【正文】 o climb the m ountains was hard work but as we l ooked around us, we were surpri sed by the vi ew. We seem ed to be abl e to se for mi l es. At one poi nt we were so hi gh that we found oursel ves cycli ng through cl ouds. Then we began goi ng down the hil ls. It was great fun especial y as i t gradual y becam e m uch warm er. In the val eys colourful butterfli es fl ew around us and we saw many yaks and sheep eati ng green gras. At this point we had to change our caps, coats, gl oves and trousers for Tshi rts and shorts. In the earl y eveni ng we al ways stop to m ake cam p. We put up our tent and then we eat. After supper Wang Wei put her head down on her pil low and went to sl eep but I stayed awake. At m i dnight the sky becam e cl earer and the stars grew bri ghter. It was so qui et. There was alm ost no wind—onl y the flam es of our fire for pany. As I l ay beneath the stars I thought about how far we had already travel l ed. We wil l reach Dali i n Yunnan Provi nce son, where our cousins Dao Wei and Yu Hang wi l joi n us. We can hardl y wait to se them! PART 6 TH E END OF OUR JOUNEY Cambodi a was i n many ways sim il ar to Laos, al though i t has twice the popul ati on. At another inn, we talked with a teacher who told us that half of the people in her country couldn’t read or write. H er village couldn’t even afford to buil d a school , so she had to teach outside under a l arge tent. When we sai d godbye, we al felt very l ucky to have studi ed in col ege. Back on the road, we pased between m any hil s and forests. Then we cam e to the plains and entered Phnom Penh, the capi tal of Cam bodi a. In m any ways i t looked l ike Vienti ane and H o Chi Mi nh Ci ty。 it also had wi de streets with trees in rows and old French houses. Unli ke Vienti ane, ships coul d travel the Mekong Ri ver the center of the ci ty we visited the palace and a beautiful white elephant. It can only be seen outsi de the pal ace on speci al days. We ate an early super and went to see a great temple wi th fl ors m ade of sl iver. The next morni ng our group sl ept l ate. We were very tired from the long bi ke ri de the day before. Cycli ng i n the hi l s had been di fcui lt. Now our coui ns had the chance to make jokes about Wangwei and m e. Perhaps, they sai d, they were the strong ones!We had l unch at a nice outdoor cafe,then rode out of the ci ty. Two days later we crossed the border into Vietnam. We began to see many more people,but I wasn’t surprised . I read in an atlas before our tri p that Vietnam has al most seven times the popul ation of Cambodia. We met a farmer who gave us directi ons and told us that he grows a new rice crop four times every year so he can fed more also tol d us that the northern part of his country has many mountains and it is much coler than here in the south,where it is fl though the fl at delta made it easi er for us to cycl e. we got warm very qui we drank l ots of water and ate lots of bananas. Son the del ta separated into ni ne smal er ri vers. Two days later,after we had passed thousands of ri ce fiel ds,we came to the sea. We were tired but also in high spirits: our dream to cycle al ong the Mekong River had finaly e true. Unit 4 A NIGHT THE EARTH DID’T SLEEP Strange thi ngs were happening i n the countri si de of northest there days the water i n the vil lage wel ls rose and fel l, rose and fel .Farmers noti ced that the wel wal ls had dep cracks in them. A smel y gas cam e out of the cracks. In the farmeryards, the chickens and even the pigs were too nervous to ce ran out of the fi el ds looking for pl aces to hi de. fi sh jumped out of their bowls and about 3: 0am on July 28,1976, some people saw bri ght l ights i n the sky. The sound of the pl anes could be heard outside the city, who thought li tle of these events,were asl ep as usual that night. At3:42 am everythi ng began to seemed as i f the world was at an end!Eleven kil om etres directl y bel ow the city the greast earthquake of 20th century had begun. It was fel t in Bei ji ng, whi ch i s m ore thantwo hundred ki l om etres h l ive i n the mountai ns of the eastern USA speak wi th an older ki nd of Engli sh di al ect. When Ameri cans moved from one pl ace to another, they took their di al ects wi th them . So peopl e from the m ountai ns i n the southeastern USA speak with almost the sam e di al ects as peopl e i n the northwestern USA. The USA i s a l arge country in which many di fferent dialects are spoken. Although many Americans move a lot, they stil recognize and understand each other’s dialects. TH E O XFO RD EN GLISH DICTION ARY You m ay think that Engl ish di cti onari es have been used for m any, m any centuri es. The spel li ng of Engl ish has al ways been a probl em but i t was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a dicti onary. Then peopl e coul d spel l word i n di fferent ways which you m ight fi nd i t interesting. But it m ade reading Engli sh m uch m ore diffi cul t. So dicti onari es were i nvented to encourage everybody to spell the same. In fact, an English dictionary like the kind you use today wasn’t made until the time of the late Qing Dynasty. There men did most of the important earl y work on dicti onari es: Sam uel Johnson, N oah Webster, and Jam es Muray. These men spent nearly all of their lives trying to collect words for their dictionaries. For them, it wasn’t only a job。 it was a wonderful journey of discovery. The l argest dicti onary in the worl d i s the O xford Engli sh Di ctionary, or O ED for short. The idea for thi s dicti onary cam e from an im portant m eeting i n Bri tain i n 1857. Twentytwo years later, O xford Uni versi ty asked James Murray to be the edi tor of its new di cti onary. Murray had never been to col ege. At the age of fourteen, he l eft his vil lage school in Scotl and and taught him self whil e working i n a bank. Later he becam e a great teacher. After O xford gave him the job,