Module 1 Read ingThe City of the FutureWhat will the city of the future look like? No one knowsfor sure, and making predicti ons is a risky bus in ess. Butone thing is certa in —they are going to get bigger beforethey get smaller. In the future, care for the environment will become very important as earth's natural resources run out. We will use lots of recycled materials, such as plastic, aluminium, steel, glass,wood and paper, and we will waste fewer natural resources. We will also have to rely more on alter native en ergy, such as solar and wind power. All this seems certa in, but there are ple nty of things about city life in the future which are not certa in.To find out what young people think about the future of urba n life, a teacher at a university in Texas in the United States asked his students to think how they would run a city of 50,000 people in the year 2025. Here are some of the ideas they had:Garbage ships To get rid of garbage problems, the city will loadhuge spaceships with waste materials and send them towards thesun, preventing Iandfill and environmental problems.Batma n Nets Police will arrest crimi nals by firing n ets in stead of guns.Forget smoking No smoking will be allowed within a future city's limits. Smoking will be possible on ly outside cities, and outdoors.Forget the malls In the future all shopping will be done online, and catalogues will have voice comma nds to place orders.Teleph ones for life Every one will be give n a teleph one nu mber at birth that will n ever cha nge no matter where theylive.Recreati on All forms of recreati on, such as cin emas, bowli ng , softball, con certs and others, will be provided free of charge by the city.Cars All cars will be powered by electricity, solar energy or wind, and it will be possible to cha nge the colour of cars at theflick of a switch.Telesurgery Dista nee surgery will become com mon as doctors carry out operatio ns from thousands of miles away, with each city having its own telesurgery outpatient clinic.Holidays at home Senior citizens and people with disabilities will be able to go any where in the world using high-tech cameras attached to their head.Space travel Travelli ng in space by ordinary citize ns will be com mon. Each city will have its own spaceportCultural CornerFamous Last WordsNot all predictions come true. Many of them are wrong, and some are very wrong. Here are just a few of the bad predictions people made in the twentieth cen tury about the twen ty-first cen tury:AIRPLANES"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."Orville Wright, 1908. COMPUTERS"I thi nk there is a world market for maybe five computers."Thomas Wasto n, chairman of IBM, 1943. CLOTHES"Thirty years from now people will be weari ng clothes made of paper whichthey will be able to throw away after wearing them two or three times."Changing Times Magaz ine, 1957. MEN ON THE MOON"With the first moon colonies predicted for the 1970's, work is now inprogress on the types of build ing required for men to stay in whe n they're on the moon."Arnold B. Barach in The Cha nges to Come, 1962.THE BEATLES"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."Decca Record ing Co. reject ing the Beatles, 1962. ROBOTS IN THE HOUSE"By the year 2000, housewives will probably have a robot shaped like a boxwith one large eye on the top, several arms and han ds, and long n arrow pads on the side for moving about."New York Times, 1966. KEYS"By the mid-1980's no one will ever n eed to hide a keyunder the doormat again, because there won't be anykeys."Computer scie ntist Christopher Eva ns, The Micro Mille nn ium, 1979.Gett ing Around in Beiji ngTaxisTaxis are on the streets 24 hours a day. Simply raise your,and a taxi appears in no time. They are usually red, anddisplay the price per kilometre on the window. Youcheck the cab has a bus in ess permit, and make sureBuses and trolleybusesPublic transport provides a cheap way to get around in Beijing. There are 20,000buses and trolleybuses in Beiji ng, but they can get very crowded. It's a good idea to avoid public transport during the rush hour (6:30 a.m. -8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. -6:30 p.m.). Fares are cheap, starting at 1 yuan. Air-conditioned buses cost more.Buses numbered 1 to 100 are limited to travel within the city centre. Higher nu mbers have dest in ati ons in the suburbs. Tourists should n't miss the 103 bus which offers one of the most impressive routes, past the Forbidden City and the White Pagoda in Beihai