9. 970539 生活段子：游览沼泽地公园
Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Everglade is a watery plain covered with saw grass that's the home to numerous species of plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to see it all today. But this tour will offer you a good sampling. Our tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to start because it's home to many of the plants and animals typically associated with the everglade. You'll see many exotic birds and of course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk that goes across the marsh, so you can look down at the animals in the water from a safe distance. The boardwalk is high enough to give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature wonderful tropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close view of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running a canoe sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you have a very good sense of direction and can negotiate your way through tall grass. We hate to have to come looking for you. You have a good fortune of being here in the winter, the best time of the year to visit. During the spring and summer the mosquitoes will just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome, but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent.
10. 000147 理科段子：地理冒险
Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E. Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the controversy around Peary's pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th' 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surrounded by controversy. Tins was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier. Over the decades Peary was given the benefit of the doubt, but critics persisted in raising questions about his navigation and the distances he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Foundation spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examination of documents relating to Peary's polar expedition. The documents supposed Peary's claims about the distances he covered. After also conducting an extensive computer analysis of photos taken by Peary at the pole, they concluded that Pierre and his companions did in fact reach the near vicinity of the North Pole on April 6th. 1909. OK, today we're going to talk about exploration of the opposite end of the world, I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott. |
