a forever friend knows everything about you, always listens to you. (students can add more)

　　4 sarah helped janet overcome her shyness and deal with her classmates. janet helped sarah study math.

　　5 answers may vary.

　　6 you can make friends with people from other countries by reading e-pal/pen pal ads in newspapers or on the internet.

　　7 one of the advantages of having friends in other countries is that you can learn more about the world. you can also learn more about other languages and cultures. there are a few disadvantages, including the fact that it can be difficult to be friends if you live far away from each other.

　　8 answers may vary. one possible interpretation is that all the people around us could be our friends; friendship is a two-way relationship and it takes work and patience to develop a good friendship.

　　step 3 writing

　　ask the students to read the e-mail and find out what the girl wants to know more about. tell the students to think about what they want to tell the girl. as a pre-writing activity, the students can list the things they want to include in the e-mail. when the students have written the e-mail, you can compare what they have written.

　　assessing

　　a learner log is a set of questions that will help the students to reflect on how and what they have learnt. the students are asked to rate their “comfort level” and summarize what they have learnt. you can use this as an activity in class or let the students complete the log at home. throughout the book we offer different assessment tools and we recommend that you try as many of them as possible. learner logs and other similar assessment tools are simple to use and have a positive effect on the students’ learning and learning habits over time. the students may find it difficult to answer the questions at first, but if you use the log consistently it will help the students pay more attention to their learning strategies and set better goals. once the students are used to the format and expectations, you can use the learner log and other assessment activities in combination with discussion and goal-setting activities.

　　step 4. post -integrating skills

　　ask the students to read the e-mail ads in unit 1 and choose one to reply to. before the students start writing, they should think about what they want to write.

　　extension use real e-pal ads from the internet and let the students find a real e-pal from another country. if your students do not have easy access to the internet, you can simply copy more e-pal ads and bring them to class.

　　sample e-mail

　　hi jane:

　　my name is xiao fei and i come from hunan. hunan is in the south of china. i am a middle school student and i like speaking english. i read your e-pal ad and i would like to be your e-pal. you wrote that you like rock music. can you tell me what bands you like? have you ever heard any chinese rock bands? you also wrote that you like talking and joking around. i do too! i think you and i can be good friends. please send me an e-mail as soon as possible.

　　xiao fei

　　assessment criteria:

　　an e-mail is less formal than a letter and more formal than speaking. a good response to the e-pal ads should include information about who you are and where you are from. try to encourage the students to use indirect speech to refer to the e-pal ad.

　　step 5. homework

　　(1) finish off the exercises in the workbook.

　　(2)write an email into my email-box.

　　summary the key points in this unit

　　evaluation of teaching:

　　the fifth period students have an integrating examination

　　the sixth period teachers comment the examination and review the unit.