Unit 12 Fact and Fantasy
Pre-Reading
1.When do you think the inventions in the pictures above were made?(火车，电灯和蒸汽船)
2.When was electricity discovered and how was it used in the following two hundred years?
3.In the early nineteenth century, people had no idea what the inside of the earth might look like. Can you explain what we know about it today?
4.Write down eight key words that you expect to find in the reading passage below.
JULES VERNE: THE FATHER OF SCIENCE FICTION
Jules Verne was born in 1828, in France. His father sent him to Paris to study law, but instead Verne developed his love for the theatre. To make a living, Verne had to write and sell stories. Jules spent many hours in Paris libraries studying geology, physics and many other subjects. He used the latest ideas and technical inventions of his day in his books. Many of the instruments in his novels will remind the reader of Dr Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with electricity. By taking the scientific developments of his day one step further, Jules Verne laid the foundation of modern science fiction. He also suggested how inventions could be used in the future to allow man to do things that were considered impossible in his own time. Jules Verne died in 1905, long before any of his dreams came true.
