Вопрос № 874506 - Английский язык

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Landmark Inventions of the Millennium
1. The last 1,000 years have produced an incredible number and variety of scientific and technological breakthroughs – but which of these were the most important? Narrowing a list of the thousands of inventions made since the year 1000 to the ten greatest requires some exact criteria. The qualifying inventions either provided radically new ways to do an important job, or they made possible tasks that were previously unimagined. Their impact was felt, if not right away then eventually, by a large portion of humanity. These developments have made possible significant new technological innovations and scientific discoveries. And finally, they have had an enduring effect on the world.
2. The inventions that meet these criteria, in chronological order, are the compass, the mechanical clock, the glass lens, the printing press, the steam engine, the telegraph, electric power, wireless communications, antibiotics, and the transistor. Missing from this list are many extremely significant technological advances, including the airplane, telephone, automobile, and computer. In many cases these inventions were omitted because they are based on earlier developments or breakthroughs.
3. In considering the ten most significant inventions of the past 1,000 years, a subtle distinction must be made: the difference between «invention» and «discovery» is not as clear as one might think. A discovery can be as simple as the observation of a previously unnoticed phenomenon, while an invention is a human-devised machine, tool, or apparatus that did not previously exist.
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Which of the inventions: the airplane, the steam engine, automobile, computer – was included into the list of the most important inventions of the Millennium?

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                                  Landmark Inventions of the Millennium
1. The last 1,000 years have produced an incredible number and variety of scientific and technological breakthroughs – but which of these were the most important? Narrowing a list of the thousands of inventions made since the year 1000 to the ten greatest requires some exact criteria. The qualifying inventions either provided radically new ways to do an important job, or they made possible tasks that were previously unimagined. Their impact was felt, if not right away then eventually, by a large portion of humanity. These developments have made possible significant new technological innovations and scientific discoveries. And finally, they have had an enduring effect on the world.
2. The inventions that meet these criteria, in chronological order, are the compass, the mechanical clock, the glass lens, the printing press, the steam engine, the telegraph, electric power, wireless communications, antibiotics, and the transistor. Missing from this list are many extremely significant technological advances, including the airplane, telephone, automobile, and computer. In many cases these inventions were omitted because they are based on earlier developments or breakthroughs.
3. In considering the ten most significant inventions of the past 1,000 years, a subtle distinction must be made: the difference between «invention» and «discovery» is not as clear as one might think. A discovery can be as simple as the observation of a previously unnoticed phenomenon, while an invention is a human-devised machine, tool, or apparatus that did not previously exist.
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                                                         Fashion
1. The concept of fashion implies a process of style change, because fashions in dress, as well as in furniture and other objects, have taken very different forms at different times in history. Most people follow fashion to some extent, because fashion refers to much more than the haute couture, the exclusive and expensive clothing produced by leading designers. Even schoolchildren are aware that fashions exist. Nevertheless, we do tend to distinguish between basic clothing, such as blue jeans, parkas and T-shirts, and the latest trendy fashions created by fashion designers. Fashion reflects the society of which it is a part. It has been influenced by wars, conquests, laws, religion, and the arts. Individual personalities have also had an impact on fashion. Royalty and heads of states have set fashion, and in the 20th century media stars have emerged as leaders of fashion. French writer Anatole France said that if he could come back to Earth 100 years after his death and have only one thing to read, he would choose a fashion magazine because that would show him the way people lived.
2. Fashion also has its critics, who have at times denounced fashion as irrational, frivolous, tyrannical, and immoral. Why should pink be in fashion one season and grey the next season? Why do people follow fashion like sheep when they have enough clothes already? A common accusation is that fashion designers accelerate fashion change to create new business. Yet no new fashion succeeds until people are ready to accept it. The final decision about what to buy, or whether to buy anything at all, belongs to the consumer. Ultimately, fashions change because many people like new and different styles.
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What is the main thing that determines new fashion success?

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                                                      Anthropology
1. Anthropology is the holistic «science of man». The discipline deals with the integration of different aspects of the social sciences, humanities, and human biology. Anthropology includes archaeology, prehistory, physical or biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics, social and cultural anthropology, ethnology and ethnography. The word anthropos is from the Greek for «human being» or «person». Eric Wolf described sociocultural anthropology as «the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences».
2. The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature. Since anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were complex and industrial, a major trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to study peoples in societies with more simple social organization, sometimes called «primitive» in anthropological literature, but without any connotation of «inferior». Today, most anthropologists use terms such as «less complex» societies or refer to specific modes of subsistence or production, such as «hunter-gatherer» or «forager» or «simple farmer» to refer to humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk (ethnos) remaining of great interest within anthropology.
3. The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a particular folk or people in detail, using biogenetic, archaeological, and linguistic data alongside direct observation of contemporary customs. In the 1990s and 2000s, calls for clarification of what constitutes a culture, of how an observer knows where his or her own culture ends and another begins, and other crucial topics in writing anthropology were heard. It is possible to view all human cultures as part of one large, evolving global culture.
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Where did anthropology appear as a science?

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                                                           Family
1. The family, a basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage, has been present in all societies. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family and the needs that the family fulfils vary from society to society. The nuclear family – two adults and their children – is the main unit in some societies. In others, it is a subordinate part of an extended family, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives. A third family unit is the single-parent family, in which children live with an unmarried, divorced, or widowed mother or farther.
2. Historical studies have shown that family structure has been less changed by urbanization and industrialization than was once supposed. The nuclear family was the most prevalent pre-industrial unit and is still the basic unit of social organization. The modern family differs from earlier traditional forms, however, in its functions, composition, and life cycle and in the roles of husbands and wives.
3. The only function of the family that continues to survive all change is the provision of affection and emotional support by and to all its members, particularly infants and young children. Specialized institutions now perform many of the other functions that were once performed by the agrarian family: economic production, education, religion, and recreation. Jobs are usually separate from the family group; family members often work in different occupations and in locations away from the home. Education is provided by the state or by private groups. The family is still responsible for the socialization of children.
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                                                        Renaissance
1. Renaissance, literally «rebirth», is the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, traditionally held to have been characterized by a rise of interest in classical learning and values. The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass,and gunpowder. To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.
2. The term Middle Ages was coined by scholars in the 15th century to designate the interval between the downfall of the classical world of Greece and Rome and its rediscovery at the beginning of their own century, a revival in which they felt they were participating. Indeed, the notion of a long period of cultural darkness had been expressed by Petrarch even earlier. Events at the end of the Middle Ages, particularly beginning in the 12th century, caused a series of social, political, and intellectual transformations that culminated in the Renaissance. These included the increasing failure of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire to provide a stable and unifying framework for the organization of spiritual and material life, the rise in importance of city-states and national monarchies, the development of national languages, and the breakup of the old feudal structures.
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