unin13 The USA(二)

Step 1　Revision

　　1　Check the homework exercises.

　　2　Do the following exercise.

What is important about these dates or figures?

　　1524　　　$24　　　125,0001858　　　 1892　　　 15,000,000　

　　2,000,000　　 1900　　193  1 73　　　 50,000　　 24　 hours

Step 2 Presentation

　　Find out how much the Ss know about the central plains of America. Write the title of the text on the Bb and ask Ss to tell you anything they know. Put any useful notes and key words that arise out of this discussion on the Bb. Teach the new word bison, using the picture in the book. Then SB Page 3, Part 1. Get Ss to talk about the picture and describe what they can see.

Step 3　Reading for general understanding

　　Read aloud the two questions. Then tell the Ss to read the passage quickly and write down the answers to the questions. Allow the Ss enough time to read the text, write down the answers and compare them in pairs. (1 The settlers killed them, forced them to leave their hunting grounds, broke agreements which they had made, forced them onto poor land, and killed most of the bison on which Native Americans had relied for food. 2 The killing of large numbers of bison changed the whole wildlife chain on the plains.)

Step 4　Reading

　　Wb Lesson 50, Ex. 1. Go through the exercise and make sure the Ss know what to do. Let them read the whole passage carefully and answer the questions, working in pairs or small groups. Check the answers with the whole class. This is a goodtime to deal with any language problems. See if the Ss can guess the meaning of westwards, afterwards, widespread, rot, etc.

Notes：

a　bison： This is a large mammal, related to cattle.The scientific name is bison, and the common name is buffalo, as used in the name Buffalo Bill. The term bison is used to distinguish it from the domesticated water-buffalo found in North Africa and Asia, and the wild African buffalo, which is dangerous.

b　across the country： Point out that many prepositions like across can be used to indicate place as well as motion.

c　Now that they could ride horses = Because they could now ride horses

d　a shoulder-height： height from the ground to the shoulder. This is the common way of measuring many large mammals, e.g. horses, cattle, deer.

e　When they objected = Whenever they objected

f　broke them： You break a promise or an agreement.

g　While early settlers： While expresses a contrast between the two clauses.

h　With fewer bison=When there were fewer bison

i　so grass：so expresses the result

j　died out=ceased to exist .Aliving thing dies,but a group of living things dies out when there are no more of them.

k　prairie dog： common name given in the US to the ground squirrel, which is also found in Africa and Eurasia. Other common names are chipmunks and gophers. Ground squirrels are between 20and 80 cm long and are usually colouredgreyish. They may live in burrows in the ground or may shelter in hollow logs or trees.

Step 5　Comprehension

　　SB Page 4, Part 2.Get Ss to work through this exercise in pairs, then check the answers with the whole class.

　　1　F The first settlers were Native Americans who lived by hunting animals and gathering food.

　　2　F The first horses were brought to America by the Spanish.

　　3　T

　　4　F They were forced to move away.

　　5　T

　　6　T

　　7　F Native Americans made use of the whole animal when they killed it, but later settlers took only the skins of the bison.8 T

Step 6　Reading aloud

　　Speech Cassette Lesson 50. Play the tape of the passage for the Ss to listen and follow. Play the tape of part of the passage once more; this time the Ss listen and repeat. A suitable section might be the paragraph “The killing of the bison …” to practise intonation and the sentence stress of longer sentences.

Step 7 Reference

　　SB Page 4, Part 4. Get Ss to do this exercise individually or in pairs, then check the answers with the class.

Answers：

　　1　they arrived …America

　　2　wild horses

　　3　Native Americans

　　4　bison's

　　5　the settlers' own plains

　　6　Native Americans'

　　7　agreements

　　8　The settlers

　　9　the soil

　　10　the prairie dog

　　11　There was less food …for the prairie dog.

　　12　a change in the number of bison

Step 8　Workbook

Wb Lesson 50, Exx. 2-3.

　　Before doing Ex. 2, Ss should read the last paragraph of the reading passage again. Ask them to find out the first sentence (Millions of bison were killed by settlers). Then pairwork. Check the answers with the whole class by calling out individual Ss to do the exercise. Ex. 3 can be done orally in groups or pairs. Check the answers in class. Get the Ss to write it down in their exercise books.

Step 9　Consolidation

　　SB Page 4, Part 3. This can, if preferred, be done as homework, when Ss read the text again.The final diagram should look like this：

　　Ask Ss what they have learnt about bison and the plains of America in this lesson, especially anything that was new for them.

Homework

　　Read the passage again and complete the diagram in Part 3, if this was not done in class.

Finish off the Workbook exercises.