UNIT TWELVE LIBERAL
EDUCATION
Section One
LEAD IN
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
• 曾任芝加哥大学校长的赫钦斯说过这样一句话：“如果没有
通识教育，我们决不能办好一所大学。”
• 通识教育(General Education)源于古希腊哲学家亚里士多德提
出的自由教育(Liberal Education)思想。亚里士多德认为，自
由教育是自由人应受的教育，它的目的在于发展人的理性、
心智，以探究真理，而不是为了谋生和从事某种职业作准备。
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1945年，哈佛大学出版了题为《自由社会的通识教育》的
报告，指出美国高等教育首先要克服过分专门化的倾向，
通过通识教育帮助学生“有效地思考、交流思想，做出适
当的判断并区别不同的价值观念”。该报告认为，通识教
育实质上是对自由教育的继承，是自由教育在现代意义上
的对等词，它旨在使学生的理性获得自由。 通识教育是有
关“做人”的教育，专业教育是有关“做事”的教育
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION
• A Liberal education is a system or course of education
suitable for the cultivation of a free (Latin: liber) human
being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal
arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of
Enlightenment.
• It has been described as "a philosophy of education that
empowers individuals with broad knowledge and
transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics,
and civic engagement ... characterized by challenging
encounters with important issues, and more a way of
studying than a specific course or field of study" by the
Association of American Colleges and Universities.
• Usually global and pluralistic in scope, it can include a
general education curriculum which provides broad
exposure to multiple disciplines and learning strategies
in addition to in-depth study in at least one academic
area.
• Liberal education was advocated in the 19th century by
thinkers such as John Henry Newman and F.D. Maurice.
Sir Wilfred Griffin Eady defined Liberal Education as
being education for its own sake and personal
enrichment, with the teaching of values.
• The decline of liberal education is often attributed to
mobilization during the Second World War. The premium
and emphasis placed upon mathematics, science, and
technical training caused the loss of its prominent
position in higher education studies. However, it became
central to much undergraduate education in the United
States in the mid-20th century, being conspicuous in the
movement for 'general education'.
• In the early years of the 21st century, many universities
and liberal arts colleges reviewed their curricula to
include a liberal education, or to promote broader
undergraduate education infused with its spirit.
• "Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are
open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma,
preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions
and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of
their place in the social and natural worlds." Liberally
educated people are skeptical of their own traditions;
they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer
to authority.
--from The American Association for the Advancement
of Science
• It also cultivates "active citizenship" through off-campus
community service, internships, research, and study
abroad. Some faculty see this movement towards "civic
engagement" as more pedagogically powerful than
traditional classroom teaching, but opponents argue that
the education occurring within an academic institution
must be purely intellectual and scholarly.
• A liberal education combines an education in the classics,
English literature, the humanities, and moral virtues.
• The term liberal education in the modern sense should
not be confused with liberal arts education; the latter
refers to certain subjects of study, while the former is a
way of learning itself and may be pursued through any
subject. Indeed, a liberal arts education does not
necessarily include a liberal education, and a liberal arts
program may even be as specialized as a vocational
program.
• Definitions of a liberal education may be broad,
generalized, and sometimes even contradictory "It is at
once the most enduring and changeable of academic
traditions.“
• Axelrod, Anisef, and Lin suggest that conceptions of
liberal education are rooted in the teaching methods of
Ancient Greece, a slave-owning community divided
between slaves and freemen. The freemen, mostly
concerned about their rights and obligations as citizens,
received a non-specialized, non-vocational, liberal arts
education that produced well-rounded citizens aware of
their place in society.
• At the same time, Socrates emphasized the importance
of individualism, impressing upon his students the duty
of man to form his own opinions through reason rather
than indoctrination（教导）.
• Athenian education also provided a balance between
developing the mind and the body.
• Another possibility is that liberal education dates back to
the Zhou Dynasty, where the teachings of Confucianism
focused on propriety（礼）, morality, and social order.
• Hoerner also suggests that Jesus was a liberal educator,
as "he was talking of a free man capable of thinking for
himself and of being a responsible citizen," but liberal
education is still commonly traced back to the Greeks.
