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 towww.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.