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His
books are crowded with hunting and fishing expeditions,
(15) but Jules
went hunting only once. Then he raised his gun and --- proof! --- shot the
red ribbon of the hat of a game warden. The only fish he ever caught was
on a plate at the end of a fork.
Though
he never held a test tube in his hand, , Jules Verne became a stimulus
and inspiration to the scientist in the laboratory. (16)
He had TV working before simple radio had been invented.
He had helicopters a half century before the Wright brothers. (17)
There were, in fact, few twentieth-century wonders
that this man did not foresee (18)
neon lights, air conditioning, skyscrapers, Guided missiles, tanks, submarines,
airplanes. Beyond (19)
any doubt, Verne was the father of science-fiction; he was years ahead
of (20)
H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizers
of things to come.(21)
Nor was he simple an entertainer. (22)
He wrote about he marvels of tomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail
that he was taken seriously.(23)
Learned societies (24)argued
with him. Mathematicians spent Weeks checking
his figures. (25)
When his book about going to the moon was published, 500 people volunteered
for the next expedition. France’s famous Marshall Lyautey once said that
modern science was simply a process of working
out in practice. what Jules Verne had envisioned in words.(26)
Verne, who lived to see many of his fancies come true,
was matter-of-fact about it all. (27)
“What one man can imagine,” he said, “another man can do.” |
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English
Intensive Reading 
Introduction
