A、ScientificDebate: Neptunism vs. Plutonism
1. For modern geologists, the question of how rocks are formed has been answereD、The processes by which sediments are cemented together to form sedimentary rocks, subterranean magma shoots to the surface to form igneous rocks, and intense heat and pressure transform both of these into metamorphic rocks are well understooD、But in the days when geology was just beginning to develop as a separate scientific discipline, the origin ofEarth’s rocks was the subject of an intense debate.Among the theories circulating around the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were two primary contenders: Neptunism, posited by the GermanAbraham Werner, and Plutonism, a theory of James Hutton, a Scottish geologist.
2. To fully understand the debate between Neptunism and Plutonism, it is essential to first examine the broader scientific context in place at the time.Before the nineteenth century, the accepted view ofEarth’s history was defined by a concept known asCatastrophism. Its basic tenets were that the planet was of a young age and that its past was marked by a series of distinct and catastrophic events. InEngland in particular, this theory was influenced by the belief that a worldwide flood had occurred as described in theChristianBible.
3. Werner’s theory of Neptunism relied on some of the assumptions inherent inCatastrophism. The word Neptunism comes from the name of the Roman god of the sea, Neptune, as Werner suggested that all ofEarth had once been covered by a vast, hot ocean.The waters of this ocean, he said, contained small amounts of diluted minerals. Over time, these ancient waters evaporated and sank lower, and as they disappeared, the minerals remained and fused into crystals to produce the rocks and landmasses visible onEarth’s surface.A、series of later catastrophic floods, such as the one reported in theBible, added more rocks and explained the different rock layers that geologists were beginning to discover around this time.
4.Concurrently, there were many other geologists who were starting to reject the notion ofCatastrophism.
Much of the contemporary evidence being collected regarding fossils and the complexity and diversity of geologic formations suggested that the planet was much older than anyone had previously thought,
As a result, the theory of Uniformitarianism was introduced, which stated thatEarth’s geologic processes were gradual and unfolding at an incredibly slow rate over an immense timeframe.
Even more important for the field of geology, Uniformitarianism held that those same processes were still occurring.

5. James Hutton was among the earliest proponents of Uniformitarianism, and it greatly informed his theory of Plutonism. Named for the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto, it stated thatEarth’s rocks were created through the tremendous heat and force of volcanic activity. Hutton described a continuous cycle by which heat deep withinEarth pushed up the land above, creating mountains and volcanoes, and deposited rocks on the surface. Erosion over time would break down the rocks and transport their sediments to the bottom of the oceans, where they were heated and turned into solid rock once more, and again lifted to the surface by volcanic activity.This concept of a long, continuous cycle was a clear expression of Uniformitarianism and provided a better explanation for how the geologic complexities ofEarth had taken shape.
6.During the first half of the nineteenth century, increasing numbers of scientists adopted Hutton’s views, and today he is often refe

The Rosetta Stone
Things were not going well for Ptolemy V, king ofEgypt in the second centuryB、
C、He was not one of the all-powerfulEgyptian pharaohs who had ruled for many centuries. The young king was one of the Ptolemaic pharaohs who were of Greek heritage, descendants of a ruler put in place byAlexander the Great when he conqueredEgypt in the fourth centuryB、
C、The reign of Ptolemy V was a time of civil unrest and foreign incurious, and the king was unpopular. It was time for a public-relations campaign. The priests of the king wrote a short history of the king’s family, described his accomplishments, and explained his future plans. This message was written on stone tablets in demoticEgyptian for the common people, inEgyptian hieroglyphs for the priests, and in Greek for the ruling class. Thus, it was written in two languages but in three scripts. These tablets were posted all overEgypt.
Almost two thousand years later, in 1799, the French army, led by NapoleonBonaparte, was occupyingEgypt. Several years earlier, Napoleon’s army had defeated theBritish army nearCairo and had taken over the country. However, theBritish fleet had destroyed the French navy and there was no way for the French soldiers to return home.During this "extended vacation", French military engineers strengthened existing defensive positions. In the port town of Rosetta (now known asEI-Rashid), the French were rebuilding an old fort whenCaptain Pierre-FrancoisBouchard discovered an irregularly shaped slab made of dark granite (often misidentified as basalt) with three types of writings on it in three distinct bands.Besides military forces, Napoleon had also brought scientists and scholars with him. The Rosetta Stone, as it became known, was turned over to them. They quickly realized that the three scripts contained the same message.
They translated the Greek quickly but could not understand the other two scripts.
In 1801, the French were forced to surrender. Under the terms of the Treaty ofAlexandria, theBritish claimed the artifacts that the French had found during their occupation. The French tried to smuggle the Rosetta Stone out ofEgypt in a small boat but faileD、The stone was brought to London and presented to theBritish Museum. On the back of the stone is the painted message, "Captured by theBritishArmy inEgypt in 1801".
It was through the Rosetta Stone that scholars learned how to readEgyptian hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphic alphabet, one of the earliest writing systems ever developed, had been used by theEgyptians for 3,500 years.
However, it is far more complex than simple picture writing and contains thousands of symbols.

