Euphrates
A) are direct descendants of the Assyrians
B) are generally nomads
C) live mainly on fish
D) live high up in the mountains
E) use the river water for agriculture
E X E R C I S E 3: Complete the sentences by selecting words from Column B in EXERCISE 1.
1. The capital of Azerbaijan, Baku is built among the hills that the Bay of
Baku on the Caspian Sea.
2. In the American state of Louisiana, there is a huge fifty miles wide and
stretching along the western side of the mighty Mississippi River. In this vast wetland, people
travel in flat-bottomed boats and build their houses on stilts.
3. The Missouri River, which is considered a/an of the Mississippi, is
almost as long as the Mississippi and nearly as wide.
4. You can't dive into the water here because it is too
5. On his farm, water is pumped from underground to the land in
summer, when there is hardly any rain for the crops.
ELS • 339
E X E R C I S E 1: Find words or phrases in the passage which mean the same as:
COLUMN A COLUMN B
a) the state of being known to very few people
b) show differences when compared; oppose
c) very suddenly and to a great degree
d) (of cotton, silk, wool, etc.) a single strand, or
several strands twisted together, used for
knitting or making cloth (two separate words)
e) turning quickly around a central point
f) kept in a place and not able to leave
g) an iron-toothed instrument for combing wool,
flax or other material
h) a machine in which yarn or thread is woven
into a fabric
i) parallel to the horizon
j) a pin or rod in a spinning wheel for twisting
thread
k) knotted together or intertwined in a confused
mass
I) turn over to upset, especially by accident
m) turn round; to move around a center
n) at 90 degrees to the horizon; standing or
pointing upwards
o) do an action based on something before
340 • ELS
JAMES HARGREAVES
The obscurity of James Hargreaves's life contrasts sharply with the worldwide
influence of his invention, a yam-spinning machine called the spinning jenny. Almost
nothing is known of his life. He was probably born in Blackburn in Lancashire,
England. While still a boy, he became a carpenter and spinner in Standhill, a village
nearby. At that time Lancashire was the centre of England's manufacture of cotton
goods. The industry was still confined to workers' homes, however, and the cards,
spinning wheels and looms were operated by hand. It is said that an accident gave
Hargreaves the idea for his spinning jenny. In his crowded cottage, which served him
both as home and workshop, he was experimenting with spinning two threads at one
time. His experiments were unsuccessful, however, because the horizontal spindles
allowed the threads to fly apart and become tangled. After his daughter Jenny
overturned the experimental machine and its wheel continued to revolve with the
spindles in a vertical position, it occurred to Hargreaves that a machine with spindles
in this position might be successful. He proceeded to build a spinning machine,
probably in 1764, that would spin eight threads at the same time. He called his new
invention, after his daughter, a spinning jenny.
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