Park. If you get on a double-decker bus, make sure you sit upstairs. Yo u'll have a good view of the rapidly cha nging city.Most buses run from about 5:00 a.m. to midni ght. However, there is also a ni ght bus service, provided by buses with a nu mber in the 200s.Min ibusesModule 2 Read ing冶 you ask for a receipt.Min ibuses with seats for 12 passe ngers offer an alter native to expe nsive taxis and crowded public tran sport in some areas. They run regular services and follow the same routes as large public buses. And in a min ibus you always get a seat eve n in rush hours. Un dergr oundThere are four underground lines in Beijing, and several lines are under con structi on. Trai ns are fast and convenient, but rush hours can be terrible. A on e-way trip costs 3 yuan. Station names are marked in pinyin. The underground is open from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.PedicabsTourists like these huma n-pedalled "tricycle taxis", but they can be expe nsive. You should talk to the driver, and make sure you know the price before you beg in the jour ney, for example, if it is per pers on, sin gle or retur n. Tricycles are worth using if you want to explore the narrow alleys (hutong) of old Beijing.Cultural CornerThe London Con gesti on ChargeBeijing isn't the only city with traffic problems. You can get stuck in a traffic jam any where in the world. The worst problems occur in cities which are grow ing fast, such as Sao Paolo in Brazil and Lagos in Nigeria. But even cities in developed coun tries such as the US suffer. Los An geles, which was built with the motor car in mind, and is famous for its six-lane highways, is now theUSA's most con gested city.In Europe most capital cities were planned and builtbefore cars, and city centre traffic jams have been part of daily life for a long time. The situation in central London,where drivers spe nt fifty perce nt of their time in queues, became so bad that the local gover nment decided to do someth ing about it. In February 2003 the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, introduced a "congestion charge" —a tax for cars entering the centre of the city.The idea is simple: every car coming into the centre has to pay 5 a day. Drivers £can pay the charge at any of 10,000 pay points in the capital before 10 p.m. As the cars come into the centre, video cameras record their registration numbers, and these are checked with a list of drivers who have paid the charge for that day. People who do not pay the charge will face a fine of 80. £Most Londoners are not happy with the idea. They agree that London has a traffic problem, but the con gestio n charge is expe nsive, and limits their freedom ...But does the congestion charge work? A survey carried out at the end of 2003 suggests it does. After only six mon ths, traffic coming into cen tral London was reduced by about 30 percent, and journey times by 15 percent. More people used public tran sport to get to work, and bicycles were sudde nly very popular. What's more, cen tral London shops did not lose bus in ess eve n though there were fewer cars.But there are a few people who think the charge should be much higher, for example rich bus in essme n who work in the city centre and can easily afford it. This would keep even more cars out of central London, and the roads would be nearly empty. However, there are no pla ns to in crease the charge.Module 3 Read ingGreeti ngs Around the WorldIf you say the word "communication", most people thinkwords and sentences.Although these are very important,ofwe com muni cate with more tha n just spoke n and written words. In deed, body positi ons are part of what we call"body Ian guage". We see examples of uncon scious bodyIan guage very ofte n, yet there is also "lear ned" body Ianguage, which varies from culture to culture.We use "lear ned" body Ian guage whe n we are in troduced to stra ngers. Like other animals, we are on guard until we know it is safe to relax. So every culture has developed a formal way to greet strangers, to show them we are not aggressive. Traditi on ally, Europea ns and America ns shake han ds. They do this with the right hand— the stro ngest hand for most people. If our right hand is busy greeti ng some one, it cannot be hold ing a weap on. So the gesture is say in g, "I trust you. Look, I'm not carry ing a threate ning weap on." If you shake hands with some one, you show you trust them. We shake hands whe n we make a deal. It means, "We agree and we trust each other."Greetings