高中英语人教版必修高三03

（单词翻译）

[00:02.93]READING
[00:04.18]REACHING OUT ACROSS THE OCEAN
[00:06.09]Trade and curiosity¹ have often formed the foundation² for mankind’s greatest endeavor³.
[00:10.32]To people of early civilizations, the world map was a great puzzle.
[00:13.79]Marco Polo’s stories inspired Christopher Columbus and other European explorers to search fro sea routes to the distant, wealthy Asian lands.
[00:20.22]However, long before that brave merchants were the real explorers of the Western Ocean.
[00:24.06]It is well known that Africa had contacts with India and the Red Sea civilizations from the earliest times.
[00:29.34]Silk from China found its way over land along the Silk Road to India, the Middle East and Rome, in exchange for spices and glass.
[00:35.50]Silk was also traded along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.
[00:38.24]Ceylon, with its central position, was the place where Chinese merchants met with Arab merchants and heard about the westernmost lands.
[00:44.20]Thus, people of the Han Dynasty knew about Africa and had books with descriptions of the kingdoms on the African coast and the Rd Sea.
[00:50.08]In 97 AD Gan Ying, a Chinese ambassador⁴, went to the East Roman Empire over land and returned to Luoyany with a present from an African king-rhinoceros⁵ horns.
[00:58.59]Over the next few hundred years, the Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the word’s trading centre for ivory⁶, spices, rhinoceros horns, shells, animal skins and sugar.
[01:07.60]They were traded to merchants from the Arabic countries, Egypt Greece, Rome, India, Ceylon and China.
[01:12.80]The Arabic contacts to the African coast let to the next meting⁷ between black people and a Chinese.
[01:17.56]In the year 751, the Chinese traveler Du Huan was taken prisoner by the Arabic army.
[01:21.42]He escaped, and after a long journey wandering through Arabic countries, he returned to the motherland by boat in 762.
[01:26.80]There he wrote his Record of My Travels, which gives information on Central Asian, Arabic and African countries.
[01:31.98]In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty.
[01:33.23]It was a major development that the Africans were reaching out to China.
[01:36.03]The earliest Asian cultural relic⁸ found in Africa also dates from this period.
[01:39.71]A small bronze stature⁹ of a lion was found in the Swahili town of Shanga.
[01:43.50]Nothing similar has ever been found in East Africa.
[01:46.06]The contacts between China and Africa over the centuries led to the awareness¹⁰ of each other’s existence, but still no accurate¹¹ maps of the countries around the Indian Ocean existed.
[01:53.84]By the beginning of the fifteenth century the time was ripe for a grand meeting.
[01:57.55]In East Africa the coastal¹² towns were reaching the height of their power.
[02:00.79]In the east, China prospered¹³ under a new dynasty.
[02:03.30]The Ming government had a large navy¹⁴ and the will to use it.
[02:06.01]In the years between 1405 and 1433, seven large treasure fleets¹⁶ sailed westwards on voyages of trade and exploration.
[02:12.88]Under the command of Zheng He , the fleets set sail from the South China Sea across the Indian Ocean the mouth of the Red Sea,
[02:18.40]and then traveled further south, discovering the eastern coast of Africa.
[02:21.37]Zheng He renewed¹⁷ relations with the kingdoms of the East African coast.
[02:24.74]One African king sent the Ming emperor a royal present: two giraffes.
[02:28.51]The wonderful gift and the contact with the black court so excited China’s curiosity about Africa that Zhen He sent a message to the king and to other African states,
[02:35.77]inviting them to send ambassadors¹⁸ and open embassies¹⁹ in the new Ming capital, Beijing.
[02:36.02]The response of the African rules was very generous.
[02:36.09]They sent the emperor zebras, giraffes, shells, elephant ivory and rhinoceros-horn medicine.
[02:40.74]In return, the Ming court sent gold, spices, silk, and various other present

