新视野大学英语

读写教程

第

四

册

教

案

B4U1

Unit 1

Life and Logic

*Teaching Objectives：

Students will learn to use English to

1. To practice the skimming and scanning reading skills

2. To apply the phrases and patterns

3. To master the writing pattern of a narrative essay

4. To write an essay creatively based on the understanding of the text

*Time Allotment: each unit 8 classes

1st---2nd classes: Part I Warming up

1. Lead-in : Background introduction and theme-related questions for warming up

2. Understanding of the text: Detailed understanding focus on Reading Strategy including Topic Sentence, Key Words, Logic Words, Reading Clues etc. in order to help students have a better understanding about the passage by asking some questions about it.

3rd--4th classes: Part II Text Study

3. Reading in Depth: Structure Analysis, Summary, Difficult sentences analysis

4. Language Focus: More practice in Language Points (language points explanation, Sentence Patterns, Useful Expressions)

5th—6th classes: Part III Reflection

5. Critical thinking: More speaking practice in discussion related to love and logic

6. Writing Practice: Text writing

• My first meeting with my roommate

• My most embarrassing experience

• A time I felt most proud of myself

7th—8th classes: Part IV Assignment

7. Post-reading activities: review words and expressions, role-play, exercises, etc

8. Section B: Focus on fast reading and Practice in reading skill

UNIT 1

Section A Love and Logic: The Story of a Fallacy

Part I Warming up

1. Lead-in:

1) What do you know about logic?

Tips:

·It is the use and study of valid reasoning;

·Most prominent in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics, and computer science;

·Established as a formal discipline by Aristotle;

·One of the classical trivium (三学科), the other two being grammar and rhetoric（修辞）;

·Divided into three parts: inductive reasoning（归纳推理）, abductive reasoning（反绎推理）, and deductive reasoning（演绎推理）.

2) Do you think it is possible to deal with life in a completely rational and logical way?

Tips:

·When it comes to making a choice, many people tend to use rational and logical reasoning;

·Rational world is not necessarily a wonderful one;

·Rational individuals can make choices that are bad news for others;

·It is ridiculous to deal with love in a logical way.

3) The following are some statements to test your reasoning ability. Tell whether the conclusions after the word “Therefore” are true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U). Write your answer on the line before each statement.

1. All odd numbers are integers (整数). All even numbers are integers. Therefore, all odd numbers are even numbers.

2. There are no dancers that aren’t slim and no singers that aren’t dancers. Therefore, all singers are slim.

3. A toothpick (牙签) is useful. Useful things are valuable. Therefore, a toothpick is valuable.

4. Three pencils cost the same as two erasers. Four erasers cost the same as one ruler. Therefore, pencils are more expensive than rulers.

5. Class A has a higher enrollment than Class B. Class C has a lower enrollment than Class B. Therefore, Class A has a lower enrollment than Class C.

2. Cultural Background:

1) What is a fallacy? And how is it used?

Tips:

·An error in reasoning that renders an argument logically invalid;

·By accident or design, logical fallacies are often used in debate or propaganda;

·To mislead people;

·To distract people from the real issue for the purpose of winning an argument.

2) How many types of fallacy do you know?

Tips:

Part II Text Study

1. Global Reading:

Tips for Reading: A Good Reader should

1) Try to become an active reader.

2) Learn to ask more questions. ( what, why, how)

3) Do the efficient reading. (key points, topic sentence, key words, locating words, necessary and sufficient )

4) Develop a habit of marking during reading.

1.1 Answer Questions

1) Why does the narrator want to have a beautiful and well-spoken girlfriend?

Tips: He thinks a beautiful and well-spoken girlfriend will assist him to land a job and achieve success in an elite law company.

2) Why does the narrator decide to teach Polly logic?

Tips: Because he believes logic is essential to critical thinking. By teaching Polly logic, he can make her intelligent and well-spoken.

3) Is the narrator successful in teaching Polly logic? How do you know?

Tips: Yes. He is only too successful in teaching her because in the end when he asks Polly to be his girlfriend, Polly refuses his request by applying all the logical fallacies he has taught her.

1.2 Structure Analysis:

The text tells a humorous but ironic story. The narrator, a smart and promising young student in a law school who seems to be able to attract beautiful girls easily, ends up in failure in his efforts to win a girl.

Text A is a narrative, the focus of which is the plot. The structure of a narrative essay usually follows the Introduction – Body – Conclusion format.

1.3 Summary

My roommate Rob made a pact with me that he’d give me his girlfriend Polly in exchange for my jacket. And I agreed.

Polly had the right background to be the girlfriend of a dogged, brilliant lawyer like myself. She was pretty, well-off, and radiant. Still, I want to dispense her enough pearls of wisdom to make her “well-spoken”.

So I tried my best to teach her such logical fallacies as Dicto Simpliciter, Hasty Generalization, Ad Misericordiam, and False Analogy. After five nights of diligent work, I actually made a logician out of Polly. She was an analytical thinker at last.

When I asked her to develop our relationship into a romantic one, however, she refuted my arguments as those logical fallacies I had taught her! And she refused my proposition by making full proposition: She liked Rob in leather, therefore, she had told him to make the pact with me so that Rob could have my jacket.

2. Language Focus:

1) in exchange for… 作为对……的交换

为了给后代换来一个和平的环境，我们的革命先烈们抛头颅、洒热血。

In exchange for a peaceful environment for the future generations, our revolutionary predecessors shed their blood and even sacrificed their precious lives.

