28.2.09

LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MATTER: EVERYTHING MUST GO SOMEWHERE


LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MATTER: EVERYTHING MUST GO SOMEWHERE
We always talk about consuming or using up matter resources, but actually we don't consume any matter. We only borrow some of the earth's resources for a while - taking them from the earth, carrying them to another part of the globe, processing them, using them, and then discarding, reusing, or recycling them. In the process of using matter, we may change it to another form. But we can neither create nor destroy any measurable amount of matter. This results from the law of conservation of matter: In any ordinary physical or chemical change, matter is neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another. This law tells us that we can never really throw any matter away. Everything must go somewhere and all we can do is to recycle some of the matter we think we have thrown away. We can collect dust and soot from the smokestacks of industrial plants, but these solid wastes must then go somewhere. Cleaning up smoke is a misleading practice, because the invisible gaseous and very tiny particle pollutants left are often more damaging than the large solid particles that are removed. We can collect garbage and remove solid wastes from sewage, but they must either be burned (air pollution), dumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans (water pollution) or deposited on the land (soil pollution and water pollution if they wash away). We can reduce air pollution from the internal combustion engines in cars by using electric cars. But since electric car batteries must be recharged every day, we will have to build more electric power plants.
If these are coal-fired, their smokestacks will add additional and even more dangerous air pollutants to the air; more land will be scarred from strip mining, and more water will be polluted from the acids that tend to leak out of coal mines. We could use nuclear power plants to produce the extra electricity needed. But then we risk greater heat or thermal pollution of rivers and other bodies of water used to cool such plants. Although we can certainly make the environment cleaner, talk of 'cleaning up the environment' and 'pollution free' cars, products, or industries is a scientific absurdity. The law of conservation of matter tells us that we will always be faced with pollution of some sort. Thus, we are also faced with the problem of trade-off. In turn, these frequently involve subjective and controversial scientific, political,economic, and ethical judgments about what is a dangerous pollutant level, to what degree a pollutant must be controlled, and what amount of money we are willing to pay to reduce a pollutant to a harmless level.

26.2.09

BODY LANGUAGE



Perhaps the most surprising theory to come out of kinesics, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks - we are not bom with them. A baby has generally unformed facial features, i.e. eyes, mouth, nose and chin. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set his features by looking at those around - family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some regions of the United States look so much alike. New Englanders or Southerners have common facial characteristics that cannot be explained by genetics. The exact shape of the mouth is not determined at birth, it is learned later. In fact, the final shape of the mouth is not formed until permanent teeth are set. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look quite alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country there are areas where people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the Southerners smile frequently. In New England they smile less and in the western part of New York State even less. People on Madison Avenue, New York, smile less than those on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. Therefore, many Southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly.

SKYSCRAPERS


If someone asked you where the skyscraper was born, what would you answer? Most people would probably say New York City, but they would be wrong. Chicago was the birthplace of the skyscraper. Dictionaries define a skyscraper as "a building of great height which is constructed on a steel skeleton." The first building to fit that description was the Home Insurance Company Building. It was built in Chicago in 1884. It was 10 storeys, i.e. floors, high - a great height for that time. It had a strong framework (structure) of iron and steel instead of walls of stone to support it.The Home Insurance Company Building does not exist any more, they pulled it down in 1931, but visitors to the city can still see other early Chicago skyscrapers. One of them is the 16-storey Reliance Building, which was completed in 1894. The Reliance Building had windows that, for the first time, covered almost the entire surface. For many years, Chicago was behind New York in the construction of skyscrapers. It got back into the competition with buildings like the John Hancock Center, built in 1968. There are luxury flats on forty-nine of the Center's 100 floors. Sometimes people who live on a high floor look out on a sunny sky while those on the downstairs floors can watch the rain from their windows. Architects and engineers have the technology to build even taller structures, but to do this, they must find the money for them and these new skyscrapers should not harm the environment. Back in 1956, the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright dreamed of a skyscraper of 528 floors. He planned to build it near the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago. Wright's dream never became a reality, but who knows? Someday somebody may build his tower in the city where the skyscraper was born.

25.2.09

WOMAN PILOT SAVES GANGSTER FROM PRISON



By Michael Field in Paris
A helicopter piloted by a woman carried to freedom a gangster who was serving 18 years for robbery and murder from the Sante Prison in the centre of Paris yesterday. A second prisoner was part of the escape plan, but he changed his mind at the last minute. Michel Vaujour, 34, who his lawyer describes as a dangerous criminal of above average intelligence, was waiting on the roof when a white helicopter flew in and took him away. It was the fourth and most exciting escape in Vaujour's career. The helicopter took off from the suburb of St. Cyr and flew in without paying attention to radio warnings from the police that it was breaking the ban on low flying over Paris. Two people were on board: a woman with dark brown hair dressed in black and a man with a sub-machine gun. An hour after the breathtaking escape, the prison governor told reporters, "The helicopter dropped a rope ladder to help Vaujour climb aboard while the man with the sub-machine gun told prison guards not to move. The whole operation took only about two minutes. Fortunately, no shots were fired and nobody was injured." The helicopter landed soon after at a nearby football field. Some children playing there saw two men and a woman run off towards a ring road. Claude Roumet, head of Air Continent which owned the helicopter, said, "A pretty woman about 28 years old, who gave her name as Lena Rigon, rented the helicopter. She is a regular customer and has been flying my aircraft for five or six months. I was really surprised when I heard that she did this incredible thing." Five years ago, another helicopter escape took place in Paris. Two prisoners escaped from the Fleury-Merogis prison south of Paris, but they could not go very far because the, police quickly recaptured them.

