Unit 1 Great scientists
“KING CHOLERA”
JOHH SHOW DEFEATS
John Snow was a famous doctor in London -so expert, indeed, that he attended Queen Victoria as her personal physician. But he became inspired when he thought about helping ordinary people exposed to cholera. This was the deadly disease of its day. Neither its cause nor its cure was understood. So many thousands of terrified people died every time there was an outbreak. John Snow wanted to face the challenge and solve this problem. He knew that cholera would never be controlled until its cause was found.
He became interested in two theories that possibly explained how cholera killed people. The first suggested that cholera multiplied in the air. A cloud of dangerous gas floated around until it found its victims. The second suggested that people absorbed this disease into their bodies with their meals. From the stomach
the disease quickly attacked the body and soon the affected person died.
John Snow suspected that the second theory was correct but he needed evidence. So when another outbreak hit London in 1854, he was ready to begin his enquiry. As the disease spread quickly through poor neighbourhoods, he began to gather information. In two particular streets, the cholera outbreak was so severe that more than 500 people died in ten days. He was determined to find out why.
First he marked on a map the exact places where all the dead people had lived. This gave him a valuable clue about the cause of the disease. Many of the deaths were near the water pump in Broad Street (especially numbers 16, 37, 38 and 40). He also noticed that some houses (such as 20 and 21 Broad Street and 8 and 9 Cambridge Street) had had no deaths. He had not foreseen this, so he made further investigations. He discovered that these people worked in the pub at 7 Cambridge Street. They had been given free beer and so had not drunk the water from the pump. It seemed that the water was to blame.
Next, John Snow looked into the source of the water for these two streets.
He found that it came from the river polluted by the dirty water from London. He immediately told the astonished people in Broad Street to remove the handle from the pump so that it could not be used.
Soon afterwards the disease slowed down. He had shown that cholera was spread by germs and not in a cloud of gas.
In another part of London, he found supporting evidence from two other deaths that were linked to the Broad Street outbreak. A woman, who had moved away from Broad Street, liked the water from the pump so much that she had it delivered to her house every day. Both she and her daughter died of cholera after drinking the water. With this extra evidence John Snow was able to announce with certainty that polluted water carried the virus.
To prevent this from happening again, John Snow suggested that the source of all the water supplies be examined. The water companies were instructed not to expose people to polluted water any more. Finally "King Cholera" was defeated.
COPERNICUS’ REVOLUTIONRRY THEORY
Nicolaus Copernicus was frightened and his mind was confused. Although he had tried to ignore them, all his mathematical calculations led to the same conclusion: that the earth was not the centre of the solar system. Only if you put the sun there
did the movements of the other planets in the sky make sense. Yet he could not tell anyone about his theory as the powerful Christian Church would have punished him for even suggesting such an idea. They believed God had made the world and for that reason the earth was special and must be the centre of the solar system.
The problem arose because astronomers had noticed that some planets in the sky seemed to stop, move backward and then go forward in a loop. Others appeared brighter at times and less bright at others. This was very strange if the earth was
the centre of the solar system and all planets went round it.
Copernicus had thought long and hard about these problems and tried to find an answer. He had collected observations of the stars and used all his mathematical knowledge to explain them. But only his new theory could do that. So between 1510
and 1514 he worked on it, gradually improving his theory until he felt it was complete.
In 1514 he showed it privately to his friends. The changes he made to the
old theory were revolutionary. He placed a fixed sun at the centre of the solar system with the planets
going round it and only the moon still going round the earth. He
also suggested that the earth was spinning as it went round the sun and this explained changes in the movement of the planets and in the brightness of the stars. His friends were enthusiastic and encouraged him to publish his ideas, but Copernicus was cautious. He did not want to be attacked by the Christian Church, so he only published it as
he lay dying in 1543.
Certainly he was right to be careful. The Christian Church rejected his theory, saying it was against God's idea and people who supported it would be attacked. Yet Copernicus' theory is now the basis on which all our ideas of the universe are built.
His theory replaced the Christian idea of gravity, which said things fell to earth
because God created the earth as the centre of the universe. Copernicus showed this was obviously wrong. Now people can see that there is a direct link between his theory and the work of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Unit 2 The United Kingdom
PUZZLES IN GEOGRAPHY
People may wonder why different words are used to describe these four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You can clarify this question if you study British history.
First there was England. Wales was linked to it in the thirteenth century.
Now when people refer to England you find Wales included as well. Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to "Great Britain". Happily this was accomplished without conflict when King Jamesof Scotland became King of England and Wales as well. Finally the English government tried in the early twentieth century to form the United Kingdom by getting Ireland connected in the same peaceful way. However, the southern part of Ireland was unwilling and broke away to form its own government. So only Northern Ireland joined with England, Wales and Scotland to become the United Kingdom and this was shown to the world in a new flag called the Union Jack.
To their credit the four countries do work together in some areas (eg, the currency and international relations), but they still have very different
institutions. For example, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland have different educational and legal systems as well as different football teams for competitions
like the World Cup!
England is the largest of the four countries, and for convenience it is divided roughly into three zones. The zone nearest France is called the South of England, the middle zone is called the Midlands and the one nearest to Scotland is known as the North. You find most of the population settled in the south, but most of the industrial cities in the Midlands and the North of England. Although, nationwide,
-famous football teams these cities are not as large as those in China, they have world
and some of them even have two! It is a pity that the industrial cities built in the nineteenth century do not attract visitors. For historical architecture you have to
go to older but smaller towns built by the Romans. There you will find out more about British history and culture.
