(2) Scanning
Ask students to locate certain information by reading the passage quickly to answer the following questions:
① Is Mark Twain his real name? If not, what is his real name?
② What did he do when he worked on the steamboat?
③ What did he do after that?
4. What reputation did Mark Twin earn?
(3) Careful reading
Ask students to read the passage carefully and fulfill the following paragraph: Mark Twain is actually a name, which means that __. He lived an __ life. He left school early to in South America, but in Orleans he had __ and found no boat to Amazon, so he works on River as a on a steamboat. After that he became a to write ,
whose established him a great reputation.
Before showing the answer, invite a few students to read their completed paragraph, and others can check theirs. (Justification: Fast reading can help students grasp the main idea and specific information of the passage.Careful reading can deepen students' understanding of the passage.)
Step 3 Post-reading (5 minutes)
Ask students to work in pairs to discuss the following questions:
1. Why do the lives of writers resemble the lives of characters he creates? How does the resemblance get reflected by Mark Twain?
2. Can you summarize the structure of the passage?
Ask several students to share their answers. Then ask all of them to polish their answers and write them down to hand in.(Justification: The first question can develop students' thinking ability, and the second question can help students understand the structure of biographical essay, which is useful for them to do similar writing.)