The first cook. It took a long time, however, to learn how to use this gift. For centuries men lived like wild animals. Their food consisted of nuts, herbs, fruit, and the flesh of animals. Cooking was unknown, and when a wild animal was captured, the savage tore it apart and ate the raw flesh. According to one legend, a hunter, after a long tramp, succeeded in catching a rabbit. On his way home he found a smoldering fire which had been started by lightning. Throwing his rabbit on a log, he lay down and went to sleep. When he awoke, he found that his rabbit had fallen into the fire. In attempting to rescue it, the savage got some of the juice of the roasted rabbit on his fingers. By instinct, he put his burnt fingers to his mouth, and the taste was so pleasing that he immediately finished the rabbit, and this is how man learned to cook.
Reduction of metals. Ages later, man began to use fire to make metals and to form them into spears and hatchets for hunting and fighting. The alchemists, as we know, used fire in their attempts to change the base metals into gold, and today fires are burning in many furnaces producing, if not gold, metals of far greater value to the progress of civilization. Copper, bronze, iron, and steel, produced by fire, have been the stepping stones of mans progress through the ages. The chemistry involved in the extraction, purification, and alloying of metals is so interesting and of such great importance that volumes have been written on this subject.
Heating homes. We are so accustomed to living in heated homes that it is only when something goes wrong with the furnace that we give any thought to the blessed fire. To the savage shivering in his cave, however, a fire was a real blessing, even if it did fill his eyes with smoke. Keeping the home fires burning was a difficult task for the American Indian, who delegated this to his wife. Woe be to the squaw who let the fire go out. In the wintertime, the fire was built on the ground in the center of the tent, which had a small hole in the top to act as a smokestack. Even the palaces of the wealthy in the Middle Ages were cold and damp, the fireplaces being so inefficient that only a portion of one room could be heated at a time. Not until a comparatively recent date were stoves invented, and furnaces were unknown even when your grandfather was a boy.
How fires are started and stopped. You have learned that burning is rapid oxidation which gives off light and heat. In order to start a fire, three conditions are necessary: something to burn; something to support the combustion; and a means of lighting the fuel . Having lived all his life in a home where the furnace is kept burning all winter, the average person seldom thinks of the difficulty of starting a fire.
To get some idea of the difficulty of starting fires, imagine yourself shipwrecked like Robinson Crusoe upon an uninhabited island. To build a fire, the first condition would be met by collecting some wood. The second condition would be no problem as air is always present to support combustion. The third condition, raising the fuel to its kindling temperature, would offer a real difficulty. Two methods have been used. The first is to employ the heat of friction caused by rubbing two dry sticks together. This sounds simple, but much skill and practice are essential to the success of this operation. The second method is to make sparks by striking two pieces of flint together. This may work if the operator is persistent and if his fuel is sufficiently fine and dry. But before he succeeds in getting a fire started by either method, our Robinson Crusoe will do some thinking about the usefulness of the common match.
上海版牛津一年级英语教案 Unit 3 My abilities
一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals教案2
牛津版一年级英语上册Unit 2 Good morning 教案
一年级英语上册教案 Unit 1 第二课时
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit 3 第二课时教案
上海牛津版一年级英语下册教案Unit9 Revision(3)
上海牛津版一年级英语Unit2 Small animals第四课时教案
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit 8 教案
一年级英语上册教案Unit1 My classroom第一课时
一年级英语上册教案 Unit1My classroom 第三课时
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时6
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 unit9 教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时1
牛津版一年级英语上册unit5 Fruit教案(3)
一年级英语上册Unit1 My classroom第三课时教案
一年级英语上册Unit8 Playtime 第三课时教案
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals第五课时教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时3
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit3 period1教案
苏教版牛津小学一年级英语教案Unit1 What`s your name
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals教案
一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals第三课时教案
外研版一年级英语上册教案Unit1 Hello
一年级英语上册教案Unit1 My classroom第一课时教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1单元分析
沪教牛津版一年级英语上册教案Unit1 My classroom第二课时
新起点小学一年级英语下册Unit11 Toys教案
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit3 Colours教案(1)
上海牛津版一年级英语Unit 9 Revision单元分析教案
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit3 period2教案
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |