact that people are getting
more and more dependent on computers,
2,Assignment,Write a passage with the title My
future House,
The Fun They Had
Purposes
? To get students compare the advantages
and disadvantages to have a mechanical
teacher,
? To understand the purpose of writing and
organization of the text,
? To reinforce some basic linguistic
knowledge by doing various types of
exercises,
Living with Your Roommates
Despite what your parents and others try to make you believe,life at college may
not be the best experience you will ever live through,Why?
The simple one word answer is,Roommates,One has often heard about the guy
that never sleeps or the girl who always has her friends over or the one who
studies all the time and becomes very disturbed by the slightest movement you
make,Okay,they are not all that bad,So how do you get them to stop?
You can’t do it,It’s impossible,The only way you will be able to live with your
roommates is by compromising,If you like to have friends over,but your
roommates want to study,take your friends out,If you don’t like to listen to music
while you are studying but one of your roommates does,ask him to use
headphones,Talk about your habits and ask your roommates about theirs,
Respect your roommates and your roommates will respect you,
You may not be friends with your roommates by the end of the year but you may
be friends with them the year after,when you are no longer rooming together,This
is alright though,Sometimes it’s too difficult to try to live together and be good
friends at the same time,Roommates are not always meant to be your best friends,
Remember,Not only do you have roommates,you are a roommate,Be good to
your roommates,(大学英语听说教程 1） p44
Some useful sentences and structures that you might find handy in
discussing,
? Schools have been in existence for centuries as suitable places to educate
students,
? There are public schools,private schools and home schools,
? In home-schooling,home is the classroom and parents act as teachers,
? Some parents believe that private schools and home schools provide
better-quality education to their children/they can better develop their
children’s talents by teaching them at home,
? Some parents have opted for home-schooling because they are convinced
that they can give their children a better education/are disappointed with
the quality of education in public schools/are shocked by the high costs of
education/want to spare their children the severe competition at school for
at least part of their formative years,
? In some countries,a wide variety of materials are available,covering every
subject on the school curriculum,
? Some home-school programs offer complete curriculum packages,and
issue a diploma upon completion,
? Home-schooling is not only for children,Some people even home-school
through college,
? Home-schooled students are reported to do exceptionally well compared to
students at public schools,
10,By quality education we mean to train students to be creative and
imaginative/responsible to society,work,and family,
11,Education is not a list of skills or facts to be mastered/should go beyond
filling students’ minds with facts/should not make learning a burden on the
memory,
12,Education is more than filling a child with facts,It starts with posing
questions,
13,We should educate our children for life,not just for achievement tests,
14,Good educators should import knowledge imaginatively/encourage
students to study broadly besides intensively pursuing a major field of study,
15,School education is more disciplined,organized,standard,comprehensive,
as opposed to home-schooling,
16,School education is targeted at all school-age students who differ in
character,temperament,talents,and interests whereas home-schooling is
tailored to the needs and interests of individual students,
17,Home-schooling is more flexible,Children can be asked to study more
when they are in the mood or less when they are not,
18,Home-schooling is more effective,Children can cover their learning in less
time/have more spare time to develop their own interests in music,sports,or
painting than their counterparts at school,
19,Home-schooling is more relaxing,Children do not have the pressure to
compete with other children for higher grades,
20,Children are more motivated in home-school because their curriculum is
designed especially for them/is best suited to developing their talents,
21,Home-schooling is still relatively new and should be adopted with care,
22,It is feared that in home-schooling children may feel left out/may not be able
to rise above the level of academic achievement of their parents,
23,Not every father or mother is a good teacher/ is experienced in teaching/is
capable enough to teach all the subjects required at school,
24,It may be difficult to foster in home-schools a sense of the
collective/cooperation/teamwork/communicative skills,
Task,Arguments for or against popularizing home-schooling / the view that
children are better educated at home than at school / the view that home-
schooling is unsuitable for most families., 大学英语听说教程 4,p179
Think over,
1,How does school education differ from home-schooling?
2,Would you prefer to study at home or at school? Why?
3,When you have a child,would you like to educate him or her at home?
