Module 3 My First Ride On a TrainMy First Ride On a Train My name is Alice Thompson. I come from Sydney, Australia and Im 18 years old. Recently I had my first ride on a long-distance train. And what a ride! A friend and I travelled on the famous Ghan train. We got on in Sydney and we got off in Alice Springs, right in the middle of Australia, more than four thousand kilometres away. We spent two days and nights on the train. The train was wonderful and the food was great. We ate great meals cooked by experts! For the first few hundred kilometres of the journey, the scenery was very colourful. There were fields and the soil was dark red. After that, it was desert. The sun shone, there was no wind and there were no clouds in the sky. Suddenly, it looked like a place from another time. We saw abandoned farms which were built more than a hundred years ago. The train was comfortable and the people were nice. During the day, I sat and looked out of the window, and sometimes talked to other passengers. I read books and listened to my Chinese cassettes (Im studying Chinese at school). One night, at about midnight, I watched the night sky for about an hour. The stars shone like diamonds. Why is the train called the Ghan? A long time ago, Australians needed a way to travel to the middle of the country. They tried riding horses, but the horses didnt like the hot weather and sand. A hundred and fifty years ago, they brought some camels from Afghanistan. Ghan is short for Afghanistan. Camels were much better than horses for travelling a long distance. For many years, trained camels carried food and other supplies, and returned with wool and other products. The Afghans and their camels did this until the 1920s. Then the government built a new railway line, so they didnt need the camels any more. In 1925, they passed a law which allowed people to shoot the animals if they were a problem. In 1935, the police in a town shot 153 camels in one day.The Maglev - the Fastest Train in the World The fastest train in the world, the Transrapid Maglev, runs between Shanghais Pudong Airport and Longyang station in downtown Shanghai. Traveling at a speed of over 400 kilometers per hour, the train can complete the 30-kilometer journey in eight minutes. Maglev means “magnetically levitated”. The Transrapid Maglev is the worlds first high-speed train using magnetic levitation technology. Magnetically levitated trains travel in a vacuum between two magnets. There are no rails and no noise. They travel very fast and they use less energy. On December 31, 2002, Premier Zhu Rongji and the German chancellor attended the opening ceremony of the train service. Both leaders took the train to Pudong Airport. On November 12, 2003, the Maglev reached a speed of 501 kilometers per hour on the track between Longyang Station and Pudong, a new world record speed for a train.Module 3 My First Ride On a TrainMy First Ride On a Train My name is Alice Thompson. I come from Sydney, Australia and Im 18 years old. _(recent) I had my first ride on a long-distance train. And what a ride! A friend and I travelled _ the famous Ghan train. We got _ in Sydney and we got off in Alice Springs, right in the middle of Australia, more than four thousand kilometres away. We spent two days and nights on the train. The train was wonderful and the food was great. We ate great meals _(cook) by experts! For the first few hundred kilometres of the journey, the scenery was very colourful. There were fields and the soil was dark red. After that, it was desert. The sun_ (shine), there was no wind and there were no clouds in the sky. _(sudden), it looked like a place from another time. We saw _(abandon) farms which were built more than a hundred years ago. The train was comfortable and the people were nice. During the day, I sat and looked out of the window, and sometimes talked to other passengers. I read books and listened _ my Chinese cassettes (Im studying Chinese at school). One night, at about midnight, I watched the night sky for about an hour. The stars shone like diamonds. Why is the train _(call) the Ghan? A long time ago, Australians needed a way _(travel) to the middle of the country. They tried riding horses, _the horses didnt like the hot weather and sand. A hundred and fifty years ago, they brought some camels from Afghanistan. Ghan is short for Afghanistan. Camels were much_(good) than horses for _(travel) a long distance. For many years, _(train) camels carried food and other supplies, and returned with wool and other products. The Afghans and their camels did this until the 1920s. Then the government built a new railway line, _ they didnt need the camels any more. In 1925, they passed a law _ allowed people to shoot the