【正文】 ity were hard to begab to wonder how long the disaster would last.All hope was not after the quakes,the army sent 150,000 soldiers to Tangshan to help the rescue of thousands of people were army organized teams to dig out those who were trapped and to bury the the north of the city,most of the 10,000 miners were rescued from the coal mines built shelters for survivors whose homes had been water was taken to the city bu train,truck and ,the city began to breathe again. Office of the City GovernmentTangshan,HebeiChinaJuly5,2007Dear____,Congratulations!We are pleased to tell you that you have won the high school speaking petition about new Tangshan. Your speech was heard by a group of five judges, all of whom agreed that it was the best one this year. Your parents and your school should be very proud of you!Next month the city will open a new park to honour those who died in the terrible disaster. The park will also honour those who helped the survivors. Our office would like to have you speak to the park vistors on July 28 at 11:00 am. As you know,this is the day the quake happened thirty____years ago.We invite you to bring your family and friends on that special day.Sincerely,Zhang Sha Unit 5ELIAS’ STORYMy name is Elias. I am a poor black worker in South Africa. The time when I first met Nelson Mandela was a very difficult period of my life. I was twelve years old. It was in 1952 and Mandela was the black lawyer to whom I went for advice. He offered guidance to poor black people on their legal problems. He was generous with his time, for which I was grateful.I needed his help because I had very little education. I began school at six. The school where I studied for only two years was three kilometers away. I had to leave because my family could not continue to pay the school fees and the bus fare. I could not read or write well. After trying hard, I got a job in a gold mine. However, this was a time when one had got to have a passbook to live in Johannesburg. Sadly I did not have it because I was not born there, and I worried about whether I would bee out of work. The day when Nelson Mandela helped me was one of my happiest. He told my how to get the correct papers so I could stay in Johannesburg. I became more hopeful about my future. I never forgot how kind Mandela was. When he organized the ANC Youth League, I joined it as soon as I could. He said:“The last thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws stopping our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all.”It was the truth. Black people could not vote or choose their leaders. They could not get the jobs they wanted. The parts of town in which they had to live were decided by white people. The places outside the towns where they were sent to live were the poorest parts of South Africa. No one could grow food there. In fact as Nelson Mandela said:“…we were put into a position in which we had either to accept we were less important or fight the government. We chose to attack the laws. We first broke the law in a way which was peaceful。Reading and discussingJOURNEY DOWN THE MEKONGPART 2 A NIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINSAlthough it was autumn, the snow was already beginning to fall in legs were so heavy and cold that they felt like blocks of ice. Have you ever seen snowmen ride bicycles? That39。當(dāng)流出中國，流出高地后，湄公河就變寬，變暖了。它穿過深谷時就變成了急流?！　≡谖覀兟眯星暗膸讉€月，王薇和我去了圖書館。當(dāng)我告訴她我們的旅行將從5000多米的的高地出發(fā)時，她似乎顯得很興奮。我老是問她：“我們什么時候動身？什么時候回來？”我問她是否已經(jīng)看過地圖?，F(xiàn)在，她正為這次旅行制訂計劃。他們是傣族人，在云南省西部靠近瀾滄江的地方長大，湄公河在中國境內(nèi)的這一段叫瀾滄江，流經(jīng)其他國家后就叫湄公河。t care about details. So I told her that the source of the Mekong is in Qinghai Province. She gave me a determined look—the kind that said she would not change her mind. When I told her that our journey would begin at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres, she seemed to be excited about it. When I told her the air would be hard to breathe and it would be very cold, she said it would be an interesting experience. I know my sister well. Once she has made up her mind, nothing can change it. Finally, I had to give in.　　Several months before our trip,Wang Wei and I went to the library. We found a large atlas with good maps that showed details of world geography. From the atlas we could see that the Mekong River begins in a glacier on a Tibetan mountain. At first the river is small and the water is clear and cold. Then it begins to move quickly. It bees rapids as it passes through deep valleys, travelling across western Yunnan Province. Sometimes the river bees a waterfall and enters wide valleys. We were both surprised to learn that half of the river is in China. After it leaves China and the high altitude