难度：中低级★★★

The price of gold went past the $1,900 per ounce mark for the first time ever on Monday. The record rise is because of growing concerns about a possible recession in the global economy. Two main factors are driving fears of a worldwide economic slowdown – the faltering（步履蹒跚的） U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe. Investors have traditionally put their money in gold during times of financial uncertainty. They see it as a safe investment. This saw the price of gold rise to $1,913 an ounce in Singapore before settling down to $1,897 an ounce at the close of trading. Industry experts believe gold prices could rise even further as more economic gloom makes investors increasingly nervous.

Analysts say that speculation（炒作，投机买卖） that the US government may announce new stimulus measures is also increasing the price of gold. America’s Federal Reserve may have to print more money to boost America’s economy, which could see the US currency weaken. A weakened dollar drives up gold prices. Analyst Colin Whitehead explained: "The underlying（潜在的，根本的） driver of gold prices is the depreciating US dollar value, so the more money they print, the stronger gold gets." Another economist, Peter Richardson of Morgan Stanley, suggested market factors had little impact on gold. He said: “Gold has continued to blast ahead even with a relatively strengthening U.S. dollar, strongly performing treasuries and other safe havens.”

课前热身：

1. GOLD: Walk around the class and talk to other students about gold. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. SAFE HAVENS: Where’s safest to leave your money? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

4. DEBT: Students A strongly believe the Euro debt crisis will soon be over; Students B strongly believe it won’t.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. MONEY: What’s best to do with it? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

6. RECESSION: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘recession’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

 课后练习：

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

GOLD DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

The price of gold went past the $1,900 per ounce (1) ___ for the first time ever on Monday. The record rise is because of (2) ___ concerns about a possible recession in the global economy. Two main factors are (3) ___ fears of a worldwide economic slowdown – the faltering U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe. Investors have traditionally put their money (4) ___ gold during times of financial uncertainty. They see it as a safe investment. This saw the price of gold rise to $1,913 an ounce in Singapore before settling (5) ___ to $1,897 an ounce at the close of trading. Industry experts believe gold prices could rise even further as more economic gloom makes investors (6) ___ nervous.

Analysts say that speculation that the US government may announce new (7) ___ measures is also increasing the price of gold. America’s Federal Reserve may have to print more money to (8) ___ America’s economy, which could see the US currency (9) ___. A weakened dollar drives up gold prices. Analyst Colin Whitehead explained: "The underlying driver of gold prices is the depreciating US dollar value, so the more money they print, the stronger gold (10) ___." Another economist, Peter Richardson of Morgan Stanley, suggested market factors had little (11) ___ on gold. He said: “Gold has continued to blast ahead even with a relatively strengthening U.S. dollar, strongly performing treasuries and other safe (12) ___.”

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

WRITING

Write about gold for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

答案：

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

GAP FILL:

The price of gold went (1) past the $1,900 per ounce mark for the first time ever on Monday. The record rise is because of growing (2) concerns about a possible recession in the global economy. Two main factors are driving fears of a worldwide economic (3) slowdown – the faltering U.S. economy and the debt (4) crisis in Europe. Investors have traditionally put their money in gold during times of financial uncertainty. They see it as a (5) safe investment. This saw the price of gold rise to $1,913 an ounce in Singapore before (6) settling down to $1,897 an ounce at the close of trading. Industry experts believe gold prices could (7) rise even further as more economic (8) gloom makes investors increasingly nervous.

Analysts say that (9) speculation that the US government may announce new stimulus measures is also increasing the price of gold. America’s Federal Reserve may have to (10) print more money to boost America’s economy, which could see the US currency (11) weaken. A weakened dollar drives up gold prices. Analyst Colin Whitehead explained: "The underlying (12) driver of gold prices is the depreciating US dollar value, so the more money they print, the stronger gold gets." Another (13) economist, Peter Richardson of Morgan Stanley, suggested market (14) factors had little impact on gold. He said: “Gold has continued to blast ahead even with a (15) relatively strengthening U.S. dollar, strongly performing treasuries and other safe (16) havens.”

LANGUAGE WORK

英语口语教学