Mr. Imagination

1. Mr. Imagination George Kent

2. Mr. Imagination Unit 13 W arming up Reinforcement T ext Analysis Background

3. Mr. Imagination Unit 13 Questions / Activities Warming up Check-on Preview Objectives

4. Warming up Questions / Activities How do you understanding the quote below? Do you agree with it? How important is imagination to our life? Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. —Elbert Einstein

5. Warming up Check-on Preview • Match the words with their correct meaning in the text. • delegate • obtain • envision • cocky • ascend • propel • hide • marshall • neglect • banister • to move or push sth. forward • the posts and rail at the side of a staircase • to choose sb. to do sth. for your or to represent you • to imagine what a situation will be like in the future • an officer whose job is to carry out court orders • to go up • an animal skin, esp. when it is bought or sold or used for leather • to get sth. you want or need esp. with an effort; to acquire • the act of not giving enough attention or care to sb. or sth. • too confident about yourself in a way that annoys other people

6. Warming up Objectives Expand your vocabulary Expand your knowledge of English grammar Understand the structure of the text Understand biography as a genre Learn about Jules Verne and his major works Think about the importance of imagination Solve your own questions about the story

7. Mr. Imagination Unit 13 Genre Background Verne’s Works Proper Names

8. Background Proper Names Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the second most translated author in the world (after Agatha Christie). Some of his books have also been made into live-action, animated films and television shows. Verne is often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction", a title sometimes shared with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells.

9. Background Proper Names Herbert George "H.G." Wells (1866-1946) English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games. Together with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction". Some of his early novels, called "scientific romances", invented a number of themes now classic in science fiction in such works as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), When the Sleeper Wakes (1910), and The First Men in the Moon (1901). He also wrote other non-fantastic novels that have received critical acclaim, including Kipps (1905) and the satire on Edwardian advertising, Tono-Bungay (1909).

10. Background Proper Names Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, historical novels and humors.

11. Background Proper Names Louis-Hubert-Gonzalve Lyautey (1854-1934) French statesman, soldier, Marshal of France, and devoted believer in the civilizing virtues of colonialism, who built the French protectorate over Morocco and was the first Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. The Marshal of Franceis a military distinction in contemporary France, and isn’t a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements. A Marshal of France displays seven stars. The marshal also receives a baton, a blue cylinder with stars, formerly fleurs-de-lis during the monarchy and Eagles during the First French Empire. It has the Latin inscription: Terror belli, decus pacis, which means "Terror in war, ornament in peace".

12. Background Proper Names Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution. He was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed Ancien Régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time. Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 by an army in the command of the Duke of Wellington.

13. Background Proper Names Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1769-1852), was a British soldier and statesman, a native of Ireland and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. He is often referred to as "the Duke of Wellington", even after his death, when there have been subsequent Dukes of Wellington. Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which, together with a Prussian army under Blücher, defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. He was prime minister from 1828 to 1830 and served briefly in 1834. He remained one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.

14. Background Proper Names Alexandre Dumas(known as Dumas père, 1802-1870), a French novelist and dramatist, was noted for his historical romances The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) and The Three Musketeers (1844), and is one of the most widely read French authors in the world. His son, Alexandre (known as Dumas fils, 1824-1895), was also a novelist and dramatist, noted esp. for the play he adapted from an earlier novel, La Dame aux camélias (1852) . Dumas père Dumas fils

15. Background Proper Names Pierre-Jules Hetzel (1814-1886) French editor and publisher. He is best known for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Verne's novels highly prized by collectors today. Hetzel was also the principal editor of Victor Hugo and other French writers. Hetzel's fame comes mostly for his editions of the Voyages Extraordinaires ("Extraordinary Journeys") by Jules Verne. The stories were originally published in biweekly chapters as a series in his Magasin. Hetzel rejected Verne's 1863 manuscript for Paris in the Twentieth Century because he thought it presented a vision of the future that was far too negative and unbelievable for contemporary audiences. Verne locked the manuscript away and no longer wrote futuristic, dystopian stories. Paris in the Twentieth Century was first published in France in 1994.

