今天小编带来了英语四六级美文阅读，希望对大家的英语写作水平有所帮助，预祝大家高分通过！
　　Marcia Amidon Lusted
　　Today the world seems like a small place. Television, the Internet, and e-mail connect us with distant countries and allow us to learn about and communicate with people far away. But try to imagine what the world was like before this age of communication. No telephones, no computers, no way of connecting with far away people. People and places on the other side of the world were known only through stories brought home by travelers.
　　This was Marco Polo’s world. He was born in 1254 in the city of Venice, Italy. Marco’s father and uncle were merchants. They had traveled east to Asia and brought home stories of the great ruling people of Mongolia. A leader known as Kublai Khan had asked the Polos to return to his land. When they did, they took 17-year-old Marco with them. As he sailed from Venice, Marco didn't know he would be gone for 20 years.
　　On his way to see the Khan, Marco, his father, and his uncle, saw the city of Jerusalem and parts of the great Gobi Desert. When they arrived, Kublai Khan realized Marco was an intelligent young man. He was a good observer and quickly learned several languages. The Khan asked Marco to work for him.
　　In his work for the Khan, Marco visited many lands. He saw things that Europeans could not even imagine. There were people with teeth covered in gold and cities where traders used loaves of salt as money. Marco even saw a crocodile! Some things, such as paper money and gunpowder, would one day become common around the world. But in Marco’s day, these things were amazing.
　　Marco, his father, and uncle finally returned to Venice in 1295. Some stories say the three men had changed so much that their relatives didn’t recognize them. And no one believed the men’s stories of the amazing wealth they had seen.
　　Marco Polo’s stories about his travels were collected into a book. Called The Description of the World, this book tells readers about the strange and amazing things Marco saw. Although some people did not believe his stories, we now know the things Marco described were real. Marco Polo showed his readers a world much bigger than the one they knew.