Unit1 People of AchievementUsing LanguageAnna Smith:H i, Dr Wang! Hi, Wang Lin! Did you hear? Elon Musk’s company just launched another rocket.Dr Wang: Elon Musk? Who's he?Anna Smith: H e’s the guy who founded a private space company, and also some other companies. The companies he founds are all really high-tech and futuristic. He’s made millions of dollars.Wang Lin: Oh, he must be a really smart guy, and so rich right now.Anna Smith: Y es, I’d say he’s as famous as Bill Gates or Jack Ma now. T hey’re really smart, too. Just think of all that money they must make!Dr Wang: Well, you two, it's great that they’ve been able to become so successful and make all that money, but money isn't everything. Just look at people like Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin,and Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, and my own personal hero, Dr ZhongNanshan, who managed the SARS outbreak—they never made millions of dollars, but theircontributions to health care have saved countless lives.Wang Lin:Yes, Dad, sorry. We know—they are great examples to everyone…But, you know, successful people like Bill Gates and Jack Ma have donated millions of dollars to charity, which should alsocount for something, right?Dr Wang: Well, you're right on that point. They’re certainly being responsible in that way. Moreover, they're good for working hard and becoming successful.Anna Smith: Yes, exactly! And Dr Wang, I think you misunderstood me just now. I agree with you. I like those people because they have worked so hard to achieve their goals and have positive contributions tosociety. It's not just due to how much money they make. Elon Musk, for example, is trying to helpthe future of humankind, and Bill Gates has given us home computers. I think we need morecreative people like them.Wang Lin: Well, don’t forget Jack Mas contribution. Without him, I wouldn’t find it so easy to shop online!And by the way,Dad, if we’re talking about people who do good things and inspire us—youinspire me, Dad…Listening and SpeakingHello. Today, I'd like to talk to you about my hero, Jane Goodall.Jane is famous for her observations of wild chimpanzees in their natural habitat. As a child, she always dreamt of studying animals, and when she became an adult, she finally got the chance.Goodall spent many years with chimpanzees in a Tanzanian national park. At first, the chimps mistrusted her and kept their distance, but eventually they saw her as harmless. Goodall did not follow traditional scientific research methods. She did not number the chimps, but rather give them names so she could see them as individuals. Goodall's work changed the way people thought about chimps. She was able to discover how they communicate, and gave us invaluable information on their social structure and culture. She discovered that they also ate meat, rather than just nuts and berries, and also that they were capable of making their own tools For more than 50 years, Jane Goodall has fought to protect animals, including setting up the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977. And in 1991, she set up the Roots & Shoots programme, which teaches young people around theworld how to protect the environment.Following her countless years of hard work, in 2002, Goodall became a UN Messenger of Peace. She serves as an inspiration to me. She inspires me through her love for the environment and her desire to educate young people. I hope you will find her an inspiration as wellThank you*Video TimeMei Lanfang-great Artist, Cultural AmbassadorThese beautiful performances belong to a special art form in China—Beijing Opera, in English often referred to as Peking Opera. Talking about Beijing Opera, we cannot forget to mention one of its greatest performers: Mei Lanfang, a brilliant artist who was instrumental in bringing Beijing Opera to the worldMei Lanfang was born in Beijing in 1894. He started to learn the art of Beijing Opera at the age of eight and made his on-stage debut at age eleven. Mei Lanfang worked hard to learn as much as possible from the great artists and masters of Beijing Opera, and by the age of 20, he had become a leading actor in Beijing Opera's dan role.Mei Lanfang quickly became well-known among Chinese audiences for his acting skill. His fame also began to spread around the world as international visitors to China saw his fascinating performances. The great Indian author Rabindranath Tagore was inspired to write a poem about the young actor after watching one of his performances.[Text on screen]You are veiled, my belovedIn a language I do not knowAs a hill that appears like a cloud behind its mask of mistMei Lanfang’s skill opened doors for him to become friends with people from all over the world, as he often entertained guests from other countries who wanted to meet the young actor. As Mei Lanfang got to know ambassadors, European royal families, and celebrities from abroad, he longed to bring his beloved Beijing Opera to the rest of the world, so that even more people from other countries might understand and appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture and art.And so, in 1919, Mei Lanfang began to travel abroad, giving performances in Japan and the Soviet Union. His tours were a great success; audiences were fascinated by this elegant opera from the Orient.One of Mei Lanfang's greatest goals was to visit the United States, and after eight years of attempts, he and his opera group finally