Historic Inventions by Rupert S. Holland (adapted excerpt)

Humphrey Davy invented the safety-lamp that helped protect miners from the perils of flammable fire-damp1.

Explosions of coal-gas were only too common in the mines of England, leading to detrimental effects on those who labored underground. The biggest mine-owners met to see whether some protection against such accidents could not be devised. After much discussion, they appointed a committee to call on Sir Humphrey Davy and asked him to investigate the possibilities for them.

He took up the question, experimented with fire-damp, and found that it was in reality light carburetted hydrogen. He visited many mines and took into careful consideration the conditions under which the men worked. For months he investigated and experimented, and in 1815, he constructed the safety-lamp. This was an oil lamp, which had a chimney or cage of wire gauze that kept the flame of the lamp from passing through and igniting the fire-damp outside. The cage allowed air to pass and light to escape. Even if the combustion of the fire-damp caused the wire gauze to become red hot, it was still efficient as a safety-lamp.

1. a combustible gas especially methane
6
Select the correct answer.
Which statement best describes the writer's purpose?
A.
to persuade
B.
to entertain
C.
to instruct
D.
to inform

below i present a summary with the most relevant aspects of chapter 2, which were taken from karangan bahasa inggeris (english essays) spm: argumentative essays.

tuna wira

credit to mohana ram murugiah.

i hope to be of

teacher smiles at the students who wait for his signal to sit down. he nods briefly and the students sit down and get ready for the lesson to start. there is an air of quiet expectancy when teacher refers to the unusual things found underneath their houses that morning. whispers of bags of rice ran among the students and a student muttered reluctantly that the rice is rent for the landlord. this starts off the discussion on the issue of paying rent for the use of the landowner’s land. da wan raises the question of why the landlord owns the land rather than the farmer although they have spent a lot of time farming it. the three reasons of labour, need and inheritance are listed as reasons for the landlord’s ownership of the land. they are discussed and dismissed as inadequate reasons. they suggested a system of collective farming to the farmers. the headmaster comes down the corridor to observe the lesson. teacher very quickly changed the lesson to a geography wesson. the students followed his cue and no one gave the slightest notice < of the headmaster ‘s presence. when the headmaster leaves, teacher explains the implications of winning the scholarship. it involves bearing respontsibilities and the scholarship holder should master what is useful and return to the village. he should understand the injustices in the present system and change it to a fairer system. then, he announces the wiimnuir of the scholarship to be dawan.