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新东方背诵文选全集
01 The Language of Music
A painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone can
see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is
performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities,
for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs
as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical
student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with
technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an
athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their
vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular support.
String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down,
while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm-two entirely
different movements.
Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in
tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already
there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner’s responsibility to tune
the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties; the
hammers that hit the string have to be coaxed not to sound likepercussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student
conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it
should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with
fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and
understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in
the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in
any century.
02 Schooling and Education
It is commonly believed in United States that school is where people go
to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children
interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between
schooling and education implied by this remark is important.
Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.
Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the
shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includesboth the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole
universe of informal learning. The agents of education can range from a
revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a
child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain
predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance
conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is
known of other religions. People are engaged in education from infancy
on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong
process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that
should be an integral part of one’s entire life.
Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose
general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a
country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take
assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do
homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be
learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the
working of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of
the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that
they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political
problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are
experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding theformalized process of schooling.
03 The Definition of “Price”
Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means
by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed
among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex
network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the
economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor,
professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The
interrelationships of all these prices make up the “system” of prices. The
price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated
system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon
everything else.
If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define
“price”, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the
buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that price is
the money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a market
transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a
complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much
more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyerand the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but
with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged,
the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment
will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and
discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or
service, delivery terms(交货期限), return privileges, and other factors.
In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the
factors that comprise the total “package” being exchanged for the asked-
for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price（计算
价，特定价）.
04 Electricity
The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric
lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what
life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people
grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because
there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent
refrigerators.
Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more
than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in thisfield for million of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that
the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that
could benefit humanity.
All living cell send out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it
sends out pulses of record; they form an electrocardiogram, which a
doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain,
too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an
electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living
cells are extremely small - often so small that sensitive instruments are
needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells have
become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as
muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cell are linked together,
the effects can be astonishing.
The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can seed a jolt of as
much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it
live. (An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As
many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel’s body are
specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can
deliver corresponds roughly to length of its body.05 The Beginning of Drama
There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece.
The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption tha（t 假
设） drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as
follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the
world-even the seasonal changes-as unpredictable, and they sought
through various means to control these unknown and feared powers.
Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then
retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually
stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites（典礼、
习俗）. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later
called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those
rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and
costumes were almost always used, furthermore, a suitable site（地点、场
所） had to be provided for performances and when the entire community
did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting
area" and the "auditorium. （ 观 众 席 ） " In addition, there were
performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding
mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed thattask. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other
people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect-
success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival（ 苏醒、复兴、复活、
再生效、复苏）of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic
representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater’s origin from the human interest in
storytelling. According to this vies tales (about the hunt, war, or other
feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of
impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the
assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related
theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and
gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.
06 Televisions
Television-----the most pervasive and persuasive of modern
technologies, marked by rapid change and growth-is moving into a new
era, an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which
promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution
of sorts, made possible by the marriage of television and computer
technologies.The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin
(visio: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance.
Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system of
electronics, television provides the capability of converting an image
(focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera) into
electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These
impulses, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be
electronically reconstituted into that same image.
Television is more than just an electronic system, however. It is a means
of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such
becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.
The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by
its means of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which
reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of
television signals. Second, there is nonbroadcast television, which
provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups through
controlled transmission techniques.
Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are mostfamiliar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about
thirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During those
years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks,
ABC, NBC, and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news,
information, and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have
actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We
have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainment,
placing our role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.
07 Andrew Carnegie （安德鲁 卡内基）
Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in
the United States, and, in the process, became one of the wealthiest men
in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product
and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic
decline, when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.
Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work,
but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the
benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide
educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. "He
who dies rich, dies disgraced," he often said.Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear
his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a
library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also
founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon
University. Other philanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the
Carnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and
Carnegie Hall to provide a center for the arts.
Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie’s
generosity. His contributions of more than five million dollars
established 2,500 libraries in small communities throughout the country
and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy
today.
08 American Revolution
The American Revolution was not a sudden and violent overturning of
the political and social framework, such as later occurred in France and
Russia, when both were already independent nations. Significant changes
were ushered in, but they were not breathtaking. What happened wasaccelerated evolution rather than outright revolution. During the conflict
itself people went on working and praying, marrying and playing. Most
of them were not seriously disturbed by the actual fighting, and many of
the more isolated communities scarcely knew that a war was on.
America’s War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern
nations. One was Canada, which received its first large influx of English-
speaking population from the thousands of loyalists who fled there from
the United States. Another was Australia, which became a penal colony
now that America was no longer available for prisoners and debtors. The
third newcomer-the United States-based itself squarely on republican
principles.
Yet even the political overturn was not so revolutionary as one might
suppose. In some states, notably Connecticut and Rhode Island, the war
largely ratified a colonial self-rule already existing. British officials,
everywhere ousted, were replaced by a home-grown governing class,
which promptly sought a local substitute for king and Parliament.
09 Suburbanization
If by "suburb" is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than itsalready developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during
the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century. Before that period the city was a small highly
compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were
conveyed by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1840’s
were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities,
and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the
prospect of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by
proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the
older, main cities. As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge
their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In 1854,
for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia
County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New
York. Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status
only by incorporating the communities along their borders.
With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding
and accompanying social stress-conditions that began to approach
disastrous proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful
electric traction line was developed. Within a few years the horse-
drawn trolleys were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed
and connected every major urban area, fostering a wave ofsuburbanization that transformed the compact industrial city into a
dispersed metropolis. This first phase of mass-scale suburbanization
was reinforced by the simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle Class,
whose desires for homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging
inner city were satisfied by the developers of single-family housing
tracts.
10 Types of Speech
Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used,
and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation
regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and
expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries.
Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are
understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal
speech or writing, but not considered appropriate for more formal
situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language.
Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large
number of speakers but not accepted as good, formal usage by the
majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard
dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang are
more common in speech than in writing.Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also
passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy
momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the
majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them
in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own
set of words to describe familiar objects and events. It has been pointed
out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary
for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the
introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society;
second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third,
association among the subgroups and the majority population.
Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard" "colloquial" and
"slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language.
Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that
they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English
will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of
expressions.
11 ArchaeologyArchaeology is a source of history, not just a bumble auxiliary discipline.
Archaeological data are historical documents in their own right, not mere
illustrations to written texts, Just as much as any other historian, an
archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has created
the human world in which we live - and us ourselves in so far as we are
each creatures of our age and social environment. Archaeological data are
all changes in the material world resulting from human action or, more
succinctly, the fossilized results of human behavior. The sum total of
these constitutes what may be called the archaeological record. This
record exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of
which produce a rather superficial contrast between archaeological
history and the more familiar kind based upon written records.
Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as
vibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world
and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace
in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a Dictaphone or
written down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield may
"change the course of history," but this is equally ephemeral from the
archaeologist’s standpoint. What are perhaps worse, most organic
materials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen,
grass, hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a fewyears or centuries, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively
brief period the archaeological record is reduce to mere scraps of stone,
bone, glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by
applying appropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided by a
few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill up
a good deal of the gap.
12 Museums
From Boston to Los Angeles, from New York City to Chicago to Dallas,
museums are either planning, building, or wrapping up wholesale
expansion programs. These programs already have radically altered
facades and floor plans or are expected to do so in the not-too-distant
future.
In New York City alone, six major institutions have spread up and out
into the air space and neighborhoods around them or are preparing to do
so.
The reasons for this confluence of activity are complex, but one factor is
a consideration everywhere - space. With collections expanding, with the
needs and functions of museums changing, empty space has become avery precious commodity.
Probably nowhere in the country is this more true than at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, which has needed additional space for decades and which
received its last significant facelift ten years ago. Because of the space
crunch, the Art Museum has become increasingly cautious in considering
acquisitions and donations of art, in some cases passing up opportunities
to strengthen its collections.
Deaccessing - or selling off - works of art has taken on new importance
because of the museum’s space problems. And increasingly, curators
have been forced to juggle gallery space, rotating one masterpiece into
public view while another is sent to storage.
Despite the clear need for additional gallery and storage space, however,"
the museum has no plan, no plan to break out of its envelope in the next
fifteen years," according to Philadelphia Museum of Art’s president.
13 Skyscrapers and Environment
In the late 1960’s, many people in North America turned their attention to
environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers werewidely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in
a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot
capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In
one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office
space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by
120, 000 kilowatts-enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New
York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or
gain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that
through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen
the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of
skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and
reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce
glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the
temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city’s sanitation facilities, too. If
fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City
would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-asmuch as a city the size of Stanford, Connecticut , which has a
population of more than 109, 000.
14 The Nobel Academy
For the last 82years, Sweden’s Nobel Academy has decided who will
receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be
elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal. But today the
Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from the without and
from within. Critics contend that the selection of the winners often has
less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics
of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the
cultural editor for one of the country’s two major newspapers, the prize
continues to represent "what people call a very Swedish exercise:
reflecting Swedish tastes."
The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism
in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great
literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from
outside influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this
very distance may also be responsible for the Academy’s inability to
perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that
the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature
that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If for
no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial
rewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable,
but it also dramatically increases sales of an author’s books.
16. the war between Britain and France
In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every corner of
Europe, as well as in the Middle East, South Africa, the West Indies, and
Latin America. In reality, however, there was only one major war during
this time, the war between Britain and France. All other battles were
ancillary to this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to
its antagonist’ goals and strategies. France sought total domination of
Europe. This goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain’s
efforts throughout the continent to thwart Napoleon; through treaties.
Britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concept to today’s NATO)
guaranteeing British participation in all major European conflicts. These
two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequalstrengths; France was predominant on land, Britain at sea. The French
knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory
was to close all the ports of Europe to British ships. Accordingly, France
set out to overcome Britain by extending its military domination from
Moscow to Lisbon, from Jutland to Caldaria. All of this entailed
tremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to
control this much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at
home.
French strategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the
force necessary to defeat the British navy. Such a force would give
France a three-to-two advantage over Britain. This advantage was
deemed necessary because of Britain’s superior sea skills, and also
because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to win
with fewer forces. Napoleon never lost substantial impediment to his
control of Europe. As his force neared that goal, Napoleon grew
increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack.
17 Evolution of sleep
Sleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it
with all the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it mayextend back as far as the reptiles.
There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and
dreamless, depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are
statistically much more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much
more likely to experience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is
powerfully immobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external
stimulin. Dreamless sleep is much shallower, and we have all witnessed
cats or dogs cocking their ears to a sound when apparently fast asleep.
The fact that deep dream sleep is rare among pray today seems clearly to
be a product of natural selection, and it makes sense that today, when
sleep is highly evolved, the stupid animals are less frequently
immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones. But why should they
sleep deeply at all? Why should a state of such deep immobilization ever
have evolved?
Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be found
in the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in genera
seem to sleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the
ocean. Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal’s vulnerability,
the University of Florida and Ray Middies of London University have
suggested this to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are toostupid to be quite on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk,
immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems
particularly clear for the young of predatory animals. This is an
interesting notion and probably at least partly true.
18 Modern American Universities
Before the 1850’s, the United States had a number of small colleges, most
of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected
institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of
their students.
Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed,
bearing the ancient name of university. In German university was
concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals.
Between mid-century and the end of the 1800’s, more than nine thousand
young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to
Germany for advanced study. Some of them return to become presidents
of venerable colleges-----Harvard, Yale, Columbia---and transform them
into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the
churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for
their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faithand had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was
that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this
called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning
by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the
professor’s own research was presented in class. Graduate training
leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest
level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the
establishment of the seminar system, graduate student learned to
question, analyze, and conduct their own research.
At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course
offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of
mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard
pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose
their own course of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged.