brought Beijing Opera to the USA.Mei Lanfang and his group toured Seattle, Chicago, Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, and several other large American cities, and received a warm welcome from city leaders and local celebrities wherever they went. American audiences loved the performances: In some cities, tickets for two weeks of shows were sold out in three days. Fans stood in long queues afterwards to shake his hand.Clearly, despite the language barrier, the beautiful, elegant performances were a huge success. One critic wrote, " This is the most wonderful and exciting night that I have ever spent in the theatre. ” Americas Pomona College and the University of Southern California both conferred honorary Doctor of Arts degrees on MeiLanfang for his great work in bringing Beijing Opera to the world and promoting cultural exchange between China and other countries.Mei Lanfang was and still is greatly loved, not only for his tremendous artistic skill but also for his great kindness to all people and his deep love for his country. Mei Lanfang had performed in Japan and helped the people there during the great Kanto earthquake, but when the Japanese military troops invaded China, he refused to do any performances for their entertainment.Mei Lanfang dedicated his whole life to the art of Beijing Opera. He constantly sought to improve his own artistry, creating many unforgettable and beautiful characters for the stage. His style became known as the "Mei Lanfang school”, a uniquely graceful style, and is still one of the most popular styles of Beijing Opera today Mei Lanfang died in 1961 of heart disease. During his more than 50 years on the stage, Mei Lanfang took traditions from the past and adapted the best parts to create new and enrich old forms of Beijing Opera. Although this great opera master has now joined the heroes of history, he left behind a legacy of cultural wealth for his people and for all future generations.Beijing Opera is now on the international list of art forms that make up the world's intangible cultural heritage, and is still enjoyed by young and old, men and women, around the world.Unit 2 Looking into the FutureUsing LanguageHost: On today’s episode of "Future Changes”, we talk with two experts from different fields, Dr Han and Vincent Black, to hear their predictions about the future. First, Dr Han, could you please tellour audience what you do?Dr Han:Certainly. I'm a computer scientist.Host:And could you please tell us your prediction?Dr Han: Yes, well, I forecast that computers will be cleverer than us in the future. I think that people will also be programming computers to think like humans.Host: That's very interesting, but aren't you worried that such computers would be dangerous?Dr Han:Not at all. This is because we’ll be programming them to not think in ways that may harm humans. In fact, we’ll also be creating machines to help people internally国内地. For example, Ithink scientists will put some small intelligent machines, called nanobots纳米机器人, inside ourbodies to increase our abilities.Host:Wow! That would make each one of us superhuman! And Vincent, could you please tell us about your job?Vincent Black: Certainly. I’m an architect. I design buildings.Host: And what is your prediction about the buildings of the future?Vincent Black: It's about the cities of the future, actually. I believe that cities floating on water are part of the world's futureHost: Oh, really? What might make us want to do that?Vincent Black: Yes. With global warming causing polar ice to melt, the sea level rising by many metres is a very realistic prospect. Instead of moving people away from the sea, I think that people could moveinto housing in cities that float.Host: That sounds very innovative. Could you please give us more details?Vincent Black: Sure. Well, I’ve developed a plan by designing a city that borrows many ideas from the giant water lily, a flower that floats on water. Moreover… .Listening and SpeakingYueyue:How did you get to be so smart?Huimin:Well, a lot of time went into research to make intelligent androids like me… Your move.Yueyue: How much time?Huimin:Hundreds of years. AI research first began in America in 1956... more than 350 years agoHuimin: Not really. It wasn’t until1997 that a computer finally beat the world’s chess champion, Garry Kasparov. That was IBM’s Deep Blue. Then in 2011, IBM’s Watson defeated some very clever humanopponents on an American quiz show. It won one million dollars, which was donated tocharity ...CheckYuevue: Check? What…?Huimin: Do you want me to make the game easier for you?Yueyue: Yes, pleaseHuimin:Then in 2017, a computer named Alphago beat the world's Go champion… Alphago is my personal hero. CheckYueyue: Easier... please!Huimin: Sure. Would you like some tea while you think about your next move?Yueyue:Yes. Milk, no sugar… That all sounds pretty impressive. I didn't realise AI was developed so ong ago Huimin: But things slowed down after 2017. Yes. there were AI computers that could drive cars way back then, but none of those machines were really...human. Then in the mid-21st century, Al computers were putinto robots—androids like me. But it took another hundred years for an android to write a novel. Thena hundred years after that, the first android became president of a count … Checkmate.Yueyue: In our next game, could you let me win?Huimin: Anything you say*Video TimeFlight Of The RobobeeNarrator: This is