By Louise
A photograph of the original Benz Patent
Motor wagen, first built in 1885 and
awarded the patent for the concept
Back in the early 1900s when Henry Ford first started producing cars in the United States, he only offered one color, black. His first car was the “Model A” and in 1908 he introduced a new and improved version called the “Model T.” Karl Benz's "Velo" model (1894) -entered into an early
automobile race
The automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. It is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile. However, we can point to the many firsts
that occurred along the way. Starting with the first theoretical plans for a motor vehicle that had been drawn up by both Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.
In June 1895, the Chicago Times-Herald newspaper announced the very first motor car race. In1895 in Europe, there had been some earlier success but a gasoline-powered vehicle was far from being a normal thing to see on the streets. The required criteria for the vehicles were that they have at least 3 wheels and could carry at least 2 people. Each vehicle had to carry the driver and an umpire selected by the judges to make sure that the driver and the vehicle were not cheating.
The racecourse route ran about 54 km. Because of some reasons, the race was rescheduled. The big day arrived welcomed by a fresh dusting of snow on the ground. This made for slippery road conditions and frigid temperatures. Keep in mind that the roads were dirt and none of these vehicles had roofs. They were completely open and subject to the elements. At the starting line were only 6 cars. Two were electric and powered by batteries, three were gasoline-powered and built by the German maker Benz and one was gasoline-powered and built by American Frank Duryea.
The icy temperature combined with the extremely poor road conditions were too much for some of the cars and 4 out of the 6 had to drop out. Topping a high speed of 7.5 miles per hour, it took the winner, Frank Duryea 9 hours to win first place! The second contestant rolled in 2 hours later. Duryea’s winnings were $2,000 and worldwide acknowledgement for beating the famous Benz automobile. With his winnings, he started the Duryea Motor Wagon Company and became the first manufacturer of automobiles.
I.New words and expressions
•excitement n.激动，兴奋excite vt.使兴奋, 使激动This announcement greatly excited us.
这个通知使我们大为激动。
激发, 引起
The professor's lecture excited our interest.
那个教授讲的课引起了我们的兴趣。
excited adj. 感到兴奋的, 激动的
He was getting excited just thinking about the trip.一想到那次旅行他就兴奋。exciting adj.令人兴奋的，激动的
He concentrated his pupils and declared the exciting news.
他把他的学生集中在一起, 宣布了这条令人兴奋的消息。
•rival n. 对手
同义词：opponent, competitor, adversary
•once a year每年一次
once + 表示时间的名词可以表示“每……一次”
strcmp was not declared inThe postman comes once a day. 邮递员每天来一次。
•handsome, beautiful, pretty 与good-looking比较
这些单词都可以表示“美”，但含义和用法各不相同。
–handsome通常用来形容男子，表示“漂亮的，英俊的”；
–beautiful表示“美的，给人美感的，令人愉悦的”等含义，多用于形容女子、孩童、花草、服饰等，不用来形容男子的长相；
–pretty表示“漂亮的，可爱的，令人怜爱的”等含义，多用于女子，孩子等；
–good-looking表示容貌“标致的，美貌的，好看的”，男女均适用，它所表示的美通常不及beautiful所表示的含义。
•reach与arrive in/ at
✓reach表示“到达，达到”。表示抵达某地时通常为及物动词，比arrive in/ at要正式。reach使用的范围比较广，不仅仅限于地点，做不及物动词的情况较少：
1.When you reach my age, you’ll be able to understand it.
2.Can you get that book down for me please? I can’t reach it.
✓arrive为不及物动词，表示“到达，抵达”。它既可以单独使用，也可以与介词连用。在表示到达某个较大的地方时用arrive in，到达某个较小的地方/场所用arrive at，这由说话者决定
类似词还有get

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