The History of Exploration
Since the earliest times, people have explored their surroundings. They have crossed the hottest deserts, climbed the highest mountains, and sailed the widest seas. They have struggled through steamy jungle to find an unknown plant and brought back weird1 creatures from the ocean floor. All explorers have in common the human trait of curiosity2. However, curiosity was not the only reason for many journeys of discovery. Explorers always had more practical reasons for setting out, for example to search for land or treasure.
Some hoped to find valuable trade or new routes to countries that produced the goods they wanted. There is a saying that “trade follows the flag”. In other words when explorers find new lands, traders will soon follow. However, it would be better to say that “the flag follows trade”! It was the search for trade and trade routes that resulted in3 Europe’s discovery of all the world’s oceans and continents during the 15th and 16th centuries. The famous voyages of explorers, such as Columbus and Magellan, arose from desire of Europeans to find a sea route to the markets of the Far East, where valuable goods like silk and spices could be bought. Columbus did not set out to discover a new continent. He was hoping to reach China and Japan, and died insisting that he had done so. Magellan did not intend to sail around the world. He was hoping to find a new route for trade with the Moluccas4, or Spice Islands.
Some were missionaries, who felt a duty to convert people to their own religion. Unlike many other religions, Christianity claims to be universal5. Sincere Christians therefore believed it was their duty to convert other people to Christianity. European expeditions to the Americas included priests, whose job was not only to hold services for the European members of the expedition, but also to convert the local people.
Some were fishermen or miners or merchants, looking for a better living. One of them was Marco Polo, who made his famous journey to the East in 1271. There were many Europeans travelling across Asia, but Marco’s journey was unique because he stayed in the vast Mongol Empire for 20 years. On his return to Europe he wrote a splendid book describing all that he had seen.
All explorations and discoveries have opened the world. Thanks to the determination of generations of explorers, there is almost no place on Earth that is still unknown and unnamed. We know what lies in the ocean’s depths, and at the top of the highest mountain. Maps chart the dry rocks of the world’s deserts and the glaciers of the coldest polar regions. Even the Earth’s gravity has not stopped explorers from heading out into space6. As distant places have become more familiar, the nature of exploration has changed. The challenge is no longer to discover the world’s wild places. Today, a new adventure in exploration is beginning. Explorers are trying to understand the Earth and its climate, and the living things that inhabit its surface. Scientists hope to learn more about the Earth’s geology and origins by studying and measuring the tiny shifts7 of the bare rocks on mountaintops.
We are finding out about the surroundings of the Earth itself. Now that the Moon has been visited, space scientists today are concentrating on building space stations closer to Earth (highly accurate photographs from the “eyes in the sky” – satellites – help scientists to map the world’s most remote regions, to look for mineral resources, and to track the spread of pollution8 and crop disease9) and sending space probes to find out more about regions of space much farther away. Spacecraft travelling through the solar system have sent back news of other planets and one day men and women will follow them.
For millions of years, the Earth’s natural systems have lived in delicately balanced harmony10. Exploration itself does little to upset this balance. But when people move into newly discovered areas they cause permanent changes. The explorers of the past showed our ancestors the wonders of the Earth. The duty of explorers today is to discover how to preserve these wonders for future generations.
Notes:
1. weird – странный, причудливый
2. trait of curiosity – характерная черта (здесь: любознательность)
3. resulted in – приводить к какому-либо результату
4. Moluccas – Молуккские острова
5. Christianity claims to be universal – христианство претендует на мировое господство
6. heading out into space – выход в космос
7. tiny shifts – незначительные сдвиги
8. the spread of pollution – распространение загрязнения
9. crop disease – болезнь с/х культур
10. delicately balanced harmony – тонко сбалансированная гармония
Word Study
Ex. 1. Read the international words. Mind the stress.
