高中英语河北版上unit8
00:00.00]Unit Eight New ideas and Inventions
[00:-1.00]China has produced many inventors throughout history.
[00:-2.00]Studies show that from the 6th century B.C.to the 16th century A.D.,
[00:-3.00]there were 298 major inventions and discoveries in the world,
[00:-4.00]among which 178 were made by China alone!
[00:-5.00]A mind once stretched by a new idea
[00:-6.00]never regains its original dimension.-Ancient Proverb
[00:-7.00]Section 1 New words and ideas The Invention of Explosives
[00:-8.00]Some ancient Chinese alchemists were mixing some ingredients together
[00:-9.00]to form something they thught would make them live forever.
[00:10.00]They put their mixture on a small fire,not knowing they had made a mistake.
[00:11.00]The mixture started to bubble and boil.
[00:12.00]Then it burst into flames,burning down thier hut.
[00:13.00]Without knowing it,these ancient alchemists had made the first explosives.
[00:14.00]The ancient Chinese realized after a long while
[00:15.00]that the mixture that the alchemists had made could be used on something different.
[00:16.00]They mixed many other ingredients together
[00:17.00]and after repeated failures they found the answer.
[00:18.00]They were pleased with their accomplishment.
[00:19.00]At first,the Chinese did not use their new creation for war.
[00:20.00]They made the first fireworks our of the new material.
[00:21.00]They used their fireworks as signals for many things
[00:22.00]such as signaling that another army was approaching.
[00:23.00]The Chinese kept developing their creation,not using their knowledge for war.
[00:24.00]Eventually,they did design a weapon that was powerful.
[00:25.00]They took a hollowed piece of bamboo and filled it with the powder.
[00:26.00]Then they stuffed arrows in it.These were the first rockets.
[00:27.00]Later the secret of the invention leaked to the Arabs
[00:28.00]who absorbed the new knowledge quickly.
[00:29.00]The Arabs made similar weapons.They brought the knowledge westward,
[00:30.00]introducing it to the Europeans who absorbed it quickly.
[00:31.00]The age of explosives began.
[00:32.00]In the 1200's,Roger Bacon,a European,was interested in the new knowledge.
[00:33.00]He studied it and tested it over and over.
[00:34.00]After many months,he found the perfect solution.
[00:35.00]Roger Bacon made,and recorded,
[00:36.00]the first black powder(the early form of gunpowder).
[00:37.00]One hundred years later,
[00:38.00]a man named berthold Schwarts looked into this black powder.
[00:39.00]Bacon did not get credit for making the black powder
[00:40.00]because he didn't use his invention.
[00:41.00]Schwarts saw this and put his mind to work.
[00:42.00]He tried many things and finally thought of a great idea.
[00:43.00]Schwarts took a long iron tube and closed one end except for a tiny hole.
[00:44.00]He filled the tube with the black powder and stuffed a small stone in it.
[00:45.00]He touched a flame to the tiny hole
[00:46.00]and the stone shot through the air with great speed.
[00:47.00]Schwarts had invented guns.Soon,guns became cannons.
[00:48.00]The age when the rich lords could sit in their castles and feel safe was over.
[00:49.00]A new age of darkness bagan.
[00:50.00]Gunpowder also sped up the slow process of digging up stones.
[00:51.00]It could be used to blow stones out of the ground.
[00:52.00]Before,only the rich people could have stone house.
[00:53.00]Now even some poor people could have a house of stone.
[00:54.00]This was a great technological step forward.
[00:55.00]Five-hundred years after Schwarts made the first guns,
[00:56.00]an Italian scientist was added to the list of inventors
[00:57.00]with his creation of a dangerous and unstable mixture.
[00:58.00]In the 19th century,a new idea came into Alfred Nobel's head.
[00:59.00]he tried putting dry remains of sea animals into this unstable mixture.
[-1:00.00]He tested the new substance and found that it worked.
[-1:-1.00]This was one of many great inventions.
[-1:-2.00]Nobel named his invention dynamite,one of the first high explosives. [-1:-3.00]People used the new explosive for excavating and tunnelling.
[-1:-4.00]Nobel became very rich and famous.
[-1:-5.00]Many years later,Alfred Nobel died.He left his money for prizes.
[-1:-6.00]Those who did best in certain fields were rewarded for their work.
[-1:-7.00]Every year,the prizes were,and still are,given to the best in chemistry,
[-1:-8.00]medicine,physics,literature,and the promotion of peace.
[-1:-9.00]Section 2 Meaning through practice
[-1:10.00]C.Build your listening skills
[-1:11.00]Listen to the passage about an important Chinese invention
[-1:12.00]and fill in the blanks.
