captain of an artillery company, he took his books to camp and studied far

into the night.

Besides brilliancy and ambition, Hamilton had other quality which served

him well. He possessed great personal attractiveness With reddish-brown

hair, bright brown eyes, fine forehead, and firm mouth and chin, he was

very handsome, his face animated an pleasant when he talked, severe and

thoughtful when he was , work. He liked a lively dinner party and shone in

any circle which offered intellectual companions, and witty talk. As leader

of New York patriots, he was brought to Washington's notice an made him the

general's principal aide, it enabled him to lead dramatic assault at the

siege of Yorktown, it rendered him the principal figure in Washington's

administration, and it gave him command of a great party. He had remarkable

talents as an executive and organizer. He wrote and spoke much. Yet he also

showed striking defects. He was quick-tempered. He Quarreled with

Washington near the end of the war and rejected the advances the Washington

made to heal the breach. His arrogance of spin brought him into

unnecessarily conflicts - with Jefferson, with the Washington

administration, and with Aaron Burr, ending in his own death in a duel.

Vocabulary

Antilles - Антильские острова possess - владеть

attractiveness - привлекательность animate - оживлять

sever - суровый thoughtful

- задумчивый

executive - исполнительный arrogance -

высокомерие

hot-tempered - вспыльчивый, горячий

attract the attention — привлечь внимание

Travaling

The uniqueness of the British as a people has long been taken granted by

foreign observers and native commentators alike. Visitors from overseas,;

fromVenetian ambassadors in the late fifteenth century, through

intellectuals like Voltaire, to American journalists of the twentieth

century, have all been convinced of the special quality of British society.

This has been equally asumed by modern native chroniclers of the British

scene. But the nature or essence of the Britishness of the British is far

easier to proclaim than to explain. Some English characteristics upon which

both natives and visitors have tended to agree have to do with national

psychology: egoism, self-confidence, intolerance of outsiders, deep

suspieiousness towards their compatriots, ostentatious wealth,

independence, social mobility, love of comfort and a strong belief in

private property. Moderation, the avoidance of extremes, the choice of a

middle way, are among the essential qualities of Englishness. The two

features of English life which from the 15th century onwards struck almost

every observer were the country's wealth and its strong sense of

individualism.

The features that have shaped the British distinctiveness were determined

by the country's geographical isolation from the European continent, with

the consistent centrality of sea power and a broad social fluidity in which

the early collapse of feudalism helped generate a new industry and

commercial enterprise. The long centuries during which the land was free

from invaders meant that there could be a flowing culture continuity from

the time of Chaucer onwards impossible on the war-torn Continent. A

political and legal evolution is expressed in the English Parliament which

has survived in recognisable form till today, without those interruptions

and periods of absolute monarchy that have marked the history of its

neighbours, and the rule of law. There have been other significant features

in the development of England which mark it as a country to some degree

separate from Europe. One of the most important is the language. English is

a language of unparalleled richness, subtlety and variety, which unlocks'

the treasures of a literature second to none in the werid. It is the

easiest language to leam.

As for British history, it is not one of harmonious continuity,

broadening from epoch to epoch. It is a dramatic, colourful, often violent

story of an ancient, society and culture torn apart by the political,

economic, and intellectual turmoil of human experience. Britain in many

ways has been the cockpit of mankind.

Vocabulary

Ambassador – посол assume – допускать

Proclaim – провозглашать psychology – психология

Self – confidence – самоуверенность intolerance – нетерпимость

Ostentatious – показной Uniqueness – уникальность

social fluidity – соц. Подвижность Avoidance –

уклонение extreme – крайность

Isolation – изоляция invader –

захватчик Continuity – непрерывность

proceed – продолжать Turmoil –

беспорядок

private property – частная собственность

Environmental protection

The 20th century began slowly, to the ticking of grandfather clocks and the

stately rhythms of progress. Thanks to science, industry and moral

philosophy, mankind's steps had at last been guided up the right path. The

century of steam was about to give way to the century of oil and

electricity. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, only 41 years old in

1900, proposed a scientific basis for the notion that progress was gradual

but inevitable, determined by natural law.

