Language and Culture

Conversation 1

JCR is short for the Junior Common Room, a room in a college where students can sit and talk, read newspapers, have coffee etc. 

The soaps  is a short way of referring to soap operas. A soap opera is a television or radio series about the imaginary lives of a group of people. The series are called soap operas because when they first appeared in the US in the 1930s they were sponsored by soap manufacturers. The word opera is used to suggest that the programmes are often too emotional (since in opera, singers express a lot of emotion).

Conversation 2

Podcasts are audio or video files which are subscribed to and automatically downloaded, whenever they are updated, to PCs or portable media players.

Friends is an extremely popular US comedy series which ran from 1994 to 2004.

Pre-listening Activities 

Conversation 1 

【Book 1】P58. 1.  Work in pairs and arrange the sentences into two stories, in the order you expect to hear them. 

Procedure:

1. There are three sentences for each story. The sentences do not tell the whole story, so a certain amount of guess- work is needed.

2.You’d better use lexical clues (her car / the car; stolen / the thief) and grammatical ones  (A man … / The man …).

3.  Make up a story on the basis of the three sentences and share it with your partners. Then selects the best story to share with the class. 

Conversation 2 

【Book 2】P59. 5. Work in pairs and learn some everyday English.

Thank goodness!

He had no idea at all.

Go on.

on telly

news addict

You bet!

1.  Work out the meaning of the phrases and sentences based on the context of Conversations.

2.  Work in pairs to prepare a mini-conversations illustrating the phrases and sentences.

    For example:

    A: By the way, I now know Henry's big secret.

    B: Go on! 

3. Perform the conversations.

Language and Culture

Robin Williams was a Hollywood actor, who often played comic roles. One of his most famous movies is Dead Poets Society[《死亡诗社》].

Cindy Crawford was once America’s top model, with some film appearances too.

James Garner was a television cowboy star of the 1950s and long-time celebrity.

Los Angeles is where Hollywood is, so it is full of stars.

Federico Fellini was a major Italian director. His most famous movies include La Dolce Vita [《甜蜜生活》].

Paparazzi is the plural form of “paparazzo”.

Monte Carlo is a town of Monaco famous for gambling and visits by celebrities.

A bounty hunter is someone who chases criminal suspects for whom there is a reward.

North Hampton is a town in New Hampshire, US. It is used here as an example of an ordinary town. The point is to make ordinary people experience what it is like to be followed and photographed.

Pre-listening Activities 

【Book 1】P62. 

1. Work in pairs and discuss the questions.

1. What are paparazzi?

2. What kind of paparazzi pictures do newspapers pay most for?

3. How would you feel about having your picture taken by a stranger?

Pre-listening Activities

Passage 1

【Book 1】P65. 

2  Work in pairs. Look at the pictures and tell the story.

Passage 2 

【Book 1】P65. 2. Work in pairs anddiscuss the questions:  

1. What are reality TV programmes?

 2. Can you give examples of types of reality TV programmes?

 3. What are people’s reactions to them?