湖南科技大学课程教案
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| 课程名称 | 高级英语（第一册） | |
| 章节、专题 | Unit Three Ships in the Desert | |
| 负责人 | 徐李洁 | |
| 教学 重点 |
1. To understand the writer’s viewpoints 2. To learn the words and phrases about environment 3. To be able to talk about environmental issue |
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| 教学 难点 |
1.Techinical terms about environmental issue 2. Textual Structure 3. Background knowledge Clean Air Act; Great Lakes; Global warning; greenhouse effect; Ozone depletion; noctilucent cloud; landfills; |
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| 练习 | Written work: 1) Write a short speech on “Protecting our Earth” 2) Do all the exercises at the back of the text. 3) Do all the exercises in the vocabulary workbook Recommended film: Our Home |
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Unit Three Ships in the Desert
1. Nouns:
prospects, fleet, glacier, runway, rendezvous point, submarine, hummocks, scenario, pasture, assault, altitude, termite, paralysis, concrete, surge, axiom, symptom, components, prospects, sustenance, tundra, aquifer, molecule, deforestation, chlorine, chlorofluorocarbon, equilibrium, ozone, weaponry, depletion, rogue, snowmobile, precedent, slab
2. Verbs
process, anchor, can, slip, monitor, chart, slash, release from, condense, witness, classify， determine, transform, exploit, deploy, divert, define, chart, slash, shimmer, hover, blot, sober. rip, billow, lap, collide, cloak, pitch,
3. Adjectives and adverbs
productive, bleak, permanently, accessible, inexorable, frigid, disastrous, speculative, ghastly, dramatic, fundamentally, essentially, simultaneously, prehistoric, intentionally, pervasive, trivial, strategic, exponentially, obsolete, unilaterally, mutually, drastic, simplistic, cumulative, translucent, eerie, controversial, ultraviolet,
4. Noun phrases
ice runway, polar cap, core sample, ecological balance, ecological system, noctilucent cloud, physical manifestation, mountains of waste, local skirmish, waste dumping, oil spills, ultraviolet radiation, global climate equilibrium, ongoing revolution, ozone depletion, all-out war, rogue state, genetic engineering, rice paddy, core sample, rain forest, methane gas, rendezvous point, global warming, strategic conflict, heat-absorbing molecule, ocean currents, key factor, strategic bombing,
5. Verb phrases
pick up speed, burn…to the ground, trace…to, stick to, blot out, upset the balance, adjust to, have impact on, set sail for,
6. Other phrases
overall, in progress, in the process, response to, at stake, in turn, in other words, acre by acre, in the historical context, in prehistoric times,
Unit 3 Ships in the Desert
by Al Gore
1) The author
Gore, Al (1948- ), vice president of the United States (1993-2001) under President Bill Clinton and the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2000 election. In one of the closest and most disputed elections in U.S. history, Gore was defeated by the Republican ticket of Texas governor George W. Bush. Gore was the first presidential candidate since 1888 to win the popular vote and yet lose the electoral vote. Clinton granted Gore unprecedented influence as vice president, giving him leading roles in U.S.-Russian relations, telecommunications policy, reform of the federal bureaucracy, and environmental protection. Gore also stood loyally beside Clinton during the president’s 1998 impeachment, emerging as one of his staunchest defenders.
Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C., in 1948, into a political family. In 1965 he entered Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For much of his academic career he was an average student, getting mostly Bs and Cs. In 1969, he served for five months in South Vietnam as a journalist. After Gore was honorably discharged from the Army in 1971, he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Nashville Tennessean.
In 1989 he visited the South Pole to study the impact of global warming and explored the Amazon Basin in South America to investigate the destruction of the rain forest by commercial interests. In 1992 he published Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, a bestselling book that details the environmental problems facing the planet.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the vice presidency during Gore’s second term was Clinton’s extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In August 1998 Clinton acknowledged that he had an improper relationship with Lewinsky and said that his earlier statements denying the affair were misleading. Many Gore supporters hoped he would criticize Clinton’s behavior publicly, but Gore proved a loyal vice president, defending and supporting Clinton. Even after the House of Representatives impeached Clinton in December 1998, Gore stood by his side.
