200WaterFrom the beginning, water has furnished man with a source of food and a highway to travel The first civilizations arose where water was a dominant element in the environment, a challenge to man’s The Egyptians invented the 365-day calendar in response to the Nile’s annual The Babylonians, who were among the most famous law-makers in ancient times, invented laws regulating water Water inspired the Chinese to build a 1,000-mile canal, a complex system which, after neatly 2,500 years, remains still practically in use and still commands the astonishment of But the ancients never found complete solutions to their water The Yellow River is also known as “China’s Sorrow”; it is so unpredictable and dangerous that in a single flood it has caused a million Floods slowed the great civilization of the Indus River Valley, and inadequate drainage ruined much of its Today water dominates man as it always has Its presence continues to govern the location of his homes and cities; its violent variability can kill man or his crops; its routes links him to his fellows; its immense value may add to already dangerous political There are many examples of this in our own 300New Foods and the New WorldIn the last 500 years, nothing about people -- not their clothes, ideas, or languages -- has changed as much as what they The original chocolate drink was made from the seeds of the cocoa tree by South American I The Spanish introduced it to the rest of the world during the 1500’ And although it was very expensive, it quickly became In London shops where chocolate drinks were served became important meeting Some still exist The photo is also from the New W Around 1600, the Spanish brought it from Peru to Europe, where it soon was widely Ireland became so dependent on it that thousands of Irish people starved when the crop failed during the “Potato Famine” of 1845-6, and thousands more were forced to emigrate to AThere are many other foods that have traveled from South America to the Old W But some other went in the opposite Brazil is now the world’s largest grower of coffee, and coffee is an important crop in Colombia and other South American But it is native to E It was first made into a drink by Arabs during the 1400’According to an Arabic legend, coffee was discovered when a goatherd named Kaldi noticed that his goats were attracted to the red berries on a coffee He tried one and experienced the “wide-awake” feeling that one-third of the world’s population now starts the day 400TV Shows and Long Bus TripsLong bus rides are like television They have a beginning, a middle, and an end – with commercials thrown in every three or four The commercials are They happen whether you want them or Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by outside the bus “Buy Super Clean T” “Drink Good’n Wet Root B” “Fill up with Pacific G” Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of “You Need It! Buy It Now!”The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way Usually some things have changed – new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so If the driver is particularly reckless or daring, the ride can be as thrilling as a suspense Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left-hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of Food always makes bus rides more But you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you Too much salty food can make you very thirty between The end of the ride is somewhat like the You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in The seat, of course, has become hander as the hours have By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the arm rests – even with your hands crossed behind your The end comes just at the tight There are just no more ways to 500VolcanoesThere are thousands of volcanoes all over the What makes volcanoes? What happens?The inside of the earth is very Because it is very, very hot, the rock has melted like It has become liquid, like It is always boiling, like water in a If you have seen a kettle boiling, you know that the steam and boiling water try to get The very hot melted rock inside the earth also tries to get Usually it cannot because the outside of the earth is too thick and But in some places the outside of the earth is thin and Sometimes a crack (a small opening) The hot melted rock, which we call “lava”, pushes up through the crack and bursts Steam and gas shoot up into the air and the hot melted lava pours Big pieces of rock may be thrown high into the After a while the volcano becomes quiet The melted lava becomes Later the same thing happens again and Each time more hot lava pours out on top of the cold lava and then becomes In this way a kind of mountain is built up, with a hole down the Perhaps the volcano will then bi quiet and no more lava will burst Perhaps it will start again hundreds of years Although there are thousands of volcanoes in the world, most of them are Only about 500 sometimes start to throw out lava A famous volcano which is now dead is Mount Fujiyama in J It is covered with snow in Vesuvius is the name of a very famous volcano in I It first came to life many, many years It was quiet for hundreds of Then in the year 79 it suddenly A great cloud of smoke shot up into the sky with great burning rocks, which fell all Hot lava poured down its About 3,000 people were This has happened again many times since that Sometimes no damage was caused, or only little But there was serious damage in the years 472, 1631, 1794, 1861, 1872 and You can see that a volcano can stay alive for many In 1906 part of the top of the mountain fell There was also serious damage in 1914 but there has been any since that