Unit 1 Laughter is good for you
1. discuss the following questions in groups, then role-play the dialogues and act out before the class.
(1) what are necessary qualifications a good comedian needs to have?
(2) when you are in low spirits, what will you do to stop unpleasant feelings?
(3) besides laughter, what are other factors that can help people keep healthy and live longer?
sample answers
1
having enough courage to perform in front of the audience
practicing a lot to perfect their routine
being able to read their audience’s thoughts to know exactly what they would like to see
watching as many comedies as they can to learn about more techniques
making full preparations before going on stage
2
watching a comedy
listening to music or watching films
seeing friends
surfing the internet
locking myself in my room and doing reading
3
having a balanced diet
exercising regularly
having a good mood
being optimistic
step 6: language points
vocabulary
words
laughter, stand-up, humor, well-loved, comedy, comedian, response, reaction, main, physical, humorous, queue, visual, tennis, stage, actor, act, academy, award, routine, live, little-known, toothbrush, mirror, outstanding, microphone, lip, appropriate, silent, howl, amuse, brain, saying
useful expressions
make fun of, in response to, make jokes about, queue up, trip over, later on, broadcast live, make up, have effect on, after all
sentence patterns 1. one little-known fact is that when crystal is the host of the academy awards, he always keeps a toothbrush in his pocket of good luck!
2. instead of telling the joke he had planned, crystal made up a new one.
3. it seems appropriate that he got his start in silent film.
4. doctors have been researching what effect stand-up and other forms of comedy have on us.
step 7: consolidation exercises:
1 fill in the blanks according to the text.
stand-up is one of the most well-known and well-loved types of comedy. in observational comedy, the comedian makes jokes about 1_______ things he or she 2________ in everyday life. prop 3_________ use props to tell their jokes. physical comedians use their 4_________ to make jokes. impressionist comedians act or speak like a well-known person, which is called doing an 5_________ of the person,