Short Passages for English Exams
New research suggests that among smokers who get lung cancer, women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop the most deadly form of the disease. Experts say that the British study represents the first time scientists have discovered a significant difference between the sexes in the risk of small-cell lung cancer. Virtually always caused by smoking, it is the hardest form of lung cancer to treat successfully. The study showed that women under 65 were 1.7 times more vulnerable than men to small-cell lung cancer, which spreads so rapidly that by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually too late to operate.
The official language of the Czech Republic is Czech, a highly complex western Slavic tongue. Any attempt from foreigners to speak Czech will be heartily appreciated, so do not be discouraged if people fail to understand you, as most will be accustomed to hearing foreigners stumble through their language. If you don’t know any Czech, brush up on your German, since, among the older generation at least, it is still the most widely spoken second language. Russian, once the compulsory second language has been practically wiped off the school curriculum, and the number of English speakers has been steadily increasing, especially among the younger generation.
The religion of the Jewish people, Judaism, is based largely on the teachings of Moses and other leaders as recounted in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is significant for being the oldest monotheistic religion - belief in one supreme being, which is given various names by the Jews themselves, including Yahweh, Jehovah and God. The two other important sacred books are the Talmud and the Torah, which contain the many laws and observances orthodox Jews are supposed to keep. The principal festival is the Feast of Passover: the principal place of worship is the synagogue and the priests are called Rabbis. Judaism is also noted for being the religion from which Christianity and Islam developed. There are about 14 million followers, about 3 million in Israel itself, and the remainder distributed throughout the world.
Laws are the collection of rules by which any state maintains order within a society. In Great Britain, the law-making process is conducted by Parliament. Proposed new laws are presented as Bills and if, after debate, they are accepted by a majority vote in the House of Commons, they duly become law. In Great Britain, as in most countries, there are several distinct types of laws. Constitutional law is concerned with the processes of the government itself Company law deals with the operation of many of the nation’s commercial and financial activities. These are branches of State law, that is, laws made by acts of Parliament. Common law, by contrast, is based on past decisions taken by the courts on various issues.
The term ‘castle’ is most commonly applied to the fortresses belonging to European kings or important nobles during the Middle Ages. The first of this type were built by the Normans in France, during the eleventh century. They were constructed of wood and consisted simply of a tower built on a mound and stood in a courtyard, which was surrounded by a fence and a ditch. By the twelfth century, the wooden tower had given way to a stone one, containing living accommodation for the whole household, centred on the Great hall, and surrounded by a strong wall. As new methods of attack developed, the outer fortifications became more elaborate in order to withstand them.
Mozart made his first visit to Prague with his wife Constance in 1787, staying with his friend and patron Count Thun. A year earlier, his opera The Marriage of Figaro, which had failed to please the opera snobs in Vienna, was given a marvellous reception in Prague. Encouraged by this, he chose to premiere his next opera, Don Giovanni, in Prague rather than in Vienna. He arrived with an incomplete score in hand, and finished it there, dedicating it to the ‘good people of Prague’. Mozart’s final visit to Prague took place in 1791, the year of his death. The climax of the stay was the premiere of Mozart’s final opera, La Calmness di Tito, according to legend, completed on the coach from Vienna to Prague.
Ever since the 1978 Camp David Agreement and the 1979 peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel, the Suez Canal has been filled with a constant flow of maritime traffic. It is 163 km long, but still not wide enough to accommodate modern ships sailing in opposite directions. There are plans to widen the canal but, for now, ships can pass only at two points - the Bitter Lakes and Al-Ballan. With a depth of 19,5 metres, the canal is deep enough for most ships, except for super tankers. The canal is the prime source of hard currency for Egypt’s troublesome economy. Each of the 50 ships that pass through the canal each day is charged a fee based on its size and weight. The average fee is about $70,000.
The Normans originally came from Scandinavia and were of Viking descent. During the tenth century they invaded and conquered the northern part of France, which is still called Normandy. In the next century, under William the Conqueror, they invaded and subdued England. This event brought about the end of Saxon England and saw the start of a new era of English history, with new forms of architecture and a new form of social and political order called the feudal system. It is interesting to note that while William was conquering England, other Norman chiefs sailed down the coast of France and Spain, entered the Mediterranean Sea and conquered Sicily and some parts of southern Italy. Norman knights from France and Italy also played a leading role in the Crusades.
