天津英语学校

天津英语学校 Well.You can read some books about that.Why? When his father died in 1761, Banks was only eighteen years old. Many young men in his position would lead a cosy life, but young Banks had an appetite for knowledge. Despite his wealth, he worked to make a career in science. He made a first journey to study wild plants in 1766. His next expedition was the great voyage with James Cook to Oceania. In 1768, the Royal Navy appointed James Cook as the commander of the Endeavour to take members of the Royal Society on an expedition to Tahiti. According to the instructions given to Captain Cook, the expedition had three goals. The primary goal was to study the passing of the planet Venus across the sun. This would give astronomers a change to calculate the distance between the earth and the sun. Secondly the purpose of the expedition was to record, classify and describe all plant and animal life observed during the trip. Thirdly, Captain Cook received secret instructions to search for an unknown southern continent. As astronomy was one of the most important branches of science, it was the British government that paid for all the equipment and expenses for that of the expedition. Since the government would not pay for such a new field of science as botany, Joseph Banks, at the age of 25, had to supply about,10,000 of his own money to equip the expedition. On their three-year voyage, Joseph Banks did not only study and describe new plants he found, but also looked out new economic species: plans that could be grown in England or other parts of the world to produce crops that could be sold. Banks was the first to move crops from one continent to another on a large scale, helping to develop local economies with these new imports. Some plants that were spread over the globe in this way include cocoa, hemp and tea. The Endeavour, returned to England in 1771. The voyage had been a great success. Wonderful discoveries had been made of strange new lands, cultures, animals and plants. After that Captain Cook made two more voyages around the world, but Joseph Banks never undertook another. From behind his desk, however, he was involved in enterprises such as the exploration of Africa and the settlement of Australia. In 1778, Banks was elected president of the Royal Society, a position he held for 42 years. During these years Banks helped to develop the royal gardens at Kew into one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world. He accumulated a great deal of knowledge about plants and agriculture. In growing strawberries Banks went back to the abandoned practice of spreading straw under the fruit to reduce the necessary amount of watering. He also built a greenhouse to experiment with growing pineapples. It was Joseph Banks who made Kew a centre of scientific and economic research. INTEGRATING SKILLS Reading WILDLIEF AND GRARDEN ROSES In his youth Charles Darwin enjoyed all the freedom to experiment and do whatever he liked. The study of physics, chemistry, and later botany, was his hobby At the age of 22, Darwin was invited to join the scientific expedition on the Beagle. I wonder what life was like in small towns in our province. Hmm.You could visit a local museum and study what archaeologists found. No,I'm not interested in broken pots and vases. I'd love to know what people talked about and how they really lived. That may be difficult to find out. What I'd really like to find out is whether people would sometimes want to go on a holiday,as we do. That sort of thing. READING THE KING OF STONEHENGE On May 3,2002,archaeologists in England found a grave of a man dating back to around 2300 BC. When he died,the man was about 40 years old. He was buried on his left side with his face to the north. The tests on his teeth show that he spent his youth in central Europe, perhaps Germany. Buried with him were the tools of a hunter or warrior. Some of the objects found in the grave give us an idea of how he was dressed when he was buried. There was a bone pin that may have been from a piece of clothing such as leather coat. He carried a copper knife on his breast. The most amazing find was tow gold earrings. That would have made him a man of distinction. Only a few centimetres from his head were two pots made of clay, tools and materials to make arrows, a bow and a dozen arrows for hunting and a second, smaller copper knife. Next to them lay a cushion stone,upon which the man could work metal. Everything found in the man's grave was probably given to him for his use in the next life. It was all that a person would need to survive -clothing,tools,weapons,pottery and spare materials to make new tools. The discovery is important for a variety of reasons. His grave is the richest of any found from that period. This was a time when the first metals were brought to Britain. and this man was buried with two gold earring which are the oldest gold ever found in Britain(dated to 2470 BC). He was important for another reason: he was buried three miles from Stonehenge at the time when the great stones were being brought to Salisbury to build it. Archaeologists tend to believe that this man was a member of a powerful class that may well have organised the construction of Stonehenge. For these reasons,this man has been called the King of Stonehenge. Stonehenge was begun around 3000 BC. In about 2300 BC the huge stone circles were built. The biggest stones weight approximately 20 tons and came from a place not very far. But the smaller blue stones,stil weighing four tons on average, came from west Wales. It is not yet known how these were conveyed over a distance of 380 kilometres. It is also a mystery how early man was able to construct Stonehenge without the use of modern construction machines and lorries.