外研版英语必修三 课文原文+cultural corner

BOOK 3

UNIT 1


Great European Cities
PARIS
Paris is the capital and largest city of France, situated on the River Seine. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and is visited by more than eight million tourists every year. The most popular place for tourists is the Eiffel Tower, the famous symbol of Paris. One of the world’s largest art galleries, the Louvre, is also located in Paris. The city is also famous for its restaurants, cafes and theatres. About two third of France’s artists and writers live in Paris.
BARCELONA
Barcelona is the second largest city of Spain and is situated on the northeast coast, about five hundred kilometres east of the Spanish capital, Madrid. One of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks is the Church of the Sagrada Familia, which was designed by an architect called Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi worked on the project from 1882 until his death in 1926. The church hasn’t been finished yet.
FLORENCE
Florence is an Italian city which became famous because of the Renaissance, a great artistic movement which began in the 1300s and lasted for three hundred years. During the Renaissance, some of the greatest painters of all time lived and worked in Florence. Many of Florence’s most beautiful paintings and sculptures were produced by great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Florence is visited each year by about a million tourists who come to see the art galleries, churches and museums. The Uffizi Palace is the most famous art galleries in the city.
ATHENS
Athens, the capital of Greece, is known as the birthplace of western civilisation. Two thousand four hundred years ago, it was the world’s most powerful city. Buildings such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill were built during this period. Greece’s best writers lived in ancient Athens. Their work has influenced other writers ever since.

The European Union
欧盟
What Is the European Union?
欧盟是什么？

The European Union is an organisation of European countries.
欧盟是欧洲各国的一
个组织。
The countries are independent and are governed in different ways.
欧洲各
国各自独立，国家管理各不相同。
In the United Kingdom, for example, the head of
state is a king or queen.
例如，英国的国家元首是国王或女王，
In France, on the other
hand, the head of state is a president.
而法国的元首是总统。
But each of them sends
representatives to the European Parliament, which has some control over what
happens in each of the member countries.
但每个国家都向欧盟委员会派遣代表，欧盟
委员会负责管理各个成员国的事务。

How Did It Start?
欧盟是如何开始的？

The idea of the European Union began in the 1950s.
创建欧盟这一想法始于二十世纪
五十年代。
The first members were France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and Italy.
最初的成员国有法国、德国、比利时、

卢森堡、荷兰和意大利。
Little by little, the number increased during the second half of the twentieth
century.
逐渐地，成员国在二十世纪后半叶不断增加。
By the year 2000, there were 15
member countries.
到2000年，发展到15个成员国。
The new countries were Austria,
Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United
Kingdom.
新的成员国有奥地利、丹麦、芬兰、希腊、爱尔兰、葡萄牙、西班牙、瑞典和英国。

How Many Countries Belong to It Now?
现在有多少个国家属于欧盟？

In 2004, the European Union increased to 25 members.
2004年，欧盟扩展到25个国家。
The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak
Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all
became members.

捷克共和国、爱沙尼亚、匈牙利、拉脱维亚、立陶宛、波兰、斯洛伐
克共和国、
斯洛文尼亚以及地中海的塞浦路斯和马耳他都成为欧盟成员国。
The expanded
European Union has a population of more than half a billion people, twice as big as
the population of the United States.
扩大后的欧盟拥有五亿多人口，是美国人口的两倍



