《走遍美国》 绝对经典
第一：它结合了文字、录音、录像、实景、卡通、广播、电视、光碟，是有史以来第一套高水平的多媒体（multimedia）美语教材。

　　第二：不同中于一般所谓“情景对话”的教材。《走遍美国》（Family Album, U.S.A.）是以“电视影集”的形式呈现的。这种形式， 原出版者美国麦克米伦公司（Maxwell Macmillan international Publishing Group），在美国新闻总署（U.S. Information Agency）协助之下，对全世界105个国家的英语教学者广泛咨询之后才决定的。这105个国家的近万英语老师和他们的学生一致认为电视剧情节感人，最能吸引学习者的兴趣。因此，麦克米伦公司和它的数十位专家们，就把这套教材编成26集的电视连续剧，每集分三幕，组成一个完整的故事，而一集与一集之间，又能脉络一贯。故事围绕着一个典型的美国家庭四代人生活展开，具有常有的人情味，依永的幽默感。
　　第三：《走遍美国》（Family Album, U.S.A.）电视影集，代表了极高的制作水平。它的编剧兼导演William Greeves，以及动画制作群英会Dovetail Group, 都曾几度获电视界最高荣誉的艾美奖（Emmy Awards）。它的演员都是优秀的专业演员，美语发音清晰，体态语言丰富，和常见的一些粗糙作品不可同日而语。

　　第四：这套教材，是以快速增进听说能力为主要目标，但也同时兼顾了语法、阅读和写作能力的全面培养。它把语法教学巧妙地结合在“学习焦点”（Focus in）一节中，用轻松的歌谣、说唱、卡通、游戏等方式，使原本枯燥的语法学习，变得活泼有趣，达到寓教于乐的效果。

　　第五：这套教材，使用了典型的美式英语。由于故事的角色涵盖了祖孙四代，因此，读者可以熟悉属于不同年龄层次的美国口语，这也是一般英语教材罕见的优点。另外，值得一提的是剧中人物有意地使用正常的语速（Normal speed）说话，一方面让学习者习惯并模仿实际场合的正常语言，以使学以致用；另外一方面，更重要的，是让学习者充分体会美语口语中常用的缩短（Contractions）和弱化（Reductions）形式，养成听美语的正确习惯。

　　第六：这套教材体现了当代课程教学理论，其中最突出的是“交际教学法”Communicative approach），尤其以“非语言交际”（Non-verbal communication）和“跨文化交际”（Cross-cultural communication）为其特点，前者通过剧中演员们的演技，把表情和体态语言发挥得淋漓尽致，使学习者有如面对美国人交谈的“临场感”，后者则接着美国文化与生活的单元，细述美国生活的形形色色，使学习者透过对美国文化和生活的体验，学到活生生的美国英语。

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　　seeing the world

if someone offered to pay all my expenses for a month's holiday anywhere in the world, i would feel very surprised and very excited. it would be difficult to decide where i wanted to go. should i go to one place or to lots of different places? if i went to one country, i could see and understand a lot about it. if i went to lots of countries, my holiday would be more interesting and more exciting. i think i would decide to fly around the world and to visit three different countries. the countries i would visit would be australia, the united states of america and kenya.

if i went to australia, i would stay there for about two weeks. i am sure it would be very interesting to visit a country which is so very different from my own. before i went, i would write to one of my australian friends. i would suggest that if it were possible, he should spend a week with me visiting aboriginal tribes in the northern part of australia. i would really like to find out how the aboriginal people live in australia today. my friend could explain what we saw and he could translate what people said because he majored in aboriginal studies at queensland university. while i was visiting australia, i hope i could also see some of the large cities , such as sydney and melbourne.

if i went to the united states , i would stay there about a week. i expect i would start by visiting new yorks. i have heard that new york is a very exciting city. i imagine that there are, lots of tourist attractions, that the buildings are spectacular and that the food is very varied. after i had stayed two or three days in new york, i would fly to san francisco. i hope i could stay with my relations who live there and i would visit the city and other parts of california.

finally, i would fly to kenya where i would stay for about a week. there are three things i would like to do in kenya. first , i hope i could visit the coast because i would like to see the old arab cities and enjoy the beautiful beaches. next, i would like to visit a game eserve. i imagine the wild animals of africa- the lion, elephant and hippopotamus- are very exciting and beautiful. finally, i would like to visit the mountains of kenya where you can see snow on the equator.
if someone offered me this money, i would be amazed. unfortunately, i do not think this will ever happen and i doubt if i shall ever visit these countries.