本文介绍以下八个城市以及景点：伊斯坦布尔，马耳他，威尼斯，大峡谷，马赛马拉野生动物保护区，埃菲尔铁塔，桌山，曼谷。
注：本文目的主要是为学生总结新视野大学英语视听说一书中出现的文化背景知识。对于其他读者也可以顺便浏览一些英语文化背景知识。中英文不是对照关系。
Cultural Notes of B2U2 Journey into the unknown
1 Istanbul
the largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural and historical heart. From Byzantine churches to Ottoman palaces, its well-preserved heritage is still very present on a visit to Turkey's largest city. Famous tourist attractions include the Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, and the Bazaar.
伊斯坦布尔（土耳其语：İstanbul [isˈtanbuɫ] 聆听）是土耳其最大城市，亦是该国的经济、文化和历史中心。它坐落于土耳其西北部的博斯普鲁斯海峡之滨，位于马尔马拉海和黑海之间，横跨欧亚大陆，经济和历史中心位于欧洲一侧，有三分之一人口居住于亚洲一侧。其人口达到1440万，为全欧洲最大的城市群，亦是中东最大和全球第六大城市。伊斯坦布尔全市辖区面积5,343平方千米（2,063平方英里），其覆盖范围同伊斯坦布尔省相同，亦是该省的行政中心。亦是世界上唯一横跨两大洲的城市。
公元前660年左右，该市以“拜占庭”之名建立于萨拉基里奥角，并在此后逐渐发展为历史上最为重要的城市之一。公元330年该市重建为君士坦丁堡或新罗马，并在此后的近十六个世纪内先后成为罗马帝国（330年–1204年及1261年–1453年）、拉丁帝国（1204年–1261年）和奥斯曼帝国（1453年–1922年）的帝国首都。
伊斯坦布尔是古丝绸之路的途经地，也是欧洲和中东的铁路网络之间、黑海和地中海间海路的必经之地，使得伊斯坦布尔 的战略地位十分重要.
2012年，在当选欧洲文化之都两年之后，近1160万外国游客造访伊斯坦布尔 ，使其成为世界第五受欢迎的旅游目的地。该市最重要的景点仍是其历史城区，部分被列为联合国教科文组织世界遗产，而位于贝伊奥卢区的天然港金角湾则是其文化和娱乐的中心。伊斯坦布尔还被认为是一个全球城市，亦是全球发展速度最快的都市经济区之一。诸多土耳其公司及媒体将总部设于此，全市国内生产总值超过全国的四分之一。伊斯坦布尔希望借助其复苏和快速扩张的契机，在二十年内五次申请举办夏季奥林匹克运动会。
2 Malta
a southern European country situated in the center of the Mediterranean. Renowned for its Blue Lagoon, the island's baroque towns and prehistoric ruins also deserve a visit. The Maltese capital, Valletta, is a historical time capsule, It is thick with Italianate churches and golden limestone buildings Marsaxlokk Bay is the best place to see Luzzus, brightly colored traditional Maltese fishing boats, with their mythical eye painted on the prows. the Sunday fish market offers a glimpse of traditional island life and the harbor side restaurants serve excellent fish dishes.
马耳他共和国（马耳他语：Repubblika ta' Malta），通称马耳他，位于南欧的共和制的一个微型国家，首都瓦莱塔。是一个位于地中海中心的岛国，有“地中海心脏”之称，被誉为“欧洲的乡村”。官方语言为马耳他语和英语。马耳他亦是英联邦和欧洲联盟的成员国。
马耳他自然资源缺乏，经济以服务业和金融业为主，旅游业是马耳他主要的外汇来源。马耳他同100多个国家和地区有贸易关系，欧盟是马耳他最重要的贸易伙伴。另外，马耳他社会保障体系较为完备，实行免费教育，免费医疗及退休保险制。
3 Venice
Venice, or Venezia, is a distinguished 1,700-year-old city that was at the nexus of major European art, music and political developments. It was an instigator of the Renaissance and is thought to have been the world's first financial center.
Today, it is one of Italy's most important cities and a supremely romantic travel destination, where you can stroll alongside miles of winding canals. There are, in fact, 150 canals with more than 400 bridges that connect Venice's 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon, some large enough for magnificent churches and palaces, squares and museums, amazing restaurants and beautiful shops.
