Marco Polo was the man who _____.

His father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, were _____ around the world.

His father and uncle were invited by an important official to go with him to China. So they set off together along the Silk Road. The Silk Road as very important for trade, because merchants used it to bring _____ from the countries of the east to Europe.

In 1264, after a long journey, his father and uncle arrived at Kublai Khan’s palace. He was the grandson of the great Genghis Khan, and the most powerful man in the Mongol Empire. He was very pleased to meet them and asked them many questions about European countries. He wanted to know about _____.

Kublai Khan was also very interested in the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, who lived in Rome. He asked Niccolò and Maffeo if they would take a letter to the Pope, and bring back _____. In addition, he asked them to bring oil from the famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

As soon as they returned to Venice in 1269, they started to plan their return journey to China. Marco Polo was very excited because they had told him that they would take him with them. And, in 1271, they left Venice. It was difficult to send exactly what Kublai Khan wanted, and they were worried if he could be disappointed about that. But they continued the journey. Along the way, he was learning valuable lessons from his father and uncle about _____

It was a difficult journey but they managed to meet Kublai Khan. He was pleased with the oil and the letters from the Pope. Marco Polo was introduced to him and Kublai Khan took great interest in him. Marco Polo learned to read and write the Khan’s language and several other languages too. He became familiar with Chinese traditions. Kublai Khan’s empire _____

Kublai Khan needed someone to travel around his huge empire, and to represent him officially as his ambassador. He liked and trusted Marco Polo very much, so in 1275, he asked him to visit some places in his empire, and report to him what was happening. When he returned from his travels, the Khan was _____.

His father and uncle were worried about what would happen to them after the Khan died, so they wanted to go back to Venice. Their chance came in 1292, when the Khan asked them to accompany a beautiful princess to Kerman in Persia. The order was to accompany her and take her to her future husband. The Khan gave them permission to continue on to Venice, but after that he made them promise to return to China. The journey took two years. On the way to Venice, they received _____.

They decided to continue the journey. When they arrived they found that two cities were at war. They were fighting about trade routes in the Mediterranean Sea. Marco Polo fought for Venice and in 1298 he _____.

Ibn Battuta was the man who _____.

He was born on the northern coast of Morocco. His family came from the Berber tribe and were scholars in Islamic law, so he was educated in Islamic law. In June 1325, at the age of 21, he set off on the hajj, or _____ to the holy city of Mecca in the country now known as Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to find a group of people to travel with, so he had to set off by himself. He went to different cities and to cross the desert. At last he reached Mecca, where he _____.

He arrived in Mecca, but he wasn’t keen to return to Morocco. He wanted to do some more travelling, and see more new places. So on 17^th November 1326, he joined a caravan of pilgrims from Iraq who were travelling home across Arabia. At a certain point, he left the caravan. He arrived in Baghdad in 1327, where he was surprised by the large number of bathhouses, _____.

He found a large group of Mongols who were travelling north, and he joined them for a while. His plan was to return to Mecca for another hajj. By the time he arrived in Mecca, he was completely _____. But then he set out for the port of Jeddah on the Red sea coast in the country now known as Saudi Arabia.

After returning to Mecca for the hajj again, he joined a caravan which was going to Anatolia in eastern Turkey. He had a new and ambitious plan. He was hoping to join a caravan in Anatolia which was travelling to India, because he wanted to find work with the Sultan of Delhi. After a long journey he met Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq. He was very interested in him because he knew about _____. He appointed him as a qadi, a judge.

He worked for the Sultan for six years, but his job was sometimes very difficult because the Sultan’s moods kept changing. For that reason, he was very keen to get away from his court. But the Sultan had other plans for him, and asked him to _____.

He was very interested in the opportunity, so he agreed to do that. He had two bad situations but and he was afraid to return to Delhi because he knew that the Sultan would be angry with him. So he decided to continue his journey visiting the Maldives Islands on the way. The people there had been Buddhists but they’d recently changed their religion to Islam. So they _____.

