[00:04.41]Lesson 9 1 Dialogue
[00:10.34]Yang Pei and Jackie are going camping in the Australian bush
[00:17.48]with some other friends.
[00:20.95]YANG PEI:I'm enjoying this.Where exactly are we going?
[00:26.41]JACKIE:We're going to a really nice place down by the river.
[00:31.58]It's a good place for a camp and there's plenty of shade under the trees.
[00:38.43]YANG PEI:Be careful!Don't throw your cigarette out of the window.
[00:44.38]If you do that,you may start a fire.Put it out in the ashtray.
[00:51.54]BURT:Sorry.I wasn't thinking.
[00:55.59]YANG PEI:That's OK.
[00:58.46]But you mustn't smoke while you're walking around in the bush either.
[01:04.42]You could start a bush fire.
[01:08.08]JACKIE:Bonny,take the next dirt track on the left.
[01:13.35]That will take us down into the valley.
[01:17.11]JEFF:Look out!There's a kangaroo!
[01:21.48]BONNY:Missed it!That was lucky.It can damage your car really badly.
[01:28.56]A few minutes later
[01:32.21]JACKIE:We can stop here on the right beyond the tree.Let's make our camp here.
[01:39.76]JEFF:Will you help me fix up this sheet?Then it'll give us some shade.
[01:46.42]BONNY:Don't tie it to that old branch.Ithink it'll break.
[01:52.48]Tie it to the one on the right.
[01:56.04]YANG PEI:What a lovely place! I'm going to go across the river.
[02:01.99]JACKIE:Take care.The rocks are wet.
[02:06.07]YANG PEI:What's in that cave?
[02:09.31]BURT:You'd better not go inside.There might be snakes.
[02:14.95]Lesson 10
[02:23.20]2 Reading comprehension
[02:27.88]THE DISCOVERY OF A USTRALIA
[02:32.14]Australia was discovered about 53,000 years ago.
[02:38.17]It is possible that the first people crossed into Australia from Asia
[02:44.83]on a great hand bridge when the water level of the oceans was lower.
[02:52.20]Once they were known as"aborigines",which means"the first people of a country",
[03:00.74]but today they are more usually known as Kooris.
[03:06.51]Kooris must be one of the oldest races on the earth.
[03:12.26]They developed a strong system of society.
[03:16.83]Their spiritual faith and their gods were very important to them,
[03:23.99]and knowledge,customs and memories were handed down by the elders of the race.
[03:30.65]Cave paintings have been found which are at least 20,000 years old
[03:36.97]and are perhaps the oldest form of art yet discovered on the earth.
[03:43.03]Kooris developed a way of life that was suitable for this hot
[03:49.09]and in many places dry country.
[03:53.25]They invented different kinds of fishing nets,
[03:57.92]also a curiously shaped piece of wood for hunting which could be thrown
[04:05.08]and which would return to the thrower if it did not strike anything.
[04:10.64]They lived by hunting animals,
[04:14.30]birds and fish,and by gathering roots,nuts and wild fruits.
[04:22.56]They became experienced at finding underground springs.
[04:27.81]As a result,the Kooris have been able to live for thousands of years in a desert
[04:36.14]land in which a foreigner would quickly starve or die from lack of water.
[04:43.22]No one knows how many Kooris lived in Arstralia,
[04:48.68]maybe between 300,000 and 3 million.
[04:54.14]Just over 200 years ago Kooris made up 100% of the population,
[05:01.22]but today they only make up a little over 1% of the population.
[05:07.98]Then foreign settlers started to arrive,
[05:12.53]bringing with them new diseases which killed many Kooris
[05:18.69]and seizing the land on which the Kooris had lived for thousands of years.
[05:25.36]Kooris do not believe in owning possessions or land
[05:31.21]and they could not understand how settlers took land as their own.
[05:37.97]Whenever the Kooris defended their rights,they were killed.
[05:43.72]Education was intended for white settlers only,
[05:49.00]and until very recently
[05:52.76]no school lessons were held in languages rather than English
[05:58.71]Thus Koori children who went to school could not understand the lessons.
[06:05.79]Although the settlers generally treated each other well,
[06:10.65]they,particularly the police,treated the Kooris badly.
[06:16.89]A quarter of the people who have died in police stations and prisons have been Koori.
[06:24.26]Two hundred years ago there were more than 250 Koori languages.
[06:30.43]Half of these languages have completely disappeared,
[06:35.78]and many of the remaining languages have been lost.
[06:40.64]In 1960 Kooris were made citizens of Australia,
[06:46.60]53,000 years after arriving in the country.
[06:52.16]Lesson 11
[07:00.83]1 Reading comprehension
[07:06.29]AUSTRALIA
[07:09.24]Australia is as old as time.
[07:13.79]Probably it was once connected to South America,
[07:19.14]but the continents separated as the earth's plates moved.
[07:25.02]Having been separated from other continents for millions of years,
[07:30.95]Australia has many plants and aninmals not found anywhere else in the world.
[07:38.32]One strange animal lays eggs,yet feeds its young on its milk.
[07:45.87]Kangaroos and koala bears give birth to very small and weak young.
[07:54.12]They are then carried in a pocket of folded skin on the mother's stomach
[08:01.07]for several months while they feed on the mother's milk and grow stronger.
[08:08.72]Also in Australia there are many varieties of parrots,
[08:14.60]and over 140 different types of snakes,many of which are extremely dangerous.
[08:24.45]Australia is the only country in the world which covers an entire continent.
[08:31.71]From north to south the distance is 3,220 km and from east to weat 3,860 km.
[08:45.79]In area it is about the same size as the USA(without Alaska),
[08:53.45]which has more than thirteen times as many people.
[08:58.41]Tody about 85% of the population of 18 million
[09:05.07]live in the six major cities around the coast.
[09:10.22]Two thirds of the country is dry or desert.
[09:15.57]It is an extremely rich country.
[09:20.01]It produces metals,precious stones,coal,grain,meat and wines,
[09:28.45]and has the biggest iron mines in the world.
[09:33.28]Australia has about one sixth of the world's sheep
[09:39.32]and produces almost one third of its wool.
[09:44.28]Cattle are also kept,and about 15 million tons of wheat are grown every year.
[09:53.03]Fruit and vegetables are grown in areas where there is enough water.
[09:59.90]A long fence runs for hundreds of kilometres across Australia.
[10:06.25]The purpose of the fence is to keep out a type of wild dog called a "dingo".
[10:14.43]Dingoes hunt at night and like to attack sheep.
[10:19.89]Farms in the middle of Australia are so large that farmers use motor bikes
[10:27.25]or helicopters for the task of rounding up the sheep or cattle.
[10:33.91]The climate is different depending on the area.
[10:39.06]The south has cool,wet winters and warm,dry summers.
[10:45.41]The north has warm,dry winters and hot,wet summers.
[10:52.25]The centre of Australia is hot and dry all the year round.
[10:58.52]Because of such a climate,much of daily life happens outdoors.
[11:05.18]Australians love sports and win world competitions in tennis,sailing and swimming.
[11:14.61]If you are adked to an Australian home,
[11:18.84]you will probably eat outside and cook meat or fish on an open fire.
[11:25.79]At weekends many Australians go walking
[11:30.96]and camping in the countryside,called the"bush".
[11:36.22]For holidays,many people visit the Great Barrier Reef
[11:42.09]off the northeast coast of Australia,which has 700 islands |