Robert Wood. He loves robotsRobert Wood: So I want to begin with a bold statement that robotics is the next Internet. It's the next big thing to impact our lives in areas from medicine to even things like space exploration. The more traditionalview of robotics is big, rigid, very powerful, very dangerous …but in this case we're making thingssmaller, perhaps faster, certainly cheaper than more traditional robotic systems. We areconstructing robots the size of insects. We use nature to inspire the robots that we build. This is of acarpenter bee. And as an engineer, I can look at this and start to ask some really well-posedquestions, you know like "how are the wings moving?”Our team is working on creating a colony of autonomous robotic bees[Text on screen]Robobees are autonomousThey can fly independentlyRobert Wood: We envision this, twenty or so years down the road, when these things actually exist, they can be quite useful for applications where you wouldn't want to put a human or an animal—hazardousenvironment exploration, search and rescue, space exploration, assisted agriculture…[Text on screen]The tiny robots will help explorers, doctors, and even farmersRobert Wood: There's all these really interesting open questions that must be solved if you’re gonna achieve this goal. We have to build everything from scratch从头做起. How many Robobees have we crashed?Ah, all of them! We build, we test. We build, we test. If you don’t fail, you don't learn enough.For everything that works, there's tens or hundreds of things that don't[Text on screen]Robobees work together like real beesJust like real bees, every Robobee has a iob to doRobert Wood: Now you have this concept where you have not just one all-capable robot, but you have a bunch of not very good robots. The idea is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.[Text on screen]If you want to make something fly, a solution already exists in nature—Robert WoodUnit 3 Fascinating ParksUsing LanguageYuhui: Now that were at the park, where would you like to go first, Jake?Jake: I don’t know. What interesting things can we see and do here?Yuhui: Well, Flower Land, fountain performances, children’s rides…Oh! This is interesting—here's an underwater corridor.Jake:That does sound interesting. How do we get there?Yuhui: Let me check the map on my phone... From here, we should go north, and then turn left and follow the main road until we reach the second path on the right. Then we turn right on the path and follow it for about three hundred metres until we come to an intersection with a washroom. Then we should turn left on another path. After about 150 metres, we’ll be at the underwater wetland corridor.Linlin: Oh. that sounds a bit far!Jake Well, maybe we can rent bikes to get thereYuhui:No, we can’t. There are four-wheel cycles, but they are only allowed on certain fixed routes. Let me check the map again ... Oh, we're actually very near the cycle rental place now. We could go there first, if you like.Linlin: Yes, OK, it would be fun! Hopefully we can get close to the underwater wetland corridor, and I’d also like to take a pedal boat on Wali Lake afterwards.Jake: Sounds like we've got a lot of things to doYuhui: Yes, so we’d better get started.Listening and SpeakingDavid Evans: Here's a park map. Where should we start?Li Y ang:I don’t get it. I thought this park was about Polynesian culture, but the park map shows six different culturesDavid Evans: Well, though the people of Polynesia are all related, Polynesia is made up of several different cultures spread out across the South Pacific.Li Y ang:Oh. I see. So what can we do here?David Evans: For a start, we can take a canoe tour of the park.Li Y ang:Canoe? What's that?David Evans: It's a small boat. Traditional canoes are carved from a single tree, so they are often quite narrow.The Polynesians used canoes to travel thousands of kilometers.Li Y ang:That’s interesting. Where do we go to find them?David Evans: Well, to get to the canoes, we need to go straight. Then after we cross the bridge, we turn left.They should be quite near there …Then after the canoes, we can learn how to make fire thetraditional way, using sticksLi Y ang:Where can we do that?David Evans: The guide says we should go to the Samoan Village. That shouldn't be very hard to find. From the canoes, we just go straight, and then take the bridge on the right. It should be a short walk awayon the left. Oh, and next to the Samoan Village is the Aotearoan Village. We can get Maoritattoos刺青，纹身there.Li Y ang:Maori tattoos?David Evans: Yes. The Maori like to tattoo their faces with interesting designs.Li Y ang:But I don't want to tattoo my face.David Evans: Don’t worry! It's not a real tattoo. We can wash it off later.Li Y ang:Cool! But first, the canoe tour.David Evans: Yes! I can’t wait. Let's go.