Australia’s greatest engineering accomplishment to date is the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. It took 25 years to build and was completed in 1974 at a cost of $820 million. The aims of the scheme were to produce lots of electricity, and to supply water to households and for farming irrigation. The scheme works by collecting rain and melting snow from the Snowy Mountains and storing it in dams. This is then diverted (转移) through tunnels (隧道) and pipelines to power stations that produce electricity. The water used to produce the electricity then flows into the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is made up of sixteen large dams; seven major power stations; a pumping station; and 225 kilometres of tunnels and pipelines. It covers over 5,000 square kilometres of southern New South Wales (NSW). Seven regional townships and more than 100 temporary camps were established for the people who worked on the scheme.
When the scheme began in 1949, Australia did not yet have a workforce with the required scientific and engineering skills needed to complete the project. Many migrants with experience in skills like surveying, tunnelling and geology were employed from overseas. Homeless persons from Europe also worked on the scheme on two-year contracts as part of their required work assignments. The largest group of workers were unassisted migrants who were drawn to the project by the high wages.
More than 100,000 people worked on the project in total. Seventy percent of those were migrants. Workers came from more than 30 countries, including Germany, Italy, Austria and Poland. Most migrants were from Europe because the White Australia Policy discouraged the immigration of people of non-white or non-European origin. Tunnelling in the Snowy Mountains was dangerous and dirty work. Even though the workers came from very different ethnic (种族的) backgrounds that may have fought against each other in World War I and World War II, living and working in these difficult conditions brought them together. This was considered the beginning of Australia’s multiculturalism.
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Every country has a capital city. It is where the government of the country meets. The capital city is often the largest and most important city in a country and it has more people, shops, businesses, offices and factories than anywhere else.
The Romans founded a city, which was called Londinium, by the River Thames in AD 43. The area is now the City of London, which is the business centre of the city. The Romans built the first London Bridge. In the 11th century, a royal palace and then a minster (a large and important church) were built 3 km to the west of the city. As London grew and became more crowded, and roads and railways were built, people moved to the suburbs of the city to live. What were once outlying villages and towns were swallowed up, forming Greater London. By the 1860s, London was so crowded that railways had to be built underground. The London Underground now carries millions of passengers every year.
As the capital city, London needs good communications with the rest of the United Kingdom and the wider world. Five airports serve London: Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton and Stansted airports. Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest international airports. There are flights to and from about 220 places worldwide, and more than 40 million travelers use the airport each year. There are also new docks, able to handle large modern ships, at Tilbury, near the mouth of the Thames.
Almost all of the country’s main railway lines and motorways, and many of its main roads, radiate (辐射) out from London. Trains using the Channel Tunnel to mainland Europe start in London, and there is a direct motorway link between London and the Channel Tunnel.
1. 基本情况介绍；
2. 游览经历；
3. 你的感受。
注意：1. 写作词数成为80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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（1）该地方的基本情况（如名称、地理位置等）；
（2）该地方的特色（如文化、景点等）；
（3）你对该地方的印象和感受。
注意：
（1）词数不少于100：
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯。
A Beautiful Place in China
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