[-1:13.00]For centuries,riches,_____,information and ____
[-1:14.00]flowed between the easternmost parts of ___.
[-1:15.00]deserts in the Middle East,the kingdoms of Southern Africa,
[-1:16.00]and the ___ of Western Europe.
[-1:17.00]The ancient___civilization,for example,
[-1:18.00]contributed many things that are now used all over the world.
[-1:19.00]Perhaps the most important of all of these was paper_____!
[-1:20.00]Originally,the Chinese called this"____money",
[-1:21.00]because it was so____that it could easily blow out of one's_____.
[-1:22.00]As early as 650 A.D.,the____of China issued paper"tokens"to the Chinese people.
[-1:23.00]By the 10th century,paper money was____all over China.
[-1:24.00]____hundred years later,paper money started to come into use in____.
[-1:25.00]Section 4 Reading to get up early
[-1:26.00]A New Bed for you
[-1:27.00]Is it difficult for you to get up in the morning?
[-1:28.00]Do you sometimes oversleep?Are you often late for work or school?
[-1:29.00]Yes?Then Hiroyuki Sugiyama of Japan has a special bed for you.
[-1:30.00]Hiroyuki's be will get you up in the morning!Here is how it works.
[-1:31.00]The bed is connected to an alarm clock.
[-1:32.00]First,the alarm clocking rings.You have a few minutes to wake up.
[-1:33.00]Next,a tape recorder in the bed plays soft music or other pleasant sounds.
[-1:34.00]The tape recorder in Hiroyuki's bed plays a recording of his girlfriend.
[-1:35.00]She whispers in a sweet voice,"wake up,darling,please."
[-1:36.00]A few minutes later a second recording plays.
[-1:37.00]The second recording can be loud music or unpleasant sounds.
[-1:38.00]Hiroyuki hears a recording of his boss.
[-1:39.00]His boss shouts,"Wake up immediately,or you'll be late!"
[-1:40.00]If you don't get up after the second recording,you'll be sorry!
[-1:41.00]A mechanical"foot"is in the bed.The mechanical foot kicks you in the head.
[-1:42.00]Then the bed waits a few more minutes.What!You're still in bed!
[-1:43.00]Slowly the top of the bed rises higher and higher.
[-1:44.00]The foot of the bed goes lower and lower.
[-1:45.00]Finally,the bed si vertical.You slide off the bed and onto the floor.
[-1:46.00]You are out of bed and awake!
[-1:47.00]Hiroyuki made his bed because he wanted to win a contest.
[-1:48.00]He works for Honda Motor Company.
[-1:49.00]Once every two years Honda has a contest for its 2000 000 employees
[-1:50.00]-the"All-Honda Idea Contest."The employees think of new ideas.
[-1:51.00]If their ideas win,the employees win prizes.
[-1:52.00]Hiroyuki Sugiyama won one of the top prizes for his bed.
[-1:53.00]Hiroyuki wanted to win a prize.He also wanted to solve a problem.
[-1:54.00]"Getting up in the morning is difficult for me,"he said.
[-1:55.00]"Often I am almost late for work.Maybe this bed will solve my problem."
[-1:56.00]Hiroyuki's bed is not in stores.
[-1:57.00]There is only one bed-the bed Hiroyuki made for the contest.
[-1:58.00]Maybe someday a company will make Hiroyuki's bed and sell it in stores.
[-1:59.00]Maybe people will buy millions of the beds.
[-2:00.00]Then Hiroyuki rich,If the bed makes Hiroyuki rich,
[-2:-1.00]it certainly will solve his problem.
[-2:-2.00]Hiroyuki will have a lot of money.He won't need to go to work,
[-2:-3.00]and he won't need to get up early!
[-2:-4.00]Reading for information The miracle machine
[-2:-5.00]Computers affect the lives of many people in many ways.
[-2:-6.00]From digital watches,to controlling the economy,computers have affected society[-2:-7.00]Over the years,they have changed from huge rooms
[-2:-8.00]full of equipment used by a few scientists,
[-2:-9.00]to handy little tools that can be carried anywhere.
[-2:10.00]Many people have never heard the history behind this miracle machine
[-2:11.00]that is changing the way we work and play.
[-2:12.00]The idea that a machine could be built to add and subtract was an early step.
[-2:13.00]The abacus,a gadget with beads on wires,was developed long ago to help do this.
[-2:14.00]In 1642,Blaise Pascal developed another machine.
[-2:15.00]This one had numbered dials
[-2:16.00]that could be turned to add or subtract columns of numbers.
[-2:17.00]Another"thread"in the history of the computer
[-2:18.00]was the invention of looms that were controlled by punched paper tape or cards.