UNIT 2


The Human Development Report
In the year 2000, 147 world leaders agreed to work together to reduce poverty by 2015 or earlier. From this agreement came the Human Development Report.
One of the most important sections of this report is the Human Development Index. This examines the achievements of 175 countries. The Index measures a country’s achievements in three ways: life expectancy ( how long people usually live), education and income. The index has some surprises. Norway is at the top of the list, while the US is at number 7. The other top five countries are : Iceland (2), Sweden (3), Australia (4), the Netherlands (5). The UK is the thirteenth position, while China is in the middle of the list. The bottom ten countries are all African countries, with Sierra Leone（塞拉利昂）( in West Africa ) at the bottom of the list.
The report describes eight Development Goals. The most important goals are to :
·reduce poverty and hunger;
·make sure that all children have education up to the age of 11;
·fight AIDS and other diseases;
·improve the environment of poor people, eg. make sure they have safe drinking water;
·encourage developed countries to give more help to other countries.
The 2003 Human Development Report gives examples of successful development. For example, in nine years (1953-1962), China increased life expectancy by 13 years. In the last ten years in China, 150 million people moved out of poverty. However, the challenges are still great. Every day 799 million people in developing countries are hungry. Over half of these are in South Asia or Africa. Although more than 80% of children in developing countries go to primary school, about 115 million ch

ildren are not being educated. More than 1 billion people in developing countries do not drink safe water. However, in other regions of the world, e.g. Eastern Europe, water is now mostly safe to drink.
The report shows that we are making some progress but that we need to make greater efforts. Although developed countries give some financial help, they need to give much more. Interestingly, the countries that give the most money are the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. These are among the five richest countries in the world, so it is right that they should do so.


Town Twinning
How are Oxford in the UK and Grenoble（格勒诺布尔） in France similar? Well, they’re both medium-sized towns of between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. They both have universities and industries. Tourism is important to both of them, and they are both close to some of the most beautiful countryside in the region. But they share something else : they have a town twinning agreement.
Town twinning is not a new idea, but it has become more popular in recent years because it’s now easier to find out about and visit other countries and towns. It is an agreement between towns or cities of similar size and age, and which have similar features such as tourism, industry, culture and entertainment.
Town twinning agreements encourage people from the two towns to visit each other. There are visits and exchanges between schools, theatre groups and sports teams. Visitors from the foreign town usually stay in the private homes of the town they are visiting. There is usually a big party for the visitors.
Town twinning agreements are perhaps most useful for students and people who want to practise speaking another language. This is because living with a foreign family for one or two weeks means that you have to speak their language, and as a result you improve fast.



UNIT 3


What is a Tornado?
A tornado（龙卷风） is a rotating column of air from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent have winds of more than 400 kilometres per hour. Almost all of them occur in the US, in the area from Texas in the southeast to South Dakota in the north.
Tornadoes can pick up cars, trains and even houses and put them down in the next street --- or even in the next town. They can take the fur off the back of a cat and the feathers off a chicken. They can destroy houses, but leave the furniture inside exactly where it was.
On average, there are 800 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1500 injuries. The worst tornado of all time occurred in 1925, affecting three US states : Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. By the time it ended, more than 700 people had been killed and 2700 had been injured.
What is a Hurricane?
Hurricanes（飓风） are strong tropical storms, and they usually occur in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are violent winds of 120 kilometres per hour or more, which cause huge waves, heav

y rain and floods. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year and they usually affect the east coast of the US from Texas to Maine.
The worst hurricane disaster of all time occurred on the 8th September 1900 in Galveston, Texas. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour and five-metre-high waves hit the city. The disaster killed 6000 people in a population of 37000 and destroyed 3600 buildings.
An Extraordinary Event
This is a story about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
Charles Coghlan was a nineteenth-century Irish actor who went to live in Canada. He then moved to New York, where he became famous. By the late 1890s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 1899, a year before the hurricane struck. The cemetery（墓地） where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Coghlan’s coffin（棺材） ended up in the sea.
Eight years later, the coffin was found by fishermen in the sea near his home on Prince Edward Island in the east of Canada. The Gulf Stream had carried it 3000 kilometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. Coghlan travelled back to Canada --- after he had been buried in Texas!


