Learning a language is easy. Even a child can do it! Most adults who are learning a second language would disagree with this statement. For them, learning a language is a very difficult task. They need hundreds of hours of study and practice, and eve...
The new music was built out of materials already in existence: blues, rock'n'roll, folk music. But although the forms remained, something completely new and original was made out of these older elements - more original, perhaps, than even the new mus...
Many primitive peoples believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for example, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some savage tribes believed that ea...
Have you ever wondered why you sometimes take an almost immediate liking to a person you have just met? Or worried about why someone you were talking to suddenly became cool and distant? The chances are that it wasn't anything that was said but somet...
American Stores In the United States you will find yourself being urged from every page of every newspaper and on practically every television station to buy all kinds of goods that you are actually quite happy without. Not only is there a wide range...
Language When we want to tell other people what we think, we can do it not only with the help of words, but also in many other ways. An Englishman who could not speak Italian was once traveling in Italy. One day he entered a restaurant and sat down a...
Taxes，Taxes，and More Taxes Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes. Americans do not have a corner on the death market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with t...
Advertising Advertising is only part of the total sales effort ,but it is the part that attracts the most attention. This is natural enough because advertising is designed for just that purpose. In newspapers, in mail, on radio and television, we con...
The Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed...
The Moon We find that the moon is about 239,000 miles (384,551 km) away from the earth, and, to within a few thousand miles, its distance always remains the same. Yet a very little observation shows that the moon is not standing till. Its distance fr...
Improving your Memory Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how these principles work. Meaningfulness affects memory at...
Short-term Memory There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be recalled at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for days or weeks. Sometimes information in the long-term memory...
Diamonds Diamonds are rare, beautiful, and also quite useful. They are the hardest substance found in nature. That means a diamond can cut any other surface. And only another diamond can make a slight cut in a diamond. Diamonds are made from carbon....
How Dictionaries Are Made It is widely believed that every word has a correct meaning, that we learn these meanings mainly from teachers and grammarians, and that dictionaries and grammars are the supreme authority in matters of meaning and usage. Fe...
Reading Provides Necessary Survival Skills With the coming of the television age and the increasing emphasis on pictures and sound in all quarters of our society, many people would have us believe that we are moving rapidly away from reading as a nec...