24.2.09

THE WORLDS OF WALT DISNEY


Disney World are the two most famous entertainment parks in the world. Disneyland is in California and Disney World is in Florida, U.S.A. These were built by Walt Disney. Walt Disney started to make cartoon films in 1923 with his brother 5 Roy. First he made 'Alice in Wonderland' and then, in 1928, Mickey Mouse was created. He was very interested in technology so all his work was technically excellent and very enjoyable. He believed in providing good, clean entertainment and fun for all the family. He wanted a world which would give him a lot of fun when he was a boy 10 and so he built it for others to enjoy in Disneyland, which was opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. It has four parts: Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. In 1960 Walt Disney bought a big piece of land near Florida and started to build his second great entertainment park. This was called 15 "Disney World". It was finished in 1971 and cost 400 million dollars. This place is a little different from Disneyland. It has got hotels and shopping centres as well as entertainment places. So people can eat, sleep and enjoy doing things in the same place. A few years ago two other small cities were planned near Disney 20 World. One of them is called Lake Buena Vista. This has been completed and people have started to move in. They are still building ihe second city so people will not move in until 1995. Walt Disney died of cancer in 1966, but people still remember him when they visit his parks today.Disneyland and

18.2.09

MONEY THEN AND NOW





When you buy something these days, you have so many ways of paying for it. Just think of them! However, you may be surprised to learn that there have always been lots of methods of payment. In very early times, people used to exchange one thing for another - an ox or a cow for rice or grain, for example. This system of exchange was called 'barter', but there were lots of problems. Well, how many heavy bags of rice would you give for a cow ... or a TV, or a car? And how would you carry the bags of rice? The ancient Greeks solved these problems. In the 7th century B.C. they introduced coins made of fixed amounts of gold and silver.Business became much easier, because people could now exchange money for the things they required. Coins last a long time, but they are heavy, and so eventually, governments solved the problem by introducing banknotes. So cash became easier and lighter to carry. Nowadays, of course, more and more people are paying for things with cheque's and credit cards instead of in cash. What is the reason for this?

17.2.09

AMERICAN CITIES



We can trace all the problems of the American cities back to one starting point: we Americans don't like our cities very much. That is strange. More than three-fourths of us now live in cities, and more are flocking to them every year. We are told that the problems in our cities are receiving more attention in Washington. However, it is historically true: in the American psychology, the city has been a basically suspect institution. Americans have related urban areas to Europe, which they believed to be full of dishonesty and illegal behaviour. Moreover, they believed that cities lacked spaciousness and innocence, so easily found in rural areas. Therefore, it can be said that a strong anti-urban attitude runs through American thinking. The settlement of America was a reaction to the harsh conditions in European industrial centres. People came to America because there was available land and they wanted to escape from the bad influences of thecities.

What has this got to do with the unpleasant situations of the modern cities? I think it has a lot to do with it. The United States has never thought that the American cities were worthy of improvement. It was believed that cities should support themselves. The reason behind this is not directly the result of a 'the city is evil, and therefore, we will not help it attitude. It is more indirect. Billions of dollars are spent to preserve the family farms but nothing is done about an effective programme for jobs in the cities. In addition, although there have long been government agencies which deal with agriculture, small business, veterans and commerce, the Department of Urban Development wasn't set up until 1965. Now consider this: the most important housing law was not the law that provided public housing; it was the law which provided low-interest mortgages for Americans who wanted to buy a home. More than anything, this made the suburban dream a reality. 800,000 middle-class New Yorkers left the city for the suburbs dreaming of grass and trees and a place for their children to play in. They were replaced by unskilled workers, who represented a further cost to the cities. which doesn't deserve support or help in the minds of Americans.



14.2.09

Alice in Wonderland




Alice is sitting with her sister outdoors when she spies a White Rabbit with a pocket watch. Fascinated by the sight, she follows the rabbit down the hole. She falls for a long time, and finds herself in a long hallway full of doors. There is also a key on the table, which unlocks a tiny door; through this door, she spies a beautiful garden. She longs to get there, but the door is too small. Soon, she finds a drink with a note that asks her to drink it. There is later a cake with a note that tells her to eat; Alice uses both, but she cannot seem to get a handle on things, and is always either too large to get through the door or too small to reach the key.

While she is tiny, she slips and falls into a pool of water. She realizes that this little sea is made of tears she cried while a giant. She swims to shore with a number of animals, most notably a sensitive mouse, but manages to offend everyone by talking about her cat’s ability to catch birds and mice. Left alone, she goes on through the wood and runs into the White Rabbit. He mistakes her for his maid and sends her to fetch some things from his house. While in the White Rabbit’s home, she drinks another potion and becomes too huge to get out through the door. She eventually finds a little cake which, when eaten, makes her small again.

In the wood again, she comes across a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. He gives her some valuable advice, as well as a valuable tool: the two sides of the mushroom, which can make
Alice grow larger and smaller as she wishes. The first time she uses them, she stretches her body out tremendously. While stretched out, she pokes her head into the branches of a tree and meets a Pigeon. The Pigeon is convinced that Alice is a serpent, and though Alice tries to reason with her the Pigeon tells her to be off.

Alice gets herself down to normal proportions and continues her trek through the woods. In a clearing she comes across a little house and shrinks herself down enough to get inside. It is the house of the Duchess; the Duchess and the Cook are battling fiercely, and they seem unconcerned about the safety of the baby that the Duchess is nursing. Alice takes the baby with her, but the child turns into a pig and trots off into the woods. Alice next meets the Cheshire cat (who was sitting in the Duchess’s house, but said nothing). The Cheshire cat helps her to find her way through the woods, but he warns her that everyone she meets will be mad.

