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Package Holidays (1993)

Package holidays, covering a two weeks' stay in an attractive place, are increasingly popular. Once you get to the airport, it is up to the tour operator to see that you get safely to your destination£®Everything is laid on for you£®There is, in fact, no reason for you to bother to arrange anything yourselves£®You make friends and have a good time. But there is very little chance that you will really get to know the local people£®This is even less likely on a coach tour, when you spend almost your entire time traveling£®Of course, there are carefully planned stops for you to visit historic buildings and monuments. You may visit the beautiful, the historic, the ancient. But time is always short£®There is also the added disadvantage of being obliged to spend you holiday with a group of people you have never met before£®

The American Family (1994)

The American family unit is changing. There used to be mainly two types of families, the extended and the nuclear. The former included mother, father, children, and some other relatives such as grandparents, living in the same house or nearby. Then as the economy progressed from agricultural to industrial, people began moving to different parts of the country in order to search for job opportunities. These moves split up the extended family. The nuclear family consisting of only parents and children has therefore become far more wide spread. Today¡¯s family, however, can be composed of diverse combinations. With the divorce rate nearly one in two, there's an increase in single-parent homes¡ªa father or mother living with one or more children. Blended families occur when divorced men and women remarry and combine the children from former marriages into a new family. On the other hand, there is an increase in childless couples while one in rive Americans lives alone.

Unidentified Flying Objects (1995)

There are many explanations for why UFOs visit the Earth. / The most popular one is that they maybe visitors from other planets./ To fly such aircraft, their builders must develop different forms of aviation,/because they seem to fly much faster than normal aircraft./ The UFOs, it is believed, must contain scientists/ from other planets who are studying life on earth./ It is even believed that several such aircraft may have landed on earth/ and the space visitors may be living amongst us./ But there are also less fantastic explanations available./ Although some sightings of UFOs are difficult to explain, most can be explained quite easily./ In many cases the observers might have made a mistake./ They might have seen a weather balloon or an aircraft./ Or the light

they saw in the sky might have been light from the ground,/ reflected on to the clouds./ However, the exact cause of many sightings still remained a mystery.

The Indian Medicine Man (1996)

Among the Indians of North America, the medicine man was a very important person. He could cure illness and he could speak to the spirits. The spirits were the supernatural forces that controlled the world. The Indians believed that bad spirits made people ill. So when people were ill, the medicine man tried to help them by using magic. He spoke to the good spirits and asked for their help. Many people were cured, because they thought the spirits were helping them, but really these people cured themselves. Sometimes your own mind is the best doctor for you. The medicine men were often successful for another reason, too. They knew about plants that really can cure illness. A lot of medicines are made from the plants that were used by medicine men hundred of years ago.

Legal Age for Marriage (1997)

Throughout the United States, the legal age for marriage shows some difference. The most common age without parents¡¯ consent is 18 for both females and males. However, persons who are under age in their home state can get married in another state, and then return to the home state legally married. Each state issues its own marriage license. Both residents and non-residents are qualified for such a license. The fees and ceremonies vary greatly from state to state. Most states, for instance, have a blood test requirement, but a few do not. Most states permit either a civil or religious ceremony, but a few require the ceremony to be religious. In most states a waiting period is required before the license is issued. This period is from one to five days depending on the state.

A three-day-wait is the most common. In some states there is no required waiting period.

The Railways in Britain (1998)

The success of early railways, such as the lines between big cities,/ led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times. / Between 1835 and 1865 about 25000 kilometers of track were built,/ and over 100 railway companies were created. /

Railway travel transformed people's lives. / Trains were first designed to carry goods. / However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies to run one cheap train a day / which stopped at every station and cost only a penny a mile. / Soon working class passengers found they could afford to travel by rail. / Cheap day excursion trains became popular and seaside resorts grew rapidly. / The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:/ building carriages, running the railways and repairing the tracks. / Railways even changed the time. / The need to run the railways on time meant that local time was abolished/ and clocks showed the same time all over the country. /

United Nations Dayª¥(1999)

The 24th of October is celebrated as United Nations Day. h is a day that belongs to everyone. And it is celebrated in most countries of the world. Some countries celebrate for a week instead of a day. In many parts of the world, schools have special programs for the day. Boys and girls in some communities decorate a UN tree. ¡­¡­ ´Ë´¦Òþ²Ø£º6191×Ö£¬È«²¿ÎĵµÄÚÈÝÇëÏÂÔغó²é¿´¡£Ï²»¶¾ÍÏÂÔØ°É ¡­¡­