JAMES Watt"s steam engine and Rbert Fultn"s steam pwered ship were partf a revlutin-a different kindf revlutin. Usually we thinkf a revlutin as being like the American Revlutinr the French Revlutin when peple fught a war against a gvernment. But this revlutin tk place slwly and withut any armies. Yet it certainly did change the wrld. It is called the Industrial Revlutin.
In the last chapter， I tld yu abut smef the wnderful inventins like cars， airplanes， radis， and televisins that we have becausef the Industrial Revlutin. That"s the fun part. But a ltfther things happened， t. This peaceful revlutin changed the wrld every bit as much as the big wars- maybe mre！ Here"s hw.
All thse wnderful new things were made in factries. The first factries were built in England. They made clth and then clthing. Later they made railrad cars and tracks. Sn English factries were making all srtsf gd things， and England began t grw very rich and pwerful.
In sme ways cuntries are just like bys and girls. Yu knw that smetimes， whenne student in a class brings in a new tyr wears a new jacket， everybdy else wantsne， t. Well， snther cuntries wanted t be like England and they began building factries s they wuld be rich and pwerful， t. A ltf Eurpean cuntries like France， Germany， and Italy did this. S did the United States and Japan. Sn all these places were making ltsf things in their factries. They made clthes and furniture. They made cars and even candy. This was called the Industrial Revlutin.
We all knw that nw we can g t the stre and buy these things that are made in factries. But wuld that be enughf a change t call it a REVLUTIN？ Well， maybe yes， maybe n. But there werether things that began happening as sn as the factries were built. Allf these things tgether really were a revlutin.
ne big change happened like this. A ltf peple came t wrk in the new factries. Yu wuldn"t have muchf a factry if nbdy wrked there， wuld yu？ It tk a ltf men and wmen t wrk in the factries. Families left thecuntryside. They stpped farming and became factry wrkers. The men wh built the factries wanted s many wrkers that they even paid children t wrk there. This wasn"t very gd fr the children， thugh， because they didn"t get t g t schl. It als wasn"t very gd because thse early factries had a ltf unsafe machines and smetimes the children and the grwnups， t， gt hurt. Despite all that， ltsf men， wmen， and children came t wrk. Sne big change is that many peple stpped farming and became factry wrkers. Which wuld yu rather d？ Why？
Sme peple had been making things at hme-like candlesr sapr sweaters t sell. When a family des this， it"s called a cttage industry because they wrk in their cttage. After the Industrial Revlutin， factries made manyf the same things. Since a factry made s many sweaters， fr example， s fast， it culd sell them fr less mney than an individual culd. Becausef this， many peple wh had wrked at hme had t g t wrk in factries.
Mstf the factries were built in cities. Cming t wrk in the factry meant cming t live in a city. Sn the cities gt very crwded. In thse early days peple had t live clse tgether， because they had t live near their jbs s they culd walk t wrk.
Hw far wuld yu be willing t walk t wrkr schl？ Pepleften walked a miler tw each way. After trlley cars were invented， peple culd live farther away frm wrk. At first， trlleys were pulled alng tracksn city streets by hrses， and they were slw. By the endf the nineteenth century， electric trlleys became cmmn， and peple culd live even farther away. S the cities grew larger. Here"s a secnd big change then. Cities grew big like thenes we knw tday.
Way arund the wrld， even in cuntries where there weren"t any factries yet， peple"s lives changed， t. Yu have t stp and think abut this fr a minute. It may seem hard t believe that the lifef a child in Africa， India， Krea，r Hawaii culd change just because men in England， America，r Japan built factries. But that"s what happened. Here"s hw.
Yu knw that when yu make anything， yu have t make itutf smething. S the factries that made clthes and furniture， cars and candy had t make theseutf smething. Sme factries made clthesutf cttn that grew in India.ther factries made furnitureutf the wd frm trees that grew in frests in Africa， Asia， and the cuntries arund the Caribbean Sea. Cars have t have tires， and they are madeutf rubber that cmes frm rubber trees that grw in frests in Africa， Asia， and Suth America. T make candy， yu use sugar that cmes frm plants that grw in places like Hawaii and Cuba. Nw yu can begin t see why the Industrial Revlutin was felt arund thewrld.
The cuntries that built the factries needed supplies frm all arund the wrld. Thse cuntries were strng and had the advantagef mdern ships and weapns built in their factries， s the industrialized cuntries sn mved in and tkver a ltf places that had the supplies they wanted-the places where cttn grew， where trees like mahgany and rubber grew， where sugar cane grew. England， France， Germany， andther Eurpean cuntries made clniesf mstf Africa and a ltf Asia as well. Japan cnquered Krea and smether places nearby. Even the United States came twn places like Hawaii and the Philippines althugh we didn"t call theseur clnies.
