Unit 5 Meeting your ancestors

Can you imagine what our ancestors’ lives were like? Work in pairs and make a guess at the following two questions.

What were the early women’s tasks?

What were the early men’s tasks?

Skim the text and work out with your partner which jobs Dahu did and which Lala did?

Name Jobs

Dahua

Lala

catch fish, repair stone, make scrapers and axe-heads

collect fruit and nuts, prepare food

From the reading passage, we can see that long ago men and women had quite separate responsibilities. In groups discuss what the possible work division was between men and women at that time and fill in the chart.

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 1

2 Fishing 2

3 3

4 4 Preparing food

5 5

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Men’s tasks Women’s tasks

1 Making and repairing tools

1 Collecting nuts, fruit and water

2 Fishing 2 Cutting up meat and fish for cooking

3 Cutting down trees 3 Preparing skins to make clothes

4 Hunting animals 4 Preparing food

5 Protecting the group from harm

5 Looking after children

Now look closely at the tasks above and discuss which adjectives best describe each of them. Give your reasons.

caring affectionate protective dangerous safe co-operative patient individual exhausting

Men’s tasks

patient (took making)dangerous (hunting)

some individual (tool making and repairing)

skillful (tool making)

protective (of group)

Women’s tasks

affectionate (to group)

co-operative (cooking)

individual (collecting nuts and fruit)

caring (providing food)

patient (collecting food)

skillful (cooking)

Who works co-operatively and who does tasks alone

Who does the most dangerous tasks Where the danger comes from Whether the tasks are shared fairly between

men and women

Read the passage again and discuss the following questions.

Who works co-operatively and who does tasks alone ？

Who does the most dangerous tasks ？

Co-operative tasks: men hunting animals; women doing cooking and preparing foodIndividual tasks: men making or repairing tools; women collecting fruit and nuts

men hunting animals

Where does the danger come from?

Are the tasks shared fairly between men and women?

wild animals living near the caves

men and women had clearly divided tasks: fire and collecting nuts needed to be done every day but killing animals would only be done now and then. So the women’s tasks were continuous and the men’s tasks were more periodic.

1. If only she had looked ahead and planned better! 要是她能为将来做更好的打算该多好啊！

if only 要是，只要是，往往引起虚拟语气，用感叹句。用过去完成时表示对过去的虚拟，用一般过去时表示对现在的虚拟。

我要是能飞就好了！ ___________________________

look ahead 向前看，做未来的打算 你是否想过五年后你要做些什么？ ______________________to what you’ll be doing in f

ive years’ time?

If only I could fly!

Have you looked ahead

2. be prepared to do sth.

for sth. 为……做好准备 她已准备好应付这一切。 She ______________ anything to happen.

我可不愿意在这儿受这种奇耻大辱。 _____________________ and listen to th

ese outrageous insults.

was prepared for

I am not prepared to stay

3. accelerate vi. / vt. 加速，促进 她加快车速超过了前面的公共汽车。 She __________________ and passed th

e bus in front.

accelerated her car

4. arrest vt. 逮捕；吸引；扣留；阻止，抑制 n. 逮捕；拘留；停止 他被警察逮捕了。 _____________________________.

她警告的口吻引起了我的注意。 Her warning tone _________________.

警方在足球赛时逮捕了一些人。 The policeman _________________ duri

ng the football match.

He was arrested by the police

arrested my attention

made several arrests

5. relief n. [U]( 痛苦或忧虑的 ) 减轻或解除 [U] 救济品 [C] 减轻痛苦的事物 这药可以稍微减轻你的痛苦。 This medicine will _________________. 政府送救济品给在台风中失去家园的人们。 The government _____________________ wh

o lost their homes in the typhoon. 见到你在这儿也就放心了。 ______________ to find you here. 她把夹脚的鞋脱下时说：“可松快了！” “___________ !” she said, as she took her tig

ht shoes off.

give you some relief

sent relief to the people

It’s a great relief

What a relief

6. affectionate adj. 充满深情的；有爱心的 他给她写了一封充满深情的信。 He wrote her __________________.

她挚爱她的母亲。 ____________________ towards her mother.

an affectionate letter

She is very affectionate