北师大版高中英语课文Unit 16 Stories.doc

Unit 16 Stories ? Warm-up Tapescript 1 It was a dark and foggy night. We drove and drove. At midnight, just as we thought we were lost, we saw a light behind some trees. As we got nearer, we could see a house. It looked abandoned. We knocked on the heavy door. It opened slowly. A tall man dressed entirely in black stood there. “Good evening,” he said in a slow, deep voice. “Ive been expecting you.” 2 We were travelling through deep space at the speed of light. Suddenly, the spaceship slowed down and immediately the system came into view – a bright star with twenty or more planets. One of these would be our new home, five light years from our own planet. 3 One of my earliest memories is of my father running along the beach with our dog, Tess. I must have been about three years old. I remember the dog jumping up on me and knocking me over into the water. 4 The man lay on the ground next to a white truck. There was no doubt. He was dead. I quickly looked in the pockets of his jacket – some money, a handkerchief and a theatre ticket with a Chicago phone number written on it. Three murders in three weeks and the victims all killed in the same way. 5 Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess. She was an only child and her father and mother, the king and queen, loved her very much. One day, an old woman came to the castle. When she saw the princess, she smiled and laughed in a strange and horrible way. ? Lesson 1 Stories from History Pompeii: The city that became a time capsule Around the end of the first century AD, a Roman writer called Pliny wrote about a terrible volcanic eruption that he had witnessed as a young man. The eruption had occurred on August 24th, 79 AD. The earth began to tremble and a volcano named Vesuvius, near Pompeii, Italy, erupted. Pliny described a cloud coming down the mountain, blocking out the sun and burying everything in its path, including whole villages and towns. This particularly sad event left a deep impression on Pliny who had l