Билеты: Билеты и ответы на них по Английскому языку на 2002 год
Билеты: Билеты и ответы на них по Английскому языку на 2002 год
Билеты по английскому языку
Our Country
Britain, is .only a small country, but every part is different. Scotland is a
land of mountains, lakes and romantic castles. The
winters are cold, with plenty of snow, but the summers are often warm and
sunny. Deer live in the hills, and the rivers are full of salmon. Edinburgh,
Scotland's capital, is very beautiful. The heart
of the city is the castle, where the kings of Scotland lived for centuries.
Edinburgh has a busy cultural life. Every year, in August,
the International Festival takes place. Musicians, actors and singers come
from all over the world and thousands of visitors fill the city. In the
evening, the opera house, the theatres and concert halls are
full. In cafes and pubs, small groups sing, act and read poetry. The castle
is at its best in Festival tune.Every night there is a magnificent military
«Tattoo». Highland soldiers wearing «kilts» play the bagpipes and march to
the music. Tartans, the patterns of the kilts, have an interesting history.
Since the fifteenth century, each Scottish family (or ‘clan') has worn its
own tartan as a kindof badge. It was a useful way of recognising people,
especially in times of war.
•ч
Many tartans date only from the nineteenth century, but some of the old
patterns still exist. «Dress» tartans, worn on special occasions, have
light, bright colours. Hunting tartans are usually green, blue, or brown.
Wales is a country of high mountains and pretty valleys. But Wales has plenty
of industry, too. There are.many factories and coal mines there. The people
of Wales are very musical. Every year they have a festival of Welsh music and
poetry called an «Eisteddfod».
A hundred years ago the north of England was the industrial heart of the
country. The old factories have gone now and the workers have to look for
Jobs in the new«high-tech» industries. The centre of England (the «Midlands»)
is also an important industrial area, especially near the huge cities of
Coventry and Birmingham, the centre of
car industry. The west of England is a rich farming country. It produces
milk, cream, butter, cheese and apples. Northern Island is beautiful too. In
the warm, wet climate n of the land is farming.
Britain is an island and there is no place to be too far fronr sea. Some of
the coast, especially in the west, is wild and ro with small, sandy beaches,
and romantic harbours.
Vocabulary
Castle – замок
Deer - олень
Edinburgh – Эдинбург
Bagpipe - волынка
Tattoo – барабанная дробь
Tartan – шотландский плед
Salmon – лосось
cathedral- собор
coal mines – угольные шахты Beache – берег
Harbour – гавань
“high- tech” industries – отрасли высоких технологий
Eisteddfod – айстедвод, состязаниек бардов
Problems of city and coutry life
The saga of discovery and settlement of the New Worid, begun by European's in
the late 15th century, lasted more than 200 years. Snccessive transatlantic
crossings, first into the Caribbean and then to the coast of Canada and
along the coast of South America, describe the general pattern of exploration
by the Spanish, Portuguese, falians, French, and English. Several factors made
the Age of Exploration possible. Medieval cartographers placed Jerusalem at
the center of the earth. But in the 15th century. Western scholars rediscovered
Ptolemy's «Geography», with its maps of a semispheric earth that accurately
located all distant places. Improvements in
equipment enabled the construction of larger, more manoeuvrable ships.In-the
East Europeans were cut off from land routes to India and China. The need for
new avenues of trade with the Far East led to theseafaring explorations of
the Age of Discovery.
In 1492 the Italian Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic in a Spanish-
backed attempt to find a new trading route to the Far East. While that
objective went unfulfilled, subsequent voyages by explorers did much to
reveal both the complexities of transatlantic navigation and the nature of
the New World. Simultaneously, Portuguese seafarers led by Bartolomeu Dias
had pushed southward to the Cape of Good Hope, mapping the entire western
coast of Africa in the process and proving the existence of a sea route
between Europe and India. In 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian sea captain,
completed the first recorded transatlantic voyage by an English vessel, while
attempting to find a north-west passage to Asia. Cabot died during the second
attempt to find a direct route to Cathay in 1498. Althoughl Sebastian Cabot
continued his father's explorations in the Hudson Bay region in 1508-1509,
England's interest in the New World waned. However, Cabot's voyages
established England's belated claim to America, In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan
discovered the strait, now bearing his name, that links the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. The discovery of Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South
America was made in 1578 by the English navigator Francis Drake; this
provided a more suitable route for trading ships.
Colonisation followed exploration, and, as isolated outposts gave way to
larger protected settlements and military garrisons in the 17th and l8th
centuries, the tide of colonists to the New World and the exploitation of
natural resources from both land and sea increased. The explorers were
inspired by curiosity and the desire tc become wealthy. The Age of
Exploration enriched Europe.
Vocabulary
saga - увлекательная история New World -Новый Свет
successive – последующий exploration -
исследование
Ptolemy - Птолемей accurately
- точно
Columbus - Колумб' trading
route - торговый путь
subsequent – последующий voyage - морское
путешествие
explorer - исследователь reveal —
показать
simultaneously - одновременно vessel - судно
wane - уменьшиться belated -
запоздалый
claim - притязание Ferdinand
Magellan - Фернандо Магелан
arrison - гарнизон
Caribbean - карибскии, относящийся к Карибскому морю
Age of Discovery = Age of Exploration - эпоха Великих ографических открытий
Barrtolomeu Dias - Бартоломеу Диаш
Education and future profession
The seventeenth century was the time of the development of various branches
of science. The new mood had been established by Francis Bacon. Bacon was a
lawyer who entered Parliament early and became James I's Lord Chancellor.
Bacon bad a wide range of scholarly interests. He had the reputation of being
the most learned man of his time. Francis Bacon's goal was synthesis. He
wanted to organize 'all knowledge' in a united whole. He defined the
scientific method in a form that is still relevant and stimulates the growth
of science. Every scientific idea, he argued, must be tested by experiment.
With idea and experiment following one the other, the whole natural world
would be understood. In the rest of the century British scientists put these
ideas into practice.
Bacon made a great contribution to historical writing. He was a master
stylist - his scientific works can be read with pleasure, as literature. He
saw himself as an intellectual Columbus, revealing new world of science to
his contemporaries, and bringing back hips freighted with useful knowledge.
In his «New Atlantis» Bacon described an island governed by an Academy of
Sciences, founded 'for the knowledge of causes, and secret motion of things;
and the enlarging the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things
possible'. This is the most accessible and exciting of his writings on
science.
In his essay «Of Study» Francis Bacon regards studies as they should be: for
pleasure, for self-improvement, for business. He considers the evils of
excess study: laziness, affectation, and preciosity. Bacon divides books into
three categories; those to be read in part, those to be read casually, and
those to be read with care. Studies should include reading, which gives
depth: speaking, which adds readiness of thought; and writing, which trains
in preciseness. The author ascribes certain virtues to individual fields of
study: wisdom to history, wit to poetry, subtlety to mathematics, and depth
to natural philosophy. This essay has intellectual appeal indeed.
Meanwhile, scientists, were demystifying the universe. Nobody knows for sure
who invented the telescope, but Galileo Galilei had built one of his own.
With it he was able to confirm the heretical speculations of Copernicus,
Kepler and Tyeho Brahe that the sun, not the earth, was the center of our
universe. The specific origins of the microscope are equally obscure. In the
17th century. Robe Hooke used it to describe accurately the anatomy of a flea
and the design of a feather; Antonie de Leeuwenhoek discovered a world of
wriggling organisms in a drop of water. The invention of logarithms and
calculus led to more accurate clocks and optical instruments.
By 1700 Galileo, Rene Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton and other scientists had
clarified the principles by which machines work. Henceforth Western
civilization's technological supremacy was beyond challenge. Mechanical
invention led inevitably to another step in the West's commercial and
political hegemony over the world: the Industrial Revolution.
Vocabulary
science - наука
branches of science - области науки
establish – создать
define - давать (точное) определение
make a contribution to - внести вклад в contemporary - современник
freight - грузить, фрахтовать
Academy of Sciences - Академия Наук
«New Atlantis» - Новая Атлантида accessible - доступная
exciting – увлекательный confirm - подтверждать
demystify – раскрывать heretical - еретический
speculation - размышление microscope - микроскоп
obscure – неясный
henceforth - с этого времени, впредь
technological supremacy - техническое превосходство calculus - исчисление
Problems of the youth (friendship, love, conflicts)
In 1605 the first Europeans came to Manhattan island from Holland. In 1626,
Peter Minuit, governor of the Dutch settlements in North America known as New
Amsterdam bought the island from the Native Americans for a few glass
necklaces, valued about twenty-four dollars today. In 1609 Henry Hudson
entered the River of the Mountains. In 1613 the Dutch-built: only four small
houses on Manhattan’s a fur trading station. It was not until 1623, ten
years more, that they started a real settlement, town of New Amsterdam in
honour of the capital of their country in Europe. In 1644 when the English
acquired the island, the village New Amsterdam was renamed New York. Today
Manhattan is the heart of America's business and culture. It is the most
important banking re in the world. Fewer than two million of the city's eight
million people live on the island.
In 1789 on the steps of Federal Hall George Washington took the oath of
office when he became the first president of the United States of America.
During the years 1785 to 1790 New York was the capital of the United States.
Due to its natural advantages as a our, and the rising tide of immigration
from all parts of the world the role of New York as the leading city
accelerated. Villages grew throughout the entire area.
For the visitor New York means skyscrapers, tremendous traffic, dazzling neon
advertisements. Manhattan is full of parallel rows of buildings, those
running from north to south are called avenues while those running from east
to west are called streets. avenues and streets have only numbers instead of
names. Wall Street from its very beginning became the market place of money.
It was here that a walled stockade was erected to repulse the Indians its
name. As the city expanded the stockade was dismantled as of no further use,
but the market place for the purchase of bonds and securities remained.
Like every big city, New York has its own traffic system. Traffic can be
terrible, and it is usually quicker to go by subway. It goes to almost every
comer of Manhattan. New York is an international city, the place to try
something new. It may be an experience you will never forget.
Vocabulary
settlement – колония
necklace - ожерелье value - стоимость
governor -губернатор skyscrapers - небоскребы
market place – рынок
stockade - укрепление, форт
dismantl - разобрать
purchase - покупка
bonds - облигации
securities - ценные бумаги
subway - метро
traffic jams - дорожные пробки
dazzling neon advertisements - сверкающие неоновые рекламы
Sport and healthy life style
Аs Revolutionary America had produced two commanding figures who became
world-wide known, Washington and Franklin, so the youthful republic raised
into fame two brilliantly able men whose reputations spread beyond the seas -
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. They represented two powerful
though different tendencies in American life, Hamilton the tendency toward
closer union and a stronger national government, Jefferson the tendency
toward a broader, freer democracy.
Hamilton had been born in Nevis, a little island of the Lesser lies, to a
Scottish father and a Huguenot mother. He grew up ambitious, generous,
devoted, proud, quick to take offences and inexhaustible energy. His
achievements all arose from his combination of brilliancy, self-confident
ambition, and industry. His father had no money to scud him to college. But a
terrible hurricane-swept the Antilles, and he wrote a description of it which
attract; so roach attention that his aunts sent him to the American mail
land. He entered King's College in New York, and threw himself into contact
with the radicals of the town who were leading the n volt against royal
authority. When at twenty-two he became
captain of an artillery company, he took his books to camp and studied far
into the night.
Besides brilliancy and ambition, Hamilton had other quality which served him
well. He possessed great personal attractiveness With reddish-brown hair,
bright brown eyes, fine forehead, and firm mouth and chin, he was very
handsome, his face animated an pleasant when he talked, severe and thoughtful
when he was , work. He liked a lively dinner party and shone in any circle
which offered intellectual companions, and witty talk. As leader of New York
patriots, he was brought to Washington's notice an made him the general's
principal aide, it enabled him to lead dramatic assault at the siege of
Yorktown, it rendered him the principal figure in Washington's
administration, and it gave him command of a great party. He had remarkable
talents as an executive and organizer. He wrote and spoke much. Yet he also
showed striking defects. He was quick-tempered. He Quarreled with Washington
near the end of the war and rejected the advances the Washington made to heal
the breach. His arrogance of spin brought him into unnecessarily conflicts -
with Jefferson, with the Washington administration, and with Aaron Burr,
ending in his own death in a duel.
Vocabulary
Antilles - Антильские острова possess - владеть
attractiveness - привлекательность animate - оживлять
sever - суровый thoughtful -
задумчивый
executive - исполнительный arrogance - высокомерие
hot-tempered - вспыльчивый, горячий
attract the attention — привлечь внимание
Travaling
The uniqueness of the British as a people has long been taken granted by
foreign observers and native commentators alike. Visitors from overseas,;
fromVenetian ambassadors in the late fifteenth century, through intellectuals
like Voltaire, to American journalists of the twentieth century, have all
been convinced of the special quality of British society. This has been
equally asumed by modern native chroniclers of the British scene. But the
nature or essence of the Britishness of the British is far easier to proclaim
than to explain. Some English characteristics upon which both natives and
visitors have tended to agree have to do with national psychology: egoism,
self-confidence, intolerance of outsiders, deep suspieiousness towards their
compatriots, ostentatious wealth, independence, social mobility, love of
comfort and a strong belief in private property. Moderation, the avoidance of
extremes, the choice of a middle way, are among the essential qualities of
Englishness. The two features of English life which from the 15th century
onwards struck almost every observer were the country's wealth and its strong
sense of individualism.
The features that have shaped the British distinctiveness were determined by
the country's geographical isolation from the European continent, with the
consistent centrality of sea power and a broad social fluidity in which the
early collapse of feudalism helped generate a new industry and commercial
enterprise. The long centuries during which the land was free from invaders
meant that there could be a flowing culture continuity from the time of
Chaucer onwards impossible on the war-torn Continent. A political and legal
evolution is expressed in the English Parliament which has survived in
recognisable form till today, without those interruptions and periods of
absolute monarchy that have marked the history of its neighbours, and the
rule of law. There have been other significant features in the development of
England which mark it as a country to some degree separate from Europe. One
of the most important is the language. English is a language of unparalleled
richness, subtlety and variety, which unlocks' the treasures of a literature
second to none in the werid. It is the easiest language to leam.
As for British history, it is not one of harmonious continuity, broadening
from epoch to epoch. It is a dramatic, colourful, often violent story of an
ancient, society and culture torn apart by the political, economic, and
intellectual turmoil of human experience. Britain in many ways has been the
cockpit of mankind.
Vocabulary
Ambassador – посол assume – допускать
Proclaim – провозглашать psychology – психология
Self – confidence – самоуверенность intolerance – нетерпимость
Ostentatious – показной Uniqueness – уникальность
social fluidity – соц. Подвижность Avoidance – уклонение
extreme – крайность Isolation – изоляция
invader – захватчик Continuity –
непрерывность proceed – продолжать
Turmoil – беспорядок
private property – частная собственность
Environmental protection
The 20th century began slowly, to the ticking of grandfather clocks
and the stately rhythms of progress. Thanks to science, industry and moral
philosophy, mankind's steps had at last been guided up the right path. The
century of steam was about to give way to the century of oil and electricity.
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, only 41 years old in 1900, proposed a
scientific basis for the notion that progress was gradual but inevitable,
determined by natural law.
And everybody thought that the development would continue in the small steps
that had marked the progress of the 19th century. Inventions like the
railroad or the telegraph or the typewriter had enabled people to get on
with their ordinary lives a little more conveniently. No one could have
guessed then that, in the century just beginning, new ideas would burst upon
the world with a force and frequency that would turn this stately march of
progress into a long distance, free-for-all sprint. Thrust into this race,
the children of the 20th century would witness more change in their daily
existence and environment than anyone else who had ever walked the planet.
This high-velocity attack of new ideas and technologies seemed to ratify
older dreams of a perfectible life on earth, of an existence in which the
shocks of nature had been tamed. But the unleashing of unparalleled progress
was also accompanied by something quite different: a massive regression
toward savagery. If technology endowed humans with Promethean aspirations
and powers, it also gave them the means to exterminate one another.
Assassinations in Sarajevo in 1914 lit a spark that set off an unprecedented
explosion of destruction and death. The Great War did more than devastate a
generation of Europeans. It set the tone - the political, moral and
intellectual temper - for much that followed.
Before long the Great War received a new name - World War I. The roaring
1920s and the Depression years of the 1930s proved to be merely a prelude to
World War II. Largely hidden during that war was an awful truth that called
into question progress and the notion of human nature itself.
But civilization was not crushed by the two great wars, and the ruins
provided the stimulus to build a way of life again. To a degree previously
unheard of and perhaps unimaginable, the citizens of the 20th century felt
free to reinvent themselves. In that task They were assisted by two profound
developments–psychoanalysis and the Bomb.
Vocabulary
stately - величественный, величавый
thrust - толчок
high-velocity - большая скорость
savagery - варварство
aspiration - стремление
exterminate - уничтожать
assassination - убийство политического или общественного деятеля spark - искра
explosion - взрыв
destruction - разрушение, уничтожение
devastate - опустошить
roaring - бурный
Depression - кризис 1929-32 гг.
Outstanding people
Edward VI took the English throne in 1461. When he unexpectedly died in
1483, his brother Richard was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.
Edward IV left two little sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, age twelve, and
Richard, Duke of York, age nine. Their uncle Richard made a conspiracy to
seize the Princes. He brought them to London and locked away in the Tower,
and started to move toward usurpation. He alleged that the marriage of his
dead brother, Edward IV, was invalid because Edward had previously promised
to marry another woman. As a result, the little princes were declared
bastards, and young Edward V had no right to the throne of England. To assure
his own security, Richard is believed to have ordered to murder the little
princes in the Tower. He became King Richard III.
Richard had the most obvious reasons for wanting the young princes dead. He
lived through a civil war that taught him that powerful men were always
ready to rally around a standard revolt. If such a flag could be raised for a
prince of the royal blood to restore him to a rightful throne, noblemen with
great lands, great debts, and empty wallets might readily take arms, looking
for the main chance in the change of kings. Richard never felt secure on his
throne; his swift, lawless, and lethal moves against those who threatened him
showed that he was capable of murder if by murder he could rid himself of the
mortal danger. And as long as the little princes remained alive the danger
was always present. In the summer of 1483, the little princes disappeared
forever; that much is certain.
Richard III was killed in the battle on 22 August 1485. Henry Tudor, earl of
Richmond, now King Henry VII by right of conquest and some other hereditary
claims, felt he needed to justify his own actions at the battle of Bosworth.
He issued a royal proclamation, dated the day before the battle, declaring
himself the rightful king of England and condemning Richard as the rebellious
subject.
In 1674 two small skeletons were found in a wooden box buried ten feet under
a small staircase that workmen were removing from the White Tower. They were
thought to be the bones of the little princes. King Charles II had his own
reasons for being offended at the murder of kings, so he placed these bones
in the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.
Vocabulary
usurpation - узурпация, незаконный захват
allege - утверждать, заявлять (голословно)
invalid - не имеющий законной силы
bastard - внебрачный ребенок
security - безопасность
rally – сплотиться
standard - знамя, флаг
murder - убийство
disappear - исчезнуть
it-rightful - законный
condemn - осуждать
Youth and unemployment
In the year 1000, Western Europe was just emerging from the long depression
commonly known as the Dark Ages. Shortly before the beginning of the
millennium, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III moved his capital and court back
to the Eternal City. But what little grandeur Rome still possessed paled by
comparison with the splendors of 'the new Rome, Constantinople, the capital
of the Byzantine empire. Byzantium was one of three centers of wealth and
power in the known world of the 11th century, India and China were the
others. There were sophisticated cultures elsewhere, notably the Mayans of
Mexico, but they were virtually out of touch with other civilizations — thus
lacking an essential condition for being considered part of world history.
Little of Europe's coming dynamism was apparent in the year JOOO, although
there were signs that the Continent was getting richer. Wider use of plows
had made farming more efficient. The planting of new crops, notably beans and
peas, added variety to Europe's diet Windmills and watermills provided fresh
sources of power. Villages that were to become towns and eventually cities
grew up around trading markets. Yet the modern nation-state, with its
centralized bureaucracies and armies under unified command came into being in
the 15th century. For most of the Middle Ages, Roman Catholicism was Europe's
unifying force. Benedictine abbeys had preserved what fragments of ancient
learning the Continent possessed. Cistercian monks had cleared the land and
pioneered in agricultural experimentation. Ambitious popes competed with
equally ambitious kings to determine whether the spiritual realm would hold
power over the tea or vice versa. Symbolic of the church's power were great
Gothic cathedrals of Europe: construction of Reims began 13th century, and
Charters—the most glorious of all such edifices—was consecrated in 1260.
By the 20th century the ingenuity, coupled with an aggressive wanderlust,
brought Europeans and their culture to the ends earth. By the year 1914,
eighty four per cent of the world' surface, apart from the polar regions, was
under the influence European civilization. The hegemony of European
civilization was based on the successful application of new knowledge to a
problems and conquering nature, and much of that success based on
circumstance and ingenuity.
Vocabulary
emerge - выходить
millennium – тысячелетие
asceticism - аскетизм
sophisticated - сложный
bureaucracies - чиновники apparent -
явный
watermill - водяная мельница ambitious -
честолюбивый
ingenuity - изобретательность wanderlust -
страсть к путешествиям
surface - поверхность conquer
- завоевать
assertion - утверждение
accomplishment - достижение
grandeur - великолепие, пышность, грозность
Mass media
The problem between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland started a
long time ago. It is more political than religious. For centuries the English
had tried to gain control of Ireland. Until the 16-th century, England
controlled only a small area of Ireland around Dublin. English rulers,
including King Henry VIII (1491-1547), Queen Elizabeth I (153-1603) and
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) gradually conquered the whole of Ireland. The
last area to resist the province in Ulster, in the north of Ireland, but in
the Irish were defeated.
In 1910 the British Government offered Ireland a mild form of Home Rule –
full self-government in regard to purely Irish affairs. Opposition was basked
by the generals of the British Army’s troops in Ireland. The Irish patriots
formed their own military organizations of the Irish Volunteers, drilling
troops for the fight. The Labour Party in Ireland established the Irish Army.
The Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army jointly started preparation for an
insurrection. The set date was Monday of Easter Week, 1916. Although the
uprising was a failure, it laid the foundation for another stage of the fight
for freedom. In 1921, an independent Irish state was set up, that is the
Republic of Ireland. In the north of Ireland six countries were dominated and
controlled by Protestants, who refused to join the new Irish state. These six
countries stayed part of the UK and are now called Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is a very beautiful place. It is a land of mountains, rivers
and lakes. It has a rugged coastline and one is never more than half an hour
away from the coast by car. The people of Ireland have always been known for
the stories and myths. They say that giants used to live on the Antrim coast,
north of Belfast. One giant, Finn McCool, the commander of the king of
Ireland’s army, fell in love with the woman giant in Scotland. He wanted her
to come to Ulster so he started to build a bridge, the Giant’s Causeway, so
that she could walk across the sea.
Vocabulary
Area-пространство
Defeat - наносить поражение
Home Rule – Гом Руль
Back - поддержать
Troops - войска
Volunteers - «Добровольцы»
Drill - строевая подготовка
Insurrection – восстание
Uprising – восстание
Failure – неудача, провал
Independent - независимый
County – округ, графство
Giant – великан
Leisure time
Until 1800 the United States of America had five «capitals» or meeting places
of the Congress - Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, New York and Philadelphia.
For various reasons, none of these cities offered an ideal seat of government
for the new nation. Southern states protested that they were all too far
north. After the Constitution was adopted, the establishment of a new city
was considered. President Washington pinpointed the exact location, and
Congress passed a bill for a federal city and capital on July 17, 1790. The
city of Washington was called just «The Federal City». It didn't gain its
name until after the first president's death. When Congress and the rest of
the small government's agencies arrived from Philadelphia in, the new capital
looked very unpromising indeed. Only a fragment of the Capitol was completed,
and a part of the White House. Other government departments were scattered
about, and a few houses had been built. Up until the time of the Civil War,
Washington grew quite slowly. It really was just another sleepy southern
town, enlivened only when the Congress was in session, and not much even
then. After the Civil War it became the real capital of the United States.
The best known building in Washington is the White House, home of American
Presidents since 1800. The site was selected by president Washington, the
architect was James Hoban. The first residents of the White House were
President and Mrs. John Adams. The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, as
it was originally known, dates from October 13, 1792, 300 years after the
landing of Columbus. The president's home is the earliest of all government
buildings in the District of Columbia. The British troops which arrived in
Washington in 1814 were indirectly responsible for the name «White House»:
the building was fired by them. Later the fire marks on the walls were
concealed by painting the whole building white. The term «White House» became
official at the end of the 19th century. The President works here in the
«Oval Office», but the White House is also a family home. President Truman
had a piano next to his desk and President Kennedy's children used to play
under his office windows.
Washington is a cultural centre. It is proud of its art galleries, a zoo,
natural history collections, and the Museum of History and Technology.
Vocabulary
Nation - государство
Pinpoint - указать
Exact location – точное расположение
Pass a bill – одобрить законопроект
Cornerstone – краеугольный камень
Government buildings – правительственные здания
To be indirectly responsible for – быть косвенно ответственным за
Civil War – гражданская война
Enliven – оживлять
Be in session - заседать
Delay - задержать
Completion - завершение
Accessible – доступный (открытый)
Magnificent view – великолепный взгляд
International organizations and international co-operation
Russian literature in the last half of the nineteenth century provided an
artistic medium for the discussion of political and social issues that could
not be addressed directly because of government restrictions. The writers of
this period shared important qualities: great attention to realistic,
detailed descriptions of everyday Russian life; the lifting of the taboo on
describing the unattractive side of life; and a satirical attitude toward
routines. Although varying widely in style, subject matter, and viewpoint,
these writers stimulated government bureaucrats, nobles, and intellectuals to
think about important social issues. This period of literature, which became
known as the Age of Realism, lasted from about mid-century to 1905. The
literature of the Age of Realism owed a great debt to three authors and to a
literary critic of the preceding half-century Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail
Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, and Vissarion Belinsky. These figures set a pattern
for language, subject matter, and narrative techniques, which before 1830 had
been very poorly developed. The critic Belinsky became the patron saint of
the radical intelligentsia throughout the century.
Ivan Turgenev was successful at integrating social concerns with true
literary art. His «Hunter's Sketches» and «Fathers and Sons» portrayed
Russia's problems with great realism and with enough artistry that these
works have survived as classics. Many writers of the period did not aim for
social commentary, but the realism of their portrayals nevertheless drew
comment from radical critics. Such writers included the novelist Ivan
Goncharov, whose «Oblomov» is a very negative portrayal of the provincial
gentry, and the dramatist Aleksandr Ostrovsky, whose plays uniformly
condemned the bourgeoisie.
Above all the other writers stand two: Lev Tolstoy and Fedor Dostoevsky, the
greatest talents of the age. Their realistic style transcended immediate
social issues and explored universal issues such as morality and the nature
of life itself. Although Dostoevsky was sometimes drawn into polemical
satire, both writers kept the |main body of their work above the dominant
social and political I preoccupations of the 1860s and 1870s. Tolstoy's
«War and Peace» and «Anna Karenina» and Dostoevsky's «Crime and Punishment»
and «The Brothers Karamazov» have endured as genuine classics because they
drew the best from the Russian realistic heritage while focusing on broad
human questions. Although Tolstoy continued to write into% the twentieth
century, he rejected his earlier style and never again reached the level of
his greatest works.
The literary careers of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev had all ended by
1881. Anton Chekhov, the major literary figure in the last decades of the
nineteenth century, contributed in two genres: short stories and drama.
Chekhov, a realist who examined not society as a whole but the defects of
individuals, produced a large volume of sometimes tragic, sometimes comic,
short stories and several outstanding plays, including «The Cherry Orchard»,
a dramatic chronicling of the decay of a Russian aristocratic family.
Vocabulary
Artistic medium – художественное средство
Government restrictions – правительственные ограничения
Subject matter - тема
Government bureaucrats – государственные чиновники
Owe – быть обязанным
Preceding – предшествующий
Patron saint – покровитель
Negative portrayal – отрицательное изображение
Provincial gentry – провинциальное дворянство
Human rights
In November 1960 the American people elected Senator John F. Kennedy to the
Presidency. Kennedy defeated by a narrow margin his Republican opponent, Vice
President Richard Nixon. The two youthful presidential candidates highlighted
their campaigns by appearing on television in a serious of debates - Nixon
emphasized the experience he had gained during his eight years in the
administration and reminding voters of the «peace and prosperity» achieved
under Republican leadership, and Kennedy calling for new, forward-looking
leadership and more effective use of the country's human and economic
resources.
Almost everything about the new President caught the imagination of the
people, and his Inauguration was no exception. In his. eloquent address the
President set the tone of youthful energy and dedication that was the mark of
his administration. Kennedy said: «Let the word go forth from this time and
place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined"
by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to
witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation
has always been committed... Let every nation know that we shall pay any
price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any
foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.» But the address was not
merely a call to battle but an invitation to peace as well. «Let us never
negotiate out of fear,» said the President, «but let us never fear to
negotiate. Co-operation is better than conflict; let us then substitute co-
operation for conflict. Let both sides explore what problems unite us... Let
both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors.
Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease.»
The first President to be born in the twentieth century, and the youngest
ever to be elected to the presidency, Kennedy was not only spokesman for a
new generation, but symbol as well. He brought to the presidency an alert
intelligence, immense personal charm, a warm and generous humanitarianism,
but also a lively awareness of the immense potentialities of presidential
leadership. Indeed, his Cabinet and his White House advisers made up the
youngest group of top-level officials in the country's history -a group
notable for its openness to new ideas and its readiness to take vigour
actions.
Vocabulary
Narrow margin – небольшое преимущество
Highlight – освещать
Inauguration - инаугурация
Eloquent - красноречивый
Heritage - наследие
Burden - бремя
Hardship – неприятности
Substitute - заменить
Awareness – осведомленность, информированность
Immense – огромный
Vigour - решительные
Take actions – принимать действия
Culture of the youth
The foundation of the great schools which were named Universities was
everywhere throughout Europe a special mark of the new impulse that
Christendom had got from the Crusades. A new desire for study sprang up in
the West from its contact with the more cultured East. Oxford and Cambridge
are the oldest universities in England. Both of these universities are very
beautiful. They have some of the finest architecture in Britain. Some of
their colleges, chapels and libraries are three, four and even five hundred
years old, and are full of valuable books and precious paintings. Of the
early history of Cambridge little is known, but enough remains to enable us
to trace the early steps by which Oxford gained its intellectual glory. The
history of Cambridge is believed to begin in 1209 when several hundred
students and scholars arrived at the little town of Cambridge after having
walked 60 miles from Oxford According to the custom they joined themselves
into “Universities” or a society of people with common employment. Only later
they came to be associated with scholarship. '
Cambridge won independence from the Town rule in 1500. Students were of
different ages and came from everywhere. Gradually the idea of the College
developed and in 1284 Peter house, the oldest College was established. In
1440 King Henry VI founded King’s College, and other colleges followed. The
first college of Oxford University was founded in 1249. At hat time with the
revival of classic studies many teachers became enemies of parliament, and
the Church. The lectures of Vicarious on the Civil Law at Oxford were
prohibited by the English king. Now the university of Oxford has thirty-five
colleges and about thirteen thousand students. There were no woman students
at Oxford until 1878, when the first women’s college, Lady Margaret Hall, was
up. Now, most colleges are open to man and women. Oxford is famous for its
first-class education as well as its beautiful buildings. Many students want
to study there. It is not so easy to get a place at Oxford University to
study for a degree. But outside the university there are many smaller private
colleges, which offer less difficult courses and where it is easy to enrol.
Vocabulary
Architecture - архитектура
Valuable - ценный
Precious - дорогой
Christendom – Христианский мир
Crusade – крестовый поход
Spring up - возникать
Revival of classic studies – возрождение классических наук
Prohibit - запрещать
Degree – ученая степень
Enrol – зачислять
Arts
American literature is dated from Mark Twain. Much of his writing was
autobiographical. «Life on the Mississippi» was a story of his experiences as
a pilot learning the great river and the country that it crossed, and the
society that lived on its boats or along its banks. In 1884 came the greatest
of his achievements«Huckleberry Finn». 'All modern literature comes from
«Huckleberry Finn»', said Ernest Hemingway, and the aphorism is really true.
Mark Twain was considered by his contemporaries the Lincoln of American
literature. The «valley of democracy» that created Mark Twain produced his
friend W.D. Howells. In his writing Howells gave the most comprehensive
picture of middle-class American society to be found in the whole of American
literature. Probably no other novelist except Balzac ever made so elaborate a
report on his society as did W.D. Howells. He drew genre pictures of the New
England countryside, the best of all portraits of the «self-made»
businessman, the extravagant life of the Ohio frontier, the rough life and
work in New York City, and the clash of cultures in European resorts. Howells
was not only one of the most representative American novelists; but he was,
too, at the same time, the leading American Literature literary critic. He
edited the great «Atlantic Monthly». He introduced Ibsen, Zola, and Turgenev
to American audiences, discovered and sponsored younger writers like Stephen
Crane and Frank Norris.
The third of the major novelists who emerged during the 1870s and reached
maturity in the transition years was Henry James. Henry James took middle-
class America for his theme. His best novels -«The Portrait of a Lady», «The
American», «The Ambassadors», «The Wings of the Dove» - explore the themes of
manners and morals. Very often they are cast into a pattern of New World
innocence and Old World corruption. Of all American novelists between
Hawthorne and Faulkner, James was most completely preoccupied with moral
problems. Because James wrote of characters and subjects alien to the average
American, and in a style intricate and sophisticated, he achieved little
popularity in his own lifetime.
Vocabulary
Pilot - лоцман
Comprehensive – исчерпывающий, полный
Frontier - граница
Contemporary - современник
Genre pictures – жанровые сцены
Transition years – переходный период
Preoccupy – занимать, поглощать внимание
Character - персонаж
Subject - тема
Alien - чужой
Intricate - замысловатый
Average - средний
Maturity - зрелость
Defiant - вызывающий
Literary currents – литературные направления
Novel - роман |
