Unit 38A Horse and Two Goats

Part I Listening & Speaking Activities

Part II Reading & Language Activities

Part III Extended Activities

Part I Listening & Speaking Activities

Warming-up Brainstorming Listening Speaking

Get Your Meanings Across

What is communication?

How do people communicate? Work in groups to name as many mediums of communication as possible. Verbal communication (oral, written)Nonverbal communication

e.g. signs, tones of voice, volume, speed, pausing, body languages (e.g. facial expression, eye movement such as winking, eye contact, foot tapping, cupping the ear, folding arms, proximity, position of the body, etc.)

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

What do these faces mean?

Can you guess the nonverbal body language the faces below are communicating?

Happy Sad Surprised Thinking

Angry Confused Embarrassed Sleepy

Can You Understand Me? Work in groups to choose five of the situations listed as

follows and act them out by using non-verbal communication:

1.You can not hear your friend’s voice. 2.You want a child to come to your side. 3. You smell something bad when you enter the dormitory. 4.Somebody has asked you a question, and you do not know the

answer. 5.You want to tell your friend that the lecture is boring. 6.You signal to your friend who is talking on the phone to lower

his/her voice. 7.You beg for some money from your friend. 8. Your friend keeps talking to you but you are already a bit late for

class. 9.You want to tell your friend that you have forgotten to bring

something. 10.You want to tell your friend that everything is OK.

Cross-cultural Communication

Look at the following examples of body language. Do the messages conveyed by them differ among different cultures?

1. Beckon with index finger

-“Come here” in U.S. but insulting in many cultures e.g. the Middle East

2. Eye contact

- encouraged in U.S., but rude in Asia

3. Sit with sole of feet or shoes showing

- disrespect for others in some cultures e.g. Japan

4. The “Ring” or “OK” gesture

- “ok” in most cultures but an insult in Greece and “money” in Japan

5. Nod one’s head

- “no” in some parts of India

Brainstorming

1. Expressions for understanding/conveying messages:

understand, know, learn, acquire (knowledge, information), have an idea of, take/get the message, be well informed about something, get/put the message across, make oneself understood, sth. dawns on somebody, something occurs to someone

2. Expressions for failures of communication:

be confused about..., get sb. wrong, be ignorant about something, have misconceptions about ...., be puzzling/puzzled, be mystifying/mystified

3. Expressions for emotional states:

satisfied/dissatisfied, hospitable, hostile, enthusiastic, be embarrassed/embarrassing, depressed, low-spirited, moody, cheerful, delighted, overjoyed

4. Expressions for body language:

nodding, winking, raise one's eye-brows, stare at somebody, eye contact, avert one's eyes from somebody, pout one's lips, stick out one's tongue, make a face, wave, take ... into one's arms, kiss someone on the cheek, his/her eyes speak for herself ...., a cloud crosses his/her face ...., be red in the face, blush, beam

  5. Expressions for differentiating between various

meanings:

meaning(s), nuances of meaning, (fine) shades of meaning, tell the slight differences between ...., capture the delicate meaning of ..., actions speak louder than words

Listening: An unusual medium of communication

Listen and answer the following questions: 1. What unusual methods of communication can human beings

employ to get their meaning across when they cannot communicate with spoken language?

- sign language, lip reading

2. Who and when will people use various

forms of sign language to communicate?

- deaf or dumb people, by football or

basketball referees, traffic policemen,

auctioneers.

3. When and where did the speaker discover

the whistled speech?

- in a remote area in Mexico last month

4. How did Mr. Martinez and the corn seller communicate with each other?

-- The corn seller answered Mr. Martinez with whistling and the interchanges were repeated with different whistles. They talked, bargained over the price and came to an agreement satisfactory to both parties, only using whistling.

5. What happened when the whistled communication was over?

-- The corn seller came to Mr. Martinez’s hut and dumped the load onto the ground. He was then paid and left without saying a word.

6. Why did the speaker decide to stay longer with Mr. and Mrs. Martinez?

-- She was extremely interested to find more about the whistled speech.

7. What did the speaker finally find out about the whistled speech used in the community?

-- Whistling was men’s privilege, mostly for business purposes,

for bargaining, selling, and buying in the market place.

Neither of the couple had the slightest idea of when and why

they had started the tradition and kept it up.

Task 1: Role play/conversation (2) Suppose you met some trouble in communication with a foreigner.

What was the cause for the failure? How did you overcome the difficulty? Make a role play or conversation

about it. Task 2: Speech (1) Present a short speech on the key factor(s) of successful communication.

Task 3: Story (2) (1) Use your imagination to make up a story based on the picture on the right hand. (2) Make up a story based on page 138.

Group Oral Tasks

Part II Reading & Language Activities Pre-reading Tasks Read the Text Words & Expressions Language Work (B, C)

Pre-reading Discussion

What do you think might cause

misunderstanding in communication?

