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
Clocks through Time It took human being a long time to invent diverse ways for telling time. About 3000 years ago people fir
Clocks through Time It took human being a long time to invent diverse ways for telling time. About 3000 years ago people fir
admin
2013-05-20
29
问题
Clocks through Time
It took human being a long time to invent diverse ways for telling time. About 3000 years ago people first made a circle with a stick in the center of it to【1】the passage of time by noticing various marks on the circle the shadow of the stick fell across.
Since these kinds of circles that are called【2】did not work without the sun, men had to find other ways to keep track of time, including a【3】candle on which each stripe took about one hour to melt, a water clock which had a line with a number beside it for every hour and an【4】which followed the invention of glass blowing.
The first clock with a face and an hour hand was invented about 600 years ago for few people. With the gradually【5】use of clocks, they were beautifully【6】, though they could not keep correct time. Scarcely had clocks been made small enough to be carried when watches came into use.
As the beginning of the style of "grandfather clocks, " which were enclosed in tall wooden boxes, the【7】clock was made in 1657. In 1700, there were clocks with minute and second hands. About 200 years later, a clock is commonly used in every house and a watch is almost used by every【8】gentleman.
A newly created clock that shows the time exactly is so - called【9】clock. Nowadays such a clock has more and more complicated functions.
【10】as clocks and watches are, time means different things to different nations.
Clocks through Time
It was probably around 3, 000 years ago that people first began making things to help them measure the passage of time. Having observed that shadows move around trees as the sun moves across the sky, someone drew a circle and put a stick in the center. As the sun passed overhead, he marked even divisions on the circle as the shadow of the stick crossed it. Then people could tell which part of the day it was by noticing which mark on the circle the shadow fell across. These circles were called " sundials. " Later, they were made of stone and metal to last longer.
Of course, a sundial did not work at night or on cloudy days. So men kept inventing other ways to keep track of time. One invention was a striped candle. Each stripe took the same amount of time to melt. If each stripe inched in about an hour, about three hours would have passed when three stripes melted. A water clock was another way to tell time. A container had a line with a number beside it for every hour. It also had a tiny hole in the bottom. The container was filled with water that dripped through the hole. When the water level reached the first line, people knew that an hour had passed. Each time fire water level fell to another line, one more hour had passed. Candies and water clocks helped people know how much time had gone by. But candies had to he remade, and water clocks had to he refilled. So, after glass blowing was invented, the hourglass came into use. Glass bulbs were joined by a narrow tunnel of glass, and fine, dry sand was placed in the top bulb. The hourglass was easy to use, but it had to be turned over every hour so the sand could flow again.
It was about 600 years ago that the first clock with a face and an hour hand was made. One of the first such clocks was built for a king of France and placed in a tower of the royal palace. The clock did not show minutes or seconds. Usually it did not even show the eon’eet hour! Since there were no planes or trains to catch, however, people were not concerned about knowing the exact time. Gradually, clocks began to be popular. They still did not keep correct time, but they were unusual, and they could be beautifully decorated. One clock was in the shape of a cart with a horse and driver. One of the wheels was the face of the clock. Watches came into use as soon as clocks were made small enough to be carried. These did not always tell the correct time, either. They were often put into beautiful watchcases, which were made to look like anything the owner wanted.
The pendulum clock was invented in 1657. This was the beginning of the style of clocks we call " grandfather clocks, " which were enclosed in tall wooden boxes. Pendulum clocks showed the hours more exactly than earlier clocks, since the weight on the pendulum could be moved up or down to make the clock go faster or slower. About forty years later, minute and second hands were put on some clocks. Grandfather clocks are very much in demand again today. They are usually very expensive, however, and require more space than other styles of clocks. As people began to go to more places and do more things, they were more interested in knowing the correct time. By 1900, almost every house had a clock, and nearly every well - dressed gentleman wore a watch on a chain tucked in his vest pocket.
Today, of course, we have electric clocks that keep giving the right time until they are unplugged or the electricity goes off. Scientists have invented clocks that look like large machines and tell the correct time to a split second. The most modern corporate clocks for home use do not have faces or hands. These clocks are called digital clocks, and they tell the time with a set of numerals which appear in a little window. The seconds are counted off like the tenths of a mile on the odometer of a car. Many electric clocks are combined with radios, which can sometimes be set to turn on automatically. Thus, instead of an alarm ringing in your ear in the morning, you can hear soft music playing when it is time to get up. Some clocks will even start the coffee maker!
Although clocks and watches play an important part in people’s lives in industrialized countries, time is still regarded in very different ways in different parts of the world. In the next selection, we will talk about attitudes toward time in different cultures.
选项
答案
striped
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/nJ4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Lastweek’sdisappointingunemploymentreporthasrefocusedattentiononthequestionofwhy,despitemodestsignsofeconomicr
Whichofthefollowingnovelsisconsideredtobethesemi-autobiographyofCharlesDickens?
TraditionalAustralia-specific"schooloftheair"and"flyingdoctors"arebothreachedthrough
ParadiseLostisthemasterpieceby______.
Somepeopleclaimthathumanityhasmadelittlerealprogressoverthepastcenturyorsoonthegroundthattechnologicalinnov
Todayinformationtechnologyhascometoplayaveryimportantroleinourdailylives.Itinvolvesmorethanjustcomputerlite
Serf-discipline:theFoundationofProductiveLivingⅠ.Issuestobenoticedatthethoughtofserf-disciplineA.Troubl
你知道中国最有名的人是谁?提起此人,人人皆晓,处处闻名。他姓差,名不多,是各省各县各村人氏。你一定见过他,一定听过别人谈起他。差不多先生的名字天天挂在大家的口头,因为他是中国全国人的代表。差不多先生的相貌和你我都差不多。他有一双眼睛,
美国《幸福》杂志曾在征答栏中刊登过这么一个题目:假如让你重新选择,你做什么:一位军界要人的回答是去乡间开一个杂货铺;一位劳动部长是想做一家饮料公司的经理……其间也有一般百姓的回答。想做总统的,想做外交官的,想做面包师的,应有尽有。但是,很少有人想做现在的自
A、55,000miles.B、65,000miles.C、75,000miles.D、8,5000miles.C当女士问到汽车的里程数时,售货员答道:“letmecheck.Ohyes.75,000miles”,故C正确。其余三项为
随机试题
依据大动脉位置关系及肺动脉瓣口状况,三尖瓣闭锁病理解剖最常见的是
病人男性,25岁,甲状腺肿大一年余,怕热多汗,心悸,乏力,易疲劳。检查:P100次/分,R22次/分。BP130/70mmHg,双侧甲状腺弥漫肿大,有震颤,眼球稍突,心肺无异常。对诊断最有价值的检查方法是
如家具厂不服商标局驳回申请的决定,应在()前申请复审。北京市海淀区商标局对注册“北京”商标审查后而驳回的主要理由可能是()。
个人住房装修贷款用于()
提出了“顺民心、重民意、审民情”主张的著作是()。
Freud认为心理活动的动力是()。
运动员出现速度障碍时,一般不会采用的训练手段是()。
采用Kerberos系统进行认证时,可以在报文中加入______来防止重放攻击。
下列程序的功能是计算N=2+(2+4)+(2+4+6)+……+(2+4+6+……+40)的值。PrivateSubCommand34Click()t=0;m=0:sum=0Dot=t+m:sum=sum+t
VirtuallyallplantandanimalspeciesonEarthcanbefoundintropicalrainforests.Thelargestnumberofrainforestsinthe
最新回复
(
0
)