12.Nature’s best（十二单元）

1.a: 4, 5 and 7 are correct.

b:2 Hugging the hillsides behind me, the city of Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

3 Having booked into a cheap hotel in the Gloria district, we made our way

immediately to the beach.

4 Having spent all day in the sun, Dave spent all night complaining about sunburn.

5 Having hired a deck-chair and an umbrella on the beach, I spent most of the time

reading my Rio de Janeiro guide.

2.a:2 Lake 3 Canyon 4 mountain range 5 cliffs 6 Desert

b:2 Bolivia and Peru 3 the USA 4 South America 5 England 6 China

3.a: 1 a 2 a 3 b 4 a 5 a 6 b

b:2 f 3 a 4 d 5 c 6 b

4. a: 2 away 3 on 4 on 5 to 6 off 7 for 8 in 9 off 10 out 11 for 12 on 13 off

b: 1 excursion 2 trip 3 tour 4 stopover 5 journey 6 commute 7 cruise 8 expedition

5.a:

6.a:2 most 3 which 4 example 5 between 6 could 7 heart 8 sing 9 recent 10 instead 11 call 12 keep

b:1 Join the whales and dolphins on their voyage across the mighty Pacific Ocean. The songs, clicks and whistles of these amazing mammals are accompanied by beautiful original musical arrangements and vocals provided by the Pacific islanders. Pacific Blue will take you on an amazing journey to the mysterious world of the Pacific Ocean.

2 The beautiful but contrasting harmonies of the flute and didgeridoo combine to

amazing effect and bring alive the hidden mysteries of The Great Barrier Reef. The

relaxing tunes on Coral Reef will take you there and leave you in a world of fish and

underwater beauty.

3 A combination of the awesome power of a thunderstorm and some of the most

beautiful classical music ever written. This is Classical Thunder, an album to inspire

and motivate.

4 Deep in the forest, where time has no meaning, the incredible waterfall descends

endlessly over the rocks. In the distance, the birds sing their approval as the rain begins to fall. Relax and enjoy this visit, as the magical sounds of nature and dreamy modern music on the CD Eternal Forest make everything right in your world.

2 Reef 3 Thunder 4 Forest

c: 2. CD 2  3. CD 4  4. CD 1

7 Speaker: It’s official – the beach is America’s favourite place for a quick getaway. In an online survey of 1,023 people, three quarters of those who completed the questionnaire said that they would definitely or very likely visit a beach in the coming year. That’s 75% – about 700 people – that’s a lot of people! What’s really interesting is that 43% chose the beach as their ideal destination for a perfect holiday, just higher than the number of people who chose the mountains. Holidays shopping in the city don’t seem to interest people so much according to this questionnaire! Big cities had a much lower score. And we have even more holiday information from the survey. When asked if they would be going into the sea for a swim, 68% of the questionnaire respondents said they definitely would, while 27% said they would at least put their toes into the water. This means that 5% of everyone who replied have no intention at

all of getting anywhere near the water! But when you look at the results for favourite activities, you realise there is more to do at the beach than just swim in the sea. The most popular beach activity is to have a beach party or a barbeque, with 44%choosing this. This was followed by building a sandcastle – 39% of all the people who replied

said they would definitely make one of these. For themselves or for their children, we’d like to know! Relaxing was quite high on the list too. 32% said they would just like to lie on the beach with a good book. 21% of all the people who replied said

they would like to be with their friends – aaaah! And flying a kite was a choice for 17%. They’ll have to find somewhere windy! Maybe another reason why those 5% don’t fancy getting into the sea at all, is because 39% of Americans are afraid of

jellyfish when they go swimming. This was the top answer in the ‘beach fears’ category. Amazingly, people are more afraid of jellyfish than they are of sharks. Only 37% said they wouldn’t swim because of the risk of becoming shark food! The sting, it seems, is mightier than the bite. Finally, internet users were asked what they look for in a beach. Here they were allowed to choose more than one category. A clean beach was the top answer. This was chosen by just under half of all the people who replied. Just one percent below, with 46%, was having a good view. Good weather

was thought to be very important by 34% and warm water by 23%. We imagine this was not that 5% who refuse to get into the sea at all! Oh, and before I forget, the nation’s favourite beach is Waikiki in Hawaii – now there’s a surprise! OK, I’m packing my barbecue and beach hat – hope to see you there!

1. 1,000  2. 75  3. 43  4. toes  5. sandcastle  6. friends  7. 17  8. 47  9. Good weather  10. Hawaii

Unit check

1.2 islands 3 ever 4 beaches 5 reefs 6 on 7 for 8 thunder 9 off 10 in

2.2 a 3 b 4 b 5 b 6 a 7 c 8 b 9 b

3.2 packing 3 back 4 reef 5 over 6 lake 7 voyage 8 cliff 9 on