外研社高中英语必修1_8课文原文(翻译)

必修一

Module 1 My First Day at Senior High

My name is Li Kang. I live in Shijiazhuang, a city not far from Beijing. It is the capital city of HebeiProvince. Today is my first day at Senior High school and I’m writing down my thoughts about it. My new school is very good and I can see why. The teachers are very enthusiastic and friendly and the classrooms are amazing. Every room has a computer with a special screen, almost as big as a cinema screen. The teachers write on the computer, and their words appear on the screen behind them. The screens also show photographs, text and information from websites. They’re brilliant! The English class is really interesting. The teacher is a very enthusiastic woman called Ms Shen. We’re using a new textbook and Ms Shen’s method of teaching is nothing like the teachers at my Junior High school. She thinks that reading comprehension is important, but we speak a lot in class, too. And we have fun. I don’t think I will be bored in Ms Shen’s class! Today we introduced ourselves to each other. We did this in groups. Some students were embarrassed at first but everyone was very friendly and it was really nice. Ms Shen gave us instructions and then we worked by ourselves. Ms Shen wants to help us improve our spelling and handwriting. We do this in a fun way, with spelling games and other activities. I like her attitude very much, and the behaviour of the other students shows that they like her, too. There are sixty-five students in my class — more than my previous class in Junior High. Forty-nine of them are girls. In other words, there are three times as many girls as boys. They say that girls are usually more hard-working than boys, but in this class, everyone is hard-working.

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For our homework tonight, we have to write a description of the street where we live. I’m looking forward to doing it!

My After-school Activities .As the students of modern times, we have colorful school life. Everyday, we learn plenty of knowledge on different subjects in class. And our school organizes many extracurricular activities in order to help us put what we have learned into practice. After class, we take part in various activities, like playing football, basketball, badminton, etc. They are good for our health. Besides, we are able to join in the lectures organized by literature association, music group, art group, where you can enjoy famous works, learn to play instruments or draw pictures. Also, there are chances for us to use computers in the laboratory and talk with some foreign teachers about anything we are interested in at the English corner. Now, most of us may operate computers freely and have a good command of spoken English. In addition to the after-class activities mentioned here, there are still many others such as sports meeting, debate, social investigation, etc. All those activities make our school life attractive and interesting. We will take advantages of the experience in the future.

Moudle 2

My New Teachers

They say that first impressions are very important. My first impression of Mrs. Li was that she was nervous and shy. 人们常说第一印象很重要。教师给我留下的第一印象是既紧又害怕。 I think perhaps she was, as it was her first lesson with us. But

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now, after two weeks, the class really likes working with her. 我想，可能她就是这样，因为这是她给我们上的第一节课。但是，过了两周了，全班学生真的喜欢上她的课。 She's kind and patient, and she explains English grammar so clearly that even I can understand it! 她非常和蔼，又有耐心，英语语法解释得如此清楚，连我都能够明白！ She avoids making you feel stupid! I've always hated making mistakes or pronouncing a word incorrectly when I speak English, 她防止让人感到愚笨！讲英语时，我总是憎恶出错或者是憎恶发音不正确， but Mrs. Li just smiles, so that you don't feel completely stupid! 但是，教师只是笑一笑，因此，你不会感到完全愚笨！ I think maybe she goes a bit too slowly for the faster students, but for me it's wonderful! I feel I'm going to make progress with her. 我想可能对于好学生来说她的课进展得有点慢，但对我来说，真是太棒了！我觉得我跟着她学习肯定将取得进步。 I'd guess that Mrs. Chen is almost sixty. She's very strict—we don't dare to say a word unless she asks us to. She's also very serious and doesn't smile much. 我猜测教师几乎快 60 岁了。她很严格――――除非她让我们讲话，我们一句话也不敢说。她还很严肃，很少微笑。 When she asks you to do something, you do it immediately! 当她要求你做某事时，你就马上去做！ There are a few students in our class who keep coming to class late but they're always on time for Mrs. Chen's lessons! 教师的课，我们班几位不断迟到的学生，总是准时上教师的课。 Some of our class don't ike her, but most of us really appreciate her because her teaching is so well organised and clear. And a few students even admit liking her! 我们班有的同学不喜欢她，但大多数同学都很欣赏她，因为她的课讲得很清楚、教学组织得又好。一些学生甚至成认喜欢她！ During scientific experiments, she explains exactly what is happening and as a result my work is improving. 在做科学实验时，她对发生的现象解释得很准确，因此，我在实验方面在取得进步。 Physics will never be my favourite lesson, but I think that I’ll do well in the exam with Mrs Chen teaching me. 物理绝对不是我最喜欢的科目，但我想由教师教我，我会考出好成绩。

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Mr. Wu’s only been teaching us for two weeks and he’s already very popular. I think this is because he really enjoys teaching Chinese literature ---吴教师仅仅教过我们两个礼拜，他已经很受欢送了。我想这是因为他确实喜欢教中国文学 he loves it, in fact! He’s got so much energy, this is one class you do not fall asleep in! He’s about 28, I think, and is rather good-looking. 实际上，他喜爱中国文学！他精力是那样充分，上他的课，你不会想睡觉〔不会感到困倦〕 ！我想他大约 28 岁，长得很帅。 He talks loudly and fast, and waves his hands about a lot when he gets excited. He’s really amusing and tells jokes when he thinks we’re getting bored. 他讲话语速快、声音洪亮，当讲到兴奋的时候，不时挥手。他上课真很有趣，当他认为我们疲倦的时候，就给我们讲笑话。 Even things like compositions and summaries are fun with Mr. Wu. I respect him a lot. 即使是象作文和总结这样的事情，吴教师也搞得很有趣。我很尊敬他。

Module 3

My First Ride on a Train 我的首次火车之旅

My name is Alice Thompson. I come from Sydney, Australia and I’m 18 years old. 我是爱丽丝·汤普森。我来自澳大利亚的悉尼,今年18岁。 Recently I had my first ride on a long-distance train. And what a ride! A friend and I traveled on the famous Ghan train. 近来我进展了首次远程火车之旅。真是太棒了! 我和一位朋友乘坐的是有名的阿富汗火车。 We got on in Sydney and we got off in Alice Springs, right in the middle of Australia, more than four thousand kilometers away. 我们在悉尼上车, 在澳大利亚中部的艾丽普林斯下车,行程四千多公里。 We spent two days and nights on the train. 整个旅程花费了我们两天两夜。 The train was wonderful and the food was great. We ate great meals cooked by experts! 坐火车很舒服而且车上的食物也很可

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口。我们吃的美味饭菜是烹饪大师们做的。 For the first few hundred kilometres of the journey, the scenery was very colourful. 在旅程开场的几百公里, 风景优美。 There were fields and the soil was dark red. 有成片的田野,那里的土壤是深红色。 After that, it was desert. The sun shone, there was no wind and there were no clouds in the sky. 接着是沙漠。艳阳高照,没有风而且晴空万里。 Suddenly, it looked like a place from another time. We saw abandoned farms which were built more than a hundred years ago. 可是接着,时空像是突然发生了转变。映入眼帘的是建造于一百多年前一些废弃的农庄。 The train was comfortable and the people were nice. 火车很舒服而且车上的人也都很友好。 During the day, I sat and looked out of the window, and sometimes talked to other passengers. 白天,我坐着看窗外,有时和别的旅客说说话。 I read books and listened to my Chinese cassettes (I'm studying Chinese at school). 我看书, 听着汉语录音带(我在学校学汉语)。 One night,at about midnight, I watched the night sky for about an hour. The stars shone like diamonds. 一天晚上, 大约是在半夜,差不多有整整一个小时我都在注视着夜晚的天空。星星像钻石一样眨着眼。 Why is the train called the Ghan? A long time ago, Australians needed a way to travel to the middle of the country. 为什么火车叫阿富汗号？很久以前,澳大利亚人到国家中部地区有很长一段路程。 They tried riding horses, but the horses didn't like the hot weather and sand. 他们试着骑马,但那些马不喜欢炎热的天气和沙漠。 A hundred and fifty years ago, they brought some camels from Afghanistan. Ghan is short for Afghanistan. 一百五十年前, 他们从阿富汗带入了一些骆驼。Ghan是阿富汗的缩写。 Camels were much better than horses for travelling a long distance. 作长途旅行,骆驼比马匹强多了。 For many years, trained camels carried food and other supplies, and returned with wool and other products. 多年来, 经过训练的骆驼驮运食物及其他用品, 返回时还带着羊毛和其他产品。 The Afghans and their camels did this until the 1920s. 直到二十世纪二十年代,阿富汗人和他们的骆驼还在做着这样的工作。 Then the

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government built a new railway line, so they didn't need the camels any more. 那时建了一条新的铁路线,所以阿富汗人不再需要骆驼了 In 1925,they passed a law which allowed people to shoot the animals if they were a problem. 在1925年, 他们通过了法律,如果它们引发问题，允许人们射杀骆驼。 In 1935, the police in a town shot 153 camels in one day. 在1935年,一个城镇的仅一天就射杀153头骆驼。

Moudle 4

a social survey –my neighbourhood 一．

A lively city It's great to see you again, John. 约翰，很快乐又见到你了。 It's great to see you! It's been six years since we last saw each other, you know. 见到你真是太好了！要知道，我们 6 年没见面了。 And this is the first time I've visitedyour hometown. Yes, I'm so glad you could come. 而且这是第一次来到你的家乡。是的，你能来，我真是很快乐 你知道，我去过中国很多地方，也游览过一些美丽的城市，但这是我到过的最吸引人的地方之一。 You know, I've seen quite a lot of China and I've visited some beautiful cities, but this is one of the most attractive places I've been to. It's so lively, and everyone seems so friendly. Yes, it's one of the most interesting cities on the coast,everyone says so. 它生机勃勃，人们看上去都那么友好。是的，大家都说这是最富有的沿海城市之一。 I feel very fortunate living here. And I love living by the seaside. You live in the northwest of Xiamen, is that right?Yes, that's right. 生活在这里我感到很荣幸。我喜欢在海边生活。你住的地方是在的西北面，对吗？是的。 What's the climate like?Pretty hot and wet in the summer, but it can be quite cold in the winter. 这里气候怎么样?夏天相当热，相当潮湿，可是冬天可能很冷。 Sounds OK to me. There are a lot of tourists around. Don't they bother you?

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对我不成问题。这里到处都有游客。他们对你们有干扰吗？ Yes, they can be a nuisance in the summer because there are so many of them. 是的，游客太多了，夏天有时候会有点讨厌。 Oh, look at that huge apartment block!Yes, they've just completed it. 哎哟，看看那栋高大的公寓楼！是啊，刚刚完工的。 The rent for an apartment there is very high. I believe you! This area's so modern! 租一套那儿的公寓要不少钱呢。这我相信！这是一个很现代化的地方啊！ Yes, this is the business district. They've put up a lot of high-rise buildings recently. And there are some great shopping malls. 对，这是商业区。最近他们建造了许多摩天大厦，也有一些大商场。 See, we're just passing one now. My wife's just bought a beautiful dress from one of the shops there. 瞧，我们正好经过一个商厦呢。我太太刚从那边的一家买了件衣服，好漂亮。 Maybe I could buy a few presents there. I'll take you there tomorrow. Now we're leaving the business district and approaching the harbour. 也许我可以去那买些礼物。明天我带你去那吧。现在我们要离开商业区去港口。 We're entering the western district, the most interesting part of the city. It's got some really pretty parks ... 我们即将进入西区，也就是这个城市最有趣的地区。那有一些非常漂亮的公园...... It seems lovely. Is that GulangyuIsland, just across the water? Yes, it is. It's a gorgeous island with some really interesting architecture. 看上去很不错。水那边是鼓浪屿海岛吗？是的。那是个很迷人的海岛，岛上有一些非常有意思的建筑。 So they tell me. Do you think we could stop and walk around for a while? Yes, I was just going to do that. We can park over there. 他们也是这么跟我说的。你觉得我们可以停下来逗留一会儿吗？可以啊，我正想那么做呢。我们可以在那边停车。 A friend's told me about a nice little fish restaurant near here. Shall we go there for lunch? That sounds great. I'm starving! 有朋友跟我说起过这附近有一家很不错的渔家小饭馆，我们去那吃午餐怎么样？听起来不错。我快饿死了！

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Moudle 5

a lesson in a Lab Passage A 很难想象没有金属的世界。

It is hard to think of a world without metals. 不同的金属有不同的用处，比方说，钢材用于制造汽车，铁用于制造电子设备。 Different metals have different uses, for example, steel is used in cars, and iron is used in electrical equipment. 当我们使用金属的时候，知道它们和不同物质的反响是很重要的，例如水和氧气。 When we use metals, it is important to know how they react with different substances, for

example, water and oxygen. 金属和这些物质的反响是有顺序的。

Moudle 6

因特网是世界上的信息最大储存源,它可以通过电脑来访问。 The Internet is the biggest source of information in the world, and it's accessible through a computer. 它含有数以百万计的数据。 It consists of millions of pages of data. 1969 年,美国的一个防御组织 DARPA 创造了一种通过把多台电脑进展连接的方式。 In 1969, DARPA, a U.S. defence organisation, developed a way for all their computers to \"talk\" to each other through the telephone. 他们创立了一个叫做 DARPANET 的电脑网络。 They created a network of computers called DARPANET. 在 15 年间,只有美方可以利用这种交流系统。 For fifteen years, only the U.S. army could use this system of communication. 1984 年,美国的国家科学基金会创造了 NSFNET 网。 Then in 1984, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) started the NSFNET network. 它使得大学也可以利用这种系统。 It then became possible for universities to use the system as well. NSFNET 就以部网络或“因特网〞而闻名。 NSFNET became known

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as the Inter-Network, or \"Internet\". 万维网是一个网络系统,它允许电脑用户通过因特网来访问众多上的信息。 The World Wide Web (the web) is a computer network that allows computer users to access information from millions of websites via the Internet. 目前,大约百分之八十的网络用语都是英语,但这一比率正在下降。 At the moment, about 80 percent of web traffic is in English, but this percentage is going down. 到 2020 年时,较多的用语可能会是汉语。 By 2020, much web traffic could be in Chinese. 全球信息网是于 1991 年由一个英国的科学家蒂姆.贝尔纳斯-创立的。 The World Wide Web was invented in 1991 by an English scientist, Tim Berners-Lee. 读大学时,贝尔纳斯-用一台废旧电视机制成了他的第一台电脑! Berners-Lee built his first computer while he was at university using an old television! 19 年,当他在瑞士工作时,他提出了创立万维网的想法。 He came up with the idea of the World Wide Web in 19 while he was working in Switzerland. 蒂姆.贝尔纳斯-使得每一个人而不仅仅是大学或来使用因特网。 Berners-Lee made it possible for everyone to use the Internet, not just universities and the army. 他设计了第一个“网页浏览器〞,它使得计算机用户可以访问其他电脑的文件。 He designed the first \"web browser\which allowed computer users to access documents from other computers. 从那时起,日益增多,因特网也日益普及。在五年,因特网用户就从 60 万户增加到 4000 万户。 From that moment on, the web and the Internet grew. Within five years, the number of Internet users rose from 600 000 to 40 million. 因特网已经使得千万人成为百万富翁,但是,蒂姆.贝尔纳斯-却不是其中的一个。 The Internet has created thousands of millionaires, but Berners-Lee is not one of them. 世界上的任何人都可以用他的万维网进入因特网。 Everyone in the world can access the Internet using his World Wide Web system. 如今他还是一名位于波士顿的麻省理工大学里的讲师。 He now works as a lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

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必修二

Module 1 Zhou Kai

(1) Our Body and Healthy Habits Our Body and Healthy Habits When Zhou Kai’s mother saw him heading towards the front door without a jacket on, she eyed him anxiously. 当周凯的母亲看见他没穿夹克就朝着前门走时，她担忧地盯着他。 “Zhou Kai, where are you going?〞 she asked. “To the park. I’m gong to play football,〞 said Zhou Kai. 问道“周凯，你去准备去哪里？〞周凯说，“去公园。我要去踢足球。 “But it’s raining! You’ll catch a bad cold,〞 said his mother. “No, I won’t. I’ll be fine,〞 said Zhou Kai, as he opened the door. 母亲接着说，“但是快下雨了！你会感冒的。“不会的，我不会有事的。〞周凯一边开门一边答复说。 “Zhou Kai, you’ll get ill. You know you will. You can at least go and get your jacket.〞 “OK, OK〞 Zhou Kai went and did as he was told. “周凯，那样你会生病的。我了解你会的。至少你要去的话，得穿上你的夹克。“好，好。〞周凯去做了母亲要他做的。 Zhou Kai (2) My mother has always made sure we eat very healthily, and fresh fruit and vegetables are a very important part of our diet. 我母亲一直以来都重视饮食安康，新鲜的水果和蔬菜是我们膳食很重要的一局部。 We live near the sea and we have fish about four times a week. We don’t eat much fat or sugar. 我住在靠海的地方，所以一周差不多吃四次鱼。我们吃的含脂肪或含糖的东西不多。 A lot of my school friends eat sweets every day but I’m lucky because I don’t have a sweet tooth ---- 我在学校的朋友中许多都是每天吃糖果，但是我很幸运，因为我不会喜欢吃甜食——我情愿多吃一份好的水果。 I’d rather eat a nice piece of fruit. And I’m not too heavy, so I never have to diet, or anything like that. 我不是很重，所以我从不减肥，或者做其它类似的事情。 I’m quite healthy. I very rarely get colds, although, unusually for me, I

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had a bad cold and a bit of a fever last week. 我相当安康。我很少感冒，尽管通常我是如此，上周我患了严重的感冒并且有点发烧。 But that’s because I was stupid enough to play football in the rain. I don’t often get things like flu either. 那是因为我太愚蠢了，在雨中踢足球。我通常也不会得流感。 Last winter almost all my class mates got flu ----but I didn’t. I think I don’t get these things because I take a lot of exercise and am very fit. 去年冬天，我同学几乎都得了流感--但是我没有。我认为这都是因为我经常锻炼，我很安康。 Two years ago I broke my arm playing football. The injury was quite painful and I couldn’t move my arm for month ----I hated that. 两年前我在踢足球的时候折断了我的手臂。伤口非常疼痛，以致我一个月都不能移动我的手臂--我很厌恶那样。 So as you can see from what I’ve said, I’m a normal kind of person. But there’s one thing I really love ---- I’m crazy about football. 因此从我所说的话你能看出来，我是一个正常的人。但是有一件事我真的非常喜爱--我对足球很着迷。 ， I’m captain of the class team at school and I’m also a member of the Senior High team. 我是我们班足球队的队长,我也是高中队的队员。 Because of this, I make sure that I have a good diet, and as I’ve said, this isn’t a problem because my mother feeds us so well. 正因为这样，我必须保证我有安康的饮食，正如我所说，这不是问题因为我母亲把我们照顾得很好。

Module 2

Article 1 No Drugs No Drugs

My name is Adam Rouse. I'm 19 years old and I used to be a drug addict. I first started using drugs when I was 15. 我的名字叫亚当.罗斯。我今年十九岁了，我过去曾是一个吸毒上瘾者。我第一次使用毒品是十五岁的时候。 I bought cannabis from a man

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in the street. I continued to buy cannabis from the same man for about six months. 我在街上的一个男人那里买了大麻。大概六个月的时间我都持续从同一个男人那里买大麻。 One day, he offered me some crack cocaine. 一天，他卖给我了一些快克可卡因。 Article 2 Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug. Some drug users inject cocaine, others smoke it. 可卡因是一种极其容易让人上瘾的毒品。有些吸毒者注射可卡因，有些人吸食可卡因。 Both ways are dangerous. Users who inject the drug are also in more danger if they share needles with other users. 两种方式都是很危险的。注射毒品的人如果和其他人共用注射针的话，就更危险了。 Read parts 1-6 and decide which article they belong to. 读 1——6 局部，判定它们分别属于哪一篇文章。 Crack cocaine is the most addictive form of cocaine. Users become addicted to crack cocaine much more easily if they smoke it. 快克可卡因是可卡因中最容易上瘾的一种。吸毒者抽快克可卡因的话，更容易对它上瘾。 Smoking allows cocaine to reach the brain very quickly. 因为，抽烟会把可卡因很快地运输到大脑。 When I went back to the man again, I wanted more crack cocaine. But he asked me for a lot of money. 当我再次回到那个男人那里时，我想多要些快克可卡因。但是他开了很高的价。 I didn't have enough money so he didn't give me any drugs. I was in terrible pain. 我钱不够，所以他就没有卖给我。我当时非常的痛苦。 next day, I broke into a house and stole a television and a video recorder. I took them to the drug dealer. 第二天，我闯进一间房子，偷了一台电视机和一个录音机。我把它们拿到贩毒者那里。 He told me to take them to a shop in a nearby street. The man in the shop gave me some money. 他让我把东西拿到附近的商店。商店的人给我一些钱。 I took the money to the drug dealer and he gave me some more crack cocaine. 我拿着钱到了贩毒者那里，他给了我一些快克可卡因。 Using cocaine increases the user's heart rate and blood pressure. As a result, cocaine users sometimes have heart attacks. 吸食可卡因加快了吸食者的心率、增高了血压。结果，可卡因吸食者有时就会心脏病发作。 Smoking crack

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cocaine also causes anti-social behaviour. 抽快克可卡因会导致行为。 By this time, I was addicted to crack cocaine. If I didn't have any drugs, I was in terrible pain. 到这时候，我对快克可卡因已经上瘾了。如果我不吸毒的话，就会感到非常的痛苦。 And I had to steal something every day to pay for the drugs. One day, the police took me to the police station. 所以我每天不得不偷东西来支付买毒品的钱。一天，把我抓到了局。 The next day, a doctor came to see me. He told me that I could die if I didn't stop taking crack cocaine, so I took his advice and stopped immediately. 第二天，一位医生来看望我。他告诉我说如果我不停止吸食快克可卡因的话我就会死，所以我听取了他的意见，于是立即停止了。 Now I work in a centre for drug addicts, helping others to stop taking drugs. 现在我在一个戒毒中心工作，帮助他人停止吸食毒品。 Read the articles again and decide if these sentences are true (T) or false (F). 再读一遍这篇文章，判断下面的句子的正误。 Cocaine can be smoked and also injected. 可卡因可被吸食也可被注射。 People who inject cocaine are in more danger if they share needles. 注射毒品的人如果和其他人共用注射针的话，就更危险了。 Cocaine makes your heart go more slowly. 可卡因会使你的心脏跳得更慢。 Smoking crack cocaine can change people's behavior. 吸食快克可卡因能改变人们的行为。 By this time, I was addicted to crack cocaine. If I didn’t have any drugs, I was in terrible pain. And I had to steal something every day to pay for the drugs. One day, the police took me to the police station. The next day, a doctor came to see me. HE told me that I could die if I didn’t stop taking crack cocaine, so I took his advice and stopped immediately. Now I work in a centre for drug addicts, helping others to stop taking drugs.

Module3 Music Music

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Read the passage quickly and choose the best title. 快速阅读这篇文章，选出最恰当的题目。 Three Great Austrian Composers 三位伟大的奥地利作曲家 Three Great Composers of the Eighteenth Century 三位十八世纪伟大的作曲家 Three Great Child Composers 三位伟大的儿童作曲家 Haydn 海顿 Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) was an Austrian composer and is known as \"the father of the symphony\". 约瑟夫.海顿〔1732-1809〕是奥地利作曲家，著称为“交响乐之父〞 。 Other composers had written symphonies before Haydn, but he changed the symphony into a long piece for a large orchestra. 之前也有作曲家写过交响乐，但是他为一个大型管弦乐队把一首交响乐变成了一首长的管弦乐。 He was born in a village in Austria, the son of a peasant. He had a beautiful singing voice. 他出生于奥地利的一个乡村，是个农民的儿子。他有一副好嗓子。 After studying music in Vienna, Haydn went to work at the court of a prince in eastern Austria, where he became director of music. 在维也纳学成音乐后，海顿去奥地利东部王子的宫廷工作，在那里他做的是音乐指挥仪。 Having worked there for 30 years, Haydn moved to London, where he was very successful. 在那里工作了三十年后，他搬到了伦敦，在那里他取得了很大成功。 Mozart 莫扎特 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) was a composer, possibly the greatest musical genius of all time. 沃尔夫冈?阿马多伊斯?莫扎特〔1756-1791〕是一位作曲家，几乎是那个时代最伟大的音乐天才。 He only lived 35 years and he composed more than 600 pieces of music. 他只活了 35 年，谱了 600 多首曲子。 Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. His father Leopold was a musician and orchestra conductor. Wolfgang had musical talent from a very early age. 莫扎特出生于奥地利的萨尔茨保。他的父亲利奥波德是一位音乐家和管弦乐指挥。沃尔夫冈从小就有音乐天赋。 He learned to play the harpsichord when he was four, he started composing music when he was five, 四岁的时候学习弹大键琴，五岁的时候开场谱曲， and when he was six, he played the harpsichord in a concert for the Empress of Austria. 六岁的时候，他就在

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音乐厅里为奥地利女皇弹奏大键琴。 Beethoven 贝多芬 By the time he was 14, Mozart had composed many pieces for the harpsichord, piano and violin, as well as for orchestras. 十四岁的时候，莫扎特已经为大键琴，钢琴，小提琴以及管弦乐队谱写了很多曲子。 While he was still a teenager, Mozart was already a big star and toured Europe giving concerts. 还是青少年的时候，莫扎特就已经是一位大明星，到欧洲各地旅游，举行音乐会。 Haydn met Mozart in 1781 and was very impressed with him. \"He is the greatest composer the world has known,\" he said. 海顿 1781 年的时候遇见了莫扎特，对他印象非常深刻。他说， “他是有史以来最伟大的作曲家〞 The two were friends until Mozart's death in 1791.。 直到 1791 年莫扎特去世，他们两个都是朋友。 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) was born in Bonn, Germany. 路德维格.凡.贝多芬〔1770-1827〕出生于德国的波恩。 He showed musical talent when he was very young, and learned to play the violin and piano from his father, who was a singer. 在他年幼的时候就显示出了音乐才能。他向他作为歌手的父亲学习拉小提琴和弹钢琴。 Mozart met Beethoven and was impressed by him. \"He will give something wonderful to the world,\" he said. 莫扎特遇见了贝多芬并对他印象深刻。他说， “他将给这个世界一些不一样的东西。 ： Beethoven met Haydn in 1791, but was not impressed by the older man. 莫扎特在 1791 年遇见了海顿，但并没有对这个老人印象深刻。 After they had known each other for many years, Beethoven said, \"He is a good composer, but he has taught me nothing.\" 他们认识了很多年后 ，贝多芬这样说， “他是一位出色的作曲家，但是他没有教会我什么。 〞 However, it was Haydn who encouraged Beethoven to move to Vienna. 然而，是海顿鼓励贝多芬搬到了维也纳去的。 Beethoven became very popular in the Austrian capital and stayed there for the rest of his life. 贝多芬开场在奥地利首都知名，在那里度过了余生。 As he grew older, he began to go deaf. He became completely deaf during the last years of his life, but he continued composing. 随着年龄的增长，他开场变得耳聋。在他余生的最后

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几年，他变得全聋了，但是他都坚持作曲。 Adversity successfully overcome is the highest glory. 成功地克制困难是最大的荣耀。

