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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上必修二Unit1IN SEARCH OF THE AMBER ROOM Frederick William I, the King of Prussia, could never have imagined that his greatest gift to the Russian people would have such an amazing history. This gift was the Amber Room, which was given this name because several tons of amber were used to mak
2、e it. The amber which was selected had a beautiful yellow-brown colour like honey. The design of the room was in the fancy style popular in those days. It was also a treasure decorated with gold and jewels, which took the countrys best artists about ten years to make. In fact, the room was not made
3、to be a gift. It was designed for the palace of Frederick I. However, the next King of Prussia, Frederick William I, to whom the amber room belonged, decided not to keep it. In 1716 he gave it to Peter the Great. In return, the Czar sent him a troop of his best soldiers. So the Amber Room became par
4、t of the Czars winter palace in St Petersburg. About four metres long, the room served as a small reception hall for important visitors.Later, Catherine II had the Amber Room moved to a palace outside St Petersburg where she spent her summers. She told her artists to add more details to it. In 1770
5、the room was completed the way she wanted. Almost six hundred candles lit the room, and its mirrors and pictures shone like gold. Sadly, although the Amber Room was considered one of the wonders of the world, it is now missing. In September 1941, the Nazi army was near St Petersburg. This was a time
6、 when the two countries were at war. Before the Nazis could get to the summer palace, the Russians were able to remove some furniture and small art objects from the Amber Room. However, some of the Nazis secretly stole the room itself. In less than two days 100,000 pieces were put inside twenty-seve
7、n wooden boxes. There is no doubt that the boxes were then put on a train for Konigsberg, which was at that time a German city on the Baltic Sea. After that, what happened to the Amber Room remains a mystery. Recently, the Russians and Germans have built a new Amber Room at the summer palace. By stu
8、dying old photos of the former Amber Room, they have made the new one look like the old one. In 2003 it was ready for the people of St Petersburg when they celebrated the 300th birthday of their city.Unit2THE STORY OF ATLANTAAtlanta was a Greek princess. She was very beautiful and could run faster t
9、han any man in Greece. But she was not allowed to run and win glory for herself in the Olympic Games. She was so angry that she said to her father that she would not marry anyone who could not run faster than her. Her father said that she must marry, so Atlanta made a bargain with him. She said to h
10、im, These are my rules. When a man says he wants to marry me, I will run against him. If he cannot run as fast as me. he will be killed. No one will be pardoned.Many kings and princes wanted to marry Atlanta, but when they heard of her rules they knew it was hopeless. So many of them sadly went home
11、, but others stayed to run the race. There was a man called Hippomenes who was amazed when he heard of Atlantas rules, Why are these men so foolish? he thought. Why will they let themselves be killed because they cannot run as fast as this princess? However, when he saw Atlanta come out of her house
12、 to run, Hippomenes changed his mind. I will marry Atlanta - or die! he said. The race started and although the men ran very fast, Atlanta ran faster. As Hippomenes watched he thought, How can I run as fast as Atlanta? He went to ask the Greek Goddess of Love for help. She promised to help him and g
13、ave him three golden apples. She said, Throw an apple in front of Atlanta when she is running past. When she stops to pick it up, you will be able to run past her and win. Hippomenes took the apples and went to the King. He said, I want to marry Atlanta. The King was sad to see another man die, but
14、Hippomenes said, I will marry her - or die! So the race began.Unit3WHO AM I? Over time I have been changed quite a lot. I began as a calculating machine in France in 1642. Although I was young I could simplify difficult sums. I developed very slowly and it took nearly two hundred years before I was
15、built as an analytical machine by Charles Babbage. After I was programmed by an operator who used cards with holes, I could think logically and produce an answer quicker than any person. At that time it was considered a technological revolution and the start of my artificial intelligence. In 1936 my
16、 real father, Alan Turing, wrote a book about how I could be made to work as a universal machine to solve any difficult mathematical problem. From then on, I grew rapidly both in size and in brainpower. By the 1940s I had grown as large as a room, and I wondered if I would grow any larger. However,
17、this reality also worried my designers. As time went by, I was made smaller. First as a PC (personal computer) and then as a laptop, I have been used in offices and homes since the 1970s.These changes only became possible as my memory improved. First it was stored in tubes, then on transistors and l
18、ater on very small chips. As a result I totally changed my shape. As I have grown older I have also grown smaller. Over time my memory has developed so much that, like an elephant, I never forget anything I have been told! And my memory became so large that even I couldnt believe it! But I was alway
