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I. Brief Statements Based on the Unit 
            The activities of this unit, including Warming-up, Listening,  
            Speaking, Reading and Writing, center on the subject-news and the  
            media, which are connected with our life closely. It provides the  
            students an opportunity to learn the language in using it. 
            By talking about news and the media, the students get more knowledge  
            about them-not only know about the important parts they play in  
            learning about the world, but also the ways they are written and  
            made. The students must be very interested in this subject. This  
            way, they can learn the language points easily and freely. They will  
            not only learn some useful words and phrases about news and the  
            media, but also learn to express opinions. 
            Besides, the study of the Grammar-the Past Participle can help the  
            students use the language more exactly. By finishing each task  
            provided in the textbook and the workbook,  the students skills to  
            use language can be well developed. 
            Ⅱ. Teaching Goals 
             1. Talk about news and the media. 
             2. Practise expressing opinions. 
            3. Learn about the Past Participle (1): used as Attribute and 
            Predicative. 
            4. Write a comparison paragraph. 
             Ⅲ. Teaching Time: Four periods  
            IV. Background Information 
            1. RADIO 
            In ancient times the only way that men could send messages from  
            village to village was on foot. When men learned to use the horse,  
            communication became much quicker. However, compared to the modern  
            world communication was still quite slow. Many parts of the world  
            had no knowledge of events in other places. Later, the post was  
            introduced and horse riders carried letters. This meant that  
            communication was further improved. Horses drawn coaches could move   
            people from town to town in quite a comfortable way. At the  
            beginning of the last century the steam train was invented and for  
            the first time really fast communication became possible. Not only  
            could letters be sent easily from one part of a country to another,  
            but travel was made easy, too. At about the same time, steam ships  
            helped communication between countries. 
            The invention of the telegraph in the middle of the last century  
            further increased the speed at which messages could be sent. In this  
            system electrical signals, in code, are sent along metal wires.  
            These signals travel so fast that they could go nearly eight times  
            round the world in one second. A special device is needed to send  
            the code. At the other end another device is used in order to 
            receive the code. By this method messages can be sent over distances  
            of several hundred kilometres. With the invention of the telephone  
            the human voice could be sent over long distances. Because of this  
            the telephone system replaced the telegraph for quick communication  
            over long distances. The telegraph is still used, however, by 
            newspapers in order to send news and for other purposes too. 
            At the beginning of this century radio was invented and in a few  
            years communication was again improved. The main difference between  
            radio and telephone is that radio uses no electrical signals which  
            travel long distances along wires. Instead invisible waves, moving  
            at the same speed as electrical signals, are used. A few years ago  
            there were not many radio stations in the world. Today there are  
            many hundreds of radio stations broadcasting in different languages  
            and in all countries. The invisible radio waves can easily travel  
            from one country to another. This means that listeners in one 
            country can listen to programmes broadcast from another country. In  
            this way information travels from country to country. Radio is often  
            used by policemen to communicate with on 
 
 
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