Each year, about 7.000 people in the United States are bitten by poisonous snakes. Fewer than a dozen of these persons die, but many are left with disability of a limb and scarring at the site of the bite. Persons at greatest risk are those who handle snakes for purposes of entertainment, religion or science. Outside the high-risk group, hunters, farmers and fishermen are the most likely to be bitten. The best way to tell the difference between a poisonous and a non-poisonous bite is to identify the snake. A non-poisonous bite doesn’t usually cause much pain or swelling, though the wound may bleed freely. When there is any doubt as to whether the snake is venomous, presume that the bite was poisonous and take precautions.
The word ‘politics’ comes from the Latin politia, meaning ‘policy’, and politics is generally defined as the science or art of government. Politics has played ah increasing part in human affairs since men and women first organised themselves into societies, and most of history is an account of politics in one form or another. There were brief periods, of relatively free or representative government during the Greek and Roman eras. But until the seventeenth century, politics was mostly the concern of powerful monarchs or other people in positions of high authority, such as church leaders. The rise of political parties during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries introduced the concept of government by consent rather than by force.
The origins of a written literature can be found in most of the civilisations of the ancient world; in India. China and among the Jewish people, whose great work of literature is the Old Testament of the Bible. However, it is the Greeks whose literature is taken to represent the start of Western literature. Their greatest single contribution was drama, a form of literature that has continued undiminished to the present day. Other literary forms that developed from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans onward have been poetry in its many different styles and forms, the essay, biography and autobiography, and the novel. Other types of written work from these periods, dealing with such matters as history, philosophy, politics, religion, science and criticism may also be classified as literature from the point of view of style.
The ‘forest fire season’ in Canada generally extends from the latter part of April to mid-October. During last year’s fire season, 9,317 forest fires burned a total of 2,618,299 acres of forest land. Weather conditions contributing to fire spread, coupled with unusually frequent and violent electrical storms, resulted in one of the most severe outbreaks of forest fires on record. Over the, season, 35.3% of all fires ‘were caused by lightning. While these fires are generally considered to be more disastrous because of their tendency to start in difficult-to-reach areas -’88% of the total acreage burned last was attributed to lightning - man is nonetheless responsible for the greatest portion of forest fires. Human negligence was blamed ‘for a total of 6,018 forest fires last year.
That evening we arrived in Delhi, the great walled city of the Mogul Empire, scattered with tombs and forts, many decayed or built over. Some scholars say that there are seven cities on the sites of Old and New Delhi, while some say more. The history is rich and stretches back centuries. At one time, Shah Jahan, the ruler who built the Taj Mahal, reconstructed Old Delhi, restoring large bazars and streets leading to the fortress. As there was no wall on the eastern side, where the River Yumuna flows; Delhi was sacked regularly over the centuries, the last time being in the eighteenth century, when the Persian ruler Nadir Shah looted treasures that included the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond.
In 1948. in an effort to stabilise the currency, the Chinese government announced the issue of a new form of currency, called the Gold Yuan Certificate. This measure was necessary because the people had lost all confidence in the old currency, called the Fa Bi. Inflation had escalated to the point where one US dollar was worth 11 million Fa Bi Official announcements called for all Chinese to turn in their old banknotes, their gold and silver and their foreign currency. Gold Yuan Certificates would be given in exchange, supposedly backed by gold and each worth four to one American dollar. Immediately there was a gold rush, as most private depositors withdrew their precious metals and foreign currency from local banks, because no one with common sense believed that there was any gold to back those certificates.
Cities are a universal symbol of civilisation. They have been found in every country that has gone beyond a simple agricultural economy, regardless of whether there was industrial or technological development. The history of civilisation is the history of the city. From their origins as places where people gathered for mutual safety or defence, cities have gone on to become marketplaces for goods and ideas, seats of government, and centres of religious devotion. By division of labour and by easing communication between people, cities created the opportunity to invent new technologies and new ways of viewing life. While many individual geniuses have come from rural backgrounds, it has been in the cities that they have found inspiration and scope for their talents.
One of the strangest sea stories is that of the sailing ship Mary Celeste. On November 5th 1872, she left New York bound for Genoa with a cargo of industrial alcohol and eleven people on board. A month later, she was seen by another ship, but the captain noticed that the Mary Celeste was sailing strangely, and decided to investigate. He found the ship to be completely deserted. The sails were set and in good condition, there was plenty of food and water, all the crew’s personal possessions were on board, and there was food and drink on the cabin table. No one has ever been able to explain what happened, though there have been explanations varying from a mutiny among the crew to aliens in a spaceship taking everyone away.
