《中学生百科英语.pdf》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《中学生百科英语.pdf（30页珍藏版）》请在taowenge.com淘文阁网|工程机械CAD图纸|机械工程制图|CAD装配图下载|SolidWorks_CaTia_CAD_UG_PROE_设计图分享下载上搜索。
1、-中学生百科英语 2:Thoughts&Notions01 The Zipper02 The Postage Stamp03 Pencils and Pens04 The Umbrella05 The Metric System06 Thai Bo*ing07 Sumo Wrestling08Tarahumara Foot Races09 Olympic Sports10 Greatathletes11 The Puffer Fish12 Foods from Around the World13 Chocolate14 The Blue Revolution15 Twenty-One Day
2、s Without Food16 The Marie Celeste17 The Roanoke Settlement18 The Easter Island Statues19 The Tunguska Fireball20Mystery of the Monarchs21 The History of Money22 Mass Marketing23 Inflation.z.-24 Doing Business Around the World25 Credit Cards.z.-1 The ZipperThe zipper is a wonderful invention.How did
3、 people ever live withoutzippersThey are very mon,so we forget that they are wonderful.They are verystrong,but they open and close very easily.They e in many colors and sizes.In the 1890s,people in the United States wore high shoes with a long row ofbuttons.Clothes often had rows of buttons,too.Peop
4、le wished that clothes wereeasier to put on and take off.Whitb L.Judson,an engineer from the United States,invented the zipper in1893.However,his zippers didnt stay closed very well.This was embarrassing,andpeople didnt buy many of them.Then Dr.Gideon Sundback from Sweden solvedthis problem.His zipp
5、er stayed closed.A zipper has three parts:1.Thereare dozens of metal or plastic hooks(calledteeth)in two rows.2.These hooks are fastened to two strips of cloth.The clothstrips are fle*ible.They bend easily.3.A fastener slides along and joins the hookstogether.When it slides the other way,it takes th
6、e hooks apart.Dr.Sundback put the hooks on strips of cloth.The cloth holds all the hooksin place.They dont e apart very easily.This solved the problem of the first zippers.(212 words).z.-2 The Postage StampBefore the invention of the postage stamp,it was difficult to send a letter toanother country.
7、The sender paid for the letter to travel in his or her own country.Then the person in the other country paid for the rest of the trip.If a lettercrossed several countries,the problem was worse.Rowland Hill,a British teacher,had the idea of a postage stamp with glue onthe back.The British post office
8、 made the first stamps in 1840.They were thePenny Black and the Twopence Blue.A person bought a stamp and put it on aletter.The post office delivered the letter.When people received letters,they didnthave to pay anything.The postage was prepaid.Postage stamps became popular in Great Britain immediat
9、ely.Othercountries started making their own postage stamps very quickly.There were still problems with international mail.Some countries did notwant to accept letters with stamps from other countries.Finally,in 1874,a Germanorganized the Universal Postal Union(UPU).Each country in the UPU agreed toa
10、ccept letters with prepaid postage from the other members.Today,the offices ofthe UPU are in Switzerland.Almost every country in the world is a member of thisorganization.It takes care of any international mail problems.Today,post offices in every country sell beautiful stamps.Collecting stamps ison
11、e of the most popular hobbies in the world,and every stamp collector knowsabout the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue.(250 words).z.-3 Pencils and PensNo one knows who invented pencils or when it happened.A Swiss describeda pencil in a book in 1565.He said it was a piece of wood with lead inside it.