in Asian countries do not involve touching the other person, but they always in volve the han ds. Traditi on ally in Chi na, whe n we greet some one, we put the right hand over the left and bow slightly. Muslims give a "salaam", where they touch their heart, mouth and forehead. Hin dus join their hands and bow their heads in respect. In all of these examples, the hands are busy with the greeting and cannot hold a weap on.Eve n today, whe n some people have very in formal styles of greet ing, they still use their hands as a gesture of trust. American youths often greet each other with the expression, "Give me five!" One person then holds up his hand, palm outwards and five fin gers spread. The other pers on raises his hand and slaps the other's ope n hand above the head in a "high five". Nowadays, it is quite a com mon greet ing.Body Ian guage is fasc in ati ng for anyone to study. People give away much more by their gestures tha n by their words. Look at your friends and family and see if you are a mind reader!Cultural CornerClapp ingWhy do we clap? To show we like someth ing, of course. But we don't clap at the end of a televisi on programme or a book, however good they are. We clap at the end of a live performa nee, such as a play, or a con cert, to say tha nk you to the performers. First they give, and the n we give. Without us —the audie nee— the performa nee would not be complete.The custom of clapp ing has early beg innin gs. In classical Athe ns, applausemea nt judgement and taking part. Plays were often in competition with each other, and prolon ged clapp ing helped a play to wi n. The theatre was large —it could hold14,000 people, half the adult male populati on of the city, which meant that the audie nee could make a lot of no ise.Applause was a sig n of being part of the com mun ity,and of equality betwee n actors and audie nee. The important thin was to make the noise together, to add one's ownsmall han dclap to others. Clappi ng is social, like laughter:you don't very often clap or laugh out loud alone. It is likelaughter in ano ther way, too: it is in fectious, and spreadsvery quickly. Clapp ing at eon certs and theatres is auniversal habit. But some occasions on which people clap change from one country to ano ther. For example, i n Brita in people clap at a wedd ing, but in Italy they sometimes clap at afun eral.Module 4 Read ingThe Stude nt Who Asked Questio nsIn a hungry world rice is a staple food and China is theworld's largest producer. Rice is also grown in many otherAsian coun tries, and in some Europea n coun tries likeItaly .Inthe rice-grow ing world, the Chin ese scie ntist, Yuanis a leading figure.Longping,Yuan Longping was born and brought up in China. As a boy he was educated in many schools and was given thenickname, "the student who asks questions".From an early age he was in terested in pla nts. He studiedagriculture in college and as a young teacher he bega n experime nts in crop breed ing. He thought that the key to feeding people was to have more rice and to produce it more quickly. He thought there was only one way to do this —by crossing different speciesof rice plant, and then he could produce a new plant which could give a higher yield than either of the original pla nts.First Yuan Longping experimented with different types of rice. The results of his experime nts were published in China in 1966. Then he bega n his search for a special type of rice pla nt. It had to be male. It had to be sterile. Fin ally, i n 1970 a n aturally sterile male rice pla nt was discovered. This was the breakthrough. Researchers were brought in from all over China to develop the new system. The research was supported by the gover nment.As a result of Yuan Longping's discoveries Chinese rice production rose by 47.5 perce nt in the 1990's. There were other adva ntages too. 50 thousa nd square kilometres of rice fields were con verted to grow ing vegetables and other cash crops.Followi ng this, Yuan Longpin g's rice was exported to other coun tries, such as Pakista n and the Philipp in es.In Pakistan rice is the second most important crop after wheat and will be grown in many parts of the country. The new hybrid rice has been developed by the Yuan Longping Hightech Agricultural Compa ny of Chin a. Its yield is much greater tha n the yield of other types of rice grow n in Pakista n.Cultural CornerRocketsToday rockets are very adva need mach ines which we can use to send astro nauts into space. They are also used in firework