Unit Eight Health
Highlights
Topic:
Mistaken Ideas about Food
Words and Phrases
civilized, poisonous, substitute, combination， be supposed to , a great many, as a matter of fact
Grammar Tips
Subjunctive Mood (1)
Practical Reading How to keep healthy
Practical Writing
Congratulation Letters
Brainstorm
Look at these pictures, try to say something about health or how to keep healthy.
Balanced Diet
Good living habits Keeping away from Junk Food
Keeping a Good Mood Doing the Sports
Part One Listen and Talk
Ⅰ.Listen to the dialogue and mark the following statements with true(T) or false(F).
( )1. Billy will go to school this morning.
( )2. Billy woke up in a rush this morning.
( )3. Billy bashed his leg against the chair in his classroom. ( )4. Billy’s mother will take him to the doctor’s before breakfast. ( )5. Billy’s mother is sure that her son can go to school this afternoon. II. Listen to passage 1 and fill in the missing words or phrases in the blanks. Passage 1
Most schools forbid chewing gum, but in a few years they might consider 6___ that rule. Why? Scientists are finding 7___ that gum chewing may be good for your 8 ___. It may even help boost your test scores.
This exciting research is just beginning. And in the 9___, companies are also experimenting with adding vitamins, minerals, medicines, and other substances that could give gum the power to10 ___ headaches and fight everything from serious diseases to bad breath.
III. Listen to passage 2 and answer the following questions. 11. What is fatigue?
12. What does the speaker mean by sleepiness?
13. How many hours do Americans sleep per night on average? 14. Have you ever experienced insomnia(失眠)? Why? 15. What do you often do when you can’t fall asleep?
Part Two Reading and Practice
Passage A
Think about the following questions.
1. What can we get by taking all kinds of food, and which kind of food do you like best?
2. In your opinion, what are the good habits of eating?
3. Do you know any differences in table manners between the Chinese and
westerners?
Mistaken Ideas about Food
Many primitive people believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for instance, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some rude tribes believed that eating enemies that had shown bravery in battle would make them brave. Man-eating may have started because people were eager to become as strong and brave as their enemies.
Among civilized people it was once thought that ginger root by some magical power could improve the memory. Eggs were thought to make the voice pretty. Tomatoes also were believed to have magical powers. They were called love apples and were supposed to make people who ate them fall in love.
Later another wrong idea about tomatoes grew up - the idea that they were poisonous. How surprised the people who thought tomatoes poisonous would be if they could know that millions of pounds of tomatoes were supplied to soldiers overseas during World War II.
Even today there are a great many wrong ideas about food. Some of them are very widespread.
One such idea is that fish is the best brain food. Fish is good brain food just as it is good muscle food and skin food and bone food. But no one has been able to prove that fish is any better for the brain than many other kinds of food.
Another such idea is that you should not drink water with meals. Washing food down with water as a substitute for chewing is not a good idea, but some water with meals has been found to be helpful. It makes the digestive juices flow more freely and helps to digest the food.
Many of the ideas which scientists tell us have nothing to do with mixtures of foods. A few years ago the belief became general that orange juice and milk should never be drunk at the same meal. The reason given was that the acid in the orange juice would make the milk curdle(结为凝乳) and become indigestible. As a matter of
fact, milk always meets in the stomach a digestive juice which curdles it; the curdling of the milk is the first step in its digestion. A similar wrong idea is that fish and ice cream when eaten at the same meal form a poisonous combination.
Still another wrong idea about mixing foods is that proteins and carbohydrates (碳水化合物)should never be eaten at the same meal. Many people think of bread, for example, as a carbohydrate food. It is chiefly a carbohydrate food, but it also contains proteins. In the same way, milk, probably the best single food, contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is just as foolish to say that one should never eat meat and potatoes together as it is to say that one should never eat bread or drink milk. New Words
1. primitive adj. of or at an early stage of social development 原始
的上古的；社会发展早期的
2. quality n. degree of goodness or worth; characteristic 质量，
特质；特性
3. tribe n. racial group united by language, religion, customs etc.
and living under one or more beliefs 部落
4. enemy n. people who strongly dislikes or wants to injure or
attack sb or sth 敌人
5. bravery n. being brave; courage 勇敢
6. battle n. fight, especially between organized armed forces 战斗 7. civilized adj. polite; refined 有礼貌的；文雅的 8. ginger n. hot tasting spicy root used as a flavoring 姜 9. magical adj. of, used in or like magic; charming 魔法的；迷人的 10. memory n. powers of the mind by which facts can be remember
记忆力
11. poisonous adj. causing death or illness if taken into the body引起中
毒的
12. overseas adj. across the sea; foreign 海外的； 国外的 13. million n. the number 1000000 一百万；兆