Week Six:Week Six:Lesson A-5Lesson A-5

Creating fictional plotsCreating fictional plots

Please go over the underlined parts in your returned homework and try to correct or rewrite them. If you have questions, please consult the teacher.

Your third Your third writing taskwriting task

A SummaryA Summary

Recall the directionRecall the direction Write a story of at least 300 words with

an unexpected ending. Try to imitate the style of the articles we have just read and pay attention to the appropriateness in tense and aspect.

If your ending is not unexpected nor as humorous as that of the sample articles, your second item of the scoring equation will be 16 or less.

If you make more than three errors in tense and aspect, your last item will be less than 12.

Well doneWell done• A story with a surprising ending 蔡纯纯

Well doneWell done• A story with a humorous ending: 冯丽云 倪尤馨 林玥辛

Well doneWell done• A story with a terrible ending 冯建

Well doneWell done• A story with a casual ending Chris

EnhanEnhance ce

Your word Your word powerpower

mysophobiamysophobia• An abnormal fear of dirt or contaminatio

n• 洁癖Let’s listen to a storyby Cai ChunchunMark was very peculiar about cleaness.Cleanness 清洁Cleanliness 爱洁净

E.T.E.T.• extraterrestrial• 外星人

Diamond Diamond phrasesphrases

used by studentsused by students

• Are you pulling my leg, mom? by Mai Dongmei 麦冬梅• I left at full tilt. by Lin Yuexin 林玥辛• Eventually he was employed by a power

ful company which lacked new blood in the nick of time.

by Lin Biying 林璧莹

• 到小笔吧中去寻找更多的闪光词组• Look for more diamond phrases from ou

r Little Pen Bar

FrownFrownafter smileafter smile

• Though we knew it was him, we had no proof.

evidence

A sentence without the A sentence without the main clausemain clause

In just one minute, my breath held, my brain blank, my hands sweating, my legs trembling.

Input readingInput reading

Fresh air will kill you

Smog, which was once the big attraction of Los Angeles, can now be found all over the country from Butte, Montana, to New York City, and people are getting so used to polluted air that it’s very difficult for them to breathe anything else.

I was lecturing recently, and one of my stops was Flagstaff, Arizona, which is about 7,000 miles above sea level.

As soon as I got out of the plane, I smelled something peculiar.

“What’s that smell?” I asked the man who met me at the plane.

“I don’t smell anything,” he replied. “There’s a definite odor that I’m not familiar with,”

I said. “Oh, you must be talking about the fresh air. A lot

of people come out here who have never smelled fresh air before.”

“What’s it supposed to do?” I asked suspiciously. “Nothing. You just breathe it like any other kind of air. It’s supposed to be good for your lungs.”

“I’ve heard that story before,” I said. “How come if it’s air, my eyes aren’t watering?”

“Your eyes don’t water with fresh air. That’s the advantage of it. Saves you a lot in paper tissues.”

I looked around and everything appeared crystal clear. It was a strange sensation and made me feel very uncomfortable.

My host, sensing this, tried to be reassuring. “Please don’t worry about it. Tests have proved that you can breathe fresh air day and night without its doing any harm to the body.”

“You’re just saying that because you don’t want me to leave,” I said. “Nobody who has lived in a major city can stand fresh air for a very long time. He has no tolerance for it.”

“Well, if the fresh air bothers you, why don’t you put a handkerchief over your nose and breathe through your mouth?”

“Okay, I’ll try it. If I’d known I was coming to a place that had nothing but fresh air, I would have brought a surgical mask.”

We drove in silence. About fifteen minutes later he asked, “How do you feel now?”

“Okay, I guess, but I sure miss sneezing.”

“We don’t sneeze too much here,” the man admitted. “Do they sneeze a lot where you come from?”

“All the time. There are some days when that’s all you do.”

“Do you enjoy it?” “Not necessarily, but if you don’t

sneeze, you’ll die. Let me ask you something. How come there’s no air pollution around here?”

“Flagstaff can’t seem to attract industry. I guess we’re really behind the times. The only smoke we get is when the Indians start signalling each other. But the wind seems to blow it away.”

The fresh air was making me feel dizzy. “Isn’t there a diesel bus around here that I could breathe into for a couple of hours?”

