Тексты по английскому языку для экзамена по английскому языку

     George   Washington           

In 1775, when
the American War of Independence began, George Washington was chosen to lead
the American army. Washington knew his job would be difficult. The army was
small. The soldiers were untrained and had few guns. The British army was large
and strong. Its soldiers were very well trained.

Early battles
showed Washington’s problems. His army was easily defeated in the Battle of New
York. Then Washington thought of a plan. On Christmas night in 1776, he had his
soldiers attack the enemy in the city of Trenton, New Jersey. The enemy
soldiers never expected an attack on such a night. They were having a Christmas
party. Washington won his first victory. Washington’s army won the final battle
in Yorktown in 1781.

 George Washington
was a great leader and was respected by all his men. He was not interested in fame
or money, but only in helping his country. There are many stories about George
Washington. Many are probably not true. The most famous story, though, is about
the cherry tree. It is said that young George cut down his father’s cherry tree.
When his father asked who cut down the tree, George confessed and said, «I
cannot tell a lie.»

In 1789
leaders from all the states met to choose the first president of the United States. The vote was unanimous. Everyone voted for George Washington. He
became the country’s first president, and is remembered as the «Father of
our Country.»

Fame – cлава

Cherry – вишня

Unanimous — единогласный

                Jesse  
Owens

Jesse Owens was born in Alabama in 1913 to
a poor, black family. Even when Jesse was a boy, it was clear that he had
special athletic ability. He could run extremely fast. In high school he
was a long jump champion. Jesse’s family didn’t have enough money to send him
to college. However, because he was an excellent athlete he was able to get a scholarship
to Ohio State University. Owens was the star of the Ohio State
track team. In one college track event in 1935, he broke three world
records in less than an hour! Owens was chosen for the 1936 U.S.
Olympic team.

The 1936 Summer Olympics were held in Berlin,
Germany. Adolph Hitler had come to power two years before. Hitler believed
that the people of Germany and other northern European countries were better
than all other people in the world. Hitler wanted to show the world the Germans
were the best so he ordered the German team to train hard.

At the Olympics, Jesse Owens won both the
100-meter race and the 200-meter race. His time in the 200-meter race set a new
Olympic record. Owens was also on the U.S. 400-meter relay team. The U.S.
relay team won. Then came the long jump. A
German athlete broke the Olympic record.

Hitler said that he personally would
congratulate the winner. But Owens still had one more jump. He jumped several inches
further than the German athlete. Hitler left the stadium in anger. Jesse Owens,
a black American, had won his fourth gold medal at the Olympics. Jesse Owens
was a hero.

Ability – способность

Scholarship – стипендия

Track – легкая
атлетика

Relay – эстафета

Inch – дюйм
(2,5 cм)

                     Basketball

James
Naismith invented basketball in 1891. Naismith was a Canadian, but lived in the
United States. He was a teacher at Springfield Training School in the state
of Massachusetts. He taught sports and found there were no interesting games to
play indoors in the winter months. So he thought of a game.

Naismith’s
students played the first game of basketball in the Springfield gym in 1891.
There were nine men in each team. They used a soccer ball. They put peach
baskets on the gym wall. The goal or purpose of the game was to throw
the ball in the basket. That is why he called the game basketball. A man with a
ladder went to the basket. He climbed the ladder and took the ball out
of the basket. Luckily, only one man got the ball into the basket in the first
game.

Basketball is
a very fast game. Players must run up and down the basketball court or gym
floor the whole game. At the same time they must control the ball.

Today, most
players are tall. Many of them are over seven feet tall and weigh more than 200
pounds. But one of basketball’s great players was Barney Sedran. He played
from 1912 to 1926 and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was only 5
feet 4 inches tall and 118 pounds!

Today,
basketball is an international sport. In America, the National Basketball
Association (NBA) has some of the best players in the world. Basketball is also
an Olympic sport today. In the Olympics, the best teams from many countries
play to show they are the best. 

Soccer – футбольный

Peach – персик

Purpose – цель

Ladder – лестница

                 Mark   Twain

Mark Twain, who lived from 1835 to 1910,
is one of America’s most famous authors. He wrote many books, including The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain’s
own life was interesting enough to be a book.

