首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Great Inventions There are some things we use every day. Can you imagine a world without zippers(拉链) to fasten clothing? Ha
Great Inventions There are some things we use every day. Can you imagine a world without zippers(拉链) to fasten clothing? Ha
admin
2010-03-26
34
问题
Great Inventions
There are some things we use every day. Can you imagine a world without zippers(拉链) to fasten clothing? Have you ever wondered about the layout of the keyboard of a typewriter, which we see every day on the computer? These are just two of the many inventions which have made our lives easier. Maybe that’s why we don’t think about them very much!
The zipper
Whatever did we do before the invention of the zipper?
In 1893 the world’s first zipper was produced in Chicago. Although the inventor claimed that it was a reliable fastening for clothing, this was not the case. The Chicago zipper sprang open without warning, or jammed shut, and it swiftly lost popularity. Twenty years later a Swedish-born engineer called Sundback solved the problem. He attached tiny cups to the backs of the interlocking teeth, and this meant that the teeth could be enmeshed (使陷入) more firmly and reliably.
At first zippers were made of metal. They were heavy, and if they got stuck it was difficult to free them. Then came nylon zippers which were lighter and easier to use, and had smaller teeth. The fashion industry liked the new zippers far better because they did not distort the line of the garment or weigh down light fabrics. They were also easier for the machinists to fit into the garment.
Meanwhile a new fastening agent made its appearance at the end of the twentieth century: Velcro (维可牢尼龙褡链扣). Velcro is another product made from nylon. Nylon is a very tough synthetic fiber first developed in the 1930s, and bearing a name to remind the hearer of the two places where it was developed: NY for New York and LON for London. It is strong and durable.
Velcro is used on clothing, luggage and footwear. It is quick and easy to fasten and unfasten, and has taken a large part of the zipper’s share of the market. It is also used in ways a zipper cannot be used—for instance as an easily changed fastening on plaster casts, and to hold furnishing fabrics in position.
The typewriter and the keyboard
The keyboard of the modern typewriter is laid out in a most odd fashion. Why would anyone place the letters on the left side of the top row of the keyboard in the order Q W E R T Y? The answer is simple: to slow the typist down. But first, let’s consider the history of the typewriter itself.
In the 1860’s a newspaper editor called Christopher Sholes lived in Milwaukee, USA. Sholes invented the first of the modern typewriters, although there had been patents for typewriter-like machines as early as 1714, when Queen Anne of England granted a patent to a man called Henry Mill for a machine which would make marks on paper "so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print." In 1829, across the Atlantic in Detroit, USA, William Austin Burt took out a patent on a typewriter-like machine, four years before the French inventor Xavier Projean produced his machine designed to record words at a speed comparable to someone writing with a pen.
So the typewriter was not a new idea, although there had not been a successful realization of the idea before Christopher Sholes’ machine. His typewriter became very popular, and soon people learned to type very quickly—so quickly, in fact, that the keys became tangled (纠缠在一起). On manual typewriters the characters were set on the end of bars which rose to strike the paper when the key was pressed. In the first models, the keys were set alphabetically. When a quick typist tapped out a word like federal, it was very likely that the adjacent e and d keys would become entangled (缠住).
Sholes therefore set about finding ways to slow the typist down. He looked for the letters which were most often used in English, and then placed them far away from each other. For instance, q and u, which are almost always used together in English, are separated by five intervening (介于其间的) letters. The plan worked, and the typist was slowed down a little.
When computers came into use in the latter part of the twentieth century it was suggested that the keyboard should be rationalized. After all, there was no longer any need to avoid clashing manual typewriter keys. One new board included keys which produced letters which frequently occur together in English, like ing and th and ed, so the word thing would take two strokes to write instead of five. Although this made perfect sense, people found it very hard to learn to use a new keyboard, and the idea was dropped. It is unlikely that the keyboard will ever be changed: as we approach the twenty-first century the voice-activated computer, already in an advanced state of development, is becoming more and more accessible (易得到的). It is very likely that we will soon have machines which take dictation as we speak to them, and the keyboard will be used for corrections.
Velcro has completely taken the place of zipper in the market.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
从第六段第二句的后半句“Velcro…has taken a large part of the zipper’s share of the market”(尼龙搭扣只是占领了拉链的一大部分市场份额,但并非全部),可知答案是N。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/dck7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Soonafterhetransferredtothenewschool,Alifoundthathehad____________(很难跟上班里的同学)inmathandEnglish.
OneoftheorganizersforthissurveyisMTVU,whichis______.Comparedtothatin2005,thenumberofstudentstryingtoinju
Thecomputerisn’tworkingproperly:______________(肯定有什么地方出了毛病).
Thisbookisaboutthefutureoftechnology.Initwewillexaminesomeofthemanyrecentdevelopmentsinafewkeyfieldsand
Accordingtotheauthor,educationissuretobelimitedtoacertainscopewithouttheuseofmedia.Studentscanturntometh
Nowthatmanymediachiefshavefallenintodisrepute(坏名声)andhaveleft,thosewhoarestillinpositionsfeeltheneedtotak
A、Adrivingtest.B、Atrafficaccident.C、Apolicemovie.D、Thebestwaytomakesignals.B综合推断题,由对话中的signal,car,drivingcareles
Scientistsarelearningmoreaboutour【C1】______forsleep.Mostpeoplesleep【C2】______eighthourseachnight.【C3】______people
A、Jimhascalledoffthedinner.B、Jimisatapartynow.C、Jim’smotherisout.D、Jimiswithhisgirlfriendnow.D从对话中所说的“…he
A、Eatingdinner.B、Writingacheck.C、Cooking.D、Makingaphonecall.C
随机试题
A、反应B、反射C、反馈D、正反馈E、负反馈在中枢神经系统参与下,机体对刺激发生的规律反应称为
患者,女,30岁,会计,喜食辛辣食物,平日体健,患痔疮4年,近期无痛性便血加重,在排便时间歇滴血,痔核脱出肛门外,排便后需用手才能还纳,还纳后不再脱出。该患者的内痔处于
根据民事诉讼法规定,申请公示催告必须符合以下要件()。
背景资料:某高土石坝坝体施工项目,业主与施工总承包单位签订了施工总承包合同,并委托了工程监理单位实施监理。施工总承包完成桩基工程后,将深基坑支护工程的设计委托给了专业设计单位,并自行决定将基坑的支护和土方开挖工程分包给了一家专业分包单位
企业向海关申请注册登记是其取得报关资格的法定条件。()
下列属于宏观经济分析中数据资料的质量要求的是()。Ⅰ.准确性Ⅱ.系统性Ⅲ.实践性Ⅳ.适用性
商店进了300支钢笔,每售出1支,可获得40%的利润,当这批钢笔全部出售完时,共获得利润750元,问每支钢笔的售价是多少元?()
根据材料,下列说法正确的是()。
结合材料,回答问题:材料1犹记新中国成立之初,毛泽东豪迈展望,“一张白纸,没有负担,好写最新最美的文字,好画最新最美的画图”;犹记改革开放之初,邓小平在日本新干线列车上感受到“催人跑的意思”,沉思“我们现在正合适坐这样的车”。而当我们的
Whatarethesetwopeopletalkingabout?
最新回复
(
0
)