上外全新版大学英语综合教程讲义-book1-unit6

Book one Unit 6 Animal Intelligence

Text A

The first time:

The first period:

I. Preview:

1. Let the students be familiar with some important words and phrases in Text A, which will enable them to better understand the text: controversy, encounter, convince, suspicious, blank, relieve, figure out, assess, inaccessible, release, deceive and wipe out.

2. Ask the students to search for some information about animal intelligence through Internet or the Encyclopedia while keeping the question in mind that whether animals do have intelligence and what kind of presentation they may show.

3. Read Text A in general and paragraph 5&6 in Text B.

II. Check the homework left last time when the fifth unit was finished.

III. Introductory remarks (Ts’ words):

In unit 5, we’ve talked about romance. Of course, it’s about the romance of us human beings. But, do we believe that animals will also fall in love? In this unit, Text B, we have examples showing that animals do have certain affections to the one of the same kind but the opposite sex. As we’ve read paragraphs 5&6 in Text B, the point has been proved in someway.

Well, from the stories, we see that animals really have their own way of thinking. But, what animals really think? Do they have intelligence as we do?

IV. Check the preview work through discussion:

1. What’s the meaning of intelligence? And, what about animal intelligence?

→Intelligence refers to the power of perceiving, learning, understanding, and knowing. It also means mental ability.

As for animal intelligence, it involves such factors as the ability to learn, to solve new problems, or to create novel solutions to familiar problems and reasoning. The last one means that some animals have the ability to benefit from the experiences of others. That’s what we can find in the third story in Text A, that Towan is clever to do the similar trick as Melati.

2. Ask Ss to tell some interesting stories concerning animals’ presentation of intelligence. Here are also two samples.

→Story one: My parents once raised a dog named Doudou. One day, my father left his coat behind in the scallion field. Doudou stayed beside the coat until my father returned to the scallion field and looked for his coat. Then, he went home happily together with my father.

Story two: Once in Yunnan Province, a boa saved the son of his master from a river.

Ts may list some other animal behaviors to arouse the Ss’ interests:

E.g.: Bees communicate a food source to other members of the hive by means of various “dancing”.

Some other species can communicate by sight, taste or odor, electrical impulse (fish), or touch, and many animals have more than one system.

Conclusion: From all above, we find that animals do display intelligence in some areas. Let’s read the text and find more examples of animal intelligence.

V. Global reading tasks.