World War XII, as everyone knows, brought about the collapse of civilization, Towns, cities, and villages disappeared. All the groves and forests were destroyed, and all the gardens, and all the works of art. Men, women, and children became lower than the animals. Discouraged and disillusioned, dogs deserted their fallen masters. Books, paintings and music disappeared from the earth, and human beings just sat around doing nothing. Years went by. Even the few generals who were left forgot what the last war had decided. Boys and girls grew up to stare at each other blankly. Love had passed from the Earth. One day, a young girl who had never seen a flower chanced to come upon the last one in the world. She told the other human beings that the last flower was dying. The only one who paid any attention to her was a young man. Together, the young man and the girl nurtured the flower and it began to live again. One day, a bee visited the flower, and a hummingbird. Before long, there were two flowers, and then a great many. Groves and forests flourished again. The young girl began to take interest in how she looked. The young man discovered that touching the girl was pleasurable. Love was reborn into. the world. The children of the young man and the girl grew up strong and healthy. They learned to run and laugh. Dogs came out of their exile. The young man discovered how to build a shelter. Pretty soon everybody was building shelters. Towns, cities, and villages sprung up. Song came back into the world, and troubadours and jugglers, tailors and cobblers, painters and poets and sculptors, and soldiers and Lieutenants and Captains, and Generals and Major Generals, and liberators. Some people went to one place to live, and some to another. Before long, those who went to the valleys wished they had gone to live in the hills. And those who had to live in the hills wished they had gone to live in the valleys. The liberators, under the guidance of God, set fire to the discontented. So presently, the world was at war again. This time, the destruction was so complete that nothing at all was left in the world, except one man, one woman, and one flower.
B.Discuss the following questions
1. What happened after world War XII?
2What brought back love into the world?
3.Do you agree that it is possible for man to destroy the world?
4. The author gives us events in the future. How does he make them seem real?
5. What do you think of the story? What has the author succeeded in doing?
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