Adult Education
Voluntary learning in organized courses by mature men and women is called adult education. Such education is offered to make people able to enlarge and interpret their experience as adults. Adults may want to study something which they missed in earlier schooling, get new skills or job training, find out about new technological developments, seek better self-understanding, or develop new talents and skills.
This kind of education may be in the form of self-study with proper guidance through the use of libraries, correspondence course, or broadcasting. It may also be acquired collectively in schools and colleges, study groups, workshops, clubs, and professional associations.
Modern adult education for large numbers of people started in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Great economic and social changes were taking place: people were moving from rural areas to cities; new types of work were being created in an expanding factory system. These and other factors produced a need for further education and re-education of adults.
The earliest programs of organized adult education arose in Great Britain in the 1790s, with the founding of an adult school in Nottingham and a mechanics’ institute in Glasgow. The earliest adult education institution in the United States was founded by Benjamin Franklin and some friends in Philadelphia in 1727.
People recognize that continued learning is necessary for most forms of employment today. For example, parts of the adult population in many countries find it necessary to take part in retraining programs at work of even to learn completely new jobs. Adult education programs are springing up constantly to meet these and other needs.
练习：
1． Paragraph 2__________.
2． Paragraph 3__________.
3． Paragraph 4__________.
4． Paragraph 5__________.
A Necessity for developing adult education
B Early days of adult education
C Ways of receiving adult education
D Growth of adult education
E Institutions of adult education
F Definition of adult education
5． Some adults want to learn _______________.
6． There are various forms of adult education, including ____________.
7． Adult education has been made necessary ___________.
8． The earliest organized adult education _______________.
A by social and economic changes
B guided self-study and correspondence courses
C by studying together with children
D what they did not manage to learn earlier
E dates back to the eighteenth century
F mass production
Key:CABDDBAE
Air Transportation
Airplanes are used to carry passengers, cargo and mail. Air transport companies operate scheduled airlines and non-scheduled services over local, regional, national, and international routes. The aircraft operated by these companies range from small single-engine planes to large multiengine jet transports.
The first air passenger services began in 1910, when dirigibles began operation between several German cities. The first scheduled airplane service to carry passengers began in the U.S in 1914. Several experimental airmail flights took place in India, Europe, and the United States before World War I, but air transport service did not become a true business until after the war.
During World War Two, intercontinental air transport became firmly established. After the war the new long-distance transports with advanced facilities were increasingly able to avoid storms and strong wind and make flights more economical and consistent. A new generation of "jumbo-jet" transports began operations in 1970, and the supersonic transport entered passenger service in 1976.
During the 1970s the number of domestic passengers on U.S airlines increased about 78%, and during the 1980s the figure was up about 58%. In 1990 there were 41.8 million international passengers, the figure was a 75% increase over 1980. The total cargo flown by U.S airlines almost doubled during the 1980s, from 5.7 billion to 10.6 billion ton-miles in 1990.
Major airports provide a wide range of facilities for the convenience of millions of travelers. These range from such basic services as ticket-sales counters and restaurants to luxury hotels, shopping centers and play areas for children. International airports must also have customs areas and currency-exchange counters and so on.
EXERCISE:
1. Paragraph 2 _____.
2. Paragraph 3 _____.
3. Paragraph 4 _____.
4. Paragraph 5 _____.
A Airport services
B Training of pilots
C Beginning period
D Rapid growth in the U.S.
E Development
F Competition
5. Air transport companies use different plans ____.
6. The United States was the country where ____.
7. The forty years from the 1930s to the 1970s was an important period ___.
8. Nowadays airports provide all kinds of services ____.
A in the development of air transportation
B the earliest passenger flights were successfully operated
C to make travel easy and pleasant for the passengers
D to provide different services
E the shortage of qualified pilots
F traveling by air was very cheap
KEY: C E D A D B A C