12、(Leadis a very heavy,soft,dark gray metal.)Pencils werent popular,and peoplecontinued to write with pens.They used bird feathers as pens.Then,in 1795,someone started making pencils from graphite,and theybecame very popular.Graphite is like coal.(Coal is black,and we burn it for heatand energy.)Today
13、,people make pencils in the same way.They grind the graphite,make it into the shape of a stick,and bake it.Then they put it inside a piece ofwood.One pencil can write 50,000 English words or make a line 55 kilometerslong.People wrote with feather pens and then used pens with metal points.Theyhad to
14、dip the point into ink after every few letters.Ne*t,someone invented afountain pen that could hold ink inside it.A fountain pen can write several pagesbefore you have to fill it again.Two Hungarian brothers,Ladislao and Georg Biro,invented the ballpointpen.They left Hungary and started making ballpo
15、int pens in England in 1943,during World War II.English pilots liked the pens.They couldnt write withfountain pens in airplanes because the ink leaked out.Later,a French pany calledBic bought the Biros pany.Some people call ballpoint pens Bics.Australians call them biros.Whatever we call them,we use
16、 them every day.(256 words).z.-4 The UmbrellaThe umbrella is a very ordinary object.It keeps the rain and the sun offpeople.Most umbrellas fold up,so it is easy to carry them.However,the umbrella has not always been an ordinary object.In the past,itwas a sign of royalty or importance.Some African tr
17、ibes still use umbrellas in thisway.Someone carries an umbrella and walks behind the king or important person.Umbrellas are very old.The Chinese had them more than 3,000 years ago.From there,umbrellas traveled to India,Persia,and Egypt.In Greece and Rome,men wouldnt use them.They believed umbrellas
18、were only for women.When the Spanish e*plorers went to Me*ico,they saw the Aztec kings usingumbrellas.English e*plorers saw Native American princes carrying umbrellas onthe east coast of North America.It seems that people in different parts of theworld invented umbrellas at different times.England w
19、as probably the first country in Europe where ordinary people usedumbrellas against the rain.England has a rainy climate,and umbrellas are veryuseful there.Everybody uses umbrellas today.The ne*t time you carry one,remember thatfor centuries only great men and women used them.Perhaps you are really
20、a kingor queen,a princess or prince.(210 words).z.-5 The Metric SystemPeople all over the world use grams,kilograms(kilos),meters,and liters.These are all ways to measure things.They are all part of the metric system.During the French Revolution(1789-1799)against the king,the revolutionarygovernment
21、 started the metric system.Before that,every part of France had adifferent system for measuring things.Also,cloth makers measured cloth with onesystem.Jewelers used another system.Carpenters used another.Other countriesused different systems.The revolutionary government wanted one scientific systemo
22、f measurement.They asked a group of scientists and mathematicians to invent asystem.The mathematicians and scientists decided to use the numbers ten,hundred,and thousand for their system.Ne*t,they had to decide on a natural length.They chose one ten-millionth(1/10,000,000)of the distance from the eq
23、uator to the North Pole.They calledthis distance the meter.Then they chose the gram for weighing things.A cubiccentimeter of water weighs 1 gram.Mathematicians and scientists worked for 20 years until they finally had aplete measuring system.The biggest problem was measuring the meter.The metric sys
24、tem was a wonderful gift to the world.There are only a fewcountries that dont use it.The United States is one.The metric system is truly aninternational system.(214 words).z.-6 Thai Bo*ingBo*ing is popular in many countries.Two fighters wear bo*ing gloves ontheir hands.The bo*ers hit each other unti
25、l one is knocked out or until the finalbell rings.Each part of the fight is three minutes long.It is called a round.Thai bo*ing is different.The bo*ing match begins with music.Then the two fighters kneel and pray toGod.Ne*t,they do a slow dance that copies the movements of Thai bo*ing.During this da
26、nce,each fighter tries to show the other that he is best.Then the fight begins.In Thai bo*ing,the fighters can kick with their feet andhit each other with their elbows and knees.Of course,they hit with their hands,too.Each round is three minutes long.Then the bo*ers have a two-minute rest.Most bo*er
27、s can fight only five rounds because this kind of fighting is very difficult.Thai bo*ing began over 500 years ago.If a soldier lost his weapons in a battle,he needed to fight with just his body.The soldiers learned how to use all the partsof their bodies.In 1560,the Burmese army captured Naresuen,th
28、e King ofThailand,in a war.King Naresuen was a very good bo*er.He won his freedomfrom Burma by defeating all the best Burmese fighters.When he returned toThailand,his people were very proud of him.Thai bo*ing became a popular sport.(237 words).z.-7 Sumo WrestlingSumo wrestling is a national sport in
29、 Japan.Every year there are si*tournaments,and millions of Japanese watch them on television.A tournament is aseries of matches.Sumo is almost as old as the nation of Japan itself.Stories say that there wassumo wrestling over 2,000 years ago.There are written records of national sumotournaments in t
30、he 8th century.In many sports,athletes are thin and can move very quickly.However,sumowrestlers weigh from 100 to 160 kilos(kilograms).One famous wrestler weighed195kilos.Sumo wrestlers do not move quickly,and sumo wrestling is a very slowsport.Sumo wrestlers start training when they are boys.They e
31、*ercise to make theirbodies strong.They also eat a lot.They wrestle in a round ring with a sand floor.A wrestler loses the match ifhe leaves the ring.He is also the loser if any part of his body e*cept his feettouches the floor.Each wrestler tries to push the other down on the floor or outof the rin
