Make a summary of not more than 120 words, describing the various means of

transportation.

The means of transportation has changed and improved over many centuries. Long ago, during
the times of the kings and knights, animals such as horses, buffaloes and camels were used by
man for transportation purposes. These animals no doubt did save man from traveling by foot,
they took a long time to complete the journeys, especially when transporting goods.

In 1825, George Stephenson's opening of the first railway marked a significant progress in the
history of transportation. Railways were in popular demand because they could carry more
people and loads. More importantly, they ran faster than animals. Railways improved the
communication networks and hence, imports and exports of goods and people traveling out of
their towns or even countries to work were made possible. Unfortunately, since the invention of
motor vehicles, the popularity of railways has declined.

Motor vehicles were first invented in the eighteenth century. These vehicles were preferred by
many people as they do not run on tracks and hence do not have fixed routes. Travelers can then
plan their own routes to suit their convenience. This is especially so when the destinations are
places like small towns or remote areas. In these places, few or even none of the trains ever reach
them; so traveling by the motor vehicle would solve this problem. Over many years of
modifications, the motor vehicle is now one of the most commonly used means of transportation.
Today, we travel in cars, taxis, buses, lorries or vans almost every day.

Another form of transportation is by water. It may be the slowest but definitely the cheapest form
of bulk transportation. Though over the centuries of innovations, water transportation has
improved from the ancient wind dependent yachts to the modern motor driven ships, journeys by
water are still characterized by the dangers and unpredictability of meeting natural disasters like
the storms.

The evolution of world transportation has reached its pinnacle with the invention of airplanes.
Transportation by planes is the easiest and fastest. Planes gliding smoothly in the air, are not
obstructed by seas, hills, buildings and so on. Though convenient, this means of transport is the
most expensive. Despite the popular demand, the transportation network of the planes is still not
a balanced and complete one till today. Developed countries tend to make use of air
transportation more frequently than the less developed ones as they do more exporting and
importing of goods and also have more people traveling to and fro their countries. Hence, the
networks in these developed countries are denser.
Describe briefly the evolution of the writing system and tools. Your summary should
not exceed 120 words.

Today, with just twenty-six letters, we can write a letter to our friends or answer an examination
question. Thousands of years ago, there was no writing system at all. News, knowledge and
information were passed on from one person to another by word of mouth. If you ever played
'rumor clinic' where a cognate message is passed from one person to another down the chain by
mouth, you will understand the inefficiency of the system. Messages passed down are unreliable
as the speakers may mix up or lose part of the information.

The first written language was invented by the early cave man. They tied bits of animal hair
together to form brushes and painted pictures on the cave wall, telling their friends about their
hunts. It was after several centuries that different writing systems like the Chinese characters and
hieroglyphs in Egypt were invented. The alphabetical system that we are using currently also
came about only after many decades of development.

Besides alphabets, the invention of writing tools is another major transition. In olden times, the
kind of writing tools used, depended on the material they wrote on. For example, in the Middle
East, where clay is abundant in supply, the early people used hollow reed 'pens' to carve onto the
wet clay tablets. After which, these clay pieces were baked till rock hard to make the writings
permanent. In ancient Egypt, Egyptians either wrote on scraped thin pieces of animal skins called
'parchment' or flattened papaya stems known as 'papyrus'. Their writing tool was a primitive kind
of fountain pen -- a reed with ink inside.

It was only in the 1880s, that fountain pens were invented. Before that, most people used
either quill pens - sharpened bird feathers or nibbed pens, which were dipped into ink before
writing. Fountain pens invented later have both plus and minus points. With tiny ink tanks in
them, fountain pens are superior to quill or nibbed ones as the ink in them do not run out as
quickly. The disadvantage is that sometimes, the nibs of the fountain pens may break, causing
the ink to leak, staining the writer's fingers.

The flaw in fountain pens has led to further investigation and the successful invention of the first
'ballpoint' pen by a Hungarian, Ladislao Biro. There were many people after him who tried to
improve upon the appearance of his ballpoint pens. Today, 'ballpoint' pens are conveniently and
widely used in the world.
Make a summary, describing the ways to solve the problems of putting young children
to bed. Your account should not more than 120 words.

Conflicts between parents and their children at bedtime are common.. For adults, sleep is
welcome rest. For children, it's lost time, time when they could be doing something fun like
playing computer games or finishing a drawing of their cartoon hero. So the youngsters often
resist it.

And in families where both parents work, the nightly ritual of putting the children to bed can be
even more of a tussle. Most parents don't get home until at least seven in the evening, and there's
little slack between bath, dinner, homework and bedtime.

Whatever the situation, a growing child still requires a decent amount of sleep, and for young
schoolchildren and toddlers, that's between 10 and 12 hours a night.

