[00:06.48]PRE-READING
[00:28.32]in succession.
[00:48.98]A CITV OF HEROES
[01:08.02]Where there is a river, there is a city.
[01:13.59] Perhaps this is not always true,
[01:18.55] but it is true that many of the world's greatest cities
[01:24.40] have been built on the banks of a river.
[01:28.84]The Neva River flows through the centre of St Petersburg in Russia.
[01:36.39]Three hundred years ago,
[01:40.55]the Russian Czar Peter the Great came here and built a new capital-St Petersburg
[01:48.62]Peter the Great,like his country,was strong and proud.
[01:55.28]Many great palaces were built during his lifetime.
[02:01.13]The palaces were large and beautiful,
[02:06.20]and they often looked like something out of a fairy tale.
[02:11.84]St Petersburg has also been the centre of many important events in history.
[02:19.28]In 1941,the Germans tried to destroy the city.
[02:26.05]It was under attack for 900 days,
[02:31.20]but the people of the city never gave on.
[02:35.95]The Germans burned many of the palaces as they left.
[02:41.91]St Petersburg was almost in ruins: fires burned everywhere.
[02:48.96]Buildings were destroyed,and paintings and statues lay in pieces on the ground
[02:56.90]Restoring the city and its cultural relics seemed impossible,
[03:03.35]but the people of this great city would not give up.
[03:08.92]"We will not let our history and culture be destroyed,
[03:14.59]and we will do everything we can to save our city!"
[03:20.44]When the Nazis had gone,
[03:24.56]the people of St Petersburg began rebuilding the city.
[03:30.13]Pieces of the palaces that had been hidden before the Nazis came
[03:36.66]could now be used to rebuild the city and its culture.
[03:42.82]It was not easy.
[03:46.87]Painters and workers had to be very careful when they were trying to bring the city back to life
[03:55.34]It was difficult to save the palaces and buildings
[04:00.61]without destroyingtheir old beauty.
[04:05.16]With the help of old paintings and photographs,
[04:10.33]the people of St Petersburg
[04:14.17]were able to bring back the beauty of their culture and history.
[04:20.23]Now,after years of hard work,
[04:25.87]parts of statues have been put back together
[04:31.02]and missing pieces have been replaced.
[04:36.06]Old paintings,including a portrait of Peter the Great
[04:42.54]which was found in the snow outside St Petersburg,
[04:48.60]have been carefully recreated,
[04:53.36]and the old palaces have been made as wonderful as in the past.
[04:52.36]Today Peter the Great on his bronze horse
[04:51.36]can once again look out over the city he built,
[04:50.36]Like their hero Peter,
[04:49.36]the people of St Petersburg have shown that dreams can come true.
[04:48.36] Strong, proud and united,
[04:47.36]the people of St Petersburg are the modern heroes of Russia.
[04:46.36]Where there is a river,there is a city.
[04:45.36]Perhaps this is not always true,
[04:44.36]but it is true that many of the world's greatest cities have been built on the banks of a river
[04:43.36]flows through
[04:42.36]Three hundred years ago,the Russian Czar Peter the Great
[04:41.36]came here and built a new capital-St Petersburg.
[04:40.36]strong and proud.
来源:可可英语 http://www.kekenet.com/gaokao/201110/157741.shtml