Unit1 A Travel

Men have traveled ever since they first appeared on the earth. In ancient times they do not travel for pleasure but to find new places where their herds could feed, or to escape from hostile neighbors, or to find more favorable climates. They traveled on foot. Their journeys were long, tiring and often dangerous. They protected themselves with simple weapons, such as wooden sticks or stone clubs, and by lighting fires at night and, above all, by keeping together. Being intelligent and creative, they soon discovered easier ways of travelling. They rode on the backs of their domesticated animals; they hollowed out tree trunks and, by using bits of wood as paddles, were able to travel across water. Later they traveled, not from necessity, but for the joy and excitement of seeing and experiencing new things. This is still the main reason why we travel today. Traveling, of course, has now become a highly organized business.There are cars and beautiful roads, express trains, huge ships and jet airliners, all of which provide us with comforts and security. This sounds wonderful. But there are difficulties. If you want to go abroad, you need a passport and a visa, tickets, luggage, and a hundred and one other things. If you lose any of them, your journey may be ruined. As I am neither sociable nor adventurous, I prefer doing my traveling from an armchair. I like thinking of all those journeys that, despite his creativeness, man has never made and will never make. I should like, for example, to have arrived in the world by stork. I should like to travel faster than time and have a look at the year A.D. 2020 or go back into the past and talk to famous men. I should also like to travel like a shell across ocean floors where I could explore the wrecks of ships and see curious fish that men have never seen. Although we shall never make journeys such as these, there are others that will soon be made which fifty years ago would have seemed impossible. Scientists have invented machines that can explore outer space. One day there will be cheap day excursions to the moon and honeymoons on Venus. People will be able to fly from one planet to another in nasty little arrow-shaped tubes. I say “people” because I have no intention of being one of them. Notes on the passage (注释） by stork (line 19) : There is a tradition that says that it is a storks that bring people their new babies. 整句意思：例如，我想回到过去，乘着白鹤来到人间。