LESSON NINEThe Ninth LessonTEXT
LOOK CAREFULLY AND LEARNMy friend Carl will never forget a certain professor. This professor taught him chemistry at the university. He was an ordinary-looking little man with thick glasses, but he had a strange way of making his classes lively and interesting. And the lessons he taught were not easily forgotten.
Carl remembers one of his first lessons from this professor. After the students were all in the chemistry lab, the professor brought out three bottles. One was filled with kerosene, one with castor oil, and one with vinegar. "Now watch carefully," said the professor. "Pay attention to everything that I do."
He then filled a cup with some of the kerosene, some of the castor oil and some of the vinegar. As the students watched with fascination, he mixed the three together. After that, he held up one of his fingers and showed it to the class. He then dipped it into the cup. After a few seconds he took his finger out. "Now watch," he said. "Remember, you must do everything that I do."
He put a finger in his mouth and sucked it. He nodded with a smile. Then he handed the cup around the class of students. Each student dipped a finger into the mixture and sucked it. Each immediately made a face. The mixture tasted horrible.
When the cup was at last returned to the professor, he shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry," he said to the class, "but none of you watched carefully enough. Yes, I sucked a finger, but the finger I put into my mouth was not the one I had dipped into the cup."
It was their first important lesson as students of chemistry and they never forgot it.
༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻༺༻A STORYMr Smith liked to be exact. One day when he was walking in the street, a man came over and asked him:
"Excuse me, but where's the nearest bookshop?"
"The nearest bookshop? You have to cross a bridge and then turn to the right."
"And is the bridge long?"
"Very. Thirty metres."
The man thanked him and went towards the bridge. Suddenly he heard someone running after him.
"Stop!" Mr Smith was shouting. "I'm sorry. I just remembered: the bridge is forty metres long. If you go thirty metres and then to the right, as I told you to do, you'll fall into the river."
At page 90, 91, 92, 97, 98, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)
Supplementary Readings1. Peter's Golden Bridge"Tomorrow we'll see the Golden Gate Bridge," said Peter. "I've never seen a golden bridge before."
Peter's father smiled, but said nothing. Peter would soon see the bridge.
The next morning, his father took Peter to the bridge. Peter first saw it from far away. How big it looked! But then he saw something else. The bridge was red!
"The bridge isn't golden!" he said. "Why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge?"
"It isn't named for its color," said his father. "It's named for the Golden Gate."
"What's the Golden Gate?" asked Peter.
"A gate is either an opening, or a thing that closes an opening," said his father. "The Golden Gate is an opening in the land. Water from the sea comes through this opening into San Francisco Bay."
"Oh," said Peter. "And the bridge is over the opening. But why is the opening called the Golden Gate?"
"Years ago men came to California to look for gold," his father said. "Many came by ship. They came into the bay through that opening. For them it was a gate to gold. So they named it the Golden Gate."
"Well," said Peter, "I still think the bridge should look golden."
When Peter got home, he sent a letter to a California paper. In the letter he said: "Red is not the right color for the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge should look golden, the way most people think it does."
Peter sent $14.78 with his letter. It was all the money he had saved. "This money is to help paint the bridge gold," he wrote.
Many people read Peter's letter in the newspaper. Right away, things began to happen! Some people sent money. A big company gave real gold to make gold paint. A paint company made the paint.
But not all of the people wanted to change the color of the bridge. Some people still wanted the bridge to be red.
Will the Golden Gate Bridge ever be golden? Perhaps, if enough people feel as Peter does.
At page 121, 122, 123, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)
Supplementary Readings2. A Clever EscapeMany years ago, a wise judge in a town in Spain was put into a tower. He was put into tower because the head official of the town was jealous of him. The judge was very popular and was deeply loved by the people.
He was in this tower, which was really a prison for him for some time. It seemed there was no hope of escape. One night as he was looking out of the window. he saw his wife standing at the foot of the tower. She was crying.
"Don't cry," the judge called to her. "Just listen to me. Go and bring back a scarab, a little butter, some silk thread, a heavy cord, and a rope. If you do this, you'll be able to save me."
The woman left at once and returned quickly with the things.
The judge said: "Put a little butter on the head of the scarab, then tie the silk thread around its body and put it on the wall with its head upwards."
The woman did this. The scarab, thinking that the butter was somewhere above him, began to climb the wall.
The judge watched and waited. When at last the scarab was near him, he picked it up and removed the silk thread from its body. Then his wife tied the cord to the other end of the silk thread. When the judge pulled the cord up, his wife had already tied the rope to one end.
The judge now tied one end of the rope to something strong within the tower. Then he slid down the rope as his wife watched. Would the rope break? Would he fall down? Would something happen?