Nw the peple wh lived in all these places weren"t very happy t have freigners cming in and takingver. They felt the same way abut them that yu might feel abut a bully at schl. They didn"t like that big guy wh wanted t push all the little guys arund. Smetimes the cnquerrs brught gd things， like mdern medical care. But， still， nbdy really wants t be bssed arund by smebdy else. S， less than a hundred years later， the clnies arund the wrld rse up， just as we did during the American Revlutin， and fught t becme independent. Yu"ll read mre abut this later.
Urban factries spewing smke ( 喷着烟的城市工厂 )Yu knw that smetimes changes aren"t always all gd.ne bad thing that happened becausef the Industrial Revlutin was the takingf clnies by the rich industrialized cuntries. Anther bad resultf the Industrial Revlutin is still trubling us tday. That is pllutin. Als， many natural resurces are being used upr destryed. Pllutin and the lssf natural resurces are called envirnmental prblems.
We knw that factries that make wnderful things smetimes discharge pisns int the air that we breathe and the water we drink. That is pllutin. Peple can get sick frm breathing plluted air and drinking plluted water.
We knw thatver the years， manyf the earth"s frests have been cut dwn s the wd frm the trees culd be used fr building huses and furniture and fr making paper. When a frest is destryedr ancean is plluted， then the animals that live there have n place t live any mre， and s they dieut. When there are n mre animalsf any given kind， we say that they are extinct. Tday， a numberf animals are in dangerf becming extinct， either because they are being killedr because their hmes are being destryed. Can yu name anyf these animals？
These are smef the prblems caused by the Industrial Revlutin that we have nt yet slved. D yu have any ideas hw they culd be slved？ There"s smething fr yu t talk abut.
There are fur big things t remember abut the Industrial Revlutin. A ltf peple wrked in factries insteadfn farms. The twns grew int the large cities that we knw tday. The industrialized natins became s rich and pwerful that they culd cntrl mstf the restf the wrld. And we still have t slve envirnmental prblems that were caused by the Industrial Revlutin.
【中文阅读】
詹姆斯 瓦特的蒸汽机和罗伯特 富尔顿的汽船是革命的一部分--与以往不同 的另一种革命。通常我们把革命看做像美国革命或法国革命那样，当时人们发动战 争反对政府。但是这场革命却是慢慢发生的，而且没有任何军队参与其中。然而它 确实改变了世界。这场革命叫做"工业革命"。
