Unit4 Earthquakes

1. show the pictures of san francisco to the students and let them describe today’s san francisco and then let them know what happened in san francisco in 1906
(from the picture of san francisco, we can see it is a very big city. there are many tall buildings thickly standing on the earth. and the population of the city is very large.)
2. show the pictures of tangshan to the students and let them describe today’ tangshan and then let them know what happened in tangshan in 1976.
( today’ tangshan is a beautiful city. it has beautiful gardens, broad roads and some tall buildings.)
t: but, what will happen if there has been a big earthquake in these two cities? work in groups and discuss it. then i’ll ask some of you to say out your opinion.
( after the terrible quake, everything is destroyed, what we can see is fallen buildings and dead bodies. the policemen, the soldiers and some other volunteers are rescuing the people trapped in the ruins….)
t: right, now let’s see a film.
(let the students see a film about tangshan earthquake.) (film)
t: after the earthquake the city of tangshan became…..
let the students discuss what they saw. and then talk about the pictures in their own words.
the house….
the fire….
the bridge….
the road…
the police and the volunteers….
the people…..
( tangshan earthquake happened on july 28, 1976.it was the greatest earthquake of the 20th century in china. before the earthquake, many strange things happened, but people thought little of them. such a great number of people died during the earthquake, because the quake happened while they were sleeping. the number of people who were killed or injured reached more than 400,000. and all the traffic was almost destroyed after the quake. thousands of thousands of people became homeless in a short time. many soldiers were sent to tangshan to rescue the survivors after the earthquake.
let the students talk about the damage caused by earthquakes
using the following words and phrases:
shake, break, fall down onto, hurt, destroy, homeless, die…..

step ⅲ. pre-reading
t: but we can avoid or at least reduce the loss caused by earthquakes. and we can foretell it.
do you know what would happen before an earthquake?
can we do something to keep ourselves safe from earthquakes?
( 1. there is often a great sound.
2. animals may be too nervous to eat.
3. maybe there are bright lights in the sky.
4. a smelly gas may come out of the well.
5. in the city the water pipes in some buildings crack and burst.