Unit 6 The Pace of Life
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- grasp the main idea and structure of the text;
- learn to distinguish supporting facts from opinions, and to use both in their own writings;
- master the key language points and grammatical structures in the text;
- conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking and writing activities related to the theme of the unit.
Time Allotment
1st period: Warm-up Activities (20 minutes);
While-reading (Text Organization; Part I) (30 minutes).
2nd period: While-reading (Part II ~ Part IV) (50 minutes).
3rd period: Post-reading:
Check on students’ recitation (10 minutes);
Deal with text analysis (20 minutes); Discussion (20 minutes).
4th period: Post-reading:
Vocabulary Exercises (50 minutes)。
5th period: Post-reading:
Structure (15 minutes); Cloze (20 minutes)；
Check on translationexercise (15 minutes).
6th period: Deal with Text B (30 minutes); Essay Writing (20 minutes).
Warm-up Activities
1.Lecture Time.
2.T asks Ss the following questions:
1) Are you under a large amount of pressure? What’s your pressure?
2) How do you deal with your pressure?
Introduction of Text A
We all seem to be so busy. But you are still college students, what will happen when you step into the world, where there are more concerns for each of you? Will Father Time become a terror for you?
Text A Old Father Time Becomes a Terror
Text Organization
Part One (Paras. 1-11): The author gives three reasons why we feel so time-pressed today. (proposing the problem and its reasons)
Part Two (Paras. 12-18): Not everyone is time-stressed, and in the case of Americans they have actually gained more free time in the past decade. (pointing out the exception)
Part Three (Paras. 19-23): The perception of time-famine has triggered a variety of reactions. (the results of the problem)
Part Four (Paras. 24-28): The author pins down the crux of the problem and put forward a remedy for the stress we feel. (proposing the resolution)
Questions:
Part I
What contributed to the sense of time stress? And how?
Part II
- Why is said that everyone isn’t overstressed?
- What is “stress envy”?
- How many hours had the average American gain a week in free time?
- Was the 5 hours distributed evenly? Who benefited the most and the least?
Part III
- What are the reactions of time famine?
- What is said that liberating time is futile?
Part IV
- According to the author, how does time-stress arise?
- What is meant by saying “it’s the kid in the candy store”?
- How to understand the issue of time stress?
Language Study
New Words and Expressions:
- on the go: be very busy
I’ve been on the go all week, preparing my thesis.
on the run: trying to hide or escape from someone, especially the police; while you are busy or hurrying:
I had to eat lunch on the run today.
- untangle: to solve the complicated problem or situation:
Officials are trying to untangle the stalled peace talk.
tangle: become twisted around each other so that they look messy and are difficult to separate
Threads tangle easily.
- eat into: reduce in amount gradually; damage gradually:
Responsibilities at work eat into his family hours.
Acid eats into the metal, damaging its surface.
All these cars expenses are eating into his savings.
- toil: work hard doing something; move slowly with difficulties:
Farmers toil all year around in the field.
He toiled up the stairs.
5. fraction: a small bit, amount or proportion of (sth.)
a small fraction of / a minute proportion of
a large quantity of/ quantities of
Only a small fraction of the population lived in that remote area.
- pour in: go into a place in large numbers:
Fans pour into the stadium to watch the first home match of the new season.
Tourists poured into this city on National Day.
7.subscribe (vi.) to/for: pay money so that newspaper or magazine is received regularly:
- amount to: add up to; be equal to ( have the same effect as something else)
His debts amount to $10,000.
His silence amounts to refusal.
The tuition fee amounts to ten thousand yuan.
- oblige:
1) do something as a favor or service (oblige sb. with sth/by doing sth.) 为……效劳；帮……的忙
Will you oblige me with your presence?
We are happy to oblige.
2) force (by law) sb. to do something:
Parents are obliged to send their children to school.
- gain: increase in value; increase in weight or speed; (clock) run too fast:
The NASDAQ gained 45 points.
The clock gains a minute everyday. (lose)
The car gained speed gradually.
- nurture: care for or attend to for one’s growth or development:
With years of observation, the scientists have found how the dolphins socialize, breed, and nurture the young.
- provoke: cause to occur:
They argue that NATO eastward expansion would provoke Russian hostility and lead to regional instability.
The genetically modified foods have provoked hot debate worldwide.
13.streamline: to improve a business or organization by modernizing or simplifying its running system
Corporate mergers can result in job losses because management is streamlined within the newly merged companies.
Racing cars are streamlined to reduce the air resistance to the minimum.
14. spring up: appear, develop ,grow quickly or suddenly
Fast food restaurants are spring up all over the city.
