Unit19 Modern Agriculture
Ⅰ.Teaching Goals:
1. Talk about modern agriculture and the effects it has on people’s life.
2. Practise giving advice and making decisions
3. Learn to use “it” for Emphasis.
4. Learn to read statistical graphs.
5. Write a plan for a vegetable garden.
Ⅱ.Teaching Time: eight periods
The First and Second Periods
Warming up，Listening and Speaking
Teaching Aims:
1. Let the students learn to read statistical graphs and .give advice and make decisions
2. Train the student’s listening ability.
3. Improving the students speaking ability by describing.
4. Study the language points concerned.
Teaching Important Points:
Improve the students’ speaking and listening abilities.
Teaching Difficult Points:
How to improve the students’ speaking ability.
Teaching Methods:
1. Listening-and-answering activity to help the students go through with the listening text.
2. Pair work or group work to practise speaking.
Teaching Aids:
1. A tape recorder
Teaching Procedures:
Step 1 Greetings
Step 2 Warming up
. With the time passing by, people’s living standard is becoming higher and higher. As a result their eating habits have changed a lot. Today we are going to know some details about it by watching the graph in Unit19, warming up on page 43. First please read the information in this part and look at the graph. Then discuss the following questions in groups， later ask some students to report the results：
1 How are people’s eating habits changing over the years according to the graph?
2 What do you think caused these changes?
3 What effects do you think the changes in eating habits will have on agriculture or nature?..
Step 3 Listening
Deal with listening part as usual
Step4 Speaking
Read the instruction by yourselves. From this part we know a group of farmers have been given a large piece of land. Together with the village leader, they have to decide how to use the land. The farmers express their opinions about it. At the same time, the village leader should listen carefully to them, ask questions, take notes of their different opinions and finally make a good decision. Now work in groups of five. Each group member will play one of the roles. Do what you should.
Step 5 Summary
Summarize this period and some useful phrases and expressions:
Useful phrases:
have an effect on raise pigs
What do you think caused these changes?
compare …to.. compare…with…
make a decision result in =lead to
make good money
be used as be used for
do what is best for everybody take notes of
Useful expressions:
In my opinion you should…
If I were you…
As far as I can see the best thing would be to…
Wouldn't it be better if …?
I think he is right…
We have to make a choice…
We can’t do both, so…
The other idea sounds better to me
Step 6 Practice
Choose the best answer：
1. He said he was going to ____ a lot of pigs on his farm. (B)
A. rise B. keep C. grow D. support
2. My father studies ______ in his spare time. （C）
A. farm B. farmer C. farming D. to farm
3. He is ______ interested in English. He often works at it until ______ into the night. (A)
A．deeply; deep B．deep; deeply C．deep; deep D．deeply; deeply
4. They ____ chickens, cattle and crops as well on the farm. (A)
A. raise B. feed C. kept D. bring up
5. My brother stayed at home studying English ____ going to the cinema. (B)
A. instead B. instead of C. without D. didn’t
6. The accident was my fault, so I had to pay for the damage ____ the other car. (C)
A. of B. at C. to D. on
7. The old man is still suffering from pain. It seems that the medicine has _____ him. (A)
A. no effect on B. is used for
C. some effect in D. a good effect
8. _____ should a man have courage, ______ he should have wisdom and knowledge. (D)
A. Neither…nor B. Both…and
C. Either…or D. Not only …but also
9. He talked about his wonderful ____ in Africa, but he said he didn’t have _____ in dealing with some problems he met there. (A)
A. experiences…much experience
B. experience…many experiences
C. experiences… many experiences
D. experience…much more experience
10. A library with five thousand books _____ to the nation as a gift. (A)
A. is offered B. have offered
C. are offered D. has offered
Step6. Record after Teaching
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________The Third and Fourth Periods
Teaching Aims:
1. Language ability: Improving the student’s reading ability, especially their skimming and scanning ability.
2. Enable the students to learn sth about agriculture.
Teaching Important Points:
1.Let the student understand the text better.
2.Let the students know sth about traditional agriculture and modern agriculture.
Teaching Difficult Points:
1.Master some useful expressions and difficult sentences.
2.Understand what the text is about.
Teaching Methods:
1.Listening activity to help the students to get the main idea of each paragraph.
2.Questioning-and-answering activity to help the students to go through with the whole passage.