Slowly, Slowly he came down.
It was only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours. But at last he was on the ground. He was free now! How happy she was! And how simple it was!
At page 123, 124, 125, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)
Supplementary Readings3. BeethovenAbout 150 years ago a German musician sat quietly at a concert in Vienna. A new symphony was being played for the first time. It was a symphony he had composed. At the end he turned to face the people at the concert. They were clapping wildly. He smiled and the clapping grew louder. But he could hear nothing, for he was deaf.
The musician was Beethoven, one of the greatest composers in the history of music.
All deaf people have a hard time. But it is even worse for a composer than for anyone else.
Even as a child Beethoven did not have a happy life. His father was a singer, but he was lazy and drank a great deal. When the boy was only four, his father decided to make a musician of him. So Beethoven had to practise hour after hour on different musical instruments. Whenever he did not put his heart into his practice, his father would beat him or make it hard on him.
It is a wonder that the boy did not hate music. But no. He learned so fast that he was able to go around and give concerts when he was only eleven. When he was seventeen, he won high praise from Mozart, the great Austrian composer.
A few years later Beethoven went to Vienna to study under Haydn, another great Austrian composer. Soon he was writing a great deal of music himself.
Beethoven had an ugly face and a very bad temper. But he also had a great deal of charm and people liked to invite him to their homes. When he lost his temper they forgave him. He was often poor and ill during his life. But after one illness, he suddenly found himself deaf. At that time he was only thirty-one. What a blow it was to him!
This did not stop Beethoven, however. He went on composing. He wrote long pieces and short pieces, happy ones and sad ones, gentle music and powerful music. During his life, he composed about three hundred pieces. The surprising thing is that he wrote some of his best, his most beautiful pieces after he became deaf. Many of them are known and loved all over the world.
At page 125, 126, 127, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)
Supplementary Readings4. SportsAll over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy, happy and help them to live longer.
Many people like to watch others play sports games. They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when "their" player or team wins.
Sports change with the season. People play different games in winter and summer. Swimming is fun in warm weather, but skating is good in winter.
Games and sports often grow out of people's work and everyday activities. The Arabs use houses or camels in much of their everyday life; they use them in their sports, too. It is the same with people in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Millions of people hunt and fish for a living, but hunting and fishing are very good sports too.
Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for them. Football, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy! And think of people in cold countries. Think how many love to skate or ski in Japan, Norway or Canada.
Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese boxing, for example, has a very long history. But basket-ball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time. Water-skiing is one of the newest in the family of sports.
People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game they often become good friends. Sports help to train a person's character. One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace.
At page 127, 128, 129, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)
Supplementary Readings5. The First Postage Stamp in the WorldIn a small village in England about 150 years ago, a mail coach was standing on the street. Around the coach many people were talking to one another about it.
Mail coaches did not come to that village so often in those days. People had to pay a lot of money to get a letter. The person who sent the letter did not have to pay. The person who got the letter had to pay the postage.
"Here's a letter for Miss Alice Brown," said the mailman. Everyone turned to a girl of about eighteen who was standing by the coach. "I'm Alice Brown," she said in a low voice. The mailman gave her the letter.
Alice looked at the envelope for a minute, then handed it back to the mailman.
"I'm sorry I can't take it," she said. "I don't have enough money to pay the postage."
The people standing around were very sorry for the girl. They were silent for a while. Then, a gentleman came up to the mailman and pand the postage on Alice's letter.
When the gentleman gave her the letter, she said with a smile, "Oh, thank you very much, sir. This letter is from the young man I'm going to marry. His name is Tom. He went to London to look for work. He has to get enough money for our marriage. I've waited a long time for this letter, but now I don't need it. I don't have to open the envelope because there is nothing inside."
"Really?" the gentleman said in surprise. "How do you know that?"
"Tom knew that I couldn't pay the postage," the girl answered. "He told me that he would put some signs on the envelope. Look, sir, this cross in the corner means that he is well, and this circle means that he has found work. That's very good news."
The gentleman was Sir Rowland Hill. He did not forget Alice and her letter.
"This system has to be changed," he said to himself. He thought and thought for many years. At last he hit on a good plan.
"The postage has to be much lower," he said. "What about a penny for a letter? And the person who sends the letter pays the postage. He has to buy a stamp and put it on the envelope."
"A good idea!" people said when they heard of his plan.
The Government decided to adopt the plan. The first postage stamp was put out in 1840. It was called the "Penny Black." It had a picture of the Queen on it.
Today, only a few people have a "Penny Black." Those who have one are very proud of it.
At page 130, 131, 132, Book 6, The English Textbooks Series for Junior Secondary School(The 1st Edition, Published by the People's Educations Press, May 1984)