Teaching Design
Teaching objectives
After the lesson, students will be able to
1. summarize the rules of rational cloze and apply the rules to fill answers in the blanks
2. apply the sentence awareness to analyze the sentence
3. set questions with the answers in a passage

Teaching difficult and important points
1. How to let students master the rules and use them to set proper questions in a passage
2. How to cultivate students’ awareness of sentence analysis

Teaching procedures
1. Lead-in
1） Give a short introduction to the purpose of a rational cloze
2） Show some mistakes (lack awareness of rules and sentence analysis) in the test and stress the importance of rules and sentence awareness.

2. Conclude the rules
1) Conclude the rules.
Part A blanks with cue words(verb, noun, adjective, adverb, pronoun)
Rule1 (verb):
a. When a verb is given and the verb is predicate, the common tense:
simple past tense/simple present tense/present perfect tense
b. When a verb is given and the verb is non-predicate, the common forms in the blank are: to do; doing, done
c. When a verb is given, its part usually be transformed into:
adjective and noun
Rule 2(noun) :
a. When a noun is given, we should pay attention to the grammar point involved in the blank: the plural form and the possessive form of nouns
(1. -fe/f ves: knife-knives/ 2. roof-roofs; belief-beliefs/ 3. story-stories; boy-boys/ 4. analysis-analyses; emphasis-emphases; crisis-crises; thesis-theses/ 5. criterion-criteria; medium-media; phenomenon-phenomena/ 6. tooth-teeth; foot-feet)
b. When a noun is given, its part usually be transformed into: adjective and ※verb
Rule 3(adjective and adverb):
a. When an adjective or adverb is given, we should pay attention to its :comparative and superlative degrees
b. When an adjective is given, its part usually be transformed into: adverb and noun
Rule 4(pronoun):
When a pronoun is given, we should pay attention to its: reflexive pronouns and ※objective case; adjective possessive pronouns and nominal possessive pronoun
Part B Blank without cue words(conjunction, preposition, article, pronoun)
Rule 5:
How many types can conjunctions be divided into? And what are they?
coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, so, either…or…, neither…nor…
Subordinating conjunctions: refer to the table
attributive clause who, whom, whose, which, that, as, when, where, why
adverbial clause
because, as, since, for, so, so that, so/such..that.., after, before, till, until, once, while, when, although, though, unless, or, whether, if, 特殊疑问词+ever…
noun clause
that, whether, if, what, which, who, whom, whose, when, where, why, how, 特殊疑问词+ever（whatever）,
2) Other reminders
a. notional words (verb/noun/adjective/ numeral) only change once
b. do not fill the same word
c. frequently examined grammar points: verb/ noun/ adjective & adverb/ conjunction/ article
d. grammar points that are not tested in a rational cloze:同位语从句/倒装/强调/虚拟语气
3) Practice
Apply the rules to finish the rational cloze in 5 minutes.
Kim Cobb, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is one of a small but growing minority of academics 56. ______ are cutting back on their air travel because of climate change. Travelling to conferences, lectures, workshops, and the like—frequently by plane—57. ______(view) as important for scientists to get together and exchange information. But Cobb and others 58. ____ (be) now questioning that idea—pushing conferences to provide more chances to participate remotely and 59. _____ (change) their personal behavior to do their part in dealing with the climate change crisis. On a website called No Fly Climate Sci, for example, 60. ______(rough) 200 academics—many of them climate scientists—61. ______(promise) to fly as little as possible since the effort started two years ago.
Cobb, for her part, started to ask conference organizers who invited her to speak 62. _____ she could do so remotely; about three-quarters of 63._____time, they agreed. When the answer was no, she declined the 64. _____(invite). That approach brought Cobb’s air travel last year down by 75%, and she plans 65. _____ (continue) the practice. “It has been fairly rewarding,” she says— “a really positive change.
参考答案：56. who/that 57. is viewed/has been viewed; 58. are; 59. changing; 60. roughly  61. have promised; 62. whether/if 63. the 64. invitation; 65. to continue

