[00:08.80]Lesson 41 1. Read and act
[00:15.05]Hi,Lily! How was your trip to Europe?
[00:20.01]It was both wonderful and terrible.
[00:24.97]What do you mean by "both wonderful and terrible"?
[00:30.72]Well,that's a long story.
[00:35.47]I went to Stockholm first.
[00:39.44]That was the wonderful part of the journey.
[00:43.70]Stockholm is a lovely place to visit.
[00:48.35]I was deeply impressed by the beautiful sights.
[00:53.52]Sounds great.What happened later?
[00:58.57]Later I went to London to visit some friends.
[01:04.24]That's a good idea. London is also a beautiful city.
[01:10.09]Yes,but my trip to London was terrible. How come?
[01:16.56]ER,you know,I hate flying,so I decided to travel by train for a change.
[01:24.82]I booked a ticket beforehand. That doesn't sound bad.
[01:30.67]Right,but some passengers were talking all the time.
[01:36.71]It was impossible for me to have a good rest.
[01:41.75]When I reached London,all I wanted to do was sleep.
[01:47.10]Oh,that's too bad.
[01:50.86]2.Practise
[01:54.70]Which continent is Germany in?
[01:59.07]Europe.Which continent is Russia in?
[02:03.79]I'm not sure.Is it in Europe?
[02:08.26]I think you're right./I think so./I'm not sure.
[02:18.21]Lesson 42
[02:21.58]2. Read How the continents are moving
[02:27.23]Very slowly,the continents are moving across the face of the world.
[02:33.39]They are carrying us as passengers.
[02:37.83]During the lifetime of a person,
[02:41.88]North America and Europe will move further apart by nearly two metres.
[02:49.12] About 200 million years ago,
[02:53.24]all the land in the world was joined together in one huge continent.
[03:00.22]Then it started to break into pieces.
[03:04.48]These pieces started to move apart.
[03:09.23]After about 60 million years,
[03:13.88]the northern part was no longer joined to the southern part.
[03:19.63]The southern part broke into three pieces.
[03:24.30]One of these was slowly moving northwards.
[03:30.05] 65 million years ago,
[03:34.02]india had not yet joined Asia,and Australia was still joined to Antarctica.
[03:41.28]North America was still joined to Europe and asia.
[03:46.93]Today Australia has moved away from Antarctica,
[03:52.10]and North America has moved away from Europe.
[03:56.75]India has pushed hard into Asia,pushing up the Himalaya Mountains.
[04:03.80]Scientists think that the earth is covered by huge plates made of rock.
[04:11.06]These plates are beneath the seas and continents of the world.
[04:16.52]There are about twenty plates.
[04:20.99]They keep moving like great ships,carrying the continents with them.
[04:27.94] What is going to happen in 50 million years' time?
[04:33.21]Scientists think that Australia will move north towards Asia.
[04:39.46]North and South America will move apart.
[04:44.21]Africa will move nearer to Europe.
[04:48.65]Part of East Africa will break away from the rest of Africa.
[04:54.90]North America will move westwards,and Asia will move eastwards.
[05:02.34]So China and North America may move closer.
[05:07.91]Who knows what will happen?
[05:11.35]But one thing is certain:The world is changing!
[05:20.42]Lesson 44 3. Read and act
[05:26.90]Hi,Tom! What are you doing?
[05:31.44]I am reading a book about the West Indies.
[05:36.27]The West Indies? Sounds a little bit strange.
[05:41.71]How did these islands get this name?
[05:45.84]The name "Indies" was given to the islands by Christopher Columbus.
[05:52.03]Do you know who he was? Of course!
[05:57.59]Columbus believed the world is round,
[06:01.85]and he decided to sail west from europe to reach Asia. That's right.
[06:08.40]He found America in 1492,but he thought he had reached India in Asia.
[06:16.45]That's why the islands were named "indies".
[06:21.41]But why are the islands now called "the West Indies"?
[06:26.77]Because his mistake was discovered.
[06:31.94]There were already islands called "the East Indies" in the pacific Ocean,
[06:38.00]so these islands were given the name "West Indies".
[06:43.64]Read and discuss
[06:48.22]Read the story about Captain Cook.
[06:52.87]Look up the new words in a dictionary.
[06:57.12]Captain James Cook was a great explorer.
[07:02.58]He was born in England in 1728.
[07:08.36]He travelled to many new places and made maps of them.
[07:14.31]In 1755 he was in Canada and made maps of its eastern coast.
[07:22.85]In 1768,the King of England
[07:28.31]made him the captain of a ship and sent him to the Pacific.
[07:34.48]In less than three years he had visited hundreds of islands
[07:41.04]and put them in the correct places on the map.
[07:46.39]Before his travelling,maps of the Pacific Ocean showed almost nothing.
[07:53.84]In 1778,Captain Cook visited the Hawaiian Islands.
[08:01.41]He was the first person from Europe to these islands,
[08:06.45]and he was also one of the first explorers
[08:11.21]who made important maps of the west coast of North America |