人教版英语课本原文(必修1~选修9)

选修9 Unit 2 Sailing the oceans-Reading

　　SRILING THE OCERNS

　　We may well wonder how seamen explored the oceans before latitude and longitude made it possible to plot a ship's position on a map. The voyages of travellers before the 17th century show that they were not at the mercy of the sea even though they did not have modern navigational aids. So how did they navigate so well? Read these pages from an encyclopedia.

　　Page 1:

　　Using nature to help Keeping alongside the coastline

　　This seems to have been the first and most useful form of exploration which carried the minimum amount of risk.

　　Using celestial bodies

　　North Star

　　At the North Pole the North Star is at its highest position in the sky, but at the equator it is along the horizon. So accomplished navigators were able to use it to plot their positions.

　　Sun

　　On a clear day especially during the summer the sailors could use the sun overhead at midday to navigate by. They can use the height of the sun to work out their latitude.

　　Clouds

　　Sea captains observed the clouds over islands. There is a special cloud formation which indicates there is land close by.

　　Using wildlife

　　Seaweed

　　Sailors often saw seaweed in the sea and could tell by the colour and smell how long it had been them. If it was fresh and smelled strongly,then the ship was close to land.

　　Birds

　　Sea birds could be used to show the way to land when it was nowhere to be seen. In the evening nesting birds return to land and their nests. So seamen could follow the birds to land even if they were offshore and in the open sea.

　　Using the weather

　　Fog

　　Fog gathers at sea as well as over streams or rivers. Seamen used it to help identify the position of a stream or river when they were close to land.

　　Winds

　　Wise seamen used the winds to direct their sailing. They could accelerate the speed, but they could also be dangerous. So the Vikings would observe the winds before and during their outward or return journeys.

　　Using the sea

　　Certain tides and currents could be used by skillful sailors to carry ships to their destination.These skills helped sailors explore the seas and discover new lands. They increased their ability to navigate new seas when they used instruments.

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　　Using navigational instruments to help

　　Finding longitude

　　There was no secure method of measuring longitude until the 17th century when the British solved this theoretical problem. Nobody knew  that the earth moved westwards 15 degrees every hour, but sailors did know an approximate method of calculating longitude using speed  and time. An early method of measuring speed involved throwing a knotted rope tied to a log over the side of the ship. The rope was tied to a log which was then thrown into the sea. As the ship advanced through the water the knots were counted as they passed through a seaman's hands. The number of knots that were counted during a fixed period of time gave the speed of the ship in nautical miles per hour.

　　Later, when seamen began to use the compass in the 12th century they could calculate longitude using complicated mathematical tables. The compass has a special magnetic pointer which always indicates the North Pole, so it is used to help find the direction that the ship needs to go. In this way the ship could set a straight course even in the middle of the ocean.

　　Finding latitude

　　The Bearing Circle

　　It was the first instrument to measure the sun's position. A seaman would measure the sun's shadow and compare it with the height of the sun at midday. Then he could tell if he was sailing on his correct rather than a random course.

　　A Bearing Circle

　　The Astrolabe

　　The astrolabe, quadrant and sextant are all connected. They are developments of one another. The earliest, the astrolabe, was a special all-in-one tool for telling the position of the ship in relation to the sun and various stars which covered the whole sky. This gave the seamen the local time and allowed them to find their latitude at sea. However, it was awkward to use as one of the points of reference was the moving ship itself.

　　The Quadrant

　　This was a more precise and simplified version of the astrolabe. It measured how high stars were above the horizon using a quarter circle rather than the full circle of the astrolabe.It was easier to handle because it was more portable. Its shortcoming was that it still used the moving ship as one of the fixed points of reference. As the ship rose and plunged in the waves, it was extremely difficult to be accurate with any reading.

　　The sextant

　　The sextant was the updated version of the astrolabe and quadrant which reduced the tendency to make mistakes. It proved to be the most accurate and reliable of these early navigational instruments. It works by measuring the angle between two fixed objects outside the ship using two mirrors. This made the calculations more precise and easier to do.