He left the Maldives and set sail for sri Lanka, but there was a disaster when his ship sank near the coast. Another ship came to rescue him, but this ship was attacked by pirates, and again he was left stranded on the shore. At last he arrived back in the Maldives and found a ship heading for China. He saw many amazing things in China and was greatly impressed by them. The artists there were very skillful, and made beautiful things out of silk and porcelain. The Chinese people used a system that he had never seen before – _____

In 1348, he left China. He felt it was time for him to return to Morocco. He crossed the sea to Iberia, then came back and travelled around Morocco. Now he had another ambitious plan – to _____.

Christopher Columbus was the man who _____

He was born in Genoa in 1451. From an early age, he loved the sea, and he made his first voyage when he was only ten years old. In 1473, he became apprenticed to one of the most important families in Genoa, the Centurione family. He sailed on several trading voyages for the family, _____, but in 1476, a disaster happened which nearly ended his life.

By 1488, he was busy making plans for an ambitious voyage – _____.

For his first voyage, he spoke to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to try to sponsor him. It wasn’t easy to persuade them, especially as his ideas about the size of the Earth and the oceans were different from other people’s. but at last the King and the Queen agreed to support him. On 3^rd August 1492, he set sail from Palos in Spain with three ships and a crew of 90 sailors. _____.

On 12^th October 1492, they landed on an island which they claimed immediately for Spain and named san Salvador. The native island people were friendly, and he noticed that they were wearing jewelry made of gold. From there they sailed to another island. On Christmas Day, they had an accident. But the island people helped them. Unfortunately, there was no room for the 39 sailors, so Christopher Columbus had to leave them behind on Hispaniola. He and some sailors could go back to Spain and there were great celebrations at his return. The King and The Queen were delighted when he told them _____.

His first voyage hadn’t been completely successful. So he persuaded the King and the Queen that he needed to go back and continue searching for China and Japan. He set sail again, but this time with a much larger fleet of 17 ships and over a thousand men. They crossed the Atlantic quickly and reached Hispaniola. But on Hispaniola _____.

They started exploring other parts of the island to look for gold, but they didn’t find much. In April 1494 he took three ships and went to look for China, but instead they landed on Juana (Cuba). From there they sailed to Jamaica, but the people were unfriendly, so they returned to Hispaniola. He was an excellent sea captain, but _____. In 1496, he set sail for Spain, leaving his brothers to govern the settlement.

On 30^th May 1498, he set sail once more from Spain on another trip to the New World, this time with a fleet of six ships. Three ships sailed to Hispaniola, carrying fresh supplies of food to the people in the settlement, while he led the other three ships south to do more exploring. They had some problems, but they sailed on, until an island with three hills appeared, which he called Trinidad. After some time, he was becoming seriously ill, so he decided that he would return to Hispaniola. But when he reached the island, he found a situation. _____.

He persuaded the King and the Queen to allow him to go on the last voyage to find wealth he had promised them. He still wanted to find the route across the sea to the Indian Ocean. On 11^th May 1502, he left Spain with three ships and 140 men. But when he reached Hispaniola, the new governor, Bobadilla, wouldn’t let him land. The seas were very rough and dangerous, and he knew there was going to be a hurricane. He warned Bobadilla, _____.

His fourth voyage was his final one. He had been suffering from serious illnesses for many years, and he knew that he had brought about some important changes. He had _____.

James Cook was the first man _____

He was born in England. In 1736, his father got a job as manager on a farm in the village of Great Ayton, and after leaving school at the age of 13, he helped him with that work. But he wasn’t good at farm work, so in 1745, he became apprentice to Mr. Sanderson, the owner of a shop in the fishing village of Staithes, 20 miles away. However, he soon realized that he was more interested in the sea than in his shop. So he introduced him to some local ship owners. They accepted him as their apprentice, and for the next three years, he _____.

During his years as an apprentice, from 1746 to 1749, he learned valuable sailing skills, as well as, _____.

