A good mother is better than a good teacher

Chapter 34
The origin of the Olympic mascot

The Olympic Games is the greatest sports event for human beings. Every Olympic Games has a lovely child—the mascot.Speaking of the mascot, there is still a lot to know about it.

The term mascot originated from Mascotto in French Provence. It was not officially included in the French dictionary as Mascotte until the end of the 19th century. The English Mascot was derived from this. It means a person who can bring auspiciousness and good luck. , animal or something.

The earliest Olympic mascot was the "Schuss" designed for the 1968th Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 10.Xueshi has an exaggeratedly large head and a thin and hard body, which symbolizes an elf with a strong will.Its half-human, half-human cartoon ski figure image is very popular among people.Some people say that the original meaning of Schuss is "high-speed skiing".

Designing mascots for the Summer Olympics began with the 1972 Munich Olympics.It was a decorative purebred German terrier called Waldi, whose image can be seen all over Bavaria.The characteristics of agility, endurance and stoicism in the Beagle are also indicative of the athlete's character.Its head and tail are symmetrically painted with light blue, dark blue, dark green, light green, yellow, and brown colors to symbolize the colors of the German land and sky. This warm color also expresses a lively and harmonious atmosphere.This tone was imitated and inherited by successors.

In fact, most of the Olympic mascots are based on the animal images with the characteristics of the host country. The 1976 Montreal Olympics was a beaver, called "Amik"; the 1980 Moscow Olympics was a bear, called "Micha"; the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was an eagle, called "Micha". Sam” (Sam), which is synonymous with Americans, “Uncle Sam”; the 1988 Seoul Olympics was the image of a tiger, called “Hodori”; the 1992 Barcelona Olympics used abstract cartoon shapes for the first time. Pyrenees shepherd dog image, called "Cobi" (Cobi).It seems to be smiling from one direction, and it seems to be sniffing something with its nose from another angle. The small and cute mouth and nose, the squinting eyes, revealing a mischievous look, are deeply loved by children.

With the continuous development of modern technology, traditional painting and manual design were finally replaced by computer technology in the mascot design of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. The original name was "What is it?" Later, the organizing committee received names given to it by thousands of children from all over the world, and finally adopted the suggestion of 32 children in Atlanta and named it "Izzy". "(Izzy). The mascots of the 2000 Olympic Games are three Australian animal shapes: the platypus, the echidna and the kookaburra, named "Syd", "Millie" and "Oily" respectively. .

The mascots of the 2004th Athens Olympic Games held in August 8 were two dolls named "Athena" and "Phevos" based on the ancient Greek clay sculpture doll "Daidala". They have big feet, long necks, and small heads. One is wearing dark yellow clothes, the other is wearing dark blue clothes. The head and feet are golden yellow, very cute.According to Greek mythology, Athena and Phevos are brother and sister.Athena is the goddess of wisdom, and Phevos is the god of light and music.Athena and Phevos represent Greece and represent the Olympic spirit that embodies cooperation, fair competition, friendship and equality, while embodying the 28 core values ​​of the Athens Olympic Games: heritage, participation, celebration and humanity itself.

mother heart words
As represented by the Olympic mascot, sports can not only strengthen the body, but also inspire people to pursue the Olympic spirit of faster, better and healthier.

Franklin solves the mystery of lightning
Rumbling thunder rolled across the sky, shaking the mountains and the earth, dazzling silver snakes danced in the sky, followed by violent storms.For us moderns, this is just a natural phenomenon, but our ancestors could not understand it. They imagined that there must be a mysterious force in the sky that dominates all this.In Greek mythology, thunder and lightning are in the hands of Zeus, the king of all gods. It has incomparable power. When he gets angry, he releases thunder and lightning to frighten the gods and humans.

According to the Chinese legend, it is the father of thunder and the mother of lightning who are punishing evil. Later, Europeans and Americans connected thunder and lightning with God, saying that God governs thunder and lightning.

With the progress and development of human beings, many people want to use scientific methods to reveal the secrets of lightning.The first person who did this kind of experiment and achieved success was Franklin of the United States.

In July 1752, Franklin made an experiment that shocked the world.Before the thunderstorm was coming, he put a big kite into the sky, and the kite flew higher and higher, almost invisible to the naked eye. At this time, the heavy rain poured down, and Franklin suddenly felt a numbness in the hand holding the kite string. The copper bell at the lower end of the kite string vibrated, and sparks burst out with bursts of sound. "Success! Success!" Franklin threw down the kite and shouted excitedly.He risked his life and finally solved the mystery of thunder and lightning.

