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Lesson 3 Marco Polo Marco Polo and His Travels Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. When he was 17 years old, he travelled across Europe and Asia with his father, who wanted to do trade with the Chinese. Eventually, they arrived in Beijing. At that time, China was ruled by the Yuan Dynasty Emperor, Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan welcomed Marco and his father. He was very happy to meet two foreigners and wanted to learn all about Europe. Marco and his father were guests at the Emperor's Palace. Although Marco was young, he was very clever and could already speak four languages. The Emperor was impressed by him and they became friends. He asked Marco to serve in his court and sent him to do many important tasks across the country. Marco, in turn, was amazed by how beautiful and powerful China was. He was very impressed by Beijing and the Emperor's Palace,especially the Summer Palace which he described as "The greatest palace that ever was ... The walls were covered in gold and silver and the Hall was so large it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner." There were inventions and developments in China which were not available in Europe at that time. Marco was surprised to see Chinese people using paper money in the markets. In Europe, people paid for goods with gold or silver. He could not understand how people could pay for food and valuable things with paper! He was also confused by the black stones people used to burn for fuel. The black stones were coal, but Marco had never seen coal before! In 1291, after 17 years of service to the Emperor, Marco returned to Italy. He was now a very wealthy man. Not long after his return, a local war broke out near his town. During the war, Marco was the captain of a warship but was caught by the enemy and put into prison. However, Marco was lucky enough to meet another prisoner who enjoyed listening to his stories about China. The prisoner was an author and he took dictation while Marco told all his stories to him. The prisoner then wrote the stories in a book called The Description of the World,which became one of the best-selling books in Europe. Although people enjoyed reading his book,many of them thought that Marco's stories about China were too fantastic to be true. But Marco always stood by his tales. Just before he died, aged 70, Marco was asked the question, "Was it all true?", to which he replied, "I have only told half of what I saw!" 第三课 马可o波罗 马可o波罗和他的旅行 1254年，马可o波罗生于意大利。 17岁时，他和爸爸周游了欧洲和亚洲，爸爸想与中国人做生意。 最后，他们来到北京。 那时，统治中国的是元朝的元世祖忽必烈。 元世祖欢迎马可o波罗和他父亲来中国。 他见到两个外国人非常高兴，并想了解欧洲所有情况。 马可o波罗和他父亲是皇宫的贵宾。 虽然马可o波罗还小，但他非常聪明，而且已经能说四国语言了。 皇帝对他印象很深，而且他们成为了朋友。 他让马可o波罗在朝中任职，并派他出国做许多重要的事。 马可也相应地被中国的美丽和强大所震撼。 北京和皇宫深深打动了他。 尤其是颐和园，他描述为“绝无仅有的最雄伟的宫殿……” 墙壁都用金银包着，大厅大到可以轻松地容纳6千人一起用餐。 在当时，中国的发明和发展是欧洲无法达到的。 马可看到中国人在市场上用纸币，感到无比惊奇。 在欧洲，人们用黄金或白银买东西。 他不明白，人们如何能用纸买食物和贵重的东西！ 人们作为燃料点燃的黑色石头，也令他很迷惑。 黑色石头是煤，但马可以前从未见过！ 1291年，在朝中任职17年后，马可回到意大利。 他现在是一个非常富有的人。他回国后不久，一场区域战争在他家乡附近爆发了。 战争中，马可是一只军舰的首领，但被敌人俘获关进了监狱。 然而，马可很幸运，他遇见另一名很爱听他讲中国的故事的囚犯。 这名囚犯是一名作家，马可给他讲故事的时候，他记下了马可的口述。 后来，这名囚犯把故事写进一本叫《马可o波罗游记》的书，这本书成为欧洲最畅销的一本书。 虽然人们爱读他的书，但许多人认为马可有关中国的故事太离奇而不可信。 但马可总是坚持他所讲的故事是真的。 他70岁快去世之前，有人问马可，"那都是真的吗？"， 他回答，"我仅仅说了我看见的一半！" |
