Apr.文本

45. Energy from the Sun

The energy from the sun goes in every direction. However, only a minute part of it falls on the earth. Even so, it represents the power of about five million horsepower per square mile per day. The sun gives us as much energy every minute as mankind uses in a year.

At present, we use this energy indirectly, and it is our only final source of power. Coal represents the chemical action of the sun on green plants thousands of years ago. Water power results from the sun’s creating vapor and the resulting rain. Even windmills operate because of air currents set in motion by the sun. Some day, through some type of solar motor, we shall use this source of energy more directly. Already, a scientist has worked out a surprisingly efficient engine, which uses a series of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy to create steam. (152 words)

46. Women’s Colleges in the United States

In the United States 84 colleges now accept just women. Most of them were established in the 19th century. They were designed to offer women the education they could not receive anywhere else. At that time major universities and colleges accepted only men. In the past 20 years many young women have chosen to study at colleges that accept both men and women. As a result some women’s colleges decided to accept men students too. Others, however, refused to change.

Educational experts say that men students usually speak more in class than women students do. In a women’s college, women feel free to say what they think. Women’s colleges also bring out leadership capability in many women. Recent studies show that this leadership continues after college. The studies also show that American women who went to women’s colleges are more likely to hold (153 words)

successful

jobs

later

in

life.

47. The Value of a Name

Names can affect the way people see themselves. If a person likes his name, he is likely to have high self-esteem. However, the value of a person’s name to his or her self-esteem is mostly influenced by other people’s opinion of that name. For example, some teachers like students because of their names. A teacher’s tone of voice, smile, and warm treatment of certain students show his or her preference.

This does not happen only in the classroom. Studies show that youngsters with aggressive names actually commit more crimes than teenagers who have quiet, peaceful-sounding names.

The studies described above emphasize the disadvantages of uncommon names. However, uncommon names may also have advantages in certain occupations. So if your name is unusual, you may one day become a well-known scientist (147 words)

or

the

president

of

your

own

business!

48. The Horse

The horse preceded man on earth. The earliest remains of primitive horses have been found on the North American continent. Many scientists believe this small species traveled over a land mass to Asia to found the beginning of the modern Asian horse. Yet it became extinct in America. Other scientists believe that the horse may have originated in Asia. In any event the animal soon spread to China, Europe, and the Middle East. The first modern horses to be introduced into the American continent came with the early Spanish explorers.

Horses are said to rate in intelligence after the ape, the elephant and the dog. They have excellent memories and can sometimes find their way home when lost, and sense danger better than their masters. The early civilizations of man that

made use of the horse developed more rapidly than those which did not. (147 words)

49. Space and Distance

The study of space and distance concerns the way we use the space around us. The minute you enter a classroom, for example, you will have to decide where to sit. You may choose to sit in the back because you do not want to be noticed, or because you do not want people behind you to look at you. On the other hand, you might select a front-row seat because you have a lot of confidence or because you want to be noticed.

What is interesting about your choice of seating is that you might be sending your instructor a message. When he sees you sitting in the back or in the far corner, he might decide that you are not very interested in the subject. If you are in the front row, he might conclude that you are an unusually attentive student and he should give you special attention.

(155 words)

50. Travel and the Hotel Business

A hotel is a temporary home for travelers. In a hotel the traveler can rest and have food and drink. The hotel may also offer facilities for recreation, such as a swimming pool, or a golf course. In many cases, the hotel also provides free parking space for the traveler’s means of transportation.

Travel and hotels have always been closely related. In Europe and America, for example, inns were built along the roads. The inns were primitive by modern standards. The traveler usually had to share his bed with other people. The old-fashioned inns, however, did provide food and shelter for both men and horses and therefore became a symbol of hospitality. Indeed, the word “inn” has been used by many modern hotels to suggest the image of people warming

themselves in front of a cheerful fire while waiting to be called to a rich dinner. (153 words)

51. A New Era

A new era is upon us. We can call it the service economy, the information age, or the knowledge society. It all translates to a fundamental change in the way we work. Already we are partly there. The percentages of people who earn their living by making things has fallen dramatically in the Western World. Today the majority of jobs in America, Europe, Japan, and many other countries are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise. More women are in the work force than ever before. There are more part-time jobs. More people are self-employed. But the breadth of the economic transformation can’t be measured by numbers alone, because it is also giving rise to a radical new way of thinking about the nature of work itself. Long-held notions about jobs and careers, the skills needed to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers—all these are being challenged. (160 words)

52. Nuclear Power

The big advantage of nuclear power is the large amount of energy released from a relatively small amount of material. Nuclear power has become an important source of energy in some countries, especially in Germany and Japan. The United States and Canada are less dependent than Europeans on nuclear energy, in part because of their more abundant coal reserves.

Five problems severely restrict the use of nuclear power instead of coal to generate electricity. The first problem is the danger of an accident. The second is the need to store waste products following the reaction. No country has devised an effective storage system for waste products. The third problem is that a bomb

can be made from the material. Nuclear power has been used in warfare twice. The final problem is its high cost. The future of nuclear power has been seriously affected by its high risks and costs. (151 words)

53. Diet and Health

Even though we have more choice of what to eat than forty years ago, the diet of the average American is less healthy. In fact, according to a recent study, American pets, eating specially prepared tinned food, have a healthier diet than most of their owners.