The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of
the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new
universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering
students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were
also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare
workers, and teachers.19 children’s numerical skills
People appear to born to compute. The numerical skills of children
develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal
clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after
learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impress accuracy---
one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs.
Soon they are capable of nothing that they have placed five knives,
spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen
pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to
subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were
secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or
she could enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious
problems of intellectual adjustment.
Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive
psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which
intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly
grasped-----or, as the case might be, bumped into----- concepts that adults
take for quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short glass into a tall
thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children,
asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue orred pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have
suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and
with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract
numbers------the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies to
any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more
mathematically demanding than setting a table-----is itself far from
innate
20 The Historical Significance of American Revolution
The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human
actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent
events covering a number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant
localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the
historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to
the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of
the birth of a new way of life but of nationalism as a new way of life.
The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth
century, in which modern England became conscious of itself, and the
awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may
seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the
Atlantic Ocean, but only in the North American colonies could a strugglefor civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation. Here, in the
popular rising against a “tyrannical” government, the fruits were more
than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growth of a
nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of
common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or
dynasty. With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born,
not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
21 The Origin of Sports
When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be
made that sport is much older than humankind, for , as we all have
observed, the beasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games.
Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games.
Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers
are demonstrating strong, transgenerational and transspecies bonds
with the universe of animals - past, present, and future. Young animals,
particularly, tumble, chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it
seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion. Their play, and ours, appears
to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and
apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest.Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble
part of our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly
and experimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, and
imagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles against
scarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies of
life. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders of
this view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments ----
liturgy, literature, and law ---- can be traced to a play impulse which,
paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children.
Our sports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are
more splendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.
22. Collectibles
Collectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times.
Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others
have been selected for their aesthetic beauty alone. In the United States,
the kinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects
such as stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest
like dolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.
Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade,in part because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as
investments. Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to
purchase tangibles that will at least retain their current market values. In
general, the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have
preserved their value over the years, there is an organized auction market
for them, and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed.
Some examples of the most stable collectibles are old masters, Chinese
ceramics, stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art
by well-known artists, autographs, and period furniture. Other items of
more recent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post
cards, baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comic
books. These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciate
faster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-
term investments. Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates
at a fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiastic
collectors competing for the limited supply of collectibles that become
increasingly more difficult to locate.
23 Ford
Although Henry Ford’s name is closely associated with the concept of
mass production, he should receive equal credit for introducing laborpractices as early as 1913 that would be considered advanced even by
today’s standards. Safety measures were improved, and the work day was
reduced to eight hours, compared with the ten-or twelve-hour day
common at the time. In order to accommodate the shorter work day, the
entire factory was converted from two to three shifts.
In addition, sick leaves as well as improved medical care for those injured
on the job were instituted. The Ford Motor Company was one of the first
factories to develop a technical school to train specialized skilled laborers
and an English language school for immigrants. Some efforts were even
made to hire the handicapped and provide jobs for former convicts.
The most widely acclaimed innovation was the five-dollar-a-day
minimum wage that was offered in order to recruit and retain the best
mechanics and to discourage the growth of labor unions. Ford explained
the new wage policy in terms of efficiency and profit sharing. He also
mentioned the fact that his employees would be able to purchase the
automobiles that they produced - in effect creating a market for the
product. In order to qualify for the minimum wage, an employee had to
establish a decent home and demonstrate good personal habits, including
sobriety, thriftiness, industriousness, and dependability. Although some
criticism was directed at Ford for involving himself too much in thepersonal lives of his employees, there can be no doubt that, at a time
when immigrants were being taken advantage of in frightful ways, Henry
Ford was helping many people to establish themselves in America.
24 Piano
The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instruments
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries --- the spinet, the dulcimer, and the
virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, and the
harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, a
supremacy they maintained until the piano supplanted them at the end of
the eighteenth century. The clavichord’s tone was metallic and never
powerful; nevertheless, because of the variety of tone possible to it, many
composers found the clavichord a sympathetic instrument for intimate
chamber music. The harpsichord with its bright, vigorous tone was the
favorite instrument for supporting the bass of the small orchestra of the
period and for concert use, but the character of the tone could not be
varied save by mechanical or structural devices.
The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a harpsichord
maker in Italy (though musicologists point out several previous instances
of the instrument). This instrument was called a piano e forte (sort andloud), to indicate its dynamic versatility; its strings were struck by a
recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. The wires were much heavier
in the earlier instruments. A series of mechanical improvements
continuing well into the nineteenth century, including the introduction of
pedals to sustain tone or to soften it, the perfection of a metal frame, and
steel wire of the finest quality, finally produced an instrument capable of
myriad tonal effects from the most delicate harmonies to an almost
orchestral fullness of sound, from a liquid, singing tone to a sharp,
percussive brilliance.
25. Movie Music
Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927
as“silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent.
From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable
accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public
film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were
accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the
music played bore no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment
of any kind was sufficient. Within a very short time, however, the
incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent,
and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to themood of the film.
As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and
perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the
larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of
years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the
hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the
principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so
much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces.
Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were
to be shown (if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them
then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest
hurry.
To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the
practice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments. In 1909,
for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such
indications of mood as “pleasant”, “sad”, “lively”. The suggestions
became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing
indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise
directions to show where one piece led into the next.Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous
of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D.W
Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.
26. International Business and Cross-cultural Communication
The increase in international business and in foreign investment has
created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and
skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not
been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the
same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their
foreign counterparts.
Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the
purpose of reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and
compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must
understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise
is reached within the culture of the negotiation.
In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are
perceived as wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign
negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollarcorporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further.
The American negotiator’s role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor
of information and cash.
In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been
identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while
undermining the negotiator’s position. Two traits in particular that cause
cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part
of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often
insist on realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other
hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may
be willing to invest time in it for long- term benefits. In order to solidify
the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for
the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator.
