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has begun to recede since the War. (7) Much that was only yesterday relegated airily
to the realm of science fiction is now recognized as sober scientific fact. (8) And
there is virtually nothing in today's science fiction that is thought of as "impossible"
tomorrow. (9) The increasing pace of technological and social change in the post-war
world is actively dissolving the familiar signposts of our civilization before our
media-soaked eyes. (10) Willingly or reluctantly we are impelled to give more and
more of our attention to the shape of things to come.
Text 4. THE PATH OF PROGRESS. (1) The process of change was set in motion
everywhere from Land's End to John O'Groats. (2) But it was in northern cities that
our modern world was born. (3) These stocky, taciturn people were the first to live by
steam, cogs, iron, and engine grease, and the first in modem times to demonstrate the
dynamism of the human condition. (4) This is where, by all the rules of heredity, the
artificial satellite and the computer were conceived. (5) Baedeker may not recognize
it, but it is one of history's crucibles. (6) Until the start of the technical revolution, in
the second half of the eighteenth century, England was an agricultural country, only
slightly invigorated by the primitive industries of the day. (7) She was impelled, for
the most part, by muscular energies – the strong arms of her islanders, the immense
legs of her noble horses. (8) But she was already mining coal and smelting iron,
digging canals and negotiating bills of exchange. (9) Agriculture itself had changed
under the impact of new ideas: the boundless open fields of England had almost all
been enclosed, and lively farmers were experimenting with crop rotation, breeding
methods and winter feed. (10) There was a substantial merchant class already,
fostered by trade and adventure, and a solid stratum of literate yeomen.
Text 5. INDOMITABLE LITTLE MAN
Joseph North
Only those who reach for their gun when they hear the world “culture” (like the
late critic, Herr Dr. Joseph Gebbels) can dislike Charlie Chaplin whose works are
enjoying a revival in New York today. I took the occasion in the current torrid spell
to re-see his “Modern Times”. I can only say that it remains a masterpiece of art, and
a profound comment on contemporary life in these United States.
I recall no author of novel or treatise, or, for that matter, sociologist, historian or
journalist or labor figure who captured so memorably the condition of his time as
Chaplin did in this film. Since it has become fashionable in many circles to deride the
Thirties as an era of literary and cultural renaissance, one must add Chaplin’s works
as refutation. The apex of his career can be found in that period, for he, the prescient
artist, involved with mankind, reflected the power of the people’s resistant will with
which he identified himself.
The film of ironic genius portrays a time of unemployment and simultaneously,
the march of the machines. His hero, the hapless vagrant, is fired by the resolve to
earn a living to help the child of a workingman shot dead in an unemployment
demonstration. In his inimitable flatfooted way, Charlie races through a vast crowd of
desperate jobless seeking work in a newly opened factory. After screwing the bolts in
the ever-faster belt, which attains a lunatic speed at the bidding of the polished, well-
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