　　THE GREATEST NAVIGATIONAL JOURNEY:A LESSON IN SURVIVAL

　　I am proud to have sailed with Captain Bligh on his journey of over 40 days through about 4,000miles in an open boat across the Pacific Ocean in 1789. Our outward voyage in the "Bounty" to Tahiti had been filled with the kind of incidents that I thought would be my stories when I returned home. But how wrong I was! On our departure from Tahiti, some of the crew took over the ship.They deposited the captain into a small boat to let him find his own way home. But who else was to go with him? Those of us on board the "Bounty" were caught in a dilemma. Was it better to risk certain death by sitting close together on a small, crowded open boat with very little food and water? Or should one stay on the "Bounty" with the crew and face certain death from the British Navy if caught? The drawback of staying on the ship seemed to grow as I thought about how wrong it was to treat Captain Bligh in this way. So I joined him in the small boat. As dusk fell, we seemed to face an uncertain future. We had no charts and the only instruments the captain was allowed to take with him were a compass and a quadrant.

　　Once we were at sea, our routine every day was the same. At sunrise and sunset the captain measured our position using the quadrant and set the course using the compass. It was extremely difficult for us to get a correct reading from the quadrant as the boat moved constantly. The captain used a system called "dead reckoning". He knew there was land directly northwest of our original position. So his task was to make sure we stayed on that course. As you can see from the map we kept to a straight course pretty well. In addition, the captain kept us all busy reading the tables to work out our position. Although this took a great deal of time, it didn't matter. Time was, after all, what we had a lot of!

　　Our daily food was shared equally among us all: one piece of bread and one cup of water. It was starvation quantities but the extreme lack of water was the hardest to cope with psychologically. Imagine all that water around you, but none of it was safe to drink because the salt in it would drive you mad! All the time the captain tried to preserve our good spirits by telling stories and talking hopefully about what we would do when we got back to England. We only half believed him.

　　The tension in the boat got worse as the supply of food and water gradually disappeared. We could foresee that we would die if we could not reach land very soon and we sank gradually into a sleepy, half-alive state. The captain was as weak as the rest of us, but he was determined not to give up. He continued his navigational measurements every day. He kept us busy and tried to take our minds off our stomachs and our thirst. He kept us alive.

　　You could not imagine a more disturbing sight than what we looked like when arriving in Timor over forty days after being set loose in our small boat. Our clothes were torn, we had fever and our faces showed the hardships we had suffered. But after a rest, some good meals and some new clothes, everything changed. We couldn't stop talking about our voyage and everybody wanted to hear about it. We were the heroes who had escaped the jaws of death by completing the greatest navigational feat of all time!

　　选修9 Unit 3 Australia-Reading

　　GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIA

　　AUSTRALIA

　　Capital: Canberra                 Offcial name: Commonwealth of Australia

　　Area: 7,686,850 km2            Population: 20 million

　　Highest point: Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 metres above sea level

　　Lowest point: Lake Eyre, 15 metres below sea level

　　Australia is the only country that is also a continent. It is the sixth largest country in the world and is in the smallest continent - Oceania. It is a mainly dry country with only a few coastal areas that have adequate rainfall to support a large population. Approximately 80 of Australians live in the south-eastern coastal area, which includes Australia's two largest cities – Melbourne and Sydney. The centre of the continent, which is mainly desert and dry grassland, has few settlements.

　　Australia is famous for its huge, open spaces, bright sunshine, enormous number of sheep and cattle and its unusual wildlife, which include kangaroos and koalas. Australia is a popular destination with tourists from all over the world who come to experience its unique ecology.

　　Australia is made up of six states. Like the states in America, Australian states are autonomous in some areas of government. However, Australia has a federal government responsible for matters that affect people all over the country, such as defence, foreign policy and taxation. The federal parliament is located in Canberra.

　　CITIZENSHIP CEREMONIES PLANNED AROUND AUSTRALIA

　　On 26 January, Australia Day, in over 200 locations across the nation , more than 9,000 people will become Australian citizens.

　　"By these citizenship ceremonies we welcome those who have come from overseas from many different cultural and social backgrounds into our communities and our nation," said the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. "Australia Day celebrations that include people from so many birthplaces are an excellent way to encourage tolerance, respect and friendship among all the people of Australia."

