Вопрос № 605259 - Английский язык

A turtle was found in 1737 and brought to the London Zoo. When scientists studied it, they said it was more than a century old. Two hundred years later, that same turtle was still living in the Zoo.

There are also crocodiles that live as long as turtles. We all know that large parrots live long. There is one that lived 140 years. There are other birds that live to be a century old.

But elephants do not usually live so long—not more than 50 to 70 years. The life of lions is even shorter—not more than 30 years.

But the animals that live the longest lives cannot compete with members of the plant world. The prize for long life belongs to a tree in Australia that can live fifteen thousand years.

The Royal Society is an English Scientific Society which was founded in 1662. Isaac Newton is the greatest name in its history. He was elected a member of the Society after he presented it with a special telescope that he had made himself.

When Newton became President of the Royal Society its reputation rose rapidly. Among the most active members at that time was Christopher Wren, who was widely known for his work in geometry.

But his main interest soon turned from geometry to architecture. Christopher Wren rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

In the 19th century the Royal Society became more and more important in the scientific world. Among the members were world-famous names: Maxwell, Kelvin, Darwin, Rutherford.

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.

Nobody lives on the little island of Ata, in the warm South Seas. Everybody knows that ships don’t stop at Ata, but once the Mary Jane suddenly changed her course and went towards the island. Some people on the ship had noticed a number of small figures on a hill not far from the sea coast.

When the ship came nearer, the small figures ran down the hill and into the water to meet her. There were six of them, all boys. They swam to the ship, climbed up and were soon telling their strange story.

Fifteen months before, they had gone out fishing. There was a terrible storm, and the sea had carried them 140 kilometres to this little island. The boys had arranged their life very well: each boy had his own duties. Their food was birds, birds’ eggs, fruit, fish.

The Robinson Crusoes had even made a kind of guitar: they danced and sang songs. They explained that they had enjoyed their fine life on the island, but they were glad to be saved, and were happy to return home to their own island.