In pairs discuss these questions: 1 What is a navigator?

In pairs discuss these questions:

1 What is a navigator?

A navigator explores new routes across the sea.

2 What is the difference between a navigator and an explorer?

A navigator explores the sea; an explorer discovers new places on land.

Warming Up By: 刘超英

3 Look at these famous people. Are they navigators or explorers? What do you know about them?

Navigator sea nautical instruments

find new islands or continents

Navigator is someone who finds the position and plots the course of a ship, an aircraft, a car, etc, using maps and instruments.

Explorer land use of compass and landmarks find new places within an already identified island or continent

Explorer is someone who travels into or through a place in order to learn about it.

Very often navigators are also explorers.

• Look at the pictures. Then answer the questions.

1 How do you think seamen found their way before modern accurate methods of navigation were invented?

Kept close to the shore, used nature such as the sun, wind, birds, tide, etc, to help them, and used some of the instruments including a compass, astrolabe, etc.

Pre-reading

2 Which do you think was easier to work out: latitude or longitude?

Latitude, because it was used to measure how far you had travelled from land on a straight line. It was discovered a long time before longitude.

3 Can you identify these early navigational instruments seamen used and explain how they are used?

1 _________________________

2 _________

3 _________

4 ________________________

4 Which ones do you think are still used today?

Sea charts are still used today.

compass (in ancient China)

astrolabe

sextantsea / nautical / marine chart

Read the passage and answer the following questions.

1 What is the use of a bearing circle, astrolabe, quadrant or sextant? ( )

What is the use of a compass? ( ) A to set the course of the ship B to measure the position of the ship C to measure the speed of the ship D to tell the time

Comprehending

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BA

2 Why are speed and time important in working out the longitude of a ship?

Speed and time are important in finding out the longitude of a ship because the earth moves fifteen degrees westwards every hour. If you know your direction, speed and time, you can work out the approximate longitude or change in your position in relation to the stars.

3 Why is the position of the sun and various stars useful for working out latitude?

The position of the sun and stars are useful for working out latitude because they are fixed points in the sky and their movements in relation to the earth are already known. So they can be used to measure a ship's position.

Suppose you were a sea captain aiming to sail round Africa. Discuss in groups:

1 What skills would you seek in your sailors?

The sailors would need to be excellent navigators, able to cope with both hot and cold weather, experienced in sailing through very bad weather and able to co-operate in a team.

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2 What problems would you anticipate for this journey?

I would anticipate very hot weather (around the equator), cold weather (around the Cape of Good Hope), very stormy seas (around the Cape), and problems with food and water (unless helped by local natives the water may be contaminated and the food scarce), etc.

What would you do if you came across the following problems during your voyage? Read the chart below and fill in your plans of action to deal with them.

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What would you do if: Plan of action

You were far from land and a storm arose.

wait till the storm is over, and then find your new position and return to your original course

You knew your latitude but didn't know your longitude.

You were blown off-course.

use knots to find your speed and work out your approximate longitude

use the compass and the astrolabe, quadrant or sextant to find out your position, return to your former course

You were offshore but you needed more food and water.

You wanted to keep a straight course.

follow nesting birds to shore; look for special cloud formations or fog over streams to find land

use a compass

You were lost with no land in sight.

measure your position using the sun or stars; look for sea birds, cloud formations, fog or seaweed to show that land is nearby

Read the passage again and use the information to analyse the navigational skills. Write the answers in your own words. Using nature

1 To find the ship's position at sea a sailor used the North Star and the sun.

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2 A sailor knew that land was nearby if he saw ______________________________

_______________________ .

3 Sailors used ________________________ to increase their speed.

fresh seaweed, nesting birds returning

home in the evening or fog

sea currents or tides and winds

Using instruments

4 There were two methods to find longitude:

1 _________________________

2 _______________________

____________________ .

measuring time and speed

compass and complicated mathematical tables

5 Write down the working principles of the following instruments:

• Beating circle: _______________________________________________________________ .

• Astrolabe:_______________________________________________________________ .

to compare the height of the sun now with the position of the 'sun at midday

to compare the position of the ship in relation to some stars or the sun

• Quadrant: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .

a more precise form of the astrolabe, to measure how high stars are above the horizon, and compare that measurement with previous measurements (using the ship as one of the fixed points to find its position)

• Sextant: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .

Imagine you are on a boat with twenty-nine other people. You have a small box for your personal things but it can only hold ten items. What would you need for a week's journey across the North Sea to England?

an updated version of the quadrant and so it was more accurate, to measure the angle between two fixed points outside the ship (using two mirrors to find the ship's position)

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Category Items Category Items

Clothes Shoes

Hygiene Tools

Bedding Medicines

Games Books

shirt, trousers

waterproof boots

soap scissors, knife

blanketsea-sick tablets, cold medicine

cards, chess

novels, essay collections

Replace the words underlined by ones of similar meaning from the reading passage.1 Seeing the dark clouds above him, George hurried for home.