In 1755, a new chapter of his life began. Britain was preparing for a war against France and Spain, later called the Seven Years’ War. He was very keen to serve his king and country, so he joined the British Royal Navy. Soon, he was taking part in sea battles against French navy. In 1757, he _____.

After a short time he sailed across the Atlantic to defend the British lands in Canada against French. He was taught _____ by an expert surveyor, Samuel Holland, and he became very skillful at this work.

The Seven Years’ War ended and the Navy sent him back to Canada in May 1763. His pieces of work were accurate and detailed. The members so an organization of scientists were very impressed by his work. From the start of his career, he had learned about astronomy, and in 1766, he reported on _____. This impressed the Royal Society’s members even more.

In August 1768, he set sail from Plymouth in the west of England on a ship called HMS Endeavor. The official purpose of the expedition had been to find out information for the Royal Society. However, he had also received secret orders from the Admiralty, the headquarters of the Royal navy, to continue their voyage. At that time, people believed that there was a southern continent. He was ordered to find this continent and claim it for Britain. And he did that. Next, they headed west to the land known as New Holland. On April 1770, they landed in a bay which they could see _____.

They went home and, on their voyage, they discovered many new things, the rip had been long and dangerous, and many of his crew had died. He was always worried about the health of his men. He made sure his crew had plenty of fresh food. He knew that fruit was important, because it helped to stop the becoming ill with scurvy – a disease _____.

In August 1771, shortly after his return, he was promoted to Commander. Then in 1772, the Admiralty decided to send him on another expedition, with aim of either finding the continent Terra Australis or proving that it didn’t exist. On 17^th January 1773, they became probably the first ships to cross the Antarctic Circle. They had some problems but they sailed around Cape Horn and across South Atlantic, claiming several islands for Britain on the way. When he got home, he wrote a report, saying _____.

Although the Royal Navy had asked him if he wanted to retire, he couldn’t stay away from the sea. So in 1776, he set out on his third and final expedition. The main purpose of their voyage was to discover a sea route through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But on one of the islands the people weren’t friendly and they started to attack them. The island people ______.

David Livingstone was the man who _____.

He was born in Scotland in 1813. His family was poor, so very early in his life, he learned what hard work was like. When he was ten, he started working in the local _____ to earn money for his family. However, the owner of the place believed that children’s education was important too. So he attended lessons in the evenings and at weekends and learned to read and write.

His parents were Christians, and sometimes Christian preachers visited their area to give talks. Some of these preachers inspired him to travel to other countries to work as a Christian missionary. His dream was to become _____, but first he had to become qualified in medicine and then finish his missionary training. In 1840, he met a man who changed his life. He was Robert Moffat, a Scottish missionary, who was visiting the LMS from Kuruman, a missionary outpost in the southern part of Africa. David Livingstone was very excited by his descriptions of Africa and his work.

He was sure that he had a calling, a special duty, to go and work in Kuruman. So in 1841, he arrived at the outpost after a long and difficult journey. However, he wanted to preach Christianity in other places as well, so in 1844, he went further north. He built a house there and travelled around the small villages. However, one day, he had a frightening experience. _____.

He travelled back to Kuruman to visit Robert Moffat. There he met his daughter, Mary, and they fell in love. They got married in 1845. Mary and the children often came with him on his journeys, although this made him very worried when the children became ill from disease. He very much wanted to explore more of Africa, but he was worried about them. So he decided to send them back to England. In 1855, he became the first European to discover a magnificent waterfall. It was called ‘the _____’ in the local language.

In May 1856, he became the first white man to cross southern Africa from the coast of Angola in the west to Quelimane on the coast of Mozambique in the east. When he returned to Britain in 1856, he found that he had become a national hero. He was a famous explorer and everybody wanted to meet him. Now his own purpose for being in Africa had changed. The _____ was still going on there, and he hated it and wanted to stop it.

