미국교과서 Dictation자료 1.5 - ASIA, AUSTRALIA and ANTARTICA

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ASIA, AUSTRALIA, AND ANTARCTICA

   ASIA. The largest continent is Asia. It contains one-third of all the land in the world. Asia is so big that different parts have very different kinds of climate. The far north is very cold. The south, southwest, and southeast are very hot.
   Asia has more than half of the world's population. Most of the people live in the valleys or along the seacoasts. They live where they can farm or fish.
   The southwestern part of Asia, the part closest to Africa, is often called the Middle East. Iran and Saudi Arabia are countries in the Middle East. In summer, it is often 115°during the day. Some of the people are farmers. Some are nomads, people who move from place to place to find grass for their animals. There are only 59 people per square mile in the Middle East. Much of this area is rich in oil.
   Southern Asia consists largely of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The world's tallest mountains, the Himalayas, are found there. Southern Asia has good farmland. But there are so many people to feed (522 per square mile) that it is a very poor area.
   Southeast Asia includes Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and several other countries. It is very rich in resources. It has forests, good farmland, and water. There are also minerals in the earth.
   In southern and Southeast Asia, there are seasonal winds called monsoons. For part of the year, the winds blow from the land toward the ocean. These winds are dry. Then the winds change direction and blow from the ocean over the land. These winds bring heavy rains.
   Eastern Asia contains China, North and South Korea, and Japan. On this part of the continent, there are 412 people per square mile. Many of the people live in large industrial cities. But even the farmlands are very crowded.
   There are forests in northern Asia, but much of the land is desert. It is also very cold, often -40°in the winter. Only 14 people per square mile live there. Mongolia and the part of the Russian Federation called Siberia lie in northern Asia.
   Central Asia has mountains, deserts, and grassy plains. The soil is too poor for farming, so very few people live there. All of central Asia lies in the Russian Federation.
   AUSTRALIA. Australia is the only continent that is a country too. It is about the same size as the United States. But only about 15 million people live there. More than half of the population lives along the eastern coast or in the nearby highlands. The climate in the east is warm, and the farmland there is rich. There are also a large number of factories in this area.
   The rest of Australia is flat. In the eastern and central parts, sheep and cattle are raised. In many areas, rainfall is light, so wells are drilled for the animals. The western half of the continent is mostly desert. Few people live there. It is very hot there in the summer, sometimes 120°.
   Australia is rich in minerals. The people mine iron, tin, and many other metals. There is oil and coal to power the factories too.
   ANTARCTICA. The land around the South Pole is called Antarctica. Ice covers the whole continent. The ice cap is nearly three miles thick in places. Because of the cold, the air is very dry. It is even drier than in a desert. Very little snow falls. Even in summer, the temperature is almost always below freezing. In winter, it is often -100°F. On August 24, 1960, Antarctica had the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth, -127°.
   No plants or animals live in Antarctica, except right along the coast where penguins and seals are found during part of the year. There is coal, and maybe oil, but finding them would be very hard. The continent's biggest resource is the water in the ice cap. It contains more fresh water than there is in all the rest of the world.