Twain was born in the state of Missouri, near the Mississippi River. He came from a poor family. His father died when he
was twelve, so he had to leave school. While he was still a boy, he worked as a
riverboat pilot. He steered boats up and down the long Mississippi River.

The Civil War, which started in 1861, made
traveling on the Mississippi impossible. Twain then went west to Nevada. There he worked on a newspaper. In 1864 he went to California to find gold. Twain
did not have much luck as a gold miner. He left California to travel in Eu­rope. Twain wrote a book about his trips around Europe.

But the most important influence on Twain
and his books had the Mississippi River. When Twain finally settled down, he
lived in a house with a porch that looked like the deck of a riverboat.
Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s greatest book, is about the adventures of a boy on
the Mississippi River. Another of Twain’s books is called Life on the Mississippi.

In fact, even the name Mark Twain comes
from the Mississippi. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. On
the river Samuel Clemens often heard the boatmen shout «Mark twain!»
This meant the water was twelve feet deep. When Samuel Clemens began to write
he chose for himself the name Mark Twain.

Steer – управлять

Porch — веранда

 Blue Jeans

Levi
Strauss, a young immigrant from Germany, arrived in San Francisco in 1850. California was in the middle of the Gold Rush. Thousands of men were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi Strauss came to sell canvas to these gold miners.
Canvas is a heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the miners could use the
canvas for tents.

One
day Levi Strauss heard a miner complain that he couldn’t find clothes strong
enough for the work he was doing. Levi Strauss got an idea. He quickly took
some of his canvas and made it into pants. These pants were what
the miners needed. In one day Levi Strauss sold all the pants he had made.

Levi
Strauss wanted to improve his pants. He wanted to make them even better. He
bought a fabric that was softer than canvas but just as strong.

The
fabric came from Mimes, a city in France, and was called serge de Nimes.  The miners liked this fabric. They called it “denim” (from de Nimes) and bought
even more pants from Levi Strauss.

However,
denim had no color. Because of this the denim pants did not look very
interesting, and they got dirty easily. To solve these problems, Levi Strauss dyed
the denim blue.

Levi
Strauss continued to improve his jeans.

Today,
the company he started is known around the world. And jeans are considered not
just practical but very fashionable as well.

Gold Rush-
золотая лихорадка

Canvas
– брезент, парусина

Pants
– штаны

Dyed –
окрасил

   Blue Jeans

Levi
Strauss, a young immigrant from Germany, arrived in San Francisco in 1850. California was in the middle of the Gold Rush. Thousands of men were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi Strauss came to sell canvas to these gold miners.
Canvas is a heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the miners could use the
canvas for tents.

One
day Levi Strauss heard a miner complain that he couldn’t find clothes strong
enough for the work he was doing. Levi Strauss got an idea. He quickly took
some of his canvas and made it into pants. These pants were what
the miners needed. In one day Levi Strauss sold all the pants he had made.

Levi
Strauss wanted to improve his pants. He wanted to make them even better. He
bought a fabric that was softer than canvas but just as strong.

The
fabric came from Mimes, a city in France, and was called serge de Nimes.  The miners liked this fabric. They called it “denim” (from de Nimes) and bought
even more pants from Levi Strauss.

However,
denim had no color. Because of this the denim pants did not look very interesting,
and they got dirty easily. To solve these problems, Levi Strauss dyed
the denim blue.

Levi
Strauss continued to improve his jeans.

Today,
the company he started is known around the world. And jeans are considered not
just practical but very fashionable as well.

Gold Rush-
золотая лихорадка

Canvas
– брезент, парусина

Pants
– штаны

Dyed –
окрасил

                               
Dogs

You know that the dog is a man’s best
friend. The dog is also man’s oldest friend.

More then ten thousand years ago dogs
didn’t live with people. They were wild. All dogs now, if you watch them, do
some things which they did in their wild life.

For instance, dogs circle round before they lie down to
sleep, as wild dogs used to do in order to flatten the long grass.

