English as a second language
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Amusement Parks
An amusement park is an outdoor area with games, rides and shows. They are spread over a large area, often many square kilometers. Young and old visitors can enjoy many types of attractions. They can ride on roller coasters, go high up in the air in a Ferris wheel or ride on carousels. Amusement parks also offer restaurants and bars to eat and drink, as well as green areas with grass to sit down or relax.

Most amusement parks have a fixed location. Some of them are open all year round, others only during the warmer season. Today amusement parks have been replaced by theme parks. These places focus on a certain topic of history or natural life. The first theme park, Disneyland, opened in California in 1955.

 

 

 

 

Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland
 
 
History
In the Middle Ages minstrels wandered around and sang in open areas. Entertainers gathered in a town field or a market square. After a few days they went to another town. They often performed in tents and offered food and entertainment. In addition, visitors could see circus artists perform or have their portrait painted by street painters.
The first real amusement parks emerged out of fairs and public gardens in Europe in the 16th century. Later on amusement parks in fixed locations developed in larger cities. The Prater in Vienna was the basis for many amusement parks in other locations. The first amusement park in the United States was located on Coney Island, in New York City. For a long time it was the world's biggest attraction, with bars, souvenir shops, rides along a long beach. After its peak in the 1920s , the amusement area’s popularity declined.
After World War II larger-scale amusement parks started developing in Europe and other continents. Up to the end of the twentieth century European parks are small compared to their American counterparts. The first large amusement park outside the USA was Euro Disneyland, which opened in Paris in 1990. In Japan an Asian version of Disneyland opened in 1993.In Denmark, Legoland features miniature buildings and attractions built out of the world-famous Lego plastic bricks
 
Rides and Attractions
Rides are the greatest attractions of amusement parks. By the 19th century many entertainment parks had carousels or merry-go-rounds. They began to become popular during medieval tournaments where knights fought against each other. Later on roller coasters were added to the attractions of amusement parks. They featured steep drops from high altitudes. Roller coasters originated from Russian ice slides that were built for the people as early as the 17th century.
Today almost every amusement park has a Ferris wheel. The first original Ferris wheel in the United States was built for the Chicago Exhibition in 1893. It allowed visitors to rise to about 80 meters. Today Ferris wheels are not only located in amusement parks but in other places as well. London Eye, for example, is situated on the Thames River and gives visitors a breathtaking view of London.
 
 
Ferris wheel at the Chicago World Fair in 1893
 
Other attractions of amusement parks include twisters and spin-based machines that give visitors a thrilling experience. More and more amusement parks are designing new machines that give their visitors a new feeling. What would an amusement park be without various water rides, especially in the summer when it’s hot? Haunted houses show visitors a variety of mirrors which make them thinner or fatter and cause optical illusions.
Many amusements parks offer their visitors special trains that take them from one attraction to another. Special safety features are built into all of these attractions so that they cannot cause any damage, although accidents sometimes do happen. With the advent of electricity amusement parks opened at night and allowed people working during the daytime to go there too.
 
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Advent = coming, beginning
Although = while
Altitude = height
Area = place
Attraction = an interesting object to see or enjoy
Basis = starting point
Breathtaking = wonderful
Brick = a small block used as a toy
carousel = machine with wooden horses on it that turns around and around, which people can ride in for fun
Cause = lead to
Century = a period of a hundred years
Certain = special
Counterpart = the same thing but only in a different place
Decline = to go down
Design = plan, make
Develop = grow
Drop = to go down to a lower place
Electricity = the power that is carried by cables and wires and give you light
Emerge = come from
Entertainer = a person who sings, tells jokes or dances in front of people
Especially = above all
Exhibition = fair, show
Experience = something that happens
Fair = large area with rides and other attractions
Feature = offer, present to the visitor
Ferris wheel = a large wheel that has cabins which people can ride in
Fixed = not moving
Focus = center
Gather = get together
Haunted = scary, ghostly
In addition = also
Include = consist of
Knight = a man who was trained to fight riding a horse
Larger-scale = bigger
Location = place
Market square = place in the middle of a town where products were traded
Medieval = in the Middle Ages
Merry-go-round = carousel
Miniature = very small
Minstrel = a singer or musician in the Middle Ages
Optical illusion = a picture or image that tricks your eyes and makes you see something that is not there
Originate = come from; start out from
Peak = when something is at its best
Perform = act in front of people
Popularity = when something is liked by many people
Portrait = drawing or painting of a person
Public = for everybody to visit
Replace = here: to build something else instead
Roller coaster = a track with steep slopes an curves; people ride in small cars at a very fast speed
Safety feature = something built in that protects you from danger
Situated = located
Slide = you can move down a flat surface
Spin-based = here to go round and round quickly
Spread = stretch, reach from one place to another
Steep =sharp
Tent = an object you can sleep in when you go camping; it is made up of cloth and poles
Thrilling = exciting
Tournament = fighting between soldiers and knights in the Middle Ages
Variety = selection
Various = different kinds of
 
