Jiuzhai Valley. or Jiuzhaigou, is a picturesque fairyland, featuring fascinating scenery of colorful lakes, breathtaking waterfalls and mountains. People say that if there should be a wonderland on earth, Jiuzhaigou National Park must be one.
Jiuzhai Valley is
2 . Four Places Named After Scientists in Antarctica
There are many scientific breakthroughs made by women in Antarctic. Here are four landmarks in Antarctica and the female pioneers they’re named for.
Jones Terrace (梯田)
The ice-free terrace in eastern Antarctica’s Victoria Land bears Jones’ name. In 1969, geochemist Lois M. Jones led the first all-female research team from the U.S. to work in Antarctica. Jones and her team studied chemical weathering in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an ice-free area of Antarctica. Through chemical analyses of rocks they had collected, Jones and her team discovered many geochemical characteristics of the valley’s ice-covered lakes.
Mount Fiennes
8,202-foot-high Mount Fiennes, located on Antarctica’s largest island — Alexander Island — is named for Ginny Fiennes. She established and maintained 80-foot-tall radio towers in the Antarctic. In 1985, Fiennes became the first female who was invited to join the Antarctic Club, a British supper club open to individuals who have spent extended time in the Antarctic region.
Francis Peak
The 3,727-foot-tall peak on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island is named after Dame Jane Francis, who is the first female director of the British Antarctic Survey, the national polar research institute of the UK. Her collection of fossils on Seymour Island helped conclude in a 2021 paper that Antarctica’s abundant plant fossils indicate the continent once had a much warmer climate than it currently does.
Peden Cliffs
Peden Cliffs near Antarctica’s Marie Byrd Land are proof of the labor of Irene Peden. She was the first American female scientist to both live and work in the Antarctic, where she used radio waves to study ice sheets. Peden and her team determined how very low frequency radio waves spread over long polar distances by measuring pathways in the ice. They also used varying radio wave frequencies to measure the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets.
1. Which place is named after a builder of radio towers in the Antarctic?| A．Jones Terrace. | B．Mount Fiennes. |
| C．Francis Peak. | D．Peden Cliffs. |
| A．Lois M. Jones. | B．Ginny Fiennes. |
| C．Dame Jane Francis. | D．Irene Peden. |
| A．She could judge the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets. |
| B．She discovered a lot of ice-covered lakes in the Antarctic. |
| C．She was the first female American to explore the Antarctic. |
| D．She correctly measured the spreading speed of radio waves. |
3 . World Heritage sites in China
Now, China has 56 sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Ancient City of Ping Yao
Built more than 2,700 years ago, the Ancient City of Ping Yao is the best preserved ancient Han Chinese city. It gives insight into the ancient prosperous business pioneers, who established the first banks in China during Ming and Qing dynasties (14th-20th centuries).
The city was listed as a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 3, 1997.
Classical Gardens of Suzhou
Suzhou, a city in East China’s Jiangsu province, is famous for its classical gardens. Built between the Northern Song Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty (11-19th century), the classical gardens of Suzhou feature miniature rocks, hills and elegant pavilions set amidst murmuring waters. The classical gardens of Suzhou were added onto the list on December 4, 1997.
Ancient Villages in southern Anhui—Xidi and Hongcun
Located in southern Anhui, Xidi and Hongcun belong to the category of architectural complexes, with a high historical and artistic value.
The villages represent the architectural features of the Huizhou-style residential houses in the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Xidi and Hongcun were added onto the list on November 30, 2000.
Fujian Tulou
Located in East China’s Fujian province, the 46 multi-storey earthen houses were built on a base of stone for defense purposes. The architectural arts of the Fujian Tulou can be traced back nearly 1,000 years, and their design incorporates the tradition of feng shui. Tulou was added onto the list on July 6, 2008.
For more information about the world heritage sites in China, please click the link below.
1. Which of the following sites was first listed as a World Heritage Site?| A．Ancient City of Ping Yao. | B．Classical Gardens of Suzhou. |
| C．Xidi and Hongcun. | D．Fujian Tulou. |
| A．Fujian Tulou was built with the intention of defending. |
| B．Ancient City of Ping Yao was the best preserved Chinese city. |
| C．Classical Gardens of Suzhou were built for the ancient emperors. |
| D．Xidi and Hongcun represent the architectural features of northern Anhui. |
| A．A textbook. | B．A website. |
| C．A magazine. | D．A travel booklet. |
4 . Today, we visit one of the most famous parks — Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. This huge park in the southeastern part of the state covers more than 10 thousand square kilometers of the Alaskan wilderness. It includes mountains, glaciers, fjords (峡湾), and even rain forests. Glacier Bay supports hundreds of kinds of animals, including many species of birds, fish, bears, whales and sea lions.
As its name suggests much of Glacier Bay is covered by glaciers. A glacier is a large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope or valley, or over a wide area of land. Glaciers cover a large area of the park.
The glaciers found in the park today are what remain from an ice development known as the Little Ice Age. That period began about 4,000 years ago. During the Little Ice Age, the cold weather caused the ice to grow and develop. That growth continued until the 1700s, when the climate began to warm. The hotter temperatures caused the ice to start melting (融化). That melting led the huge glacier to divide into more than 1,000 different glaciers.
The extremely tall mountains seen in Glacier Bay were formed by the ice developing and then melting over time. The melting of the ice also created water that filled in and created the many fjords within the park. Fjords are narrow parts of the ocean that sit between cliffs or mountains.