The greatest historical treasure of all is London with its museums, art collections, theatres, parks and
buildings. It is the centre of national government
and its administration. It has the oldest port built by the Romans in the first century AD, the oldest building begun by the Anglo-Saxons in the 1060s and the oldest castle constructed by later Norman rulers in 1066. There has been four sets of invaders of England. The first invaders, the Romans, left their towns and roads. The second, the Anglo-Saxons, left their language and their government. The third, the Vikings, influenced the vocabulary and place-names of the North of England, and the fourth,
the Normans, left castles and introduced new words for food.
If you look around the British countryside you will find evidence of all these invaders. You must keep your eyes open if you are going to make your trip to the United Kingdom enjoyable and worthwhile.
SIGHTSEEING IN LONDON
Worried about the time available, Zhang Pingyu had made a list of the sites she wanted to see in London. Her first delight was going to the Tower. It was built
long ago by the Norman invaders of AD 1066. Fancy! This solid stone, square tower had remained st
anding for one thousand years.Although the buildings had expanded around it, it remained part of a royal palace and prison combined. To her great surprise, Zhang Pingyu found the Queen's jewels guarded by special royal soldiers who, on special occasions, still wore the four-hundred-year-old uniform of the time of Queen Elizabeth I.
There followed St Paul's Cathedral built after the terrible fire of London
in 1666. It looked splendid when first built! Westminster Abbey, too, was very interesting. It contained statues in memory of dead poets and writers, such as Shakespeare. Then just as she came out of the abbey, Pingyu heard the famous sound of the clock, Big Ben, ringing out the hour. She finished the day by looking at the outside of Buckingham Palace, the Queen's house in London. Oh, she had so much to tell her friends!
The second day the girl visited Greenwich and saw its old ships and famous clock that sets the world time. What interested her most was the longitude line. It is an imaginary line dividing the eastern and western halves of the world and is very useful for navigation. It passes through Greenwich, so Pingyu had a photo taken standing
on either side of the line.
The last day she visited Karl Marx's statue in Highgate Cemetery. It seemed strange that the man who had developed communism should have lived and died in London. Not only that, but he had worked in the famous reading room of the Library of the British Museum. Sadly the library had moved from its original place into another building and the old reading room was gone. But she was thrilled by so many wonderful treasures from different cultures displayed in the museum. When she saw many visitors enjoying looking at the beautiful old Chinese pots and other objects on show, she
felt very proud of her country.
The next day Pingyu was leaving London for Windsor Castle. "Perhaps I will see the Queen?" she wondered as she fell asleep.
Unit 3 Life in the future
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Spacemall: liqiang299A@GreatAdventureSpaceStation 15/11/3008 (Earthtime) Dear Mum and Dad,
I still cannot believe that I am taking up this prize that I won last year. I have to remind myself consta
ntly that I am really in AD 3008. Worried about the journey, I
was unsettled for the first few days. As a result, I suffered from “Time lag”. This is
you get from flying, but it seems you keep getting flashbacks similar to the “jet lag”　
from your previous time period. So I was very nervous and uncertain at first. However, my friend and guide, Wang Ping, was very understanding and gave me some green tablets which helped a lot. Well-known for their expertise, his parents' company, called "Future Tours", transported me safely into the future in a time capsule.
I can still remember the moment when the space stewardess called us all to the capsule and we climbed in through a small opening. The seats were comfortable and after a calming drink, we felt sleepy and closed our eyes. The capsule began swinging gently sideways as we lay relaxed and dreaming. A few minutes later, the journey was completed and we had arrived. I was still on the earth but one thousand years in the future. What would I find?
At first my new surroundings were difficult to tolerate. The air seemed thin, as though its combination of gases had little oxygen left. Hit by a lack of fresh
air, my head ached. Just as I tried to make the necessary adjustment to this new situation, Wang Ping appeared. "Put on this mask," he advised. "It'll make you feel much better." He handed it to me and immediately hurried me through to a small room nearby for a rest. I felt better in no time. Soon I was back on my feet again and following him to collect a hovering carriage driven by computer. These carriages float above the ground and by bending or pressing down in your seat, you can move swiftly. Wang Ping fastened my safety belt and showed me how to use it. Soon I could fly as fast as him. However, I lost sight of Wang Ping when we reached what looked like a large market because of too many carriages flying by in all directions. He was swept
up into the centre of them. Just at that moment I had a "time lag" flashback and saw
the area again as it had been in the year AD 2008. I realized that I had been transported into the future of what was still my hometown! Then I caught sight of Wang Ping again and flew after him.
Arriving at a strange-looking house, he showed me into a large, bright clean room. It had a green wall, a brown floor and soft lighting. Suddenly the wall moved
- it was made of trees! I found later that their leaves provided the room with
much-needed oxygen. Then Wang Ping flashed a switch on a computer screen, and a table and some chairs rose from under the floor as if by magic. "Why not sit down and eat a little?" he said. "You may find this difficult as it is your first time travel trip.
Just relax, since there is nothing planned on the timetable today. Tomorrow you'll高中英语课文
be ready for some visits." Having said this, he spread some food on the table, and produced a bed from the floor. After he left, I had a brief meal and a hot bath. Exhausted, I slid into bed and fell fast asleep.
More news later from your loving son,
Li Qiang