北师大版高中英语课文Unit 16 Stories

Unit 16 Stories

Warm-up Tapescript

1 It was a dark and foggy night. We drove and drove. At midnight, just as we thought we were lost, we saw a light behind some trees. As we got nearer, we could see a house. It looked abandoned. We knocked on the heavy door. It opened slowly. A tall man dressed entirely in black stood there. ―Good evening,‖ he said in a slow, deep voice. ―I've been expecting you.‖

2 We were travelling through deep space at the speed of light. Suddenly, the spaceship slowed down and immediately the system came into view – a bright star with twenty or more planets. One of these would be our new home, five light years from our own planet.

3 One of my earliest memories is of my father running along the beach with our dog, Tess. I must have been about three years old. I remember the dog jumping up on me and knocking me over into the water.

4 The man lay on the ground next to a white truck. There was no doubt. He was dead. I quickly looked in the pockets of his jacket – some money, a handkerchief and a theatre ticket with a Chicago phone number

written on it. Three murders in three weeks and the victims all killed in the same way.

5 Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess. She was an only child and her father and mother, the king and queen, loved her very much. One day, an old woman came to the castle. When she saw the princess, she smiled and laughed in a strange and horrible way.

Lesson 1 Stories from History

Pompeii: The city that became a time capsule

Around the end of the first century AD, a Roman writer called Pliny wrote about a terrible volcanic eruption that he had witnessed as a young man. The eruption had occurred on August 24th, 79 AD. The earth began to tremble and a volcano named Vesuvius, near Pompeii, Italy, erupted. Pliny described a cloud coming down the mountain, blocking out the sun and burying everything in its path, including whole villages and towns.

This particularly sad event left a deep impression on Pliny who had lost an uncle in the eruption. Yet, over the centuries, there was a greater loss. The people, towns and villages that had disappeared under the ashes were entirely forgotten by the world.

However, more than 1,600 years later, some scientists found the lost towns that had been buried under the ashes. By 1748, they had found an

awesome historical site. They had started to dig out the ancient city of Pompeii.

In a way, Pompeii is like a ―time capsule‖ preserving a frozen moment in history. Before the eruption occurred, it had been a booming Roman city with temples, markets, restaurants and theatres. Now as you walk along the streets of the city, time rewinds. You can admire the ancient architecture, statues, decorated walls and authentic objects characteristic of the time.

However, much more than buildings and objects, it is the forms of the people who were caught in the disaster that have made the city a monument to human history.

The bodies of people who had died in Pompeii left impressions in the ash that showed their exact shapes. As you walk, you will pass people gathered together for protection in their last hours of life. One person, sitting alone, looks like he is praying. Another man, lying on his side, looks as if he is trying to get up. One can only feel sorrow and deep sympathy for these once-living statues.

Today, more than 250 years after scientists found the city, thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists visit Pompeii every year to learn more about the ancient world. In this way, the city, which the world had once forgotten, lives on nearly 2,000 years after its loss.

Lesson 2 Name Stories

Tapescript

Wang Jiannan: My name is Wang Jiannan and like many Chinese names, Jiannan doesn't have just one specific meaning. When my parents were looking for a name for me, they came across the character ―Nan‖. ―Nan‖ is a type of wood that is used to hold up the roof in the construction of traditional Chinese houses.

Therefore my parents chose this character for me because they wanted me to grow up to be a ―pillar of society‖ – someone who helps to build a better future. But, as well as having meaning from the characters that are used for writing, Chinese names can also have significance according to their sounds. In my case, Jiannan sounds like ―healthy boy‖.

Some people think it's abnormal to name a girl ―healthy boy‖, but I don't. My parents gave me this name because they wanted me to be as strong as any boys. I guess you think that's enough significance for one name but there's more. ―Jiannan‖ sounds like another set of characters that stand for ―built in the south‖ and we come from the southern part of our province. So my name tells me where I am from and it tells me what to aim for!

Heather Smith: My name is Heather Smith. ―Smith‖ is one of the most common names in Britain. A smith is somebody who works with metal. Other family names with the same origin include Smithers and Smythe. I guess there were lots of smiths in Europe in the days when horses were the fastest form of land transport and riders counted on the services of smiths for metal horse shoes. Well there are very few of them these days and no one in my family can figure out which ancestor was a smith but I suppose we must have had one sometime in the past. My first name is easier to explain. ―Heather‖ is a purple flower that grows a lot in certain parts of the country. My mother comes from a place in northern England where heather turns whole hills a vivid purple every July. But when she had me, she was living in London and although she was delighted to have a new baby girl, she was also discouraged because she missed her home in northern England, and because her mother, my grandmother, was ill at that time and couldn't come to London to see us. So my mother named me Heather to remind her of home and so my grandmother would think of me every time she saw the beautiful heather covering all the hills surrounding her home. Now my mother says I look like my grandma.

Isaac Evans: My name is Isaac Evans. It's a very conventional name that doesn't stand out anywhere and you wouldn't think it had a story to it, but I believe that when you dig deep enough, every name has a story to it.

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