MODULE 4 Fine Arts-Western Chinese and Pop Arts A．

This is a painting by the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, considered to be the greatest western artist of the twentieth century. 这是一幅西班牙艺术家巴勃罗?毕加索的画，他被认为是二十世纪最伟大的西方艺术家。 Picasso and another painter, George Braque, started Cubism, one of the most important of all modern art movements. 毕加索和另外一名画家乔治.布朗克创立了所有现代艺术运动最重要之一的立体派。 Cubist artists painted objects and people, with different aspects of the object or person showing at the same time. 立体主义艺术家用反映同一时间的人或物的不同面来画人和物。 B This painting by contemporary American artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997) is a world famous example of pop art. 这幅由当代美国艺术家罗伊.奇登斯坦〔 〔1923-1997〕所作的画是世界闻名的流行艺术的典。 Pop art (from the word \"popular\") was an important modern art movement that aimed to show ordinary twentieth-century city life. 流行音乐〔来源于\"popular\"这个单词〕是旨在展现平常的二十世纪城市生活的重要的现代艺术运动。 For example, it shows things such as soup cans and advertisements. 例如，它展现了像汤罐和广告这样的东西。 C Qi Baishi (1863-1957), one of the China's greatest painters, followed the traditional Chinese style of painting. 齐白石〔1863-1957〕 ，中国最伟大的画家之一，遵循着传统的中国画风格。 Chinese painting is known for its brush drawings in black inks and natural colours. 中国画因用黑色墨汁和自然颜色的毛笔画知名。 Qi Baishi observed the world of nature very carefully, and his paintings are special because of this. 齐白石非常仔细地观察了自然世界，他的画也因此而独特。 D Xu Beihong (15-1953) was

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one of China's best-known twentieth-century artists. 徐悲鸿〔15-1953〕是二十世纪闻名于世的中国艺术家之一 Like Qi Baishi, Xu painted in the traditional Chinese style. Both painters have a beautiful brush line. 像齐白石一样，徐悲鸿也用传统的中国风格作画。两位作家都有很完美的笔锋。 Xu Beihong believed that artists should show reality, but not just imitate it. Instead, a picture should try to show the \"life\" of its subject. 徐悲鸿认为艺术家应该反映现实，而不只是模仿它的样子。相反，一幅画应当试图展现物体的生命力。 He is most famous for his lively paintings of horses. 他最为人称道的是他画的栩栩如生的马的油画。. E Wu Hang 吴航 I'm studying art at school, and I enjoy it a lot, although I can get tired of looking at pictures all the time. 我正在求学艺术，尽管一直看着图画会让我疲倦，我还是非常喜欢艺术。 I'm crazy about the paintings of Qi Baishi, and this delightful picture of the little shrimps is such a lovely example of his work. 我对齐白石的画非常的着迷。这幅令人愉快的小虾图正是他作品中得意的典型。 But I can't stand that picture of a golden-haired girl. I think it's stupid. 但是我无法赞同这幅金发女孩图。我觉得太糟了。 .F Sarah Hardwick 莎拉.哈代维克 My parents are fond of going to art galleries and often take me with them, so I've developed an interest in art. 我的父母通常喜欢带着我一起去艺术画廊，因此我对艺术产生了兴趣。 I must say, I love that picture of the six horses. They look so alive. It's by a Chinese artist, isn't it? I can tell by the style. 我得说我喜欢有六匹马的那幅图。他们看起来像活的一样这是中国艺术家所作，对吗？我可以从这画的风格看出来。 I think the painting of the young girl is probably by Picasso. I really like him. I think he's an extraordinary artist. 我觉得这幅年轻女孩的画很可能是毕加索的作品。我非常喜欢他。我认为他是非凡的艺术家。

MODULE 5 Newspapers and Magazines

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Chinese Taikonaut Back on Earth! 2 While he was travelling in space, Yang spoke to two astronauts aboard the 在太空旅行期间，跟在不断绕地球运转的太空站里的 International Space Station, which is orbiting the earth, American astronaut 两位宇航员对了话，他们是美国宇航员爱德华.卢 Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Lu, whose parents were 和俄罗斯宇航员尤里?马林年科。卢的父母在中国出生， born in China, spoke to Yang in Chinese during his flight. “Welcome to space,〞 他用中文和飞行中的利伟进展了交谈。“欢送来到太空。〞 he said. Malenchenko said, “I'm glad there is somebody else in space with us. 他说。马林年科说：“真快乐有人来太空跟我们做伴。 It's great work by thousands and thousands of people from China. 〞 它是成千上万的中国人共同的杰作。〞 3 Many countries around the world sent messages of congratulations. Sean 世界上很多的国家纷纷向中国发送贺电。 Keefe from the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the 美国国家航空和宇宙航行局的肖恩?奥吉夫 US said that Yang's space flight was “an important historical achievement and NASA 在美国说的空间飞行是“一次重大的历史性的胜利， wishes China continuing success with its space flight programme〞. United Nations 美国航天局祝愿中国在太空飞行计划中取得进一步的成功〞。 Secretary?General Kofi Annan called the fight“a step forward for the whole world〞. 联合国秘书长科菲?安南称这次飞行是“人类世界前进的一大步〞。 1.China's first taikonaut Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei landed safely this morning in the Shenzhou V capsule in Inner Mongolia, 300 kilometres northwest of Beijing. 中国首位太空旅人利伟上校乘坐神州 5 号太空舱于今早平安着陆在西北部 300 公里处的省。 Yang was in space for twenty-one and a half hours and made 14 orbits of the earth. 在太空停留了 21 个小时零 30 分钟，绕地球转了 14 周。 \"It is a great moment in the history of China—and also the greatest day of my life,\" said Yang. “它是中国历史上的一个伟大时刻——当然也是我一生中最重要的一天。〞利伟说。

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When he was orbiting in the capsule, he took photographs of planet earth. \"Our planet is so beautiful,\" he said. 当他在太空舱里绕地球飞行时，他拍了很多地球的照片。他说：“我们的星球真漂亮。 The Beijing Space Control Centre said the flight was a \"complete success\". 航空控制中心称此次飞行是“完全成功的〞。 When Yang landed, Premier Wen Jiabao telephoned the Control Centre to offer his congratulations. 一着陆，就打给控制中心表示祝贺。 When Yang took off from Jiuquan in northwest China at 9 am yesterday, China became the third nation to send a man into space. 昨天上午九点，从中国西北部的起飞，向世界宣告中国成为了第三个把人送入太空的国家。 Yang is the 438th person to travel in space, including astronauts from 32 countries. 包括来自 32 个国家的宇航员在，是第 438 位在太空旅行的宇航员。 In total, these astronauts have spent more than 26,000 days in space. 这些宇航员总共在宇宙的时间已经超过了 26000 天。 2. While he was travelling in space, Yang spoke to two astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which is orbiting the earth, American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. 在太空旅行期间，跟在不断绕地球运转的太空站里的两位宇航员对了话，他们是美国宇航员爱德华.卢和俄罗斯宇航员尤里.马林年科。 Lu, whose parents were born in China, spoke to Yang in Chinese during his flight. \"Welcome to space,\" he said. Malenchenko said, 卢的父母在中国出生，他用中文和飞行中的利伟进展了交谈。“欢送来到太空。〞 \"I am glad there is somebody else in space with us. It's great work by thousands and thousands of people from China.\" 他说。马林年科说：“真快乐有人来太空跟我们做伴。〞 它是成千上万的中国人共同的杰作。 3. Many countries around the world sent messages of congratulations. 世界上很多的国家纷纷向中国发送贺电。 Sean O'Keefe from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the US said that Yang's space flight was \"an important historical achievement and NASA wishes China continuing success with its space flight programme\". 美国

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国家航空和宇宙航行局的肖恩.奥吉夫在美国说的空间飞行是“一次重大的历史性的胜利，美国航天局祝愿中国在太空飞行计划中取得进一步的成功〞。 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the flight \"a step forward for the whole world\". 联合国秘书长科菲.安南称这次飞行是“人类世界前进的一大步〞。

MODULE 6 Films and TV Programmes

电影评论:卧虎藏龙 Review: film Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Martial arts films are often enjoyable but they are seldom great art. 武打片通常是令人愉快的，能算得上真正艺术性的武打片却很少。 Now, to everyone's surprise, Ang Lee, director of a number of excellent films, has made a martial arts film called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The result is a masterpiece. 令大家惊讶的是，曾经拍了许多优秀影片的导演安，现在拍了一部名为《卧虎藏龙》的功夫片。 结果它成为电影界的一部杰作。 The film belongs to a type of Chinese story called wuxia. These stories tell of nineteenth-century martial arts masters with unusual abilities. 这部影片属于一种被称之为武侠的中国故事。这些故事 讲述的是 19 世纪那些有着非凡才能的功夫大师。 Wuxia films are popular in China, and they are now popular in the west too. 武侠电影在中国非常流行，现在在西方也很受欢送。 The story takes place in the early 1800s in China. A man and a woman, Li Mubai (played by Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Xiulian (played by Michelle Yeoh), both masters of the martial arts, are in love with each other. 故事发生在中国 19 世纪早期。一男一女两位功夫大师，慕白(周润发饰)和 俞秀莲(紫琼饰)相爱了。 But Xiulian had a fiancé who has died. Because this fiancé was a good friend of Mubai, Mubai feels that he cannot marry Xiulian. 但秀莲有一个死去的未婚夫。因为秀莲的未婚夫曾经是慕白的好朋友，所以慕白认为他不能娶她。 When someone steals Xiulian's sword, Mubai and Xiulian try to get it back.

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有人把秀莲的剑偷走之后，慕白和秀莲就试图把它取回来。 The action takes place on Peking rooftops, and in places as far away as the deserts of western China. 故事发生在的房顶上和遥远的中国西部的沙漠地区。 As in the old wuxia stories, characters leap through the air every now and then, with beautiful, graceful movements, while audiences shout in surprise. 正如在古代武侠故事中一样，影片中的人物们不时在空中跳跃并做出许多优美的动作，令观众们都惊奇地叫出了声。 Unusually, it is the female characters that interest us most. Brave, good and strong, Xiulian is the character we care about most. 不同以往的是这次最使我们感兴趣的是女主角。勇敢善良而又坚强的秀莲这个角色，是最令我们关注的。 Beautiful Zhang Ziyi plays the part of Yu Jiaolong, a young woman who is not as good as she seems. 美丽的章子怡扮演玉娇龙，玉娇龙是一个并不像外表看起来那样善良的年轻女子。 The fight scenes between Jiaolong and Xiulian are some of the most exciting moments in modern cinema. 娇龙和秀莲之间的武打是现代电影中最冲动人心的场面之一。 But one cannot forget the wonderful Chow Yun-Fat, who is as good with a sword as he is with a gun. 但是谁也不会不注意到周润发，他真了不起，他使剑和使一样厉害。 His romantic scenes with Yu Xiulian are very moving, as their eyes show all the love that they must not express in words. 他和俞秀莲之间的浪漫戏很感人， 他们的眼神传递了所有的爱意，这种爱是不可以通过语言表达的。 this rarely reach the cinema. Go and see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It will make your heart leap with excitement at its beauty. 中国很少有这样的电影。去看《卧虎藏龙》吧，这部电影会使你因其美丽而兴奋得心跳不止。 Films like Martial arts films are often enjoyable but they are seldom great art. Now, to 武打片通常是令人愉快的， 能算得上真正艺术性的 武打片却很少。 everyone's surprise, Ang Lee, director of a number of excellent films, has made 令大家惊讶的是， 曾经拍了许多优秀影 片的导演安，现在 a martial arts film called Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon. The result is a masterpiece. 拍了一部名为《卧虎藏龙》 的功夫

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片。 结果它成为电影界的一部杰作。 The film belongs to a type of Chinese story called Wuxia. These stories tell 这部影片属于 一种被称之为武侠的中国故事。这些故事 of nineteenth?century martial arts masters with unusual abilities. wuxia films are 讲述的是 19 世纪那些有着非凡才能的功夫大师。武侠电影 popular in China, and they are now popular in the west too. 在中国非常流行，现在 在西方也很受欢送。 The story takes place in the early 1800s in China. A man and awoman, Li 故事发生在中国 19 世纪早期。一男一女 Mubai (played by Chow Yun?Fat) and Yu Xiulian (played by Michelle Yeoh), 两 位 功 夫 大 师 ， 慕 白 ( 周 润 发 饰 ) 和 both masters of the martial arts, are in love with each other. But Xiulian had a 俞秀莲(紫琼饰)相爱了。但秀莲有一个 fiancé who has died. Because this fiancé wasa good friend of Mubai, Mubai 死去的未婚夫。因为秀莲的未婚夫曾经是慕白的好朋友， feels that he cannot marry Xiulian. When someone steals Xiulian?s sword,Mubai 所以慕白认为他不能娶她。有人把秀莲的剑偷走之后， 慕白 and Xiulian try to get it back. The action takes place on Peking rooftops, and in 和秀莲就试图把它取回来。故事发生在的房顶上和遥远的 places as far away as the deserts of western China. As in the old wuxia stories, 中国西部的沙漠地区。 正如在古代武侠故事中一样， characters leap through the air every now and then, with beautiful, graceful movements, 影片中的人物们不时在空中跳跃并做出许多优 美的动作， while audiences shout in surprise. Unusually, it is the female characters that 令观众们都惊奇地叫出了声。不同以往的是这 次最使我们感兴趣的是 interest us most. Brave, good and strong, Xiulian is the character we care about most. 女主角。勇敢善良而又坚 强的秀莲这个角色，是最令我们关注的。 Beautiful Zhang Ziyi playsthe part of Yu Jiaolong, a young woman who is 美丽的章子怡扮演 玉娇龙， 玉娇龙是一个并不像 not as good as she seems. The fight scenes between Jiaolong and Xiulian are 外表看起来那样善良的年轻 女子。娇龙和秀莲之间的武打是现代电影中最 some of the most exciting moments in modern cinema. But

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one cannot forget the 冲动人 心的场面之一。但是谁也不会不注 wonderful Chow Yun?Fat, who is as good with a sword as he is with a gun. His 意到周润发，他真 了不起，他使剑和使一样厉害。他 romantic scenes with Yu Xiulian are very moving, as their eyes show all the love 和俞秀莲之间的 浪漫戏很感人， 他们的眼神传递了所有的爱意， that they must not express in words. Films like this rarely reach the cinema. Go 这种 爱是不可以通过语言表达的。 中国很少有这样的电影。 and see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It will make your heart leap with 看 去 《卧虎藏龙》吧，这部电影会使你因其美丽而兴奋得 excitement at its beauty. 心跳不止。 ( 90 1 thrill 1)n 意为“冲动，震颤感，令人震颤的经历〞。如： a thrill of joy/fear/pleasure/horror 一阵欢乐/害怕/ 愉快/恐惧 He gets his thrills from rock?climbing. 他从攀岩运动中得到兴奋、刺激的感觉。 2)v 意为“使震颤，使冲动，使产生震颤感〞。 如： We were thrilled to hear your wonderful news. 我们听到你的好消息非常兴奋。 Her voice thrilled with joy. 她快乐得声音发颤。 thriller n 意为“充满刺激的电影〞； a thriller writer 写惊险故事的小说家。 2 character n 1)表示“特征，性质，特征(的总和)〞。如： the general character 共性 be different in character 有不同的性质 2)表示“(人的)性格，品质，骨气〞等。如： build up one's character 培养品性 get a good/bad character 得到好/坏名声 She has a strong character. 她性格坚强。 3)为“人物，角色〞的意思。如： I found all thecharacters in his play very interesting. 我觉得他那出戏中的所有人物都很有趣。 4) 表示“(汉)字，字体，书写符号〞等。如： I wish this book were written in bigger characters; these are too difficult to read. 我希望这本书的字大一点就好了，读起来很吃力。 3 leap (leapt, leapt; leaped, leaped) 1)v 意为“跳，跳跃；跳过，使……跳过〞。 leap over a fence 跳过篱笆 leap to a conclusion 一下子得出结论 leap at a chance 抓 住时机 Look before you leap. 三思而后行。 He leapt thewall and ran away. 他跳过墙跑了。 2)n 意为“突然跳起；跃过的距离；激增， 跃进〞。 a leap in the number of birth 出生率的激增 4 interest 1) vt 表示“使发生兴趣, 引起……的注意〞。

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如： American football doesn't interest me at all. 美式足球一点也提不起我的兴趣。 The interesting book interests the boy. 那本有趣的书引起了男孩的兴趣。 2) n 为“兴 趣, 关心, 重要性, 影响, 利息,利益, 利害〞等意思。 如：I find/ take/ have no interest in such things. 我对这些不感兴趣。Eating seems to be his only interest in life. 吃似乎是他生活中惟一的爱好。 The interests of the individual must be subordinated to the interests of thecollective. 个人利益必须服从集体利益。 5 occasionally adv 表示“偶然，偶而，有时〞。相当于 sometimes/ from time to time/ now and then。 We go for walks in thefields occasionally. 我们偶尔去田野里散步。 6 setting n 表示“置放，沉落，环境；(书或电影的)背景，安置位置〞等意思。 短语 be set in 表示“以……为背景〞。 The end of the film is set in the setting of the sun. 电影完毕时是以落日为背景的。 如： The TV play was set in the special social setting. 那部电视剧是以一个特殊的社会环境为背景的。Film Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1. Now, to everyone's surprise, Ang Lee, director of a number of excellent films, has made a martial arts film called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 令大家 惊讶的是，曾经拍了许多优秀影片的导演安，现在也拍了一部名为《卧虎藏龙》的功夫片。 1)to one's surprise 意为“出乎意料的，令某人吃惊的是……〞,相当于 to the surprise of sb。 surprise 意为“吃惊地， in 在惊慌中〞(in 意为“处在……状态〞)。 如： She looked up in surprise when I shouted. 当我叫喊时， 她吃惊地抬起头来。 my surprise, To he succeeded at last. 令我吃惊的是，他最后成功了。 类似结构有： to one's delight/joy/sorrow/disappointment/discouragement 意为“令人快乐/难过/失望/泄气的是〞。 如： Much to their delight/to their great delight, the newly designed machine works very well. 使他们极为快乐的是，新设 计的机器运转良好。 2)a number of 意为“许多的，大量的〞，修饰可数名词，作主语时谓语用复数形式。 the number of 意为 “……的数 量〞，后接可数名词, 作主语时谓语用单数形式。如： A large number ofpeople came from all parts of the country to see the exhibition. 许多 人从全国各

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地来参观这个展览。 The number of the students in our class is forty?five. 我们班有 45 个学生。 2. The story takes place in the early 1800s in China. 故事发生在中国 19 世纪早期。 1) take place 意为“发生〞，与 happen, come about 意思一样，都相当于不及 物动词。 The 2008 Olympic Games will take place in Beijing. 2008 年奥运会将在举行。 What has happened over there? 那儿发生了什 么事？ 2)inthe early 1800s 意为“在 19 世纪早期〞，也可写为 in the early 1800?s。 in one's +整十的复数形式 意为“在某人几十岁的时 候〞。如： He went abroad in his thirties. 他三十几岁时出国了。 3.... both masters of the martial arts, are in love with each other. 两位武功 大师相爱了。 be in love with sb 意为“爱着某人， 相爱，喜欢〞，表示状态；fall in love with sb 意为“爱上某人〞，表示动作。如： They have been in love with each other for four years. 他们相爱四年了。 If you are really in love with art, you Don't mind hard work. 如果你真的 喜欢艺术， 你就不会介意艰辛的工作。 Jenny fell in love with Tom as soon as she saw him. 珍妮一看见汤姆就喜欢上他了。 4. As in the old wuxia stories, characters leap through the air every now and then, with beautiful, graceful movements, while audiences shout in surprise. 如在 古代武侠故事中一样， 影片中的人物不时在空中跳跃并做出许多优美的动作， 令观众们都惊奇地叫出了声。 every now and then 意为“有 时， 偶尔〞， 用于一般现在/过去时态。 如： Every now and then I go out to the beach. 我有时到海滩去。 He wrote to me every now and then. 他偶尔给我写信。 5. Unusually, it is the female characters that interest us most. 不同以往的是，这次最使我们感兴趣的是女主角。 句中 it is ... that/ who ... 是强调句型，可用来强调主语、宾语、状语等成分。其中，who 只能用于强调人。 It was in the street that I met him yesterday. 昨天我是在大街上遇见他的。 It was him that/who I met inthe street yesterday. 昨天我在大街上遇见的是他。 6. Brave, good and strong Xiulian is the character we care about most. 勇敢善良而又坚强的秀莲这个角色， 是最令我们关注的。 care about 意为“喜欢， 关心〞， “ 对 …… 介 意 / 在

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乎 〞 。 如 ： I really care about my English teacher. 我 的 确 喜 欢 我 的 英 语 老 师 。 The government cares much about the problem of old people. 非常关心老人问题。 He failed in the exam but I Don't think he cares very much. 他虽然考试不及格， 但我认为他并不在乎。 7. Beautiful Zhang Ziyi plays the part of Yu Jiaolong. 美丽的章子怡扮演玉娇龙。 play a part = play a role 意为“扮 演……的角色〞；“在……中起作用〞。如： He played a very important part in the film. 他在电影中扮演非常重要的角色。 China is playing an increasingly important part in safeguarding the world peace. 中国在保卫世界和平中起着越来越重要的作用。 play the part 意为 “扮 演……的角色〞(指具体角色)。 如： He played the leading part of Othello in thetragedy. 他在悲剧中扮演主角奥赛罗。 8. Ang Lee had never directed a martial art film before. 安以前从来没有导演过武打片。never 是频度副词， 通常位于动词前面。 这样的词还有 seldom, always, often, frequently, sometimes, usually, rarely, occasionally 等。如： I often heard him sing. 我经常听他唱歌。 They occasionally saw him walk along the river bank. 他们偶尔看见他在河边散步。 其中 never, seldom, rarely 等为否认副词， 位于句首时， 句子用倒装结构。 Never have we workers been daunted by difficulties. 我们工人从来没有被困难所吓倒。 Seldom have we seen such big melons. 我们极少见过这么大的 瓜。1. Ask a young person inthe street who the greatest American film director is , and you may get the answer Steven Spielberg. 在街上问一 位年轻人谁是美国最伟大的电影导演，得到的答复可能是史蒂文?斯皮尔伯格。 该句中“祈使句+and/or+简单句〞相当于一个条件复合句 ＋简单句。如： Work hard and you'll make great progress. = If you work hard, you'll make great progress. 努力学习，你就会取得很大的进 步。 Be more careful, or you'll make the same mistake. = If you Don't be more careful, you will makethe same mistake. 多加小心，否那么你就 会犯同样的错误。 2. He has certainly made more successful films than any other director in the West. 他拍摄的电影在西方导演中当然是最 成功

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的。 make films 意为“拍电影〞；any other ... 意为“任何其他的……〞。如： China is larger than any other country in Asia. 中国比亚 洲其他任何一个国家都大。 3.... completing his first 15?minute home movie at the age of 13. ……在 13 岁时就制作了第一部播放时长 15 分钟的家庭电影。 at the age of = when he was ... years old 意为“在……岁时〞。如： He started school at the age of 6. 他 6 岁入学。 At the age of 32, he went to France. 32 岁时，他去了法国。 4. This was shown at a local cinema and made $100. 这部电影是在当地影院播 放的，赚了 100 美元。 make ... (money)是及物动词，意为“赚(钱)，挣得，赢得……〞。如： He made a lot of money from this film. 这 部电影为他赚了很多钱。 How much do you make from working part?time? 你打零工赚了多少钱？ 5. AHollywood film studio liked it and employed Spielberg to make a full?length film. 一家好莱坞电影制片厂欣赏这部电影， 就聘请斯皮尔伯格制作一部大型电影。 Full-length adj 意为“(小说、戏剧等)标准长度的，大型的，全长的〞。如： a full-length novel 足本的小说 a full-length skirt 长裙(长及踝的) 6. Thisfilm,Sugarland Express, made in 1974, had some success. 摄于 1974 年的电影《横冲直撞大逃亡》取得了一定的成功。 success 此处 为名词“成功〞，have some success in= be successful in ... 意为“在……获得成功〞。如： Do you have any success in persuading your father? 你说服你父亲了吗？ He is successful in the final exam. 他期末考试获得了成功。

必修三

必修3 MODULE 1 Europe欧洲

Read the passage and match the photos with these descriptions.阅读文章并将图片与以下描述搭配起来。 a landmark in Paris巴黎的标志性建筑 an art gallery in

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Florence佛罗伦萨的美术馆 a church in Barcelona巴塞罗那的教堂 a building in Athens雅典的一座建筑 The Eiffel Tower埃菲尔铁塔 The Parthenon帕台农神庙 The Uffizi Palace乌菲齐美术馆 The Sagrada Familia圣家大教堂 Great European Cities欧洲大城市 PARIS巴黎 Paris is the capital and largest city of France,situated on the River Seine. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and is visited by more than eight million tourists every year. 巴黎是法国的首都，也是法国最大的城市，坐落在塞纳河畔。巴黎是世界上最漂亮的城市之一，每年有超过八百万的游客来这里旅游。 The most popular place for tourists is the EiffelTower, the famous symbol of Paris. One of the world's largest art galleries,the Louvre,is also located in Paris. 最受游客欢送的旅游景点是埃菲尔铁塔，它是巴黎著名的象征。世界上最大的美术馆之一——卢浮宫，也在巴黎。 The city is also famous for its restaurants, cafes and theatres. About two-thirds of France's artists and writers live in Paris. 这个城市也以餐馆、咖啡馆和剧院而闻名。法国大约三分之二的艺术家和作家都生活在巴黎。 BARCELONA巴塞罗那 Barcelona is the second largest city of Spain and is situated on the northeast coast, about five hundred kilometers east of the Spanish capital,Madrid. 巴塞罗那是西班牙的第二大城市，它位于西班牙东岸，大概在离西班牙首都马德里东边五百千米的地方。 One of Barcelona's most famous landmarks is the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which was designed by an architect called Antonio Gaudi. 巴塞罗那最著名的标志性建筑之一就是由建筑师安东尼奥?高迪建造的圣家大教堂。 Gaudi worked on the project from 1882 until his death in 1926. The church hasn't been finished yet! 高迪从1882年起从事这项工程直至1926年逝世，这座家庙还没有竣工。 FLORENCE佛罗伦萨 Florence is an Italian city which became famous because of the Renaissance, a great artistic movement which began in the 1300s and lasted for three hundred years. 佛罗伦萨是意大利的一座城市，这座城市因文艺复兴而变得著名。文艺复兴是一次大型的文艺运动，开场于13世纪，持续了三百年。 During the Renaissance, some of the

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greatest painters of all time lived and worked in Florence. 在文艺复兴时期，历史上一些最伟大的画家在佛罗伦萨生活和工作。 Many of Florence's most beautiful paintings and sculptures were produced by great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. 佛罗伦萨很多非常漂亮的油画和雕塑都是由伟大的艺术家如莱昂纳多?达?芬奇和米开朗琪罗创作的。 Florence is visited each year by about a million tourists who come to see the art galleries,churches and museums.The UffiziPalace is the most famous art gallery in the city. 每年大约有一百万的游客来佛罗伦萨参观美术馆、教堂和博物馆，乌菲齐美术馆是这座城市最著名的美术馆。 ATHENS雅典 Athens,the capital of Greece,is known as the birthplace of western civilisation. 雅典是希腊的首都，作为西方文明的发祥地而闻名于世。 Two thousand four hundred years ago,it was the world's most powerful city. 2400年前，雅典是世界上最强大的城市， Buildings such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill were built during this period.Greece's best writers lived in ancient Athens. Their work has influenced other writers ever since.像位于雅典卫城山的帕台农神庙这样的建筑等就是在那个时期建造的。希腊最优秀的作家就住在古雅典，他们的作品影响了后世的作家。

