Unit 8

Reading

Learning to

Learn

Warm

-up

Language

in Use

Project

Homew

ork

Warm-up

1. Watch the video and then share your opinions and experiences of travelling with your classmates.

2. Listen to the song. What is the main message in these lines?

Warm-up

Warm-up Travelling Light

Well I was doubling over the load on my shoulders Was a weight I carried with me every day Crossing miles of frustrations and rivers of raging Picking up stones I found along the way I staggered and I stumbled down Pathways of trouble I was hauling those souvenirs of misery And with each step taken my back was breaking Till found the One who took it all from me

Down by the riverside (Down by the riverside) I laid my burdens down, Now I'm traveling light BACKBACK

Reading

Task 1 Pre-reading Activities

Task 2 Reading Comprehension

Task 3 After-reading Activities

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Task 1 Pre-reading Activities

Task 1 Pre-reading Activities

Discuss the following questions in groups:1. Have you had any special travel experience? Which is the most

interesting or beautiful or unforgettable place you have ever visited? Tell your classmates about it.

2. We are going to read a passage entitled “Travelling without trampling”. What do you think the title means? What do you think the passage is probably about?

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Reading

Task 2 Reading ComprehensionTask 2 Reading Comprehension

Travelling Without Trampling

Reading

1 Travel elsewhere is on the rise. As long as the population increases, wealth increases, and transportation technology improves, the tourism industry will keep growing. In fact, tourism has risen at such a fast rate that it is now considered one of the largest industries on Earth. What’s important for travelers to realize is that we have a huge impact on the places we visit—we’re not just outsiders looking in.

2 When tourism is well managed, it can save a place. When people come to see something special and unique to an area—its nature, historic structures, great cultural events, beautiful landscapes, even special local food—they are enjoying and learning more about a destination’s geographical character. That’s why people are promoting the use of the new term geotourism, which means to sustain or enhance the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. Here travelers spend their money in a way that helps maintain the geographical diversity and distinctiveness of the place they’re visiting. It can be as simple as spending your money at a little restaurant that serves a regional dish with ingredients from local farmers rather than at an international fast food company that serves the same food you can get back home.

3 Tourism can also preserve things that would otherwise disappear. A good example of this is the Maine Windjammer fleet, a collection of old wooden sailing vessels that used to ship cargo up and down the coast. Once the era of steam came about, these vessels began disappearing. Fortunately, before they were gone entirely, somebody realized that people would pay to take vacations on them. They’re lovely to look at, and they leave a very small environmental mark, and meals that are served on board are prepared with local ingredients. Now they have even built new vessels. Tourism has brought back, in modified form, a way of life that we almost lost.

4 Great tourism can build something that wasn’t there before. One favorite example is the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The aquarium, which has about 1.8 million visitors each year, brought people’s attention to the incredible variety of sea life right off the coast of California. And it played a major role in the development of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Once people saw what was there, they wanted to protect it.

5 However, if tourism is badly managed, it will destroy a place. Coasts, for example, are extremely vulnerable. Everyone wants to go there. Everyone wants to own a second home on them. And there’s just not enough coast to go around. Coasts are also important for biodiversity, because many sea creatures have their nurseries in coastline areas. So development in these areas is a highly sensitive issue. The same thing goes for attractive mountainsides like the Rockies of the West. That’s why when development occurs on a large scale it’s important that it be carefully planned.

6 Then, what happens to a destination after years of heavy traffic? Here’s another example. At the Petrified Forest (in northeast Arizona) it’s very easy to bend down, pick up a little bit of petrified wood, and pocket it. People think it’s only one pebble, in such a vast area, so it makes no difference if they take it. But since millions of visitors over the years have thought the same thing, all of the pebbles have disappeared, which makes the Petrified Forest less and less special. So when you’re talking about an entire location like a town, a stretch of coastline, a wild area, or a national park, it’s important to listen to park rangers when they tell you where to go and not to go, what to do and not to do. Small sites like the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, are most helpless because all the foot travelers are concentrated in one tiny spot. In this situation, it is extremely important to control traffic flow to minimize damage to the site.

