Unit 5 The British Isles

1 is english easy or difficult to learn for chinese people?
2 can we learn the geography more easily by going there?
3 which countries have more chances to become rich, small , big or island countries?
(then teacher asks three pairs to present their dialogues.)
sample dialogues:
1. a: how are you getting on with your english?
b: very badly. i find it difficult to learn.
a: why do you think so?
b: as you know, we have to learn a lot of words and phrases by heart every day. and there are many grammar rules we have to follow.
a: but i can't completely agree with you. in my opinion, it's easy to learn. as long as we master the basic grammar and speak it as often as possible, we can learn it well.
b: i don't think you are right. personally, i think we have fewer chances to speak english. what's more, english and chinese have little in common.
a: but i think we should find more chances to speak, just as we learn chinese. if you speak, read and listen as much as possible, you can find it easy to learn. b: that's a good idea. thanks for your advice. i'll do my best to study it wall.
a: i'm sure that you will.
2. a: what are you doing?
b: i'm reading the geography book.
a: i think it is difficult to learn if you can't go to that country.
b: i don't think so. you often look at maps carefully and remember all the names of cities and provinces.
a: i'm afraid i don't agree with you. i think those names are very confused and we can learn it easily by going there.
b: certainly visiting some places is better in learning geography. but we can't go to all places of the world. that's too expensive and we don't have enough time, too.
a: of course you are right. now computers are used in many fields. you can get as much information as possible about the countries you want to know through the internet.
b: that's a good idea. i'll try it.
3. a: hello. can you tell me which are the countries that make up the group of eight?
b: yes. it consists of eight richest countries in the world. they are britain, france, germany, italy, australia, japan, america and russia. five of them are quite small and two of them are island countries.
a: do you think small countries have better chances than big ones to become rich?
b: i don't think so.
a: why?
b: first small countries have few natural resources. they're very important for a country. second, their labour force is limited. as a result, that prevents their economy developing fast.
a: i can't quite agree with you. in fact many small countries are very rich.
b: yes. though some countries are small, people of these countries can get good education and make their countries become powerful by developing science and technology. for example, japan has few natural resources, but it can develop its education and use other countries resources as many as possible to develop its economy.