UNIT 9 The world's highest mountain
is 8,844 meters high.
SECTION A
Language Goals
Talk about geography and nature
Compare facts and figures
1a Check (√)the facts you know.
Write one more.
Did you know that Qomolangma
is the highest mountain in the world?
Yes,I did.
It's 8,844 meters high.
Qomolangma
the Yangtze River
the Sahara
the Giant Panda
The longest river in Asia is the Yangtze River.
It's about 6,300 kilometers long.
The Sahara is about 8,000,000 square kilometers in size.
It's the biggest desert in the world.
The world's deepest salt lake is the Caspian Sea
It's 1,025 meters deep.
One of the most endangered animals in the world is the giant panda.
There are only about 1,600 left.
The Amazon is the longest river in the world.
It's about 6,500 kilometers long.
1b Listen and check (√) the facts you hear.
Hi,I'm Mike.
I'm from United States, but I'm studying here in China.
Welcome to our class, Mike.
We're very happy to meet you.
I've got only a few minutes to talk today,
but I'd like to ask you about
your country for a school project I'm doing.
Sure!We'll be happy to tell you about China.
To start off, did you know that China
is one of the oldest civilizations in the world?
Yeah,I did.
China has a longer history than United States
in fact, America is one of the youngest
countries in the world.
And China has the biggest population,too.
Did you know that?
Yes.Where do most of them live?
The most populated part of China
is in the southeast.
Is that because a lot of China
is mountains and desert?
Yes.I need ask you many more questions,
but I don't have time today.
May I come again?
Yeah.Sure.That would be great.
That's so cool!Thanks,everybody.
See you soon,then.Bye.
1c PAIRWORK
Practice the conversation in the picture above.
Then make conversations with the information
in the chart in 1a.
Did you know that Qomolangma is the highest
mountain in the world?
Yes,I did.It's 8,844 meters high.
2a Listen and number the facts
in the order you hear them.
Listen,everyone
here is a geographical facts for you:
the Nile River is six thousand,
six hundred and seventy kilometers long.
Really?
And how long is the Yellow Rever in China?
I know.It's about five thousand,
and five hundred kilometers long.
That's right.
And did you know that the highest place
above sea level is the Himalayas?
That's where Qomolangma is, isn't it?
Yes. And that mountain is higher than
Mount Tai in Shandong province,
which is one thousand,
five hundred and forty five meters high...
Can you tell us a fact about speed?
Sure. The fastest animals is the cheetah.
It can move about 110 kilometers per hour.
And the slowest is the snail.
It moves at 0.09 kilometers per hour.
That's really slow.Mr. Baker?
I want to know what the population
of Singapore is,and Malaysia, its neighbor.
It's just over four million,
and Malaysia is about twenty million.
Four million?
That's not a lot of people in Singapore,
but then it is one of the smallest countries
in the world, isn't it?
Yes,I think so.
Many people speak Chinese there, you know.
That's right.
Yes. And more and more people in the world
are interested in learning Chinese.
2b Listen again.
Fill in the blanks with the missing numbers.
2c Match the columns.
2d PAIRWORK
Make conversations using the information
in 2a and 2c.
Did you know that Qomolangma is much higher
than Mount Tai?
No,I didn't.Is Qomolangma the highest mountain
in the world?
Yes,it is.It's 8,844 meters high.
Wow!That's high!
Grammar Focus
Did you know that the Yangtze River
is about 6,300 kilometers long?
The biggest desert in the world is the Sahara.
China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
The cheetah can run 100 kilometers per hour.
There are no man-made structures as big as the
Great Wall.
3a Read the article.
Underline the words that show comparisons.
Qomolangma--the most dangerous mountain in the world?
One of the most dangerous sports in the world
is mountain climbing, and one of the most popular places to go for
this is the Himalayas.
These extremely high mountains attract climbers
from all over the world.
Many people say this is one of the most
beautiful parts of the world.
The Himalayas run along the southwestern border
of China.Of all the peaks,
Qomolangma is the highest and most famous.
It's dangerous to climb Qomolangma because
thick clouds cover the top of the mountain.
Even more serious difficulties include the
freezing weather conditions and the heavy storms
The first people to reach the top of Qomolangma
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary-did it in 1953
The first Chinese climber reached the top
in 1960,and in 1975,the first woman did it too.
For these climbers it was a difficult
and dangerous climb--indeed,
many people have lost their lives
on this mountain.
More recently, it has become safer and faster
to climb Qomolangma, probably because of
better equipment and support.
For example, in 2003,
a climber reached the top of Qomolangma
in just under 11 hours.
What an amazing achievement!
3b Complete the chart.
4 GROUPWORK
In groups,write questions about the world.
Then ask other groups your questions.
See which group knows more.