In fact, Franklin had been thinking about the problem of lightning for a long time. In 1749, he wrote a report to the Royal Society, suggesting that a sharp metal rod be installed on the roof, and then connect the iron rod with the ground with an iron wire, so that the electricity from the sky can be led to the ground to prevent the house from being struck by lightning.But his proposal was ridiculed and ridiculed by the "scientists" of the Royal Society.Believing that he was right, Franklin wrote to a French friend.The Frenchman stood upright on the roof with an iron rod, which really led the electricity in the sky to the ground during a thunderstorm. This is the lightning rod invented by Franklin, and we are still using it today.

Later, through further research, Franklin learned that electricity flows, and it can be divided into positive and negative electricity.Franklin was one of the founders of the principles of electricity.

mother heart words
Curiosity, imagination, and dedication to science led Franklin to risk his life to invent the lightning rod, which has benefited all mankind ever since.

man who invented television
In today's daily life, TV is an ordinary household appliance, and watching TV has long been a common way of leisure and entertainment for people.Among the students, there must be quite a few small TV fans.However, more than 80 years ago, how many people would have thought that they could see moving images in a small square box?
Baird, an Englishman, is an employee of an electrical company. He is meticulous in his work and is highly valued by the company.But the ruthless illness haunted him, so he had to quit his job in the electric company and recuperate at home.

One day in 1923, a friend came to him enthusiastically and asked him:

"Baird, did you know that radio waves can be transmitted and received between two places that are far apart. I wonder if it is possible to transmit and receive images, too?"

These words suddenly aroused Baird's curiosity.

"Yeah, is it really possible to transmit images by electricity?"

Inspired by his friends, Baird was determined to complete the idea of ​​"transmitting images by electricity".His family was not rich, so he sold his only little property in exchange for funds for research and invention.He collected a lot of data and devoted all his time to developing television sets.Finally, hard work paid off, and Baird successfully completed the design of the TV.

However, it is not an easy task to turn design drawings into TV sets.Baird lived in a small room that doubled as a bedroom and studio.Although the illness afflicted him, he worked tenaciously, often day and night.When I was hungry, I ate bread, and when I was sleepy, I slept with my clothes on. If I didn’t have money to buy experimental equipment, I used old tea boxes, old hat box lids, knitting needles, etc. instead.

After a long period of hard work and countless failures, in 1929, Baird finally used electrical signals to put the image of a person on the screen.

Baird succeeded, but he was not satisfied. In the 20s, a few years after the birth of black-and-white TV, Baird had a new idea and began to work on color TV.

Imagination and curiosity are really good friends, just like Baird and his friends.Thanks to that friend's bold imagination and Baird's curious practice, there will be the TV show we love today.

mother heart words
A flash of imagination may change our lives.A word from others can also be the source of creation.Children, do you also have such imagination and curiosity?
king and wise fisherman
A fisherman was very clever and won the admiration of the people.When he went down to the river to fish, he knew where there were fish just by looking at the water, and he never returned empty-handed.

One day, he was fishing by the lake.Suddenly, strange water patterns appeared on the lake, and he immediately got off the net.When he drew the net, he felt it was very heavy, and he pulled it hard, and sure enough, he caught a big red fish that had never been seen before.The fisherman thought that if he dedicated this strange big red fish to the king, the king would definitely reward him.He actually went into the palace and offered the fish to the king.Get a reward of 4000 yuan.When the queen heard about this, she said to the king, "It's not good to do this. You can reward so much money for offering a fish. From now on, how can you reward others for offering more valuable things?"

The king nodded again and again, regretful in his heart, and asked the queen what to do.The queen said: "You can invite the fisherman and ask him if the fish is a female or a male. If it is female, you want the male; if it is male, you want the female. If he does not have it, take back the reward. .”

The king asked the fisherman to ask.The fisherman replied with a smile: "This fish is very strange, it is hermaphrodite."

The king admired the fisherman's intelligence very much, and immediately rewarded him another 4000 yuan.While the fisherman was accepting gold coins, one fell to the ground, and he picked it up immediately.

The queen saw it, and whispered to the king again:

"This fisherman is so stingy that he doesn't even want to leave a piece of gold to others!"

The king was very angry and asked:

"You got four thousand gold coins, why didn't you let go of even one gold coin?"

The fisherman immediately replied:

"Your Majesty, there is your portrait on the gold coin! If you throw it on the ground, someone might accidentally kick it, which will really damage your dignity!"

The king nodded, admiring the fisherman's insight.Regardless of the queen's objection, he rewarded the fisherman with 4000 gold coins.

mother heart words
Good eloquence can not only help you earn wealth, but in many cases, it can also turn bad luck into good fortune and get you out of trouble.In life, we must pay attention to the cultivation of eloquence.