Module 2 Developing and Developed Countries开展中国家与兴旺国家

Read the passage.Answer these questions.阅读文章并答复以下问题。 What did world leaders agree to do in 2000? 2000年各国领导人达成了什么协议？ What does the Human Development Index measure? 衡量人类开展的尺度是什么？ What are the first two Development Goals? 最初的两个开展目标是什么？ What progress have we made towards these goals? 我们朝着这些目标取得了哪些进步？ What do

developed countries need to do? 兴旺国家需要做些什么？ The Human Development Report人类开展报告 In the year 2000,147 world leaders agree to

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work together to reduce poverty by 2015 or earlier. From this agreement came the Human Development Report. 2000年，147个国家领导人达成协议，一起努力到2015年甚至更早缓解贫困，这个协议达成后接下来便产生了《人类开展报告》。 One of the most important sections of this report is the Human Development Index.This examines the achievements of 175 countries. 这个报告最重要的一局部就是“人类开展指标〞，这对175个国家的成果作了分析检测。 The Index measures a country's

achievements in three ways:life expectancy (how long people usually live),education and income.The index has some surprises.Norway is at the top of the list,while the US is at number 7. 这项指标从三个方面衡量一个国家的成就：寿命〔人们通常能活多久〕、教育和收入。这项指标显示了一些令人感到意外的情况。挪威高居榜首，而美国那么排在第七。 The other top five countries are:Iceland (2), Sweden (3), Australia (4), the Netherlands (5). 中间五个国家按名次分别是冰岛、瑞典、澳大利亚和荷兰， The UK is in the thirteenth position,while China is in the middle of the list.The bottom ten countries are all African countries,with Sierra Leone (in West Africa) at the bottom of the list. 英国位居第十三，而中国排在的中间。处于末端的十个

国家均是非洲国家，西非的塞拉利昂排在最后。 The report describes eight Development Goals.The most important goals are to: 这个报告描述了八个开展目标，最重要的目标是： reduce poverty and hunger;缓解贫穷和饥饿； make sure that all children have education up to the age of 11;确保11岁以上的孩子都能承受教育； fight AIDS and other diseases;战胜艾滋病和其他疾病 improve the environment of poor people, e.g. make sure they have safe drinking water; 改善穷人的生活环境，如确保他们都喝上平安安康的饮用水； encourage developed countries to give more help to other countries.鼓励兴旺国家给予其他国家更多的帮助。 The 2003 Human Development Report gives examples of successful development. For example, in nine years(1953-1962),China increased life expectancy by 13 years. 2003年的《人类

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开展报告》报告了几个开展成功的实例，譬如，在九年〔1953-1962〕的时间里，中国的人均寿命就增加了13岁； In the last ten years in China, 150 million people moved out of poverty. However, the challenges are still great. 在过去的十年中，中国有1.5亿人摆脱了贫穷，然而，仍然还存在着很大的挑战。 Every day 799 million people in developing countries are hungry. Over half of these are in South Asia or Africa. 在开展中国家每天仍有7.99亿人处于饥饿中，这些人中有一半是南亚或者非洲的； Although more than 80% of children in developing countries go to primary school, about 115 million children are not being educated. 虽然开展中国家超过80%的孩子能上小学，但是仍然有1.15亿的孩子没有承受教育； More than 1 billion people in developing countries do not drink safe water. 在开展中国家还有超过一百万的人喝不到平安安康的饮用水， However, in other regions of the world, e.g.Eastern Europe,water is now mostly safe to drink. 但是在世界的其他地区，如东欧，水已经根本上可以平安饮用了。 The report shows that we are making some progress but that we need to make greater efforts. 报告显示我们正在进步，但是我们必须作出更大的努力。 Although developed countries give some financial help, they need to give much more. 虽然兴旺国家提供了一些经济救援，但是提供救援的数量应该大大增加。 Interestingly, the countries that give the most money are the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. 有趣的是，给予最多经济资助的国家分别是荷兰、挪威和瑞典。 These are among the five richest countries in the world, so it is right that they should do so. 这几个国家都是世界上最富裕的五个国家中的，所以它们应该这么做的。 MODULE 3 The Violence of

Nature自然的暴行

Read about the Gulf Stream and check the meaning of the words.阅读关于墨西哥湾流的文章，查找以下单词的意思。 current 水流 flow流动 latitude 纬度 The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current which starts in the Gulf of Mexico and flows

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northeast across the Atlantic. It also travels past the east coast of the United States towards eastern Canada. It is one of the strongest currents anywhere in the world. Because of the Gulf Stream, The United Kingdom and other places in Europe are much warmer than parts of Canada on the same latitude.墨西哥湾流是发源于墨西哥湾，穿过大西洋向东北流动的温暖洋流。它还沿着美国东海岸向加拿大东部流动。它是世界上最强大的一股水流。因为有墨西哥湾流，英国和欧洲其他地方比处于同纬度的加拿大很多地区更暖和。 What is a current?水流是什么？ A kind of electricity.一种电 A movement of water.水的一种运动 A kind of wind.一种风 What kind of things flow?什么东西会流动？ Water.水Time.时间Money.钱 Read the passages on page 23 and answer these questions.阅读第23页的文章，答复以下问题。 How strong are tornado winds?龙卷风有多强烈？ What can happen to furniture when a house is destroyed by a tornado?当一座房子被龙卷风摧毁了，家具会发生什么？ How many tornadoes are there in the US every year? 美国每年会有多少次龙卷风？ How many people died in the worst tornado of all time? 最严重的一次龙卷风中死了多少人？ What happens at sea during a hurricane? 刮飓风的时候，海上会发生什么？ When was the worst hurricane of all time? 最严重的一次飓风发生在什么时候？ Was the actor Charles Coghlan killed in it? 演员查尔斯?科格伦在飓风中被夺取生命了吗？ What happened to him after the hurricane? 飓风之后，他发生了什么？ What Is a Tornado?龙卷风是什么？ A tornado is a rotating column of air from a thunderstorm to the ground. 龙卷风是指一个从空中的雷暴延伸到地面而生成的旋转气柱。 The most violent have winds of more than 400 kilometres per hour. 最强的龙卷风风速超过400千米每小时 Almost all of them occur in the US, in the area from Texas in the southeast to South Dakota in the north.，几乎所有的龙卷风都发生在美国，从东南部的得克萨斯州到北部的达科他。 Tornadoes can pick up cars, trains and even houses and put them down in the next street--or even in the next town. 龙卷风可以卷起汽

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车、火车甚至是房子并把它们卷到旁边的街道——甚至能卷到邻近的城镇。 They can take the fur off the back of a cat and the feathers off a chicken. 它们可以将猫背上的皮毛和鸡身上的羽毛拔下来， They can destroy houses, but leave the furniture inside exactly where it was. 它们可以摧毁房子，却把房的家具留在原处。 On average, there are 800 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries. 美国平均每年会发生800次龙卷风，造成大约80人死亡，1500人受伤。 The worst tornado of all time occurred in 1925, affecting three US states: Missouri,Illinois and Indiana. 最严重的一次龙卷风发生在1925年，影响了美国的三个州：密里州、伊利诺伊州和印第安纳州。 By the time it ended, more than 700 people had been killed and 2,700 had been injured. 等到风停时，已有700多人死亡，2700多人受伤。 What Is a Hurricane?飓风是什么？ Hurricanes are strong tropical storms, and they usually occur in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. 飓风是强烈的热带风暴，它们通常发生在大西洋南部、加勒比海和墨西哥湾。 There are violent winds of 120 kilometres per hour or more, which cause huge waves, heavy rain and floods. 猛烈的飓风以120千米每小时甚至更快的速度移动，引起巨大的波浪，大雨和洪水。 There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year and they usually affect the east coast of the US from Texas to Maine. 平均每年会发生6次大西洋飓风，通常会影响美国东部海岸从得克萨斯州到缅因州。 The worst hurricane disaster of all time occurred on the 8th September 1900 in Galveston, Texas. 最严重的飓风灾害是1900年9月8日发生在得克萨斯州的加尔维斯顿， Winds of 200 kilometers per hour and five-metre high waves hit the city. 飓风以200千米每小时的速度卷起5米高的波浪向城市袭来， The disaster killed 6,000 people in a population of 37,000 and destroyed 3,600 buildings. 那次灾害夺去了37000人口中的6000条人命，摧毁了3600栋建筑物。 An Extraordinary Event非比寻常的事件 This is a story about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.这是一个关于1900年的加尔维斯顿飓风的故事。 Charles Coghlan was a

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nineteenth-century Irish actor who went to live in Canada. 查尔斯?科格伦是19世纪一位居住在加拿大的爱尔兰演员， He then moved to New York, where he became famous. By the late 10s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 19, a year before the hurricane struck. 那时，他搬到纽约并在那里出了名，19世纪90年代后期，他搬到了加尔维斯顿，并于19年，也就是飓风来袭的前一年去世。 The cemetery where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Coghlan's coffin ended up in the sea. 埋葬科格伦的公墓被飓风摧毁了，科格伦的棺材最后被卷入了大海。 Eight years later, the coffin was found by fishermen in the sea near his home on Prince Edward Island in the east of Canada. 八年之后，科格伦的棺材在加拿大东部的爱德华王子岛省被一位渔夫在离他家不远的海里发现了。 The Gulf Stream had carried it 3,000 kilometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. 墨西哥湾流载着它漂了3000千米沿着美国东海岸漂到了爱德华王子岛省。 Coghlan travelled back to Canada--after he had been buried in Texas! 被葬在得克萨斯州后，科格伦又漂回了加拿大。

MODULE 4 Sandstorms in Asia亚洲沙尘暴

READING AND VOCABULARY阅读与词汇 Look at the photo. Answer these questions.看图答复以下问题。 What is happening?正在发生什么？ What is the cyclist wearing and why?那个骑自行车的人戴着什么？他为什么要那样做？ What do you think happens to traffic in this situation? Why?你认为在这种情况下交通会发生什么？为什么？ What do you think experts advise people to do in this situation?你认为在这种情况下专家会建议人们怎么做？ Sandstorms in Asia亚洲沙尘暴 Sandstorms have been a major disaster for many Asian countries for centuries. 几个世纪以来，沙尘暴已经成为很多亚洲国家的严重灾害。 Scientists have tried many ways to solve

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this problem and in China, a mass campaign has been started to help solve it. 科学家已经想了很多方法来解决这个问题，在中国，已经开展了一场帮助解决沙尘暴问题的大型战争。 Sandstorms are strong, dry winds that carry sand. They are often so thick that you cannot see the sun, and the wind is sometimes strong enough to move sand dunes. 沙尘暴是带有沙石和尘土的强大而枯燥的风。沙尘暴通常很浓密以至于人们都看不见太阳，有时候，风的强度大到可以掀动沙丘。 The four main places in the world where there are sandstorms are Central Asia, North America, Central Africa and Australia. Ren Jianbo, from Inner Mongolia described a terrible sandstorm he experienced as a child in the desert. 世界上四个主要的有沙尘暴的地方是：亚洲中部、北美、非洲中部和澳大利亚。来自的任建波描述了他小时候在沙漠中经历过的一次严重的沙尘暴， “To have been caught in a sandstorm was a terrible experience,〞 he said. “There was nothing to be done. “被困在沙尘暴中是一种很可怕的经历，〞他说，“什么也干不了, It was the most frightening and the most dangerous situation I've ever been in. You just had to hope you'd survive. I thought I was going to disappear under the sand.〞 那是我遭遇过的最可怕、最危险的境况，你只能希望自己能够幸存，我原以为我会消失在沙石底下。〞 Northwest China is part of the sandstorm centre in Central Asia. Sandstorms begin in desert areas. 中国西北是亚洲沙尘暴中心的一局部。沙尘暴开场于沙漠地带， Sandstorms in China appear to have increased in recent years as a result of “desertification〞. 近年来因为“沙漠化〞，中国发生沙尘暴的次数明显增加了。 This is a process that happens when land becomes desert because of climate changes and because people cut down trees and dig up grass. 这是发生在由于气候变化以及人们砍伐树木、开垦草地等使得陆地变成沙漠时的过程。 Sandstorms sometimes affect Beijing. Citizens wake up to an orange sky and strong winds that cover the city in a thick, brown-yellow dust. 有时候沙尘暴会影响，市民醒来时，发现昏黄的天空，狂风夹着黄沙在城里肆虐。 The storms sometimes

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continue all day and traffic moves very slowly because the thick dust makes it difficult to see. 暴风有时持续一整天，因为浓密的尘土降低了能见度，所以车辆等开得很慢。 The Chinese Central Weather Station can forecast a sandstorm some weeks before it arrives in Beijing, but the strength of the storm sometimes surprises people. 中国气象台在沙尘暴到达前的几个星期就能预见到，但是风暴的威力有时是惊人的。 When a sandstorm arrives in the city, weather experts advise people not to go out. Huang Xiaomei, who lives in Beijing says, 当沙尘暴到达一个城市时，专家会建议人们不要出门。居住在的黄小梅说； “To be cycling in a sandstorm is frightening. The winds are very strong. It's difficult to breathe and the dust makes me ill. So if you want to go out, you'd better wear a mask.〞 “在沙尘暴中骑车是很可怕的，风力非常强，很难呼吸，而且尘土会让我得病，所以如果你想出门，最好带上面罩。〞 The desert is only 250 kilometres away to the west of Beijing. To prevent it coming nearer, the government is planting trees. 沙漠位于西边距离仅仅250千米，为了防止沙漠进一步向延伸，正在植树。 Already the government has planted more than 30 billion trees and plans to continue planting for the next five years. 目前已经种了超过三十亿棵树，而且计划在接下来的五年中继续植树。

MODULE 5

Great People and Great Inventions of Ancient China中国古代的伟大人物及其创造

Read Philosophers of Ancient China and match the words with the definitions.阅读“中国古代的哲学家〞，将以下单词写在与之对应的定义后面。 order(n) bring up found(v) principle belief 秩序 抚养成人 建立 准那么 信仰 an idea that influences

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the way you behave影响你行为方式的思想 to start an organisation or philosophy创办一个组织或者哲学 the feeling that something is true and exists事物真实存在的感觉 when people obey laws and rules and do not cause trouble人们遵守法律准那么，不惹麻烦 to look after children until they are adults照看小孩直到他们成年 Find the words and phrases in the passage that match these definitions.从文中找出与以下定义相对应的单词或短语。 €< €gave a lot of importance to给出……的大量重要性 €$ €job职位 €8 €doing what he suggested按他的建议做 €X €tell your employer that you are going to leave your job告诉你的雇主你要离开你的工作岗位 €9 €someone who gives advice提出建议的人 €: €having a lot of influence有很大影响 € T €Read the passage again. Choose the correct answers.再读一遍文章，选择正确的答案。 € h €Check your answers to Introduction activity 2 according to the passage.根据文章，核对你引言中活动2的答案。 €2 €Learning to learn学会学习 € €Write a list of seven words which are related to the same topic. Show it to your friend quickly. See how many he/she can memorise. Discuss with him/her how words are better memorised.写出与同一个主题有关的七个单词，快速给你的朋友看，看看他/她能记住几个，与他/她一起讨论怎样更好地记单词。 hilosophers of Ancient China中国古代的哲学家 Ancient China was a place where states were often at war with each other. But it was also a time when there were many great philosophers. Confucius(551BC-479BC) is the philosopher whose influence has been the greatest. 古代中国各诸侯国之间经常发生战争。但那也是一个产生了许多哲学家的时期。孔子〔公元前551--公元前479〕是影响最大的哲学家。 He stressed the importance of kindness, duty and order in society. Chinese society was influenced by these ideas for more than 2,000 years. 他强调了仁爱、责任和社会秩序的重要性。中国社会受孔子学说的影响已长达两千多年。 Mencius was a thinker whose teachings were very similar to those of Confucius. Mencius was born in 372 BC. 孟子是一位思想家，他的理论和孔子的理

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论很相似。孟子生于公元前372年， His father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother, He became a student of Confucius's ideas, and was then given an important position in the government of a state. 自小就丧父，他母亲把他抚养成人。他成为儒家弟子，并在一个国家谋得很重要的职位。 However, when he saw that the ruler was not following his advice, he resigned. For many years he travelled from state to state, teaching the principles of Confucius. He then became an adviser to another ruler. 但是当他发现统治者并不听从他的建议时，他辞职了。好几年的时间，他周游列国，宣扬儒家学说。然后他又成为了另一个统治者的参谋。 He spent his last years preparing a book of his teachings called The Book of Mencius. 他晚年一直在准备记载他自己学说的书《孟子》。 Mencius believed that the reason why man is different from animals is that man is good. 孟子认为人区别于动物的本质就是人是性善的。 He taught that if the government was kind, then people would be good. He believed that people were more important than rulers, and hated the state when it treated people badly. 他主“仁政〞、“王道〞，提倡“民为重，君为轻〞，反对。 Mozi was another teacher who was very influential. Born in 476 BC, he came from a family which was very poor. 墨子是又一位极具影响力的先哲。墨子于公元前476年出生于一个贫苦家庭。 He became famous for his unusual clothes and behaviour. Mozi founded the philosophy called Mohism. 他因为不同寻常的服装和行为举止而知名。墨子创立了墨家学派， In some ways, his beliefs were similar to those of Confucius. For example, he considered that government was most important. As a result, he spent many years trying to find a state where people would follow his teachings. 他的理论在某些方面和孔子的理论相似。例如，他认为统治非常重要，因此他花了好多年努力寻找一个人们愿意听从他的理论的国家。 Mozi believed that all men were equal. His idea of love was different from the Confucian idea of kindness. 墨子认为人人都是平等的，他主的“兼爱〞与孔子的“仁爱〞不同。 Mozi taught that we

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should love all human beings and look after those who are weaker than ourselves. He hated the idea of war. Mozi died in 390 BC. 墨子认为我们必须保护所有的人，照顾比我们弱小的人。墨子反对统治者发动的侵略战争。墨子逝世于公元前390年。

MODULE 6 Old and New古今鉴

Now answer the questions before reading the passage.阅读文章之前，现在先答复以下问题。 Mao Zedong wrote a poem in which he dreamed of “walls of stone …〞 Did Mao Zedong actually see the walls of stone? 写过一首词，在词中，他想象了“更立西江石壁……〞，真的看到石壁了吗？ The power of the Yangtze River has been harnessed by the Three Gorges Dam. Does this mean that the power can be used or not?三峡大坝利用了长江水的动力。这意味着这个水力可以利用还是不可以利用？ Sun Yat-sen first suggested the idea in 1919. Did Sun Yat-sen think of the idea himself or hear it from someone else?在1919年，首次提出这个想法。这个想法是自己想出来的还是在别人那里听说的？ About 800 historical relics have been submerged. Is it possible to see the relics now that they have been submerged?大约有800个历史遗迹被水淹没。既然被水淹没了，那么现在还有可能看到这些历史遗物吗？ The Three Gorges Dam三峡大坝 “Walls of stone to hold back clouds and rain〞“更立西江石壁，截断巫山云雨〞 Mao Zedong wrote a poem in which he dreamed of “Walls of stone to hold back clouds and rain till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges〞. 写过一首词，在词中，他想象了“更立西江石壁，截断巫山云雨，高峡出平湖〞的壮丽景观。 Now his dream has come true. The power of the Yangtze River, which is the world's third longest river, has been harnessed by the Three Gorges Dam. 如今，他的理想变成了现实，世界第三长河——长江的水力已经被三峡大坝很好地利用了。 The Three Gorges Dam, which is the biggest construction project

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in China since the building of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal, has been built to control flooding and provide hydro-electric power for the central region of China. 三峡大坝是中国自万里长城和京杭大运河以来最大的建筑工程，它是作为防洪大坝和中国巨型水利枢纽而建的。 The dam is nearly 200 metres high and 1.5 kilometres wide. It is the largest hydro-electric power station and dam in the world and has cost more than any other construction project in history. 大坝高约200米，宽约1.5千米，是世界上最大的水力发电站和水坝，耗资超过历史上其他所有的建筑工程。 Sun Yat-sen, who was the leader of the 1911 Revolution, first suggested the ides of a dam across the Yangtze River in 1919. Three quarters of China's energy is produced by burning coal. 是1911年的领袖，他在1919年最先提出横跨长江建立大坝的想法。中国四分之三的能源是通过燃煤获得的。 In 1993, China used 1.2 billion tons of coal for heating and generating electricity. Unfortunately, burning coal causes serious air pollution and increases global warming. 1993年，中国燃掉了12亿吨煤用于供热和发电。遗憾的是，燃煤造成严重的空气污染并使得全球变暖。 The dam will generate electricity equal to about 40 million tons of coal without causing so much air pollution. 大坝将要生产相当于燃烧4000万吨煤所产生的电量，但却不会造成那么严重的空气污染。 The reservoir has flooded 2 cities, 11 counties, 140 towns and more than 4,000 villages. 水库淹没了2个城市、11个县市、140个城镇和4000多个村庄， More than a million people who lived in the region have moved from their homes. 超过一百万住在这个地区的人们离开了他们的家乡。 Now they're living a happy new life in different areas. 现在，他们在不同的地区过着幸福的生活。 The Three Gorges area is one of the most beautiful areas of China and the project has flooded some of China's most famous historical sites, including the Qu Yuan Temple, the Han Watchtower and the Moya Cliff carvings. 三峡坝区是中国最美丽的地方之一，三峡工程淹没了一些中国著名历史遗迹，包括屈原祠、汉阙、 摩崖石刻。 About 800 historical relics have been submerged.

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Some of them are being removed and some are being put into museums. 大约有800个历史遗迹被水淹没，这些被淹没的遗迹有的搬迁到其他地方了，有的搬到了博物馆。 MODULE 7 Revision复习 Read the passage, an article written by a student called Mark.阅读学生马克写的这篇文章。 I decided to spend a year between school and university travelling round the world. 我决定中学毕业后，在上大学之前，花一年的时间周游世界。 I worked hard and saved quite a lot of money for the trip. I started my trip in France and after visiting the capital Paris, I travelled down to the south of France, which is known for its lovely beaches. 我非常努力地工作，为这次旅行攒了一大笔钱。我的旅行从法国开场，游览了首都巴黎之后，我就沿法国南下，去了一个以美丽得意的海滩而闻名于世的地方。 Then I spent a month walking in the mountains in northern Italy. I then travelled to Rome, the capital of Italy, and spent a week visiting the city's wonderful art galleries, churches and museums. 然后我花了一个月行走于意大利北部的山脉之间。之后我去了意大利的首都罗马，在那里花了一个星期参观这个城市精彩绝伦的美术馆、教堂和博物馆。 From there I flew to Athens, Greece, and took a boat to a small Greek island. I had planned to meet a friend of mine there and we took an apartment on a beach and had a wonderful time swimming and sunbathing. 然后从那里飞往希腊的雅典，并坐小船去了希腊的一个小岛。我早就计划去那里会见一个朋友，我们相约在海滩上，在那里游泳、洗日光浴，度过了非常快乐的时光。 Next, I flew to India, and travelled round it for about three months. 接下来我飞往印度，花了大约三个月在那里周游。 Although the cities were crowded, the countryside was beautiful. I stayed in a small fishing village on the west coast and it was the happiest time of my life. 虽然那里的城市很拥挤，但是乡下很漂亮。我待在西部海岸的一个小渔村，那是我生命中最快乐的时光。 I then flew to northeast India, where there had been a terrible flood three months ago. 接着我飞往印度东北部，三个月前那里发生了一场严重的洪灾。 The water had gone but the damage to crops

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and homes was terrible. 虽然洪水退了，但是庄稼和家园所受的损害极其严重。 I then flew to China, a country I had always wanted to visit. I saw Beijing, of course, and the Great Wall, and also took a trip to see some villages on the Yangtze River which would soon be under water because of the Three Gorges Dam. 然后我飞往了中国，这是我做梦都想去的国家。当然，我游了，看到了万里长城，还去了长江沿岸的一些村庄，这些村庄很快就要因为建三峡大坝而被淹没了。 While I was in China, I read a lot about ancient Chinese history and became particularly interested in the ideas of the great philosopher Confucius. 在中国的那段时间，我阅读了很多关于中国古代历史的书籍，并对伟大的哲学家孔子的思想特别感兴趣。 Then I flew to Japan where I spent two interesting weeks. I was astonished to see that some people in the big cities wear masks to protect their lungs from pollution. 接着我飞往日本，在那里我度过了有趣的两周。我惊讶地发现大城市里有些人因为环境污染，戴着面具以保护他们的肺。 I hope that never happens in my city! Then, at last, I flew all the way home again. It had been a great experience, but, yes, it was good to be home! 我希望我所在的城市永远都不会发生那样的事情。最后，我乘飞机按照原路返回。这是一次非常不错的经历，但是，当然了，还是在家里好！

必修 5

Module 1 British and American English

Words, words, words British and American English are different in many ways The first and most obvious way is in the vocabulary There are hundreds of different words which are not used on the other side of the Atlantic, or which are used with a different meaning Some of these words are well-known – Americans drive

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automobiles down freeways and fill up with gas; the British drive cars along motorways and fill up with petrol As a tourist, you will need to used the underground in London or the subway in New York, or maybe you will prefer to get around the town by taxi (British) or cab (American) British and American Chips or French fries? But other words and expressions are not so well known Americans use a flashlight, while for the British, it’s a torch The British queue up; Americans stand in line Sometimes the same word ahs a slightly different meaning, which can be confusing Chips, for example, are pieces of hot fried potato in Britain; in the States chips are very thin and are sold in packets The British call these crisps The chips the British know and love are French fries on the other side of the Atlantic Have or have got? There are a few differences in grammar, too The British say Have you got…? while Americans prefer Do you have…? An American might say My friend just arrived, but a British person would say My friend has just arrived Prepositions, too, can be different: compare on the team, on the weekend (American) with in the team, at the weekend (British) The British use prepositions where Americans sometimes omit them (I’ll see you Monday; write me soon!) Colour or color? The other two areas in which the two varieties differ are spelling and pronunciation American spelling seems simpler: center, color and program instead of centre, colour and programme Many factors have influenced American pronunciation since the first settlers arrived four hundred years ago The accent, which is most similar to British English, can be heard on the East Coast of the US When the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw made the famous remark that the British and the Americans are two nations divided by a common language, he was obviously thinking about the differences But are they really so important? After all, there is probably as much variation of pronunciation within the two countries as

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between them A Londoner has more difficulty understanding a Scotsman from Glasgow than understanding a New Yorker Turn on the TV Some experts believe that the two varieties are moving closer together For more than a century communications across the Atlantic have developed steadily Since the 1980s, with satellite TV and the Internet, it has been possible to listen to British and American English at the flick of a switch This non-stop communication, the experts think, has made it easier for British people and Americans to understand each other But it has also led to lots of American words and structures passing into British English, so that some people now believe that British English will disappear However, if you turn on CNN, the American TV network, you find newsreaders and weather forecasters all speaking with different accents – American, British, Australian, and even Spanish One of the best-known faces, Monita Rajpal, was born in , China, and grew up speaking Chinese and Punjabi, as well as English This international dimension suggests that in the future, there are going to be many “Englishes〞, not just two main varieties But the messages is “Don’t worry〞 Users of English will all be able to understand each other – wherever they are The Man Who Made Spelling Simple In English the spelling of words does not always represent the sound So people say /rait/ but spell it right, or write, or even rite Combinations of letters (like ough) may be pronounced in a number of ways And some words just seem to have too many letters For Americans things are a little bit easier, thanks to the work of Noah Webster, a teacher who graduated from YaleUniversity in 1778 as a young man he had fought against the British in the American War of independence, and he felt that written English in the newly independent United States should have a distinctive “American〞 look So he began his work on American English His first book, the Elementary Spelling Book,

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suggested simplifying the spelling of English words The book was extremely popular By the 1850s it was selling one million copies a year, making it one of the most popular school books ever Many of the suggestions were quickly adopted Center instead of centre, program instead of programme, and flavor instead of flavour Others, however, such as removing silent letters like the s in island or the final e in examine, were not Webster is best known for his American Dictionary of the English Language, which first appeared 1828 it introduced lots of new American words, with information about their pronunciation and use, and, of course, the new spelling The British criticized the dictionary, but it quickly became a standard reference book in the States Today, Webster’s dictionary is still the number one dictionary for American students.

