Unit 3.ships in the desert课文解释.doc

Unit 3: Ships in the Desert by Al Gor I . Additional Background Knowledge 1. Al Gore the author 2. Clean Air Act 3. The Aral Sea II . Introduction to the Passage 1. Type of literature: a piece of exposition 2. The purpose of a piece of exposition: --- to inform or explain 3. Ways of developing the thesis of a piece of exposition: --- comparison, contrast, analogy, identification, illustration, analysis, definition, etc. 4. The central thought or thesis III . Effective Writing Skills 1. making effective use of specific verbs 2. discussing the solution to environmental problems from a politician’s point of view, that is, relating the solution to environmental destruction to the solution to arm races IV . Rhetorical Devices 1. understatement 2. metaphor V . Special Difficulties 1. analyzing the structure of some long and complicated sentences 2. understanding the scientific matters connected with ecological environment 3. translating long and complicated sentences 4. mastering the rules of word formation VI . Questions 1. How has human civilization now become the dominant cause of change in the global environment? 2. What changes in the global environment present a strategic threat to human civilization? How should we face this challenge and solve the problem? 3.What solutions does the writer put forward to our ecological problems? Detailed Teaching Notes: Background knowledge About the author: Al Gore was born in 1948 in Washington D.C., U.S. He has been a Senator (1984-1992) representing the State of Tennessee, and U.S. Vice-President (1992-2000) under President Bill Clinton. He ran for the Presidency against George W. Bush Jr. but the latter won the closely tied election and has become the 43rd American President. The text is taken from Al Gore’s book Earth in the Balance. The Aral Sea: The Aral Sea, located in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (both countries were part of the former Soviet Union), is historically a saline lake. It is in the centr