[02:44.84]The exchange of goods had symbolic²⁰ meaning far more important than the value of the goods themselves.
[02:49.02]By trading with the fleet¹⁵ the African kings were showing their friendship to the emperor of China.
[02:52.60]The fleet made several expeditions before the exploration was stopped, probably economic reasons.
[02:57.51]For a short time, China had ruled the seas.
[02:59.47]After 1433, the Ming court believed that its greatest challenges and opportunities were at home.
[03:04.10]INTEGRATING SKILLS
[03:07.33]Reading
[03:08.01]GOING HIGH: THE PIONEERS OF THE THIRD POLE
[03:11.25]By the middle of the 1920s the farthest corners of the earth had already been explored: the continents and the oceans had been mapped,
[03:17.44]the North and South Poles had been reached, and the origins of the world’s major rivers had been discovered.
[03:21.91]All that was left to be conquered²¹ was the “third pole”, the highest mountain on earth, Mount²² Qomolangma.
[03:27.08]Some suggested it could not be accomplished²³.
[03:29.46]At that time, going to Mount Qomolangma was like going to the moon.
[03:32.65]Climbing at such high altitudes requires great skill and is not without risk.
[03:36.83]Apart from the cold, thin air and low oxygen levels can cause mountain sickness, which can kill.
[03:41.50]Some people can never go above 4,000 metres because their body is unable to adjust to these extreme conditions.
[03:46.78]Above about 5,200 metres, in the “death zone”, humans can only survive for couple of days, even with extra oxygen.
[03:53.96]The Tibetans have lived in the Himalayas for centuries and have adjusted to the conditions at such a great height.
[03:58.82]To them, the mountains were sacred, and they would not climb them for that reason.
[04:02.53]When Westerners came to climb Mount Qomolangma, the Sherpas, who live in Tibet, northern India and Nepal,acted as guides.
[04:08.70]From the first British Qomolangma expedititon in 1921, Sherpa strength, skill, honesty and dedication²⁴ have made them ideal²⁵ companions on the mountain.
[04:16.30]Every Qomolangma expedition since them has relied on Sherpa support.
[04:20.63]One of the first foreign expeditions to climb Mount Qomolangma arrived in Tibet in 1921.
[04:24.97]They had no idea what they were up against.
[04:27.50]Two British expeditions made the attempt in 1992 and 1924, but failed to reach the top.
[04:32.73]The local Tibetans and Sherpas laughed the strange bottles containing what the referred to as “English air”.
[04:37.43]In 1924 two British men were lost.
[04:40.33]When their oxygen ran out, they had no chance of surviving.
[04:43.36]After World War II, technological²⁶ advances in clothing and equipment had been made,
[04:47.25]and more was known about the mountain itself, which by now had been flown over several times by aircraft.
[04:51.67]The New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay,
[04:55.40]as members of British team, were the first to make it to the summit²⁷ to Mount Qomolangma.
[04:59.06]They reached the top on May 29, 1953.
[05:02.40]In later years the question arose who was the first to reach the top.
[05:05.98]Wherever he was asked, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s answer was, “We climbed as a team, period.”
[05:10.71]Like winning in the Olympic Games, climbing a mountain such as Mount Qomolangma is a great personal achievement.
[05:15.78]Climbing the mountain is still one of man’s greatest challenges.
[05:18.42]After 1953 several hundred people have succeeded in climbing the mountain,
[05:22.26]some to be the first of their nation and many in attempts to climb the mountain over different slopes.
[05:26.25]The Chinese made their first successful attempt in 1960.
[05:29.57]On May 25 of that year, Gongbu, Wang Fuzhou and Qu Yinhua reached the summit of Mount Qomolangma.
[05:35.34]As it was dark and they were unable to take photos to prove that they had reached the top,
[05:39.24]they left iron container with the national flag and a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong.
[05:43.05]At the age of 25, Qu Yinhua was the youngest ever to have reached the summit

[05:44.33]On their return, they were praised as national heroes.
[05:47.31]On May 27, 1975, another Chinese team climbed Mount Qomolangma from its northern side.
[05:52.40]Over the past 40 years, 29 other Chinese people have climbed Mount Qomolangma successfully