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Table of Contents
Cells
All living things are made up of tiny parts called cells. Our body consists of millions and millions of these cells. Each cell takes in food and oxygen from the .BLOOD...Cells are many different shapes and sizes and each of them has a different job to do. .BONE. cells need to be strong and firm so they are linked together in circles. The nerve cells are very small, but they have long nerve fibers. Messages travel along these fibers. Some fibers carry messages to the .BRAIN., telling it what is going on. Others carry messages from the brain, telling each part of the body to do a particular job. .MUSCLE. cells are long and thin. They are arranged in groups for strength.
The nervous system gathers information about what is going on inside and outside our body using the .SENSES. and nerves. The .BRAIN. and spinal cord receive this information. They then send messages back which can make .MUSCLES. or .GLANDS. work. In this way we respond to situations around us. Sometimes we respond quickly and without thinking. If we touch something hot, we soon take our hand away. Often we choose what to do. When we cross a street we look, listen and think before we decide that it is safe to step forward.....Right: .Our nervous system is a network of millions of nerve cells. Most of the nerve cells are in the brain and spinal cord. Others make up the nerve fibers which carry messages all over the body. Some nerves carry messages to the brain and spinal cord, others carry messages away. Nerve fibers only carry messages in one direction.
The stages of development of a baby.
A baby lives and grows inside its mother's body for nine months before it is born. During this time, the baby is totally dependent on its mother for food and protection...Following fertilization, the fertilized egg becomes embedded in the wall of the mother's uterus or womb. A specialized organ, the placenta, develops inside the womb. The placenta allows the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and the baby's waste products between the bloodstreams of mother and baby. ..At first the egg is only the size of a pinhead. After two months the baby is 2.5 centimeters long and has a beating .HEART.. After four months it has grown to 15 centimeters and is almost fully formed. Even its fingernails h
rectly from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
Did you know?...Because bronze could be heated until it turned into a liquid, it could be poured into molds to form a wide variety of objects.
Iron Age
An Iron Age lakeside settlement.
In some parts of the world, the Iron Age began about four thousand years ago. People learned to work iron, and found that it was harder and stronger than bronze. ..The use of the new metal had spread through most of western Asia by about 1200 BC. The Iron Age began in .CHINA. and in India 300 years later, and in Britain later still.
samurai. appeared in Japan. They followed a code of conduct called .bushido.. Their power lasted until the 1870s, when they were forbidden to carry swords, and lost their military status.
The Arabs
In the desert, some Arabs still use Arabian (one-humped) camels for travel.
The ancestors of the Arabs were living in what is now Saudi Arabia around 1000 BC. But Arabs remained a little-known desert people until they found a leader in .MUHAMMAD. (about AD 570-632). He gave them a new religion, .ISLAM., and just before his death he launched them on a holy war, or 'jihad', against unbelievers. ..The Arabs, whom their Christian enemies called Saracens, were fine horsemen and soldiers. In the next hundred
ns. Laws have to be passed by both Houses and signed by the Queen. The House of Commons has about 650 MPs (Members of Parliament), each chosen by voters in one area.
Prime Minister
Sir Robert Peel was conservative prime minister of Britain in 1834 and 1841.
A Prime Minister is the head of the governing party. Sometimes, as in .FRANCE., the Prime Minister has less power than the .PRESIDENT.. In Britain the Prime Minister has more power than anyone else, but is responsible to .PARLIAMENT.. ..In Britain when a political party is elected into office the Queen asks its leader to 'form a government'. The leader, who becomes Prime Minister, ch
em in the .COURTS.. The law is too complicated for most people to understand without help. In England there are two kinds of lawyers: a solicitor works mainly in an office and may speak only in certain courts; a barrister's job is to speak in all kinds of courts. In Scotland they are known as law-agents and advocates.
In the .US. lawyers are called attorney and counsellor, but the same lawyer may do the work of both solicitor and barri
ifteen belong to the Security Council......TRADING BLOCS AND THEIR MEMBERS ...EUROPEAN COMMUNITY (EC): Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Irish Republic, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Spain. ..EUROPEAN FREE TRADE ASSOCIATION (EFTA): Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden. Switzerland, and Liechtenstein ..ARAB COMMON MARKET: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria. ..COLOMBO PLAN: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Canada, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Laws, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar (Burma, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UK and US. ..ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN): Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand. ..CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM): Antigua, and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. ..LATIN AMERICAN INTEGRATION ASSOCIATION: Argee
F THE PAST...Scientists believe that the earliest human-like creatures lived in eastern Africa. The Great Wall of China, the largest structure built by people, is 3460 kilometers long. The world's oldest pyramid is the Step Pyramid at Saqqara in Egypt, built about 2650 BC. ..RELIGIONS AND SECTS. ..Every year more than 1,000,000 Muslims go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of the Islamic religion in Saudi Arabia. More people follow Christianity than any other religion. Hinduism, the main religion of India, is the oldest of the major religions of the world
FOLKLORE AND BELIEF...People in the Himalayan mountains of Asia believe in the existence of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman, said to be a large, hairy, human-like creature. The Ancient Greek hero Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) was said to be the strongest man who ever lived, because his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. ..GOVERNMENT. ..The oldest parliament in the world is the Althing, the pa
flying easier, a bird has light, hollow .BONES. and a strong .HEART.. The lungs are connected to bags of air called air sacs. These increase the amount of oxygen that the bird can breathe in. Different birds have different types of wings. The type depends on the bird's method of flying. The albatross glides on long, thin wings. The hummingbird hovers on short, broad wings.
Nests
A giant hornbill bird feeding its young in a nest built in a hole in a tree trunk.
A burrowing owl in front of its nest which is built in a hole in a mound.
the nest. It is fed by its new parents. When the young cuckoo grows up, it flies to .AFRICA.. It can find its way there without being shown by its parents...There are many kinds of cuckoos in the world. Some of them look after their own eggs and chicks.
Seabirds
The best known seabirds are the gulls. They spend their time near the shore and sometimes come inland. The terns look like the gulls but are smaller. They nest in large groups on sandy ground and dive for fish. ..Many seabirds come near the land only when they are breeding. During the summer, some cliffs are filled with guillemots and razorbills. ..The cormorant and the shag have long, slender necks and narrow beaks
spring they fly back to their nesting place. This is called. migration.. The European swallows fly to .AFRICA. for the winter because the cold weather kills off the flying insects which they eat. The North American swallows fly to .SOUTH AMERICA.. The arctic tern flies more than 30,000 kilometers in a year, spending part of the time in the arctic and part in the .ANTARCTIC......Did you know?...Most butterflies and moths lay their eggs and then die as the weather gets colder, with just a few individuals finding a warm place to hibernate (sleep for the winter). Some butterflies, however, migrate. Thus, their adults can spend the winter awake in a warm climate. The Painted Lady, for instance, which is found all over the world except in South America, even flies over tall mountains on migration.
When birds are migrating they use the sun or stars to steer by, just as a ships navigator does. Some mammals, usually herbivores or plant eaters, also migrate, beca
existence about 400 million years ago. The largest land animals that ever lived were dinosaurs, such as Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. Their brains were the size of hens' eggs. ..CONSERVATION. ..More than 100 species of animals and birds have become extinct this century. Between about 1900 and the 1960s, the number of tigers in India dropped from 40,000 to about 2000. Conservation is expected to increase the numbers to about 10,000 by the year 2000.
Parts of a Flowering Plant
Most plants produce flowers. The best-known flowering plants are garden flowers, vegetables, fruits, and grass. Many trees and shrubs have flowers; but such plants as .MOSSES..,. .FERNS..,. .SEAWEEDS..,. and fungi do not produce flowers. .Flowering plants have many parts in common: .STEMS..,. .ROOTS
LEAVES..,. buds, and .SEEDS.... Each part has a different purpose. For example, leaves make food for the plant. Stems support the leaves and carry the food to all parts of the plant. The roots take up water an
in groups of five. It grows to a maximum height of 60 meters. It is a very useful tree for timber.
The lodgepole pine is found in western North America, but is planted elsewhere. Its leaves grow in pairs, like those of the Scotch pine, but they are a darker green in color.
Fir
The firs are tall, cone-shaped trees. They are conifers, and grow over much of the Northern Hemisphere. Towards the equator they are found only in mountains, because they prefer cold weather. Their .LEAVES. do not have stalks and are flat with a blunt tip. Fir cones are very long and grow upright..The Douglas fir, one of North Americas most important timber trees, is not a true fir. It is much bigger than the true fir trees, and its cones hang downward from the branches.
The variety of their shape and color is enormous. They provide food for fishes and many other animals.
Other single-celled plants common in water are able to move around by using their small, whip-like tails. They are green and able to make their own food, but have many animal-like features. Ponds and pools sometimes turn green because so many of these plants are present. ..BACTERIA. are often described as plants. In some ways, however, they behave more like animals.
