Unit 6

Ⅰ. Objectives

After studying this unit, the students are expected to be able to

1. Master the basic language and skills necessary to express sympathy;

2. Understand the main ideas of Text A and Text B, and master the useful sentence structures and words and expressions found in the exercises relevant to the first two texts;

3. Know how to use the passive voice; 4. Know how to write a personal letter (1); 5. Understand paragraph development (3). II. Procedure:

Part I Listening & Speaking

Listening & Speaking teaching plan

The teacher begins with the Preview to make sure that the students have some idea of what this unit is all about. After that, the teacher activates the Listening and Speaking exercises as follows

1) The Language for Expressing Sympathy

Give a brief lead-in talk on the nature and uses of expressing sympathy.

Ask a student to describe to the class either a true or an imaginary event that was / may be greatly distressing to him or her; then invite the rest of the students to express sympathy。

What would you say when you hear that your classmate fail the text? What would you say when you know that someone is ill? Suggested answers: What a pity!

I’m sorry to hear that… I’m awfully /terribly that…

Have the students listen to Exercise 1 (1-3 times) and fill in the blanks with the missing words;

Ask one student to read aloud the talk so students can check their completed answers;

2) Expressing Sympathy

Go through the new words in the first dialogue in Exercise 3;

Have the students listen to the dialogue twice and fill in the blanks with the missing words;

Ask students to answer the questions about the dialogue;

Now have them look for the language used to express sympathy; Next, students can role play the dialogue;

Then have them either do the same with the second dialogue or be creative with it;

3) Listening Practice

Part II Text A (4 periods):

1. Starter (&) background information& the general idea of the text 1) Starter

Were you ever seriously ill when you were a child? How did you feel then and what did other people do to help you? Share your story with the class.

After a brief explanation of the instructions, the teacher

A. gives the students a few minutes to think about the questions in the starter; B. asks some students to respond to the questions (10 minutes). 2) Background Information

McDonald’s Corporation

McDonald’s Corporation is a fast-food restaurant company based in Oak Brook, Illinois. Since the 1950s, McDonald’s family-oriented restaurants have revolutionized the fast-food business and the company has become one of the best known in the world. Tens of thousands of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide serve millions of customers a day. McDonald’s restaurants, which offer toy promotions and often feature playgrounds, are especially popular with children.

The first McDonald’s restaurant was founded in 1940 by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. During the 1960s, McDonald’s began to mount aggressive advertising and marketing campaigns. By 1972 McDonald’s had 2,000 restaurants and $1 billion in annual sales.

International expansion also became an important part of the company’s business strategy. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant outside the United States in 1967. In 1988 McDonald’s operated 2,600 stores outside the United States, generating $1.8 billion in annual revenues. By 1994 the company had 4,700 international franchises, producing $3.4 billion in annual revenues. The first McDonald’s in Moscow, Russia, served more than 30,000 customers on its first day of operation in 1990, setting the record for the most people served by one restaurant in a single day. In 1992 McDonald’s opened a restaurant in Beijing, China. The Beijing McDonald’s — which featured 700 seats, 2 kitchens, 29 cash registers, and 850 employees — is the company’s largest.