Module 2 A Job Worth Doing

The Human Traffic Signal At 3500 meters, La Paz, in Bolivia, is the highest capital in the world Life is hard at high altitude, and the mountains make communications difficult Many roads are in bad condition and accidents are frequent One road in particular, which goes north from La Paz, is considered the most dangerous road in the world On one side the mountains rise steeply; on the other side there is a sheer drop, which in places is hundreds of metres deep Although there is not a lot of traffic, on average, one vehicle comes off the road every two weeks The drop is so great that anyone inside the vehicle is lucky to survive In theory, the road can only be used by traffic going uphill from 8 in the morning, and by traffic coming downhill from 3 in the afternoon But in practice, few drivers respect the rules But thanks to one man, the death toll has fallen

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Timoteo Apaza is a gentle 46-year-old man who lives in a village near the most dangerous part of the road, known locally as la curva del Diablo (the Devil's Bend) Timoteo has an unusual job – he is a human traffic signal Every morning he climbs up to the bend with a large circular board in his hand The board is red on one side and green on the other Timoteo stands on the bend and directs the traffic When two vehicles approach from opposite directions they can't see each other, but they can see Timoteo Timoteo is a volunteer No one asked him to do the job, and no one pays him for it Sometimes drivers give him a tip, so that he has just enough money to live on But often they just pass by, taking the human traffic signal for granted So why does he do it? Before he volunteer to direct the traffic, Timoteo had had lots of jobs He had been a miner and a soldier Then one day while he was working as a lorry driver he had a close encounter with death He was driving a lorry load of bananas when he came off the road at a bend and fell three hundred metres down the mountain Somehow he survived He was in hospital for months Then, a few years later, he was called out in the night to help pull people out of a bus which had crashed at la curva del diablo This last experience had a profound effect on Timoteo He realised that he was lucky to be alive himself, and felt that it was his mission in life to help others And so every morning, week in, week out, from dawn to dusk, Timoteo takes up his place on the bend and directs the traffic Growing Jobs What sort of jobs will people de doing ten years from now? according to a survey published by an American university, the ten fastest growing jobs will be related to computers and health They include computer systems analysts, data analysts and database managers But there will also be a rise in the demand for health care professionals Some of these will be new jobs, such as bioinformaticians, who combine computer skills with knowledge of biology Others

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will be more traditional For example, more home care nurses will be needed to look after the rapidly ageing population But many youngsters will need professional care, too: 14 million Americans suffer from speech or language problems, and six million of them are under the age of 18 the number of speech pathologists (who help people who have problems speaking) is expected to double by the year 2012 and social workers will continue to be in demand Of course there will be plenty of other new jobs, some of which we probably can’t even guess But for those who love the outdoor life, a good bet could be the leisure industry As more and more countries open up to tourism, more travel agents will be needed, but the real demand will be for guides to take groups and even individuals on adventure holidays For people doing this job, common sense, physical fitness and an outgoing personality are likely to be more important than computer skills

Module 3 Adventure in Literature and the Cinema and The Steamboat

There was a big storm after midnight and the rain poured down We stayed inside the shelter we had built and let the raft sail down the river Suddenly, by the light of the lightning, we saw something in the middle of the river It looked like a house at first, but then we realized it was a steamboat It had hit a rock and was half in and half out of the water We were sailing straight towards it \"It looks as if it'll go under soon,\" Jim said, after a couple of minutes \"Let's go and take a look,\" I said \"I don't want to board a sinking ship,\" said Jim, but when I suggested that we might find something useful on the boat, he agreed to go So we paddled over and climbed on to the steamboat, keeping as quiet as mice To our astonishment, there

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was a light in one of the cabins Then we heard someone shout, \"Oh please boys, don't kill me! I won't tell anybody!\" A man's angry voice answered, \"You're lying You said that last time We're going to kill you\" When he heard these words, Jim panicked and ran to the raft But although I was frightened, I also felt very curious, so I put my head round the door It was quite dark, but I could see a man lying on the floor, tied up with rope There were two men standing over him One was short, with a beard The other was tall and had something in his hand that looked like a gun 'I've had enough of you I'm going to shoot you now,\" this man said He was obviously the one who had threatened the man on the floor And it was a gun he had in his hand \"No, don't do that,\" said the short man \"Let's leave him here The steamboat will sink in a couple of hours and he'll go down with it\" When he heard that, the frightened man on the floor started crying \"He sounds as if he's going to die of fright!\" I thought \"I have to find a way to save him!\" I crawled along the deck, found Jim, and told him what I had heard \"We must find their boat and take it away, then they'll have to stay here,\" I said Jim looked terrified \"I'm not staying here,\" he said But I persuaded him to help me, and we found the men's boat tied to the other side of the steamboat We climbed quietly in and as we paddled away we heard the two men shouting By then we were a safe distance away But now I began to feel bad about what we had done I didn't want all three men to die The Life of Mark Twain Often the lives of writers resemble the lives fo the characters they create Mark Twain, who wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was no exception To start with, the author’s name, Mark Twain, is itself an invention, or “pen name〞 Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens “Mark Twain〞, which means “watermark two〞, was a call used by sailors on the Mississippi to warn shipmates that they were coming into shallow

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water Like Huck, Mark Twain led an adventurous life He left school early, and as an adolescent, determined to make his fortune in South America, set off from his home in Hannibal, Missouri, for New Orleans He wanted to take a boat to the Amazon, where he thought he could get rich quickly He arrived in New Orleans without a penny in his pocket only to find that there were no boats for South America Forced to change his plans, he worked for several years as a pilot on a steamboat, taking passengers up and down the Mississippi, the great river which flows from the north of the US near the Canadian border, down to the Gulf of Mexico Later he became a journalist and began writing stories about life on the river Twain’s vivid and often amusing descriptions of life on the river quickly became popular, and established the reputation he still enjoys today as one of

America’s greatest writers\\ Module 4 Carnival

The Magic of the Mask Think of carnival, and you think of crowds, costumes, and confusion The sounds and sights change from one country to another but the excitement is the same everywhere “Carnival〞 comes from two Latin words, meaning “no more meat〞 In Europe, where it began, carnival was followed by forty days without meat, as people prepared for the Christian festival of Easter People saw Carnival as a last chance to have fun at the end of the winter season Having fun meant eating, drinking, and dressing up The most famous carnival in Europe was in Venice At the beginning, it lasted for just one day People ate, drank, and wore masks As time passed, however, the carnival period was extended, so that it began just after Christmas For weeks on end people walked round the streets wearing masks, doing what they wanted without being recognised Ordinary people could pretend to be rich and important, while famous people

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could have romantic adventures in secret Many crimes went unpunished The government realised that wearing masks had become a problem Their use was limited by laws, the first of which dates back to the fourteenth century Men were not allowed to wear masks at night; and they were not allowed to dress up as women In later times more laws were passed People who wore masks could not carry firearms; and no one could enter a church wearing a mask If they broke the laws, they were put into prison for up to two years Finally, when Venice became part of the Austrian empire, at the end of the eighteenth century, masks were banned completely, and carnival became just a memory But in the late 1970s the tradition was revived by students They began making masks and organising parties, and threw bits of brightly coloured paper (called coriandoli) at tourists The town council realised that carnival was good for business, and the festival was developed for tourists Today, carnival in Venice is celebrated for five days in February People arrive from all over Europe to enjoy the fun Hotels are fully booked and the narrow streets are crowded with wonderful costumes German, French and English seem to be the main languages But the spirit of Venice carnival is not quite the same as the great American carnivals If the key to Rio is music and movement, then in Venice it is the mystery of the mask As you wander through the streets, you see thousands of masks—elegant or frightening, sad or amusing, traditional or modern-- but you have no idea what the faces behind them look like Nobody takes them off If the masks come off, the magic is lost The Meaning of Carnival Carnival today is an international, multicultural experience But how did it become so? To understand what carnival is all about, we need to look at the history of America and the meeting of two cultures – European and African The arrival of Europeans in America, and the opening of huge farms and plantations to

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grow cotton, fruit and vegetables, meant there was an immediate need for people to work on them This marked the beginning of the slave trade For more than two hundred years, until the beginning of the 19th century, when the trade was finally stopped, millions of people were taken by force from their homes in Africa and transported to the New World to work as slaves Six million were taken to the Caribbean islands where there were British and French landowners Naturally, the Europeans also imported their own festivals So the slaves were forced to watch as their masters celebrated carnival with food, drink, and masked dances In Trinidad, the slaves began to hold their own carnival celebrations: they painted their faces white, imitating their masters and making fun of them But at the same time they were continuing their own African traditions – such as walking round a village wearing masks and singing a custom which they thought would bring good luck When the slave trade was abolished in 1838 the former slaves took over the carnival It became more colourful and more exciting than it had been before Magnificent costumes were made and musical bands created Carnival became a celebration of freedom With the passing of time, the white inhabitants of the island began to take part in the carnival, too – and they were welcomed by their former slaves Carnival became a way to unite different communities, as people forgot their everyday problems and enjoyed themselves eating, drinking, and dancing Today, visitors from all over the world come to this small state in the Caribbean to join in the fun Carnival has become a celebration of life itself

Module 5 The Great Sports Personality

A Life in Sport They called him the prince of gymnasts When he retired at the

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age of 26, he had won 106 gold medals in major competitions across the world They included six out of seven gold medals at the 1982 World Championship, and three at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles ( as well as two silver and a bronze) Li Ning was the best When sports journalists met in 1999 to make a list of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of the twentieth century, Li Ning’s name was on it, together with footballer Pele and boxer Muhammad Ali But even though he had won everything it was possible to win in his sport, Li Ning retired with the feeling that he had failed He was disappointed because he had not performed well in the 1988 Seoul Olympics But it was this sense of failure that made him determined to succeed in his new life A year after his retirement, Li Ning began a new career—as a businessman But he didn’t forget his sporting background He decided to launch a new brand of sportswear, competing with global giants like Nike and Adidas He made the unusual choice, for a Chinese person, of choosing his own name as the brand mark The bright red logo is made up of the first two pingyin letters of Li Ning’s name, L and N Li Ning’s sports clothes came onto the market at just the right time The number of young people with money to spend was on the increase—and sport had never been so popular Li Ning’s designs were attractive, and they had a major advantage over their better-known rivals—they were cheaper A pair of Nike trainers, for example, could cost up to five times as much as a similar Li Ning product Success for Li Ning was guaranteed, and it came quickly In just a few years, Li Ning won more than fifty per cent of the national market Today a Li Ning product is purchased every ten seconds But the clothes are not only worn on the athletics track or the football pitch If you go into a school or university anywhere, you will see students in Li Ning tracksuits with the familiar logo The company has also grown internationally The Spanish and French

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gymnastics teams wear Li Ning clothes, while Italian designers are employed by the company to create new styles Whenever Chinese athletes stepped out onto the track during the 2008 Olympics, they were wearing Li Ning tracksuits But Li Ning’s goal when he retired was not to make money His dream was to open a school for gymnasts He was able to do this in 1991 Since then, he has continued to help young people to achieve their sporting ambitions Like Pele and Muhammad Ali before him, who have worked with the United Nations for children’s rights and peace, Li Ning has discovered that the work of a great sportsman does not finish when he retires from the sport It starts And if you are a great sportsperson, anything is possible, as Li Ning’s advertising slogan saysMarathon: the Ultimate Olympic Event The final event in the Olympics is the marathon It is also usually the most exciting As the leader comes into the stadium to run the last few metres of the 42-kilometre race, the crowd rises to its feet to shout and cheer The name of the race comes from a battle in Ancient Greece According to the story, a soldier ran from the scene of the battle, Marathon, to Athens, to bring the news of a Greek victory against the Persians He died just after arriving The marathon has been an Olympic event Since the modern games started in 16 At first the distance was 40 kilometres – the distance between Marathon and Athens In 1908, however, at the London Olympics, it was changed The King of England wanted the runners to leave from his castle in Windsor and arrive in a new stadium in central London The distance was 26 miles – about 42 kilometres In fact, the 1908 marathon ended dramatically When the leader, an Italian, entered the stadium he returned the wrong way and fell onto the ground Officials picked him up and helped him to the finishing line, just as the second runner, an American, entered the stadium The Americans protested and in the end the American runner was declared the winner

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Since then, there have been many more exciting marathons In fact, you don’t have to wait for the Olympic Games to run or watch a marathon, as there are marathons in over sixty countries and hundreds of cities around the world today One of the most famous marathons is in New Your, and is watched by two million people around the streets and across the bridges of the city’s five boroughs, and past New York’s famous landmarks But perhaps one of the most beautiful and extraordinary marathons ever is the Greet Wall Marathon, which most competitors find is the toughest course to run The marathon is the final Olympic event because it is thought to be the hardest But experts believe that most people – even people who are not particularly good at sport – can run a marathon, if they train for it Animals in Danger Saving the Antelopes On a freezing cold day in January 1994, Jiesang suonandajie found what he was looking for – a group of poachers who were killing the endangered

Module 6 an antelope.

Jiesang knew he had to move quickly He shouted to the poachers to put down their guns Although surprised, the poachers had an advantage –there were more of them In the battle which followed Jiesang was shot and killed When his frozen body was found hours later, he was still holding his gun He had given his life to save the an antelope At the beginning of the twentieth century there were millions of antelopes on the Qinghai – an Plateau By the 1990s the number had fallen to about 50,000 The season is simple: the wool of the an antelope is the most expensive in the world It is soft, light and warm – the ideal coat for an animal which has to survive at high altitudes A shawl made from the wool (known

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as “shahtoosh〞, or “king of wools〞 in Persian) can sell for five thousand dollars For poachers the profits can be huge Often working at night, the poachers shoot whole herds of antelopes at a time, leaving only the babies, whose wool is not worth so much The animals are skinned on the spot and the wool taken to India, where it is made into the shawls From there, it is exported to rich countries in North America and Europe The business is completely illegal – there has been a ban on the trade since 1975 But in the 1990s the shawls came into fashion among rich people A police raid on a shop in London found 138 shawls About 1,000 antelopes – or 2 per cent of the world’s population – had been killed to make them In the 1990s the Chinese government began to take an active part in protecting the antelopes in the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve – the huge national park on the Qinghai-an Plateau, which is the main habitat of the antelopes Over the next ten years about 3,000 poachers were caught and 300 vehicles confiscated Sometimes there were gunfights, like the one in which Jiesang Suonandajie was killed But today the governments seems to be winning the battle The number of poachers has fallen The small group of officials who work in the reserve are helped by volunteers who come from all over the country, and who are ready for the difficult conditions of life at 5,000 metres Meanwhile, in those countries where the shawls are sold, police are getting tough with the dealers International co-operation seems to be working Since 1997 the antelope population has slowly begun to grow again WWF The WWF is the world’s largest organization for nature conservation It was founded in the UK in 1961 and opened an international office in Switzerland in the same year its aim was to protect the natural habitats of wild animals in danger of extinction One of the founders, the painter and naturalist Peter Scott, designed the famous panda logo The initials, WWF, stand for World

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Wide Fund for Nature Originally the name was World Wildlife Fund Today the organization has branches in 90 countries in all five continents It has thousands of volunteers and more than five million supporters who help by giving money Since 1985 it has spent more than $1,000 million on 11,000 projects in 130 countries The focus of attention has changed, too In the 1980s the WWF became interested in all activities which have an effect on the environment, such as pollution and the way we use energy The WWF believes that our world has a future only if peole learn to conserve nature and not waster energy As a result, it started working with governments to introduce environmental education into schools The WWF has worked with the Chinese government since 1980, when Dr George shaller arrived to work with Chinese scientists on the panda project For fifteen years WWF China staff had been based in Switzerland but came to China to monitor the project Then, in 1995, the organization set up an office in Beijing Today there are more than thirty staff working on twenty rojects all over the country They include work in forests, energy, and in environmental education for China’s primary and secondary schools as well as saving the panda, of course

选修6

Module 1 Small Talk

How Good Are Your Social Skills?

Have you ever crossed the road to avoid talking to someone you recognize? Would you love to go to a party and talk confidently to every guest? Do you want

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to make more friends but lack the confidence to talk to people you don’t know? And are you nervous about the idea of being at a social event in another country? Don’t worry – we can help you!

You needn’t worry about situations like these if you have good social skills. And they are easy to learn. People with good social skills communicate well and know how to have a conversation. It helps if you do a little advance planning.

Here are a few ideas to help you.

Learn how to do small talk.

Small talk is very important and prepares you for more serious conversations. Be prepared! Have some low-risk conversation openers ready. For example:

Think of a recent news story – not to serious, e.g. a story about a film star or sports star.

Think of things to tell people about your studies.

Think of “safe〞 things you can ask people’s opinions about – music, sport, films, etc.

Think of topics that you would avoid if you were talking to strangers – and avoid talking about them! That way, you don’t damage your confidence!

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Develop your listening skills

Listening is a skill which most people lack, but communication is a two-way process – it involves speaking AND listening. Always remember – you won’t impress people if you talk too much. Here are some ideas to make you a better listener:

DO

Show that you are listening by using encouraging noises and gestures – smiling, nodding, saying “uh-huh〞 and “OK〞, etc.

Keep good eye contact

Use positive body language

Ask for more information to show your interest

DON’T

Look at your watch

Yawn

Sign

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Look away from the person who’s talking to you

Change the subject

Finish other people’s sentences for them

Always remember the words of Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister in the 19th century: “Talk to a man about himself, and he will speak to you for hours!〞

Learn the rules

If you go to a social occasion in another country, remember that social rules can be different. In some countries, for example, you have to arrive on time at a party; in other countries, you don’t need to. In addition, you need to know how long you should stay, and when you have to leave. Some hosts expect flowers or a small gift, but in other places, you can take things, but you needn’t if you don’t want t. remember also that in some countries, you mustn’t take flowers of a certain colour, because they’re unlucky. In most places, you don’t have to take a gift to a party – but find our first!

The Wrong Kind of Small Talk

Esther Greenbaum was a saleswoman for a firm of fax machines and business supplies. But she was also the most outspoken human being in the world – well, WestchesterCounty, at least. Her motto was “Every time I open my mouth, I put

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my foot in it.〞

Esther Greenbaum’s major shortcoming was that she had a complete absence of small talk. No, that’ not quite true. She had small talk, but it was the wrong kind. In fact, she had never learnt the basic rules of social communication, and as a consequence, she made systematic mistakes every time she opened her mouth. It was no coincidence either that she wasn’t a very good saleswoman.

One day during a meeting, Esther was introduced to an important customer, a mature woman.

“Nice to meet you,〞 she said. “How old are you?〞 The customer looked awkward.

“Forty? Forty-five?〞 said Esther. “You kook much older. And your friend … she’s older than you, but she looks much younger!〞

On another occasion, Esther teased a typist, “Hey! When’s your baby due?〞

The typist went red and contradicted Esther. “Actually, I’m not pregnant,〞 she said.

“Oh, sorry,〞 said Esther without any apology. “Just putting on a little weight, huh?〞

Esther was never cautious about other people’s feelings. One of her

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acquaintances, a salesman in the firm, was going through a very messy divorce and was very depressed. She tried to cheer him up.

“Forget her! She was a complete fool. No one liked her anyway.〞

Much of the time, Esther said the first thing to come into her head. One day at work, a clerk came into the office with a new hairstyle.

“Nice haircut,〞 said Esther. “How much did it cost?〞

The woman replied, “I’d rather not say.〞

Esther replied, “Well, anyhow, either you paid too much or you paid too little.〞

She met a very famous writer once. “Hey, what a coincidence!〞 she said. “You’re writing a book and I’m reading one!〞

The trouble with Esther was she said what she thought, and didn’t think about what she said. A young man was trying to modest about his new job many miles away.

“I guess the company chose me so they’d get some peace in the office,〞 he smiled.

“No, I guess they chose you to discourage you from spending your whole

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career with us,〞 Esther replied sweetly.

Once, Esther went to a brunch party to meet some old school friends on the anniversary of their graduation. She greeted the hostess.

“Do you remember that guy you were dating? What happened to him?〞 she asked. “You know, the ugly one.〞

At the moment, a man came up and stood by her friend. “Esther, I’d like you to meet my husband,〞 she said, “Charles, this is…〞

Esther interrupted her, “Hey, so you married him!〞

Making Friends in the USA

In the USA, conversation is less lively than in many other cultures, where everyone talks at the same time. When someone talks, everyone is expected to listen, no matter how dull the person’s speaking may be.

If you’re not sure what to talk about, you can ask what people do. We’re defined by our jobs and we’re usually happy to talk about them, unless you’re spy!

Some people say that Americans talk about their feelings more than Asians, but are more secretive about factual matters. You can safely ask questions about families, where you come from, leisure interests, as well as the latest movies.

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We’re interested in people’s ethnic background too. But it’s best to avoid politics, religion and other sensitive topics.

A highly personal conversation can take place after a very short period of knowing someone, but this doesn’t mean that you’re close friends, or the relationship is very deep. But a lot of people are very friendly and hospitable, and the famous invitation “If you’re ever in Minneapolis / San Diego / Poughkeepsie, do call by and see us!〞 is never made without a genuine desire to meet again.

But while few Americans will worry about the questions you may ask, particularly if you clearly show you’re aware of cultural differences, they may hesitate before they ask you similar questions. In fact, it’s a sign that they don’t wish to violate your private life. So, many Americans will talk about safe topics because they don’t dare to be too curious or personal, but will happily talk about more private matters if you take the lead.

Generally we dislike arguments, and we avoid topics which lead to disagreement. It’s easy to return to discussing the weather: “Do you like the USA?〞 How do you like the weather?〞 or making compliments: 〞What lovely flowers and what a beautiful vase!〞“That’s fabulous dress you’re wearing.〞 You should accept compliments graciously and say “Thank you!〞

There are a couple of dangerous topics of conversation: age and money. Age is not treated as something very special, unless someone is very old: “Isn’t she wonderful for her age!〞 and there are no special rules or signs of extra respect for

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elderly people. Anyway, Americans always want to look younger than they really are, so don’t expect an accurate reply!

Income is a very private matter, and you’d do well to avoid asking how much people earn, although some people may not only be open about it, but show off their wealth. We don’t ask how much things cost, either.

But what we don’t like is silence, and almost anything is better than the embarrassment for a quiet party and silent guests.

The AAA

It is estimated that 80% of all conversation in English is small talk. A very important function of small talk is to establish a relationship between people who don’t know each other very well, or don’t know each other at all.

Psychologists say that the most successful formula for small talk between people like this is the AAA model. AAA = answer, add and ask. This is how it works.

Imagine a situation where two strangers are talking to each other after someone they both know has left the room, or the café or party, etc. the first person asks a question:

A: Do you live near here?

The second person replies by answering the question, adding some extra

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information and then asking another question:

B: (Answer) Yes, I do.

(Add) In an apartment on Brown Street.

(Ask) Do you live nearby too?

The first person does the same, answer, add and ask:

A: (Answer) No, I live in Bristol.

(Add) I’m just visiting London.

(Ask) Have you lived here long?

B: (Answer) Not so long.

(Add) I moved here three years ago.

(Ask) What’s the purpose of you visit to London?

The speakers may have difficulty at first, but they soon realize that the important thing is that they are saying something. By continuing with the AAA model, the conversation continues. Because the thing they both want to avoid is an embarrassing silence.

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The conversation can continue in this way for a long time. However, something can happen that completely changes the atmosphere.

B: Why do you live in Bristol?

A: I’m studying there. History. Are you a student?

B: Yes. And Iknow some people who are studying at Bristol. Do you know a girl called Helen Brown?

A: Helen Brown? Yes! She’s on of my best friends! How do you know her?

B: She’s my cousin.

At this point, the AAA model stops. Because they used this very useful technique, they found something they have in common at last.

Module 2 Fantasy Literature

The Cat That Vanished

Will was stupefied with exhaustion, and he might have gone on to the north, or he might have laid his head on the grass under one of those trees and slept; but as he stood trying to clear his head, he saw a cat.

She was a tabby, like Moxie. She padded out of a garden on the Oxford side of

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the road, where Will was standing. Will put down his shopping bag and held out his hand, and the cat came up to rub her head against his knuckles, just as Moxie did. Of course, every cat behaved like that, but all the same Will felt such a longing to turn for home that tears scalded his eyes.

Eventually this cat turned away. This was night, and there was a territory to patrol, there were mice to hunt. She padded across the road and towards the bushes just beyond the hornbeam trees, and there she stopped. Will still watching, saw the cat behave curiously. She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will. Then she leapt backwards, back arched and fur on end, tail held out stiffly. Will knew cat-behaviour. He watched more alertly as the cat approached the spot again, just an empty patch of grass between the hornbeams and the bushes of a garden hedge, and patted the air once more.

Again she leapt back, but less far and with less alarm this time. After another few seconds of sniffing, touching, whisker-twitching, curiosity overcame wariness.

The cat stepped forward, and vanished.

Will blinked. Then he stood still, close to the trunk of the nearest tree, as a truck came round the circle and swept its lights over him. When it had gone past he crossed the road, keeping his eyes on the spot where the cat had been investigating. It wasn’t easy, because there was nothing to fix on, but when he came to the place and cast about to look closely, he saw it.

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At least, he saw it from some angles. It looked as if someone had cut a patch out of the air, about two metres from the edge of the road, a patch roughly square in shape and less than a metre across. If you were level with the patch so that it was edge-on, it was nearlyinvisible, and it was completely invisible from behind. You could only see it from the side nearest the road, and you couldn’t see it easily even from there, because all you could see through it was exactly the same kind of thing that lay in front of it on this side: a patch of grass lit by a street light.

But Will knew without the slightest doubt that that patch of grass on the other side was in a different world. He couldn’t possibly have said why. He knew it at once, as strongly as he knew that fire burned and kindness was good. He was looking at something profoundly alien.

And for that reason alone, it enticed him to stoopp and look further. What he saw made his head swim and his heart thump harder, but he didn’t hesitate: he pushed his shopping bag through, and then scrambled through himself, through the hole in the fabric of this world and into another.

He found himself standing under a row of trees. But not hornbeam trees: these were tall palms, and they were growing, like the trees in Oxford, in a line along the grass. But his was the centre of a broad boulevard, and at the side of the boulevard was a line of cafes and small shops, all brightly lit, all open, and all utterly silent and empty beneath a sky thick with stars. The hot night was laden with the scent of flowers and with the salt smell of the sea.

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Will looked around carefully. Behind him the full moon sone down over a distant prospect of great green hills, and on the slopes at the foot of the hills there ere houses with rich gardens and an open parkland with groves of trees and the white gleam of a classical temple.

Just beside him was that bare patch in the air, as hard to see from this side as from the other, but definitely there. He bent to look through and saw the road in Oxford, his own world. The turned away with a shudder: whatever this new world was, it had to be better than what he’d just left. With a dawning light-headedness, the feeling that he was dreaming but awake at the same time, he stood up and looked around for the cat, his guide.

The Story of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter

The elder stateswoman of British fantasy literature is J.K. Rowling, the gifted creator of Harry Potter. Joanne Rowling’s roots are in the southwest of England, where she grew up. But the idea for Harry Potter came to her while she was on a delayed train between Manchester and London. She wrote down her ideas on the back of an envelope. She then went to teach English in Portugal, where she continued to add flesh to the bones of the first Harry Potter story. But her name is forever associated with Edinburgh in Scotland, where she lived and developed the format for the whole series of seven books.

There are many anecdotes about how, in 1990, J.K. Rowling began the first draft of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She had the extra burden of

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looking after her baby daughter while she worked, and because she was too poor to own a typewriter, she wrote by hand. She spent many hours over a single cup of coffee in a warm cafeteria in Edinburgh because she had no money to pay for the heating at home.

Success was not swift and Rowling might have given up. But she was stubborn and overcame all the difficulties. It was only in 1997 that she completed the first Harry Potter story, which, because the publishers in the USA requested an adjustment to the title, was also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Rowling always intended that her output would be a book every year until she had finished the series. In fact, it took her about ten years to complete. But after the first book, the success of each of the following titles was automatic. The fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix sold about seven million copies the day it was published.

Rowling’s style has been a target for some criticism, but what makes the books so important is that, because they appeal to readers of all ages, they create a special literary bond between parents and children. In an age of computer games and television programmes, it is also claimed they are responsible for a renewed interest in reading. Harry Potter has even become part of the school curriculum, much to the pleasure of the schoolchildren.

And the Harry Potter effect is not just restricted to the English-speaking world. Rowling’s books have been translated into more than 55 languages, and it has

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been estimated thath more than 250 million copies have been distributed around the world. In 2005 it was estimated that Rowling had accumulated more than one billion dollars on deposit in her bank. She has thus attained the status of being the first writer to become a billionaire.

Introduction

OLucy discovers the winter land of Narnia where she and her two brothers and sister meet the White Witch. They also meet Aslan, the lion, who is the only one who can defeat the Witch and restore summer to Narnia. With Aslan, the children learn to be brave and to forgive. They learn great sorrow and happiness, and finally they learn wisdom. Their time in Narnia is the great adventure that every child dreams of.

Extract from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at nighttime with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air.

Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty

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room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it was a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,〞 thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamppost. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamppost in the middle of a wood, and wondering what to do next, she heard the pitter-patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange person stepped out from among the trees in to the light of the lamppost.

He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwars he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat’s hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was so neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woolen muffler round his neck and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella; in the other arm he carried several brown-paper parcels. With the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all his parcels.

“Goodness gracious me!〞 exclaimed the Faun.

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The Lord of the Rings

OThe story takes place in a world called Middle Earth. Humans are only one of the creatures who exist at this time. There are also elves, tall beautiful creatures who have magical powers and never die. There are hobbits, who are like small humans and live in holes in hills. There are also dwarves, who are similar to small, ugly men and live deep in the mountains.

In The Lord of the Rings, a wicked wizard called Sauron, who has great magical powers, has created nine rings. Any creature who possesses one of these rings has great power. But Sauron has created one ring – the Ring – that can control all of these rings. The person who has this ring controls the whole of Middle Earth.

Fortunately, this ring has been lost for hundreds of years. But then it is discovered by a hobbit. Sauron, realiseng that the Ring has been found, sends his creatures to get it back. If he finds the Ring, Sauron will rule Middle Earth and it will become a place of darkness and fear. Gandalf, a good wizard, realizes that in order to save Middle Earth, the Ring must be destroyed. To do this, someone must take the Ring into Sauron’s kingdom. There, they must destroy the Ring in the fires that created it. The three books tell the story of the journey to destroy the Ring. In the last book of the trilogy there is a terrible war between Sauron and his creatures, and those who want to save Middle Earth.

Many people believe that The Load of the Rings is the best twentieth century novel in English. Of course, there are always those who do not enjoy reading

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fantasy novels. But if you do, then this is one story you should definitely read.

Module 3 Interpersonal Relationships – Friendship

Roy’s Story

I remember the first time I met Roy. He was standing in the centre of a group of boys, and he was telling a joke. When he reached the final line, everyone burst out laughing. Roylaughed too. A loud happy laugh. “Popular boy,〞 I thought to myself. My name is Daniel. I was from the north of England, but my father had been offered a better job in London, and our whole family had moved there. I was twelve and, having lost all my old friends, I felt shy and lonely at my new school.

There were 33 students in my new class, and most people weren’t very interested in a shy new boy. Roy was one of the few people who were kind to me. He often invited me to join his particular group, and as a result, I started getting to know people. Roy and I become good friends. We trusted each other and we could talk about personal matters, things that were important to us.

Five years later, Roy and I are still in the same class. But just under a year ago. Roy’s father was knocked over by a car. He died a few days later. The family had to move to a much smaller house in order to manage financially. Roy, who had always been very close to his father, changed completely, becoming silent and moody. He had always been a clever, hard-working student but now he seemed to lose all interest in his work. He started losing friends. These days, Roy and I see each other

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from time to time, but we no longer close.

About three months ago, a group of us were playing football together after school. Having left something in the cloakroom, I went inside to get it, and found Roy going through the pockets of people’s coats. In his hand he had a wallet – and I knew it wasn’t his! My mouth fell open and I just looked at him. Roy went bright red. 〞I’ll put it back right now,〞 he said, and he did so. I turned round and walked out without saying a word.

I really hoped that Roy would explain why he had been stealing, but instead he started avoiding me. At the same time, small amounts of money started disappearing from students’ lockers. I wonder if the thief was Roy but decided not to say anything to anyone. I hope it wasn’t him.

Last week our school had a big fair in order to raise money for a charity. It was very successful and by the end of the day, we had made about $500. Our class teacher, Mr White, came and chatted to a group of us that included Roy, and held up a box for us to see. “There’s $500 in here,〞 he said with a smile. But to our surprise, the next morning, we were told that the money had been stolen. Mr White had left the box in a classroom for a few minutes, and when he came back it had disappeared. The head teacher asked anyone who thought they might know something about the theft to come to him.

This weekend, having thought about the situation for a while, I decided to ask Roy about the theft, and this morning I went to see him. Roy was out, and I

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went upstairs to his bedroom to wait for him. It was a cold day and his jacket was lying on the back of a chair. I put it on and put my hands in the pockets. I could feel a lot of paper notes and I pulled them out.

It looked as if there was about $500 there. I was so surprised that I just stood there, holding the notes in my hands. At that moment, the door swung open, and Roy walked in.

Childhood Friends

The first time I lost my best friend, I thought it was the end of the world. I don’t mean that he died, he just went away, but I still measure all pain by how hurt I was when Danny left.

I was blessed with a happy childhood, one that most people would want to have. We lived in a small bungalow in a tiny village in Scotland and we were a very close family. Our neighbours next door had a son named Danny, and we grew up together.

We spent long summer evenings in the pine forests, digging up worms for fishing, and collecting feathers left by the birds in the cages where they had been kept for the hunters. It was here that I discovered that I was allergic to the tiny flies which bit me and made my face swell. There were a few walnut trees above the village and we would chase the squirrels away and wait for them to ripen. Of course, it was too far north for a proper harvest. On windy days we’d slide down

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the stony slopes to the loch and feel the spray of the sea in our faces.

Danny was a good carpenter too, and we made brooms out of branches, which we tried to sell in the village shop. We built a tree house, where we smoked our first cigar, and I was sick! Once I slipped on some damp leaves, fell out, scratched my arms and cut the heel of my foot, so he washed my wounds in the stream. He was a very considerate boy for someone so young. My mother simply scolded me for tearing my underwear.

We were on good terms with everyone in the village, and we even gave a salute to the local policeman as he passed on his bicycle. But in our imagination, he was an enemy soldier, and we were two spies looking for secrets.

It was the finest friendship anyone could have, and life seemed perfect.

And then at the age of 14, his parents moved to London, over 400 kilometres away. The pain was acute, and I couldn’t forgive Danny for leaving me. I felt he had betrayed me. It was the worst loss I have ever experienced.

I’m now back in touch with Danny, and it’s a privilege to call him my friend. We’re both much more mature now, and we’re still very alike.

But while I’m nostalgic for the happy times we spent together many years ago, I’m ashamed of my feelings, and I don’t want to rewind the recording of my life and remember my loss and my pain.

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Friends Reunited

One of the biggest Internet successes is a website called Friends Reunited. Friends Reunited brings together – that is, unites – old friends, people who used to be friends with each other, but have not seen each other for a long time.

The website was begun in 1999 by a London couple called Stephen and Julie Pankhurst. Julie wanted to know what her old school friends were doing. Did they all have families or their own? Did they still live in the same area? Were they married? Did they have children? She and her husband realised that the Internet was the perfect way to get in touch with old friends, and Steve and his business partner, Jason Porter, built the website. Slowly, people heard about the site and became interested. By the end of 2000 the site had 3,000 members. Then the website was mentioned on a radio programme and suddenly the site became very popular. By the end of 2001 the website had 4 million members, and by the end of 2002 it had over 8 million!

How do you find old friends using Friends Reunited? It’s very easy. People join the website and give information about themselves – the name of their old school, the neighbourhood they lived in, the college the went to, the sports team they belonged to, etc. To find an old friend, you type in their name, school, etc. you may find that your friend is a member of the website, and you can then contact him or her through the website. Most people are very happy to reply, and people often become friends again as a result.

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There are many wonderful stories about people who have found each other again through Friends Reunited. For example, there is the extraordinary story of a man who lost his memory as a result o a bad car accident. He could not remember anything about his past. Through Friends Reunited he contacted old friends, and with their help, he was able to find out about his past and put his memory back together. Another man writes: “Thanks to Friends Reunited, I have found my daughter, who I have not seen since she was 13. she is now 27 and I have discovered that I am a grandfather. It would have been impossible to find my daughter without the help of Friends Reunited. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.〞

Module 4 Music

An Interview with Liu Fang

Part 1

Liu Fang is an international music star, famous for her work with traditional Chinese instruments. She was born in 1974 and has played the pipa since the age of six. She’s given concerts since she was eleven, including a performance for the Queen of England during her visit to China. She graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she also studied the guzheng in 1993.

What is your musical training and background?

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My mother is a Dianju actress. Dianju is a kind of Chinese opera, which includes singing, dancing and acting. When I was a child, she took me to performances. I listened to music before I could speak! When I was five years old, she taught me to play the yueqin.

In 1990, when I was 15 years old, I went to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where Istudied the pipa and the guzheng. After I graduated, I went back to my hometown of Kunming and worked as a pipa soloist of the Kunming Music and Dance Troupe. In 1996, I moved to Canada with my husband and I have been living there since then.

What are the biggest challenges of playing the pipa and the guzheng?

If your technique is not good enough, it is impossible to play classical Chinese pipa music. Also, the repertoire for the pipa is large – some pieces were written during the Tang Dynasty.

There are many different pipa schools, and each one has its special way of interpreting the classical pieces. The biggest challenge is to respect the traditions but to add my own style. The same is true of my second instrument, the guzheng.

Part 2

Who or what are your musical influences?

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The main influence is traditional singing. I listened to traditional opera singing and folk songs in my childhood. Now when I am playing a tune, I am singing in my heart. When I’m playing a sad tune, I am crying in my heart. Listeners often say that they can hear singing in my music.

What characteristics of Chinese classical music do you try to show in your playing?

Firstly, Chinese music is similar to the Chinese language. In Chinese, the same pronunciation with different tones has different meanings. The same is true for music. Secondly, classical Chinese music is closely connected to Chinese poetry, so it isn’t surprising that most classical pieces have very poetic titles. Thirdly, classical Chinese music and traditional Chinese painting are like twin sisters. In Chinese art there are some empty spaces, which are very important. They give life to the whole painting and they allow people to come into the picture, like a dialogue.

It’s the same with classical Chinese music. There are empty spaces, and people say the silence is full of music. The pipa sounds and the pauses combine to make a poetry of sound. Listeners can experience the power and the beauty of the music, like enjoying a beautiful poem or painting.

Part3

What do you like best about performing live?

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I enjoy playing and I enjoy performing in public. I like the atmosphere in a concert hall and I always feel happy when I have a concert. I feel a little depressed or lonely when there is no concert for a long time. I also enjoy the time immediately after the concert to share the feelings and ideas with friends and music lovers, listening to their impressions and understanding about the music. I love my career. I also enjoy traveling: I enjoy sitting in a plane dreaming, or staying a hotel.

What are your goals as an artist?

Idon’t have a particular goal. But I hope to work with many composers, and I also wish to compose my own music. My background is traditional Chinese music. Since I moved to Canada, I have had opportunities to make contact with other musical traditions and play with master musicians. I wish to continue working with master musicians from other traditions and to be able to compose my own music, using elements from different cultures. I also wish to introduce classical Chinese pipa and guzheng music to every corner of the world.

Street music

It’s a warm Saturday afternoon in a busy side road in the old district of Barcelona. The pedestrians are standing in a semi-circle around someone or something in front of the cathedral. I push my way through the crowd and find a quartet of musicians playing a violin suite of classical music. The session lasts ten minutes. Then one of the musicians picks up a saucer on the ground, and asks for

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money. All contributions are voluntary, no one has to pay, but the crowd shrinks as some people slide away. But others happily throw in a few coins. They’re grateful for this brief interval of music as they go shopping.

Below the window of my apartment in Paris, a music man takes a place made vacant by an earlier musician. He raises the lid of his barrel organ and turns the handle. Then he sings the songs of old Paris, songs of the people and their love affairs. I remember some of the words even though I have never consciously learnt them. I tap my feet and sing along with him. Down there on the pavement, few passersby stop. Some smile, others walk past with their heads down. Cars pass, gangs of boys form and disappear, someone even puts a coin the cup on the organ. But the music man ignores them all. He’s hot in the sun, so he mps his head with a spotted handkerchief. He just keeps singing and turning the handle.

In Harlem, New York, some locals place a sound system by an open window. They plug it into the electrical socket, and all of a sudden, there’s dancing in the streets. In downtown Tokyo, young couples eat popcorn and dance to the music of a rockabilly band, which plays American music from the Fifties. In the London Underground a student plays classical guitar music, which echoes along the tunnels. It lifts the spirits of the passengers, who hurry past on their way to work. In a street in Vienna or Prague or Milan a group of pipa musicians from the far Andes fill the air with sounds of South America.

The street musician is keeping alive a culture which has almost disappeared in our busy, organized, and regulated lives: the sound of music when you least expect

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it. In a recording studio, even when relayed by microphone, music loses some of its liveliness. Bt street music gives life to everyone who listens and offers relief from the cares of the day. It only exists in the present, it only has meaning in the context. It needs space.

Music from China

One dozen beautiful young women, all in their twenties, take the stage and stand before a variety of ancient musical instruments. The moment they start to play, it is clear the members of Twelve Girls Band are among the most gifted musicians in the world. Coming from China, Twelve Girls Band is already one of that country’s most popular groups.

As they build a musical bridge between east and west, Twelve Girls Band charms the people of many nations around the world. A best-selling act all over Asia, Twelve Girls Band fills concert halls and arenas there, and has now been discovered by America. In 2004 the group arrived on the US music scene at NO. 62 of the billboard 200 album chart. It was the highest entry by an Asian group. In Japan, Twelve Girls Band is already a supergroup. It has sold more than two million records, and has even appeared in TV ads for chocolate and cellphones, among other products. A Japanese DVD of Twelve Girls Band live in concert sold over 200,000 copies, and their live performances have been seen on television around the world. In 2004 they were named International Artist of the Year at the Japan Golden Disc Award ceremonies.

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Drawing upon more than 1,500 years of Chinese music, Twelve Girls Band mixes this rich tradition with classical, folk and contemporary sounds. The group signifies the symbolic choice of a dozen members found in various aspects of Chinese numerology with 12 months in a year, and in ancient mythology, 12 jinchai (golden hairpins, which represent womanhood). Inspiration also comes from yuefang, the female chamber orchestras that palyed in the royal courts of the Tang Dynasty.

Each member of Twelve Girls Band has classical training, with backgrounds that include the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra, and the Central Conservatory of Music. Skilled multi-instrumentalists, they perform on traditional Chinese instruments that include the guzheng, the yangqin, the erhu, the pipa and the dizi and xiao.

The group’s appeal is equally as broad, with children, teens, adults and grandparents filling arenas to see it perform. American critics noticed the mixture of pieces by Mozart and Beethoven, with jazz standards like Dave Burbeck’s Take Five, or a version of a mush-loved classic such as Simon and Garfunkel’s El Condor Pasa.

The group honours its musical heritage and shows a genuine love for all style of music – from complex classical works to long-lasting pop tunes.

The Grammy Awards – Are They Important?

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The Grammy Awards are presented every year in the music industry in the United States. They’re like the Oscars in the film industry, and are given ofr important achievements in recorded music.

They are presented y the RecordingAcademy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the music industry). The award ceremony is usually held in February.

There are 105 categories in the awards, and they cover 30 different types of music – pop, rock, jazz, blues, rap, classical, etc. the awards depend on how many votes each artist receives from members of the Recording Academy. They are given for different reasons, not only for selling a lot of albums. In addition to the awards themselves, there are also performances by famous artists at the ceremony.

The award is called a Grammy because winners receive a statuette in the shape of a gramophone, an old fashioned hifi system.

However, some people think that the Grammys are not as important as they used to be. Winners are often older, well-established artists who sell lots of albums to “teenage girls and housewives〞, as one critic said. Therefore, the Grammys are not taken seriously by some musicians or music fans.

There is a separate set of awards for Latin music, called the Latin Grammys, but only two awards for world music. Therefore, it is very difficult for musicians from

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the rest of the world to win prizes.

Some of the greatest acts in music history, such as Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones, have been awarded very few Grammys. On the other hand, the Beatles have won more Grammys than Elvis and the Rolling Stones combined.

Module 5 Cloning

Frankenstein’s Monster

Part 1 the story of Frankenstein

Frankenstein is the name of a young scientist from Geneva, in Switzerland. While studying at university, he discovers the secret of how to create life. Using bones from dead bodies, he creates a creature that resembles a human being and gives it life. The creature, which is very large and strong, and is also extremely ugly, terrifies anyone who sees it. However, the monster, who has learnt to speak, is intelligent and has human emotions. He becomes lonely and unhappy when he cannot find any friends and soon he begins to hate his creator Frankenstein. When Frankenstein refuses to create a wife for him, the monster murders Frankenstein’s brother, his best friend Clerval, and finally, Frankenstein’s new wife Elizabeth. The scientist chases the creature to the Arctic in order to destroy him, but he dies there. At the end of the story, the monster disappears into the ice and snow to end his own life.

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Part 2 Extract from Frankenstein

It was on a cold November night that I saw my creation for the first time. Feeling very anxious, I prepared the equipment that would give life to the thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning and the rain fell against the window. My candle was almost burnt out when, by its tiny light, I saw the yellow eye of the creature open. It breathed hard, and moved its arms and legs.

How can I describe my emotions when I saw this happen? How can I describe the monster who I had worked so hard to create? I had tried to make him beautiful. Beautiful! He was the ugliest thing I had ever seen! You could see the veins beneathe his yellow skin. His hair was black and his teeth were white. But these things contrasted horribly with his yellow eyes, his wrinkled yellow skin and black lips.

I had worked for nearly two years with one aim only, to give life to a lifeless body. For this I had not slept, I had destroyed my health. I had wanted it more than anything in the world. But now I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and horror and disgust filled my heart. Now my only thoughts were, “I wish I had not created this creature, I wish I was on the other side of the world, I wish I could disappear!〞 When he turned to look at me, I felt unable to stay in the same room as him. I rushed out, and for a long time I walked up and down my bedroom. At last I threw myself on the bed in my clothes, trying to find a few moments of sleep. But although I slept, I had terrible dreams. I dreamt I saw my fiancée walking in the streets of our town. She looked well and happy but as I kissed her lips, they

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became pale, as if she were dead. Her face changed and I thought I held the body of my dead mother in my arms. I woke, shaking with fear. At that same moment, I saw the creature that I had created. He was standing by my bed and watching me. His mouth opened and he made a sound, then seemed to smile. I think he wanted to speak, but I did not hear. He put out a hand, as if he wanted to keep me there, but I ran out of the room. I hid in the garden and stayed there till morning, terrified by what I had done. Again and again I thought, “I wish I had not done this terrible thing, I wish I was dead!〞

You cannot imagine the horror of that face! I had seen him when he was unfinished – he was ugly then. But when he stood up and moved, he became a creature from my worst nightmares.

Cloning and DNA

Many people think that the science of genetics and cloning is recent. It’s certainly true that in 1953, Watson and Crick, two scientist at Cambridge University, England, discovered the structure of the acid DNA – a transparent twisting ladder made of the fundamental components of life. But in fact, it was in 1866 that Mendel first recorded the results of growing pea plants. He understood that both the parent plants had influenced the genetic make-up of the new plant.

In 1973, biochemists Cohen and Boyer discovered a procedure to use enzymes – chemicals formed in the body – to unzip the DNA, to cut out a sequence of genes, and finally to insert them into the host cell and combine with its DNA.

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Cloning takes the DNA from a single cell to create a whole new individual. A clone is an organism which is genetically identical to another one. But it’s now certain that no clone is an exact copy because of differences in experiences and upbringing.

There are at least two teams of scientists which are trying to clone humans. Although controversial, there are many valid reasons to do so. An Italian doctor wants to offer cloning as an optional treatment for couples who find it difficult to have children. But anyone who was a clone of one of their parents would be under unknown psychological pressure throughout their childhood.

Another reason is to reproduce the talents of exceptional human beings. But an Einstein clone might choose a path in life which is contradictory to the one the original Einstein chose. He may even possess new vices instead of existing virtues!

A further reason is to obtain a supply of stem cells. Stem cells in embryos are very flexible and can develop into every other type of cell in the body. For example, it could help someone recover from a disease, repair human tissue, or help them walk again after an accident. These stem cells would need to come from an embryo taken from the clone of someone. But the embryo would then be wasted, which many people find unacceptable. What is clear is that some voluntary code of practice among scientists has to be agreed. If not, compulsory government regulations will have to control cloning.

A fourth reason for cloning is that some scientists and farmers think it would

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be handy to clone, for example, a prize cow which can resist bacteria or disease, or to sow a cloned crop which can resist rot or pests. But to rely on a few cloned animals or crops would restrict the biodiversity of the bread.

Finally, the latest research into DNA has helped solve crimes by analyzing the suspect’s saliva which they spit at a crime scene or the dirt under their fingernails.

JurassicPark– Scientific Fact or Hollywood Fiction?

Steven Spielberg’s successful sci-fi adventure film follows two dinosaur experts – Dr Alan and Dr Ellie Sattler – as they are invited by the eccentric millionaire John Hammond to visit his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica before it opens to the public. By cloning DNA taken from prehistoric mosquitoes, Hammond has created living dinosaurs for his new JurassicPark. Accompanied by Hammond’s two grandchildren, they are sent on a tour through JurassicPark in computer-controlled cars. But a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an employee destroys the security system so that he can steal dinosaur embryos and sell them. The dinosaurs start to get out of control…

So, since it is possible to clone sheep, is it possible to clone dinosaurs? Or is this just Hollywood? First, any DNA that has been taken from a preserved mosquito is only 40 million years old, so even if any DNA was found, the mosquitoes need to be much older, and as far as we know, mosquitoes that old do not exist.

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Second, although it is possible to find preserved mosquitoes, only one male has been recovered. In fact, only females can absorb the DNA of another creature. Also, there is no way of knowing if the DNA was from a dinosaur or not. Since there has been no previous discovery of dinosaurs, there is nothing to compare the new sample with.

Thirdly, dinosaur DNA would not be intact after the long period of time since their extinction. When life ends, DNA breaks down and does not repair itself.

Many questions also arise in the cloning of dinosaurs. Some of these questions are: What will be needed to raise a baby dinosaur from childhood successfully? What kinds of conditions do dinosaurs need to survive? What are the diets of dinosaurs? What kinds of care would dinosaurs need in their adult lives? What would be done to protect humans from dinosaurs and vice versa? What ethical and human rights issues are raised by cloning?

So cloning dinosaurs seems scientifically impossible. The world is not ready for it and the materials that are needed are not yet available. Even if it was possible to bring dinosaurs back to life they probably could not survive in the present day environment. Temperature, air, disease, and plants are all different today than in the era of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are used to a completely different world and would find great difficulty living here. The only place that dinosaurs seem to exist today is in Hollywood.

Brave New World

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One of the most famous 20th century novels in the western world is a book called Brave New World. Written in 1931 by an Englishman called Aldous Huxley, it became a subject of much discussion as soon as first appeared. The reason why Brave New World is still so famous is that it describes a terrifying future world that is becoming more and more possible.

Brave New World takes place 600 years in the future. At this time there is a world government. Its aim is for people to be happy, so that there are no more wars or violence. This government uses several very powerful methods to control people. The first is that people are no longer born from human beings. Instead, they are cloned in factories. There are five different types of clones. The best type of clone, called Alphas, become the leaders of society. The second group, the Betas, also have good positions in society. There is only one of each Alpha person or each Beta person. However, with the three lower groups, one egg is used to create up to 96 clones. Each of these clones is of course identical. The only reason why scientists have not created thousands of identical clones is that they have not yet learnt how to do this. These lower groups do the harder, more boring jobs that are needed in society. For example, the lowest group, the Epsilons, are always factory workers.

As small children, each cloned group is taught to like and dislike certain things and people. For example, the second group, the Betas, are taught to dislike the lower groups because “they are stupid〞. While the Betas sleep, they are told that they are “glad they are not Alphas, because Alphas work too hard〞. In this way, the government makes sure that people are happy with their position in society

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and will not try to change things.

The government also keeps people happy with the use of a drug called soma that make people happy. As a result, very few people are unhappy or feel any strong emotion. Again, the government wants people to be happy so that they will not try to change society.

In this novel, Huxley asks very important and serious questions, such as, “If we can completely control people, is that a good thing? If we can give people drugs to stop them feeling unhappy, is that good or bad? If we do this, do we just stop them feeling, so that they have no real emotions? Do we want real, sometimes dangerous human beings, or do we want a controlled, ‘safe’ society?〞 Today, more than seventy years after Brave New World was first written, these questions have become more important than ever.

Module 6 War and Peace

The D-Day Landings – Passage 1

In September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invaded Poland. The war, which lasted until 1945, is known as the Second World War. During the war, Germany occupied many countries, including France. He most important battle of the war in Europe was Operation Overlord, the military operation in 1944 to invade France.

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Operation Overlord started when boats full of soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy

in France, known as the D-Day landings. More than 5,000 ships

crossed the English Channel, carrying 130,000 troops to the French coast.

Troops from the United States, Britain and Canada took part in the D-Day landings. The operation was extremely dangerous and many soldiers were killed before they even got off the boats. American soldiers attempted to land at the most dangerous place, known as OmahaBeach.

The situation at OmahaBeach was so bad that the US army commanders thought about abandoning the invasion. Eventually, the soldiers made a breakthrough and the D-Day landings were successful. It was the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

Operation Overlord started as a story of danger and confusion and ended as a story of bravery and acts of heroism.

The D-Day Landings – Passage 2

The soldiers of Able Company crossed the English Channel in seven boats early on the morning of 6 June 1944. when they were about 5 kilometres from the beach, the Germans started firing artillery shells at them but the boats were too far away. The Germans continued firing and Boat 5 was hit one kilometer from the beach. Six men drowned before help arrived. Twenty men fell into the water and were picked up by other boats. As a result, they missed the fighting on the beach.

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Six men drowned before help arrived. Twenty men fell into the water and were picked up by other boats. As a result, they missed the fighting on the beach. They were lucky. If they had reached the beach, they would probably have been killed.

When Boat 3 was a few metres form the beach, the soldiers jumped out, but the water was so deep that some of them disappeared under the water. Many of the men were either killed or wounded by machine gun fire.

The soldiers on Boat 1 and Boat 4 jumped into the water, but it was too deep and most of them drowned. Half an hour after the first attack, two thirds of the company (a company is a group of about 100 soldiers) were dead. The survivors lay on the beach, exhausted and shocked.

After an hour and forty-five minutes, six of the survivors tried to climb up the cliff to get off the beach. Four were too exhausted to reach the top. The other two, Private Jake Shefer and Private Thomas Lovejoy, joined a group from another company and fought with them. Two men. Two rifles. This was Able Company’s contribution to D-Day.

The D-Day Landings – Passage 3

On 6 June 2004, survivors of the D-Day landings from many different countries returned to France to remember their lost comrades. Many of them went to the cemetery and memorial which overlooks OmahaBeach.

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The cemetery and memorial are situated on a cliff overlooking the beach and the English Channel, from where the boats attempted their landing. The cemetery contains the graves of 9,386 Americans who died during the landings. The memorial also contains the names of more than 1,500 men who were never found.

On the memorial, there is part of a poem called “For the Fallen〞, which was written by an English poet, Lawrence Binyon:

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

The poem was first published in The Times newspaper on 14 September 1914 and can be seen on war memorials in many parts of the world.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

A review by Jenny Carter, aged 15

Saving Private Ryan is a film which was directed by Steven Spielberg. The two main characters are Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, and Private James Ryan, played by Matt Damon.

James Ryan is the fourth brother to be involved in the Second World War. His three brothers have already been killed, two of them in the D-Day landings in

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Normandy, the other in a battle in another part of the world. Their heart-broken mother receives news about all her dead sons on the same day. The US army decides to send a group of men into the French countryside to try to find the fourth brother. Captain Miller, a hero and survivor of the OmahaBeach battle, is chosen to lead the rescue team of eight men.

The film opens with a 30-minute sequence of the invasion of Normandy, probably the most violent images of war ever shown in a film. We see the full horror of war, and the chaos and senseless waste of life.

Saving Private Ryan is an unforgettable anti-war film and also a story of courage and sacrifice. Spielberg has made a lot of good films, but he has never made one with such a strong message. And the message is simple – we want peace; we don’t want war.

D-Day + 2

To our astonishment, just two days after we had received our confidential orders to join the D-Day landing troops, and after a day fighting and seeing many of my friends killed by the enemy, we found ourselves outside a peaceful village in France. It was so sudden, after the mess and confusion of war on the beach.

It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting on a perfect country scene of farm buildings, a main street, a few shops, a garage and a church. But we hesitated because we were aware that there might still have been enemy soldiers. Our

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lieutenant told Private Kowalski and me to advance and check the village.

As we entered the main street, a young woman on a tractor drove out of the garage, saw us and called out something in French. Immediately five men came out of the bar, and two more from a farmyard, holding guns. I took off my helmet and yelled, “American! Put your guns down!〞 they gathered round us, shouting and shaking our hands, some women appeared and kissed us.

We soon understood that the enemy had abandoned the village, so Kowalski went back to the others to let them know it was safe. I walked into a barbershop and stroked my chin, to show I needed to shave. The barber had a magnificent moustache, which he used wax to keep in shape. He filled a tin with cold water, and took out a razor from a drawer. He used a leather sharpener on the razor, and then gave me the best shave I had had in years. Finally he picked up a pair of scissors and a comb, and cut my hair.

When the rest of our company arrived, they unloaded their baggage and bedding while the villagers brought out some jars of wine, and laid a table in the middle of the street, which they then covered with plates of potatoes and carrots, ham and sausages. Someone shouted “Cheers!〞 in English and we all drank to liberation and to the French constitution. Some of our boys had never tasted wine before, and spat it out, thinking it was vinegar.

We gave stockings to the women, which they loved, and in return, they gave us perfume for our girlfriends. I was too ashamed to admit that I was too young to

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have a girlfriend. But the villagers treated us like heroes, and for a brief moment, I felt that all the fear and danger had been worthwhile. But I also remembered my fiends who had died earlier that day, and wondered if they would have agreed.

Winston Churchill’s Speeches

Winston Churchill is well-known as a statesman, politician and as the British Prime Minister during most of the Second World War. He is especially famous for his speeches which many believe made people even more determined to defeat the enemy. Many of these speeches contained lines which are remembered even today.

Churchill made one of his greatest speeches in 1940, when he was invited to become Prime Minister of Britain, and the leader of a new government. The country had been at war for over eight months, and he knew that it would suffer many great defeats before it would begin to win the war. So on 13 May 1940 he promised the House of Commons: “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined the Government, ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.’〞

A month later, the Germany army had advanced across northern Europe, and the British Army had retreated to the coast of the English Channel. The only escape was to cross the sea back to England. Hundreds of small boats set out from ports on the English coast to bring back the soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in France. But Churchill encouraged people that this was only a temporary defeat in a

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speech which included the words, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.〞

On 18 June 1940, Churchill gave another fine speech when he drew attention to the courage of everyone defending Britain. “In years to come,〞 he said, “…men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’〞

The Germans continued their attacks on Britain from the air. A small number of pilots resisted the much larger German Air Force. Germany lost many airplanes, and was forced to change their strategy. Britain was no longer threatened by an early invasion, and on 20 August 1940, he said, “Never in the filed of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.〞

In two years, Germany began to lose some important battles. After a defeat in North Africa, on 10 November 1942 he made a speech with the famous words, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.〞

Many people believe that Churchill’s leadership inspired people to remain brave in the face of Nazi Germany. His speeches are still remembered and quoted today, and remain some of the finest examples of spoken English.

How the United Nations Tries to Keep the Peace

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If you see soldiers wearing sky-blue helmets, they are United Nations peacekeepers. The idea of UN peacekeepers began more than 60 years ago. They were the idea of Canadian Foreign Minister Lester Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

The first UN peacekeepers were sent to the Middle East in 1948. They only went to see what was happening, and were not armed. The first armed UN peacekeepers were sent to the Middle East in 1957 when there was a disagreement between the British and Egyptian governments about the Suez Canal.

Since then, there have been more than 50 UN peacekeeping operations, many of them since the year 2000. In 2003, there were fifteen, involving nearly 37,000 personnel (soldiers and civilians).

UN peacekeepers have included soldiers and other personnel from more than 120 countries. Since 2000, most of the personnel have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Ghana. There have also been soldiers from China, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, Ireland, Italy and Australia. During the 1990s, eastern European countries such as Poland and the CzechRepublic also sent personnel.

There have been many UN peacekeeping successes, but also some failures. The UN couldn’t stop a terrible civil war in the African state of Rwanda in 1995, despite warnings of the dangers from nearby states.

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选修7

Module 1 Basketball

Michael Jordan – Head and Shoulders Above the Rest!

During the 1990s, Michael Jordan was probably the best-known athlete in the world. He was the top scorer in the NBA, and played for the Chicago Bulls from 1984 to 1993. He was named their most valued player five times. Wearing his famous number 23 shirt, Michael Jordan became the most successful basketball player in the history of the game.

Jordan was born in New York and grew up in North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina for a year before leaving to join the Chicago Bulls. He finished his first season (1984-1985) as one of the top scorers in the league, with an average of 28.2 points per game.

In 1987, Jordan became only the second player to score more than 3,000 points in a season. He was the top scorer in the NBA for seven consecutive seasons (1987-1993). During this time, the average number of points he scored was more than 30 points per game. With him, the Bulls won their first NBA championship in1991. During this successful period they won the title again in 1992 and 1993. Jordan was also in the United States Olympic Basketball Team, known as “the Dream Team〞, which won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

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Jordan surprised everyone when he retired before the 1993-1994 season, but he rejoined the Chicago Bulls and won three more championships with them from 1996 to 1998. he played again for the Washington Wizards before finally retiring from sport in 2003 at the age of 40. Millions of fans admire his athletic ability, motivation and confidence. They have fantastic stories to tell about Michael Jordan, such as the time when he rescued the Bulls from ending a game on a tie. He stepped to the line and made two free throws. Each time he threw the ball straight through the basket – and each time he had his eyes closed.

Off the basketball court, Michael Jordan opened his own steak restaurant because he loves steak so much. He also found success as an actor in the film Space Jam alongside the famous cartoon character Bugs Bunny!

There is only one word to describe the best player in the world – awesome!

Wilt the Stilt – the Tower of Power!

Michael Jordan was the second player to score more than 3,000 points in a season – but the first was Wilt Chamberlain. Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia on 21st August 1936. He was one of the 11 children, the only one who was very tall. His father William worked in a shipyard and his mother Olivia was a cleaner. As a child, Chamberlain had various health problems. He had pneumonia and almost died when he was ten.

Chamberlain is the only NBA player who averaged over 50 points per game

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for an entire season. At one point, Chamberlain was so much better than all the other players that they changed the rules of the game to try to stop him!

The giant player joined the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors in the 1959-1960 season and was an immediate success. During 14 seasons with four different teams, Chamberlain was named the most valued player in the league four times. On 2nd March 1962, he scored 100 points in a single game – no one has ever done that since! The final score was Warriors 169 New York Knicks 147!

He ended his career after five amazing seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. By the time he retired, Wilt held many NBA records: he scored 50 or more points 118 times and 60 or more points 32 times.

Was Wilt Chamberlain better than Michael Jordan? Who knows? But there is no doubt that he deserves the title “outstanding player of his generation〞.

Is Yao Ming Too Nice to Be a Star?

Jeff Van Gundy, the head coach of the Houston Rockets, has a dream. He wants Yao Ming to be like other players. Star players, says Gundy, are “selfish〞 and want the ball all the time. “Let’s put it this way,〞 he said. “When they ask for the ball, they don’t say ‘please’!〞

Yao, however, is a selfless and kind person. He has been brought up and trained in this way. It is not in his nature to be “selfish〞 and “rude〞.

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When he first arrived in the US, Yao was an instant hit among basketball fans nationwide. They all loved this kind, gentle but powerful giant. Van Gundy wanted to build his team around the talented Chinese player. To do this, he told Yao to be more aggressive and, if necessary, to be rude to his teammates.

“He’s a wonderful guy, he has every physical basketball skill and he puts the team first,〞 Van Gundy said. “But I want him to be a star, not just a great team player. He’s got to think that he’s the best player out there. That way, he can dominate the game.〞

“At first, I didn’t really understand what the coach wanted,〞Yao said. “But now I do. In China, everyone gave me the ball, I didn’t have to ask! Here, I have to be a little ‘impolite’! I’m not quite used to it yet. If you give me a little time, I can get more used to it. I have to learn to be l little more ‘selfish’.〞

Dizzy Heights of School Basketball

Basketball is one of the safest sports. Unlike wrestling or boxing, it’s not usually dangerous. One reason for this is that the players’ energy is partly directed upwards, at a 90-degree angle to the ground, and over the heads of the others. So there’s less risk of a collision between two players.

In other sports, such as baseball and American football, the player’ energy moves parallel to the ground and towards their opponents, so they wear helmets which give adequate protection to their heads.

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But although basketball players wear socks and sneakers which are specially designed to absorb energy when they bound into the air, they war no other protection, just a vest and shorts. If there is an abrupt change of direction in their energy, from vertical to horizontal, such as when they accelerate across the court, bouncing the ball, there is a real danger of personal injury.

For example, in the Kent State High School Basketball tournament, Chandler High was playing St Mary Central and at the interval the score was 50-52. but St Mary had appointed a captain who was not a typical basketball player. Whereas everyone else was tall and slim with short haircuts, Joe Johannsen was short and stout, with long hair and a large belly. But he was really fast, and when he obtained control of the ball, he could make a circuit of the court and reach the opposing team’s boundary within seconds.

Anyhow, twelve minutes into the second half, Frank Sackler, the Chandler star player, made a controversial pass over Joe’s head. Joe stepped aside and dipped his head down. Sackler bounced off him and committed a foul. The referee interrupted the match ,and there was a suspension of play. But Joe was unhurt, short the penalty, and the score was 88-90. there were three minutes to go.

Joe immediately took possession of the ball and ran, … and suddenly 80 kilos hit the Chandler star, who howled loudly in pain and fell, with his nose bleeding and a cut on his left cheek. For a moment, he lay very still ,and the referee even checked his pulse, but soon confirmed he was OK. But when Sackler stood up he was dizzy, so they put a bandage round his head, a blanket round his shoulders,

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and called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Joe was a considerate guy, and apologized as Sackler left, sniffing and weeping, either in pain or in frustration.

Chandler scored with the penalty, and their teamwork had won the match. But Frank Sackler still has the scar on his face as a souvenir of the tournament.

How Did They Start?

How did American football start?

Football – or soccer – started in England 800 years ago. The game was played with a round ball that players kicked but could not carry. There were two teams, but there were often a hundred players on each team!

However, in 1823, William Webb Ellis, a pupil at RugbySchool in England, picked up the ball during a soccer game and ran with it. Teachers at the school were shocked and angry but Webb Ellis’s schoolmates enjoyed this new game, which they named after the school. Eventually, rugby was played with an oval ball that could be both carried and thrown.

Rugby was exported to the United States, changed a lot and became the sport that Americans now call football. During a game of American football, the ball can be kicked, thrown or carried.

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How did basketball start?

Basketball was invented in 11 in a gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts by Dr James Naismith, a physical education teacher. Naismith wanted to create a game that would provide exercise for a noisy class through the clod winter months. Naismith attached two baskets to two tall poles at each end of the gymnasium and gave the players a soccer ball and told them to try to throw the ball into the baskets. Naismith later wrote 13 rules which are the basis of modern basketball rules.

How did baseball start?

The exact origin of baseball is unknown, but it is probably based on an old English game called rounders. In the USA, a version of the game became popular in the early 19th century and eventually, a man called Alexander Cartwright wrote the rules or baseball in 1845. Cartwright Icalled“the father of baseball〞 because the modern rules of the game are very similar to his original rules.

Module 2 Highlights of My Senior Year

Highlights of My Senior Year

I can hardly believe it, but my school life is almost over. Prom night has come and gone, and I’ve received my high school diploma at last. It’s a good thing that the exams are finished. I feel too excited to think clearly. It seems strange to

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think that in a few days’ time I’ll be walking out of the school gates forever. The first thing I’m going to do is to take a long vacation!

Meanwhile, I find myself looking back at my senior year, and thinking about all the wonderful things that have happened. I’ve decided to write them down so that one day, years from now, when I reread them ,the memories will come back.

There’s so much to remember. One of the best things about this year has been working as an arts editor for this newspaper. I’ve so enjoyed it I love writing, and working on this paper is my first step towards becoming a journalist, so this has been a real success for me.

Something else I’ve greatly enjoyed is working as a peer mediator, someone who helps students to settle problems that they have with other students. At the start of the school year, we were given training in how to do this, and it’s clear that this kind of work can really help people. I think I’ll continue to work as a mediator when I go to college.

During the Easter vacation, I went on a short school skiing trip to the Rocky Mountains. I’ve been skiing quite a few times, but never with the school, and since two good friends came on the trip, we had great fun racing each other down the ski slopes. It’s well-known that Americans are competitive, and I did enjoy it whenever I won our races!

Other things I’m pleased about – getting good grades on my final exams,

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and receiving the senior prize for English Literature. I was given a car by my parents so I’ve been able to drive to school, which is brilliant. And of course, I’ll never forget being elected to the student council. I really enjoyed meeting the teachers and telling them how we, the students, feel about thing, and what we think should happen in the school!

All these things have been wonderful. But I have to say, the highlight of the year was the senior prom. For an American girl, it’s so important that you have a good time at the prom. Well, I did Daniel, a boy in my English class, asked me to go to the prom with him, and I was so pleased –I’d been hoping he would ask me. I found a dress that suited me perfectly, and had my hair specially done on the day of the prom. It took two hours but it was worth it, as everyone told me I looked very elegant! A group of us rented a nice car to take us to the prom. The food was delicious and I ate so much that I had to stop dancing for a while! We shared a table with some good friends, and laughed and told jokes all evening. It’s a great pity that it’s probably the last time this will happen.

Daniel and I danced most of the dances together. But the big surprise of the evening was when I was elected prom queen! This was so unexpected, and I can’t tell you how good this made me feel! After the prom, a group of us drove down to the coast, and sat on the beach in our long dresses and dinner jackets. I shall never forget watching the sunrise over the sea – it was unforgettable! Afterwards, we went and had an enormous breakfast in a nearby hotel – it was a perfect ending to a perfect school year.

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After-school Activities

In America, the development of social skills is considered as important as the development of intellectual skills. To help students develop these social skills, schools offers a large number of after-school activities, in other words, activities that take place outside classroom lessons. When deciding which students to accept, employers and colleges look for students who have skills in several areas. Exam grades are very important, but so are the after-school activities. By taking part in these activities, students show their special talents, their ability to lead, and their ability to get on with others.

Competitive sports, for example, baseball, are probably the most popular of all the after-school activities. This is because, for many American parents, it is important that their children, particularly boys, learn how to compete successfully. Young people are encouraged to take part in team sports such as football and basketball, since these games teach to have the “winning spirit〞. For some students and their parents, high school sport is considered more important than academic achievements.

During the long summer holidays, it is a custom for American children to spend several weeks at summer camps. There are thousands of camps, and they can be found all over the country. What these camps offer is an opportunity to take part in many different kinds of outdoor activities, for example, horse riding and water skiing. Older teenagers are more likely to get summer jobs or go camping with a group of friends. Many go backpacking in the mountains of the

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west.

My Schooldays

They say that schooldays are the happiest days of your life, but not for me! My father worked abroad, so I was sent to a boarding school when I was seven. Like most schoolchildren, I had already been to nursery school. I could recite the alphabet, and read some simple books, but this was my first experience of the institution my parents called “big school’. In fact, the only preparation I had for this adventure was watching as my mother sewed my name tag into my shirts, trousers and woolen sweaters.

I arrived with one suitcase, my only luggage for a term. I was shown to the dormitory where I would sleep with five other innocent boys. The bedding was a pillow, a sheet and a thin quilt. There were two worn armchairs, a few shabby cushions, an electric kettle to heat water for tea, some posters for decoration but no curtains. The washroom had a basin and a bathtub, but no heating. I’m ashamed to admit that I sobbed as I fell asleep that night.

I remember that my first lesson was arithmetic. My first task was to multiply seven by three. No one explained why. It took me years to understand the greater mystery of algebra, geometry, and concepts such as cubic metres, acres and grams.

We had a dynamic English teacher, a bachelor who had plenty of time for us

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boys and inspired my life-long love of literature. There was also a teacher of botanical science, who introduced me to my passion for flowers and plants. We spent hours studying the structure of leaves under the microscope.

School regulations were strict. Being punctual for classes was essential, no one was allowed to be late. Sport was compulsory, and every week we had to go for a five-kilometre run, wearing just a T-shirt and a pair of shorts even on freezing cold November days. We all had to attend morning assembly, every weekday, except for boys of other faiths, who were allowed to stay in their classrooms. I wanted to become a Catholic simply so I could stay with my books!

But there were also so many silly rules to follow, which irritated or even upset me. For example, everyone had to polish their shoes every day, and no one was allowed trousers with zippers, only buttons! On Sundays, it was compulsory to write home. Every day I would check my mailbox, looking forward to my mummy’s airmail letter. But my parents lived in Asia and to my great disappointment, I only got a reply once a fortnight.

I left eleven years later, with my school leaving certificate, and a scholarship to study at OxfordUniversity. Many people talk about their happiness at school, but for me, at eighteen, all I felt was a sense of liberation.

The American Art of Cheerleading

What is a cheerleader?

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A cheerleader is a member of a team that dances and does gymnastics before and during competitive games such as baseball. They do this in order to encourage crowds to cheer their sports teams. The team is called cheerleading squad. Cheerleading only exists in America, and today it is mostly girl that do it.

What is the history of cheerleading?

Cheerleading began in all men colleges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As time passed, more and more colleges started cheerleading, and more women started doing it than men. It was not until the 1920s that pompoms began to play an important part in cheerleading. At about the same time, cheerleaders began to include gymnastics in their routines. By the 1950s, most American high schools had cheerleading squads. In 1978, the National Cheerleading Championships were shown on television, and universities began offering courses in cheerleading. Today, cheerleading competitions are an important part of school and college life and for many squads, cheerleading is a very serious activity. Cheerleading squads, can be fund at most athletic events.

How do Americans feel about cheerleading?

For cheerleaders, their sport is just as serious as baseball or football. However, many Americans are amused by cheerleading and see it as rather a stupid activity. Cheerleaders reply that a lot of training is needed to do the dance and gym routines. Many girls try to become cheerleaders but very few are accepted. To be a cheerleader is to play a very important part in your school. In fact, cheerleading is

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considered so important in American that several movies have been made about it!

Module 3 Literature

Oliver Asks for More

The room in which the boys were fed was a large stone hall, with a large pot at one end. The warden, helped by two women, served the soup from this pot at meal times. Each boy was allowed one bowl of soup and no more, except on special holidays when he was given another 60 grams of bread. The bowls never needed washing, as the boys cleaned them with their spoons, trying to eat every bit of soup. This never took very long, as the spoons were almost as large as the bowls. When they had cleaned their bowls in this way, they would sit staring at the pot with eager eyes, as if they wanted to eat it. Boys usually have excellent appetites. Oliver Twist and his companions slowly starved for three months until finally, they became quite wild with hunger.

There was one boy who was tall for his age, and was not used to being hungry all the time, as his father had kept a small cook shop. This boy told his friends that he had to have another bowl of soup each day. If he did not, he was afraid that one night he might eat the small young boy who slept next to him. The tall boy had a wild, hungry look in his eye and everyone believed him. The boys had a meeting. They decided that one of them should walk up to the warden after supper that evening and ask for more food. They wrote their names on pieces of paper and

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picked one out. It was Oliver Twist who was chosen.

The evening arrived and the boys went to their places. The warden stood by the pot with his assistants in a line behind him. The soup was served and disappeared down the boy's throats. The boys whispered to each other, and those next to Oliver nudged him. Oliver, who was desperate with hunger and misery, rose from the table and walked toward the master with his bowl and spoon in his hand. Frightened by his own courage, he said, \"please sir, i want some more.\"

The warden was a fat, healthy man, but his face became very pale. He stared in complete astonishment at the child and held on to the pot for support. Not until at least thirty seconds had passed, was the man able to speak. \"What?\" he said finally, in a weak voice.

\"Please, sir,\" replied Oliver, \"i want some more.\" no sooner had the boy spoken these words than the warden hit him on the head with the soup spoon. Then he seized Oliver arms and held him, while he shouted for Mr. Bumble.

The managers of the workhouse were having a meeting when Mr Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement. Speaking to the leader of the meeting, he said, \"Mr. Limbkins, i am sorry, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!\"

The faces of everyone in the room showed complete astonishment. \"For more!\" said Mr Limbkins. \"Think carefully, Mr Bumble, and answer me clearly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten his bowl of soup?\"

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\"He did, sir,\" replied Bumble.

\"Never have I heard anything like it!\" said Mr Limbkins.

\"They will hang that boy,\" said a gentleman in a white jacket. \"i know that they will hang him.\"

Nobody disagreed with the gentleman's opinion. A lively discussion took place. Oliver was immediately locked in a room. The next morning a notice was put up on the door of the workhouse, offering a reward to anybody who would employ Oliver Twist.

\"I never was more sure of anything in my life,\" said the gentleman in the white jacket, as he knocked at the door and read the notice the next morning. \"I never was more sure of anything in my life —— that boy will be hanged.\"

Great Expectations

Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, is an orphan who lives with his sister and her husband. The family is poor and Pip’s sister does not treat him very well. One day the boy helps a starving convict called Abel Magwitch. Magwitch has escaped from prison but is soon caught again and sent to Australia in a prison ship.

Some months later, Pip is invited to visit a lonely but wealthy old lady called Miss Havisham. At her house, Pip meets and becomes very fond of a beautiful girl

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called Estella, who live there. However, Estella is cold and cruel to him, always telling him that she is “better〞 than him. She is encouraged in this by Miss Havisham, whose fiancé left her on her wedding day, and who, as a result, hates all men.

Some years later, Pip learns that an unknown person intends to give him money every month. Pip believes that it is Miss Havisham who has done this for him. With this money, he goes to London, becomes educated and is able to live very comfortably.

Magwitch returns to England illegally, having made a lot of money in Australia. He finds Pip and tells him that it is he, Magwitch, who has been giving Pip the money. He has been doing this in order to repay the boy’s kindness. Sadly, Magwitch is caught by the police and dies. We learn that Estella is in fact Magwitch’s daughter. She marries Bentley Drummle, a wealthy man who treats her very badly, but dies when he is quite young.

Meanwhile, Pip leaves England and has a successful career. He returns and meets Estella, who has at last learnt the meaning of love. The two marry.

Dickens’London

Dickens’ cast of characters lived in London, the largest and richest city in the world. But its wealth was distributed unfairly among the population. Every chapter of his novels describes the sights, sounds, and smells of the city, and provides a

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social commentary of London life.

In the middle of the 19th century, London was a filthy city for rich and poor people alike. Although on clear days, the air was filled with sparrows and seagulls flying high above, more often the smoking chimney pipes created smog which was so strong that it choked the inhabitants. The River Thames was polluted, causing disease and death everywhere, and if you fell in, it was dangerous to swallow the water.

The East End was London’s poorest district, where children wore rags for clothes and the women searched in dustbins for food. Few people could ever hope to attain an acceptable standard of living. Many people suffered from the effects of poor nutrition and even starvation because of a lack of food, yet their welfare was of no concern to the taxpayers of London. Ships from all points of the compass would drop anchor here at the main port of London. South of the river lies Southwark, another poor district. The GeorgeInn was a busy coaching stop with food and accommodation for travelers leaving London, and for carriers taking goods into the city.

But some Londoners had accumulated enormous wealth through trade. In the old City of London are housed the many banks and corporations which Dickens mentions. Further west and opposite Southwark stands Somerset House, where Dickens’ father worked for the navy. Close by are the law courts, where lawyers and their clerks, carrying piles of paperwork, would hurry to the trials. There were many squares and gardens with water pumps and fountains, as well as

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smart restaurants and pubs.

