【正文】 wood that domestic panies don’t. 15 Integrated writing 8—the Chevalier Reading Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (17251708) wrote a ling memoir recounting his life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous people, including kings and writers, his memoir has bee a valuable historical source about European society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was. For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and it is known that he spend a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money. Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and conversed. However, critics plain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier. Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape form a notorious prison in Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Veian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier had a number of politically wellconnected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe. 16 Listening No memoir can possibly be correct in every detail. But still, the Chevalier’s memoir is pretty accurate overall, and is by and large a reliable historic source. Let’s look at the accuracy of the three episodes mentioned in the reading. First, the loan from the merchant. Well, that doesn’t mean that Chevalier was poor. Let me explain. We know that in Switzerland the Chevalier spent huge amounts of money on parties and gambling, and he had wealth. But it was a kind of property you have to sell first to get money. So he usually took a few days to convert his assets into actual money. So when he ran out of cash, he had borrowed someone while he was waiting for his money to arrive. But that’s not being poor. Second, the conversations with Voltaire. The Chevalier’s state in his memoir that each night immediately after conversing with Voltaire, he wrote down everything he could remember about that particular nice conversation. Evidently the Chevalier kept his notes of these conversations for many years, and referred to them when writing the memoir. Witnesses who live d with Chevalier in his later life confirmed that he regularly consulted the note and journals when posing the memoir. Third, the Chevalier’s escaped from the prison in Venice. Other prisoners in that prison had even more powerful friends than he did, and none of them were ever able to bribe their way to freedom. So Bribery hardly seems likely in his case. The best evidence, though, es from some old Veian government documents. They indicate that soon after the Chevalier escaped from the prison, the ceiling of the old prison room had to be repaired. Why would they need to repair a ceiling on last year’s escape exactly as he said he did? 17 Integrated writing 9—hydrogenbased fuelcell engine Reading Car manufactures and governments have been eagerly seeking a replacement for the automobile’s main source of power, the internalbustion engine. By far the most promising alternative source of energy for cars is the hydrogenbased fuelcell engine, which uses hydrogen to create electricity that, in turn, powers the car. Fuelcell engines have several advan。 C, no matter whether the environment is warm or cold. Because dinosaurs were reptiles, and modern reptiles are not endotherms. However, dinosaurs differ in many ways from modern reptiles, and there is now considerable evidence that dinosaurs were, in fact, endotherms. Polar dinosaurs One reason for believing that dinosaurs were endotherms is that dinosaur fossils have been discovered in Polar Regions. Only animals that can maintain a temperature well above that of the surrounding environment could be active in such cold climates. Leg position and movement There is a connection between endothermy and the position and movement of the legs. The physiology of endothermy allows sustained physical activity, such as running. But running is efficient only if an animal39。 it took many, many meetings to build the agreement among group members about how they would move the project along. On the other hand, there were other instances where one or two people managed to bee very influential over what their group did. Sometimes when those influencers said “That will never work” about an idea the group was developing, the idea was quickly dropped instead of being further discussed. And then there was another occasion when a couple influencers convinced the group that a plan of theirs was “highly creative.” And even though some members tried to warn the rest of the group that the project was moving in directions that might not work, they were basically ignored by other group members. Can you guess the ending to this story? When the project failed, the blame