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Unit One What is beauty?
Teaching Plan
Topic: Suffering to be beautiful
Teaching objectives
Knowledge objectives:
1. Have students review some vocabulary describing beauty.
2. Have students learn about various ideas of beauty by reading the passage.
3. Have students further understand of beauty by discussing proverbs and quotations.
Skill objectives:
1. Have students grasp the main idea of the passage by skimming and scanning
exercises.
2. Have students conclude the speakers’ opinions by doing some reading exercises.
Emotion objectives:
1. Develop students' right attitude towards judging beauty.
Teaching Procedures
I. pre-reading
1. Have students review some vocabulary describing beauty.
astonishing, attractive, awesome
beautiful, brilliant, elegant
good-looking, graceful, handsome, lovely
perfect, pretty, scenic, superb, superior
unbelievable, incredible
a thing of great beauty
leave me breathless
a real masterpiece
2. Have students make sentences with the words or phrases above by looking at the
pictures.
II. while-reading
1. Have students skim the passage and answer the following questions.
1) What is happening in a radio studio?
2) What can you predict about the two speakers’ points of view?
2. Have students scan the whole passage and answer the following questions
1) What are the first names of SL and EC?
2) What do they do?
3. Have students scan the passage again and complete the notes on page 1.
4. Have students read the passage more carefully and do reading exercise E1
III. post-reading
Have students further understand of beauty by discussing proverbs and quotation.
The reading passage is a transcript of a radio phone-in program. A radio presenter ( the
host) introduces the topic “ beauty” and the two experts Sue and Elizabeth. The host has
Sue and Elizabeth state their points of view briefly. Here are several proverbs and
quotations presented to you. Read and discuss them in group. Tell us which of the two
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speakers in the transcript would agree with which of these.
1) Beauty is only skin-deep.
The proverb means that beauty is really only a superficial quality. This could imply that
physical beauty is not important because it is superficial. (EC’s position)
2) Don’t judge a book by its cover.
This proverb means we should not judge people by their outer appearance. EC argue that
it is silly to judge people by appearance. (EC’s position)
3) A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into
nothingness.- John Keats (an English poet who became one of the principal poets of the English
romantic movements during the early nineteen century)
This proverb means beauty can bring a joy and has great value. It is important to loo
your best. (SL’s position)
4) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. - Margaret Wolfe ( an Irish novelist whose light
romantic fiction was popular throughout the English-speaking world in the late 19th century)
This proverb means that everyone sees beauty in a different way. What is beautiful to one person
might not be beautiful to another. Since it makes beauty a matter of personal taste, this proverb is
more likely supported by EC, because she does not think it is important to fit society’s idea of what is
beautiful.
Discussing the topic
1. Have student present their own opinions on beauty.
In Sue’s opinion, it is important to look you best in today’s world. You should watch what
you eat and keep yourself fit. If necessary, cosmetic surgery can change your life. She
may try to promote her own business by mentioning her health studios. By contrast,
Elizabeth has a more balanced approach. She thinks too much emphasis on appearance is
bad. Paying too much attention to your looks will lead to real dangers. Whether in the
past or in the present, lots of people, especially women, experience much suffering to
make themselves look beautiful. So is it worthwhile for them to endure this to fit
society’s idea of what is beautiful? “What is beauty in your mind?”
IV. Assignment
Oral work
Written work
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