Learning the Olympic Standard for Love
Teaching Objectives:
1. Content requirement: to help Ss understand the spirit of Olympic Games
2. Reading requirement: to help Ss review Reading Skill we have learned in Unit 1, Book 1—find out word meaning. Many times we can figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word from clues provided by context and our common sense as well.
3. Writing requirement: to help Ss practice the skill of Structured WritingⅠ—a paragraph with a general statement supported by specific details and reasons
4. Vocabulary requirement: to help Ss master the required key words and phrase (pat, promising, amazing, lower romantic, ski, fatigue breeze, powder, fuss, indifferent, rebel, low-budget, shift, stack, assert, assert, swear, persist in, indissoluble, tropical, next to, in sb’s presence/ in the presence of sb, by no means, count on, on one occasion, come upon, pack into, take notice of, sing out, point out, reflect on, in advance…)
5. Grammar requirement: to ask Ss to review inversion sentence and inversion of sentence by using structure “nor” will be focused on.
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6. Translation requirement: to require Ss to practice some skills of translating and key words and phrases both in Chinese—English and English—Chinese.
Detailed teaching procedures:
1. Warm-up activities
1). Group discussion:
Question 1: what’s the Olympic spirit?
The Olympic motto is \"Faster, Higher, Stronger\".
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to participate.
Taking drugs before the Games is considered cheating and against sportsmanship.
The Olympic oath encourages athletes, coaches, and officials to observe the rules and to follow the spirit of sports- manship.
Mutual understanding, friendship, unity and fair play.
The Olympic Games help to promote a better and more peaceful world.
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The most important thing in the Games is not the triumph but the struggle; not to have conquered but to have fought well.
By undergoing the stress and strain of tough competition, the athletes grow in strength, endurance and discipline.
The most important thing is to participate.
The athletes must learn to respect and to cooperate with people from many nations during the Games.
Question 2: How do you understand love? Tell students some similar expressions concerning love
2). Interview and Report
Interview some students and find out: Your Favorite Sports and Your Reasons.
Your report should be well-arranged with three parts included: opening, body and conclusion.
2. Understanding the text
How did the writer feel when she met Nikolai for the first time?
How would you describe the training sessions after Nikolai began to coach
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the writer?
What did the writer learn from Nikolai?
3. Detailed studies of the text
The main idea of Text A: This passage is a first-person narration about the writer’s training experiences for Olympic Games with an ex-Soviet coach , through which the writer learned the Olympic standard for true love. The whole passage can be roughly divided into four parts. (T helps Ss to sum up the main idea).
The structure or organization of Text A:
Part I: Para. 1~4 Introduction to Nikolai and his high expectations.
Part II: Prar. 5~19 The Olympic standard of love as shown by Nikolai.
Part III: Para. 20 A transition.
Part IV: Para. 21 Conclusion — What Nikolai taught the writer
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Part I (para 1-4): The general introduction of the Soviet coach, Nikolia, who was not half as intimidating as the writer had imaged he would be, but the writer was very nervous in his presences.
Part II (para 5-19): This part deals with Olympic standard of true love as shown by Nikolia.
Part III (para20): this is a transitional paragraph. This is the time when the writer stopped her training, revisited her coach Nikolia, thought of what happened in the past ,and realized that she had gained a lot from her quite, indissolube bond with her coach Nikolia.
Part IV (para 21): It summarizes what Nikolia taught the writer.
Understanding
The text is about the writer’s training experiences for Olympic Games with an ex-Soviet coach, through which the writer learned the Olympic standard for love.
Part I. First Meeting with Nikolai (Paras. 1-4)
My impression and feelings about Nikolai: not half as intimidating as I had imagined; nervous
Nikolai’s high expectation of me:
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“… for 2002 in Salt Lake City, you could be ready.”
Part II. the Olympic Standard of Love as Shown by Nikolai (Paras. 5-19)
Nikolai in Daily Life Nikolai in Training
Nikolai in Daily Life Paras. 5-9
General Statement: I could always count on being
encouraged by Nikolai’s
amusing stories and sense of
humor.
