Page 85 - Purple Butterfly Book 2

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unit 6
4. Extension to History Captain james Cook
Have you ever heard of Captain Cook? Not Peter Pan’s nemesis, the evil Captain Hook. Captain James Cook was a captain in the British Royal Navy more than 200 years ago. He wasn’t just a captain; he was also an explorer and a cartographer (cartographers are people who make maps).
Have you ever realized how different our world would be without maps? It would be almost impossible to get anywhere, or to know where you are. Nowadays, maps are easy to find. You only have to turn on a computer and type in the address of the place you want to find and you’ll get a map. Or, if you don’t have access to a computer, you can open an atlas, to find an impressive collection of different maps from all around the world. But not so long ago, it was a lot harder. Brave men and women had to fight their way through the wilderness, or sail through rough and stormy seas, risking their lives, just to be able to make these maps. People also had to be very good at math, to make sure these were accurate. Have you ever seen old maps? The countries are stretched and warped, and they look very different from the maps that we know today. In the past, very few people owned maps, since most maps were originally made by hand, with only one copy of the map being made. Because of the rareness of maps, they were very expensive, and only rich scholars could own them. Most people could live their whole life without seeing a map! But there were many people who wanted to change this.
Now, you can use Google Earth to see every inch of the planet, zooming in on the Eiffel tower, the Great Wall of China, or even your own house! But in the past, much of the planet was a huge mystery. People thought that sea monsters, giants, and other terrors lived out of their boundaries and that by sailing out far enough, you could run into them, or, even worse, sail off the edge of the world. But even with these fears, explorers felt the need to know what was really out there. Captain Cook was one of these explorers.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythologie_ aborig%C3%A8ne
http://www.talismancoins.com/ servlet/Detail?no=2311
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