威尼斯是意大利东北部著名的旅游与工业城市，也是威尼托地区的首府。威尼斯城由被运河分隔并由桥梁相连的118座小岛组成。威尼斯潟湖是位于波河与皮亚韦河河口之间的一个封闭的海湾，威尼斯城就坐落在威尼斯潟湖的浅滩上。威尼斯以其优美的环境、建筑和艺术品珍藏而闻名。潟湖和城市的一部分被列为世界遗产。Luigi Barzini曾在纽约时报形容它“无疑是最美丽的人造都市”，时代线上也称赞威尼斯是欧洲最浪漫的城市之一。
4 the Grand Canyon
Unique combinations of geologic color and erosional forms decorate a canyon that is 277 river miles (446km) long, up to 18 miles (29km) wide, and a mile (1.6km) deep. Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size.
The South Rim is open all year. Road improvement work is taking place this month.
大峡谷国家公园（Grand Canyon National Park）是美国西南部的国家公园，在1979年被列为世界自然遗产，以深达1500米，由科罗拉多河耗费万年所切割出来的科罗拉多大峡谷景观闻名于世。位于美国亚利桑那州的西北角。整个大峡谷走向为东西向，总长有349公里，宽度从最窄的6公里到25公里。将大峡谷分为南缘跟北缘。整个国家公园总面积为1,217,403亩。在地形上是高原地形，该地的高原称为凯巴布高原（Kaibab）。
大峡谷国家公园是1908年美国总统罗斯福所提倡与规划的，初时只叫做国家纪念公园，在1911年划立了国家保护区。1919年的2月26日，经过美国国会的法案通过，正式将大峡谷最深、景色最壮丽的一段，约有170公里长度的区域，成立了大峡谷国家公园，并建立起步道系统、生态与地质学的教育研究系统。
目前大峡谷国家公园是全美最受欢迎的国家公园之一，据统计，每年的参观人次有400多万。
5 the Masai Mara
The Maasai Mara is one of the best-known reserves in the whole of Africa, and is globally renowned for its exceptional wildlife. Despite comprising only 0.01% of Africa’s total landmass, more than 40% of Africa’s larger mammals can be found here. Across the vast plains of the Mara visitors are able to witness lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, and an infinite variety of other species in their natural habitats.
Masai Mara ecosystem contains some 25% of what is left of Kenyan wildlife. Estimate says that around 70% of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside national parks and reserves. Thus; the need for new role models preserving the Mara wildlife, on private land is paramount. Naboisho plays that role today! Africa has lost some 95-98% of its most iconic mammals over the last hundred year or so, elephants, rhinos, lions, and cheetah. WWF estimate that the world will lose 2/3 of its vertebras in the incredible short period 1970-2020, ie 50 years. Some 70% of the world’s ecosystem are under stress. Loss of habitat is the main reason for this decimation.
The Maasai Mara lies in the Great Rift Valley, which is a fault line some 3,500 miles (5,600km) long stretching from Ethiopia’s Red Sea through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and into Mozambique. Here the valley is wide, and a towering escarpment can be seen in the hazy distance. The animals are at liberty to move outside the park into huge areas known as ‘dispersal areas’. There can be as much wildlife roaming outside the park as inside. Many Maasai villages are located in the ‘dispersal areas’ and they have, over centuries, developed a synergetic relationship with the wildlife.
There are four main types of terrain in the Mara – the Ngama Hills to the east with sandy soil and leafy bushes favoured by black rhino; Oloololo Escarpment forming the western boundary and rising to a magnificent plateau; Mara Triangle bordering the Mara River with lush grassland and acacia woodlands supporting masses of game, especially migrating wildebeest; and the Central Plains, forming the largest part of the reserve with scattered bushes and boulders on rolling grasslands favoured by the plains game.
The Mara is perhaps best known for the Great Migration, which takes place every year July to Septemberr. During these months the yellow savannah is dotted black by more than 1.5 million wildebeest, zebra and antelopes that migrate from the Serengeti to the Mara in search of food and water.
Mara and Serengeti parks are interdependent wildlife havens. This is where the world’s largest multi-species migration takes place. The movement is, centered around the wildebeest migrating from Serengeti into Masai Mara during the dry period in Tanzania, crossing the mighty Mara River on their way. The Great Wildebeest Migration rightfully deserves its standing.
马赛马拉国家保护区（又译作马塞马拉，Maasai Mara；Masai Mara）是肯尼亚西南部的一个大型猎物禁猎区，位于肯尼亚裂谷省纳罗克附近，与坦桑尼亚北部塞伦盖蒂国家公园无缝对接。名称来源于当地原始定居者马赛人。经过多次扩大保护区的面积，目前保护区面积有1510平方公里[2]。
6 the Eiffel Tower
the only trip to the top of its kind in Europe, one where emotions carry you away. From the esplanade to the summit you will experience a whole series of emotions. Soak in the breathtakingly unique views of Paris from every floor, feel the goose bumps as you walk the glass floor on the 1st floor, experience the incredible ascent by stairway or lift, the indescribable awe at the tonnes of iron above you as you stand on the esplanade, the vertigo as you look down...
埃菲尔铁塔（法语：La Tour Eiffel，也常称为巴黎铁塔）是位于法国巴黎战神广场的铁制镂空塔，世界著名建筑，也是法国文化象征之一，巴黎城市地标之一，巴黎最高建筑物，得名自其设计师居斯塔夫·埃菲尔，属于世界建筑史上的技术杰作。埃菲尔铁塔也是世界上最多人付费参观的名胜古迹，2011年约有698万人参观，在2010年累计参观人数已超过二亿七千万人。
埃菲尔铁塔从1887年1月27日起建，分为三楼，分别在离地面57.6米、115.7米和276.1米处，其中一、二楼设有餐厅，第三楼建有观景台，从塔座到塔顶共有1,711级阶梯，共用去钢铁7,000吨，12,000个金属部件，250万颗铆钉，模仿人体的骨头为建，极为壮观属于镂空结构铁塔，塔高为300米，总高320米。
1889年5月15日，为给世界博览会开幕典礼剪彩，铁塔的设计师埃菲尔亲手将法国国旗升上铁塔的300米高空，由此，人们为了纪念他对法国和巴黎的这一贡献，特别还在塔下为他塑造了一座半身铜像。
直到2004年1月16日，为申办2012年夏季奥运会，法国巴黎市政府特意在埃菲尔铁塔上介绍了其为申奥所做出的准备情况，而埃菲尔铁塔更成为了该国申奥的“天然广告”。这个为了世界博览会而落成的金属建筑，曾经保持世界最高建筑45年，直到纽约克莱斯勒大楼的出现。
埃菲尔铁塔由250万个铆钉连接固定。于塔的四个面上共刻有72个法国科学家、工程师与其他知名人士的名字，居斯塔夫·埃菲尔以此来铭记他们做出的贡献。
7 Table Mountain
Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park. Table Mountain is home to a large array of fauna and flora, most of which is endemic.
桌山位于南非西开普省开普敦附近，是一座顶部平坦的沙岩山。海拔1,086米，大约形成于志留纪或奥陶纪。由于其顶部异常平坦且可以俯看开普敦半岛，因此桌山成为了南非的一个著名的旅游景点。桌山有云覆盖，云层是刮东南风迅速形成的，它是高原植被繁茂的主要因素，5个高山水库贮藏的水就是由冬天西北风带来的雨水，山顶的年降雨量为1525毫米。
8 Bangkok
is the capital and most populous city of the Kingdom of Thailand. It is known in Thaias Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in Central Thailand, and has a population of over 8 million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in terms of importance.
“Same same, but different. ”This Thailish T-shirt philosophy sums up Bangkok, a city where the familiar and the exotic collide like the flavours on a plate of pàt tai.
是泰国首都和最大城市，别名“天使之城”，位于昭披耶河东岸，南临暹罗湾，中南半岛最大城市，东南亚第二大城市，为泰国政治、经济、贸易、交通、文化、科技、教育、宗教与各方面中心。
曼谷是繁华的国际大都市，是贵金属和宝石的交易中心。经济占泰国总量的44%，曼谷港承担着泰国90%的外贸。曼谷旅游业十分发达，被评选为2013全球最受欢迎旅游城市。[1]
曼谷是国际活动中心之一，每年有多达200~300起的各种国际会议在此举行。城内设有联合国亚太经社委员会总部、世界银行、世界卫生组织、国际劳工组织以及20多个国际机构的区域办事处。曼谷被誉为“佛教之都”，是“世界佛教联谊会”总部及亚洲理工学院所在地。
参考网址
1 伊斯坦布尔：维基百科：Istanbul
2 马耳他：维基百科：Malta
3 威尼斯：维基百科：Venice
4 大峡谷：维基百科：the Great Canyon, 官网，VIDEOS
5 马赛马拉国家保护区: 维基百科：the Masai Mara,introduction
6 埃菲尔铁塔,官网
7 桌山：维基百科：桌山，官网
8 曼谷：简介，官网