【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 to speak excellent ，人們期望新聞播音員所說的英語是最好的英語。However, on TV and the radio you will hear differences in the way people ，在電視和收音機里，你也會聽出人們在說話時的差異。When people use words and expressions different from “standard language”, it is called a “標準語言”的詞語時，那就叫做方言。American English has many dialects, especially the midwestern, southern, African American and Spanish ，特別是中西部和南部地區(qū)的方言，以及黑人和西班牙人的方言。Even in some parts of the USA, two people from neighbouring towns speak a little ，即使是相鄰城鎮(zhèn)的兩個人所說的語言都可能稍有不同。American English has so many dialects because people have e from all over the 。Geography also plays a part in making 。Some people who live in the mountains of the eastern USA speak with an older kind of English 。When Americans moved from one place to another, they took their dialects with ，他們也就把他們的方言隨著帶去了。So people from the mountains in the southeastern USA speak with almost the same dialect as people in the northwestern ，美國東南部山區(qū)的人同美國西北部的人所說的方言就幾乎相同。The USA is a large country in which many different dialects are 。Although many Americans move a lot, they still recognize and understand each other’s ，但是他們?nèi)匀荒軌虮鎰e、理解彼此的方言。 3JOURNEY DOWN THE MEKONG沿湄公河而下的旅程PART 1 THE DREAM AND THE PLAN第一部分夢想與計劃My name is Wang since middle school, my sister Wang Wei and I have dreamed about taking a great bike 。從高中起，我姐姐王薇和我就一直夢想作一次偉大的自行車旅行。Two years ago she bought an expensive mountain bike and then she persuaded me to buy ，她買了一輛昂貴的山地自行車，然后還說服我買了一輛（山地車）。Last year, she visited our cousins, Dao Wei and Yu Hang at their college in ——在昆明讀大學的刀衛(wèi)和宇航。They are Dai and grew up in western Yunnan Province near the Lancang River, the Chinese part of the river that is called the Mekong River in other ，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，在其他國家（境內(nèi)）叫湄公河。Wang Wei soon got them interested in cycling ，王薇使表兄弟也對騎車旅游產(chǎn)生了興趣。After graduating from college, we finally got the chance to take a bike ，我們終于有了機會騎自行車旅行。I asked my sister, “Where are we going?”我問我姐姐：“我們要去哪兒？” It was my sister who first had the idea to cycle along the entire Mekong River from where it begins to where it 。Now she is planning our schedule for the 。I am fond of my sister but she has one serious can be really ，但是她有一個很嚴重的缺點。她有時確實很固執(zhí)。Although she didn39。t know the best way of getting to places, she insisted that she organize the trip ，她卻堅持要自己把這次旅游安排得盡善盡美。Now, I know that the proper way is always her ，我就知道這個盡善盡美的方式總是她的方式。I kept asking her, “When are we leaving and when are we ing back?” I asked her whether she had looked at a map ，“我們什么時候出發(fā)？什么時候回來？”我還問她是否看過地圖。Of course, she hadn39。t。my sister doesn39。t care about ——我的姐姐是不會考慮細節(jié)的。So I told her that the source of the Mekong is in Qinghai ，我告訴她，湄公河的源頭在青海省。She gave me a determined look—the kind that said she would not change her ——這種眼神表明她是不會改變主意的。When I told her that our journey would begin at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres, she seemed to be excited about ，我們的旅行將從5, 000多米的高地出發(fā)，這時她似乎顯得很興奮。When I told her the air would be hard to breathe and it would be very cold, she said it would be an interesting ，呼吸困難，而且天氣很冷時，她卻說這將是一次有趣的經(jīng)歷。I know my sister she has made up her mind, nothing can change , I had to give ，她一旦下了決心，什么也不能使她改變。最后，我只好讓步了。Several months before our trip, Wang Wei and I went to the ，王薇和我去了圖書館。We found a large atlas with good maps that showed details of world ，里面有一些世界地理的明細圖。From the atlas we could see that the Mekong River begins in a glacier on a Tibetan ，湄公河發(fā)源于西藏一座山上的冰川。At first the river is small and the water is clear and it begins to move ，江面很小，河水清澈而冷冽，然后它開始快速流動。It bees rapids as it passes through deep valleys, travelling across western Yunnan ，流經(jīng)云南西部。Sometimes the river bees a waterfall and enters wide ，這條江形成瀑布，進入寬闊的峽谷。We were both surprised to learn that half of the river is in 。After it leaves China and the high altitude, the Mekong bees wide, brown and ，流出高地之后，湄公河就變寬了，變暖了，河水也變成了黃褐色。As it enters Southeast Asia, its pace makes wide bends or meanders through low valleys to the plains where rice ，流速減緩，河水蜿蜒緩慢地穿過低谷，流向生長稻谷的平原。At last, the river delta enters the South China ，湄公河三角洲的各支流流入中國南海。 夜晚的西藏山景PART 2 A NIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS第二部分山中一宿Although it was autumn, the snow was already beginning to fall in ，但是西藏已經(jīng)開始下雪了。Our legs were so heavy and cold that they felt like blocks of ，感覺就像大冰塊。Have you ever seen snowmen ride bicycles?你看到過雪人騎自行車嗎？That39。s what we looked like!我們看上去就像那樣。Along the way children dressed in long wool coats stopped to look at ，一些身著羊毛大衣的孩子們停下來看著我們。In the late afternoon we found it was so cold that our water bottles ，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)由于天冷我們的水壺都凍上了。However, the lakes shone like glass in the setting sun and looked ，湖水在落日的余暉下閃亮如鏡，景色迷人。Wang Wei rode in front of me as is very reliable and I knew I didn’t need to encourage ，王薇在我的前面，她很可靠，我知道我用不著給她鼓勁兒。To climb the mountains was hard work but as we looked around us, we were surprised by the seemed to be able to see for ，但是當我們環(huán)顧四周，（眼前的）景色讓我們感到驚奇，我們似乎能看到幾百里以外的地方。At one point we were so high that we found ourselves cycling through ，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己置身高處，彷佛騎車穿越云層。Then we began going down the was great fun especially as it gradually became much ，這非常有趣，特別是天氣逐漸變得暖和多了。In the valleys colourful butterflies flew around us and we saw many yaks and sheep eating green ，五彩斑斕的蝴蝶翩翩飛舞在我們身旁，我們還看到牦牛和羊群在吃草。At this point we had to change our caps, coats, gloves and trousers for Tshirts and ，我們不得不把帽子、外衣、手套和長褲脫掉，換成T恤衫和短褲。In the early evening we always stop to make put up our tent and then we ，我們通常就停下來宿營，（于是），我們先把帳篷支起來，然后吃飯。After supper Wang Wei put her head down on her pillow and went to sleep but I stayed ，王薇把頭放在枕頭上就睡覺了，而我卻醒著。At midnight the sky became clearer and the stars grew ，天空變得清朗了，星星更亮了。It was so was almost no windonly the flames of our fire for pany.（夜晚）非常安靜——幾乎沒有風，只有篝火的火焰和我們做伴。As I lay beneath the stars I thought about how far we had already ，我想著我們已經(jīng)走了多遠。We will reach Dali in Yunnan Province soon, where our cousins Dao Wei and Yu Hang will join can hardly wait to see them!我們很快就要到達云南的大理。在那里，我們的表兄弟刀衛(wèi)和宇航將加入我們的行列。我們迫不及待地想要見到他們！ A NIGHT THE EARTH DIDN39。T SLEEP地球的一個不眠之夜Strange things were happening