Вопрос № 605258 - Английский язык

George Harrison was born in 1943 in Liverpool, England. When he was 12 years old, he met and became good friends with Paul McCartney who was a member of John Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen.

Three years later George, a gifted guitar player, joined the band too. In the early 1960’s the band changed its name to The Beatles. In 1970 The Beatles disbanded.

But Harrison’s solo career was just beginning. George went on to release many songs. He also started his own record and movie companies. He was deeply interested in charity work.

George Harrison died of cancer at the age of 58. He will always be remembered as a talented musician as well as a caring and generous man.

Once Mark Twain was invited to the opera. He accepted the invitation. The box where he had a set belonged to a very rich man. The rich man and his wife were very proud because all their friends saw the famous writer in their own box. During the performance the man and his wife were talking all the time. They talked loudly and so much that it was often impossible for Mark Twain to listen to the opera.

Mark Twain was annoyed very much. He liked music and always enjoyed listening to the opera. He was very sorry he had accepted the invitation. That was very foolish of him. Still there was no way out; he had to wait until the end.

Towards the end of the performance the rich lady was quite sure that the famous writer had enjoyed the opera. So she invited M. Twain to listen to another opera. She told him that she and her husband would be very happy to see him in their box the following Friday. She added that “Carmen” would be on.

The great writer expressed his gratitude for the invitation and said, “That’ll be fine. I have never heard you in “Carmen”.       

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.