[00:06.09]Reading A TRIP ON "THE TRUE NORTH"
[00:11.86]Li Daiyu and her cousin Liu Qian
[00:15.78]were on a trip to Canada to visit their cousins on the Atlantic coast.
[00:20.51]Rather than take the aeroplane all the way,
[00:23.75]they decided to fly from China to Vancouver
[00:27.59]and to take the train from west to east across Canada in September.
[00:33.15]The idea thet they would cross the whole continent was exciting.
[00:37.59]Their cousins'friend,Danny Lin,was waiting for them at the airport.
[00:42.63]He was going to take them to the train station to catch
[00:46.39]"The True North,"the cross-Canada train.
[00:50.34]On the way to the station,he told them,
[00:53.37]"You're going to see great scenery on your trip.
[00:56.61]Canada is bigger than the United States.
[00:59.85]It is the second biggest country in the world and as you go eastward,
[01:05.02]you will see mountains,and pass thousands of lakes,
[01:08.86]forests and wide rivers as well as cities.
[01:13.40]The idea that you can cross Canada in less than five days is just wrong.
[01:19.05]It is 5,500 kilometres from coast to coast.
[01:24.01]Here is Vancouver,you are in the warmest part of Canada.
[01:28.37]Many people think it is the most beautiful city in Canada,
[01:32.47]as it is surrounded by mountains on the north
[01:35.82]and east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.
[01:40.26]Its population is increasing very rapidly,
[01:44.02]because people from the rest of Canada
[01:46.89]and those from many Asian countries want to live here.
[01:51.33]They can ski in the Rocky Mountains and sail in the harbour.
[01:55.49]On the coast north of Vancouver
[01:58.36]some of the oldest and most beautiful forests in the world still remain.
[02:03.32]It is so wet there that the trees are extremely tall."
[02:08.18]That afternoon in the train the cousins settled down in their seats.
[02:13.15]They crossed the Rocky Mountains earlier that day
[02:16.62]and looked out of the windows at the will scenery.
[02:20.07]They saw mountain goats and even a grizzly bear.
[02:23.54]Their next stop would be Calgary.
[02:26.18]The Calgary Stampede is famous Western festival.
[02:30.15]Cowboys come from all over North American to compete in riding wild horses.
[02:36.21]Many of them have a gift for working with animals
[02:39.95]and they can win thousands of dollars in prizes.
[02:43.50]Two days later they began to realize that Canada is quite empty.
[02:49.06]Most Canadians live within 320 kilometres of the USA border,
[02:54.94]and in fact,the population of Canada is only slightly over thirty million.
[03:00.87]They went through a wheat-grwoing province and saw farms
[03:04.92]that were thousands of square kilometres in size.
[03:08.68]After dinner,the cousins arrived in Thunder Bay.
[03:12.65]This city is at the top end of the Great Lakes,
[03:16.49]and it is very busy port,although it is close to the centre of the country.
[03:22.16]The fact that ocean ships can go there surprises many people.
[03:27.12]Canada has one-third of the world's fresh water,
[03:30.96]and much of it is in the five Great Lakes.
[03:34.33]There is more fresh weter in Canada than in any other country in the world.
[03:39.79]That night,they slept as the train rushed through the night
[03:44.24]across the top of Lake Superior,
[03:47.11]through the great forests and southward towards Toronto.
[03:51.97]Using Language Listening and writing
[04:03.12]Listen to the tape and complete these sentences with correct information.
[06:57.78]Reading "THE TRUE NORTH"FROM TORONTO TO MONTREAL
[07:09.92]The next morning the maple trees outside their windows were red and gold orange,
[07:15.85]and there was frost on the ground-fall had arrived in Canada.
[07:20.58]Around noon they arrived in Toronto,
[07:23.74]the most wealthy and biggest city in Canada.
[07:27.09]They were not leaving for Montreal until leater,
[07:30.43]so they went on a tour of the city.
[07:33.07]They went up the tall CN Tower,and looked across the lake
[07:37.43]In the distance,they could see the misty cloud that rose
[07:41.69]from the great Niagara Falls,which is on the south side of the lake.
[07:46.55]The water flows into the niagara River and over the falls on its way to the sea.
[07:52.61]They saw the covered stadium,home of several famous basketball teams.
[07:57.88]As they walked north from the harbour area,Li Daiyu said,
[08:02.74]"One of my mother's friends lives here.
[08:05.49]I should phone her from a telephone booth."
[08:08.44]The cousins were invited to have dinnerin downtown Chinatown,
[08:12.70]one of the three in Toronto.
[08:15.26]Lin Tao,who had moved to Canada many years earlier,
[08:19.51]met them at The Pink Pearl and said,
[08:22.99]"We can get good Cantonese food here,
[08:26.04]because most of the Chinese people here come from South China,
[08:30.30]especially Hong Kong.
[08:32.65]It's too bad you can't go as far as Ottawa,Canada's capital.
[08:37.30]It's about four hundred kilometres northeast of Toronto,so it would take too long."
[08:42.97]The train left late that night and arrived in Montreal at dawn the next morning.
[08:48.38]At the train station,people everywhere were speaking French.
[08:52.64]There were signs and ads in French,
[08:55.59]but some of them had English words in smaller letter.
[08:59.43]"We don't leave until this evening,"said Liu Qian.
[09:03.09]"Let's go downtown.Old Montreal is close to the the water."
[09:07.84]They spent the afternoon in the lovely shops
[09:11.18]and visiting the artists in their workplaces beside the water.
[09:15.44]As they sat in a cafe looking over the broad St lawrence River,
[09:20.40]a young man sat down with them.
[09:23.15]"Hello,my name is Henri,and I'm a student at the university here,"he said,
[09:29.81]"and I was wondering where you are from."
[09:32.76]The girls told him they were on a train across Canada
[09:36.81]and that they had only one day in Montreal.
[09:40.05]"That's too bad,"he said."Montreal is a city with wonderful restaurants and clubs.
[09:46.50]Most of us speak both English and French,but the city has a French culture.
[09:52.07]We love good coffee,good bread and good music."
[09:55.91]That night as the train was speeding along the St Lawrence River
[10:00.58]toward the Gulf of St Lawrence and down to the East Coast,
[10:05.02]the cousins dreamed of French Restaurants and red maple leaves |