现代大学英语听力2Unit 11 Nature.pptVIP

Task 11 Planet Earth is 4,600,000,000 years old. If we condense this time span we can compare it to a person 46 years old. Only at the age of 42 did the Earth begin to flower. Dinosaurs and the great reptiles did not appear until one year ago, when the planet was 45. Mammals arrived only eight months ago, and in the middle of last week human-like apes developed into ape-like humans, and last weekend the last ice age covered the Earth. Modem man has been around for 4 hours. During the last hour agriculture was discovered. The Industrial Revolution began a minute ago. Since then, we have multiplied our numbers to plague proportions, caused the extinction of 500 species of animals, turned the planet upside down in the search for fuels, and now we stand, arrogant with power, on the edge of a war to end all wars, and close to effectively destroying this oasis of life in the solar system. * Contemporary English Listening B2Unit 11 Nature  Area14,000,000 km2 Population 5,000 temporary residents Antarctica Roald Amundsen and his crew looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, 1911 Dumont dUrville Station, an example of modern human settlement in Antarctica Task l Words and expressions The Antarctic : 南极地区 Antarctica: 南极洲 fossil: 化石 Gondwanaland: 冈瓦纳大陆 proof: 证据；证明 ice sheet: (technical 术语) 冰原；冰盖 Gondwanaland冈瓦纳古陆(冈瓦纳大陆) 冈瓦纳古陆又称南方大陆。大陆漂移说所设想的南半球超级大陆。包括今南美洲、非洲、澳大利亚以及印度半岛和阿拉伯半岛。上述各大陆被认为在古生代及以前时期曾经连接在一起。“冈瓦纳大陆”是奥地利地质学家休斯（E.Suess）于1885年在地球的面貌（The Face of the Earth）一书中提出的。根据印度中部冈瓦纳地区石炭纪到侏罗纪的地层——“冈瓦纳系”得名。休斯认为，非洲、印度等大陆具有相同的地质历史和古植物群，过去曾经是一个统一的大陆。石炭纪一二叠纪时，南方大陆的大规模冰川活动已由非洲、南美洲、澳大利亚、印度等地发现的冰碛岩所证实。该古陆上发育的大冰盖，其中心在南极洲东部和非洲南部，冰盖由此辐散出去。古地磁资料也表明，当时这一带靠近古南极，大冰盖分布于古南纬60°以内。二叠纪时期，南方大陆占优势的植物群是种子蕨类植物舌羊齿，其分布遍及南美洲、中非、南非、澳大利亚、南极洲和印度，而在包括北美洲、格陵兰、欧亚大陆在内的北方大陆则没有出现这类植物。一般认为，冈瓦纳古陆在中生代开始解体，新生代期间逐渐迁移到现今位置。 Gondwanaland Task 1 Key A. 1) It had quite a warm climate then. 2) About 150 million years ago, Gondwanaland began to break up, and t