Seaweed
Some types of seaweeds growing at their different levels on the seashore. A few seaweeds float freely in the water but most are attached to rocks by suckers called holdfasts. Seaweeds are found to a depth of
Ferns
Adult ferns on the forest floor.
Most ferns are tropical, but they are found all over the world. Some grow as trees to a height of 20 meters. In .EUROPE. and .NORTH AMERICA..,. they are much smaller and have .LEAVES. which grow up from an underground .STEM.... ..The leaves are tightly curled up at first and uncurl as they grow. Each leaf is made up of a number of leaflets. These produce the spores that form new fern plants. ..Ferns are commonly found in shady or damp places. Some, such as the water fern, float on the surface of .LAKES. and .RIVERS
Horsetails
LICHENS..,. such as reindeer moss, are the commonest plants. Some dwarf plants such as creeping birches and willows can also live in these areas. In the short summer, the tundra is transformed into a colorful 'carpet', as many plants hurriedly flower and set their .SEEDS.... Hundreds of little pools are formed by the melting snow.
Heath
Heaths are found mainly in .EUROPE.. Some have sandy soil which drains very easily and is dry for much of the year. Others have damp, peaty soils..The most common plant found on heaths is the heather. Like many heath plants, it is small and grows by creeping over the soil. Bracken and gorse are other plants commonly found on heaths...PINES. and .BIRCHES. can thrive on the heath land, but few other trees can survive on the acid soil..Grey .LICHENS., looking like miniature bushes, oft
eating to destroy a poison they contain. ..Sweet potatoes originally came from .SOUTH AMERICA..,. but they are now also grown in the .US. and .CHINA.... They are about the same size as potatoes, but they have a purple or white skin. Sweet potatoes are usually cooked by boiling, and they have a slightly sweet taste, as their name suggests.
Orange groves in Greece.
Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, limes, and tangerines are some of the many different citrus fruits. They are all really berries with thick skins. They come from shrubs or small trees in tropical or warm countries. ..Sweet oranges are grown in many countries, including the.US., .ISRAEL..,. and .SOUTH AFRICA.... These oranges are eaten fr
prosper in very dry soils. .Millets have smaller grains than other cereals. They are used as food for humans in parts of .ASIA. and .EUROPE..,. where they are ground into flour. In .CANADA. and the.US., millets are mainly used as animal food. ....Did you know?...Millet is a common component in wild bird seed mixtures. If you spill bird seed on the ground under your bird table, one of the plants that is most likely to grow there will be millet.
domestic animals. It is also used to make beer. First the grains are soaked in water, to make them start growing. Then they are dried to form what brewers call malt. .YEAST. is added to the malt to make beer.
Materials from Plants
The lavender plant is used to make perfumes and scents.
ural fiber. About 15 million tons are produced every year. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming.
POISONOUS PLANTS...The tobacco plant contains a poison called nicotine, which is used to kill insect pests. Buttercups are all poisonous. Cattle sometimes die if they eat too many buttercups.
The Universe
The Universe seems to be expanding, \lbecause the galaxies we can observe are \lall moving away from us.
The universe includes everything we know. It extends in all directions as far as .TELESCOPES. have been able to penetrate. ..No one knows how big the universe is.
Galaxies
The red arrow shows the position of the sun among the 100,000 million stars in our galaxy.
A galaxy is a huge collection of .STARS..,. gas, and dust. Our own star, the .SUN..,. is one of about 100,000 million stars that make up one galaxy. Our galaxy is turning slowly in space like a gigantic wheel. ..For a long time astronomers thought that our galaxy was the whole universe. We now know that a very large number of other galaxies exist beyond our own. They are like huge islands of stars separated from one another by vast stretches of space. Not all galaxies are spirals like ours. Some of the brightest are oval-shaped.
Milky Way
On a clear night you can easily see the Milky Way. It is a faint band of light that stretches across the sky. This light comes from the millions of .STARS. in our own .GALAXY..,. that lie between us and the center of the galaxy. .Apart from a bulge at the center, where the stars are much closer together, the galaxy is a flat spiral shape. Our solar system lies in one of the spiral arms, towards the edge of the galaxy. .It is not very easy to study our own galaxy
tail forms, stretching out from the comets' head. ..The tail of a comet is millions of kilometers long, but it does not contain very much material. It is almost transparent. In fact most of the material in a comet is in the nucleus, which may be only one kilometer in diameter.
Some comets take thousands or even millions of years to make one orbit of the sun. Others leave the solar system never to return. Comet Encke returns to the sun most frequently, every 3.3 years.
Meteors
In its journey around the .SUN..,. our planet collides with millions of fragments of rock and dust. Most of these particles are smaller than a grain of sand. But they move at tremendous speeds - an average of about 17 kilometers per second. .When one of these particles strikes the .EARTH.'S atmosphere, friction with the air ma
theories suggest that the earth was once part of a star. This star came near the sun and the sun's .GRAVITY. pulled out hot material from the star. This material formed new planets. .. .Yet another suggestion is that the sun was once one of a pair of stars. The other star blew up, leaving pieces of itself moving around the sun. These pieces became the planets. .Perhaps we shall soon find out which of these theories is correct, or whether the earth formed in yet another way. We may find the answer by exploring the planets, and not here on earth.
Crust.. Up to about 100 kilometers thick.
Mantle ..2790 kilometers
Outer core ..2260 kilometers thick
Inner core ..1220 kilometers radius
ut 460 meters into the air.
Earthquakes
Earthquake damage in Sicily, 1969.
Earthquakes occur when one mass of rock suddenly moves in relation to another. The movement does not have to be very great to cause severe destruction in cities. ..Many earthquakes occur in the same regions as .VOLCANOES.... This is explained by .CONTINENTAL DRIFT.... Great strain results where two plates are colliding or moving past each other. Pressure builds up between masses of rock and then they suddenly give way and move, causing earthquakes. The split produced where rocks break under such pressure is called a fault. If molten rock lies underneath faults, ven
are some distance from plate edges, so there is less activity.
The Alps
Wengen in the Swiss Alps. The word 'alp' refers to the mountain pastures where cattle graze in summer.
The Alps are the greatest mountain range in .EUROPE.... They extend from southern .FRANCE., through .SWITZERLAND. and northern .ITALY. into .AUSTRIA.... The mountains rise steeply in the south, but more gently in the north. They were formed by Italy moving very slowly northwards. If the earth's crust was not buckled up to form the Alps, Europe would be 100 kilometers wider than it is today.
A meandering river in Brazil.
The river cuts a .VALLEY. in the land as it flows. It carries away soil down towards the sea. Fine particles of soil carried by rivers are called silt. When the river approaches the sea, the land becomes almost flat. The water travels too slowly to carry all the silt. A flat plain builds up over the floor of the valley as silt is left behind. ..The river often starts to curve over the plain, forming meanders in its course. Large rivers carry so much silt that the deposits at the mouth break the river up into small channels. The network of channels often spreads out in the shape of a triangle before the river finally enters the sea. This region is called a delta, after the triangular Greek letter called delta.
s of great cold in the geological history of the Earth, ice sheets moved toward the equator from both of the poles. The level of the sea also fell exposing more land because so much of the water was frozen as ice sheets.
Fascinating Fact..All of Northern Europe and most of North America was covered with an ice sheet during the last Ice Age 100,000 years ago.
Ice ages
Over thousands of years the world's climate changes, causing ice sheets to spread and melt. An ice age occurs when the ice sheet is large. The last ice age was at its height 18,000 years ago. Then ice covered the land as far south as the Great Lakes in .NORTH AMERICA.... It reached to the southern part of the British Isles, and covered Scandinavia, no
Camels have broad soft soles for walking on sand and can travel for long periods without drinking.
Deserts are very dry regions where few plants will grow because there is little rainfall. Some grass and scrub may survive as well as plants such as cacti, which need little water. But few people and animals can live in the desert. ..Some deserts have a surface of sand, which the .WIND. blows into dunes. Other deserts are stony or rocky. A desert often is very hot during the day but cold at night. The continual changes of temperatures break the rock and stones into fragments. Because the wind blows the smaller fragments away, soil cannot form. ..Deserts usually have some .RAIN. during the year. Sometimes there are thundery showers. The water runs away quickly or evaporates in the heat and is lost. But some water remains underground and comes to the surface at an oasis.
Deserts are found in broad bands around the world both north and
Rocks
There are three main groups of rocks in the world. Geologists - scientists who study rocks - are able to tell one group from another by the way the rocks are formed. The first group of rocks are called .igneous. rocks. These rocks form when hot, liquid rock cools and becomes solid. The word igneous comes from a Latin word meaning 'fire'. Igneous rocks include granite and basalt. Basalt sometimes forms large six-sided columns. The steps of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland are the tops of basalt columns.
