영어속독--The Map of the World

영어속독--The Map of the World

 

What can you tell by looking at a map? If you never learned to interpret a map, or have forgotten how to do it, you should begin or renew your acquaintance with it right away. You ought to know what is shown on the map between pages 14 and 15 as well as you know your own name.

 

The best way to show the entire surface of the earth is to use a globe, but this is not always convenient. Another way is to represent it as two hemispheres, usually the western and the eastern, the New World and the Old World. The map referred to above is an example of the Mercator projection. This shows the earth's surface as if it were laid out flat and stretches out much too widely the extreme northern and southern regions. Now that we have become so interested in air travel and have realized that a large part of the land of the world seems to be centered around the North Pole, maps such as the one appearing on page 803 have received much attention. Such maps as these also need to be used with caution, because, if one were looking at the world from above the North Pole, he would not be able to see beyond the equator, and the regions farthest away from him might be as greatly distorted as are the North and far South on the Mercator map. (242 words)

 

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