Вопрос № 348796 - 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.

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.

In the North of Scotland there is a lake which contains one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. For somewhere in deep waters of Loch Ness a monster is hiding. The story of the Loch Ness monster begins in 1933 when it was seen for the first time.

Since then it has been seen at least once every year and has been photographed many times. The first photograph was taken by a local man in November, 1933.

On one occasion, large brown eyes were seen and horns have been reported several times. The monster, however, has not been forgotten and will probably never be forgotten.

It is known that it sometimes leaves the loch. But the monster and its activities remain a mystery.

Mr. Brown got to a hotel late in the evening. At the same time another traveller came to the hotel. The only vacant room was a double room. They spoke to each other and agreed to spend the night in the same room.

At night Mr. Brown was woken up by the second traveller. He felt very bad and asked to open the window to have some fresh air because he suffered from asthma.

Mr. Brown couldn’t find the matches, so he tried to find the window. He thought he had found it. Mr. Brown took a chair and broke the window with it. The sick man stopped moaning at once.

When they woke up next morning they were surprised to see that the only window in the room was still closed, but the large looking-glass was broken to pieces.

There are numerous anecdotes about the difficulties of people travelling in foreign countries without knowledge of the language of that country. Here’s the story of two Americans travelling in Spain.

They were unable to speak a word of Spanish. One day, while eating in a restaurant in a small village, they were having considerable difficulty in explaining to the waiter what they wanted.

One of them wanted a glass of milk. The waiter seemed unable to understand. Finally, on the back of the menu the man drew a picture of a cow. The poor waiter, however, still seemed puzzled.

Finally he left and was gone from the restaurant for half an hour or so. He returned very pleased with himself. There were two tickets for a bullfight in his hand.