| accurate | practical | convert | determination |
| chart | polar | describe | expedition |
| continent | photograph | geology | generation |
| gravity | permanent | produce | christianity |
| human | route | pollution | |
| harmony | region | preserve | |
| jungle | system | result | |
| market | satellite | religion | |
| mineral | resource | ||
| nature | universal | ||
| origin | unique |
Ex. 2. Pronounce correctly the following proper and geographical names.
| Columbus [`kə`lAmbəs] | Europe [`juərəp] |
| Magellan [ma`gielən] | European [juərə`piən] |
| Christianity [kristiǽniti] | Far East |
| Christian [`kristjən] | China [`t∫ainə] |
| Marco Polo [`makou] | Japan [dзəpǽn] |
| Moluccas [məu`lAkəz] | |
| Spice Islands | |
| Asia [`ei∫ə] | |
| Mongol Empire [moη`gəul `empaiə] |
Ex. 3. Form nouns from the given verbs. Mind that the suffix –er(or) denotes the doer of the action. Translate them into Russian.
Model: to climb – climber – альпинист
To create, to explore, to build, to mine, to produce, to sail, to write, to find, to visit, to travel, to trade, to voyage, to discover, to seek.
Ex. 4. Complete the table using your dictionary.
| Verb | Noun | Adjective |
| believable | ||
| convert | ||
| discovery | ||
| exploratory | ||
| inhabit | ||
| determination | ||
| value | ||
| reasonable |
Ex. 5. Match English and Russian equivalents.
| 1) to explore the surroundings | a) населять |
| 2) to struggle through steamy jungle | b) искать лучшую жизнь |
| 3) weird creatures | c) находить неизвестные растения |
| 4) ocean floor | d) распространение загрязнения |
| 5) trait of curiosity | e) измерять |
| 6) to search for land or treasure | f)пробиваться через тропические джунгли |
| 7) valuable goods | g) решительность поколений |
| 8) to discover a new continent | h) понять, выяснить |
| 9) to convert | i) концентрироваться |
| 10) to look for a better living | j) отображать на картах наиболее удаленные регионы |
| 11) the determination of generations | k) живые существа |
| 12) ocean’s depths | l) дно океана |
| 13) cold polar regions | m) ценные товары |
| 14) the nature of exploration | n) любознательность |
| 15) living things | o) болезнь с/х культур |
| 16) to inhabit | p) обращать в другую веру |
| 17) to measure | q) искать землю или богатства |
| 18) to find out | r) открыть новый континент |
| 19) to concentrate on | s) сущность исследования |
| 20) to map the most remote regions | t)исследовать окрестности |
| 21) crop disease | u) причудливые существа |
| 22) spread of pollution | v) глубины океана |
| 23) to find an unknown plants | w) холодные полярные регионы |
Ex. 6. Translate into Russian the following words, word combinations and sentences.
Accurate: accurate maps, accurate photographs, accurate clock, accuracy, accurately. Clocks in airports should be accurate. The earliest maps were not accurate.
Believe: believe in, make believe (that), belief, to the best of my belief, believer, believable. I believe you. I believe in God. I believe in that man. The boys made believe that they were explorers in the African forests. Christians believed that the Earth was flat. He has lost his belief in God.
Curiosity: trait of curiosity, to be dying of curiosity, curious, curious neighbours, curiously. I am curious to know what he said.
Convert: to convert people to Christianity, converting, converted, convertible, conversion (to, into)
Discover: to discover a new continent, discovery, journeys of discovery, discovered areas, discoverer. He made wonderful scientific discoveries. Columbus discovered America, but didn’t explore the new continent.
Explore: explore the arctic regions, exploration, the nature of exploration, the exploration of the ocean depths, explorer, exploratory. The Great Atlas of Discovery tells the story of exploration and discovery from earliest times to the present day.
Reason: practical reason, the only reason for, to bring to reason, by reason of, by reason of its general sense, without any reason, to give reasons for smth, reasonable, a reasonable price (offer, excuse), reasonably, reasoning. The students understood the teacher’s reasoning.