Alice goes to the March Hare’s house, where she is treated to a Mad Tea Party. Present are the March Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse. Ever since Time stopped working for the Hatter, it has always been six o’clock; it is therefore always teatime. The creatures of the Mad Tea Party are some of the must argumentative in all of Wonderland. Alice leaves them and finds a tree with a door in it: when she looks through the door, she spies the door-lined hallway from the beginning of her adventures. This time, she is prepared, and she manages to get to the lovely garden that she saw earlier. She walks on through, and finds herself in the garden of the Queen of Hearts. There, three gardeners (with bodies shaped like playing cards) are painting the roses red. If the Queen finds out that they planted white roses, she’ll have them beheaded. The Queen herself soon arrives, and she does order their execution; Alice helps to hide them in a large flowerpot.

The Queen invites
Alice to play croquet, which is a very difficult game in Wonderland, as the balls and mallets are live animals. The game is interrupted by the appearance of the Cheshire cat, whom the King of Hearts immediately dislikes.

The Queen takes
Alice to the Gryphon, who in turn takes Alice to the Mock Turtle. The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle tell Alice bizarre stories about their school under the sea. The Mock Turtles sings a melancholy song about turtle soup, and soon afterward the Gryphon drags Alice off to see the trial of the Knave of Hearts.

The Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the tarts of the Queen of Hearts, but the evidence against him is very bad.
Alice is appalled by the ridiculous proceedings. She also begins to grow larger. She is soon called to the witness stand; by this time she has grown to giant size. She refuses to be intimidated by the bad logic of the court and the bluster of the King and Queen of Hearts. Suddenly, the cards all rise up and attack her, at which point she wakes up. Her adventures in Wonderland have all been a fantastic dream.

Lewis Carroll

12.2.09

CONTAINERS


storage bin containers

We can find containers in our homes, schools, and places of work. For example, food and nonfood products are sold in containers. A favourite container of students and teachers is the wastebasket. Of course, containers are an important part of many professions: painters, doctors, biologists, photographers, chemists, and others use many kinds of specialized containers. In this short article, it is not possible to discuss all kinds of containers. Therefore, let us look at some of the simple and basic containers. We will name them, identify their shapes and the materials they are made of, and say a few words about lids and tops.

  Cans
A can is a metal container. It is usually cylindrical in shape, and may have a paper label on the outside. The name of the product is printed on the label or on the metal itself. Cans open in different ways, depending on the product. We need a can opener to open some cans; this utensil cuts the metal. Paint cans have lids. Beverage cans have a pop top or a ring top. Spray cans have a push-button top. Cans are durable containers. In other words, they are strong and long-lasting.

Boxes and Cartons
Boxes and cartons are similar containers. Cartons are usually made of card-board (heavy paper) and, as a result, are not very durable. Boxes can be made of cardboard, paper, wood, metal, or plastic. Boxes and cartons have rectangular or square sides. Some of these containers, such as jewelry boxes and egg cartons, have tops that open and close with hinges. Other boxes and cartons have removable tops (i.e.,you can take these tops off).

Jars
jar is a glass or ceramic container. It has a wide mouth (top opening) and no neck. Some jars have tops or covers called screw-on-lids and others have lids that fit inside the mouth. Some jars (e.g., jars you see in supermarkets) are very practical because they hold many different products, and because we can clean them and use them again. Jars are durable but breakable. In other words, they are easy to break by accident.

Bottles
A bottle, like a jar, is a container that is usually made of glass. These days, however, plastic bottles are also very common. Bottles are different from jars in one important way: a bottle has a small mouth and a neck, but a jar has a wide mouth and no neck. Bottles have caps or tops which either screw on or snap on. Bottles hold beverages (juice, soda, etc.) and other liquid food such as soup. They are also used to contain photographic, industrial, and medical chemicals.

Bags
A bag is a flexible container. That is, it is soft and movable. Many bags are made of paper, foil, or thin plastic. Such bags are not durable containers - we usually throw them away. We close bags in several ways, for example, by folding them, by tying them with something, and, in the case of plastic bags, by knotting them. Bags come in many sizes and contain many different products.The containers mentioned in this article are just a few of many hundreds of different containers. We have not talked about tubes, tubs, bins, baskets, vats, vases, casks, drums, flasks, trays, or tanks. We have not mentioned containers that we use in cooking and serving food. We have not talked about containers by profession: painters use cans for paint; photographers use bottles and trays for chemicals; chemists use beakers and test tubes. What containers do you have around you in your everyday life? What containers do you use in your profession?Can you imagine a world without containers?

THE POSTAGE STAMP


Before the postage stamp, it was difficult to send a letter to another country. The sender paid for the letter to travel in his or her own country. Then the person in the other country paid for the other part of the trip. If a letter crossed several countries, the problem was bigger. Rowland Hill, a British teacher, had the idea of a postage stamp with gum on the back. The British Post Office made the first stamps in 1840. They were the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue. A person bought a stamp and put it on a letter. The post office delivered the letter, or took the letter to the person. When the person got the letter, it was prepaid That is, the sender paid for it earlier. Postage stamps became popular in Great Britain immediately. Other countries started making their own postage stamps very quickly. However, there were still problems with international mail. Some countries did not want to accept letters with the stamps of other countries. Finally, in 1874 a German organized the Universal Postal System (the UPS). Each country in the UPS agreed to accept letters with prepaid postage from the other members. Today the offices of the UPS are only in Switzerland. Almost every country in the world is a member of this organization. It takes care of any international mail problems. Today post offices in every country sell beautiful stamps. Collecting stamps is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, and every stamp collector knows about the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue.

