Section 3. Main ideas and supporting details.
1. When a party is elected Parliament in Britain, it may not stay in power for more than five years without calling an election.
But now this is an important point, the Prime Minister may go to the country, that's to say call an election at any time before the five years are up.
This is important because it gives the Prime Minister in Britain a lot of power, he can choose the best time to have an election for his own party.
In many other countries, the timing of an election is fixed, it must take place on a certain date every four years, or whatever, and this means that in these countries, the President or Prime Minister cannot choose the most convenient time for himself, the way a British Prime Minister can.
2. One of the most dramatic examples of the effect of advances in medical knowledge is the building of the Panama Canal.
In 1881, work was started on this canal under the supervision of DeLesseps, the Frenchman who built the Suez Canal.
The project had to be abandoned after mosquito-borne diseases of yellow fever and malaria had claimed 16,000 victims among the workers.
At the beginning of this century, the area was made healthy by spraying the breeding waters of the mosquitoes with petroleum.
Work was able to be started again and the canal was finished in 1914.
3. By the way, since we have mentioned the Olympic Games, you may be interested to know the following curious fact about the ancient Olympic Games as compared to the Modern Olympics.
The ancient games were held every four years without interruption for over 1,000 years.
The modern games have already be cancelled three times, in 1916, 1940 and 1944 because of world wars.
4. Although it is not strictly speaking relevant to our topic, perhaps I might say something about sharks since they are in the news quite a lot these days.
Sharks have got a very bad reputation and probably most people think that all sharks are killers.
This is not the case, in fact the largest sharks of all, I mean the Whale Shark and the Basking Shark are usually harmless to man.