Upon completion of this unit, teachers are expected to have enabled students to:

■ have a thorough understanding of the text linguistically and contextually;

■ build up a basic vocabulary about humanity’s water problem and learn to use the key words and expressions.

Upon completion of this unit, teachers are expected to have enabled students to:

■ discuss the water situation in the world and in China;

■ explain why water is going to be the greatest challenge facing mankind in the 21st century;

■ propose ways to help conserve water;

■ write a passage centering around a topic sentence about water conservation.

 《大学英语》课前预习导引

Guiding questions for previewing the texts

1.      What is the title of the text？

2.      What is the theme of the unit？

3.      How many paragraphs are there in the text？

4.      How would you divide the text into parts ？And why do you divide it this way？

5.      Draw a mind map to illustrate the structure of the text.

6.      What kind of  writing is this text, narrative, descriptive,expository or argumentative?

7.      What is the main idea of the text? Try to summarize the main idea in one long sentence,

8.      What cultural background knowledge must you have grasped to better your understanding of the text?

9.      What new words and expressions are significant in your eye that you would like to keep them in mind?

10.  What are the sentences patterns and structures that are singled out for practice in this text?

11.  What rhetoric devices(修辞手法)are applied in this text?

12.   What are the difficult sentences that you want your teacher to discuss in class?

13.  What moral values have you learned from this text? Prepare a little speech

14.  What message reminds you of Chinese ideology?