Unit 14

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

Part 1 Listening and Speaking ActivitiesIntroduction of functionsListen and speakTry to speak moreMake your own dialogueWhat are they forIf you want to learn more

Introduction of functions

Are you busier now than when you were in high

school?

No, we have much more freedom now.

What about your exams?

Much less.

Making comparison

When we are making some comparisons, we usually use comparative / superlative forms of adjectives or adverbs.

Listen and speak Listen to the conversations and complete

the tasks on page 220-221. Conversation One 1. B 2. A 3. A 4. A Conversation Two 1. B 2.B 3. C 4. C

Try to speak more

Useful structures and expressions in Conversation One Who is going to take charge of this project?

He seems more like a follower than a leader.

I’m in favor of…

Useful structures and expressions in Conversation Two Compared with the life 10years ago, people’s living standard has

improved a great deal.

My grandmother was amazed that…

Make your own dialogue

language used when talking about differences and similarities

You are good at sewing and I am good at singing. (Similarities) We have a lot in common I don’t even know how to sew on a button. – But you are such a

great singer. (differences) We are different in some ways John likes singing and I like singing, too We both like singing While John likes singing, I like playing football. (differences) Nobody sings better than John does in our class. (differences)

Conversation One

Make your own dialogueSome weather-related vocabulary

Conversation Two

Day Temperatures Other weather conditions

sunny freezing snow

cloudy cold storm

overcast warm hailstorm

rainy cool typhoon

breezy hot thunderstorm

drizzling stuffy hurricane

windy oppressive gust

What are they for/ If you want to learn moreWhat are they for 1.D 2.F 3.C 4.B 5.A 6.C

If you want to learn more a.5 b.1 c.8 d.14 e.10 f.9 g.11 h.12 i.13 j.7 k.4 l.3

m.6 n.2

Reading Comprehension

Pre-reading tasks

Text study

This is a Scottish proverb that means: The one thing for certain is that luck will change.

Proverb

Behind bad luck comes good luck.

Pre-reading tasks

Discussion

When do you give people flowers as a present?

The of the White Gardenia

Every year on my birthday, from the time I

turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my

house. No card or note came with it. Calls to

florist were always in vain---it was a cash

purchase. After a while, I stopped trying to

discover the sender’s identity and just delighted

in the beauty and heady perfume of that one

magical, perfect white flower nestled in soft pink

tissue paper.

Mystery

mystery: something strange or unknown which has not been explained or understood

e.g. Despite years of study, sleepwalking remains a mystery.

in vain : without success in spite of your effortcash purchase: buying in cash, in contrast to buying on

credit or buying with a credit carddelight : [n] great pleasure, satisfaction or happiness or

something or someone that gives this e.g. My sister’s little boy is a real delight. [verb]: make somebody happy, satisfied or pleased e.g. Peter’s success at school delighted his family. delight in ： to take great pleasure innestle: to be or put someone/something into a comfortable

position or protected position

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

But I never stopped imagining who the

anonymous giver might be. Some of my happiest

moments were spent daydreaming about

someone wonderful and exciting but too shy or

eccentric to make known his or her identity.

daydream: [verb]to think about something pleasant, especially when this makes you forget what you should be doing

[noun]: pleasant thoughts you have while you are awake, that makes you forget what you are doing

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

My mother contributed to these imaginations. She’d

ask me if there was someone for whom I had done a special

kindness who might be showing appreciation. Perhaps the

neighbor I’d helped when she was unloading a car full of

groceries. Or maybe it was the old man across the street

whose male I retrieved during the winter so he wouldn’t

have to venture down his icy steps. As a teen-ager, though I

had more fun speculating that it might be a boy I had a

crush on or one who had noticed me even though I didn’t

know him.

contribute to: to give money, help, ideas etc to

something

retrieve: get something back from somewhere,

especially from a place where you have hidden it or

where it should be

e.g. The boy retrieved the bag he’d left in the train.

venture: to take the risk of

Nothing ventured, nothing gainedhave a crush on: to love

The Mystery of the White Gardenia When I was 17, a boy broke my heart. The night he

called for the last time, I cried myself to sleep. When I

awoke in the morning, there was a message scribbled on

my mirror in red lipstick: “heartily know, when half-gods

go, the gods arrive.” I thought about the quotation from

Emerson for a long time, until my heart healed. I left it

where my mother had written it. When I finally went to get

the glass cleaner, my mother knew everything was all right

again.People should understand that what is lost is not something

really good. The real gods will come later. A more common saying is “behind back luck comes good luck.”

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

I don’t remember ever slamming my door in

anger and shouting: “You just don’t understand!”

because she did understand.

但是我从来没有停止过去猜测这个匿名的送花者到底是谁。最开心的时刻我会去幻想，幻想这是个很出色、很积极的人，但太害羞或太古怪而不愿透露他（她）的身份。

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

One month before my graduation, my father died of

a heart attack. My feeling ranged from grief to

abandonment, fear and overwhelming anger that my dad

was missing some of the most important events in my life. I

became completely uninterested in my upcoming

graduation, the senior-class play and the dance. But my

mother, in the midst of her own grief, would not hear of my

skipping any of those things.

range from…to: to include a range of different feelings,

actions, etc

Abandonment: giving up, stopping doing something

before it is finished/done e.g. Constant rains forced the abandonment of the next

day’s competitions.Overwhelming: hard to deal with; great quantity e.g. The task won’t be so overwhelming if you break it

down into small steps. in the midst of: in the middle of, surrounded by

e.g. The pear tree stood in the midst of a rainbow of flowers.

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

The day before my father died, my mother

and I had gone shopping for a party dress. We’d

found a spectacular one, with yards and yards of

dotted swiss in red, white, and blue. It made me

feel like Scarlett O’Hara, but it was the wrong

size. When my father died, I forgot about the

dress. 父亲去逝的前一天，母亲和我去买晚礼服。我们物色到了一款别致的礼服，上面有许多红、白、蓝色的花点子薄洋纱，让我感觉像是郝思嘉 . 欧哈拉，但是衣服大小不合我身。父亲去逝后，我也就忘记了衣服这件事情。

The Mystery of the White Gardenia My mother didn’t. The day before the dance,

I found the dress---in the right size---draped

majestically over the living room sofa. It had just

been delivered, still in the box. It was presented

to me---beautifully, artistically, lovingly. I didn’t

care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother

did.present ： to give something to someone,

especially at a formal or official occasion

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

She wanted her children to feel loved and

lovable, creative and imaginative, imbued with a

sense that there was magic in the world and beauty

even in the face of adversity. In truth, my mother

wanted her children to see themselves much like the

gardenia---lovely, strong and perfect---with an aura

of magic and perhaps a bit of mystery.

imbued with: [ usually passive voice] to make someone feel

an emotion very strongly ;fill someone’s mind with

something

e.g. The school wants to imbue every student with lofty

ideals.

in the face of: in a situation where there are many

problems, difficulties or dangers

adversity: difficult situations

e.g. Adversity makes strange bedfellows.

in truth: in fact, really

The Mystery of the White Gardenia

My mother died ten days after I was married.

I was 22. That was the year the gardenias

stopped coming.

我结婚后的第十天，母亲辞世了，那年我二十二岁。也就是从那一年起，我再也没有收到白栀子花了。

Part 3 Extended Activities ( 略）

Cultural InformationChristmas Traditions (2)

Some Questions about Christmas

What is the typical food of this festival?

What do people usually do at Christmas?

What is the name of the day after Christmas

Day?

When are people supposed to take down

their decorations and remove Christmas tree?

Thanks !