Unit 8 Culture and tradition
I Content
—Background information
—Text understanding- Why all the hard work 为何会那么努力工作？
—Critical thinking
—Review
II Feedback about students’ tasks
III Background information
1. The original passage of the text was published in Beijing Review
2. Arthur Smith (1845 –1932) 阿瑟·史密斯
3. Carl Crow (1883–1945)卡尔·克劳
4. Economic mobility 经济流动性
IV Understanding the text
l iExplore 1 Why all the hard work 为何会那么努力工作？
Text understanding
Task 1
The author gives an account of how foreigners observe the Chinese trait of being hard-working. Read Paras. 1-5 and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).
Task 2
Work in pairs. Read the sentences from the text and discuss the questions.
1 Chinese literature and folklore have many moral tales about industrious farmers and peasants. (Para. 3)
Can you give an example of the Chinese story that highlights the value of diligence? Have you read any similar stories in Western literature or folklore?
2 Today, Chinese culture also has strategies that allow for economic mobility. (Para. 10)
Do you know any economic strategy or policy China has taken that has improved people’s economic mobility? What are they?
3 Could the Western world learn something from Chinese diligence? Certainly China’s current economy reflects cultural values that benefit all people. (Para. 10)
Does the author think other nations should learn from Chinese diligence? How have Chinese cultural values contributed to China’s economic achievements?
V Critical thinking
Watch the video and answer the following questions.
观看视频并回答以下问题。
1 What might be the origin of the Chinese people, according to the Chinese mythology?
2 What might be the origin of human in your mind, the great evolution, Nuwa’s mud, or the aliens from other planets?
VI Review
VII Homework
Vocabulary (Unit 1-Unit 6)
Bank Cloze(Unit 1-Unit6)
Read iExplore 1 text of Unit 1-Unit 7
