新世纪大学英语视听说系列教材4听力原文.docVIP

U 1 Our earth L-A The natural world Listen to Mary and Blake talking about her paper. Then answer the question. What are you working on, Mary? I’m finishing my paper. It’s due tomorrow, Blake. What’s the topic? It’s about Greenland. Greenland. Hmmm that’s part of Canada, right? I think you need to study your world geography, Blake. Well, isn’t it near Canada? Yes, it’s off the coast of northeast Canada, but it’s part of Denmark. Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, what’s your paper about exactly? In my paper, I answer the question “Is Greenland really green?” In other words, is Greenland covered by a lot of plants and trees? Is it? What do you think? Let’s see Greenland is in the Arctic Circle way up north. It’s cold, so “Is Greenland really green?” I’d answer “probably not.” You’d be correct. It’s too cold here. In the north, a lot of the ground is frozen. The summers are short, so only the surface thaws. That sounds tough. It’s hard for the construction industry. It’s not easy to build in Greenland. It sounds so harsh. Why would anyone want to go there? There are big mountain ranges on the coasts. They’re great for hiking and outdoor sports. And there are lots of animals there. You can sometimes see whales swimming in the harbors. That sounds cool! Ok, so if it’s not really a “green” place, why was it named “Greenland”? The first settlers wanted to attract other people. They gave it an attractive name. Listen again. Circle True or False. Gustav and Carolina are international students. They are telling Bart about their summer work experience in the United States. Did they enjoy themselves? So what exactly did you do over the summer? We worked as volunteers at Glacier National Park. I’ve never been there. What’s it like? It’s beautiful. There are mountains and lakes … and, of course, glaciers! How was the job? We had to do a lot of physical work. It was kind of hard. That’s true, but it was exciting, too! We actually saw bears! Wow! That does sound exciting. Maybe I