“Not at this time of day. I might be able to find a truck for you.”

We found a truck driver, and slipped him a five-dollar bill, and he let me put my head near his exhaust pipe for a half hour. I was immediately revived and able to give my speech.

Nobody was as happy to leave Flagstaff as I was. My next stop was Los Angeles, and when I got off the plane, I took one big deep breath of the smog-filled air, my eyes started to water, I began to sneeze, and I felt like a new man again.

Suggested writing task:Suggested writing task:

Write a short story reflecting the conflict between human and nature or social development. Try to imitate the ironic style of the input reading but do not duplicate its plots.

Exchange your Exchange your brainstormingbrainstorming

in groupsin groups

Excellent worksExcellent worksby students of previous by students of previous

years years

FromFrom human human beings beings

toto apes apesBy Grade 01 Lu MengyangBy Grade 01 Lu Mengyang 吕孟洋吕孟洋

I just finished my article From Apes to Human Beings when the doorbell suddenly rang. I opened the door, scared – the leading character in my novel, a hairy monkey was standing in front of me.

“May I come in?” “Yes! Yes! Please come in, my great dear ancestor!” I quickly pulled out a chair and let him sit down. “I’m sorry but I’m still puzzled. What do you come for?”

“In fact, I just come to correct an error in logic of your article. It is not from apes to human beings. On the contrary, you are my great ancestor.” “How could that be! You lived 500 thousand years ago. And in the course of evolution you gradually became us, the human beings!” “No, you made a mistake. I live 500 thousand years after now. We evolved from you over a long period of time.” “This must be the biggest joke in the world. Human society makes unceasing progress. How could that retrogression take place?” “Retrogression! No! It, absolutely, is a progress!”

I began to pace in the room, trying to find some evidence against his opinion. “Look! We walk erectly. This is the sign of evolution.” “Oh, no! Crawling will take the place of walking erectly sooner or later. Walking erectly changed the natural way of body growth and caused a series of human diseases like hypertension, heart disease, strain of lumbar muscles, arthritis and so on. Now your scientists have proved that it is very good to health to crawl for a while everyday. It is sure that human beings will crawl like us one day.” He wagged his tail proudly.

“Ha, look! You still have the tail which was degenerated from us human beings.” “Really? Do not be self-deceiving any more! All of you behave yourselves by tucking your tails between legs, which severely damages the growth of your tails. And this is why you need 500 thousand-year evolution to become us. One day when you become us, you never need to tuck your tails, the symbol of dignity. You can talk what you really want to talk, do what you really want to do and wag your tails at will. Isn’t it a great evolution?”

“Er…How about science? How can you overlook our great success in the development of science and technology which can absolutely prove the course of evolution? Now we human beings have invented computers, nuclear weapons, satellites and we even landed on the moon!” “Ha! Aren’t these high-tech products which you are always proud of putting you human beings on the edge of destruction? No doubt the once-popular nuclear weapon has made its own inventors become more and more frightened. The voice of developing it has been definitely swallowed by that of limiting or even abolishing it. Innumerable satellites have now become the outer space rubbish, which is another threat, isn’t it? You almost have destroyed the earth. Why do you still want to break the peace of the moon?” My guest became angry and excited. I quickly gave him a glass of water, and he spat it out immediately when drinking.

“What’s this? What a terrible taste!” I smiled perkily. “This is called purified water and is made by high-tech.” “Nonsense! How can the man-made thing be called purity? The water we use for washing is a thousand times purer than yours! You are too backward!” “I admit that certain pollution exists. But we are trying our best to protect the environment with high-tech. And it will need a long time!” “How to protect that? Cut down the forests at will? Exploit the mine at the cost of polluting rivers? Hunt and kill animals and birds in cold blood? In my opinion, you spend more time and energy in speaking than taking real action.” I was speechless.

“Can you describe the ideal society you dream of?” he asked me. “Sure. The place should be surrounded by forests and rivers, the bushes covered with flowers, the fields full of sheep and cattle, a fine flight of birds in the sky. And there are no wars, no invasions, no bleeding and discrimination between nations; And people live together amicably…” “Yes! This is exactly the world when human beings become apes! You see?”

He jumped onto my desk and wrote on my paper “ From Human Beings to Apes”!

I stood in front of the desk, with my hair on end!