the ship was a shimmering crystal whirling through space. And in its sparkling centre, Superman slept.
He was drsssed in dark gray, so he would have been easy to spot, lying in suspended animation within his crystalline cold-sleep cocoon.
But no one was there to look for him. Superman was alone. In some ways, he had been alone for almost all of his life.
As he slept, he dreamed..
--
He was a baby, cradled in his father's arms. Then an earthquake sent a shickwave through his world. The red sun flared-larger, brighter.
But he wasn't afraid.
'Soon Krypton will be destroyed,' his father said. 'Despite overwhelming evidence, my plea to evacuate this planet has been ignored.
It leaves me no choice, Lara.'
'But Jor-El, surely- his mother pleaded.
Jor El continued, 'We must send our son , in this spaceship, to a far galaxy, to the planet Earth, in the hope that he will find a new home there.'
'But why Earth, Jor-El? Its natives are primitives. Their science and culture thousands of years behind ours.'-_-
Jor-El nodded. 'That is true. The advantage will help him survive. '
'He will be odd. Different.' Lara argued.
'Earth's yellow sun will heighten his abilities.' Jor El countered.
'He will be able to fly. He will be fast. virtually invulnerable.'
'Isolated, alone! 'Lara said, reaching out for her infant son.
Another tremor struck,sending shards of crystal raining down on them. The ground shook convulsively.
Lara withdrew her arms and looked desperately at her husband's face.
Jor-El placed his son in an egg-shaped cradle, nestled in a ship of crystal.
'He will never be alone.' He held out a crystal for Lara to see, then placed it in the cradle beside the infant.
He closed the hatch. 'Sleep, my little Kal-El. You will travel far, but we will never leave you. Even in the face of out deaths,
the richness of our lives will be yours.'
The infant Kal-El felt the cold-sleep cradle rock as the ship carried him into space.
'All that I have learned, everything I feel, all of this and more I bequeath you, my son,' his father's soothing voice came from the crystal.
'Now close your eyes... and aleep.'
And while the infant Kal-El slept, the red sun of Krypton exploded behind him.
----
Superman awoke to a jolting alarm and flashing lights.
He had been dreaming.. of Krypton.
The rounded top of his cold-sleep cocoon sprang open.
He sat up, feeling dizzy. He looked around the faceted interior of the crystal ship.
And he remembered.
---
He had been born on the planet Krypton weeks before that world was destroyed. But he had been raised on Earth.
He had tried to lead a normal life as reporter Clark Kent, while also acting as Superman, protector of his adopted world.
But he felt caught between his human surroundings and his Kryptonian heritage- different from everyone else in the universe and alone.
Above all, he valued truth,
and the fact that he was forced to live a double life- secret even from Lois Lane, the woman he had come to love- was tearing him apart.
Then an unmanned exploration satellite had picked up a steady signal coming from space.
Earths' astronomers speculated that it was a distress call from a remnant of the destroyed planet, Krypton.
In the end, he realised that he needed to return to the planet of his birth, in order to understand who and what he truly was.
He told only his human mother he was leaving. After all, he didn't expect to be gone more than a few months.
He had flown into the stratosphere and absorbed the unimpeded rays from Earths's yellow sun that gave him superhuman powers,
to keep him strong for the long journey ahead.
Then he had climbed into his crystal ship and left the earth.
He had travelled in suspended animation to avoid draining his energy. He would need to be at maximum ability to explore the remnants of his home world..
--
Now, a sure of excitement filled him.
He staggered to the controls. At his command the ship's front wall became transparent.
Below him, a dark shape blotted out the stars. 'Krypton,' he breathed. 'At last.'
'Light!' he commanded, and a spotlight shone from the ship.
It refracted off cities made of crystal. But those crystal were dead, not glowing with energy like his spaceship.
He flew closer- listening for the reported signal with superhearing, using X-ray vision to scan the buildings for survivors.
He heard nothing. And saw, instead of survivors, aneerie greenish glow. Radiation from the exploded red sun had transformed the crystals of his home world.
They had become kryptonite-a deadly poison to Superman.
His stomach swirled.
But he forced his ship down further, through a broken dome. Its spotlight lit a hieroglyph. Similar hieroglyphs were on the monuments nearby.
Among them, he spotted his S-shield crest, the symbol of his Kryptonian heritage.
The nausea became crippling pain.
'Out! ' he said.'Away!'
The ship obeyed. And, looking down, he realised he had been in the Kryptonian Valley of the Elders.
Then suddenly, the land ended- and beyond it were the stars. Was this shard of his home world all that was left?
As his ship pulled away, he saw giant slabs of kryptonite bursting through the planet's mantle.
'No wonder I'm feeling weak,' he muttered. But he had been dizzy-muddleheaded- when he awoke.
How long had his ship been circling, searhing for signs of life?
How long had he been away fromEarth and its life-giving yellow sun?
'charts,' he said. A holographic array of stars and Kryptonian symbols flashed before him.
'No!' he muttered. 'That's impossible.' But he knew it wasn't. He had been awat from Earth not for months, but for years.
It had taken his ship that long to locate a piece of Krypton large enough to possibly sustain life.
Something large slammed into the crystal ship, nearly shaking superman from his feet.
Another jolt followed. He looked out the transparent window and saw that he had sent the ship into an asteroid field of kryptonite.
Superman fell to his knees, clutching his abdomen.
A barrage of asteroids shattered and fell away.
He knew the ship ould grow replacement crystals. But that wouldn't.. couldn't happen indefinitely.
Weakly, Superman croaked, 'Earth! Return to Earth!'
He staggered towards his cold -sleep cocoon. As he collapsed into it,
he looked not at the remnants of the destroyed planet of his birth, but at the holographic image of the world that had adopted him as its own son.
As the hatch closed over his cold -sleep cocoon, and the ship moved from the asteroid field and into open space, he had only one thought.
'Earth,' he whispered. 'Home.'
중요 포인트는 한글로 해석하지 말 것.
사전은 영영 사전을 이용할 것. 혹시나 영한사전을 이용하면 읽고 한글 외우지 말고 그림으로 적용시켜 외울 것
한 문장 읽고 그림으로 생각해 볼 것.
이걸 다 타자로 친 인생&조이에게 감사하며 오른쪽에 유용한 광고 하나 있으면 클릭할 것-_-..ㅋㅋ
하나 치는데 2시간 쯤 걸리네요. 한타는 500나오는데 영타는 200도 안나오는듯 ㅠ
조기 오른쪽에 수퍼맨 리턴즈 책. 2달러! 그 앞에 분홍색 책은 하루에 하나씩 보는 잠언집같은거 ^^2달러
영어 공부는 역시 책으로 해야 제 맛. 사람 하는말이 거기서 거기 다 비슷한 말만 쓰기 때문이죠.
아놔 언제쯤 실력이 늘고늘고 늘어 금발에 파란눈을 멋들어지게 웃기며 꼬실지.-_-
