新进阶3综合Unit

New Progressive College English Book III

Unit 4 Emerging Adulthood

1. Teaching Objectives:

Students will be able to

A. have a thorough understanding of the text contextually and linguistically;

B. build up an active vocabulary to talk about growing up and adulthood and know how to use

the key words and expressions in context properly;

C. discuss the important aspects of becoming an adult;

D. compare American and Chinese views on emerging adulthood;

E. talk about changes in expectations of young adults and changes in the degree of

independence from their parents young adults are able to achieve in today’s world;

F. write an essay about their views on emerging adulthood.

2. Time Allotment:

1st Period: Lead-in Activities (Warm-up activities; Discussion about adulthood)

2nd Period: Global Reading (Text: Approaching the theme; Analyzing the text organization) 3rd Period: Detailed Reading (Understanding the text in a deeper level; Analyzing difficult sentence structures)

4th Period: Detailed Reading Continued (Learning new words; Summarizing good usage) 5th Period: Comprehending Reading 1 (Skimming the text; Explaining the difficult sentences of the text; Doing sentence translation))

6th Period: After Reading (Viewing and listening; Speaking; Assignment)

3. Teaching Procedures:

3.1 Lead-in Activities

Step 1. Warm-up activities

The teacher leads students to figure out the five stages of life (infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age) and tells them a new life stage “emerging adulthood”has been proposed by psychologists to describe the period of time between adolescence and adulthood..

Method: PPT, communicative approach.

Step 2: Discussion about adulthood

The teacher has students work in pairs and discuss the questions in Opener about their own criteria for reaching adulthood. The teacher reminds students to refer to the helpful words and expressions given below the pictures.

Method: Using task-based language teaching method, communicative approach.

3.2 Global Reading

Step 1. Approaching the theme

The teacher has students know the background information about the term “emerging adulthood”in Culture Notes.

Emerging Adulthood: Starting in 1995, psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett interviewed 300 young people aged 18 to 29 in cities around the nation over five years, asking them questions about what they wanted out of life. Working from those interviews and examining broad demographic indicators, Arnett proposed a new period of life-span development he calls “emerging adulthood”.

从1995年开始，历时5年，心理学家杰弗里·阿内特在美国许多城市访谈了300位18-29岁的年轻人，就他们想从生活中得到什么进行提问。基于研究结果，阿内特提出了人生发展的一个新阶段，即“成年形成期”。

Method: PPT; communicative approach.

Step.2 Analyzing the text organization

The teacher tells students that the text can be divided into four parts which have been given in the Text Organization. Then students should summarize the main idea of each part and compare notes with each other.

Method: skimming and scanning, communicative approach

3.3 Detailed Reading

3.3.1 Procedure

1) Students are asked to read the passage carefully again and for each paragraph (sometimes

two-three paragraphs), invite students to answer questions related to the details of the text and the difficult sentences.

2) Help Students find out the good usage in the text and underlined them.

3) Learn new words in details.

Purpose: Further understand the text and train scanning ability to learn difficult sentence structures as well as new words and expressions.

Method:Reading the text together; Using task-based language teaching method, reading approach, communicative approach, grammar-translation approach.

Step 1. Questions related to the details of the text

Para. 1

Q: What is the average age of entering marriage now in the U.S.?

A: Today the average age of getting married is 26 for women and 28 for men.

Para. 1

Q: Why do young Americans change jobs much more frequently than their parents did?

A: Because they expect a lot more out of work. They want to find that work is personally fulfilling and is itself an adventure.

Para. 2

Q: What do the authors refer to by “emerging adulthood”?

A: By emerging adulthood, they refer to a new life period which runs typically from age 18 to 25. Paras.3-7

Q: What are the five features typical of emerging adulthood?

A: Identity explorations, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between and a sense of possibilities. Para.9

Q: Why do the authors say the rise of this new life stage is a good thing?

A: Because they think that young people can make use of the freedom of emerging adulthood to have experiences, otherwise they couldn’t have no matter when they were younger or older. Para. 10

Q: What is the disadvantage of this new life stage according to the authors?

A: Some emerging adults feel overwhelmed by the challenges of this life stage.

Para. 11

Q: What do the authors suggest parents do?

A: Be patient with emerging adults.

Para. 12

Q: What is the benefit of seeing emerging adulthood as a normal stage of life?

A: It can help ease our anxiety and may allow us to appreciate their energy, optimism and appetite for life.

3.3.2 Language Focus

3.3.2.1Difficult sentences:

1) …as they search for work that is personally fulfilling, not just a job but an adventure. (Para. 1) Paraphrase the sentence:…as they look for work that can satisfy themselves and be viewed as not only a job, but also an adventure.

Translate the sentence:他们寻找的是能使自身满足的工作，是一种带有风险的探索，而不单单是一份工作。

2)Your 18-year-old may head for college with pre-med in mind ... (Para. 3)

Paraphrase the sentence:Your child may consider majoring in medicine when he/she goes to college at 18 ...

