Unit 2 The universal language

Reading 1

Teaching aims:

　　After this lesson, students will be able to read a review of an opera.

Teaching procedures:

Step 1 Lead-in (PPT4-8)

1. Show the students a picture of Zhang Yimou. And ask them the following questions.

Who is the person in the picture? What does he do? (Zhang Yimou. He is a famous director in China and also in the world.)

　Can you name some of his movies? (Raise the red lantern; Curse of the golden flower...)

Who played in his movie Curse of the golden flower? (Gong Li, Jay Chou, Chou Runfa starred in the movie. Or we can also say that Zhang Yimou cast them in the movie. )

2. Introduce the style of writing to the student.

What is a review? (A review is a report in a newspaper or magazine in which sb. gives their opinion of a book, play, film, etc.)

So what do you expect to read in an opera review? (Some background information, the plot of an opera, who stars in the opera and what people think of the opera ...)

Read the opera as quickly as possible and find out what it is about. What aspects of information can you find in the review? Were your guesses right?

(It is an opera review about Turandot staged in the Forbidden City. We can find some background information, the plot of an opera, who stars in the opera and what people think of the opera in the reading.)

Step 3 Reading aloud (PPT 10)

Divide the passage into 4 parts and find out the main idea of each part.

Part 1 (Para 1): Background information

Part 2 (Para 2-7): The plot

Part 4 (Para 9): Evaluation

Writer: Giacomo Puccini

Main characters: Turandot- a Chinese princess; Calaf- prince; Liu- Calaf's father's young slave