English Corner
English short stories
Teaching goals:
①enrich students’ spare time
②improve their listening abilities
③inspire them to think in English
④cultivate their abilities of working in groups
Teaching steps:
Step one: Greetings
Step two: ask some students to read this short stories clearly
Step three: the other students should listen carefully and try to retell it in English and find out the implied meaning
Step four: divide the whole class into two groups and make competition
Step five: sing English songs
Step six: conclusion
1
One day, a teacher took his pupils to a chicken farm to pay a visit. When they came near the incubator, chick just got out of its egg shell.
"It's wonderful to see a little thing come out from the egg shell, isn't it?" the teacher said.
"Yes, sir." said one of the boys, " but it would be more wonderful if we knew how a chick gets in to its eggs hell beforehand."
2
The hostess apologized to her unexpected guest for serving an apple-pie without any cheese.
The little boy of the family left the room quietly for a moment and returned with a piece of cheese which he laid on the guest's plate. The visitor smiled, put the cheese into his mouth and then said: "You must have better eyes than your mother, sonny.
Where did you find the cheese?" "In the rat-trap, sir," replied the boy.
3 The ass in the lion’s skin
An ass once found a lion's skin. He put it on, and walked towards the village.
All fled when he came near, both men and animals.
The ass felt quite proud. He lifted his voice and brayed, but then everyone knew him.
His owner came up and gave him a sound whipping.
Shortly afterwards a fox came up to him and said, Ah, I knew it was you by your voice.
4 The Dog and the Shadow
It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now, on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen more.
Implied meaning: Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.