The Nile

    The ancient Greek writer Herodotus once described Egypt-with some envy-as'the gift of the Nile'. The Egyptians depend on the river for food, for water and for life. The Ancient Egyptians were able to control and use the Nile, creating the earliest irrigation systems and developing a prosperous {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Snaking through the deserts, the Nile would flood almost {#blank#}2{#/blank#} each year in June. Once the water subsided, a rich deposit of sand was left behind, making an excellent topaoil. Seeds were sown, yielding wheat, barley, beans, lentils and leeks. Drought could spell disaster for the Egyptians, so during the dry seasons, they dug basins and channels to deliver water to their land. They also devised simple channels to transfer water at the peak of the flood.

    An early system of {#blank#}3{#/blank#} a Nilometer, was used to de determine the size of the floods. Later, during the New Kingdom, a lifting system called a shaduf was used to raise water from the river--{#blank#}4{#/blank#} to the way in which a well is used today.

    The Egyptians took up some of the earliest trading missions. Without a(n) {#blank#}5{#/blank#} system they exchanged goods, bringing back timber, precious stones, pottery, spices and animals. Their efforts in medicine were also {#blank#}6{#/blank#} advanced: surgeons performed operations to remove cysts(囊肿). Mummification gave them great understanding of the human body-yet they also relied heavily on various medicines to prevent disease, and discoveries were often confused with superstition(迷信). And while a great deal of time was dedicated to {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the Egyptians thought the stars were gods.

    By the 16th century Egypt was under the Ottoman Empire until Britain seized control in 1882. What is now mostly Arabic Egypt only won {#blank#}8{#/blank#} from Britain after World War Ⅱ. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, {#blank#}9{#/blank#}the country as a center for world transportation. But it, and the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 {#blank#}10{#/blank#} the ecology of the Nile, which now struggles to satisfy the country's rapidly growing population, currently more than 76 million-the largest in the Arab world.

Bad News for Apple; Good News for Humanity

    When Apple cut its revenue estimate(收益预期) for the last quarter of 2018 because of unexpectedly slow sales of iPhones, markets trembled. The company's share price, which had been {#blank#}1{#/blank#} for months, fell by a further 10% on January 3rd, the day after the news came out. Apple's suppliers' shares were also hit.

    Analysts assume that the number of smartphones sold in 2018 will be slightly lower than in 2017, the industry's first ever annual decline. All this is terrible news for investors who had {#blank#}2{#/blank#} on continued growth. But step back and look at the bigger picture. That smartphone sales have peaked, and seem to be {#blank#}3{#/blank#} off at around 1.4billion units a year, is good news for humanity. The slowdown is actually the result of market saturation (饱和), which hits Apple the hardest because, despite a relatively small market share (13% of smartphone users), it captures almost all of the industry's {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. But Apple's pain is humanity's gain. The fact that the benefits of these magical devices are now so widely {#blank#}5{#/blank#} is something to be celebrated.

    Now many phones are used for longer than three years, often as hand-me-downs. Replacement cycles are lengthening as new models offer only {#blank#}6{#/blank#} improvements. So even with flat sales, the longer {#blank#}7{#/blank#} between upgrades mean people who already have phones benefit. For all but the most addicted device fans, the slowing pace of upgrades comes as a welcome {#blank#}8{#/blank#}.

    Does that mean innovation is slowing? No. As computers become smaller, still more {#blank#}9{#/blank#} and closer to people's bodies, many technicians expect that wearable devices, from smart watches to AR headsets, will be the next big thing. Even so, finding another product with the scope of the smartphone is a tall order. The smartphone holds its {#blank#}10{#/blank#} as the device that will make computing and communications worldwide. The recent slowing of smartphone sales is bad news for the industry, obviously. But for the rest of humanity it is a welcome sign that a transformative technology has become almost universal.