• The early notions of liberal education found in Greece
and Rome lost favor when the Roman Catholic Christian
movement began to focus primarily on spiritual matters.
• It discouraged seeking physical pleasure, giving too
much importance to physical exercise and other
endeavors that dealt with the body or nature.
• While liberal education was stifled during the barbarism
of the Early Middle Ages, it rose to prominence once
again in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, especially
with the re-emergence of Aristotelian philosophy.
• The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw a revolt
against narrow spirituality and educators started to focus
on the human, rather than God. This humanist approach
favored reason, nature and aesthetics.
• Study of the classics and humanities slowly returned in
the fourteenth century, which led to increased study of
both Greek and Latin.
• In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, liberal education
focused mostly on the classics.
• Commoners, however, were not too keen on studying
the classics, so they instead took up vernacular
languages and literature, and also the sciences.
• Until at least the twentieth century, both humanist and
classicist influences remained in the liberal education,
and proponents of a progressive education also
embraced the humanist philosophy.
• Study of the classics continued in the form of the Great
Books program.
• Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that
began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in
various forms to the present. More recently, it has been
viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction
legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational
funding act.
Most progressive education programs have these qualities in common:
• Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, expeditionary learning,
experiential learning.
• Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units.
• Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking.
• Group work and development of social skills.
• Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote
knowledge.
• Collaborative and cooperative learning projects.
• Education for social responsibility and democracy.
• Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily
curriculum.
• Selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be
needed in future society.
• De-emphasis on textbooks in favor of varied learning resources.
* Emphasis on life-long learning and social skills.
• Great Books refers primarily to a group of books that tradition, and
various institutions and authorities, have regarded as constituting or
best expressing the foundations of Western culture (the Western
canon （西方正典）is a similar but broader designation);
derivatively the term also refers to a curriculum or method of
education based around a list of such books.
• Mortimer Adler lists three criteria for including a
book on the list:
A. the book has contemporary significance; that is, it has
relevance to the problems and issues of our times;
B. the book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and
again with benefit; "This is an exacting criterion, an ideal
that is fully attained by only a small number of the 511
works that we selected. It is approximated in varying
degrees by the rest."
C. the book is relevant to a large number of the great
ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of
thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries.
REASONS TO RECEIVE LIBERAL EDUCATION
• A liberal education will involve you in learning how
to learn, to participate actively in learning
throughout your life.
• ☺You become more adept at problem solving, both
by using sharpened analytical skills and by being
able to approach situations from multiple
perspectives.
• ☺A liberally educated person feels more
comfortable talking with many different people on
a variety of topics.
REASONS TO RECEIVE LIBERAL EDUCATION
• ☺You become an excellent candidate for specialized
and professional training in the health sciences,
education, law, business, and graduate programs.
In fact, a liberal education forms the base of any
successful career.
• ☺You can better perceive the many connections
that exist between people, places, and ideas. At the
same time, you are more able to appreciate the
differences.
• ☺A liberally educated person knows why everyday
life is so utterly extraordinary.
REASONS TO RECEIVE LIBERAL EDUCATION
• ☺You will be increasingly aware of the many
dimensions and influences of the various cultures
within our country and throughout the rest of the
world.
• ☺A liberally educated person knows why buildings
and landscapes are more than places and things.
• ☺You will personally experience the feeling that
Einstein referred to when he said, “As the circle of
light expands, so does the circumference of
darkness around it.”
REASONS TO RECEIVE LIBERAL EDUCATION
• ☺Being a liberally educated person means that you have
become more aware of the increasingly inter-dependent and
inter-connected community of nations in the world. This is
both a matter of survival and personal growth.
• ☺A liberal education gives you the tools and knowledge to
help formulate not only your individual career, but your
wider philosophy and purpose in life.
• ☺You won't necessarily know more than other people, but
you will know better which questions to ask and you will be
better able to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• An American private Ivy League research
university
• located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United
States
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• established in 1636
• Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning
in the United States
• Harvard was named after its first benefactor,
John Harvard
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• Motto: Veritas (Latin for “truth”)
• School color :crimson 深红色
• Nickname: Harvard Crimson
TEXT A
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBERALEDUCATION CURRICULUM
WARM-UP QUESTION
Do you know the concept of liberal-education?