Dogs also bury bones, as a
wild dogs used to do when they wanted to hide extra food.

Dogs now live with men and do many
useful things for them. Dogs may be “eyes” for blind people. There are many
stories about dogs and their help to men. There was a dog, Bruno by name, who
saved forty people from mountain snowdrifts. Dogs help geologists to
find iron.

If you have a dog, you know how clever
dogs are. You can teach your dog to pick up newspapers or books and give them
to you, or to carry your basket when you go to the shop, or to help you with
your bag when you come home from school. Do you take your dog to the river?
Dogs usually like to swim. But some dogs are afraid of water.

If your dog is afraid of water and you
want him to swim, make him swim, but do it very carefully. Do not throw him
into the water, let him walk first in shallow water and only then take
him to deep water.

Where do you leave your dog when you go
on holidays? Leave him in good hands; with a neighbor or a family friend. Take
your dog to these people several times before you go away. Sit down and talk
with them. Show to your dog that they are your friends Tell him to wait for you
here. He may understand.

Take care of your dog never let him run
wild in the street. If you are good to your dog, he will be your real friend.

For instance — например

To circle round — вращаться

To flatten
– выравнивать, делать плоским

To bury bones –
закапывать кости

Snowdrifts
– cнежный нанос

Shallow
— мелкий

                        Hollywood

To
many people, the world Hollywood has two meanings. Hollywood is an area in Los Angeles. Hollywood is also the American movie industry.

Hollywood was just farmland at the beginning
of this century. Early American movies were made in other places; for example,
in New York and Chicago.

In 1917
a director was making a movie in Chicago. Because of cold weather, he couldn’t
finish the movie. He took a trip to southern California, and there he found
just the weather and scenery he needed to finish his movie. The director
realized that southern California was the perfect place for making movies.

The
next year his company built a movie studio in Hollywood. Other companies
followed. Before long nearly all important American movie studios were in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The next thirty years were Hollywood’s greatest years.

Thousand
of movies were made, most by a few large and powerful studios. Directors,
actors and writers worked for these studios. They made some movies that today
are considered great art.

Hollywood, the area in Los Angeles, also
reached its high point in those years. Many famous and glamorous movie
stars, like Better Davis and Clark Gamble, lived in Hollywood.

Today,
Hollywood is not what it was. More movies are made outside of Hollywood. Many studios have moved. The movie stars have also moved to areas like Beverly Hills and Malibu.

But
visitors to Hollywood today can go to the famous Chinese Theatre and see the footprints
and autographs of movie stars. They can go down the Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, and see the golden stars on sidewalk.

Glamorous — обаятельный, очаровательный     
Walk of Fame – Аллея Славы

Footprints – следы                                        
       Sidewalk — тротуар

                              Physical Culture and
Sport

      You have heard many times that
sport hold an important place in our life. Sports help   people to keep in good
health.

      Physical culture and sports in our country are
part of cultural and public life. It is very popular with young people. Any boy
and girl who shows good results at sports club or athletics competitions for
schoolchildren is given every help to become a champion.

      From time to time competitions are held in
sports and games at your school, but some boys and girls don’t want to take an
active part in them. They don’t believe that sport is very necessary. And they
think that sport may stand in the way of other important things.

      Well, those boys and girls are wrong. Team
games, for example, develop character and quick thinking.

       An English proverb says: “In sport and journeys
men are known”. This means that a good sportsman will always help other members
of his team to win in a competition and he knows that his commands will never let
him down. You can read about this kind of things in the newspaper all the
time.

 stand in the way- помешать

 let him down – подводить его

                              
Stamp Curiosities.

   
The first stamp in the world an English stamp. It was made in 1840 to pay the
postage on letters going to different parts of the country.

    
But why do people all over the world collect stamps? The answer is very simple.
Stamps are always interesting because they have pictures on them of the
countries they came from; pictures of animals and birds living in jungles or on
far-away island; and pictures showing the peoples of different countries,
dressed in their costumes.

     
A stamp collection is not only a good textbook of history and geography. It is
also a source of information on many other subjects.

