CHAPTER ONE Reading
[00:33.31]TRAVEL France is calling
[00:40.36]Now that winter is behind us,many people are starting to think
[00:47.49]about going abroad for the summer holidays.
[00:52.48]This year,why not spread your wings and visit France?
[00:59.14]France is a wonderful place to go for a holiday.
[01:05.20]It is a huge country,with coasts on the English Channel,
[01:12.33]the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
[01:17.98]In addition,it has many mountain regions which are excellent for skiing.
[01:25.92]The centre of France is a big,agricultural region,
[01:32.47]growing crops such as wheat and sunflowers.
[01:38.12]It is amazing to drive past fields which seem to go on foreveror
[01:45.77]whole hills covered with neat rows of grapevines.
[01:51.83]One of the most scenic areas is the Loire Valley,
[01:58.00]where you can visit the old castles
[02:02.67]in which the kings and queens of France used to live.
[02:08.52]Paris is the capital of France.
[02:12.57]It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
[02:19.23]With its world-famous andmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe,
[02:27.49]and its wide,treelined streets,
[02:32.24]Paris is one of the ost beautiful cities in the world.
[02:38.09]If you are taking your children with you,
[02:42.74]remember that EuroDisney is just an hour away from the centre of Paris.
[02:50.50]It offers many of the same attractions as the Disney parks in the USA.
[02:57.66]If you want to go on to visit Britain,
[03:02.41]you can now do it without flying or taking a ferry.
[03:08.47]The Channel Tunnel,or (to use its nickname) the 'Chunnel',
[03:14.93]enables you to travel by train from Paris to London in about three hours.
[03:23.00]In our city,we can see the influence of France in some ways.
[03:30.36]France,like China,is famous for its food.
[03:36.24]Some bakeries provide French bread and cakes.
[03:41.49]Other popular French products are its cheese,brandy and wine.
[03:48.57]Many of the world's top designer names are French.
[03:54.63]Names such as Dior in clothes,Chanel in perfume,
[04:02.08]and Cartier in jewellery are familiar to many Chinese people.
[04:09.05]A quick walk along Nanjing Road will remind you of many similar names.
[04:16.21]France is a leader in art and culture,too.
[04:21.36]A lot of young students from different countries
[04:26.92]go to France to further their studies.
[04:31.65]Every year,French film festivals,
[04:36.61]exhibitions and concerts are organized all over the world.
[04:42.78]To get the most out of your holiday in France why not try learning French now?
[04:50.82]You can do this in some language schools around the city.
[04:56.39]LISTENING Completing notes about a famous building
[07:28.76]SPEAKING A Talk time
[07:38.11]Asking for and giving directions
[08:55.07]A1 T:Excuse me.How do I get to People's Spuare?
[09:04.71]D:Take the second turning on the left.
[09:09.43]Walk to the end of the road.
[09:13.09]You'll see People's Square in front of you.
[09:17.66]T:Can you also tell me the way to the post office?
[09:22.94]D:Take the first turning on your right.
[09:27.38]Walk to the end of the road.
[09:30.93]You'll see the post office across the street on your left.
[09:36.89]T:Thanks very much. D:Not at all.
[09:42.14]MORE PRACTICR
[09:48.51]A The Tower of Pisa was built to be the most beautiful bell tower in all of Italy.
[09:58.96]It is the bell tower for Pisa Cathedral.
[10:04.73]However,not only is the marble tower beautiful,
[10:11.79]it is perhaps the strangest towrer in the world.
[10:18.34]It leans to one side and looks like it is going to fall over.
[10:26.52]The building of the tower began in August 1173
[10:33.97]and took nearly two hunder years to complete.
[10:40.03]Nobody is certain who designed the tower,
[10:46.27]but for many years it was said that Bonanno Pisano was the architect.
[10:54.92]In 1319,all the floors were finished and years later,
[11:04.58]work eventually began on the bell chamber at the top.
[11:11.53]It was officially opened after nearly 200 years of construction.
[11:19.78]The tower has eight floors.
[11:24.46]It is 54.5 metres tall with 294 steps up to the bell chamber.
[11:36.53]From the top,there is a very beautiful view.
[11:43.09]Italian scientist,Galileo,once did his famous experiments
[11:50.82]about gravityand falling objects from the top of the tower.
[11:57.87]Why does the tower lean?
[12:02.55]In fact,it was already leaning while they were building it.
[12:09.31]As soon as three floors had been built,by 1178,
[12:18.46]it began to lean as the ground beneath it sank.
[12:24.83]The builders tried to make the tower straight again as they added more floors,
[12:34.18]but the lean only got worse as the tower grew.
[12:41.05]It continued to lean by about 1 millimetre every year until finally,
[12:51.08]on 7 January 1990,it was closed to the public.
[12:58.92]For ten years,the rescue of the tower was a serious problem.
[13:06.57]The top was leaning over by 5 metres to the south
[13:13.65]and if its movement was not stopped,
[13:18.69]the tower would one day fall over.
[13:23.74]Measurements taken in 1911
[13:28.99]estimated that the tower would collapse by 2050,if not sooner.
[13:38.55]After 10 years of hard work,it was offivially reopened on 16 June 2001.
[13:50.80]However it was not opened to the public until the end of 2001 and even now,
[14:01.35]the number of visitors is restricted.
[14:05.90]It is now safe for the next 300 years
[14:12.53]because engineers have reduced the lean by 50 centimetres
[14:20.37]to give it the same lean that it had in 1838.
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