 

 

 

 



           
چهار شنبه 3 آبان 1391برچسب:, :: 9:25 PM
مهدی روحی

 

Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system in which private people, not the government, own and run companies. These companies compete with other companies for business. They decide what products they want to produce, how much they should cost and where to sell them. Companies do all these things in order to make profits for their owners. People who use their money to start companies or run companies are called capitalists.
Even though a pure form of capitalism does not exist and governments control the economy in some ways it remains the world’s most popular economic system. In the United States the government keeps itself out of the economy as far as possible but in some European countries economic control is much larger. Other names for capitalism are free-market economy or free enterprise.
 
Features of capitalism
In a capitalist system private households need goods. They buy these goods from the income that they have. Some households have more income than others. Sometimes only one member of a household has a job, at other times both husband and wife go to work. Then they have more money to buy goods. This is the demand side of the economy.
On the other side companies and businesses offer private households goods and services. They produce the goods that they think consumers will want to buy. To do this they need workers to produce these goods and services. This is the supply side of the economy.
Companies and households get together at markets. Here they exchange goods, services and jobs (labour). A market is a place where people buy and sell things. In a capitalist society the prices of goods, services and labour are determined by supply and demand. If a lot of people want to buy a certain product its price will go up. Products that are mass produced usually have low prices.

 

 

Another important feature of capitalism is competition. Many companies may sell the same type of product. Companies will try to sell better products at a cheaper price so that they can get consumers to buy their products. Firms that cannot compete are very often driven out of business.
The same can be said about wages. In some cases businesses have to pay workers more money to get them to work. In other cases low paid work often exists in areas where there are more workers than are needed.
 
 
How governments regulate the economy
In today’s world governments get involved in the economy in certain ways and leaders must often make economic decisions.
A government must make sure that there is enough competition to keep prices low the quality products high. If only a few companies produce products they may agree to keep prices high. In a monopoly, only one company produces goods and services that everybody needs, so it can set the price.
In the second half of the 19th century companies started to get bigger and bigger by taking over smaller ones. Soon these so-called trusts had a lot of power and controlled the market and the prices. At the beginning of the 20th century the United States passed a law which helped smaller companies survive.
Business leaders often do not care about what their decisions may do to our society. For example, a factory may pollute a river by pouring dirty water into it. It is the job of government organizations to make sure that this does not happen.
The state of economy is not the same all the time. Normally, there are always ups and downs. Sometimes the economy of a country is in good condition, everybody has enough money and lots of goods are produced. On the other side there may be years in which there are a lot of unemployed people and factories cannot sell their products. The business cycle shows the economy in four phases.
 
Some experts believe that the government must stabilize and help the economy in bad times. It should lower taxes and interest rates so that people can borrow money more easily.
In capitalist countries some are very rich and can afford to buy everything. Others have little money and need clothing, food and a place to live. Many European countries have systems in which poor people are helped by the government and richer people have to pay more taxes etc. This system is called social market economy.
 