The second group are called .sedimentary .rocks. Many of them are made from layers of small rock particles. These layers are called beds or strata. Over a long time the particles become pressed together, forming a sedimentary rock. The particles may have been made by the action of the weather or water on rocks. Sand grains formed in this way are pressed together to become
he bottom of the atmosphere. .The atmosphere is a mixture of gases. It consists mainly of nitrogen (78 percent), oxygen (21 percent), a small amount of argon, and some carbon dioxide. There may also be some water vapor. Dry air contains no water vapor. Air with a lot of water vapor is called humid. .The atmosphere has three main layers. The bottom layer is the troposphere, and the middle layer is the stratosphere. The troposphere is from eight to 18 kilometers thick. The .CLOUDS. float in the troposphere. Many airliners fly in the lower stratosphere, above the clouds.
The layer above the stratosphere is called the ionosphere. This layer is useful to people because it reflects back .RADIO. waves to the ground. This makes it possible for the waves to travel around the earth's curved surface. .Meteorology is the study of the atmosphere. Meteorologists, or weather forecasters, measure the conditions in the atmosphere. They also measure the amount of water
tails' are called cirrus clouds, and a 'mackerel sky' is cirrocumulus.
Fog and mist
Calm sea with a rising dawn mist at Fethiye, Turkey.
Fog and mist form when water vapor condenses in the air at ground level. This happens when the ground is cold, which is why there is often fog or mist on cold mornings. The fog or mist is a thick mass of water droplets, like a cloud on the ground. The droplets evaporate when the air warms later in the day, and the fog or mist disappears. A mist is less dense than a fog. If you can see less than one kilometer ahead, you are in a fog. If the visibility is less than two kilometers, it is a mist.
Winds
A wind is a current of air moving over the land or the sea. The direction of a wind is the direction .from which it has come., and not the direction in which it is going. For example, a south wind is blowing from the south towards the north. A wind vane points in the direction of a wind. The strength of a wind can vary from a light breeze to a .HURRICANE.. The Beaufort Scale is the system that weather forecasters use to describe the strength and speed of a wind.
Winds are produced because the pressure of the air is different in different places. Air flows from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure, causing a wind. The heat of the .SUN. on the atmosphere and the earth produces pressure differences and winds. .In the tropics, the heat makes the air expand. As it expands,
uickly. Weather forecasters are also known as meteorologists. Weather conditions must be measured over a wide region. The measurements are sent to a central weather station for examination. ..Most towns have a set of weather instruments, such as .THERMOMETERS..,. .BAROMETERS..,. and anemometers. The instruments are read regularly and the results are sent to a central weather station.
Other measurements come from radiosondes, which are high-flying .BALLOONS. that carry automatic instruments. Satellites circling the .EARTH. send down pictures of the .CLOUDS. from space, and .RADAR. stations can locate distant storms. With these and other aids, forecasts can be made.
Oceans and Seas
ic islands, because they do not rise from the Atlantic ocean floor. They rise from the continental shelf attached to .EUROPE.... Most Atlantic islands are part of an undersea ridge that runs midway between the Americas and Europe and .AFRICA.... .ICELAND. is at one end and Tristan da Cunha at the other. This ridge is thought to be the line along which the continents on either side of the ocean are drifting apart.
Indian Ocean
A fisherman casting off into the Indian Ocean from the island of Mauritius.
The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean. It is bordered by .AFRICA..,. .ASIA..,. and .AUSTRALIA. on three sides, but it is open to the
700 meters. The Dogger Bank is a shallow fishing ground in the center of the North Sea.
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea touching the shores of Tobago in the West Indies.
The Caribbean Sea is a tropical sea that lies between the West Indies and Central and .SOUTH AMERICA.... It is a western arm of the .ATLANTIC OCEAN.... To the north, it connects with the Gulf of .MEXICO. through the Yucatan Channel. The Caribbean Sea has an area of about 2.6 million square kilometers, and its greatest depth is 7,686 meters near the Cayman Islands.
Sargasso Sea
at backbone of .MOUNTAINS. in Africa, unlike other continents. The large island of Madagascar is separated from the African mainland by the Mozambique Channel. ..Around the equator in west and central Africa, it is hot and wet. Thick forest covers much of the land. To the north and south, and on the higher land to the east, it is less wet. .GRASSLAND. and woodland are found. In southwest Africa, it is dry and there are .DESERTS.... Along the extreme southwest coast of .SOUTH AFRICA..,. the climate is Mediterranean.
South America
Mounted herdsmen in a cattle-ranching region in Argentina.
South and North America together make up the second largest land mass. South America is
ds which are warmed by a current in the .ATLANTIC OCEAN.... This current starts in the Gulf of .MEXICO.... It flows northeast, first as the Gulf Stream, and then as the North Atlantic Drift, before reaching northwest Europe.
Asia
Asia is the largest of the continents. It has an area of about 44 million square kilometers. The .ARCTIC OCEAN. lies to the north of Asia, the .PACIFIC OCEAN. to the east, and the Indian Ocean to the south. The Red Sea lies between Asia and .AFRICA.... The Black Sea, the Caucasus .MOUNTAINS..,. the Caspian Sea, and the Ural Mountains all form a boundary between Asia and Europe. Asia Minor is the name of the peninsula of land occupied by .TURKEY. between the Black Sea and the .MEDITERRANEAN SEA. ..Asia has many different natural features. In the
ds are the jet streams, which blow at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour high above the earth. The highest recorded temperature on the ground is 58'C in Libya. The lowest is - 89.2 C in Antarctica.
OCEANS AND SEAS
The largest recorded sea wave was 34 meters high. The greatest rise and fall of the tide is 16.3 meters in Nova Scotia. In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste made a record dive of 10,917 meters in Challenger Deep
or his successor, Philip II of Spain, Titian painted many portraits and pictures of legendary figures.
Titian's works are remarkable for their technical skill and magnificent use of rich colors. A certain red color is now called titian after him. Titian died of the plague in Venice. Unlike the other victims of the plague, he was buried inside the city with great honor.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarroti-Simoni lived from 1475 to 1564. He was a painter, sculptor, architect and poet. As a boy he showed such talent that he was chosen to work in the household of Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of the city-state of Florence in Italy, who provided money and encouragement for many great artists. .Among Michelangelo's finest sculptures is the huge figure of David, more than four meters tall. This figure is very beauti
ely abstract (they contain no recognizable objects). Turner is particularly known for his .WATERCOLORS. and his paintings of sunsets.
Cezanne
The French painter Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was born in Aix-en-Provence and studied in .PARIS.. There he met a group of artists called .IMPRESSIONISTS.. The Impressionists tried to paint the reflection of light on objects. They gave an impression of an object, and did not depict its exact form. .Cezanne soon returned to Aix to paint .LANDSCAPES..,. .PORTRAITS. and .STILL-LIFES.... He was more interested in the actual shape of an object than the Impressionists were. In planning a picture, he formed the objects into a richly-colored pattern. Cezanne and his followers were called Post-(after) Impressionists.
Cezanne painted slowly, and
when he came to .LONDON..,. he spent hours in the Natural History .MUSEUM. and the British Museum. He examined the shapes made by nature in stone and wood, and the carvings made by peoples in ancient times. His own style developed from these early studies. .Moore worked in wood, bronze, and stone. His sculptures can be viewed in the round, that is, from a number of different points. At each point there is something different to see. His work can be seen in museums all over the world. Some of his sculptures are sited in the open air in London and other cities. He died in 1986.
Composers
Composers are people who write music. We do not know the names of the earliest composers, because they did not sign their works. Many of them were monks, writing music for the Church. Others were minstrels, musicians who wandered from place to place to entertain people
rts of Europe with his father.
Mozart wrote marvelous operas, among them .The Marriage of Figaro.. He also wrote many symphonies, sonatas (pieces for single instruments), chamber music, and concertos (for one or more instruments and .ORCHESTRA. ). Yet he remained so poor that a friend calling one winter's day found Mozart, who could not afford a fire, waltzing with his wife to keep warm. His last work, a requiem (funeral) mass, was written as he lay dying.....Did you know?...Mozart wrote over 600 pieces of music even though he died at the early age of 35.
Beethoven
The Russian composer Tchaikovsky.
Some of the most popular ballet music was written by the Russian composer Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). Special favorites are .Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty. and .The Nutcracker.. Yet Tchaikovsky, a general's son, began his career by studying law and becoming a .CIVIL SERVANT.... He was a gifted amateur musician, and by the time he was 26 he gave up his job to become a music professor in Moscow. ..He was greatly helped by a rich widow, Nadia von Meck, who so admired his music that she gave him a yearly pension to enable him to spend all his time composing. The two never met, but they used to write to each other. Tchaikovsky also wrote symphonies, overtures and songs.