32、g.Sometimes one wrestler just steps aside when the other wrestler rushestoward him.Then,the wrestler who is rushing falls down or moves out of the ring.Sumo is not very popular in other countries,but the Japanese think that it is avery e*citing sport.(223 words).z.-8Tarahumara Foot RacesThe Tarahuma
33、ra live in the mountains in the state of Chihuahua in northernMe*ico.This is an area of high mountains and deep tropical valleys.It sometimessnows in the mountains in winter.There are not many roads.The Tarahumara walk wherever they need to go.They carry heavy baskets ontheir backs.Perhaps this is w
34、hy the Tarahumara can run many kilometers withoutgetting tired.They are e*cellent runners,and they like to organize races.When the men race,they kick a wooden ball ahead of them while they run.Before they start racing,they plan where and how long they will run.They mightrun just a few minutes,or the
35、y might run for several hours.Sometimes they run inteams,and sometimes each person runs as an individual.The womens races are similar e*cept that the women do not kick a ball.Theythrow a wooden hoop in front of them with a stick.A hoop is a ring,or a circle.The Tarahumara play other games and sports
36、.However,they are famousbecause they can run so fast and so far.(185 words).z.-9 Olympic SportsThe first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens,Greece,in the year1896.Athletes from only 13 countries participated in the Games that year.Theypeted in 43 different events in just 9 sports(track and fi
37、eld,swimming,cycling,fencing,gymnastics,shooting,tennis,weight lifting,and wrestling).In 2004,thesummer Olympic Games took place once again in Athens,Greece.This timeathletes from 202 countries peted in 300 events in 28 sports.Only five sports have been in every Olympic Games.They are track andfield
38、,swimming,fencing,cycling,and gymnastics.Other sports e and go in theOlympic Games.For e*ample,tennis was an Olympic sport from 1896 until 1924.Then it disappeared from the Olympics until 1988.Baseball,badminton,andtaekwondo are more recent additions to the Olympic Games.It is the job of the Interna
39、tional Olympic mittee(IOC)to add and removesports from the Olympic Games.A sport has to be popular in at least 50 countrieson three continents before it can be added.However,the IOC doesnt want to addmore sports to the Olympic Games without eliminating others.The IOC is afraidthat there will be too
40、many sports in the Olympics.Artistic events were also a part of the Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948.There were contests in architecture,music,literature,and painting.Today somepeople think that artistic events and games such as chess should be part of theOlympics.However,many people oppose this idea
41、.The Olympic Games today are very different from the first modern OlympicGames in 1896.These differences reflect the changing definition and popularity ofsports.(273 words).z.-10 Great AthletesYou might think that Olympic athletes are the healthiest people in the world.Its true that many are.However
42、,its also true that quite a few Olympic athleteshad to overe illnesses early in their lives.One e*cellent e*ample is Wilma Rudolph.She peted in track-and-field eventsin the 1960 Olympics.She didnt win just one gold medal.She won three.At thetime,people called her the fastest woman in the world.As a
43、young child,WilmaRudolph could not participate in sports.She had a series of serious illnesses,andthen,at the age of 4,she got polio.She lost the use of her left leg,and the doctorssaid she would never walk again.The people in Rudolphs family did everything they could to help her walkagain.Wilma and
44、 her mother frequently traveled 100 miles to get treatments for herleg.Her brothers and sisters took turns giving her leg a daily massage.Four times aday,they helped her do special e*ercises for her leg.Amazingly,by the timeRudolph was 9years old,she was able to walk again.Before long,she startedpla
45、ying basketball and running.In high school,she was a track star,and then shewent to the Olympics.Wilma Rudolph retired from her career as a runner when she was 22 years old.She then became a teacher and track coach.Her story encouraged manypeople to work hard and to overe difficulties.(244 words).z.
46、-11The Puffer FishMost people avoid eating dangerous foods.They dont want to get sick.However,there is one food that can be deadly,yet some people eat it on purpose.Its called the puffer fish.This kind of fish,called fugu in Japanese,lives in the Pacific Ocean.Somepeople die every year from eating f
47、ugu.In fact,the Emperor of Japan is notallowed to touch it.Why Well,the insides of the puffer fish are very poisonous.They contain a poison 275 times more powerful than the deadly poison cyanide.Usually nothing bad happens when fugu is on a restaurants menu.Customersfeel great after the meal.Thats b
48、ecause chefs are trained to remove the insides ofthe puffer fish before they give it to customers.If they miss even a small amount,the fish is not safe to eat.Puffer fish is very e*pensive.A plate of fugu costs more than$200 in somerestaurants in Tokyo.Besides being dangerous to eat,the fish is very
49、 ugly,withspines all over its body.Also,it can puff,or blow,itself up to double its normalsize.Why do the Japanese risk so much for such an ugly and dangerous fish Well,some people like taking risks.And fugu tastes wonderful.(211 words).z.-12 Foods from Around the WorldFoods that are well known to y
50、ou may not be familiar to people from othercountries.Tourists and other travelers almost always get to try some unfamiliarfood.That is part of the fun of traveling.Here are four peoples e*periences withforeign food.Shao Wong is a student in France.He es from China.I never had cheese oreven milk befo