01_04_nceiv_l01-l12_1-38_20220213212031 Flashcards
Lesson 1
Lesson 1 Finding fossil man
We can read of
We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.
But there are s
But there are some parts of the word where even now people cannot write.
The only way th
The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas – legends handed down from one generation of another.
These legends a
These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did.
Anthropologists
Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.
The sagas of th
The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
But the first p
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.
So archaeologis
So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first ‘modern men’ came from.
Fortunately, ho
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds.
They may also h
They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.
Stone does not
Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.
Lesson 2
Lesson 2 Spare that spider
Why, you may wo
Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?
Because they de
Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.
Insects would m
Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world;
They would de
They would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.
We owe a lot to
We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.
Moreover, unlik
Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.
Spiders are not
Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.
One can tell th
One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.
How many spider
How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf?
One authority o
One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre;
that is somethi
that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.
Spiders are bus
Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.
It is impossibl
It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.
It has been est
It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.
Lesson 3
Lesson 3 Matterhorn man
Modern alpinist
Modern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sport, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded.
In the pioneeri
In the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at all.
The early climb
The early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if it had never been attained before.
It is true that
It is true that during their explorations they often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature
They had a sing
They had a single aim, a solitary goal – the top!
It is hard for
It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers.
Except for one
Except for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidly become popular, Alpine village tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountains.
Such inns as th
Such inns as there were generally dirty and flea-ridden;
The food - sim
The food - simply local cheese accompanied by bread - often twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine.
Equipped in a
Equipped in a manner with would make a modern climber shudder at the thought, but they did not go out of their way to court such excitement.
Often a valley
Often a valley boasted no inn at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could -
sometimes with
sometimes with the local priest (who was usually as poor as his parishioners), sometimes with shepherds or cheese-makers.
Invariably the
Invariably the background was the same: dirt and poverty, and very uncomfortable.
For men accusto
For men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps must have been very hard indeed.
Lesson 4
Lesson 4 Seeing hands
Several cases h
Several cases have been reported in Russia recently of people who can detect colours with their fingers, and even see through solid doors and walls.
One case concer
One case concerns an eleven-year-old schoolgirl, Vera Petrova, who has normal vision but who can also perceive things with different parts of her skin, and through solid walls.
This ability wa
This ability was first noticed by her father.
One day she cam
One day she came into his office and happened to put her hands on the door of a locked safe.
Suddenly she as
Suddenly she asked her father why he kept so many old newspapers locked away there, and even described the way they were done up in bundles.
Vera’s curious
Vera’s curious talent was brought to the notice of a scientific research institute in the town of Ulyanovsk, near where she lives,
and in April
and in April she was given a series of tests by a special commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federal Republic.
During these te
During these tests she was able to read a newspaper through an opaque screen and,
stranger still, by
stranger still, by moving her elbow over a child’s game of Lotto she was able to describe the figures and colours printed on it;
and, in another
and, in another instance, wearing stockings and slippers, to make out with her foot the outlines and colours of a picture hidden under a carpet.
Other experimen
Other experiments showed that her knees and shoulders had a similar sensitivity.
During all thes
During all these tests Vera was blindfold;
and, indeed, exc
and, indeed, except when blindfold she lacked the ability to perceive things with her skin.
It was also fou
It was also found that although she could perceive things with her fingers, this ability ceased the moment her hands were wet.
Lesson 5
Lesson 5 Youth
People are alwa
People are always talking about ‘the problem of youth’.
If there is one
If there is one – which I take leave to doubt – then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.
Let us get down
Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings – people just like their elders.
There is only o
There is only one difference between an old man and a young one:
the young man
the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him:
and maybe that
and maybe that is where the rub is.
When I was a te
When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain –
that I was a
that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.
For one thing,
For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.
I find young pe
I find young people exciting.
They have an ai
They have an air of freedom, and they do not have a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.
They are not an
They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things.