15.futile: producing no result, useless; pointless
It was futile to continue the negotiations.
16.divert:
1) make sth. move or travel in a different direction:
Police are trying to divert the traffic from the trouble spot.
2) to do sth to take one’s attention away from sth.
The government tried to divert public attention from its financial problems.
3) use something (time, money) for a different purpose:
The teacher called on the government to divert the extra money to schools.
17. evade: avoid something unpleasant or unwanted:
He is quite expert at evading responsibility.
The head coach skillfully evaded reports’ thorny questions.
evasive: not talking or answering questions in an honest way
The president remains evasive about the maltreatment of the P.O.W.
18.doom: make someone or something certain to fail:
She felt she was doomed to be trapped in the office work all her life.
These schemes are always doomed to failure.
Difficult Sentences:
- you’ve got people retiring early, … this situation at all. (Lines 52-54) 有些人早早退休了，有些人失业了，还有一些人也许只是与经济活动沾点边，他们根本不会有这种情况。
2.People today want fast food, sound bytes and instant gratification. 现今人们需要快餐，需要电台、电视台播放简短片段，还要得到即刻满足。
3.People talk about quality time. 人们谈论着质量的时间。
4.And on-line retailers are seeing … though not, as yet, profits. 网上零售商眼见着销售额大幅增长，.…..尽管利润尚未同步增长。
- Our free time is increasing, …our sense of the necessary. 我们的空余时间在增多，但还是做不完我们感觉日益增多的必须要做的事。
Text Analysis
In many ways, the style of this piece is typical of a certain variety of journalism. It is clearly not a news story, but nonetheless belongs within the pages of a newspaper. Such writing finds its home in the editorial or comment section where journalists and others contribute regular or occasional columns reflecting on topical issues. Unlike news stories where reporters are expected to confine themselves to the facts, such columns are intended to give free range to the expression of personal opinion. At the same time, particularly in the more serious papers (and the paper from which this comes, the Financial Times, certainly belongs to this category) the writer is expected to display his familiarity with the complexity of the problem under discussion. This is frequently achieved by employing concession. Thus, here the writer, having outlined the problem of the pressure of time, goes on to concede that not everybody is affected to the same extent. He then details the differences that exist before returning to his more general point and concluding with his solution, another characteristic ingredient of such editorial articles. His general conclusion is hardly new, having been advice offered by philosophers for as far back as one cares to go, but gains novelty set against the context of recent technological developments.
Although not a news story, the article nevertheless shares with newspaper reporting in general a taste for seeking support from the use of direct quotations from a number of different people. These quotations are provided together with the name of the person and background information on them. These details add human interest and support the argument by reference to the utterances of someone who would appear to be in a position to know. As the quotations record spoken rather than written English, the tone of language is often colloquial. The frequent peppering of an article with this type of direct quotation stands in contrast to what is usual in a more purely academic essay.
Assignments
After the 1st and 2nd periods:
1. Memorize Paragraphs 24-28.
2. Memorize all the new words.
3. Do vocabulary, structure and cloze exercises.
After the 3rd and 4th periods:
1. Do translation exercise.
2. Read Text B (Life in the Fast Lane) and do the required exercises.
After the 5th and 6th periods:
1. Writing:
Write a composition entitled Is Stress a Bad Thing? based on the following outline (no less than 150 words):
1)有人害怕压力
2)有人认为压力并不是一件坏事。
3)我的看法。
- Preview Unit 7.
Sample Composition
Is Stress a Bad Thing?
“I can’t stand the pressure and competition,” explained one friend of mine when asked why he decided to quit his highly-paid but demanding position in his company recently. My friend may have his own reasons, but I don’t think his decision is wise in reality.
(Faced with a hard and demanding task, people’s attitude varies widely: some try to avoid it and others regard it as a challenge to their abilities. In fact the choice we make between “flight” or “fight” make the difference between leaders and mediocrities)
(Which job do you prefer, a highly-paid but very competitive position or a poorly-paid but also less demanding job? You may choose the latter and have your own reasons, but I don’t think this choice is wise enough whatever reasons.)
It is true that my friend’s case is not unique. In the last few years quite a number of men and women have chosen to do something less competitive at the cost of a comfortable, easy life a highly-paid job can obtain. They are afraid that stresses and strains of work will rob them of joy and happiness and do them harm both physically and mentally.
In fact, however, stress isn’t the bad thing it is often supposed to be. Unless it gets out of control, a certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and challenge, and to give purpose and significance to an otherwise meaningless, idle life. People under stress tend to express their full range of potential and to actualize their own personal worth -- the very aim of a human life.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. What we can do is to develop our adaptive abilities to deal with it rather than to escape from it.