OLIVER Name it. HENRY Son-in law.
OLIVER Well , well, well! But you’ve never had such a job before .How can I be sure you can do it successfully?
HENRY Try me—oh ,do . I beg of you ! Give me 30or 40 years ,and— OLIVER Oh ,well ,all right.
NARRATOR Are Portia and Henry happy ? There are not enough words in the biggest dictionary to describe it . Did the people of London have a good time with this bit of news ? Yes . Portia’s stepfather took that friendly bank-note back to the Bank of England and cashed . The bank-note was then useless for money but was his wedding gift to the young couple .Yes , the bank-note was worth millions of dollars , but not worth one-tenth as much as how Henry felt about Portia .
Book 3 Unit 4 Astronomy: the science of the stars
B3U4P25-26
HOW LIFE BEGAN ON THE EARTH
After the “Big Bang ”, the earth was just a cloud of energetic dust. What it was to become was a mystery until the dust began to slowly combine into a ball moving around the sun. The problem was that the earth became violent because it was not clear whether the solid shape was to last or not. It exploded loudly with fire and rock, which in time to produce the water vapour, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, which were to make the earth’s atmosphere. As the earth cooled down, water began to appear on its surface. Nobody knew that it was going to be different from other planets going round the sun. water had already disappeared from planets like Mars or satellites like the moon, but it stayed on the earth. This is how the earth began to show its special qualities. Many people think this was important for the beginning of life. It allowed the earth to dissolve harmful gases, which had become part of the earth’s atmosphere, into oceans and seas. That made it possible for life to begin to develop.
What scientists think is that the earth was different because of the arrival of small plants growing in the water on its surface. Nobody understood that these plants were the start of many changes. They multiplied and filled the first oceans and seas with oxygen. This encouraged the development of early shellfish and all sorts of fish.
Many millions of years later the first green plants began to appear on land. Scientists believe that taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and filling the air with oxygen helped life to develop. Later land animals appeared. Some were insects. Others, called amphibians, were able to live on and as well as in the sea. When the plants grew into forests, reptiles appeared for the first time. They produced young generally by laying eggs. Later, some huge animals, called dinosaurs, developed. They laid eggs too. They became the most important animals on the earth for millions of years. But when they disappeared, mammals became more important. They were the last group of animals and they were different because they produced their young from within their bodies.
Small clever animals, now with hands and feet, appeared and spread all over the earth. They
developed new methods of growing food, hunting and moving around. As time went by they covered the earth and have become the most important animals on the planet. But they are not taking care of the earth very well. They are putting too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which prevents heat from escaping from the earth into space. The earth may become too hot for the lives on it. Whether life will continue on the earth for millions of years to come will depend on whether this problem can be solved.
B3U4P28
My friend Li Yanping was really very interested in__.
He liked to watch changes in the moon, the only natural satellite of the earth through his telescope. One evening he thought he saw a huge comet__ as it hit the moon. The__ of the moon produced a lot of dust that became__ like a large ball. It seemed as if it would multiply and become a new__. Li Yanping thought He was seeing the__ of the universe until he noticed some dirt on his telescope! He was very disappointed.
B3U4P30-31
A VISIT TO THE MOON
Last month I was lucky enough to have a chance to make a trip into space with my friend Li Yanping, an astronomer. We visited the moon in our spaceship!
Before we left ,Li Yanping explained to me that the force of gravity would change three times on our journey and that the first change would be the most powerful. Then we were off. As the rocket rose slowly into the air we began to feel the pull of the earth, which is what we call gravity. At first it pushed us so hard back into our seats that we could not say anything to each other. Gradually the weight lessened and I was able to talk to him. \is the spaceship not falling back to the earth? On the earth if I fall from a tree I will fall to the ground. \far
from the earth now to feel its pull,\we get closer to the moon, we shall feel its gravity pulling us but it will not be as strong a pull as the earth's. \cheered up immediately and floated weightlessly around in our spaceship cabin watching the earth become smaller and the moon larger.
