THE ALMANAC Natures seven greatest wonders Работу выполнила Королева Алена ученица 6 «в» класса МАОУ «Сузунская СОШ 2 » Новосибирской области Руководитель: Шмальц Н. В., учитель иностранных языков

The expression one of the seven wonders of the world is sometimes used to describe something wonderful or great. Sometimes the phrase «the eighth wonder» is used in the same meaning but it is usually used ironically. What are the seven wonders? In the ancient world the following things were considered to be the seven Wonders of the World:

The Pyramids of Egypt

The Temple of Diana at Ephesus

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The ivory and gold Statue of Jupiter Olympus

the Colossus of Rhodes

The Tomb of Mausoleus King of Caria

The Pharos of Alexandria

Of all these «wonders» only one remains, the Pyramids of Egypt.

The ancient seven wonders of the world were all made by man. Can nature work wonders? The American traveler and scientist Lowell Thomas thinks that the wonders created by Nature are much more grandiose and more excting.Natures seven greatest wonders, he thinks, are the following:

1. The Grand Canyon. You will never see anything grander, he writes, than this canyon in northern Arizona, USA. It is quite unusual in colour and architecture. Two hundred and eighty miles across, more than a mile deep, the Grand Canyon is a fantasy of stones and cliffs. Standing near it, you can watch a wonderful play of colours that no artist could describe. The rapid Colorado River, Natures main assistant in creating this work of sculpture, runs through the canyon. You feel when you look at the river that it is trying hard to carry out the instructions given by Nature.

2. Glacier Bay. In Alaska, where the mountains rise higher from the sea than at any other place on earth. Its a land of glaciers, big fjords and perpendicular ice walls shining in the sun. Here all varieties of arctic life are present. One can see, for example, whales sending up fountains of water, seals, white bears, deer, wolves and a great number of birds. The great glaciers grow slowly, become fantastically large and then slide majestically toward the sea leaving behind new soil were the cycle of growing begins all over again.

3. The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

4. Victoria Falls.

5. Baikal, Siberias Giant Lace. Imagine a fresh water lake larger than Belgium, with High mountains Round it. Its Baikal, 40 miles from Irkutsk in south-eastern Siberia. More than a mile deep in places, Baikal contains as much fresh water (one-fifth of our planets entire supply) as all of the North America Great Lakes taken together. About 1,800 species of flora and fauna live in it, two-thirds of which are not found anywhere else. There is, for example, the golomyanka, a fish so nearly transparent, that one can almost read a newspaper trough it. Unique to Baikal, too, are its 40,000 seals. How did seals get there, 1,000milles from salt water? Scientist think that they had remained in the lake from the time when Baikal was in some way connected with the Arctic Ocean.

6. Mountain Everest. Of all the earths mountains the Hymalayan mountains are the highest mountains. The highest mountain among them is Everest that goes up in the sky nearly five and a half miles above sea level. It has always at tracted brave mountain climbers. Eight attempts were made, some with tragic results, before, in 1953 after months of prepaland, and his companion, Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal managed to reach its summit.

7.Yellowstone National Park.

Is there anything in our life today that may be called one of the wonders of the world? Answers to this question are different. Some say its the motor-car, others say its the space craft. There are people who call television one of the wonders. We think that the greatest wonder of the world is Man himself. What do you think about it?