displays to celebrate great eve nts, such as the end of the Olympic Games or the beg inning of the new mille nnium in the year 2000.Rockets were probably inven ted by accide nt about 2,000 years ago. The Chin ese had a form of gun powder which was put in bamboo tubes and throw n into fires to make explosions during festivals. Perhaps some of the tubes jumped out of the fire in stead of explod ing in it. The Chin ese discovered that the gas escap ing from the tube could lift it into the air. The idea of the rocket was born.The first military use of rockets was in 1232. The Song Dynasty was at war with the Mon gols. During the battle of Kaife ng, the Song army shot "arrows of flyi ng fire". The tubes were attached to a long stick which helped keep the rocket moving in a straight directi on. Soon the Mon gols lear ned how to make rockets themselves and it is possible that they in troduced them to Europe. Betwee n the 13th and 15th cen turies there were many rocket experime nts in En gla nd, France and Italy. They were used for military purposes. One Italia n scie ntist eve n inven ted a rocket which could travel over the surface of water and hit an enemy ship.But not everybody wan ted to use rockets in battles. Wan Hu, a Chin ese gover nment official, invented a flying chair. He attached two big kites to the chair, and 47 rockets to the kites. The rockets were lit, there was a huge explosion and clouds of thick smoke. When the smoke cleared Wan Hu and his chair had disappeared. No one knows what happe ned. Did Wan Hu die in the explosi on? Or was he carried miles into space, becoming the world's first astronaut?Module 5 Readi ngA Trip Alo ng the Three GorgesIn August 1996, Peter Hessler, a young American teacher of English, arrived in the town of Fuling on the Yangtze River. He and a colleague were to spendtwo years there teach ing En glish at a teacher training college. They were the on ly foreig ners in the town. The first semester finished at the end of January and they had four weeks off for the Spring Festival. They could go any where they wished. They decided to take aboat dow nstream.We decided to buy tickets for the Jiangyou boat. Our colleagues said, "You should n't go on those ships. They are very crowded. They are mainly for goods and people trad ing along the river. They don't stop at the temples and there won't be any other foreigners." That sounded fine to me. We just had to show our passports and they let us get on the boat.We left the docks on a beautiful after noon. The sun was shining brightly as we sailed downstream through a hilly region. Men rode bamboo rafts along the river's edge and coal boats went past. As the sun set we docked at Fen gdu. We could see the sun sett ing beh ind the white pagoda. It was beautiful.We slept through the first gorge, which is called the Qutang Gorge. The gorge narrows to 350 feet as the river rushes through the two-mile-high mountains. "Oh, well," my friend said, "at least we have two more left."At Wushan we made a detour up the Daning River to see some of the smaller gorges. The n ext day we went through the big gorges on the Yan gtze River. It was a lovely morni ng as we went through the Wu Gorge. We passed the Xia ng River, home of Qu Yuan, the 3rd century BC poet . There was so much history along the Yangtze River. Every rock looked like a pers on or ani mal, every stream that joi ned the great river carried its lege nds, every hill was heavy with the past.As we came out of the third gorge, the Xili ng Gorge, we sailed in to the construction site of the dam. All the passengers came on deck. We took pictures and poin ted at the site, but we were n't allowed to get off the boat. The Chin ese flag was blowi ng in the wind. On a dista nt moun tai n was a sig n in 20-foot characters. "Build the Three Gorges Dam,Exploit the Yan gtze River," it said.Cultural CornerPostcards to MyselfIn 50 years of travelli ng Coli n McCorquodale has visitedevery country in the world, except three. And everywhere hegoes, he sends himself a postcard. He always chooses apostcard with a beautiful view, and sticks on an interestingstamp. Usually he writes just a short message to himself. Hislatest one, from the Malvi nas isla nds, readsGood fish ing.On a wall in his home in London there is a large map of the world. There are hundreds of little red pins stuck in it. "It's good to get a pin in the map," says Mr McCorquodale, "but I follow the rules. I'm allowed to stick one in only if I've bee n in a place for more tha n 