1 Lesson 5 The Seven Wonders of Taiwan Reading Selection Vocabulary for Production Vocabulary for Recognition Idiomatic ExpressionsIdiomatic Expressions

2 The ancient 2 Greeks made a list of the seven wonders of the world. Those wonders were the tallest, biggest, and most magnificent 3 sights 4 in the world at that time. Reading Selection

3 What might a list of the seven wonders of Taiwan include? The more you travel in Taiwan, the more you realize that you could make such a list. Surely it would begin with the newest wonder of them all － Taipei 101. Reading Selection

Taking its name from the number of stories 5 it rises above ground level, it ranks today as one of the tallest buildings in the world.

The National Palace Museum in suburban 6 Taipei is also one of the wonders of Taiwan. The oldest artifacts in its collection 7 are pieces of prehistoric* pottery 8 over 5,000 years old.

The museum has the largest collection of Chinese artifacts in the world, some 700,000 items in all.

To view them all, one would need almost twelve years. Another of Taiwan’s wonders located in Taipei surely is Yangmingshan National Park.

It is not the largest national park in Taiwan, nor is it the one with the highest mountains. Still, it is amazing that it locates so close to the island’s largest city.

Here, instead of traffic, pollution 9, and noise, one finds 1,359 species of plants and 168 species of butterflies.

On the east coast of Taiwan is another of Taiwan’s wonders, Taroko Gorge.

Sometimes called Taiwan’s Little Grand Canyon 10, the gorge is a 19- kilometer-long, deep, and narrow canyon that was carved 11 through solid 12 mountain walls by a rushing white-water river.

Two of Taiwan’s seven wonders are in the central part of the island. One is Sun Moon Lake, the largest natural body of water in Taiwan.

But the lake is known less for its size than for its beautiful setting 13. It is surrounded by tea plantations 14 and mountains that gradually rise to the highest point on the island, Yushan.

The other wonder of central Taiwan is the little narrow-gauge* railway that carries passengers from Chiayi on the west coast up to the mountain resort 15 of Alishan.

Building the railway was a major engineering achievement.

The little red passenger train passes through 64 tunnels 16, crosses 96 bridges, and climbs from the subtropical* plain 17 to the alpine* forests above in just 72 kilometers.

It takes only a few hours to go from Taipei’s high-tech* environment 18 to Kenting’s white, sandy beaches.

That is why Kenting National Park should be listed as one of Taiwan’s seven wonders.

When you lie on the beach here and gaze 19 at the blue Pacific Ocean beyond, you have to remind yourself that you’re still in modern fast-paced* Taiwan, not in Phuket or Bali.

The beach at Kenting is a good place to sit and think about Taiwan’s seven wonders. If you were going to add the eighth wonder to the list, what might it be?

21 1. gorge 英解 a narrow opening, usually with a stream, between hills or mountains 中解 n. [C] （山）峽；峽谷 The tourists rode a boat on the swiftly moving water down through the gorge. Vocabulary for Production

22 2. ancient 英解 belonging to times long ago 中解 adj. 古老的 The ancient Great Wall of China was built more than 2,000 years ago. 3. magnificent 英解 very large and wonderful 中解 adj. 壯麗的；宏偉的 There is a magnificent view of central Taiwan from the top of Yushan.

23 4. sight 英解 something grand and worth seeing 中解 n. [C] 景色；景象 The Golden Gate Bridge across San Francisco Bay is a magnificent sight. 5. story 英解 a floor or level of a building 中解 n. [C] [ 美 ] （建築物的）層；樓 The elevators in Taipei 101 take visitors to the 89 th story of the building.

24 6. suburban 英解 of the outer areas of a city far from downtown 中解 adj. 郊區的；近郊的 suburb n. （城市周圍的）近郊住宅區（或村、鎮） suburbanize v. 變成郊區；變成市郊 Suburban neighborhoods are usually quieter and less crowded than the downtown area.

25 7. collection 英解 a group of objects that have been gathered together 中解 n. [C] 收藏品；蒐集的東西 Tony is always looking for new stamps to add to his stamp collection.

26 8. pottery 英解 pots or dishes, usually made of clay or a similar material 中解 n. [U] 陶器 All early civilizations made some kind of pottery because pots and dishes were daily necessities.

27 9. pollution 英解 the state or fact of a clean place being made dirty 中解 n. [U] 汙染 pollute v. 汙染；弄髒 polluted adj. 受汙染的 Pollution is a serious problem in certain parts of the world today.

canyon 英解 a deep gorge 中解 n. [C] （既長又深，谷底常有溪流的）峽谷 The Grand Canyon of Arizona is one of the largest canyons in the world.

carve 英解 to form by cutting away material from a piece of wood or stone 中解 vt. 刻；雕刻 carving n. 雕刻品；雕刻物 carved adj. 雕刻的 Jimmy is very skillful with a knife and carves lovely little dolls out of wood.

solid 英解 not in the form of a liquid or a gas 中解 adj. 固體的 The Earth is a solid mass, while our Sun is mainly gas. 13. setting 英解 surroundings 中解 n. [C] 環境；背景 The beautiful setting of this hotel attracts lots of tourists to visit here.

plantation 英解 a large area of ground planted with tea, cotton, sugar, etc. 中解 n. [C] 農園；大農場 Plantations of rubber trees in Malaysia used to be an important source of rubber. 15. resort 英解 a place that people visit on vacation 中解 n. [C] 常去休閒度假之處；名勝 Many Taiwan residents go to resorts in Southeast Asia to enjoy seaside vacations.

tunnel 英解 an underground passage through a mountain or under water 中解 n. [C] 隧道；地道 New highway tunnels have shortened the driving distance between Taipei and Ilan. 17. plain 英解 a large area of level country 中解 n. [C] 平原；曠野 The western plains of Taiwan contain most of the island’s major cities.

environment 英解 surroundings 中解 n. [C] 環境；四周狀況 environmental adj. 環境的；有關環境 （保護）的 Many people think that the countryside is a healthier environment to raise children than the city.

gaze 英解 to look at someone or something for a long time, giving it all your attention often without realizing you are doing so 中解 vi. 凝視；注視；盯 Your five-year-old son lay on the bed gazing up at the ceiling. gaze 中解 n. 凝視 Willy met Ann’s gaze at the party last night.

35 Vocabulary for Recognition 1. prehistoric 英解 very old (before history was recorded) 中解 adj. 有文字歷史記載以前的；史前的 2. narrow-gauge 英解 of railway tracks that are closer together than regular tracks 中解 adj. 窄軌的

36 3. subtropical 英解 of an area near the hottest parts of the world 中解 adj. 亞熱帶的 4. alpine 英解 mountainous, as in the Alps of Switzerland 中解 adj. 高山的；高山生長的

37 5. high-tech 英解 [high-technology] most advanced of developed (electronics, machines, etc.) 中解 adj. 高科技的 6. fast-paced 英解 moving quickly 中解 adj. 步調快速的

38 Idiomatic Expressions 1. make a list of 英解 to write down a set of things, numbers, names, etc. so that one can remember or check them 中解 列表 Sally and her fiancé are making a list of the guests they are going to invite to their wedding.

39 2. take its name from 英解 to be named after 中解 由 …… 來命名 The Empire State Building takes its name from the nickname of New York State, the Empire State.

40 3. be surrounded by 英解 to have a lot of particular type of people or things near sb./sth. 中解 被 …… 環繞；被 …… 包圍 Rain is always surrounded by his loyal fans and the press whenever he comes to Taiwan.