27. Scientific Theories
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that
are related. A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps
scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced. A good
example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases
are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constantmotion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to
predict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been
publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. If
observations confirm the scientist’s predictions, the theory is supported. If
observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search
further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to
be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting
information and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not
science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said, “Science is built
with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts
cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a
house.”
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists
have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been
gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires
considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem areformulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the
scientist’s thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plans
experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test
hypotheses. Without hypothesis, further investigation lacks purpose and
direction. When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated into
theories.
28 Changing Roles of Public Education
One of the most important social developments that helped to make
possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education was the
effect of the baby boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s on the schools. In the
1920’s, but especially in the Depression conditions of the 1930’s, the
United States experienced a declining birth rate --- every thousand
women aged fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in
1920, 89.2 in 1930, 75.8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940. With the growing
prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic boom
that followed it young people married and established households earlier
and began to raise larger families than had their predecessors during the
Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946,106.2 in 1950,and 118 in 1955. Although economics was probably the most important
determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The
increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps to explain this
rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming into the first grade
by the mid 1940’s and became a flood by 1950. The public school system
suddenly found itself overtaxed. While the number of schoolchildren rose
because of wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made
the schools even less prepared to cope with the
food. The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built
between 1940 and 1945. Moreover, during the war and in the boom times
that followed, large numbers of teachers left their profession for better-
paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Therefore in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the baby boom hit an antiquated and
inadequate school system. Consequently, the “ custodial rhetoric” of the
1930’s and early 1940’s no longer made sense that is, keeping youths
aged sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school
could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space
and staff to teach younger children aged five to sixteen. With the baby
boom, the focus of educators and of laymen interested in education
inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic
skills and discipline. The system no longer had much interest in offeringnontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.
29 Telecommuting
Telecommuting-- substituting the computer for the trip to the job ---- has
been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work.
For workers it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in
traffic, and help with child-care conflicts. For management,
telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness
and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for
high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility. In some
areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local
governments are encouraging companies to start telecommuting programs
in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality.
But these benefits do not come easily. Making a telecommuting program
work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences
between telecommuting realities and popular images.
Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter. A
computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquilAdirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer.
A manager comes in to his office three days a week and works at home
the other two. An accountant stays home to care for her sick child; she
hooks up her telephone modern connections and does office work
between calls to the doctor.
These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality.
Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to
concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a
certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the
necessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support
is necessary if the parent is to get any work done.
Management too must separate the myth from the reality. Although the
media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting in most cases it
is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology that
precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.
That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of
companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains
small.30 The origin of Refrigerators
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “icebox” had entered the
American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of
ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth
of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some
forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the
Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also
came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston
and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become
possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of
the modern refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In
the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which
was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The
commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice
from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that
performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice
included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doingits job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors
achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an
efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore,
had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside
the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the
market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his
butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly
melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his
butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his
icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel
to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
31 British Columbia
British Columbia is the third largest Canadian provinces, both in area and
population. It is nearly 1.5 times as large as Texas, and extends 800 miles
(1,280km) north from the United States border. It includes Canada’s
entire west coast and the islands just off the coast.
Most of British Columbia is mountainous, with long rugged rangesrunning north and south. Even the coastal islands are the remains of a
mountain range that existed thousands of years ago. During the last Ice
Age, this range was scoured by glaciers until most of it was beneath the
sea. Its peaks now show as islands scattered along the coast.
The southwestern coastal region has a humid mild marine climate. Sea
winds that blow inland from the west are warmed by a current of warm
water that flows through the Pacific Ocean. As a result, winter
temperatures average above freezing and summers are mild. These warm
western winds also carry moisture from the ocean.
Inland from the coast, the winds from the Pacific meet the mountain
barriers of the coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains. As they rise to
cross the mountains, the winds are cooled, and their moisture begins to
fall as rain. On some of the western slopes almost 200 inches (500cm) of
rain fall each year.
More than half of British Columbia is heavily forested. On mountain
slopes that receive plentiful rainfall, huge Douglas firs rise in towering
columns. These forest giants often grow to be as much as 300 feet (90m)
tall, with diameters up to 10 feet (3m). More lumber is produced from
these trees than from any other kind of tree in North America. Hemlock,red cedar, and balsam fir are among the other trees found in British
Columbia.
32 Botany
Botany, the study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of
human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of
awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest of
insights. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors
knew about plants, but form what we can observe of pre- industrial
societies that still exist a detailed learning of plants and their properties
must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food
pyramid for all living things even for other plants. They have always been
enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food, but also
for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many
other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon
recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each.
To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even
recognized as a special branch of “knowledge” at all.
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we
move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledgeof botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing
amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a
rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the
Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could
be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season the
first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken.
Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture:
cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their
living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a
little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild- and the
accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and
intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away.
33 Plankton
Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants
and animals called plankton. Most of these plants and animals are too
small for the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the currents,
providing a basic food for many larger animals.
Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow on
the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one. Inpotential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land
grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world
produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the
sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.
Despite its enormous food potential, little effect was made until recently
to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine scientists have
at last begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea’s resources
loom even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world
population.
No one yet has seriously suggested that “plankton-burgers” may soon
become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary
food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among
marine scientists.
One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a
tiny shrimp-like creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches
long, krill provides the major food for the great blue whale, the largest
animal to ever inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow to
100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one34 Raising Oysters
In the oysters were raised in much the same way as dirt farmers raised
tomatoes- by transplanting them. First, farmers selected the oyster bed,
cleared the bottom of old shells and other debris, then scattered clean
shells about. Next, they ”planted” fertilized oyster eggs, which within two
or three weeks hatched into larvae. The larvae drifted until they attached
themselves to the clean shells on the bottom. There they remained and in
time grew into baby oysters called seed or spat. The spat grew larger by
drawing in seawater from which they derived microscopic particles of
food. Before long, farmers gathered the baby oysters, transplanted them
once more into another body of water to fatten them up.