7 Bad management and heavy traffic are often ruining tourist places. However, with careful planning, you can do more good than harm on your next trip.

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Task 3 After-reading Activities

Task 3 After-reading Activities

What is geotourism? What are the benefits of geotourism? 1

It’s a new kind of travelling, which means to sustain or enhance the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. Here travellers spend their money in a way that helps maintain the geographical diversity and distinctiveness of the place they’re visiting.

Reading

2 What would you do when you set off to a tourist resort?

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Languagein Use

Task 1 Grammar Development

Task 2 Vocabulary Building

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Task 1 Grammar Development: Passive Voice

1) am/is/are +done e.g. English is spoken in many countries all over the world. 2) has/have been done e.g. This novel has been translated into several languages. 3) am/is/are being done e.g. The project is being carried out.

4) was/were done e.g. Some TV sets for sale in the department store were stolen last night.

Languagein Use

5) had been done e.g. They said that production costs had been reduced.

6) was/were being done e.g. The case was being investigated then.

7) shall/will be done e.g. He won’t be allowed, by his father, to marry Larra.

8) should/would be done e.g. They would be sent to the army when they finished the training.

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Task 2 Vocabulary Building: Names of European Countries

Flag Map English Short Name

English Long Name

Capital

United Kingdom (Britain or

Great Britain)

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

London

France French Republic

Paris

Belgium

['beldʒəm]

Kingdom of

Belgium

Brussels

['brʌslz]

Languagein Use

Flag Map English Short Name

English Long Name

Capital

Germany

Federal Republic of Germany

Berlin

Denmark

Kingdom of

Denmark

Copenhagen

[,kəupən'heiɡə

n]

Spain Kingdom of

Spain

Madrid

[mə'drid ]

Sweden Kingdom of

Sweden

Stockholm

['stɔkhəum]

Iceland Republic of

Iceland

Reykjavik

['reikvik ]

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Project A Trip to Europe

1 Look at the pictures below. Work in pairs and identify the place in each picture.

Talk with your partner and think about some other famous tourist places you would like to visit and make a list.2

Discuss with your partner how you would plan to travel in one or two European countries within ten days. After the discussion, work out an itinerary for your trip to Europe.

3

Map out your itinerary on a map according to your preferences.

4

Project

Either put your map on the wall or walk around the class to see the other groups’, and then share yours with them. Use your imagination and try to make your trip sound interesting. Or you can organize a tour group and introduce the journey as if you were a tour guide.

5

Discuss these questions with your classmates.How to describe a place? How to make your travel plan clearly understood?

6

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Project

Learning to Learn

1. Do you have an electronic dictionary? Which do you prefer, print dictionaries or electronic dictionaries? Why?

2. Compared with a print dictionary, what are the advantages and disadvantages of an e-dictionary?

Benefits of Electronic Dictionaries

(1) Quick searching. Typing a word on your keyboard is much faster than turning pages in a large, heavy book.

(2) Easy copying. To make your own Super-Memo collection for learning English, just copy and paste.

(3) Recordings. You can listen to recordings which show you how to pronounce a word.

(4) More information/clearer layout. An electronic dictionary has more space, so it can give more information (e.g. more sample sentences) or it can present the same information in a clearer way (bigger font, blank lines, etc.).

Learning to Learn

3. Besides the electronic dictionary, there are some online dictionaries. Try to log on these websites, and you will find

more surprise.

http://www.iciba.com/ http://dict.cn/

http://dict.netat.net/ http://study.hongen.com/dict/BACKBACK

Learning to Learn

Homework

Search information to introduce a tourist resort that you’ve never been to, and give your advice to the tourists. (You may use the words and expressions we learned in this unit.)

Recall your experience about travelling and write it on your blog.

1. Report

2. Blog

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