     
Stamp-collecting helps people from all continents to become friends and get to
know each other better.

     
Sometimes there are mistakes on stamps, but you will see them only if you know
geography, history, music and many other thing as well. Here are some examples.

     
The St. Kitts and Nevis stamp, issued in 1903, shows Christopher
Columbus looking through a telescope, an instrument which was unknown in this
day!

      
The Newfoundland stamp, issued 1886, shows a seal on an icefloe.
It looks like any other seal till you look at its front legs and see that it
has feet instead of flippers. For a long time collectors who have
knowledge of zoology thought that this was another stamp mistake. However it
was discovered that the great Grey Seal of Newfoundland really has forefeet
instead of flippers. The artist had been right after all.

        On a German stamp, issued in 1956
in commemoration of the composer Schumann, the music printed on the
stamp was not written by Schumann. It was
written by another German composer Schubert. Stamp-collectors knowing music
well saw the mistake at once. The post-offices stopped selling these stamps and
today one can be found only in a few collections.

Source – источник         seal – тюлень                
Flipper – плавник

Issued – изданный         ice floe – ледяные
поля    

               Commemoration – празднование (годовщины)

                                       
T o r n a d o e s

Tornadoes
are storms with very strong turning winds and dark clouds. These winds are
perhaps the strongest on earth. They reach speeds of 300
miles per hour. The dark clouds are shaped like a funnel – wide at the
bottom. The winds are strongest in the center of the funnel.

Tornadoes
are especially common in the United States, but only in certain parts.
They occur mainly in the central states.

A hot
afternoon in the spring is the most likely time for a tornado. Clouds become
dark. There is thunder, lighting, and rain. A cloud forms a funnel and begins
to twist. The faster the winds, the louder the noise. Tornadoes always
move in northeastern direction. They never last longer then eight hours.

A
tornado’s path is narrow, but within that narrow path a tornado can destroy
everything. It can smash buildings and rip up trees. Tornadoes can kill
people as well.

The
worst tornado swept through the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana
in 1925, killing 689 people.

 Modern
weather equipment now makes it possible to warn people of tornadoes.
People have a much better chance of protecting themselves. But nothing can stop
tornadoes from destroying everything in their path.

Funnel – воронка                       
Twist — крутить

Common – распространенный   Rip up –
вырывать

Warn –
предупреждать

                      The   Fifty  
States 

The fifty states of the United
States, or the USA, join to make one nation. The United States did not always
have fifty states. At first there were thirteen. As the United States grew, more states joined the union. The last two states to join were Alaska
and Hawaii. They both joined in 1959.

The area of the United States covers every type of land. There are forests, deserts, mountains, and flat
land. The area of the United States also covers every type of climate.

The size of each state is different too.
Alaska is the biggest state. Rhode Island is the smallest state. Alaska
is 500 times bigger then Rhode Island.

About 250 million people live in the United States. The people of the United States come from all over the world. People often
name cities after where they are come from. For example, in the United
States you find Paris, Rome, Delhi, and Frankfurt. The state with the highest
population is California. The state with the lowest population is Alaska.

Each state has its own name. The name
gives the state its identity and personality. More then half the
states have names from American Indian origin.

Each state also has a flag with colors
that have a special meaning for the state. The flag is the emblem, or the
symbol, of the state. There is also a state flower, tree, and bird.

The American flag is often called “The
Stars and Stripes”. There are three colours on the flag of the United States – red, white, and blue. As there are fifty states in the United States, there are fifty stars on the American flag: one star for each state.

The American flag has thirteen stripes.
The stripes are red and white. The flag has seven red stripes and six white
stripes. There is one stripe for each of the first thirteen colonies of the United States.

Rhode Island – Род Айленд

Identity – индивидуальность

Personality – особенность

Origin – происхождение

Stripe – полоса

                       
The  Hot  Dog

People of different
countries have their own favourite food. Here some facts about a thing that has
become popular all over the world. Hot dog came to Russia from America. But its home country is German.

 In its house of Germany, the hot dog was called the frankfurter. It was named after Frankfurt, a German city.

