The Boatton the Moonl by St Athur CCloe

Arthur Charles Clarke the mostfamous Brilsh sclernce fictiori wniters of

the 20th century, This (1917-2008) was of
oneone of his novels called AFall of Moondust Lefs firn
extract is taken from
out what happens.

unibroken unti
To be the skipper of the only boat on the dusty surface marched onward
Cewas a distinction that Pat Haris enjoyed. Moon
As the the stars. Above it hunig the wäniha
reachedEarth,
itcrescent
passengers filed aboard the Selene, poised fórever inthe sky frorn which
jockeying
for window seats, he wondered what sort of trip it had not moved in a billion yedrs. The
briliant
this
it would be this time. In the
rear-view miror he blue-green light of the mother world, flooded
cold#
could see Miss Wilkins, very smart in her blue strange land with a cold radiänce-ánd zero on
Lunar Tourist Commission uniform, puting on her was indeed, perhaps three hundred beloW
USual welcome act. He always tried to think of her the exposed surface.
as "Miss Wilkins", not Sue w
together;, it helped to keep When they were on duty No one could have told, merely by looking at
his mind on business. it, whether the Sea was liquid or solid. It vwas
But what she thought of him, he had never really
discovered. completely flat and fegtureless, quite free frorno the
myriad cracks and fissures that scáred all the rest
of this barren world. Not asingle hillock, bouder
Why were the passengers "jockeying for or pebble broke its monotonous uniformity. No ser
window seats"? on Earth-no millpond, even-Was ever as calm
as this.
There were no familiar faces; this was a new
It was a sea of dust, not of water, and, therefore t
bunch, eager for their first cruise. Most of the
passengers were typical tourists: elderly people, was alien to the experience of men,; therefore, also
visiting a world that had been the very symbol of itfascinated and attracted them. Fine as talcum
powder, drier in this vacuum than the parched
inaccessibility when they were young. There were sands of the Sahara, it flowed as easily and
only four or five passengers on the low side ot, ( eforlessly as any
thirty, and they were probablyt personnel' liquid. Aheavy object dropped
On Vacation from one of
te bases Tws B into it would disappear instantly, without a solash
afairly good working rule, Pat had discovered, leaving no scar to mark its passage. Nothing couid
move upon its treacherous surface except the
that allthe old people came from Earth, while the
youngsters were residents of the Moon. smal, two-mgn dust-skis-and the Selene herself
But to all of them, the Sea of Thirst wasa novelty.
an improbabl combination of sledge and bus
not unlike the Sno-cats that had opened up the
Beyond the Selene's observation windows, its gray, Antarctic a lifetime ago.

What is the "sea" that the writeris talking about here? Why does he refer to it in this woy?

44) Grade 6 " English OXSEED Education

 he.
Solene'solicialdesignation was DUst-Cruiser, electric motors Instead of rockets, she caried
thoughtothe best of Pa>'s knowledge,
Monk,
all the basic equjpment of a ful-fledged ship of
exist even on the drawing
IIdidnotcalledc
oMark. space-and all of lt had to be checked before
Shewas aship, boat, or moon departure.
board
aCCordingtotaste; Pat prefered boat, for Iit Oxygen-OK, Power-OK. Radio--OK, ('Hello,
prevented
bus |confusion. When he used that word,
would mistake him for the skipper of a
Rainbow Base, the Selene testing. Are you
spoceshipand|
noone spaceshipcaptains were, of receving my beacon?"l Inertial navigatorzeroed.
Air-lock safety-On. Cabin-leak detector-OK.
penny.
cOUIse,Woa Internal lights-OK Gangway-disconnected.
Welcome aboard the Selene said Miss Wilkins, And so on for more than fifty itens, every one of
everyonehad| setled down. "Caplain Haris which wouldIautomatically call attention to itselfin
when pleased|to have yoU with us. Our trip case of trouble. But Pat Harris, like llspacemen
andIare objective will be hankering after old age, never relied on auto
willlastfour,hours,, and our first
CraterLake, a hundred kilometers east of here in wamings if he could Cary out the check himself.
Inaccessibiliy. At last he was ready. The almost silent motors
the Mountains of
familiar introduction; he started to spin, but the blades were still feathered,
Patscarcely heard| the
his countdown. The Selene was and the Selene barely quivered at her moorings.
was busy with to be, Then, he eased the port fan into fine pitch, and
virtually a grounded spaceship; she had
since she was traveling in a vaCUum,
and must she began to curve slowly to the right. When
DIolect her frail cargo from the hostile
world she was clear of the embarkation building, he
the straightened her out and pushed the throttle
beyond her walls. Though she never left forward.
surtace of the Moon, and was propelled by

hostleie

Block7The Boaon the Moon I (45)

 endlesS

while for the passengers to realize the strangeness

She handled very well,when one considered the
complete noyely of her design.There had been seen of what lay outside. They had Crossed space and
no millennia of trial and error here, stretching stars all about them; they had looked up-or
tace of Earth, but this Was
back fo the first Neolithic man who ever lqunched down--at the dazzling
a log out into a stream. The Selene was the very different. It was neither land nor sea, neither air nor
first of her line, created in the brains of a few space, but a little of each.
engineers who had sat down at a table and
asked themselves:
Mop S e
"How do we build a vehicle
that will skim over a sea of dust?" mot How was this different from the trips that
Mississpi Eiver
Some of them, harking back to Ole Man River,Captain Harris had previously undertaken?
had wanted to make her asten-wheeler, but theyic Padale
more efficient submerged fans had carried the
day. As they drilled through the dust, driving her
before them, they produced a wake like that of a A-Z GLOSSARY
high-speed mole, but it vanished within seconds,
leaving the Sea unmarked by any sign of the bulecoasted (v): moved quickly and smoothly, without
DoaTs pasSage.Jtchepe prsSing much povwer
Now the sqUat pressure-domes of Port Roris were designation (n): a name, title, or description
dropping swiftly below the skyline. In less than hankering (v: yeaning; wishing
ten minutes, they had vanished from sight: the harking (: remembering: going back to
Selene was utterly alone. She was at the center of
something for which the languages of mankind jockeying (: competing; racing with others
have no name. novelty (nl: something new, different, and interesting
As Pat switched off the motors and the boat propelled (: moved foward with force
coasted torest, he waited for the silence to grow skipper (nl: the captain of a ship or spaceship
around him. It was always the same; it took a little

46) Grade 6 English © XSEED Education