3. Practise sentence awareness
1) Sentence meaning
1. I had been a passive _________ (admire) of the work done by him and gardeners. admirer
2. I had a deep ________ (admire) for the work done by him and gardeners. admiration
3. I made it when my son was talking about the _______ (high) of the dinosaur. height
4. The _______(high) cell attachment rate is about 60%.  highest
5. The topic of “light meals” was _____ second hottest topic on Sina Weibo on Tuesday.   the
6. The 83-year-old with two Tough Mudder races to her name just competed in ____ third one.  a
7. The Grand Canal forms a vast inland waterway system in China, running from the capital Beijing in the north _____ Zhejiang Province in the south.    to
8. Fewer people desire to live in the north_____ the country.   of
Conclusion: translate the sentence and check the sentence meaning.
2) Sentence pattern
A. Similar sentence structures
1. I could imagine the difficulty I would have _________(quit) it.  quitting
2. I could imagine how difficult it would be ________ (quit) it.  to quit
3. I now have about 15 tomato plants on my balcony in different stages of ______ (grow).  growth
4. You may drink, smoke, be overweight and still reduce your risk of ______ (die) early by running.  dying
5. It is fair ______ (say) that times have changed.  to say
6. It _____ (say) that his child is lost.  is said
B. Long and difficult sentence structures
1. The unmanned Chang’e-4 probe – the name was inspired by an ancient Chinese moon goddess _______ (touch) down last week in the South Pole-Aitken basin. touched
2. They kept their collection at home until it got too big _____ until they died, and then it was given to a museum.   or
3. Though it is the only unnatural thing on your way up the mountain, still it highlights the whole adventure _____ offers a place where you can sit down to rest your aching legs.   and
4. I got on the bus and found a seat near the back, and then I noticed a man sitting at the front, he ________ (pretend) that a tiger toy was real and giving it a voice.  was pretending
Conclusion:
1. Accumulate similar sentence patterns and recite them frequently
2. Find out the sentence components (especially subject, predicate, object)
3. Pay attention to the parallel structure (especially ellipsis )
3) Practice
1. _____pengjing, Suzhou gardens wouldn’t be as charming as they are today. Without
2. ____ pengjing, Suzhou gardens today are still as charming as they were previously.  With
3. A fall in unemployment will help to restore_______(consume)confidence. consumer
4. The average daily ______ (consume) of fruit and vegetables is around 200 grams. consumption
5. Great Wall E-tour, co-produced by the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation and Internet giant Tencent, among others, ______ (go) online on June 11, 2022 to mark the annual national Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.  went
6. The Grand Canal reached a new peak in the 13th century, providing an inland shipping network consisting of more than 2,000 km of artificial waterways, ____ linked five of the most important river basins in China, including the Huanghe River and the Changjiang River.   and
7. Legend says that in 1445, an Olney woman ________ (make) pancakes to use up some of her sugar and cooking fats before the holiday.   was making

4.  Evaluate the questions
Find out reasons why it is inappropriate
Sentence
1. Only when they are enjoyed by general consumers(consume) can they benefit from being part of people’s wider modern artistic taste.
Reason:_______________________________ (change twice)
2. Besides, the family will be friendly and make you feel (feel) at home.
Reason: ______________________________ (fill the same word)
3. However, the main core of the company performed outstandingly.
Reason: ______________________________ (however is an adverb)
Passage
4. While reading, we tend to meet with many sport idioms (1)challenging (challenge) us, which make language more colorful and (2)impressive(impress). “Scoring an own goal” means you make a bad mistake which harms your own interests (3)accidentally(accident). When we talk about rough estimates, we can use the (4)expression(express) “in the ballpark”. “Throw someone a curve ball” means putting sb in an (5)unexpected (expect) and tough situation that is difficult (6)to respond(respond) to. “Three strikes and you are out” refers to the situation that you fail after (7)wasting(waste) three chances. “Throwing in the tower” means the (8)admission (admit) of defeat and giving up. For example, when a boxer is losing badly and is too tired or (9)confused(confuse) to give up on his or her own, the coach will throw a towel into the ring to end the fight. Sport is challenging, (10)as is the study of English language.
Inappropriate answers and reasons: ______________________________
___________________________________________________________
(1. “accidentally” and “unexpected” change twice; 2. Lack predicate verbs;3. Both “expression” and “admission” belong to the changes from “verb” to “noun”;4. Lack pronoun; 5. The number of conjunctions should be 2 or 3 …)

5.  Set questions in the passage
Requirements: set 6 blanks including the answers with following parts: predicate (1),non-predicate(1), noun(1), adjective or adverb(1), conjunction(1), article(1)
This aging of the population is driven by two factors. The first is declining birthrates, which means old generations are large compared to younger generations, and so, on average, the population becomes older than before. This is particularly true in the US. The second reason is that people are living longer. A child born in the US today has a very realistic chance of living beyond 100 and needs to plan accordingly.
People tend to focus on the first factor. However, greater attention should be placed on longevity. It isn't just that people are, on average, living longer. It's also that they are on average healthier and more productive for longer. Therefore, they can work for longer, consume more and in general be a boost to the economy.
Comments:________________________

6.  Homework
1) Exchange your work with other students and give some comments on the questions.
2) Finish the self-assessment table
Items Excellent Good Satisfactory Fair Improvement
required
1. I can understand the rules in a rational cloze and use these rules to finish a rational cloze
2. When filling blanks, I have the awareness to analyze the sentence meaning and pattern.
3. I can evaluate the questions set in a rational cloze.
4. I can set proper questions in a rational cloze.