Frankfurters were first
sold in the United States in the 1860s. Americans called frankfurters “dachshund
sausages”. A dachshund is a dog from Germany with a very long body and
short legs. “Dachshund sausages” seemed like a good name for the
frankfurter.

Dachshund sausages first
became popular in New York, especially at baseball games. At games they were
sold by men who kept them warm in hot-water tanks. As the men walked up
and down the  rows of people, they yelled, “Get your dachshund sausages!
Get your hot dachshund sausages!” People got the sausages on buns,
special bread.

One day in 1906
a newspaper cartoonist named Tad Dorgan went to a baseball game. When
he saw the men with the dachshund sausages, he got an idea for a cartoon.

The next day at the newspaper
office he drew a bun with a dachshund sausage inside – hot a dachshund sausage,
but a dachshund. Dorgan didn’t know how to spell dachshund. Under the
cartoon, he wrote “Get your hot dogs!”

The cartoon was a
sensation, and so was the new name. If you go to a baseball game today, you can
still see sellers walking around with hot-water tanks. As they walk up and down
the rows they yell, “Get your hot dogs here! Get your hot dogs!”

Frankfurter – сосиска                                     Yell – выкрикивать

Dachshund – такса                                          Bun – булочка

Seem –
казаться                                              Cartoonist – карикатурист

Tank – резервуар для жидкости                    Spell – писать по буквам

                      
The Discovery of America

In our days everybody knows what the word “America” means. First of all it is the name of the country — the United
States of America – or just America. And then it is the name of the two
continents – North America and South America. These two continents, North and
South America, form the part of the world called America. 

Christopher
Columbus discovered America in 1492. He was born in Italy. His father and both
grandfathers were cloth makers. Columbus was a seaman and made many sea
voyages.

Most
people in Columbus’s days thought that the earth was flat and they did not
believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the
Queen of Spain gave him money to do to India. He decided to sail west as he was
sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the
Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000
miles he reached some land. The crew saw something like a white cliff
and cried out: “Tierra! ierra!”. Columbus thought that it must be India
but it was not. It was a new land – a new continent. It was America.
Columbus named the land they had reached San Salvador (“Holy Saviour”). People
began to speak about the land as: “The new World”.

 European
people began to speak about the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find
gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the
Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small
group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to
have no religious problems they had in England. In 1620 on the ship “Mayflower”
they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that
part of the country “New England”.

Cliff – отвесная скала, утес

Priests and missionaries – священники, миссионеры

                                           
 Charles Dickens.  

Charles
Dickens was born in 1812. He lived in the south of England when he was a little
boy. His father worked in an office. He was a very clever man, but did not
often play with them. His father had many books and Charles liked to read them.
He learned to read very early.

When
Charles was 10 years old, his family went to London. There his father got into debt
(as he had little money) and then into debtor’s prison. So little Charles began to
work when he was ten. That
was the beginning of  Charles’ hard life.

He
worked at a small factory in London, pasting labels on blacking bottles.
He had to work in a dirty room with no windows. He did not like his work, but
he had to work at the factory for two years. Then he went to school for three
years, but he did not learn much at school. He learned much at home, from his
father and from other clever people.

Later
he worked as a reporter to the Parliament and became a writer of short stories.
In 1837 he published his first novel “The Posthumous Papers of the
Pickwick Club”. And the young reporter became a famous writer. Then he
published novel after novel – “Oliver Twist”, “Dombey and Son”, “David
Copperfield” and many other good books.

His books are very interesting; they tell us about the hard life of the
poor people in England of that time. When we read his books, we sometimes laugh, but we often want
to cry.

Charles
Dickens died in 1870. He is one of the greatest novelists in the English
literature. Dickens lived more than a hundred years ago, but people in the
whole world like to read his book today, because in his books he showed a real
world and people of Victorian England.

Debt – долг

Pasting labels – приклеивание ярлыков

Blacking bottles – баночки                           
Posthumous – посмертные

                                 
 Lewis Carroll.

