英语泛读教程答案2U-4-5

Unit 4 Natural Wonders

Ⅰ. Background information

The world’s natural wonders differ from the other grouping of wonders in that they were not made or improved upon by humans. They actually humble humanity. The following are some of the most well-known natural wonders in the world.

(1)Mount Qomolangma

Mount Qomolangma is the highest mountain in the world. Its height is 29,028 ft. (8,848m). It is a rock and snow peak of the Himalayas. It stands on the boarder of China and Nepal. The expedition which first reached the summit, in 1953, was the eighth to make the attempt; there had also been three reconnaissance expeditions.

⑵The Great Barrier Reef

Spanning more than 2000 km along the northeastern coast of Austrilia, the Great Barrier Reef is home to thousands of species of plants and animals. The Reef which runs parallel to the Queensland coast has been designated by the Australian Government as a Marine Park.

⑶The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is the largest gorge in the worl d— a 290-mile-long gash across the face of the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. Rim to rim, it measures up to 18miles across, with an average width of 10 miles; its average depth is one mile. Within this Delawaresize area of eroded rock rise mountains higher than any in the eastern United States and dark walls of gorges millions of years old. Agent of this scene, the Colorado River drops 2,200 feet over nearly 200 rapids as it roars through the Canyon toward the Gulf of California.

⑷North lights

Northern lights, or aurora borealis brings together two mythological deitie s—Aurora, the Roman goddess of the down, and Boreas, Greek god of the north wind —to describe an event witnessed mostly at night in the high northerly latitudes. An identical phenomenon, the aurora australis, occurs in the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, a region that has always been much more sparsely inhabited than the planet’s northern reaches. Only a few eyewitness accounts of the aurora australis were available before 20th-century explorers arrived in Antarctica.

Ⅱ. Further information on text-related details

⒈Labrador Current (拉布拉多寒流)：

Labrador Current is the cold ocean current off northeastern Canada. It originates in the Arctic Ocean and flows south through Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and the Labrador Sea, before entering the North Atlantic Ocean. The Labrador Current is shallow and remains close to the shores of Baffin Island, Labrador, and Newfoundland Island. It often carries ice floes and icebergs.

2. Pearl Harbour (珍珠港)：Pearl Harbor is an inlet of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, 10km (6 mi) west of Honolulu, and the site of one of the principal naval bases of the United States. Early in the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese submarines and carrier-based planes attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. The attack marked the entrance of Japan into World War Ⅱon the side of Germany and Italy, and the entrance of the United States on the Allied side.

3. Normandy (诺曼底)：The historic region of Normandy is located in northern France along the English Channel between Picardy on the east and Brittany on the west. During the Second World War, the Allies made a successful landing on Normandy coast.