[00:04.28]Lesson 21 1.Dialogue
[00:09.33]Bruce and Zhou Lan are talking on the telephone about stamps.
[00:14.89]Hello.Can I speak to Zhou Lan,please?
[00:19.33]This is Zhou Lan speaking.
[00:22.70]Hello,Zhou Lan.This is Bruce.
[00:26.75]Excuse me for ringing you so late in the evening,but I've only just got home.
[00:33.20]That's OK.
[00:36.15]I would like to ask you about some stamps.
[00:40.23]Do you still have the cock year stamp?You had it when I last saw you.
[00:46.79]I'm afraid I don't have it any more.I sold it last week.
[00:52.35]Oh!What a pity!
[00:55.69]I'm sorry.I didn't know you wanted it.What a shame!
[01:01.47]It doesn't matter.I only decided to get one today.
[01:07.03]It's a pity I didn't think of it earlier.
[01:11.11]Do you want me to find one for you?
[01:14.87]Yes,please.That would be kind of you.
[01:19.12]I've been working so
[01:22.78]hard recently that I haven't had any time for collecting new stamps.
[01:28.84]Ok.I'll ring you if I have any news.
[01:33.20]Thanks very much.Bye.Goodbye.
[01:38.25]Lesson 22
[01:45.98]2.Reading comprehension
[01:50.52]COINS
[01:53.40]The earliest coins in the world were used in China from more than 300 years age.
[02:01.05]They were called bei money.
[02:04.71]Later,another type of coin was used,with holes in it,
[02:10.59]and these wer used for the next 2,000 years,that is,from 221 BC until 1916.
[02:20.93]Coins may be of different sizes,weights,shapes,and of different metals.
[02:28.30]They may have different designs on the two sides.
[02:33.26]It is common to have the head of a famous person on one side.
[02:39.19]Today the coin is usually pressed with the name of the country,
[02:44.83]the value of the coin and the date.
[02:49.09]However,in the past the date was not always included.
[02:55.26]Before coins appeared,seashells,rings,bamboo sticks,
[03:02.52]wood and pieces of cloth were all used for money.
[03:07.98]Coins can be made of different kinds of metal mixed together.
[03:13.62]The earliest coins in the west were made of gold mixed with silver.
[03:19.37]The new Chinese panda coin is made of 99.99% gold.
[03:27.31]Sometimes people discovered collections of coins that had been buried.
[03:33.37]One such collection was found in England in 1978.
[03:39.74]It contained 54,951 coins dating from the years 260-275 AD.
[03:53.30]The largest collection ever found in England was one of about 200,000
[04:00.77]silver pennies,all of them over 600 years old.
[04:07.12]These collections of coins sometimes tell a story that has been forgotten.
[04:13.49]In 1978 a person was looking round an old gold-minimg town in northern Australia.
[04:21.64]He discovered in the ground a pot containing 32,000 Chinese metal coins.
[04:29.22]The coins included examples of almost all the types of Chinese coin that had been made
[04:36.48]between the 7th century and the late 1870s.
[04:42.44]How had they got there?
[04:45.68]It is known that thousands of Chinese worked in the gold mines in the late 19th century.
[04:53.12]It is possible that one of them kept a kind of bank
[04:58.16]where the workers could keep their money safe.
[05:02.60]Possbly this person died without anyone knowing where the coins were hidden.
[05:09.47]Lesson 23
[05:17.13]1.Reading comprehension
[05:21.20]COLLECTING STAMPS
[05:24.36]If you are just starting to collect stamps,here is some advice for you to follow.
[05:30.74]1.At the beginning.collect as many stamps as you can.
[05:36.80]The ones which you decide not to keep can be traded with other people.
[05:43.04]Never throw stamps away.
[05:46.41]2.Don't keep the envelope,unless it is unusual.
[05:52.34]However,
[05:54.98]do keep the envelope if it is the first date when that particular stamp is used.
[06:01.93]Some people are very interested in these "first day covers".
[06:07.60]3.sooner or later you will decide that you want to collect a certain kind of stamp.
[06:14.96]It may be stamps from a particular country,or stamps of a particular kind,
[06:21.31]like stamps with a bird design on them,for example
[06:26.14]This will make your collecting much more interesting.
[06:30.27]You can then look for new ones to add to your collection.
[06:34.95]4.Do join a group.There is a lot to learn about stamps and others can help you.
[06:43.20]Also it is great fun.
[06:46.96]You will soon learn which stamps other people are collecting
[06:51.92]and they will start to trade stamps with you too.
[06:56.29]5.Go to stamp sales and buy whatever you can afford.
[07:02.56]You can often pick up packs of used stamps very cheaply.
[07:07.81]6.Old stamps that have not been used are usually more expensive than used stamps.
[07:15.17]Perhaps at the beginning you may only afford used stamps.
[07:21.10]7.Sooner or later,you will find something unusual.
[07:27.14]It may even be valuable.
[07:30.59]Finally,remember that stamp collecting is fun.
[07:35.55]It can be exciting to get stamps which you do not have yet.
[07:40.51]Also,many stamps have unusual and beautiful designs,so enjoy them |