16. Background Proper Names Simon Lake (1866-1945), U.S. inventor who built the “Argonaut”, the first submarine to operate extensively in the open sea. Lake’s first experimental submarine, the “Argonaut Junior” , built in 1894, had a wooden hull and was about 14 feet (4 meters) long. It travelled the sea bottom on wheels turned by hand. The “Argonaut” , built in 1897, was 36 feet (11 meters) long and was powered by a 30-horsepower gasoline engine. Air for the engine and crew was drawn down from the surface through a floating hose, later through rigid tubes. The “Argonaut” also had wheels for movement along the bottom. In 1898 it voyaged about 300 miles (500 kilometres) from Norfolk, Va., to New York City.

17. Background Proper Names Nantes (French) is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, 50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest city in France. Nantes is the capital city of the Pays de la Loire region and Loire-Atlantiquedépartement. In 2004, the Time magazine described Nantes as "the most livable city in Europe".

18. Background Proper Names Le Temps (French), one of Paris's most important daily newspapers from April 25, 1861 to November 30, 1942. Le Temps came out of the Nazi occupation and was politically compromised due to accusations of collaboration with the Nazi regime. At Charles de Gaulle's request, Le Monde was founded on November 19, 1944 to replace Le Temps as the newspaper of record, borrowing the layout and typeface of Le Temps for the new newspaper.

19. Background Proper Names L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is a pre-eminent French institute on matters pertaining to the French language. The academy was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five academies of French institutes. The Academy consists of forty members, known as immortals. New members are elected by the members of the Academy itself. Academicians hold office for life, but they may be removed for misconduct. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are only advisory, not binding on either the public or the government.

20. Background Verne’s Best Known Works Five Weeks in a Balloon(1863) A Journey to the Center of the Earth(1864) Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea(1870) Around the World in Eighty Days(1873)

21. Background Verne’s Best Known Works Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen, is the first Verne novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later works. Verne skillfully mixied a plot full of adventures and twists that hold the reader's interest with passages of technical, geographic, and historical description.

22. Background Verne’s Best Known Works • In the book a scholar and explorer, Dr. Samuel Fergusson, accompanied by his manservant Joe and his friend, professional hunter Richard Dick Kennedy, sets out to travel across the African continent — still not fully explored — with the help of a hot-air balloon filled with hydrogen. This voyage is meant to link together the voyages of some other explorers. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets. • There are numerous scenes of adventure, composed of either a conflict with a native or a conflict with the environment. The protagonists overcome all these difficulties by continued perseverance more than anything else. The novel is filled with coincidental moments where trouble is avoided because wind catches up at just the right time, or the characters look in just the right direction. • The book was an instant hit, and made Verne financially independent and got him a contract with Jules Hetzel's publishing house, which put out several dozen more works of Verne’s for over forty years afterward.

23. Background Verne’s Best Known Works A Journey to the Center of the Earth ( also translated under the titles Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey to the Interior of the Earth) is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne.

24. Background Verne’s Best Known Works • The story involves a German professor (Otto Lidenbrock in the original French, Professor Von Hardwigg in the most common English translation) who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel (Harry), and their guide Hans encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, and eventually come to the surface again in southern Italy. • From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been soundly refuted; however, a redeeming point to the story is Verne's own belief, told within the novel from the viewpoint of a character, that the inside of the Earth does indeed differ from that which the characters anticipate. One of Verne's main ideas with his stories was to educate the readers, and by placing the different extinct creatures the characters meet in their correct geological era, he is able to show how the world looked a long time ago, stretching from the ice age to the dinosaurs.

25. Background Verne’s Best Known Works Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea was first published in French as Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers in 1869–1870. It is perhaps the most popular book of his science-fiction series—Voyages Extraordinaires (1863–1910).

