1．Mr．，Mrs．，Miss and Ms． 1
2．The First Stamps 2
3．How Did April Fool's Day Begin？ 5
4．Why Do Barber Shops Have Red and White Poles？ 7
5．Why Do Men Have Buttons on Their Jacket Sleeves？ 9
6．What Is the Riddle of the Sphinx？ 11
7．What Causes Waves？ 12
8．The Birth of an Island 15
9．How Civilization Can Die？ 17
10．Some Things Do Not Change 19
11．The Longest River 21
12．The Longest Fence in the World 24
13．Antonio Gaudi and His Church 26
14．The Tragedy of Saint-Pierre 28
15．Animals Which Live a Long Time 30
16．Snakes 32
17．An Insect That Opens Doors 35
18．The Fastest Tongue on Earth 38
19．Pigeon Talk 41
20．Monkey Intelligence 43
21．A Shooting Animal 45
22．Quiet！Worms at Work 49
23．Good Parents in Antarctica 50
24．Our Most Dangerous Enemy—the Rat 52
25．Tiny but Beautiful 54
26．The Tree of Life 57
27．Eating the Sun 59
28．The Children of the Sun 60
29．Life and Death of a Sun 62
30．The Baby in the Silver Suit 64
31．What Does Man Do with His Big Brain？ 67
32．Blood to Save Lives 68
33．Roman Physicians 70
34．How the Olympic Games Started 72
35．Women in the Olympics 74
36．The Closing of the Games 76
37．Basketball 78
38．The Origin of words 80
39．World of Words 83
40．Slang 84
41．Two Languages or One？ 86
42．Colourful Language 87
43．The English Language 89
44．Where Did Americans Come from？ 92
45．American Indians 93
46．Which States in the U．S．Have the Most People？ 95
47．How Did the States in the U．S．Get Their Names？ 96
48．The Congress of the United States 98
49．The Climate of the United Statcs 101
50．New York Is More 102
51．Which Washington？ 104
52．Schools in the U．S．A． 108
53．Mail Service in the U．S．A． 109
54．The Throwaway Society 110
55．Town and Country 112
56．Living under Cover 115
57．An Indoor Town 117
58．A City at Sea 119
59．Food 122
60．Jam and Pickle 124
61．Drying and Smoking 125
62．Food Decay 127
63．Bottles and Cans 128
64．Refrigeration 130
65．Salt（Ⅰ） 132
66．Salt（Ⅱ） 135
67．Clothmaking 137
68．Wool，Cotton，or Nylon？ 139
69．Plastics 140
70．Fly with Wings Made from Chicken Feathers 142
71．A Strange Thing from the Sky 144
72．Early Passenger Service 146
73．Have You Anything to Declare？ 148
74．A New Way to Fly 150
75．Steam Cars 152
76．Cars for Tomorrow 155
77．Hovercraft 157
78．Hovertrains 160
79．A New Lifeboat 163
80．What Is a Camera？ 165
81．Seeing Aid 167
82．Adjustable-focus Glasses 168
83．Manual Marvel 170
84．I Saw Him on the Phone Today 172
85．Across the Atlantic by Computer 174
86．The Computer and the Motor-car 177
87．Computer Helps Fire Fighters 179
88．Zero Hour 181
89．Satellites in the Solar System 183
90．Space Research 185
APPENDIX1 KEY TO EXERCISES 188
APPENDIX2 VOCABULARY 194