ORANGES


Everybody loves oranges. They are sweet and juicy. They are in sections, that is, separate parts, so it is easy to eat them. Some oranges do not have any seeds, i.e. parts which grow into a new part. Some have a thick skin but others have a thin skin.The orange tree is beautiful. It has a lot of shiny green leaves. The small white flowers smell very sweet. An orange tree has flowers and fruit at the same time.There were orange trees twenty million years ago. The oranges were very small, not like the ones today. The orange tree probably came from China. Many different kinds of wild oranges grow there today. In other words, these oranges grow in nature. The Chinese started to raise, or grow, orange trees around 2400 B.C.; Chinese art has lovely old pictures of oranges and orange trees. Farmers in other parts of Asia , such as India and Pakistan, and the Middle East, learned to raise oranges from the Chinese. Then they taught the Europeans. The Spanish planted orange trees in North and South America, called the New World . They took them to Florida first. Oranges are a very important crop (farm product) in Florida today. "Orange" is both a fruit and a colour. The colour of oranges is very beautiful. Therefore, in English we use the name of the fruit for the colour.

PLANE CRASH IN PERU



On Christmas Eve, 1971, Juliana Koepke, a seventeen-year-old German girl, and her mother left Lima by plane. They were going to Pucallpa, another town in Peru. They wanted to spend Christmas with Juliana's father, who was the manager of a bank in Pucallpa. Forty-five minutes later there was a terrible storm and the plane hit a mountain and crashed. Juliana fell 3,000 metres, strapped in her seat. She did not die when the seat hit the ground, but she was unconscious all night.

The next morning Juliana looked for pieces of the plane, and called for her mother. Nobody answered, and she only found a small plastic bag of sweets. Juliana's left arm was broken, one knee was badly hurt and she had deep cuts on her legs and arms. She had no shoes and she was wearing only a dress, which was badly torn. But she decided to try to get out of the jungle.
She knew that she would die if she stayed there. She started to walk. She did not have anything to eat for two days, so she felt very weak. She heard helicopters, but could not see them above the trees, and of course they could not see her.

After four days she came to a river. She walked and swam down the river for another five days. At last she came to a small village house. Nobody was there, but that afternoon, four farmers arrived. They took her to a doctor in the next village.

Juliana learned afterwards that there were three other people who were not killed in the accident. But she was the only one who got out of the jungle. It took her ten days.

PIRATES


Pirates were people who attacked and robbed ships on all oceans of the world. They were sea robbers or bandits and have been called by many other names such as: buccaneers, corsairs, filibusters, freebooters, landrones, picaroons, and rovers. Pirates existed for about 200 years, from the 16th to the 18th century. They used to attack and capture ships for the valuable cargo, leave their ships to break into homes in coastal towns, carry away valuables, take people to their ships by using force, and organize powerful groups to get large amounts of ransom, which was paid to free a captured person . Probably most people have romantic ideas about pirates. The movies and some famous books such as Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini have helped to create a romantic picture of pirates. The pirate in films and books is a cavalier, a good-looking gentleman, with a beard or moustache, gold earrings and a large hat or turban. He usually has a sword or a sharp dagger in his belt and a pistol or gun in his hand. In reality, pirates were not romantic at all. Often they were desperate, violent and dangerous, people who drank a lot and dressed very badly in rags and wasted food and money. They were people who did not like the situation of their home society and, therefore, rebelled and fought against the government. The police looked for them everywhere because they were outlaws, i.e., people who committed crimes and hid from the authorities. Most pirates did not live long. A kind of democracy often existed among pirate groups. They elected, or chose their own captains and prepared rules and regulations to use when they were doing business. During the 1600's and 1700's there was a lot of piracy along the American coasts and in the West Indies. The great treasure ships of 30 Spain which carried gold and silver from Spanish colonies to Europe were frequently attacked and the valuables were stolen by pirates. But there were also times when the American government asked for the help of pirates. Many of the American pirates became privateers during the American War for independence. The pirate, Jean Lafitte, for instance, became a privateer and helped American military forces to protect New Orleans in the War of 1812. Among the men, some famous pirate names in history are: Barbarossa, Ali Pichinin, Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, "Black Bart"(Bartholomew Roberts), "Blackbeard" OSdward Teach) and among the women: Anne Bonney and Mary Read.

11.2.09

Blanket Is Gone


Blanket Is Gone At midnight the Hodja heard a noise. Two men were struggling outside. The Hodja got out of his bed with a blanket over him and went to the front of his house. He asked them why they were fighting. Without answering, one of them took the blanket that covered the Hodja and they both fled. So the poor Hodja returned to his bed again. “What were they fighting about? ?, asked his wife. “About our blanket ?, said the Hodja. “Now the blanket is gone, so the struggle is over. ? Nasreddin Hodja

Busy-Body


Busy-Body

One day, people said to the Hodja:
“Your wife walks from house to house, tell her she mustn’t walk so much, ?. “Alright ?, said the Hodja. “If she comes to our house, I’ll tell her. ?

Nasreddin Hodja

renewable energy


While forming policies towards producing biofuels from biomass as a renewable energy source, energy, agricultural, environmental and rural development issues are interrelated. After discussing the literature on biofuels in detail, this paper aims at evaluating their impacts in Turkey. The support and subsidies provided to the private sector and farmers by the public sector will be crucial to implement the new technologies in Turkey. The allocation of resources and the distribution of income after production are other important matters related with energy farming. While food security is another important issue, regulation may be needed to protect the agricultural sector. To form policies towards biofuels, for sustainable growth, Turkey needs detailed planning and development of dynamic and integrated policies in energy, agriculture, environment and rural development

THE OCEAN FLOOR



Almost three-fourths of the earth is under the ocean. Until recently, people didn't know what the ocean bottom, or floor, was like. The ocean floor is substantially different from what we thought. After World War I, scientists made a new machine. This machine told them what the bottom of the ocean was like and told how deep the ocean is in each place. For a long time, many people thought the ocean floor was flat. Now we know that there are large mountains and deep holes on the ocean floor.

