【正文】 N ow she i s pl aning our schedule for the tri p. I am fond of m y si ster but she has one seri ous short ing. She can be real ly stubborn. Al though she didn39。t know the best way of getti ng to pl aces, she i nsi sted that she anize the tri p properly. N ow, I know that the proper way i s always her way. I kept aski ng her, When are we l eaving and when are we i ng back? I asked her whether she had l oked at a m ap yet. Of course, she hadn39。 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。 m y si ster doesn39。t know the best way of getti ng to pl aces, she i nsi sted that she anize the tri p properly. N ow, I know that the proper way i s always her way. I kept aski ng her, When are we l eaving and when are we i ng back? I asked her whether she had l oked at a m ap yet. Of course, she hadn39。 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