What education concepts you can think of in
Chinese traditional Confucianism or other
schools of thought?
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• subsequent
• unconscious
• curriculum
• prescribed
• criteria
• discernment
• apprehend
• acute
• transcend
• propel
• eloquence
• empower
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• subsequent 后来的；随后的
• Subsequent events verified that his judgement
was at fault.
接着发生的事件证实了他的判断有误。
• On the day subsequent to his visit, she
disappeared.
在他访问的第二天, 她失踪了。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• unconscious 失去知觉的，无意识的
• She remained unconscious for several
hours.
她不省人事有好几个小时。
• He himself seemed totally unconscious of
his failure.
他本人似乎对自己的失败全然不知。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• curriculum 全部课程，课程
• The educational bureau demands that all
schools introduce a new course into the
curriculum.
教育局要求所有的学校开设一门新课程。
• English is the one compulsory foreign
language on the school curriculum.
英语在学校课程设置中是一门必修的外语课。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• prescribed 规定的，法定的
• Books must be kept according to a
prescribed form.
必须按照规定的形式记账。
• The organization of people's courts is
prescribed by law.
人民法院的组织由法律规定。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• criterion 标准，准则
• Practice is the sole criterion of truth.
实践是检验真理的唯一标准。
• Their most important criterion for buying a car
is fuel efficiency.
他们购买汽车最重要的标准是省油。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• discernment 洞察力；敏锐
• He shows great discernment in his choice of
friends.
他选择朋友很有眼光。
• They have discernment and are able to view all
things in an objective manner.
他们具有洞察力,并能够用一个客观的方式来看待所
有事情。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• apprehend 理解
• Only now can I begin to apprehend the
power of these forces.
直到现在我才真正了解这些队伍的力量。
• The discovery, I apprehend, is not
imperative.
我认为, 这个发现不是必不可免的。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• acute 敏锐的，敏感的
• Into her nineties, her thinking remained acute
and her character forceful.
虽已年届九旬，她依然头脑敏锐，个性很强。
• His relaxed exterior hides an extremely acute
mind.
他表面上大大咧咧，内心却无比敏锐。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• transcend 超越，超出
• Such matters transcend human understanding.
这些事情是人类所无法理解的。
• Everyone knows that the speed of airplanes
transcend that of ships.
人人都知道飞机的速度快于轮船的速度。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• propel 推进；推动
• The tiny rocket is attached to the spacecraft
and is designed to propel it toward Mars.
小火箭捆绑在宇宙飞船上，用于推动飞船飞向火星。
• We must develop industries with local
advantages and propel the development of
key areas.
积极发展有特色的优势产业，推进重点地带开发。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• eloquence口才；雄辩
• No The force of his eloquence easily
persuaded them.
他用滔滔雄辩轻易地说服了他们。
• He inherited his eloquence from his father,
a Christian preacher.
他继承了他那个当基督教传教士的父亲的口才。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• empower 授权；使能够
• I empower my agent to make the deal for
me.我授权我的代理人处理此项交易。
• Powerful people empower others and
encourage others to express themselves
openly. 具有影响力的人给人以力量，鼓励他人
坦诚地表达自己的观点。
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
1. What is liberal education according to
the author?
A liberal education is what remains after
you have forgotten the facts that were first
learned while becoming educated.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
2. Why is liberal education considered as
“really useful training” according to Harvard
philosopher Alfred North Whitehead?
Because in subsequent practice the men will
have forgotten your particular details; but
they will remember by an unconscious
common sense how to apply principles to
immediate circumstances.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
3. What are the four criteria of Harvard College
liberal-education courses?
Criterion of discernment, criterion of creativity,
criterion of communicative skills, criterion of
access.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
4. What should students and professors do to
develop creativity?
Students should learn to transcend
traditional ideas, patterns, and relationships
in order to fashion new ones thoughtfully.
Professors should encourage originality,
exploration, and discovery within and across
scholarly disciplines, unafraid to present
material that might even seem contradictory.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
5. What are the ways mentioned in the text
that can make courses accessible to
undergraduates who approach them with
varying levels of preparation?
