04 우산에 담긴 권력의 역사

Reader's Bank_Level 7_Unit 02                                     Reading Text

Let’s learn what umbrellas meant a long time ago. Back then, umbrellas weren’t just for blocking the sun or rain.  They were special items that showed who was important. If a ruler had many umbrellas, people thought the ruler was very powerful. In addition, if someone had a really big umbrella, it meant they had a lot of power.

In ancient China, only the emperor was allowed to carry an umbrella. If anyone else used one, they could be punished—sometimes even with death! That might sound strange to us today because umbrellas are so common. We use them to stay dry in the rain or cool in the sun. But hundreds of years ago, they were not for everyone. They were a clear sign of power and who was the boss.

It’s fun to see how one simple item could mean something so different in the past.

05 별들이 우주에 남긴 흔적

Many stars that we see in the night sky are not really there. Stars are so far away from us. Sometimes a star’s light might reach us long after the star stopped existing.

For example, the light from *Proxima Centauri takes more than four light years to reach us even though it is the closest star to us besides the sun. Therefore, if its light went out today, we wouldn’t realize it until four years later. Some stars we “see” today may have died before the Korean War, and others before King Sejong invented Hangul.

The most distant stars visible to the naked eye are 2.6 million light years away. Some of these stars whose light we still see today may have disappeared hundreds of thousands of years ago. The fact that we see light from stars so far away proves that the universe is huge.

06 몰디브 플랑크톤의 빛

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, there is a small and beautiful island country called the Maldives. It is south of Sri Lanka. The Maldives is famous for its glowing beaches. People call it the “Sea of Stars.” The most famous beach is on Vaadhoo Island.

At night, the beach on Vaadhoo Island is truly spectacular. When it gets dark, you can see many blue lights shining like stars in the sky. What makes such a wonderful scene? Interestingly, the lights are created by plankton. When the waves crash on the beach, the plankton are disturbed and start to glow. They glow because they want to protect themselves. By glowing, they try to distract the fish and other animals that want to attack them.

When you plan your next vacation, remember to think about visiting the Maldives. It’s a place you won’t want to miss!