2 Sailing a boat alone far away from the shore made Flora's parents worry about her safety.

Learning about Language

1

overhead

offshore

3 Clare, would you please put your bicycle next to the others in the shed?

4 "Why don't you plot a more simple route with the smallest number of stops?" asked Mary.

5 Setting out on a long journey by sea with unskilled sailors would be dangerous especially if there were no modern navigational instruments.

alongside

simplifiedminimum

voyageseamen

Find the words from the reading passage that are the opposite of these compound words.

____________ anywhere

____________ upload

____________ inward

____________ unreliable

____________ land flower

____________ strong point

2

nowhere

downloadoutward

reliable

seaweed

shortcoming

Write down the words you know, which are related to navigation and sea.3

Navigation Seanavigate, navigational (instruments: compass, bearing circle, astrolabe, quadrant, sextant), sail, sailor, voyage, latitude, longitude, equator, horizon, captain, sailor, land, island, set sail, nautical middles, explore, exploration

seaman, seaweed, seafood, shore, offshore, onshore, beach, beach-ball seabed, sea-bird, seagull, sea shell, seaside, sea water, seasick, coast, coastline, coastal, tide, wave, current,

Complete the following paragraph with the words below.

Samuel the sailor was extremely good at plotting his course using the stars as a _______ . One day he was determined to set out on a _______ across an unknown sea to an unknown continent. He set out with his instruments so he would not be at the _____ of the sea. He found on his ________ journey a rocky island. It seemed to be covered in nests. Suddenly, as Samuel looked, an enormous bird swooped down

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reference voyage

mercy outward

and picked him up as if he were a / an ______ parcel. It ________ its speed and rose straight up into the air so as to reach the _______ place on the rocks where its nest lay. Once there, it shook itself and threw Samuel in the __________ direction of the nest. There seemed to be ________ to hide but then he noticed lots of ________ on his left and quickly hid under it. The bird landed nearby and pecked _________ at the rocks. Samuel rolled over swiftly and found himself at the edge of the cliff. He looked

awkward accelerate

precise

approximate

nowhereseaweed

randomly

down slowly with a beating heart. Below him was his boat lying ________ the shore! "How lucky I am!" Samuel thought to himself. He then gave a mighty leap and landed in it. Once inside he could safely sail away.

alongside

Revising useful structures Read the information below and learn

more about Captain Cook. Then underline the predicates in the sentences.

1 James Cook was a great English navigator and Pacific Ocean expedition leader.

2 He had not only an outstanding ability in navigation and exploration, but also a real concern for sailors' health. He carried out compulsory dietary reforms that were copied by many other ship captains.

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3 He had led three great Pacific voyages during his life.

4 In his first Pacific voyage in 1769, James Cook rounded Cape Horn, then spent six months charting New Zealand, and finally explored and claimed possession of eastern Australia.

5 In 1772, Captain Cook set sail to look for a "theorized great southern continent". Although they could not manage to reach the Antarctic owing to the ice, he predicted that if it did exist, it would have to be a wasteland.

6 In 1776, Captain Cook started his third Pacific voyage, searching for the Northwest Passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, he was killed in a dispute with Hawaiian natives and his men's attempt at the Northwest Passage was unsuccessful. However, this voyage is still recognized as especially significant in the history of the discovery of the west coast of North America.

Complete the following dialogue, using verbs in their proper forms. Remember to read the conversation before and after each blank before you fill it in.

Susan: Do you think you'll be going to that pop concert next week?

Clare: No. Let's forget about that as it'll soon be time for our exams.

Susan: ____________________________

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Do you need to do more revision?

Clare: I don't really think I need to do more revision. I've done enough but it'll help me forget the concert you'll be enjoying.

Susan: ____________________________

_____________________________

Clare: Actually there is a reason. I don't think I'm going to have enough money even though I've been saving especially for this occasion.

Susan:_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________ .

Is there another reason why you don't want to come to the concert?

Perhaps I can help you. I always earn extra money by cleaning cars. My father always pays me when I clean his

Clare: Well, thank you for offering to help me. I'll happily clean your father's car if he'll pay me too.

Susan: _______________________________

________________________________

Clare: I hope you'll thank him for me. I'd never be allowed to clean my father's car. He is so proud of it he won't let anyone touch it.

Susan: _______________________________

________________________________

I'm sure he will. He’s always been kind to my friends.

Oh this is my father's fourth car so the excitement has worn off a little.

Clare: His fourth car? My goodness. He must have been earning a lot of money to have owned so many.

Susan:________________________________

_____________________________

Clare: Oh I see! That explains things. Please would you phone him now and ask him when it would be convenient for me to clean it?

Susan: ___________________________

I suppose so. He has his own business so he needs a car for his work.

Of course I'll do that right away.

Clare: That's so kind of you. Now while I'm doing the cleaning perhaps you can order our tickets for the concert. I'll go and get ready to begin work. See you soon. Thanks and goodbye.

When Captain Bligh returned home he was treated as a hero. It was discussed whether he should receive a special medal or not. Get into groups of four and discuss these questions. Then role-play the dialogue.

