节目资讯
刊物:旅游精选
日期:2009-07-02
难易度:High
关键字:peninsula, remainder, fortress, breathtaking, melt
Welcome back, everyone, to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Well, what’s one thing that makes the Iberian Peninsula different from the rest
of Europe?
How about its unique history?
For hundreds of years, Iberia has been a crossroads between Europe and Africa,
giving it a special mix of cultures, languages, customs and even religions.
In this next section we’re going to Gibraltar,
Europe’s closest point to Africa.
Now did you know that Gilbraltar’s official language is English?
Indeed, Gilbraltar has a very British flavor.
And we’ll learn more about that after we preview a few key words.
The first key word is fortess.
Our tour group climbed all four hundred fifty-eight steps to the top of the
ancient fortress.
Next is the useful adjective:
breathtaking.
The breathtaking beauty of a sunset is hard to capture in a photograph.
OK. Time to get back to the reading.
Let’s pick it up on page sixteen under the title:
Britain, without the rain.
The Iberian Peninsula.
Britain, without the rain.
At the southern tip of the peninsula lies Gibraltar,
a British territory.
English is the official language,
fish and chips can be found with ease,
and phone calls can even be made from London-style red phone booths.
Must-sees are the famous Rock of Gibraltar,
which stands four hundred twenty-six meters tall and is home to a centuries-old
fortress and the Barbary apes,
Gibraltar’s most famous locals.
Ride up the rock to Europa Point for breathtaking views of both Africa and
Europe.
You’ll feel like you’ve reached the very edge of the European continent - and
indeed you have!
(Music).
Now in the second part of our teaching today, we’re going to talk about
Gibraltar.
And our text uses this term:
Britain, without the rain.
Well, becasue why?
Well, Britain is a country, the country of England, and is actually quite north
of Gibraltar,
which you can see in your map on page fifteen.
But Gibraltar belongs to Britain and it doesn’t rain very often here,
unlike Britain, which often rains.
Yeah.
So we have a British territory without the rain.
So if you’d like to visit Britain, uh, then... but you don’t like the rain, then
maybe Gibraltar would be a good place to visit,
because it feels very British and in fact, it is British, but you don’t have the
rain.
And it’s located right at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
So if you go there, people speak English.
And in fact, English is the official language.
And if you like to eat fish and chips, which is very, very popular; it’s fried
fish.
And chips or another words, fried potatoes, it’s very popular, and it can be
found with ease. You can easily buy it here.
And it sounds like they also have London-style phone booths,
which are red.
And actually we have a picture of one of those phone booths on page sixteen.
Uh, it’s something that you would see in London.
So it’s London-style.
And you can make a phone call from one of these phone booths.
This is a must-see.
And here our text uses this word ”must-see” to describe something you have to...
have to see,
or if you go somewhere, you have to visit this place because it’s very famous or
it’s very special.
So our text uses this sentence:
Must-sees are the famous Rock of Gilbraltar,
which stands four hundred and twenty-six meters tall and is a home to a
centuries-old fortress and the Barbary apes.
OK.
So it’s got two things uh, that you must see if you visit uh, this part of the
world.
Uh, yeah.
First of all, this very, very old, centuries-old - so it’s hundreds of years old
- fortress.
Now that word fortress is a... is a word that we refer to either a building or
it could even be a town that could be called a fortress.
And it has been made so strong that it is a military area,
and it’s a very strong military defense area.
Right.
If you play video games, then if you have played with war games, then you’ll
know what a fortress is.
That’s somewhere that protects you so your enemies can’t come and attack you.
We have a picture of the Rock of Gibraltar on page sixteen.
And this is a huge rock. It’s very wide; it’s very tall.
In fact, it’s four hundred and twenty-six meters tall.
So it’s huge.
So you can go here and look at the Rock of Gibraltar and see the famous fortress
where you can also see some special apes.
That’s right.
These little guys are called the Barbary apes.
And these...
