Listening,1. Read these words and then listen to the tape. Circle those aids that early sailors used to find their way.,2. Listen to the tape again and fill in the chart.,Norway,Pacific,Studied the waves of the ocean,Watched birds to find land,3. These are some Viking sailing directions from Norway to Greenland.,Sail west but keep to the north of the Shetland Islands so you can hardly see them in good weather. Stay far enough south of the Faroes so that their steep mountains are just halfway up the horizon.,Keep south of Iceland so that you cannot see land but just coastal birds. Follow this route and you should reach Greenland.,Use the information from the listening to explain these sailing strategies.,Vikings used to prefer to sail following the coastline so they could check that they were on the correct route. Vikings used birds, and natural features like mountains, to direct their ships.,LISTENING TEXT,NAVIGATIONAL SECRETS Wang Ming (WM) has come to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich to talk to the naval historian Dr Smith (DS).,WM: Thank you so much for talking to me. Please can you tell me how sailors managed before navigational instruments or satellites were invented? DS: Of course. At first if there was no land nearby the seamen used the sky to find their way. They looked,at the clouds in the daytime and the stars at night. But very soon they began to develop local maps. About 5,000 years ago sailors from Phoenicia in North Africa used simple maps to guide their ships around the Mediterranean Sea. They were the best traders of their day.,WM: Really? How cleaver! Did everybody use simple maps? DS: No. I'm afraid not. It was difficult to have a map for sailing across open sea then. We know the Vikings from Norway had no written maps when they sailed across the North Sea.,WM: The Vikings? Didn't they sail around and attack people and towns from their ships? DS: Sometimes. But we're not interested in that, only in their superior sailing ability. WM: I see! So what did they do? DS: Well, one of the things they did was concentrate on watching,birds. There's the story of a Viking called Raven-Floki. He used to keep birds on his ships but he didn't feed them. Then when he thought land was near he'd let the birds go and if they flew straight to land, all he had to do was to follow them!,WM: Did he find any new lands to live on? DS: Well, he did find a good way of sailing from the Faroe Islands to Iceland using his ravens. Its said that he took three birds on his ship with him. When hed been sailing for a day or two towards Iceland he let the first bird go.,It flew back to the Faroe Islands. A day after this he let the second bird go. This flew out of sight but came back to rest on the ship. Sometime after that, he let the third bird go. It headed straight for Iceland so Raven-Floki followed it and arrived there safely.,WM: That sounds clever! Ive heard too about the Polynesians in the Pacific Ocean. They did some amazing voyages without any navigational instruments to help them at all. How did they do that? DS: Nobodys really quite sure.,But it seems that they studied the currents in the water, the colour of the sea and the different kinds of waves. WM: Do Polynesian sailors still do that? DS: Not nowadays Im afraid. WM: Have we lost this skill?,DS: Yes, I'm afraid we have. Ancient Polynesians made maps of leaves and shells which others were able to follow. If only we could read them we would be able to understand more of their navigational skills. The sailors from Phoenicia, Norway and Polynesia could certainly teach us a lot. ( fade out),Listening on P59,Zheng He sailed from China to many places throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Taiwan, Persian Gulf and distant Africa in seven epic voyages from 1405 to 1433 ,some 80 years before Columbus's voyages.,1. What places might he visit? 2. What did he bring back? 3. Why did he set off the voyages? 4. Why didnt the Emperor continue this policy? 5. Why is he so important in the history?,Pre-listening,Listen to the tape and tick those ports and islands mentioned in the text.,Exercise 3,No reports of other navigators for this period have survived.,It was written in documents.,The writers mention it in the books.,He made 7 voyages and visited more than 30 countries.,Zheng He remarks how much the foreign kings liked porcelain and silk.,1. He brought a giraffe for the Emperor from Africa. 2. He brought scarves of fine gold decorated with pearls and precious stones.,Exercise 4,The Emperor wanted to demonstrate Chinese power abroad so _ 2. When he died Zheng He wanted people to know how successful he had been so _,he sent Zheng He with a large fleet of ships to visit new places in neighbouring countries.,he put up a pillar describing all his achievements.,3. The writers wanted people to believe that Zheng Hes ships were large so _ 4. The writers wanted people to believe Zheng He was very important so _ _,that they would believe that he really had achieved great things and gone to many foreign countries.,they described him as being eight feet tall.,Listening text,Who Was Zheng He?,(Li Huaying =LH, Celia Main=CM),LH: The most famous Chinese navigator was Zheng He lived from 1371 to 1433 and made seven voyages around the South China Sea, across to India and even as far as the eastern coast of Africa. It was 600th,anniversary of these voyages in 2005. CM: Are there other famous Chinese navigators or is he only one? LH: He is the only one weve got evidence for. CM: So there may have been others? LH: We dont know. Thats because a later Emperor may have destroyed a lot of evidence of other voyages.,CM: I see. Where did Zheng He go? LH: The documents tell us that he was born in Yunnan. He built a pillar to record his achievements. It states that he made seven voyages and visited more than thirty countries. He said that the Emperor ordered him to show the strength of Chinese power and meet “foreigners from beyond the seas”. So he went to,unknown places and set up trade. CM: Tell me about his Voyages. LH: Well, on his first voyage he visited Calicut in India. The people there were very impresses and a little frightened when they saw so many large ships. So the ruler wisely decided to make friends with these strangers. He gave Zheng He,many scarves made of gold and decorated with jewels. Then he entertained him and his men with music and songs. CM: Did he go to other places? LH: Yes, on other voyages he visited Champa, and Sumatra near China, Hormuz, and Aden in the Persian Gulf and Mogadishu in Africa. Zheng He opened diplomatic relations with them and gave them,presents. CM: What did Chinese offer as gifts? LH: Zheng He found that foreign kings particularly admired Chinese porcelain and silk. So thats why his ships were filled with those things. CM: I see. Is that why they say his ships were so large? LH: Yes, I suppose so. When he returned from India he brought a,giraffe for the Emperor as a present. So his ships must have been large. CM: Some writers say that the ships could carry as many as 20,000people altogether. LH: And other writers say Zheng He was 8 feet tall! We shouldnt believe everything writers tell us. Obviously they wanted to show,how important Zheng He was. Undoubtedly the ships were large- but perhaps not that large! CM: I see. That makes sense. Well, thank you for telling me about Zheng He. He sounds a fascinating man.,