本期节目话题背景

　　最近，有同学问了这样一道题“Describe an important river/lake in your country”。聊到这个话题时，我们的好朋友Navid提到了他们国家的泰晤士河。泰晤士河是它从伦敦市中心出发，经过了许多著名的地标性建筑，如国会大厦、伦敦塔，环球剧院以及大本钟。他到底是如何介绍泰晤士河的？咱们一起来听听他怎么说～
　　在很久之前，泰晤士河被用来运输货物，是非常重要的一条水运通道，不过现在这条河流现在没有被用于货物运输了哦~

　　本期Part 2 话题

　　Describe an important river/lake in your country
　　You should say:
　　Where it is located
　　How big/long it is
　　What it looks like
　　And explain why it is important

　　本期节目话题参考文本

　　To be perfectly honest, when I read this topic, my heart sank because I’m not familiar with lakes, rivers etc. in my country so apologies for the lack of detail in my answer, but I’ll do my best. Right, the river in question is the River Thames. It’s certainly the most famous river in the UK and I guess it’s probably quite well-known throughout the world. As I said, I’m not really into rivers, but I have a feeling it stretches from London to the sea. In answer to the question, how long it is, I have absolutely no idea….I’ll hazard a guess – roughly 250 miles.
　　Having said that, however, I have been on a trip down the river. A few years back, I went on a boat trip on it. It went from central London and passed a lot of famous landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London and the Globe Theatre. Oh, and not forgetting, one of the most iconic buildings in London – Big Ben.
　　In the dim and distant past, the river was used for the transportation of goods into London and I imagine it was a busy route. However, because of the development of the road network, the river is not used as much nowadays for the movement of goods. There is still a port in London though, but I believe that it has moved to the outskirts of London.
　　I’m really sorry that my knowledge of this river is a bit sketchy, but like I said before, I’m not really a fan of geography and I come from the north of England and this river is located in our capital city, in the south, so it is only something I have seen on the few occasions that I have visited the capital.

　　Words & expressions in this episode
　　1.iconic adj. 符号的；图标的
　　2.outskirt n. 郊区；市郊
　　3.sketchy adj. 概要的；粗略的