Dvorak
d was blind. He wandered from city to city reciting tales. .Homer is generally believed to have made up two great epic poems. The .Iliad. tells of the war between the .ANCIENT GREEKS. and the people of Troy, a city that was also called Ilium. Its ruins lie in Turkey. .The Odyssey. describes the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus on his way home from that war.....Did you know:..Homers story The Odyssey introduced to readers such hideous monsters as the Cyclops, the vicious one-eyed giant, and the Sirens, three beautiful women who lured sailors to certain death on the rocky shores of their islands. Their melodious voices were said to be irresistible and capable of driving men insane.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, considered to be the greatest English playwright.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a poet who was England's greatest dramatist (writer of plays). His plays are performed in nearly every country in the world. He also wrote more fine roles for actors than anyone else. ..Shakespeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon and almost certainly went to the local grammar school. He married Anne Hathaway and had three children. He went to London in about 1587 to earn his living in the theater as an actor and writer, returning to Stratford in 1597. ..As well as many poems (among them .Venus and Adonis.), Shakespeare wrote 35 plays, mostly in blank
the right and good. Goethe worked on his poem at intervals over 50 years.
Scott
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was the first great writer of historical novels (stories that are set in the past). He became a .LAWYER. in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and began writing long story poems such as .The Lay of the Last Minstrel.. His poetry was very successful, and he was famous as a poet before he started to write novels.
Did you know?...Although they were written almost two hundred years ago, some of Scotts novels are still popular today, and several have been made into films or television programs including Ivanhoe and Rob Roy......Scott's first novel was called .Waverley.. It was the first of a series t
l swan. Thumbelina (below) is a little girl so tiny that her cradle is a walnut shell.
One of the world's greatest writers of fairy tales was the Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). Hans' father, a poor shoemaker, died when Hans was 11 years old. In order to earn some money, the boy built a toy theater and made clothes for the puppets. He also read aloud plays, especially plays by .SHAKESPEARE..,. which had been translated into Danish. ..Andersen wanted to be an .OPERA SINGER..,. but his voice was not good enough. Instead, he began to write. His best book is known everywhere as Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. Among the best-known of these tales are .The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid .and .The Brave Tin Soldier.
Carroll
One of the most famous of all children's books is .Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898). .Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford University. He was fond of children, and wrote Alice and its sequel .Through the Looking Glass .for Alice Liddell, the young daughter of Oxford friends. .Both books deal with a make-believe world, but Carroll writes of it as though it were real. The books contain splendid nonsense poems.
Did you know?...Carroll was very fond of the game of chess and .Through the Looking Glass. is based on the pieces and moves of a chess game.
Stevenson
than 30 years he was a professor at the University of Oxford, teaching English. rule the world.....Did you know?...When Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy of books, he not only wrote a story but he created maps of the places and even worked out a language, Elfin, for its inhabitants. Some Tolkien fans claim to be able to speak Elfin.
Entertainers
We all like to be entertained. After working hard all day, people want to relax and let someone else work at keeping them happy. In earlier days, a family would entertain itself. Occasionally they would go to see professional entertainers at their local music hall or .THEATER.... Today, however, most people look to
Walt Disney (1901-1966) was born in Chicago,. US.. After studying art, he spent some years in advertising. Then he went to Hollywood and started Disney Studios with his brother Roy. ..Disney soon began to make cartoon films. Cartoons are made up of thousands of drawings, with a different drawing to show each movement. His first 'talkie' cartoon was .Steamboat Willie., in which Mickey Mouse appeared. Disney's first full cartoon film was .Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs., based on a story by the .GRIMM BROTHERS.... He made many other cartoon films, including .Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, Alice in Wonderland. and .The 101 Dalmatians.
Disney also made a number of non-cartoon films, such as .Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.. .Mary Poppins. was an experiment in mixing cartoons with real actors. Disney's nature films include .The Living Desert. and .The Vanishing Prairie.. .In 1955 Disney built.
k star. He starred in 25 films. When he died millions of fans mourned him.
The Beatles
The Beatles were the most popular rock music group ever. They were four young musicians from Liverpool, England: John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (born 1942), George Harrison (born 1943) and Ringo Starr (born 1940). Their songs had a strong beat and catchy tunes, with words that said what many young people of the day felt and thought. They formed The Beatles in 1960 and two years later won international fame. The group broke up in 1970. Ten years later Lennon was shot dead in .NEW YORK
Scientists and Inventors
d the movement of the .EARTH. around the sun as described by .COPERNICUS.... When he made public his explanation of this, he was accused of heresy and forced to deny it by the .ROMAN CATHOLIC. church.....Did you know?...The four largest of the moons of the planet Jupiter are called the Galilean Satellites because Galileo was the first to observe them circling Jupiter using his telescope.
Leeuwenhoek
The Dutch naturalist (person who studies plants and animals) Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) began life as a cloth merchant. He was, however, more interested in making magnifying (enlarging) .LENSES. for .MICROSCOPES
tion and did not develop the disease. Without the inoculation, he would almost certainly have died. ..The inventor of this life-saving inoculation was Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), a French chemist who had studied .BACTERIA. (germs, some of which carry disease). Pasteur made other important discoveries which have helped to prevent germ-carried diseases in humans and animals. ..Pasteur also carried out work on the action of bacteria in beer. This led to the purifying process called pasteurization (after its inventor). Today, not only beer, but most milk is treated in this way, by heating it to kill the germs.
Koch
Robert Koch (1843-1910) was a German doctor who was interested in the study of .BACTERIA.... He invented a method of keeping bacteria alive in the laboratory, so that he could study their behavior. Koch also experimente
The most famous husband and wife team in scientific history is probably the Curies. Pierre op (1859-1906) was French. Marie (1867-1934), a Pole, was trained partly at the Sorbonne, the University of Paris. There she met and married Pierre, a professor of physics. Together, they began the work which resulted in the discovery of radium, one of the chemical elements (basic substances). Radium, a radio-active .METAL..,. is widely used in the treatment of certain diseases. ..The Curies shared the .NOBEL. Prize for Physics in 1903 with Antoine Becquerel, who had discovered radio-activity in the metal uranium. After Pierre's death, Marie became the first woman professor of physics at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she won a Nobel prize for chemistry.
Bell
GLASS
have allowed architects to develop bold new designs in building.
Palladio
Andrea Palladio (1518-1580) was a great Italian architect. He began his career as a stone mason. Then he went to .ROME. to study for two years. There he saw many buildings that had been constructed by the ancient .ROMANS..,. and was very impressed by them. When he returned home to Vicenza, he began to design houses, theaters and government buildings in a similar style. .Palladio's ideas did not inspire other Italian architects in his own day, but after his death his influence was great. The English architect, Inigo .JONES. (1573-1652) was inspired by him, and so were many later British and American architects. Many of their buildings are described as being in the 'Palladian' style.
By designing the Suez Canal De Lesseps greatly aided sea vessels travelling from Europe to India and the Far East.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, ships sailing from Europe to India had to sail around Africa. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), a French engineer, drew up a scheme to cut through the narrow Isthmus (neck of land) of Suez which joins Africa to western .ASIA.. Work on the Suez Canal.,. which is about 160 kilometers long, was finished in 1869. ..De Lesseps failed to cut through the Isthmus of Panama, which joins North and .SOUTH AMERICA.... Work on the Panama Canal.,. which he started, was finished by .US. engineers.
Brunel
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) was the leader of modern American architects. He designed many houses on an open-plan system, with the main rooms running from front to back of the house. He also tried to make his houses fit perfectly into their surroundings.
Fascinating Fact:...The most famous house built by Wright is called Falling Water House, because of its waterfall-like landscape features.
At the same time, Wright planned many very modern-looking buildings. One of his greatest successes was the Imperial Hotel in .TOKYO..,. which survived an earthquake in 1923 that flattened most of the buildings around it. .Wright was a founder member of what is called the Prairie school of architecture. Houses in this style had low, pitched roofs and the rooms inside could all be on different levels. He was also one of the first architects to use reinforced concrete in an interest
led south of Africa. He eventually reached land to the southeast of Africa. He wanted to go on, but his men refused to obey him and he had to return home. On the way he discovered the Cape of Good Hope, which he originally named the Cape of Storms. It was renamed by the King of Portugal.
Columbus
The explorer who is considered the discoverer of the Americas, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian, whose name was Cristoforo Colombo. Columbus is the Latin form of the name. Columbus believed that the world was round, and worked out that he could reach India by sailing westward. .In 1492, in the service of Spain, he sailed across the .ATLANTIC OCEAN..,. and arrived at the islands of the Bahamas off the American coast. He also visited the West Indies. On his third voyage, in 1498, Columbus reached the mainland of South America. But some of
ful fleet, the Armada, to invade England. The English defeated the Armada. Drake died in 1596 on a voyage to the West Indies.
Hudson
After the discovery of America, traders began to look for westward routes from Europe to Asia. Some people thought that it would be possible to sail around the top of North America. They believed that there was a sea route, wh
and Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) had also set out to find the source of the Nile. Speke eventually located it in Lake Victoria, Africa's largest .LAKE.... .. Two French explorers did much to open up the Western part of Africa. Rend Caille (1799-1838) was the first European to visit Tombouctou. This was the legendary trading town (now in Mall) on the southern edge of the Sahara. Further south a naval officer, Pierre de Brazza (1852-1905) explored large parts of what are now Gabon and Congo. The capital of Congo, Brazzaville, was named after him.
