[00:00.00] CHAPTER 10 PLACES
[00:11.99]Unit 10 Places
[00:17.87]Conversations
[00:21.52]part 1
[00:24.76]A is asking the way in New York.
[00:29.73]A:Can you tell me where New York's Chinatown is?
[00:34.46]B:Yes.It's downtown Manhattan between Mott Street and Canal Street.
[00:41.72]A:How far is it from here?
[00:45.58]B:Well,we are now in Times Square at 42nd Street.It is quite a long way from here.
[00:54.05]A:How can I get there?
[00:57.81]B:You can either take the subway or downtown bus.
[01:02.77]A:Which is more convenient?
[01:06.25]B:The best way to get there is by the BMT subway right here
[01:12.10]and get off at the Canal Street Station.
[01:16.46]A:Where is the station here?
[01:20.09]B:Look,just over there.
[01:23.93]part 2
[01:27.09]John is talking with Peter-a native person in Chicago.
[01:34.17]John:Peter,do you like living in Chicago?
[01:38.72]Peter:Yes,I'm proud of living here.
[01:43.39]You know,we think it is even more important to the nation than New York.
[01:49.45]John:Why?
[01:52.61]Peter:Chicago is the center of American commerce and transportaion.
[01:58.67]We have the busiest airport in the world.
[02:03.35]John:Any other reason?
[02:07.01]Peter:Yes.It is still the centre of the American railroad system.
[02:13.46]John:And the port?
[02:16.93]Peter:It is a great inland port,unique in the world.
[02:22.08]It can send goods by ocean-going ships all the way to Europe.
[02:28.24]It can send goods by barge,through waterways and canals,
[02:34.70]to the Mississippi and down it to the Gulf of Mexico.
[02:40.26]John:Oh,I see.
[02:43.79]part 3
[02:47.44]A wants to learn something about Denmark.
[02:52.90]A:Julie,you are from Denmark,aren't you?
[02:57.58]B:Yes.
[03:00.95]A:Please tell me something about your country.
[03:05.21]B:Fine.Denmark is a constitutional monarchy in Northwestern Europe.
[03:12.76]A:How many people are there?
[03:16.83]B:Not many.In 1996,it was estimated as a little over 5000 000.
[03:24.88]A:What is the land like?
[03:28.72]B:The surface of the Danish mainland is generally low;
[03:34.57]the average elevation is about 30 metres above sea level.
[03:41.54]A:And the climate?
[03:45.20]B:It has a temperate maritime climate.
[03:49.85]The mean temperature in summer is about 16'C;and in winter,about 0'C.
[03:59.12]A:Does it rain a lot there?
[04:03.07]B:Yes.The average annual rainfall is about 610mm.
[04:10.72]A:Do they speak fluently in English as you?
[04:15.58]B:Not everyone.The official language is Danish,
[04:21.33]and many Danes also speak English as their second language.
[04:27.21]A:Oh,English is really a popular language in te whole world.
[04:33.08]part 4
[04:36.24]A and B are talking about Sydney.
[04:41.89]A:Hello,Bob.Where is your landlady from?
[04:47.06]B:She is from Australia.
[04:50.90]A:Is Australia big?
[04:54.66]B:Yes.It's almost as big as the continental US.
[05:00.54]A:Is she from Sydney?
[05:04.20]B:Yes.
[05:07.25]A:Have you heard anything about Sydney?
[05:11.61]B:Yes.It's the water that defines Sydney.
[05:17.18]It is a playground and a front yard.
[05:21.85]A:What attracts people most in Sydney?
[05:26.61]B:The Opera House,which was completed in 1963
[05:32.67]and it looks like billowing sails to sun,
[05:37.40]though the architect had orange sections in mind.
[05:42.65]A:I like the idea.How many people are there?
[05:48.21]B:You mean population?About four million.
[05:53.80]A:So,it's a big city.
[05:57.93]B:Usually,capital cities are quite big worldwide.
[05:56.93]Passage
[06:00.09]The Beauty of Britain
[06:03.96]The beauty fo our country is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy.
[06:11.90]Remembering other and larger countries,
[06:16.65]we see at once that one of its charms
[06:21.01]is that it varies immensely within a small compass.
[06:26.06]We have here no vast mountain ranges,
[06:31.02]no illimitable plains but we have superb variety.
[06:36.79]A great deal of everything is packed into little space.
[06:42.04]Nature,we feel,has carefully adjusted things-mountains,plains,rivers,
[06:50.09]lakes-to the scale of the island itself.
[06:55.34]For a variety of landscape,
[06:59.10]the Yorkshire Dales cannot be matched with this island or anywhere else.
[07:05.45]A day's walk among them will give you almost everything fit to be seen on this earth.
[07:12.42]You will enjoy the green valleys,with their rivers,
[07:17.47]and find old bridges,peasant villages and smooth fields.