Lewis
Carroll was the pen-name of Charles L. Dodgson, the man who wrote a famous book
for children “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Charles
L. Dodgson was born in England in 1832. He got his early education at a public
school. Then he became a student at Oxford. Charles studied mathematics and
later taught this subject in the same college.

Charles
Dodgson had no family, but he loved children very much. He often visited his
friend, who had a large family. There were three little girls in the family.
One of them, Alice, was four years old.

        
When Alice Liddell was about ten years old, she asked Charles to write down the
stories for her, and he did so. He called the heroine of his book also Alice. This hand-written book had many pictures made by Charles himself. They were not
very good pictures but the children liked them.

One
day a friend of the Liddells, a writer, came to see the family. He saw the
hand-written book made by Charles Dodgson and began to read it with great
interest. He read the book to the end and said that it was good and that all
the children in England must read it.

In England
the book was published very many times during the author’s life and you can
always find it in the bookshops of today. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is
still a
favourite children’s
book.       

                      
The Discovery of America

In our days everybody knows what the word “America” means. First of all it is the name of the country — the United
States of America – or just America. And then it is the name of the two
continents – North America and South America. These two continents, North and
South America, form the part of the world called America. 

Christopher
Columbus discovered America in 1492. He was born in Italy. His father and both
grandfathers were cloth makers. Columbus was a seaman and made many sea
voyages.

Most
people in Columbus’s days thought that the earth was flat and they did not
believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the
Queen of Spain gave him money to do to India. He decided to sail west as he was
sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the
Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000
miles he reached some land. The crew saw something like a white cliff
and cried out: “Tierra! ierra!”. Columbus thought that it must be India
but it was not. It was a new land – a new continent. It was America.
Columbus named the land they had reached San Salvador (“Holy Saviour”). People
began to speak about the land as: “The new World”.

 European
people began to speak about the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find
gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the
Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small
group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to
have no religious problems they had in England. In 1620 on the ship “Mayflower”
they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that
part of the country “New England”.

Cliff – отвесная скала, утес

Priests and missionaries – священники, миссионеры

               The First Cinema Films.

  
One of the first cinema film was made by Edison, but the intervals between his
photographic exposures were too short-about forty–eight photographs
taken (and shown) to the second. The human eye could not see so them so fast
and the movements therefore appeared very jerky. This made the eyes
tired.

   When Edison^’s machine was brought to
France to show film, it was seen there by August and Louis Lumiere. These two
brothers soon made a camera and projector that worked at about 16 photographs
per second. This reduced the jerkiness very much, and in December 1895
the Lumiere brothers gave the world^’s first real cinematograph show.
Their film was called The Arrival of a Train at a Station. The film was
so good that some of the audience almost expected the rain to rush out
at them from the screen.

    In 1903 one of Edison^‘s cameramen made
a new long picture. It was called «The Life of an American Fireman». People
liked it and asked for more; and so more film of his kind were made. More
cinemas were built.

     These first films had no sound. When it was
necessary, printed words were throw on the screen to explain what was happening
or what people were saying. Usually music was played during the showing of a
film. If the film was showing moonlight on the sea, the music was gentle and
sweet. If there was a fight or a storm, the music was loud and noisy.

Exposure
– кадр

Jerky
–двигающийся толчками, отрывистый

Reduce –
уменьшать

Ruth out – помчаться      
Gentle — тихая

                          
The Gold Rush

It was
January 1846. A man was digging near the small village of San
Francisco, California. Suddenly, he saw something shiny – gold!

By the
next year the California gold rush had begun. Thousands of men came to California. They were called “forty-niners“, after the year 1849.

The forty-niners
came from all around the United States. They even came from other countries,
including Mexico, Australia, China, France, and England. They left their
families and jobs, and made the difficult trip to California. They all shared
a dream. They all wanted to make a fortune in gold.

Towns
and camps grew quickly wherever gold was found. These towns were rough places.
There was almost always a saloon, where the men drank whiskey and gambled
at cards. In mining towns, men stole and sometimes killed for gold.

Did
the miners make their fortune? Some did, especially those who came early and
were lucky.

