教材文本 Unit 2 Listening and Speaking

Unit 2 Sailing the OceansListening and speaking1 Read these words and then listen to the tape. Circle those aids that early sailors used to find their way. compass maps fish movements stars weather wavescurrents clouds rainfall birds other ships mountains2 Listen to the tape again and fill in the chart. Sailors fromSea or Ocean Skills PhoeniciaMediterraneanUsed the sky to find their wayNorthPolynesia3 These are some Viking sailing directions from Norway to Greenland. Sail west but keep to the north of the Shetland Islands so you can hardly see them in good weather. Stay far enough south of the Faroes so that their steep mountains are just halfway up the horizon. Keep south of Iceland so that you cannot see land but just coastal birds. Follow this route and you should reach Greenland. Use the information from the listening to explain these sailing strategies. 1 _2 _4 Polynesian seamen had traditional sayings to help them with their sailing. Can you explain what they mean?1 “If you can read the ocean, you will never be lost.”2 “Watch for when the sun grows.”3 “The stars are the eyes of Heaven.”4 “When the bird flies out to sea, the sea will grow calm.”LISTENING TEXTNAVIGATIONAL SECRETSWang Ming（WM）has come to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich to talk to the naval historian Dr Smith（DS）. WM：Thank you so much for talking to me. Please can you tell me how sailors managed before navigational instruments or satellites were invented?DS：Of course. At first if there was no land near by the seamen used the sky to find their way. They looked at the clouds in the daytime and the stars at night. But very soon they began to develop local maps. About 5,000 years ago sailors from Phoenicia in North Africa used simple maps to guide their ships around the Mediterranean Sea. They were the best traders of their day. WM：Really? How clever! Did everybody use simple maps?DS：No. Im afraid not. It was difficult to have a map for sailing across open sea then. We know the Vikings from Norway had no written maps when they sailed across the North Sea. WM：The Vikings? Didnt they sail around and attack people and towns from their ships?DS：Sometimes. But were not interested in that, only in their superior sailing ability. WM：I see! So what did they do?DS：Well, one of the things they did was concentrate on watching birds. Theres the story of a Viking called Raven-Floki. He used to keep birds on his ships but he didnt feed them. Then when he thought land was near hed let the birds go and if they flew straight to land, all he had to do was to follow them!WM：Did he find any new lands to live on?DS：Well, he did find a good way of sailing from the Faroe Islands to Iceland using his ravens. Its said that he took three birds on his ship with him. When hed been sailing for a day or two towards Iceland he let the first bird go. It flew back to the Faroe Islands. A day after this he let the second bird go. This flew out of sight but came back to rest on the ship. Sometime after that, he let the third bird go. It headed straight for Iceland so Raven-Floki followed it and arrived there safely. WM：That sounds clever! Ive heard too about the Polynesians in the Pacific Ocean. They did some amazing voyages without any navigational instruments to help them at all. How did they do that?DS：Nobodys really quite sure. But it seems that they studied the currents in the water, the colour of the sea and the different kinds of waves. WM：DD Polynesian sailors still do that？DS：Not nowadays Im afraid. WM：Have we lost this skill?DS：Yes. Im afraid we have. Ancient Polynesians made maps of Ieaves and shells which others were able to follow. If only we could read them we would be able to understand more of their navigational skills. The sailors from Phoenicia, Norway and Polynesia could certainly teach us a lot. （fade out）Answer key for Exercise 1：maps；stars；clouds；waves；currents；birdsAnswer key for Exercise 2：Sailors fromSea or OceanSkillsPhoeniciaMediterraneanUsed the sky to find their wayNorwayNorthWatched birds to find landPolynesiaPacificStudied the waves of the oceanAnswer key for Exercise 3：1 Vikings used to prefer to sail following the coastline so they could check that they were on the correct route. 2 Vikings used birds, and natural features like mountains, to direct their ships. Suggested answers to Exercise 4：1 Study the waves so that you can read what will happen in the weather or when land is close. 2 The position of the morning sun on the horizon