Order of Succession to the Throne

The Prince of Wales

Prince William of Wales

Prince Henry of Wales

The duke of York

Princess Beatrice of York

Princess Eugenie of York

Prince Edward

Dates Relating to Queen Elizabeth II Anne, Prince Royal

Marriage: 20 Nov. 1947 Peter Phillips

Accession to throne: 6 Feb. 1952 Zara Phillips

Coronation: 2 June 1953 Princess Margaret

Birthday: 21 April Viscount Linley

Official Birthday Celebration: During June Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones

 

The Queen’s heir is Charles, the Prince of Wales, who was born in 1948, married Lady Diana Spencer and has two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. The Prince of Wales is well-knows as a keen promoter of British interests.

In recent years he has become outspoken on such controversial topics as modern architecture, violence in films and television, and standard of English teaching in schools. His wife Diana, the Princess of Wales (often called in mass media Princess Di), has won the affection of many people by her modesty, shyness and beauty. She is one of the most popular members of the Royal Family.

The Queen’s other children are Princess Anne (born in1950), Prince Andrew (born in 1960) and Prince Edward (born in 1964). Anne, Princess Royal, has acquired a reputation for being arrogant, but in recent years has become quite popular with the general public.

She is widely known for her interest in horses and horse-racing. She is now the president of the Save the Children Fund, Chancellor of the University of London and carries out many public engagements.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York, served as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy. In 1986 he married Miss Sarah Ferguson (Fergie, for short) and has two daughters. Prince Edward is keen on the theatre. This interest began while he was at university. He has quit the Royal Marines, and is now pursuing a career with a theatrical company.

The Queen Mother, the widow of the lake King George VI, celebrated her ninety birthday in 1990 and continued to carry out many public engagements every year. The Queen’s only sister, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, in one the most unconventional members of the royal family. She is well-known for her charity work, including her support for Barbados, the Girl Guides Association, and the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

(from “Monarchy in Britain”)

 

Alexander Bell-the inventor of the telephone

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847. Both his father and his grandfather studied the mechanics of a sound. Bell’s father was one of the pioneer teachers of speech to the deaf. Alexander Bell never planned to be an inventor. He wanted to be a musician or a teacher of deaf people. Between 1868 and 1870 Alexander worked with his father and studied speech and taught deaf children in Edinburgh. In 1870 he moved to Canada and the next year he went to the USA. In 1866 the nineteen year-old Bell thought about telegraph and he tried to find a way to send musical sound through the wires. In 1873 he worked as professor at Boston University. He was interested in the mechanical production of a sound and based his works on the theories of Helmholtz. It was possible for Bell to convert the sound wave vibrations into a fluctuating electric current and to carry sound across wires at the speed of light. Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone in 1876. He became a citizen of the United States in 1882. Bell was a modest humanitarian who once told his family that he would rather be remembered as a teacher of the deaf than as the inventor of the telephone. both his mother and his wife were deaf. In tribute to Scotland and America, the inscription on Bell’s grave reads: ”Born in Edinburgh … died a citizen of the United States of America”. ”I wonder what the world would be like toady if the telephone hadn’t been invented; Sashe thinks to himself.”

Marie Curie

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on 7^th of November 1867. her father was a teacher of science and mathematics at school in town, and from him little Marya Sklodovska ― which was her Polish name ― learned her first lessons in science. Marya’s wish was to study at the Sorbonne in Paris and after many years of waiting she finally left her native land in 1891.

Once in Paris Marya began a course of hard study and simple living. She decided to work for two Master’s degrees ― one in Physics, the other in Mathematics. Thus she had to work twice as hard as the ordinary student. Yet she had not enough money to live on. She lived in a bare attic in the poorest quarter of Paris. Night after night, after her hard day’s works at the University, she would climb to her poorly furnished room and work at her books for hours. Her meals were poor, sometimes no more than a bag of cherries, which she ate as she studied. Though she was often weak and ill under this hard mode of life, she worked in this way for four years. She chose her course and nothing could turn her from it.

Among many scientists Marya met and worked with in Paris was Pierre Curie. Pierre Cutie, born in 1859 in Paris, was the son of doctor, and from childhood he liked science. At sixteen he was a Bachelor of Science and he took his Master’s degree in Physics when he was eighteen. When he met Marya Sklodovska he was thirty five years old and was famous throughout Europe for his discoveries in magnetism. But in spite of the honour he brought to France by his discoveries, the French Government could only spare him a very meagre salary as a reward, and the University of Paris refused him a laboratory of him own for his researches.

Pierre Curie and Marya Sklodovska, both of whom loved science more than anything else, very soon became the closest friends. They worked together constantly and discussed many problems of their researches. After little more than a year they fell in love with each other, and in 1895 Marya Sklodovska became Mme Curie. Their marriage was not only to be a very happy one but also one of the greatest scientific partnerships.

 

Notes

a teacher of science ― преподаватель естественных наук (химия физика биология)

master’s degree ― учебная степень магистра

under this hard mode of life ― при такой тяжелой жизни

a Bachelor of Science ― бакалавр естественных наук (звание присваиваемое после окончания университета

spare him a very meager salary ― (зд.) платило ему мизерное жалованье

 

 

a)Read the text and find our how the British like to spend their free at home

Recreations

TV Viewing. It has been estimated that the average British person spends 75 hours every week with television, radio, newspapers and magazines. All these sources of information, ideas and entertainments, together with film, video, and advertisements have become a part of daily life.

Watching television is a very popular leisure pastime in Britain. A typical day’s viewing includes film. Plays, current affairs, light entertainments, sport and politics. Nature documentaries are very popular. Television is a great information source which offers news and current affairs programmes, and it is used regularly to give information on everything from weather conditions to wildlife.

