LTC-AS Reading Comprehension Section

Joshua Abraham Norton called himself the Emperor of North America and the Protector of Mexico. He was an amiable and beloved eccentric who “reigned” in San Francisco, California from 1850 to 1880. Norton was thought to be an Englishman whose mind had broken under financial disaster. With his faithful dogs, Bummer and Lazarus, he patrolled the streets dressed in a gold-braided army uniform and a plumed hat, inspecting buildings and checking up on policemen. Newspapers published his “proclamations,” stores honored his paper money, the city gave him a pension, and 300,000 mourners attended his funeral.

Scientists working on a problem do not know and sometimes can’t even guess what the final result will be. Professor Roentgen was a physicist at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany. Late on Friday, November 8, 1895, he was doing an experiment in his laboratory when he noticed something extraordinary. He had covered an electric bulb with black cardboard, and when he switched on the current, he saw little dancing lights on his table. The bulb was completely covered; how then could any ray penetrate? On the table there were some pieces of paper, which had been covered with metal salts. It was on this paper that the lights were shining. Professor Roentgen took a piece of this paper and held it at a distance from the lamp. Between it and the lamp he placed a variety of objects: a book, a pack of cards, a piece of wood, and a door key. The ray penetrated every one of them except the key. This mysterious ray could shine through everything except the metal. He called his wife into the laboratory and asked her to hold her hand between the lamp and a photographic plate. She was very surprised by this request, but she obediently held up her hand for a quarter of an hour, and when the plate was developed there was a picture of the bones of her hand and of the ring on one finger. The ray could pass through the flesh but not through the bone or the ring.

SOUTH CAROLINA

AREA: 31,055 square miles, including 775 square miles of water; 0.86 percent of total United States; 40th state in size

POPULATION (2000): 4,012,012; 1.4 percent of total United States; 26th state in population; 133.2 persons per square mile; 60.5 percent urban, 39.5 percent rural

MOUNTAIN RANGE: Blue Ridge

CHIEF MOUNTAIN PEAKS (height given in feet): Sassafras (3,560); Pinnacle (3,425); Hogback (3,226); Caesar’s Head (3,208)

LARGEST LAKES: Marion, Moultrie, Murray, Catawba, Hartwell

MOST IMPORTANT RIVERS: Santee, Savannah, Pee Dee, Cooper, Edisto

NATIONAL PARKS AND MONUMENTS: King’s Mountain National Military Park, 3,905 acres (1931); Fort Sumter National Monument, 36 acres (1948)

STATE PARKS: Total of 28 including Andrew Jackson Historical, Cheraw, Hunting Island, King’s Mountain, Myrtle Beach, Oconee, Poinsett, Rivers Bridge Confederate

ADDITIONAL PLACES OF INTEREST: Magnolia and Cypress Gardens, near Charleston; Fort Moultrie; Parris Island; Sand Hills State Forest; Cowpens Battlefield Site, near Chesnee; Fort Hill, Clemson; St. Philip’s Church, Charleston

The modern family stands in marked contrast to the earlier agricultural family; in the latter, economic functions are particularly prominent, the family being an almost completely self-sustaining business enterprise. Under these conditions, marriage is favored, since a wife is needed on the farm, and children are useful workers. In such a system the efficiency and suitability of mates is emphasized over affection as a basis for marriage.

With the growth of the factory system and the rise of cities, family life has undergone profound changes.

Many of the economic functions have been transferred outside of the family so that economic functions left are few. The educational, religious, recreational, and protective functions that typically were addressed in the family have also been transferred outside the family. Now schools, churches, governments, and commercial recreational agencies are responsible for these functions. Consequently, the main functions in many families are to love and enjoy one another.

In light of the aforementioned, it is to be expected that in marriage today, the affectional aspect would be emphasized to the extreme. Many agree that nowhere in the world has romantic love been so emphasized in starting marriage as in the United States today.

Capstan is a planet in the distant Vertex solar system. In a recent letter to the noted English astronomer, Sir Ralph Johnson, the world famous Harvard astronomer Dr. Stanley G. Wyatt has summarized the current speculations as to the nature of this planet and its inhabitants. The inhabitants of Capstan are most likely green colored beings who are very tall. Believed to be gentle by nature, these beings probably subsist on moss-like plants. They most likely live in huts constructed from clay, which they have built with their three hands. Possessing fantastic strength, the inhabitants are well suited to the mountainous terrain of the planet. The atmosphere is colored bright orange and consists mainly of the gas argon. Long grass is the principal form of vegetation on this planet, the temperature of which, by earth standards, is very hot. The planet’s orbit around the sun describes an ellipse, and one such orbit takes 4 earth years to complete. Astronomers admit that the preceding description of Capstan is very speculative but it is believed that these statements are quite possibly true, given the information we have so far.

The meteorology of the continent is generally influenced by the incidence of the monsoon, and so in Zone A the direction of the prevailing wind remains almost constant for the season, i.e., north-westerly in winter and southerly in summer. The rainfall is more abundant than in Zone B, but scanty compared with that in Zone C, and for the most part ranges from 20 inches to 60 inches a year, diminishing from south to north. Zone A is, unlike Zone C, outside the track of typhoons or earthquakes, and so enjoys immunity from their visitations. But between June and August, the wet months of the year, streams are flooded and great damage is done to crops. Throughout the rest of the year the rainfall is minimal, the air is semi-arid, and there are many hours of bright sunshine.

Foggy days in Zone A during the year number as many as 70 around the southern seashores, decreasing to as few as 20 in the more northern latitudes. The fog, as a rule, is thicker farther offshore, and in June and July, the season when it is the densest, a fog will sometimes last for several days.