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Unit objectives
Draw students’ attention to the unit objectives and read through the first four objectives with the class. Ask students to think about which of these skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) is their strongest and which is their weakest, and to decide which objective is the most important for them in this module.
Resource used
Cassette.
Background
The characters in the drawings are:
A) Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective from the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Conan Doyle was a Scottish doctor who became one of the first successful crime writers. His first Holmes book was A Study in Scarlet (1887). Holmes solves crime mysteries using his incredible brain and powers of observation. The stories also illustrate life in late Victorian London.
B) Wu Kong , a King monkey, Ba Jie , a pig, Sha Seng , a monster and Tang Seng , a monk, the four main characters in the novel “Record of a Journey to the West” , a fictitious story/myth by Wu Chengen (1500-1582), a writer in Ming Dynasty.
C) Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The legend of Robin Hood, an outlaw who robbed the rich to give to the poor, developed around the thirteenth century. Robin Hood also fought against the bad John (later King John I) of England , who took over the country while his brother, Richard I, was on the crusades.
D) Lu Zhishen beat Zheng guanxi in drunkenness. This is a
story from the novel “All Men are brother/The Marsh Law” written by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400) a novelist in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.
Warm-up
Key words
adventure stories, autobiographies, biographies, detective stories, fairy stories, fantasies, historical stories, horror stories, humorous stories, ghost stories, love stories, legends, myths, science fiction, travel stories, true stories
Exercise 1
■ Students work in pairs, reading the Key Words and looking at the pictures to identify the kinds of stories and the characters.
■ Students then discuss their answers as a class.
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Answers
A) detective story/Sherlock Holmes
B) Myth , “Record of a journey to the West”
C) legend/Robin Hood and Maid Marion
D) Historical story , “All Men Are Brothers” |
■ Ask students if they can think of the important characters in the other types of story. |
Exercise 2
■ Read the example sentences with the class.
■ Students then think of the kinds of stories they most enjoy and why.
■ Students then report back to the class. If you wish, the class can vote for their favourite type of story (and least popular type of story).
Exercise 3
■ Students look at the Key Words as they listen to the beginnings of the stories.
■ Play the cassette twice for students to decide their answers.
■ When checking students’ answers, encourage them to give reasons for their answers, and, if there is disagreement, to argue for their point of view. Explain that there could be two possible answers for some of the beginnings of the stories.
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Answers
1 horror story 2 science fiction 3 true story 4 detective story 5 fairy story |
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1 It was a dark and foggy night. We drove and drove. At midnight , just as we thought we were lost, we saw a light behind some trees. As we got nearer, we could see a house. It looked deserted, abandoned. We knocked on the heavy, wooden door. It opened slowly. A tall man dressed entirely in black stood there. “Good evening,” he said in a slow, deep voice. “I’ve been expecting you.”
2 We were travelling through deep space at the speed of light. Suddenly, the spaceship slowed down and immediately the system came into view. A bright star with twenty or more planets. One of these would be our new home, five light years from our own galaxy.
3 One of my earliest memories is of my father running along the beach with our dog, Tess. I must have been about three years old. I remember the dog jumping up on me and knocking me over into the water.
4 The man lay on the ground next to a white van. There was no doubt. He was dead. I quickly looked in the pockets of his jacket -- some money, a handkerchief and a theatre ticket with a Chicago phone number written on it. Three murders in three weeks and the victims all killed in the same way.
5 Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there lived a beautiful princess. She was an only child and her father and mother, the king and queen, loved her very much. One day, an old woman came to the castle. When she saw the princess, she smiled and laughed in a strange and horrible way. |
Exercise 4
■ Students read through the questions silently and think about their own answers.
■ Then students work in pairs, telling their partners about
themselves. |