There are three kinds of ocean floor under the water: the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the deep ocean floor. The continental shelf goes all around the continents. (The continents are North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, and Antarctica.) The water is not more than 600 feet deep above the continental shelf. The sun can only shine down about 600 feet into the water. Plants and animals need sunshine to live so most of the fish in the ocean live above the continental shelf. The continental shelves were part of the continents many thousands of years ago. Later, the water came over them. That's why oil and minerals can be found in the continental shelf as well as in the land. Oceanographers are scientists who study the oceans. They think the continental shelves will be very important to us some day. They are trying to learn how to live and work under the water, at dephts of 500 feet or more. The continental slope begins where the continental shelf ends. At the edge of the continental shelf, the continental slope suddenly goes down two or three miles. Some continental slopes are like the side of a mountain; some are like a wall. All are very high. The largest one is five miles high, which is higher than any slope on the land. There are large canyons in the continental slopes. The canyons look like the Grand Canyon, but they are larger.

The deep ocean floor, which is the real bottom of the ocean, begins at the end of the continental slope. It is the largest and deepest of the three kinds of ocean bottom and it makes up half of all the earth's surface. Oceanographers have found a large range, or line, of mountains called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on the ocean floor. This mountain range is 10,000 miles long. It goes through the Atlantic Ocean from Iceland to southern Africa. Many of the mountains in this range are 10,000 feet high with a mile or more of water. However, a few mountains in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are even higher. We can see their tops above the ocean surface. The Azore Islands, near Portugal, are really the tops of some of these mountains. The Pacific Ocean has large mountains, too. The Hawaiian Islands are tops of mountains 32,000 feet high. There are some large, long holes in the ocean bottom called trenches. One of the deepest is near New Zealand. This trench is seven miles deep and is 1600 miles long and is big enough to hold six Grand Canyons. Now we know that there are mountains, canyons, and trenches under the ocean. Soon people will be able to live and work on the continental shelves. However, it will be a long time before people can reach the deep ocean floor.

10.2.09

The Box in The Barn




A boy went to play in a big, red barn. He went into the barn. He saw a box. The boy said, “What is in the box?” The boy could not get the box open. He said, “What can I do? I will get my dad.” The boy got his dad. His dad went to the barn with the boy. His dad got the box open. In the box was something that made the boy happy. It made his dad happy, too.

The boy said, “Let’s go play with this.”

CHANGES IN WORLD CLIMATE



Although the weathermen's forecasts for a month ahead are only a little better than guesswork, they are now making long-term forecasts into the next century with growing confidence. For the dominant trend in the world's climate in the coming decades will, scientists say, be a predictable result of man's activities.

At the start of the industrial revolution nearly two centuries ago, man innocently set off a gigantic experiment in planetary engineering. Unaware of what he was doing, he spared no thought for the consequences. Today, the possible outcome is alarmingly clear, but the experiment is unstoppable. Within the lifetimes of many of us, the earth may become warmer than it has been for a thousand years. By the middle of the 21st century, it may be warmer than it was before the last Ice Age. And the next century may be hotter than any in the past 70 million years.

Superficially, a warmer climate may seem welcome. But it could bring many hazards - disruption of crops in the world's main food-producing regions, famine, economic instability, civil unrest and even war.

In the much longer term, melting of the great ice-caps of Greenland and Antarctica could raise sea-levels throughout the world. The average sea-level has already risen a foot since the early 20th century, and if the ice-caps disappear entirely, it will rise by nearly 200 feet. Complete melting might take many centuries, but even a small increase in sea-level will threaten low-lying parts of the world such as the Netherlands.

The man-made agent of climatic change is the carbon dioxide that has been pouring out of the world's chimneys in ever-increasing quantities since the industrial revolution began. And in the past few years, scientists have begun to suspect that there is a second man-made source of carbon dioxide, which may be as important as the burning of fossil fuels, namely the steady destruction of the world's great forests. Trees and other vegetation represent a huge stock of carbon removed from circulation like money in a bank. As the vast tropical forests are cut down, most of the carbon they contain finds its way back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is still tiny. But it has climatic effects out of proportion to its concentration. It acts rather like the glass in a greenhouse, letting through short-wave radiation from the sun, but trapping the longer-wave radiation, by which the earth loses heat to outer space.

Computer studies have suggested that if the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were to be twice that of today's, there would be a rise of between 2°C and 3°C in average temperature.

STAYING UNDERWATER



Until man invented ways of staying underwater for more than a few minutes, the wonders of the world below the sea were almost unknown. The main problem, of course, was air. How could air be supplied to swimmers below the surface of the sea? Pictures made about 2,900 years ago in Asia show men swimming under the surface with air bags tied to their bodies. A pipe from the bag carried air into the swimmer's mouth. Yet, little progress was made in the invention of diving devices until about 1490, when the famous Italian painter, Leonardo da Vinci, designed a complete diving suit,

In 1680, an Italian professor invented a large air bag with a glass window to be worn over the diver's head. To 'clean' the air, a breathing pipe went from the air bag, through another bag to remove moisture, and then again to the large air bag. The plan did not work, but it gave later inventors the idea of moving air around in diving devices.

In 1819, a German, Augustus Siebe, developed a way of forcing air into the head-covering by a machine operated above the water. Finally, in 1837 he invented the 'hard-hat suit', which was to be used for almost a century. It had a metal covering for the head and an air pipe attached to a machine above water. It also had small openings to remove unwanted air. But there were two dangers to the diver inside the hard-hat suit. One was a sudden rise to the surface, caused by too great a supply of air. The other was the crushing of the body, caused by a sudden dive into deep water. The sudden rise to the surface could kill the diver; a sudden dive could force his body up into the head covering, which could also result in death.

Gradually, the hard-hat suit was improved so that the diver could be given a constant supply of breathable air. The diver could then move around under the ocean without worrying about his air supply.