Until recently the supply of wild oysters and those crudely farmed were
more than enough to satisfy people’s needs. But today the delectable
seafood is no longer available in abundance. The problem has become so
serious that some oyster beds have vanished entirely.
Fortunately, as far back as the early 1900’s marine biologists realized that
if new measures were not taken, oysters would become extinct or at best a
luxury food. So they set up well-equipped hatcheries and went to work.
But they did not have the proper equipment or the skill to handle theeggs. They did not know when, what, and how to feed the larvae. And
they knew little about the predators that attack and eat baby oysters by the
millions. They failed, but they doggedly kept at it. Finally, in the 1940’s a
significant breakthrough was made.
The marine biologists discovered that by raising the temperature of the
water, they could induce oysters to spawn not only in the summer but also
in the fall, winter, and spring. Later they developed a technique for
feeding the larvae and rearing them to spat. Going still further, they
succeeded in breeding new strains that were resistant to diseases, grew
faster and larger, and flourished in water of different salinities and
temperatures. In addition, the cultivated oysters tasted better!
35 Oil Refining
An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil war. Crude
oil, or petroleum - a dark, thick ooze from the earth - had been known for
hundreds of years, but little use had ever been made of it. In the 1850’s
Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began
collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene.
Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw
material.Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil,
which was becoming harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for
kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.
The first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a retired railroad conductor.
In 1859 he began drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture
seemed so impractical and foolish that onlookers called it “Drake’s
Folly”. But when he had drilled down about 70 feet (21 meters), Drake
struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.
News of Drake’s success brought oil prospectors to the scene. By the
early 1860’s these wildcatters were drilling for “black gold” all over
western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled the California gold rush of 1848
in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere. And it brought far more
wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.
Crude oil could be refined into many products. For some years kerosene
continued to be the principal one. It was sold in grocery stores and door-
to-door. In the 1880’s refiners learned how to make other petroleum
products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was not then used
to make gasoline or heating oil.36 Plate Tectonics and Sea-floor Spreading
The theory of plate tectonics describes the motions of the lithosphere, the
comparatively rigid outer layer of the Earth that includes all the crust and
part of the underlying mantle. The lithosphere is divided into a few dozen
plates of various sizes and shapes, in general the plates are in motion with
respect to one another. A mid-ocean ridge is a boundary between plates
where new lithospheric material is injected from below. As the plates
diverge from a mid-ocean ridge they slide on a more yielding layer at the
base of the lithosphere.
Since the size of the Earth is essentially constant, new lithosphere can be
created at the mid-ocean ridges only if an equal amount of lithospheric
material is consumed elsewhere. The site of this destruction is another
kind of plate boundary: a seduction zone. There one plate dives under the
edge of another and is reincorporated into the mantle. Both kinds of plate
boundary are associated with fault systems, earthquakes and volcanism,
but the kinds of geologic activity observed at the two boundaries are quite
different.
The idea of sea-floor spreading actually preceded the theory of platetectonics. In its original version, in the early 1960’s, it described the
creation and destruction of the ocean floor, but it did not specify rigid
lithospheric plates. The hypothesis was substantiated soon afterward by
the discovery that periodic reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field are
recorded in the oceanic crust. As magma rises under the mid-ocean ridge,
ferromagnetic minerals in the magma become magnetized in the direction
of the magma become magnetized in the direction of the geomagnetic
field. When the magma cools and solidifies, the direction and the polarity
of the field are preserved in the magnetized volcanic rock. Reversals of
the field give rise to a series of magnetic stripes running parallel to the
axis of the rift. The oceanic crust thus serves as a magnetic tape recording
of the history of the geomagnetic field that can be dated independently;
the width of the stripes indicates the rate of the sea-floor spreading.
37 Icebergs
Icebergs are among nature’s most spectacular creations, and yet most
people have never seen one. A vague air of mystery envelops them. They
come into being ----- somewhere ------in faraway, frigid waters, amid
thunderous noise and splashing turbulence, which in most cases no one
hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly waste away
just as unnoticed.Objects of sheerest beauty they have been called. Appearing in an endless
variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy
blue, green or purple, tinted faintly of in darker hues. They are graceful,
stately, inspiring ----- in calm, sunlight seas.
But they are also called frightening and dangerous, and that they are ----
in the night, in the fog, and in storms. Even in clear weather one is wise
to stay a safe distance away from them. Most of their bulk is hidden
below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the
visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, churning the waters
around them.
Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float
about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs afloat today are made of
snowflakes that have fallen over long ages of time. They embody snows
that drifted down hundreds, or many thousands, or in some cases maybe a
million years ago. The snows fell in polar regions and on cold mountains,
where they melted only a little or not at all, and so collected to great
depths over the years and centuries.
As each year’s snow accumulation lay on the surface, evaporation andmelting caused the snowflakes slowly to lose their feathery points and
become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too
turned to icy grains. So blankets of snow and ice grains mounted layer
upon layer and were of such great thickness that the weight of the upper
layers compressed the lower ones. With time and pressure from above,
the many small ice grains joined and changed to larger crystals, and
eventually the deeper crystals merged into a solid mass of ice.
38 Topaz
Topaz is a hard, transparent mineral. It is a compound of aluminum,
silica, and fluorine. Gem topaz is valuable. Jewelers call this variety of
the stone “precious topaz”. The best-known precious topaz gems range in
color from rich yellow to light brown or pinkish red. Topaz is one of the
hardest gem minerals. In the mineral table of hardness, it has a rating of
8, which means that a knife cannot cut it, and that topaz will scratch
quartz.
The golden variety of precious topaz is quite uncommon. Most of the
world’s topaz is white or blue. The white and blue crystals of topaz are
large, often weighing thousands of carats. For this reason, the value of
topaz does not depend so much on its size as it does with diamonds andmany other precious stones, where the value increases about four times
with each doubling of weight. The value of a topaz is largely determined
by its quality. But color is also important: blue topaz, for instance, is often
irradiated to deepen and improve its color.
