BRAILLE
Louis Braille was born in France in 1809. His Father had a small business. He made shoes and other things from leather. Louis liked to help his father in the store even when he was very small. one day when Louis was three years old, he was cutting some leather. Suddenly the knife slipped and hit him in the eye. Louis soon became completely blind
When he was ten years old, he entered the National Institute for the Blind in Paris. One day his class went to visit a special exhibit by a captain in the army. One thing in the exhibit was very interesting for Louis. It showed messages in code. Armies send messages in secret codes so no one else can read them. The captain wrote this code in raised letters on very thick paper
Louis thought a lot about this code. Then he decided to write in the same way so blind people could " read " with their fingers. It is very difficult to feel the differences between raised letters. Instead of letters, Louis used a " cell " of six dots. He arranged the dots with two dots across and three down
There are 63 possible arrangements of the dots in the Braille system. Each arrangement stands for one letter, punctuation mark, or number. He also used his system to write music. Louis Braille invented this system when he was only fifteen years old
Blind people can also write braille. They use a special kind of pen to make the dots
Today there are braille books in all written languages in the world. However, these books are large and expensive to make. They must be on special paper. Someone who can see must learn the braille alphabet and make the raised dots in the paper by hand or with a special typewriter
Now there is an easier way for blind people to " read ". " Talking books " are complete books or magazines on cassette tapes or phonograph records. Blind people listen to the book. Blind people can also write using a typewriter or a computer
Louis Braille invented a way for blind people to communicate. He invented it before the time of phonographs, tape recorders, typewriters, and computers. When he died in 1852, he was buried in the Pantheon in Paris. This is where the national heroes of France are buried, and Louis Braille was a national hero
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NAVAJO SAND PAINTING
The Navajo Indians live in the northeastern part of the state of Arizona in the United States. The Navajos have very strong traditions from centuries ago. One of these traditions is sand painting
There are rocks of many beautiful colors in this part of Arizona. A navajo sand painter finds rocks of several different colors. He grinds each rock into sand. Then he is ready to make a sand painting
He always makes the painting on the floor inside a small Navajo house. He takes some colored sand in his hand and puts it on the floor in a line. He changes to different colors and slowly makes a picture. Sand painting are very important to Navajos. Only a medicine man or a singer can make them. He knows how because his father and grandfather taught him.
The Navajos use sand paintings as part of their religion. They use them to help sick people. The singer always makes the picture exactly the same way. He does not make new pictures. He always makes the ones he learned from his father. Navajos believe that when the picture is finished, the person's sickness goes into the picture. Then the medicine man erases the picture from the floor. The picture and the sickness are gone
Navajos always welcome new ideas. They got sheep, horses, cows, and cloth from the spanish. They use the wool from their sheep to make beautiful rugs. In the 1880s they started using some of the pictures from sand paintings in their rugs. The pictures were similar to the traditional ones, but not exactly the same. The Indians always changed a color or a line. They would not use their religious pictures without changing them a little
In the 1930s the Navajos started making sand paintings to sell. They put the paintings on a board with glue, and sold the beautiful pictures to tourists. However, the pictures were always a little different from their religious pictures
Most Navajo Indians are poor. They raise sheep, but farming is difficult because the land is very dry. They have no factories, and it is not easy to find a job. They can earn a lot of money by selling their sand paintings. They still use sand paintings for their religion. However, the medicine man or singer never makes paintings to sell. Business and religion are always separate. Some Navajos think that they should not sell sand paintings because they are part of their religion. Other think that it is a good way to earn money, and they do not have many ways to earn money. People in other countries have similar problems. They do not like to use their religion and traditions to earn money, but sometimes it is necessary
Before 1930, no one except Navajos could see their beautiful paintings. Now everyone can see them in museums or buy them
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JEANS
Jeans are the most popular kind of clothing in the world. They are popular almost everywhere -in Japan, France, Indonesia, Canada, and Brazil. Rich people and poor people wear them. Young people and even some old people wear them too. Why are they popular? Who made the first jeans
In 1849 two men discovered gold in California. Men from the rest of the United States and other countries hurried there to look for gold too. These miners needed good strong clothes