Supporting Details: “My friend …, I … practice …” “… 26 years old …
kiss …”
Conclusion: an Olympic standard for love: consistent good
humor, quiet gratitude, perceptivity, and sincerity
Nikolai in Daily Life Paras. 12-13
Supporting Details:
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At a low-budget ski camp:He made breakfast and then made quick work
with …; When I was rebellious, he never asked …, nor …; He saved his passion …
Nikolai in Training Paras. 10-11
General Statement: He never babied me. Supporting Details: I :massive headache; quite fatigue; going to die
Nikolai :indifferent to my pain; … ski, ski, ski.
Nikolai in Training Paras. 14-19
Supporting Details:
Nikolai: … sing out his instructions keeping
rhythm with our stride.
… the faster, … the better.
… frown and say, …
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My achievement: a fourth-place national ranking heading into the pre-Olympic season
Part III. Visiting Nikolai after Stopping Training (Para. 20)
Nikolai :… made me tea, … and did the dishes!
I : … had gained a lot from my quiet,
indissoluble bond with my coach
Nikolai.
Part IV. Conclusion of the Whole Text (Para. 21)
Nikolai taught me to understand the Olympic standard for love: to have the courage, heart, discipline to persist, and to have gratitute in advance for a century of life on earth. I should remind myself every day that there must be love, love, love despite the challenges at hand.
4. Reproduction
Work in groups to perform the following scenes in the text.
Scene 1: First meeting with Nikolai (Paras.1-4)
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Scene 2: Indifference to my exhaustion from the hard training (Paras. 10-11)
Scene 3: Being rebellious to Nikolai (Paras. 12-13)
II. Grammar and lexical level
Words and Phrases:
1．next to
I put these two pictures next to each other for comparison. 我把两张照片放到一起来比较。
The mysterious villa stood silently next to a church. 那栋神秘的别墅静立在教堂旁边。
2. in sb.'s presence/in the presence of sb. |in the same place as sb.当着……的面
You should be a gentleman in the presence of ladies.在女士们面前你应该表现得像个绅士。
在这么多人面前，我几乎说不出话。
I could think of little to say in the presence of so many people.
3. by no means: in no way; not at all
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I will by no means tell the secret to him without your permission.
不经你的许可我决不会把秘密告诉他。
He is by no means the richest person in this neighborhood. |他决不是这个地区的首富。
4. session
a question-and-answer session before the final examination一堂考前答疑课
tickets for the guitar session吉它演奏会的门票
the next session of Parliament 议会下一的次会议
5. count on: rely on
You cannot count on others for your own future. 你自己的将来不能指望别人。
You can always count on him; he is such a reliable person.
你总能依靠他；他非常让人信赖。
6. amusing adj. causing you laugh or smile
He is a very amusing person and he makes me laugh a lot.
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Use It:
Do you have any amusing experience?
同根词: amused; amusement
7. lower
The price will be lowered from $150 to $100. 价格将从150 美元降到100美元。
National flags were lowered to half-mast in memory of this great man.
国旗下半旗以纪念这位伟人。
8. otherwise 另外的
这件事上我没有意见，好或不好的都没有。
I have no opinion, good or otherwise, on this subject.
恐怕下周末没办法见你，我有别的事。
I’m afraid I can’t see you next weekend because I’m otherwise engaged.
9. gratitude
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I owe a debt of gratitude to you. 我真得感谢你们。
I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the local government for your nice arrangement.
借此机会，我想感谢当地政府，感谢你们的精心安排。
10. come upon
I came upon my favorite singer at the airport. |我在机场偶然遇见了自己最喜欢的歌手。
We came upon a shabby wooden house in the middle of the wood.
我们偶然发现在树林中央有一所破旧的木屋。
11. fuss
fuss too much about… 过于关注…
make so much fuss over… 对…如此小题大做
make a fuss about… 为…大惊小怪
12. indifferent
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be indifferent to(prep.)… 对…毫不在意
How can you remain indifferent when children are suffering?
