This passage is about world’s fairs.

Elevators, telephones, televisions—crowds marveled

at these scientific wonders when they were introduced.

These inventions may now be used by millions of people

on a daily basis, but once they were found exclusively

at world’s fairs.

Early world’s fairs in the 1800s captivated audiences,

exposing them to the latest ideas within distinctive and

impressive structures. Significant examples are London’s

Great Exhibition of 1851, housed within a “Crystal Palace,”

a massive temporary glass building supported by a cast

iron frame, and Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition

of 1893 with its over two-hundred buildings and structures

erected specifically for the fair in neoclassical architectural

style, including fountains reminiscent of those in Rome.

These fairs served as educational forums, gathering people

from around the globe to share new developments and

witness progress.

In the 1900s, with New York’s 1939–1940 fair themed

“Building the World of Tomorrow,” world’s fairs took

on a new role—that of addressing global issues. While

technological advances remained an important feature

of those events, audiences began to see world’s fairs

as a means to support cross-cultural dialogue and the

exchange of possible solutions to social and political

conflict. In harmony with this purpose, the highly

successful Expo 67, held in Montreal, Canada, featured the

United Nations—an international organization whose stated

mission is to achieve world peace—alongside the dozens

of countries participating in the exhibition.

Today, many people communicate their opinions over

the Internet, and this virtual world has largely reduced the

need to meet as a group within one physical space. It has

not, however, diminished the visceral desire to see the

future with our own eyes and touch it with our hands, nor

has it suppressed that social compulsion to exhibit our

achievements. Thus, at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China,

people gathered once again to witness the unveiling of

awe-inspiring machines. Perhaps one day they will become

familiar to all of us.