What College Professors Do
College professors are often believed to lead easy lives of quiet thinking
while teaching one or two classes every week,But college professors do
much more than go to class,The average professor spends between six
and fifteen hours in the classroom weekly,And that same college professor
works from sixty to eighty hours a week,
Because they must remain current in their fields,professors spend part
of that time reading,reading,reading,That leads to additional hours during
which they revise and update their class lecture notes,It takes far longer to
prepare notes than to deliver them in class,Professors may spend time
conducting experiments,working on college projects,or advising students,
They may be writing books articles,or papers for delivery at conventions,
When not in the classroom or in the office,professors are still working,
behind closed doors in committee sessions or at home grading papers and
preparing for tomorrow’s classes,To accept this sort of schedule willingly,
they must feel strongly about the importance of the college experience,
About the text
1.What does the narrative text tell us?
2,How is it organized?
Structural analysis of the text
? Main idea of each part,
? Part One 1 --- serving as the background of
the story,telling us the date,the leading
characters and the real book
? Part Two (2-31) --- Margie hates school and
through the conversation with Tommy Margie
gets to know about the kind of school where
human beings served as teachers centuries ago,
? Part Three (31-35) --- telling us something about
the schoolroom and the mechanical teacher,
some difficult sentences,words or
phrases
? 1,Her mother sent for the County Inspector,
? Explain,Her mother asked the County Inspector to come
over,
? 2,The mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time,
? Explain,The mechanical teacher finished the calculation of
the mark very quickly,
? 3,Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes,
? Explain,Tommy looked at Margie with an air which
suggested he knew far better about school than others,
? 4,A teacher has to be adjusted to fit the minds of each boy
and girl it teaches,
? Explain,A teacher,a computerized teacher on net,has to
be changed slightly so as to be suitable for each boy and
girl to learn from,
Words to study
head
? Sally headed the class in the examination,
? He was chosen to head the firm,
? We saw him heading for us,so we
stopped aside,
? He lost his head completely and behaved
like a child,
? The boy kept his head in this accident,
send for
? He sent the waiter for a packet of cigarettes,
? One of our water pipes has burst,We must
send for the plumber,
superior
? They occupy a very superior position on
local society,
? It is superior in speed to any other
machine,
? This carpet is superior to ( be inferior to)
that one in quality,
? The superiority of these goods is easy to
see,
adjust to
? She must learn to adjust herself to new life,
? Astronauts in flight must adjust to
weightlessness,
? An adjustable lamp can be placed in
various position,
? They have made a most satisfactory
adjustment to their environment,
Translation exercises
1.Yesterday a government delegation headed by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs arrived in South Africa and began a three-day
friendly visit to the country,
2,It is awfully funny and splits your ideas with laughter to
observe these caricatures which satirize social ills,
3.Computers are one of the most useful teaching aids,for all
your lessons as well as all the questions asked and all the
answers provided can be shown on a screen,
4,As soon as his mother fell ill suddenly the day before
yesterday,Xiao Zhang sent for a doctor,who came and
diagnosed and treated his mother,
5,He failed in the college entrance examination last year,but he
did not feel disappointed,Instead,he continued to study hard,
passed the examination successfully and became a student in a
famous university this year,
Translation exercises
6.There are many English words that this middle school student can not
pronounce correctly,Therefore,he has to make great effort to
learn the phonetic symbols well and acquire standard English
pronunciation,
7.In this new era marked by knowledge explosion and information
explosion,we have to pursue constant study and take particular
care to renew our knowledge,Only thus,can we become adjusted
to the requirements of our specialized work,
8,With his shirt tucked into the top of his trousers and a leather bag
tucked under his arm,the boy looked just like a boss,
9,Although she is only eight years old,the little girl is already very good
at calculating fractions,No wonder her parents feel very proud of
her,
10,All the neighbourhood have heard about the news,but you haven’t,
Don’t you think it is very strange?
Dictation
Children learn almost nothing from television,and the
more they watch,the less they remember,They regard
television purely as entertainment,resent programs that
make demands on them and are surprised that anybody
should take the medium seriously,Far from being over-
excited by programs,they are mildly bored with the whole
thing,These are the main conclusions from a new study of
children and television,Its author confirms that the modern
child is a dedicated viewer,The study suggests that there
is little point in the television company’s attempts to isolate
adult viewing in the later hours,More than a third of the
children regularly watched their programs after 9 a.m,All
11 year-olds had watched programs after midnight,
Task
1,Students are divided into groups to discuss 1) The
mechanical teacher of the future world’s school
must be great fun,2) The advantages and
disadvantages of the fact that people are getting
more and more dependent on computers,
2,Assignment,Write a passage with the title My
future House,
