2010年9月27日 星期一

Unit 3, Lesson 1: World Population Growth



1. Vocabulary: pronunciation and meaning

2. Comprehension questions
(1) In which year did world population reach five billion people?
(2) Does the Earth have enough natural resources to support the whole world population?
(3) What natural resources are limited?
(4) What problem do we have with water?
(5) What problems do we have with land?
(6) What problem do we have with air?
(7) What problem do we have with nonrenewable energy?

3. usage
(1) by (line 5) vs. by (line 10) (解釋)
(2) while (line 37) vs. while (line 55) (解釋)
(3) As the standard of living goes up in other countries, so will the demand for energy. (line 60) (解釋)

4. grammar
(1) By 196, just thirty years later, the world's population had hit three billion. (line 5)
(2) Most of it comes from burning fossil fuels ... (line 49) (subject-verb agreement)
(3) Three quarters of this commercial energy is used ... (line 59)


5. prepositions: Please find collocations in which prepositions occur. For example, the answer to this question ... (line 15)
  • By 1960, ... (line 5-6)
  • ... by seven-six million people (line 10)
  • Unfortunately, the answer to this question ... (line 15-16)
  • ... depends on information ... (line 16)
  • the removal of salt from salt water (Line 31) / ... remove the salt from ocean water (line 33)
  • ... a solution to the shortage of fresh water. (line 32)
  • In addition, over-cultivation has already ... (line 40)
  • an amount of farmland equal to the size of the United States and Canada combined (line 41)
  • an amount of farmland equal to the size of the United States and Canada combined (line 41)
  • What effect would three billion more people have on the air ... (line 53)
6. Quizlet

7. assignments:

(1) Find sentences in which some collocations are used.
  • answer to

(2) Do exercises A, B, C, D, F, G

8. quiz: the first two lessons, right after the second lesson is completed.

2010年9月15日 星期三

Unit 1, Lesson 1: Burke and Wills: Across Australia




1. Make sure that you can pronounce all the target words (in red) correctly.

2. Scan the whole article for key information. (Exercise G: Short answer questions)

3. comprehension questions
  • How is the landscape in the outback of Australia?
  • Where did the expedition team head for?
  • What problems did the expedition team have?
  • Halfway to the destination, what was the team's decision for their partner, Wright?
  • What happened in their return journey?
  • Did Burke and Wills complete the jouney in the end?
  • What reasons could explain the journey that was not so satisfactory?
4. Look up the words in the dictionary for more sentence contexts.
  • turn ... into ...
  • supplies
  • halfway
  • get along

5. usage: left (line 15) vs. left (line 20)

6. collocations
  • turn ... into ... (line 4)
  • leave for (line 15)
  • follow orders (line 20)
  • ahead of (line 23)
  • half crazy from ... (line 45)

7. Grammar
Past perfect tense
The rest of the expedition had left the day before because they thought Burke must be dead.

8. Vocabulary: SpellingCity

9. Assignments:
  • Complete all exercises (A, B, C, D, F, G)
  • Use your dictionary to find more sentences for the key words, phrases, collocations shown above.