USING LANGUAGE

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1 Sample dialogue Li Pei (LP), Du Zhou (DZ), Wen Fuqing

(WF) and Liu Yongfu (LY) are discussing the journey and Captain Bligh's leadership qualities.

LP: Why are you convinced that this journey shows the greatest navigational skill? I'm sure there must have been others that were as good, if not better!

DZ: Do you know of many other sea voyages of this kind?

WF: Well, there's that journey by Shackleton from Elephant Island in the Antarctic to get help from another island with a whaling station. He wanted to rescue his men. The weather was terrible and he was in an open boat, too.

LY: How can you think that journey was more difficult? It didn't last very long. Captain's Bligh's journey lasted over forty days, was very hot and they had very little food and water. It was because Captain Bligh was a great leader that they survived.

DZ: Now that I've heard about it I am very impressed. All those men pushed together in a very small boat, it must have been terrible for them to stay friendly. Meanwhile they were being driven mad by lack of fresh water and there was all that salt water all around them. That's the reason I think it was the greatest sea escape.

LP: When you put it that way I suppose it was a great achievement. Captain Bligh was certainly excellent in the way he kept the men occupied and tried to take their minds off their troubles. In addition he treated everyone the same when it came to food or water. So I think you are right and it was the greatest example of navigational skill against the odds! Do you agree?

DZ, WF and LY (together): Yes. We do.

2 Sample dialogue

DZ: What leadership qualities do you think Captain Bligh showed?

LP: Since he had such violent disagreements with his crew, I think he was a bad leader.

WF: Do you really? He does seem to have had a bad temper so that has given him a bad reputation. However, he was also kind to his men at other times so I think he was a reasonable leader.

LY: What did he do?

WF: He provided cabbage so the sailors would not get ill and made them dance so that they would stay healthy. That shows he was a good leader.

DZ: Yes indeed. That is one good quality. However having a bad temper and getting angry quickly shows a bad quality.

WF: Now think about the voyage to Timor. On that journey he was fair with the food, kept everyone occupied working out the boat's position, and kept the crew cheerful. The fact that he tried so hard to build co-operative behavior shows good leadership qualities.

LP: Indeed he did. That is why some people regard him as a hero.

LY: Well, he seems contradictory. He is a good leader in a crisis and a bad one the rest of the time.

DZ: No, no! That seems a bit cruel although it was due to his bad temper the crew took over the ship. It was also due to his good temper that the crew survived in the small boat. I think Liu Yongfu is right.

He was good in a crisis because he was fair with the food, encouraged team spirit, made people cheerful and used his skills to get them home. But he was a bad leader in a general situation because he got angry over small things (like accusing people of stealing food or disobeying him) and was too easy-going in Tahiti (where he let the men relax too much so they did not want to go back to England).

LP: He was a strange mixture indeed!

A sample letter report Dear Sir, I think Captain Bligh should certainly

receive a special medal for his amazing voyage across the sea to Timor. This is a journey that could not have been completed without great navigational skill. In addition Captain Bligh did not lose one man.

First, he showed his leadership qualities by sharing the food and water fairly with the men in the boat. Everyone was treated equally and this made for good feeling between the members of the boat.

Second, he kept everyone in the boat cheerful by discussing what they would do when they arrived safely. No one was allowed to think about what might happen if they did not arrive!

Third, he kept them occupied by organizing the complicated mathematical calculations needed to find their position at sea. The crew who had taken over the "Bounty" had left Captain Bligh with only a quadrant and a compass. This meant that numerous: calculations were needed to find their correct

position. Captain Bligh encouraged the crew in the boat to take measurements regularly and each person was given a different responsibility for working out these measurements. This activity was important because it stopped the men from thinking about how little food and water there was.

So I hope you will give Captain Bligh this medal. He has shown leadership, fairness and concern for his crew and helped them return to England safely.

Yours, (your name)

Read these words and then listen to the tape. Circle those aids that early sailors used to find their way.

Listening and speaking1

compass maps fish movements stars weather waves currents clouds rainfall birds other ships mountains

Listen to the tape again and fill in the chart. 2

Sailors from Sea or Ocean

Skills

Phoenicia Mediterra-nean

Used the sky to find their way

North

Polynesia

Norway Watched birds to find land .

Pacific Studied the waves of the ocean .

These are some Viking sailing directions from Norway to Greenland.

Use the information from the listening to explain these sailing strategies.

1 ___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

2 ___________________________________

___________________________________

3

Vikings used to prefer to sail following the coastline so they could check that they were on the correct route.

Vikings used birds, and natural features like mountains, to direct their ships.

Polynesian seamen had traditional sayings to help them with their sailing. Can you explain what they mean?

1 "If you can read the ocean, you will never be lost.”

• Study the waves so that you can read what will happen in the weather or when land is close.

2 "Watch for when the sun grows.”• The position of the morning sun on the

horizon can help you check your course.

4*

3 "The stars are the eyes of Heaven.”

• The stars can give you information about your position and can help you "see" where you are.

4 "When the bird flies out to sea, the sea will grow calm.”

• Birds do not fly out to sea if a storm is coming so a bird flying away from the shore means good weather.