Вопрос № 348793 - Английский язык

Jonathan Swift, the famous English writer and the author of “Gulliver’s Travels”, was not very generous. He seldom gave anything to the servants or those who sent him presents. But once he received a lesson from a boy who very often carried him hares, partridges, and other game.

One day the boy arrived with a heavy basket containing fish, fruit, and game. He knocked at the door and Swift by chance opened it himself. “Here”, said the boy gruffly, “my master has sent you a basket full of things”.

Swift, feeling displeased at the boy’s rude manner, said to him: “Come here, my boy, and I will teach you how to deliver a message a little more politely; come, imagine yourself Jonathan Swift, and I will be the boy”. Then taking off his hat very politely, and addressing himself to the boy, he said. “Sir, my master sends you a little present, and begs you will do him the honour to accept it”.

“Oh, very well, my boy”, replied the boy, “tell your master I am much obliged to him, and there is half a crown for yourself”. Swift laughed heartily, and gave the boy a crown for his wit.

Once there was a man whose wife was dumb, and this made him very sad because he loved her very much. After some time he went to see a doctor and said. “Can you make my wife speak?” “Perhaps I can”, said the doctor, “the operation is difficult, but if I try, I’ll do my best”. “Of course, you may try”, said the husband, “I’ll bring her tomorrow”.

The next day the doctor made the operation and the dumb wife began to speak. She spoke so much and so loudly that in a few hours her husband ran back to the doctor and said,

“Can you make my wife dumb again?” “No”, said the doctor, “there are many ways to make a dumb woman speak, but no ways to make a woman stop talking”.

“What must I do?” said the man, “I shall soon die if I have to listen to her all day long”. “Well”, said the doctor, “I can’t make her dumb, but I can make you deaf and you will not have to listen to her”. “Very well”, said the man, “you may do so. It will be better than the other way”.

Readers of the mid-twentieth century often turned to “the bible of the generation” - the book “The Catcher in the Rye” by D.Salinger. But there are books written later, in the 1980-s and in the early 21st century which are comparable to that one. Such is Sue Townsend’s cycle of books starting from “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13” written with mild humour and irony and profound psychological insight into the inner world of a teenager.

Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946. She attended Glen Hills school in the early 50s and then went to South Wigston Secondary Modem for Girls. But she left school when she was 15 and changed jobs several times (so she worked as a shop assistant, garage attendant and in a factory)!

Her writing career started when she was 35 - she won the Thames Playwrights Award. Her most famous and best known book is “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” (1985) - a diary kept by a 13 year old boy - sort of intellectual. The book was so successful that it was followed by a number of sequels.

She got married when she was 18 and had three children. But her husband left her so she brought them up alone. Sue Townsend later got married again. In 1999 doctors found out she had diabetes and she slowly began losing her sight. Today she is almost blind.

Grace Kelly was born on the east coast of the USA in 1929.

When she was 21, she went to Hollywood and began acting in films. She appeared in the film “High Noon”, and won an Academy Award (“Oscar”) for her acting in “A Country Girl”.

In 1956 she married Prince Rainier of Monaco.

She then retired from her career in America and devoted herself to her royal duties. She breast-fed her own babies, and publicly encouraged other mothers do the same. She died in 1982 after a car accident.

Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

When she was 3 months old she went to live at Ratfield, far from the King and the Queen. Her mother was executed by her father when the little girl was 2 and a half years old.

The young princess learnt Italian, French, Latin and Greek from royal tutors. She followed her half-brother Edward and her half-sister Mary to the throne.

She never married and ruled for 45 years as a strong and independent queen. She was much loved by the people of England, and her reign was one of power and glory for her country.

In 1778 the British had the strongest navy in the world. They laughed at the small navy of their American colonies who were fighting Britain for their independence. An American captain decided to show the British that size was not everything. Here is what happened.

On the night of April 24, 1778 Captain John Paul Jones silently brought the American ship “Ranger” into Whiteheaven harbour on the west coast of England. As soon as he arrived, he took a group of his men to a local inn, broke into it and had a drink with them.

Then they went back to the harbour and began their work. Some of them went to the fort and put the guns out of order, others began burning British ships. The British soldiers finally woke up and put up a good fight, but they lost to Jones and his men.

Captain Jones was pleased but not completely satisfied. So he sailed to the nearby Scottish coast and went to the home of the Earl of Selkirk. Jones and his men put all of the Earl’s silverware onto the “Ranger” to take back to America. The British did not laugh so much about America’s navy after Jones’ visit.