1、1Lesson 1 Finding fossil man We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write. But there are some parts of the word where even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas - legends hande
2、d down from one generation of another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands c
3、ame from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out wh
4、ere the first modern men came from.Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even
5、 the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.Lesson 2 Spare that spiderWhy, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live i
6、n the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike
7、 some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.How many spiders are e
8、ngaged in this work no our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at
9、least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be gr
10、eater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.Lesson 3 Matterhorn manModern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sport, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded. In the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at all. T
11、he early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if it and never been attained before. It is true that during their explorations they often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature, equipped in a manner with wou
12、ld make a modern climber shudder at the thought, but they did not go out of their way to court such excitement. They had a single aim, a solitary goal - the top!It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers. Except for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, whi
13、ch had rapidly become popular, Alpine village tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountains. Such inns as there were generally dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve months 2old, all washed down with coarse wine.
14、Often a valley boasted no inn at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could - sometimes with the local priest (who was usually as poor as his parishioners), sometimes with shepherds or cheese-makers. Invariably the background was the same: dirt and poverty, and very uncomfortable. For men a
15、ccustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps must have very hard indeed. Lesson 4 Seeing handsSeveral cases have been reported in Russia recently of people who can detect colours with their fingers, and even see through solid and wal
16、ls. One case concerns and eleven-year-old schoolgirl, Vera Petrova, who has normal vision but who can also perceive things with different parts of her skin, and through solid walls. This ability was first noticed by her father. One day she came into his office and happened to put her hands on the do
17、or of a locked safe. Suddenly she asked her father why he kept so many old newspapers locked away there, and even described the way they were done up in bundles.Veras curious talent was brought to the notice of a scientific research institute in the town of Ulyanovsk, near where she lives, and in Ap
18、ril she was given a series of tests by a special commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federal Republic. During these tests she was able to read a newspaper through an opaque screen and, stranger still, by moving her elbow over a childs game of Lotto she was able to describe the figure
19、s and colours printed on it; and, in another instance, wearing stockings and slippers, to make out with her foot the outlines and colours of a picture hidden under a carpet. Other experiments showed that her knees and shoulders had a similar sensitivity. During all these tests Vera was blindfold; an
20、d, indeed, except when blindfold she lacked the ability to perceive things with her skin. It was also found that although she could perceive things with her fingers this ability ceased the moment her hands were wet.Lesson 5 YouthPeople are always talking about the problem of youth. If there is one -
21、 which I take leave to doubt - then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings - people just like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a gl
22、orious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain - that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a
23、problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social cl
24、imbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. Its as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conc
25、eited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders - as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong. Lesson 6 The sporting spiritI am always am
26、azed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the would could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the hattlefield. Even if one didnt know from concrete examples (the 1936 3Olympic
27、Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce if from general principles.Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you
28、 pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as a the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. A
29、nyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level, sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies ov
30、er these absurd contests, and seriously believe - at any rate for short periods - that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.Lesson 7 BatsNot all sounds made by animals serve as language, and we have only to turn to that extraordinary discovery of echo-location in bats to
31、see a case in which the voice plays a strictly utilitarian role.To get a full appreciation of what this means we must turn first to some recent human inventions. Everyone knows that if he shouts in the vicinity of a wall or a mountainside, an echo will come back. The further off this solid obstructi
32、on, the longer time will elapse for the return of the echo. A sound made by tapping on the hull of a ship will be reflected from the sea bottom, and by measuring the time interval between the taps and the receipt of the echoes, the depth of the sea at that point can be calculated. So was born the ec
33、ho-sounding apparatus, now in general use in ships. Every solid object will reflect a sound, varying according to the size and nature of the object. A shoal of fish will do this. So it is a comparatively simple step from locating the sea bottom to locating a shoal of fish. With experience, and with
34、improved apparatus, it is now possible not only to locate a shoal but to tell if it is herring, cod, or other well-known fish, by the pattern of its echo.It has been found that certain bats emit squeaks and by receiving the echoes, they can locate and steer clear of obstacles - or locate flying inse
35、cts on which they feed. This echo-location in bats is often compared with radar, the principle of which is similar.Lesson 8 Trading standardsChickens slaughtered in the United States, claim officials in Brussels, are not fit to grace European tables. No, say the American: our fowl are fine, we simpl
36、y clean them in a different way. These days, it is differences in national regulations, far more than tariffs, that put sand in the wheels of trade between rich countries. It is not just farmers who are complaining. An electric razor that meets the European Unions safety standards must be approved b
37、y American testers before it can be sold in the United States, and an American-made dialysis machine needs the EUs okay before is hits the market in Europe.As it happens, a razor that is safe in Europe is unlikely to electrocute Americans. So, ask businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, why have t
38、wo lots of tests where one would do? Politicians agree, in principle, so America and the EU have been trying to reach a deal which would eliminate the need to double-test many products. They hope to finish in time for a trade summit between America and the EU on May 28TH. Although negotiators are op
39、timistic, the details are complex enough that they may be hard-pressed to get a deal at all.Why? One difficulty is to construct the agreements. The Americans would happily reach one accord on standards for medical devices and them hammer out different pacts covering, say, electronic goods and drug m
40、anufacturing. The EU - following fine continental traditions - wants agreement on general 4principles, which could be applied to many types of products and perhaps extended to other countries.Lesson 9 Royal espionageAlfred the Great acted his own spy, visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel. I
41、n those days wandering minstrels were welcome everywhere. They were not fighting men, and their harp was their passport. Alfred had learned many of their ballads in his youth, and could vary his programme with acrobatic tricks and simple conjuring.While Alfreds little army slowly began to gather at
42、Athelney, the king himself set out to penetrate the camp of Guthrum, the commander of the Danish invaders. There had settled down for the winter at Chippenham: thither Alfred went. He noticed at once that discipline was slack: the Danes had the self-confidence of conquerors, and their security preca
43、utions were casual. They lived well, on the proceeds of raids on neighbouring regions. There they collected women as well as food and drink, and a life of ease had made them soft.Alfred stayed in the camp a week before he returned to Athelney. The force there assembled was trivial compared with the
44、Danish horde. But Alfred had deduced that the Danes were no longer fit for prolonged battle: and that their commissariat had no organization, but depended on irregular raids.So, faced with the Danish advance, Alfred did not risk open battle but harried the enemy. He was constantly on the move, drawi
45、ng the Danes after him. His patrols halted the raiding parties: hunger assailed the Danish army. Now Alfred began a long series of skirmishes - and within a month the Danes had surrendered. The episode could reasonably serve as a unique epic of royal espionage!Lesson 10 Silicon valleyTechnology tren
46、ds may push Silicon Valley back to the future. Carver Mead, a pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology, notes there are now work-stations that enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much the way an
47、editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh. As the time and cost of making a chip drop to a few days and a few hundred dollars, engineers may soon be free to let their imaginations soar without being penalized by expensive failures. Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerful custo
48、mized chips over a weekend at the office - spawning a new generation of garage start-ups and giving the U.S. a jump on its foreign rivals in getting new products to market fast. Were got more garages with smart people, Mead observes. We really thrive on anarchy.And on Asians. Already, orientals and
49、Asian Americans constitute the majority of the engineering staffs at many Valley firms. And Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in droves from Californias colleges. As the heads of next-generation start-ups, these Asian innovators can draw on customs and languages to forge righter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets. For instance, Alex Au, a Stanford Ph. D. from Hong Kong, has set up a Taiwan factory to challenge Japans near lock on the memory
