S: Classical refers to the period which followed the Middle Ages.

T: Yes. Have you ever seen the film Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?

Ss: Yes.

T: Do you know which style the then buildings belong to? And describe the style.

S: They belong to Gothic. It refers to a typical style of art and architecture in the Middle Ages, buildings of this style are very straight and after looking at them, we will find them very mysterious and sometimes we will feel afraid.

T: Very good. Now you can finish Activity 1. From your answers, I can see all of you have done your homework carefully. Just now, we talked about three periods and an art and architecture style, today we will mainly talk about one of them - the Renaissance.

Step Ⅱ Fast-reading

Deal with the text on Page 16.

T: Let's read the text The Renaissance. Now I will give you about 6 minutes to do fast reading and then I will ask some students to talk about the general idea for each paragraph. If you can not find the answers, discuss with your partners. OK?

The students will skim the text. Six minutes later.

T: Everybody, time is up. Let's talk about the main idea of each paragraph.

Then the teacher can ask some of the students to show their opinions. The result may be as follows.

Para 1: The Mona Lisa is believed to be a masterpiece of the Renaissance.

Para 2: How Renaissance got its name.

Para 3: International trade is one of the factors that made the Renaissance possible.

Para 4: Renaissance artists opened new frontiers in the arts.

Para 5: Philosophers began to change their attitudes to God.

Para 6: the Renaissance was also a period of scientific invention and Leonardo was one of the famous scientists of that period.

Para 7: Leonardo was an extraordinary genius of all time.