The science of the stars

3. reading and understanding difficult sentences
skim the text and identify the difficult sentences of each paragraph. you may put your hand up if you have any questions.
4. reading and transferring information
read the text again to complete the table below,
how life began on the earth
what was the earth like after the “big bang”? 
why was the earth different? 
how was life developed on earth? 
what did small clever animals do?  

how life began on the earth
what was the earth like after the “big bang”? a cloud of energetic dust at first and then a ball around the sun. in time as a result of its explosion, water vapor and many other gases were produced to make the earth’s atmosphere. water then appeared when it cooled down, offering the possibility for the beginning of life.
why was the earth different? the arrival of small plants growing in the water filled the oceans and seas with oxygen, encouraging the development of small living things.
how was life developed on earth? carbon dioxide and air with oxygen helped life developed. first were insects and amphibians, and then appeared reptiles and dinosaurs, producing young by laying eggs. at first, came mammals producing young from within their bodies.
what did small clever animals do?  with hands and feet, they spread all over the earth, developing new methods of growing food, hunting and moving around, yet neglecting the environment protection, causing new problems for human being’s existence for good.
5. reading the text once again to decide on the type of writing and summary of the text
type of writing this is a descriptive writing.
main idea of the passage
 the earth came i nto being after the “big bang”. then small plants came growing in the water, followed by green plants appearing on land. in the end a ppeared small clever animals.
topic sentence of 1st paragraph after the “big bang”, the earth was just a cloud of energetic dust.
topic sentence of 2nd paragraph the earth was different because of the arrival of small plants growing in the water.
topic sentence of 3rd paragraph many millions of years later the first green plants began to appear on land.
topic sentence of 4th paragraph small clever animals appeared and spread all over the earth.
6. going over the text to make a tree diagram and retell the story with its help
 

7. reading and translating
as y ou have read the text times, you can surely put it into chinese. wang hongqin, will you be the first to have a try, of putting the first paragraph into chinese.