But what happens when children fight it every step of the way, from taking a bath to putting on
pyjamas to getting into bed? When they refuse to sleep alone in bed or wake up repeatedly, or
need to be rocked for an hour before nodding off?

It's usually not hard to tell when a child doesn't get enough sleep.

"He can be irritable, whiny, more clumsy," says paediatrician Dr Leigh Shapleigh. "And when a
child has any sort of behavior problem, it is just exacerbated by lack of sleep."

Children - especially small children - thrive on routine, so the more regular their bedtime is the
better it is for the entire family.

Exactly when a child goes to bed has to be, determined by the parents, Shapleigh says.

"The trick is to decide what you want to do. If you want the bedtime at 7.30 or 8.30 or 9.30,
decide how to get there."

Although many parents are consistent, the routine they adopt only results in long, wearying
nights. They become caught in a trap they have inadvertently created. Their children rely on
them to help get to sleep. Parents cajole, sing to them, rock them, rub their back -- only to have
the little ones wake the moment they tiptoe out of the room. Quality time disappears, tempers are
short, and bedtime becomes a civil war.

To frazzle parents who want desperately to escape that trap, Shapleigh suggests the method that
worked for a number of families.

"You have to let them cry. Be there to reassure them. Leave a night light on, but be consistent.
They understand your behavior more than they do your words."

Dr Richard Ferber, a paediatrician who is sometimes called the Dr Spock of children's sleep
problems, assures parents that most bedtime conflicts are not serious, and they can be avoided.

Parents who choose to wait out their child's erratic sleep patterns will probably see them
disappear, but that could take months or years.

Instead of waiting, Ferber suggests that parents take action, and after following a pleasant
bedtime routine, put the children to bed, leaving them there even if they cry, but checking on
them at specific intervals.

"There is no way to treat this problem without listening to some crying, but you can keep it to a
minimum," he says.

Parents who are fighting the sleep battle with their children often complain of being tired, but
forget that their children, who haven't yet learned to complain, are also tired.

"It is in your child's best interests to have uninterrupted sleep," Ferber says.

For children as well as adults, Ferber says, "sleep (serves) some restorative function for our
bodies and perhaps for our minds, and it is certainly necessary for normal functioning during the
day."

Summarize the following article about bacteria in not more than 120 words.

Bacteria are the smallest living things with a cellular structure; each individual bacterium
consisting of one single colorless cell, which is usually either spherical or rod-shaped. Individual
bacteria measure from 0.0001 inches to 0.00001 inches in length, so they can be seen only with
the help of a high-power microscope. They are so small that they can float in the atmosphere,
usually as 'passengers' on dust particles, up to a height of several thousand feet, except
immediately after a heavy downpour, when the air is washed clean.

Bacteria are present in all natural as well as in drinking water that has not been purified or bailed.
A large number of bacteria live in the soil, down to a depth of several feet, and they are
particularly abundant in faeces and sewage. Thus, living bacteria are always present on the
surface of our bodies and on everything around us, but they are seldom found inside the tissues
of healthy plants and animals.

Since most kinds of bacteria contain no chlorophyll, they cannot use light energy and Synthesize
their food. They have to get their food in other ways, mostly ready-made by other living things.
Like plants, it can only take in dissolved food. A majority get their supply from dead remains of
other organisms.

Bacteria reproduce by dividing into two, and these new individuals grow so quickly that they are
ready to divide again in about half an hour. Hence, in ten hours, under the most favorable
conditions, a single bacterium can produce over a million bacteria. That is one reason for it being
so difficult to ensure any object is completely free from any kind of living organisms. In
addition, some forms of bacteria have a waxy envelope outside their cell wall and are thus more
difficult to kill.

Few bacteria can long survive a temperature above 80°C in the presence of moisture. Hence,
when food items are boiled, nearly all the bacteria present is killed. Pasteurization is a milder
heat treatment that destroys the bacteria in milk.

The rate of multiplication of bacteria is greatly slowed down at temperatures below 10°C. This
means that food will remain unaffected by bacteria in a refrigerator.

Drying is also another method of preserving food and this dehydration of foodstuff prevents
bacteria from growing and multiplying as there is insufficient moisture.

There are so many lessons one can learn about life from a dog. Imagine this scenario: it is raining
heavily outside and you need to leave for someone's house. The dog is up and eager, to go with
you. You tell it to stay home. As you leave, you see it squeezing out through the gap in the
doorway. You scold it and order it back home. Then at every turn you make, you suddenly see it
following you sheepishly at a distance. It follows at the risk of being reprimanded for the sore
reason of being somewhere nearby. How else can we experience so selfless an instance of love
and faithfulness? We can learn a lifelong lesson from this sincere warm display of perpetual
companionship.

Observe the eating habits of your dog. It does not eat, except when hungry. It does not drink,
unless it is thirsty. It does not gorge itself. It stops eating when it has had enough.

