4º ESO (reading The War of the Worlds)

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

PROLOGUE

Nobody believed in the last years of the 19^th century that intelligent life existed on Mars. And nobody knew that Mars was getting too cold for a life to continue there. The Martians needed a new home, so they decided to explore Earth because there was water, land and sunlight there. Maybe Earth was the solution to their problem.

The Martians built giant metal spaceships to travel to Earth. One day in 1894, they launched one of these spaceships towards Earth, with Martians inside it. They launched another nine spaceships over the next nine days.

Astronomers on Earth observed the great flashes of light from Mars during the ten days of spaceship launchings. They saw giant red flames shoot in Earth’s direction. Were these meteorites?

Nobody suspected that each flash of light was a spaceship launched from Mars, flying towards Earth at extreme velocities. So nobody was prepared for the strange events that happened next.

CHAPTER 1. GREAT FLASHES OF LIGHT

Ashton Cody lived with his wife, Hannah, in Woking, a small English town near London. He heard about the strange flashes of light from his friend, an astronomer called Ogilvy. He decided to visit Ogilvy at his observatory to see the strange lights for himself.

“Look trough the lens,” Ogilvy said. “Can you see them?”

Ashton looked and saw a small moving ball of light.

“That’s amazing!” he said. “What is it, Ogilvy?”

“We’re not sure. Perhaps meteorites are hitting Mars or maybe it’s an eruption of a Martian volcano,” Ogilvy explained.

“Do you think there is intelligent life on Mars?” asked Ashton.

Ogilvy laughed. “The chance that there is anything man-like on Mars is a million to one,” he replied.

The next night, Ashton was walking with Hannah in their garden. He pointed to the sky and said, “That little dot is Mars. Can you believe that it’s causing all this excitement?”

Hannah looked into the sky. “What’s happening there?” she asked. “What does Ogilvy think?”

“He thinks meteorites are hitting Mars,” replied Ashton.

“I don’t know much about Mars,” said Hannah. “How big is it?”

“Mars is seven times smaller than Earth. It’s 228 million kilometres away from the sun,” said Ashton.

“That distance is hard to imagine,” Hannah said. “How far are we from the sun?”

“Earth is about 150 million kilometres from the sun. So Mars gets much less heart from the sun than the Earth does,” Ashton explained.

“Oh, then it’s probably freezing there!” said Hannah. “I guess there’s no possibility of any form of life on Mars”.

“Well, Ogilvy doesn’t think anything lives on Mars,” Ashton said. “But I wonder…”

* * *

A few weeks after the first flash of light, something was seen flying over London, high in the sky, People thought a star was falling to Earth. The spaceship crashed into the sand near Woking and created a huge hole there. Sand flew everywhere, forming new hills.

Ogilvy saw the falling star. “The meteorite landed in this area,” he thought. “I must find it! I’ll take Ashton with me.”

Ten minutes later, he knocked on Ashton’s door, and woke him up.

“What’s wrong, Ogilvy?” he asked. “It’s the middle of the night!”

“The meteorite landed somewhere near here!” replied Ogilvy. “Come, we must find it!”

“That’s incredible!” Ashton exclaimed. “OK, let me get dressed. I’m coming with you.”