牛津m7 Unit 4 e to the unit & Reading — Pre-reading.ppt

Unit 4
Section Ⅰ
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
What is the author's attitude towards China's high­speed railway plan?
Bin Railway Dreams
Imagine, one day, getting out of bed in Beijing and being at your office in Shanghai in only a couple of hours, and then, after a full day of work, going back home to Beijing and having dinner there.
Sounds unusual, doesn't it? But it's not that unrealistic, with the development of China's high­speed railway system. And that's not all. China has an even greater high­speed railway plan to connect the country with Southeast Asia, and eventually Eastern Europe.
China is negotiating (谈判) to extend its own high­speed work to up to 17 countries in 10 to 15 years, eventually reaching London and Singapore.
China has proposed three such projects. The first would possibly connect Kunming with Singapore via Vietnam and Malaysia. Another could start in Urumqi and go through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and possibly to Germany. The third would start in the northeast and go north through Russia and then into Western Europe.
If China's plan for the high­speed railway goes forward, people could zip over from London to Beijing in under two days.
The new system would still follow China's high­speed railway standard. And the trains would be able to go 346 kilometers an hour, almost as fast as some airplanes.
Of course, there are some technical challenges to e. There are so many issues that need to be settled, such as safety, rail gauge (轨距), maintenance (维修) of railway tracks. So, it's important to pay attention to every detail.
It'll be a win­win project. For other countries, the work will definitely create more opportunities for business, tourism and so on, not to mention the munication among those countries.
For China, such a project would not only connect it with the rest of Asia and bring some much­needed resources, but would also help develop China's far west. We foresee that in ing decades, millions of people will migrate t