Билеты и ответы на них по Английскому языку на 2002 год

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.

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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