History of capitalism
Capitalism has existed since ancient times. But it became important in the 15th and 16th centuries with the growth of trade, industry and banking. Until the 1700s governments encouraged their population to make more money by selling goods to other countries. Imported goods were made more expensive so that countries could sell their own products. This became known as mercantilism.
The Industrial Revolution brought changes to the economies of many countries. Factory owners did not want governments to control trade any more. They wanted to run their companies by themselves. This idea became known as laissez-faire, which means “allow to do” in French. In his book, The Wealth of Nations, British economist Adam Smith described how laissez faire should. Great Britain became the first country to change its laws and allow free trade.
During this period countries produced more and more products and goods and many capitalists became rich. However, normal workers did not earn very much and had to work up to 16 hours a day, sometimes in dangerous places. These problems led to the creation of trade unions, which protected workers.
In the middle of the 19 th century socialism became popular. The German Karl Marx suggested that the government should take over and control the economy. It should own all the land, the factories and companies. In a socialist economy the government tries to spread money evenly among the workers. Many countries followed these socialist ideas, which later on led to Communism.
Capitalism almost collapsed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many banks, factories and stores had to close and millions of people lost their jobs. Many did not believe in capitalism any more. As a result the British economist John Maynard Keynes argued that the government had to do something to fight depression. In America Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced a program called New Deal in which he gave Americans help that they needed in bad times.
Today Keynes’ theory is widely accepted and modern countries combine capitalism with some kind of government control. The state may own industries that are important to the country’s economy, like oil wells, banks or airlines. Most people feel that free market economy should remain but the government should still be around to see that economic rules are kept.
 
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Accept =recognize, agree to
Afford = if you have enough money that you can buy the things you need
Agree = if two or more people have the same opinion about something
Ancient = old
Argue = to say things that others don’t think are right
Business = company
Business cycle = the ups and downs of the economy over a certain time
Certain =special
Collapse = break down
Combine = mix
Compete = to try to get people to buy your goods and not the ones from other companies
Competition =a situation in which people or organizations try to be more successful than other people or organizations
Condition = same as “state
Consumer = someone who buys and uses products and services
Creation =the making of
Decision =what someone chooses to do or decides
Demand =the need to have certain things
Depression = when an economy almost breaks down completely
Describe = tell, show, explain
Determine = here: control
Drive out of business = if you have to stop producing things because you cannot compete with others
Earn = to get money for the work you have done
Economic =financial
Economist = a person who knows a lot about how business works
Economy = the system of producing goods and selling them
Encourage = to tell someone they should do something that is good
Evenly = to give everyone the same
Exchange = to give and get things
Exist = to be here
Expert = person who knows a lot about something
Factory = building where you produce goods
Feature = the main ideas of
Free enterprise = to allow companies and business to operate without much control
Free trade = if you can buy and sell things freely in your country and in other countries
Goods = things that are produced so that you can sell them
Government = the leaders who rule a country
Great Depression = the bad times that followed the stock market crash in 1929
Growth =development
Income = the money you get when you have a job and work
Interest rate =the percentage that you have to give a bank when you get money from it or the money that you get from the bank when you keep money there
Involve =to get mixed up in; to be a part of
Labor = work
Law = the set of rules a country has
Lead to =to make something happen
Monopoly = if one company, government or person controls everything
Offer = to give people the things that they want
Oil wells = large structures you use to pump oil out of the earth
Own = to have something that belongs to you
Owner = a person whom something belongs to
Pollute = to make dirty
Popular = liked by a lot of people
Population = the people who live in a country
Pour =to make water flow into it
Private household = people who live privately in one house
Profit = the money you get from selling things after you have paid your costs
Protect =guard, defend
Pure =unmixed, real
Remain = stay
Run = to be in charge of, to control
Services =work that you do for a person or an organization
Social market economy = economy in which the government takes more money away from richer people and helps poorer ones
Society =people, the general public
Spread =give
Stabilize = here: to stop the economy from getting worse
State = condition, situation
State = country
Suggest =recommend, give advice
Supply =amount of goods that can be sold
Supply and demand =difference between the amount of goods that are produced and the amount that people want to buy
Survive = to continue to exist, live on
Take over = to take control of something or buy a company
Tax = money that everybody must pay to the government
Trade = to buy and sell things
Trade union = organization that helps workers and defends them against company owners
Trust = here: a group of companies that work together so that smaller companies cannot compete with them
Unemployed = if you do not have a job or are out of work
Wage =money you earn in a week or month
 