26. Background Verne’s Best Known Works • Professor Pierre Aronnax, the narrator of the story, boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax’s vessel, and he is held prisoner along with his devoted servant, Conseil and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. The survivors meet Captain Nemo, an enigmatic misanthrope who leads them on a worldwide, yearlong underwater adventure. • The novel is noted for its exotic situations, the technological innovations it describes, and the tense interplay of the three captives and Nemo (who reappears in Verne’s The Mysterious Island).

27. Background Verne’s Best Known Works Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic travel adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It was published serially in 1872 in Le Temps as Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-vingt Jours and in book form in 1873. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.

28. Background Verne’s Best Known Works The lively narrative recounts the journey undertaken by sedentary London gentleman Phileas Fogg and his valet, Passepartout, in order to win a wager with Fogg’s fellow club members. Pursued by Fix, a private detective who believes Fogg to be a bank robber, the pair cross three continents and two oceans on trains, steamers, an elephant, and a sail-sledge. Delays and death-defying exploits abound. Assorted companions join the party, including the Hindu widow Aouda, whom Fogg rescues from ritual immolation. In the course of the adventure, Fogg spends or gives away the equivalent of his eventual winnings. Back in London, having met the deadline, convinced Fix of his innocence, and collected the payment, he returns to his former life unchanged but for having Aouda as his bride.

29. Background Genre Biography Biography is a form of literature, commonly considered nonfictional, the subject of which is the life of an individual. As one of the oldest forms of literary expression, it seeks to re-create in words the life of a human being—as understood from the historical or personal perspective of the author—by drawing upon all available evidence, including that retained in memory as well as written, oral, and pictorial material. A biography entails more than basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death); it also portrays the subject's experience of those events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents the subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Biographical works in diverse media—from literature to film—form the genre known as biography.

30. Mr. Imagination Structure Unit 13 Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

31. Text Analysis Structure 1-5 Mr. Imagination vs. Monsieur Verne I II Father of Science Fiction 6-8 9 Childhood III IV Meeting Dumas 10-18 19-22 V Family Relationships VI Major Works 23-31 32-34 VII Last Years and Death

32. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Main Idea Why doesn’t the author start this bio sketch from Jules Verne’s birth? What books are implied in para. 2? Could Jules Verne have imagined all those things out of nothing? What might have inspired him? Is there any difference between Verne’s imagination in his works and J. K. Rowling’s fantasy in her Harry Potter series? Which do you prefer, travel on foot or travel on paper?

33. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Back in the 1880s, a big red-bearded man came to call one day on the French Minister of Education.（para.1) with a read beard to call on sb.: to visit sb. formally. Compare: call in, call at, call by, call for, call off, call back, call on, call up,

34. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase The receptionist looked at the card and his face lighted up.(para.1) “The card” refers to a visiting card or a calling card. It is a small card with the name and often the address of a person or of a couple, for presenting when making a business or social call, for enclosing in gifts, etc. Note that today’s business cards are slightly different in that contact information is essential on them. to light up: to become cheerful. Also: The room is brilliant, lighted up and full of guests.

35. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Monsieur Verne,pray be seated.(para.1) Monsieur: the French equivalent of Mr., used as a courtesy title before the surname, full name or professional title of a man. It is pronounced Madame is the French equivalent of Mrs., and Mademoiselle Is the French equivalent of Miss a word used to add politeness to a command or request (an old fashioned use) Paraphrasing: Mr. Verne, please take a seat.

36. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Jules Verne should have been worn out.(para.2) indicating high possibility To be worn out: to be exhausted Paraphrasing: We have every reason to believe that Jules Verne was exhausted.

37. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase There was very little of the world’s geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.(para.2) Paraphrasing: Jules Verne had written about visits to almost all corners of the world in his books.

38. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Jules Verne, the man, was a stay-at-home.(para.3) a person who prefers to remain quietly at home rather than to go out or to travel Paraphrasing: Unlike the characters in his novels, Jules Verne didn’t travel very much in his real life. Here the writer means that Jules Verne did not write about the various adventures in his book from his own experiences, but from his imagination, hence the title of this essay.

39. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase If he was tired, it was merely writer’s cramp.(para.3) no more than Writer’s cramp: a muscular spasm or temporary paralysis of the muscles of the thumb and first two fingers caused by prolonged writing

40. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase Then he raised his gun and—poof!—shot the red ribbon off the hat of a game warden. The only fish he ever caught was on a plate at the end of a fork.(para.4) game warden: a person employed to protect wild life when hunting is not allowed or out of season Poof: interj. an exclamation used to express suddenness of disappearance or appearance Paraphrasing: Jules Verne almost shot the game warden in his only experience of hunting, and that must have given him quite a scare and kept him away from hunting since. And he only “caught” fish when he used his fork to carry cooked fish to his mouth at dinner table. In an exaggerated tone for humorous effect, the author is trying to tell us that Jules Verne had almost no personal experience in hunting or fishing.

41. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase He had TV working before simple radio had been invented.(para.5) to have sb./sth. doing: to cause sb./sth. to do and keep sb./sth. in the state of doing (e.g. The show had the audience laughing from the beginning to the end.) Compare: to have sb. do: to ask/request/make sb. do (e.g. The director had the actress recite her lines before shooting.) to have sth. done: to get sb. else to do it for you (e.g. I’ll have my car fixed tomorrow.)

42. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Sentence Paraphrase There were, in fact, few twentieth-century wonders that this man did not foresee...(para.5) to foresee: to see or be aware of beforehand “fore” appears in some verbs as prefix meaning “beforehand”, e.g. foretell, forecast, foreshadow, foredoom, forefeel, forerun, foreknow “fore” also appears in some nouns as prefix meaning “situated at or toward the front” or “first in time, place, order, rank”, e.g. foreman, forefathers, foreleg, forearm, foreground, forehead, foreland

43. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Words & Expressions Words Phrases

44. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part I: Exercise Fill in the blanks with a preposition or an adverb. • Rescuers had to call ___ the search due to worsening weather. • No matter when you call ___ me, you are welcome. • Toyota is calling ___ thousands of cars with a design flaw in the braking system. • Let's go to the nightschool together; I'll call ___ you after supper. • You can use the search facility to call ___ all the occurrences of a particular word in a document. • It is quite extraordinary that several students should call ___ sick on the same day. • You must call ___ next time you are in town. • This task will call ___ every ounce of energy we have. • The Red Cross calls ___ all the people to denote blood. • When I was in Shanghai on business, I called ___ my friend's company. off on back for up in by for on at

45. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Main Idea What does “entertainer” mean in para.7? Why would Verne be called an “entertainer”? Why would learned society want to argue with a sci-fi writer? How do you understand Verne’s words: “What one man can imagine, another can do”?

46. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Sentence Paraphrase ...he was years ahead of H.G.Wells,Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizes of things to come.(para.6) Paraphrasing: …he forsaw many future inventions years before other science fiction writers such as H. G. Wells and Conan Doyle did. Note: Jules Verne published his first major sci-fi work Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1862, while H. G. Wells was born in 1866 and started publishing important sci-fi works at the end of the 19th century, and Conan Doyle was born in 1859 and started publishing his Holms stories in the 1880s.

47. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Sentence Paraphrase He wrote about the marvels of tomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail that he was taken seriously.(para.7) to take sb./sth. Seriously: to treat sb./sth. as being important and deserving attention or respect Note the pattern: so/such…that (adverbial clause of result) Paraphrasing: He described the details of things to be invented so accurately and convincingly that people almost forgot that he was writing fiction.

48. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Sentence Paraphrase Learned societies argued with him. Mathematicians spent weeks checking his figures.(para.7) his figures: the numbers and mathematic operations Verne wrote in his books learned societies: organized groups of scholars.

49. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Sentence Paraphrase Verne, who lived to see many of his fancies come true, was matter-of-fact about it all.(para.8) matter-of-fact (about sth.): not showing feelings or emotion, esp. in a situation when emotion would be expected Paraphrasing: Many of the things Verne imagined and described in his novels were invented before he died. But he didn’t seem surprised or complacent at all.

50. Text Analysis Detailed Analysis Part II: Words & Expressions Words Phrases