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