List possible causes.

language, cultural and personal backgrounds, religion (lack of shared information), lack of mutual trust (prejudice), …

Have you ever experienced some trouble understanding or being understood by other people? If any, how did you try to get your meanings across?

Read the Text

Questions for skimming:1. What are the five Ws in the story? (1) Where? At the entrance of the small Indian village of Kiritan. (2) When? A summer afternoon. (3) Who? An old local man and an American tourist. (4) What? The tourist wanted to buy the horse-shape statue but

ended up buying two goats from the old man. (5) Why? They failed to understand each other due to language

barrier and lack of shared information.

2. Summarize the story: The story is about an encounter between an old Indian villager and

an American tourist, neither of whom understand the other’s language. As a result, the American’s intention of buying the statue of a horse is misunderstood by the Indian as an offer to buy his two goats.

Questions for close comprehension: 1. What was the old man doing at the beginning of the story?

He was drowsing in the shade of a tree and watching a pair of goats graze in the pasture.

2. What did the old man take the American tourist for at the beginning?

The old man took the tourist for a police officer from the government.

3. Why did he think so?

Because the tourist wore in a Khaki-colored shirt and shorts, like a policeman in uniform.

A murder in the neighborhood.

4. How did the American tourist try to make himself understood?

He tried to explain everything at length, uttering each syllable carefully;

He smiled politely every now and then, trying to be friendly.

5. What was the result?

Those didn’t help at all; mutual mystification and misunderstanding continued.

6. Summarize the first half of the story from the beginning to Then, he turned to go.

The American tried to strike a conversation about the statue of the horse he admired, but the old man mistook him for a police officer investigating a recent murder in the neighbourhood.

7. What was special about the horse statue according

to the old man?

The horse was a sacred image and would appear

as the tenth avatar, the Redeemer, at the end of

the Yuga to help the good and punish the evil.

8. How did the old man understand the tourist’s

taking out a one-hundred rupee note?

He thought that the tourist wanted to change this

large note.

9. What did he suggest the tourist to do then?

To turn to the village headman.

10. Why did the old man look at his goats?

The village headman goes mad whenever he sees the old man and his two goats.

11. What did the tourist do then?

He stroked the backs of the goats to please the old man by showing an interest in his pets.

12. What thought occurred to the old man? The thought that the tourist in fact wanted to make him an offer for

the goats. 13. What had the old been dreaming of all his life? His dream of a lifetime was to sell the goats and open a small shop

with the capital got from the selling. 14. What did the old man mean by pointing at the wagon and what did

the American tourist mean by saying “Yes, of course”? For the old man: taking the goats away in the wagon; For the tourist: taking the horse statue in the wagon. 15. Why did the tourist sit down waiting after the old man left? He thought the old man must have gone to fetch some help. 16. Summarize the second half of the story. Both parties tried to employ different means of communication to

work out the other’s intention. But the misunderstanding continued and got worse, finally leading to a hilarious ending when the American was left alone waiting with two goats.

17. How do you think the story will end?

Words & Expressions

with his tail looped up with a flourish [with his tail curled up spiritedly] with a flourish [with one big, noticeable movement] e.g. He took off his hat with a flourish. drowse [fall into a light sleep] graze [feed on grass] at the sight of … [when sb. sees…] e.g. She fainted at the sight of blood. at the thought of … [when thinking of…] at the mention of … [when mentioning …] presence [being in a place] e.g. The document was signed in the presence of two witnesses.

respectfully [in a way to show respect] e.g. "We're so pleased to meet you at last, " he said in a

respectful tone of voice. Johnson is a highly respected doctor in Yorkshire. a respectable young woman from a good family

She earns a respectable salary. They are each recognized specialists in their respective fields.

react to [respond to] ingratiatingly [(disapproving) behaving in a way to make others like you by

pleasing and praising them] e.g. He's always trying to ingratiate himself with his boss. have a clean record [have no criminal record] at length [for a long time] e.g. George went on at great length about his various

illnesses.

relate [vt. narrate, tell] come to life [become alive, full of activity] e.g. The match finally came to life in the second half. mutual mystification [mutual confusion and misunderstanding] chatter away [talk rapidly incessantly and on trivial things] peer [look carefully or with difficulty] e.g. she peered at the tag to read the price. I saw her peeping through the curtains.

Close your eyes. Don't peek. I've got a surprise for you. the like of sb./sth (sb’s/sth’s like) [n. similar things or persons] e.g. He described a superlative meal, the like of which he'd never

eaten. He was a great actor – we will never see his like again.

flourish [wave, exhibit dramatically] e.g. She came in smiling, flourishing her exam results. It is sound policy to do … [it is a wise decision to do…] … dawn on sb. [sb. suddenly realizes sth.] e.g. I was about to pay for the shopping when it suddenly

dawned on me that I had left my cheque book at home. … when it suddenly came to me that … … when it suddenly occurred to me that … make sb. an offer for sth. [offer to buy sth.] on this very spot [in this very place]

Language Work (B)

massive disturb sacred capital related ingratiatingly respectful

Language Work (C)

It suddenly dawned on the father that his son was lying to him.

