Unit Five Rethinking Thinking

1. Unit Five Rethinking Thinking

2. I. Lead In II. Read In 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 III. Summary IV. Exercises V. Listening VI. Testing

3. Discussion Do you prefer acquiring more knowledge or forming the habit of creative thinking while studying at college?

4. Discussion What is creative thinking?

5. Preface College classes that make one think-it’s a basic concept assumed as a given. But many grads walk away with a diploma yet still lack critical-thinking skills. That’s why some educators are asking students to close their textbooks and do a little more reflecting.

6. Lines 1-4 Thinking is presumed to be the bread and butter of higher education. • presume: take for granted; suppose I presume this decision to be final. From the way he talked, I presumed that he failed in the exam.

7. Lines 1-4 Thinking is presumed to be the bread and butter of higher education. • bread and butter: the way of living Teaching is my bread and butter.

8. Lines 1-4 Q: What is people’s attitude towards thinking according to this paragraph? It is regarded as an essential part of higher education.

9. Lines 5-10 … a feat requiring considerable mental agility. • considerable: fairly large or great A considerable number of people object to the government’s new foreign policy.

10. Lines 5-10 … a feat requiring considerable mental agility. • agility: the state or quality of being agile With surprising agility, he jumped over the wall and disappeared into the darkness.

11. Lines 5-10 The ability to sift, analyze, and reflect upon large amounts of data is crucial in today’s information age. • sift: examine closely We must sift the evidence very carefully before we take and further action.

12. Lines 5-10 The ability to sift, analyze, and reflect upon large amounts of data is crucial in today’s information age. • reflect on/upon: consider; think on He had no time to reflect on his successes and failures.

13. Lines 5-10 The ability to sift, analyze, and reflect upon large amounts of data is crucial in today’s information age. • crucial: decisive, critical The success of the experiment is crucial to the project as a whole.

14. Lines 5-10 Q: Why is it more important to teach college students how to think toady? In today’s information age, there are a lot of data to be sifted and analyzed and all this work needs thinking.

15. Lines 11-24 Yet a major national report released last year entitled “Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College” … • release: make public Details of the plane crash have not yet been released to the public.

16. Lines 11-24 Yet a major national report released last year entitled “Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College” … • entitle: give ( a title) to ( a book, play, etc.) Martin Luther King gave his most famous speech entitled “ I Have a Dream” in Washington D.C..

17. Lines 11-24 College websites beckon students to “learn to think critically”. • beckon: Make a signal to someone with your hand or arm, to show that you want them to come Mrs. White beckoned me to follow her.

18. Lines 11-24 Q: Do colleges pay enough attention to students’ critical and creative thinking? Q: What do the universities actually do about critical thought?

19. Lines 25-30 Yet research shows “many college graduates are falling short in reaching these goals.” • fall short: fail to reach a desired result, standard, etc. He would sack any of his staff who fell short of his high standards.

20. Lines 25-30 Q: What does Mrs. Schneider think about critical thinking?

21. Lines 31-34 Q: What are some college faculty doing to improve the thinking skills of students? They are trying to teach thinking skills in all classes instead of in isolated courses only.

22. Lines 31-34 Q: How did Prof. Sarah Wyatt carry out her plan of teaching students critical thinking skills? She asked her students to put aside their textbooks, notes, etc. and to break into teams to develop original hypotheses of a plant’s development.

23. Lines 35-41 Inspired by an initiative at Ohio University in Athens – where she was teaching – to focus harder on teaching students… • inspire: put uplifting thoughts, feelings, or aims into Inspired by the sunny weather, I decided to have a picnic down by the river.

24. Lines 42-48 What flaws and limits might be embedded in their approach? • flaw: a fault or weakness that makes something not perfect He pointed out one fatal flaw in my reasoning.

25. Lines 42-48 Q: What did they do to test their hypotheses? They first designed an experiment to test their hypotheses, and then they were forced to reconsider methods and conclusions.

26. Lines 49-52 Q: What did Esther Kingston-Mann do with her students?

27. Lines 53-60 IN her course on the cold war, she asks them to read newspaper accounts instead. • account: a written or spoken report; description

28. Lines 53-60 Later they collaborate in small groups, trying to identify in the newspaper clippings … • collaborate: work together The two nations are collaborating on several satellite projects.

29. Lines 53-60 …and to note which perspectives and voices are missing. • perspective: one’s opinion; a way of thinking about something we learned to view the war from the perspective of the historians.

30. Lines 53-60 Q: What did she actually ask her students to do in her class? She asked her students to put aside their textbooks and try to find information from newspaper accounts over a long period of time.

31. Lines 61-66 Q: What can we learn from this paragraph? Students should make an effort to develop their own thinking skills instead of simply absorbing material from textbooks and lectures.

32. Lines 67-72 Q: What conclusion can we draw from the last paragraph? Although the discussion on the need for critical thought in higher education has been a topic for decades, only a few colleges or universities are making an effort to do it.

33. Summary: Q: What should be the primary purpose of higher education? Q: What is your suggestion to the teachers in our college to develop students’ creative thinking?

34. Homework Preview the text. What should students learn from class?

35. Thanks for your attention!

36. Unit Four Suzhou: Its Gardens and Embroidery

37. Exercises • 汽车销售是份坚苦的工作，但那是我的生计。 • 2. 这几天地毯供不应求。 • 3.导游叫我们去看看那幅画。 Selling cars is hard work, but it’s my bread and butter. The supply of carpets falls short of demand these days. The tour guide beckoned us over to look at the painting.

38. Exercises 4. 玛丽错误地认为她会获得这份工作。 5. 麦克从父母那里继承了一大笔钱。 6. 在这关键时刻，他却保持沉默。 Mary mistakenly assumed that she would get that job. Mike inherited a considerable amount of money from his parents. He kept silence at this crucial moment.

39. Exercises 7. 这份文件授权我的律师处理我的一切法律事宜。 8. 该囚犯刑满释放出狱。 This paper entitles my lawyer to handle all my legal proceedings.. The prisoner was released from jail when his sentence was up.