Short Texts from Oz © copyright Thorold May 1998 All Rights Reserved; published by The Plain & Fancy Language Company
go to end; go to Table of Contents / 65. Astronomy and Science / 66. "My Country" (extract) / 67. "Snow" (extract) /
68. "Sea Fever" (extract)
pattern:
text:
[1] Astronomy is the study of stars and planets, the science of the universe. [2] By 3,000 BC Babylonians, Assyrians and Chaldeans had mapped the visible stars. [3] Ancient Egyptians and Greeks calculated that the earth was a sphere and that the earth revolved around the sun. [4] Both these correct ideas were later rejected for 1500 years. [5] Instead, the Western world followed the ideas of Ptolemy (an Egyptian Greek, died 170 AD), who said that the stars moved in bands around the earth. [6] Ptolemy's scheme suited the geography of heaven and hell mapped out in Christian and Islamic religions. [7] In 1543 the Prussian, Copernicus proved with calculations that the planets moved around the sun. [8] The mathematician, Keppler, then showed that the planets moved in elliptical orbits. [9] The Italian, Galileo Galilei (1562-1642) built a telescope and proved Copernicus' ideas correct. [10] The English mathematician and scientist, Isaac Newton used this new information in 1687 to codify laws of gravitation and motion. [11] Modern science is built upon Newton's work. [12] The official Christian church did everything in its power to stop the spread of this scientific knowledge, but did not succeed.
response:
1. What is astronomy?
2. What did Babylonian, Assyrian and Chaldean astronomers achieve by 3000 BC?
3. For 1500 years sailors were afraid of sailing off the edge of the world. What did some ancient Greeks know that the sailors didn't know?
4. Finish this sentence: Ptolemy said that ......
5. How was Ptolemy's scheme used by the Christian and Islamic religions?
6. Make a question using these words: what / Copernicus / calculations
7. How did Keppler's calculations improve our knowledge of the planets?
8. What was Galileo able to show with his telescope?
9. Isaac Newton was perhaps the most influential scientist who has ever lived. He once said "If I see further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." How did he use the discoveries of Copernicus, Keppler and Galileo?
10. What was the attitude of the official Christian church after 1543 to the new discoveries in astronomy, mathematics and science?
keywords
[1] astronomy; [2] visible stars; [3] earth; [4] rejected; [5] Ptolemy; [6] religions; [7] Copernicus; [8] Keppler; [9] Galileo; [10] Newton; [11] modern science; [12] official Christian church.
author: Dorothea Mackellar
pattern: metaphor and adjectival enrichment; rhyme & rhythm
text:
I love a sunburned country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror,
The sunburned land for me.
response:
1. How does the poem tell you that the land in Australia is hot and brown?
2. What are two kinds of landforms that the poet notices?
3. What are two kinds of disasters that Dorothea Mackellar mentions?
4. How can you tell that the Australia the poet talks about is not crowded with people and cities?
5. What is the sea compared to?
6. Make a question using the word country.
7. Dorothea Mackellar is attracted by two opposite qualities in Australian nature. What are they?
8. Write two lines to describe two things you remember strongly about the land where you come from.
author: Mao Tse Tung; translated by Jock Hoe
pattern: metaphor and adjectival enrichment; rhyme & rhythm
North country scene:
A thousand miles locked in ice,
Ten thousand miles of whirling snow.
In an out the Great Wall,
Only one great vastness;
Up and down the Yellow River,
Torrents stopped and stilled.
Hills dance like silver serpents,
Plateaux race like wax-coloured elephants,
Trying to vie with God in their height.
A clear day is needed
To view this whiteness decked in red
In all its incomparable beauty.
response:
1. What time of the year is it in North China, in this poem?
2. How is the movement of the ice different from the movement of the snow?
3. How does Mao Tse Tung show that everything is buried in snow?
4. Make a question using the words Yellow River.
5. What are the hills compared to?
6. How does the poet describe the plateaux he can see?
7. What do you think Mao Tse Tung is talking about when he speaks of whiteness decked in red?
8. Write down a metaphor to describe the sky outside your window at this moment.
author: John Masefield
pattern: metaphor and adjectival enrichment; rhyme & rhythm
text:
| I must go down to the sea again,
To the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship And a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick And the wind's song And the white sails shaking, And a grey mist on the sea's face, And a grey dawn breaking. |
I must go down to the sea again
For the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call That may not be denied, And all I ask is a windy day With the white clouds flying And the blown spume And the flung spray And the seagulls crying. |
response:
1. Where does this poet, John Masefield, want to be?
2. Lonely people are often unhappy. Why do you think Masefield wants to go down to the lonely sea and the sky?
3. What do you think makes the wheel kick?
4. Make a question using the word star.
5. Why do you think the wind has a special sound on a sailing ship?
6. What time of the day is the poet thinking about?
7. What does Masefield imagine the weather will be like at dawn?
8. Would you like to be a sailor on a square-rigged ship? Why or why not?
9. Write down a line to describe the sea (or river) last time you were in a boat.
Short Texts from Oz © copyright Thorold May 1998 All Rights Reserved; published by The Plain & Fancy Language Companygo to top; go to Table of Contents