Glacier Bay is a popular place for people searching for adventure. Some visitors choose to explore the park by kayak. The small, narrow boats offer visitors a chance to experience the park’s many fjords and its hundreds of kilometers of coastline.
1. If you pay a visit to Glacier Bay, you will find ________.| A．it almost covers the whole Alaskan wilderness |
| B．the rain forests are rare in such conditions |
| C．there live numbers of kinds of animals |
| D．there are more birds than other species |
| A．Some glaciers existed there long long ago. |
| B．Greenhouse effect has affected the glaciers. |
| C．The glaciers will disappear in the soon future. |
| D．Only 1,000 large glaciers are left at present. |
| A．They are formed on the top of mountains. | B．The melting of the ice is also called fjords. |
| C．Water is the source of creating many fjords. | D．Fjords move as the oceans flow around. |
| A．To do a research about Glacier Bay. | B．To warn visitors there are too many dangers. |
| C．To show Glacier Bay has a long history. | D．To introduce Glacier Bay to readers. |
5 . You might have heard a lot about ancient towns and ancient cities in China. Here, we list several of the most beautiful ancient villages in China.
Baoshan Stone City, Yunnan Province
Baoshao Stone City was built on a huge mushroom-shaped rock, and only has about one hundred houses. The houses are laid out in an orderly way, built on the rock, and linked by stone steps. The Naxi people there still lead an original life and grow crops in terraces; you can experience the colorful culture of the Naxi ethnic group there.
Tuvas Village in Kanas, Xinjiang
Kanas Tuvas Village is near the mysterious Lake Kanas. The small village is located in a valley, and only has about 80 houses. These Swiss-style wooden houses are all surrounded by wooden fences. Tuvas is an ancient minority group. They traditionally lived as hunter-gathers. You can visit a local family, go herding with the locals and experience the peaceful ancient village life.
Jiajiu Tibetan Village, Danba, Sichuan Province
Jiaju Tibetan Village is known as the “Tibetan fairyland”. It stands on a mountain slope, and consists of about 140 houses. These unique houses are all built with crown-shaped roofs, red caves, and white walls, which make the houses look like little castles among the forest.
Xijiang Miao Village, Guizhou Province
If you’re interested in the Miao Minority, Xijiang Miao Village can be a great destination for deepening your understanding of Miao history and culture. It’s the largest Miao village in China, and now has 1432 households with a population of over 5000, of which 99.5% are Miao ethnic group. It’s also famous for the houses built on stilts of different heights.
1. What can you do in Kanas Tuvas Village?| A．Hike in terraces. | B．Go hunting with the locals. |
| C．See houses of a foreign style. | D．Learn about houses built on stilts. |
| A．In Baoshan Stone City | B．In Jiaju Tibetan Village |
| C．In Kanas Tuvas Village | D．In Xijiang Miao Village |
| A．They were secret to the outside world in the past. |
| B．They were originally built to defend their homeland. |
| C．They are the ethnic villages with unique architecture. |
| D．They are still cut off and difficult to access nowadays. |
6 . The ruins of a huge Maya city have been discovered in Guatemala with the help of the remote sensing technique LiDAR, according to the National Geographic on Thursday.
This breakthrough was possible thanks to LiDAR sensors, which can survey landscapes in 3D by reflecting laser pulses off the ground from unmanned air vehicles and others. LiDAR is exceptionally useful for detecting archeological sites (考古遗址), as it gets through jungles and other features that hold up exploration on the ground. The technique has been the activator (催化剂) of many discoveries in recent years. For instance, major finds at Angkor, Cambodia and Caracol, Belize can explain what it did.
This large lost city envelops sites like Tikal, Holmul, and Witzna—known for their temples and pyramids—but shows that these famous heritage areas are the tip of the iceberg of this lost urban network.
Hidden under the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, more than 60,000 human-made features—homes, canals, highways, some of which can even reach the modernized standard—have been identified by an international cooperation of researchers headed by the PACUNAM Foundation, a Maya cultural and natural heritage organization. Those have experts rethinking the outlines and complexity of the Maya empire.
These ancient peoples obviously established these imaginative cultures based on their known relics, but the new research has shown that the scale of this lost society is far beyond what experts had imagined. The findings will be explored in an hour-long documentary called Lost Treasures of the Maya Snake Kings, premiering (首映) Tuesday, February 6 on the National Geographic Channel.
“There are entire cities we didn’t know about now showing up in the survey data,” said Francisco Belli, one of the lead archeologists on the project. “There are 20,000 square kilometres more to be explored and there are going to be hundreds of cities there that we don’t know about, and we will push the frontiers,” he added.
1. What can we know about LiDAR?| A．It’s a breakthrough in archeology. | B．It’s major equipment in air forces. |
| C．It was first used in discovering a Maya city. | D．It’s a remote sensing technique using laser pulses. |
| A．The jungles of the Reserve. | B．The outlines of the Maya empire. |
| C．The researchers of the organization. | D．The man-made projects of the Reserve. |
| A．Famous and dangerous. | B．Vast and highly developed. |
| C．Mountainous and aggressive. | D．Enormous and traditional. |
| A．Restudy the history of Maya. | B．Use the LiDAR sensors as usual. |
| C．Continue to explore the unknown. | D．Study the documentary more carefully. |
