高中英语 Module 6 The World’s Cultural HeritageSection 1 Background Readings素材 外研版选修7.doc

module 6 the worlds cultural heritagepart two teaching resourcessection 1 background readings for module 6 the worlds cultural heritage1. conkers:（英国的）康克戏（一种儿童游戏，双方各用绳子系住一个七叶树果，以击破对方的七叶树果为胜）playing conkers is a british game which is centuries old. in the autumn, boys collect the fallen nuts of the horse chestnut tree, which are large, round and brown and commonly known as conkers. they make a hole in the middle of each nut from top to bottom and thread a piece of string through it, knotting it underneath. they then find a partner who has a conker and play the game like this: boy a takes his conker string at the top and holds it at arms length, so that the conker dangles down free at the other end of the string; boy b then tried to hit this conker with his, with the arm of breaking it. when b has had his turn, he holds his conker out and boy a tries to hit his conker. this continues until one of the conkers is broken. the first time a new conker breaks another conker it becomes a “oner”, and if it goes on to break others it becomes a “twoer”, a “threer” and so on. children are very proud of conkers that break many others. the conker “season” is from the end of september on into october, when the horse chestnuts fall from the trees. school playgrounds are often covered with broken conkers, as many pairs of boys play the game. playing conkers is an important part of british intangible cultural heritage which has been passed down orally from generation to generation.2. scottish gaelic scottish gaelic(盖尔语) is one of the languages in the celtic branch of indo-european family. it was introduced into scotland from ireland around 500ad. by the 11th century, it was the dominant language throughout scotland, but since then has been declining, due to the influence of england and the english.in the 2001 census, the population of scotland was 5,062,011; of these 4,968,729 people said they had no knowledge of gaelic, and only 31,235 said they could speak, read and write gaelic, while a further 27,415 said they could speak but not read or write it, and 7.413 other people said they could do one of the other skills.there was a decline in gaelic speakers from 1991(65,978) to 2001 (58,652). this decline was particularly noticeable in the traditional heartlands of the gaidhealtachd (gaelic-speaking area) in the northwestern parts of scotland. this was also connected with loss of population in general from remote island areas to the cities.the scottish government has been trying to do something about the death of gaelic. in july 2005, they brought in a gaelic language act, rather along the lines of that introduced in wales 20 years before. they have been particularly concerned with education, and have been having some success. in 1985 there were only 20 children in gaelic immersion schools in glasgow and inverness. in 2005, there were 2008 children being taught through gaelic in 61 primary schools, 307 in 18 secondary schools and 638 in 60 pre-schools in a range of scottish cities. scotlands only all-gaelic primary school will have 200 pupils in 2005-2006.the main tv channel is reducing its gaelic programmes from 26 hours to 6 hours a year. the government, however, says it must contribute $ 1-1.5 million towards new gaelic digital tv channel.the scottish government is looking at the success of programmes in ireland (1926:500,000 speakers-2005:1.5 million speakers of irish gaelic), wales (an, 80.000 increase in welsh speakers in the past 10years) and catalunya in spain. 3. zhou koudian home of peking man in december, a chinese paleoanthropologist named pei wenzhong discovered a complete skull of “peking man” on dragon bone hill northwest of zhoukoudian, in the southwest suburbs of beijing. later, archaeologists unearthed 40-odd individually fossilized skeletons of “peking man”, male, female, old and young, all at the same place. zhoukoudian, therefore, became the most common site for human remains with the most abundant fossils in the world from the same period. the discovery pushed the history of beijings civilization back to some 600,000 years. these fossils remains prove that “peking man” was primitive man in an evolutionary process from ancient ape to modern man, and is the ancestor of the chinese nation. inside the 140-meter peking man cave, stratum accumulation was of a depth of40 meters. the inhabitants spanning more than 300,000 years left their remains, stone tools and traces of fire here. on dragon bone hill were also found fossilized remains of upper cave man, who lived 18,000 years ago, as well as sites of new cave man, who lived 18,000 years ago, as well as sites of new cave man, who lived between peking man and upper cave man.in 1987, the zhoukoudian caves were listed as one of the world cultural heritage sites. 4. 1）世界文化遗产长城the great wall 1987 明清皇宫（北京故宫、沈阳故宫）imperial palace 1987泰山mount taishan 1987 莫高窟mogao caves 1987秦始皇陵及兵马俑坑mausoleum of the first qin emperor1987周口店北京人遗址peking man site at zhoukoudian 1987 黄山 mount huangshan 1990 承德避暑山庄及周围庙宇 mountain resort and its outlying temples, chengde 1994 曲阜孔庙孔林孔府 temple and cemetery of confucius and the kong family mansion in qufu 1994 武当山古建筑群 ancient building complex in the wudang mountains 1994 拉萨布达拉宫历史建筑群 historic ensemble of the potala palace, lhasa 1994 庐山国家公园 lushan national park 1996峨嵋山风景名胜区(包括乐山大佛) mount emei scenic area, including leshan giant buddha scenic area 1996 平遥古城 ancient city of ping yao 1997 苏州古典园林 classical gardens of suzhou 1997 丽江古城 old town of lijiang 1997 颐和园 summer palace, an imperial garden in beijing 1998 北京天坛 temple of heaven: an imperial sacrificial altar in beijing 1998 武夷山 mount wuyi 1999大足石刻 dazu rock carvings 1999 青城山都江堰 mount qingcheng and the dujiangyan irrigation system 2000皖南古城：西递和宏村 ancient villages in southern anhui - xidi and hongcun 2000龙门石窟 longmen grottoes 2000明清皇家陵寝 imperial tombs of the ming and qing dynasties 2000云