Topic Topical issuesReadingClass：Name：Group：No：Learning Objectives：1.Review the important words and expressions in the reading material:2. Learn the reading skills: scanning and skimmingLearning Key Points：1.Grasp the important words and expressions in the reading material2.Master the reading skills: scanning and skimmingLearning Difficult Points：Improve the reading abilityLearning Procedures：I.【Pre-class homework】Read the passage and choose the best answer(1)T he first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot ―greener‖ toward the environment（环境）. ―We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,‖ says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement. Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. ―The understanding has increased many, many times,‖ says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day.According to US government reports, emissions（排放）from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9 .Although serious problems still remain and ne ed to be dealt with , the world is a safer and healthier place .A kind of ―Green thinking ‖ has become part of practices .Great improvement has been achieved .In 1988 there were only- 1 -600 recycling（回收利用）programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600 .Advanced lights ,motors , and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution .Twenty –five years ago , there were hardly any education programs for environment .Today , it’s hard to find a public school , university , or law school that does not have such a kind of program .‖ Until we do that, nothing else will change! ‖ say Bruce Anderson.（NMET 2014 大纲）60. According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___A. the social movementB. recycling techniquesC. environmental problemsD. the importance of Earth Day61. Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?A. The grass –roots levelB. The business circleC. Government officialsD. University professors62. What have Americans achieved in environmental protection?A. They have cut car emissions to the lowestB. They have settled their environmental problemsC. They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities.D. They have reduced pollution through effective measures.63. What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph?A. EducationB. PlanningC. Green livingD. CO reduction(2)The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) droppedoff in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.The goal is to find out whether kids using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they’re already amazed. ―What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,‖ said Matt Ke ller, who runs the Ethiopia program.The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device’s camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. ―Seven months ago he didn’t know any Englis h. That’s unbelievable,‖ said Keller.The project aims to get kids to a stage called ―deep reading,‖ where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia’s first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs. （NMET 2014 山东）62. How does the Ethiopia program benefit the kids in the village?A. It trains teachers for them.B. It contributes to their self-study.C. It helps raise their living standards.D. It provides funds for building school s.63. What can we infer from Keller’s words in Paragraph 3?A. They need more time to analyze data.B. More children are needed for the research.C. He is confident about the future of the project.D. The research should be carried out in kinde rgartens.64. It amazed Keller that with the tablet Kelbesa could _______.- 3 -A. learn English words quickly.B. draw pictures of animals.C. write letters to researchers.D. make phone calls to his friends.65. What is the aim of the project?A. To offer Ethiopians higher paying jobs.B. To make Amharic widely used in the world.C. To help Ethiopian kids read to learn in English.D. To assist Ethiopians in learning their first language.II.【While-class】Step1. Lead-inStep2. Group discussion and presentationStep3．Consolidation: Read the following passage and choose the best answer(1)Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with ―low technology,‖ a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship (手艺) that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的) —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, bu t Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation (阐释) of low technology that focuses on nature.Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can ―work and socialize in a more n atural, park-like setting.‖ At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies o ver the years. ―We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished (贫乏的) , because they’re surrounded by the digital world,‖ he says. ―They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.‖This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. ―Without creative human occupation, people became disconn ected from life,‖ Morris said.Research has shown that natural environments can restore(恢复) our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to ―forest-bathe,‖ taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages. （NMET 2014 浙江）50. The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that ________.A. Twitter is having a hard timeB. old cottages are in need of protectionC. early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana- 5 -D. Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology51. Low technology is regarded as something that _______.A.is related to natureB. is out of date todayC. consumes too much energyD. exists in the virtual world52. The main idea of Paragraph 5 is that human beings ________.A. have destroyed many pre-industrial artsB. have a tradition of valuing arts and craftsC. can become intelligent by learning historyD. can regain their individual identity by usin g machines53.The writer’s attitude to ―low technology‖ can best be described as ________.A. positiveB. defensiveC. cautiousD. doubtful54. What might be the best title for the passage?A. Past Glories, Future DreamsB. The Virtual World, the Real ChallengeC. High-tech Companies, Low-tech OfficesD. The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity(2)As has been all too apparent in recent days at Balcombe, few issues cause greater concern than energy policy. Many village communities feel their countryside is being ruined by the power-producing machines of wind farms; yet they never take "direct action", even though the planning laws put them at a s evere disadvantage. And the generous subsidies (财政补贴) , which encourage the expansion of wind power, are not favorable to the village communities and set landowners in conflict with other residents (居民) .Those who disagree with the rapid expansion of wi nd farms state that the damage they cause is out of proportion(比例) to the benefits theybring, because their energy output cannot match that of thecarbon-based power stations they are supposed to replace. Supporters insist that wind must be part of a mix of renewables, nuclear and carbon, and that the country is committed to meeting EU ( European Union) targets for non-carbon energy generation.Against this background, the fact that there is an argument within the Government over whether to publish an o fficial report on wind farms' impact on the countryside becomes even more extraordinary. The two parties in the coalition (联合) government are in disagreement over what it should say.We have some advice for the two parties: publish the report, and let the country be the judge. Even if it contains evidence that wind farms are harmful, it will hardly be a pleasant surprise to people who do not like them. Equally, supporters must argue their case by acknowledging the concerns and explaining why they are eith er misplaced or worthy of much attention.The suggestion that further negotiations are to take place to produce an "acceptable" report suggests that the politics of coalition government are doing the country harm in a certain way. Given the sensitivities involved, all the information should be available so that people can reach their own conclusions, rather than being left with the suspicion（猜疑）that facts are being replaced by political beliefs. (NMET2014福建卷E篇)72. We can learn from the first paragraph th at__________.A. energy policy catches much attention of the publicB. the residents are in favor of the expansion of wind farmsC. many village communities are satisfied with the subsidiesD. the planning laws offer great benefits to the r esidents73. Supporters think that the expansion of wind power____.A. is more rapid than that of carbon-based powerB. guarantees an increase in energy outputC. is expected to be much better than that of nuclear powerD. agrees with EU targets for non-carbon energy generation- 7 -74. It can be inferred from the passage that____.A. an official report will settle the energy problemB. the two parties are divided over the issue of wind farmsC. the two parties have agreed on a furthe r negotiationD. political beliefs concerning energy issue go against facts75. Which of the following reflects the author's opinion?A. Increase political impact on energy policy.B. Release a statement of supporters on wind farms.C. Let the nation judge the facts about wind power.D. Leave the two parties to reach their own conclusions.Step4．PresentationStep5．SummaryIII.【Post-class】Self- reflectionKeys:Suggested Answers:I. Pre-class homework60．C 61．A 62．D 63．A62-65 BCACII. While-class （课堂教学流程）50-54 DABAC72. A 73. D 74. B 75. C。