[07:23.71]And you will find yourself facing the moorland slopes,with their rushing streama,
[07:30.19]salty winds and white farmhiouses.
[07:34.86]And then you will reach the onely heights,
[07:39.23]which seem to be miles above the ordinary word.
[07:44.19]Yet less than an hour in a fast motor will bring you to the middle of some
[07:50.35]manufacturing towns,
[07:53.91]which can be left and forgotten
[07:57.67]just as easily as it can be reached from these heights.
[08:02.84]With variety goes surprise.Ours is the country of happy surprises.
[08:10.21]If you go down into the West Country,among rounded hills and soft pastures,
[08:17.26]you will suddenly arrive at the bleak tablelands.
[08:22.09]But before you have reached them you have already been surpised
[08:27.84]by the queer bit of Fren country you have found in the neighborhood of Glastonbury.
[08:34.08]After the easy rolling Midlands,the dramatic Peak District,
[08:40.74]with its genuine steep fells,never fails to astonish me.
[08:46.70]A car will take you all round the Peak District in a morning.
[08:52.58]It is nothing but a crumpled green handkerchief.
[08:58.14]Nevertheless,we hear of search parties going out there to find lost travelers.
[09:05.51]I have never explored this region properly,
[09:10.58]and so it remains to me a country of mystery.
[09:15.43]I could go on with this list of surprises,
[09:20.68]but perhaps you had better make your own.
[09:25.15]Another characteristic of our landscape is its exquisite moderation.
[09:31.92]It has been born of a compromise between wildness and tameness,
[09:38.47]between Nature and Man.
[09:42.31]One reason for this is that it contains that exquistite balance between Nature and Man.
[09:49.39]The fence and the gate are man-made,
[09:53.94]but are not severely reaular and trim as they would be in some other countrites.
[10:00.50]The trees and hedges,the grass and wild flowers,
[10:06.14]all suggest that Nature has not been forced into obedience.
[10:11.91]The irregularity and coloring of the cottage make it snugly into th elandscape,
[10:19.56]and you feel it might have grown there,
[10:23.69]because it looks nearly as much a piece of natural history as the trees.
[10:30.35]In some countries,the cottage would have dclared,
[10:35.71]"Man,the drainer,the tiller,the builder,has settled here."
[10:42.19]In this English scene there is no such direct opposition.
[10:47.93]Men and trees and flowers,we feel,have all settled down comfortably together.
[10:55.20]The motto is,"Live and let live."
[11:00.47]This exquisite harmony between Nature and Man
[11:05.33]explains in part the charm of the older Britain.
[11:10.29]The whole town fitted snugly into the landscape,
[11:15.75]as if they were no more than bits of woodland;
[11:20.93]and roads went winding the easiest way as naturally as rivers.
[11:27.09]It was impossible to say where cultivation ended and wild life began.
[11:33.54]It was a country rich in trees,birds,and wild flowers,as we can see to this day.
[11:41.48]Words and Expressions
[11:45.93]define charm immensely vary
[11:53.19]compass range illimitable plain
[12:00.95]superb adjust scale moorland
[12:08.99]slope rushing stream salty
[12:16.25]farmhouse manufacturing easily rounded
[12:24.93]pasture bleak tableland neighborhood
[12:32.58]rolling dramatic genuine steep
[12:40.23]crumpled explore region properly
[12:48.28]mystery exquisite moderation compromise
[12:56.95]wildness tameness balance severely
[13:05.21]trim hedge obedience irregularity
[13:13.57]coloring snugly opposition motto
[13:21.32]woodland wind cultivation
[13:27.39]Exercises
[13:31.23]Section I Listening Comprehension
[13:36.89]Listen to the record.
[13:40.73]Answer each question by choosing A,B,C or D from the four possible choices.
[13:49.69]A We are going to check the places and distances among them.
[13:56.64](1)Los Angeles to Chicago:two thousand and fifty-four;Houston to Miami:
[14:06.70]one thousand one hundred and ninety-nine;Detroit to Houston:
[14:14.14]one thousand two hundred and sixty-five.
[14:19.42](2)New York to Los Angeles;two thousand seven hundred and eighty-six;
[14:27.88]Chicago to Houston:one thousand and fifty;
[14:33.76]Chicago to Miami:one thousand three hungred and twenty-swven
[14:40.71]B The coastal area of North Africa,is almost as pleasant as Southem California,
[14:48.89]with hot,dry summers,and consistently heavy rains in winter.
[14:55.44]The forested mountains of Morocco and Algeria have a heavy winter,
[15:02.21]snowfall,and excellent skiing grounds.
[15:07.07]Temperatures in the coastland's higher altitudes
[15:12.42]fall below freezing on winter nights.
[15:17.07]In the south of the mountains and plateaus the true desert begins.
[15:23.45]It is not a continuous sea of land;
[15:28.31]some parts are great stretches of picturesque dunes,
[15:34.05]but others are rim rock and gravel,not at all flat,
[15:40.32]and one may travel for days and see scarcely any sand.
