Lesson 3 Measurement of Time

1、How did men first measure time? We can picture to ourselves how our ancestors turned their eyes in wonder to the great sun; how they watched him rising higher and higher till he reached his noonday strength, then sinking lower and lower until he disappeared beneath the western horizon and left the world to darkness.

2、The great sun has sunk to rest, and in his place have come the gentle moon and thousands of twinkling stars. But again the sun rises, shines, and sets. Again he is followed by moon and stars. Man’s first lesson in time has now been learned: the light he calls day, the darkness night.

3、Of all the heavenly bodies, the moon is the only one that seems to change its form and size. At one time it is a mere crescent ① , at another it is a full circle. Man counts the days from new moon to new moon, or from full moon to full moon, and calls the period a month. This is the second step in counting time.

4、He next observes changes in the length of the days and in the heat of the sun. He sees the flowers spring up, blossom, and decay, and the trees put on their light coats of green, change them to sober ② brown, and finally lose them altogether. His ideas of seed-time, harvest, and winter are formed, and he begins to count the moons from seedtime to seed-time, or from winter to winter, and makes the grand discovery— “Twelve months make one year.” In such a way as this men got their first notions of year, and month, and day.

5、Hundreds of years seem to have passed before hours, minutes, and seconds were thought of. For a long time morning, noon, and evening were the only divisions of the day. The night was divided into two or three “watches” (Watches, parts of the night; so called because men remained awake to watch in turn.). It must have been noticed very early that the shadows of trees, posts, and other objects fell in the same direction at the same time every day. From this was invented the sun-dial (a flat surface with a pin in the center for showing the time by the sun’s shadow); but it told the time only when the sun shone, and was useless in cloudy weather or at night.

6、A great improvement was made when water-clocks and sand-clocks were invented. In the one so much water, and in the other so much sand, dropped in a given time from a higher to a lower vessel. The water-clock was used for periods of about twelve hours; the sand-clock was used for one hour, and was therefore called an “hourglass”.Sometimes people carried hour-glasses with them, as we carry watches.

7、King Alfred of England was one of the busiest of men, and knew how precious time was. He invented a new way of measuring it. He ordered six candles of equal weight and length to be made out of a certain quantity of wax ③ . Each candle was divided into twelve inches, and each inch into twelve parts. As each candle burned four hours, the six candles lasted twenty-four hours. The king kept such candles burning night and day wherever he went. As the candles burned one inch in twenty minutes, and three-twelfths of an inch in five minutes, Alfred was able to do what no one before his day had done—to measure a very short space of time.

8、But the wind blew through the walls of His palaces, the windows of his churches,and the cloth of his tents, and the candles sometimes burned away at an irregular rate,and sometimes were put out altogether. So Alfred made lanterns of wood with very thin plates of horn ④ for the sides. Thus sheltered, his candles became more trustworthy time keepers.

9、The first clock with weights and wheels is said to have been invented about the year 1000 A.D.; but clocks of that kind could not be carried about from place to place.Other four hundred and fifty years passed away before the first watch was made at Nuremberg in Germany. As the works were shut up in round metal cases, these early watches were often called “Nuremberg eggs”. The cases afterwards came to be made of many different shapes and sizes, and they were often ornamented ⑤ with crystal and precious stones, as well as with gold and silver.

（779 words）

Exercises

Ⅰ . How well did you read?

1. [Follow the sequence] Men first got the idea of ______.

A. day B. month C. year

2. [Note the fact] When does the sun-dial function well?

A. At night. B. On a cloudy day. C. On a sunny day.

3. [Understand the information] How long of the candle was burned in one minute?

A. One-fifth of an inch.

B. One-twentieth of an inch.

C. One-fourth of an inch.

4. [Note the reason] Which of the following was not the reason why sometimes the candles were not that trustworthy?

A. The wind blew through the walls.

B. The candles burned away at an irregular rate.

C. The lanterns of wood with very thin plates of horn for the sides.

Ⅱ. Read for words:

1. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words.

(1) We can picture to ourselves how our ancestors turned their eyes in wonder to the great sun. (Para. 1)

A. take a photo B. draw a picture C. imagine in our mind

(2) He sees the flowers spring up, blossom, and decay. (Para. 4)

A. 腐朽，腐烂 B. 衰减，衰退 C. 凋谢，枯萎

(3) Thus sheltered, his candles became more trustworthy time keepers. (Para. 8)

A. protected B. stayed in a house C. being in shadow

2. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined expressions.

(1) We can picture to ourselves how our ancestors turned their eyes in wonder to the great sun. (Para. 1)

A. feeling amazed B. feeling wonderful C. feeling doubtful

(2) As the works were shut up in round metal cases, these early watches were often called “Nuremberg eggs”. (Para. 9)

A. stopped talking and keep silent

B. placed in a place where something cannot be removed

C. concentrated on a certain topic