3.Pair work or group work to make every student work in class.
Teaching Aids:
1.A tape recorder
Teaching Procedures:
Step1 Greetings
Greet the whole class as usual.
Step 2: Pre-reading and presentation:
In the last period you discussed how to use a big piece of land. Most of you gave us very good advice about it. Today we’ll still talk about agriculture. First I’ll show you some pictures of traditional farming and modern farming.
1. Look carefully and tell the advantages and disadvantages of each way. Some examples as follows:
Raising chickens
Small scale
The chickens are big and fat.
The eggs and meat do not taste good.
The chickens are not free.
It costs a lot of money to keep them
Large scale
Keep thousands of chickens
The chickens are big and fat.
The eggs and meat do not taste good.
The chickens are not free.
It costs a lot of money to keep them
Horsepower
handcraft
It is hard work.
It needs more time to work all day long.
People need to rest sometimes.
Machines(tractor)
They are expensive.
They need oil which is expensive.
It can help people to save the time.
It can help people to do whatever people can not do on the farm.
Climate control
Open air
If the weather conditions are bad you can loose the crops.
The landscape is more beautiful.
The land must be good for farming.
Greenhouse
The weather cannot damage crops.
It is expensive to build and operate a greenhouse.
Greenhouses can be built where the land is not suitable for farming.
2. T sum up in a few words: “ With the development of the new technique, the agricultural production has increased. The farmers can use chemical fertilization to make crop stronger and better and they can use advanced machines to irrigate or cultivate the farmland. ”
Now we have known some advantages and disadvantages about traditional farming and modern farming. Let’s know more about agriculture-----Modern Agriculture of reading part
Step 3 Listening
Listen to the tape and tell the main idea of the whole passage:
The passage mainly tells us about___________.
A: farmers in China
B: the development of agriculture in China
C: advanced technology in China
D: genetically modified plants in China
Step4: Reading
1.Skimming
Questions：
(1).How much land can be used for faming in China?
(Seven percent of the land.)
(2).What is the advantage and disadvantage of chemical fertilization?
(it helps to produce better crops. But is harmful to the environment.)
(3). What is the biggest problem of Chinese farmers?
(The shortage of arable land.):
2. Skipping
Questions:
(1)What does “GM” stand for?
(“G” stands for “genetically” from the word “genes”. “M” stands for “modified”, which means “changed”.)
(2)What is the advantage of tomatoes which were using technique known as “GM”?
(The tomatoes are bigger and healthier. They can grow without danger from diseases. They also need much less time to get ripe.)
3. Intensive reading
Fill in the table:
1950s---1980s 1980s--present
The use of machines e.g. tractors
The use of electric pumps for irrigation
The use of chemical fertilizers
The use of insect killers
The use of special seedbeds The use of greenhouses
To make vegetables bigger or better
To change vegetables so they can grow on poor soil
Knowledge from abroad
Innovations Problems Advantages
Chemical fertilizers Shortage of arable land Bigger and better crops
Pumps for irrigation Weather conditions Bigger and better crops
Special seedbeds Shortage of arable land More crops in one year
Machines e.g. tractors How to make production cheaper (not in the text) Bigger crops on more land by fewer hands
International exchange Lack of knowledge Learn from other people
Greenhouses Weather condition Bigger and better crops
Greenhouses (roots in water tanks) Shortage of arable land More crops in one year
GM technique (can grow in poor soil) Shortage of arable land Can grow in poor soil; bigger & healthier; less time to ripe
4. Discussion
① Let Ss work in groups and imagine what other changes have happened on farms in the last 100 years.
② Let Ss discuss the following questions
At the beginning of the passage, why does the writer say “It is on the arable land that the farmers produce food for the whole population of China”?
What does the writer want to tell us by saying, “Not only food production is important but
also taking care of the environment.”?
What can we infer from the sentence “In China about one hundred research stations are now doing GM research to make better tomatoes, cotton…?”
What can you imagine about the future of food production?
Step 5 Post-reading
1.Finish the exercises in Students Book , page 46, Exercise 1-2
2. If possible, teacher can get Ss read a new text in Workbook, page111 , and finish all the exercises.
Step6 Language points
1. 强调句的结构通常是：It + be + 强调部分+ that (人物可用who/whom)加句子其他部分，特征：把It is / was ……that….结构去掉，剩下部分能整理成完整的一句话，则为强调句．
Lucy went to China last year.