In
1852 miners made about twenty dollars a day. Many other people came to California to make money from the miners. Prices were very high. A loaf of bread, which
cost five cents in New York, cost almost a dollar in San Francisco.

In
1848 San Francisco had been a village. Six years later it was a city with a
population of 50, 000. In 1850 California had enough people to become a
state.

To dig
– копать, рыть                        Rough — грубый

Gold Rush – золотая лихорадка        gamble – играть в азартные                              

Share – разделять                                              
игры

               forty—niners — золотоискатели

MEALS IN BRITAIN.

 Traditionally English people
have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served in the
morning. It used to be a large meal with cereal, eggs and bacon, sausages,
tomatoes. But such a large breakfast takes a long time to prepare and is not
very healthy. Nowadays, Britain’s most popular breakfast consists of cereal,
toast with marmalade, juice and yogurt with a cup of tea or coffee. Lunch is a
light meal. Most people have no time to go back home for lunch so they eat at
school, cafes, pubs or restaurants. The main meal is dinner, which is usually between
6 and 7 p.m. A typical evening meal is a meat dish with vegetables and dessert.
The most important meal of the week is the Sunday dinner, which is usually
eaten at 1 p.m. The traditional Sunday dish used to be roast beef, but nowadays
pork, chicken or lamb are more common. On Sunday evenings people have supper or
high tea. The famous British afternoon tea is becoming rare, except at
weekends. Everyone knows that tea is the most popular drink in Britain. It’s even more popular than coffee, which is favoured throughout Europe and America. The Dutch brought the first tea to Europe in 1610. But it was not until 1658 that
the first advertisement for tea appeared in a London newspaper. At that time a
pound of the cheapest tea cost about one-third of a skilled worker’s weekly
wages. Tea was guarded by the lady of the house and kept in special containers,
often with a lock and carefully doled out by the teaspoon. By 1750 tea had
become the principal drink of all the classes in Britain. Later, tea-drinking
developed into a fashionable social ritual. Tea parties were popular at home
and soon the ritual of “afternoon tea” was firmly established. Nowadays,
throughout the homes, tea shops hotels of Britain, the custom of tea-time
continues. Tea in Britain is brewed in a teapot. Then the one spoonful of tea
per person and one for pot is added. Most people in Britain prefer a rich,
strong cup of tea with milk, and sugar is sometimes added to taste. 

                                                       Holidays

                The beginning
of a new year is a time for celebrating and for making a new start.
People wish each other ‘Happy New Year’ and send special greeting cards.
On New Year’s Eve (December 31st) many people go to bed after midnight to
«see the New Year in» at 12 o’clock. In London people gather to
celebrate in Trafalgar Square  January 1st is a public holiday in Britain
and the US. For older people it’s a quiet day in front of the television. But
young people go out and meet  their friends at parties, discos and different
clubs.

           On St
Valentine’s Day people send a special greeting card (Valentine) to those
who they love. It’s a tradition not to give the name of the sender. Some people
buy presents for their sweethearts or give them red roses, a symbol of love.

          Easter Sunday is the day when Christians celebrate Christ’s
return to life and victory over death. On this day many people go to church.
Children get presents of chocolate Easter eggs. Easter always means spring, new
life after winter, flowers, green trees and young animals.

       Celebrating
Halloween is a very old tradition. Long ago people thought that on 31
October spirits of the dead came back. that’s why now some people dress up as
witches and ghosts. They make lamps of pumpkins. Sometimes children go out in
groups, knock on people’s doors and say «Trick or treat».

           Guy Fawkes’
Night is on 5th November. That day in 1605 some conspirators wanted to blow
up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James 1 and his ministers. Guy Fawkes
was one of them. But they couldn’t do that because the Kind,s men caught Guy
Fawkes and killed him. Not many people think about those events now but they
enjoy celebrating the day with their friends and families. On 5th November when
it gets dark, people go out into the streets and watch beautiful fireworks. In
the country they often make big bonfires and gather near them.

