我很喜欢我姐姐，但是她有一个严重的缺点，她有时确实很固执。尽管她对到某些地方的最佳路线并不清楚，她却坚持要把这次旅行安排的尽善尽美。现在我知道了这个尽善尽美的方式总是她的方式。我老是问她：“我们什么时候动身？什么时候回来？”我问她是否已经看过地图。当然她并没有看过，我的姐姐是不会考虑细节的。于是我告诉她湄公河的源头在青海省。她给了我一个坚定的眼神—这种眼神表明她是不会改变主意的。当我告诉她我们的旅行将从5000多米的的高地出发时，她似乎显得很兴奋。当我告诉她那里空气稀薄，呼吸会很困难，而且天气会很冷时，她却说这将是一次很有趣的经历。我非常了解我的姐姐，她一旦下了决心，就什么也不能使她改变。最后，我只好让步了。 在我们旅行前的几个月，王薇和我去了图书馆。我们找到了一本大型的地图册，里面有一些世界地理的明细图。我们从图上可以看到，湄公河源于西藏一座山上的冰川。起初，河很小，河水清澈而冷冽，然后它开始快速流动。它穿过深谷时就变成了急流。流经云南西部。有时，这条河形成瀑布进入宽阔的峡谷。我们惊奇的发现这条河有一半是在中国境内。当流出中国，流出高地后，湄公河就变宽，变暖了。河水也变成了黄褐色。而当它进入东南亚以后，流速减慢，河水变宽慢慢地穿过低谷，到了长着稻谷的平原。最后，湄公河三角洲的各支流流入中国南海。 Reading and discussing

JOURNEY DOWN THE MEKONG

PART 2 A NIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS

Although it was autumn, the snow was already beginning to fall in Tibet. Our legs were so heavy and cold that they felt like blocks of ice. Have you ever seen snowmen ride bicycles? That's what we looked like! Along the way children dressed in long wool coats stopped to look at us. In the late afternoon we found it was so cold that our water bottles froze. However, the lakes shone like glass in the setting sun and looked wonderful. Wang Wei rode in front of me as usual. She is very reliable and I knew I didn't need to encourage her. To climb the mountains was hard work but as we looked around us, we were surprised by the view. We seemed to be able to see for miles. At one point we were so high that we found ourselves cycling through clouds. Then we began going down the hills. It was great fun especially as it gradually became much warmer. In the valleys colorful butterflies flew around us and we saw many yaks and sheep eating green grass. At this point we had to change our caps, coats, gloves and trousers for T-shirts and shorts.

In the early evening we always stop to make camp. We put up our tent and then we eat. After supper Wang Wei put her head down on her pillow and went to sleep but I stayed awake. At midnight the sky became clearer and the stars grew brighter. It was so quiet. There was almost no wind-only the flames of our fire for company. As I lay

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beneath the stars I thought about how far we had already travelled.

We will reach Dali in Yunnan Province soon, where our cousins Dao Wei and Yu Hang will join us. We can hardly wait to see them! Unit 4 Earthquakes

A NIGHT THE EARTH DIDN'T SLEEP

Strange things were happening in the countryside of northeast Hebei.For three days the water in the village wells rose and fell, rose and fell. Farmers noticed that the well walls had deep cracks in them. A smelly gas came out of the cracks. In the farmyards, the chickens and even the pigs were too nervous to eat. Mice ran out of the fields looking for places to hide. Fish jumped out of their bowls and ponds. At about 3:00 am on July 28,1976,some people saw bright lights in the sky. The sound of planes could be heard outside the city of Tangshan even when no planes were in the sky. In the city, the water pipes in some buildings cracked and burst. but the one million people of the city, who thought little of these events, were asleep as usual that night.

At 3:42 am everything began to shake. It seemed as if the world was at an end! Eleven kilometers directly below the city the greatest earthquake of the 20th century had begun. It was felt in Beijing, which is more than two hundred kilometers away. One-third of the nation felt it. A huge crack that was eight kilometres long and thirty metres wide cut across houses, roads and canals. Steam burst from holes in the ground. Hard hills of rock became rivers of dir. In fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay in ruins. The suffering of the people was extreme. Two-thirds of them died or were left without parents. The number of people who were killed or injured reached more than 400,000.