And everybody thought that the development would continue in the small

steps that had marked the progress of the 19th century. Inventions like the

railroad or the telegraph or the typewriter had enabled people to get on

with their ordinary lives a little more conveniently. No one could have

guessed then that, in the century just beginning, new ideas would burst

upon the world with a force and frequency that would turn this stately

march of progress into a long distance, free-for-all sprint. Thrust into

this race, the children of the 20th century would witness more change in

their daily existence and environment than anyone else who had ever walked

the planet.

This high-velocity attack of new ideas and technologies seemed to ratify

older dreams of a perfectible life on earth, of an existence in which the

shocks of nature had been tamed. But the unleashing of unparalleled

progress was also accompanied by something quite different: a massive

regression toward savagery. If technology endowed humans with Promethean

aspirations and powers, it also gave them the means to exterminate one

another. Assassinations in Sarajevo in 1914 lit a spark that set off an

unprecedented explosion of destruction and death. The Great War did more

than devastate a generation of Europeans. It set the tone - the political,

moral and intellectual temper - for much that followed.

Before long the Great War received a new name - World War I. The roaring

1920s and the Depression years of the 1930s proved to be merely a prelude

to World War II. Largely hidden during that war was an awful truth that

called into question progress and the notion of human nature itself.

But civilization was not crushed by the two great wars, and the ruins

provided the stimulus to build a way of life again. To a degree previously

unheard of and perhaps unimaginable, the citizens of the 20th century felt

free to reinvent themselves. In that task They were assisted by two

profound developments–psychoanalysis and the Bomb.

Vocabulary

stately - величественный, величавый

thrust - толчок

high-velocity - большая скорость

savagery - варварство

aspiration - стремление

exterminate - уничтожать

assassination - убийство политического или общественного деятеля spark

- искра

explosion - взрыв

destruction - разрушение, уничтожение

devastate - опустошить

roaring - бурный

Depression - кризис 1929-32 гг.

Outstanding people

Edward VI took the English throne in 1461. When he unexpectedly died in

1483, his brother Richard was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.

Edward IV left two little sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, age twelve, and

Richard, Duke of York, age nine. Their uncle Richard made a conspiracy to

seize the Princes. He brought them to London and locked away in the Tower,

and started to move toward usurpation. He alleged that the marriage of his

dead brother, Edward IV, was invalid because Edward had previously promised

to marry another woman. As a result, the little princes were declared

bastards, and young Edward V had no right to the throne of England. To

assure his own security, Richard is believed to have ordered to murder the

little princes in the Tower. He became King Richard III.

Richard had the most obvious reasons for wanting the young princes dead. He

lived through a civil war that taught him that powerful men were always

ready to rally around a standard revolt. If such a flag could be raised for

a prince of the royal blood to restore him to a rightful throne, noblemen

with great lands, great debts, and empty wallets might readily take arms,

looking for the main chance in the change of kings. Richard never felt

secure on his throne; his swift, lawless, and lethal moves against those

who threatened him showed that he was capable of murder if by murder he

could rid himself of the mortal danger. And as long as the little princes

remained alive the danger was always present. In the summer of 1483, the

little princes disappeared forever; that much is certain.

Richard III was killed in the battle on 22 August 1485. Henry Tudor, earl

of Richmond, now King Henry VII by right of conquest and some other

hereditary claims, felt he needed to justify his own actions at the battle

of Bosworth. He issued a royal proclamation, dated the day before the

battle, declaring himself the rightful king of England and condemning

Richard as the rebellious subject.

In 1674 two small skeletons were found in a wooden box buried ten feet

under a small staircase that workmen were removing from the White Tower.

