[00:00.79]Unit 2 Life in the Future
[00:03.82]Lesson 7
[00:08.71]Exercise 1.2
[00:11.67]Jules Verne (1828-1905)
[00:16.82]Science fiction is a popular type of writing,
[00:20.28]and many people think of Jules Verne
[00:22.84]as the father of science fiction.
[00:26.04]He was born in France in 1828.
[00:29.59]His father wanted him to become a lawyer
[00:32.68]but from his early twenties
[00:35.01]Verne decided to become a writer.
[00:37.94]At first he wrote plays for the theater.
[00:41.11]Then,in 1863,
[00:43.68]he wrote a story called Five Weeks in a Balloon
[00:48.36]The success of this book encouraged him
[00:50.79]to write more stories such as
[00:53.31]A Journey to the Center of the Earth(1864)
[00:57.38]and from the Earth to the Moon(1865).
[01:02.15]In the 19th century,
[01:03.99]many people were interested in
[01:05.95]science and inventions.
[01:07.93]Jules Verne wrote about scientific subjects
[01:10.72]in his stories and ,as a result,
[01:13.19]they were very popular.
[01:15.46]Verne's writing included many predictions
[01:18.02]for the 20th century
[01:19.80]and many of them came true.
[01:22.48]He described space flight,movies,
[01:25.26]and air conditioning,
[01:26.68]a long time before they appeared.
[01:29.29]These books were very successful
[01:31.57]and they made Verne rich.
[01:33.85]Jules Verne's books have been the subjects
[01:36.33]for many movies.
[01:38.02]20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
[01:40.50]was a successful movie for Walt Disney.
[01:43.67]It was the first Disney movie
[01:45.45]to use real actors instead of cartoon drawings.
[01:49.50]Around the World in Eighty Days
[01:52.04]is another famous movie based on
[01:54.18]one of Verne's books .
[01:55.92]The main character is an Englishman
[01:57.75]called Phileas Fogg.
[01:59.94]For him,the most important thing is
[02:02.46]to be always on time!
[02:09.24]Exercise 2.1
[02:12.69]Jules Verne's novel
[02:14.24]A Journey to the Center of the Earth
[02:15.87]is an exciting story.
[02:17.77]The main characters are a strange scientist
[02:20.19]called Professor Hardwigg.
[02:22.25]Henry(Hardwigg's nephew)and a guide named Hans.
[02:26.60]The basic plot of the novel is as follows:
[02:29.54]Hardwigg finds dirctions to the center
[02:31.62]of the Earth in an old book.
[02:33.44]He decides to try to follow the directions.
[02:36.59]Hardwigg,Henry and Hans
[02:38.19]enter an inactive volcano in Iceland.
[02:41.31]It leads to the center of the Earth .
[02:43.64]After weeks of traveling,
[02:45.41]they finally come to a huge sea
[02:46.96]in the middle of the earth.
[02:48.78]Verne described this setting
[02:50.42]as a large field lying before them.
[02:53.14]At the end,Hardwigg,Henry and Hans
[02:55.39]escape by traveling in a stream of lava
[02:58.29]from a volcano .
[02:59.97]When they come out,
[03:01.35]they find themselves thousands of miles away
[03:03.83]from where they first started their journey.
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