2. "...Music is neither old nor modern: it is either good or bad music, and the date at which it was written has no significance whatever. Dates and periods are of interest only to the student of musical history..."

3. "The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven...And St. Peter said, "Go back to Earth, there are no slums up here."

Keys: 1 Bill Gates 2 Beethoven 3 Mother Teresa Step 2: Sharing information

1. Three or four of you form a group and discuss the three questions please.

2. Please express your opinions on the three questions, especially on Questions 2 and 3. Then talk about the effects of these people's achievements on our lives.

Sample answers

1. Yes.

2. Nowadays we can do shopping at home, borrow books from the library without leaving our home and conclude transactions just by a punch of the keyboard. These may have seemed strange ten years ago, but now computers have turned them into realities.

　　Computers bring a lot of convenience to our daily life. With computers, we can find information we'd like to know; we can solve many complex calculations easily; we can always find solutions to difficult problems.

　　Because of computers, a lot of time and effort have been saved. Work is done more efficiently and communication has become much easier.

　　In the modern age of information, the convenience of computers is self-evident.

3. Thomas Edison

During his career, Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions, including the electric light, the phonograph and the motion-picture camera. These three inventions gave rise to giant industries---electric utilities, phonograph and record companies, as well as the film industry. All these changed the work and habits of people throughout the world. During his lifetime, he received honours from all over the world. 3. After class please read Part B in Reading on page 101 in Workbook as your homework to get some information about Albert Einstein, another great man.

Resources

Mother Teresa

She was born on 27 August, 1910 in what is now Skopje, Macedonia. She received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor around the world. For more information, check the following website:

Bill Gates

He was born on 28 Oct, 1955 and grew up in Seattle. His father is a Seattle attorney while his late

mother was a teacher. He discovered his interest in software and began programming computers

at the age of 13. For more information, check the following website.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

He was born on 17 December, 1770 in Bonn. His father and grandfather were court musicians and both influenced him a lot. He carried on the family tradition in exemplary form and became one of the world's greatest composers. For more information, check the following website:

Zhang Heng

He was born at the time of the Eastern Han (sometimes called Later Han) Dynasty. He invented the first seismograph for measuring earthquakes. For more information, check the following website: