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1、Module 1 Reading Great European CitiesPARISParis is the capital and largest city of France, situated on the River Seine. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and is visited by more than eight million tourists every year. The most popular place for tourists is the Eiffel Tower, the fam

2、ous symbol of Paris. One of the worlds largest art galleries, the Louvre, is also located in Paris. The city is also famous for its restaurants, cafs and theatres. About two-thirds of Frances artists and writers live in Paris.BARCELONABarcelona is the second largest city of Spain and is situated on

3、the northeast coast, about five hundred kilometres east of the Spanish capital, Madrid. One of Barcelonas most famous landmarks is the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which was designed by an architect called Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi worked on the project from 1882 until his death in 1926. The church has

4、nt been finished yet!FLORENCEFlorence is an Italian city which became famous because of the Renaissance, a great artistic movement which began in the 1300s and lasted for three hundred years. During the Renaissance, some of the greatest painters of all time lived and worked in Florence. Many of Flor

5、ences most beautiful paintings and sculptures were produced by great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Florence is visited each year by about a million tourists who come to see the art galleries, churches and museums. The Uffizi Palace is the most famous art gallery in the city.ATH

6、ENSAthens, the capital of Greece, is known as the birthplace of western civilisation. Two thousand four hundred years ago, it was the worlds most powerful city. Buildings such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill were built during this period. Greeces best writers lived in ancient Athens. Their wo

7、rks has influenced other writers ever since.Cultural Corner The European UnionWhat Is the European Union?The European Union is an organisation of European countries. The countries are independent and are governed in different ways. In the United Kingdom, for example, the head of state is a king or q

8、ueen. In France, on the other hand, the head of state is a president. But each of them sends representatives to the European Parliament, which has some control over what happens in each of the member countries.How Did It Start?The idea of the European Union began in the 1950s. The first members were

9、 France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. Little by little, the number increased during the second half of the twentieth century. By the year 2000, there were 15 member countries. The new countries were Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and t

10、he United Kingdom.How Many Countries Belong to It Now?In 2004, the European Union increased to 25 members. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all became members. The expanded European U

11、nion has a population of more than half a billion people, twice as big as the population of the United States.Module 2 Reading The Human Development ReportIn the year 2000, 147 world leaders agreed to work together to reduce poverty by 2015 or earlier. From this agreement came the Human Development

12、Report.One of the most important sections of this report is The Human Development Index. This examines the achievements of 175 countries. The index measures a countrys achievements in three ways: life expectancy (how long people usually live), education and income. The index has some surprises. Norw

13、ay is at the top of the list, while the US is at number 7. The other top five countries are: Iceland (2), Sweden (3), Australia (4), the Netherlands (5). The UK is in the thirteenth position, while China is in the middle of the list. The bottom ten countries are all African countries, with Sierra Le

14、one (in West Africa) at the bottom of the list.The report describes eight development goals. The most important goals are to: reduce poverty and hunger; make sure that all children have education up to the age of 11; fight AIDS and other diseases; improve the environment of poor people, e.g. make su

15、re they have safe drinking water; encourage developed countries to give more help to other countries.The 2003 Human Development Report gives examples of successful development. For example, in nine years (19531962), China increased life expectancy by 13 years. In the last ten years in China, 150 mil

16、lion people moved out of poverty. However, the challenges are still great. Every day 799 million people in developing countries are hungry. Over half of these are in South Asia or Africa. Although more than 80% of children in developing countries go to primary school, about 115 million children are

17、not being educated. More than 1 billion people in developing countries do not drink safe water. However, in other regions of the world, e.g. Eastern Europe, water is now mostly safe to drink.The report shows that we are making some progress but that we need to make greater efforts. Although develope

18、d countries give some financial help, they need to give much more. Interestingly, the countries that give the most money are the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. These are among the five richest countries in the world, so it is right that they should do so.Cultural Corner Town TwinningHow are Oxford

19、in the UK and Grenoble in France similar? Well, theyre both medium-sized towns of between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. They both have universities and industries. Tourism is important to both of them, and they are both close to some of the most beautiful countryside in the region. But they share

20、 something else: they have a town twinning agreement.Town twinning is not a new idea, but it has become more popular in recent years because its now easier to find out about and visit other countries and towns. Its an agreement between towns or cities of similar size and age, and which have similar

21、features such as tourism, industry, culture and entertainment.Town twinning agreements encourage people from the two towns to visit each other. There are visits and exchanges between schools, theatre groups and sports teams. Visitors from the foreign town usually stay in the private homes of the tow

22、n they are visiting. There is usually a big party for the visitors.Town twinning agreements are perhaps most useful for students and people who want to practise speaking another language. This is because living with a foreign family for one or two weeks means that you have to speak their language, a

23、nd as a result you improve fast.Module 3Reading What Is a Tornado?A tornado is a rotating column of air from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent have winds of more than 400 kilometres per hour. Almost all of them occur in the US, in the area from Texas in the southeast to South Dakota in

24、the north.Tornadoes can pick up cars, trains and even houses and put them down in the next streetor even in the next town. They can take the fur off the back of a cat and the feathers off a chicken. They can destroy houses, but leave the furniture inside exactly where it was.On average, there are 80

25、0 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries. The worst tornado of all time occurred in 1925, affecting three US states: Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. By the time it ended, more than 700 people had been killed and 2,700 had been injured.What Is a Hurricane?Hurricanes

26、 are strong tropical storms, and they usually occur in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are violent winds of 120 kilometres per hour or more, which cause huge waves, heavy rain and floods. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year and they usu

