1. Show the students some newspapers

T: Do you like reading newspapers? What information can you get from a newspaper?

S: The up-to-date news.

2. Show a newspaper to them

T: When you read a newspaper, what attracts you first, the headline or the article?

S: The headline.

T: Why?

S: We can know the topic of each newspaper article from the headline.

1. Show some headlines

T: Look, here are some headlines from a newspaper. To save space, some words are left out. Try to guess the general idea of each article from the headlines.

  (1) Driver killed, eight hurt in bus crash

T: Can you complete the headline?

S: The driver was killed, and eight were hurt in a bus crash.

(2) Cat show held in Shanghai

S: A Cat show was held in Shanghai.

  (3) Xi’an travel tips

S: Here are some Xi’an travel tips.

2. Compare the headlines with the sentences and find out the rules.

T: Let’s compare the headlines with the sentences. What kinds of words are left out? Can you work out the rules?

S: Words like a/an/the, do/does/did, the verb be and and/but/or are left out.

T: What tense do these headlines use?

S: The present tense. After learning about the topic of each article, we can decide which article to read.