1、外研社版必修3课文必修3Module 1 EuropeGreat European CitiesParisParis 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 Towe
2、r, the famous symbol of Paris. One of the worlds largest art galleries, the Louvre, is also located in Paris. The city is also famous for its restaurants, cafes and theatres. About two-thirds of Frances artists and writers live in Paris.BarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city of Spain and is s
3、ituated on the northeast coast, about five hundred kilometers east of the Spanish capital, Madrid. One of Barcelnas 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
4、church hasnt been finished yet!FlorenceFlorence 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. Ma
5、ny of Florences 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 Uffiziz Palace is the most famous art gallery in t
6、he city.AthensAthens, the capital of Greece, is known as the birthplace of western civilization. Two thousand four hundred years ago, it was the worlds most powerful city. Buildings such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill were built during this period. Greeces best writers lived in ancient Athen
7、s. Their work has influenced other writers ever since.The European UnionWhat Is the European Union?The European Union is an organization of European countries. The countries are independent and are governed in different ways. In the United Kingdom, for example, the head of state is a king or queen.
8、In France, on the other hand, the head of state is a president. But each of them sends representatives to the European Parliament, which has some control over what happens in each of the member countries.How Did It start?The idea of the European Union began in the 1950s. The first members were Franc
9、e, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. Little by little, the number increased during the second half of the twentieth century. By the year 2000, there were 15 member countries. The new countries were Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the Uni
10、ted Kingdom.How Many Countries Belong to It Now?In 2004, the European Union increased to 25 members. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all became members. The expanded European Union h
11、as a population of more than half a billion people, twice as big as the population of the United States.Module 2 Developing and Developed CountriesThe Human Development ReportIn the year 2000, 147 world leaders agreed to work together to reduce poverty by 2015 or earlier. From this agreement came th
12、e 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 countrys achievements in three ways: life expectancy (how long people usually live), education and income. The index has
13、 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 in the thirteenth position, while China is in the middle of the list. The bottom ten countries are all African countri
14、es, with Sierra Leone (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 peopl
15、e, e.g. 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 i
16、n 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 Afica. Although more than 80% of children in developing countries go to primary school, about 115 millio
17、n children 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. A
18、lthough 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 TwinningHow are Oxford
19、in the UK and Grenoble in France similar? Well, theyre 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
20、 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 its now easier to find out about and visit other countries and towns. Its an agreement between towns or cities of similar size and age, and which have similar
21、 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 t
22、own 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 practice speaking another language. This is because living with a foreign family for one or two weeks means that you have to speak their language
23、, and as a result you improve fast.Module 3 The Violence of NatureWhat Is a Tornado?A tornado 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 t
24、o 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 av
25、erage, there are 800 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1,500 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 2,700 had been injured.What Is a H
26、urricane?Hurricanes 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, heavy rain and floods. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes eac
27、h year and they usually affect the east coast of 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 6,000 people in a population of 37,00
28、0 and destroyed 3,600 buildings.An Extraordinary EventThis 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 1890s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 1899,
29、 a year before the hurricane struck. The cemetery where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Cohglans coffin 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 i
30、t 3,000 kilometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. Coghlan traveled back to Canada after he had been buried in Texas!Earthquakes Around the PacificAbout 400 earthquakes occur worldwide every day, more than a hundred thousand in a year. China is situated in one of the most active ear
31、thquake 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 kilometers. In some communities, 60 percent of the popu
32、lation 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 nations 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
copyright@ 2008-2022 冰豆网网站版权所有
经营许可证编号:鄂ICP备2022015515号-1