选修6—选修9 （人教课标版高中英语）

课文及翻译

 

选修6 —选修9 课文及部分译文

 

选修6 Unit 1 Art-Reading
A SHORT HISTORY OF WESTERN PAINTING

       Art is influenced by the customs and faith of a people. Styles in Western art have changed many times. As there are so many different styles of Western art, it would be impossible to describe all of them in such a short text. Consequently, this text will describe only the most important ones, starting from the sixth century AD.
 
The Middle Ages (5th to the 15th century AD)

       During the Middle Ages, the main aim of painters was to represent religious themes. A conventional artist of this period was not interested in showing nature and people as they really were. A typical picture at this time was full of religious symbols, which created  feeling of respect and love for God. But it was evident that ideas were changing in the 13th century when painters like Giotto di Bondone began to paint religious scenes in a more realistic way.
 
The Renaissance (15th to 16th century)

       During the Renaissance, new ideas and values graduallv replaced those held in the Middle Ages.People began to concentrate less on religious themes and adopt a more humanistic attitude to life. At the same time painters returned to classical Roman and Greek ideas about art. They tried to paint people and nature as they really were. Rich people wanted to possess their own paintings, so they could decorate their superb palaces and great houses. They paid famous artists to paint pictures of themselves, their houses and possessions as well as their activities and achievements.
      One of the most important discoveries during this period was how to draw things in perspective. This technique was first used by Masaccio in 1428. When people first saw his paintings, they were convinced that they were looking through a hole in a wall at a real scene. If the roles of perspective had not been discovered, no one would have been able to paint such realistic pictures. By coincidence, oil paints were also developed at this time, which made the colours used in paintings look richer and deeper. Without the new paints and the new technique, we would not be able to see the many great masterpieces for which this period is famous.
 
Impressionism (late 19th to early 20th century)

       In the late 19th century, Europe changed a great deal. from a mostly agricultural society to a mostly industrial one. Many people moved from the countryside to the new cities. There were many new inventions and social changes. Naturally, these changes also led to new painting styles. Among the painters who broke away from the traditional style of painting were the Impressionists, who lived and worked in Paris.
      The Impressionists were the first painters to work outdoors. They were eager to show how light and shadow fell on objects at different times of day. However, because natural light changes so quickly, the Impressionists had to paint quickly. Their paintings were not as detailed as those of earlier painters. At first, many people disliked this style of painting and became very angr about it. They said that the painters were careless and their paintings were ridiculous.
 
Modern Art (20th century to today)

       At the time they were created, the Impressionist paintings were controversial, but today they are accepted as the beginning of what we call "modem art". This is because the Impressionists encouraged artists to look at their environment in new ways. There are scores of modern art styles, but without the Impressionists, many of these painting styles might not exist. On the one hand, some modem art is abstract; that is, the painter does not attempt to paint objects as we see them with our eyes, but instead concentrates on certain qualities of the object, using colour, line and shape to represent them. On the other hand, some paintings of modern art are so realistic that they look like photographs. These styles are so different. Who can predict what painting styles there will be in the future?

THE BEST OF MANHATTAN’S ART GALLERIES

The Frick Collection (5th Avenue and E.70th Street)
        Many art lovers would rather visit this small art gallery than any other in New York. Henry Clay Frick, a rich New Yorker, died in 1919, leaving his house, furniture and art collection to the American people. Frick had a preference for pre-twentieth century Western paintings, and these are well-represented in this excellent collection. You can also explore Frick's beautiful home and garden which are well worth a Visit.
 
Guggenheim Museum(5th Avenue and 88th Street)
         This museum owns 5,000 superb modern paintings, sculptures and drawings. These art works are not all displayed at the same time. The exhibition is always changing. It will appeal to those who love Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The Guggenheim Museum building is also world-famous. When you walk into gallery, you feel as if you
were inside a fragile, white seashell. The best way to see the paintings is to start from the top floor and walk down to the bottom. There are no stairs just a circular path. The museum also has an excellent restaurant.
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Avenue and 82nd Street)
        The reputation of this museum lies in the variety of its art collection. This covers more than 5,000 years of civilization from many parts of the world, including America, Europe, China, Egypt, other African countries and South America. The museum displays more than just the visual delights of art. It introduces you to ancient ways of living. You can visit an Egyptian temple, a fragrant Ming garden, a typical room in an 18th century French house and many other special exhibitions.
 
Museum of Modern Art (53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues)
        It is amazing that so many great works of art from the late 19th century to the 21st century are housed in the same museum. The collection of Western art includes paintings by such famous artists as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse. A few words of warning: the admission price is not cheap and the museum is often very crowded.
 
Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue, near 75th Street)
        The Whitney holds an excellent collection of contemporary American painting and sculpture. There are no permanent displays in this museum and exhibitions change all the time. Every two years, the Whitney holds a special exhibition of new art by living artists. The museum also shows videos and films by contemporary video artists.

选修6 Unit 2 Poems-Reading
  A FEW SIMPLE FORMS OF ENGLISH POEMS
        There are various reasons why people write poetry. Some poems tell a story or describe something in a way that will give the reader a strong impression. Others try to convey certain emotions. Poets use many different forms of poetry to express themselves. In this text, however, we will look at a few of the simpler forms.
        Some of the first poetry a young child learns in English is nursery rhymes. These rhymes like the one on the right (A) are still a common type of children's poetry. The language is concrete but imaginative, and they delight small children because they rhyme, have strong rhythm and a lot of repetition. The poems may not make sense and even seem contradictory, but they are easy to learn and recite. By playing with the words in nursery rhymes, children learn about language.
A     Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won't sing, Papa's going to buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns to brass, Papa's going to buy you a looking-glass. If that looking-glass gets broke, Papa's going to buy you a billy-goat. If that billy-goat runs away, Papa's going to buy you another today.
        One of the simplest kinds of poems are those like B and C that list things. List poems have a flexible line length and repeated phrases which give both a pattern and a rhythm to the poem. Some rhyme (like B) while others do not (like C).
B     I saw a fish-portal all on fire
    I saw a fish-pond all on fire,
      I saw a house bow to a squire,
        I saw a person twelve-feet high,
        I saw a cottage in the sky,
        I saw a balloon made of lead,
        I saw a coffin drop down dead,
        I saw two sparrows run a race,
        I saw two horses making lace,
        I saw g girl just like a cat,
        I saw a kitten wear a hat,
        I saw a man who saw these too,
       And said though strange they all were true.
C    Our first football match
       We would have won ...
        if Jack had scored that goal,
        if we'd had just a few more minutes,
        if we had trained harder,
        if Ben had passed the ball to Joe,
        if we'd had thousands of fans screaming,
        if I hadn't taken my eye off the ball,
        if we hadn't stayed up so late the night before,
        if we hadn't taken it easy,
        if we hadn't run out of energy.
       We would have won ...
        if we'd been better!
       Another simple form of poem that students can easily write is the cinquain, a poem made up of five lines. With these, students can convey a strong picture in just a few words. Look at the examples (D and E) on the top of the next page.
D    Brother Beautiful, athletic Teasing, shouting, laughing Friend and enemy too Mine
E     Summer Sleepy, salty Drying, drooping, dreading Week in, week out Endless
F     A fallen blossom Is coming back to the branch. Look, a butterfly!
        ( by Moritake)
G    Snow having melted, The whole village is brimful Of happy children.
                                                                                              (by Issa)
       Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that is made up of 17 syllables. It is not a traditional form of English poetry, but is very popular with English writers. It is easy to write and, like the cinquain , can give a clear picture and create a special feeling using the minimum of words. The two haiku poems (F and G) above are translations from the Japanese.                       
H     Where she awaits her husband On and on the river flows. Never looking back,Transformed into stone.Day by day upon the mountain top,wind and rain revolve.Should the traveller return,this stone would utter speech.,
                                                                                    (by Wang Jian)
        Did you know that English speakers also enjoy other forms of Asian poetry - Tang poems from China in particular? A lot of Tang poetry has been translated into English. This Tang poem (H) is a translation from the Chinese.                
        With so many different forms of poetry to choose from, students may eventually want to write poems of their own. It is easier than you might think and certainly worth a try!

I'VE SAVED THE SUMMER

 
I've saved the summer
And I give it all to you
To hold on winter mornings
When the snow is new.
 
I've saved some sunlight
If you should ever need
A place away from darkness
Where your mind can feed.
 

And for myself I've kept your smile
When you were but nineteen,
Till you're older you'll not know
What brave young smiles can mean.
 
I know no answers
To help you on your way
The answers lie somewhere
At the bottom of the day.
 
But if you've a need for love
I'll give you all l own
It might help you down the road
Till you've found your own.
                            (by Rod McKuen)
 

选修6 Unit 3 A healthy life-Reading

ADVICE FROM GRANDAD
Dear James,
It is a beautiful day here and I am sitting under the big tree at the end of the garden. I have  just returned from a long bike ride to an old castle. It seems amazing that at my age I am still  fit enough to cycle 20 kilometres in an afternoon. It's my birthday in two weeks time and I'll be  82 years old! I think my long and active life must be due to the healthy life I live.          
This brings me to the real reason for my letter, my dear grandson. Your mother tells me that  you started smoking some time ago and now you are finding it difficult to give it up. Believe me, I know how easy it is to begin smoking and how tough it is to stop. You see, during adolescence I also smoked and became addicted to cigarettes.
By the way, did you know that this is because you become addicted in three different ways?  First, you can become physically addicted to nicotine, which is one of the hundreds of chemicals in cigarettes. This means that after a while your body becomes accustomed to having nicotine in it. So when the drug leaves your body, you get withdrawal symptoms. I remember feeling bad-tempered and sometimes even in pain. Secondly, you become addicted through habit. As you know, if you do the same thing over and over again, you begin to do it automatically. Lastly, you can become mentally addicted. I believed I was happier and more relaxed after having a cigarette, so I began to think that I could only feel good when I smoked. I was addicted in all three ways, so it was very difficult to quit. But I did finally manage.
When I was young, I didn't know much about the harmful effects of smoking. I didn't know, for example, that it could do terrible damage to your heart and lungs or that it was more difficult for smoking couples to become pregnant. I certainly didn't know their babies may have a smaller birth weight or even be abnormal in some way. Neither did I know that my cigarette smoke could affect the health of non-smokers. However, what I did know was that my girlfriend thought I smelt terrible. She said my breath and clothes smelt, and that the ends of my fingers were turning yellow. She told me that she wouldn't go out with me again unless I stopped! I also noticed that I became breathless quickly, and that I wasn't enjoying sport as much. When I was taken off the school football team because I was unfit, I knew it was time to quit smoking.
I am sending you some advice I found on the Internet. It might help you to stop and strengthen your resolve. I do hope so because I want you to live as long and healthy a life as I have.    
Love from
Grandad

Reading and discussing

Before you read the poster below, discuss what you know about HIV/AIDS with your classmates. Make a list of words that you might come across in this poster.
HIV/AIDS:ARE YOU AT RISK?
     HIV is a virus. A virus is a very small living thing that causes disease. There are many different viruses, for example, the flu virus or the SARS virus. HIV weakens a person's  immune system; that is, the part of the body that fights disease. You can have HIV in your  blood for a long time, but eventually HIV will damage your immune system so much that you body can no longer fight disease. This stage of the illness is called AIDS. If you develop AIDS, your chances of survival are very small.
     HIV is spread through blood or the fluid that the body makes during sex. For a person  to become infected, blood or sexual fluid that carries the virus, has to get inside the body through broken skin or by injection. One day scientists will find a cure for HIV/AIDS.
Until that happens, you need to protect yourself. Here are some things you can do to make sure you stay safe.
If you inject drugs:
do not share your needle with anyone else. Blood from another person can stay on or in the needle. If a person has HIV and you use the same needle, you could inject the virus into your own blood.
do not share anything else that a person has used while injecting drugs.Blood could have spilt on it.
If you have sex with a male or a female:
use a condom. This will prevent sexual fluid passing from one person to another.
The following statements are NOT true.
A person cannot get HIV the first time they have sex.WRONG. If one sexual partner has HIV, the other partner could become infected.
You can tell by looking at someone whether or not they have HIV.WRONG. Many people carrying HIV look perfectly healthy. It is only when the disease has progressed to AIDS that a person begins to look sick.
Only homosexuals get AIDS.WRONG. Anyone who has sex with a person infected with H1V/AIDS risks getting the virus. Women are slightly more likely to become infected than men.
If you hug, touch or kiss someone with AIDS or visit them in their home, you will get HIV/AIDS.WRONG.You can only get the disease from blood or sexual fluid.Unfortunately, people with HIV sometimes lose their friends because of prejudice.Many people are afraid that they will get HIV/AIDS from those infected with HIV!AIDS. For the same reason, some AIDS patients cannot find anyone to look after them when they are sick.
     You can get HIV/AIDS from mosquitoes.WRONG. There is no evidence of this.

 

选修6 Unit 4 Global warming-Reading
THE EARTH IS BECOMING WARMER-BUT DOES IT MATTER?
      During the 20th century the temperature of the earth rose about one degree Fahrenheit. That probably does not seem much to you or me, but it is a rapid increase when compared to other natural changes. So how has this come about and does it matter? Earth Care’s Sophie Armstrong explores these questions.
      There is no doubt that the earth is becoming warmer (see Graph 1) and that it is human activity
that has caused this global warming rather than a random but natural phenomenon.
 

     All scientists subscribe to the view that the increase in the earth's temperature is due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil to produce energy. Some byproducts of this process are called "greenhouse" gases, the most important one of which is carbon dioxide. Dr Janice Foster explains: "There is a natural phenomenon that scientists call the 'greenhouse effect'. This is when small amounts of gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour, trap heat from the sun and therefore warm the earth. Without the 'greenhouse effect', the earth would be about thirty-three degrees Celsius cooler than it is. So, we need those gases. The problem begins when we add huge quantities of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It means that more heat energy tends to be trapped in the atmosphere causing the global temperature to go up."

       We know that the levels of carbon dioxide have increased greatly over the last 100 to 150 years. It was a scientist called Charles Keeling, who made accurate measurements of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 1957 to 1997. He found that between these years the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere went up from around 315 parts to around 370 parts per million
(see Graph 2).
       All scientists accept this data. They also agree that it is the burning of more and more fossil
fuels that has resulted in this increase in carbon dioxide. So how high will the temperature increase go? Dr Janice Foster says that over the next 100 years the amount of warming could be as low as 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but it could be as high as 5 degrees.
 

      However, the attitude of scientists towards this rise is completely different. On the one hand, Dr Foster thinks that the trend which increases the temperature by 5 degrees would be a catastrophe. She says, "We can't predict the climate well enough to know what to expect, but it could be very serious." Others who agree with her think there may be a rise of several metres in the sea level, or predict severe storms, floods, droughts, famines, the spread of diseases and the disappearance of species. On the other hand, there are those, like George Hambley, who are opposed to this view, believe that we should not worry about high levels of carbon dioxide in the air. They predict that any warming will be mild with few bad environmental consequences. In fact, Hambley states, "More carbon dioxide is actually a positive thing. It will make plants grow quicker; crops will produce more; it will encourage a greater range of animals - all of which will make life for human beings better."

       Greenhouse gases continue to build up in the atmosphere. Even if we start reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the climate is going to keep on warming for decades or centuries. No one knows the effects of global warming. Does that mean we should do nothing? Or, are the risks too great?

 WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
Dear Earth Care,
I am doing a project on behalf of my school about global warming. Sometimes I feel that individuals can have little effect on such huge environmental problems. However, 1 still think people should advocate improvements in the way we use energy today. As I'm not sure where to start with my project, I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.
Thank you!
Ouyang  Guang
Dear Ouyang Guang,
There are many people who have a commitment like yours, but they do not believe they have the power to do anything to improve our environment. That is not true. Together, individuals can make a difference. We do not have to put up with pollution.
The growth of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide in the air actually comes as a result of many things we do every day. Here are a few suggestions on how to reduce it. They should get you started with your project.
1  We use a lot of energy in our houses. It is OK to leave an electrical appliance on so long as you  are using it - if not, turn it off! Do not be casual about this. So if you are not using the lights, the TV, the computer, and so on, turn them off. If you are cold, put on more clothes instead of turning up the heat.
2  Motor vehicles use a lot of energy- so walk or ride a bike if you can.
3  Recycle cans, bottles, plastic bags and newspapers if circumstances allow you to. It takes a lot of energy to make things from new materials, so, if you can, buy things made from recycled materials.
4 Get your parents to buy things that are economical with energy - this includes cars as well as smaller things like fridges and microwaves.
5 Plant trees in your garden or your school yard, as they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and  refresh your spirit when you look at them.
6 Finally and most importantly, be an educator. Talk with your family and friends about global warming and tell them what you have learned.
Remember - your contribution counts!
Earth Care

 

选修6 Unit 5 The power of nature-Reading

AN EXCITING JOB
        I have the greatest job in the world. I travel to unusual places and work alongside people from all over the world. Sometimes working outdoors, sometimes in an office, sometimes using scientific equipment and sometimes meeting local people and tourists, I am never bored.
Although my job is occasionally dangerous, I don't mind because danger excites me and makes me feel alive. However, the most important thing about my job is that I help protect  ordinary  people from one of the most powerful forces on earth - the volcano.
       I was appointed as a volcanologist working for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) twenty years ago. My job is collecting information for a database about Mount Kilauea, which is one of the most active volcanoes in Hawaii. Having collected and evaluated the information, I help other scientists to predict where lava from the volcano will flow next and how fast. Our work has saved many lives because people in the path of the lava can be warned to leave their houses. Unfortunately, we cannot move their homes out of the way, and many houses have been covered with lava or burned to the ground.
      When boiling rock erupts from a volcano and crashes back to earth, it causes less damage than you might imagine. This is because no one lives near the top of Mount Kilauea, where the rocks fall. The lava that flows slowly like a wave down the mountain causes far more damage because it buries everything in its path under the molten rock. However, the eruption itself is really exciting to watch and I shall never forget my first sight of one. It was in the second week after I arrived in Hawaii. Having worked hard all day, I went to bed early. I was fast asleep when suddenly my bed began shaking and I heard a strange sound, like a railway train passing my window. Having experienced quite a few earthquakes in Hawaii already, I didn't take much notice. I was about to go back to sleep when suddenly my bedroom became as bright as day. I ran out of the house into the back garden where I could see Mount Kilauea in the distance. There had been an eruption from the side of the mountain and red hot lava was fountaining hundreds of metres into the air. It was an absolutely fantastic sight.
      The day after this eruption I was lucky enough to have a much closer look at it. Two other scientists and I were driven up the mountain and dropped as close as possible to the crater that had been formed during the eruption. Having earlier collected special clothes from the observatory, we put them on before we went any closer. All three of us looked like spacemen.We had white protective suits that covered our whole body, helmets, big boots and special gloves. It was not easy to walk in these suits, but we slowly made our way to the edge of the crater and looked down into the red, boiling centre. The other two climbed down into the crater to collect some lava for later study, but this being my first experience, I stayed at the top and watched them.
   Today, I am just as enthusiastic about my job as the day I first started. Having studied volcanoes now for many years, I am still amazed at their beauty as well as their potential to cause great damage.

 THE LRKE OF HERVEN

      Changbaishan is in Jilin Province, Northeast China.Much of this beautiful, mountainous area is thick forest . Changbaishan is China's largest nature reserve and it is kept in its natural state for the people of China and visitors from all over the world to enjoy. The height of the land varies from 700 metres above sea level to over 2,000 metres and is home to a great diversity of rare plants and animals. Among the rare animals are cranes, black bears, leopards and tigers. Many people come to Changbaishan to study its unique plants and animals. Others come to walk in the mountains, to see the spectacular waterfalls or to bathe in the hot water pools. However, the attraction that arouses the greatest appreciation in the reserve is Tianchi or the Lake of Heaven.
     Tianchi is a deep lake that has formed in the crater of a dead volcano on top of the mountain. The lake is 2,194 metres above sea level, and more than 200 metres deep. In winter the surface freezes over. It takes about an hour to climb from the end of the road to the top of the mountain. When you arrive you are rewarded not only with the sight of its clear waters, but also by the view of the other sixteen mountain peaks that surround Tianchi.
     There are many stories told about Tianchi. The most well-known concerns three young women from heaven. They were bathing in Tainchi when a bird flew above them and dropped a small fruit onto the dress of the youngest girl. When she picked up the fruit to smell it, it flew into her mouth.Having swallowed the fruit, the girl became pregnant and later gave birth to a handsome boy. It is said that this boy, who had a great gift for languages and persuasion, is the father of the Manchu people.
      If you are lucky enough to visit the Lake of Heaven with your loved one, don't forget to drop a coin into the clear blue water to guarantee your love will be as deep and lasting as the lake itself.

选修7 Unit 1 Living well-Reading
 MARTY’S STORY
 
         Hi, my name is Marry Fielding and I guess you could say that I am "one in a million". In other words, there are not many people like me. You see, I have a muscle disease which makes me very weak, so I can't run or climb stairs as quickly as other people. In addition, sometimes I am very clumsy and drop things or bump into furniture. Unfortunately, the doctors don't know how to make me better, but I am very outgoing and have learned to adapt to my disability. My motto is: live One day at a time.
          Until I was ten years old I was the same as everyone else. I used to climb trees, swim and play football. In fact, I used to dream about playing professional football and possibly representing my country in the World Cup. Then I started to get weaker and weaker, until I could only enjoy football from a bench at the stadium. In the end I went into hospital for medical tests. I stayed there for nearly three months. I think I had at least a billion tests, including one in which they cut out a piece of muscle from my leg and looked at it under a microscope. Even after all that, no one could give my disease a name and it is difficult to know what the future holds.
          One problem is that I don't look any different from other people. So sometimes some children in my primary school would laugh, when I got out of breath after running a short way or had to stop and rest halfway up the stairs. Sometimes, too, I was too weak to go to school so my education suffered. Every time I returned after an absence, I felt stupid because I was behind the others.
          My life is a lot easier at high school because my fellow students have accepted me. The few who cannot see the real person inside my body do not make me annoyed, and I just ignore them. All in all I have a good life. I am happy to have found many things I can do, like writing and computer programming. My ambition is to work for a firm that develops computer software when I grow up. Last year invented a computer football game and a big company has decided to buy it from me. I have a very busy life with no time to sit around feeling sorry for myself. As well as going to the movies and football matches with my friends, I spend a lot of time with my pets. I have two rabbits, a parrot, a tank full of fish and a tortoise. To look after my pets properly takes a lot of time but I find it worthwhile. I also have to do a lot of work, especially if I have been away for a while.
          In many ways my disability has helped me grow stronger psychologically and become more independent. I have to work hard to live a normal life but it has been worth it. If I had a chance to say one thing to healthy children, it would be this: having a disability does not mean your life is not satisfying. So don't feel sorry for the disabled or make fun of them, and don't ignore them either. Just accept them for who they are, and give them encouragement to live as rich and full a life as you do.
         Thank you for reading my story.

A LETTER TO AN ARCHITECT

 
          Look at the pictures. Discuss the problems that people with walking difficulties  might have in a cinema.
 Ms L Sanders                                              Alice Major
 Chief architect                                           64 Cambridge Street
 Cinema Designs                                            Bankstown
 44 Hill Street
 Bankstown
 24 September, 200__
Dear Ms Sanders,
         I read in the newspaper today that you are to be the architect for the new Bankstown cinema.I hope you will not mind me writing to ask if you have thought about the needs of disabled customers. In particular I wonder if you have considered the following things:
 
        1  Adequate access for wheelchairs. It would be handy to have lifts to all parts of the cinema. The buttons in the lifts should be easy for a person in a wheelchair to reach, and the doors be wide enough to enter. In some cinemas, the lifts are at the back of the cinema in cold, unattractive  places. As disabled people have to use the lifts, this makes them feel they are not as important as other customers.
 
        2  Earphones for people who have trouble hearing. It would help to fit sets of earphones to all seats, not just to some of them. This would allow hearing-impaired customers to enjoy the company of their hearing friends rather than having to sit in a special area.
 
        3  Raised seating. People who are short cannot always see the screen. So I'd like to suggest that the seats at the back be placed higher than those at the front so that everyone can see the screen easily. Perhaps there could be a space at the end of each row for people in wheelchairs to sit next to their friends.
 
        4 Toilets. For disabled customers it would be more convenient to place the toilets near the entrance to the cinema. It can be difficult if the only disabled toilet is in the basement a long way from where the film is showing. And if the doors could be opened outwards, disabled customers would be very happy.
 
        5  Car parking. Of course, there are usually spaces specially reserved for disabled and elderly drivers. If they are close to the cinema entrance and/or exit, it is easier for disabled people to get to film in comfort.
 
         Thank you for reading my letter. I hope my suggestions will meet with your approval. Disabled  people should have the same opportunities as able-bodied people to enjoy the cinema and to do so with dignity.I am sure many people will praise your cinema if you design it with good access for disabled people. It will also make the cinema owners happy if more people go as they will make higher profits!                                                              
Yours sincerely,                                                                     
Alice Major

 

选修7 Unit 2 Robots - Reading
SATISFACTION GURANTEED
Larry Belmont worked for a company that made robots. Recently it had begun experimenting with a household robot. It was going to be tested out by Larry's wife, Claire.
        Claire didn't want the robot in her house, especially as her husband would be absent for three weeks, but Larry persuaded her that the robot wouldn't harm her or allow her to be harmed. It would be a bonus. However, when she first saw the robot, she felt alarmed. His name was Tony and he seemed more like a human than a machine. He was tall and handsome with smooth hair and a deep voice although his facial expression never changed.
         On the second morning Tony, wearing an apron, brought her breakfast and then asked her whether she needed help dressing. She felt embarrassed and quickly told him to go. It was disturbing and frightening that he looked so human.  
         One day, Claire mentioned that she didn't think she was clever. Tony said that she must feel very unhappy to say that. Claire thought it was ridiculous to be offered sympathy by a robot. But she began to trust him. She told him how she was overweight and this made her feel unhappy. Also she felt her home wasn't elegant enough for someone like Larry who wanted to improve his social position. She wasn't like Gladys Claffern, one of the richest and most powerful women around.
         As a favour Tony promised to help Claire make herself smarter and her home more elegant. So Claire borrowed a pile of books from the library for him to read, or rather, scan. She looked at his fingers with wonder as they turned each page and suddenly reached for his hand. She was amazed by his fingernails and the softness and warmth of his skin. How absurd, she thought. He was just a machine.
         Tony gave Claire a new haircut and changed the makeup she wore. As he was not allowed to accompany her to the shops, he wrote out a list of items for her. Claire went into the city and bought curtains, cushions, a carpet and bedding. Then she went into a jewellery shop to buy a necklace. When the clerk at the counter was rude to her, she rang Tony up and told the clerk to speak to him. The clerk immediately changed his attitude. Claire thanked Tony, telling him that he was a "dear". As she turned around, there stood Gladys Claffern. How awful to be discovered by her, Claire thought. By the amused and surprised look on her face, Claire knew that Gladys thought she was having an affair. After all, she knew Claire's husband's name was Larry, not Tony.
          When  Claire got home, she wept with anger in her armchair. Gladys was everything Claire wanted to be. "You can be like her," Tony told her and suggested that she invite Gladys and her friends to the house the night before he was to leave and Larry was to return. By that time, Tony expected the house to be completely transformed.              
          Tony worked steadily on the improvements. Claire tried to help once but was too clumsy.She fell off a ladder and even though Tony was in the next room, he managed to catch her in time. He held her firmly in his arms and she felt the warmth of his body. She screamed, pushed him away and ran to her room for the rest of the day.
           The night of the party arrived. The clock struck eight. The guests would be arriving soon and Claire told Tony to go into another room.At that moment, Tony folded his arms around her, bending his face close to hers. She cried out "Tony" and then heard him declare that he didn't want to leave her the next day and that he felt more than just the desire to please her. Then the front door bell rang. Tony freed her and disappeared from sight. It was then that Claire realized that Tony had opened the curtains of the front window. Her guests had seen everything !
           The women were impressed by Claire, the house and the delicious cuisine. Just before they left, Claire heard Gladys whispering to another woman that she had never seen anyone so handsome as Tony. What a sweet victory to be envied by those women! She might not be as beautiful as them, but none of them had such a handsome lover.
           Then she remembered -Tony was just a machine. She shouted "Leave me alone" and ran to her bed. She cried all night. The next morning a car drove up and took Tony away.
           The company was very pleased with Tony's report on his three weeks with Claire. Tony had protected a human being from harm. He had prevented Claire from harming herself through her own sense of failure. He had opened the curtains that night so that the other women would see him and Claire, knowing that there was no risk to Claire's marriage. But even though Tony had been so clever, he would have to be rebuilt -you cannot have women failing in love with machines.

A BIOGRAPHY OF ISAAC ASIMOV
 Isaac Asimov was an American scientist and writer who wrote around 480 books that included mystery stories, science and history books, and even books about the Holy Bible and Shakespeare. But he is best known for his science fiction stories. Asimov had both an extraordinary imagination that gave him the ability to explore future worlds and an amazing mind with which he searched for explanations of everything, in the present and the past.
       Asimov's life began in Russia, where he was born on 2 January, 1920. It ended in New York on 6 April, 1992, when he died as a result of an HIV infection that he had got from a blood transfusion nine years earlier.
       When Asimov was three, he moved with his parents and his one-year-old sister to New York City. There his parents bought a candy store which they ran for the next 40 or so years. At the age of nine, when his mother was pregnant with her third child, Asimov started working part-time in the store. He helped out through his school and university years until 1942, a year after he had gained a master's degree in chemistry. In 1942 he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a junior chemist and worked there for three years. In 1948 he got his PhD in chemistry. The next year he became a biochemistry teacher at Boston University School of Medicine. In 1958 he gave up teaching to become a full-time writer.
        It was when Asimov was eleven years old that his talent for writing became obvious. He had told a friend two chapters of a story he had written. The friend thought he was retelling a story from a book. This really surprised Asimov and from that moment, he started to take himself seriously as a writer. Asimov began having stories published in science fiction magazines in 1939. In 1950 he published his first novel and in 1953 his first science book.
       Throughout his life, Asimov received many awards, both for his science fiction books and his science books. Among his most famous works of science fiction, one for which he won an award was the Foundation trilogy (1951-1953), three novels about the death and rebirth of a great empire in a galaxy of the future. It was loosely based on the fall of the Roman Empire but was about the future. These books are famous because Asimov invented a theoretical framework which was designed to show how ideas and thinking may develop in the future. He is also well known for his collection of short stories, I, Robot (1950), in which he developed a set of three "laws" for robots. For example, the first law states that a robot must not injure human beings or allow them to be injured. Some of his ideas about robots later influenced other writers and even scientists researching into artificial intelligence.
        Asimov was married twice. He married his first wife in 1942 and had a son and a daughter. Their marriage lasted 31 years. Soon after his divorce in 1973, Asimov married again but he had no children with his second wife.

选修7 Unit 3 Under the sea - Reading
OLD TOM THE KILLER WHALE
I was 16 when I began work in June 1902 at the whaling station. I had heard of the killers that every year helped whalers catch huge whales. I thought, at the time, that this was just a story but then I witnessed it with my own eyes many times.
         On the afternoon I arrived at the station, as I was I sorting out my' accommodation, I heard a loud noise coming from the bay. We ran down to the shore in time to see an enormous animal opposite us throwing itself out of the water and then crashing down again. It was black and white and fish-shaped. But I knew it wasn't a fish.

         "That's Old Tom, the killer," one of the whalers, George, called out to me. "He's telling us there's a whale out there for us."
          Another whaler yelled out, "Rush-oo ...rush-oo." This was the call that announced there was about to be a whale hunt.
         "Come on, Clancy. To the boat," George said as he ran ahead of me. I had already heard that George didn't like being kept waiting, so even though I didn't have the right clothes on, I raced after him.
         Without pausing we jumped into the boat with the other whalers and headed out into the bay. I looked down into the water and could see Old Tom swimming by the boat, showing us the way. A few minutes later, there was no Tom, so George started beating the water with his oar and there was Tom, circling back to the boat, leading us to the hunt again.
         Using a telescope we could see that something was happening. As we drew closer, I could see a whale being attacked by a pack of about six other killers.
         "What're they doing?" I asked George.
         "Well, it's teamwork - the killers over there are throwing themselves on top of the whale's blow-hole to stop it breathing. And those others are stopping it diving or fleeing out to sea," George told me, pointing towards the hunt. And just at that moment, the most extraordinary thing happened. The killers started racing between our boat and the whale just like a pack of excited dogs.
         Then the harpoon was ready and the man in the bow of the boat aimed it at the whale. He let it go and the harpoon hit the spot. Being badly wounded, the whale soon died. Within a moment or two, its body was dragged swiftly by the killers down into the depths of the sea. The men started turning the boat around to go home.
        "What's happened?" I asked. "Have we lost the whale?"
         "Oh no," Jack replied. "We'll return tomorrow to bring in the body. It won't float up to the surface for around 24 hours." "In the meantime, Old Tom, and the others are having a good feed on its lips and tongue," added Red, laughing.                            
          Although Old Tom and the other killers were fierce hunters, they, never harmed or attacked people. In fact, they protected them. There was one day when we were out in the bay during a hunt and James was washed off the boat.
          "Man overboard! Turn the boat around!" urged George, shouting loudly.
          The sea was rough that day and it was difficult to handle the boat. The waves were carrying James further and further away from us. From James's face, I could see he was terrified of being abandoned by us. Then suddenly I saw a shark.

          "Look, there's a shark out there," I screamed.
          "Don't worry, Old Tom won't let it near," Red replied.
          It took over half an hour to get the boat back to James, and when we approached him, I saw James being firmly held up in the water by Old Tom. I couldn't believe my eyes.
          There were shouts of "Well done, Old Tom" and 'Thank God" as we pulled James back into the boat. And then Old Tom was off and back to the hunt where the other killers were still attacking the whale.

A NEW DIMENSION OF LIFE
19th January
      I'm sitting in the warm night air with a cold drink in my hand and reflecting on the day – a day of pure magic! I went snorkelling on the reef offshore this morning and it was the most fantastic thing I have ever done. Seeing such extraordinary beauty, I think every cell in my body woke up. It was like discovering a whole new dimension of life.
          The first thing I became aware of was all the vivid colours surrounding me - purples, reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens. The corals were fantastic - they were shaped like fans, plates, brains, lace, mushrooms, the branches of trees and the horns of deer. And all kinds of small, neat and elegant fish were swimming in and around the corals.

          The fish didn't seem to mind me swimming among them. I especially loved the little orange and white fish that hid in the waving long thin seaweed. And I also loved the small fish that clean the bodies of larger fish - I even saw them get inside their mouths and clean their teeth! It seemed there was a surprise waiting for me around every corner as I explored small caves, shelves and narrow passages with my underwater flashlight: the yellow and green parrotfish was hanging upside down, and sucking tiny plants off the coral with its hard bird-like mouth; a yellow-spotted red sea-slug was sliding by a blue sea-star; a large wise-looking turtle was passing so close to me that I could have touched it.

          There were other creatures that I didn't want to get too close to - an eel with its strong sharp teeth, with only its head showing from a hole, watching for a tasty fish (or my tasty toe!); and the giant clam halt buried in some coral waiting for something to swim in between its thick green lips. Then there were two grey reef sharks, each about one and a half metres long, which suddenly appeared from behind some coral. I told myself they weren't dangerous but that didn't stop me from feeling scared to death for a moment!

          The water was quite shallow but where the reef ended, there was a steep drop to the sandy ocean floor. It marked a boundary and I thought I was very brave when I swam over the edge of the reef and hung there looking down into the depths of the ocean. My heart was beating wildly - I felt very exposed in such deep clear water.
          What a wonderful, limitless world it was down there! And what a tiny spot I was in this enormous world!

 

选修7 Unit 4 Sharing- Reading
A LETTER HOME
Dear Rosemary,
          Thanks for your letter, which took a fortnight to arrive. It was wonderful to hear from you. I know you're dying to hear all about my life here, so I've included some photos which will help you picture the places I talk about.
 
          You asked about my high school. Well, it's a bush school – the classrooms are made of bamboo and the roofs of grass. It takes me only a few minutes to walk to school down a muddy track. When I reach the school grounds there are lots of "good mornings" for me from the boys. Many of them have walked a long way, sometimes up to two hours, to get to school.
         There's no electricity or water and even no textbooks either! l'm still trying to adapt to these conditions. However, one thing is for sure, I've become more imaginative in my teaching. Science is my most challenging subject as my students have no concept of
doing experiments. In fact there is no equipment, and if I need water I have to carry it from my house in a bucket! The other day I was showing the boys the weekly chemistry experiment when, before I knew it, the mixture was bubbling over everywhere! The boys who had never come across anything like this before started jumping out of the windows. Sometimes I wonder how relevant chemistry is to these students, most of whom will be going back to their villages after Year 8 anyway. To be honest, I doubt whether I'm making any difference to these boys' lives at all.

   You asked whether I'm getting to know any local people. Well, that's actually quite difficult as  I don't speak much of the local English dialect yet. But last weekend another teacher, Jenny, and 1 did visit a village which is the home of one of the boys, Tombe. It was my first visit to a remote village. We walked for two and a half hours to get there - first up a mountain to a ridge from where we had fantastic views and then down a steep path to the valley below. When we arrived at the village, Tombe's mother, Kiak, who had been pulling weeds in her garden, started crying "ieee ieee". We shook hands with all the villagers. Everyone seemed to be a relative of Tombe's.

            Tombe's father, Mukap, led us to his house, a low bamboo hut with grass sticking out of the roof - this shows it is a man's house. The huts were round, not rectangular like the school buildings.

        There were no windows and the doorway was just big enough to get through. The hut was dark inside so it took time for our eyes to adjust. Fresh grass had been laid on the floor and there was a newly made platform for Jenny and me to sleep on. Usually Kiak would sleep in her own hut, but that night she was going to share the platform with us. Mukap and Tombe were to sleep on small beds in another part of the hut. There was a fireplace in the centre of the hut near the doorway. The only possessions I could see were one broom, a few tin plates and cups and a couple of jars.

   Outside Mukap was building a fire. Once the fire was going, he laid stones on it. When hot, he placed them in an empty oil drum with kau kau (sweet potato), corn and greens. He then covered the vegetables with banana leaves and left them to steam. I sniffed the food; it smelled delicious. We ate inside the hut sitting round the fire. I loved listening to the family softly talking to each other in their language, even though I could not participate the conversation. Luckily, Tombe could be our interpreter.

          Later, I noticed a tin can standing upside down on the grill over the fire. After a short time Tombe threw it out of the doorway.I was puzzled. Tombe told me that the can was heated to dry out the leftover food. They believe that any leftovers attract evil spirits in the night, so the food is dried up in the can and the can is then thrown out of the hut. Otherwise they don't waste anything.
 

          We left the village the next morning after many goodbyes and firm handshakes. My muscles were aching and my knees shaking as we climbed down the mountain towards home. That evening I fell happily into bed. It was such a privilege to have spent a day with Tombe's family.
          It's getting late and I have to prepare tomorrow's lessons and do some paperwork. Please write soon.
Love                                                      
Jo  

THE WORLD'S MOST USEFUL GIFT CATALOGUE
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      When you purchase an item, we will send you an attractive card for you to send to your special person. You can use the cards for any special occasion-weddings ,births, birthdays,Christmas or anniversaries, etc.

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  This gift will train a whole village of around 40 families in India, Kenya, or Bangladesh in new agricultural methods, and provide seeds and simple agricultural equipment. Just 20% more produce will mean the difference between sickness and health, between families going hungry and families providing for themselves.

 

From…………………………………………….

选修7 Unit 5 Travelling abroad- Reading
KEEP IT UP,XIE LEI
CHINESE STUDENGT FITTING WELL
Six months ago Xie Lei said goodbye to her family and friends in China and boarded a plane for London. It was the first time she had ever left her motherland. "After getting my visa I was very excited because I had dreamed of this day for so long. But I was also very nervous as I didn't know what to expect," Xie Lei told me when I saw her waiting in a queue at the student cafeteria between lectures.
       Xie Lei, who is 21 years old, has come to our university to study for a business qualification. She is halfway through the preparation year, which most foreign students complete before applying for a degree course. Xie Lei highly recommends it. "The preparation course is most beneficial," she said. "Studying here is quite different from studying in China, so you need some preparation first."
       "It's not just study that's difficult. You have to get used to a whole new way of life, which can take up all your concentration in the beginning," explained Xie Lei, who had lived all her life in the same city in China. She told me that she had had to learn almost everything again. "Sometimes I felt like a child," she said. "I had to learn how to use the phone, how to pay bus fare, and how to ask a shopkeeper for things I didn't know the English for. When I got lost and had to ask a passer-by for directions, I didn't always understand. They don't talk like they do on our listening tapes," she said, laughing.
        Xie Lei lives with a host family who give her lots of good advice. Although some foreign students live in student accommodation or apartments, some choose to board with English families. Living with host families, in which there may be other college students, gives her the chance to learn more about the new culture. "When I hear an idiom that I don't understand, I can ask my host family for help," explains Xie Lei. "Also, when I miss my family, it's a great comfort to have a substitute family to be with."
        Xie Lei's preparation course is helping her to get used to the academic requirements of a Western university. "I remember the first essay I did for my tutor," she told me. "I found an article on the Internet that seemed to have exactly the information I needed. So I made a summary of the article, revised my draft and handed the essay in. I thought I would get a really good mark but I got an E. I was numb with shock! So I went to my tutor to ask the reason for his revision. First of all, he told me, I couldn't write what other people had said without acknowledging them. Besides, as far as he was concerned, what other people thought was not the most important thing. He wanted to know what I thought, which confused me because I thought that the author of the article knew far more than I did. My tutor explained that I should read lots of different texts that contain different opinions and analyse what I read. Then, in my essay, I should give my own opinion and explain it by referring to other authors. Finally he even encouraged me to contradict the authors I'd read! At first I lacked confidence, but now I'm beginning to get the idea and my marks have improved. More importantly, I am now a more autonomous learner."
        Xie Lei told me that she feels much more at home in England now, and what had seemed very strange before now appears quite normal. "I've just got one more thing to achieve. I have been so occupied with work that I haven't had time for social activities. I think it's important to have a balance between study and a social life, so I'm going to join a few clubs. Hope- fully I'll make some new friends."
       We will follow Xie Lei's progress in later editions of this newspaper but for now, we wish Xie Lei all the best in her new enterprise. She deserves to succeed.

PERU
       Peru offers a variety of experiences from ancient ruins and centuries-old Spanish villages to thick forests, high mountains and desert coastline. TRAVEL PERU offers tours for all ages and tastes. The following tours are based at Cuzco, the site of the ancient capital of the Inca civilization.
 
Tour 1
           Experience the jungle and its diverse wildlife close up. During this four-day walking tour, you will be amazed by mountain scenery and the ancient ruins we pass on our hike. On the last day, we arrive at the ruins of Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise over the Andes. Spend the day visiting the ruins of this ancient Inca city before catching the train back to Cuzco.

 
Tour 2
           A full-day trip by road from Cuzco to Puno with fantastic views of the highland countryside. From Puno, we travel by boat across Lake Titicaca, stopping on the way at the floating islands of the Uros people. These floating islands and the Uros Indian's houses are made of the water plants that grow in the lake. A full-day stay with a local family gives you an opportunity to learn more about their life. Return to Puno on the fourth day for your flight back to Lima.
 
Tour 3
           Spend four days high in the-Andes at Cuzco. Learn about its history and visit the museums. Admire the Spanish architecture, enjoy some excellent Spanish cuisine and take some time to bargain for some souvenirs at the colourful markets. Take the train up to Machu Picchu for a guided tour of the ruins and the royal tomb of the Inca king.
 
 Tour 4
            A short flight from Cuzco takes you from the Andes into the lowlands of the Amazon Jungle. From here you'll travel by boat to your accommodation in a forest reserve, which holds the record for the most bird sightings in one area. From the guesthouse you can explore the jungle in the company of a local guide.

 

选修8 Unit 1 A land of diversity-Reading
CALIFORNIA

California is the third largest state in the USA but has the largest population. It also has the distinction of being the most multicultural state in the USA, having attracted people from all over the world. The customs and languages of the immigrants live on in their new home. This diversity of culture is not surprising when you know the history of California.
NATIVE AMERCANS
    Exactly when the first people arrived in what we now know as California, no one really knows. However, it is likely that Native Americans were living in California at least fifteen thousand years ago. Scientists believe that these settlers crossed the Bering Strait in the Arctic to America by means of a land bridge which existed in prehistoric times. In the 16th century, after the arrival of the Europeans, the native people suffered greatly. Thousands were killed or forced into slavery. In addition, many died from the diseases brought by the Europeans. However, some survived these terrible times, and today there are more Native Americans living in California than in any other state.
THE SPANISH
    In the 18th century California was ruled by Spain. Spanish soldiers first arrived in South America in the early 16th century, when they fought against the native people and took their land. Two centuries later, the Spanish had settled in most parts of South America and along the northwest coast of what we now call the United States. Of the first Spanish to go to California, the majority were religious men, whose ministry was to teach the Catholic religion to the natives. In 1821, the people of Mexico gained their independence from Spain. California then became part of Mexico. In 1846 the United States declared war on Mexico, and after the war won by the USA, Mexico had to give California to the USA. However, there is still a strong Spanish influence in the state. That is why today over 40 of Californians speak Spanish as a first or second language.

RUSSIANS

    In the early 1800s, Russian hunters, who had originally gone to Alaska, began settling in California. Today there are about 25,000 Russian-Americans living in and around San Francisco.
GOLD MINERS
    In 1848, not long after the American-Mexican war, gold was discovered in California. The dream of becoming rich quickly attracted people from all over the world. The nearest, and therefore the first to arrive, were South Americans and people from the United States. Then adventurers from Europe and Asia soon followed. In fact, few achieved their dream of becoming rich. Some died or returned home, but most remained in California to make a life for themselves despite great hardship. They settled in the new towns or on farms. By the time California elected to become the thirty-first federal state of the USA in 1850, it was already a multicultural society.

LATER A RRIVALS

     Although Chinese immigrants began to arrive during the Gold Rush Period, it was the building of the rail network from the west to the east coast that brought even larger numbers to California in the 1860s. Today, Chinese-Americans live in all parts of California, although a large percentage have chosen to stay in the "Chinatowns" of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Other immigrants such as Italians, mainly fishermen but also wine makers, arrived in California in the late 19th century. In 1911 immigrants from Denmark established a town of their own, which today still keeps up their Danish culture. By the 1920s the film industry was well established in Hollywood, California. The industry boom attracted Europeans including many Jewish people. Today California has the second largest Jewish population in the United States.
      Japanese farmers began arriving in California at the beginning of the 20th century, and since the 1980s a lot more have settled there. People from Africa have been living in California since the 1800s, when they moved north from Mexico. However, even more arrived between 1942 and 1945 to work in the ship and aircraft industries.

MOST RECENT ARRIVALS

      In more recent decades, California has become home to more people from Asia, including Koreans, Cambodians, Vietnamese and Laotians. Since its beginning in the 1970s, the computer industry has attracted Indians and Pakistanis to California.

THE FUTURE

     People from different parts of the world, attracted by the climate and the lifestyle, still immigrate to California. It is believed that before long the mix of nationalities will be so great that there will be no distinct major racial or cultural groups, but simply a mixture of many races and cultures.

GEORGE’S DIARY 12TH—14TH JUNE

  Monday 12th, June
       Arrived early this morning by bus. Went straight to hotel to drop my luggage, shower and shave. Then went exploring. First thing was a ride on a cable car. From top of the hill got a spectacular view of San Francisco Bay and the city. Built in 1873, the cable car system was invented by Andrew Hallidie, who wanted to find a better form of transport than horse-drawn trams.  Apparently he'd been shocked when he saw a terrible accident in which a tram's brakes failed, the conductor could not control the situation and the tram slipped down the hill dragging the horses with it.
       Had a late lunch at Fisherman's What. This is the district where Italian fishermen first came to San Francisco in the late 19th century and began the fishing industry. Now it's a tourist area with lots of shops, sea food restaurants and bakeries. It's also the place to catch the ferry to Angel Island and other places in the Bay.
       Did so much exploring at Fisherman's What. Am exhausted and don't feel like doing anything else. Early bed tonight!
 
 Tuesday 13th, June
       Teamed up with a couple from my hotel (Peter and Terri) and hired a car. Spent all day driving around the city. There's a fascinating drive marked out for tourists. It has blue and white signs with seagulls on them to show the way to go. It's a 79km round-trip that takes in all the famous tourist spots. Stopped many times to admire the view of the city from different angles and take photographs. Now have a really good idea of what the city's like.
        In evening, went to Chinatown with Peter and Terri. Chinese immigrants settled in this area in the 1850s. The fronts of the buildings are decorated to look like old buildings in southern China. Saw some interesting temples here, a number of markets and a great many restaurants. Also art galleries and a museum containing documents, photographs and all sorts of objects about the history of Chinese immigration, but it is closed in the evening. Will go back during the day. Had a delicious meal and then walked down the hill to our hotel.
 
Wednesday 14th, June
       In morning, took ferry to Angel Island from the port in San Francisco Bay. On the way had a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge. From 1882 to 1940 Angel Island was a famous immigration station where many Chinese people applied for right to live in USA. The cells in the station were very small, cold and damp; some did not even have light but the immigrants had nowhere else to go. Their miserable stay seemed to be punishment rather than justice and freedom to them. They wrote poems on the walls about their loneliness and mourned their former life in China. In 1940 the civil authorities reformed the system so that many more Chinese people were able to grasp the opportunity of settling in the USA. Made me very thoughtful and thankful for my life today.

选修8 Unit 2 Cloning-Reading

             CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?

        Cloning has always been with us and is here to stay. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when twins identical in sex and appearance are produced from the same original egg. The fact is that these are both examples of natural clones.
        Cloning has two major uses. Firstly, gardeners use it all the time to produce commercial quantities of plants. Secondly, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is straightforward while cloning animals is very complicated. It is a difficult task to undertake. Many attempts to clone mammals failed. But at last the determination and patience of the scientists paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough - the cloning of Dolly the sheep. The procedure works like this:

           On the one hand, the whole scientific world followed the progress of the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep. The fact that she seemed to develop normally was very encouraging. Then came the disturbing news that Dolly had become seriously ill. Cloning scientists were cast down to find that Dolly's illnesses were more appropriate to a much older animal. Altogether Dolly lived six and a half years, half the length of the life of the original sheep. Sadly the same arbitrary fate affected other species, such as cloned mice. The questions that concerned all scientists were: "Would this be a major difficulty for all cloned animals? Would it happen forever? Could it be solved if corrections were made in their research procedure?"

        On the other hand, Dolly's appearance raised a storm of objections and had a great impact on the media and public imagination. It became controversial. It suddenly opened everybody's eyes to the possibility of using cloning to cure serious illnesses and even to produce human beings.

       Although at present human egg cells and embryos needed for cloning research are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders hoping to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Governments became nervous and more conservative. Some began to reform their legal systems and forbade research into human cloning, but other countries like China and the UK, continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid that cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and where it is leading us.

 克隆一直在我们左右并且已经被大多数人接受。它是一种用来准确复制其他动物或者植物的方法。在植物方面，克隆就发生在园丁从正在生长的植物上切去切口用来制造新的植株的时候。在动物方面也有克隆现象，比如说两个拥有同样性别以及外貌的同卵双胞胎。这两个事实都是自然界里的克隆例子。
克隆有2方面的主要用途。首先，园丁可以一直用它生产具有商业价值的植物。其次，它对于新的植物物种以及动物医药方面的研究极具价值性。植物克隆相对于动物克隆来说简单得多，而动物克隆则比较困难。
动物克隆是一项难以施行的任务。许多去克隆哺乳动物的尝试都以失败告终。但是在最后，科学家们凭借着决心和耐心终于在1996年取得了突破性的成功——成功地克隆出了多利羊。这项工作的步骤如下：
1.从母羊A体内取出卵细胞。
2.将细胞核从该卵细胞中移除。
3.该卵细胞为另一个新的细胞核准备。
4.从母羊B体内取出体细胞用于克隆。该体细胞内的细胞核包含了克隆一只新的羊所需的全部基因。
5.将该细胞核从体细胞中取出。
6.用电激的方法将从母羊B体内取出的细胞核与从母羊A体内取出的卵细胞融合。
7.重新融合的细胞在胚胎内分裂、生长。
8.将胚胎植入母羊C的体内，它将成为该克隆的携带者。
9.克隆出来的小羊羔体内细胞的基因来自于提供细胞核的母羊B。

    THE RETURN OF THE DINOSAURS?

        The possibility of cloning fierce and extinct wild animals has always excited film makers. And they are not the only ones! The popularity of films such as Jurassic Park, in which a scientist clones several kinds of extinct dinosaurs, proves how the idea struck a mixture of fear and excitement into people's hearts. But in fact we are a long way from being able to clone extinct animals. Scientists are still experimenting with cloning mammals. This is because the cloning of mammals is still a new science and its story only began seriously in the 1950s as this list shows:
 
   1950s cloning of frogs                                                1996 first clone of a mammal: Dolly the sheep
   1970s research using the embryos of mice         2000 cow gave birth to a bison
   1979 work on embryos of sheep and mice          2001 China's first cloned twin calves
   1981 first experimental clones of mice                 2002 first cloned cats
   1983 first experimental clones of cows                 2005 first cloned dog
                                                                                            …
 
         From time to time people suggest that extinct animals like dinosaurs, can possibly be brought back to life through cloning. Unfortunately, with what we know now, this is either impossible or unsuitable. There are many reasons.
◎ The initial requirement is that you need perfect DNA (which gives information for how cells
     are to grow).
◎ All efforts of cloning an animal will be in vain if there is not enough diversity in the group to overcome illnesses. Diversity in a group means
     having animals with their genes arranged in different ways. The advantage is that if there is a new illness some of these animals may die,
     but others will survive and pass on the ability to resist that disease to the next generation. The great drawback to cloning a group of
     animals is that they would all have the same arrangement of genes and so might die of the same illness. Then none of them would be left to
     continue the species.
◎ It would be unfair to clone any extinct animals if they were to live in a zoo. A suitable habitat would be needed for them to lead a natural life.
 
         Based on what we know now, you cannot clone animals that have been extinct longer than 10,000 years. Actually, dinosaurs disappeared 65,000,000 years ago. So the chance of dinosaurs ever returning to the earth is merely a dream.

 

                                                                    

 选修8 Unit 3

Inventors and inventions-Reading

THE PROBLEM OF THE SHRIKES

         When I called up my mother in the countryside on the telephone she was very upset. "There are some snakes in our courtyard," she told me. "Snakes come near the house now and then, and they seem to have made their home here, not far from the walnut tree. Can you get rid of them please?" I felt very proud. Here was a chance for .me to distinguish myself by inventing something merciful that would catch snakes but not harm them. I knew my parents would not like me to hurt these living creatures!
        The first thing I did was to see if there were any products that might help me, but there only seemed to be powders designed to kill snakes. A new approach was clearly needed. I set about researching the habits of snakes to find the easiest way to trap them. Luckily these reptiles are small and that made the solution easier.
        Prepared with some research findings, I decided on three possible approaches: firstly, removing their habitat; secondly, attracting them into a trap using male or female perfume or food; and thirdly cooling them so that they would become sleepy and could be easily caught. I decided to use the last one. I bought an ice-cream maker which was made of stainless steel. Between the outside and the inside walls of the bowl there is some jelly, which freezes when cooled. I put the bowl into the fridge and waited for 24 hours. At the same time I prepared some ice-cubes.
       The next morning I got up early before the sun was hot. I placed the frozen bowl over the snakes' habitat and the ice-cubes on top of the bowl to keep it cool. Finally I covered the whole thing with a large bucket. Then I waited. After two hours I removed the bucket and the bowl. The snakes were less active but they were still too fast for me. They abruptly disappeared into a convenient hole in the wall. So I had to adjust my plan.
        For the second attempt I froze the bowl and the ice-cubes again but placed them over the snakes' habitat in the evening, as the temperature was starting to cool. Then as before, I covered the bowl with the bucket and left everything overnight. Early the next morning I returned to see the result. This time with great caution I bent down to examine the snakes and I found them very sleepy. But once picked up, they tried to bite me. As they were poisonous snakes, I clearly needed to improve my design again.
   My third attempt repeated the second procedure. The next morning I carried in my hand a small net used for catching fish. This was in the expectation that the snakes would bite again. But monitored carefully, the snakes proved to be no trouble and all went according to plan. I collected the passive snakes and the next day we merrily released them all back into the wild.
        Pressed by my friends and relations, I decided to seize the opportunity to get recognition for
my successful idea by sending my invention to the patent office. Only after you have had that
recognition can you say that you are truly an inventor. The criteria are so strict that it is difficult to get new ideas accepted unless they are truly novel. In addition, no invention will get a patent if it is:
     ◎a discovery
     ◎a scientific idea or mathematical model
     ◎literature or art
     ◎a game or a business
     ◎a computer programme
     ◎a new animal or plant variety
 
         Nor will you receive a patent until a search has been made to find out that your product really
is different from everyone else's. There are a large number of patent examiners, too, whose only job is to examine whether your claim is valid or not. If it passes all the tests, your application for a patent will be published 18 months from the date you apply. So I have filled in the form and filed my patent application with the Patent Office. Now it's a matter of waiting and hoping. You'll know if I succeed by the size of my bank balance! Wish me luck!

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

         Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Scotland, but when he was young his family moved to Boston, USA. His mother was almost entirely deaf, so Alexander became interested in helping deaf people communicate and in deaf education. This interest led him to invent the microphone. He found that by pressing his lips against his mother's forehead, he could make his mother understand what he was saying.
         He believed that one should always be curious and his most famous saying was:
         "Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought."
 It was this exploring around problems and his dynamic spirit that led to his most famous invention - the telephone in 1876. Bell never set out to invent the telephone and what he was trying to design was a multiple telegraph. This original telegraph sent a message over distances using Morse code (a series of dots tapped out along a wire in a particular order). But only one message could go at a time. Bell wanted to improve it so that it could send several messages at the same time. He designed a machine that would separate different sound waves and allow different conversations to be held at the same time. But he found the problem difficult to solve. One day as he was experimenting with one end of a straw joined to a deaf man's ear drum and the other to a piece of smoked glass, Bell noticed that when he spoke into the ear, the straw drew sound waves on the glass. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. If sound waves could be reproduced in a moving electrical current, they could be sent along a wire. In searching to improve the telegraph,
Bell had invented the first telephone!
          Bell was fully aware of the importance of his invention and wrote to his father:
          "The day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas – and friends will talk to each other without leaving home."
           The patent was given in 1876, but it was not until five days later that Bell sent his first telephone message to his assistant Watson. The words have now become famous:
           "Mr Watson - come here - I want to see you."
    Alexander Graham Bell was not a man to rest and he interested himself in many other areas of invention. He experimented with helicopter designs and flying machines. While searching for a kite strong enough to carry a man into the air, Bell experimented putting triangles together and discovered the tetrahedron shape. Being very stable, it has proved invaluable in the design of bridges.
    Bell was an inventor all his life. He made his first invention at eleven and his last at seventy- five. Although he is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, he was indeed a continuing searcher after practical solutions to improve the quality of everybody's life.

选修8 Unit 4 Pygmalion-Reading

 

PYGMALION

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Eliza Doolittle (E):     a poor flower girl who is ambitious to improve herself
Professor Higgins (H):  an expert in phonetics, convinced that the quality of a person's English decides his/her position in society
Colonel Pickering (CP): an officer in the army and later a friend of Higgins' who sets him a task
 
Act One                     FATEFUL  MEETINGS
       

  11 :15 pm in London, England in 1914 outside a theatre. It is pouring with rain and cab whistles are blowing in all directions. A man is hiding from the rain listening to people's language and watching their reactions. While watching, he makes notes. Nearby a flower girl wearing dark garments and a woollen scarf is also sheltering from the rain. A gentleman (G) passes and hesitates for a moment.
E: Come over’ere, cap’in, and buy me flowers off a poor girl.
G: I'm sorry but I haven't any change.
E: I can giv’ou change, cap’in.
G: (surprised) For a pound? I'm afraid I've got nothing less.
E:  (hopefully) Oah! Oh, do buy a flower off me,  Captain. Take this for three pence. (holds up some dead flowers)
G: (uncomfortably) Now don't be troublesome, there's a good girl. (looks in his wallet and sounds more friendly) But, wait, here's some small change. Will that be of any use to you? It's raining heavily now, isn't it? (leaves)
E: (disappointed at the outcome, but thinking it is better than nothing) Thank you, sir. (sees a man taking notes and feels worried) Hey! I ain’t done nothing wrong by speaking to that gentleman. I've a right to sell flowers, I have. I ain’t no thief. I'm an honest girl I am! (begins to cry)
H: (kindly) There! There! Who's hurting you, you silly girl? What do you take me for? (gives her a handkerchief)
E: I thought maybe you was a policeman in disguise.
H: Do I look like a policeman?
E: (still worried) Then why did 'ou take down my words for? How do I know whether 'ou took me down right? 'ou just show me what 'ou've wrote about me!
H: Here you are. (hands over the paper covered in writing)
E: What's that? That ain't proper writing. I can't read that. (pushes it back at him)
H: I can. (reads imitating Eliza) "Come over' ere, cap'in, and buy me flowers off a poor girl." (in his own voice) There you are and you were born
     in Lisson Grove if I'm not mistaken.
E: (looking confused) What if I was? What's it to you?
CP: (has been watching the girl and now speaks to Higgins) That's quite brilliant! How did you do that, may I ask?
H: Simply phonetics studied and classified from people's own speech. That's my profession and  also my hobby. You can place a man by just a few remarks. I can place any spoken conversation within six miles, and even within two streets in London sometimes.

CP: Let me congratulate you! But is there an income to be made in that?
H: Yes, indeed. Quite a good one. This is the age of the newly rich. People begin their working life in a poor neighbourhood of London with 80 pounds a year and end in a rich one with 100  thousand. But they betray themselves every time they open their mouths. Now once taught by me, she'd become an upper class lady ...
CP: Is that so? Extraordinary!
H: (rudely) Look at this girl with her terrible English: the English that will condemn her to the gutter to the end of her days. But, sir, (proudly) once educated to speak  properly, that girl could pass herself off in three months as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. Perhaps I could even find her a place as a lady's maid or a shop assistant, which requires better English.
E: What's that you say? A shop assistant? Now that's sommat I want, that is!
H: (ignores her) Can you believe that?
CP: Of course! I study many Indian dialects myself and ...
H: Do you indeed? Do you know Colonel Pickering?
CP: Indeed I do, for that is me. Who are you?
H: I'm Henry Higgins and I was going to India to meet you.
CP: And I came to England to make your acquaintance!
E: What about me? How'll you help me?
H: Oh, take that. (carelessly throws a handful of money into her basket) We must have a celebration, my dear man. (leave together)
E: (looking at the collected money in amazement) Well, I never. A whole pound! A fortune! That'll help me, indeed it will. Tomorrow I'll find you, Henry Higgins. Just you wait and see! All that talk of (imitates him) "authentic English" ... (in her own voice) I'll see whether you can get that for me ... (goes out)

Act Two, Scene 1                             MAKING THE BET

       It is 11am in Henry Higgins' house the next day. Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering are sitting deep in conversation.
H:    Do you want to hear any more sounds?
CP: No, thank you. I rather fancied myself because I can pronounce twenty-four distinct vowel sounds; but your one hundred and thirty beat me. I can't distinguish most of them.
H:   (laughing) Well, that comes with practice.
 
       There is a knock and Mrs Pearce (MP), the housekeeper, comes in with cookies, a teapot, some cream and two cups.
MP: (hesitating) A young girl is asking to see you.
H:    A young girl! What does she want?
MP: Well, she's quite a common kind of girl with dirty nails.I thought perhaps you wanted her to talk into your machines.
H:    Why? Has she got an interesting accent? We'll see.Show her in, Mrs Pearce.
MP: (only half resigned to it) Very well, sir. (goes downstairs)
H:    This is a bit of luck. I'll show you how I make records on wax disks ...
MP: (returning) This is the young girl, sir. (Eliza comes into the room shyly following Mrs Pearce. She is dirty and wearing a shabby dress. She curtsies to the two men.)
H:    (disappointed) Why! I've got this girl in my records. She's the one we saw the other day. She's  no use at all. Take her away.
CP: (gently to Eliza) What do you-want, young lady?
E:    (upset) I wanna be a lady in a flower shop 'stead o' selling flowers in the street. But they won't take me 'less I speak better. So here I am, ready to pay him. I'm not asking for any favours - and he treats me like dirt.
H: How much?
E: (happier) Now yer talking. A lady friend of mine gets French lessons for two shillings an hour from a real Frenchman. You wouldn't have the face to ask me for the same for teaching me as yer would for French. So I won't give yer more than a shilling.
H: (ignoring Eliza and speaking to Pickering) If you think of how much money this girl has - why, it's the best offer I've had! (to Eliza) But if I teach you, I'll be worse than a father.
CP: I say, Higgins. Do you remember what you said last night? I'll say you're the greatest teacher alive if you can pass her off as a lady. I'll be the referee for this little bet and pay for the lessons too ...
E:  (gratefully) Oh, yer real good, yer are. Thank you, Colonel.
H: Oh, she is so deliciously low. (compromises) OK, I'll teach you. (to Mrs Pearce) But she'll need to be cleaned first. Take her away, Mrs Pearce. Wash her and burn her horrible clothes. We'll buy her new ones. What's your name, girl?
E: I'm Eliza Doolittle and I'm clean. My clothes went to the laundry when I washed last week.
MP: Well, Mr Higgins has a bathtub of his own and he has a bath every morning. If these two gentlemen teach you, you'll have to do the same. They won't like the smell of you otherwise.
E: (sobbing) I can't. I dursn't. It ain't natural and it'd kill me. I've never had a bath in my life; not  over my whole body, neither below my waist nor taking my vest off. I'd never have come if I'd known about this disgusting thing you want me to do ...
H: Once more, take her away, Mrs Pearce, immediately. (Outside Eliza is still weeping with Mrs Pearce) You see the problem, Pickering. It'll be how to teach her grammar, not just pronunciation. She's in need of both.
CP: And there's another problem, Higgins. What are we going to do once the experiment is over?
H:   (heartily) Throw her back.
CP: But you cannot overlook that! She'll be changed and she has feelings too. We must be practical, mustn't we?
H:    Well, we'll deal with that later. First, we must plan the best way to teach her.
CP: How about beginning with the alphabet. That's usually considered very effective ... (fades out as they go offstage together)

选修8 Unit 5 Meeting your ancestors-Reading
A VISIT TO THE ZHOUKOUDIAIN CAVES

 A group of students (S) from England has come to the Zhoukoudian caves for a visit. An archaeologist (A) is showing them round.
A:  Welcome to the Zhoukoudian caves here in China. It is a great pleasure to meet you students from England, who are interested in archaeology. You must be aware that it's here that we found evidence of some of the earliest people who lived in this part of the world. We've been excavating here for many years and ...
S1: I'm sorry to interrupt you but how could they live here? There are only rocks and trees.
A: Good question. You are an acute observer. We have found human and animal bones in those caves higher up the hill as well as tools and other objects. So we think it is reasonable to assume they lived in these caves, regardless of the cold.
S2: How did they keep warm? They couldn't have mats, blankets or quilts like we do. It must have been very uncomfortable.
A: We've discovered fireplaces in the centre of the caves where they made fires. That would have kept them warm, cooked the food and scared wild beasts away as well. We have been excavating layers of ash almost six metres thick, which suggests that they might have kept the fire burning all winter. We haven't found any doors but we think they might have hung animal skins at the cave mouth to keep out the cold during the freezing winter.
S3: What wild animals were there all that time ago?
A: Well, we've been finding the bones of tigers and bears in the caves, and we think these were their most dangerous enemies. Now what do you think this tells us about the life of these early people? (shows picture of a sewing needle)
S2.: Gosh! That's a needle. Goodness, does that mean they repaired things?
A: What else do you think it might have been used for?
S4: Let me look at it. It's at most three centimetres long. Ah yes, it seems to be made of bone. I wonder how they made the hole for the ...
S2: (interrupting) Do you mean that they made their own clothes? Where did they get the material?
A: They didn't have material like we have today. Can you guess what they used?
Sl: Wow! Did they wear clothes made entirely of animal skins? How did they prepare them? I'm  sure they were quite heavy to cut and sew together.
A: Our evidence suggests that they did wear clothes made from animal skins. We continue discovering tools that were sharpeners for other tools. It seems that they used the sharpened stone tools to cut up animals and remove their skin. Then smaller scrapers were probably used to remove the fat and meat from the skin. After that they would rub an ample amount of salt onto the skin to make it soft. Finally, they would cut it and sew the pieces together. Quite a difficult and messy task! Now look at this. (shows a necklace)
S2:Why, it's a primitive necklace. Did early people really care about their appearance like we do? It's lovely!
A:Yes, and so well preserved. What do you think it's made of?.
S4:Let me see. Oh, I think some of the beads are made of animal bones but others are made of shells.
A:How clever you are! One bone is actually an animal tooth and the shells are from the seaside. Can you identify any other bones?
S1:This one looks very much like a fish bone. Is that reasonable?
A:Yes, indeed, as the botanical analyses have shown us, all the fields around here used to be part of a large shallow lake. Probably there were fish in it.
S3:But a lake is not the sea. We are miles from the sea, so how did the seashells get here?
A:Perhaps there was trade between early peoples or they travelled to the seaside on their journeys. We know that they moved around, following the herds of animals. They didn't grow their own crops, but picked fruit when it ripened and hunted animals. That's why they are called hunters and gatherers. Now, why don't we go and visit the caves?
  
THE  FEAST: 18,000 BC

         Worried about the preparations for her feast, Lala quickly turned for home with her collection of nuts, melons and other fruit. It was the custom of family groups to separate and then gather again at different sites for reunions as they followed the animal herds across the grasslands. A wrinkle appeared on her forehead. If only it could be just like last year! At that time she had been so happy when Dahu chose her as the future mother of his children. He was the best toolmaker in the group and it was a great honour for her to be chosen. She remembered the blood pulsing through her veins. She had felt so proud as the group shouted loudly to applaud his choice. If only she had looked ahead and planned better this year! Then she wouldn't have been feeling so worried now.
         Having heard wolves howling in the forest, Lala accelerated her walk up the path to the caves fearing that there might be wild beasts lying in wait for her. She had no man with his spear to protect her. She had almost reached her destination when a delicious smell arrested her progress and she stopped. So the men had brought home the meat for the feast! The smell of cooking meat filled the air surrounding her, and her senses became dizzy with hunger. She could see her mother and the older children preparing the deer and pig meat over the fire. Her aunts were making clothes with animal skins. Abruptly she sat down, only to be scooped up by her laughing, shouting sister, Luna. Lala smiled with relief. It was good to have her family around her.
        Just then a tall man came up behind her. He had a large, square face, with strongly pronounced eyebrows and cheekbones. Over his shoulder he carried several fish and some pieces of wood under his arm. Lala smiled and handed some stone scrapers over to Dahu, who smiled and went outside the cave to begin his task.
        First he looked carefully at the scrapers and then went to a corner of the cave and pulled out some more tools. They were in a pile with other sharp arrowheads and stone axe-heads. He chose one large stone and began to use it like a hammer striking the edge of the scraper that needed sharpening. Now and then Dahu would stop, look at it and try it against his hand before continuing his task. He stopped when he felt the scrapers were sharp enough to cut up the meat and scrape the fish. As he passed them to Lala, the first of the guests from the neighbouring caves began to arrive for dinner. Lala's spirits rose. Yes, it was going to be just as wonderful as last year! She smiled to herself gaily and went out of the cave to welcome her friends and neighbours.

她担心准备盛宴,Lala迅速转过身来,用她的家、西瓜和坚果收集其他水果。这是家庭群体的习惯,然后又聚集到单独在不同的地点,由于他们要跟着兽群穿过草地。她的前额上出现了皱纹。如果只可能是和去年一样!当时她已经很开心,当Dahu选她为未来的母亲的孩子。他是最好的机床维修工、在集团是一个巨大的荣誉,她被选中。她记得她的血管里流人血的罪、脉冲通过。她感到非常的骄傲的高声地来赞赏他的选择。她要是展望,今年计划更好!然后她就不会觉得那么担心了。
 
  听见狼咆哮在森林中,Lala加速其走上了通往洞穴担心会有野兽躺在等候她。她没有人用枪来保护自己。她几乎已经到达目的地时,她的进步和芳香的气味逮捕她停了下来。所以这个男人领回家过节的肉!肉的香味,周围的空气充满了她,她的感觉变得头晕与饥饿。她能看到她的母亲和年长的孩子准备鹿和猪肉在火上。她的姑妈是用兽皮做衣服。她突然坐下来,只能由她笑筛子,妹妹,露。Lala松了一口气,笑了。很高兴有她的家人。
 
  就在这时,一个高个子男人走过来站在她身后。他有一个大的,方脸,具有强烈的明显的眉毛和颧骨。在他的肩膀,他抬几鱼和几块木头在他的胳膊。Lala笑了笑,然后递给我一些石头刮到Dahu,笑了笑,然后走出山洞开始他的任务。
 
  首先,他仔细地看着这铲运机,然后去了一个角落的洞穴,拿出一些工具。他们在一桩与其他锐利的箭头和石头把斧头。他选了一个大块石头,开始就好像用锤子敲击边缘的需要磨机。现在,然后Dahu会停下来,看看它并试着它攻击他的手继续前他的任务。他停下来的时候,他觉得被刀刮刮切肉和鱼。当他通过他们Lala,客人们从邻近的洞穴开始到吃晚饭。Lala的情绪也高涨起来。是的,它将会是与去年一样精彩!她微笑地对自己曾经、从洞里出去迎接她的朋友们和邻居们。

 

选修9 Unit 1 Breaking records-Reading
"THE ROAD IS ALWAYS AHEAD OF YOU"
Ashrita Furman is a sportsman who likes the challenge of breaking Guinness records. Over the last 25 years, he hasbroken approximately 93 Guinness records. More than twenty of these he still holds, including the record for having the most records. But these records are not made in any conventional sport like swimming or soccer. Rather Ashrita attempts to break records in very imaginative events and in very interesting places.
Recently, Ashrita achieved his dream of breaking a record in all seven continents, including hula hooping in Australia, pogo stick jumping under water in South America, and performing deep knee bends in a hot air balloon in North America.
While these activities might seem childish and cause laughter rather than respect, in reality they require an enormous amount of strength and fitness as well as determination.
Think about the fine neck adjustments needed to keep a full bottle of milk on your head while you are walking. You can stop to rest or eat but the bottle has to stay on your head.
While Ashrita makes standing on top of a 75 cm Swiss ball look easy, it is not. It takes a lot of concentration and a great sense of balance to stay on it. You have to struggle to stay on top especially when your legs start shaking.
And what about somersaulting along a road for 12 miles? Somersaulting is a tough event as you have to overcome dizziness, extreme tiredness and pain. You are permitted to rest for only five minutes in every hour of rolling but you are allowed to stop briefly to vomit.
Covering a mile in the fastest time while doing gymnastically correct lunges is yet another event in which Ashrita is outstanding. Lunges are extremely hard on your legs. You start by standing and then you step forward with the fight foot while touching the left knee to the ground. Then you stand up again and step forward with the left foot while touching the fight knee to the ground. Imagine doing this for a mile!
Yet this talented sportsman is not a natural athlete. As a child he was very unfit and was not at all interested in sports. However, he was fascinated by the Guinness Book of World Records.
How Ashrita came to be a sportsman is an interesting story. As a teenager, he began searching for a deeper meaning in life. He studied Eastern religions and, aged 16, discovered an Indian meditation teacher called Sri Chinmoy who lived in his neighbourhood in New York City. Since that time in the early 1970s, Ashrita has been one of Sri Chinmoy's students. Sri Chinmoy says that it is just as important for people to develop their bodies as it is to develop their minds, hearts and spiritual selves. He believes that there is no limit to people's physical abilities.
When Ashrita came third in a 24-hour bicycle marathon in New York's Central Park in 1978, he knew that he would one day get into the Guinness Book of World Records. He had been urged by his spiritual leader to enter the marathon even though he had done no training. So, when he won third place, he came to the understanding that his body was just an instrument of the spirit and that he seemed to be able to use his spirit to accomplish anything. From then on, Ashrita refused to accept any physical limitation.
With this new confidence, Asharita broke his first Guinness record with 27,000 jumping jacks in 1979. The motivation to keep trying to break records comes through his devotion to Sri Chinmoy. Every time Ashrita tries to break a record, he reaches a point where he feels he cannot physically do any more. At that moment, he goes deep within himself and connects with his soul and his teacher.
Ashrita always acknowledges his teacher in his record-breaking attempts.In fact, he often wears a T-shirt with Sri Chinmoy's words on the back. The words are:
"There is only one perfect road. It is ahead of you, always ahead of you."

 FOCUS ON ...
Lance Armstrong
Date of Birth: 8th September, 1971
Country: USA
Lance Armstrong's Guinness record for the fastest average speed at the Tour de France was set in 1999 with an average speed of 40.27 km/hr. In his teens he was a triathlete but at 16 he began to concentrate on cycling. He was an amateur cyclist before the 1992 Olympic Games but turned professional after he had competed in the Games. In the following few years, he won numerous titles, and by 1996 he had become the world's number one. However, in October 1996, he discovered he had cancer and
had to leave cycling. Successfully fighting his illness, Armstrong officially returned to racing in 1998. In 1999 he won the Tour de France and in 2003 he achieved his goal of winning five Tours de France.

 
Michellie Jones
Date of Birth: 9th June, 1969
Country: Australia
In 1988 Michellie Jones helped establish the multi-sport event, the triathlon, in Australia. After completing her teaching qualifications in 1990, she concentrated on the triathlon. In 1991, she finished third at the world championships. In 1992 and 1993, she was the International Triathlon Union World Champion. Since then, she has never finished lower than fourth in any of the world championships she has competed in. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 she won the silver medal in the Women's Triathlon, the first time the event had been included in the Olympic Games. Recently, for the first time in 15 years, Jones was not selected as part of the national team and therefore did not compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

 
Fu Mingxia
Date of Birth: 16th August, 1978
Country: China
Fu Mingxia first stood on top of the 10-metre diving platform at the age of nine. At 12 years old she won a Guinness Record when she became the youngest female to win the women's world title for platform diving at the World Championships in Australia in 1991. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, she took the gold medal in the women's 10-metre platform, becoming the youngest Olympic diving champion of all time. This was followed by great success at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games where she won gold for both the 10-metre platform and the three-metre springboard. This made her the first woman in Olympic diving history to win three gold medals. She retired from diving after Atlanta and went to study economics at university. While there she decided to make a comeback and went on to compete at the Sydney Olympic Games, where she won her fourth Olympic gold, again making Olympic history.

 
Martin Strel
Date of Birth: 1st October, 1954
Country: Slovenia
Strel was trained as a guitarist before he became a professional marathon swimmer in 1978. He has a passion for swimming the world's great rivers. In 2000, he was the first person ever to swim the entire length of the Danube River in Europe - a distance of 3,004 kilometres in 58 days. For this, he attained his first entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. Then in 2001 he broke the Guinness record for non-stop swimming - 504.5 kilometres in the Danube River in 84 hours and 10 minutes. Martin won his third entry in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 when he beat his own record for long distance swimming by swimming the length of the Mississippi River in North America in 68 days, a total of 3,797 kilometres. Then in 2003 he became the first man to have swum the whole 1,929 kilometres of the difficult Parana River in South America.In 2004, Strel again broke his own Guinness record by swimming the length of the dangerous Changjiang River (4,600 km), the third longest fiver in the world.

选修9 Unit 2 Sailing the oceans-Reading
SRILING THE OCERNS
We may well wonder how seamen explored the oceans before latitude and longitude made it possible to plot a ship's position on a map. The voyages of travellers before the 17th century show that they were not at the mercy of the sea even though they did not have modern navigational aids. So how did they navigate so well? Read these pages from an encyclopedia.
Page 1:
Using nature to help Keeping alongside the coastline
This seems to have been the first and most useful form of exploration which carried the minimum amount of risk.
Using celestial bodies
North Star
At the North Pole the North Star is at its highest position in the sky, but at the equator it is along the horizon. So accomplished navigators were able to use it to plot their positions.
Sun
On a clear day especially during the summer the sailors could use the sun overhead at midday to navigate by. They can use the height of the sun to work out their latitude.
Clouds
Sea captains observed the clouds over islands. There is a special cloud formation which indicates there is land close by.
Using wildlife
Seaweed
Sailors often saw seaweed in the sea and could tell by the colour and smell how long it had been them. If it was fresh and smelled strongly,then the ship was close to land.
Birds
Sea birds could be used to show the way to land when it was nowhere to be seen. In the evening nesting birds return to land and their nests. So seamen could follow the birds to land even if they were offshore and in the open sea.
Using the weather
Fog
Fog gathers at sea as well as over streams or rivers. Seamen used it to help identify the position of a stream or river when they were close to land.
Winds
Wise seamen used the winds to direct their sailing. They could accelerate the speed, but they could also be dangerous. So the Vikings would observe the winds before and during their outward or return journeys.
Using the sea
Certain tides and currents could be used by skillful sailors to carry ships to their destination.These skills helped sailors explore the seas and discover new lands. They increased their ability to navigate new seas when they used instruments.
 
Page 2:
Using navigational instruments to help
Finding longitude
There was no secure method of measuring longitude until the 17th century when the British solved this theoretical problem. Nobody knew  that the earth moved westwards 15 degrees every hour, but sailors did know an approximate method of calculating longitude using speed  and time. An early method of measuring speed involved throwing a knotted rope tied to a log over the side of the ship. The rope was tied to a log which was then thrown into the sea. As the ship advanced through the water the knots were counted as they passed through a seaman's hands. The number of knots that were counted during a fixed period of time gave the speed of the ship in nautical miles per hour.

Later, when seamen began to use the compass in the 12th century they could calculate longitude using complicated mathematical tables. The compass has a special magnetic pointer which always indicates the North Pole, so it is used to help find the direction that the ship needs to go. In this way the ship could set a straight course even in the middle of the ocean.
 
Finding latitude
The Bearing Circle
It was the first instrument to measure the sun's position. A seaman would measure the sun's shadow and compare it with the height of the sun at midday. Then he could tell if he was sailing on his correct rather than a random course.
 

                  A Bearing Circle
The Astrolabe
The astrolabe, quadrant and sextant are all connected. They are developments of one another. The earliest, the astrolabe, was a special all-in-one tool for telling the position of the ship in relation to the sun and various stars which covered the whole sky. This gave the seamen the local time and allowed them to find their latitude at sea. However, it was awkward to use as one of the points of reference was the moving ship itself.
The Quadrant
This was a more precise and simplified version of the astrolabe. It measured how high stars were above the horizon using a quarter circle rather than the full circle of the astrolabe.It was easier to handle because it was more portable. Its shortcoming was that it still used the moving ship as one of the fixed points of reference. As the ship rose and plunged in the waves, it was extremely difficult to be accurate with any reading.
 The sextant
The sextant was the updated version of the astrolabe and quadrant which reduced the tendency to make mistakes. It proved to be the most accurate and reliable of these early navigational instruments. It works by measuring the angle between two fixed objects outside the ship using two mirrors. This made the calculations more precise and easier to do.
 

THE GREATEST NAVIGATIONAL JOURNEY:A LESSON IN SURVIVAL

          I am proud to have sailed with Captain Bligh on his journey of over 40 days through about 4,000miles in an open boat across the Pacific Ocean in 1789. Our outward voyage in the "Bounty" to Tahiti had been filled with the kind of incidents that I thought would be my stories when I returned home. But how wrong I was! On our departure from Tahiti, some of the crew took over the ship.They deposited the captain into a small boat to let him find his own way home. But who else was to go with him? Those of us on board the "Bounty" were caught in a dilemma. Was it better to risk certain death by sitting close together on a small, crowded open boat with very little food and water? Or should one stay on the "Bounty" with the crew and face certain death from the British Navy if caught? The drawback of staying on the ship seemed to grow as I thought about how wrong it was to treat Captain Bligh in this way. So I joined him in the small boat. As dusk fell, we seemed to face an uncertain future. We had no charts and the only instruments the captain was allowed to take with him were a compass and a quadrant.
 Once we were at sea, our routine every day was the same. At sunrise and sunset the captain measured our position using the quadrant and set the course using the compass. It was extremely difficult for us to get a correct reading from the quadrant as the boat moved constantly. The captain used a system called "dead reckoning". He knew there was land directly northwest of our original position. So his task was to make sure we stayed on that course. As you can see from the map we kept to a straight course pretty well. In addition, the captain kept us all busy reading the tables to work out our position. Although this took a great deal of time, it didn't matter. Time was, after all, what we had a lot of!
      Our daily food was shared equally among us all: one piece of bread and one cup of water. It was starvation quantities but the extreme lack of water was the hardest to cope with psychologically. Imagine all that water around you, but none of it was safe to drink because the salt in it would drive you mad! All the time the captain tried to preserve our good spirits by telling stories and talking hopefully about what we would do when we got back to England. We only half believed him.
     The tension in the boat got worse as the supply of food and water gradually disappeared. We could foresee that we would die if we could not reach land very soon and we sank gradually into a sleepy, half-alive state. The captain was as weak as the rest of us, but he was determined not to give up. He continued his navigational measurements every day. He kept us busy and tried to take our minds off our stomachs and our thirst. He kept us alive.
       You could not imagine a more disturbing sight than what we looked like when arriving in Timor over forty days after being set loose in our small boat. Our clothes were torn, we had fever and our faces showed the hardships we had suffered. But after a rest, some good meals and some new clothes, everything changed. We couldn't stop talking about our voyage and everybody wanted to hear about it. We were the heroes who had escaped the jaws of death by completing the greatest navigational feat of all time!

 

选修9 Unit 3 Australia-Reading

GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIA
 AUSTRALIA
 Capital: Canberra                 Offcial name: Commonwealth of Australia
 Area: 7,686,850 km2            Population: 20 million
 Highest point: Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 metres above sea level
 Lowest point: Lake Eyre, 15 metres below sea level
Australia is the only country that is also a continent. It is the sixth largest country in the world and is in the smallest continent - Oceania. It is a mainly dry country with only a few coastal areas that have adequate rainfall to support a large population. Approximately 80 of Australians live in the south-eastern coastal area, which includes Australia's two largest cities – Melbourne and Sydney. The centre of the continent, which is mainly desert and dry grassland, has few settlements.
      Australia is famous for its huge, open spaces, bright sunshine, enormous number of sheep and cattle and its unusual wildlife, which include kangaroos and koalas. Australia is a popular destination with tourists from all over the world who come to experience its unique ecology.
      Australia is made up of six states. Like the states in America, Australian states are autonomous in some areas of government. However, Australia has a federal government responsible for matters that affect people all over the country, such as defence, foreign policy and taxation. The federal parliament is located in Canberra.
                                          CITIZENSHIP CEREMONIES PLANNED AROUND AUSTRALIA
      On 26 January, Australia Day, in over 200 locations across the nation , more than 9,000 people will become Australian citizens.
      "By these citizenship ceremonies we welcome those who have come from overseas from many different cultural and social backgrounds into our communities and our nation," said the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. "Australia Day celebrations that include people from so many birthplaces are an excellent way to encourage tolerance, respect and friendship among all the people of Australia."
        Most citizenship ceremonies will be followed by displays of singing and dancing from many of the migrants' homelands and the tasting of food from all over the world.
Go by plane and see clouds
Go by TRAIN and see Australia

Enjoy 3 nights on board the Indian-Pacific
On this 4,352-km journey from Sydney to Perth via Adelaide you'll view some ot Australias unique scenery from the superb Blue Mountains to the treeless plains of the Nuliarbor. Along the way you will spot a fascinating variety of wildlife.
Enjoy 2 nights on board the Ghan
As you travel from Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs, you'll observe some of Australia's
most spectacular landscapes - from the rolling hills surrounding Adelaide to the rusty reds of
Australia's centre and the tropical splendour of Darwin.
For more information, timetables and fares go to www.gsr.com.au/trains.htm
Dear Shen Ping,
I wish you could see this amazing rock. It is part of one of Australia's 14 Worm Heritage Sites and
rises about 335 metres out of a vast, flat sandy plain. A t different times of the day it appears to
change co/our, from grey-red at sunrise, to golden and finally to burning red at dusk. Aboriginal people have lived near Uluru for thousands of years and yout can walk around it with an Aboriainal guide to learn about their customs, art, religion and day-to-day life. It is also possible to climb the rock, but most people don't do this out of respect for the Aboriginal people who consider the rock to be sacred. I’ll be back in Sydney in a fortnight because I've made a reservation on the Indian Pacific train to Perth.
love Jack

                                                       Tours outside Hobart
Drive 250 km northwestwards from Hobart along the A10 highway and you'll arrive at the southern end of the magnificent Cradle Mountain National Park and World Heritage area. This park is famous for its mountain peaks, lakes and ancient forests. A popular attraction for active tourists is the 80-km walking track that joins the southern and northern ends of the park. There are also a range of short walks.

Reading and discussing

Before you read the following text, read the title and look at the pictures. Discuss with a partner what you expect to read about in the text.
                                                  AUSTRALIA’S DANGEROUS CREATURES
       Australia is home to more than 170 different kinds of snake and 115 of these are poisonous. In fact, Australia has more kinds of venomous snake than any other country in the world. Luckily, the poison of most snakes can kill or paralyze only small creatures.A few varieties, however, can kill humans, so it is just as well that snakes are very shy and usually attack only if they are disturbed and feel threatened.

 
      There are also approximately 2,000 different kinds of spider in Australia and, like snakes, most have a poisonous bite. However, the majority have no effect on humans or cause only mild sickness.Only a few have venom that is powerful enough to kill a human being. While a small number of Australians are bitten by spiders each year, most recover without any medical treatment.

       The seas around Australia contain over 160 different kinds of shark, which vary in size from just 20 centimetres to over 14 metres. However, although they look dangerous because of their wide mouths and sharp teeth, all but two or three kinds are harmless to humans.

        Another potentially dangerous sea animal is the jellyfish. Most kinds of poisonous jellyfish can cause severe pain to anyone who touches them but the poison of the box jellyfish can actually kill a human, especially if that person has a weak heart. The tiniest amount of poison from a box jellyfish can kill in less than five minutes and it is probably the most poisonous animal in the world.

        There is one other dangerous animal in Australia worth mentioning, and that is the crocodile. Although two types of crocodile live in Australia, only the saltwater crocodile has been known to kill humans. This crocodile moves very quickly when it sees something it considers to be food, and from time to time a crocodile has snatched someone before he or she is even aware that the crocodile is there.

         You might think that with all these dangerous animals Australia is an unsafe place to live in or visit. However, this is far from the truth. There are no more than a handful of shark attacks each year and only three deaths have been reported in the last five years.Similarly, in the last three years there have been only two reported deaths from crocodile attacks. Since 1956, when an anti-venom treatment for redback spider bites was developed, there have been no deaths from redbacks, and since 1981 when a treatment was developed for funnelweb spider poison, there have been no deaths from this spider either. Treatments for jellyfish stings and s~aakebites have also been developed and in the last five years there have been only three deaths from jellyfish stings and about the same number from snakebites.

 

选修9 Unit 4 Exploring plants-Reading
PLANT EXPLORATION IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES
        The plants in our gardens look so familiar that often we do not realize that many of them actually come from countries far away. Collecting "exotic" plants, as they are called, dates back to the earliest times. Many ancient civilisations saw the value of bringing back plants from distant lands. The first plant collecting expedition recorded in history was around 1500 BC when the Queen of Egypt sent ships away to gather plants, animals and other goods.
         However, it was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the exploration of the botanical world began on a large scale. Europe had become interested in scientific discovery and the European middle classes took great interest in collecting new plants. This
attraction to exotic plants grew as European nations, like the Netherlands, Britain and Spain, moved into other parts of the world like Asia and Australia. Brave young men took the opportunity of going on botanical expeditions, often facing many dangers including disease,near-starvation, severe environments and conflicts with the local people.       
   
        An important group of collectors were Frencn Catholic missionaries who, by the middle of the 18th century, were beginning to set themselves up in China. One such missionary, Father d'Incarville, was sent to Beijing in the 1740s. He collected seeds of trees and bushes including those of the Tree of Heaven. Just before he died, he sent some Tree of Heaven seeds to England. They arrived in 1751 and plants from these seeds were grown throughout Europe and later, in 1784, the species was introduced in North America.
       Sir Joseph Banks was a very famous British plant collector, who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage from England to Oceania. The purpose of the trip for Banks was to record the plant and animal life they came across. He and his team collected examples whenever they went onto dry land. In 1769, Banks collected vast quantities of plants in the land now known as Australia. None of these plants had been recorded by Europeans before. Cook called the bay where the Endeavour had anchored Botany Bay.

       Keeping plants alive during long land or sea voyages was an enormous challenge. Large numbers of seeds failed to grow after long sea voyages or trips across land between Asia and Europe. One plant explorer lost several years' work when his plants were mined with seawater.
       The world of plant exploration was completely changed with Dr Nathaniel Ward's invention of a tightly sealed portable glass container. This invention, called the Wardian case, allowed plants to be transported on long journeys. In 1833, Ward shipped two cases of British plants to Sydney, Australia. All the plants survived the six-month journey. In 1835, the cases made a return trip with some Australian species that had never been successfully transported before. After eight months at sea, they arrived safely in London.

       A British man called Robert Fortune was one of the earliest plant collectors to use Wardian cases. He made several trips to China between 1843 and 1859. At that time, there were restrictions on the movement of Europeans and so, in order to travel unnoticed, he developed his fluency in Chinese and dressed as a Chinese man, even shaving his head in the Chinese style. He experienced many adventures including huge thunderstorms in the Yellow Sea and pirates on the Yangtze River. Not only did Fortune introduce over 120 species of plants to Western gardens but he also shipped 20,000 tea plants from Shanghai to India, where a successful tea industry was established.
      The second half of the nineteenth century was a very important period of plant exploration. During this time many Catholic missionaries were sent to China from France. They valued the study of the natural sciences and many of the missionaries knew a lot about plants and animals. Their expeditions resulted in huge plant collections, which were sent back to France. One of the collectors was Father Farges, who collected 37 seeds from a tree that had appealed to him. This tree was later called the Dove Tree. He sent the seeds back to France in
1897 but only one seed grew.

     Although the missionaries collected large numbers of soecimens. there was not enough material for growing particular species in Western gardens. However, European botanists were very excited with the knowledge that China had a vast variety of plants, so many plant collectors were sent on collecting trips to China. One of these collectors was E H Wilson who, in 1899, was able to collect a large quantity of seeds of the Dove Tree that Father Farges had discovered. Wilson and other plant collectors introduced many new plants to Western gardens.

 

 Reading and discussing

Before you read the text on page 38, have a quick glance at it. What is the text about? What do the pictures show you? What is the chart about?
                                                     FLOWERS AND THEIR ANIMAIL POLLINATORS
        Over time, many flowering plants and their animal pollinators have evolved together. The plant needs the animal to pollinate it and the animal is rewarded with food called nectar when it visits the flowers. Pollen becomes attached to the animal during its visit to a flower and is then passed on to another plant's blossom on its next visit. So pollination takes place, therefore increasing the chances of the survival of the plant species.
        Through evolution, most flowers have adapted to attract specific types of pollinators. Bees, moths and butterflies are the most important
pollinators. Flies, wasps, beetles and other animals such as birds and bats are less common.
       The type of pollinator depends on the characteristics of the flower such as its colour, shape, size and smell. For example, yellow flowers attract bees, while red flowers attract butterflies. The nectar in some flowers can only be reached by a bird with a long bill or a long-tongued moth or butterfly. The chart below describes some features of flowers that attract certain kinds of pollinators. 
  Pollinator Typical flower characteristics
Bees Colour: bright yellow, blue; the flower often has a special pattern to guide the bees to the nectar inside.
Shape: the petals are wide enough for bees to land on;usually the nectar is at the end of a small, narrow tube whose length is the same as the tongue of a particular species.
Smell: delicate, fragrant.
Butterflies Colour: red, orange.
Shape: the petals form a tube of a suitable length for butterflies. Tiny flowers are often in tight bunches that provide a place for butterflies to land on, eg daisies.
Smell: odourless.
Moths Colour: white, light-coloured so moths can see them at night.
Shape: the petals form a deep tube to match the length of a specific moth's tongue. The petals lie fiat or bend back so the moth can get close to the flower.
Smell: strong, sweet perfume, typically only given out
at night.
Flies Colour: dull-coloured, brownish red.
Smell: strong like rotting meat.
Humming-birds Colour: brightly coloured, especially red and orange.
Shape: tube-shaped; petals bent back so birds can get close.
Smell: no odour.
Bats Colour: white, light-coloured so bats can see them at night.
Shape: open at night; large, strong with wide mouths for long tongues.
Smell: musty, fruity smell.

 

选修9 Unit 5 Inside advertising-Reading
HOW ADVERTISINC WORKS
Do you know how many advertisements you are exposed to in your daily life? Every day, we pass by advertisements on buses and billboards, on trains and in train stations, in shop windows, outside restaurants and on public notice boards. At home, we see advertisements in magazines and newspapers and in the middle of our favourite television programmes. We hear advertisements on the radio and come across them on the Internet. Even some of the casual garments we wear have brand names attached to them which turn us into walking advertisements. With so many messages from advertisers filling our daily lives, it is important to understand how advertisements work. Then we can avoid being controlled by them.
What is an advertisement?
An advertisement is a message or announcement that informs or influences people. It can use words, pictures, music or film to communicate its message. Adverts are not only made and paid for by business, but also by individuals, organizations and associations that wish to inform or educate the public.

How do advertisers make effective advertisements?
Identify your target
Advertisers must pay the media for displaying their ads. Their money would be wasted if the message didn't reach its target audience, in other words the people the advertisement intends to persuade. For example, adolescent boys are more likely to buy computer games than any other group, so it makes sense to make computer game ads that appeal to this group. Having identified the target group, researchers find out as much as possible about those in the target group, such as their likes and dislikes, and how the product would fit into their lives. This information then forms the basis for decisions about what type of advertising techniques to use with this group.

Appeal to your target
In order to persuade people to do something, advertisements often appeal to our hopes and dreams or our emotions. For example, the one on the right, which advertises sports shoes, shows young people doing exciting things. The colours and the flames also suggest excitement. The message it is sending is: "Buy our shoes and you'll live an exciting life in the 'fast lane'." The ad above, with the star in it, is for a new radio station. It appeals to people's desire to "fit in" and be part of the group. The message is: "Everyone else is listening and if you want to be part of the group, you'd better listen too."

     Some advertisements appeal to people's desire to save money. Others are more likely to be noticed if they are funny. Ads that feature rich and famous people will grab the attention of those who admire people like that. Some adverts, like the environmental protection advertisement below, appeal to our conscience or our desire to be worthy citizens.

Use a suitable medium
      As well as reaching the fight audience with the fight technique, advertisers must also place their ads in the right medium. Obviously, cost will play a.big part in this decision. Television adverts are expensive to make and to show. You have to be a big corporation with a big budget to afford television ads. Advertisements in newspapers, on the other hand, are much cheaper.
As well as worrying about the expense, advertisers must also consider which media are most appropriate for their product and which their target audience is most likely to see or hear. Because most cars have radios, ads broadcast via radio can reach a lot of drivers very easily. For this reason, it would be appropriate to use radio to advertise goods and services relating to cars. However, it would be no use advertising products on radio if the ad relies on visual effects. Television adverts are great for generating emotional responses to a product, but magazines and newspapers can give more detail.

How effective are advertisements?
       However good an advertisement is, people are unlikely to be persuaded if the product is unsuitable for them. For example, no matter how good an ad for a car stereo system is, people who don't own cars are unlikely to run out and buy one. Look at the advertisements in this unit. How many of the goods or services suit your interests or lifestyle? Would really good advertising persuade you to buy products and services you are not interested in or have no use for?
      On the other hand, being constantly exposed to advertisements can help to change our opinions over time. This is why governments all over the world pay a lot of money for ads on such things as road safety. They believe these adverts will affect the way people think about their driving habits and will subsequently reduce the number of road accidents.

 

 KEEPING ADVERTISEDRS HONEST

Organizations and individuals advertise because they want to persuade people to behave in certain ways, for example to buy a certain brand of rice, stop speeding or see a movie at their cinema. Advertisers go, to a lot of trouble and expense to make adverts and so they want to make sure they achieve their purpose. Unfortunately, not all advertisers are good or honest people. Unless we have ways to protect ourselves, these dishonest advertisers will tell lies or use methods that may mislead us. Fortunately, most countries have developed ways to control advertising and prevent false or unsuitable advertising.
 
The law
One way to control advertising is to make laws that prevent advertisers doing the wrong thing. Many countries have laws that forbid ads being shown at inappropriate times or in unsuitable places. For example, an ad that has an adult theme cannot be shown during children's television programmes. In some countries advertising alcoholic drinks or tobacco is banned altogether. There are also laws in most places that prevent advertisers making false statements about their products or from promoting immoral or harmful behaviour.

 
 Advertising organizations
 Most advertisers are decent and honest, and  they are as interested as everyone else in  making sure ads are ethical. For this reason,
 most advertisers belong to advertising  organizations that not only educate and  support their members, but also make rules  for everyone in the organization to follow.  They are called a code of ethics and include  such rules as: Advertisements must not be  untruthful or misleading; Advertisements must not say bad things about other  people's products. If well-known people are used in advertisements, they must be honest and truthful about products they advertise.
 
Complaints organization
Even though there are laws and advertisers' codes of conduct, some bad ads do get made. This is why many countries have a government organization which examines complaints about ads. A consumer can complain to the organization, giving reasons for their complaint, and if the complaint is correct, the organization can make the company stop using the offending advertisement.
 
The consumer
You may have heard the saying: "Buyer Beware". This means that the consumer is responsible for checking the product before buying. When it comes to advertising, consumers need to be educated about techniques used by advertisers so they can judge the claims for themselves and not blindly accept everything that is said in advertisements. As we are flooded with advertisements in our modem world, many schools believe it is their duty to educate students about advertising.