大学英语综合教程3-Unit5.ppt

Unit 5 How to Celebrate Holidays Text A Writing Three Thank-you Letters Pre-reading Questions Can you name some Chinese Western Festivals? C: The Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, the Dragon-boat Festival, the Mid-autumn Festival, the Double Ninth Festival etc. W: St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. 2. Can you say something about the Thanksgiving day? If you think you need to express your thanks, who would you like to thank? And For what? Cultural Notes Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday in November. For many Americans it is the most important holiday apart from Christmas. Schools, offices and most business close for Thanksgiving, and many people make the whole weekend a vacation. It is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America. In 1620 the ship the Mayflower arrived, bringing about 150 people who today are usually called Pilgrims. Pilgrims The term is referred to the 102 English people who sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Their group included 35 Puritans whose aim was to create a safe religious community in the New World. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and they established the Plymouth colony. They arrived at the beginning of the hard winter and could not find enough edibal food, so many of them died. In the next summer Native Americans showed them what foods were safe to eat and so they could save food for the next winter. They held a big celebration to thank God and the Native Americans for the fact that they had survived. Native Americans Native Americans were living in North America for many of hundreds of years before Europeans reached the continent. For a long time white people called them Indians. Today many people do not like this name since it is based on a mistake: it was given t