Blue topaz is often sold as aquamarine and a variety of brown quartz is
widely sold as topaz. The quartz is much less brilliant and more plentiful
than true topaz. Most of it is variety of amethyst: that heat has turned
brown.
39 The Salinity of Ocean Waters
If the salinity of ocean waters is analyzed, it is found to vary only slightly
from place to place. Nevertheless, some of these small changes are
important. There are three basic processes that cause a change in oceanic
salinity. One of these is the subtraction of water from the ocean by means
of evaporation--- conversion of liquid water to water vapor. In this
manner the salinity is increased, since the salts stay behind. If this is
carried to the extreme, of course, white crystals of salt would be left
behind.
The opposite of evaporation is precipitation, such as rain, by which wateris added to the ocean. Here the ocean is being diluted so that the salinity
is decreased. This may occur in areas of high rainfall or in coastal regions
where rivers flow into the ocean. Thus salinity may be increased by the
subtraction of water by evaporation, or decreased by the addition of fresh
water by precipitation or runoff.
Normally, in tropical regions where the sun is very strong, the ocean
salinity is somewhat higher than it is in other parts of the world where
there is not as much evaporation. Similarly, in coastal regions where
rivers dilute the sea, salinity is somewhat lower than in other oceanic
areas.
A third process by which salinity may be altered is associated with the
formation and melting of sea ice. When sea water is frozen, the dissolved
materials are left behind. In this manner, sea water directly materials are
left behind. In this manner, sea water directly beneath freshly formed sea
ice has a higher salinity than it did before the ice appeared. Of course,
when this ice melts, it will tend to decrease the salinity of the surrounding
water.
In the Weddell Sea Antarctica, the densest water in the oceans is formed
as a result of this freezing process, which increases the salinity of coldwater. This heavy water sinks and is found in the deeper portions of the
oceans of the world.
40 Cohesion-tension Theory
Atmospheric pressure can support a column of water up to 10 meters
high. But plants can move water much higher; the sequoia tree can pump
water to its very top more than 100 meters above the ground. Until the
end of the nineteenth century, the movement of water in trees and other
tall plants was a mystery. Some botanists hypothesized that the living
cells of plants acted as pumps. But many experiments demonstrated that
the stems of plants in which all the cells are killed can still move water to
appreciable heights. Other explanations for the movement of water in
plants have been based on root pressure, a push on the water from the
roots at the bottom of the plant. But root pressure is not nearly great
enough to push water to the tops of tall trees. Furthermore, the conifers,
which are among the tallest trees, have unusually low root pressures.
If water is not pumped to the top of a tall tree, and if it is not pushed to
the top of a tall tree, then we may ask: how does it get there? According
to the currently accepted cohesion-tension theory, water is pulled there.
The pull on a rising column of water in a plant results from theevaporation of water at the top of the plant. As water is lost from the
surface of the leaves, a negative pressure, or tension, is created. The
evaporated water is replaced by water moving from inside the plant in
unbroken columns that extend from the top of a plant to its roots. The
same forces that create surface tension in any sample of water are
responsible for the maintenance of these unbroken columns of water.
When water is confined in tubes of very small bore, the forces of
cohesion (the attraction between water molecules) are so great that the
strength of a column of water compares with the strength of a steel wire
of the same diameter. This cohesive strength permits columns of water to
be pulled to great heights without being broken.
41 American black bears
American black bears appear in a variety of colors despite their name. In
the eastern part of their range, most of these brown, red, or even yellow
coats. To the north, the black bear is actually gray or white in color. Even
in the same litter, both brown and black furred bears may be born.
Black bears are the smallest of all American bears, ranging in length from
five to six feet, weighing from three hundred to five hundred pounds their
eyes and ears are small and their eyesight and hearing are not as good astheir sense of smell.
Like all bears, the black bear is timid, clumsy, and rarely dangerous, but
if attacked, most can climb trees and cover ground at great speeds. When
angry or frightened, it is a formidable enemy.
Black bears feed on leaves, herbs. Fruit, berries, insects, fish, and even
larger animals. One of the most interesting characteristics of bears,
including the black bear, is their winter sleep. Unlike squirrels,
woodchucks, and many other woodland animals, bears do not actually
hibernate. Although the bear does not during the winter moths, sustaining
itself from body fat, its temperature remains almost normal, and it
breathes regularly four or five times per minute.
Most black bears live alone, except during mating season. They prefer to
live in caves, hollow logs, or dense thickets. A little of one to four cubs is
born in January or February after a gestation period of six to nine months,
and they remain with their mother until they are fully grown or about one
and a half years old. Black bears can live as long as thirty years in the
wild, and even longer in game preserves set aside for them.
42 Coal-fired power plantsThe invention of the incandescent light bulb by Thomas A. Edison in
1879 created a demand for a cheap, readily available fuel with which to
generate large amounts of electric power. Coal seemed to fit the bill, and
it fueled the earliest power stations. (which were set up at the end of the
nineteenth century by Edison himself). As more power plants were
constructed throughout the country, the reliance on coal increased
throughout the country, the reliance on coal increased. Since the First
World War, coal-fired power plants had a combined in the United States
each year. In 1986 such plants had a combined generating capacity of
289,000 megawatts and consumed 83 percent of the nearly 900 million
tons of coal mined in the country that year. Given the uncertainty in the
future growth of the nearly 900 million tons of coal mined in the country
that year. Given the uncertainty in the future growth of nuclear
power and in the supply of oil and natural gas, coal-fired power plants
could well provide up to 70 percent of the electric power in the United
States by the end of the century.
Yet, in spite of the fact that coal has long been a source of electricity and
may remain on for many years(coal represents about 80 percent of United
States fossil-fuel reserves), it has actually never been the most desirable
fossil fuel for power plants. Coal contains less energy per unit of weightthan weight than natural gas or oil; it is difficult to transport, and it is
associated with a host of environmental issues, among them acid rain.
