M7U1 READING
Unit 1 Living with technology
The evolution of video and sound devices
Early history of TV
The first public TV broadcasts were made in the USA in 1925. Later, in 1928, the first long-distance TV broadcast was made between the UK and the USA. Regular public broadcasting followed shortly afterwards, first beginning on 11 May 1928 in New York and on 20 August 1929 in London.
Many different people contributed to the development of TV. Most early TV broadcasts were made using a system developed by John Logie Baird in the UK. However, his system was very primitive and had many drawbacks. An American, Philo Farnsworth, made important breakthroughs in the development of TV in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Modern TVs use many of the principles first discovered by Farnsworth.
John Logic Baird constructed the first colour TV in 1928, but it was not until 1938 that the first colour TV programme was broadcast. It took more than two decades, though, until 1951, for regular colour TV broadcasts to begin in the USA. Regular colour TV broadcasts were delayed in the UK until 1967. However, within a short time nearly all TV broadcasts were made in colour, and within five years more colour TVs than black-and-white TVs were being used. The modern age：satellite TV
Satellites were used to broadcast TV beginning in 1962. Satellites allow TV to be broadcast live over vast distances, with everyone receiving the same broadcast at the same time. They also make TV accessible to people who live far away from cities, and satellite dishes can often be seen distributed throughout the countryside and remote areas. Of course, only a small percentage of people own satellite dishes. However, most people still benefit from satellite TV, as local TV companies broadcast the signals they get from satellite receivers to the population living nearby. Early history of sound recorders
It all began in 1877, when Thomas Edison made the first recording of a human voice on his invention, the record player. Early record players used round tubes to record on. However, in 1887 Emile Berliner, a German living in the USA, invented a record player that used discs as alternatives to tubes, and so the modern record player was born. The first record players had to be wound up by hand and only played records that were two minutes long. Times surely have changed!
Sound and video recorders
In 1928, the first tape recorders used to copy sound were made in Germany. Most early recorders employed steel tape to record on, which made them heavy and difficult to use, or paper tape, which was easier to use but often broke. It was not until the early 1950s that most tape recorders began using plastic tape as they do today. Meanwhile, electr
ical components eventually became so small that, by the late 1960s, portable cassette players were developed, along with video recorders which were used by TV stations. By the late 1970s, video recorders small and cheap enough for home use were introduced. Sound and video go digital
In 1982, the first CDs were made available. CDs are often used for storing and playing music because they have a much better sound quality than traditional records and cassettes. In 1993, the VCD was born, and in 1995, the DVD was invented. The DVD is now the standard for recording and playing back video.
The future
With the development of digital technology, sound and video can now be stored on a PC, on the Internet, or using some form of portable storage. This will soon make records, cassette recorders, CDs, DVDs and even TVs things of the past. Technology is now changing faster than most people can keep pace with. Who can foresee what the future will bring?
Project
To phone or not to phone?
In the USA, the Amish--a Christian group--are famous because they drive carriages instead of cars, do not use TVs or refrigerators, and do not have personal telephones. Many people assume the Amish must have religious reasons for their many rules, but this is not true. In truth, whenever a new technology is introduced, the Amish meet and discuss its advantages and disadvantages. They then vote on whether they will accept it. The Amish reject cars because they like having tight communities where everyone lives close together. They have no TVs or refrigerators because their homes do not have electricity--they do not think it is necessary and dislike dealing with strangers, such as the people who work at the electric company.
Since the Amish value seeing each other face to face, they oppose having telephones in their houses. However, in each community there is often a small building that has a telephone for emergencies.
The telephone is very convenient for communication, and most people in the world today cannot live without it. However, maybe the Amish have a valid point. Which is more of a friend, someone you often talk to over the phone or someone you often talk to face to face? And, if you need help, who can help you better, someone far away or someone in the room with you? There is something important about being together and sharing life that cannot be found over a telephone wire.
There are other disadvantages to the telephone, as well. For example, no matter what the circumstances, when the phone rings, everything stops so that the call can be answered. Your family could be eating dinner or chatting together, yet this will be interrupted. However, most phone calls are not really that important; certainly, they could not be more important than family time. Then, when you are absorbed in a book or simply trying to rest, the phone always seems to be ringing, destroying whatever peace you might have. However, the person calling is often merely a salesman or someone who has dialled the wrong number.
With mobile phones, these problems increase. How many times have you been talking with a friend, only for your friend to interrupt the conversation to answer a call? For some reason, a typical mobile phone call is nearly always given greater importance than a face-to-face conversation. Yet, once again, most mobile phone calls are about rather small matters. When asked later what the call was about, your friend always answers, 'Oh, nothing really.' If the call was really about 'nothing', then why was it so important as to interrupt your conversation and waste your precious time?
Of course, using the mobile phone for text messages is the worst. In one study, girls average 80 text messages a day, and boys average 30. What do people talk about in text messages? While these messages always seem important at the time, most people cannot really remember them the next day. Phones and text messages focus on building relationships with many people. However, these relationships are often quite shallow. Many teenagers say that while they have a lot of friends, they really have no best friend. The use of technology for communication rather than talking face to face is one reason why this is true. Meanwhile, real relationships are often sacrificed, and whatever personal peace one has is destroyed whenever the phone rings. The Amish in general have a higher degree of mental health than most people. They have very calm and stable lives because they value community and living in peace above all else, especially new technology. Maybe they are right. Maybe we should throw all of our phones into the dustbin, along with our cars and TVs for good measure. Maybe we should rid ourselves of modern technology and return to simpler times.
What's that? ... Sorry, I have to go. The phone's ringing ...
Unit 2 Fit for life
This article will focus on two drugs that started revolutions in medicine. If you open up any medicine cupboard or go to any medicine counter in the world, it is likely that you will find aspirin and penicillin. Both of these medicines have saved millions of people's lives and have proved beneficial to mankind since they were invented.
Aspirin：： was invented in 1897. However, the basic chemical used to make aspirin can be found in nature. Nearly 3,500 years ago, people chewed on leaves or drank a kind of tea made from leaves possessing a special chemical to reduce body pains and fever. About 2,500 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates, father of all doctors, made a juice from a tree bark containing salicylic acid for the same effect. It was in 1897 that a European chemist called Dr Felix Hoffmann produced aspirin from this chemical. The first trials of this medicine took place in 1899, when the company Hoffmann worked for began distributing the medicine in powder form to physicians to use with patients. A year later, in 1900, aspirin was sold in shops in the form of tablets. Within a short time, aspirin became the best-selling medicine in the world for pain relief.
Not only has aspirin proved vital for reducing fever and helping stop pain, but there are also other things that aspirin can help with. Lawrence Craven, a doctor from the USA, introduced the idea in 1953 that aspirin had the potential to reduce the risk of heart attacks, because it helped the blood circulate better. The report was ignored. However, in 1971, Smith and Willis from the UK proved that aspirin could have that effect, and in 1977 a study carried out in the USA showed that aspirin could prevent strokes, as well. Eleven years later, Dr Thun from the USA showed that aspirin could reduce the risk of some cancers by 40 per cent. In 1999, aspirin was over 100 years old, and yet there have been more discoveries about how it can help increase the length of people's lives. In 2003, a Chinese doctor, Dr Yuan Minsheng, found that aspirin could reduce blood sugar levels and, therefore, help people with diabetes.