[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.