AfterEgypt was conquered by the Romans, Latin became the dominant language, and by the fourth centuryA、D、, no one could understand the symbols.

Before the Rosetta Stone was discovered, some scholars even believed that hieroglyphs were not really an alphabet but were merely decorations.

Copies of the Rosetta Stone were sent by theBritish Museum to linguists all overEurope, but learning which Greek word represented which hieroglyph proved difficult. It was the brilliant French linguist Jean FrancoisChampollion who finally unlocked the mystery. He began studying the Rosetta Stone at the age of 18.After fourteen years, he deciphered the code. In a letter to the French RoyalAcademy of Inscriptions, he explained the three basic assumptions that led to a translation: (1) TheCopticEgyptian language, still spoken by a small group ofEgyptians, was the final stage of the ancientEgyptian

THE、TRIANGLE、FACTORY FIRE
1The fire at the Triangle WaistCompany in New YorkCity was one of the worst workplace disasters in the history of labor. The incident highlighted the inhumane working conditions faced by many industrial workers, including low wages, excessively long hours, and an unsanitary and dangerous work environment. The Triangle WaistCompany, a shirt factory, was a typical sweatshop in the heart of New York’s garment district. Most of the workers were women, some as young as 15 years old, mostly recent Italian andEuropean Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States with their families to seek a better life.Already struggling with a new language and culture, these workers could not speak out about working conditions for fear of losing their desperately needed jobs, and this forced them to endure exploitation by the factory owners.
2On March 25, 1911, one of the five hundred employees of the Triangle Waist factory noticed that a rag bin near her eighth-floor workstation was on fire. She and her co-workers immediately tried to extinguish the flames, but their efforts proved futile, and piles of fabric ignited all over the eighth floor. The factory manager ordered his employees to unroll the fire extinguisher hose, but they found it rotted and useless. Panic erupted as the fire spreaD、
3The shirt factory occupied the top three floors of the ten-storyAschBuilding. The seventy employees who worked on the tenth floor escaped the fire by way of the staircases or by climbing onto the roof, where students from New York University, located across the street, stretched ladders over to theAschBuilding. The 260 workers on the ninth floor had the worst luck of all.Although the eighth-floor workers tried to warn them by telephone, the call did not reach them, and by the time the ninth-floor workers learned about the fire, their routes of escape were mostly blockeD、When they found many of the exit doors locked, some managed to climb down the cables of the freight elevator. Others crammed into one narrow stairway. Still others climbed onto the single, inadequately constructed fire escape. However, the fire escape led nowhere, and it bent under the weight of hundreds of workers trying to escape. The spindly structure separated from the wall, falling to the ground and carrying many people with it.
4To combat the disaster, the New York FireDepartment sent thirty-five pieces of equipment, including a hook and ladder. The young women trapped on the ninth floor waited on the window ledges to be rescued, only to discover that the ladder, fully raised, stopped far below them at the sixth floor. Water from the hoses could not reach the top floors, and many workers chose to jump to their deaths rather than to burn alive. Within minutes, the factory was consumed by flame, killing 146 workers, mostly immigrant women.City officials set up a temporary morgue in a building on 26th Street, and over the next few days streams of survivors filed through the building to identify the deaD、
5The ten-storyAschBuilding was a firetrap typical of the working conditions of the period, and the Triangle fire tragically illustrated that fire inspections and safety precautions were very inadequate. The victims of the fire were trapped by the lack of fire escapes and by management’s practice of locking the exit doors during work hours. The incident had a profound impact on women’s unionism and job safety, affecting local and national politics in the process.An era of progressive reform began to sweep the nation, as people decided that government had a responsibility to ensure that private industry protected the welfare of workers. There was a public outcry for laws to regulate workplace safety. The New York Factory InvestigatingCommission was formed to examine the conditions in factories throughout the state, and their report led to many new

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