A young man from Germany named Levi Strauss arrived in California in 1850. He went there to sell things to the miners. He saw that the miners needed strong pants, so he began to make them. He used cloth that people make tents from. He put rivets on the pockets to make them strong because the men put rocks in their pockets. These pants were very strong and lasted a long time. The pants became very popular immediately
Later Mr.Strauss started making jeans from cotton cloth from Nimes, France. " De Nimes " means " from Nimes " . People called this cloth denim. Denim was popular in the fifteenth century. Christopher Columbus used denim for the sails of his ships. Sailors in Genoa, Italy, wore denim pants. The word " jeans " comes from the word " Genoa " . Mr.Strauss made the first jeans in the United States, but the idea and the kind of cloth came from Europe. The names came from France and Italy
Jeans were always blue until recently. People used indigo to dye them. Indigo is the oldest dye in the world. Most jeans have blue threads going across and white threads going up and down. These two colors make denim look different from other kinds of cloth
Today Levi Strauss and Company makes jeans in large factories. Other companies all over the world also make jeans. Usually one worker makes just one part of the pair of pants. Someone makes the front of the leg, and someone else makes the back. Another puts in the zipper
Why are jeans popular? In the United States, they are the only kind of traditional clothes. In other countries, young people wear them because they want to look modern. Jeans are a sign of youth and independence. Everybody wears jeans because everybody wants to be modern, young, and independent
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THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Every four years people all over the world watch the Olympic Games. It is a time for all kinds of people to unite in peace. Some of them join together to compete for gold medals. Millions of other people watch them on television
Why do we have the Olympics? How did they begin? The first Olympic Games were in Greece in 776 B.C. There was only one event. People ran a race the length of the stadium. The games lasted one day
Slowly people added more events. The games were only for men. and women could not even watch them. Only Greeks competed. They came from all parts of the Greek world. The time of the games was a time of peace, and the government let everyone travel safely. Kings competed against common people. The winners became national heroes
The first modern Games were in 1896 in Athens. The Greeks built a new stadium for the competition. Athletes from several countries competed. Then there were Olympics every four years in different cities in Europe and the United States until 1952. After that they were in Melbourne, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Montreal besides in European cities. Each year there were athletes from more nations. The first Winter Olympics were in 1924. The athletes compete in skiing and other winter sports.
Today there must be Olympic Games every four years. The games must have at least fifteen events, and they cannot last more than sixteen days. There is no age limit and people of any age can compete
The competitors must not be professionals. They must be amateurs. The athletes compete for gold medals. The winners are still national heroes, as they were in the early Olympic Games in Greece
In 1956, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the Games. They did not compete in the games because several countries took the Suez Canal from Egypt that year. Other countries boycotted the Games in 1964 and 1976. In 1980 the United States and other countries boycotted the games in Moscow. in 1984 the Soviet Union and other countries boycotted the Games in Los Angeles. How can the nations of the world solve this problem? Maybe the Games should be in Greece every year, where they began. Then athletes from all over the world could compete without any boycotts
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GREENLAND
Greenland is the largest island in the world. It covers over 2,000,000 ( two million ) square kilometers. Most of it lies inside the arctic Circle, and a huge sheet of ice covers 85% (85percent) of it. Imagine that a map of Greenland is on top of a map of Europe. Greenland stretches from London to the middle of the Sahara Desert
The ice sheet is more than 1.6 kilometers thick, and it never melts. There is probably only rock under the ice, but no one knows for sure
Along the sea coast, mountains rise from the sea. There are a few low trees in the southwest, but no forests. Snow covers everything in winter, but in summer very low plants cover the ground between the sea and the ice sheet
Norwegian Vikings were the first Europeans to see the island in A.D. 875, but no one visited it until 982. Three years later a few Vikings went to live there. In 1261 the people in Greenland decided to join Norway. Norway and Denmark united in 1380. This union ended in 1814, and Greenland stayed with Denmark. Greenland is fifty times larger than Denmark, but it is still a part of this small country
