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When
you reach the terminal, you walk straight into a little square,
which faces Main Street. The Main Street is of late 19th century.
There are modern shops inside the buildings, but all the facades
are of the period. There are hanging baskets full of red and white
flowers, and there is no traffic except a horse-drawn street car
and an ancient double-decker bus. Yet as you walk through the Magic
Kingdom, You are actually walking on top a network of underground
roads. This is how the shops, restaurants and all the other material
needs of the Magic Kingdom are invisibly supplied.
The Magic Kingdom provides more than amusement. It instructs as
well. Almost everywhere you go. There are models of people (and
animals.)There is, for example, the
Hall of Fame, which displays models of all the American
Presidents since George Washington. A feature of Disney World is
that the models move and talk most realistically. The Presidents
talk, using the actual words they once used as living Presidents.
Then there’s the Carousel of Progress, in which you follow the life
of an American family through four generations, starting in the
1890s and finishing in the 1970s.
Pa does all the talking .He does not change throughout the years,
nor does his dog, which constantly wags its tail. But Pa’s clothes
change, and so do the furniture, and above
all, the equipment in the kitchen. Pa remains cheerful
and optimistic, and he clearly thinks progress is wonderful .At
the end of every scene he says, “Electricity has improved all our
lives. What a marvelous age we live in!” Then you suddenly realize
that the show has been presented
by the General Electric Corporation!
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