Explorers of Australia
For hundreds of years, Europeans thought there must be a large continent in the southern part of the world. They gave it a Latin name, Terra .Australis Incognita., which means 'Unknown southern land'. The first European to sight Australia was a Dutch sailor, Willem Jansz
s of the South Pole. Between 1907 and 1909, a second expedition, commanded by Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), got to within 156 kilometers of the Pole. But the expedition ran short of food.
In 1910 Scott sailed for the Antarctic once more. With four companions, he reached the South Pole in January 1912. He arrived to find that Amundsen and a Norwegian team had beaten him by one month. Scott and his companions, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Henry Bowers and Edgar Evans, died on the return journey. They were within 20 kilometers of safety. Later that year, a search-party found their tent and three of the bodies. They also found the records and scientific instruments which Scott had left in perfect order.
Thinkers and Reformers
and of loyal, fierce believers, ready to spread Islam by force. He and his followers beat off a number of attacks by their enemies. In 630 Muhammad returned to Mecca in triumph. He died in 632.
Luther
Martin Luther
A German priest, Martin Luther (1483-1546) started the religious revolt (violent change) known as the Reformation. He was a professor at the University of Wittenberg. Luther condemned the practice of selling indulgences (pardons) to people who had committed sins. The Pope sent him a stern message about this. Luther burnt it openly. Luther was excommunicated (expelled) from the .ROMAN CATHOLIC. Church for questioning some of its teachings. He then began to preach the Reformed Rel
led India for nearly 200 years. ..As a young man Gandhi tried to win better conditions for Indians living in South Africa. He used nonviolent methods, such as publicly breaking unjust laws in order to draw attention to them. When he returned to India in 1915 he used the same methods to force the British to give the Indians independence. In 1947 India did become free. But a year later Gandhi was murdered by one of his own people.
Freud
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian doctor who thought of a way of treating people suffering from mental illness. He called it psychoanalysis. .Patients being treated are encouraged to talk about themselves and particularly about their dreams. Freud believed that people's secret hopes and fears are hidden in their dreams, and that if they talk about them, they will understand themselves better.
l (France) and Egypt. He also came to Britain. The .ROMANS. invited him to become emperor but he refused. His enemies feared that he might accept the title of emperor and become even more powerful, and so they killed him.
Cleopatra
Cleopatra, who lived from about 69-30 BC, was the beautiful daughter of the .ANCIENT EGYPTIAN. king, Ptolemy XI. She had enemies who drove her out of .EGYPT.... She then appealed to .JULIUS CAESAR. for help. He made her queen of Egypt.
After Caesar's murder, civil war broke out in the Roman Empire. One side wanted control over Egypt, but Mark Antony, a Roman general, supported Cleopatra against them. Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated in battle. Both of them then killed themselves. The story of Cleopatra and Mark Antony and their lo
n Genghis Khan died, his empire stretched from the Yellow Sea, off the east coast of China, to the River Dnieper in Russia.
Genghis Khan was a military genius who was able to change his way of fighting and even the weapons used depending upon the local conditions. He would often kill all of the adult inhabitants of the areas he conquered and take the children into his own tribe. Genghis Khan especially hated the Tartars because they had killed his father so he was particularly ruthless to them.
Joan of Arc
In 1429 a girl of 17 led an army towards the French city of Orleans, which was surrounded by English troops. She was Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431), called Joan of Arc in English. .From childhood, Joan believed she heard the voices of saints.
y states that later joined together to form Germany was Prussia. Prussia's most important king was Frederick Il (1712-1786), known in history as Frederick the Great. As a boy Frederick was interested in music and literature. His father, King William I, forced him to have an .ARMY. training. He hated this, and kept on with his music. .Frederick became king in 1740. He proved to be a brilliant army commander. During his reign, the size and power of Prussia greatly increased. As ruler, Frederick made a number of wise reforms. Although he kept his love of music and writing, he never put his own interests before his duty to his country.
Maria Theresa
The Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was ruler of Austria. When her father, Charles VI, died, he left behind a huge empire. Despite promises made to him, several European countries refused to recognize the new
The English admiral Nelson. He became a national hero after his successes in battle against the French
The English naval commander Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) first went to sea at the age of 12. He rose quickly to command a warship, and then a fleet (many ships) in wars against France. He lost his right eye in one battle, his right arm in another. ..In 1798 Nelson faced .NAPOLEON'S. fleet at the Battle of the Nile. He completely defeated the French. Without ships Napoleon could not get supplies to his army in Egypt. His plans for an empire in the east came to nothing. ..In 1801 Nelson took a fleet into Copenhagen harbor. There, he put the Danish fleet out of action. Napoleon was not able to make use of the Danish ships. Nelson was made a viscount. ..In 1805 Nelson commanded the British fleet against the French at the Battle of Trafalgar. Before the action started he hoisted from the flagship Victory his signal: 'England expects every man will do his duty'. The French los
MINISTER. when Victoria became queen. He guided her wisely through the first difficult years of her reign, when England had many problems. Later, his place as adviser was taken by another Prime Minister - Benjamin Disraeli.
Victoria was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India. She reigned longer than any British king or queen before her.
Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) could walk only with difficulty after a bad attack of poliomyelitis (paralysis). Yet he was the only man ever to be elected .PRESIDENT. of the .US. four times. In response to the world-wide financial depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt brought in his famous 'New Deal'. This was a
In May 1940 .WORLD WAR II. was going badly for Britain and its allies. The .PRIME MINISTER..,. Neville Chamberlain, resigned. His place was taken by Winston Churchill (1874-1965). ..Churchill was a soldier, historian, writer, and painter as well as a politician. He had seen action in South Africa and India. In 1900 he became a Member of .PARLIAMENT.. ..Churchill was a great wartime leader. His defiant speeches inspired Parliament, the armed forces, and people at home with hope and courage. He made several journeys overseas to meet .STALIN. and President .ROOSEVELT.... In 1945, however, his party lost the general .ELECTION.... In 1951 he became Prime Minister again and finally resigned in 1955. Churchill's writings earned him the 1953 Nobel Prize for literature.
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher (born 1925) became Britain's first woman prime minister in 1979. Her opposition to .COMMUNISM. led leaders in the USSR to call her 'the Iron Lady'. ..She was born a grocer's daughter and named Margaret Hilda Roberts. She studied chemistry at university, then became a barrister (a .LAWYER.). ..In 1959 she was elected to the House of Commons. From 1970 to 1974 she was Minister of Education. In 1975 she became leader of the Conservative party, and won an election in 1979 to become Prime Minister.
She led Britain during the Falklands War in 1982. Some policies, such as those on jobs, industry and privatization made her unpopular. She won the next two elections in 1983 and 1987 but gr
ly out toward the moon or planets, the spacecraft must travel even faster - at 11 kilometers a second. ..On returning to earth, the air in the atmosphere slows the spacecraft before it lands. This makes the base of the spacecraft glow red-hot.
Space shuttle
The space shuttle takes off.
The space shuttle is an American spacecraft that flies in an orbit around the .EARTH.... Its mission is to do scientific and military work in space. It also takes up .SATELLITES. to place them in orbit, and it has been used to repair and retrieve damaged satellites in space. Each shuttle mission lasts about a week. The spacecraft then returns to earth, using its wings to land like an aircraft. It is then made ready for its next
The control room of a space mission is connected to a network of radio stations. These stations have large radio dishes that send and receive radio and television signals to and from spacecraft of all kinds. They also track the positions of spacecraft as they fly through space so that they can locate a spacecraft when required. .The tracking network has stations throughout the world. Different stations can contact orbiting spacecraft as they fly around the earth or distant spacecraft as the earth rotates. The network may also make use of special .SATELLITES. that relay the signals between spacecraft and mission control.
Mission control
Inside an imaginary mission control room.
SATELLITES. and .SPACE PRO
and very cold, the air inside is kept at normal pressure and temperature so that the passengers and crew are comfortable. ..During a flight, the cabin staff usually serve the passengers with food and drinks. On long flights, films may be shown and earphones are provided for passengers to listen to the film soundtrack and also to taped music.
A long-range jumbo jet.
The pilot and other members of the flight crew who fly the airliner sit on the flight deck in the nose of the aircraft. It is sometimes possible to visit the flight deck during a flight.
Jet engine
Air is heated through combustion, creating
find the positions of nearby craft at night and in poor visibility. The .POLICE. also use radar to check the speed of vehicles.
Military aircraft
The Tornado Swing Wing Interceptor, an advanced warplane made by Britain, Germany and Italy. It has wings that swing back at high speeds so that it can fly very fast.