Since the late 1960’s problems of emission control and waste disposal
have sharply reduced the appeal of coal-fired power plants. The cost of
ameliorating these environment problems along with the rising cost of
building a facility as large and complex as a coal-fired power plant, have
also made such plants less attractive from a purely economic perspective.
Changes in the technological base of coal-fired power plants could restore
their attractiveness, however. Whereas some of these changes are
intended mainly to increase the productivity of existing plants,
completely new technologies for burning coal cleanly are also being
developed.
43 Statistics
There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of
statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedicated to keeping
orderly records of government units (states and statistics come from the
same Latin root status) and a gentlemanly gambling father who relied on
mathematics to increase his skill at playing the odds in games of chance.
The influence of the mother on the offspring, statistics, is represented bycounting, measuring, describing, tabulating, ordering, and the taking of
censuses-all of which led to modern descriptive statistics. From the
influence of the father came modern inferential statistics, which is based
squarely on theories of probability.
Describing collections involves tabulating, depicting and describing
collections of data. These data may be quantitative such as measures of
height, intelligence or grade level------variables that are characterized by
an underlying continuum---or the data may represent qualitative
variables, such as sex, college major or personality type. Large masses of
data must generally undergo a process of summarization or reduction
before they are comprehensible. Descriptive statistics is a tool for
describing or summarizing or reducing to comprehensible form the
properties of an otherwise unwieldy mass of data.
Inferential statistics is a formalized body of methods for solving another
class of problems that present great of problems characteristically
involves attempts to make predictions using a sample of observations. For
example, a school superintendent wishes to determine the proportion of
children in a large school system who come to school without breakfast,
have been vaccinated for flu, or whatever. Having a little knowledge of
statistics, the superintendent would know that it is unnecessary andinefficient to question each child: the proportion for the sample of as few
as 100 children. Thus, the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or
estimate characteristics of a population from a knowledge of the
characteristics of only a sample of the population.
44 Obtaining Fresh water from icebergs
The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are towed to
populated areas and arid regions of the world was once treated as a joke
more appropriate to cartoons than real life. But now it is being considered
quite seriously by many nations, especially since scientists have warned
that the human race will outgrow its fresh water supply faster than it runs
out of food.
Glaciers are a possible source of fresh water that has been overlooked
until recently. Three-quarters of the Earth’s fresh water supply is still tied
up in glacial ice, a reservoir of untapped fresh water so immense that it
could sustain all the rivers of the world for 1,000 years. Floating on the
oceans every year are 7,659 trillion metric tons of ice encased in 10000
icebergs that break away from the polar ice caps, more than ninety
percent of them from Antarctica.Huge glaciers that stretch over the shallow continental shelf give birth to
icebergs throughout the year. Icebergs are not like sea ice, which is
formed when the sea itself freezes, rather, they are formed entirely on
land, breaking off when glaciers spread over the sea. As they drift away
from the polar region, icebergs sometimes move mysteriously in a
direction opposite to the wind, pulled by subsurface currents. Because
they melt more slowly than smaller pieces of ice, icebergs have been
known to drift as far north as 35 degrees south of the equator in the
Atlantic Ocean. To corral them and steer them to parts of the world where
they are needed would not be too difficult.
The difficulty arises in other technical matters, such as the prevention of
rapid melting in warmer climates and the funneling of fresh water to
shore in great volume. But even if the icebergs lost half of their volume in
towing, the water they could provide would be far cheaper than that
produced by desalinization, or removing salt from water.
45 The source of Energy
A summary of the physical and chemical nature of life must begin, not on
the Earth, but in the Sun; in fact, at the Sun’s very center. It is here that is
to be found the source of the energy that the Sun constantly pours out intospace as light and heat. This energy is librated at the center of the Sun as
billions upon billions of nuclei of hydrogen atoms collide with each other
and fuse together to form nuclei of helium, and in doing so, release some
of the energy that is stored in the nuclei of atoms. The output of light and
heat of the Sun requires that some 600 million tons of hydrogen be
converted into helium in the Sun every second. This the Sun has been
doing for several thousands of millions of year.
The nuclear energy is released at the Sun’s center as high-energy gamma
radiation, a form of electromagnetic radiation like light and radio waves,
only of very much shorter wavelength. This gamma radiation is absorbed
by atoms inside the Sun to be reemitted at slightly longer wavelengths.
This radiation, in its turn is absorbed and reemitted. As the energy filters
through the layers of the solar interior, it passes through the X-ray part of
the spectrum eventually becoming light. At this stage, it has reached what
we call the solar surface, and can escape into space without being
absorbed further by solar atoms. A very small fraction of the Sun’s light
and heat is emitted in such directions that after passing unhindered
through interplanetary space, it hits the Earth.
46 VisionHuman vision like that of other primates has evolved in an arboreal
environment. In the dense complex world of a tropical forest, it is more
important to see well that to develop an acute sense of smell. In the
course of evolution members of the primate line have acquired large eyes
while the snout has shrunk to give the eye an unimpeded view. Of
mammals only humans and some primates enjoy color vision. The red
flag is black to the bull. Horses live in a monochrome world .light visible
to human eyes however occupies only a very narrow band in the whole
electromagnetic spectrum. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to humans though
ants and honeybees are sensitive to them. Humans though ants and
honeybees are sensitive to them. Humans have no direct perception of
infrared rays unlike the rattlesnake which has receptors tuned into
wavelengths longer than 0.7 micron. The world would look eerily
different if human eyes were sensitive to infrared radiation. Then instead
of the darkness of night, we would be able to move easily in a strange
shadowless world where objects glowed with varying degrees of
intensity. But human eyes excel in other ways. They are in fact
remarkably discerning in color gradation. The color sensitivity of normal
human vision is rarely surpassed even by sophisticated technical devices.
47 Folk CulturesA folk culture is a small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-
sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong
family or clan structure and highly developed rituals. Order is maintained
through sanctions based in the religion or family and interpersonal.
