Lesson 90 Reading
Lesson objectives:
1．Students will be able to skim and scan the passage to have a good understanding of the knowledge of telephones.
2．Students will be able to develop their abilities of comparing, concluding and imagining.
Teaching aids: a computer, etc.
Teaching procedure:
A．Pre-reading
1．Revision
Use the information from Lesson 89 about telephoning to complete some short dialogues:
1) ----There is no Tom here. ----________.
2) ----________ Tom? ----Yes, please. 3) ----Is this a convenient time? ----________.
4) ----________. Someone wants to use the phone. ----Ok, all the best. Bye. (I'm sorry. I think I dialed the wrong number/ would you like a word with; Hold on. I'll go and get him/ sure, go ahead/ I'll have to go now.) After doing this, you may ask Ss to make a similar dialogue to Lesson 89: You want to call a friend to borrow a book, but first you dialed the wrong number. Encourage Ss to practice their spoken English.
2．Presentation
Use the following two situations to let Ss have a discussion about what is the most convenient communicative way to prepare the students to read the passage of Lesson 90:
1) You want to find out if a friend is free to come to the cinema with you.
2) You want to wish a friend good luck for an important exam. You may wish to use a period of video tape in which a woman is using a telephone to arrange an appointment quickly. Then show some pictures of telephones of different periods to give Ss an impression that the old telephones are not so smart and convenient as today's so as to arouse Ss' interest.
B．While-reading
1．The first time the students read the article on SB Page 62, they will skim it. Say please read the article quickly. Try to finish it in two or three minutes. Do not worry if you've do not understand each word. When you've finished, answer the two general questions at the top of Page 62. (By thick, heavy, metal wires; By satellite, by very thin glass pipes.)
2．Now the students read the passage again. This time, divide the text into two parts (P1-3: old telephones; P4-5: modern telephones) and deal with them separately. To the first part, you may ask the following questions: Why were telephones not popular at the beginning? / Why were telephones expensive at the beginning? / Why did you have to wind the handle before making a call? / What did the telephone operator do? / What do you call a book containing all the customers' telephone numbers (It was difficult to hear people over long distances. / The wires which carried the telephone conversations were thick, heavy and expensive. / To produce electricity. / She connected the two numbers and made a note of the length of the telephone call and the charge. / A telephone directory.
To the second part you may ask some other questions: What are satellites used for? / What is the problem with electrical signals? / Why are light signals better than electrical signals? / How is a person's voice sent to another one? (For sending telephone signals over long distances. / The problem with electrical signals is that they get weaker and weaker as they travel along metal wires. / They travel long distances without getting weaker and their signal is clearer. / A person's voice is changed into electrical signals. These electrical signals are turned into light signals which are sent down the thin “pipe”. At the other end, the light signals are received and changed back into electrical signals and finally sound. )