Exeter Yaroslavl Twinning Association

Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

«Средняя школа № 37 с углубленным изучением английского языка»

 

конкурс творческих работ на тему

 

« The most interesting book I have ever read »

 

Выполнил ученик 6Б класса

Соломатин Егор

Учитель:

Барышникова Е.Ю.

 

Ярославль

2021

 

  My name is Egor Solomatin. I am 13 years old. I am a student of the 6th form of the school 37 in Yaroslavl.

  Last year, a literature teacher gave us a list of books to read in the summer. I read the book "Robinson Crusoe" written by Daniel Defoe and I wanted to read another book of travelling. My mother gave me the book "The Children of Captain Grant" written by Jules Verne. I started reading and I really liked this book. I thought for a long time what fascinated me so much and here is what I decided:

  "The Children of Captain Grant" is an adventure book full of dangers, travelling and descriptions of places I have never been to. The main characters of this book are brave travelers who went in search of the missing sailors. The main characters found a bottle in the stomach of a hammerfish. There were three notes in different languages in this bottle. The seawater had ruined the text in these notes. This discovery was the only helper in the search. Robert Grant is one of the main characters. He is only 12 years old. I was the same age when I started reading this book.

   This story begins in Scotland. Scotland is a country in the north of the island of Great Britain, which is part of the state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It borders on land with England and is washed by the seas of the Atlantic Ocean: the Northern (to the east) and the Irish (to the west). The finale of the story was on Tabor Island (Maria Teresa Reef), located to the east of New Zealand.

  A large physical map of the world is on the wall at my bed. After reading each of the chapters, I tried to find this place on the map and imagined what it looks like now. I really like to travel with my parents and watch travel programs. Many unique places were described in this novel. In each of these places, there is something interesting.

  I made the route of the crew of the ship "Duncan" from the places that the author indicated in the book:

• ✓ Malcom Castle. Scotland. The beginning of the novel.

    Scotland is known for its medieval castles, palaces and forts that preserve the history of the country, where the spirit of knights and kings, beautiful ladies and ghosts of the past wanders. Jules-Verne described one of the castles of Scotland in his novel. But the name is made up by the author.

• ✓ Glasgow. Scotland. The journey begins on August 25, 1864.
• ✓ Madeira, Atlantic Ocean
• ✓ Canary Islands, Atlantic Ocean
• ✓ Cape Verde Islands. Villa Praia, Atlantic Ocean
• ✓ Equator
• ✓ Strait of Magellan
• ✓ Cosepión, Talcahuano Bay, Chile, South America
• ✓ Patagonia. Crossing along the 37th parallel in South America
• ✓ Tristan da Cunha Archipelago, Atlantic Ocean
• ✓ Cape Town. South Africa
• ✓ Kangaroo Island. Indian Ocean
• ✓ Australia
• ✓ New Zealand (Te-Ika-a-Mui Island)
• ✓ Maria Teresa Reef (Tabor Island)

  Maria Teresa Reef - "Ghost Island". This reef seems to be located to the east of New Zealand and to the south of the Tuamotu Archipelago, "discovered" by the whaler Assaf P. Taber in 1843.

 

   The way of travelers can also be show on the map. Fans of the book compiled this map long before I read it.

  Perhaps, one day, I will be able to repeat the path of the brave travelers!

  Research:

  When I was in elementary school, I was a young naturalist at the Yaroslavl zoo and was very interested in sharks. I know almost everything about sharks from Megalodon to Horned sharks. I know their habitat.

  I have two questions after reading the book:

  1) Could the hammerhead bring the bottle in its belly from Captain Grant threw it (Tabor Island) to the place where it was caught (off the coast of Scotland)?

  2) Could the Condor lift a 12-year-old boy into the air and fly with him?

 

  My comments on the first question: The hammerhead is one of the most unusual sea creatures. It has a very different shape of the head. Hammerhead fish has a high speed.

 

  Hammerhead lives in warm waters. This shark species do not have defined habitat. Mostly prefer warm habitat with warm temperate and tropical climate.

  We have studied the sea currents in geography this year. In the place where the island of Tabor is located in the novel by Jules Verne, the South Pacific Current flows into the cold Peruvian current. We are unlikely to meet a hammerhead in this place. Most likely, the hammerhead ate the bottle in the Pacific Ocean (in the Sea of Japan), since the bottle could not get into the Indian Ocean due to the circular currents of the Pacific Ocean. Then the Shark crossed the Indian Ocean and swam up the Atlantic Ocean with the help of the Gulf Stream, and swam to the coast of Scotland.

  Conclusion: The Hammerhead shark could not have brought the bottle in its belly from Tabor Island, but ate it later.

  I made a map: «Hypothesis: Sea travel of Captain Grant's Bottle».

 

My comments on the second question:

 

  The Andean Condor is larger than the albatross. It looks more threatening, because the Andean condor is a predator. He needs at least 1.5-2 kilograms of meat per day for a normal existence!

 

  Robert Grant was 12 years old, weighing 35-45kg. In theory, a large bird up to 135 cm long can lift a teenager weighing 35kg. But the Andean condor weighs about 15 kg. He can't lift a sheep or a child. It also has straight claws and can't grab or hold anything. The condor's main food is carrion, which it eats on the ground.

  Conclusion: The Condor can not lift Robert and fly with him. This is a fiction of the author.

  But still, I really liked this episode, and I decided to make an animation based on it.

 

  I advise anyone who likes to travel and adventure to read Jules Verne's novel "The Children of Captain Grant ". Because the novel describes many interesting geographical facts, sights, about countries and about animals.

  The book has a very interesting narrative, something interesting happens every minute. This book is very exciting, and most importantly educational.

  I also advise you to watch the film " The Children of Captain Grant " directed by Stanislav Govorukhin. It is very interesting to present the image of Jacques Paganel. Reading the book, I imagined him a little differently. But, the image in the movie I really liked.

 

  References:

  1. Жюль Верн «Дети капитана Гранта», Издательство «Астрель», 2012 год.

  2. Волцит П.М. «Нескучная география с Жюлем Верном по следам капитана Гранта», Издательство «Белый город», 2018 год.

  3. https://ru.wikipedia.org