形近词: different
13. rebel
rebel against…反抗…
14. pack into
to pack everything into the cupboard 把所有的东西都塞进小橱里
About 250 students were packed into the classroom and I found it hard to breathe.
They packed a lot of things into their three days in Rome.
15. swear (swore, sworn) v.
① to use rude or bad language; to curse
他不小心用铁锤打中了拇指，就大声咒骂起来。
He hit his thumb with the hammer and swore loudly.
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② to make a serious promise
When or where do people need to swear?
When people get married/join a party/…In court/At the Olympic Games …
to swear at sb. 咒骂某人
to swear to fight for… 宣誓为…而战
16. He never asked this of me again, nor did he take much notice of my outburst.
Interesting Formation of words
With “nor” placed at the beginning of a sentence, its order should be inverted (倒装).
More expressions:
neither/little/only/hardly
seldom
not only
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not until
under no circumstances
no sooner ... than ...
scarcely (hardly) ... when ...
他没有做，也没有尝试一下。
He does not do it, nor does he try.
我再也没有见到他, 也没有收到过他的信。
I never saw him again, nor did I hear from him.
17. take notice of |notice
Have you taken notice of his strange behavior today?你有没有注意到他今天奇怪的行为？
Father seemed to take little notice of my unhappiness and sat down for his supper.
父亲看来没注意到我的不快，坐下来吃晚饭了。
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18. sing out
We all sang out our wishes for the future at the top of the mountain.
在山顶，我们都大声说出了对未来的期望。
Joan sang out her plan, believing that it was much better than others'.
琼相信她的计划比其他人的要好得多，于是就大声说了出来。
19. persist
to persist in cause trouble to sb. 不停地在给某人惹麻烦
The drought persisted for months and people prayed to Heaven for rain.
干旱持续了几个月，人们祈求天神降雨。
20. frown
to frown at… 不快地对…皱起眉头
21. rank
Our success in research ranked as one of the greatest achievements in this field.
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我们在研究上取得的成功被列为该领域最大的成就之一。
some high-ranking officials 一些高官
All fruits were ranked neatly in the boxes. 水果全都整整齐齐地排列在盒子里。
to hold the rank of… 担任…一职
to marry a woman from a family of rank 娶一位名门之后
Language Points:
1．Nikolai Petrovich Anikin was not half as intimidating as I had imagined he would be. (Para.1) Meaning: I had expected that Nikolai Petrovich Anikin would be a quite frightening person,
but actually he was not at all.
2. But Nikolai he was, Petrovich and all. (Para.2)
Meaning: But anyway, he was Nikolai Petrovich Anikin and nobody else.
3. I was a promising amateur skier, but by no means the top skier in the country. (Para.4) Meaning: Though it seemed that I might be successful someday as an amateur skier, I was not
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at all the best skier in the country.
Notice that when \"by no means\" is used at the beginning of a sentence, an inversion structure
should be used. For example:
By no means can teaching in school be separated from practice.
学校教学决不能脱离实践。
By no means will our friendship be affected. 我们的友谊不会受到影响。
4. To be sure, there were countless training sessions full of pain and more than a few tears... (Para. 5)
Meaning: I really went through a lot of painful training sessions which made me shed many tears.
5. I am practice, practice, practice in the stadium. (Para. 6) |Meaning: I practice all the time in the stadium.
Note that Nikolai was not a native speaker of English, he couldn't speak standard English. So in the text we could see now and then he used bad grammar. Here is just one example.
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6. Romantic and otherwise, Nikolai knew love. (Para. 9)
Meaning: No matter Nikolai was romantic or not, he understood what love was.
7. Still, he never babied me. (Para. 10)
Meaning: However, he never spoiled me. (He was always very strict with me in training.)
8. Once, he packed 10 of us into a Finnish bachelor's tiny home for a low-budget ski camp. (Para. 12)
Meaning: Once, he arranged for 10 of us to stay in a Finnish bachelor's small home for a low-cost ski camp.