　　Most citizenship ceremonies will be followed by displays of singing and dancing from many of the migrants' homelands and the tasting of food from all over the world.

　　Go by plane and see clouds

　　Go by TRAIN and see Australia

　　Enjoy 3 nights on board the Indian-Pacific

　　On this 4,352-km journey from Sydney to Perth via Adelaide you'll view some ot Australias unique scenery from the superb Blue Mountains to the treeless plains of the Nuliarbor. Along the way you will spot a fascinating variety of wildlife.

　　Enjoy 2 nights on board the Ghan

　　As you travel from Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs, you'll observe some of Australia's

　　most spectacular landscapes - from the rolling hills surrounding Adelaide to the rusty reds of

　　Australia's centre and the tropical splendour of Darwin.

　　For more information, timetables and fares go to www.gsr.com.au/trains.htm

　　Dear Shen Ping,

　　I wish you could see this amazing rock. It is part of one of Australia's 14 Worm Heritage Sites and

　　rises about 335 metres out of a vast, flat sandy plain. A t different times of the day it appears to

　　change co/our, from grey-red at sunrise, to golden and finally to burning red at dusk. Aboriginal people have lived near Uluru for thousands of years and yout can walk around it with an Aboriainal guide to learn about their customs, art, religion and day-to-day life. It is also possible to climb the rock, but most people don't do this out of respect for the Aboriginal people who consider the rock to be sacred. I’ll be back in Sydney in a fortnight because I've made a reservation on the Indian Pacific train to Perth.

　　love Jack

　　Tours outside Hobart

　　Drive 250 km northwestwards from Hobart along the A10 highway and you'll arrive at the southern end of the magnificent Cradle Mountain National Park and World Heritage area. This park is famous for its mountain peaks, lakes and ancient forests. A popular attraction for active tourists is the 80-km walking track that joins the southern and northern ends of the park. There are also a range of short walks.

　　Reading and discussing

　　Before you read the following text, read the title and look at the pictures. Discuss with a partner what you expect to read about in the text.

　　AUSTRALIA’S DANGEROUS CREATURES

　　Australia is home to more than 170 different kinds of snake and 115 of these are poisonous. In fact, Australia has more kinds of venomous snake than any other country in the world. Luckily, the poison of most snakes can kill or paralyze only small creatures.A few varieties, however, can kill humans, so it is just as well that snakes are very shy and usually attack only if they are disturbed and feel threatened.

　　There are also approximately 2,000 different kinds of spider in Australia and, like snakes, most have a poisonous bite. However, the majority have no effect on humans or cause only mild sickness.Only a few have venom that is powerful enough to kill a human being. While a small number of Australians are bitten by spiders each year, most recover without any medical treatment.

　　The seas around Australia contain over 160 different kinds of shark, which vary in size from just 20 centimetres to over 14 metres. However, although they look dangerous because of their wide mouths and sharp teeth, all but two or three kinds are harmless to humans.

　　Another potentially dangerous sea animal is the jellyfish. Most kinds of poisonous jellyfish can cause severe pain to anyone who touches them but the poison of the box jellyfish can actually kill a human, especially if that person has a weak heart. The tiniest amount of poison from a box jellyfish can kill in less than five minutes and it is probably the most poisonous animal in the world.

　　There is one other dangerous animal in Australia worth mentioning, and that is the crocodile. Although two types of crocodile live in Australia, only the saltwater crocodile has been known to kill humans. This crocodile moves very quickly when it sees something it considers to be food, and from time to time a crocodile has snatched someone before he or she is even aware that the crocodile is there.

　　You might think that with all these dangerous animals Australia is an unsafe place to live in or visit. However, this is far from the truth. There are no more than a handful of shark attacks each year and only three deaths have been reported in the last five years.Similarly, in the last three years there have been only two reported deaths from crocodile attacks. Since 1956, when an anti-venom treatment for redback spider bites was developed, there have been no deaths from redbacks, and since 1981 when a treatment was developed for funnelweb spider poison, there have been no deaths from this spider either. Treatments for jellyfish stings and s~aakebites have also been developed and in the last five years there have been only three deaths from jellyfish stings and about the same number from snakebites.