Our article says that these are Gibraltar’s most famous locals.
Now when we refer to locals, usually we’re talking about the people that live in
that area, that are local to that area.
But here we’re talking about the Barbary apes that are local to that area.
And if you go here, you can also even ride up the Rock of Gibraltar to the
Europa Point.
So this is the point at the top or close to the top where you can get a
breathtaking view.
And you can see breathtaking views of both Africa and Europe.
Now Chip, we have a great adjective here to describe views.
We have the word breathtaking.
Can you tell us what it means?
Well, I think so.
If something is breathtaking, then that means it takes your breath away.
It is so beautiful and so um, excellent that it takes your breath away.
You... you might be shocked or surprised that it is so excellent or so
beautiful.
So if you go here, you can get breathtaking views of both Europe and Africa,
two very different continents.
In fact, our text says:
You’ll feel like you reach the very edge of the European continent - and indeed
you have!
Because why?
Well, this is the area between Europe and Africa.
And this really does sound like a very interesting place to visit.
I’m pretty sure if... if I visited this area,
I’m pretty sure I would love to climb this Rock of Gibraltar and experience some
of these breathtaking views.
Right.
So again we’re talking about the Iberian Peninsula.
And this is the area, the long piece of land between Africa and Europe.
And now let’s watch a video and learn more about this special place.
For a rich culture experience, there really is no better place to visit than
Gibraltar.
Just a short flight away from the U.K., African, Iberian and English traditions
all meet here,
providing a unique blend of experiences just waiting to be discovered.
For the better part of three millennia, Gibraltar has been a meeting point of
cultures.
And the secret is very simple.
Gibraltar is the nearest point in Europe to Africa.
The Atlantic and the Mediterranean are very close to each other.
This was a place where you could come and trade or control the routes,
or even explore the natural resources of the area.
Over the centuries, the Moor’s Dutch and Spanish have occupied our shores.
As a result, our architecture is a rich patchwork of Moorish mediterranean and
colonial styles.
This is the Tower of Homage of the castle built by the Muslims in the fourteenth
century when they recaptured the place from the Christians.
In order to make a statement about the place,
they made this the larest tower in the European territory that stretched all the
way to France.
From here, they controlled the shipping lanes and effectively crossed the Strait
of Gibraltar through old traffic.
The tower is all that remains of the original castle complex that stretched back
to the eleventh century.
And you can still explore the .... rooms and fortified walls that once made this
the islamic capital of Europe,
not only because its striking construction but it’s dominant and strategic
location.
At Europa Point, you’ll discover a tower that holds not only religious but great
historical value.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Europe contains fragments of what was once a Moorish
mask.
Converted to a Catholic chapel, a permanent light was kept burning before the
image of Our Lady,
making this the forerunner of the lighthouse which sits on the southernest tip
of the rock today.
You’ll find plenty of temples from cathedrals to synagogues.
Some of which are the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula under a testament to the
multicultural heritage that dates back centuries.
.... a home to unique piece of history that dates back thousands of years from a
different type of culture altogether.
A heritage site lets you explore this unique legacy of culture creativity,
while style bars, restaurants and hotels let you relax in the more modern
setting.
(Music).
However you decide to spend your holiday, you’ll find a few days in Gibraltar
the perfect place to start.
Hi, everyone.
I’m Michelle.
(Chinese).
And that concludes our Language Tips today.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
Thank you, Michelle.
So our author reminds us that if we ever find ourselves in Iberia, we have got
to visit Gibraltar.
Yes, you can use your English there.
And also there are apes you can visit,
but they probably don’t speak English.
Friends, we’re just getting started.
There’s so much more to talk about over the next two days as we travel through
the Iberian Peninsula.
Tomorrow we’ll visit the region in Spain called Catalonia.
It’s a region rich with history and castles.
Right now it’s time to say goodbye.
So for all of us here at Studio Classroom Worldwide, bye-bye, everyone.
(Music).