It was Lucy who/that went to China last year.
It was China that Lucy went to last year.
It was last year that Lucy went to China.
2.as …… as possible 尽可能……
as much / many / early / soon/ cheap … as possible
e.g. Stay here as long as possible.
3. where possible 是 where ( it is) possible 的省略结构
e.g. Go to places where necessary.
Come to see me when possible.
We will go there next week if possible.
4. bring in 引进
e.g. We should bring in new technology.
5. be friendly to 对…..友善／有利
e.g. He is very friendly to me.
It is friendly to our work.
be friendly to 与 be harmful to / be bad for 相对应，与be good for 相一致
6. depend on 取决于，依靠
e.g. Whether you can study English well depends on how hard you study.
7. not only …but also
如果将not only 放在句首，这时not only 所在的分句需要部分倒装
Not only do we learn Chinese but also we learn English.
由not only… but also 连接的并列主语，谓语动词的单复数形式按就近一致原则，与贴近它的主语一致．
8.protect … from…保护……免受…
She wears sunglasses to protect her eyes from sun.
9. no matter 不管，无论，常与副词when, where, how, who, what, which等特殊疑问词连用，引导让步状语从句．可与 whatever, whenever, wherever, however 等替换，但wh-ever还可以引导名词性从句．
e.g. No matter where (wherever) you are , I will be right here waiting for you.
You can choose whatever you like.
Whoever leaves last must close the door.
10. in other words 换句话说，用语插入语，常对前面所说的话进行解释
e.g. The doctor succeeded in her operation, in other words, he gave her a second life.
11. a variety of 多种多样的，各种各样的＝various
e.g. She sells a variety of flower.= She sells various flower.
Step7 Practice:
Fill in the blanks with proper words:
1. The biggest problem of Chinese farmers is the ___ of ___ land. Using the ___ technologies, Chinese scientists grow vegetables in _____. The ____ of these vegetables are not planted in earth but ____ in water that ___all the nutrients they ___ to grow. A kind of tomato was ___ that was very different from any ___ before. It was developed ___ a technique known as GM.
Keys：
1. shortage ， arable， latest ，greenhouses， roots， hang ，contains ，need ,developed, grown, using
Step8 Summary
Step9 Record after Teaching
____________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
The Fifth and Sixth Periods
Teaching Aims:
1. Learn to use some words correctly.
2. Learn some rules about the use of “it” for emphasis.
Teaching Important Points:
Master the use of “it” for emphasis.
Teaching Difficult Points:
How to use word formation correctly.
Teaching Methods:
Practising and writing
Teaching Aids:
A computer
Teaching Procedures:
Step 1. Greetings
Greet the whole class as usual.
Step 2.Revision and Presentation
In the last period from the reading passage we learned a passage Modern Agriculture. What’s it mainly about? What should modern agriculture be like?( It should increase agricultural production but also be friendly to the environment. ) How many new techniques for modern agriculture are mentioned in this passage? What are they? So much for the revision. In this period we’ll come to word study and the grammar.
Step 3 Word study
Please open your books on page47. Let’s come to word study first. At the same time explain some words to the students.
Step 4 Grammar
1. Now let’s talk about the use of “it” for emphasis.
Show the two sentences from the text:
It is on this arable land that the farmers produce food for the whole population of China.
It was from the early 1990s that scientists started to develop new techniques to increase agricultural production without harming the environment
These are the pattern: It is/was + 被强调部分+ that/who +其它.
要点点拔
用于强调句型，即“It is/was＋被强调部分＋that/who/whom+其它”句型之中。
使用该句型有以下几点请注意：
① 强调句的谓语is或was永远用单数，例如：
It was yesterday that I met your father in the street．
②不管被强调部分是哪种状语，只能用that连接，不得使用where、when等连词。 例如：
It was in the street that I met your father yesterday．
③被强调部分为人时，可用who(主格或宾格)和whom(宾格)代替that，用that也行。例如：
1) It was your father that/whom /who I met in the street yesterday．
2) It was I that/who met your father in the street yesterday．
④强调句中 也要注意主谓一致、人称一致和否定转移的问题。 例如：
1) It is they who are our friends．
2) It was not until ten o'clock that we got home last night．
⑤注意不要混淆强调句和其他从句。It is / was…that…为强调句标志，去掉后仍可组成一个完整的句子，只是没被强调,而其他从句一般不具备这一特征。
比较：
1) It was ten o'clock when we got home last night．我们昨晚到家时已十点了。
2) It was at ten o'clock that we got home last night．我们昨晚是在十点到家的。
Next let’s do some exercises to practice.
