The Time Traveller was explaining a very difficult idea to us. His grey eyes shone as he spoke, and his usually pale face was red with excitement. We sat around the fire in his house after dinner. The room was warm and comfortable, filled with the smell of cigars and good wine. I remember the evening very well. There were five of us at the table that night. The Medical Man sat next to me, looking thoughtful. The Psychologist leaned forward in his chair with interest. Filby, a red-haired man who always argued about everything, sat across from me. And there was the Provincial Mayor, who seemed confused by the whole conversation. 'You must follow me carefully,' the Time Traveller said. 'I shall have to argue against some ideas that are almost universally accepted.' He paused and looked at each of us in turn. 'For example, what do you know about geometry?' he asked. 'Well,' said the Provincial Mayor, 'I learned about it in school, of course.' 'And how many dimensions does geometry describe?' the Time Traveller continued. 'Three, obviously,' said Filby. 'Length, width, and height.' 'Exactly!' cried the Time Traveller. 'But there is a fourth dimension.' We all looked at him with surprise. 'The fourth dimension is Time,' he said slowly. The Psychologist nodded thoughtfully. 'That is an interesting way to think about it,' he said. 'Think about it,' the Time Traveller continued. 'Any real object must exist in four dimensions, not three.' 'It must have length, width, height, and duration.' 'But there is a difference,' said the Medical Man. 'We can move freely in the three dimensions of space.' 'We cannot move in Time. We are stuck in the present moment.' The Time Traveller smiled mysteriously. 'Are you sure about that?' he asked. 'Why should we not be able to move in Time, just as we move in Space?' 'That is ridiculous,' said Filby. 'Everyone knows you cannot travel through time.' 'Everyone knew the Earth was flat once,' the Time Traveller replied calmly. 'They were wrong too.' The fire crackled in the silence that followed. 'Are you saying,' the Psychologist asked slowly, 'that you can travel through time?' The Time Traveller stood up and walked to a small table in the corner. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I am saying more than that.' 'I have built a machine that can travel through time.' We all stared at him in disbelief. Filby laughed nervously. 'You are joking, surely,' he said. But the Time Traveller's face was completely serious. 'I will prove it to you,' he said. 'Next week, come back to this house, and I will show you the machine itself.'
B1Chapter 1 / 15440 words45 sentences
The Dinner Party
Chapter 1 · The Time Machine · B1 English. Tip: Click on any word while reading to see its translation. Take your time with each chapter and review the vocabulary before moving on.
Chapter Summary
The Time Traveller hosts a dinner party and explains his revolutionary theory about the fourth dimension.
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Comprehension Questions
4 questions
1
How many people were gathered around the fire that evening?
2
According to the Time Traveller, what is the fourth dimension?
3
What was Filby's reaction to the Time Traveller's idea about time travel?
4