The next day, we entered the Strait of Jubail, which leads to the Gulf of Suez. A few hours, the captain told me that the Nautilus was about to enter the tunnel that led to the Mediterranean. It was difficult to enter the tunnel, so he steered the ship himself and invited me to watch. It was the first time I had been in the pilot’s dome. Captain Nemo turned on a powerful electric light, and we went slowly along a rock wall for about an hour. Then, I saw the opening of the tunnel, and the Nautilus entered it. The water flowed through the tunnel very quickly and carried the Nautilus along with it, and in only twenty minutes we were in the Mediterranean.
A day or two later, it came closer to the surface again. We were close to Crete. I was looking at the fish through the window with Captain Nemo when suddenly I saw a man swimming under the water. He swam to the window, and Captain Nemo made a sign to him. He swam away, and I did not see him again.
“That was Nicholas,” said the captain. “He lives on an island but he spends more time in water than on land.”
“Do you know him?” I asked.
“Why not, Dr. Aronnax?” He opened a cupboard and I saw that it was full of gold bars. He filled a large box with them, closed it, and wrote an address on it. Four men carried the box out of the room. I went back to my room. What was Captain Nemo doing?
Soon, I realized that the Nautilus was back on the surface, and I heard the dinghy leave. Two hours later, it returned, I wondered where they had taken the gold. I told Ned and Conseil about it. “Where does he get the gold, and where does it go?” we wondered.
Toward the end of the next day, it became very hot in the Nautilus. Captain Nemo explained that we were in a stream of boiling water. We were above an underwater volcano that was erupting. It was too hot to stay there long.
【小题1】Where did the Nautilus travel?| A．From Africa to Asia. | B．From Europe to Africa. |
| C．From America to Asia. | D．From Africa to Europe. |
| A．The Nautilus entered the Mediterranean. | B．I was invited into the pilot’s dome. |
| C．The captain drove the Nautilus by himself. | D．The tunnel was difficult to go into. |
| A．Dr. Aronnax. | B．Nicholas. | C．Captain Nemo. | D．Conseil |
| A．sailing boat | B．rowboat | C．fishing boat | D．lifeboat |
| A．Aronnax would manage to get the gold. |
| B．Nicholas and the captain were good friends. |
| C．The Nautilus would be on the surface again. |
| D．It took over twenty minutes for the Nautilus to go through the tunnel. |