* Vdeo TimeBioblitz: Life in 24 hoursNarrator:Welcome to Rock Creek Park. It's a big park in the middle of Washington DC. Today, this park is going to be the site of a big research project. Dozens of scientists from around theUnited States along with hundreds of volunteers are here for something called a Bioblitz.In a Bioblitz, teams of scientists, parents, kids, and volunteers all go to a park and look forexamples of everything that's alive there. They work in teams to count every living thingthat they find from the big animals like deer and rabbits to tiny plants. But they only have24 hours o do it. Dr Stuart Pimm, an ecologist from Duke University, is certainly excitedabout the event. He studies biodiversity.Dr Pimm:The extraordinary thing about this Bioblitz is just how much stuff there is here! This is really where the wild things are. There really is a huge amount of stuff in this city park Narrator:Park rangers are there to help. Here, they are helping a group to catch caterpillars毛毛虫, spiders, and butterflies. Insects are an important part of the Bioblitz. One reason is thereare a lot of them. They also come in a great variety of colour, shapes, and behaviours. It'seasier to see how special they are when you look at them close up. Photographer DavidLittschwager usually takes photos of endangered species, but at the Bioblitz he's takingphotos of insects.David Littschwager: We see a lot of pictures of lions and tigers and bears but you don’t often see a portrait of a spider nice and close. Some people don't like spiders, but I have great affection for them.But I like them to stay on the glass.Narrator Littschwager worked all night taking pictures, but he wasn’t the only one who didn't sleep.People had only 24 hours to find all the living things in the park so all the participantsworked hard until the final minute. And even at the end, there were a lot of plants andcreatures that they couldn’t identify. The real purpose of the Bioblitz is to get peopleinterested in the biodiversity生物多样性that’s all around them even in their own backyards.So, what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking. Isn't it time to start counting the livingthings in your backyard?Unit 4 Body LanguageReading and ThinkingSMILE TRIALDo you think you are able to pick out the fake smile?If you picked the one on the left, you're correct.Okay. let's try another round. Which smile is fake?Surprised? It's harder than you thought, right?If you didn’t get these correct, you're not alone. We wanted to see if the average person could spot a fake smile, so we brought this game to the park“That one's fake.” And found that people only get it right about half the time.“Yeah. I think that one's real.”“It’s really hard to tell.”“Yeah. I don’t know.”“Unless you know how smiles actually work. There is a term, okay? It's called the Duchenne Smile. Duchennne Smile means it's a real smile. A real smile involves the muscles around the eyes being a part of the smile.”Guillaume Duchenne was a French scientist who wanted to learn more about facial expressions so he used electrical stimulation to create a fake smile. Then he compared it to a real one by telling his subject a joke and the difference was striking. What he discovered is that a real smile causes the muscles around your eyes to contract, creating tell-tale crinkles.Now that you know the trick, let's see if you can pick out the fake smile.Which smile is real? The right, or the left?The eyes are a dead giveaway, right? The smile on the left is genuineWanna try another one?What do you think? See how the skin around the eyes scrunches up involuntarily? The left smile is real. Okay, one more. But it's a little trickierWhich smile is real? The right or the left?Can you see how the skin around her eyes wrinkled up just a tiny bit more on the right? That's the real smile.It's not surprising that real and fake smiles activate two different parts of the brain. A real smile involves the areas of the brain related to emotionUsing LanquaqeWoman: What were you doing just now? What did those gestures mean?M an: Oh, I was just telling my friend over there to meet me for lunch down the street in twenty minutes. Woman: Oh, I get it, so you were sending him secret hand signals.Man: Yeah, we got the idea from an action movie last night and decided to try it out for fun. In the movie, the police were trying to enter a house, but they had to be really quiet so they could take the criminals by surprise. So, the police leader used hand gestures to tell his team what to do. For example, he used this gesture to tell them how many bad guys were in the house. Then he gave instructions on who should go where, and what they should do. I thought it was pretty cool how they used hand gestures to communicate.Woman: Well, you know, you can say a lot without speaking. I’ve been taking acting classes, and right now we’re learning how to use body language to express ourselvesMan: Wow, that's cool So you mean you're not allowed to talk, right?woman: Yes, and it's really difficult if they want you to express something complicated without saying a word.But I'm slowly getting better at it, I guess.Man: That reminds me of those Charlie Chaplin movies. I guess it's not easy to tell a whole story only using body language.Woman: Yeah, he was a real master. Everyone in my class loves his movies. We actually had to watch some of his movies and act out some scenes. I was such an amateur!Man: Well, it's good you tried. Now, by your body language, I can tell that you want to buy me lunch tomorrow. Am I right?Listening and SpeakingWoman: Today we are interviewing Max Snelling, who wrote a book about body language in the animal world.Hello, MaxMan: Hello.Woman: In your book you talk about how animals use body language the same way as people do.Man: That’s right. This is true of many animals. However, it is especially true of chimps.Woman: I n what way？