During the 1940's, diving underwater without a special suit became popular. Instead, divers used a breathing device and a face-mask, i.e., a small covering worn on the face made of rubber and glass. To increase the swimmers' speed another new invention was used - rubber shoes shaped like giant duck feet called flippers. The manufacture of snorkels, which are rubber breathing pipes, made it possible for the divers to float on the surface of the water, observing the marine life below them. A special rubber suit which prevented heat loss made diving comfortable enough to collect samples of plant and vegetable life even in icy waters.
The most important advance, however, was the invention of a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, which is called a 'scuba'. Invented by two Frenchmen, Jacques Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan, the scuba consists of a mouthpiece joined to one or two tanks of compressed air which are attached to the diver's back. The scuba makes it possible for a diver-scientist to work 200 feet underwater - or even deeper - for several hours. As a result, scientists can now move around freely at great depths, learning about the wonders of the sea.

PARACHUTING



Over the past 25 years or so, there has been a sharp increase in the popularity of parachuting as a sport. Parachuting can be learnt at a parachute club. The training is extremely strict. The instructor makes sure that the beginner has learnt and understood everything before the first jump is made. Like all parachutists, the beginner must wear two parachutes - a main one on the back and a slightly smaller reserve one on the front. Trainee parachutists do not open their parachutes themselves. By law, they have to make their first six descents using a parachute opened automatically by a 15-foot nylon static line fixed to the airplane. It takes about 2.7 seconds for the jumper's weight to pull on the line, and thus open the parachute. Trainees are taught how to 'spreadeagle' - to lie stomach down and stretch their arms and legs out to slow down their fall. In this way, they descend at about 120 miles per hour before the parachute opens, whereas an experienced sky-diver, descending headfirst, can travel at over 200 mph. Novices jump from a height of about 2,500 feet, while experienced free-fallers may jump from well over 7,000 feet, waiting until they are within 2,000 feet off the ground before pulling the ripcord to open their parachutes



COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE





As the basic building blocks of communication, words communicate meaning, but culture is the most important factor that influences the meanings of words. Meaning is in the person, not in the word, and each person is the product of a particular culture. Thus, if we are willing to learn to communicate well in a foreign language, we must understand the culture that affects the language. In other words, culture and communication are inseparably linked. You can't have one without the other because they are interconnected. Culture gives meaning and provides the context for communication, and the ability to communicate allows us to act out our cultural values and to share our language and our culture.

But our own native language and culture are so much a part of us that we take them for granted. When we travel to another country, we don't think much about our language and culture but we carry our own cultural views along with our passports and luggage; we never leave them behind. Using our own culture as the standard to judge other cultures is called ethnocentrism, and although they are unintentional, our ethnocentric ways of thinking and acting often get in the way of our understanding other languages and cultures. In other words, although we don't plan to be ethnocentric, we think and behave in such a way that it becomes difficult for us to understand other languages and cultures. The willingness to understand a different culture is the cure for cultural blindness. Studying a new language provides the opportunity to develop different views because we also learn the context of the culture that the language belongs to.

When linguists study a new language they often compare it to their own, and consequently they gain a better understanding of not only the new language, but of their own language as well. Students who study a foreign language will also learn more about their own native tongue by comparing and contrasting the two languages. You can follow the same comparative method in learning more about culture - your own, as well as others'. Remember that each culture has developed a set of patterns that are right and appropriate for that culture. If people do things differently in another culture, they are not 'wrong' - they are just different and suitable for that particular culture. Always thinking that 'culturally different' means 'culturally wrong' will only promote intercultural misunderstanding and this is what we should all try to avoid.

CULTURE SHOCK!



Each society has its own beliefs, attitudes, customs, behaviors, and social habits. These give people a sense of who they are, how they should behave, and what they should or should not do. These 'rules' reflect the 'culture' of a country. People become conscious of such rules when they meet people from different cultures. For example, in some cultures, being on time can mean turning up several hours late for an appointment, even for a business meeting; in others, 3 p.m. means 3 p.m. Also, the rules about when to eat vary from culture to culture. Many North Americans and Europeans have three mealtimes a day and organize their timetable around them. In some countries, on the other hand, people often do not have strict rules like this - people eat when they want to, and every family has its own timetable. When people visit or live in a country for the first time, they are often surprised at the differences that exist between their own culture and the culture in the other country. The most common way of comparing two cultures is in terms of their differences - not their similarities. For some people, traveling abroad is an exciting experience; for others though, cultural differences make them feel uncomfortable, frightened, or even insecure. This is known as 'culture shock.' Here are several things to do in order to avoid culture shock: Avoid quick judgments; try to understand people in another culture by looking at things from their own point of view. Try to become more aware of what is going on around you. Don't think of your cultural habits as 'right' and other people's as 'wrong.' Be willing to try new things and to have new experiences.

A Pet For The Goofs




Big Goof and Little Goof lived together. Sometimes they got everything all mixed up. They were pretty goofy. One day Big Goof and Little Goof were working in the yard when a turtle walked by.

“Look at that cute little animal!” said Little Goof. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” said Big Goof.

“We could keep it for a pet,” said Little Goof.

“We never had a pet before,” said Big Goof. “We might do something wrong.”

“We will read a book and learn how to take care of it,” said Little Goof.

The Goofs picked up the turtle and walked to the library.

“Do you have a book on pets?” Big Goof asked.

The librarian showed the Goofs a whole shelf of books about pets. Big Goof picked one out. It was called OUR FRIEND THE DOG.

“Dogs have four feet,” read Big Goof.

“One, two, three, four,” counted Little Goof. “Our pet has four feet. He is a dog!”

“When a dog is happy, it wags its tail,” read Big Goof.

“Our dog has a tail, but he is not wagging it. He must be sad,” said Little Goof.

Big Goof read on, “A dog needs a bone to chew and a collar to wear.”

“No wonder our dog is sad,” said Little Goof. “He doesn’t have those things.”