He wanted to navigate the river and open it up for trading in goods. He hoped that this kind of trading would finally replace the terrible trade they were having. The British Government agreed to give him money, and they appointed him as a leader of the Zambezi Expedition. But unfortunately, it wasn’t a success. And in 1862, he suffered a terrible tragedy. _____.

The British Government were worried about how much the expedition was costing, and he was ordered to return home. When he arrived in London, he gave a report about the expedition to the government, but they weren’t very happy. But now he had an idea for anew expedition. He got a team of people together, but they had some problems. He was very weak and sick, and greatly in need of help. Ironically, he was rescued by the people he hated most – the _____.

When he had recovered, he continued exploring and traveled south. In early 1869, while he was in the jungle, he became very ill again, and once more, the same people helped him and saved his life. In March 1869, he finally reached Ujiji, but he found that all his supplies had been stolen. He became very ill and, for the third time, he was helped by the same people, who took him to a place called Bambara. He hadn’t any supplies left, so _____. Finally he returned to Ujiji in October 1871.

He hadn’t been in contact with the world outside Africa for nearly six years. He didn’t think anyone was interested in finding him but in November 1871, an American reporter, Morton Stanley, had been sent to find him by a newspaper. Stanley tried hard to persuade him to leave Africa, but he always refused. He didn’t want to leave until he had achieved the purpose of his expedition – to _____. But in 1873, he died from an illness Chief Chitambo’s village.

Yuri Gagarin was the man who _____.

He was born in 1934 in the Soviet Union in the part known now as Russia. His parents worked on a collective farm, which was a group of farms managed by workers under the control of the government. When he was five, _____ began. During the war, German soldiers came and attacked their area, and forced his family to leave their home.

After the war, their family moved to Gzhatsk, where he received a basic education, paid for by the government. At school, he especially enjoyed mathematics and physics, and became very good at these subjects. In addition, one of his teachers, who had been a pilot in the war, inspired him to become interested in _____.

After he left school, he became an apprentice in a factory, working with metal. As part of his training, he attended the technical college. He was very keen to become a pilot, so he joined a flying club, and learned to fly light planes. As soon as possible, he joined the Soviet Air Force and started training at the Orenburg School for Pilots. He learned to fly a MiG-15, a Soviet fighter-plane, and he also did some _____ training.

After graduating, he was sent on several missions. First, he was ordered to go to Loustari Airbase. There he became an expert fighter-pilot, and learned to fly planes very fast in difficult and dangerous weather conditions. There I s very little space inside a fighter-plane, so he was quite comfortable inside one. He completed all his missions successfully, and in 1959 he was promoted to second Lieutenant. However, although he enjoyed flying, his real interest was always in _____.

His great ambition was to be that man, so he applied to join the Cosmonaut Training Program. This trained people to _____.

The program was top secret, because of the “Space Race”, the strong competition between the USSR and the USA. Each country was very keen to be the world leader in space travel, and the first to put a man in the Moon. The Russian leader wanted the USSR to be the first. He didn’t want the Americans to find out what progress the USSR was making, so the Soviet cosmonauts were trained in secret. In 1960, he was told that he was one of 20 men selected for cosmonaut training. Only one of them would be selected so some things were important: _____.

He was delighted when he learned that he was the man chosen for the dangerous voyage into space. The trainers liked him because in addition to his skills he was always cheerful and he had a good sense of humor. The chief designer of the program was a brilliant engineer called Sergei Korolev. He had planned and directed the launch of Sputnik 1, _____, in 1957.

Sputnik 1 had been followed a month later by Sputnik 2. This carried a dog called Laika. Korolev had an even more ambitious plan – to send a human being into space for the first time. Yuri Gagarin became the ‘face’ of the Vostok 1 project. Just before he climbed up into Vostok 1 for the launch, he gave a speech.  He said that _____.

Vostok 1 took off from the Earth with a great noise and he was launched into space. After his return he became very famous. He became a hero in his country, and he received many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest honor. His trip into space was not only a success for Soviet engineering and design, but also for _____.