[00:29.20]Reading
[00:32.26]IN SEARCH OF THE AMBER ROOM
[00:37.30]Ffederick William I ,the King of Prussia,
[00:43.18]could never have imagined that his greatest gift to the Russian people
[00:49.14]would have such a strange history.
[00:53.68]This gift was the Amber Room,
[00:58.54]which was given this name
[01:02.01]because almost seven thousand tons of amber were used to make it.
[01:08.26]Amber has a beautiful yellow-brown colour.
[01:13.69]Although it feels as hard as stone,it easily melts when heated.
[01:19.93]Once it is heated,the amber can be made into any shape.
[01:26.78]The design for the room was of the fancy style popular in those days.
[01:33.86]The Amber Room was also made with gold and jewels.
[01:40.21]It took a team of the country's best artists ten years to make it.
[01:47.18]Everyone agreed that is was the best and biggest work of amber art ever made.
[01:54.73]In fact,the room was not made to be a gift.
[02:00.92]it was made for the palace of Frederick I.
[02:06.07]However,the next king of Prussia decided not to keep it.
[02:13.04]In 1716,Frederick William I gave it to Peter the Great,
[02:21.51]as a gift of friendship from the Prussian to the Russian people.
[02:27.15]In return,the Czar gave the king of Prussia 55 of his best soldiers.
[02:36.71]The Amber Room soon became part of the Czar's winter palace in St Petersburg.
[02:44.57]About four metres long,
[02:48.33]the room served as a small reception hall for important visitors.
[02:54.68]Later,Catherine II had the Amber Room moved to the palace outside St Petersburg
[03:03.51]where she spent her summers.
[03:07.27]She told her artists to add more details to its design.
[03:13.75]In 1770,the room was completed the way she wanted it.
[03:20.91]Almost six hundred candles lit the room.
[03:25.77]Its mirrors and pictures shone like gold.
[03:31.51]Sadly,although the Amber Room was one of the great wonders of the world,
[03:38.75]it is now nissing.
[03:42.28]In Septenber,1941 the Nazi German army was near St Petersburg.
[03:51.34]This was a time when the two countries were at war.
[03:56.51]Howerver,before the Nazis could get to the summer palace,
[04:02.47]the Russians were only able to remove the furniture
[04:08.22]and small art objects from the Amber Room.
[04:13.49]But some of the Nazis sevretly stole the Amber Room itself.
[04:20.44]In less than two days,
[04:24.49]100,000 pieces of the room were put inside twenty-seven wooden boxes.
[04:32.74]There is no doubt that the boxes were then put on a train for Konigsberg,
[04:41.10]at that time a German city on the Baltic Sea.
[04:46.96]After that,what really happened to the Amber room remains a mystery.
[04:53.93]While the search for the old room continues,
[04:59.57]the Russians and Germans havew built a new Amber Room at the summer palace.
[05:06.55]Following old photos,the new room has been made to look much like the old one.
[05:15.19]In the spring of 2003,
[05:20.16]it was ready for the people of St Petersburg
[05:25.12]to celebrate the 300th birthday of their city.
[05:31.05]Using Language
[05:37.82]Reading,litening and writing
[05:42.65]1 Read this passage.
[05:48.40]In a trial,a judge must decide
[05:53.54]which eyewitnesses to believe and which not to believe.
[06:00.18]The judge does not consider how each dyeewitness looks
[06:06.11]or where that person lives or works.
[06:10.57]The judge cares only whether the eyewitness has given useful information,
[06:17.94]which must be facts,rather than opinions.
[06:23.22]This kind of information is called evidence.
[06:28.55]So what is a fact?
[06:32.59]Is it something that more than one person believes?
[06:37.95]Or is it something that more than one person has seen or done?
[06:44.61]The answer to both of these questions is "No".
[06:50.36]Then what really is a fact? A fact is anything that can be proved.
[06:58.69]For example,it can be proved that China
[07:04.25]has more people than any other country in the world.
[07:09.58]Of course,some people will never believe something is a fact
[07:16.56]even though they are given lots of evidence.
[07:21.31]For example,men have walked on the moon,but some people don't believe it.
[07:29.46]They think the men are not telling the truth.
[07:34.43]They also think that the TB pictures of these men are not real.
[07:41.27]Then what is an opinion?
[07:45.82]An opinion is what someone believes is true but has not been proved.
[07:52.79]So an opinion is not good evidence in a trial.
[07:58.85]For example,it is an opinion of you Say:
[08:04.60]"It is good for China not to have too many people."
[08:10.76]It may be good,but it is difficult to prove.
[08:16.61]Some people might not agree with this opinion
[08:21.79]but they also cannot prove that they are right.
[08:27.43]2.Play the tape.
[08:35.00]Listen to what three people say the know about the missing Amber Room.
[08:41.35]As you listen,pretend that you are a judge.
[12:22.24]Reading and writing
[12:30.11]Dear Editor,
[12:33.45]I'm a student at a high school in Berlin.
[12:38.52]I think highl of those who are searching for the Amber Room.
[12:44.26]I don't agree that they should return the treasure to Russia if they find it.
[12:50.93]Nor do I think they should give it to any government.
[12:56.10]The search has cost them a lot of time and money.
[13:00.96]Besides,my father once told me that any person who finds something can keep it.
[13:08.61]When I was a pupil,I found a little money on the floor of my classroom.
[13:14.88]Another boy said he lost it but I didn't give it back to him.
[13:20.81]How could I be sure he was telling the truth?
[13:25.17]Yours,Johann Weber |