Homework: 1. Write a short passage based on Listening and Speaking in the class to show their
tastes of poems or tell how much you have known about English poetry so far.
2. Choose a short poem from the library or the Internet and recite it, preparing to act it out in the following periods while studying this unit.

Period 3—4 Reading
Step 1: Warming up
1. Greetings.
2. Get some individuals to sing a song or recite a poem they have chosen.
3. Invite some individuals to talk about their tastes of poems.
Step 2: Pre-reading
SB P27, focus on Task 3. Get them to accomplish in pairs.
Step 3: Reading
1. Read for the main idea.
1) Summarize the main idea of each paragraph.
Para.1: Why we read poetry
Para.2: Chinese poets and poetry
Para.3: Early English poets
Para.4: The 19th century English poets
Para.5: Modern English poets
Para.6: The introduction of English poetry into China
Para.7: Why more people are interested in English poetry
2) Choose the main idea of the passage. ( A )
A. Poetry is a good bridge to connect the East with the West.
B. Different periods of English poems.
C. Modern poems of English.
D. Differences between Chinese and English poetry.
2. Read for the detailed information. ( SB P28 Post-reading Task 1—2.)
Step 4: Listening
Listen to the tape with these tasks:
1. Post-reading Task 3. (SB P29.)
2. Choose the best answer after listening.
1) From the passage, we got the idea(s):______________.
A. poetry belongs to all human beings
B. poetry plays with sounds, words and grammar
C. poetry often follows special patterns of rhythm and rhyme
D. all of the above
2) From the passage, we can infer that _____________.
A. we’d better read poems in English
B. translated poems can’t express exact meaning of original poems
C. there is no advantage of reading English poetry in Chinese translation
D. Chinese translation poems are as good as English poems
Step 5: Comparison
Compare a famous Chinese poem by Chao Zhi with its English version. ( SB P29 Post-reading Task 4.)
七步诗
曹植
煮豆燃豆箕，
豆在釜中泣；
“本是同根生，
相煎何太急？”

They were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire,
Came a plaintive voice from the pot,
“ Oh, why since we sprang from the self-same root,
Should you kill me with anger hot?”
【Conclusion: By using different language, a poem loses a lot of its charm ( beauty ) and spirit. The rhythm and rhyme, the figures of speech, etc. are different from the original work.】
Step 6: Reflective thinking
1. SB P29 Post-reading 5—6.
2. Where does poetry come from? What roles does it play in our life?
3. What characteristics are English poetry? What about Chinese poetry?
Homework: 1. Surf the Internet and read some introduction of your favourite poet(s) and one of their best poems.
2. Read the passage again and pick out 10 words that you like best or you think they are the most useful in the passage and learn them by heart.
3. Workbook Listening. (SB P102)

Period 5 Language study
Step 1: Warming up
1. Greetings.
2. Get some individuals to sing a song or recite a poem they have chosen.