tailieunhanh - LUYỆN ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH QUA TÁC PHẨM VĂN HỌC-JULES VERNE- THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND- CHAPTER 2

JULES VERNE- THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND CHAPTER 2 Đây là một tác phẩm anh ngữ nổi tiếng với những từ vựng nâng cao chuyên ngành văn chương. Nhằm giúp các bạn yêu thich tiếng anh luyện tập và củng cố thêm kỹ năng đọc tiếng anh . | JULES VERNE THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND CHAPTER 2 Those whom the hurricane had just thrown on this coast were neither aeronauts by profession nor amateurs. They were prisoners of war whose boldness had induced them to escape in this extraordinary manner. A hundred times they had almost perished A hundred times had they almost fallen from their torn balloon into the depths of the ocean. But Heaven had reserved them for a strange destiny and after having on the 20th of March escaped from Richmond besieged by the troops of General Ulysses Grant they found themselves seven thousand miles from the capital of Virginia which was the principal stronghold of the South during the terrible War of Secession. Their aerial voyage had lasted five days. The curious circumstances which led to the escape of the prisoners were as follows That same year in the month of February 1865 in one of the coups de main by which General Grant attempted though in vain to possess himself of Richmond several of his officers fell into the power of the enemy and were detained in the town. One of the most distinguished was Captain Cyrus Harding. He was a native of Massachusetts a first-class engineer to whom the government had confided during the war the direction of the railways which were so important at that time. A true Northerner thin bony lean about forty-five years of age his close-cut hair and his beard of which he only kept a thick mustache were already getting gray. He had one-of those finely-developed heads which appear made to be struck on a medal piercing eyes a serious mouth the physiognomy of a clever man of the military school. He was one of those engineers who began by handling the hammer and pickaxe like generals who first act as common soldiers. Besides mental power he also possessed great manual dexterity. His muscles exhibited remarkable proofs of tenacity. A man of action as well as a man of thought all he did was without effort to one of his vigorous and sanguine temperament. Learned