[-2:19.00]The most advanced of these was the Jacquard loom,invented in 1801.
[-2:20.00]The holes in the cards moved up and down to create the pattern in the cloth.
[-2:21.00]These "up"and"down"patterns were adapted to the"on"and "off",
[-2:22.00]or 1 and 0,system that is the basis for all computer languages.
[-2:23.00]These two areas were combined by Charles Babbage in 1834.
[-2:24.00]His "engine"could have been used to solve many number problems[-2:25.00]However,the machine designed by Babbage
[-2:26.00]was beyond the manufacturing abilities of that time.
[-2:27.00]His "analytical enging"was never built.
[-2:28.00]The first ture digital computer were built between 1934 and 1946.
[-2:29.00]At the end of this period of time,the most-advanced computer(the ENIAC)
[-2:30.00]was able to perform 5000 additions per second.
[-2:31.00]This machine weighed about thirty tons and filled a large room
[-2:32.00]-large and slow by today's standards.
[-2:33.00]It is the grandfather of all the microcomputers and pocket calculators used today.
[-2:34.00]Reading for new ideas The edible cup
[-2:35.00]EDMONTON,ALBERTA-
[-2:36.00]Are you worried about the environment?
[-2:37.00]Do yu feel bad when you throw away paper cups and packaging?
[-2:38.00]Paper comes from trees,and we are using too many of them.
[-2:39.00]Trees keep our air clean by taking in carbon dioxide and sending out oxygen.
[-2:40.00]Fewer trees mean polluted air.
[-2:41.00]Garbge is another problem.There is nowhere to put it.
[-2:42.00]But you like the idea of take-out food,right?
[-2:43.00]No problem.Eat your lunch,drink your coffee,then eat the container!
[-2:44.00]It's a great idea-an edible food container.
[-2:45.00]Food science professor Buncha Ooraikul plans to make edible containers
[-2:46.00]for such things as coffee,soft drinks,hamburgers,French fries,and yogurt.
[-2:47.00]He places tow cups on his desk.
[-2:48.00]They look like foam cups,but they are different colours:
[-2:49.00]cream and reddish-brown.Break off a small piece of the cup and yes,
[-2:50.00]it is delicious!
[-2:51.00]"You can add any flavour you want,"says Ooraikul,"coffee,bacon..."
[-2:52.00]Companies can also and print to the cups with edible ink.
[-2:53.00]Buncha says,"The cups don't leak.
[-2:54.00]They can hold hot or cold liquild for at least two hurs."
[-2:55.00]He pours steaming hot coffee into one and lets it sit on his desk.
[-2:56.00]The cups are made of wheat flour and potatoes.
[-2:57.00]The complete recipe is a secret.
[-2:58.00]He agrees that edible food contaners are not now.
[-2:59.00]Ice cream cones are also containers you can eat.
[-3:00.00]Ooraikul needs#2.5million to finish work,
[-3:-1.00]open a factory,and start his business.
[-3:-2.00]So far,he has only received between$20000 and $25000.
[-3:-3.00]The cup of hot coffee on Buncha's desk is now soft,but it hasn't leaked.
[-3:-4.00]If the professor can complete his work,
[-3:-5.00]maybe someday we can have our cup and eat it too!
[-3:-6.00]Reading for inspiration
[-3:-7.00]Where did Basketball games come from?
[-3:-8.00]Games don't come with built-in rulebooks and uniforms.
[-3:-9.00]They develop over time from activities of people playing for fun.
[-3:10.00]For example,basketball was invented to help American football players [-3:11.00]have fun and stay in shape in the cold winter months.
[-3:12.00]Here is the story.James Naismith had a problem.
[-3:13.00]It was cold and snowy outside the Yong Men's Christian Association(YMCA),
[-3:14.00]in the U.S.A,where he worked.
[-3:15.00]Athletes on the baseball and football teams were sitting around
[-3:16.00]getting bored and out of shape.
[-3:17.00]Naismith was asked to think up an indoor game to get them in shape.
[-3:18.00]What could Naimith do?
[-3:19.00]He went to the storeroom and brought up a socer ball.
[-3:20.00]Then he asked the caretaker to find two boxes
[-3:21.00]to nail to the wall at opposite ends of their small gymnasium.
[-3:22.00]The Janitor couldn't find any boxes,so he brought up two old peach baskets.
[-3:23.00]They worked just fine.
[-3:24.00]The first two points in the first basketball game ever
[-3:25.00]were scored by an overweight football player
[-3:26.00]who received a bounce pass from a friend and did a jump shot
[-3:27.00]with a soccer ball into a peach basket.
