Lesson 86 Part I

Lesson 86

Part Ⅰ Warming-up Exercises

Numbers: Numbers in News Items

Training Focus:

Identifying numbers read in different ways

Directions: You are going to hear some simple news items, which include numbers ranging from 0.1 to 27,000,000,000. Listen carefully. Write down the numbers rapidly.

Key:

1．Oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have agreed to continue limiting production to 17,500,000 barrels of oil a day.

2．The United Nations World Food Program has approved more than 182,000,000 dollars in aid for 15 developing nations.

3．The Commerce Department said its index of leading economic indicators rose 1.3% in July, the fourth month it has increased.

4．Unemployment in the United States rose last month to 9.5% of the American work force, the highest rate since World War Ⅱ. The Labor Department said that unemployment rose in May by 0.1%. It said 10,500,000 Americans were out of work.

5．Poland owes foreign countries about 27,000,000,000dollars.

6．Unemployment in the United States has risen to its highest point in 42 years. The Labor Department reports that unemployment in November increased by 0.4% to 10.8% of the American work force.

7．The Labor Department reports that wholesale prices increased by only 0.6% in August.

Lesson 86 Part Ⅱ News

Lesson 86

Part Ⅱ   News

Ex. Ⅰ

Directions: Complete the summary for News Item 1.

Key: discuss production limits

Ex. Ⅱ

Directions: Answer the questions you hear on the tape.

1．What is the production limit proposed by an OPEC committee?

2．Why did OPEC decide to limit oil production?

Key: (see tapescript)

Ex. Ⅲ

Directions: Complete the summary News Item 2.

Key: oil price increase in some African countries

Ex. Ⅳ

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the information you get from the news.

Key: (see tapescript)

Tapescript:

News  (1'48")

News Item 1

Vienna

Oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold an emergency meeting Friday to discuss production limits. A committee of OPEC has proposed that member countries continue limiting oil production to seventeen and one half million barrels a day. OPEC agreed to limit production to this amount last March in an effort to reduce the over-supply of oil on the world market and strengthen oil prices

News Item 2

Business News

A committee of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reportedly has proposed an increase in the price of oil produced in some African countries. The publication Middle East Economic Survey said the OPEC experts committee has urged raising the price by as much as two dollars thirty cents a barrel. African members of OPEC which would be affected by the proposed price increase include Nigeria, Libya and Algeria. The business publication said the OPEC experts committee will argue for its proposal at another OPEC committee meeting later this month in Abu Dhabi.

Lesson 86 Part Ⅲ Words And TheirStories ---- To Face The Music

Lesson 86

Part Ⅲ  Words And Their Stories

---- To Face The Music

Ex.Ⅰ

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the information you get from the story.

Key: Meaning: having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be

Explanations for its origin:

1．1851 / actors / waiting in the wings to go on the stage to meet the audience ---- friendly or hostile.

2．the men in the army / getting ready for the inspection

3. the men in the army / forced out of the army

Ex.Ⅱ

Directions: Retell the stories by using your own words.

Tapescript:

Words And Their Stories   (4'10")

---- To Face The Music

Like every language, American English is full of special expressions, phrases that come from the day-to-day life of the people and develop in their own way. Our expression today is“to face the music.”

When someone says, “Well, I guess I'll have to go face the music,”it does not mean he's planning to go to a concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this and did that, and why you did not do this or that. Sour music indeed, but it has to be faced. At sometime or another, everyone of us has had to face the music, especially as children. We can all remember father's angry voice,“I want to talk to you,”and only because we did not obey him. What an unpleasant business it was!

The phrase“to face the music”is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old. And where did this expression come from? The first explanation comes from the American novelist, James Fenimore Cooper. He said, in 1851, that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on the stage. When they got their cue to go on, they often said,“Well, it's time to go face the music.”And that is exactly what they did ---- face the orchestra which was just below them. An actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved onto the stage in front of an audience that might be friendly or perhaps hostile, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. If he did not, there would be no play. So the expression“to face the music”came to mean “having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you knew you had no choice.”

Other explanations about the expression go back to the army. When the men faced inspection by their leader, the soldiers would be worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean, shinny enough to pass inspection?Still the men had to go out and face the music of the band as well as the inspection. What else could they do?

Another army explanation is more closely related to the idea of facing the results and accepting the responsibility for something that should not have been done. As, for example, when a man is forced out of the army because he did something terrible. He is dishonored. The band does not play. Only the drums tap a sad, slow beat. The soldier is forced to leave, facing the music such as it is and facing the back of his horse.