752.Chinese explorers beat Europe to America and sailed around the world first,according to new historical evidence. Gavin Menzies,a former British submarine commander and an amateur historian,believes that in 1492,when Italian sailor Columbus reached America he was 72 years behind the Chinese.And so were other explorers,such as Cook,Magellan and Vasco da Gama,whose heroic voyages took them to Australia,South America and India. Menzies spent 14 years researching the movements of a Chinese fleet between 1421 and 1423.Led by Zheng He,this exploratory fleet reached all these places first. With evidence from charts and archaeological remains,Menzies wrote a book,1421,The Year China Discovered America.In it he explains that it was Zheng He,in his huge ships filled with treasure,silks and China,who first sailed around the world,a century before Portuguese explorer Magellan. Menzies originally intended to write a book about the importance of the year 1421 in world history. While researching in Venice,he was shown a map,dated 1459,which included southern Africa and the Cape of Good Hope(好望角). Yet the Cape was not"discovered"as a sea route by Vasco da Gama until 1497.On the map was a note about a voyage round the Cape in 1420—and a picture of a Chinese ship. Although most of the records of Zheng He's voyage have been lost,a few maps and star charts survive.Menzies used his own knowledge of navigation by using the stars,to work out that Zheng He's fleet completed a two-year voyage around the globe which even took them close to the South Pole. "What nobody has explained is why the European explorers had maps.Who drew the maps?There are millions of square miles of ocean.It required huge fleets to chart them.If you say it wasn't the Chinese,with the biggest fleets and ships in the world,then who was it?" he asked in the book.
(1)What conclusion is made based on new historical evidence?
A.European explorers made heroic voyages to different places of the world. B.Italian sailor Columbus was 72 years old when he finally reached America. C.Chinese explorers were the first to reach America and sail around the world. D.Chinese and European explorers had a fight while reaching out across the sea. (2)Gavin Menzies got the evidence from
. A.maps and archaeological remains B.tales of different explorers 'voyages C.the records of Zheng He's voyage D.the remains of a Chinese fleet in history (3)Which of the following has the closest meaning to "navigation" in Paragraph 8?
A.Writing. B.Calculating. C.Surviving. D.Sailing. (4)What can we learn about Gavin Menzies according to the passage?
A.He is a famous submarine commander in Britain now. B.He desired to write a book about European explorers at first. C.He did some research into the movements of Zheng He's fleet. D.He explains in his book why the European explorers had maps.