9. We awoke the first morning to find Nikolai making breakfast and then made quick work with our spoons while sitting on makeshift chairs around a tiny card table. (Para.12)
Meaning: The first morning we woke up and found Nikolai making breakfast. We had our breakfast quickly with spoons while sitting on something we could use as chairs around a very small card table.
10. When we were finished, Nikolai stacked the sticky bowls in front of my sole female teammate and me, asserting, \"Now, girls do dishes!\" (Para. 12)
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Meaning: When breakfast was over, Nikolai piled up the oily, dirty bowls in front of the only other female on the team and me, and said forcefully: \"Now, girls wash the dishes!\"
11. \"Ask the damn boys! This is unfair.\" (Para.13)
Meaning: \"I don't think it's right to ask only the girls to wash the dishes. I believe boys should do it as well.\"
The word \"damn\" is used to show that you are angry or annoyed with someone or something. For example:
I can't get this damn button undone. 我解不开这个该死的扣子。
12. When coaching, he would sing out his instructions keeping rhythm with our stride... (Para. 14)
Meaning: While training us, he would give his instructions in a loud and clear voice keeping rhythm with our movement...
13. \"Billion times you make motion―then be perfect,\" reminding me in an I've-told-you-a-billion-times tone, \"You must be patient.\" (Para.18) |Meaning: \"You must be patient and make the movement (i.e., bring your knee down faster) many times before it'll be perfect.\" His tone suggested that he was annoyed, for he had told me this many times in the past. Typically, if we talk about a billion of or billions
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of people or things, we mean that there is a very large number of them but you do not know or do not want to say exactly how many.
Also note that here \"I've-told-you-a-billion-times\" is a compound adjective formed from an attributive clause. More examples:
a never-to-be-forgotten film 一部永远不会忘记的电影
a not-so-strong football team 一支不太强大的足球队
14. ... but then I missed the cut for the 2002 Olympics. (Para.19)
\"Miss cut\" is originally a term in golf, which means that a player fails to hit the golf ball into a hole. In the sentence \"miss the cut\" means the writer failed to be selected to take part in the 2002 Olympic Games.
15. He taught me to be thankful in advance for a century of life on earth, and to remind myself every day that despite the challenges at hand, \"Now must be love, love, love.\" (Para. 21)
Meaning: He taught me to be thankful for the life I will live in this world, and to remind myself every day that, though I were facing all kinds of challenges, I must love well.
Purpose: Further understand the text （Train further reading ability） to find out some difficult sentences and details of the text.
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Method: Read the text together; Use task-based language teaching method, reading approach, communicative approach, grammar-translation approach and total physical response method.
4. Post-reading Activities
I. Retell the passage according to the following questions:
1. How did the writer feel when she met Nikolai for the first time?
2. As a self-confident amateur skier, the writer was already thinking of participating in the Olympics before she met Nikolai, wasn’t she?
3. How would you describe the training sessions after Nikolai began to coach the writer?
4. Did Nikolai himself try very hard at skiing when ha was young?
5. How would you describe the relationship between the writer and her coach?
6. When did a lady friend of the writer’s grandfather once ask whether Nikolai also taught dance?
7. What did they achieve through hard training? Did they participate in the Olympics as they had expected?
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8. What did the writer learn from Nikolai?
II. Structured Writing
How to write a outline
Writing a paragraph with a general statement supported by specific details and reasons are based on the outline.
5. Assignment
1) Review the key points of Section A;
2) Finish the exercises after class;
3) Write a short paragraph;
Write a composition of a general statement supported by details. I want to improve the ability of their writing. At the same time, train the ability of do-it-yourself and looking up the information by themselves.
Teacher checks if Students have done the after-text exercises in their spare time and discuss some common errors that crop up.
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Writing: Topic: Computer problems
General Statement: Computers have a negative side.
Details: 1. computer-controled machines making many people lose their jobs
2. computer crimes
3. health problems
4) Preview Unit 3.
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