大学实用英语

Unit One Family Life

Passage A

How Family Rules Profoundly Affect Our Lives

Background Knowledge

1.Hidden family rules continue their influence for many years

When people are asked to share remembrances and insights of their parents, they may wonder how they could possibly pare down a lifetime of experiences and give something that would be of interest and informative, not only for their family today, but for great-great-grandnieces and -nephews and great-great-great grandchildren who are not yet born.

Family life is transmitted by parents both directly and indirectly. Although some of these behaviors and attitudes are formal and overt, most of them are informal and unconscious, which make their emotional significance e ven more potent. Through these “unwritten laws”, the children learn how they are to behave, in other words, what is acceptable and what is not acceptable within and outside the family.

While reading this passage, the writer hopes it will give the readers an idea of how children’s common experiences in their everyday life have a tremendous influence on the way that adult sees the world.

2. Ohio

The state of Ohio is named after the Ohio River. Ohio is the name that used when referring to the river and means “large”or “beautiful river”.

3. California

California’s long association with gold make s it a natural nickname for the state “The Golden State”. The state legislature made the official nickname of California in 1968.

4. Related websites and webpages:

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Teaching Design

1. The Structure of the Text

2. Suggestions to Teaching Activities

1) Pre-reading:

Jigsaw:

Divide the students into small groups equally according to the number of the topics given below. Each group is required to make a survey and get ready for group discussion in class.

A. Students write down some other family rules, which exist in their families.

B. This is an argumentation. Try to tell the advantages and disadvantages of family rules.

C. Try to translate the following sentences into Chinese:

a. Had my father died before I had a chance to work out the resentment I felt because of

his severity, I would not have learned to love him as freely and deeply as he wanted to

be loved.(7)

“要不是因为在父亲去世之前我能有机会宣泄由于他的严厉而使我对他产生的

怨恨，我就不能学会深切并且毫无保留地爱他，就像他所希望的那样。”

b. Also, having gone through a good deal of therapy, I learned to forgive him and accept

the reality that, considering his background, he was not able to be anyone other than

who he was as a father.（9）

“同样，在我经历了许多的治疗之后，我学会了原谅他，也学会了接受现实，也

就是：考虑到他的身份，他不可能是别的什么人，只能是一个父亲。”

D. How many parts do you think the text can be divided into? And try to generalize the main idea of each with your own words.

2) While reading:

Pyramid

This is a strategy to help students with comprehension and make sure the students understand the text. Do the following as a class activity while reading.

Pyramid

a. ____________

b. ______________

c. ________________

d. __________________

e. ____________________

f. ______________________

g. ________________________

h. ____________________________

Have the students fill in the pyramid with the information asked for below.

On line:

a. write the key phrase of the text.