20100201 Jules Verne Adventures in Imagination(1)

Jules Verne: Adventures in Imagination

French author Jules Verne takes readers on adventures in his stories

Balloon flights over Africa, journeys under the sea in a submarine, expeditions to the North Pole - even today these ideas sound thrilling. But at the time French author Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote of them, his readers could only imagine them.

Childhood adventures
Even as a young boy, Verne was fascinated with travel. His passion was sparked by watching boats travel the Loire River, which his family vacationed by in the summer. At 12, the young Verne hopped on an ocean-going vessel without his parents' knowledge. Unfortunately for Verne, his father found out and caught him before the ship Coralie actually went to sea. Verne promised then that he "would only travel in imagination."

Becoming a writer
At the time, his parents didn't understand what he actually meant by those words. Verne's father, a lawyer, expected his son to follow in his footsteps. He sent Verne to Paris to study law. There, Verne concentrated on writing instead, causing his father to stop his financial support. Undeterred, Verne worked at a theater owned by Alexandre Dumas and wrote several plays.


spark n. 火花
spark v. 激起/引發
=> begin
eg: The trip to Paris sparked her interest to learn French.
eg: Mess demonstrations(大型示威) were sparked by the controversial policy.

vessel n. 飛船/飛機(尤指水上飛機)
=> a large ship

follow in someone's footsteps 跟隨某人的足跡/繼承衣缽/追隨某人的腳步
=> do the same thing as the somebody else in your life
eg: Samuel followed in his father's footsteps and became an engineer.
eg: Nicky followed in her sister's footsteps by attending Harvard.

undeterred (adj) 未受阻的/不氣餒的
=> not bother by something
eg: Nobody supported Bob's idea of starting his own business, but he was undeterred.
eg: Undeterred, we went on vacation even though the typhoon was coming.
=> 雖然颱風來了，我們卻沒有打消去度假的念頭。


thrilling adj.
=> extremely exciting

expedition
=> a trip/journey

//== Chat room ==//

渡假美國人會用 vacation
渡假其他英語系國家會用 holiday

go on vacation
go on holiday

national holiday 國定假日
eg: The forth of July 美國獨立紀念日


//== More Information ==//

Many of Jules Veme's books are part of what is knows as "The Extraordinary Voyages.
Some of the more famous titles include Journey to the Center of the Earth, a story that has been retold in movie format four times! Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic underwater adventure while Verne's Around the World in 80 days is a novel that was recently adapted into a movie starring Jackie Chan.