● Reading The curse of the mummy
Step 1: Lead-in
We all know that Egypt is one of the 4 ancient civilized countries. Do you know what Egypt is famous for? (Yes, pyramids and Sphinx.)
As we all know, the Pyramid is one of the 7 wonders in the world. Have you ever read or thought about what is inside the Pyramids? Look at the screen, please.
Today we'll come to the text The curse of the mummy.
The passage is about a famous explorer who, with the assistance of Lord Carnarvon, led a team to Egypt and made some unexpected discoveries in tombs. It still remains a mystery how one of his discoveries led to illness and death for many of his team members.
Step 2: Fast reading for general ideas
1. Pay attention to the Reading strategy first before skimming the passage.
1) The article you are going to read is about a famous explorer who worked in Egypt. Read the article and make connections between the title and the explorer. Use your imagination and express your opinions freely with each other.
What might be the connections between 'The curse of the mummy' and the famous explorer?
Why does the writer choose 'The curse of the mummy' as its title here? Do you think the title can grab your attention and arouse your interest?
From your point of view, what might be dealt with in the following article? Can something like the explorer's hobbies, his experiences of adventures, his achievements be covered in the article?
2) You've done a good job, expressing your opinions about the relationship between the title and the explorer and predicting the main contents of the article. That's great. But to be more specific, can you anticipate what might be covered in the first paragraph of the article?
3)Please read the first paragraph and discuss how the first paragraph agrees or disagrees with your predictions.
What's the first paragraph about? Is it the beginning of a story?
What does the writer tell us about the explorer in the first paragraph?
What words do you think are useful for you to predict the ideas included in the passage?
Now you may find the first paragraph serves as a general introduction of Howard Carter, and please pay attention to the key words in the first paragraph on the blackboard:
famous, brave, adventurous, amazing 4) With the help of the key words, you may predict the content of the paragraphs that follow.
What are the following paragraphs likely to do?
Will they give specific examples to support the general description of Howard Carter?