When we got there, I wanted to explore immediately. \mass will be less than on the earth because the moon is smaller and I will be able to move more freely. I might even grow taller if I stay here long enough. I shall certainly weigh less!\and climbed down the steps from the spaceship. But when I tried to step forward I found I was carried twice as far as on the earth and fell over. \practice now that gravity has changed.\ ourselves.
Leaving the moon's gravity was not as painful as leaving the earth's. But returning to the earth was very frightening. We watched, amazed as fire broke out on the outside of the spaceship as the earth's gravity increased. Again we were pushed hard into our seats as we came back to land.\That was very exhausting but very exciting too,\I exclaimed. \I know much more about gravity! \
would you like to go to?\
B3U4P64
Where do we come from
“Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way is? How will it end? All my life, I have been attracted by the big question that face us, and have tired to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tired to make sense of what you see, you will also have started to wonder why the universe exists. The questions are clear and simple. But the answers have always seemed well beyond our reach, until now.
“The idea which had grown over two thousand year of observation have had to be revised. In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way think of ourselves. From sitting at the centre of the universe, we now find ourselves moving around an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of the stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. And our galaxy itself is just one of billions of galaxies, in a universe that is infinite and expanding. But this is far from the end of a long history of inquiry. Huge question remain to be answered, before we can hope to have a complete picture of the universe we live in.
“I want you to share my excitement at the discoveries, past and present, which have revolutionized the way we think. From the Big Bang to black holes, from dark matter to a possible Big Crunch, our image of the universe today is full of strange sounding ideas, and remarkable truths. The story of how we arrive at this picture is the story of learning to understand what we see.”
B3U4P66
Caught in a black hole
The spaceship warned Li Yanping and me to be ready as we were approaching(靠近)the “black hole”. There seemed to be a large circle of lights going round an empty space. Li Yanping called out, “That empty hole is like a mouth always needing to be fed. The lights are large stars being slowly sucked(吸吮)into it.” We watched in shock and amazement as a large sun suddenly disappeared into the hole. Just then the lights on our spaceship went out and the computer stopped working. What was happening? I tried to turn the spaceship away from the hole but it would not move. Would it eat us too?
Suddenly the spaceship jumped and began to move round the edge of the outside of the hole. The gravity of the “black hole” was pulling us slowly into its “mouth”. As the spaceship moved round the hole, it began to go faster and faster. I felt sick. My watch moved slower and slower and time seemed almost to stop. My mouth went dry and I closed my eyes. All the stories about what happened when you were caught by the gravity of a “black hole” seemed to be true.
But then the spaceship jumped again. This time it moved sideways from the “black hole. It began to increase its speed until it seemed to be going as fast as light. I was bumped (撞开)and banged (猛击)as the spaceship flew like a bird away from the “black hole”. What was happening? At last we slowed almost to a stop and we were able to look around us. The sky certainly looked different but this would not be a problem as the computer started working again. We realized that we had discovered something new about “black holes”. They “eat” some objects but “spit” other
objects out. How exciting! B3U4P66&68
Going into space
Scientist spends two years training to mend the space telescope
Li Yanping, the great astronomer, always wanted to work in space. So he was trained to be repairs on spaceships and telescopes. He had to learn how to use the tools safely and how to walk in space. He was lucky enough to be chosen to repair the Hubble space telescope. He learned how to clean it on the earth and practised a lot. Then he went up in a spaceship to the telescope. He did a good job and the telescope works fine. He is very happy in his work!
Book 3 Unit 5 Canada—“The True North”
B3U5P34—35
A trip on “the true north”
Li Daiyu and her cousin Liu Qian were on a trip to Canada to visit their cousins on her Atlantic coast. Rather than take the aeroplane all the way, they decided to fly from China to Vancouver and to take the train from west to east across Canada in September. The idea that they would cross the whole continent was exciting.