Translate the sentence:你那18岁的孩子上大学时，想的是念医学预科……

3)It’s important to them to carve out a space where they can make their own decisions. (Para. 5) Paraphrase the sentence: It’s important to the young people to strive to free themselves from adult control in certain areas of their lives where they wish to make their own decisions.

Translate the sentence: 重要的是要开拓能够由自己做决定的空间。

4)And most are in no particular hurry, although nearly all get there eventually. (Para. 6) Paraphrase the sentence:And most often emerging adults are not very anxious to become an adult, though they will certainly grow into adulthood one day, whether they like it or not.

Translate the sentence:并且，多数人并不特别着急，尽管几乎所有的人最终都要进入成人期。

5)…something they regard with mixed feelings. (Para. 6)

Paraphrase the sentence:…something about which they feel uncertain because they see both the good and bad in it.

Translate the sentence:……而在这一点上他们的心情很矛盾。

6)But there’s a downside as well. (Para. 10)

Paraphrase the sentence: But we can also see the disadvantage brought on by this new life stage. Translate the sentence: 但也有不那么理想的一面。

7)Sometimes parents are surprised and dismayed to find that the emotional and financial

responsibilities of parenting last for many years longer than they had anticipated. (Para. 10) Paraphrase the sentence: Sometimes parents are surprised and alarmed to find that they have to support their children emotionally and financially for more years than they had expected. Translate the sentence:有时候，他们的父母亲发现其养育责任无论在情感上还是在经济上都比他们预期的要多持续很多年，这让他们感到吃惊乃至沮丧。

8)Encourage them and provide support when they seem open to it, but learn when to step back

and let them make their way on their own ... (Para. 11)

Paraphrase the sentence:Encourage them and provide support when they seem willing to accept it, but learn when to leave them alone and let them move forward by themselves ...

Translate the sentence:要鼓励他们，并在他们看起来愿意接受时，为他们提供援助和支持，但要学会择时放手，让他们走自己的路……

9)It’s a delicate balance. (Para. 11)

Paraphrase the sentence:It is a balance that requires great care to achieve.

Translate the sentence:这是一个微妙的平衡。

3.3.2.2Grammatical focus

Verbs ending in-ing can be used as the subject, the object, the predicative (表语), the

attributive (定语) or the adverbial (状语) in a sentence. Here are some examples from the text.

As the subject:

Seeing emerging adulthood as a normal stage of life today can help ease our anxiety …(Para. 12) As the object:

Adulthood means paying your own bills and taking on all sorts of responsibilities …(Para. 6) Most of them make use of the freedom of emerging adulthood to have experiences …, such as teaching in China for a year, perhaps, or taking a low-paid but fascinating internship with a nonprofit organization. (Para. 9)

As the predicative:

…they search for work that is personally fulfilling, not just a job but an adventure. (Para. 1)

As the attributive:

…you’ve created a list of America’s growing “necessities”. (Reading 1, Unit 2, Book 3)

As the adverbial:

Some emerging adults feel overwhelmed by the challenges of this life stage and drift along aimlessly, waiting for something to happen rather than making it happen. (Para. 10)

3.3.2.3Difficult words and phrases

1) breed: n. a particular kind (of person) or type (of thing) 类型，种类

e.g. It is believed that a new breed of entrepreneur is taking over Silicon Valley.

据信一种新型企业家正在硅谷出现。

2) positive: a. good or useful 好的，有用的

e.g. The past decades have seen many positive developments in environmental protection.

几十年来环境保护有了积极的发展。

3) independent: a. not subject to control by others 独立自主的；不受约束的

e.g. It is important for anyone, whether man or woman, to become independent financially.

无论男女，经济独立都非常重要。

Voters are tired of their corrupted politicians and are trying to look for an independent leader to rule the country.

选民受够了腐败的政客，他们试图寻找一位独立的领导人治理国家。

4) option: n. choice; power or freedom of choosing 选择；选择权

e.g. The restaurant offers a set menu that never changes, so we don’t have many options.

饭店菜单上的套餐固定不变，所以我们没多少选择。

Many Chinese young people often have no option but to live with their parents.

中国很多年轻人没办法只能跟父母一起住。

In return for the financial support, the VC acquired the option to buy 50% share of the company.

作为对经济支助的回报，该风险投资决定购买这家公司50%的股份。

5) exceed: v. go beyond in quantity, degree, etc. 超过

e.g. They set the speed limit at 40 miles an hour, and very often you exceed the limit before you know it.

他们设定限速40英里，于是你常常一不留神就超速了。

6) enrollment: n. 入学（人数）

e.g. I don’t get it. Why are we building a new stadium when enrollment is down?

我不明白，招生人数在下降，干嘛还要造新的体育场？

7) be equal to: be the same in quantity, size, degree, or value 与……相等的，与……相同的

e.g. The supply is equal to the demand.