Lesson 66 PartⅠ

Lesson  66

PartⅠWarming-up Exercises

Numbers: The Ten Largest Countries in Land Size

Training Focus:

Identifying numbers with six or seven digits

Directions: This drill is for practice in recognizing numbers with more than six digits. Listen carefully. Write down the numbers as rapidly as you can.

Key:

The Soviet Union is the largest country in the world. It has a total area of 8, 649, 490 square miles.

The second largest country in land size is Canada, which covers an area of 3, 831, 033 square miles.

China, the third largest country, occupies a total area of 3, 719, 381 square miles.

Which is the fourth largest ? It's the United States. It covers 3, 618, 467 square miles.

The next largest on the line is Brazil, which is the largest country in South America. It occupies an area of 3, 286, 470 square miles.

Australia is the sixth largest, covering a total area of 2, 965; 368 square miles.

The next, India, has a total area of 1, 229, 737 square miles.

Argentina ranks the eighth in its land size. It covers an area of 1, 072, 067 square miles.

Next comes Sudan, which is the largest country in Africa. It occupies a total area of 967, 491 square miles.

The last, Algeria covers an area of 919,951 square miles.

Lesson 66 PartⅡ

Lesson  66

Ex.

Directions: Complete the outline with the information you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Tapescript:

Sweden  (1′44″)

Sweden has got a population of only 8 million. But it is a large country with an area of 450,000 square kilometres. There are frontiers with Norway to the west and Finland to the east and the distance from the southern to northern coasts is very long. In 1977, the Swedish king was CharlesⅩⅥ and the prime minister was Mr. Felding. Sweden is neutral and is not a member of the European Economic Community (EEC). Its last war was from 1813 to 1814 when its army under the first Bernadotte, king of Sweden, was at the battle of Leipzig against Napoleon. Sweden's principal trading partners are Germany and Great Britain. Her main exports are machinery, paper, cars and iron and steel. In 1971, machinery was 26 % and cars 10 % of her exports, and exports were greater than imports by 2,000 million crowns. Between 1963and 1971 there was an increase of 61 % in industrial production. Sweden is a wealthy country. Taxes are high but her people are very well-off With Denmark and Norway, Sweden has got her own airline, SAS. Her air force is very strong and she has got her own SAAB fighters. Sweden is famous for the Nobel Prize, for the films of Ingmar Bergman, for the plays of Strindberg, and for Volvo cars. Stockholm is one of the loveliest cities in the world.

Lesson 66 Part Ⅲ

Lesson  66

Ex.Ⅰ

Directions: Decide whether the statements are true or false.

Key:  1. F                                 2. F

3.T                                4. F

5. T                               6. T

7. F

Ex.Ⅱ

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the numbers you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Tapescript:

The Pyramids (2′20″)

Some of the most interesting buildings in the world are the pyramids. The pyramids stand huge and silent and in modern days people look at them and wonder: Who built them ?Why ? When ? What is inside ? How did they do it ?

Thousands of years ago in Egypt, kings built the pyramids. They used to build them as their tombs. The kings thought the pyramids would help them find life after death. They also wanted the world to remember them as important people. Some pyramids were for queens. But they are less interesting because they are not as big. The oldest pyramid that we know today is the pyramid near Sahara in Egypt. It is about 5,000years old. There are many pyramids along the Nile River. The largest is the pyramid of Khufu. It is made of two million three hundred thousand huge stones, most of them higher than a person. It is about 144 meters high. Inside the pyramid are the burial rooms for the king and queen and long passageways to these rooms. The rest of the pyramid is solid stone. Workers usually built the pyramids when they could not work on their farms. To build the pyramid of Khufu, 100,000 men worked for 20 years. We know there were wonderful treasures in the pyramids. Robbers went into the pyramids and took many of these treasures. Today some of the treasures are in museums though.

The people of Mexico also built pyramids. They did not build the pyramids for tombs. They used to build the pyramid and then build a temple on top of it. The pyramids of Mexico are not as high as the pyramids of Egypt. But they are big. Each pyramid has a wide stairway that goes from the bottom to the top. There's nothing inside the pyramid, only dirt or more stones.

How did the people of ancient days build the pyramids ?How did they carry and lift the huge stones ? Each stone fits so well and they didn't have our modern machines. The ancient artwork of Egypt and Mexico gives us some ideas. Scientists have studied the pyramids but nobody can say just how they did it. Some day if you can, you ought to go to seethe pyramids. You will never forget them.