许国璋英语听力第二册 Lesson 5

　　Lesson 5

Words to the text

Cox

San Francisco

city

coast

period

each

meet

supply

check

assignment

assign 1

steadily 2

punctuation 3

composition

literature

favorate

subject

poem

pour

heartbreakingly

heart breaking

wonder

enjoy

keen 4

viewer

view

TV

theater

TV theater

recognize

title

recent

contain

lively

message

accomplish

bored

bore

once

guide

Words to the dialogue

general

general cleaning

broom

dust pan 5

mop

as well

down stairs

to fight

furniture

tidy up

Text

A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER

Mrs. Cox teaches English in a high school in San Francisco, a big city on the West Coast of the United States. She had wanted to become a teacher when she was young. She has taught eight years now and always enjoyed her work.

A school day at Mrs. Cox's high school is divided into six periods of one hour each. Mrs. Cox teaches five of these six periods. During her "free" period from 2 to 3 p.m., Mrs. Cox has to meet with parents, order supplies, make out examinations 6, check assignments, and take care of many other things. So Mrs. Cox works 7 steadily from the time she arrives at school in the morning until she leaves for home late in the afternoon, and her "free" period isn't really free at all.

An English teacher usually divides her time among three subjects: language (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.), composition, and literature. Mrs. Cox's favourite subject is literature, and her most exciting classes are those on the literature of Black Americans. For Mrs. Cox, like most of the students in her school, is Black.

In her sixth period today, Mrs. Cox taught a poem by a well-known Black writer in the United States. She wrote the poem on the blackboard and read it aloud.

No sooner had she finished reading the poem than students' questions began pouring in. One boy said the poem was heartbreakingly sad. Another student, a girl, said she had read a book by the same writer, but she wasn't able to enjoy it as much as her mother did, and she didn't know why. A third, a keen viewer of TV theatre, recognized a phrase in the poem which had been used as the title of a recent play. As she answered the questions, Mrs. Cox made sure that her students understood every line of the poem. She asked them to discuss if the poem contained any message. The discussion 8 became so lively that no one wanted to stop when the bell rang. Some said there was no message, some said there was, some said it really didn't matter, and the class ended at that.

As she drove home, Mrs. Cox thought about the class she had just left. Today she could feel good about what she had accomplished 9 as a teacher. Not one of her students looked bored. Every one of them seemed interested in the poem. Once they started to talk, they forgot about the time. She did not have to make them learn; she only had to answer their questions and to guide the discussion. This, she thought to herself, is what teaching 10 is all about!

Dialogue

General cleaning

Comrades 11, let's start cleaning.

But where are the things? We need a broom, a dust pan and a mop.

They are down stairs. I will go and get them. Shall I fetch a pail 12 of water as well?

Yes, please. Now, let's divide up the work. Wangming can sweep the floor and I will mop it. Xiaoyou can dust the furniture. Yangling can clean the window, while Wuying tidies up the room.

Let's do a good job today.