           People in Britain celebrate Christmas on 25 December. They celebrate it as the day bay when
Jesus Christ was born. It is often cold, wet and foggy at Christmas trees.
Families decorate their homes and Christmas trees. The day before Christmas is
Christmas Eve. It is a very busy time fro families in England. They prepare presents, make Christmas cakes, hang stockings near the fireplace.On
Christmas Day everyone opens presents and sits down to table to have a big
dinner. Families usually have turkey or goose with vegetables. After dinner the
family gathers in the living room to listen to Queen of England on television.
At teatime in the late afternoon they drink tea with the Christmas cake.

Прочитав этот текст на английском языке, вы узнаете много интересных фактов о зарождении понятия «времени», о появлении первых часов, о видах часов и о том, как полезно следить за течением времени, которое проходит мимо нас так незаметно.

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Топики (тематические тексты) для тех, кто изучает английский язык в школе (5-6 класс). Вторая часть (продолжение). В первой части вы найдете Тексты (топики) по следующим темам: About myself. My family. My friends. My school. My birthday. My day. How I help about the house. My hobby. My pet. К каждому тексту предлагаются слова для повторения темы, вопросы и задания.

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Тематические тексты (топики) для тех, кто изучает английский язык в школе (5-6 класс). Данные тексты на английском языке предназначены для повторения пройденных тем, развития  письменной и разговорной речи. Вопросы к текстам могут быть использованы, как основа для диалогов. Слова и выражения в текстах соответствуют пройденной в этих классах лексике. К сайту подключен словарь. Чтобы узнать перевод незнакомого слова, нужно кликнуть по нему 2 раза.  К текстам прилагаются списки слов для повторения по указанным ниже темам, а также задания по теме «Личное письмо».

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Данный текст на английском языке относится к уровню intermediate и содержит грамматические конструкции Gerund, Passive Voice и Infinitive. Если вы затрудняетесь в переводе, то изучите эти разделы грамматики и вернитесь к чтению текста еще раз. Также есть упрощенная версия этого текста для начинающих — A Text about Hackers (for beginners)

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Текст на английском языке из раздела «Animals and Plants» поможет вам узнать интересные факты о поведении крокодила, а заодно и подготовиться к экзамену по английскому языку., Текст предназначен для учащихся 10-11 классов и соответствует уровню upper-intermediate.

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Данный текст на английском языке относится к уровню intermediate и содержит грамматические конструкции: Complex Object, Participle и Passive Voice. Перейдите по ссылкам и изучите соответствующий раздел грамматики, если будете испытывать трудности в переводе. Также вы можете сначала прочитать данный текст, адаптированный до уровня beginner —  A Pirate (text for beginners).

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Where the Names of the Months came from (text in English )

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

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Английские тексты среднего уровня с переводом и аудио

1. Слушайте и параллельно читайте текст про себя.

2. Читайте вслух по абзацу или текст целиком.

3. Прослушайте заново, следя за текстом, и повторите чтение вслух, стараясь максимально имитировать натуральное произношение.

Corruption / Коррупция

Titanic / Титаник

Two Great Artists / Два великих художника

Dogs must be carried on the escalator / Собаки должны перевозиться на экскалаторе

The Vikings / Викинги

Dull and Boring / Серо и скучно

William Shakespeare / Уильям Шекспир

A Nice Cup of Tea / Чашка хорошего чая

The History of the English Language / История английского языка

England’s Newest Tourist Attraction / Новейшая туристическая достопримечательность Англии

Psychology / Психология

Going to the Dogs / Катиться к чертям собачьим

Good manners, bad manners / Хорошие манеры, плохие манеры

I go without my breakfast / Я ухожу без завтрака

Lord Lucan cannot cope / Лорд Лукан не справляется

Mid-life crisis / Кризис среднего возраста

School dinners / Школьный обед

Scott of the Antarctic / Скотт из Антарктики

Singing in the rain / Пение под дождём

The King under the Car Park / Король под автостоянкой

The Lighthouse Man / Смотритель маяка

The Scariest Day of the Year / Самый страшный день в году

перейти к текстам начального уровня

перейти к текстам уровня выше среднего

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Курсы английского языка по уровням

Практичные советы по изучению английского языка