 

 



           
چهار شنبه 3 آبان 1391برچسب:, :: 9:15 PM
مهدی روحی

 

 

Jeans – History and Popularity of Great Clothes

Jeans have become one of the most worn pieces of clothing in the world. Everybody wears them, from the rural farmer to the urban lawyer and from models to housewives. But why have jeans become so popular. You’ll get many answers. For some people they look cool, for others jeans are simply comfortable.

Jeans were first designed as durable trousers for farm workers and miners in the states of the American west. A Nevada tailor, Jacob Davis, had the idea of using copper bolts at the corner of the pockets to make them stronger. They became popular instantly and soon many people bought them.

Although Davis knew that he had a great product which many people wanted to buy, he didn’t have the money to patent it. He asked Levi Strauss, who supplied him with cloth, to help him out. The two worked together and started making jeans out of denim, which was more comfortable and could be easily stretched. It also became softer as it got older. They were dyed with indigo because it did not go through the cloth like other dyes do.

At first jeans were worn only by workers, especially in factories. In the eastern part of the US jeans were hardly worn at all. They were associated with rural people and the working class. But when rich easterners went on holidays to escape everyday life they often put on jeans.

James Dean and Marlon Brando made them popular in movies and everyone wanted to wear them. Jeans became a symbol of the youth rebellion during the 1950s and 1960s. College students started to wear them as a protest against the Vietnam War and the establishment. The new trousers were banned in American schools and sometimes in theatres and cinemas. As time went on jeans became more acceptable and today they are worn not only as casual clothes but also at formal events.

Other countries quickly started to get accustomed to wearing jeans too. American servicemen on duty in Europe and Japan often wore them when they were not on duty to show that they were Americans. The trousers showed the world a happier way of life, something that people needed, especially after what they had endured in World War II.

Jeans were also worn because they made people equal. You could afford them and they couldn’t be torn so easily. They had practical advantages as well. They didn’t need to be washed as often as other trousers and women didn’t need to iron them. This became more important as more and more women started working and had less time for housework.

Today jeans are an essential part of our lives. They are almost always washed a few times before being sold to give them their faded appearance.

 

jeans

 

 

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Acceptable = good enough, all right
Accustomed = to get used to
Advantage = good side
Afford = to have enough money to buy something
Although = while
Appearance = how something looks
Associate = connect, link
Ban = forbid
Bolt = a metal piece used to hold things together
Casual = relaxed
Cloth = material used for making clothes
Clothing = clothes, outfit
Copper = soft reddish brown metal
Denim = strong cotton cloth
Durable = strong; hard-wearing
Dye = color
Endure = to go through
Equal = the same
Escape = get away from
Especially = above all
Essential = very important
Establishment = group of people who have a lot of power in a country
Fade = lose color
Formal = official
Hardly = not very much
Indigo = dark blue color
Instantly = at once
Iron = to make clothes smooth and flat
Lawyer = a person who has studied law
Miner = a person who works mostly underground and digs minerals out of the earth
On duty = to work
Patent = to get the rights to produce something
Popular = liked by many
Practical = useful
Rural = country side
Serviceman = member of the army
Stretch = to make flexible
Supply = sell
Tailor = someone who makes clothes
Tear – tore- torn = break
Urban = from the city


           
چهار شنبه 3 آبان 1391برچسب:, :: 8:55 PM
مهدی روحی

 

 

Smart TVs - Television and the Internet

More and more television manufacturers are producing Smart TVs.  Although they differ in some ways most of them use the same technology. Smart TVs can be connected to the internet using a setup box ,.. and click link below for more

 

 



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پنج شنبه 13 مهر 1391برچسب:, :: 1:33 PM
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