One way is survey course, an alternative is
to teach highly specialized courses to
beginners.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
6. What are the consequences that the four-criterion
approach brings to curriculum design?
It makes it unlikely that a good design would be a
simple “distributional requirement” scheme that
clumps courses into humanities, social sciences, life
sciences, and physical sciences. It disregards the full
dimensions of the criterion of discernment. It takes no
explicit steps to develop communicative skills. It is at
best agnostic on whether creativity would be fostered.
It leaves no obvious place for courses to be
developed outside disciplinary departments and thus
makes curricular and pedagogical innovation either
less likely or merely ornamental.
COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE BY FILLING
EACH OF THE NUMBERED BLANKS WITH ONE
SUITABLE WORD.
A liberal education is what remains after you have
forgotten the facts that were first learned while becoming
educated. This view has long been influential
1
at Harvard.
Harvard philosopher Alfred North Whitehead argued that
the “really useful training” focuses on “general principles.”
One result is that “in subsequent practice the men will
have forgotten your particular details; but they will
remember by an unconscious
2
common sense how to apply
principles to immediate circumstances.”
This general view has been a foundation stone of the
Harvard College curriculum since President Charles
William Eliot introduced the elective system to replace a
curriculum of prescribed
3
courses.
Harvard College liberal-education courses in a
general education program ought to meet four key
criteria. The first is that they should foster
4 discernment.
Students in such courses should be capable of rendering5
acute judgments and making ethical decisions.
The second criterion is that these courses should
develop creativity. Professors should encourage
originality, exploration, and discovery within and across
scholarly disciplines, unafraid to present material that
might even seem contradictory
6
.
Thirdly, such courses should construct and propel
the communicative skills of our students. For many
disciplines in the physical, life, and behavioral
7
sciences,
“thought” is often communicated most effectively
through mathematics or statistics.
An alternative is to teach highly specialized
courses to beginners; the professor can do so,
however, only if the course has been designed to
entice, mastery
8
, motivate, and empower the student
to proceed expeditiously and within one semester
from ignorance to inform
9
. This may be what
Whitehead may have meant by his second
“educational commandment,” namely, “What you
teach, teach thoroughly.”
It is virtually condemned
10
to rely exclusively on
survey courses to meet the criterion of access. It
leaves no obvious place for courses to be developed
outside disciplinary departments and thus makes
curricular and pedagogical innovation either less
likely or merely ornamental.
TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES INTO ENGLISH.
1.自从校长查理斯-艾略特用选课系统取代了规定
的必修课程之后，这种普遍的观点就一直是哈佛
大学课程体系的基石。
This general view has been a foundation
stone of the Harvard College curriculum
since President Charles Eliot introduced the
elective system to replace a curriculum of
prescribed courses.
2.这些课程中，学生们应该洞察艺术和文字的美
学世界；能理解蕴含在科学研究中的基本理念、
方法和原理；认识并分析当今世界及历史上不
同方面的社会行为；能提出敏锐的观点、做出
合情合理的决策。
Students in such courses should perceive
the aesthetic world of the arts and letters;
apprehend fundamental ideas, methods,
and principles underlying the sciences;
recognize and analyze distinctive aspects
of social behavior in our world and its past;
and be capable of rendering acute
judgments and making ethical decisions.
3.学生应该学会超越传统的观念、模式和关系，以
便出新。教师应该鼓励本科及跨学科的创新、探
索和发现，大胆推出哪怕是可能引起争议的素材。
Students should learn to transcend traditional
ideas, patterns, and relationships in order to
fashion new ones. Professors should
encourage originality, exploration, and
discovery within and across scholarly
disciplines, unafraid to present material that
might even seem contradictory.
4.通识教育课程应当以能使不同基础水平的大学
生都能理解为标准。普适标准使得许多学校重视
概况课程。
General-education courses should be
accessible to undergraduates who
approach them with varying levels of
preparation. The criterion of access leads
many colleges to emphasize survey courses.
5.但是，它忽视了洞察力标准的全面性。它没有提
供发展沟通技能的明确步骤，它最多只是对于是否
能培养创造力的不可知论断。
It disregards, however, the full dimensions of
the criterion of discernment. It takes no
explicit steps to develop communicative
skills. It is at best agnostic on whether
creativity would be fostered.
