Number four, exercise 39.0:12
Be listen to the text the Creations of Mankind and prepare an artistic reading following the pattern given in the recording.0:15
The Creations of Mankind.0:30
The lifestyle which we enjoy today is a result of countless ideas and inventions which have taken many centuries of man's history to develop.0:34
The first great idea which started man on the road to his great achievements was was when a caveman picked up a heavy stone to help him.0:47
The use of fire was another step without which no subsequent development would have been possible.0:58
But once man had learned to make and use fire, it was only a short step to discovering the use of metals.1:06
Another great move towards modern technology was the invention of the wheel by some unknown prehistoric genius.1:16
Man had efficient metal weapons and was able to hunt large animals for food.1:26
Gradually, he learned to capture and tame some of the creatures so that he could keep his food nearby until it was needed.1:33
Man also discovered how to plant crops, gathering seed from wild plants, which he knew to be useful.1:47
Once farming was established, it did not take man long to make special tools for breaking up the ground.1:55
And later he began to use the help of domestic animals in pulling his primitive plough.2:03
Another important invention which has contributed greatly to our modern knowledge was writing.2:12
At first, writing was a special form of drawing and was usually very simple.2:20
But gradually these primitive drawings turned into letters from the counting of days and months.2:27
Men went on to count cattle and sheep and the earliest forms of arithmetic appeared.2:37
The Greeks were the first people to use writing to record language as spoken by contemporary men.2:45
And their works are still widely read today for information and for pleasure.2:53
After the time of the Romans, the the speed of discovery slowed down and indeed many early discoveries were lost for hundreds of years.3:01
It was not until the 15th century, with the coming of the Renaissance, that discoveries were again made on a large scale.3:12
Europe was suddenly filled with a wish to explore the world.3:23
No less important was the invention of printing, giving many men an opportunity to read and to own books which before had been available to only the wealthy few.3:30
The spread of ideas was rapid and led in its turn to the writing of more books.3:43
The voyagers of the Renaissance discovered the existence of many new and strange lands.3:49
And in these lands were all sorts of unknown animals and plants.3:56
The 17th century saw a development of science.4:04
The 18th century is associated with many inventions and culminated in the Industrial Revolution.4:08
The invention of the steam engine, the condenser and piston, made possible modern manufacturing processes.4:18
The 19th century was the age of the machine, when man realized that many previously hard tasks could be done more easily and cheaply by machinery.4:28
Farm machinery was invented and production of larger food crops became possible.4:42
The 19th century also saw the invention of electricity, which revolutionized life and made many other things possible.4:51
The manufacture of cars began a new era in transport and led to the appearance of lorries and buses, without which our cities would not have grown to their present size.5:02
The previous century was the one to see immense changes and various inventions.5:17
The airplane was constructed during the Second World War.5:23
Man became aware of atomic energy and nuclear weapons.5:27
The second half of the 20th century was characterized by the inventions of television, computers, spacecraft, genetic engineering and many others.5:33
All our discoveries today are based on the ideas of men who lived before us.5:48
And without their groundwork, modern inventions would have been impossible.5:54
With so many wonderful achievements behind him, modern man can go into an era of even greater discoveries.6:01
And all nations can benefit from the knowledge left to us by earlier generations.6:10
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