A century ago, the feats of the magician Harry Houdini thrilled audiences in Europe and America. We now remember him for his daring escapes from strait-jackets, chains and locked chests. His astonishing illusions of stage magic are all but extinct in the West, but are alive and thriving in the East. The reason is simple., Houdini’s kind of magic relied or potent chemicals, which were easy to get in Victorian times. Today, however, the people in the West are more safely conscious, and there is little hope ,of finding the highly toxic ingredients necessary for Houdini’s spells. But if you visit any Indian bazaar, even in the smallest towns, you can buy anything from phosphorus to nitric acid at bargain prices.
There are two kinds of water pollution. The first is when rubbish, sewage or chemicals are thrown into the water. This waste upsets the natural environment and can prove dangerous or fatal to fish and other life in the water. The second type of pollution is thermal, or warm water pollution. This is most commonly caused by hydroelectric power plants. These take water from a lake or river, convert it into steam for running the plant’s turbines, change the steam back into water, then return the water to the original lake or river. Though this water is no dirtier than when it was taken out, it is often five to ten degrees above its original temperature. This causes a change in the environment which can be as dangerous to, aquatic life as waste ‘pollution.
One of the most famous panics in the United States was begun by a radio broadcast. In 1938, CBS radio broadcast a dramatisation of a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells called ‘War of the Worlds”. It told the story of an invasion from Mars with the Martians landing in New Jersey and taking over New York fifteen minutes later. The story was told in a realistic fashion with the actors playing reporters giving “live” reports from the scene. At the beginning of the broadcast, there was an announcement that the story was fictional, but most people tuned in too late to hear it. As a result, there were traffic jams all over New York and New Jersey as people tried to flee what they thought was a real invasion.
Scientists have warned that the Great Barrier Reef, meant to be one of the most strictly protected natural wonders of the world, is dying, and this is because of the western appetite for prawn cocktails, and a combination of other human activities, including tourism and oil mining. The Australian Conservation Foundation has said that the reef could soon be listed as “endangered”. It is one of the world’s richest natural sites, with more than 400 species of coral and 1,500 fish species. Every living thing in the 140,000-square-rnile park is extremely sensitive to disturbance. The scientists’ report reveals that large-scale prawn fishing - both illegal and licensed - has in a few years reduced seabed animals by more than half. For every tonne of prawns caught, up to 10 tonnes of marine life is being sacrificed.
In the Pacific Ocean, over 4000 kilometres from the coast of Chile, the closest mainland, is a tiny island named Easter Island that amazed the first seafarers to land there in the 18tr century. What surprised them were the hundreds of colossal statues scattered all over the island. They were the remains of massive sculptures that had been cut from the volcanic mountains. No one has ever been able to explain why these statues were built. They are between ten and twenty metres high and weigh up to fifty tonnes. Even now, scientists are unable to explain how such huge monuments were constructed and moved about on such a remote island.
It is ironic that the name of such a corrupt and immoral politician as John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, has come down to us, while the names of some of his more honest colleagues are forgotten. He held several important positions in the 18th century, most notoriously as First Lord of the Admiralty. He is thought to have stolen from the Admiralty budget, and to have purchased inferior equipment for the navy at a profit to himself, causing the British Navy serious problems at sea. But of course what he is most remembered for is the invention of the “sandwich”. A confirmed gambler, he is thought to have asked for slices of meat to be put between two pieces of bread and brought to him at the gaming table, go that eating would not cause him to waste any gambling time.
According to local legend, the Russian Mikhail Bukanin entered a Prague cafe in 1848 and ordered tea. When the owner said that he’d never heard of the drink Bukanin marched into the kitchen and made the city’s first cup of tea. Eighty years later, there were an estimated 150 tea-houses in Prague, but the culture died out under the Communist regime. Today’s tea-houses are mostly a 1990s’ phenomenon. Partly a reaction to the smoke-filled atmosphere of the Czech pub, and partly a reaction against the multinational, fast food culture that has recently arrived in Prague, tea-houses are non-smoking, peaceful places to enjoy a quiet cup of tea and relax. The tea drinking is taken very seriously, and many of the tea-houses stock a huge array of different kinds of tea.
The word alphabet is made up from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - and describes any group of symbols intended to represent the sounds used in speech. The letters of an alphabet can be assembled in thousands of different combinations to form words, and are therefore much more flexible than other symbols, such as pictograms or ideograms each of which can only stand for one particular object or idea. The origin of alphabets is obscure. Some scholars believe that the first true alphabets developed from Egyptian Hieroglyphics; others contend that the cuneiform scripts of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians hold the key.