Aircraft are likely to play an important part in any conflict, and nations have .AIR FORCES. to defend themselves or attack enemies. An air force contains a wide range of military aircraft and .HELICOPTERS..,. most of which are powered by .JET ENGINES. for speed. ..The fastest aircraft are high-flying reconnaissance aircraft, which can fly at speeds of 3500 kilomete
flight by shifts of the body. Hang gliders take off from slopes and generally fly around hills.
Ships and Boats
A large freight ship in the port in Rangoon, the capital of Burma.
We use a great variety of ships and boats to travel on the sea, lakes and rivers. Some are huge ships, like .FREIGHTERS. and .TANKERS.... Most big ships carry cargo of goods or materials such as oil in large quantities. People make long voyages aboard large .OCEAN LINERS. mainly for pleasure. .FERRIES. carry people and vehicles over short stretches of water. People also enjoy .WATER SPORTS
The ocean liner is the most luxurious of all the ships at sea. The finest, such as the .Queen Elizabeth 2., are like huge floating hotels. They have comfortable cabins for passengers and fine restaurants and lounges. They also have swimming pools, sun decks, games rooms and many other facilities for entertainment and sports, including movie theaters and a gymnasium. Most liners also have hairdressing salons, stores and a bank.
Ocean liners once carried passengers across the world's oceans from one country to another. Nowadays, people fly in .AIRLINERS. to travel the world. But ocean liners still sail the seas, now offering pleasure cruises as holidays for people. They carry as many as a thousand passengers, and call at several different ports where there are interesting places to visit.
Ferries
taken up by the cargo compartments. The engines, which are normally diesel engines (a kind of gasoline engine), and the bridge and crew's quarters are situated at the end of the tanker. No passengers are carried for safety reasons. Combination carriers are kinds of tankers that can carry both liquid and dry cargoes.
Freighters
A freighter in the Gulf of Aqaba. Modern freighters have cranes on the deck called derricks that are used to lift cargo into and out of the ship's holds at port.
Freighters are cargo ships that carry dry cargo of all kinds. They include cargo liners that make regular voyages to serve ports around the world and freighters known as tramps, which sail when and where there is cargo to
Navigators may measure the positions of the .SUN. or .STARS. in the sky with a .SEXTANT.... They can then work out their own position to check that they are on course. This has to be done often because winds and ocean currents can push a ship off course. Other navigation methods use .RADIO. stations on land or special .SATELLITES. in space which broadcast position signals to ships.
Sextant
The sextant has been used in navigation for over 250 years.
A sextant measures the angle between the .SUN. or a .STAR.and the horizon. The navigator looks at the horizon through the telescope and the index glass (a fixed, half-silvered mirror).
houses
A lighthouse on the rocky coast of Scotland.
Seafaring countries usually have a large number of lighthouses around their shores. A lighthouse is a tall tower, usually built on a cliff overlooking the sea and on islands and dangerous rocks. At the top is a bright light that flashes a signal out to sea. Each lighthouse has its own signal. A sailor seeing the light knows that the boat or ship is approaching the shore or a dangerous place. And by identifying the lighthouse signal, the position of the boat may be found. ..In foggy weather when the light cannot be seen out to sea, the lighthouse sounds its foghorn every minute or so. The foghorn makes a very loud noise to warn ships that they are near the lighthouse. Lightships are boats which are like floating lighthouses. They are anchored out to sea at dangerous
k underwater. Air is pumped into the suit along a pipe from a boat on the surface. A lifeline and telephone cable connect the diver to the boat and allow the people involved to communicate. ..Other divers just carry an aqualung, which is equipment that gives them air to breathe underwater. They may also wear a rubber suit to keep warm. These divers, who are known as frogmen, can swim freely. However, they must not go very deep because the water pressure at great depths can cause severe illness. To reduce th
land waterways unpowered barges are used and are either towed or pushed by tugs or powered barges. Sometimes, long strings or groups of unpowered barges are connected together and towed or pushed by a single powered vessel.
Major rivers, such as the Rhine in Europe and Mississippi in the United States, can take huge barges carrying as much as 3000 tons of cargo. Outsize loads may therefore be transported by inland waterways rather than by road. ..Smaller canals and rivers are also used for leisure. Old barges may be converted into pleasure boats, and motor cruisers are available for people to spend their vacations afloat.
Locks
When a boat is inside a lock, the gates close to seal the loc
Many different kinds of automobiles, or cars, have travelled the world's roads since the gasoline-engined car was invented by Karl Benz in Germany in 1885. However, they all work in the same basic way. An engine that burns gasoline provides the power to turn the wheels. It also drives an electric generator that makes electricity to work the lights as well as the sparking plugs in the engine that ignite the gasoline. A battery stores electricity to work the starting motor, which makes the engine start. ..To move, the driver has to operate a pedal called the clutch and a gear lever. The clutch connects the engine to the wheels so that the car starts moving. Another pedal called the accelerator sends more gasoline to the engine so that the car moves faster. The gear lever operates the gearbox. This changes the power of the engine so that it can easily drive the car up or down hills or along flat roads. ..The driver also operates the steering wheel.
gasoline engine, is a popular means of road transport. Though not as comfortable as an .AUTOMOBILE..,. it is cheaper to buy and run. Furthermore, it can easily get through heavy traffic in cities and it is simple to park. Many people use light and less powerful kinds of motorcycles, such as scooters and mopeds. ..The engine of a motorcycle drives the back wheel by means of a chain or shaft. Like cars, motorcycles have a clutch, gearbox and brakes. The rider operates these either by levers on the handlebars or by foot pedals.
Bicycles
This bicycle has been adapted so that it can be used as a taxi.
Freight train carrying grain in Thompson River Valley, Canada. Freight traffic on the railways has declined during recent decades and has largely switched to the roads.
People began to travel by railway in the early 1800s. Trains were hauled by locomotives which contained a steam engine. The steam locomotive was invented by the British engineer Richard Trevithick in 1804. However, the first public steam railway did not open until 1825. This was the Stockton & Darlington Railway in northern England, built by George .STEPHENSON.. ..The coming of railways affected people's lives greatly. They gave people the first means of easy overland travel. They also enabled goods to be transported quickly. Railways opened up remote regions, especially in the continent of
any countries have electric trains that run along electrified track. The track may have one or two extra rails or overhead wires that carry the electric current. A collecting shoe or arm slides along the rail or wire to pick up the current. The electricity then goes to electric motors that drive the wheels. An electric locomotive may haul the train, or the train may contain electrically-powered cars with their own motors. .Electric trains are fast and silent, and many main lines in Europe are electrified. In France, a special high-speed line from Lyon to Paris carries electric trains that can reach more than 300 kilometers an hour, the fastest passenger service in the world. In North America, few main lines are electrified.
Magnetic trains
New experimental trains are being built that are powered by magnetism. They have no wheels and float just abo
er, they are commonly written from left to right.
People began to write about 7,000 years ago. At first, they used simple pictures to represent objects such as bows and arrows, possibly just to indicate possessions. Then people put pictures together to represent something more complicated, like a sentence. Each picture could stand for a word, so that a phrase like 'A man hunts deer' could simply be written as pictures of a man, an arrow and a deer. ..This kind of picture writing developed about 5,000 years ago and was used in ancient Babylonia and ancient Egypt. The Egyptians had picture symbols called hieroglyphics, which included figures of birds and people. ..In Babylonia, the symbols were patterns of wedge-shaped strokes called cuneiform script that looked less like pictures. Hieroglyphics and cuneiform script died out long ago. However, similar picture writing still exists in the characters used in Chinese and Japanese writing. ..The next step in the
be used to send telegraph messages. This system of short and long signals (dots and dashes) was first used in 1844.
Numbers
Numerals - the ten symbols from 0 to 9 - are understood throughout the world. This is because we all use the decimal number system, which is based on the number ten. The reason for this is that people began to count with their fingers and thumbs, of which we have ten in all. .The numerals in a number represent powers of ten. These are ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on, multiplying by ten each time. The number 2,906 means 6 ones, 0 tens, 9 hundreds and 2 thousands. Representing numbers in this way makes it easy to do calculations. .COMPUTERS. work with a similar sys
and the lines into pages that are inked and printed. This form of printing, which is known as letterpress, is still used to print some .NEWSPAPERS.
Modern printing methods use .COMPUTERS. and .PHOTOGRAPHY. or .LASERS. to produce printing plates which contain reversed words and pictures on their surface. The plates are inked so that only the words and pictures take up the ink. Paper is then pressed on the plate and the words and pictures are printed on the paper. In large printing machines, the printing plates are curved to fit on rollers that rotate to print on a long strip of paper fed into the machine.
When they are printed, pictures are broken up into many tiny dots. This process makes the pictures clear and sharp. Color pictures are made up of red, yellow, blue and black dots. Each color is printed by a separate plate. .Computers are connected to printers to produce a print-out of their
ant to look up on many different occasions. .Many nonfiction books are books about a single subject, such as science or history; However, there are also general nonfiction books that almost everyone can find useful. Encyclopedias aim to cover the whole field of knowledge, and an adult encyclopedia may have thousands of pages and contain many volumes. Atlases are basically collections of maps, though they often contain much other information. Dictionaries explain the meanings of words, and you can also use them to check how a word is spelled.
