unit3

Reading
JOURNEY DOWN THE MEKONG

PART I ：THE DREAM AND THE PLAN

My name is Wang Kun. Ever since middle school,my sister Wang Wei and I have dreamed about taking a great bike trip. Two years ago she bought an expensive mountain bike and then she persuaded（说服） me to buy one. Last year, she visited our cousins(表兄弟),Dao Wei and Yu Hang at their college in Kunming.They are Dai and grew up in western Yunnan Province（省） near the Lancang River（澜沧江）, the Chinese part of the river that is called the Mekong River（湄公河） in other countries. Wang Wei soon got them interested in cycling too. After graduating from collcge, we finally got the chance to take a bike trip I asked my sister,“Where are we going?" It was my sister who first had the idea to cycle along the entire Mekong River from where it begins to where it ends. Now she is planning our schedule（时刻表） for the trip.

I am fond of my sister but she has one serious shortcoming（缺点）. She can be really stubborn（顽固）.Although she didn't know the best way of getting to places, she insisted that she organize the trip properly（正确地）. Now I know that the proper way is always her way. I kept asking her,“When are we leaving and when are we coming back?" I asked her whether she had looked at a map yet. Of course she hadn't; my sister doesn't care about details（细节）. So I told her that the source of the Mekong is in Qinghai Province. She gave me a determined（坚定的） look - the kind that said she would not change her mind. When I told her that our journey would begin at an altitude（高度） of more than 5,000 metres, she seemed to be excited about it. When I told her the air would be hard to breathe and it would be very cold, she said it would be an interesting experience（经历）. I know my sister well. Once she has made up her mind, nothing can change it. Finally, I had to give in.

Several months before our trip, Wang Wei and I went to the library. We found a large atlas（地图集） with good maps that showed details（细节） of world geography（地理）. From the atlas we could see that the Mekong River begins in a glacier冰川） on a Tibetan（西藏） mountain. At first the river is small and the water is clear and cold. Then it begins to move quickly It becomes rapids（急流） as it passes through deep 30 valleys（山谷）, travelling across western Yunnan Province. Sometimes the river becomes a waterfall and enters wide valleys. We were both surprised to learn that half of the river is in China. After it leaves China and high altitude, the Mekong becomes wide, brown and warm. As it enters Southeast Asia its pace slows. It makes wide bends(弯) or meanders through low valleys to the plains where rice grows. At last, the river delta enters the South China Sea.

下一个湄公河之旅

第一部分：梦想和计划

我的名字是王坤。自从中学以来，我和姐姐王伟一起梦想着去参加一次很棒的自行车之旅。两年前，她买了一辆便宜的山地自行车，然后她说服我买了一辆。去年，她在昆明的大学里拜访了我们的表兄弟道卫和余航。他们是傣族，在云南西部长大，在澜沧江附近，在其他国家被称为Mckong河的中国部分。王伟很快就让他们对骑自行车感兴趣。大学毕业后，我们终于有机会骑自行车了。我问我的妹妹，“我们要去哪里？”我姐姐第一次想要沿着整个湄公河进行了环游，从这里开始，在到结束。现在她正在计划我们的行程安排。

我很喜欢我的妹妹，但她有一个严重的缺点。她可能真的很顽固。虽然她不知道最好的方式到达这个地方。她仍坚持她的组织非常正确。现在我知道正确的方法总是她的方式。我不断地问她，“我们什么时候离开？我们什么时候回来？”我问她是否看过地图.当然她没有;我妹妹不关心细节。所以我告诉她湄公河的源头在青海省。她给了我一个坚定的目光 - 那种说她不会改变主意的。当我告诉她我们的旅程将在5000米以上的高度开始时，她似乎很兴奋，当我告诉她空气很难呼吸，会很冷，她说这将是一个有趣的经历。我很了解我的姐姐，一旦她下定决心，没有什么能改变它。最后，我不得不放弃。

我们旅行前几个月，王伟和我去了图书馆。 我们找到了一张大型地图集，上面有很好的地图，展示了世界地理的细节。 从地图集我们可以看到，湄公河始于西藏山脉的冰川。 开始，河水很小，水很清澈。 然后它开始快速流动，穿越深邃的山谷，穿越云南省西部，变成急流。 有时河流变成了瀑布进入宽阔的山谷。 我们惊讶地发现这条河的一半在中国。继中国和高海拔之后，湄公河变得宽阔，浑浊和温暖。 随着它进入东南亚，它的步伐放缓。 它通过低谷到广阔的弯曲或蜿蜒到水稻生长的平原地区。 最后，三角洲进入南海。