Relationships are strong. Tradition is paramount, and change comes
infrequently and slowly. There is relatively little division of labor into
specialized duties. Rather, each person is expected to perform a great
variety of tasks, though duties may differ between the sexes. Most goods
are handmade and subsistence economy prevails. Individualism is weakly
developed in folk cultures as are social classes. Unaltered folk cultures no
longer exist in industrialized countries such as the United States and
Canada. Perhaps the nearest modern equivalent in Anglo America is the
Amish, a German American farming sect that largely renounces the
products and labor saving devices of the industrial age. In Amish areas,
horse drawn buggies still serve as a local transportation device and the
faithful are not permitted to own automobiles. The Amish’s central
religious concept of Demut “humility”, clearly reflects the weakness of
individualism and social class so typical of folk cultures and there is a
corresponding strength of Amish group identity. Rarely do the Amish
marry outside their sect. The religion, a variety of the Mennonite faith,
provides the principal mechanism for maintaining order.By contrast a popular culture is a large heterogeneous group often highly
individualistic and a pronounced many specialized professions. Secular
institutions of control such as the police and army take the place of
religion and family in maintaining order, and a money-based economy
prevails. Because of these contrasts, “popular” may be viewed as clearly
different from “folk”. The popular is replacing the folk in industrialized
countries and in many developing nations. Folk-made objects give way to
their popular equivalent, usually because the popular item is more quickly
or cheaply produced, is easier or time saving to use or leads more prestige
to the owner.
48 Bacteria b
Bacteria are extremely small living things. While we measure our own
sizes in inches or centimeters, bacterial size is measured in microns. One
micron is a thousandth of a millimeter: a pinhead is about a millimeter
across. Rod-shaped bacteria are usually from two to four microns long,
while rounded ones are generally one micron in diameter. Thus if you
enlarged a rounded bacterium a thousand times, it would be just about the
size of a pinhead. An adult human magnified by the same amount would
be over a mile (1.6 kilometer) tall.Even with an ordinary microscope, you must look closely to see bacteria.
Using a magnification of 100 times, one finds that bacteria are barely
visible as tiny rods or dots. One cannot make out anything of their
structure. Using special stains, one can see that some bacteria have
attached to them wavy-looking “hairs” called flagella. Others have only
one flagellum. The flagella rotate, pushing the bacteria through the water.
Many bacteria lack flagella and cannot move about by their own power,
while others can glide along over surfaces by some little- understood
mechanism.
From the bacteria point of view, the world is a very different place from
what it is to humans. To a bacterium water is as thick as molasses is to us.
Bacteria are so small that they are influenced by the movements of the
chemical molecules around them. Bacteria under the microscope, even
those with no flagella, often bounce about in the water. This is because
they collide with the watery molecules and are pushed this way and that.
Molecules move so rapidly that within a tenth of a second the molecules
round a bacteria have all been replaced by new ones; even bacteria
without flagella are thus constantly exposed to a changing environment.
49 SleepSleep is part of a person’s daily activity cycle. There are several different
stages of sleep, and they too occur in cycles. If you are an average
sleeper, your sleep cycle is as follows. When you fist drift off into
slumber, your eyes will roll about a bit, you temperature will drop
slightly, your muscles will relax, and your breathing well slow and
become quite regular. Your brain waves slow and become quite regular.
Your brain waves slow down a bit too, with the alpha rhythm of rather
fast waves 1 sleep. For the next half hour or so, as you relax more and
more, you will drift down through stage 2 and stage 3 sleep. The lower
your stage of sleep. Slower your brain waves will be. Then about 40to 69
minutes after you lose consciousness you will have reached the deepest
sleep of all. Your brain will show the large slow waves that are known as
the delta rhythm. This is stage 4 sleep.
You do not remain at this deep fourth stage all night long, but instead
about 80 minutes after you fall into slumber, your brain activity level will
increase again slightly. The delta rhythm will disappear, to be replaced by
the activity pattern of brain waves. Your eyes will begin to dart around
under your closed eyelids as if you were looking at something occurring
in front of you. This period of rapid eye movement lasts for some 8 to 15
minutes and is called REM sleep. It is during REM sleep period, your
body will soon relax again, your breathing will slip gently back fromstage 1 to stage 4 sleep----only to rise once again to the surface of near
consciousness some 80 minutes later.
50. Cells and Temperature
Cells cannot remain alive outside certain limits of temperature and much
narrower limits mark the boundaries of effective functioning. Enzyme
systems of mammals and birds are most efficient only within a narrow
range around 37C;a departure of a few degrees from this value seriously
impairs their functioning. Even though cells can survive wider
fluctuations the integrated actions of bodily systems are impaired. Other
animals have a wider tolerance for changes of bodily temperature.
For centuries it has been recognized that mammals and birds differ from
other animals in the way they regulate body temperature. Ways of
characterizing the difference have become more accurate and meaningful
over time, but popular terminology still reflects the old division into
“warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded” species; warm-blooded included
mammals and birds whereas all other creatures were considered cold-
blooded. As more species were studied, it became evident that this
classification was inadequate. A fence lizard or a desert iguana-each cold-
blooded----usually has a body temperature only a degree or two belowthat of humans and so is not cold. Therefore the next distinction was
made between animals that maintain a constant body temperature, called
home0therms, and those whose body temperature varies with their
environments, called poikilotherms. But this classification also proved
inadequate, because among mammals there are many that vary their body
temperatures during hibernation. Furthermore, many invertebrates that
live in the depths of the ocean never experience change in the depths of
the ocean never experience change in the chill of the deep water, and their
body temperatures remain constant.
15 A Rare Fossil Record
The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the
fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by
scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized.
Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial
creatures because, as marine animals, they tended to live in environments
less subject to erosion. Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors:
a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a
lack of swift currents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones,
and fairly rapid burial. Given these factors, some areas have become a
treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for
analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine
shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands
of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been
recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding,
but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils
containing preserved embryos. Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been
reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around
Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of
ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in
their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well
formed. One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition,
the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20
and 30 inches long.
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when
they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost
unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with
an awareness of the value of the fossils. But these factors do not account
for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration
of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of
giving birth.
