[00:04.78]Lesson 25 1 Dialogue
[00:10.95]Tang Ling and Bob
[00:14.47]are building an outdoor platform for plays and concerts at the university.
[00:21.73]BOB:We'll have to buy some more bricks.I don't think these will be enough.
[00:28.00]TANG:OK.We can get some more tomorrow.
[00:32.37]We should finish the floor now.
[00:36.21]Can you take the other end of this piece of wood?
[00:40.46]Now you have to pull it to make the surface smooth like that .
[00:46.24]BOB:The wall behind looks a bit grey and dull.
[00:50.60]What can we so to make it look less ugly?
[00:54.96]TANG:I think we should paint it white.Then we can do some drawings on it.
[01:01.13]BOB:I'll start tomorrow.
[01:04.29]TANG:No,no drawings can be done until the wall is dry.
[01:10.22]That may take about a week.
[01:13.69]BOB:A week?As long as that?
[01:18.05]TANG:Yes,and we must stop people walking on this floor until it's firm.
[01:24.61]It may be neces sary to put up a notice saying"Keep off".
[01:30.07]Another thing,we'll have to drill a hole in the wall for the electric wires.
[01:37.52]BOB:That's easy.I can do that tomoorrow.I'll bring my drill.
[01:44.05]TANG:What are you doing this evening?
[01:47.52]BOB:I'm not sure.
[01:50.39]I ought to do some studying,as I've got masses of work to do,
[01:56.92]but I think I'll be too tired.
[02:00.76]Maybe I'll just watch the news on television and go to bed early.
[02:06.51]Lesson 26
[02:17.27]2 Reading comprehension
[02:21.84]ANGKOR WAT(1)
[02:26.21]A journalist reports on repair work at the temple Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
[02:34.75]My first visit to Angkor Wat was in 1980.
[02:40.03]The country had been at war for many years and the temple was deserted
[02:46.87]and falling to pieces.
[02:50.11]Plants were growing out of the roofs,and trees were growing in the courtyards.
[02:56.77]Today,the temple is the scene of a busy repair programme.
[03:02.70]A team of 15 Indian experts are organizing a workforce of 400 Cambodians,
[03:11.35]most of them women,who are cleaning,
[03:16.10]repairing and rebuilding parts of this temple.
[03:21.14]One of the experts explained the difficulty.
[03:25.69]"The problem is wate.The rainy season lasts for six months
[03:32.45]and water gets in among the stones.
[03:36.40]So certain types of plant grow all over the stones
[03:41.96]and their roots go down into the holes between the stones."
[03:47.32]As I walked through the courtyards,I noticed how the Cambodian women
[03:53.80]devote hours to cleaning carefully a tiny area of stone.
[04:00.14]Boards are laid down to protect the precious painted stones
[04:05.71]while the repair work is going on.
[04:09.55]There are very few machines and little heavy equipment.
[04:14.82]Workers carry building materials in buckets at the end of long poles.
[04:21.49]Piles of stones lie in a corner of the courtyard,waiting to be replaced.
[04:26.53]The work of cleaning the stones is watched over by three Indian chemists.
[04:35.59]It is a very slow task.
[04:39.67]First they clean the stones with brushes using buckets of a weak chemical.
[04:46.82]Then gaps between the stones are filled in.
[04:51.37]Finally another material is painted onto the stones
[04:57.25]which will protect them from water for ever.
[05:02.71]Work starts every day at 7 a.m.and goes on until late afternoon six days a week,
[05:12.45]with a break at midday.
[05:15.92]For six or seven months in the year no work can be done
[05:21.99]when the rainy season makes it impossible.
[05:26.35]Besides,there are very few skilled stone workers left after the war years.
[05:33.71]Millions of people were killed in battle.
[05:37.87]To make things worse,
[05:41.11]many of the men have gone off to cities in search of higher pay,
[05:47.06]leaving women from nearby villages to carry on with the work.
[05:53.62]Evening is the best time to visit thetemple,after the tour have left.
[06:00.99]As the sun sinks lower,shadows across the courtyard.
[06:07.36]After sunset,the sky turns pink.
[06:12.40]The grey stone towers take on a golden colour before turning pink.
[06:18.88]Nowhere else in the world can there be such a quiet,beautiful place.
[06:26.04]Lesson 27
[06:34.87]1 Reading comprehension
[06:39.33]ANGKOR WAT(2)
[06:42.68]In 1177 the capital city of Angkor
[06:48.56]was seized after a fierce battle and fell into ruins.
[06:55.22]Soon a new capital was built at Angkor Thom,but this was deserted in 1434.
[07:03.86]The ruins were soon covered by thick forests and were forgotten until 1861,
[07:11.73]when the French,who then controlled Cambodia,discovered them.
[07:17.89]They were astonished by what they found.
[07:22.15]The ruins of the old city of Angkor covered an area of 200 square kilometres.
[07:30.30]As well as the temple of Angkor Wat,they included more than 50 major buildings
[07:38.06]and others of less importance within this area.
[07:42.92]They had been built over a period of six centuries up until 1431.
[07:49.76]The temple of Angkor Wat was built from 1113 to 1150
[07:56.53]and covers an area of two square kilometres.
[08:01.67]A vast square channel of water goes round the four sides of it.
[08:08.52]The French,after discovering the ruined temple,
[08:13.84]did a lot of repair work up until 1970,
[08:19.30]when the war forced the last of the French workforce to leave.
[08:24.66]In 1980 an Indian team visited the temple to prepare a report
[08:32.10]and found the temple in a poor state.
[08:36.23]Many of the stone figures had been dtolen and others were falling to pieces.
[08:43.70]Repair work finally started in 1986
[08:49.27]and a team of 15 Indian experts began work with 400 Cambodian workers.
[08:57.13]Fortunately they had a lot of experience,
[09:02.09]as the team leader had already worked on more than 70 old buildings in India.
[09:08.94]More than 70,000 square metres of stone were cleaned and protected against the water.
[09:17.09]Thousaands of stone blocks were moved
[09:20.85]and many roof sections were replaced with new ones where necessary.
[09:27.61]The work was completed in June 1994 |