Their cousins’ friend, Danny Lin, was waiting for them at the airport. He was going to take them to the train station to catch “The True North” the cross-Canada train. On the way to the station, he told them, “You’re going to see great scenery on your trip. Canada is bigger than the United States. It is the second biggest country in the world and as you go eastward, you will see mountains, and pass thousands of lakes, forests and wide rivers as well as cities. The idea that you can cross Canada in less than five days is just wrong. It is 5500 kilometres from coast to coast. Here in Vancouver, you are in the warmest part of Canada. Many people think it is the most beautiful city in Canada, as it is surrounded by mountains on the north and east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its population is increasing very rapidly, because people from the rest of Canada and those from many Asian countries want to live here. They can ski in the Rocky Mountains and sail in the harbour. On the coast north of Vancouver some of the oldest and most beautiful forests in the world still remain. It is so wet there that the trees are extremely tall.”
That afternoon in the train the cousins settled down in their seats. They crossed the Rocky Mountains earlier that day and looked out of the windows at the wild scenery. They saw mountain goats and even a grizzly bear. Their next stop would be Calgary. The Calgary Stampede is a famous Western festival. Cowboys come from all over North America to compete in riding wild horses. Many of them have a gift for working with animals and they can win thousands of dollars in prizes.
Two days later they began to realize that Canada is quite empty. Most Canadians live within 320 kilometres of the USA border, and in fact, the population of Canada is only slightly over thirty million. They went through a wheat-growing province and saw farms that were thousands of square kilometres in size. After dinner, the cousins arrived in Thunder Bay. This city is at the top and end of the Great Lakes, and it is a very busy port, although it is close to the centre of the
country. The fact that ocean ships can go there surprises many people. Canada has one-third of the world’s fresh water, and much of it is in the five Great Lakes. There is more fresh water in Canada than in any other country in the world.
That night, they slept the train rushed through the night across the top of Lake Superior, through the great forests and southward towards Toronto.
B3U5P38&39
“THE TRUE NORTH” FROM TORONTO TO MONTREAL
The next morning the maple trees outside their windows were red and gold and orange, and there was frost on the ground----fall had arrived in Canada.
Around noon they arrived in Toronto, the most wealthy and biggest city in Canada. They were not leaving for Montreal until later, so they went on a tour of the city. They went up the tall CN Tower, and looked across the lake. In the distance, they could see the misty cloud that rose from the great Niagara Falls, which is on the south side of the lake. The water flows into the Niagara River and over the falls on its way to the sea.
They saw the covered stadium, home of several famous basketball teams. As they walked north from the harbour area, Li Daiyu said, “One of my mother’s friends lives here. I should phone her from a telephone booth.”
The cousins were invented to have dinner in downtown Chinatown, one of the three in Toronto. Lin Tao, who had moved to Canada many years earlier, met them at The Pink Pearl and said, “We can get good Cantonese food here, because most of the Chinese people here come from South China , especially Hong Kong .It’s too bad you can’t go as far as Ottawa, Canada’s capital. It’s about four hundred kilometres northeast of Toronto, so it would take too long.”
The train left late that night and arrived in Montreal at dawn the next morning. At the train station, people everywhere were speaking French. There were signs and ads in French, but some of them had English words in smaller letters. “We don’t leave until this evening ,”said Liu Qian. “Let’s go downtown .Old Montreal is close to the water.” They spent the afternoon in the lovely shops and visiting the artists in their workplaces beside the water. As they sat in a café looking over the broad St Lawrence River, a young man sat down with them. “Hello, my name is Henri, and I’m a student at the university here,” he said, “and I was wondering where you are from.” The girl told him they were on a train trip across Canada and that they had only one day in Montreal. “That’s too bad,” he said, “Montreal is a city with wonderful restaurants and clubs. Most of us speak both English and French ,but the city has a French culture. We love good coffee, good bread and good music.”
That night as the train was speeding along the St Lawrence River toward the Gulf of St Lawrence and down to the East Coast ,the cousins dreamed of French restaurants and red maple leaves.
B3U5P73
IQALUIT –THE FROZEN TOWN
The reporter, Beth Allen, arrived in a northern community called Iqaluit in Nunavut. Nunavut. Nunavut was created in 1999 as a special area for Inuit people. Its name means “Our Land” in
高中英语：人教版必修电子课本 (1)