Libraries
No one can hope to own all the books they want to read or need to use. Fortunately, in most towns there are libraries that lend books to people. There are also libraries in schools, and mobile libraries in vans that travel to people's homes. .A good library contains thousands of books of all kind
MAGAZINES. and .BOOKS.... ..Photography was invented about 160 years ago, and we have valuable information about the 1800s and 1900s in the form of old photographs. You can find out a lot about the lives of your parents and their forebears from photographs. We are adding to this great store of visual information with every new photograph we take.
To take photographs, you use a camera and photographic film. When you press the button on the camera to take a picture, the shutter opens for a fraction of a second. Light goes through the lens to form an image on the film. Because the time of this exposure is so short, the picture will be a still picture even if the people or objects in it are moving. .When the film is processed, it is placed in chemicals that develop the pictures on it. With color slides, you get back the actual film with the pictures on it. Prints, either in color or black-and-white, are made from the film and are larger in size.
velopments that followed were the telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham .BELL. and radio in the 1890s by Guglielmo .MARCONI.... Worldwide communications increased greatly with the first communications satellites in the 1960s. Now .FIBER OPTICS. promises to improve the quality and quantity of our communications.
Radio
Invisible radio waves move rapidly from a radio transmitter to any receiver within range.
Radio stations around the world broadcast a great variety of programs that inform, educate or entertain their listeners. There are almost 10,000 radio stations in the United States alone. Most stations are low-powered and serve only the surrounding region. But some high-powered stations can be picked up
aling mechanism in the caller's telephone sends electric signals along a wire in the line to the local exchange. All the other telephones in the area are also connected to the exchange. Switches at the exchange select a line to the other person's exchange.
This exchange routes the call to their telephone. Signals then pass along their line and make their telephone ring. They pick up the handset and answer. As the person talks, a microphone in the mouth
Computer networks
Using the telephone system, it is possible to connect .COMPUTERS. in different places together. A home computer can link into a computer network with a modem. This is a device that sends and receives computer signals along telephone wires. .A person in a computer network can send messages to anyone else in the network. Thi
This woman from Chad in northern Africa is irrigating her crops.
Many farmers grow crops to feed both people and farm animals. Other plants are also cultivated for use in industry. ..A great variety of .FOOD. crops are grown throughout the world. Most important are cereals, especially .WHEAT. and .RICE.. There are also vegetables such as .POTATOES. and cabbages, and fruits like .APPLES. and .BANANAS.
and goats.
Farmers raise many kinds of animals for their meat, their milk, their wool, their skins or their eggs. The main livestock animals are .CATTLE., .SHEEP., .PIGS. and .POULTRY.. .GOATS. are also raised in some parts of the world. Farmers may also keep strong animals such as .HORSES. to do work. ..These domestic animals are all special breeds of livestock that are suited to various kinds of farming. They may be varieties of cows that give
a large net that is drawn in a circle around a shoal of fish. Herring and mackerel are caught in seine nets. Drift nets are long nets that hang beneath floats at the surface of the sea. ..The drift nets are left overnight, and fish feeding near the surface are trapped in the mesh (holes).
The three main kinds of fishing nets.
re, disease and pests. Insects and animals such as .DEER. and .SQUIRRELS. can damage the bark, buds and leaves of trees. ..The foresters decide when it is time to fell, or cut down, the trees. The timber is then transported to .SAWMILLS. to be cut into planks and beams, or to pulp mills for paper-making. ..Fires destroy and damage millions of trees each year. Some fires start by accident, especially when the summer heat dries out the ground. Others are caused by lightning. Once they start, forest fires are
profession. Carpenters are required in many parts of the .CONSTRUCTION. industry. In a house, for example, they may build the framework that holds up the roof, the staircase, and all the floors, doors and window frames. ..Furniture-making is another industry that needs woodworking of great skill. Although such furniture as tables, chairs and cupboards can be made of metals or plastics, many people prefer the look of wood. This is often because the surface can be treated and polished to bring out the pattern.
ly, they can reveal fossils that may be in the rock. This helps us to know how the Earth was formed. Secondly, abandoned quarry workings can often become wildlife reserves.....Did you know?..The worlds largest quarry is in Utah, USA. It is 770 meters deep.
Underground mines
the plant remains into coal. This is why coal is usually found underground. However, in places, the rock above was worn away and the coal now lies at or near the surface.
People have used coal as a fuel for centuries. Until recently, coal or .GAS. made from coal was burned in fires to heat homes and offices, and coal provided fuel for most power stations, ships and railway trains. .Today, other sources of energy such as .OIL., natural gas and
The doors of the cathedral in Pisa are decorated with bronze relief. Bronze is often used for statues and monuments because it is easy to cast and does not rust.
Most metals are not used in a pure state, but are mixed with other metals or chemical elements to form alloys. .STEEL., for example, is an alloy of .IRON. and carbon and other metals.
nto the object to remove precise amounts of metal.
Machining operations may be carried out by robots or computer-controlled machine tools. They can do the work with great precision. A human operator may teach the movements to the machine storing all the movements in the machine's computer memory. The machine can then operate alone.
Welding
es are being discovered.
Textiles
Workers at a textile factory in Bangladesh.
In our daily lives we use a great variety of fabrics. They clothe us and, as sheets and blankets, keep us warm at
c is passed through a hot solution of dye. Most dyes are not natural colors but synthetic substances made from chemicals. This is because synthetic dyes come in a wide range of shades that do not wash out or fade. ..Dyeing colors the whole fabric. Printing produces a colored pattern on the fabric by applying different dyes to various parts of the fabric. The pattern may be on several rollers to which the dyes are applied. The fabric passes through the rollers to be printed.
ay and other ingredients, either by hand - often using a potter's wheel - or by machines using molds. The shaped piece of clay is then allowed to dry before being fired or baked in a kiln or oven. The great heat fuses the particles of clay together so that the clay becomes hard. ..There are three main kinds of pottery: porcelain, stoneware and earthenware. Porcelain, or china, is the finest pottery. Delicate and almost glass-like, it is used for the best tableware. Stoneware is a strong, hard kind of potter
ric signals which move to and fro inside the machines. They include microchips, which are as small as your little fingernail yet contain thousands of even smaller components. The signals move in and out of these components, which change the signals into the form needed. .Among these components are transistors, which alter the strength of a signal passing through them. By controlling the operations of the transistors and other components, the machine processes the signals into the required forms. In a comput
the computer. REPEAT makes it repeat a section of the program while STOP prevents it continuing, for example. These words are from the language called BASIC, but other languages are similar.
Inside the computer, a memory unit containing the language translates the commands into code signals that the computer uses. It may enable a program written for one kind of computer to work on another kind.
Tunnels
Tunnels carry .ROADS. and railways through hills and mountains where there is no valley or pass to take them. Tunnels are also dug beneath rivers and estuaries, and the world's longest transportation tunnel is a rail tunnel beneath a sea channel in Japan. However, large tunnels built to carry water supplies are much longer. .Digging a tunnel first requires precise surveying to
nstruction. This is because it is produced as a liquid that can be poured into position. It then sets hard. Concrete slabs and panels can be molded in all kinds of shapes for building. Often, they are precast - first made in a factory and then taken to the site. ..Concrete is made by mixing stones, sand and cement with water and stirring vigorously.
Bricks and stone
Several pipes and cables supply services to a house while the sewer takes away waste. Gas in used for cooking and to provide hot water for the house.
Another important part of a house or apartment is its communications system. These are cables that connect to the telephone and may bring television and radio. In future, homes are likely to have a system using .FIBER OPTICS. that will connect to a central computer controlling all the systems and services in the home.
ries were first built. It began in Britain in the 1700s when spinning machines and steam engines were invented. Textiles could now be made by machines instead of by hand. .The textile industry developed as people began to work in textile factories. Farming machinery was also invented at this time. People no longer had to grow their own food and could leave the countryside to live in towns. More industries sprang up, and more people went to work in factories. The lives of most people changed greatly. Instead
ees that the work is done well and that production targets, schedules and budgets are met. .Management must make the best use of employees, machines, materials, time and money. It should be expert at dealing with people to overcome the problems that spring up in any business or organization. Managers may control production, sales, advertising and public relations. The personnel manager works closely with the employees, discussing pay, working conditions and benefits, and may hire new workers.
From the answers, firms can design new products or improve existing ones. They can also find out which kinds of people are going to like the product and then create advertisements to reach these people. ..Advertisements may be posters on billboards that catch the eye and entice one to buy. Advertisers also make great use of the media, which are organizations that inform and entertain people. Newspapers and magazines are usually more dependent on money from advertising than sales, and commercial radio and te
Money
The Stock Exchange in Tokyo where stocks and shares are bought and sold. Money is passed between bank accounts by electronic transfer.
