Summary Isaac Asimov is best known as a science fiction writer

with an extraordinary imagination and an amazing mind. He was born in Russia in 1920. When he was three, he moved with his family to New York. He worked part-time in the store through his school and university years. In 1941, he gained a master's degree in chemistry. In 1942 he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a junior chemist and worked there for three years. In 1948 he got his PhD in chemistry. The next year he became a biochemistry teacher at Boston University School of Medicine. In 1958 he gave up teaching to become a full-time writer. He began having stories published in science fiction magazines in 1939. In 1950 he published his first novel and in 1953 his first science book. One of his most famous works of science fiction for which he won an award was the Foundation trilogy (1951-1953). He is also well known for his collection of short stories, I, Robot (1950), in which he developed a set of three "laws" for robots. His ideas about robots influenced other writers and even scientists researching into artificial intelligence. Asimov was married twice. He had a son and a daughter. He died of HIV in New York in 1992.

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Leading-in

Killer whale / orca

• A baleen whale or toothed whale ？

Blue whale

• A baleen whale or toothed whale ？

dolphin

• A baleen whale or toothed whale ？

Which is the biggest mammal?

• Have you seen plants and animals that live under the sea? Where did you see them?

• A. on a snorkelling trip• B. at an aquarium• C. on a boat tour• D. in books• E. in films• G. on TV programmes• H. on the Internet

Who has the most ways to see sea lives?

Skimming

• Glance the text quickly to find out:

• How many parts is it made up of?

• How does the first story develop?

Put the following in the right order.• 1. “Old Tom” appeared one

afternoon.• 2. The killers were attacking

a baleen whale.• 3. The whalers gathered and

set off to the sea.• 4. The baleen whale was kill

ed.• 5. The hunt was over.• 6. “Old Tom” showed the wh

alers the way to the hunt.

• 1. “Old Tom” appeared one afternoon.

• 3. The whalers gathered and set off to the sea.

• ６ . “Old Tom” showed the whalers the way to the hunt.

• 2. The killers were attacking a baleen whale.

• 4. The baleen whale was killed.

• ５ . The hunt was over.

Main idea• So, what’s the main idea of the first story?

• It is about how “Old Tom” helped the whalers hunt a baleen whale.

• And what does the second story mainly tell us?

• It is about how “Old Tom” helped save a whaler who was washed off the boat.

Scanning • First, discuss the questions on Page44-45, Jich

u.• 　　ＣＡＤＢＣ• Then, read the text again and answer:• 1. Who wrote the story?• Clancy.• 2. In which century did the story happen?• At the beginning of the 20th century.• 3. What kind of writing does the story belong to?• A. science fiction B. biography• C. anecdote D. scientific research∨

Scanning

• What evidence were there that Old Tom was helping the whalers out? 　（３）

• He let the whalers know that there was a baleen whale nearby.

• He showed them the way to the whale.

• He prevented James from drowning.

• Why did George think that the killer whales worked as a team?

• Because he saw some of the killers throwing themselves on top of the whale’s blow-hole to stop it breathing and others stopping it diving or fleeing.

• What other animals did the author compare the killer whales with? Why do you think the killer whales behaved like this?

• Dogs.

• It is certain that they knew, together with the whalers, they could kill the baleen whale and get a good feed.

• Why did the whalers allow the killers to drag the baleen whale away?

• On one hand, the body of the baleen whale wouldn’t float up to the surface for around 24 hours. On the other hand, the killers would leave the rest of the body to them because they only ate the lips and tongue.

Summary • The reading passage is two anecdotes

written by an old man called Clancy. They are about the days when Clancy was a whaler and hunted whales on the southeastern coast of Australia at the beginning of the 20th century. It was a time when the killer whales, or “killers” as they were then called, helped the whalers catch the baleen whales that were on their annual migration. One anecdote is about how a killer called “Old Tom” helped whalers hunt a baleen whale. The other is about how Old Tom helped save a whaler who was washed off the boat.

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Ｈｏｍｅｗｏｒｋ