Search: to search for a land or treasure, to search one’s memory, to search out an old friend, go in a search of a missing child, searching, search-light, searcher.
Trade: trade follows the flag, trade route, to trade in, to trade with, to trade off, trade mark, trade name, trade price, trader, tradesman, trading. Even today the salt trade is vital to the economy of desert peoples.
Valuable: to find valuable trade, a valuable discovery, a valuable picture. He gave me valuable information.
Ex. 7. Add nouns to the following adjectives to form noun phrases.
Adjectives:steamy, unknown, weird, ocean, practical, trade, new, famous, valuable, local, dry, space, mineral, remote.
Nouns:people, stations, reasons, goods, regions, rocks, resources, plant, floor, explorers, jungle, creature, route, continent.
Ex. 8. Pair the verbs in column A with a suitable phrase in column B.
| A | B |
| 1) to cross | a) people to their own religion |
| 2) to search for | b) steamy jungle |
| 3) to produce | c) building space stations |
| 4) to climb | d) the spread of pollution |
| 5) to find | e) a better living |
| 6) to sail | f) the world’s wild places |
| 7) to feel | g) mineral resources |
| 8) to convert | h) permanent changes |
| 9) to look for | i) the hottest deserts |
| 10) to struggle through | j) the goods |
| 11) to discover | k) new lands (a sea route) |
| 12) to concentrate on | l) a duty |
| 13) to look for | m) the widest seas (around the world) |
| 14) to track | n) the highest mountains |
| 15) to cause | o) land or treasure |
Ex. 9. Match the nouns with their appropriate explanations.
| 1) journey | a) land that is without water and trees, often sandcovered |
| 2) trade | b) season’s produce of grain, grass, fruit |
| 3) adventure | c) solid stony part of the Earth’s crust |
| 4) discovery | d) one of the main land masses |
| 5) route | e) everything around and about a place |
| 6) desert | f) journey by water |
| 7) continent | g) going to a place, a distant place |
| 8) voyage | h) something that is discovered |
| 9) crop | i) an exciting or dangerous journey or activity |
| 10) surroundings | j) way taken or planned from one place to another |
| 11) rock | k) buying and selling of goods, exchange of goods for money or other goods |
Ex. 10. Fill in the missing words in the sentences. Choose from the words given in the box.
| Expedition, trades, discovery, travellers, included, route, trade, seekers, space, voyages, set out, traders, ice desert, travel, exploration. |
1. The Ancient Egyptians made … down the Red Sea nearly 6000 years ago.
2. The real story of … and … began with civilization.
3. The Arabs were great … and … of knowledge.
4. Salt … transported salt from the coasts, and island deposits, to areas where it was scarce and valuable.
5. The climbers had tried to find a new … to the top of the mountain.
6. Travel through … to other planets interests many people today.
7. Belarus … with many European countries.
8. Ferdinand Magellan’s … across the Pacific made Europe aware of the vastness of the ocean on the far side of the world.
9. Earlier explorers had travelled in the hope of finding gold mines, valuable … . fame, and land for their countries.
10. Explorers added the hope of new scientific discoveries and their expeditions … scientists as well as sailors, soldiers, merchants, and adventurers.
11. The first great scientist expedition to South America … to record the shape and size of the Earth – the science known as geodesy.
12. … in the Arctic was both difficult and dangerous.
13. The last place on Earth to be explored was the cold, hostile … of the Antarctic.
Ex. 11. Give English equivalents for the following Russian ones.
Пересекать жаркие пустыни; взбираться на высокие горы; нарушать баланс; отправляться открывать новый континент; вызывать постоянные изменения; иметь много общего; приводить к чему-либо; искать лучшую жизнь; иметь аргументированные причины для; найти морской путь к рынкам; отображать на картах наиболее отдаленные регионы; искать новые земли и новые торговые пути; прослеживать распространение загрязнения; ценный товар; обращать людей в другую веру.