Many experiments have suggested that a child who has watched a violent video sequence is more likely to engage in aggressive acts than one who has not. According to one study, a preference for violent TV shows is a more accurate indicator of aggression than socio-economic background, family relationships, IQ, or any other single factor. Though it is difficult to say which comes first, an aggressive personality or a preference for violent shows, the relationship is certainly valid. A steady diet of TV violence can also make children numb to reality. One eleven-year-old was quoted as saying that he had seen so many assaults and murders on the screen that if he saw someone really get killed, it would not bother him.
Vitamin C occurs most abundantly in oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and raw tomatoes and cabbage. Several other fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, contain lesser amounts. It is, however, easily destroyed by cooking. vitamin C is necessary for the development of bones, teeth, blood vessels, and other tissues, and plays a part in the functioning of most of the cells in the hotly. Deficiency shows itself in painful haemorrhages around the bones and in swollen, bleeding gums, a condition called scurvy. For a long time, in the days when a sailor’s diet consisted of salted and dried food and ship’s biscuits, scurvy was the curse of sailors on long voyages.
Plants can summon an insect rescue team when they are attacked by pests, just as if they were calling for a microscopic ambulance. In fact, researchers say the signal is specific enough to tell the helpful insects exactly what to expect when they arrive on the scene. For example, two kinds of caterpillars attack numerous crops and cost US farmers about $6 billion annually. The plants summon a black, parasitic wasp that it is the natural enemy of the caterpillars. Scientists have known for years that plants could send out distress calls to wasps and other insect bodyguards, but they are just beginning to understand how sophisticated the messages can be. They hope to find out more about the signals and eventually use them to develop chemical-free pest control systems.
The “dead cities” of Syria are coming alive and archaeologists are seriously concerned. Pushed by a booming population, farmers are moving into the hills of northern Syria and making homes in villages that have been deserted but nearly intact for a millennium. The government is trying to limit the destruction of archaeological sites by barring people from moving into hundreds of deserted ancient villages and imposing fines for destroying antiquities. In some cases, officials can pull down newly-built houses that are too close to the dead cities. This has outraged the new villagers; mostly poor Muslim farmers and shepherds who feel little connection to antiquities from Syria’s Christian past.
Over the past 30 years, children’s consumption in Britain has increased dramatically. In the average family of two parents and two children, spending on toys and children’s clothing has more than tripled, and spending on sweets, ice-cream and soft drinks has risen by one-third. Research has recently found that spending is around £3,000 per child per year. The growth in spending reflects higher living standards, but it has been boosted by the efforts of the advertising industry. Campaigns directed straight at children account for much advertising expenditure. Most children in Britain over eight now have a television in the bedroom; on average, they watch 900 hours of TV a year, which is more than the 750 hours the average child is actually being taught in school. Thus a child could see at least 10,000 commercials a year.
The ancient Greeks built open-air theatres, usually on a hillside, with semi-circular rows of seats overlooking a circular space called the orchestra. The restored theatre at Epidaurus, dating from about 350 B.C., is a good example of a Classical Greek theatre. The Romans altered this plan by introducing a raised platform for the performers. The first theatre in London was erected in Shoreditch by Richard Burbage, a colleague of Shakespeare; a little later, in about 1590, he built the more famous Globe theatre across the River Thames at Southwark. However, the first theatre in the modern sense was built at Parma, Italy in 1618, with the familiar plan of an auditorium with a raised stage and a curtain.
A team of mountaineers is to search Everest to try to settle once and for all a claim that the world’s highest peak was conquered 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 triumph. British climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared about 700 feet from the top of Everest in 1924, inspiring one of mountaineering’s most enduring legends. Their bodies have never been discovered - and neither has the Vest-Pocket Kodak camera Mallory was carrying in his knapsack. According to Kodak, the cold conditions may well have preserved the film. If the film featured a photograph of either of the two men at the mountain peak, the discovery would turn their story of glorious failure into one of sweet success.
On the introduction of coffee to England, in about the middle of the 17th century, many coffee shops were opened throughout central London. A great deal of business was transacted in these coffee shops, including public sales of ships and goods. One among them, owned by a Mr Lloyd, appears to have been a great favourite among businessmen. In 1696, Mr Lloyd started one of the earliest commercial newspapers in London, under the name of Lloyd’s News, containing commercial and shipping information both from home and abroad. This paper attracted man customers from the shipping trade, and very shortly, led to Lloyd’s coffee house becoming the headquarters of the maritime insurance business. Today, hundreds of years later, Lloyd’s of London remains the name of the world’s biggest maritime insurance company.
