新外研版英语九年级上课文.docVIP

Module 1 When I arrived, it was early morning and it was raining. I got out of the car, went through a gate and walked along a path. In the east, the sky was becoming light. I knew it was there, but there was nothing to see. After about a mile, a stranger appeared in front of me. “Am I going the right way?” I asked. He knew where I was going. “Yes,” he replied. “you’ll get there in five minutes.” Finally, I came to some rocks and stopped. I looked over them, but it was silent and there was no sign of it. Suddenly, the clouds cleared and the rain stopped. The sun rose behind me and beyond the rocks. I saw that the ground fell away and down to a river, far below me. I was looking across the Grand Canyon, one of the wonders of the natural world. I looked down to the Colorado River, from here a silver stream nearly one mile below me. If you put the two tallest buildings in the world on top of the each other at the bottom of the canyon, they still wouldn’t reach the top. Then I looked across to the other side of the canyon. How far is it? It’s about fifteen miles, maybe more. Finally, I looked to my left and to my right, and on both sides the canyon went far away, about 277 miles long. The Grand Canyon is not just big. It’s huge! I remained by the canyon for about half an hour, and I asked myself, “Is the Grand Canyon the greatest wonder anywhere in the natural world?” I certainly know the answer. But what do you think? Module 2 Thanksgiving is an American festival. People give thanks for their food. It’s celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November and it’s a time for a special dinner among family and friends. We’ve celebrated the festival since the first pioneers from England arrived in America by ship in the seventeenth century. While they were crossing the Atlantic, many people died, and after they landed, their first winter was worse than any English winter. The local people, the Native Americans, taught the pioneers how to grow corn, catch fish and keep cows, shee