2. let Ss find out some sentences with ‘it’ in the text ‘Modern Agriculture’.
It is on this arable land that the farmers produce food for the whole population of China. (paragraph 1)
It was from the early 1990s that scientists started to develop new techniques to increase agricultural production without harming the environment. (paragraph 2)
It was developed using a technique know as GM. (paragraph 4) (it is not for Emphasis)
3. Deal with exercises
Step 5 Summary
Summarize the use of “it” for emphasis
Step6 Practice
Translate the following sentences into English.
1. _____ （众所周知）that the Olympic game will the held in Beijing in five years.
2. The officer stared at the soldier and then left the room ____（一言不发）.
3. The servant ____（忠实于）his master and ____ his wishes.
4. ____ （为了）help the children in the poor areas, the government set up the fund.
5. ____ （最有效的方法）to protect the wild animals from dying out is to forbid hunting.
6. “GM”_____ （代表）genetically modified.
Keys:
1. It is well known 2. without any words 3. was devoted to, carried out 4. In order to 5. The most effective way 7. stands for
Step7 Record after Teaching
_______________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________
The Seventh and Eighth Periods
Teaching Aims:
1.Do some reading.
2.Do some writing.
3.Review the grammatical points and useful expressions in this unit.
Teaching Important Points:
1.How to read a passage.
2.How to write a 评论.
Teaching Difficult Points:
How to improve the students’ integrating skills.
Teaching Methods:
1.Some exercises to review the grammar in the last period.
2.Explanation to go through the reading material.
3.Individual work or pair work to train the students’ writing ability.
Teaching Aids:
A computer
Teaching Procedures:
Step 1. Greetings
Greet the whole class as usual.
Step 2.Presentation
How many seasons are there in a year? What are they? What should farmers do in each season? Now let’s read a passage Farming and Gardening on page48.
Step3 Listening
Listen to the first two paragraphs to get some information about Jia Sixie and his book.
Name:
Jia Sixie
Time:
6th century AD
Place of birth:
Shandong
Contribution:
doing research into agriculture
Book:
Time:
Qimin Yaoshu
Around 540AD
Content farming and gardening
advice on many subjects and instructions for making wine
Step 4 Reading
１．Read the last paragraph quickly and fill in the table:
２．Read the text carefully and do True or False EXX:
（1）China was the earliest research center for agriculture. ( T )
（2）JiaSixie was born in Gaoyang in Shandong Province. ( F )
（3）.Qi Min Yao Shu includes advice on the following subjects: growing green vegetables and fruit trees, keeping cows and sheep, and there are also instructions for making metals. ( F )
（4）The spring ploughing should be deeper than the autumn ploughing. ( F )
（5）We should plant rice in the same field year after year. ( F )
（6）We’d better grow different plants next to each other in the same field. ( T )
Step 5 Language points
1. Explain the language points in the text.
(1). go against 违背，不利于
e.g. We should not go against school rules.
(2). raise, keep, support, feed
这四者均有“抚养，养家，赡养”之意
Ａ. raise, keep 抚养人；饲养动物；种植、栽培农作物
e.g. He made a living by keeping / raising pigs.
B. support 养活人口，不用于饲养动物
e.g. You should support your parents.
C. feed喂养、饲养，指具体的喂养动作
e.g. He fed meat to his dog.
(3) year after year 年复一年，主要强调动作的重复性，不发生变化
e.g. We go to Shanghai year after year.
year by year 年年，每年，主要强调动作的渐变过程，要发生变化
e.g. The number of students is increasing year by year.
(4) close ,adj. 相近的、知心的
She is my close friend.
Close, adv. 接近，靠近
They sat down close together.
Close to….靠近…..（地方）
I sat close to the door.
(5). Next to 在…..旁边，紧挨着
e.g. I sat next to him.+
(6). At the right time of the year.
At the correct time of the year
At the wrong time of the year
Step 6 Practice
Deal with Exx in Wb
.Step 7 Writing
Help the students with the writing.
Step８ Record after Teaching