Earthquakes Around the Pacific
About 400 earthquakes occur worldwide everyday, more than a hundred thousand in a year.
China is situated in one of the most active earthquake regions in the world and there have been many terrible earthquakes. The most serious of these occurred in Hua County in Shaanxi Province in 1556. The earthquake affected eight provinces in Central China. It covered an area of 800 square kilometres. In some communities, 60 percent of the population were killed. In all, 830,000 people lost their lives.
The California Earthquake of the 18th of April 1906 is the worst earthquake that has ever happened in the United States. It took place at 5:15 a.m., and lasted for only a minute. However, it caused the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history.
Fires caused by the California Earthquake did the most damage. The fires burned for three days, destroying a total of 25,000 buildings. About 500 people were killed in the city of San Francisco and 250,000 were made homeless. In the whole of California, the earthquake and fires caused about 3000 deaths.
The 1906 earthquake was caused by a movement on the San Andreas Fault（圣安德烈亚斯断层）. One hundred years later, movements on the San Andreas Fault continue to cause problems for the whole of California.




UNIT 4


Sandstorms in Asia
Sandstorms have been a major disaster for many Asian countries. Scientists have tried many years to solve this problem and in China, a mass campaign has been started to help solve it.
Sandstorms are strong,dry winds that carry sand. They are often so thick that you cannot see the sun, and the wind is sometimes strong enough to move and dunes. The four main places in the world where there are sandstroms are Central Asia, North America, Central Africa and Australia. Ren Jianbo, from Inner Mongo

lia described a terrible sandstrom he experienced as a child in the desert. “ To have been caught in a sandstorm was a terrible experience,” he said. “ There was nothing to be done. It was the most frightening and the most dangerous situation I’ve been in. You just had to hope you’d survive. I thought I was going to disappear under the sand.”
Northwest China is part of the sandstorm centre in Central Asia. Sandstorms begin in desert areas. Sandstorms in China appear to have increased in recent years as a result of “ desertification”. This is a process that happens when land becomes desert because of climate changes and because people cut down trees and dig up grass.
Sandstorms sometimes affect Beijing. Citizens wake up to an orange sky and strong winds that cover the city in a thick, brown-yellow dust. The storms sometimes continue all day and traffic moves very slowly because the thick dust makes it difficult to see.
The Chinese Central Weather Station can forecast a sandstorm some weeks before it arrives in Beijing, but the strength of the storm sometimes surprises people. When a sandstorm arrives in the city, weather experts advise people not to go out. Huang Xiaomei, who lives in Beijing says, “ To be cycling in a sandstorm is frightening. The winds are very strong. It’s difficult to breathe and the dust makes us ill. So if you want to go out, you’d better wear a mask.”
The desert is only 250 kilometres away to the west of Beijing. To prevent it coming nearer, the government is planting trees. Already the government has planted more than 30 billion trees and plans to continue planting for the next five years.



The Green Movement
Some countries are better than others at looking after the environment. In Europe, Germany and the northern European countries work very hard to improve the environment. People in countries such as Germany put their garbage into different bags --- paper in one bag, plastic in another bag,etc. The garbage is then taken away and, if possible, recycled. CFCs ( chlorofluro-carbons 氯氟烃), chemicals which are found in refrigerators and aerosol cans（喷雾罐）, are not allowed. There are laws that do not allow people to burn too much coal.
In the 1970s, as people learnt more about environment problems, the “ Green” movement began and soon spread all over Europe. The “ Green”movement tries to get governments to think seriously about the environment and how to look after it. It collects information about how industry is damaging the environment and gives this information to newspapers.



UNIT 5


Philosophers of Ancient China
Ancient China was a palce where states were often at war with each other. But it was also a time when there were many great philosophers. Confucius（孔子） ( 551BC --- 479BC ) is the philosopher whose influence has been the greatest. He stressed the importance of kindness, duty and order in society. Chinese society was influenced by these