Babies whose mothers smoke during pregnancy could be at higher risk of growing up to be criminals, new research suggests. This is the first study to examine the relationship between mothers who smoke and their children’s adult behaviour. The findings were based on data for 4,169 males born in Copenhagen between September 1959 and December 1961. Their arrest records at age 34 were studied. It was discovered that the number of cigarettes their mothers had smoked during the last third of their pregnancy affected the men’s arrests for both violent and non-violent crimes. This was true even when other possible causes, such as use of alcohol, divorce, income, and home environment had been taken into consideration.
Benjamin Franklin, who was to become one of the best known American writers, politicians and scientists, was born in Boston in 1706. He was one of 17 children, and as a child, he worked in the shop of his father, who was a soap and candle maker. As he loved to read and study, however, working for his father did not appeal to him, so when he was 12, he was sent to assist his brother James, who had a printing shop. There, surrounded by books, he would often stay up late at night reading on a wide range of subjects. As he read, he practised improving his own style of writing.
Petroleum products vary greatly in physical appearance: thin, thick, transparent or opaque, but regardless, their chemical composition is made up of only two elements: carbon and hydrogen, which form compounds called hydrocarbons. Other chemical elements found in union with the hydrocarbons are few and are classified as impurities. Trace elements are also found, but in such minute quantities that they are disregarded. The combination of carbon and hydrogen forms many thousands of compounds which are possible because of the various positions and joinings of these two atoms in the hydrocarbon molecul
The most popular national amusement in Burma is the pwe. This entertainment may consist of acting, singing, dancing, clowning or even puppetry. These plays are performed outdoors -most often on moonlit nights. They usually last all night for several nights in succession. The audience sits on reed mats to watch the show. The pwes are free, and more often than not are given by a wealthy individual for the entertainment of his friends and anyone else who cares to attend. The pwe plays are usually legendary tales about princes and princesses and almost always have a happy ending. Actors wear old-time court costumes and proclaim long speeches, but there is always a down to relieve any boredom. Judging by the laughter the clowns provoke, they are found really funny.
There is an ancient belief that when a female wolf loses a young cub, she seeks a human child to take its place. Romulus and Remus, the legendary twin founders of Rome, were supposed to have been cared for by wolves. The idea actually became believable in the late 19th century when a French doctor found a naked ten-year-old boy wandering in the woods. He did not walk upright, could not speak intel1igently, nor relate to people: he only growled like a wolf and stared at them. Finally the doctor won the boy’s confidence and began to work with him. After many long years of devoted and patient instruction, the doctor was able to get the boy to clothe and feed himself, recognise and say a number of words, and even to write a little.
Sir Isaac Newton was drinking tea under the apple trees in his garden one summer afternoon in 1665 when an apple fell from an overhanging branch, hit him on the head and immediately provided the inspiration for his law of gravitation. According to the story that is how it happened, anyway. It may indeed be true, but no one knows for certain. Even the famed British astronomer Sir Harold Spencer Jones, who stated in 1944 that the story was probably true, later changed his mind, noting that ‘one cannot be sure either way.’ The story of Newton’s Apple first appears in Voltaire’s Elements de la Philosophic de Newton, published in 1738, long after the great Englishman had died and 73 years from the time the disputed apple fell.
Sleep researchers have found that people can make themselves wake up at a given time simply by deciding to do so before they go to sleep. Scientists took two groups of volunteers and, at nightfall, told one group that they would be woken at 6 a.m. and the other that they would be woken at 9 a.m. The sleepers’ levels of the hormone adrenocorticotropin, which is known to cause spontaneous awakening, were then measured. In each group, there was a rise in the levels of the hormone one hour before the volunteers expected to get up. The three-hour difference between the rise in hormones in the two groups suggests that the body can be programmed to wake up on command.
The Romanesque style of architecture flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries. Its primary characteristics are the round arch and thick walls, reminding people of the structures of ancient Rome. But the period is also noted for the reappearance of large figure sculptures and for the achievement of uniting sculpture with architecture. In the Romanesque period large numbers of figures began to be carved in stone in many cathedrals, churches and monasteries. These figures generally portrayed religious scenes, as the principal intent was to proclaim the teaching of the Christian faith. But at the same time, neither artists nor patrons had lost their taste for pure ornament. Thus, along with the biblical narrative appeared brilliant abstract decoration, based on the forms of plants, trees and animals.
