【正文】 t。 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, Murray had a pl ace built i n the garden behi nd hi s house to do hi s work. Part of it was one m eter underground. In wi nter i t fel t l i ke a barn, he had to wear a heavy coat and put hi s fet in a box to kep warm. Every morni ng, Muray got out of bed at five o’clock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he would work by the candle light into the eveni ng. Muray hoped to fi ni sh the new di cti onary i n ten years. But after fi ve years, he was stil l addi ng words for the l etter A! then others went to work wi th Murray, i ncl udi ng hi s two daughters. He worked on the di cti onary until he was very old. Fortyfour years l ater, i n1928, other edi tors fi nished i t. It incl uded m ore than 15, 000 pages i n twel ve books. And you thought your di ctionary was bi g! Unit 3 JOURNEY DOWN THE M EKO NG PART 1 THE DREAM AND THE PLAN My nam e is Wang Kun. Ever si nce m i dl e schol, my sister Wang Wei and I have dream ed about taki ng a great bi ke trip. Two years ago she bought an expensive mountai n bike and then she persuaded me to buy one. Last year, she vi si ted our cousi ns, Dao Wei and Yu H ang at their col ege i n Kunm ing. They are Dai and grew up i n western Yunan Provi nce near the Lancang Ri ver, the Chi nese part of the river that is cal led the Mekong Ri ver i n other countri es. Wang Wei son got them interested in cycl ing to. After graduati ng from col lege. we fi nal y got the chance to take a bi ke trip. I asked m y si ster, Where are we goi ng? It was my sister who first had the i dea to cycl e al ong the entire Mekong River from where i t begins to where it ends. 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。l ive i n the mountai ns of the eastern USA speak wi th an older ki nd of Engl ish dial ect. When Ameri cans m oved from one place to another, they took thei r dialects wi th them. So peopl e from the m ountai ns i n the southeastern USA speak with alm ost the same di al ects as peopl e in the northwestern USA. The USA i s a large country i n whi ch m any di ferent di al ects are spoken. Al though many Americans move a lot, they still recognize and understand each other’s dialects. TH E O XFO RD EN GLISH DICTION ARY You may thi nk that Engli sh di ctionari es have been used for m any, many centuries. The spel ing of Engli sh has al ways been a problem but it was m ore of a probl em i n the days before a di ctionary. Then people coul d spel word i n different ways whi ch you m i ght fi nd it i nteresti ng. But i t m ade readi ng Engl ish much m ore di ficul t. So di ctionaries 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 m en di d m ost of the im portant earl y work on di cti onari es: Sam uel Johnson, N oah Webster, and Jam es Murray. These m en spent nearl y al l of thei r lives trying to colect words for their dictionaries. For them, it wasn’t only a job。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。 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 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 .Farmer