about 62,000 people live in Greenland. Most of them are part Eskimo and part Danish. Almost all of them live in towns and villages on the southwestern coast because that is the warmest part of the island. A few pure Eskimos live in the far north and some Danes live in the towns. Life in Greenland is difficult because the weather is very cold. In January it is -29.5 C ( minus 29 point 5 degrees Celsius ) and in July it is 4 C ( 4 degrees Celsius ). It is dark twenty-four hours a day during winter. In summer it is always daylight
The island has very few natural resources. The people raise a few vegetables and sheep. They used to fish and hunt, but now they usually buy food at stores
Greenland is important to the world because scientists study the weather there. They can tell when storms are developing over the North Atlantic Ocean. It is important to know when storms are developing there because it is an important shipping area
Life in Greenland is changing very fast. People lived a traditional life for centuries, but now they are moving into the modern world very quickly. They are losing their old traditions, but there is nothing to take their place. There are a lot of problems among the people. It is difficult for any country to move from a traditional life to a modern life. It is especially hard for Greenland because the people spent centuries with very little communication with the rest of the world. These problems will probably continue into the future
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Memory
Memorize these words. " Learn this spelling rule. " " Don't forget the quiz tomorrow. " You remember things every day , but how do you do it
You find a telephone number in the phone book, dial it, and then forget it. This is your short-term memory. It lasts less than 30 seconds. ( There are 60 seconds in a minute. ) However, you don't look in the phone book for a friend's number. You know it. This is long-term memory. Your long-term memory has everything that you remember
Why do you forget something? What is the reason? You did not learn it in the beginning. This is the major reason for forgetting. For example, you meet some new people, and you forget their names. You hear the names, but you do not learn them. Then you forget them
You can remember better. Here are some ideas
Move information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. Practice the information. Say the information to yourself. Think about it. Spend time on it
overlearn. After you learn something, study it some more. Learn it more than you need to. For example, when you know a list of new words, don't stop. Practice the words a few more times
Be sure that you understand the information. It is difficult to memorize something you don't understand
Do only one thing at a time. Study in a quiet place. You cannot listen to music or people and memorize at the same time
Try to connect the new information with something you already know. For example, when you learn the name of a new kind of food, think of a similar kind of food
Divide the information into parts. Do not have more than seven parts. learn one part and stop for a few minutes. Don't try to learn all the parts at the same time
Make a picture in your mind. For example, maybe you see a new word. It is a kind of furniture. Make a picture in your mind of this furniture in a room. Remember what it looks like
try to relax when you study. Enjoy it. You cannot remember things when you are tired or unhappy
Some people have a photographic memory. They see everything like a picture. Later they can see the picture in their mind again and describe everything in it. They can remember long lists of numbers and thousands of other things. Would you like to have a photographic memory
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BUY ME
People in cities all over the World shop in supermarkets. who decides what you buy in the supermarket? Do you decide? Does the supermarket decide
When you enter the supermarket , you see shelves full of food. you walk in aisles between the shelves. you push a shopping cart and put your food in it
You probably hear soft , slow music as you walk along the aisles. If you hear fast music , you walk quickly. The supermarket plays slow music. You walk slowly and have more time to buy things.
Maybe you go to the meat department first. There is some meat on sale , and you want to find it. The manager of the supermarket knows where customers enter the meat department. The cheaper meat is at the other end of the meat department , away from where the customers enter. You have to walk by all the expensive meat before you find the cheaper meat. Maybe you will buy some of the expensive meat instead of the meat on sale
The dairy department sells milk and milk products such as butter and cheese. Many customers like milk that has only a little butterfat in it. One store has three different containers of low fat milk. One says " 1 percent (1%) fat " on the container. The second says " 99 percent (99%) fat free. " The third says " Low Fat " in big letters and " 1% " in small letters. As you can see, all the milk has the same amount of fat. The milk is all the same. The amount of milk in each container is also the same. However, in this store the three containers of milk cost three different amounts of money. Maybe the customer will buy the milk that costs the most
Most of the food in supernarkets is very attractive. It all says " Buy me! " to the customers. The expensive meat says " Buy me! " as you walk bye. The expensive milk container says " Buy me! I have less fat. " The supermarket tells you what to buy
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