Al Gore’s viewpoints
•Al Gore's profound analysis of where humanity has gone wrong ranges across history, politics, science, economics, psychology, philosophy, and religion
•Gore demonstrates that the quality of our air and water is urgently at risk. He clearly illustrates how problems that once were regional have now become global. Gore argues for a worldwide mobilization to save us from disaster.
2) Structure Analysis
Para. 1: Effects of environmental crises (The Aral)
Paras. 2-20: Causes of environmental crises
A. The destruction around the world
-Antarctic, the Arctic, the equator, around us
B. Classification of the images of destruction
-Local - Regional- Strategic /global context
C. The dominant cause of the change
-Human civilization
Paras. 21-26: Solution
A. Recognizing the starling images of destruction
B. Understanding the two aspects
C. Changing the view of the relationship-Educate people
2. Detailed study of the text
Questions
What’s the meaning of the title?
What does the author try to tell us through his article?
Why did the writer go to the Aral Sea?
What did he see there?
Para.1 typical example of environmental destruction
The Aral sea
America’s Great Lakes
* the group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, between the United States and Canada,
•largest body of fresh water in the world
•From west to east, they are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario
•HOMES—H stands for Huron, O for Ontario, M for Michigan, E for Erie and S for Superior.
Para. 2 Thesis statement:
My search for the underlying causes of the environmental crisis has let me to travel around the world to check and study cases in order to find out the basic causes behind the environmental crisis
Trans-Antarctic Mountains
Antarctica is icy cold.
Trans-Antarctic Mountains divided it into the East Antarctic and West Antarctic subcontinents.
the sun glaring at midnight through a hole in the sky
–the sun shining at midnight through the ozone depletion
–a hole: ozone depletion 臭氧层空洞
Clean Air Act:
American Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, which is one of the oldest environmental laws of the U.S. as well as the most far-reaching, the costliest, and the most controversial.
Para. 3 the global warming seen in the Antarctic
Para. 4 A thinning cap as the result of Arctic air warms
Para. 5 The rising temperature of the earth
The Arctic Circle
•an imaginary line drawn round the world at a certain distance from the most northern point (the North Pole), north of which there is no darkness for six months of each year and almost no light for the other six months. cf. the Antarctic Circle
•tundra: any of the vast, nearly level, treeless plains of the Arctic regions
Para. 6 The images of destruction at the equator
Amazon rain forest
The Brazilian Amazon contains about a third of the Earth's remaining tropical forest and a very high portion of its biological diversity. One hectare (2.47 acres) of Amazonian moist forest contains more plant species than all of Europe. Yet still it is being destroyed just like other rainforests around the world.
Para. 7 Images of destruction seen almost anywhere
This “luminous cloud” occasionally appears
when the earth is first hidden in the evening darkness; shining unsteadily above us with a partially transparent whiteness, these clouds don’t seem natural
Para. 8 Human attitudes towards the images of destruction
•What should we feel toward these ghosts in the sky:
•What should our attitude be toward these noctilucent clouds in the sky?
Para 9. Human’s puzzling response
•Even though it is sometimes hard to see their meaning, we have by now all witnessed surprising experiences:
•to understand the threat of these clouds
Para.10 The importance of organizing our thoughts
it may be helpful to classify them and thus begin to organize our thoughts and feelings so that we may be able to respond appropriately:
to arrange them into different groups
so that we will be able to take the most suitable action.
Para. 11 The military system: “local” skirmishes, “regional” battles, and “strategic” conflicts
What kind of conflict will be considered as “strategic” conflict?
Only struggle that can threaten a nation’s survival and must be understood in a global context will be considered as “strategic” conflict..
Para 12. The same case with the images of destruction
–illegal waste dumping: the disposal of waste in a way that violates the law
–Problems like acid rain, the contamination of underground aquifers, and large oil spills are fundamentally regional: basically belong to regional category.
Acid rain（酸雨）:
rain with a high concentration of acids produced by sulfur dioxide (二氧化硫), nitrogen oxide (氧化氮), etc. emitted during the combustion （氧化）of fossil fuels; it has a destructive effect on plant and aquatic (水中的) life, buildings, etc.
aquifer: an underground layer of porous (多孔的)rock, sand, etc, containing water, into which wells can be sunk.
Para.13 A new class of environmental problems affecting the global ecological system: chlorine氯
The 600 percent increase … countries producing the chlorofluorocarbons responsible
There have been 600 percent increase in the amount of chlorine in the atmosphere during the last forty years not only in those countries which are mainly responsible for the production of CFC
chlorofluorocarbons: CFC 氟里昂
Para.14 another strategic threat—global warming
•Why?
Because this increase in heat seriously threatens the global climate equilibrium that determines the pattern of winds, rainfall, surface temperatures, ocean currents and sea level, and these in turn determine the distribution of vegetative and animal life on land and sea and have a great effect on the location and pattern of human societies, so it is considered a strategic threat.
Para. 15 the transformed relationship between humankind and the earth
in our own time we have reshaped a large part of the earth’s face with concrete in our cities:
–in the modern time we have given a new shape or form to a large part of the earth’s surface by building paved roads, bridges, buildings etc.
–concrete: metonymy
Para. 16 The dominant cause of change in the global environment—human civilization
Para. 17 Dramatic changes in two key factors
•a sudden and startling surge in human population
•a sudden acceleration of the scientific and technological revolution
Para 18. The surge in population
when viewed in a historical context:
–when we look at the matter from a historical point of view
Julius Caesar : (102? B.C.- 44 B.C.), Roman statesman and general
Christopher Columbus: (1451- 1506), discoverer of America, born Genoa, Italy
Thomas Jefferson: [1743-1826) third President of the U.S. (1801-9), author of the Declaration of Independence.
Para. 19 The present faster increasing population
in the course of one human life—mine:
–during the life span of an individual –my lifetime
it is already more than half way there:
–the world population is already more than half of that figure.
Para. 20 The scientific and technological revolution
And this ongoing revolution has also suddenly accelerated exponentially:
And this continuing revolution has also suddenly developed at a speed that doubled and tripled the original speed.
–exponential: (指数的)of or relating to an exponent (数学中的指数)
Para. 21 our challenge to recognize that startling images of destruction
–Our challenge is to recognize that the startling images of environmental destruction now occurring all over the world have much more in common than their ability to shock and awaken us: Our task is to see and to understand that those frightening examples of environmental destruction that are happening all over the world are so much the same in nature that they surprise us no longer.
–… are so frequently/ become so common that they don’t shock and arouse us any more.
Para. 22 two aspects to this challenge: our power to harm the earth and our role as co-architect of nature
What are the two aspects to help people recognize the images of environmental destruction?
Para. 23 one precedent for this kind of challenge to our thinking: military one again
–one example in the past which posed similar demand on us for a change in our way of looking at things.
–precedent: a former action or case that may be used as an example or rule for present
Para. 24 arms race
For decades, each new advance... But each such deployment led… a more advanced deployment of its own:
For decades, the two super powers had been competing in the research, production and deployment of more sophisticated, more advanced weapons, hoping that in this the other side would be deterred not to launch a first strike in nuclear weapons. But the result was just the opposite. Each advance in weaponry led to a new round of arms race, a race of a much more destructive level.
leapfrog:
n. [U] a game in which one person bends down and another jumps over them from behind
– v. to jump or skip over; to advance well by missing out (sth.) on the way
e.g. He leapfrogged two ranks and was promoted directly to colonel.
Para. 25 the eventual solution to the arms race: new understandings and a mutual transformation of the relationship itself
unilateral: adj. done by or having an effect on only one side, esp. one of the political groups in an agreement
Para. 26 The real solution: reinventing and finally healing the relationship between civilization and the earth
What is the real solution to the environmental destruction according to the author?
–The real solution will be found in reinventing and finally healing the relationship between civilization and the earth. This can only be accomplished by undertaking a careful reassessment of all the factors that led to the relatively recent dramatic change in the relationship. The transformation of the way we relate to the earth will of cause involve new technologies, but the key changes will involve new ways of thinking about the relationship itself.
3) Language appreciation
The author developed this exposition by the cause and effect method.
•He chose typical examples to support his ideas.
•To make his writing clear, vivid and forceful, he used figures of speech such as understatement, alliteration, metaphor, rhetorical question and metonymy.
4) Stylistic Features
His formal style, serious tone as well as military metaphors indicated that environmental protection is a kind of war.
Although this writing is about a scientific research on the environment, the writer uses very few technical terms so that ordinary people can understand it easily.
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