“Let’s go get them right now,” said Big Goof.

“Come on, Doggie,” said Little Goof.

But the bone did not make Doggie wag his tail. Neither did the collar. The Goofs felt terrible.

heir pet was not happy. They walked around their yard wondering what to do.

When they passed the pond, Doggie jumped in and swam around. As he swam, his tail moved back and forth.

“Look at his tail!” cried Big Goof.

“He must be a water dog,” said Little Goof. “He is happy when he is swimming.

Now when the weather is nice, the Goofs take their dog for a swim in the pond. When it is too cold or rainy to go out, Doggie swims in the bathtub.

“We learned something, Little Goof,” said Big Goof.

“Books don’t tell you everything. You have to find out some things for yourself.”

Joanna and Philip Cole

EVE OF THE WAR


Chapter One

The Eve of the War

NO one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. 1
The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world; and long before this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. The fact that it is scarcely one seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling to the temperature at which life could begin. It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. 2
Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from time’s beginning but nearer its end. 3
The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour. Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter. Its air is much more attenuated than ours, its oceans have shrunk until they cover but a third of its surface, and as its slow seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and periodically inundate its temperate zones. That last stage of exhaustion, which to us is still incredibly remote, has become a present-day problem for the inhabitants of Mars. The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts. And looking across space with instruments, and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, they see, at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green with vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility, with glimpses through its drifting cloud wisps of broad stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded seas. 4
And we men, the creatures who inhabit this earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as are the monkeys and lemurs to us. The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars. Their world is far gone in its cooling and this world is still crowded with life, but crowded only with what they regard as inferior animals. To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, their only escape from the destruction that, generation after generation, creeps upon them. 5
And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit? 6
The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety—their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours—and to have carried out their preparations with a well-nigh perfect unanimity. Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet—it is odd, by-the-bye, that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war—but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well. All that time the Martians must have been getting ready. 7
During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk, first at the Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers. English readers heard of it first in the issue of Nature dated August 2. I am inclined to think that this blaze may have been the casting of the huge gun, in the vast pit sunk into their planet, from which their shots were fired at us. Peculiar markings, as yet unexplained, were seen near the site of that outbreak during the next two oppositions. 8
The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, “as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.” 9
A singularly appropriate phrase it proved. Yet the next day there was nothing of this in the papers except a little note in the Daily Telegraph, and the world went in ignorance of one of the gravest dangers that ever threatened the human race. I might not have heard of the eruption at all had I not met Ogilvy, the well-known astronomer, at Ottershaw. He was immensely excited at the news, and in the excess of his feelings invited me up to take a turn with him that night in a scrutiny of the red planet. 10
In spite of all that has happened since, I still remember that vigil very distinctly: the black and silent observatory, the shadowed lantern throwing a feeble glow upon the floor in the corner, the steady ticking of the clockwork of the telescope, the little slit in the roof—an oblong profundity with the stardust streaked across it. Ogilvy moved about, invisible but audible. Looking through the telescope, one saw a circle of deep blue and the little round planet swimming in the field. It seemed such a little thing, so bright and small and still, faintly marked with transverse stripes, and slightly flattened from the perfect round. But so little it was, so silvery warm—a pin’s-head of light! It was as if it quivered, but really this was the telescope vibrating with the activity of the clockwork that kept the planet in view. 11
As I watched, the planet seemed to grow larger and smaller and to advance and recede, but that was simply that my eye was tired. Forty millions of miles it was from us—more than forty millions of miles of void. Few people realise the immensity of vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims. 12
Near it in the field, I remember, were three faint points of light, three telescopic stars infinitely remote, and all around it was the unfathomable darkness of empty space. You know how that blackness looks on a frosty starlight night. In a telescope it seems far profounder. And invisible to me because it was so remote and small, flying swiftly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles, came the Thing they were sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to the earth. I never dreamed of it then as I watched; no one on earth dreamed of that unerring missile. 13
That night, too, there was another jetting out of gas from the distant planet. I saw it. A reddish flash at the edge, the slightest projection of the outline just as the chronometer struck midnight; and at that I told Ogilvy and he took my place. The night was warm and I was thirsty, and I went stretching my legs clumsily and feeling my way in the darkness, to the little table where the siphon stood, while Ogilvy exclaimed at the streamer of gas that came out towards us. 14
That night another invisible missile started on its way to the earth from Mars, just a second or so under twenty-four hours after the first one. I remember how I sat on the table there in the blackness, with patches of green and crimson swimming before my eyes. I wished I had a light to smoke by, little suspecting the meaning of the minute gleam I had seen and all that it would presently bring me. Ogilvy watched till one, and then gave it up; and we lit the lantern and walked over to his house. Down below in the darkness were Ottershaw and Chertsey and all their hundreds of people, sleeping in peace. 15
He was full of speculation that night about the condition of Mars, and scoffed at the vulgar idea of its having inhabitants who were signalling us. His idea was that meteorites might be falling in a heavy shower upon the planet, or that a huge volcanic explosion was in progress. He pointed out to me how unlikely it was that organic evolution had taken the same direction in the two adjacent planets. 16
“The chances against anything manlike on Mars are a million to one,” he said. 17
Hundreds of observers saw the flame that night and the night after about midnight, and again the night after; and so for ten nights, a flame each night. Why the shots ceased after the tenth no one on earth has attempted to explain. It may be the gases of the firing caused the Martians inconvenience. Dense clouds of smoke or dust, visible through a powerful telescope on earth as little grey, fluctuating patches, spread through the clearness of the planet’s atmosphere and obscured its more familiar features. 18
Even the daily papers woke up to the disturbances at last, and popular notes appeared here, there, and everywhere concerning the volcanoes upon Mars. The seriocomic periodical Punch, I remember, made a happy use of it in the political cartoon. And, all unsuspected, those missiles the Martians had fired at us drew earthward, rushing now at a pace of many miles a second through the empty gulf of space, hour by hour and day by day, nearer and nearer. It seems to me now almost incredibly wonderful that, with that swift fate hanging over us, men could go about their petty concerns as they did. I remember how jubilant Markham was at securing a new photograph of the planet for the illustrated paper he edited in those days. People in these latter times scarcely realise the abundance and enterprise of our nineteenth-century papers. For my own part, I was much occupied in learning to ride the bicycle, and busy upon a series of papers discussing the probable developments of moral ideas as civilisation progressed. 19
One night (the first missile then could scarcely have been 10,000,000 miles away) I went for a walk with my wife. It was starlight and I explained the Signs of the Zodiac to her, and pointed out Mars, a bright dot of light creeping zenithward, towards which so many telescopes were pointed. It was a warm night. Coming home, a party of excursionists from Chertsey or Isleworth passed us singing and playing music. There were lights in the upper windows of the houses as the people went to bed. From the railway station in the distance came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. My wife pointed out to me the brightness of the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky. It seemed so safe and tranquil.