27、ally affect the east coast of the US from Texas to Maine.The worst hurricane disaster of all time occurred on the 8th September 1900 in Galveston, Texas. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour and five-metre high waves hit the city. The disaster killed 6,000 people in a population of 37,000 and destroyed

28、3,600 buildings.An Extraordinary EventThis is a story about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.Charles Coghlan was a nineteenth-century Irish actor who went to live in Canada. He then moved to New York, where he became famous. By the late 1890s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 1899, a year bef

29、ore the hurricane struck. The cemetery where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Coghlans coffin ended up in the sea.Eight years later, the coffin was found by fishermen in the sea near his home on Prince Edward Island in the east of Canada. The Gulf Stream had carried it 3,000 kil

30、ometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. Coghlan travelled back to Canadaafter he had been buried in Texas!Cultural Corner Earthquakes Around the PacificAbout 400 earthquakes occur worldwide every day, more than a hundred thousand in a year.China is situated in one of the most active

31、 earthquake regions in the world and there have been many terrible earthquakes. The most serious of these occurred in Hua County in Shaanxi Province in 1556. The earthquake affected eight provinces in Central China. It covered an area of 800 square kilometres. In some communities, 60 percent of the

32、population were killed. In all, 830,000 people lost their lives.The California Earthquake of the 18th of April 1906 is the worst earthquake that has ever happened in the United States. It took place at 5:15 a.m., and lasted for only a minute. However, it caused the worst natural disaster in the nati

33、ons history.Fires caused by the California Earthquake did the most damage. The fires burned for three days, destroying a total of 25,000 buildings. About 500 people were killed in the city of San Francisco and 250,000 were made homeless. In the whole of California, the earthquake and fires caused ab

34、out 3,000 deaths.The 1906 earthquake was caused by a movement on the San Andreas Fault. One hundred years later, movements on the San Andreas Fault continue to cause problems for the whole of California.Module 4 Reading Sandstorms in AsiaSandstorms have been a major disaster for many Asian countries

35、 for centuries. Scientists have tried many ways to solve this problem and in China, a mass campaign has been started to help solve it.Sandstorms are strong, dry winds that carry sand. They are often so thick that you cannot see the sun, and the wind is sometimes strong enough to move sand dunes. The

36、 four main places in the world where there are sandstorms are Central Asia, North America, Central Africa and Australia. Ren Jianbo, from Inner Mongolia described a terrible sandstorm he experienced as a child in the desert. To have been caught in a sandstorm was a terrible experience, he said. Ther

37、e was nothing to be done. It was the most frightening and the most dangerous situation Ive ever been in. You just had to hope youd survive. I thought I was going to disappear under the sand.Northwest China is part of the sandstorm centre in Central Asia. Sandstorms begin in desert areas. Sandstorms

38、in China appear to have increased in recent years as a result of desertification. This is a process that happens when land becomes desert because of climate changes and because people cut down trees and dig up grass.Sandstorms sometimes affect Beijing. Citizens wake up to an orange sky and strong wi

39、nds that cover the city in a thick, brown-yellow dust. The storms sometimes continue all day and traffic moves very slowly because the thick dust makes it difficult to see.The Chinese Central Weather Station can forecast a sandstorm some weeks before it arrives in Beijing, but the strength of the st

40、orm sometimes surprises people. When a sandstorm arrives in the city, weather experts advise people not to go out. Huang Xiaomei, who lives in Beijing says, To be cycling in a sandstorm is frightening. The winds are very strong. Its difficult to breathe and the dust makes me ill. So if you want to g

41、o out, youd better wear a mask.The desert is only 250 kilometres away to the west of Beijing. To prevent it coming nearer, the government is planting trees. Already the government has planted more than 30 billion trees and plans to continue planting for the next five years.Cultural Corner The Green

42、MovementSome countries are better than others at looking after the environment. In Europe, Germany and the northern European countries work very hard to improve the environment. People in countries such as Germany put their garbage into different bagspaper in one bag, plastic in another bag, etc. Th

43、e garbage is then taken away and, if possible, recycled. CFCs (chlorofluro-carbons), chemicals which are found in refrigerators and aerosol cans, are not allowed. There are laws that do not allow people to burn too much coal.In the 1970s, as people learnt more about environmental problems, the Green

44、 movement began and soon spread all over Europe. The Green movement tries to get governments to think seriously about the environment and how to look after it. It collects information about how industry is damaging the environment and gives this information to newspapers.Module 5 Reading Philosopher

45、s of Ancient ChinaAncient China was a place where states were often at war with each other. But it was also a time when there were many great philosophers. Confucius (551 BC479 BC) is the philosopher whose influence has been the greatest. He stressed the importance of kindness, duty and order in soc

46、iety. Chinese society was influenced by these ideas for more than 2,000 years.Mencius was a thinker whose teachings were very similar to those of Confucius. Mencius was born in 372 BC. His father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother. He became a student of Confuciuss ideas, an

47、d was then given an important position in the government of a state. However, when he saw that the ruler was not following his advice, he resigned. For many years he travelled from state to state, teaching the principles of Confucius. He then became an adviser to another ruler. He spent his last yea

48、rs preparing a book of his teachings called The Book of Mencius. Mencius believed that the reason why man is different from animals is that man is good. He taught that if the government was kind, then people would be good. He believed that people were more important than rulers, and hated the state

49、when it treated people badly.Mozi was another teacher who was very influential. Born in 476 BC, he came from a family which was very poor. He became famous for his unusual clothes and behaviour. Mozi founded the philosophy called Mohism. In some ways, his beliefs were similar to those of Confucius. For example, he considered that government was most important. As a result, he