The foreigner made the old woman an offer for the old jar and she found herself unable to refuse.

The boy reacted to his teacher’s criticism by turning his back on the teacher.

The prisoner felt very regretful at the thought of his past. He stood at the street corner, following his mother with his

eyes until she got out of sight. I don’t know which companies she was referring to when

she spoke of competing firms. Mother paced in the corridor while her daughter was having

an operation inside the operating theatre. I think that it is sound policy to ban smoking in all public

places.

Part III Extended Activities

Dictation Read More Grammar Work Vocabulary Work Translation Cultural Information

Dictation

Language is the commonest means of communication for human beings, //but if people speak different languages,// they usually turn to other means. //Gesture, then, is often the first choice. //Gestures in most cases help people a lot in getting their meanings across. //However, since the same gestures may be used for different ideas in different cultures, //failures in communication often happen. //Sometimes this may lead to terrible consequences. //Several years ago, some European sailors were swimming near a coastal area in a foreign country, //which was closed to outsiders. //Seeing these unknown swimmers, the guards on the coast wanted to question them. //The guards shouted to them to come nearer, //and made at the same time their usual “come here” gesture. //The sailors did not understand the language //and took the gesture to mean “go away”, //and they realized they might be near coastal defenses, //so they swam off. //The consequence was that the guards who were now highly suspicious, //opened fire, with tragic results. //

Read More: Gestures

Questions for Reading Comprehension:

1. What usually will a person be doing while he/she is talking?

2. How do usually people describe things like a spiral staircase?

3. How do people across cultures convey certain messages by gestures?

4. Do you know any special gestures used in your locality which have special meanings?

5. Why do you think human beings need

gestures to help in communication?

6. What do you think is/are the key factor(s) to

successful communication across

cultures?

What do these gestures mean across cultures?

Intended Meanings Gestures Used

“Come here!” Spain: What it means in England?

“See you!” Italy: What it means in England?

“Yes!” Some parts of India:

Greece & Southern Italy:

“Hello!” Britain: French:

Eskimos: Somoa:

Polynesia:

“Follow this way!” East Africa:

“Good luck!” Britain: Austria & Germany:

“The performance sucks! Go away!”

Britain:

What it means in other parts of Europe?

“Wonderful!” Britain: Some other countries:

Words & Expressions though

[adv. however, nevertheless]

e.g. We were at school together. I haven't seen her for years though.

vary from one country to another

[vary from country to country]

beckon sb. with your palm down

[call sb to you with your palm down]

look up to sb.

[respect sb.]

While in Rome, do as the Romans do.

[入国问禁，入乡随俗 ]

Grammar Work

a. grateful, relieved, content, reluctant, determined, keen, due, fit, free, frightened, inclined, easy, cheap, pleasant, thrilling

b. 1. It will be difficult for me to do it.

2. It’s sound policy to save regularly.

3. It was very dangerous for Mike to drive the car so fast.

4. It is a disadvantage for her to take part in a composition competition where all the other competitors are older than her.

5. It was a disgrace for her to quarrel with her husband in public.

6. It was a shame for you cheat in the exam.

7. It’s a convenient time for you to visit the hospital.

8. It was my honour to be invited to your party.

9. It was very generous of her to pay the bill.

10. It was mean of him to keep everything for himself.

Vocabulary Work

Expressions Meanings

start the ball rolling start the discussion

speak one’s mind say exactly what one thinks

To put it in a nutshell, … To say it in a few words, …

Sb. is long-winded Sb. says things in a lengthy, indirect way

get to the point come to the important part of the matter

talk rubbish say stupid things

talk sense say intelligent, reasonable things

wrap up the discussion finish the discussion

Translation In the traditional Chinese opera The White Snake, the white snake (the

lady white) comes down to the earth in the shape of a beautiful girl and falls in love with Xuxian to whom she gets married later.

She feels dizzy at the sight of blood. He kept drowsing in class this morning. He related the whole story of the long-standing dispute between the two

families. She would burst into tears at the thought of her child who was killed in a

traffic accident. It dawned on me that he was actually trying to help me. The cave for the three of them to hide in was no more than two meters

high.

The red-faced man looked at the goats grazing peacefully and then sat down on the pedestal of the horse, as the westerly sun touched off the ancient faded colors of the statue with a fresh splendor.

脸被晒红的美国游客看着正在静静吃着草的山羊，然后坐在了雕塑的基座上，显得有些古老褪色的雕塑在夕阳的勾勒下变得格外亮丽壮观。

The Commonwealth of Nations (CN)

A voluntary association of 53 independent states, the majority of which are former dependencies of Britain.

Primarily an organisation in which countries with diverse economic backgrounds have an opportunity for close and equal interaction.

Queen Elizabeth as Head of State of the Commonwealth as well as its sixteen members.

The majority of the members have their own, separate Heads of State: thirty-one members are republics and six members have their own royal families.

Every four years the members celebrate the Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.