Using money helps us to manage our lives. Without money, we would have to make things or use our poss
hat electric clocks keep time.
Digital clocks and watches show the time as numbers indicating the hour and minute, and possibly the second and fraction of a second. These displays may have no moving parts, especially if seconds are shown. The timekeeping mechanism produces electric signals at a precise rate. These signals go to the display and cause it to change numbers. In liquid-crystal displays in digital watches, the numbers are made of a pattern of tiny bars.
A fortified gateway in the historic city of Bruges, Belgium. Bruges was the capital of medieval Flanders.
Belgium is a small .MONARCHY.. . that borders the .NORTH SEA.. . between .FRANCE.. . and the .NETHERLANDS.
Area (sq k)... 449,964 ..323,878 ..43,093 ..338,145..102,819
Capital... Stockholm ..Oslo ..Copenhagen..Helsinki..Reykjavik
Denmark
Area (sq km)...130,439 ..78,783 ..20,768 ..14,120..70,285
Capital...London ..Edinburgh ..Cardiff..Belfast..Dublin
Ireland
ted National Assembly. Portugal joined the European Community in 1986. The official language is Portuguese.
Malta
Malta is a small island country in the .MEDITERRANEAN SEA.. .,. south of Sicily. It contains three populated islands: Malta, which is the largest, Gozo and Comino. Tourism, farming and fishing are leading industries. .Malta was a British colony and naval base until 1964, when it gained independence. It became a .REPUBLIC.. . in 1974, but it remained a member of the .COMMONWEALTH.. ... A .PRESIDENT.. . is now head of state and an elected House of Representatives governs the country. English and Maltese are the official languages.
France
The mainland of Italy sticks out like a boot into the .MEDITERRANEAN SEA.. ... The island of Sicily lies at the toe of the boot. Sicily belongs to Italy, as does the island of Sardinia and the smaller Lipari islands. These include the famous volcanoes, Stromboli and Vulcano. Other volcanoes in Italy are Etna and Vesuvius. ..The Apennine Mountains run the whole length of Italy. They join the .ALPS. at the border with .FRANCE.. ... The Lombardy plain
of state and prime minister as head of government.
Macedonia
Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992 but in 1993 had still not been recognized as an independent republic by the EC. It is a mountainous region whose inhabitants speak Macedonian, which is closely allied to Bulgarian, and follow the Macedonian Orthodox Christian church.
are also important. Austria is a .REPUBLIC.. .,. and German is the official language.
Poland
Poland borders the Baltic Sea in the north. The Czech and Slovak Republics lie to the south, the Ukraine and Belarus to the east. The Oder and Neisse rivers form the western border with .GERMANY.
states, it comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekhistan and the Ukraine. (All the countries of the USSR. . with the exception of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.) The CIS. . is the largest country in the world, covering one sixth of all the world's land.
s. Today about one-fifth of all jews live in Israel. About four-fifths of Israel's people are Jews. The others are mostly .ARABS.. ... Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages. ..Much of Israel consists of dry plains and .DESERTS.. ... However, the Israelis have worked hard to irrigate the land for farming and to build a modern nation. Farming is important, but mining and manufacturing are now much more valuable industries than agriculture. Most of the people live in cities and towns.
The distinctive houses of the Marsh Arab people of Iraq. The houses are made frorm reeds and brick.
Iraq lies between .SYRIA.. . and the northern end of the Persian Gulf. Much of the land is .DESERT.. .,. but a fertile plain lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The first civilizations began here more than 5000 years ago. Ancient .BABYLON.. . was in what is now southern Iraq.
Two-fift
Population...1,190,000 ..1,989,000 ..12,147,000..59,570,000..18,052,000
Area (sq km)...17,818 ..77,700 ..531,869..1,638,057..652,225
Capital...Kuwait ..Abu Dhabi
of Bengal. High forested .MOUNTAINS. are in northern Burma, but there are fertile plains in the south. .RICE. is the main food crop in this mainly farming country. Most Burmese are .BUDDHISTS. and there are many beautiful temples., The main language is Burmese. Myanmar is a .REPUBLIC. governed by a People's Assembly.
Malaysia
the north of .INDONESIA.. ... It consists of more than 7000 islands. The largest are Luzon, where the capital, Manila, is situated, and Mindanao. It is a tropical, mountainous country. Most people are farmers, and .RICE.. . and .CORN.. . are the main crops. Coconut oil and sugar cane are also important. .The Philippines is unusual in Asia because more than nine-tenths of the people are Christians. Christianity was introduced in the 1500s. Spain ruled the country until 1898, when the .USA. took over. In 1946
A pagoda in the Summer Palace, Beijing.
In 1949 they took control of all China except the island of Taiwan. Under communist rule, the government owns all the land, factories, and mines. The communists first concentrated on increasing food production. They set up many communes, which are groups of villages where the people work together. They have also developed many manufacturing
o two parts: South Korea and North Korea. ..From 1950 to 1953 the two nations fought one another to control the peninsula. A truce was finally agreed to, however, and the two remain separate. South Korea is a .REPUBLIC.. . governed by a .PRESIDENT.. . and a .PARLIAMENT.. ... North Korea is a socialist republic with a .COMMUNIST.. . government ..Nearly two-fifths of Koreans are farmers, but industry has expanded greatly in both countries in recent years.
The Nile and its tributaries flow across the Sudan, but in 1985 droughts in the south caused a severe famine. ...ARABS.. . live in the north and black peoples in the south. They fought a .CIVIL WAR.. . between 1964 and 1972. The country is governed by a .PRESIDENT.. . and .PARLIAMENT
Libya
Beaches and housing at Cape Coast Castle. The coastal trading centers were used by Europeans to buy gold and slaves.
Ghana lies in western .AFRICA.. . and borders the Gulf of Guinea. The country is low-lying and
nd platinum are mined. But today South Africa's leading source of income is its manufacturing industry. ..South Africa has four provinces, the Transvaal, the Cape, the Orange Free State, and Natal. The country is governed by a .PARLIAMENT.. . with a .PRESIDENT.. . as head of state. ..The two official languages are English and Afrikaans. The black, or Bantu, people have their own languages. Many black people live in special areas called Black States. By 1985, four of these States had been recognized as indep
Washing is spread out to dry on the banks of the young River Nile.
Uganda lies in central .AFRICA.. ... Part of the country borders Lake Victoria, Africa's largest .LAKE.. ... The land is mainly .GRASSLAND.. .,. and most people are farmers. .COFFEE.. . and .COTTON.. . are the most important crops. Mining, part
uch minerals as lead, silver. .,. and zinc, and various manufacturing industries. Fishing is also important, especially for salmon. Behind the coastal region lie the high .ROCKY MOUNTAINS.. .,. which are popular with tourists.
To the east of the Rockies are vast grasslands, called prairies, where .CATTLE.. . are reared and much wheat is grown. .COAL.. . and .OIL.. . also come from the prairie region.
rs. silver. .,. .COAL.. . and .OIL.. . are mined. Steel and textiles are important manufactured products. .EARTHQUAKES. and volcanic eruptions occur in Mexico. A severe earthquake in 1985 badly damaged Mexico City. ..There were great Indian civilizations in Mexico before Spaniards conquered the country in the early 1500s. Remains of ancient .PYRAMIDS.. . can still be seen. Spanish rule ended in 1822. ..More than half of the people are of mixed Indian and European descent, three-tenths are Indians, and most
European descent. There are also Indians and black people. Brazil is governed by a .PARLIAMENT.. .,. and the .PRESIDENT.. . is head of state.
Colombia
A street in St Augustine, Colombia. The Andes mountain range runs through the country from north to south.
racted few colonists.
Oceania
The heavily forested island of Yap in Micronesia.
There are thousands of small .ISLANDS.
ns. A village became a town and then a city as more people went to live there. Cities grew where people could trade easily, such as on .RIVERS.. .,. near the sea, or where several .ROADS.. . met. ..Today, cities do not have to grow up slowly. New cities can be built in a few years. They have their own .AIRPORTS.. . and roads to carry trade. But they are still often built on rivers or near the sea. The capital of a country is usually its most important city. The people who govern a country often live and wor
nment of the empire. The Colosseum was an arena seating thousands of spectators who gathered to watch spectacles such as gladiators fighting. ..Many buildings in Rome were built after the time of the .ANCIENT ROMANS.. ... They include small palaces and fountains, as well as magnificent churches. The largest church is St Peter's Basilica. It is in the .VATICAN CITY.. .,. a tiny state within Rome. The Pope governs the .ROMAN CATHOLIC.. . Church from the Vatican City. Rome has superb paintings and other works
directions from the center of Moscow. They are crossed by ring roads where Moscow's old walls once stood. The city lies on the Moskva River. Many trade goods between Europe and Asia pass through Moscow.
Istanbul
Istanbul is the largest city in .TURKEY.. .,. although Ankara is the capital. In ancient times Istanbul was called Byzantium. Fr