19、s so lonely standing there by myself, until in the early 1960s they gave me a family connected by a network. I was able to share my knowledge with others through the World Wide Web. Since the 1970s many new applications have been found for me. I have become very important in communication, finance a
20、nd trade. I have also been put into robots and used to make mobile phones as well as help with medical operations. I have even been put into space rockets and sent to explore the Moon and Mars. Anyhow, my goal is to provide humans with a life of high quality. I am now truly filled with happiness tha
21、t I am a devoted friend and helper of the human race!Unit4HOW DAISY LEARNED TOHELP WLDLIFE Daisy had always longed to help endangered species of wildlife. One day she woke up and found a flying carpet by her bed. Where do you want to go? it asked. Daisy responded immediately. Id like to see some end
22、angered wildlife, she said. Please take me to a distant land where I can find the animal that gave fur to make this sweater. At once the carpet flew away and took her to Tibet. There Daisy saw an antelope looking sad. It said, Were being killed for the wool beneath our stomachs. Our fur is being use
23、d to make sweaters for people like you. As a result, we are now an endangered species. At that Daisy cried, Im sorry I didnt know that. I wonder what is being done to help you. Flying carpet, please show me a place where theres some wildlife protection. The flying carpet travelled so fast that next
24、minute they were in Zimbabwe. Daisy turned around and found that she was being watched by an elephant. Have you come to take my photo? it asked.In relief Daisy burst into laughter. Dont laugh,said the elephant, We used to be an endangered species. Farmers hunted us without mercy. They said we destro
25、yed their farms, and money from tourists only went to the large tour companies.So the government decided to help. They allowed tourists to hunt only a certain number of animals if they paid the farmers. Now the farmers are happy and our numbers are increasing. So good things are being done here to s
26、ave local wildlife. Daisy smiled. Thats good news. It shows the importance of wildlife protection, but Id like to help as the WWF suggests. The carpet rose again and almost at once they were in a thick rainforest. A monkey watched them as it rubbed itself. What are you doing? asked Daisy. ” Im prote
27、cting myself from mosquitoes, it replied. When I find a millipede insect, I rub it over my body. It contains a powerful drug which affects mosquitoes. You should pay more attention to the rainforest where I live and appreciate how the animals live together. No rainforest, no animals, no drugs. Daisy
28、 was amazed. Flying carpet, please take me home so I can tell WWF and we can begin producing this new drug. Monkey, please come and help. The monkey agreed. The carpet flew home. As they landed, things began to disappear. Two minutes later everything had gone - the monkey, too. So Daisy was not able
29、 to make her new drug. But what an experience! She had learned so much! And there was always WWF .Unit5THE BAND THAT WASNT Have you ever wanted to be part of a band as a famous singer or musician? Have you ever dreamed of playing in front of thousands of people at a concert, at which everyone is cla
30、pping and appreciating your music? Do you sing karaoke and pretend you are a famous singer like Song Zuying or Liu Huan? To be honest, a lot of people attach great importance to becoming rich and famous. But just how do people form a band? Many musicians meet and form a band because they like to wri
31、te and play their own music. They may start as a group of high-school students, for whom practicing their music in someones house is the first step to fame. Sometimes they may play to passers-by in the street or subway so that they can earn some extra money for themselves or to pay for their instrum
32、ents. Later they may give performances in pubs or clubs, for which they are paid in cash. Of course they hope to make records in a studio and sell millions of copies to become millionaires! However, there was one band that started in a different way. It was called the Monkees and began as a TV show.
33、 The musicians were to play jokes on each other as well as play music, most of which was based loosely on the Beatles. The TV organizers had planned to find four musicians who could act as well as sing. They put an advertisement in a newspaper looking for rock musicians, but they could only find one
34、 who was good enough. They had to use actors for the other three members of the band. As some of these actors could not sing well enough, they had to rely on other musicians to help them. So during the broadcasts they just pretended to sing. Anyhow their performances were humorous enough to be copie
35、d by other groups. They were so popular that their fans formed clubs in order to get more familiar with them. Each week on TV, the Monkees would play and sing songs written by other musicians. However, after a year or so in which they became more serious about their work, the Monkees started to play
36、 and sing their own songs like a real band. Then they produced their own records and started touring and playing their own music. In the USA they became even more popular than the Beatles and sold even more records. The band broke up about 1970, but happily they reunited in the mid-1980s. They produced a new record in 1996, with which they celebrated their former time as a real band.专心-专注-专业