Lost of people enjoy “soap operas”. Coronation Street, Crossroads East Enders, and Neighbours are among the most popular TV series. They have been running for many years (Coronation street are been broadcast since 1960, Crossroads ― since 1964, East Enders since 1985) and they all have a large viewing audience.

The growth in use of videocassette recorders and equipment (including home computers) for playing television games has for many people increased the choice of entertainment available in the home.

Listening to music. Another favourite activity is listening to music on radio, records, cassette tapes, and CDs. This has become increasingly popular in recent years. Enthusiasts of pop music spend millions of pounds a year on records and stereo music systems. They also but the various music papers and magazines that publish the ‘charts’ ― list of the current best-selling records ―as well as details of pop singers and musicians.

There is, too, a considerable audience for classical music. Much of it is listened to at home. Radio devotes a lot of its broadcasting time to serious music.

Gardening. Britain is famous for its gardens and most people like gardening. This is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats.

There are more private gardens in Britain than in any other country and they are looked after with love and enthusiasm. The British are keen gardeners. Every newspaper carries a regular gardening feature, radio and TV broadcast gardening programmes and most towns and villages have gardening clubs. Even in cities most people prefer to live in a house ― no matter how small ― gardens, rent a piece of land from their local council where they can cultivate flowers and vegetables. Almost every village and town holds an annual flower show in summer at which local gardeners exhibit fruit, flowers and vegetables and compete with each for prizes.

Do-It-Yourself. A popular British hobby is to make improvements and additions to houses without the help of professional or skilled workers such as painters, builder and carpenters. This activity of making or repairing things ready made of paying a workman to do the work for your, is called, DIY (do –it-yourself).

People with to keep their houses looking smart, and do-it-yourself repair and improvement work is widely practiced. There are now many handbooks and magazines devoted to DIY enthusiasts, telling them to go about repairs and improvements. There are also shops in every town selling or renting equipment and materials for DIY work.

 

1. What is a ‘soap opera? Can you explain why soar operas are popular though they are often naïve, silly and primitive?
2. How do you and your family prefer to listen to music ― on radio, records, cassette tapes, CDs, or at concerts?
3. What do the letters DIY mean?
4. Is do-it-yourself repair widely practiced in the families of your friends and acquaintances? Are there shops in your city similar to DIY shops?

 

 

Read the text about the popular pastimes and find out British people’s preferences for certain types of leisure and entertainments.

 

Popular Pastime

How people use their free time depends on age, sex, educational background, social class and, of course, on their personal taste and inclinations. But even so, it is availability of choices open to them that usually stimulates and directs their recreations.

Enjoyments of the Countryside. The British climate confines many outdoor activity and general enjoyment of the countryside to specific times of the year. National Park are open to the public for walking, bird watching, camping, caravanning (in specific areas) and, above all, for enjoying the scenery, the peace and quiet. There are a large number of rambling clubs whose members meet at weekends and on summer evenings to walk along some of Britain’s many footpaths that criss-cross the countryside.

Many people who enjoy rambling, climbing and cycling often combine these activities with membership of the Youth Hostels Association (YHA). The hostels, doted about the country ― especially in popular areas like the Lake District and the Devon moors ― provide cheap accommodation for members in simple establishments where they normally cater for themselves.

Outings. On holidays, on weekends or days off people often go for day “outing”. Some may not get much further than local parks or private gardens open to the public. Others may visit nearby art galleries and museums, or perhaps go to London for special exhibitions. Interesting exhibitions are organized every year and attract millions of visitors from Britain and overseas. Real enthusiasts go on outing in all weathers.

Outings to the seaside. Whether they have a boat or not, most British families like to spend some time at the seaside in the summer. The beaches are very crowded in hot weather. Groups of people go on organized outings, to popular resorts like Brighton or Blackpool. Coaches full of factory or office workers drive to the coast for a day out. If the sea is warm enough they can go for a swim of they may prefer to take off their shoes and paddle in the shallow water. They may bring a picnic lunch with them, and they can buy ice-cream form the ice-cream van, tea from the refreshment kiosk and drink at the pubs. It may rain but the British are used do changeable weather. The family can always sit in the car, or find the nearest amusement arcade or simply turn round and go home.

Cultural entertainments. Not everybody in Britain is interested in sport or in outings. Some are interested in going to the theatre, to the cinema, to concerts or to the opera where music by British composers is often on the programme. But this kind of entertainment is getting expensive and it is largely city activity, towns and cities also have public art galleries and museums.

A specially classes in Adult Institutes and Colleges of Further Education. People study an incredible variety of subjects, many of them clearly vocational and others of general interest. The difference between adult learners and school- children is that adult learners are choosing what they wish to learn, and usually giving up their leisure time willingly to learn it.

The most popular subjects are foreign languages, computer studies, shorthand/typing and office skills, business administration/management, arts and cultural subjects. Some people go to practical classes like dress-making or car-maintaining but many go for pleasure to do ballet dancing, to lean how to arrange flowers artistically, or to learn a foreign language. Others join classes organized by the Workers’ Educational Association and enjoy listening to lectures and discussing subjects like philosophy.

 

e. What is outing? When do people usually go on outings?

f. What activities are counted as cultural entertainment?

 

Unit 5 Topic: Days, months, season, weather, time Language: 1. The Present Continuous Tense 2. The construction to be going to do smth. 3. Impersonal Sentences 4. Numerals 5. Adjectives. Degrees of comparison Text: The seasons and the weather

 

 

I. Language

Sentence Patterns