ideas for more than 2000 years.
Mencius（孟子） was a thinker whose teachings were very similar to those of Confucius. Mencius was born in 372BC. His father died when he was young, and he was brought up by his mother. He became a student of Confucius’s ideas, and was then given an important position in the government of a state. However, when he saw that the ruler was not following his advice, he resigned. For many years he travelled from state to state, teaching the principles of Confucius. He then became an adviser to another ruler. He spent his last years preparing a book of his teachings called The Book of Mencius. Mencius believed that the reason why man is different from animals is that man is good. He taught that if the government was kind, then people would be good. He believed that people were more important than rulers, and hated the state when it treated people badly.
Mozi（墨子） was another teacher who was very influential. Born in 476BC, he came from a family which was very poor. He became famous for his unusual clothes and behaviour. Mozi founded the philosophy called Mohism. In some ways, his beliefs were similar to those of Confucius. For example, he considered that government was most important. As a result, he spent many years trying to find a state where people would follow his teachings. Mozi believed that all men were equal. His idea of love was different from the Confucian idea of kindness. Mozi taught that we should love all human beings and look after those who are weaker than ourselves. He hated the idea of war. Mozi died in 390BC.


The Industrial Revolution
In Europe, in the second half of the eighteenth century, there was an important change in society. This change was called the “ Industrial Revolution”. Until then Europe had been a farming society. With the Industrial Revolution, factories appeared and mass production became possible for the first time. The factories were built in towns and as a result, the population of towns and cities greatly increased.
These changes became possible because of inventions such as the steam engine. This was invented in 1769 by James Watt and was the main energy source during the Industrial Revolution. At first the steam engine was used in mines, but it was soon used in factories and on the railways.
During the Industrial Revolution, factory owners became more powerful than land owners. Thousands of people left the countryside to work in the city. Often, factory workers lived in poor and crowded conditions. From 1830 to the early 20th century, the Industrial Revolution spread through Europe and the US and then to other countries such as Japan.


UINT 6


The Three Gorges Dam
Mao Zedong wrote a poem in which he dreamed of “ walls of stone to hold back clouds and rain till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges”（毛泽东诗词：更立西江石壁，截断巫山云雨，高峡出平湖）. Now his dream has come true. The power of the Yangtze Riv

er, which is the world’s third longest river, has been harnessed（利用，变成动力） by the Three Gorges Dam.
The Three Gorges Dam（三峡大坝）, which is the biggest construction project in China since the building of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal, has been built to control flooding and provide hydro-electric power for the central region of China. The dam is nearly 200 metres high and 1.5 kilometres wide. It is the largest hydro-electric power station and dam（最大的水力发电站和水坝） in the world and has cost more than any other construction project in history.
Sun Yat-sen（孙中山）, who was the leader of the 1911 Revolution, first suggested the idea of a dam across the Yangtze River in 1919. Three quarters of China’s energy is produced by burning coal. In 1993, China used 1.2 billion tons of coal for heating and generating electricity. Unfortunately, burning coal causes serious air pollution and increases global warming. The dam will generate electricity equal to about 40 million tons of coal without causing so much air pollution.
The reservoir has flooded 2 cities, 11 counties, 140 towns and more than 4,000 villages. More than a million people who lived in the region have moved from their homes. Now they’re living a happy new life in different areas.
The Three Gorges area is one of the most beautiful areas of China and the project has flooded some of China’s most famous historical sites, including the Qu Yuan Temple, the Han Watchtower and the Moya Cliff carvings. About 800 historical relics（遗迹） have been submerged. Some of them are being removed and some are being put into museums.




Cultral Corner
The Empire State Building, New York
Most of the tallest buildings in the world were built in the 1990s and in the twenty-first century, but the two tallest buildings in the US were built much earlier. In fact, the second tallest building in the US is more than 75 years old!
The Empire State Building, which was the tallest building at the time was finished in May 1931. it was the tallest building in the world until the World Trade Centre was built in New York in 1972. The world Trade Centre twin towers, which were destroyed in September 2001, were 417 and 415 metres high.
Facts about the Empire State Building :
·Ten million bricks were used in the construction of the building.
·There are 6500 windows.
·From the observatory at the top, on a clear day you can see five US states.
·Lightening strikes the Empire State Building about 500 times a year.
·In 1945, a US military plane, which was flying over Manhattan on a foggy day, crashed into the building just above the 78th floor.