A dog also sets a perfect example of adaptability. If it is moved to a strange place, it is able to
adapt itself to that place and to its thousand peculiarities without a murmur of complaint. It is
able to learn and adapt to a new family's ways and customs. It is quick and ready to please. Man,
being accustomed to comfort and wealth will be lost if suddenly stripped of all he is accustomed
to.

A dog also teaches us a thing or two about, unselfish love. When a dog knows death is
approaching, it tries, with its last vestige of strength, to crawl away elsewhere to die, in order to
burden its owners no more.

A dog does things with all vigor. However, when there is nothing to do, it lies down and rests. It
does not waste its strength and energy needlessly. Many working people are burning the candles
at both ends. Many suffer nervous breakdowns due to stress. Perhaps, they should learn to rest
like a dog does.

A dog above all is truly man's best friend.

Summarize this article about Man and his destruction of wildlife habitat in not more
than 120 words

Man is forever changing the face of nature. He has been doing so since he first appeared on the
earth. Yet, all that man has done is not always to the ultimate advantage of the earth or himself.
Man has, in fact, destroyed more than necessary.

In his struggle to live and extract the most out of life, man has destroyed many species of
wildlife; directly by sheer physical destruction, and indirectly by the destruction or alteration of
habitats. Some species may be able to withstand disruptions to their habitat while others may not
be able to cope.

Take the simple act of farming. When a farmer tills a rough ground, he makes it unsuitable for
the survival of certain species. Every change in land use brings about a change in the types of
plant and animals found on that land.

When man builds a new town, this means the total destruction of vast areas of farmland or
woodland. Here, you have the complete destruction of entire habitats and it is inevitable.

It follows therefore, that every form of human activity unavoidably upsets or changes the
wildlife complex of the area. Man has destroyed many forms of wildlife for no reasonable
purpose. They have also made many great blunders in land use, habitat destruction and the
extermination of many forms of wildlife.

Man's attitude towards animals depends on the degree to which his own survival is affected. He
sets aside protection for animals that he hunts for sport and wages a war on any other creature
that may pose a danger or inconvenience to him. This creates many problems and man has made
irreversible, serious errors in his destruction of predators. He has destroyed animals and birds
which are useful to farmers as pest controllers. The tragedy that emerges is that all the killing of
predators did not in any way increase the number of game birds.

Broadly speaking, man wages war against the creatures which he considers harmful, even when
his warfare makes little or no difference to the numbers of those he encourages. There is a
delicate predator and prey equilibrium involving also the vegetation of any area, which man can
upset by thoughtless intervention.

Therefore, there is a need for the implementation of checks and balances. The continued
existence of these animals depends entirely on man and his attitude towards his own future.
Summarize this article about the use of fertilizers in not more than 120 words.

In the early days of farming, people did not understand how plants obtained essential nutrients. It
so happened that wood ash, fish remains and slaughterhouse waste were thrown on vacant land
just to get rid of them. Then, people started to notice that the grass, bushes and shrubs on this
vacant land began to grow very well. They reasoned that if their farmland were similarly treated,
the growth of their crops would also improve. People gradually began to realize that the nutrients
required by plants came from the soil and that the amount of nutrients could be increased by the
application of such organic remains to the soil. Thus started the manuring process in farming.

The practice of manuring has been practized as early since the seventeenth century. However, the
importance of manuring was not properly understood until scientists began to study the
nutritional needs of plants and gave birth to fertilizers. Thus, gradually, the use of fertilizers
became accepted by farmers.

There are many types of manure and fertilizer currently being used. Manure is a substance
derived from animals and plants. The most important advantage of using manure is the fact that
they not only supply a wide range of plant nutrients, but also improve the structure of the soil. It
cements together the soil particles to form soil crumbs. The crumb structure is a desirable
condition of cultivated soil. The addition of manure to soil will increase the inorganic and humus
content which helps to prevent soil erosion and loss of plant nutrients when it rains. The common
manure used in farming consists of farmyard manure, compost, blood meal, bone meal and fish
meal.

Unlike manure, fertilizers are inorganic substances which do not improve the structure of the
soil. They only supply extra amounts of nutrients to the growing plants when applied to the soil.
The commercial fertilizers commonly used today can be classified into three major categories;
namely, nitrogen (N), phosphate and potash fertilizers.

Besides knowing the type of fertilizer to use, a farmer also needs to know when to apply the
fertilizer and how to apply it. The fertilizer should be applied at the time when the plants need a
particular nutrient most. The time and method of application will determine how profitably the
fertilizers have been used in farming. Fertilizers which have not been properly applied cannot be
absorbed in large quantities by plant roots. These fertilizers may be washed away by rain or they
may kill the plants. This would mean a definite financial loss for the farmer.