Sophia’s Visions, Part 24, the last. How ancient books survived: the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, translators in Toledo, palimpsests, papyri in the sand and palm leaves in India. A C2 English lesson on the future perfect and future continuous, with a gamebook.
Alexandria · the 754th year since the founding of Rome · 1 CE
Sophia’s Visions, Part 24, the last · The future perfect and future continuous: will have gone, will have been reading, will be waiting · C2
Think first. Think of one thing you have made or written. Where will it be in a hundred years? In two thousand?
While you read, notice how Sophia speaks from the present about a time far in the future, looking back: by the time you read this, the Library will have gone…
Philo: “This is the last thing I will tell you about Sophia. Read it slowly. It was written for you.”
It was the last evening of the year, and the four of them had climbed onto the flat roof of the Library to watch the sun go down over the harbour. Below them, the whole city was turning gold: the palaces, the Museum, the great lighthouse on its island, the masts of a hundred ships, and far off, on its hill, the Serapeum.
Or try our free games and lessons.