上海牛津初中英语八年级下--CHAPTER 1 Reading

CHAPTER ONE          Reading

[00:33.31]TRAVEL               France is calling

[00:40.36]Now that winter is behind us,many people are starting to think

[00:47.49]about going abroad for the summer holidays.

[00:52.48]This year,why not spread your wings and visit France?

[00:59.14]France is a wonderful place to go for a holiday.

[01:05.20]It is a huge country,with coasts on the English Channel,

[01:12.33]the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean 1 Sea.

[01:17.98]In addition,it has many mountain regions 3 which are excellent for skiing.

[01:25.92]The centre of France is a big,agricultural region 2,

[01:32.47]growing crops such as wheat and sunflowers.

[01:38.12]It is amazing to drive past fields which seem to go on foreveror

[01:45.77]whole hills covered with neat rows of grapevines.

[01:51.83]One of the most scenic 4 areas is the Loire Valley,

[01:58.00]where you can visit the old castles

[02:02.67]in which the kings and queens of France used to live.

[02:08.52]Paris is the capital of France.

[02:12.57]It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

[02:19.23]With its world-famous andmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc 5 de Triomphe,

[02:27.49]and its wide,treelined streets,

[02:32.24]Paris is one of the ost beautiful cities in the world.

[02:38.09]If you are taking your children with you,

[02:42.74]remember that EuroDisney is just an hour away from the centre of Paris.

[02:50.50]It offers many of the same attractions as the Disney parks in the USA.

[02:57.66]If you want to go on to visit Britain,

[03:02.41]you can now do it without flying or taking a ferry.

[03:08.47]The Channel Tunnel,or (to use its nickname) the 'Chunnel',

[03:14.93]enables you to travel by train from Paris to London in about three hours.

[03:23.00]In our city,we can see the influence of France in some ways.

[03:30.36]France,like China,is famous for its food.

[03:36.24]Some bakeries provide French bread and cakes.

[03:41.49]Other popular French products are its cheese,brandy and wine.

[03:48.57]Many of the world's top designer names are French.

[03:54.63]Names such as Dior in clothes,Chanel in perfume 6,

[04:02.08]and Cartier in jewellery are familiar to many Chinese people.

[04:09.05]A quick walk along Nanjing Road will remind you of many similar names.

[04:16.21]France is a leader in art and culture,too.

[04:21.36]A lot of young students from different countries

[04:26.92]go to France to further their studies.

[04:31.65]Every year,French film festivals,

[04:36.61]exhibitions and concerts are organized all over the world.

[04:42.78]To get the most out of your holiday in France why not try learning 7 French now?

[04:50.82]You can do this in some language schools around the city.

[04:56.39]LISTENING  Completing notes about a famous building

[07:28.76]SPEAKING  A Talk time

[07:38.11]Asking for and giving directions

[08:55.07]A1  T:Excuse me.How do I get to People's Spuare?

[09:04.71]D:Take the second turning on the left.

[09:09.43]Walk to the end of the road.

[09:13.09]You'll see People's Square in front of you.

[09:17.66]T:Can you also tell me the way to the post office?

[09:22.94]D:Take the first turning on your right.

[09:27.38]Walk to the end of the road.

[09:30.93]You'll see the post office across the street on your left.

[09:36.89]T:Thanks very much. D:Not at all.

[09:42.14]MORE PRACTICR

[09:48.51]A The Tower of Pisa was built to be the most beautiful bell tower in all of Italy.

[09:58.96]It is the bell tower for Pisa Cathedral.

[10:04.73]However,not only is the marble tower beautiful,

[10:11.79]it is perhaps the strangest towrer in the world.

[10:18.34]It leans to one side and looks like it is going to fall over.

[10:26.52]The building of the tower began in August 1173

[10:33.97]and took nearly two hunder years to complete.

[10:40.03]Nobody is certain who designed the tower,

[10:46.27]but for many years it was said that Bonanno Pisano was the architect.

[10:54.92]In 1319,all the floors were finished and years later,

[11:04.58]work eventually began on the bell chamber 8 at the top.

[11:11.53]It was officially opened after nearly 200 years of construction.

[11:19.78]The tower has eight floors.

[11:24.46]It is 54.5 metres tall with 294 steps up to the bell chamber.

[11:36.53]From the top,there is a very beautiful view.

[11:43.09]Italian scientist,Galileo,once did his famous experiments

[11:50.82]about gravityand falling objects from the top of the tower.

[11:57.87]Why does the tower lean?

[12:02.55]In fact,it was already leaning while they were building it.

[12:09.31]As soon as three floors had been built,by 1178,

[12:18.46]it began to lean as the ground beneath it sank.

[12:24.83]The builders tried to make the tower straight again as they added more floors,

[12:34.18]but the lean only got worse as the tower grew.

[12:41.05]It continued to lean by about 1 millimetre every year until finally,

[12:51.08]on 7 January 1990,it was closed to the public.

[12:58.92]For ten years,the rescue of the tower was a serious problem.

[13:06.57]The top was leaning over by 5 metres to the south

[13:13.65]and if its movement was not stopped,

[13:18.69]the tower would one day fall over.

[13:23.74]Measurements taken in 1911

[13:28.99]estimated that the tower would collapse 9 by 2050,if not sooner.

[13:38.55]After 10 years of hard work,it was offivially reopened on 16 June 2001.

[13:50.80]However it was not opened to the public until the end of 2001 and even now,

[14:01.35]the number of visitors is restricted 10.

[14:05.90]It is now safe for the next 300 years

[14:12.53]because engineers have reduced the lean by 50 centimetres

[14:20.37]to give it the same lean that it had in 1838.