24 hours." Naturally, Mr McCorquodale has his favourite places. New Zealand he describes as "wonderful". In Europe, Italy is a favourite place. "There's a saying in the travel trade that all tourists are ripped off.Well, at least the Italia ns rip you off with a smile." Of Chi na he says,"This is one country in the world which is completely differe nt. There's no Europea n in flue nee. It's been around for 6,000 years, yet it's a country of the future."Wherever he goes, Mr McCorquodale takes with him > X.photo of his wife, a candle, a torch, a shirt with a secre pocket, and a pen for writing his postcards.So why does he do it? For the postcards or the travel? MrMcCorquodale laughs. "I do it for the journey," he says. "I geta kick out of travelling. And all the planning."Module 6 Read ingThe Mon ster of Lake TianchiThe "Mon ster of Lake Tian chi" in the Chan gbai Mountains in Jili n prov in ce, n ortheast Chi na, is back in the n ews after several rece nt sighti ngs. The director of a local tourist office, Meng Fanying, said the monster, which seemed to be black in colour, was ten metres from the edge of the lake during the most recent sighting. "It jumped out of the water like a sea—about 200 people on Changbai's western peak saw it," he said. Although no one really got a clear look at the mysterious creatureXue Junlin, a local photographer, claimed that its head lookedlike a horse.In another recent sighting, a group of soldiers claim sawan animal moving on the surface of the water.soldiers, who were walking along the side of the lake watchedthe creature swimming for about two minutes. "It was gree nish-black and had a round head with 10-ce ntimetre horn s",one of the soldiers said.A third report came from Li Xiaohe, who was visiting the lake with his family. He claims to have seen a round black creature moving quickly through the water. After three or four hun dred metres it dived in to the water. Ten mi nu tes later the mon ster appeared again and repeated the action. Mr Li Xiaohe said that he and his family were able to see them on ster clearly because the weather was fine and the lake wasalm.There have bee n reports of mon sters in Lake Tian chi si nce the beg inning of the last cen tury, although no one has see n on eclose up. Some photos have bee n take n but they are not clear because it was too far away. Many people think the m on ster may be adista nt cous in of the Loch Ness mon ster i n Scotla nd. They also think that there might be similar creatures in other lakes around the world. Scie ntists, however, are sceptical. They say that the low-temperature lake is unlikely to be able to support such large liv ing creatures.Lake Tian chi is the highest volca nic lake in the world. It is 2,189 metres high and covers an area of about ten square kilometres. In places it is more than 370 metres deep.Cultural CornerThe Uni versal Drag onDragons can be friendly or fierce, they can bring good luckor cause death and destructi on, but one thing is sure —people talk about them almost everywhere in the world. For acreature that does n't actually exist, that's quite someth ing.In Chinese culture, dragons are generous and wise,although they can be un predictable. The drag on was closely conn ected to the royal family: the emperor's robes have a symbol of a gold drag on with five claws. Other members of the royal family were allowed to wear drag on symbols, too, but with fewer claws and of adifferent colour. According to popular belief, if you were born in the year of the drag on, you are in tellige nt, brave, and a n atural leader.But in the west, dragons had a different reputation. The very first text in English, the An glo-Sax on poem Beowulf, tells the story of a Scandin avia n hero, Beowulf, who fights and kills a dan gerous drag on but is himself killed in the fight. However, across the border in Wales, the red drag on which appears on the Welsh flag is a positive symbol, i ndicati ng stre ngth and a sense of n ati on alide ntity.Why should the drag on have a differe nt character indiffere nt parts of the world? Some experts believe it is due tothe animals the myths grew out of. In the west, the idea of thedrag on probably came from the sn ake— an ani mal which people hated and were afraid of.But in Chi na, the idea of the drag on may have come from the alligator —a shy animal which lives in rivers, but which is usually only seen when there is plenty of water—a good sig n for agriculture. So the Chin ese drag on was a brin ger of good fortune.。