But how could the survivors believe it was natural? Everywhere they looked nearly everything was destroyed. All of the city's hospitals,75%of its factories and buildings and 90% of its homes were gone. Bricks covered the ground like red autumn leaves. No wind, however, could blow them away. Two dams fell and most of the bridges also fell or were not safe for travelling. The railway tracks were now useless pieces of steel.Tens of thousands of cows would never give milk again. Half a million oigs and millions of chickens were dead.Sand now filled the wells instead of water.People were shocked.Then,later that afternoon,another big quake which was almost as strong as the first one shook Tangshan.Some of the rescue workers and doctors were trapped under the ruins.More buildings fell down.Water,food,and electricity were hard to get.people begab to wonder how long the disaster would last.

All hope was not lost.Soon after the quakes,the army sent 150,000 soldiers to Tangshan to help the rescue workers.Hundreds of thousands of people were

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helped.The army organized teams to dig out those who were trapped and to bury the dead.To the north of the city,most of the 10,000 miners were rescued from the coal mines there.Workers built shelters for survivors whose homes had been destroyed.Fresh water was taken to the city bu train,truck and plane.Slowly,the city began to breathe again.

Office of the City Government Tangshan,Hebei China

July5,2007 Dear____,

Congratulations!We are pleased to tell you that you have won the high school speaking competition about new Tangshan. Your speech was heard by a group of five judges, all of whom agreed that it was the best one this year. Your parents and your school should be very proud of you!

Next month the city will open a new park to honour those who died in the terrible disaster. The park will also honour those who helped the survivors. Our office would like to have you speak to the park vistors on July 28 at 11:00 am. As you know,this is the day the quake happened thirty-____years ago.

We invite you to bring your family and friends on that special day. Sincerely, Zhang Sha Unit 5

ELIAS’ STORY

My name is Elias. I am a poor black worker in South Africa. The time when I first met Nelson Mandela was a very difficult period of my life. I was twelve years old. It was in 1952 and Mandela was the black lawyer to whom I went for advice. He offered guidance to poor black people on their legal problems. He was generous with his time, for which I was grateful.

I needed his help because I had very little education. I began school at six. The school where I studied for only two years was three kilometers away. I had to leave because my family could not continue to pay the school fees and the bus fare. I could not read or write well. After trying hard, I got a job in a gold mine. However, this was a time when one had got to have a passbook to live in Johannesburg. Sadly I did not have it because I was not born there, and I worried about whether I would become out of work.

The day when Nelson Mandela helped me was one of my happiest. He told my how to get the correct papers so I could stay in Johannesburg. I became more hopeful

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about my future. I never forgot how kind Mandela was. When he organized the ANC Youth League, I joined it as soon as I could. He said:

“The last thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws stopping our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all.” It was the truth. Black people could not vote or choose their leaders. They could not get the jobs they wanted. The parts of town in which they had to live were decided by white people. The places outside the towns where they were sent to live were the poorest parts of South Africa. No one could grow food there. In fact as Nelson Mandela said:

“…we were put into a position in which we had either to accept we were less important or fight the government. We chose to attack the laws. We first broke the law in a way which was peaceful; when this was not allowed…only then did we decide to answer violence with violence.

As a matter of fact, I do not like violence…but in 1963 I helped him blow up some government buildings. It was very dangerous because if I was caught I could be put in prison. But I was happy to help because I knew it would help us achieve our dream of making black and white people equal. THE REST OF ELIAS' STORY

You cannot imagine how the name of Robben Island made us afraid. It was a prison from which no one escaped. There I spent the hardest time of my life. But when I got there Nelsom Mandela was also there and he helped me. Mr Mandela began a school for those of us who had little learning. He taught us during the lunch breaks and the evenings when we should have been asleep. We read books under our blankets and used anything we could find to make candles to see the words. I became a good student. I wanted to study for my degree but I was not allowed to do that. Later, Mr Mandela allowed the prison guards to join us. He said they should not be stopped from studying for their degrees. They were not cleverer than me , but they did pass their exams. So I knwe I could get a degree too. That made me feel good about myself.

When I finished the four years in prison, I went to find a job. Since I was better educated, I got a job working in an office. However, the police found out and told my boss that I had been in prinson for blowing up government buildings. So I lost my job. I did not work again for twenty years until M r Mandela and the ANC came to power in 1994. All that time my wife and children had to beg for good and help from relatives or friends. Luckily Mr Mandela remembered me and gave me a job taking tourists around my old prison on Robben Islannd. I felt bad the first time I talked to a group. All the terror and fear of that time came back to me. I remembered the

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