French novelist Jules Verne (1828—1905) is often called the father of science fiction. Although he was not a great traveler himself, his characters travelled to the moon (in From the Earth to the Moon), under the sea (in Twenty thousand leagues under the sea), into a volcano (in A journey to the centre of the earth), around the world (in Around the World in Eighty Days) and to many other places.
Jules Verne was born in the French city of Nantes in 1828. When he was a boy he ran away from home to work on a ship. However, his father soon found him and brought him home. After that he decided that any future travel he did would be in books. In 1847 his father sent Jules to Paris to study to be a lawyer. Even though he was busy writing, Verne passed his exams in 1849 with high marks.
When Jules told his father he did not want to be a lawyer, his father was very angry. He stopped sending his son any money, so Jules had to earn a living by his writing. Over the next few years he wrote many stories and plays, which brought him only a little money. Then, in 1856, he met Honorine de Viane, a rich, young widow with two children. The couple married the next year.
After his marriage, Verne worked as a businessman in Paris. However, he was not very successful at his job and spent most of his time writing books and doing research for the next one. In 1863 he published his novel Five Weeks in a balloon and the following year he published A Journey to the centre of the earth which made him famous. His books became so popular and earned him so much money that he was able to leave his job and work full time on his writing.
In his Lifetime, Jules Verne wrote more than 50 books and he became a rich man. Many of this imaginative novels have been turned into films.
小题1:When Jules Verne was brought home by his father, he decided that ________.
A．he would devote himself to writing
B．he would go on more travels in the future
C．he would stop writing about future travels
D．he would do what his father required小题2:Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A．He was not good at his schoolwork.
B．He went to Paris because he wanted to be a lawyer.
C．His early stories and plays didn’t bring in much money.
D．He got married in 1856.小题3:Jules Verne became rich mainly because of his ________.
A．family
B．marriage
C．business
D．writing小题4:Which book can be considered as a turning point in Jules Verne’s life?
A. From the Earth to the Moon.
B. Five Weeks in a Balloon.
C. A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
D. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
小题5:Which can we infer from the passage?
A．Jules Verne’s stories and plays were liked by film makers.
B．Jules Verne was not clever enough to learn law.
C．Jules Verne’s wife helped him a lot in his writing career.
D．Jules Verne’s stories and plays made him famous in the 1850s.
