There are many ways to learn about people of other lands. One way is to study the clothing other people wear.
For thousands of years, people in different parts of the world have worn very different types of clothing. There are four big reasons for this.
One reason might be religion. In many Moslem countries, women must wear veils to hide their faces. The veils must be worn in public. Veils are part of the Moslem religion.
The second reason is that different materials are used in different countries. For instance, in France the materials used in clothing may be cotton(棉), silk, wool, or many other man-made materials. Most people in China wear cotton.
The ways clothes are made are also very different. This is another reason why people dress differently. Western countries rely on machines to make most of their clothing. Someone living in India can use only hand power to make the clothing he needs.
World-wide differences in customs also lead to differences in clothing. A Mexican farmer wears a straw hat with a brim(帽檐)up. In China, a farmer wears a straw hat with a brim down. Both hats are used to protect the farmers from the sun. Some of these customs have come down through thousands of years.Rome"s fire-fighting brigade remained until the fall of the empire in the 4th century. In the Dark Ages that followed, it was believed that fires were God"s punishment of the people for the bad thing they had done. And from the 4th to the 14th century, men often did not try very hard to put out the fires that broke out. Many families were made homeless and there was much needless sufferings. It was not until the 1600s that towns and cities in Europe started their own fire brigades.
Fire hazards were many in this period. Homes were heated by wood or dried grass. They were lighted by candle flame or by oil lamp. Cooking was done over open fires. Sometimes villages, towns and even cities were completely leveled once a rue broke out in a house or in a shop. In 1600s almost all of London was burned down. This terrible fire started when a baker dropped hot coals on the floor. London burned for six days. The largest fire in the United States was in 1871. It mined most of Chicago. It is believed to have started when a cow kicked over a lamp in a cowshed.
Early fire fighters were not paid. They did not work full time. They all had other trades. It was not until about a hundred years ago that firemen were given money for their work.
Today modem equipment helps the trained firemen to do a much better job. Fire will remain a hazard, but the men of the fire departments all over the world will continue to lessen the ers.
Para. 2 mainly explains ______.