BR 2-16: Machines Then and Now

About two million years ago people made stone axes with wooden handles. (P.4)

This time, I’m going to introduce everybody a book about machines. What machines do you use best every day? I use a Smart Phone best every day. Today our life depends on a lot of machines. I want to introduce everybody about histories of machines and now. One is Ramp. It is essential for our everyday life. The Ancient Egyptians used ramps to build pyramids more than 5,000 years ago. The Great Pyramid is 138 meters high and it is the biggest in the world. Two is Crane. The Ancient Greeks used big crane made of wood to build temples. They tried a rope to a block of stone. Three is Windmills. Windmills use energy from the wind. Hundreds of years ago people started using windmills to make flour. Today we use windmills to make electricity. Speaking of windmills, I imagine Holland. There is famous for windmill and turip. I have often watched them in TV and magazines but I want to see them firsthand. Four is Flying Machine. Do you like riding plane? I like it so much. Today we can fly all over the world by plane, but 200 years ago planes didin’t exist. In 1903 Wright brother invented the first plane made of wood and carried one person. The first flight only lasted for 12 seconds. Four years later a French inventor flew one of the first helicopters. He stayed in the air for about 20 seconds. I thought how deadful inventors experimented staying in the air. If the experiments would be unsuccessful, perhaps they fallen from the machine and died. It was the experiments of life and death. Five is television. What programs do you watch in TV every day? If there isn’t television in our life, a kind of our amusements lose. The first television only showed black and white images in 1926. Then 18 years later, inventors made a television that showed images in color. Today we can also watch DVDs and play a lot of games in TV and some modern televisions can be almost as thin as paper. How do you think that our life depends on a lot of machines? It is very comfortable, speedy, and interesting. Machines will develop and help our life in the future. But I think that look back upon and appreciate a lot of inventors who did the experiments of life and death. Thank you for reading!

                            Reference

Robert, Quinn (2010). Machines Then and Now. Oxford, America. Usborne

[425 words]