Servants would buy fruit and vegetables at Covent Garden market for their rich families, and maids would buy bunches of flowers to decorate their mistresses’ rooms.

The West End is the theatre district where Dickens felt at home because, surprisingly ,he thought he would accomplish more with his drama than with his novels. It is also the London of government, where politicians, ministers, ambassadors as well as more humble pedestrians walked home at night through streets lit with gas lanterns.

London is very different today, and few people mourn the passing of the old city. But you can still see many of the sights which Dickens saw and wrote about in his novels.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in London. His father was put in prison because he could not pay his bills, and two days after his 13th birthday, Dickens started work in a factory, experiencing real poverty. He was very unhappy, but later in life, he was able to write very well about poverty because he had actually experienced it himself.

Dickens always had a huge amount of energy. As a young man, he worked for

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newspapers; and as a political journalist, he met all kinds of people. He used all these experiences in his writing. Dickens started writing novels in his early thirties and became successful almost immediately. Oliver Twist, his second novel, was published in 1838 and was hugely successful. It told the story of a young orphan alone in the dangerous streets of London. The story ends happily – the young boy discovers who his real parents are and finds a loving home. However, it brought child poverty to the attention of the public, and for this reason alone it is a very important novel.

Over the next 25 years, Dickens wrote a large number of popular novels that are still read today. Among the most famous are David Copperfield(1849-1850), A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860-1861). Dickens often wrote about the problems of poor people, and as a result of his work, the lives of the poor were improved.

Dickens’ books were popular in both American and England, and the novelist traveled round both countries, reading from his novels. He often became very excited during these readings. Some people believe that he had a heart attack as a result of his excitement during the reading of the final part of Oliver Twist.

Module 4 Music Born in America

All You Need to Know About Hip HOP

PART1

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What is hip hop and how did it start?

Hip hop is an American cultural movement which started in the 1970s and block parties in New York, especially in a district called the Bronx. There are four main aspects of hip hop: breakdance and graffiti art plus two types of hip hop music – DJ-ing and rapping. Rapping is also known as MC- ing (coming from the term master of ceremonies). The DJs at block parties in the 1970s played a lot of soul music and they noticed that people preferred the percussion breaks in the songs because they were the best parts to dance to. So they started repeating the percussion breaks. This is a technique used by DJs in Jamaica. There were a lot of Jamaicans in New York who brought the idea with them. At first, they played a lot of reggae.

PART2

What was the big breakthrough?

DJ Herc, one of the most popular Jamaican DJs at the time, noticed that New York audiences didn’t really like reggae music, so he started playing other kinds of music, including rock and disco music.The percussion breaks were usually short, but Herc and other DJs made them longer by using two records on two turntables, side by side. Some of the DJs began speaking and shouting while the music played. Shouting DJs became known as MCs. And so the style of music known as rap was born.

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At the beginning, MCs often performed for hours, repeating words and phrases and then improvising. Later, they experimented with different vocal and rhythmic approaches, using rhyming words, often words from African-American culture. At the same time, people started breakdancing at block parties.

MC Dark Star remembers the first time he heard a rap singer. “The moment I heard it,〞 he said, “I knew it was a completely new kind of music.〞

PART3

Why was hip hop so successful?

There are two main reasons. Firstly, it’s cheap and easy – you just need two turntables and a microphone. Anyone can be an MC, using songs which have already been recorded.

Secondly, people were bored with the pop music of the day – disco music and rock music were both in decline in the mid-1970s. however, disco music had a strong beat, and it was easy to dance to. Hip hop took advantage of that and provided a kind of disco music for people who hated disco.

PART4

How did rap singers record their songs?

Te first time that rap artists recorded their music, musicians recorded the

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backing tracks (the music without the singing) in the studio and the rappers added their vocals later. The next generation of rappers recorded their vocals at the same time as the musicians.

New York was the capital of hip hop during the 1980s, and the style was known as East Coast rap. The style soon spread to other parts of the United States. There were a lot of West Coast rappers based in California. In Miami, Florida, a new style developed, strongly influenced by Cuban and Puerto Rican music.

In the late 1980s, hip hop spread across the world, to Japan, India and many parts of Europe, especially France, Belgium and Italy. In England, a new music form emerged, called trip hop, a mixture of jazz, hip hop and electronic music (for example, music played on computers).

Do You Think Classical Music Helps You Study?

One day the science teacher asked our class “Do you think listening to music helps you to study?〞 The teacher told us that some people believe that classical music, such as Mozart, relaxes your brain and helps you to concentrate. In a psychology experiment a few years ago, some students’ test scores improved temporarily after listening to Mozart before they took the test. The teacher wanted to find out if that would work for her students. In my case, when I’m trying to concentrate and get an essay written or do some revision, I listen to some music, because without it, it’s too quiet and I would fall asleep. But if I’m listening to loud music or rap or rock, my handwriting starts getting very bad and my thought

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don’t stay in order. My friend Jacki said “No way! I can’t study with any kind of music –I have to work in silence or I can’t think!〞 The teacher told us that she would try out the theory and play us some classical music before the next test and see if we get better test scores!

Music Born in

From a region of seven million people has arisen some of the greatest pop music in the world. As well as attracting huge audiences in its home, Cantopop has spread offshore, and its stars are known in Beijing, London and New York. Music born in is booming.

In most of the world, pop music is a sign of friction between generations. But Cantopop expresses only harmony and virtue, and is blessed with the most conventional music scene in the world. The stars don’t wear fancy clothes. The women wear clean blouses and the men wear pressed slacks. They’re so neat and well-behaved that any mom would want their kids to watch them. And the consensus of most people is that the music is very good. But it is… well, different from anywhere else.

Their fans expect regular makeovers. You can’t budget for looking good, you just need a blank cheque and a fashion consultant. Singer Kelly Chen changes her image once every three months. But she claims she isn’t vain.

As a bonus for their fans, nearly every Cantopop singer also acts in the movies,

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from Jackie Cheung to Faye Wong. Andy Lau regularly stars in tough guy roles and romantic comedies, and their movie DVDs and VCDs sell worldwide.

stars work hard, and the pace is hot. Some make ten movies a year, others record four CDs as well as keeping to a tight schedule of concerts and TV shows. Last year 20-year-old Nicholas, Tse released five albums, and his spokeswoman says that he just has to meet the deadline. Otherwise, he will soon be abandoned by his company and his fans. When new albums come out, the stars are marketed like consumer products, as teenagers spend their allowance on the latest songs. It’s far from being a part-time job.

The fans are devoted to their stars. Online they swap information about their super heroes. They yell their names at concerts and beg for autographs. The Kings of Cantopop are Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai, and Andy Lau and their fame is their pension, and they won’t quit the concert stage for the rest of their lives. But the new talent isn’t far behind. They include Hacken Lee, Andy Hui, Leo Ku, and Edmond Yung. Sammi Cheng easily sells a million albums a year. Their fans find the music clean and refreshing, and the songs are easy to sing in karaoke bars.

Cantopop isn’t just a type of pop music but a musical empire. Any music which has millions of fans around the world must be doing something right.

Americans Who Changed the World of Music

Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential artists in the history of music.

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Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1901, he began playing music at the age of 13 and was a pioneer of the improvised jazz solo. Before Armstrong, jazz musicians all used to improvise at the same time. Armstrong developed the idea of playing individual solos. His nickname was Satchmo, which was short for “Satchel Mouth〞, because of this large mouth, which looked like a satchel (a large bag). He died in New York City in 1971.

Robert Johnson was a blues singer and guitarist who has been called the father of rock and roll. He was born in 1911 inMississippi. Johnson wrote very poetic and sad blues songs. His music has influenced generations of modern rock musicians, including Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. He only recorded his songs twice – the first time in 1936 in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas. Even so, he managed to record 29 songs. John Hammond, a black music expert who organized the recordings, said, “I wanted black music to make an impression on white audiences and we got some great blues, jazz and gospel artists – and Robert Johnson was the greatest.〞 Johnson died at the age of 27 in 1938.

Woody Guthrie was a folk singer who was born in Oklahoma in 1912, in the year when Woodrow Wilson was elected President, so his parents named their son after him: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie. He is known as a pioneer of protest music and influenced artists such as Bob Dylan. In the 1930s, he and his family moved to California to find work. Guthrie began writing songs about migrant workers who were exploited by powerful landowners. He also played music at meetings of the American Communist Party. When someone asked him why he was attending meetings of left-wing people, he replied, “Left wing, right wing, chicken wing –

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it’s all the same to me.〞As he grew older, his songs became more humourous and optimistic. “My message is that it doesn’t matter if you’re balck, white, fat, thin, old and young – we’re all the same, it’s a great world and you can do something with your life.〞

Module 5 Ethnic Culture

Simon Wakefield’s Yunnan Diary

Simon Wakefield traveled round Yunnan after leaving university. Below are extracts from the diary that he kept.

April 20th

1

I’ve been in Yunnan for two months now and I’m still astonished by how varied the landscapeis. Down in the south, in Xishuangbanna, it’s very tropical, but here I am in Lijiang, in north-west Yunnan. Lijiang is half new town and half old town.The old town is on the side of a mountain and opposite

It is the 5,500metre YulongXueshanMountain, its peak covered with snow.

The sky is clear blue and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything elseso beautiful in my life.

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2

Early this morning I walked up to a beautiful park on the slopes of

the mountain, and sat and watched as the town slowly woke up to the day.Seen from above, the old town is a maze of canals,little bridges andtiny cobbled streets that tourists get lost in.Three rivers run through the city and wherever you go, you hear thesound of rushing water.Cars are not allowed in the old town.As you walk past the ancient wooden and stone houses, you feelyou are

walking back into the past.

April 23rd

3

This region is where the Naxi ethnic group live and I’ve spentseveral afternoons sitting in a café in the old town square, just watching people.Their culture is fascinating.For example, it is the women who run Naxi society, and until recently,Naxi women inherited all property.They sit in small circles in the square, with their babies on their backs,completely uninterested in the tourists!They have the custom of playing cards on card tables in the middle of the street.The Naxi still wear traditional costume– the women wear blue blousesand trousers covered by a blue or black apron.

4

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This afternoon I was lucky enough to meet a Naxi man from the old town.He was between 80 and 90 years old, but was full of energy.He spoke some English and showed me some translations of Naxi poems.It was fascinating to read them!The Naxi language is the only hieroglyphic language still in use andis over 1,000years old.The Naxi believe that they came from a creature called Tabu, who helpedthem hatch from magic eggs.This story is shown in pictures in books put together in the 10th century,and there are still a few copies of these ancient books

inLijiang.

April 25th

5

Lijiang is a city of painters and writers, but Naxi culture is particularly famous for its music.Passed from father to son, the music has not changed for eight centuries,and among the richer Naxi people, knowledge of this music showed thatyou were a real gentleman.I’ve just returned from a performance of the Naxi Orchestra.It took place in an old wooden hall, and was played by Naxi men,some of whom looked as if they were well over 100years old!They played ancient songs, songs with names such as The waterDragon is singing, Wind from the River and The Sheep on the Hill.Sometimes the instruments sounded like women crying, or treesbending under snow.In the audience there were both tourists and local people.Everyone listened as if someone had put a spell on them.

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April 29th

6

I have only one day left before traveling to Kunming and then flying back home.My stay here has been unforgettable and I really don’t want to leave.I’ve learnt so much about the Naxi culture, and I now understand that althoughpeople may seem very different from you, we all laugh, cry,and needlove and friendship.However different we may appear to be at first, we are all the same, all equal.

The Bai Ethnic Group

The Bai ethnic group has a population of around two million, 90% of whom live in Yunnan. Their native region is the Erhai region of Yunnan, and its main city is Dali. The Bai have their own dialect, which resembles Chinese; however, Chinese is mostly spoken today. The Bai have an agricultural economy, their main crops being rice, wheat, beans and cotton. Their staple foods are pork, rice and wheat. The Bai have a tradition of building houses as a community, usually beginning on a festival day. The houses are in the style of traditional Chinese architecture. They also build halls known as Yunhe halls, which can hold about 200 people and are used as community centres.

The Bai prefer the colour white, and Bai women wear white and red costumes, while the men wear white shirts and long wide trousers. Known as good singers

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and dancers, the Bai have an opera, which combines both music and dance. Another tradition is the Bai tea ceremony, in which tea is served three times. The most well-known Bai festival is the torch Festival. During this festival, a tree, known as the torch tree, is burnt. Young mothers and their children walk round the tree three times for good luck, while others wish for a happy life for the village. Children then light torches and run through the fields.

No Problem

“Ouch!〞I howled in pain as I dropped the hammer onto my foot. I felt foolish.

It was pouring with rain, and, lame for a moment, I hopped around to the driver’s side.

“No luck?〞 said George. We had a flat tyre and I was trying to change the wheel. But it was stuck firm.

We had driven ten hours along the road through the jungle without seeing another soul. In the distance was an ox working in a field.

“So what do we do now?〞 asked George, as I got back into the car.

About fifteen minutes later, the rain stopped. Out of the jungle came an old woman. She walked towards us carrying something long and thin.

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“Uh – oh, here comes danger!〞 said George, “She’s got a spear.〞

She was wearing traditional garments, with short sleeves, a colourful necklace and other jewellery. As she got closer, we saw the spear was just a wooden pole. I got out.

“Hello!〞I said, in English. “Can you help us?〞I pointed to the wheel.

She stared at it, and then made a gesture to follow her back to the jungle. George and I looked at each other, then set off after her.

Soon we came to a tent under an arch of trees. It had a rigid framework of wooden poles, like the one the woman was carrying, covered with heavy cloth, and fastened with rope made with some kind of loose plant fibre. All around were corn plants. It was harvest time for the grain, and a spade, a fork and other tools were lying on the ground. Nearby were some chicks and a rooster, and a pig tied to a post.

The woman folded back a cloth and invited us in. My eyes had to adjust to the darkness inside. The tent was furnished with a few mats on the floor, and a low table with a teapot. She picked up a photo and showed it to us. Was it her husband? The man in the photo was bare to the waist. He looked much too young. She was probably a widow. Maybe her son or her nephew?

Our hostess poured some tea, and watched as we drank.

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“Say something,〞 ordered George.

“Cheers!〞I said and raised my cup. “Can we contact a garage?〞

Suddenly, there was a tap at the door. It was the man in the photo. The old woman said something, and he looked at us. I felt awkward, so I smiled at him.

“No problem,〞 he said, in English. He pulled out a mobile phone and made a call.

“Twenty minutes. No problem. Let’s wait by the car,〞 he said.

As we walked back to the car, the sun pierced the clouds. Over the hills beyond was the most beautiful rainbow.

Native Americans and Australian Aborigines

Among the most well-known ethnic minorities of the English-speaking world are the Native Americans of North America, and the Australian Aborigines.

It is generally agreed that Native Americans came across from Asia, somewhere between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago. Until the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century, it is thought that there were between 1.8 million and 10 million Native Americans in North America. The people had thick straight black hair, dark eyes and brown skin. They were a hunting, fishing culture, but as they moved round, many kinds of society developed, speaking many languages. For

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example, in the west people lived in villages and developed an agricultural economy, whereas in the east, where it was colder, people remained a hunting culture. With the arrival of the Europeans, there were many battles over land, and the Native American population became much smaller, partly because they died form European diseases. Today, Native Americans live in only a few areas of North America. They were made citizens of the US in 1924.

The native people of Australia, called Aborigines, probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. It is thought that at the time of the arrival of the Europeans in the late 18th century, the population was about 350,000.

Like the Native Americans, they were hunters and gatherers, living in small groups across the continent. These groups did not have leaders and the older men of the group made their decisions together. When important ceremonies took place, hundreds of people from different groups traveled great distances to attend them. For Aborigines, the land is very important and no part of it can be owned by a particular person.

After the arrival of the Europeans, Aboriginal numbers became smaller and smaller, as the Europeans took more and more land. However, in the 1960s, the importance of Aboriginal culture began to be understood. Today, Aborigines make up just over 1.5% of Australia’s population.

Module 6 The World’s Cultural Heritage

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The Amazing Caves of Zhoukoudian

Zhoukoudian is a small village about 50 kilometres south-west of Beijing. In the 1920s, archaeologists discovered some prehistoric human bones there which changed China’s knowledge of its history. They came from an unknown species of man and were the first evidence of primitive human life in China thousands of years ago. The remains were … three teeth!

In 1929, a complete skull was also discovered. Eventually, archaeologists found almost 200 items, including six skulls and more than 150 teeth. These discoveries proved the existence of a human species who lived in the area between 700,000 and 200,000 years ago.

Four sites where Beijing Man and his relations lived were discovered on the northern face of Dragon Bone Hill (Longgushan). They lived in the limestone caves in the area.

However, the life span of Beijing Man was short. About 70% of the people probably died before the age of 14. fewer than 5% lived to the age of 50. Even so, they were quite sophisticated. Ashes were found alongside the fossils which showed they used fire for cooling food and also for light, warmth and protection from wild beasts. This is the earliest evidence of the use fire anywhere in the world. They also made tools of bones and sharpened stones. Unfortunately, when Japan invaded China in 1937, excavations at the Beijing Man Site stopped and most of the fossils disappeared, including a Beijing Man skull. They have never been found.

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After the people’s Republic of China was established in 1949, the work started again and Zhoukoudian became an important tourist attraction.

Zhoukoudian was listed as a world heritage site in December 1987. It has not only given us important information about prehistoric Asian societies, but also has provided amazing evidence about the process of evolution.

Beijing Man Heritage Site in Danger

The Zhoukoudian Beijing Man Site is one of the most important world heritage sites in China. Since the discovery was made in the 1920s, Zhoukoudian has become an important place for archaeologists from all over the world. At the site in the south-west suburb of Beijing, there is, for example, the earliest evidence of the use of fire by humans. It has also been proved that people lived there continuously between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Today, however, Zhoukoudian is in serous danger. Parts of the cave have been badly affected by rain and exposure to the air. Some areas are almost completely covered in weeds, causing serious damage. Pollution from nearby cement factories has also contributed to the problem.

The site is extremely expensive to maintain and it will cost between three and five million yuan to repair it. At the moment, visitors are not allowed to visit the caves.

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Zhoukoudian is on the World Cultural Heritage List, organized by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The list is constantly checked. Any site which is seriously damaged or which is not properly protected is an endangered heritage, and UNESCO is very quick to do something about situations like this. They have recommended that the site be closed and repaired. If nothing is done to repair it, it could be removed from the list.

This is a very serious matter and the ChineseAcademy of Sciences is trying to raise public awareness about it. They have suggested that the general public be encouraged to help with the problem. A professor at the Academy has proposed that a fund be established to raise money.

Dr Zhu Ming of the Academy said, “We have requested that the government get involved, but we also need assistance from ordinary people. They can help by contribution to the cost of repairing the caves. They are a precious part of our cultural heritage – it is of vital importance that we do something. If not, it will be a catastrophe. 〞

At the Suzhou conference in June 2004, one of the delegates praised China’s work on heritage sites, “China has done excellent work in protecting world heritage, both tangible and intangible.〞

Tangible cultural heritage includes museums and monuments – things you can see and touch. But what is intangible cultural heritage? Intangible cultural heritage, which is also called living cultural heritage, consists of the following features:

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1 Oral Heritage

This includes languages, spoken literature, music, dance, games, customs and knowledge of traditional craftwork. It also includes the cultural places where popular and traditional cultural activities take place (for example, sites for story – telling and festivals, etc).

2 Living Human Treasures

Living human treasures are people who have the knowledge and skills required for the cultural traditions of their society.

3 Endangered Languages

Endangered languages are languages spoken by only a few people and languages which are not taught to new inhabitants of the region. For example, there are nearly 60 languages in Australia which are endangered, or are disappearing.

4 Traditional Music of the world

Musical traditions around the world form part of the intangible heritage of mankind in the same way as monuments and natural sites. For example, Kunqu opera, was founded before the Ming Dynasty (1368-14) in Kunshan, near Suzhou. UNESCO added Kunqu to its intangible heritage list in 2001.

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Chinese Cultural Heritage Bid for UNESCO

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the Mid-Autumn Festival could be listed on the directory of world intangible cultural heritage if a bid to UNESCO is successful.

They could join the Chinese arts of Guqin Music and Kunqu Opera as “world intangible heritages〞.

UNESCO has 47 items on the world heritage list, including Chinese Kunqu Opera and Guqing Music. Every two years the directory is enlarged by giving each country the chance to recommend one candidate.

No discrimination is made against countries which make regular bids, so although the process is long, there is a strong possibility that TCM and the Mid-Autumn Festival will be accepted. While the bid is going through, the state government allocates funds for each item’s protection.

The application for TCM would highlight the fact that traditional Chinese medicine is a culture that has existed for thousands of year. If TCM is accepted on the UNESCO list, doctors and practitioners would advocate both its advantages and its legal status abroad. The theories and experiences of old TCM practitioners would continue to be collected ,and treatment would be extended into other areas of medicine, such as research into the AIDS virus and malaria. But some people feel that there needs to be a compromise between the term “heritage〞 which

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suggests something old-fashioned, and the fact that TCM is till developing as a medical science.

Mid-Autumn celebrations reflect Chinese cultural traditions. With more than 50 million Chinese living and working overseas, the Mid-Autumn Festival reminds them of their Chinese origins and would help to unite Chinese people all over the world. Plans for a seminar of experts on the festival have been announced, which well recommend symbolic ambassadors to promote the bid.

Other examples of China’s intangible cultural heritage include the ancient art of Shaolin Kung fu, the world’s longest epic poem of an King Gesser, and Chen-style Tai Chi.

UNESCO’s agenda for the world’s tangible and intangible heritage is also to act as a warning system for sites which are at the mercy of redevelopment, pollution or even the effects of tourism, and cultural activities which are in danger. UNESCO undertakes to take sites off the World Heritage list if their present state is threatened by an absence of protection.

Getting accepted on the list is the result not simply of a subjective recommendation by interested groups, but of cultural diplomacy by governments and a thorough understanding of the bureaucratic system of UNESCO. In return, UNESCO recognizes the autonomy of provincial, federal and state cultural organizations, but offers support and guidance when requested.

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Santa Fe’s living Treasures

The living Treasures Program originated in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the USA in 1984 and has now spread to dozens of other communities across the country.

It started when a Santa Feorganization called the Network for the Common Good was established. The idea was to celebrate the lives of members of the older generation. “Older people are easily forgotten or ignored in a country like the USA,〞 said Robin Rodar, one of the organizers. “Youth and new things seem more important to a lot of people.〞

This isn’t the way with other cultures. In New Mexico, older people from Hispanic and native American cultures preserve their traditions and languages. The extended family is important and grandparents are respected. This is also true in Asian cultures. In fact, the Santa Feorganizers got the idea for the Living Treasures Program from a Japanese tradition of honouring folk artists.

Twice a year, in spring and autumn, the program honours three older New Mexicans. They are asked to give a long interview – an oral history – which is taped and preserved at the Santa Fe Public Library. A photographer spends a day with each living treasure and the photographs are also displayed at the library.

Then there is a ceremony to which the whole town is invited. Everyone meets at the Museum of International Folk Art. Friends and neighbors of the living treasures give a speech. “It’s just amazing,〞 said Robin Rodar’s husband, Sam.

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“The ceremony holds the community together.〞

The living treasures are honoured for their achievements in many different areas of life. It might be in their working life: medicine, education, the environment, architecture, literature and journalism; and it might be because of their contribution to the cultural and social life of the area: art, music, theatre, farming, sport etc.; or it might be because they have such good stories to tell about “the old days〞.

必修8

Module 1Deep South

Antarctica: the Last Continent

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. It’s also the driest. With annual rainfall close to zero, Antarctica is technically a desert. Covering about 14 million square kilometers around the South Pole, it is the fifth largest continent in the world. A high mountain range, the Trans-Antarctic range, runs from east to west, cutting the continent in two. There are volcanoes too, but they are not very active. Antarctica holds 90% of the world’s ice, and most of its fresh water (70%) is in a frozen state, of course. 98% of the surface is covered permanently in the ice cap. On average it is two kilometers thick, but in some places it reaches a depth of five kilometers. Strong winds driven by gravity blow from the pole to the coastline, while other winds blow round the coast. It is difficult to imagine a more

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inhospitable place.

Yet Antarctica is full wildlife, which has adapted to its extreme conditions. There are different types of penguins, flying birds, seals, and whales. But the long Antarctic winter night, which lasts for 182 days (the longest period of continuous darkness on earth), as well as the extreme cold and lack of rainfall, means that few types of plants can survive there. Only two types of flowering plants are found, while there are no trees on the large continent. The rest of the plants are made up of mosses, algae and lichen. Some forms of algae have adapted to grow on ice.

Most of the ice has been there for thousands of years. As a result, it has become a window on the past, and can give researchers lots of useful information. Gases and minerals, in the form of volcanic dust trapped in the ice, can tell us a lot about what the world’s climate was like in past ages. Antarctic rocks are also very important for research. Most of them are meteorites from outer space. One rock, known as the “Alien〞 rock, may contain evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Since most Antarctic rocks are dark in colour, they stand out against the white background and are easy to identify and collect.

Antarctica was the last continent to be discovered. But more than two thousand years ago Greek geographers believed that there was a large land mass in the south which balanced the land in the north. They called it Anti-Arktikos, or Antarcica: the opposite of Arcitc. When Europeans discovered the continent of America in 15thcentury, the great age of exploration began. However, progress to

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the South ole was slow. Not until the late 18th century did the British explorer James Cook cross the Antarctic Circle, but he never saw land. Then in 15, a Norwegian called Carstens Borchgrevink became the first man to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. The race to the pole had begun. It was finally reached on 11th December, 1911 by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

Today scientists from many countries travel to Antarctica to study its resources. A spirit of international friendship has replaced the rivalry that existed between many of the earlier explorers. In 1961, a treaty signed by 12 countries, including Britain, France, and the USA made Antarctica the world’s biggest nature reserve. The aim of the treaty is to prevent the commercial and military use of the continent. In particular, it aims to keep Antarctica free from nuclear tests and radioactive waste; to promote international scientific projects; and to end arguments about who owns the land. Today countries representing 80% of the world’s population have signed the treaty. Antarctica has become perhaps the most successful symbol of man’s efforts to work together for progress and peace.

How Failure Became Success

On 8th August, 1914, 27 men who had replied to an advertisement in The Times boarded a ship leaving for the Antarctic. The name of the ship was the Endurance and the captain was an Irishman called Ernest Shackleton.

The aim of the journey was to cross the frozen continent via the South Pole – journey of 1,800 miles. Shackleton thought the journey would last six months.

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But when land came into sight, the Endurance became trapped in the ice and began to break up. Shackleton and his men watched the Endurance sink into the icy sea. They then headed north, pulling three lifeboats behind them.

After six days, bad weather forced them to give up and the men set up camp on a sheet of ice which began slowly moving across the Antarctic Circle.

They survived on the ice for five months. Then, on 16th April, 1915, Shackleton saw land. It was ElephantIsland– large rock with nothing growing on it, but much better than a floating piece of ice. When they reached the island, Shackleton came up with an idea – it was a risk but he would have to take it. He and five men would take one of the lifeboats, and sail 800 miles to South Georgia, where there was a permanent camp. They could then return to rescue the rest of the men.

It took Shackleton 17 days to rach South Georgia. Unfortunately he landed on the wrong side of the island, and had to walk 36 hours over mountains to reach the camp. The whale hunters all the camp couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the six men walking down from the mountains.

Shackleton kept his promise. More than three months later, he returned to ElephantIsland to rescue the crew he had been forced to abandon. He had failed to reach the pole – but he had saved the lives of all his men.

Welcome to the South Poles!

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South Poles? How many are there?

In fact, there are three South Poles: a ceremonial Pole, which is on the moving glacier, a geographical or true Pole, and a magnetic Pole which changes its position according to the movement of the Earth.

Is it safe?

Because the South Pole is a high altitude site, the glare of the sunlight here is very intense. It’s also reflected by the snow, so if you go outside, remember to wear sunglasses and use suncream. If you don’t there’s severe risk that you’ll damage your eyesight or get badly sunburnt.

Is it cold?

Yes! Be very careful out in the open air! The temperature is between minus 21°C in the summer and minus 78°C in the winter, and you can become numb with cold without realizing. There’s heavy frost even on the warmest summer days, and if it’s quiet you can hear your breath freeze. So if you leave the station, dress warmly and carry dry clothing and a portable radio.

Is there anything good about the weather?

The air is very pure, and it doesn’t snow very much – only about four millimeters a year. There’s very little wind and the sky is usually clear. It’s

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possibly the calmest place on Earth.

What’s it like to live here?

Life is quite abnormal. Sunriseand sunset come once every six months, and in the winter the total absence of daylight can be tiresome, and for some, depressing. We’re totally isolated except for radio and electronic communications, as no aircraft can fly here for about eight months.

Where do we live?

The South Pole scientific station is situated on a platform of ice, 3,000-4,000 metres high, but under only a few millimetres of snow. We have a minimum of 28 people living here in the winter and a maximum of 125 in the summer. The living quarters are modest, with few luxuries, but cosy. There’s a comfortable dormitory for sleeping, the canteen serve great food, and there’s a well-stocked library of DVDs and videos. But showers and laundry are limited, because water is very valuable. We discourage you from smoking except in specific areas. Medical assistance is available in case of an emergency.

Any other advice?

Remember that conventional equipment doesn’t always work as it should do. If you use an electric drill, the power cord will snap. Photography is tricky too, as film is fragile and the camera battery doesn’t work in the cold.

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Don’t leave any rubbish, and don’t forget that the ecology of Antarctica is very delicate, so don’t take any souvenirs home with you, and be careful to leave nothing but footprints.

Finally, remember that we’re all visitors to the South Pole. It’sa privilege, not a right to come to thisextraordinary place.

The Travels of Marco Polo

the year is 1271 AD. Imagine a 17-year-old boy from VeniceItaly, well-educated and trained for life as a rich trader. He sets off with his father and uncle on a 25-year journey to mysterious, distant lands that most people in Europe have never heard of. While on their journey buying and selling spices, silks and jewels, they befriend one of the most powerful men on Earth, Kubla Khan.

The boy’s name was Marco Polo and many years later a book about his travels was published which made him famous. Marco Polo told his fantastic stories to a writer named Rustichello who wrote them down for him. This man was well-known for his stories and romantic tales of the legendary English King Arthur, but so many people doubted the reliability of his book the Travels of Marco Polo. However, Chinese historians have found obscure names and facts in the book that could only have been known to someone intimate with the country.

Many of Marco’s stories were about China and its people. He told stories about the towns, cities and populations in great detail. He described the amazing

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things he saw in China such as paper money and black stone that burned (coal). With very little contact between China and the West, it is not surprising that people in a rich powerful place like Venice could not believe his stories, nor in the idea of huge, rich city states inhabited by millions of people. There could surely be no comparison with Venice?

A general myth has grown up around Marco Polo that he introduced such things as spaghetti and ice cream from China to the West. There is no truth to any of these claims and actually they are not mentioned in Marco Polo’s book.

However, Marco Polo’s book is still a unique insight for its age. Most importantly it was a great influence for many future travelers. Christopher Columbus left behind a well-worn copy that he read as inspiration on his own voyages to America.

Module 2 The Renaissance

The Renaissance

For many people, the Renaissance means 14th to 16th century Italy, and the developments in art and architecture, music and literature which took place there all that time. But there is one work which, perhaps more than any other, expresses the spirit of the Renaissance: the Mona Lisa. It is believed to be the best example of a new lifelike style of painting that amazed people when it was first used. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the years 1503-1506, the Mona Lisa is a mysterious

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masterpiece. People want to know who Mona Lisa is, and why she is smiling. Even if people do not know much about the Renaissance, they have heard of this painting.

But the Renaissance is, of course, more than just Mona Lisa. Renaissance is a French word which means “rebirth〞 and it first appeared in English in the 19th century. The word was used to describe a period in European history which began with the arrival of the first Europeans in America, and age of exploration, and the beginning of the modern world. It was as if Europe was waking up after the long sleep of the Middle Ages. From Italy, the ideas of the Renaissance rapidly spread northwards to France, Germany, England, and the rest of Europe.

Trade with other parts of the world meant thatEurope was getting richer, too. This meant that people had money to spend on the arts; and it became easier for artists to find people who could afford to buy their works or employ them. Leonardo worked for important people such as the Duke of Milan, and, towards the end of his life, the King of France.

Renaissance artists found new ideas for their work in classical Greece and Rome. But they looked forward, too, by opening new frontiers in the arts. Painters discovered how to use perspective and the effects of light; composers put different voices together and created polyphony “many voices〞; architects preferred designing buildings with more light which contrasted with the heaviness of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

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The sense of exploration which motiveated the artists went had in hand with a new type of philosophy. After centuries of accepting a medieval world view in which human life was considered of little value compared with the greatness of God, philosophers began asking questions like “What is a person?〞 or “Why am I here?〞 For the first time, they put people, not religion, at the centre of the universe.

The Renaissance was a time of scientific invention, too. Leonardo, as well as being one of the greatest painters the world has ever known, was also a skilled inventor. Wherever he went, he carried a notebook around with him, in which he wrote down his ideas. They included detailed drawings of the human body, plans for engineers to build canals and bridges, and astonishing drawings of machines which were not to be built until hundreds of years later, such as aeroplanes, parachutes, submarines and tanks. Towards the end of his life he was employed by the King of France to do scientific research, and he did not have a lot of time for painting.

In short, Leonardo was an extraordinary genius, an example of what has been described as “Renaissance man〞: someone interested in everything and with many different talents. But even if his only contribution to history had been the Mona Lisa, it would have been genius enough for all time.

Thursday

We arrived on the overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland and took a train to

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Amsterdam Central Station. It was only a short ride. It’s not easy to find your way around the town. A lot of the roads follow the canals which aren’t straight but are shaped like horseshoes. So you can walk along a street for half an hour of so and end up five minutes from where you started. However, most people don’t walk – there are three million bikes in town and a good bus and tram system. There are boats, too. About half of them are for tourists, the others are houseboats with people living on them. We spent the whole day walking. Tomorrow we’re going to rent bikes.

Friday

We spent today looking at houses. The architecture is astonishing, quite different from other European countries we’ve been to. The houses are tall and thin, and many of them have a fantastically ornate Renaissance appearance. In the Middle Ages the houses were made of wood. Then, at the end of the 15th century there was a huge fire and about three quarters of the town was destroyed. After that, houses were made of brick. Unlike other places in Europe, where house owners were taxed on the size of their windows, here the taxes depended on the width of the house – so they kept them narrow, but built them tall. Well, that’s what Claire says, and she read it in the guidebook.

Saturday

We visited the Van GoghMuseum, instead of the more famous Rijksmuseum. It was astonishing. I hadn’t really looked at any of Van Gogh’s paintings before.

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He seems to have re-invented the art. It doesn’t matter whether he is doing a portrait of a landscape – he’s a genius. In the last 70 days of his life before he short himself he produced 70 paintings, and I reckon they’re almost all masterpieces. Yet in all his life Van Gogh only ever sold one painting! We must have spent three hours in that museum. When we came out I told Claire I thought Van Gogh was the greatest painter in history. She reminded me that we were leaving for Paris tomorrow, where we were going to see the most famous painting in the world …

The puzzle of the Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is the subject of many stories, but there is one anecdote which remains a puzzle. Is the painting in the Louvre the authentic work by Leonardo da Vinci … or just a copy?

The story began one day in 1911 when someone noticed the Mona Lisa was missing. A spokesman said, “The burglar left the antique frame and the glass behind. He must have gone through the basement to the main courtyard. A passerby saw a man with a moustache, carrying a parcel under his arm, dash over the street crossing, along to the crossroads. He then fled down a sideroad. We’re appealing to anyone who saw the suspect to contact us.〞

So we stole the Mona Lisa? And why? News about the loss of the Mona Lisa was circulated in all the French newspapers, and there was a widespread search for the burglar all over the country. He police said, “we don’t think the burglar was

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working alone. We’re seeking a gang of criminals.〞

Two years later, a man with a moustache went to an art dealer in Florence in Italy and made a tentative attempt to sell the Mona Lisa. The art dealer checked it, agreed it was authentic … and then called the police.

Why did the burglar, Vincenzo Perugia, wait so long? Perugia had stolen the Mona Lisa on behalf of the chief organizer of the crime, Eduardo de Valifierno. But Perugia made a fundamental mistake. He trusted da Valfierno to pay him for tha painting. The drawback for Perugia was that de Valfierno didn’t in fact need the painting, only the news of the theft. De Valfierno made six superb copies and sold them, claiming that each one was the authentic stolen painting. Of course, the fact that there were six substitutes was confidential. The six buyers didn’t know about the other paintings. What’s more, de Valfierno didn’t need to pay his debt to Perugia.

After two years, Perugia got tired of waiting to be paid, and tried to sell the painting. When the real Mona Lisa turned up in Florence, de Valfierno simply told his buyers that it was merely a copy.

The outcome of the story is that Perugia got the blame for the crime and went to prison. De Valfierno remained at liberty for the rest of his life.

But there is still a puzzle. There were a number of precise copies of the Mona Lisa painted by gifted students of Leonardo da Vinci. Part of the painting’s

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fascination is whether the one in the Louvre was authentic … even before it was stolen. And if Perugia stole a copy … who has the authentic Mona Lisa?

Printing

Printing is the process of making many copies of a single document using movable characters or letters. In China, printing was known as early as in the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty; in Europe, it was an important part of the Renaissance. Printing answered a need because people were thirsty for knowledge.

Before printing was invented, copies of a manuscript had to be made by hand, usually on animal skins. This was a difficult task that could take many years, and which made books very expensive. Printing made it possible to produce more copies in a few weeks than could have been produced in a lifetime written out by hand.

It is believed that a German, Johann Gutenberg, made the first printing press in Europe. He adapted it from the machines farmers used to squeeze oil from olives. It used paper, which was more suitable for printing (and cheaper) than animal skins. Paper, like printing, had been invented much earlier in China and it had found its way to Europe, via southeast Asia and then India. By the 10th century AD, paper was being produced in Baghdad. The first paper mill in Europe was built at the end of the 12th century.

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The first book that Gutenberg produced was a Bible. But as the ideas of the Renaissance developed, so did the demand for the Greek and Latin classics, which had been largely ignored for up to 2,000 years. People also wanted books in their own languages. The invention of printing meant that this desire could be satisfied.

Soon there were printing presses all over northern Europe. In 1476 William Caxton set up his own press in London, and England became one of the most important centres of the printing industry. This spread of printed books led to a renewed passion for artistic expression. Without the development of the printing press, the Renaissance may never have happened. Without inexpensive printing to make books available to a large section of society, the son of John Shakespeare, a government official in rural England in the mid-1500s, may never have been inspired to take up writing as a profession. What western civilization gained from Gutenberg’s contribution is impossible to calculate.

Module 3 Foreign Food

Passage 1

Chinese people think a lot about food. In fact, I think that they are sometimes obsessed with it. My first experience of this aspect of Chinese culture came at a banquet during a trip to Beijing in 1998. I had eaten Chinese food often, but I could not have imagined how fabulous a real Chinese banquet could be. The first six or seven dishes seemed to fill the table, with plates dangerously balanced one on top of another. I thought this vast wave of food was the total number of dishes

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to be served, and I started eating greedily. Everyone else just tasted a bit of each dish and then put their chopsticks down, continuing to chat. “They can’t have very big appetites,〞I thought.

To my surprise, more dishes arrived, plus soups, side dishes, and desserts. There was enough to feed a whole army. No wonder my fellow guests had had only a few bites of each dish; they knew what was still to come. But I was already so full that I could only watch as the banquet continued.

Another aspect of “food culture〞 is that the Chinese seem to eat almost every part of every animal – much to the horror of many westerners. Stomach, intestines, ears, tongue, tail, hoof, and lungs are all likely to end up on the dinner table in front of you. The first time I saw a three-year-old kid cheerfully chewing a chicken’s head I had bad dream for weeks.

These days I enjoy that sort of food myself. On a recent trip to the United StatesI suddenly felt like some Chinese delicacies, and asked the guy at the meat counter of a supermarket, “Do you have pigs’ ears?〞“No,〞 he said, pulling at his own ear, “Just these ordinary ones.〞He must have thought I was joking.

However, there are other kinds of foods that have taken longer for me to accept. The infamous choudoufu is an example. (the name says it all: “stinky tofu〞.) Just when I got used to it, I found another variety on a trip to Hunan: deep-fried choudoufu, a horrible black substance that looked and smelled about as appetizing as a burnt tennis shoe. Maybe I’ll get used to that, too – someday.

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Passage 2

The first time I ate British food I was in the canteen of a London publisher. Some people just sat down on the sofa to eat. I was amazed at their easy and graceful manner while I stood there feeling somewhat confused by the food. At the counter there were colourful mixtures in eight or nine big boxes. It was quite hard to make out hat they contained. The waiter put these foods inside bread or potatoes according to people’s requirements. I still remember what I ate: a tuna fish and cheese sandwich. It didn’t actually taste bad, but to me the cold fish, cold cheese, and even the bread from the fridge, was a meal that would make you feel cold inside. Later, I found out that British people like cold food. Their salad, for example, is made from vegetables which are only washed before serving, while Chinese food is prepared more carefully. The Chinese have a fixed phrase “cold leftovers〞. Cold food means poverty – you don’t give it to a guest! No wonder westerners like Chinese food.

I also learned that the English like to mix food before serving it at the table. I once ordered mushroom soup in a restaurant and was astonished when it was brought to the table. It seemed to be just a bowl of grey liquid and it was only after I had tasted it that I knew it was actually cooked with mushrooms. The things inside sandwiches and baked potatoes are also various kinds of mashed food, like the fillings of jiaozi in Beijing. The food here goes against the Chinese sense of beauty and style at the dinner table. Chinese dishes can be photographed and have a nice appearance. We would never mash food into an unrecognizable shape.

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What’s more, the names of many kinds of English food are hard to remember. In fact, they often use French or Italian words. But one thing I do admire is the polite manner in which British people eat, even if it is just a potato.

An Embarrassing Moment

The perfect host is the one who saves his guest from embarrassment whatever the cost. When Edward VII became King of England in 1901, he was already nearly 60 years old. He liked traveling, meeting people, and eating well. In short, he liked having a good time.

One evening he was entertaining the ruler of a small island in the Pacific. The menu included asparagus, which his guest had never eaten before. Asparagus is by nature tender and tasty at one end. Usually people leave the part which is difficult to eat on their plates.

As soon as the Polynesian guest tasted the asparagus he remarked how delicious it was. However, when he realised that he could not eat the tough part, he simply threw it over his shoulder onto the floor behind him. The other guests were astonished, but went on eating. The King said nothing. However, when he had finished his asparagus, he too threw the piece that was left over his shoulder.

Before long everybody else at the dinner was following his example, casually throwing the asparagus onto the floor, while the conversation continued in a friendly and relaxed manner. At the end of the meal the carpet was rather dirty. The

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cleaners weren’t very happy, but in the end most people had to agree that the King had been a perfect host, saving his guest and everybody else from the embarrassment which came from a misunderstanding of table manners.

Food in Australia

Not so long ago, food in Australia meant porridge with milk and sugar, and eggs and bacon for breakfast, then roast lamb or beef for lunch or dinner. During the 1980s each person consumed about 39 kilograms of meat a year, and the butcher in the local High Street was one of the most important people in town. Australiais a country where the cattle and sheep outnumber the people, and it has always beenjustifiably famous for its lamb (no one would even think of eating mutton, which is the meat from the older animal). The consequence was that many people were overweight. Today there are still many Australians who eat huge amounts of meat. But recently, we have seen a gradual trend towards healthier food.

Modern Australian cooking is often referred to as fusion cuisine, and the recipes include ingredients and cooking styles from the East and the West. Today, Australians enjoy Japanese food with bean curd, seaweed, and raw fish, as well as Greek, Italian and Lebanese food such as pasta, olives, tomatoes, eggplant and lemons. Cantonese and Beijing-style food is always popular, especially dim sum. French cooking can be seen in the Australians’ love of the French-style bakery, with its delicious cakes and long loaves of bread. There are few or no artificial ingredients in fusion cooking, only the purest and freshest of produce.

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Even in the suburbs there are Oriental grocery stores where customers can buy everything from a Chinese frying pan (a wok) and chilli powder, cocoa from Brazil for drinking or for cakes, American chocolate-chip cookies, Canadian maple syrup or French honey to pour over your breakfast pancakes, to crisp Indian samosas and Lemon grass for fragrant Thai dishes, dairy products such as yoghurt and cream, as well as abundant homegrown fruit, especially ripe peaches, grapes, melons and oranges.

Most Australian homes will have a stove on which your fry or steam vegetables, and there’s usually a microwave oven as well, for reheating food quickly. But perhaps the most important piece of equipment is not in the kitchen but in the garden – the famous barbecue, where, on a charcoal fire, they grill meat, such as slices of beef steak, chicken breasts or lamb cutlets. There’s usually a buffet of salads and vegetables to accompany it, and pints of Australian beer to drink, because the breweries which make the beer are among the finest in the world. Altogether, with its ample amount of food and drink and its relaxed way of cooking and serving, the barbecue is not just a piece of cooking and serving, the barbecue is not just a piece of cooking equipment but the word the Australians use for a popular way of entertaining friends.

The Willow Pattern Plate

One of the best-known designs on British plates is the “Willow Pattern〞. In many homes, the willow pattern plates (named after the willow tree in the centre of the design) are kept for special occasions, when important guests come to

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dinner. But where does the willow pattern come from?

The first plates were made in about 1780, and were based on Chinese designs. They were copied from similar plates taken to Britain in ship s which were also carrying tea. But Josiah Spode, who produced the most famous plates, mixed elements from different Chinese designs. He included a bridge with three people crossing it, the willow tree which gives its name to the plate, a boat, a teahouse, a fence in the foreground, and two songbirds which are flying overhead. No original Chinese design had all these elements together.

The scene pictured on the plate is the story of Kun Xi, the daughter of a rich Mandarin, who fell in love with her father’s gardener, a young man called Chang. When the Mandarin discovered Chang and Kun Xi were in love, he was very angry. He locked Kun Xi up in the house, and built a fence so Chang could no come near her.

But one evening, when the Mandarin was entertaining guests at a banquet, Chang arrived dressed up as a servant. The two lovers ran away to a small island. When the Mandarin discovered what had happened, he was very angry. He and some servants followed Kun Xi and Chang to the island and set fire to the hut where they were sleeping. The two of them were killed in the fire, but their souls were transformed into songbirds, which you can see singing at the top of the picture.

Module 4 Which English?

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Which English?

When you receive a phone call from a friend, how long doe it take you to know who it is? A few seconds, perhaps. The quality of someone’s voice and their choice of words make a person instantly recognizable, even though you can’t see him or her. In this sense everybody’s use of language – whether English, Chinese, or any other – is different. You could say that there are as many varieties of English, or any other language for that matter, as there are speakers of it.

English is spoken as an official language in more than 60 countries across the world and it can sound very different from place to place. Pronunciation, as well as grammar and vocabulary, can change very quickly from one area to another. For example, within London the most famous dialect is cockney. It is only usually spoken by people from the east of that city so it is not the only form of English you will hear. You can usually tell which part of the English-speaking world someone comes from by their accent, and there are some very recognizable accents all over Britain. It is also quite easy to tell British and American English apart.

Although most people believe there is a right and a wrong way to speak English, there is not really a standard form that everyone can agree on. English spread across the world over hundreds of years because of trade, exploration and business, and this process produced many different Englishes. Professors of linguistics, writers and teachers all worry about providing a perfect model to follow but as it is so widely spoken, it has become impossible to say which English is “correct〞 and which is “incorrect〞. Perhaps correctness doesn’t matter – as

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long as speakers can understand each other – it’s communication that counts.

Australia

G’day! D’ya speak strine? Or rather, hello! Do you speak Australian? Australia is one of the youngest nations in the world. The first English speakers arrived little more than 200 years ago – and they didn’t want to. Most of them were prisoners sent there to work. They came from all over Britain, but especially from Northern Ireland and the London area, which is why the Australian accent today has traces of both Irish and cockney speech patterns. The English speakers found a people who had been living in Australia for more than 50,000 years – the Aborigines, and an extraordinary variety of wildlife, unique to the continent. Many of the Aboriginal words for these animals, such as kangaroo, koala and kookaburra soon passed into the language.

But the main differences between Australian English and other varieties of English lie in the individual sounds and intonation patterns. Sometimes it is difficult for British and American people to understand the Australian accent, and mistakes are common, a few years ago a well- known English author was signing copies of his books in a Sydney bookshop. A customer came up to the author holding a copy of the book and said Emma Chissit. The author thought that Emma Chissit was the woman’s name. But when he asked how to spell the name, in case the customer wanted hi to write her name in the book (To Emma Chissit, with best wishes), he realised that the customer had been asking the question: How much is it?

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Jamaica and Singapore

Australian English comes directly from English spoken in Britain. But in other countries where English is spoken as a first language this is not the case. The variety of English spoken in Jamaica, and other Caribbean countries, has some of the grammatical features of the African languages spoken by the ancestors of the Jamaican people, so that there is often no apostrophe s(‘s) (that woman house, instead of that woman’s house) or no link verb or article (He good man, instead of He’s a good man). Another feature is the rhythm. It is the rhythm of rap music, which became popular in the US in the 1980s.

On the other side of the world, in Singapore, English is a second language, spoken by about half the population. Other languages include Malay and Chinese. Almost everyone in Singapore is bilingual, while some people speak three or four languages. The most common variety of English spoken is known as Singlish. Sentences in Singlish often end with the word lah. The variety has been influenced in particular by Malay and Chinese dialect Hokkien (language spoken in Minnan), both in grammatical features and vocabulary. Today there is a debate in Singapore about which variety of English is the best: Singlish, or a variety closer to British English, which is the aim of the Speak Good English Movement created in 1999.

The Future of English

Ever since the invention of the first telegraph at the end of 19th century, English has been spreading around the world. It has a powerful influence in the

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media, on the Internet and in pop music that is not going to go away. This communication revolution has turned the world into a “global village〞 in which everyone needs to talk to each other – and so often nowadays that means in English.

More people now speak English as a second languages across the world than as a native language. It is estimated that 1.3 billion people will use English as either a first or a second language by 2050. But what will that form of English be like? Traditionally, British English has been taught across the world, but it is only one variety. Experts believe that the future shape and grammar of English, especially in its spoken form, will no longer be determined in the traditional English-speaking countries like Britain and America but in the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Internationalorganizations and businesses communicate with each other in English. But a new pattern of using English is developing that does not look the same to native speakers as “traditional〞 English. Researchers are now investigating “non-native〞English which is a new form of the language with changes in grammar, pronunciation and meaning. Often meanings and words from other languages find their way into English to produce a new dialect such as “Franglais’ which combine aspects of French and English. You could say this gives English a French flavour. All of these processes are a form of natural evolution. New dialects acquire their own complex features until they become real languages in their own right. Experts are convinced that this will happen in the future as more and more people learn English and call it their own.

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Colourful English

English has a huge number of colourful and splendid expressions which may be difficult to understand. Even if the meaning of the words is straightforward, the cultural associations of the phrase may be ambiguous. The dilemma is to know which are explicit, which are figurative, and why they are relevant to an everyday situation.

Idioms are picturesque or absurd expressions conveying a concept which is different from the literal meaning and have been common in English for many years. The Pilgrim Fathers in America always asked for turkeys when they traded with Native Americans. Thus, to talk turkey means to get down to business. But some idioms are very new and you’ll need to clarify what they mean. For example, mad as a box of frogs is a recent way of describing someone who has a tendency to be rather disorganized or vague. A bad hair day is one when you feel clumsy or depressed, possibly because your hair doesn’t look good.

Many expressions are advertising slogans. That’ll do nicely, sir! Comes from an old TV ad for American Express. It’s the shop assistant’s reply to customer who selects a credit card from his wallet and asks if the shop accepts American Express.

Other common expressions have metaphorical significance. Get your tanks off my lawn! Means Back off! Withdraw your threats! And was first said by a British prime minister, rejecting the threat of a potential strike by a trade union leader.

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Age before beauty is used when inviting another person to go through a door before you. It’s not meant to abuse the other person, but it may sometimes cause offence. The Iron Curtain was the statesman Winston Churchill’s term for the dividing line between eastern and western Europe. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Means a friend has betrayed your trust or let you down. We shall overcome dates from the American Civil War, and it used almost like a prayer by the Civil Rights movement in the USA, meaning we will oppose prejudice against black people and resist conflict between Americans.

Finally, there are traditional proverbs which express a moral or a piece of advice. For example, when in Rome, do as the Romans do suggests you should adapt to local conditions. Some sayings have achieved the superior status of a proverb such as Money makes the world go around from the musical Cabaret (1966). This comes from the older proverb love makes the world go round.

Chinese as a Foreign Language

Who want to learn Chinese? Just about everybody in the world, it seems. The demand for Chinese as a foreign language is growing fast, both in English-speaking countries, such as Britain and the USA, and in other countries like France, where the number of students studying Chinese has increased by 15% each year in recent years.

There are a number of reasons for the interest. As China develops economically, opportunities for doing business increase dramatically – and if you

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know your partner’s language, your chances of success increase. But there is also a renewed interest in the culture and traditions of China; the fact that Chinese culture has continued uninterrupted for more than 5,000 years is a source of curiosity and fascination for people in other parts of the world.

A third reason is that learning Chinese is, simply, a challenge. With its characters and complicated tone system, most speakers of other languages think Chinese must be incredibly difficult. But is it really so? As one American student says, “The biggest problem about learning Chinese is often fear –sometimes caused by the teachers. I’ve studied quite a few languages, and none of them are as easy for me as Chinese. The grammar is easy, since sentence order is similar to English – but simpler. The only difficult part of spoken Chinese is the tone system. Even that isn’t a big problem. I remember the first time I heard a native of Beijing speaking, it was so clear!〞

With so much interest in the language, the Chinese government introduced an international exam system.

Established in 1990, the HSK test was initially meant for those learners who regard Chinese as a second or foreign language. Later, it was introduced abroad. At the moment, there are more than 100 exam centres in 27 countries around the world, with nearly 150,000 candidates taking the exam every year. And a spin-off of this is that teaching Chinese as a foreign language offers young Chinese language graduates interesting professional opportunities – and a chance to travel across the world.

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