The Last Message
New Horizon Book 3 (S46) pg. 76-80
| The Last Message | |
|---|---|
| ? | |
| Details | |
| Word count | 443 |
| Book | New Horizon |
| Grade | 3 |
| Year | 1971 |
It happened at the end of the 20th century. People on the earth were able to talk with people on another planet by radio. The planet was called Friend, and it was just like the earth.
Science was far more advanced on Friend. People knew a lot about the earth, and understood some of the languages spoken on it. But it was difficult for them to travel to the earth even in their rockets.
One day an American boy got a message from a girl on Friend. She told him that she wanted to have a friend on earth.
"I'm a girl of fifteen. We know that the earth is a beautiful planet. We can watch your television programs. Though they look like our old movies, it's interesting for us to watch them. They tell us a lot about your life on the earth.
"We stopped sending children to school a long time ago. Since then we've been learning everything from computers. But the children from five to thirteen have to live together for a few months every year. In this way they learn to get along with one another.
"There are only five countries on our planet. We've been at peace for more that two hundred years. Every country is very rich. My country is the smallest on our planet, but it's as large as Africa.
"If you want to know about us and be my friend, please call me on FRX-1978."
A few years later, the American boy got the girl's second message. At first he wondered who it was, because she began to talk in an excited voice.
"Can you hear me well? I hope you can. We've been in great trouble since I sent you my first message.
"We used up all natural resources such as coal and oil many years ago. We've been using atomic energy since then. This great energy has changed our life a lot. Each of our countries is so large that we want to travel very fast. Our cars, trains, and planes are all driven by atomic energy. But there was something we forgot.
Though it was easy for us to think of peaceful uses of atomic energy, we didn't know that we would be at war with nature. We've built so many atomic power stations that the air and water is full of radioactivity. Sometimes we've had bad accidents. Almost everyone has become ill. Right now someone on television is talking about another accident at the power station near my city. Listen! Can you hear the big noise? Hold on, please. I'll be back in a few minutes."
But she never came back.