The Health Department was alarmed at recent figures which show that America has the third highest record in the world for heart disease. Cancer is also a growing cause of death. This has led to governments to try to launch a campaign to encourage healthier eating habits. The campaign will urge people to eat less salt, sugar, animal fat than they do today. It will show the advantages of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Health Department is going to issue a booklet that will give guidance on which foods to eat and which to avoid. (148 words)

54. New Year’s Celebration

New Year’s Day is the world’s oldest celebration. In fact, ancient people

celebrated the new year even before they had exact ways of measuring time. New Year’s Day is also the one holiday that is observed by people of all national and religious groups.

Not everyone celebrates the new year at the same time. The Chinese celebrate at different times each year, sometime between January twenty-first and February nineteenth. But the majority of people today celebrate it on January first.

In some countries, the New Year’s holiday is the most important celebration of the year. But this is not true in the United States, even though it is a celebration that many people enjoy. One reason may be that Christmas comes just one week before the new year. Christmas is America’s biggest holiday. And the American people give it the importance that people in other countries give the start of a new year. (158 words)

55. Seasons and Human Intelligence

If you are like most people, your intelligence varies from season to season. You are probably a lot sharper in the spring than you are at any other time of the year. A noted scientist concluded from other men’s work and his own that climate and temperature have a definite effect on our mental abilities.

He found that cool weather is much more favorable for creative thinking than is summer heat. This does not mean that all people are less intelligent in the summer than they are during the rest of the year. It does mean, however, that the

mental abilities of large numbers of people tend to be lowest in the summer.

Spring appears to be the best period of the year for thinking. One reason may be that in the spring man’s mental abilities are affected by the same factors that bring about great changes in all nature. (150 words)

56. A False Alarm

Last night I had a frightening experience. While I was eating at a fast-food restaurant, the manager came to announce that everybody would have to leave the building because a bomb was reported to be hidden somewhere in the restaurant. When the announcement was made, the place was immediately thrown into confusion as everyone was determined to get out first. To make matters worse, an elderly woman, who must have weighed 300 pounds, had just come up to the entrance, which was also the only exit. In the meantime, I suddenly remembered that I had left my purse in the chair in which I had been sitting. It was certainly not convenient now to return to get it. When I finally managed to get my purse and go outside, I saw the police had arrived and were searching the area. Eventually they determined (154 words)

that

it

had

been

all

a

false

alarm.

57. Air-conditioning

With air-conditioning, you can be comfortable anywhere indoors even on the hottest summer day. Inventors had been trying to come up with methods of

keeping the air cool. There were hundreds of ideas, but none of them really worked.

The first machine was developed by Willis H. Carrier, who is often called “the father of air-conditioning”. He built the machine for a printing plant in New York. Soon air-conditioning was being used in many factories. But the public did not really know about this invention until the 1920s when movie theaters, department stores and restaurants had air conditioners installed. As air conditioners became popular during the 1930s, central air-conditioning systems were developed. A whole office or apartment building could be cooled from one unit. After World War II, large numbers of air conditioners began to be used in both public buildings and private homes. (150 words)

58. Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born in 1880 into a middle-class family. Her father was a newspaper editor. They lived in a comfortable house on a farm. From the time she lost her eyesight and hearing until she was nearly seven, she was cared for by her loving family, who allowed her uncontrolled freedom around the home. She had the servants’ children as playmates, and she ruled them like a little queen. She did not sit at the table at dinner, but wandered around helping herself to food from other people’s plates. Without any discipline, she grew up to be a little wild animal. She behaved very badly if anyone prevented her from doing or having what she wanted.

But later, with the help of her teacher, Helen Keller managed to overcome the double disabilities of blindness and deafness and became one of the most remarkable persons in the nineteenth century. (151 words)

59. The Submarine

Trying to describe a submarine is like trying to describe an automobile. There are dozens of different kinds of automobiles and each is different from any other. So a description of any one automobile would fail to describe the rest. And yet all automobiles are alike in the most important things: all have engines, wheels, steering devices, and certain other vital parts. And a description of a sort of “average” automobile would in some way describe all others.

The same is true of submarines. There are many kinds and sizes, but all work basically the same way and all must have the equipment necessary for sailing, for diving beneath the sea, for communicating with their home bases, for housing and feeding a crew and so on. So it is possible to describe a sort of “average” submarine in a way that will tell something about all submarines and how they all operate. (154 words)

60. Motel

The word “motel” means motorist hotel and it is used chiefly by people traveling by car. Parking space is always available. Motels are usually outside the center of town near major roads and are less expensive than hotels. Rates in

motels are about $10 to $15 per person a day for a room and bath. Motels in and near large cities tend to be more expensive. In smaller towns the prices may be lower. Because motels are often located outside the center of town, it will probably be convenient to stay in a motel unless you have a car or unless the motel is located near public bus or train lines. Although reservations in advance are usually required in motels in busy areas, this is not always the case in less crowded parts of the country. Because of their convenience and economical prices, it is easy to understand why they are so popular with Americans. (155 words)