M5Unit3Welcome.doc

M5 Unit3 Welcome to the unit
Teaching goals 教学目标
1. Enable the students to know something about cloning, and give their own opinions about cloning.
2. Help the students learn how to describe the advantages and disadvantages of human cloning with the target language.
Teaching important points教学重点
Talk about cloning and human cloning.
Teaching difficult points 教学难点
How to describe the advantages and disadvantages of human cloning.
Teaching methods教学方法
Discussion and speaking.
Teaching procedures and ways教学过程与方式
Step I Lead-in
Walk into the classroom with a sad face.
T: Good morning, class.
Ss: Good morning, Miss Wang.
T: How are you today?
S: Fine. But you look so upset, what happened?
T: My pet cat died of some unknown disease this morning, which makes me so sad. You know I love her so much that I nearly can’t live without her. However, nothing can take her place in my mind, what can I do?
S: Why don’t you have one that is exactly the same as yours by cloning? I think it’s the only way to solve your problem.
T：What’s clone?
S1: A clone is a copy.
S2: Cloning is one of the most popular technologies in the 20th century.
T：What other technologies do we have in recent years?
S1: Maybe the most influential technology is computer science, which has contributed a lot to our society in many fields. Now, for most of us, we can’t live without computers.
S2: Every coin has two sides, while we benefit a lot from computer technology, it does do harm to us in some degree. For example, many people get computer disease, and some students give up schooling because of being addicted to computer games.
S3: Air-conditioner is widely used today. We can spend both winter and summer without worrying about being too cold or too hot because we can control the temperature ourselves. But as a result, our environment is polluted at the same time; our planet is becoming warmer and warmer, which partly results from our using of air-conditioners.
T: You are right. Just now you mentioned cloning. Now let’s see some pictures.
Show the pictures on the textbook on the screen.

Step II Welcome to the unit
T: Here are six pictures. They are all clones. Maybe all of you are familiar with Dolly, aren’t you?
Ss: Yeah.
T: Where and when was Dolly born? Is she still alive? Who can give us some information about Dolly?
S: Dolly the sheep was born on February 24, 1997 in Edinburgh Scotland. She was cloned from a cell of another sheep. Dolly died in February, 2003, after developing a progressive lung disease.
T: Do you know other cloned animals?
S: A cloned frog first appeared in the world in 1952. In 1962, a tadpole was successfully cloned. What’s more, it was announced that human embryo was successfully cloned in a company in America on November 25th, 2001.
T: Now suppose you’ve grasped cloning technology, what would you like to clone? Why?
S1: I’d like to clone dinosaurs, which disappeared several billion years ago. Because I want to reappear the prosperity in dinosaurs’ times and let our future generation have the opportunity to see the giant animals.
S2: I don’t like to clone animals in ancient times because I think it means nothing. I want to clone water. As we all know, water is very important to our planet and even the whole universe. However, with the development of our society, the amount of water cannot satisfy our needs. Besides, in some areas in the world, people even haven’t enough water to drink.
S3: I agree with S2 that water is of great importance to us. But in my opinion, food is more important. If we can successfully clone food, we can save people in South Africa who are suffering from hunger; it will be of great benefit to the world.
S4: It’s a fact that our living environment is becoming worse and worse, so it’s our responsibility to protect the environment around us. Therefore, I would like to clone the tropic rainforest in Amazon. I will place it in Sahara to purify the environment and I’m sure that would be wonderful.
S5: The human organ would be my choice. Every year, a large number of people in the world die from lack of human organs to replace their sick ones. And my grandfather is an example.
S6: I would prefer to clone a luxurious villa, a most perfect car and a lot of money to enjoy myself! To live a luxurious life as a millionaire has been my dream for a long time.
T: All of you have good wishes! Science is developing so fast that it is even beyond our imagination. Cloning is one of the more advanced technologies! Everything on earth is unique, but cloning makes it possible to have a double. Do you know why we’re different from each other?
Ss: ...
T: It’s because of genes. Genes are the instructions for life. They make each individual plant or animal different and unique. Do you think it would be a good idea to clone humans someday?
S: I don’t think it would be a good idea to clone humans because the earth we are living on is already overpopulated, and cloning humans would make the situation worse.
S: I don’t quite agree. I think it would be fun to clone humans. If you have a cloned sister or brother, you won’t feel lonely anymore. What’s more, for those couples who can’t have a baby, cloning would help them have their own babies.

Step III Discussion
Deal with the questions in activity F.
T: Now work in pairs and discuss the questions in activity F.
Several minutes later, ask some pairs to demonstrate their conversations.
A sample conversation:
A: If we use cloning technology, there won’t be any idiot in the world and, as a result the human society will be improved.
B: I don’t agree. If persons like Hitler (希特勒) were cloned they would bring troubles to our society.
A: Using cloned organs, we can save the lives that are dying of incurable diseases, such as cancer and AIDS.
B: But there will be population problem. You know our earth is overpopulated now. If we clone humans, there will be more and more people and the earth will run out of resources. I think human being is against nature law. If we stick to the opinion that human cloning is right, we’ll be punished by nature in the future.
A: Police would have difficulty in arresting the criminals because of clones. So I think governments should pass laws to make human cloning illegal.
B: I agree. Our moral principles will be destroyed. What if someone has two fathers? Or two wives?
A: Even if the parents who have lost their children would feel happy when they see their loved ones, the clone’s behavior and thoughts can’t be like their daughters, sons. Maybe they will regret.
B: I just want to see one “I” in the world, I can’t imagine what I would feel if there are two “I”! How horrible!
T: Almost all of you are for the view that human being shouldn’t be cloned. I can’t agree more. We have our principles while nature has its own ones.
We can’t attempt to change something in the nature, or we’ll be punished! So we should try our best to build a society in harmony with nature instead of against nature.

Step IV Homework
Preview the text on P42.
Search the Internet for more information about cloning.