Вопрос № 348543 - Английский язык

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.

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 name of Balzac, the famous French writer, was well known all over the world.

There are many stories about Balzac, his life and his adventures. But very few people know that Balzac was fond of telling a person’s character by his or her handwriting. He often boasted of this his ability.

Among his friends there was a lady who wanted to play a joke on the famous-writer. One day she brought him an exercise-book of a boy. She asked him to tell her what he thought of the boy’s character.

Balzac was glad to show his ability again and began to study the handwriting. He worked very hard before he came to the conclusion that the boy was bad and lazy. He told that the lady. The lady smiled and said: “My dear friend, this is a page from your own exercise-book which you used when you were a boy.”

Mark Twain was very fond of travelling. Once he was travelling in France by train. He was going to visit a small town near Paris.

The previous day was very hard, and Mark Twain felt tired and sleepy. He was afraid he would miss that town and asked the guard to wake him up before they got to the town. Soon he fell asleep.

When he woke up, the train was in Paris. He got very angry. He could not understand why the guard had not woken him up in time. He went out of the compartment, came up to the guard and asked him why he had not woken him up. The guard looked at Mark Twain for a moment and then told him that he had done his best to keep his promise.

When the train was approaching the town, the guard woke up an American who did not want to get off the train in that small town. The guard was sure that the American was the very passenger who had asked to wake him up. So he put him off the train instead of Mark Twain. “You may be very angry with me,” said the guard, “but not so angry as the American whom I put off the train instead of you”.

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