Вопрос № 605258 - Английский язык

Joseph Turner, a famous English painter, lived in the 19-th century. His paintings were a great success. One day his favorite dog broke a leg. The artist was very sorry for the dog and wanted it to be well again. He was rich enough to send for the best surgeon in London instead of taking a veterinary.

When the surgeon arrived the artist begged him to help his dog because it was very important for him. Having got to know what the matter was the surgeon felt annoyed, but he treated the dog carefully and soon it was quite well.

The next week the surgeon asked Turner to come to his place. The artist believed that the surgeon wanted to see him in connection with his dog.

Joseph Turner arrived at the appointed time and was shown into the sitting-room. The surgeon met him very warmly and said: “Mr. Turner, I am so glad you’ve come. My door needs painting. I know you are too great a painter for this work, but I beg you to do it. It is so important for me.

Erich Segal is an American author, screenwriter and educator, whose books have popularity with the reading public. Erich Wolf Segal was born in 1937 in Brook Lyn, New York. He attended Harvard University. After graduating from it in 1958 he obtained his master’s degree and a doctorate.

He was a professor of Greek and Latin literature at Harvard University. Now he is teaching at Wolfson College, Oxford. In 1967, from the story by Lee Minoff, he wrote the screenplay for The Beatles 1968 motion picture, Yellow Submarine.

His book “Love Story” became the top selling work of fiction for all of 1970 in the United States. His novels “The Class” (1985), “Doctors” were also bestsellers.

What constitutes the main value of Erich Segal’s books in that the writer helps people become sensitive to everyday problems. He brings up a lot of questions for discussion.

For over a hundred years, the people of London have gone to bed and got up in the morning to the deep sounds of the world famous bell called Big Ben.

It weighs 13.5 tons, and it is the largest bell in ail England. Each of the clock’s four faces is almost 6.5 metres in diameter.

Although the clock is so big, it is very exact; it is seldom more than one second wrong in 24 hours. English scientists use an original method to correct mistakes in the clock.

There is a small tray in the middle of the clock-work. If the clock is running slow, they put a penny coin in the tray, and the clock begins to run faster. If the clock begins to run fast, they take away the penny.

The train stopped at the border and the passengers were told to get their bags ready for examination by the customs officer. One of the passengers had bought many boxes of cigarettes, and they were in his bags.

He knew the customs limits on cigarettes. He was afraid they would count how many boxes he had, and would take half of them away from him.

The passenger went out into the corridor and saw a man standing alone at the window. “Will you help me?” he said to the man. “I’d be glad to,” the man answered. “Please, put these cigarettes into your pockets until the customs examination is over.”

“Why can’t the cigarettes be left in your bags?” the other man asked.
“Because I have too many. I am afraid they will take some of them.”
“All right,” the man said. “ But I must tell you  that I won’t return them to you.
“Why not?” the man asked in surprise. “Because I am the customs officer,” was the answer.

Many years ago a London theatre performed a play with a terrible storm at sea in one of the scenes. The waves were made by some boys who jumped up and down under a large piece of green cloth. Each boy received a shilling a night for his work.

The play was very popular, and the hall was usually full. But the director of the theatre wanted to make still more money from the performances, and he decided to lower the boys’ pay from a shilling to sixpence.

This made the boys angry, and they decided to go on strike. During the next performance, when the storm began not one wave could be seen. The theatre director raised a corner of the green cloth and shouted: “Why aren’t you making waves?!”

One of the boys sitting under the cloth asked him: “Do you want sixpenny waves or shilling waves?” “All right!” the director said. “I’ll give you a shilling, only give me the waves!” Tremendous waves immediately began to appear on the sea.

Basket-ball is perhaps the only sport whose origin we can speak of without fear of a mistake. During the winter of 1891—1892, James Naesmith, a college instructor in Springfield, Massachusetts, invented the game of basket-ball.

He wanted his students to have physical exercise between the time when the football season closed and the baseball season opened.

He hung fruit baskets on the walls at opposite ends of the gymnasium and organized nine-men teams to play his new game. The purpose of the game was to throw the ball into a basket.

There have since been many changes in the rules (for example, the number of players is now reduced to five), but the game is basically the same today as it was more than eighty years ago.