They were thought to be the bones of the little princes. King Charles II

had his own reasons for being offended at the murder of kings, so he placed

these bones in the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.

Vocabulary

usurpation - узурпация, незаконный захват

allege - утверждать, заявлять (голословно)

invalid - не имеющий законной силы

bastard - внебрачный ребенок

security - безопасность

rally – сплотиться

standard - знамя, флаг

murder - убийство

disappear - исчезнуть

it-rightful - законный

condemn - осуждать

Youth and unemployment

In the year 1000, Western Europe was just emerging from the long depression

commonly known as the Dark Ages. Shortly before the beginning of the

millennium, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III moved his capital and court

back to the Eternal City. But what little grandeur Rome still possessed

paled by comparison with the splendors of 'the new Rome, Constantinople,

the capital of the Byzantine empire. Byzantium was one of three centers of

wealth and power in the known world of the 11th century, India and China

were the others. There were sophisticated cultures elsewhere, notably the

Mayans of Mexico, but they were virtually out of touch with other

civilizations — thus lacking an essential condition for being considered

part of world history.

Little of Europe's coming dynamism was apparent in the year JOOO, although

there were signs that the Continent was getting richer. Wider use of plows

had made farming more efficient. The planting of new crops, notably beans

and peas, added variety to Europe's diet Windmills and watermills provided

fresh sources of power. Villages that were to become towns and eventually

cities grew up around trading markets. Yet the modern nation-state, with

its centralized bureaucracies and armies under unified command came into

being in the 15th century. For most of the Middle Ages, Roman Catholicism

was Europe's unifying force. Benedictine abbeys had preserved what

fragments of ancient learning the Continent possessed. Cistercian monks had

cleared the land and pioneered in agricultural experimentation. Ambitious

popes competed with equally ambitious kings to determine whether the

spiritual realm would hold power over the tea or vice versa. Symbolic of

the church's power were great Gothic cathedrals of Europe: construction of

Reims began 13th century, and Charters—the most glorious of all such

edifices—was consecrated in 1260.

By the 20th century the ingenuity, coupled with an aggressive wanderlust,

brought Europeans and their culture to the ends earth. By the year 1914,

eighty four per cent of the world' surface, apart from the polar regions,

was under the influence European civilization. The hegemony of European

civilization was based on the successful application of new knowledge to a

problems and conquering nature, and much of that success based on

circumstance and ingenuity.

Vocabulary

emerge - выходить

millennium – тысячелетие

asceticism - аскетизм

sophisticated - сложный

bureaucracies - чиновники apparent -

явный

watermill - водяная мельница ambitious -

честолюбивый

ingenuity - изобретательность wanderlust

- страсть к путешествиям

surface - поверхность

conquer - завоевать

assertion - утверждение

accomplishment - достижение

grandeur - великолепие, пышность, грозность

Mass media

The problem between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland started a

long time ago. It is more political than religious. For centuries the

English had tried to gain control of Ireland. Until the 16-th century,

England controlled only a small area of Ireland around Dublin. English

rulers, including King Henry VIII (1491-1547), Queen Elizabeth I (153-1603)

and Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) gradually conquered the whole of Ireland.

The last area to resist the province in Ulster, in the north of Ireland,

but in the Irish were defeated.

In 1910 the British Government offered Ireland a mild form of Home Rule –

full self-government in regard to purely Irish affairs. Opposition was

basked by the generals of the British Army’s troops in Ireland. The Irish

patriots formed their own military organizations of the Irish Volunteers,

drilling troops for the fight. The Labour Party in Ireland established the

Irish Army. The Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army jointly started

preparation for an insurrection. The set date was Monday of Easter Week,

1916. Although the uprising was a failure, it laid the foundation for

another stage of the fight for freedom. In 1921, an independent Irish state

was set up, that is the Republic of Ireland. In the north of Ireland six

countries were dominated and controlled by Protestants, who refused to join

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