2) set a date for 为……定日期

要想取得成功，最好马上开始努力，不要推三推四。

In order to achieve success, one had better start immediately rather than set dates for his/her efforts.

3) appeal to 唤起；吸引

这所大学拥有许多世界知名的专家、教授以及世界上最好的研究图书馆，因此吸引了来自世界各地的学子和研究人员。

This university boasts many world-famous experts, professors, and the world’s best research library, therefore, it appeals to students and researchers from all over the world.

4) make/draw an analogy between 在……之间作类比

我们经常把学习和登山进行类比：两者在你达到巅峰之前都需要付出巨大的努力。

We often make an analogy between studying and climbing a mountain: both of them require great efforts before you can reach the top.

5) make sth. out of sb./sth. 使……变成……

这所军校的目标是经过四年的学习与训练将这些年轻的军校生变成合格的军官。

The aim of the military academy is to make qualified officers out of the young cadets after four years’ study and training.

6) give sb. the axe 抛弃（恋人）；解雇

如果你继续浪费宝贵的大学时光，毕业时你将一事无成。

If you continue playing your precious college years away, success will give you the axe upon graduation.

7) be dripping with … 满是……

这位漂亮的女士尽管浑身珠光宝气，言行却低俗无礼。

Though the beautiful lady is dripping with jewels, her words and actions are dripping with vulgarity and rudeness.

3. Language Application:

1) Sentence writing

a) If sb. could do …, sb. just might do …

用于表达 “假设”。

如果你能好好利用现有的一切而不是幻想你所没有的，你很可能已经取得巨大的成功了。

If you could make the best of what you have instead of dreaming of what you don’t have, you just might have already achieved great success.

b) Sb. never/seldom do .... Instead, sb. do …

用于表达“强调”。

一些人民公仆从不为人民服务，而只是利用手中的特权、职权最大程度地为自己谋取私利。

Some of our public servants never serve the people, instead they take advantage of their privileges and authorities to seek personal interests to the maximum extent.

c) Look at …, look at …. Can you do …?

用于表达“对比”。

看看我们，住着高楼大厦，穿着耐克、阿迪，吃着麦当劳、肯德基，喝着百事和可乐。再看看那些战乱地区的难民们，躲在破烂不堪的草棚里，没穿、没吃、没喝。我们怎么还能抱怨我们的生活呢？

Look at us, living in tall buildings, wearing Nike and Adidas, eating McDonalds and KFCs, drinking Pepsis and Colas. Look at the refugees in the war stricken areas, sheltering in poor straw sheds, having almost nothing to wear, to eat and to drink. How can we complain about our lives?

2) Text writing

·Write a narrative essay

Narrative writing can be broadly defined as story writing. It is a piece of writing characterized by a main character who encounters a problem or engages in an interesting, significant or entertaining activity/experience in a particular setting. What happens to this main character is called the “plot”. The plot follows a “beginning, middle, end” sequence. The middle of the story is the largest and most significant part, which we call “the main event”. The main event is what the story is all about and involves either a problem to be solved or a significant life experience for the main character.

Example:

Part III Reflection

1. Critical Thinking:

1) What logical fallacy is included in the story itself? Why do you think so?

The story itself includes the fallacy “Dicto Simpliciter”. The narrator assumes that all girls would be happy to date a boy whose future is somewhat guaranteed. Therefore, Polly, a beautiful and wealthy young girl, would certainly fall in love with him – “an ingenious student” and “a man with an assured future”, rather than Rob – “a muscular idiot”. However, to the narrator’s surprise and disappointment, Polly chooses Rob in the end because Rob is fashionable and cool.

2) What does the story tell us about love? And what does it tell us about smart people?

• Love is blind. It is ridiculous to use logic to deal with love;

• Smart people sometimes can make wrong judgments;

• Smart people are sometimes too arrogant and overconfident;

• Smart people may fall victims to their own smartness.

3) Can you think of a logical fallacy you have committed? Why is it a fallacy and what caused it?

Yes, certainly. Actually, logical fallacies are very common in our everyday life. I myself commit logical fallacies very often, too. For example, when I first met my roommate in college, I felt very surprised when he told me he didn’t like noodles. I asked, “People in the north of China like eating noodles. You are from the north, why don’t you like noodles?” Here I committed the logical fallacy “Dicto Simpliciter”. I falsely asserted that all people in the north should like noodles, and there should be no exception to this premise.

4) What do you know about the difference between Chinese and western patterns of thinking?

·Western analytical pattern of thinking: man and nature are separate;

·Man against nature, separation between subjective world and objective world;

·Viewing the objective world with objective and sober scientific attitudes;

·Exploring nature by means of logic and reason;

·Grasping the nature of a thing through its phenomena;

·Use of logical concepts.

·Western pattern of thinking tends to be more logical than the Chinese one;

·Chinese integral pattern of thinking: man and nature are regarded as an integral whole;

·Nature-man Oneness, the unity of Heaven and Earth, Nature and Man, Male and Female, Yin and Yang;

·Instead of using logical argumentation of conception-judgment-reasoning, Chinese are used to forming a picture in the mind by imagination and use of intuitive experiences;

2. Review:

Part IV Assignment

1. Words & Phrases:

Review all the words and practice translation and make at least 2 sentences with useful expressions.

2. Reading and Writing Practice:

Abbreviate the whole text following the Introduction – Body – Conclusion pattern.

新视野大学英语第三版读写教程第四册Unit 1-Life and Logic教案