Man:Well, when we humans are worried or frightened, we sometimes smile in a nervous way. Chimps also look as though they are smiling when they are nervous.Woman: Why is that?Man: Perhaps they are trying to look friendly so an enemy will not hurt them. Now, what do we often do when we are angry?Woman: We stand tall and put our hands on our sides. Sometimes we shout.Man: Exactly. We want to look bigger and stronger. Chimps do the same thing—they stand up, move their arms around, throw things about, and make noise.Woman: Just like we do.Man: That's rightWoman: What about in family relationships?Man: That's very interesting. Both chimp and human mothers hold their babies and kiss them. A similar thing is true for adults. To show that we accept and love each other, among our main expressions are hugging and kissing. When a stronger chimp frightens a smaller chimp, the smaller chimp will hold his head low.The bigger one will then touch him or kiss him to make him feel safeWoman: So chimps are just like people!Man:Or, were just like chimps.Unit 5 Working the LandUsing LanguageHost: Good morning, listeners. Today is World Food Day, and David Bond from the UNS FAO is here to talk to us about world hunger. Welcome, David! Please explain what the FAO is and what its alms are.David: Good morning. For those who don’t know, FAO stands for Food and Agriculture Organisation. And our aim is simple—to eliminate world hunger, which, according to our latest figures, stands at around 11% of the world's populationHost: So I guess things like droughts, floods, and climate change are all major factors in this.David: Yes, that’s right, they can all seriously affect crop production. And another factor is poverty. There is strong evidence to suggest that many people just can’t afford to eat well. And it's not just about having enough food to eat; people need to eat enough nutritious food, which often they cannot afford or do not have access to. The FAO believes everyone should have the right to healthy food.Host: And what about war? I’ve seen many researchers say that it directly leads to mass hunger.David: Absolutely true. Our research indicates that wars can heavily affect food production and transportation, meaning that millions of people have to go hungryHost:So what can we do to alleviate world hunger?David: Well, the UN is making efforts to reduce climate change, and the FAO runs a project called Climate-smartAgriculture, which helps countries to develop sustainable agriculture. However every country needs to focus on making new achievements in agriculture, too, which can often benefit the whole world. Like China, for example, whose development of hybrid rice has greatly increased rice production in many other countries. And, of course, global conflict must be eliminated. And don’t forget that we as individuals can also make a difference: buy food that supports the environment, and never waste food. Host: David Bond, thank you very much. Just a quick message to our listeners: you can find more information on world hunger on the FAO website…Listening and SpeakingNews Report IToday, in agricultural news, we are sad to report the passing of Professor Li Baoguo. Li, a well-respected professor at Hebei Agricultural University, died of a heart attack on 10 April at the age of 58. Besides teaching at university, Professor Li spent more than 30 years working to make the Taihang Mountains green with many different types of trees. This has had a direct impact on the lives of more than 100,000 local farmers, who have been able to escape poverty through the regular harvesting and sale of their produce, such as apples and walnuts. Though he had a short life, he will be greatly remembered as an agricultural reformer by the thousands of farmers whose lives he had helped.News Report 2In other news, the first commercial vertical farm has been built in the UK. In a vertical farm, crops are produced in a greenhouse in large trays stacked one above the other. With the growth of cities, farmland has become increasingly rare. Meanwhile, many countries lack enough farm workers to grow the crops they need. The vertical farm built by Intelligent Growth Solutions near Dundee solves both these problems. Not only does it use space efficiently, but the farm is fully automated, and uses low amounts of energy and water. At the moment, the farm produces just salad leaves and herbs. However, future plans include tomatoes and cucumbers.News Report 3Finally, the East African Farmer Innovation Fair has just ended in Kenya. The fair’s aim was to encourage innovation among farmers throughout the region. At the end of the fair, the host country’s Gerald Kibugi won an award for the creation of his software, Green House Do It Yourself. This software allows farmers to look up information on how to use greenhouses. “Farmers do not have the time to read and apply the lessons learnt from books on greenhouse farming, which is why I developed this software.” said Kibugi. Now with this program, all the information farmers need about greenhouses is just a mouse click away.*Video TimeEarth UniversityNarrator: Class is in session. But this isn't a typical college campus. This is Earth University Earth University is a unique agricultural school in Guacimo, Costa Rica. According to universitypresident Jose Zaglul, the school's goals are to give poor students an education and to teachthem skills to protect the environment. Here, students learn sustainable farming methods.These methods have little or no negative impact on the environmentGaspari Cordova: They teach us here how to be very respectful to our environment. Not only to the people that。