TEXT B
THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL
ARTS EDUCATION
WARM-UP QUESTION
• What do you think is more important that a
good education should provide, significant
employment opportunities or further
education opportunities? Or what else?
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
•
•
•
•
advocate
necessitate
rigorous
decent
•
•
•
•
premed
spectrum
vitality
workforce
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• advocate n.倡导者；v.提倡；拥护
• Iris was also an advocate of social justice and
civil rights.
艾里斯还是维护社会正义和公民权利的倡导者。
• The group does not advocate the use of
violence.
该团体不支持使用暴力。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• necessitate 使成为必需，需要
• Your proposal would necessitate changing
our plans.
你的提议可能使我们的计划必须变更。
• The conversion will necessitate the
complete rebuilding of the interior.
转变就必需完善内部重建。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• rigorous 严密的；严格的
• The work failed to meet their rigorous
standards.
工作没有达到他们的严格标准。
• The selection process is based on rigorous
tests of competence and experience.
选拔过程是基于对能力和经验的严格测试。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• decent正派的；得体的
• I didn't have a decent dress for the dance.
我没有参加舞会的合适的衣服。
• We want to raise our children to be decent
men and women.
我们盼望把孩子们培养成优秀人才。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• outdated 过时的，落伍的
• That list of addresses is outdated, many have
changed.
那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• New computers are soon outdated since newer
models are turned out constantly.新的计算机很快就过
时了,因为更新的机型在不断的生产。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• spectrum 范围；光谱
• There is a wide spectrum of opinions on this question.
在这个问题上有着各种不同的意见。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar
spectrum.
关于太阳光谱的构成,我们已了解不少。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• vitality 活力，生命力
• She is bursting with vitality and new ideas.
她朝气蓬勃，满脑子新主意。
• An artificial language has no vitality.
人为的语言缺乏生命力。
USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• workforce 劳动力
• For diversity efforts to succeed, managers must be
accountable for workforce development.
为了多样化努力的成功, 管理者必须对员工的发展负责。
• A large part of the workforce is employed in
agriculture.
劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
1. What is a dominant appeal of much American higher
education according to the text?
Utility; an emphasis on majors believed to land
a good job, or to favor being admitted to law,
business, or medical schools.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
2. Is it true that a student can benefit from one
particular major to long-term job performance
or security?
No, he benefits of particular majors to long-term job
performance or security are hard to discover. The
professional schools want flexible, adaptable minds,
minds exposed to a broad range of knowledge and
trained in rigorous critical thinking. They want students
who can think analytically, look at life as a whole,
read with interpretive skill, and write decent, wellconstructed sentences.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
3. What does a healthy system of higher education
offer to students?
A healthy system of higher education offers
many rewards: scientific discoveries, eventual
and even unforeseen applications, thoughtful
political leadership, intelligent public
discourse, cultural vitality, and an educated
workforce.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS BRIEFLY.
4. What are the goals and purpose of Harvard
College education?
The aims are at once personal and social, private and
public, economic, ethical, and intellectual. The
purpose is educating the whole individual.
COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE BY
FILLING EACH OF THE NUMBERED BLANKS WITH
ONE SUITABLE WORD.
A healthy system of higher education offers
many rewards: scientific discoveries, eventual and
even unforeseen
1
applications, thoughtful political
leadership, intelligent public discourse, cultural
workforc
vitality, and an educated
2
. Higher
learning serves several goals ine coordination
3
,
goals that are mutually
4
reinforcing. The aims
are at once personal and social, private
5
and
public, economic, ethical, and intellectual.
Harvard College exists to serve all these goals and
offers a broad 6array of concentrations and
courses for the purpose of educating the whole
individual.
TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES INTO ENGLISH.
1.即使是在像哈佛这样实行通识文理教育的大学，都将
重点放在发展能够得到好工作或是能够得到被法、商、
医学院青睐录取的专业，通常因其符合“实用性”而受
到推崇，被看作是体现“现实”社会对大学生的要求的
一种远见卓识。
Even in colleges of the liberal arts and sciences
such as Harvard, an emphasis on majors
believed to land a good job, or to favor being
admitted to law, business, or medical schools, is
usually justified by an appeal to "utility," to a
supposedly clear-sighted appraisal of what the
"real" world demands of college graduates.
TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES INTO ENGLISH.
2.但是职业学校尤其是好的职业学校有着截然不同的说法。
他们需要灵活地、适应性强的人才，知识面广博的、有过
严格的批判性思维训练的人才。他们需要善于分析，能够
全局地审视生活，具有阅读和阐释技巧，具有遣词造句的
能力的人才。
But the professional schools themselves, especially
the good ones, tell a very different story. They want
flexible, adaptable minds, minds exposed to a
broad range of knowledge and trained in rigorous
critical thinking. They want students who can think
analytically, look at life as a whole, read with
interpretive skill, and write decent, well-constructed
sentences.
TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES INTO ENGLISH.
3.在当今快速发展的世界，各个职业、行业范围内的
领导者需要的是广泛的创造力和评判力，而不是不成
熟的狭隘观点。
In today’s fast evolving world, leaders across
the spectrum of vocations and professions need
a broad imaginative and critical capacity, not
a prematurely narrow point of view.
LISTENING
KEY VOCABULARY
1. e 2. g 3. a 4. d 5. b 6. h 7. c 8. f
I. LISTEN TO REPORT ON THE EDUCATION
PROGRAM THROUGH ELECTRONIC
GAMES AND FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS.
1. educational
2. policymakers
3. Games-toTeach
4. mix with
5. appear
6. businesses
7. fifty percent
8. millions of dollars
and years of work
9. hand-held
10. experience
II. LISTEN TO AN INTRODUCTION OF ONLINE
LEARNING OF AMERICAN COLLEGES. CHOOSE
CORRECT ANSWERS FOR THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS.
1. C
2. D
3. B
SPEAKING
MINI-PRESENTATION
• Give a five-minute presentation about a leader you
know or one in the history who you think is/ was a
model. What are his qualities that make him successful?
Provide what he did in details as the proof of his
success and his excellent leadership.
GROUP WORK
In a small group, list the different problems
that financial crisis can arise either from
the aspect of national/ domestic
development or from international
relationship. Discuss some measures that
might help resolve or lessen these
problems.
DISCUSSION
• Read the following passage and make
your comment on the financial crisis.
While you are walking along a street, an
inevitable phenomenon you will find is that
lots of shops and markets are selling their
goods at a discount; when you are visiting
a countryside, an evident situation you will
discover is that many workers are staying in
their hometown. Why? That’s because the
financial crisis that originated on Wall Street
has swept the world and bitten into the
Chinese economy. Over the past years,
many labor- intensive factories have shut
down, leaving massive numbers of workers
jobless.Although our government has taken
some effective can’t deny the fact that
the situation is still serious.
Thus, under the influence of the financial crisis there are
many news of declining performance and layoffs.
When we talk about crisis, it always means
challenges, danger, difficulty and many other bad things.
But crisis in Chinese not only means challenges, but also
means opportunity. Challenge and opportunity always
come together. Under certain conditions, one could be
transformed into the other. On the one hand, financial
crisis may make a heavy blow to a country’s economy.
On the other hand, the crisis may be a good chance to
change.
Simple survival is the first strategy that most managers
come up with when confronting the financial crisis. Many
realize that a period of great uncertainty, with financial
and competitive landscapes changing almost overnight,
can be the ideal time to make important strategic gains.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What do you think caused the crisis in
China？
2. What kind of opportunity will we have in
the financial crisis?
3. What do you think we Chinese people
should do to transform the challenge into
opportunity in the global crisis?
WRITING
Even though developing countries receive billions of
dollars in the form of international aid, poverty is still
an issue. It seems that simply providing monetary
assistance will not be sufficient and radical approach
that is required on the part of the rich nations to deal
with the menace of poverty in the Third World.
• In the wake of the present financial crisis that has
swept across most of the rich world, questions are
being raised as to why governments of these nations
are giving financial aid to the developing countries
when this money yields little tangible results. Some say
they should receive other kind of help, to eliminate
poverty.
• To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give
examples and suggest what other form of help can
be offered.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION