Марк Твен; Mark Twain — Топик по английскому языку. Адаптированные аудиокниги на английском языке

Mark Twain (30.11.1835 - 21.04.1910) - American author.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on 30 November 1835 in Florida. His parents were John and Jane Clemens. After moving to Missouri John met Jane and some years later they married. There were seven children in their family but only four survived: Samuel, Henry, Orion and Pamela. Samuel was the sixth child.

At the age of 4 his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. This town impressed him and it was later described in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Missouri was known as a slave state and this theme became apparent in his writings.

Mark Twain’s father was a judge. In 1847 he died when Samuel was eleven. In 1848 Samuel became an assistant of a printer. In three years he started working as a typesetter. His brother, Orion, owned a magazine and Mark worked on different articles for its content. At the age of eighteen Mark Twain left the town and began to work as a printer. He worked in different cities of the USA.

While a voyage to New Orleans Mark Twain met Horace E. Bixby who was a steamboat pilot. He later inspired a young author to be a pilot too. Afterwards Mark Twain persuaded his brother Henry to work together. In 1858 Henry died when the steamboat exploded. It is known that Mark Twain foresaw this accident in his a dream. After this he was interested in parapsychology. In 1859 Mark Twain got a steamboat pilot license. Samuel worked as a pilot until 1861.

Mark Twain had a wife Olivia Langdon. They married in 1870 though she refused his first marriage proposal. They lived in Buffalo, New York. He started working as a writer and editor in the newspaper. The married couple had 3 daughters: Jean, Clara and Susy. His son died of diphtheria. In 1904 Olivia died. They lived together for 34 years.

Mark Twain spent a lot of time in Hartford and at Quarry Farm where he wrote his famous writings including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn etc. In 1880 Mark Twain wrote A Tramp Abroad where he described his tour of Europe. While a tour he was in London and Heidelberg.

Mark Twain became a famous American author and orator. A lot of critics and peers appreciated his wit. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn made him noted. Mark Twain used different pen names that’s why some of his works are not known.

There was a period when Mark Twain felt low. In 1896 his daughter Susy died of meningitis. In 1904 his wife died and in 1909 Jean died. He also had a close friend, Henry Rogers, who died in 1909 too.

Mark Twain was born during a visit by Halley"s Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it”. This prophecy was exact. Mark Twain died of a heart attack in 1910. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Сочинение на английском языке Биография Марка Твена/ The Biography of Mark Twain с переводом на русский язык


На английском языке. The Biography of Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a famous American writer and humorist. He was better known by his pen friend Mark Twain. Perhaps, everybody knows about the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The author of these stories was Mark Twain. He was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30th, 1835. When he was four years old his family moved to Hannibal in Missouri. It was a port town on the Mississippi River, which inspired the fictional town in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. He was only eleven when his father died and he soon began working as a printer’s apprentice and contributor of funny sketches. When he was 18 he left the town to work in New York, Philadelphia and some other large cities as a printer. Mark Twain travelled a lot. While being on the voyage to New Orleans he met Horace E. Bixby, who was a steamboat pilot and who later inspired a young author to become a pilot too. He soon obtained a steamboat pilot license. Until 1861 he worked as a pilot. He also persuaded his brother Henry to work together. In 1858 Henry died in steamboat explosion. It was known that Mark Twain foresaw this accident in his dream. In 1876 he wrote “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. This book became popular not only with kids but also with adults. It was translated nearly into every language in the world. The book was such a success that in 1884 he wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Later he also wrote “Tom Sawyer Abroad”, “Tom sawyer the Detective” etc. There were many other books written by Mark Twain but the stories about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn brought him world fame.

Перевод на русский язык. Биография Марка Твена
Сэмюэл Лэнгхорн Клеменс был известным американским писателем и юмористом. Он был более известен по своему писательскому псевдониму, как Марк Твен. Возможно, все знают о приключениях Тома Сойера и Гекльберри Финна. Автором этих историй был Марк Твен. Он родился во Флориде, штат Миссури, 30-го ноября 1835 года. Когда ему было четыре года, его семья переехала в Ганнибал в штате Миссури. Это был портовый город на реке Миссисипи, который вдохновил его на создание вымышленного городка в "Приключениях Тома Сойера" и "Приключениях Гекльберри Финна". Ему было всего одиннадцать, когда его отец умер, и вскоре он начал подрабатывать помощником печатника и автором смешных эскизов. Когда ему было 18 лет, он покинул город и отправился работать в Нью-Йорк, Филадельфию и другие крупные города в качестве печатника. Марк Твен много путешествовал. Во время путешествия в Новый Орлеан он познакомился с Горацием Е. Биксби, который был пилотом парохода, и который позже вдохновил молодого автора стать также пилотом. Вскоре он получил лицензию на управление пароходом. До 1861 года он работал в качестве пилота. Он также уговорил брата Генри работать вместе с ним. В 1858 году Генри умер в результате взрыва парохода. Было известно, что Марк Твен предвидел этот несчастный случай во сне. В 1876 году он написал "Приключения Тома Сойера". Эта книга стала популярной не только среди детей, но и среди взрослых. Она была переведена почти на все языки мира. Книга имела такой успех, что в 1884 году он написал "Приключения Гекльберри Финна". Позже он также написал "Том Сойер за границей», «Том Сойер детектив" и т.д. Были и многие другие книги, написанные Марком Твеном, но рассказы о Томе Сойере и Гекльберри Финне принесли ему мировую славу.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, novelist, writer and lecturer.

At his peak, he was probably the most popular American celebrity of his time. William Faulkner wrote that Twain was "the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs". Clemens maintained that the name "Mark Twain" came from his years on the riverboat, where two fathoms (12 ft, approximately 3.7 m) or "safe water" was measured on the sounding line, was marked by calling "mark twain". But it is often thought that the name actually came from his wilder days in the West, where he would buy two drinks and tell the bartender to "mark twain" on his tab. The true origin is unknown. In addition to Mark Twain, Clemens used the pseudonym "Sieur Louis de Conte". Mark Twain was "born" here, in the office of the Nevada Territorial Enterprise, when Clemens first used that name on an article published 3 February 1863. Clemens died on 21 April 1910. Halley"s Comet was again visible in the night sky. MT"s first novel was The Gilded Age, 1873. Oxford awarded Samuel L. Clemens the LLD (Doctor of Letters) in 1907. In 1894, over $100,000 in debt, MT declared bankruptcy.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, the third of four surviving children of John and Jane Clemens. When he was four years old, the family moved to the river town of Hannibal, Missouri, hoping their fortunes would improve there. It was this town and its inhabitants that the author Mark Twain later put to such imaginative use in his most famous works, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Clemens" father died in 1847, leaving many debts. The oldest son, Orion, soon began publishing a newspaper and Sam began contributing to it as a journeyman printer and occasional writer. Some of the liveliest and most controversial stories in Orion"s paper came from the pen of his younger brother - usually when Orion was out of town. Clemens also traveled to St. Louis and New York City to earn a living as a printer. But the lure of the Mississippi eventually drew Clemens to a career as a steamboat pilot, a profession he later claimed would have held him to the end of his days, recounting his experiences in his book Life on the Mississippi (1883). Clemens said that the characters he met on the river were a great help to him as he enjoyed reading more. He met every sort of character on the river. There was Horace Bixby (later the head pilot of the Union fleet), who took him on as a cub pilot, Mr. Brown, a tyrannical pilot who made Clemens feel like an emancipated slave when he no longer had to put up with him. His younger brother Henry was killed in a boiler explosion. But the Civil War and the advent of railroads put an end to commercial steamboat traffic in 1861, and Clemens had to look for a new job. After a brief stint with a local militia (an experience he recounted in his short story, "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" in 1885), he escaped further contact with the war by going west in July of 1861 with Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada. The two traveled for two weeks across the Plains by stagecoach to the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada.

Roughing it Out West

Clemens" experiences out West formed him as a writer and became the basis of his second book, Roughing It. Once in Nevada he became a miner, hoping to strike it rich digging up silver in the Comstock Lode and staying for long periods in camp with his fellow prospectors - another mode of living that he later put to literary use. Failing as a miner, he fell into newspaper work in Virginia City for the Territorial Enterprise, where he adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" for the first time. In 1864, he moved down to San Francisco and wrote for several papers there. In 1865, Twain had his first literary success. At the behest of humorist Artemus Ward (whom he had met and befriended in Virginia City during Ward"s lecture tour of 1863), he submitted a humorous short story for a collection Ward was publishing. The story arrived too late for that book, but the publisher passed it to the Saturday Press. That story, originally entitled "Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog" but now better known as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was reprinted nationwide, and called by Atlantic Monthly editor James Russell Lowell "the finest piece of humorous literature yet produced in America". In the spring of 1866 he was commissioned by the Sacramento Union newspaper to travel to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) to write a series of letters reporting on his journey there. On his return to San Francisco, the success of the letters and the personal encouragement of Colonel John McComb (publisher of San Francisco"s Alta California newspaper) led him to try his hand at the lecture circuit, renting the Academy of Music and charging a dollar a head admission".Doors open at 7 o"clock" Twain wrote on the advertising poster".The trouble to begin at 8 o"clock". The first lecture was a wild success, and soon Twain was traveling up and down the state, lecturing and entertaining to packed houses.

But it was another trip that established his fame as an author. Twain convinced Col. McComb of the Alta California to pay for Twain"s passage aboard the steam packet Quaker City on an American excursion to Europe and the Middle East. The resulting letters Twain produced for the newspaper reporting on the trip formed the basis of his first book, The Innocents Abroad, a large and humorous travelogue that pointedly failed to worship Old World arts and conventions. Sold by subscription, the book became hugely popular and put its author in a spotlight he never willingly relinquished for the rest of his life. After the success of Innocents Abroad he married Olivia Langdon in 1870 and moved to Buffalo, New York, then to Hartford, Connecticut. They had four children: Langdon, Susy, Clara, and Jean. Langdon died in 1872, and the three others were born between 1872 and 1880. During this period, he lectured often in the United States and England. Later he wrote as an avid critic of American society. He wrote about politics with his Life on the Mississippi.

Twain"s greatest contribution to American literature is generally considered to be the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As Ernest Hemingway himself said: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since". Also popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur"s Court and the non-fictional Life on the Mississippi. Twain began as a writer of light humorous verse; he ended as a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and acts of killing committed by mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way almost unrivaled in world literature. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature, built on American themes and language.

Twain had a fascination with science and scientific inquiry. Twain developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla. They spent quite a bit of time together from time to time (in Tesla"s laboratory, among other places). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur"s Court featured a time traveller from the America of Twain"s day who used his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. Twain also patented an improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments. Twain was a major figure in the American Anti-Imperialist League, which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States. He wrote Incident in the Philippines, posthumously published in 1924, in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros were killed. In recent years, there have been occasional attempts to ban Huckleberry Finn from various libraries, because Twain"s use of local color offends some people. Although Twain was against racism and imperialism far in front of public sentiment of his time, some with only superficial familiarity of his work have condemned it as racist for its accurate depiction of the language in common use in the United States in the 19th century. Expressions that were used casually and unselfconsciously then are often perceived today as racism (in present times, such racial epithets are far more visible and condemned). Twain himself would probably be amused by these attempts; in 1885, when a library in Massachusetts banned the book, he wrote to his publisher, "They have expelled Huck from their library as "trash suitable only for the slums", that will sell 25,000 copies for us for sure". Many of Mark Twain"s works have been suppressed at times for one reason or another. 1880 saw the publication of an anonymous slim volume entitled 1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. Twain was among those rumored to be the author, but the issue was not settled until 1906, when Twain acknowledged his literary paternity of this scatological masterpiece. Twain at least saw 1601 published during his lifetime. Twain wrote an anti-war article entitled The War Prayer during the Spanish-American War. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper"s Bazaar rejected it as "not quite suited to a woman"s magazine". Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, "I don"t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth". Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish The War Prayer elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923. In his later life Twain"s family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth, which was not published until 1962. The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916. Perhaps most controversial of all was Mark Twain"s 1879 humorous talk at the Stomach Club in Paris entitled Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism (masturbation), which concluded with the thought "If you must gamble your lives sexually, don"t play a lone hand too much". This talk was not published until 1943, and then only in a limited edition of fifty copies.

Later life and friendship with Henry H. Rogers

Twain"s fortunes then began to decline; in his later life, Twain was a very depressed man, but still capable. Following the erroneous publication of a premature obituary in the New York Journal, Twain famously responded: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" (June 2, 1897). His only son, who was sick from the time of his birth, died after Clemens took him out for a walk on a blistery day without covering his carriage. His most favored daughter died while Clemens was in Australia completing a lecture series. After giving birth to four children, his wife was sickly for most of her adult life. All in all he lost 3 out of 4 of his children, and his beloved wife, Olivia Langdon, before his death in 1910. He also had some very bad times with his businesses. His publishing company ended up going bankrupt, and he lost thousands of dollars on one typesetting machine that was never finished. He also lost a great deal of revenue on royalties from his books being plagiarized before he even had a chance to publish them himself. In 1893, Twain was introduced to industrialist and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers, one of the principals of Standard Oil. Rogers reorganized Twain"s tangled finances, and the two became close friends for the rest of their lives. Rogers" family became Twain"s surrogate family and Twain was a frequent guest at the Rogers townhouse in New York City and summer home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The two were drinking and poker buddies. In 1907, they traveled together in Rogers" yacht Kanawha to the Jamestown Exposition held at Sewell"s Point near Norfolk, Virginia in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Colony.

While Twain openly credited Rogers with saving him from financial ruin, there is also substantial evidence in their published correspondence that the close friendship in their later years was mutually beneficial, apparently softening at least somewhat the hard-driving industrialist Rogers, who had apparently earned the nickname "Hell Hound Rogers" when helping build Standard Oil earlier in his career. In one of history"s ironies, Rogers was introduced by Twain to investigative journalist Ida Tarbell, who is widely credited with exposing the dark side of Standard Oil, and did so largely through information she obtained through meetings with Rogers. During the years of their friendship, influenced by Twain, Rogers helped finance the education of Helen Keller and made substantial contributions to Dr. Booker T. Washington. After Rogers" death, Dr. Washington revealed that Roders (with a much-hated public persona) had been generously funding many small country schools and institutions of higher education in the South for the betterment and education of African Americans for over 15 years. Although by this late date he was in marginal health, in April, 1909, Twain returned to Norfolk with Rogers, and was a guest speaker at the dedication dinner held for the newly completed Virginian Railway, a "Mountains to Sea" engineering marvel of the day. The construction of the new railroad had been solely financed by industrialist Rogers. When Rogers died suddenly in New York less than two months later. Twain, on his way by train from Connecticut to visit Rogers, was met with the news at Grand Central Station the same morning by his daughter. His grief-stricken reaction was widely reported. He served as one of the pall-bearers at the Rogers funeral in New York later that week. When he declined to ride the funeral train from New York on to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, for the interment, he stated that he could not undertake to travel that distance among those whom he knew so well, and with whom he must of necessity join in conversation. Twain himself died less than one year later. He wrote in 1909, "I came in with Halley"s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it". And so he did. Halley"s comet can be seen in the Earth"s skies once every 75-76 years. It was visible on November 30, 1835, when Mark Twain was born and was also visible on April 21, 1910, when he died (although the exact dates of Halley"s highpoint were November 16th and April 10th, respectively). After his death, one of the prominent figures who paid public tribute to him was the President of the United States at the time, William H. Taft. In his words, "Mark Twain gave real intellectual enjoyment to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasures to millions yet to come. He never wrote a line that a father could not read to a daughter".

It was at a banquet in London in honour of one of the two or three conspicuously illustrious English military names of this generation. For reasons which will presently appear, I will withhold his real name and titles, and call him Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby, V.C., K.C.B., etc., etc., etc. What a fascination there is in a renowned name! There say the man, in actual flesh, whom I had heard of so many thousands of times since that day, thirty years before, when his name shot suddenly to the zenith from a Crimean battle-field, to remain for ever celebrated. It was food and drink to me to look, and look, and look at that demigod; scanning, searching, noting: the quietness, the reserve, the noble gravity of his countenance; the simple honesty that expressed itself all over him; the sweet unconsciousness of his greatness--unconsciousness of the hundreds of admiring eyes fastened upon him, unconsciousness of the deep, loving, sincere worship welling out of the breasts of those people and flowing toward him.

The clergyman at my left was an old acquaintance of mine--clergyman now, but had spent the first half of his life in the camp and field, and as an instructor in the military school at Woolwich. Just at the moment I have been talking about, a veiled and singular light glimmered in his eyes, and he leaned down and muttered confidentially to me--indicating the hero of the banquet with a gesture,--"Privately--his glory is an accident-- just a product of incredible luck."

This verdict was a great surprise to me. If its subject had been Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon, my astonishment could not have been greater.

Some days later came the explanation of this strange remark, and this is what the Reverend told me.

About forty years ago I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich. I was present in one of the sections when young Scoresby underwent his preliminary examination. I was touched to the quick with pity; for the rest of the class answered up brightly and handsomely, while he--why, dear me, he didn"t know anything, so to speak. He was evidently good, and sweet, and lovable, and guileless; and so it was exceedingly painful to see him stand there, as serene as a graven image, and deliver himself of answers which were veritably miraculous for stupidity and ignorance. All the compassion in me was aroused in his behalf. I said to myself, when he comes to be examined again, he will be flung over, of course; so it will be simple a harmless act of charity to ease his fall as much as I can.

I took him aside, and found that he knew a little of Caesar"s history; and as he didn"t know anything else, I went to work and drilled him like a galley-slave on a certain line of stock questions concerning Caesar which I knew would be used. If you"ll believe me, he went through with flying colours on examination day! He went through on that purely superficial "cram", and got compliments, too, while others, who knew a thousand times more than he, got plucked. By some strangely lucky accident--an accident not likely to happen twice in a century--he was asked no question outside of the narrow limits of his drill.

It was stupefying. Well, although through his course I stood by him, with something of the sentiment which a mother feels for a crippled child; and he always saved himself--just by miracle, apparently.

Now of course the thing that would expose him and kill him at last was mathematics. I resolved to make his death as easy as I could; so I drilled him and crammed him, and crammed him and drilled him, just on the line of questions which the examiner would be most likely to use, and then launched him on his fate. Well, sir, try to conceive of the result: to my consternation, he took the first prize! And with it he got a perfect ovation in the way of compliments.

Sleep! There was no more sleep for me for a week. My conscience tortured me day and night. What I had done I had done purely through charity, and only to ease the poor youth"s fall--I never had dreamed of any such preposterous result as the thing that had happened. I felt as guilty and miserable as the creator of Frankenstein. Here was a wooden- head whom I had put in the way of glittering promotions and prodigious responsibilities, and but one thing could happen: he and his responsibilities would all go to ruin together at the first opportunity.

The Crimean war had just broken out. Of course there had to be a war, I said to myself: we couldn"t have peace and give this donkey a chance to die before he is found out. I waited for the earthquake. It came. And it made me reel when it did come. He was actually gazetted to a captaincy in a marching regiment! Better men grow old and gray in the service before they climb to a sublimity like that. And who could ever have foreseen that they would go and put such a load of responsibility on such green and inadequate shoulders? I could just barely have stood it if they had made him a cornet; but a captain--think of it! I thought my hair would turn white.

Consider what I did--I who so loved repose and inaction. I said to myself, I am responsible to the country for this, and I must go along with him and protect the country against him as far as I can. So I took my poor little capital that I had saved up through years of work and grinding economy, and went with a sigh and bought a cornetcy in his regiment, and away we went to the field.

And there--oh dear, it was awful. Blunders? why, he never did anything but blunder. But, you see, nobody was in the fellow"s secret--everybody had him focused wrong, and necessarily misinterpreted his performance every time--consequently they took his idiotic blunders for inspirations of genius; they did honestly! His mildest blunders were enough to make a man in his right mind cry; and they did make me cry--and rage and rave too, privately. And the thing that kept me always in a sweat of apprehension was the fact that every fresh blunder he made increased the lustre of his reputation! I kept saying to myself, he"ll get so high that when discovery does finally come it will be like the sun falling out of the sky.

He went right along up, from grade to grade, over the dead bodies of his superiors, until at last, in the hottest moment of the battle of.... down went our colonel, and my heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was next in rank! Now for it, said I; we"ll all land in Sheol in ten minutes, sure.

The battle was awfully hot; the allies were steadily giving way all over the field. Our regiment occupied a position that was vital; a blunder now must be destruction. At this critical moment, what does this immortal fool do but detach the regiment from its place and order a charge over a neighbouring hill where there wasn"t a suggestion of an enemy! "There you go!" I said to myself; "this is the end at last."

And away we did go, and were over the shoulder of the hill before the insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find? An entire and unsuspected Russian army in reserve! And what happened? We were eaten up? That is necessarily what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. But no; those Russians argued that no single regiment would come browsing around there at such a time. It must be the entire English army, and that the sly Russian game was detected and blocked; so they turned tail, and away they went, pell-mell, over the hill and down into the field, in wild confusion, and we after them; they themselves broke the solid Russia centre in the field, and tore through, and in no time there was the most tremendous rout you ever saw, and the defeat of the allies was turned into a sweeping and splendid victory! Marshal Canrobert looked on, dizzy with astonishment, admiration, and delight; and sent right off for Scoresby, and hugged him, and decorated him on the field in presence of all the armies!

And what was Scoresby"s blunder that time? Merely the mistaking his right hand for his left--that was all. An order had come to him to fall back and support our right; and instead he fell forward and went over the hill to the left. But the name he won that day as a marvellous military genius filled the world with his glory, and that glory will never fade while history books last.

He is just as good and sweet and lovable and unpretending as a man can be, but he doesn"t know enough to come in when it rains. He has been pursued, day by day and year by year, by a most phenomenal and astonishing luckiness. He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for half a generation; he has littered his military life with blunders, and yet has never committed one that didn"t make him a knight or a baronet or a lord or something. Look at his breast; why, he is just clothed in domestic and foreign decorations. Well, sir, every one of them is a record of some shouting stupidity or other; and, taken together, they are proof that the very best thing in all this world that can befall a man is to be born lucky.

17 Сен

Тема по английскому языку: Марк Твен

Топик по английскому языку: Марк Твен (Mark Twain). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Ранние годы

Марк Твен родился в штате Миссури в Соединенных Штатах 30 ноября 1835. Он считается великим юмористом американской литературы 19 века. Отец Твена был неудачливым юристом. В 1838 семья Марка переехала в Ганнибал, Миссури, на реке Миссисипи, где молодой Твен испытал волнение, увидев красочные достопримечательности набережной. Как и многие другие авторы своего времени, он не получил положенного образования. Он даже не окончил среднюю школу. Он начал работать в возрасте 12 лет. Два года Твен работал в маленькой газете своего старшего брата и печатником, и репортером. 1853 Марк покинул Ганнибал, чтобы путешествовать. По пути в Новый Орлеан он убедил речного пилота научить его своему мастерству. К весне 1859 Марк Твен был лицензированным лодочным пилотом.

Литературный псевдоним

Настоящее имя Марка Твена было Самюэль Клеменс. Его литературный псевдоним в речной тематике означает «две морские сажени».

Первый популярный рассказ

С началом Гражданской войны в США Твен решил не вмешиваться в происходящие события и переехал в Карсон-Сити, штат Невада. После неудачной попытки добычи золота и серебра он был зачислен в штат газеты в Вирджиния-Сити, штат Невада. Твен написал свой первый популярный рассказ в 1865; он назывался «Прыжки лягушки Калаверас Каунти».

Приключения Тома Сойера

В 1876 Марк написал «Приключения Тома Сойера», которые принесли ему мировую славу. Книга была чрезвычайно популярна и переведена почти на каждый язык мира. Позже были изданы «Приключения Гекльберри Финна», «Том Сойер за границей», и «Том Сойер – детектив». Персонажи историй Твена всегда хорошо изображены; сами истории являются жизненными, а сюжеты искусно выстроены.

Другие работы

Между 1873 и 1889 Твен написал несколько романов, включая «Принц и нищий» и «Янки из Коннектикута при дворе короля Артура». Марк Твен был также автором сатир и критики, которые открывали правду об американском образе жизни.

Смерть

Он умер в 1910.

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Mark Twain

Early years

Mark Twain was born in the state of Missouri in the United States on 30 November, 1835. He is considered the greatest humorist of 19th Century American literature. Twain’s father was an unsuccessful lawyer. In 1839 Mark’s family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River where young Twain experienced the excitement and colorful sights of the waterfront. Like many authors of his day the future writer had little formal education. He didn’t even finish secondary school. He started working at the age of 12. For two years Twain worked for his elder brother’s small newspaper both as a printer and reporter. In 1853 Mark left Hannibal in order to travel. On a trip to New Orleans he persuaded a riverboat pilot to teach him his skill. By the spring of 1859 Mark Twain was a licensed riverboat pilot.

Pen name

Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens. His pen name means “two fathoms” in riverboat-talk.

First popular story

At the outbreak of the American Civil War Twain chose not to get involved and moved to Carson City, Nevada. After an unsuccessful attempt at gold and silver mining he joined the staff of a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. Twain wrote his first popular story in 1865; it was called The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In 1876 Mark wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which brought him world fame. The book was extremely popular and translated into nearly every language of the world. Later were published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer the Detective. The characters of Twain’s stories are always well-drawn; the stories themselves true-to-life and the plots are skillfully built up.

Other works

Between 1873 and 1889 Twain wrote several novels, including The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Mark Twain was also the author of satires and critical pages revealing a good deal of the truth about American way of life.

Death

He died in 1910.

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Тема по английскому языку: Пушкин Александр Сергеевич в наши дни

Топик по английскому языку: Пушкин Александр Сергеевич в наши дни (Alexander Pushkin). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Рождение

Александр Сергеевич Пушкин родился 6 июня 1799 в знатной семье. Он занимает выдающееся место в русской литературе и культуре. Каждое лето в июне тысячи людей посещают псковскую землю. Они приезжают в село Михайловское на замечательный фестиваль поэзии, чтобы посмотреть на места, где Пушкин жил и работал. Следует отметить, что он очень гордился своим пра-прадедушкой Ганнибалом, темнокожим генералом, который находился на службе у Петра Великого.

Ранний поэтический дар

Получив образование в императорском лицее в Царском селе, Пушкин демонстрировал ранний поэтический дар. Но он не только великий поэт. Он также прекрасный человек, сочетающий чудесный талант с гражданской храбростью и моральной честностью. Люди всегда будут признательны ему за каждую его работу.

Литературное наследие

Пушкин оставил литературное наследие русским, чей родной язык считался непригодным для литературы до этого времени. Он был разносторонним писателем с огромной энергией и оптимизмом. Его лирическая поэзия и простая, живая проза были бесценными образцами для последующих писателей.

Пушкин сейчас

Старые формы жизни ушли в прошлое, но все написанное Пушкиным продолжает жить. Оно не требует исправлений и едва ли нуждается в комментариях. Его чувства и взгляды все еще соответствуют нашим собственным чувствам и взглядам. Пушкинские строки обнажают его великое и великодушное сердце, его симпатию и уважение к людям. Читатель не может представить его внутренний мир без него.

Выдающиеся работы

Самые важные работы Пушкина включают роман в стихах «Евгений Онегин», который считается первым из великих русских романов, так же как и драмы в стихах «Борис Годунов», «Полтава», «Медный всадник», «Моцарт и Сальери», «Каменный гость», «Пир во время чумы», поэмы «Руслан и Людмила», «Кавказский пленник», «Бахчисарайский фонтан» и роман «Капитанская дочка».

Смерть

Пушкин скончался 10 февраля 1837 года от ран, полученных на дуэли в Санкт-Петербурге.

Бесплатно Топик по английскому языку: Пушкин Александр Сергеевич в наши дни

Alexander Pushkin

Birth

Alexander Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799 into a noble family. He occupies an outstanding place in Russian literature and culture. Every summer in June, thousands of people visit the Pskov land. They come to the village of Mikhailovskoye to the wonderful festival of poetry, to see the places where Pushkin lived and worked. It should be said that he took particular pride in his great-grandfather Hannibal, a black general who served Peter the Great.

An early poetic gift

Educated at the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarkoye Selo, Pushkin demonstrated an early poetic gift. But he is not only a great poet. He is also the perfect man combining brilliant talent with civil courage and moral integrity. People will always be grateful to him for each line of his works.

Literary heritage

Pushkin provided a literary heritage for Russians, whose native language had been considered unfit for literature before that time. He was a versatile writer of great vigor and optimism. His lyric poetry and his simple, vivid prose were invaluable models for the writers who followed him.

Pushkin continues to live

The old forms of life went into the past, but everything written by Pushkin continues to live. It does not need any corrections and hardly needs commentary. His feelings and his views still correspond to our own feelings and views. Pushkin’s lines show his great and generous heart, his sympathy and respect for his people. The reader cannot imagine his inner world without him.

Most important works

Most important Pushkin’s works include a verse novel “Eugene Onegin”, which is considered the first of the great Russian novels, as well as verse dramas «Boris Godunov», «Poltava», “The Bronze Horseman”, “Mozart and Salieri”, “The Stone Guest”, “Feast in the Time of the Plague”, poems «Ruslan and Ludmila», “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”, and novel “The Captain’s Daughter”.

Death

Pushkin died on 10 February, 1837, from wounds that he received in a duel which he had fought in St. Petersburg.

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Тема по английскому языку: Роберт Бернс

Топик по английскому языку: Роберт Бернс (Robert Burns). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Поэт 18 века

Роберт Бернс был величайшим поэтом 18 века. Он известен во всей Шотландии. Стоит только поговорить с шотландцем, чтобы почувствовать глубокую любовь и восхищение выдающимся соотечественником.

Биография

Бернс родился 25 января 1759 в Шотландии. Его отец, хоть и был бедным человеком, пытался дать детям хорошее образование, и Роберт, который был страшим, пошел в школу в соседней деревне на три года, а потом, на более короткие периоды в другие школы в окрестностях. Но именно благодаря отцу и собственной начитанности Бернс получил важную часть образования. К тому времени как он достиг зрелого возраста, он имел хорошее знание английского, читал по-французски и был довольно хорошо знаком с шедеврами английской литературы от Шекспира до его дней.

Поэзия

Роберт Бернс начал писать стихи, когда ему было 15. Он слагал стихи на мелодии старых народных песен, которыми он восхищался с самого раннего детства. Он воспевал леса, поля и чудесные долины своей родной земли. Бернс опубликовал некоторые из своих поэм в 1876, и их успех сделал его популярным.

Работы Бернса

Когда Бернс приехал в Эдинбург, столицу Шотландии, было опубликовано новое и расширенное издание его стихов. Однако эдинбургское общество быстро устало от него и очень скоро его забыло. Он вернулся в свою деревню с достаточным количеством денег, чтобы купить ферму и жениться на Джин Армор, которой он посвятил множество красивых стихов, таких как «Я люблю мою Джин», «Красавица Джин» и другие. Его самыми популярными поэмами также являются «Дерево свободы», «Мое сердце в горах» и «Красная, красная роза».

Смерть

Тяжелая работа поэта подорвала его здоровье. Он умер в бедности в возрасте 37 лет в 1796. Бернс был демократичным поэтом и всегда симпатизировал бедным. Именно поэтому тысячи людей пришли на его похороны. После смерти Роберт Бернс был объявлен национальным поэтом, а его день рождения отмечается как национальный праздник.

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Robert Burns

Poet of the 18th century

Robert Burns was the greatest poet of the 18th century. He is famous all over Scotland. One has only to speak to Scotchman to feel the deep love and admiration for their outstanding countryman.

Biography

Poetry

Robert Burns began to write poetry when he was fifteen. He composed verses to the melodies of old folk-songs, which he had admired from his early childhood. He sang of the woods, fields and wonderful valleys of his native land. Burns published some of his poems in 1786 and their success made him popular.

Burns’ works

When Burns came to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, a new and enlarged edition of his poems was published. However, Edinburgh society grew tired of him and forgot him very soon. He returned to his native village with money enough to buy a farm and marry Jean Armor, to whom he devoted lots of beautiful poems, such as «I love my Jean», «Bonnie Jean» and others. His most popular poems are also “The Tree of Liberty”, “My Heart’s in the Highlands” and “A Red, Red Rose”.

Death

The poet’s hard work destroyed his health. He died in poverty at the age of 37 in 1796. Burns was a democratic poet and always sympathetic with the poor. That is why thousands of people attended his funeral. Upon his death Robert Burns was declared the national poet of Scotland, and his birthday is celebrated as a national holiday.

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Тема по английскому языку: Русские писатели 19 века

Топик по английскому языку: Русские писатели 19 века (Russian writers of the 19th century). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Золотой век русской литературы

19 век был Золотым веком русской литературы. Русская литература приобрела свои традиции, историю и индивидуальный язык. Этот период называют «веком классиков».

Среда для дискуссий

Русская литература 19 века обеспечила благоприятную среду для дискуссий на политические и социальные темы, прямое выражение которых было под цензурой. Писатели-прозаики этого периода разделяли важные качества: внимание к реалистичным, детальным описаниям повседневной жизни и сатирическое отношение к заурядности и рутине.

Эпоха реализма

Эпоха реализма, которая считалась кульминацией литературного синтеза предыдущих поколений, началась в 1850 году. Лучшими писателями прозаиками того времени были Иван Тургенев, Федор Достоевский и Лев Толстой. Они сумели скомбинировать подлинную литературу с извечными философскими вопросами. Романы Достоевского «Преступление и наказание» и «Братья Карамазовы», также как романы Толстого «Война и мир» и «Анна Каренина» и «Отцы и дети» Тургенева являются классикой мировой литературы.

Другие выдающиеся писатели

Другими выдающимися писателями эпохи реализма были драматург Александр Островский, романист Иван Гончаров и новатор прозы Николай Лесков. Самыми известными поэтами середины века были Афанасий Фет и Федор Тютчев. Самой крупной фигурой в последнее десятилетие 19 века был Антон Чехов, который писал в двух жанрах: новеллы и драма. Его пьесы «Вишневый сад», «Чайка» и «Три сестры» до сих пор играют в театрах по всему миру.

Возрождение поэзии

В 1890-х русская поэзия была возрождена и основательно переоформлена новой группой, символистами, чьим самым выдающимся представителем был Александр Блок.

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Russian literature and Russian writers of the 19th century

The Golden Age for the national literature

The 19th century was the Golden Age for the national literature. Russian literature obtained its tradition, history and distinct language. This period is called “the century of classics”.

A congenial medium for the discussion

Russian literature of the nineteenth century provided a congenial medium for the discussion of political and social issues whose direct presentation was censored. The prose writers of this period shared important qualities: attention to realistic, detailed descriptions of everyday Russian life and a satirical attitude toward mediocrity and routine.

The Age of Realism

The Age of Realism, which was considered as the culmination of the literary synthesis of earlier generations, began around 1850. The best prose writers of that time were Ivan Turgenev, Fedor Dostoyevskiy, and Lev Tolstoy. They managed to combine pure literature with eternal philosophical questions. Dostoyevskiy’s novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov , like Tolstoy’s novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina , and Turgenev’s Sons and Fathers are classics of world literature.

Other outstanding writers

Other outstanding writers of the Age of Realism were the playwright Aleksandr Ostrovskiy, the novelist Ivan Goncharov, and the prose innovator Nikolay Leskov. The most notable poets of mid-century were Afanasiy Fet and Fedor Tyutchev. The major literary figure in the last decade of the nineteenth century was Anton Chekhov, who wrote in two genres: the short story and drama. His plays The Cherry Orchard , The Seagull , and The Three Sisters continue to be performed worldwide.

The revival of poetry

In the 1890s, Russian poetry was revived and thoroughly reshaped by a new group, the symbolists, whose most prominent representative was Aleksandr Blok.

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Тема по английскому языку: Королев Сергей Павлович

Топик по английскому языку: Королев Сергей Павлович (Academician Korolyov). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Основатель практической космонавтики

Академик Королев – известный ученый и основатель практической космонавтики. Он был крупной фигурой в развитии русской космической программы. Королев родился в 1906 в маленьком украинском городке Житомир в семье учителей. В 1922, когда ему было 15, Королев поехал учиться в профессиональную строительную школу в Одессе, где получил среднее строительное образование.

Интересы

Королев очень интересовался математикой и литературой. В 1923 он вступил в клуб пилотов планеров, где научился конструировать планеры и летать на них. В 1925 Королев начал изучать авиацию и математику в Киевском политехническом институте. Однако он вынужден был работать по вечерам. У него были разные работы: строителя, на почте, он даже играл маленькие роли в фильмах.

Переезд в Москву

Проведя два года в Киеве, Королев поехал в Москву, где он работал на самолетном заводе в дневное время и учился в Московском политехническом институте. Во время учебы Королев заинтересовался идеями Циолковского о космических путешествиях. После окончания учебы в 1930 Королев стал авиационным инженером. Он также закончил Московскую пилотную школу. Во время Великой Отечественной войны Королев сконструировал реактивный двигатель для самолетов и ракет.

Исследование космоса

Королев известен многими хорошо известными русскими достижениями в исследовании космоса. Он был главным конструктором первого сделанного человеком спутника земли, который был запущен в космос 4 октября 1957 года. Потом в космос были отправлены собаки, и только потом Юрий Гагарин, первый в мире космонавт, который был отправлен в космос на космическом корабле «Восток» 12 апреля 1961. Затем летали ракеты на Луну, Марс и Венеру.

Наследие

Королев оставил после себя группу преданных и высококвалифицированных ученых и инженеров. За свою великолепную работу во имя науки и прогресса он был награжден двумя золотыми звездами Героя социалистического труда. Сергей Королев умер в 1966.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Королев Сергей Павлович

Academician Korolyov

Founder of practical cosmonautics

Academician Korolyov is a famous scientist and founder of practical cosmonautics. He was a major figure in the development of the Russian space program. Korolyov was born in 1906 in the small Ukrainian town of Zhitomir into a family of teachers. In 1922, when he was 15, Korolyov went to study at a vocational building school in Odessa, where he received his secondary education as a builder.

Interests

Korolyov was greatly interested in mathematics and literature. In 1923 he joined Glider Pilots’ Club, where he learned to construct gliders and to fly them. In 1925 Korolyov began to study aviation and mathematics at the Kiev Polytechnical Institute. However, he had to work in the evening. He had different jobs: as a building worker, at the post office and he even played very small roles in films.

Moving to Moscow

After two years in Kiev Korolyov came to Moscow, where he worked at an aeroplane factory in the day-time and studied at the Moscow Higher Technical School in the evening. While studying there Korolyov became interested in Tsiolkovsky’s ideas on space travel. After his graduation in 1930 Korolyov became an aviation engineer. He also finished the Moscow Pilot School. During the Great Patriotic War S. P. Korolyov constructed a jet engine for aeroplanes and rockets.

Space exploration

Korolyov was responsible for many of Russia’s well-known achievements in space exploration. He was the chief constructor of the first man-made sputnik of the Earth, which was launched into space on October 4, 1957. Then dogs were sent into space and only then Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in the world launched into space in the spaceship “Vostok” on April 12, 1961. Then followed rockets to the Moon, Mars and Venus.

Legacy

Korolyov was also responsible for leaving behind a group of dedicated and highly trained scientists and engineers. For his brilliant work in the name of science and progress he was awarded two Gold Stars of the Hero of Socialist Labour. Sergei Korolyov died in 1966.

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Тема по английскому языку: Льюис Кэрролл

Топик по английскому языку: Льюис Кэрролл (Lewis Carroll). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Писатель и математик

Льюис Кэрролл – это псевдоним английского писателя и математика Чарльза Латвиджа Доджсона, который родился 27 января 1832 года в Англии.

Происхождение

Сын священника и первенец из 11 детей, Кэрролл с раннего возраста развлекал себя и семью магическими трюками, шоу марионеток и поэмами, написанными для домашних газет. Пазлы, анаграммы, загадки, шахматные проблемы и некоторые другие вещи занимали его ум всю жизнь. Льюис ответственен за некоторые новшества, включая «Дублеты», изобретенные в 1879 и «Игру логики» в 1886.

Образование

С 1846 по 1850 Льюис посещал школу Рагби. В 1854 он закончил колледж Церкви Христа в Оксфорде. Затем Кэрролл там остался преподавать математику. В 1861 он взял на себя обязательства дьякона. В начале 1856 года он занялся фотографией и весьма преуспел на этом поприще, особенно в фотографировании детей.

Приключения Алисы в стране чудес

Кэрролла в основном помнят как автора знаменитых детских книг «Приключения Алисы в стране чудес», написанной в 1865 и ее продолжения «Зазеркалье» в 1872. Он развил эти истории из тех, что рассказывал детям Генри Джорджа Лиддела, старшего священника колледжа Церкви Христа, одну из которых звали Алиса. Многие его герои – сумасшедший шляпник, мартовский заяц, белый кролик, красная королева и белая королева – стали известными фигурами в литературе и вошли в нашу жизнь. Как сказал сам Кэрролл, его книги сочетали элементы фантазии, логики и сумасбродства.

Другие работы

Он также писал юмористические стихи, самыми популярными из которых были «Охота на Снарка», написанные им в 1876. Его поздние истории для детей «Сильви и Бруно» и «Сильви и Бруно завершено» были неудачными попытками воссоздать фантазии Алисы.

Смерть

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Льюис Кэрролл

Lewis Carroll

English writer and mathematician

Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym of the English writer and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was born on 27 January, 1832 in England.

Background

The son of a clergyman and the firstborn of 11 children, Carroll began at an early age to entertain himself and his family with magic tricks, marionette shows, and poems written for homemade newspapers. Puzzles, anagrams, riddles, chess problems and some other things occupied his mind for all his life. Lewis was responsible for some new innovations, including “Doublets” invented in 1879 and “The Game of Logic” in 1886.

Education

From 1846 to 1850 lewis attended Rugby School. In 1854 he graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford. Then, Carroll remained there, lecturing on mathematics. In 1861 he took deacon’s orders. Early in 1856 he took up photography and became proficient at it especially at photographing children.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Carroll is chiefly remembered as the author of the famous children’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865 and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass in 1872. He developed these stories from tales he told to the children of Henry George Liddell, the dean of Christ Church College, one of whom was named Alice. Many of his characters-the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, and the White Queen-have become familiar figures in literature and conversation. As Carroll himself said, the books combined elements of fantasy, logic and nonsense.

Other works

He also wrote humorous verses, the most popular of which was The Hunting of the Snark in 1876. His later stories for children, Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded were unsuccessful attempts to re-create the Alice fantasies.

Death

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Тема по английскому языку: Маргарет Тэтчер

Топик по английскому языку: Маргарет Тэтчер (Margaret Thatcher). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Происхождение

Маргарет Робертс, дочь бакалейщика, родилась в Грантам, графство Линкольншир 13 октября 1925.Она поступила в Оксфордский университет, а затем стала химиком-исследователем. Позже она изучала юриспруденцию и, в конечном итоге, стала адвокатом. В 1951 она вышла замуж за состоятельного бизнесмена, Дениса Тэтчера, с которым у них было двое детей.

Продвижение по службе

Будучи членом Консервативной партии Маргарет Тэтчер была избрана представлять Финчли в октябре 1959 года. Два года спустя она заняла пост младшего министра по пенсиям в правительстве Гарольда Макмиллана. С 1964 по 1970, когда лейбористская партия была у власти, она занимала ряд должностей в теневом кабинете Эдуарда Хита. Хит стал премьер-министром в 1970 и Тэтчер была назначена государственным секретарем по вопросам образования и науки.

Тэтчер — премьер-министр

После того как консерваторы потерпели поражение в 1974 году, Тэтчер оспорила лидерство Хита в партии и выиграла. На всеобщих выборах в 1979 консерваторы пришли к власти, и Тэтчер стала премьер-министром. Хотя политика Тэтчер была успешна в снижении инфляции, безработица все же резко возросла.

Война за Фолклендские острова

Победа в войне за Фолклендские острова в 1982 году и разделенная оппозиция помогли Тэтчер одержать победу на всеобщих выборах в 1983. В 1984 году она чудом избежала смерти, когда ИРА заложила бомбу на конференции Консервативной партии в Брайтоне.

Железная леди

В области внешней политики Тэтчер культивировала тесные политические и личные отношения с президентом США Рональдом Рейганом. Советские люди прозвали ее «железной леди».

Третий срок

На всеобщих выборах в 1987 Тэтчер выиграла беспрецедентный третий срок. Однако ее популярность была серьезно подорвана, когда в 1989 в Шотландии был введен подушный налог, а остальная часть Великобритании должна была последовать этому на следующий год. Новый налог был крайне непопулярным и привел к публичным демонстрациям.

Отставка

В ноябре 1990 года Тэтчер согласилась уйти в отставку, и в качестве лидера партии и премьер-министра ее обошел Джон Мейджор. В 1992 году Тэтчер покинула Палату общин, уйдя в Палату лордов как баронесса Тэтчер Кестевена.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Маргарет Тэтчер

Margaret Thatcher

Background

Margaret Roberts, the daughter of a grocer, was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13th October, 1925. She went to Oxford University and then became a research chemist. Later she studied law and eventually became a barrister. In 1951, she married a wealthy businessman, Denis Thatcher, with whom she had two children.

Promotion

A member of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher was elected to represent Finchley in October 1959. Two years later she took the post of junior minister for pensions in Harold Macmillan’s government. From 1964 to 1970, when Labour were in power, she served in a number of positions in Edward Heath’s shadow cabinet. Heath became prime minister in 1970 and Thatcher was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science.

Prime minister

After the Conservatives were defeated in 1974, Thatcher challenged Heath for the leadership of the party and won. In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives came to power and Thatcher became Prime minister. Although Thatcher’s policies succeeded in reducing inflation, unemployment still dramatically increased.

Falklands War

Victory in the Falklands War in 1982 and a divided opposition helped Thatcher win in the 1983 general election. In 1984, she narrowly escaped death when the IRA planted a bomb at the Conservative party conference in Brighton.

Iron Lady

In foreign affairs, Thatcher cultivated a close political and personal relationship with US president Ronald Reagan. Soviet people called her “Iron Lady”.

Third term

In the 1987 general election, Thatcher won an unprecedented third term in office. However, her popularity was severely damaged when the Poll Tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and the rest of Britain was to follow a year later. The new tax was extremely unpopular and led to public demonstrations.

Resignation

In November 1990, Thatcher agreed to resign and was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by John Major. In 1992, Thatcher left the House of Commons for the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

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Тема по английскому языку: Майкл Фарадей

Топик по английскому языку: Майкл Фарадей (Michael Faraday). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Ранние годы

Майкл Фарадей – один из величайших ученых в области изучения электричества. Он родился 22 сентября 1791 в Южном Лондоне. Его семья была бедной, и он получил лишь начальное образование. В возрасте 14 он поступил учеником к местному переплетчику и в течение следующих 7 лет занимался самообразованием, читая книги по различным научным дисциплинам. В 1812 году Фарадей посетил 4 лекции химика Хамфри Дэви в Королевском институте. Он также просил его о работе ассистента, но был отклонен. Однако в 1818 Дэви дал ему работу химического ассистента в Королевском институте.

Европейское турне

Год спустя Фарадей был приглашен сопровождать Дэви в 18 месячном европейском турне, где они должны были встретиться с множеством влиятельных ученых. По возвращении в 1815 году, Фарадей продолжил работать в Королевском институте, помогая с экспериментами Дэви и другим ученым. В 1821 году он опубликовал свою работу по электромагнитному вращению. Фарадей сам дал много лекций, создавая себе репутацию выдающегося научного преподавателя своего времени.

Открытие

1831 году Фарадей открыл электромагнитную индукцию. Это открытие позволило преобразовывать электричество в новые мощные технологии. До конца десятилетия он работал над развитием своих идей в данной области.

Научные интересы

У Фарадея были различные научные интересы. Он изобрел новый вид стекла и новый вид стали. Фарадей провел около двух тысяч сложных экспериментов и совершил несчетное количество открытий в химии и физике.

Смерть и наследие

В начале 1840-х здоровье Фарадея стало ухудшаться, и он проводил меньше исследований. Он умер 25 августа 1867 в Хэмптон-Корт в своей квартире, полученной в знак признания его вклада в науку. Он дал свое имя «фараду», который первоначально описывал единицу электрического заряда, но позже единицу электрической емкости.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Майкл Фарадей

Michael Faraday

Early years

Michael Faraday is one of the great scientists in the history of man’s work in electricity. He was born on 22 September 1791 in south London. His family was poor and Faraday received only a basic formal education. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a local bookbinder and during the next seven years educated himself by reading books on different scientific subjects. In 1812, Faraday attended four lectures given by the chemist Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. He also asked him for a job of an assistant but was turned down. However, in 1813 Davy gave him the job of chemical assistant at the Royal Institution.

European tour

A year later, Faraday was invited to accompany Davy on an 18 month European tour, where they were to meet lots of influential scientists. On their return in 1815, Faraday continued to work at the Royal Institution, helping with experiments for Davy and other scientists. In 1821 he published his work on electromagnetic rotation. Faraday himself gave many lectures, establishing his reputation as the outstanding scientific lecturer of his time.

Discovery

In 1831 Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction. The discovery allowed to transform electricity into a powerful new technology. During the remainder of the decade he worked on developing his ideas about electricity.

Scientific interests

Faraday’s scientific interests were varied. He made new kind of glass and a new kind of steel. Faraday made about two thousand difficult experiments and made countless discoveries in chemistry and physics.

Death and legacy

In the early 1840s Faraday’s health began to decline and he did less research. He died on 25 August 1867 at Hampton Court, where he had been given official lodgings in recognition of his contribution to science. He gave his name to the ‘farad’, originally describing a unit of electrical charge but later a unit of electrical capacitance.

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Тема по английскому языку: Михаил Ломоносов

Топик по английскому языку: Михаил Ломоносов (Mikhail Lomonosov). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Русский ученый

Михаил Ломоносов был первым русским всемирно известным специалистом в области естествознания. Он был также поэтом, заложившим основы русского литературного языка.

Рождение

Михаил Ломоносов родился в 1711 году в семье рыбака в деревне, расположенной неподалеку от Архангельска. Так как он был сыном крестьянина, ему было отказано в принятии в городские школы. Однако Ломоносов очень желал получить образование, поэтому в 1730 он прошел весь путь в Москву пешком.

Образование

Михаил вынужден был скрыть свое происхождение, чтобы его приняли в Славяно-греко-латинскую академию Москвы, где он начал свое образование в возрасте 19 лет. Ломоносов был признан лучшим студентом и завершил свое образование в Санкт-Петербурге и Германии.

Первым русский профессор химии

Ломоносов стал первым русским профессором химии Петербургской Академии наук в 1745. Его основные научные достижения были в области физической химии, наряду с другими знаменательными открытиями в области астрономии, геофизики, геологии, металлургии и минералогии.

Научная работа

Ломоносов был основателем Московского Университета, который в 1940 году по случаю своей 185-ой годовщины, был назван в его честь. Он является автором первой научной грамматики русского языка. Ломоносов опубликовал первую историю России в 1760 и изобрел новую систему стихотворного размера в своей поэзии. Он также возродил искусство мозаики и построил фабрику из мозаики и цветного стекла.

Изобретения

Ломоносов изобрел первый барометр газа, разработал методы точного взвешивания, разработал кинетическую теорию теплоты. Он доказал органическое происхождение масел, каменного угля и янтаря.

Смерть

Заключение

Михаил Ломоносов был первым русским ученым мирового значения. Он обладал энциклопедическими знаниями, интересами и способностями, и он также известен как поэт, художник, астроном и русский историк, который внес важный вклад в литературу и науку.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Михаил Ломоносов

Mikhail Lomonosov

Specialist in natural science

Mikhail Lomonosov was Russia’s first world-famed specialist in natural science. He was also a poet who laid down the foundations of Russian literary language.

Birth

Mikhail Lomonosov was born in 1711 in the family of a fisherman in the village not far from Arkhangelsk. Since he was the son of a peasant, he was refused admission to the town schools. However, Lomonosov was eager to get an education, so in 1730 he travelled all the way to Moscow on foot.

Education

Mikhail had to conceal his origin in order to be admitted to the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy of Moscow, where he started his education at the age of 19. Lomonosov was recognized as an excellent student and completed his education in St. Petersburg and in Germany.

First Russian professor of chemistry

Lomonosov became the first Russian professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg Academy of Science in 1745. His major scientific accomplishment was in the field of physical chemistry, with other notable discoveries in astronomy, geophysics, geology, metallurgy and mineralogy.

Scientific work

Lomonosov was the founder of Moscow University, which in 1940 on the occasion of its 185th Anniversary was named after him. He is the author of the first scientifical grammar of the Russian language. Lomonosov published the first history of Russia in 1760 and invented a new system of meter in his poetry. He also revived the art of Russian mosaic and built a mosaic and colored-glass factory.

Inventions

Lomonosov invented the first gas barometer, developed the methods of exact weighting, brought up the kinetic theory of warmth. He proved the organic origin of oils, stone coal and amber.

Death

Lomonosov died on April 15, 1765.

Conclusion

Mikhail Lomonosov was the first Russian natural scientist of world importance. He had encyclopedic knowledge, interests and abilities, and he also is known as a poet, artist, astronomer and Russian historian, who made important contributions to both literature and science.

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Тема по английскому языку: Натаниэль Готорн

Топик по английскому языку: Натаниэль Готорн (American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Детство

Натаниэль Готорн родился в Салеме, Массачусетс 4 июля 1804 года. Он был американским писателем-фантастом, чьи работы были основаны на истории его пуританских предшественников и Новой Англии того времени. Отец Натаниэля, морской капитан, умер в 1808, оставив жену и троих детей на попечение родственников. Травма ноги в детстве вынудила Готорна оставаться неподвижным в течение длительного периода, во время которого он развил исключительный вкус к чтению и размышлениям.

Ранние годы

Готорн посещал колледж Боудон с 1821 по 1825. Среди его одноклассников были поэт Генри Лонгфеллоу и будущий президент США Франклин Пирс. Готорн опубликовал свой первый роман в 1828 и был разочарован его провалом. Однако он продолжил свою писательскую карьеру, предлагая свои истории журналам Новой Англии. Некоторые из них были собраны в «Дважды рассказывали», чей успех определил Готорна как писателя в 1837.

Влияние пуританства

На Готорна оказало сильное влияние его пуританское наследие, так как один из его праотцов был судьей, который председательствовал на судах над салемскими ведьмами в 1692. Чувство вины Готорна за участие его предков в несправедливых судах четко выражено в «Алой Букве», также как и в некоторых других работах. Его любовь к чтению и созерцанию природы также повлияли на его работы. Период с 1850 по 1853 был самым продуктивным для Готорна, так как он написал «Дом о семи фронтонах», «Блитедальский романс», наряду с «Чудо-книгой» и «Танглвудскими сказками».

Литературный стиль

Литературный стиль Готорна был так сильно стилизован и романтизирован, что иногда он получал хорошую порцию критики. Однако его воспринимали как обладающего проницательностью писателя.

Смерть

Несмотря на то, что Натаниэль Готорн был исключительно активным человеком, его здоровье начало ухудшаться. Он умер 19 мая 1864.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Натаниэль Готорн

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Childhood

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804. He was an American fiction writer, whose works were based on the history of his Puritan ancestors and the New England of his own day. Nathaniel’s father, a sea captain, died in 1808, leaving his wife and three children dependent on relatives. A leg injury in his childhood forced Hawthorne to remain immobile for a considerable period, during which he developed an exceptional taste for reading and thinking.

Early years

Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825. Among his classmates were poet Henry Longfellow and future U.S. president Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne published his first novel in 1828, and was disappointed by its failure. However, he continued his writing career, submitting stories to New England magazines. Several of them were compiled into «Twice-Told Tales», whose success established Hawthorne as a writer in 1837.

Influence of puritanism

Hawthorne was heavily influenced by his Puritan heritage as one of his forefathers was a judge who presided over the Salem witch trials in 1692. Hawthorne’s sensitivity to guilt for his ancestor’s participation in the infamous trials is clearly present in the «Scarlet Letter», as well as some of his other works. Other personal influences reflected in Hawthorne’s writing include his love of reading and nature. The period from 1850 to 1853 was Hawthorne’s most productive, as he wrote The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance, along with A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales.

Hawthorne’s literary style

Hawthorne’s literary style was so highly stylized and romanticized that he sometimes received good portions of criticism. However, he was hailed as an insightful writer.

Death

Although Nathaniel Hawthorne was an exceptionally active man, his health began to decline. He died on May 19, 1864.

Обвинения в воровстве

В 1882 в возрасте 20 лет О’Генри переехал в Техас, где он работал в различных местах: кассиром в банке, а затем редактором отдела в газете. В 1894 во время работы в Первом Национальном Банке в Остине, О’Генри был обвинен в хищении $ 4000. Не желая идти в тюрьму за свои преступления, О’Генри бежал в Гондурас, и оставался там в течение шести месяцев, прежде чем вернуться в Соединенные Штаты. После своего возвращения его осудили и посадили в тюрьму штата Огайо на три года. Находясь в тюрьме, он начал писать новеллы и именно там взял псевдоним О’Генри.

Лучшие его работы

После освобождения из тюрьмы в 1901 году он переехал в Нью-Йорк, который стал местом действия для многих его рассказов. В целом, О’Генри написал более 250 новелл, известных своей непредсказуемой концовкой и юмором. Лучшие его работы были опубликованы книгами: «Капуста и короли», «Четыре миллиона», «Сердце запада», «Голос города» и другие. Его работы оказали значительное влияние на американскую литературу. Его любовь к человечеству, к обычным людям, его критическое отношение к несправедливости до сих пор привлекают современных читателей. О’Генри является автором таких классических новелл как «Выкуп красного главаря» и «Меблированная комната».

Смерть

В последние годы его жизни у О’Генри были финансовые проблемы и проблемы со здоровьем. Он умер 5 июня 1910 в Нью-Йорке.

Заключение

О’Генри был прирожденным писателем и великим талантом. Он был одним из самых публикуемых американских авторов, и его работы были переведены почти на каждый язык мира.

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American writer O’Henry

American short story writers

O’Henry was born in Greensboro, a little town in North Carolina on September 11, 1862. He was one of the most famous American short story writers. O’Henry’s real name was William Sydney Porter. The works of this writer reflect a specific period in American literature - the turn of the century. His credo was - art should be true, democratic and it should address contemporary life and embrace all aspects of life.

Сharge of stealing

In 1882 at age of 20 O’Henry moved to Texas, where he had various jobs: a bank teller and then a newspaper columnist. In 1894 while working for First National Bank in Austin, O’Henry was accused of stealing $4000. Not wanting to go to prison for his crime, O. Henry fled to Honduras, and stayed there for six months before returning to the United States. Upon his return, the court tried him and put in prison in Ohio for three years. While in prison, he began writing short stories and it is there that he took the pen-name O’Henry for his writings.

Best of his works

After O’Henry was released from the prison in 1901 he moved to New York, which was the setting for lots of his stories. All in all, O’Henry wrote more than 250 stories and is most famous for their surprise endings and humor. The best of his works were published in books: «Cabbages and Kings», «The Four Million», «Heart of the West», «The Voice of the City» and others. His works had considerable influence on American literature. His love for humanity, for the common people, his critical attitude towards injustice still attract readers of today. O’Henry wrote such classic short stories as The Ransom of Red Chief and The Furnished Room.

Death

In his last years O’Henry had financial and health problems. He died on June 5, 1910 in New York City.

Ранние годы

Оскар Уайльд родился в Дублине 16 октября 1854. Его отец был успешным хирургом, а мать писала стихи и прозу. Уайльд учился в Тринити-колледже в Дублине и колледже Магдалены в Оксфорде. Учась в Оксфорде, Уайльд стал участвовать в эстетическом движении. Будучи там, он также стал личностью дня: он носил длинные волосы, украшал свою комнату различными красивыми вещами. Его остроумные высказывания были хорошо известны среди студентов. После того как он окончил университет, он переехал в Лондон, чтобы продолжить литературную карьеру.

Первые работы

Первый том его стихов был опубликован в 1881, но он также писал сказки и опубликовал роман «Портрет Дориана Грея » в 1891. Его величайшим талантом было написание пьес, и он также создал серию чрезвычайно популярных комедий, в том числе «Поклонник леди Уиндермир» и «Как важно быть честным». «Саломе» была поставлена в Париже в 1896.

Характер

Оскар Уайльд привлекал внимание аудитории превосходным общением, своими знаниями и силой своего характера. Он восхищался бескорыстием, добротой и великодушием в «Счастливом принце», «Соловье и розе» и презирал эгоизм и жадность в «Эгоистичном гиганте» и «Преданном друге». Он показывал контраст между богатством и бедностью. Его личная симпатия бедным рабочим людям была достаточно очевидна.

Личная жизнь

Драма и трагедия коснулась личной жизни Уайльда. Он женился на Констанции Лойд в 1884, и у них было два сына, но в 1891 Уайльд начал отношения с лордом Альфредом Дугласом. В апреле 1895 он был обвинен в аморальности и приговорен к двум годам заключения. Уайльд был освобожден из тюрьмы с разрушенным здоровьем и подорванной репутацией. Он провел остаток своей жизни в Европе. Он умер в Париже 30 ноября 1900 года.

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Oscar Wilde

Early years

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. His father was a successful surgeon and his mother a writer of verse and prose. Wilde was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. While at Oxford, Wilde became involved in the aesthetic movement. While there he also became one of the most famous personalities of the day: he wore his hair long, decorated his room with different beautiful things. His witty sayings were well known among the students. After he graduated, he moved to London to pursue a literary career.

First works

A first volume of Wilde’s poetry was published in 1881 but he also wrote fairy stories and published a novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in 1891. His greatest talent was for writing plays, and he produced a string of extremely popular comedies including “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, “An Ideal Husband” and “The Importance of Being Earnest”. ‘Salomé’ was performed in Paris in 1896.

Personality

Oscar Wilde attracted the attention of his audiences by the brilliance of his conversation, his knowledge, and the force of his personality. He admired unselfishness, kindness and generosity in “The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose” and despised egoism and greed in “The Selfish Giant” and “The Devoted Friend”. He showed the contrast between wealth and poverty. His own sympathy for poor, laboring people was quite evident.

Ранние годы

Диана Спенсер родилась 1 июля 1961 года в Сандринхэм в Англии. У нее были две старшие сестры и младший брат. Ее родители развелись, когда ей было 8 лет. В возрасте 16 Диана уехала в Швейцарию и закончила там школу. Вернувшись в Лондон, она зарабатывала на жизнь, работая поваром и няней, а затем воспитателем в детском саду.

Замужество и развод

Диана стала принцессой, когда принц Чарльз, королевский сын, попросил ее стать его женой, и они обвенчались в Кафедральном Соборе святого Павла 29 июля 1981. Сначала они казались счастливой парой. Однако после медового месяца их отношения стали ухудшаться. У Дианы и Чарльза родились два сына: принц Уильям в 1982 и принц Генри в 1984. Королевская семья надеялись, что с их рождением мир в семье восстановится. Однако этого не случилось. Официальный развод Дианы и Чарльза состоялся в августе 1996.

Популярность

Диана была самой знаменитой, красивой и фотографируемой женщиной в мире. Она завоевала сердца миллионов людей во многих странах. Тысячи людей говорили о доброте Дианы. Как принцесса Уэльса, Диана видела возможность делать добро на протяжении всей своей жизни, в то время как другие на ее месте были бы удовлетворены своим комфортным образом жизни и двумя здоровыми сыновьями. Когда ее уверенность усилилась, она осознала, что может использовать свою известность и влияние, чтобы сделать жизнь людей счастливее.

Общественная работа

Основные заботы Дианы были о старых, о молодых и о тех, кто находился в больницах и приютах. Она посещала больницы для больных СПИДом и прокаженных и не боялась дотрагиваться до них, разговаривать с ними, слушать их. Она была покровительницей «Поворотной точки», организации, которая помогала людям избавиться наркотической или алкогольной зависимости. Она много делала для бездомных. Проблема злоупотребления наркотиками также волновала Диану, и она хотела принимать участие в борьбе против этого. Она также выказывала обеспокоенность судьбой глухих и стала искусной в языке жестов, так чтобы можно было с ними общаться.

Смерть

31 августа 1997 года принцесса Диана погибла в автомобильной катастрофе. Ее смерть была огромной трагедией и потерей для всей британской нации.

Заключение

Она хотела давать людям не только деньги. Она хотела отдавать им часть своей души. У нее было много друзей среди знаменитостей, но еще больше среди обычных людей.

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Princess Diana

Early years

Diana Spencer was born on the first of July 1961 in Sandringham in England. She had two older sisters and a younger brother. Her parents divorced when she was eight. At the age of 16 Diana left for Switzerland and finished school there. Having returned to London, she earned her living working as a cook or nanny and then as a teacher in a kindergarten.

Marriage and divorce

Diana became princess, when Prince Charles, the Queen’s son, asked her to be his wife and they got married at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. They seemed to be a happy couple at first. However, after the honeymoon their relations started getting worse. Diana and Charles had two sons: Prince William in 1982 and Prince Henry in 1984.The Royal family hoped that with their births peace would reign again in the family. However, it didn’t happen. The official divorce of Diana and Charles was held in August, 1996.

Popularity

Diana was the most famous, the most beautiful, and the most photographed woman in the world. She won the hearts of millions and millions of people in many countries anf became people’s princess. Thousands of people talked about Diana’s kindnesses. As the Princess of Wales, Diana saw the opportunity to do good throughout her life when others in her position might have been satisfied with a comfortable lifestyle and two healthy sons.

Support

As she grew in confidence, Diana realized that she could use her fame and her influence to make people’s lives better. Princess Diana’s main interests were with the very old, the very young, and those in hospitals or hospices. She visited hospitals for people with AIDS and for lepers and wasn’t afraid to touch them, talk to them, listen to them. She was patron of Turning Point, an organization that helps people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction. She did much work for the homeless. Drug abuse was of Diana’s concerns and she wanted to be involved in the fight against it. She also showed great concern for the deaf and became proficient in sign language so she would be able to communicate with them.

Death

On August 31, 1997 Princess Diana was killed in a car accident. Her death was a great tragedy and loss for the whole British Nation.

Conclusion

It wasn’t only money that she wanted to give people. She wanted to give them a part of her soul. She had lots of friends among stars but even more among ordinary people.