[15:46.07]Rains fall rarely,though then in such large closes
[15:52.31]that bivouac commanders should take care not to make camp in a ravine.
[15:59.26]Winter nights are bitterly cold.
[16:03.94]C Travelling on the London underground(the "tube")
[16:10.39]presents few difficulties for visitors because of the clear color-coded maps.
[16:18.15]It is always useful to have plenty of spare change with you
[16:23.79]because there are often long queues at the larger stations.
[16:29.82]If you have enough change you can buy your ticket from a machine.
[16:35.68]You will find signs which list the stations in alphabetical order,
[16:42.05]with the correct fares,near the machines.
[16:47.51]There are automatic barriers are operated by the tickets.
[16:53.67]You should keep the ticket,because it is checked at destination.
[16:59.63]Supplementary Reading
[17:03.57]New Zealand-the International Marketplace
[17:10.05]Trade is New Zealand's livelihood.
[17:15.09]As the country lacks many mineral resources and has only discovered small reserves of oil,
[17:23.27]New Zealand needs to import minerals to keep its economy running.
[17:29.51]Over 75% of imports are raw materials needed for production and transport fuels.
[17:39.36]New Zealand depends on increasing its export income by diversifying its products.
[17:48.04]Greater efficiency and competitiveness are seen as the key to long-term growth.
[17:55.58]A number of government departments have been made fully commercial
[18:01.65]and are expected to make a profit.
[18:06.32]Several,including Telecom and New Zealand Rail
[18:12.38]have been completely or partly sold to overseas investors.
[18:18.55]The financial sector has seen the most rapid
[18:23.51]and far-reaching deregulation in its history.
[18:28.68]Foreign investment is increasing and financial markets are active.
[18:35.13]New Zealand is one of the world's largest exporters of meat,
[18:41.38]dairy products and wool.
[18:45.32]However,because the country depends heavily on agricultural products
[18:52.79]it is very easily affected by changes in world prices for those products.
[19:00.05]It is also affected by problems with oil prices and supply.
[19:06.30]A lot of agricultural products are exported through product boards.
[19:13.14]These boards are responsible for wool,dairy products,kiwifruit,
[19:20.61]apples and pears,berryfruit,eggs,poultry,honey,wheat,tobacco,potatoes and hops.
[19:32.55]As well as exporting,
[19:36.31]these boards ensure there is an adequate supply for the home market.
[19:43.16]Western Europe and particularly Britain have traditionally been New Zealand's major export market.
[19:51.91]Since Britain's entry to the European Community in 1973,
[19:58.44]the percentage of exports sold to the European Community
[20:04.21]has been reduced from 67% to under 25%.
[20:10.98]The major markets for exports in 1993 were,in order of value of exports,
[20:19.52]Australia,Japan,USA,UK,South Korea and Malaysia.
[20:28.90]Products exported,in order of value,are meat,dairy products,wool,
[20:37.26]fish and seafeed,forest products,fruit and nuts,aluminum,
[20:44.39]skins and leather and mechanical machinery.
[20:49.74]New Zealand has a worldwide reputation for providing technical expertise,
[20:57.21]particularly in agriculture,engineering,forestry and land management.
[21:05.36]New Zealand companies are also successful expoorters of computer software
[21:12.21]and electronic in specialist areas.
[21:17.25]The main imports are industrial raw materials,
[21:23.10]capital equipment and consumer goods.Many items are imported duty free.
[21:30.94]Major sources of imports,in order of value of goods,are Australia,
[21:38.78]USA,Japan,UK,Germany,Saudi Arabia,Taiwan and Singapore.
[21:47.92]New Zealand is sometimes calles"the world's biggest farm."
[21:53.56]However,although it has an ideal climate for grassland farming,
[22:00.40]little land is naturally arable and much of it is mountainous.
[22:06.96]Scientists and farmers have developed techniques for grassland management.
[22:13.94]About two thirds of farmland is too rugged to be fertilized or sewn by tractor,
[22:21.38]so New Zealand has been a pioneer in agricultural aviation,
[22:28.15]using lovally developed aircraft to spread fertilizer and seeds from teh air.
[22:35.51]There are about 59 000 farms and horticultural businesses.
[22:42.17]Over half of these farms are smaller than 100 hectares.
[22:48.23]Beef ranches and sheep stations in South Island are large by most standards.
[22:56.49]The land supports about 65 million sheep and 8 million cattle,
[23:03.05]which live outside all year round.
[23:07.59]New Zealand is the world's largest exporter of lamb and mutton.
[23:13.65]It is also the largest exporter of dairy products.
[23:19.11]There are over 3.3 million dairy cattle,with 150 cows in the average herd.
[23:28.78]Recently deer have been domesticated for venison,and goats for their fiber(hair)
