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Hi there, guys! Welcome to Words in Use 2.

“Gulliver’s Travels”

Jonathan Swift tried to show the smallness of people by writing the biography* of Dr Lemuel Gulliver. In one of his strangest adventures, Gulliver was shipwrecked. Drenched* and weary, he fell asleep on the shore. In the morning, he found himself tied to pegs in the ground, and swarming over him were hundreds of little people six inches high.

After a time, he was allowed to stand, though he began to wobble* from being bound so long. He was then marched through the streets, naturally causing a tumult* wherever he went. Even the palace was not big enough for him to enter, nor could he kneel* before the king and queen. But he did show his respect for them in another way.

The king was dejected* because he feared an invasion of Lilliput by Blefuscu, the enemy across the ocean. The reason for the war between the two tiny peoples would seem small and foolish to us. The rebels of Blefuscu were originally Lilliputians who would not abide* by the royal decision to crack their eggs on the small end instead of on the larger end. Gulliver, obedient* to the king’s command, waded out into the water when the tide receded, and sticking a little iron hook into each of fifty warships, he pulled the entire enemy fleet to Lilliput. Gulliver later escaped from Lilliput when he realized the tiny king was really a tyrant with no charity* in his heart.

Oddly enough, the verdict* of generations of readers has taken no heed* of the author’s intention in Gulliver’s Travels. Instead, while Lilliputians are still the symbol* of small, narrow-minded people, Swift’s savage attack upon humankind has become one of the best-loved children’s classics.

Alright, our story for lesson 38 is finished. See you in the next part, good luck!