MARK TWAIN : "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "


Chapter I




-1-



YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's Aunt Polly, she is -- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.

Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece -- all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round -- more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she




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took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.

The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them, -- that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.

After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people.

Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldn't. She said it was




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a mean practice and wasn't clean, and I must try to not do it any more. That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.

Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldn't stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry -- set up straight;" and pretty soon she would say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry -- why don't you try to behave?" Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good.

Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body




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would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.

Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed. I went up to my room with a piece of candle, and put it on the table. Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me. Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my




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tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn't no confidence. You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd killed a spider.

I set down again, a-shaking all over, and got out my pipe for a smoke; for the house was all as still as death now, and so the widow wouldn't know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom -- boom -- boom -- twelve licks; and all still again -- stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees -- something was a stirring. I set still and listened. Directly I could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there. That was good! Says I,"me-yow! me-yow!" as soft as I could, and then I put out the light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed. Then I slipped down to the ground and crawled in among the trees, and, sure enough, there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me.
CHAPTER II



WE went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads. When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made a noise. We scrouched down and laid still. Miss Watson's big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him pretty clear, because there was a light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck out about a minute, listening. Then he says:

"Who dah?"

He listened some more; then he come tiptoeing down and stood right between us; we could a touched him, nearly. Well, likely it was minutes and minutes that there warn't a sound, and we all there so close together. There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders. Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since. If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't sleepy -- if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim says:

"Say, who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats




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ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I know what I's gwyne to do: I's gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin."

So he set down on the ground betwixt me and Tom. He leaned his back up against a tree, and stretched his legs out till one of them most touched one of mine. My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears come into my eyes. But I dasn't scratch. Then it begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to itching underneath. I didn't know how I was going to set still. This miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes; but it seemed a sight longer than that. I was itching in eleven different places now. I reckoned I couldn't stand it more'n a minute longer, but I set my teeth hard and got ready to try. Just then Jim begun to breathe heavy; next he begun to snore -- and then I was pretty soon comfortable again.

Tom he made a sign to me -- kind of a little noise with his mouth -- and we went creeping away on our hands and knees. When we was ten foot off Tom whispered to me, and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun. But I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then they'd find out I warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I didn't want him to try. I said Jim might wake up and come. But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we got out, and I was in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play something on him. I




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waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was so still and lonesome.

As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers. Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know 'bout witches?" and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said




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to it. Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that five-center piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches.

Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hill-top we looked away down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and awful still and grand. We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore.

We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest part of the bushes. Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our hands and knees. We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole. We went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and sweaty and cold, and there we stopped. Tom says:

"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood."

Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet




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of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be killed. And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever.

Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said, some of it, but the rest was out of pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had it.

Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets. Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote it in. Then Ben Rogers says:

"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout him?"

"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer.

"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen in these parts for a year or more."

They talked it over, and they was going to rule me




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out, because they said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it wouldn't be fair and square for the others. Well, nobody could think of anything to do -- everybody was stumped, and set still. I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss Watson -- they could kill her. Everybody said:

"Oh, she'll do. That's all right. Huck can come in."

Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, and I made my mark on the paper.

"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?"

"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said.

"But who are we going to rob? -- houses, or cattle, or -- "

"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," says Tom Sawyer. "We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style. We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money."

"Must we always kill the people?"

"Oh, certainly. It's best. Some authorities think different, but mostly it's considered best to kill them -- except some that you bring to the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed."

"Ransomed? What's that?"

"I don't know. But that's what they do. I've seen it in books; and so of course that's what we've got to do."

"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?"




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"Why, blame it all, we've got to do it. Don't I tell you it's in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, and get things all muddled up?"

"Oh, that's all very fine to say, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it to them? -- that's the thing I want to get at. Now, what do you reckon it is?"

"Well, I don't know. But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, it means that we keep them till they're dead. "

"Now, that's something like. That'll answer. Why couldn't you said that before? We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a bothersome lot they'll be, too -- eating up everything, and always trying to get loose."

"How you talk, Ben Rogers. How can they get loose when there's a guard over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?"

"A guard! Well, that is good. So somebody's got to set up all night and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them. I think that's foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as they get here?"

"Because it ain't in the books so -- that's why. Now, Ben Rogers, do you want to do things regular, or don't you? -- that's the idea. Don't you reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct thing to do? Do you reckon you can learn 'em anything? Not by a good deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way."




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"All right. I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow. Say, do we kill the women, too?"

"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on. Kill the women? No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that. You fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any more."

"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say."

Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't want to be a robber any more.

So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets. But Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people.

Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that settled the thing. They agreed to get together and fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home.

I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was dog-tired.