外研社教材必修3Module 5听力材料

Book3 Module 5听力材料 China has given the world many important inventions. To give an example, it is the country in which silk was first invented. Silk was made there as long ago as 3200 BC. Chinese farmers grew mulberry leaves because they knew that a certain kind of caterpillar ate them. The Chinese did not tell other countries how silk was made and other countries paid a lot for this soft, strong material. Su Song was an eleventh century monk about whom very little is known. However, we do know that in 1092 AD he invented the first real clock. For the first time ever, it became possible to tell the time. In the 1950s a copy was built and this copy can be seen today in Beijing. They say that a man called Cai Lun made paper from the bark of a tree in about 105 AD. If so, he is a man of whom China can be proud. Paper was a very important invention because it was cheap and people could afford to buy it. Before that time, writers had used expensive materials such as silk. The invention was immediately successful. However, paper did not spread to other countries for another 500 years. Printing was invented in China as early as 868 AD. The book in which printing first appeared was called The Diamond Sutra. With printing, it became possible to produce many copies at the same time. In 1041 AD, a chemist called Bi Sheng invented a type of print that could move. It was not until 1454 that the first book was printed in Europe. The first time that we hear of a real toothbrush is in a Chinese book of 1498 AD. This toothbrush could clean teeth quickly and well. The toothbrush only reached Europe in the seventeenth century, when it quickly became very popular. Listening and speaking 课后听力材料 Interviewer: Most people know that the Chinese invented paper and silk but we learn from your book that many other everyday objects were invented in China—the wheelbarrow, for instance. Host:It is thought that it was a man called Zhuge Liang who invented it. He was a Chinese army general who lived from 181 AD to 234 AD. The soldiers used the invention to carry heavy things around the army camp. It was also used to carry injured soldiers. Interviewer: Was it like a modern day wheelbarrow? Host: No. Today they have only one wheel and they are light. The early ones had two wheels and were extremely heavy. Two people were needed to push it. Interviewer: Another invention in your book is the umbrella. Hist: That's right. This is thought to have come from China too. Interviewer: Who invented it? Host: We don't know. But we believe that umbrellas are very ancient. They first existed in China 2000 years ago. We also know that they were made of silk and mulberry bark because we have found ancient pictures of umbrellas. These very early umbrellas were parasols which were used to protect against the sun. Umbrellas to protect against rain came later. Interviewer: And of course you talk about the invention of porcelain. Can you tell us more about that? Host: That goes back a long time. The Chinese were very skilled at making pottery. We know that from the fantastic sculptures of soldiers and horses dating back to the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC that were discovered in Shaanxi Province. They later developed the same techniques to make porcelain. The world's oldest porcelain producing factory was discovered a few years ago at Xiaoxiantan in Zhejiang Province. It was used during the Eastern Han Dynasty between 25 AD and 220 AD. The reason why porcelain is also called china in English is that for centuries all porcelain came from China. The technique didn't spread to other countries until the 16th century. Interviewer: And the compass. Who invented that? Host: That's a mystery too. But they say that the world's first compass was made in China during the Qin Dynasty in the second century BC. The first person to have used a compass on a boat was Zheng He. He was a sailor from Yunnan Province who made 7 ocean voyages in the 15th century.