在上一章里，我介绍了一些奇妙的发明，比如汽车、飞机、收音机和电视，正 因为发生了工业革命，我们才有了这些东西。那是有趣的一面。但是也发生了很多 其他事情。这场和平的革命和大规模战争一样彻底改变了世界--可能带来的变化 更大！我们来看看它是怎样改变世界的。
所有这些奇妙的新事物都是在工厂制造的。最早一批工厂是在英国建起的。这 些工厂生产布料，接着生产服装。后来工厂制造火车车厢和铁轨。不久英国的工厂就生产各种好东西了，由此英国开始变得非常富有强大。 在有些方面，一个个国家就像是一个个男孩和女孩。你知道有时候，班里有个学生带来一个新玩具或者穿了一件新夹克，其他人见了也都想要。好了，不久其他 国家就希望自己也能像英国那样，于是这些国家开始建工厂，好让自己也变得富有、 强大起来。很多欧洲国家，比如法国、德国和意大利都这样做了。美国和日本也这 样做了。不久所有这些地方的工厂里都制造出大量产品。产品包括服装和家具，还 有汽车，甚至糖果。这被称为工业革命。
我们都知道现在我们可以去商店购买工厂生产出来的这些产品。但这样的变化 就足以让人称为"革命"吗？好吧，也许可以，也许不可以。但是工厂一建起来， 其他事情就开始发生了。所有这些变化合在一起就真是一场革命了。
一个重大的变化是这样发生的。大量的人来到在新工厂工作。如果没有人在工 厂工作，你就不可能有一家像样的工厂，是不是？工厂需要大量的男工人和女工人。 一个个家庭离开了农村。他们不再务农，而是去工厂当工人。那些建了工厂的厂主 需要许许多多的工人，他们甚至雇佣孩子当童工。不过这样做对孩子没有好处，因 为他们就不能去上学了。还有一个不大好的方面，是因为这些早期工厂的机器有大 量的安全隐患，有时无论孩子还是成人都会受伤。尽管如此，许许多多男人、女人 和孩子还是去工厂上班了。所以一个重大的变化是许多人不再耕作，成了工厂的工 人。如果是你，你愿意务农还是当工人？为什么？
有些人以前是在家里生产东西出售--像蜡烛啦肥皂啦毛衣等。当一个家庭这 样做时，就称为"家庭小工业"，因为他们是在自己的小屋里面工作。工业革命之 后，工厂生产同一种商品的效率大大提高。比如既然一家工厂生产毛衣又多又快， 它就能卖得比个人织的毛衣要便宜一些。因此，许多以前在家工作的人不得不去工 厂上班了。
大多数工厂建在城市里。到工厂上班就意味着要到城市里居住。不久这些城市 就变得非常拥挤。在初期，人们不得不住得很密集，因为他们必须住得离工厂近一 点，这样才能步行去上班。
你愿意走多远去上班或上学？人们通常单程走一两英里。有轨电车发明以后， 人们可以住得离工厂远一些了。起初，车子是用马拉着在城市的街道上沿轨道行驶， 速度很慢。到 19 世纪末期，有轨电车变得很普及，人们甚至可以住得离工厂更远 了。于是城市规模变得越来越大了。这就是第二个重大的变化。城市变大了，就像 我们如今知道的那些城市一样了。
在世界每个地方，甚至在还没有工厂的国家里，人们的生活也发生变化了。你 得停下对这个问题思考片刻。似乎很难相信在非洲、印度、韩国或夏威夷的一个孩 子的生活会因为人们在英国、美国或日本建工厂而发生变化。但是这正是实际发生 的情况。我们来看看这是怎样发生的。
你知道当你做什么东西时，你必须用"某个东西"做材料。所以生产服装、家 具、汽车和糖果的工厂必须用其他东西做材料才能生产这些产品。有些工厂用印度 产的棉花做服装。另一些工厂用产自非洲、亚洲和加勒比海周围国家森林里的木材做家具。汽车必须有轮胎，轮胎是用橡胶做的，橡胶来自于橡胶树，橡胶树生长在 非洲、亚洲和南美洲的森林里。你做糖果要用食糖，食糖来自糖料作物，而糖料作 物生长在像夏威夷和古巴那样的地方。现在你就可以明白了为什么全世界都感受到 了工业革命。
兴建工厂的那些国家需要来自世界各地的原料供应。那些国家都很强大，它们 的优势是拥有自己工厂生产出来的坚船利炮，所以"工业化"国家不久就强行插手 并接管了许多地方，这些地方都有它们需要的原料供应--例如，盛产棉花、红木、 橡胶、甘蔗的地方。英国、法国、德国和其他欧洲国家将大部分非洲国家和许多亚 洲国家变成了殖民地。日本占领了朝鲜和其他邻近国家。甚至美国也占据了像夏威 夷和菲律宾这样的地方尽管并没有称这些地方为美国的殖民地。
生活在这些地方的人民对外国人的侵占非常不满。他们对这些外国人的不满情 绪和你对学校里的恃强凌弱者的不满情绪是一样的。他们不喜欢那个任意摆布弱小 者的家伙。有时占领者给当地带来了一些好处，比如现代医疗保健。但是，毕竟没 有人真的愿意被别人差来遣去。所以，在不到一百年之后，世界各地的殖民地纷纷 起义，就像我们在美国独立战争中做的那样，为争取独立而战斗。关于这方面的故 事你将在后面了解到更多的。
你知道有时转变并不总是好的。由于工业革命而产生的弊端之一就是那些富 有的工业化国家夺取殖民地。工业革命的另一个恶果至今依然困扰着我们。那就是 污染。另外，许多自然资源正在耗尽或被破坏。污染和自然资源的损耗统称为环境 问题。
我们知道制造一些美妙产品的工厂有时把有害物质直接排放到我们呼吸的空气 中和我们饮用的水源中。那就是污染。人们呼吸了受污染的空气、喝了受污染的水， 就会生病。
我们知道，多年以来，地球上的许多森林被砍伐，为的是获取木材盖房子、做 家具和造纸。当一片森林被破坏或者一片海域被污染，那么生活在那里的动物就再 也没有地方生存，于是就逐渐消失了。当世界上再也没有某种动物时，我们说这种 动物"灭绝"了。如今，有些动物处于濒临灭绝的危险中，要么因为正被不断猎杀， 要么因为它们的家园正被毁灭。你能说出其中某种动物吗？
以上就是由工业革命造成的一些问题，我们至今还没有解决。你有什么解决这 些问题的主意吗？有些问题很值得你们讨论。
关于工业革命要记住四件事情。许多人放弃在农场耕作，去工厂上班。城镇发 展成我们现在知道的大城市。工业化国家变得富强起来，这样它们就能控制世界上 大多数国家。我们至今仍然不得不解决由工业革命造成的环境问题。