Haruru's gymnast son-in-law
In the remote African forest, there is a beautiful Haruru tribe. The tribal leader's daughter Katie looks like Helen, not only beautiful but also gentle and kind.Haruru is a primitive tribe that lives by hunting and planting crops. They all think it is a blessing from God to have such a beautiful girl.Kitty was growing up day by day, and the old chief was looking for a good son-in-law for her.

In fact, because the Haruru tribe is located in the tropical rainforest, the perennial rainy season makes each of them have one or another problem caused by moisture, especially rheumatism, which has always troubled every member of the tribe. spread.Seeing her father worrying about the tribe's illness and thinking about her own life-long affairs all day long, Little Katie saw it in her eyes and felt pain in her heart.She thought, is there any way to help her father share his worries?Thinking about it like this, suddenly, she thought of a good idea to get the best of both worlds.She quickly ran to tell her father, who nodded with a smile: "Okay, just do as Katie said, and post notices in the entire forest tomorrow to recruit talents!"

The next day, all the tribes in the forest saw the announcement. It turned out that Katie was looking for a smart young man who would marry him as long as he cured the tribe's illness.

When the news spread, the young people were excited at first, and then they were all downcast. Haruru is a very powerful tribe, who dares to apply for it without real skills!Therefore, the notice was posted for several months, but still no one came.

People were disappointed, even the Chief, but only Katie believed that God would help her.

At this time, a young Asian doctor was visiting here. Seeing the notice, he plucked up the courage to give it a try.It turned out that the young man was born into a family of medical practitioners. Three generations of his grandparents have practiced medicine as a career, and he has cured countless patients.This time he came to Africa because he heard that countless rare herbs and animals can be seen here, and he came to popularize a joint healing exercise - the beast exercise.This is an ancient set of gymnastics that imitates animals like dancing.

Hearing that there were candidates, the chief and the tribal subjects were very happy, but when they saw the young man, they were very disappointed - it turned out that the famous Asian doctor was such a young man, and it was said that he did not bring any herbs, only a set of something What the fuck.But since it's here, let people try it.

The chief asked: "Young man, since you have the courage to come, let's start tomorrow."

The young man nodded resolutely.Katie, who had been secretly watching from the side, also sweated for him. Maybe, Katie already liked this brave young man a little.

The next day, the young man gathered the people of the tribe together and began to teach them how to do exercises. At first, people were a little curious, but then they saw that he was just making pictures, so they started to laugh at him, and they all left to work.Only some old people who have nothing to do continue to practice with him.Young people are not discouraged, true gold is not afraid of fire.

Two days, three days...

Slowly, a miracle appeared. The old people in the tribe who had been tortured by rheumatism and could not walk were able to walk tremblingly.Through practice, the children are actually much less sick.

The news spread in the tribe, and people talked about it. It turned out that this is a set of "spiritual exercises"!In this way, more and more people in the tribe practiced with young people.People tasted the sweetness of "spiritual exercises", and the chief couldn't help but joined the practice team.Sure enough, many of the Chief's old ailments were easing by the day.Little Katie looked very happy, but she was also anxious. The elders in the tribe saw what was on Katie's mind and reminded the chief.

So, a grand wedding played a beautiful movement in the dense jungle.

mother heart words
People who like physical exercise can always get unexpected gains.

ignorant inventor
The students have learned about the telegraph and the "Morse code", a kind of code that uses dots to express information, in their nature textbooks.Did you know that its inventor, Morse, turned out to be an American painter who had no knowledge of electricity.

In the early autumn of the 19th century, a ship sailed slowly on the sea.A group of passengers on the ship are surrounding a doctor named Jackson, listening to his high-spirited talk.It turned out that he was telling everyone about the recently invented electromagnet.It was a large iron block, he said, shaped like a horseshoe, with neatly wound coils of wire.This ordinary and strange piece of iron, when electrified, seems to have magical powers suddenly, and can absorb heavy iron substances.And when the current is cut off, all the absorbed iron substances will fall off.Everyone was attracted by this novelty.

Morse was also listening attentively.He thinks deeper and further than anyone else around him.Is electricity really that magical? ——He was full of curiosity about this new thing.

"Is the current flowing fast in the wire?" Morse couldn't help asking Dr. Jackson.

"Hehe," Dr. Jackson smiled and answered this somewhat ignorant question, "Electricity can pass through a wire that is several kilometers long!"

Morse couldn't restrain his surprise and admiration. At the same time, a bold and novel idea appeared in his mind.

(End of this chapter)