the new Irish state. These six countries stayed part of the UK and are now

called Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is a very beautiful place. It is a land of mountains,

rivers and lakes. It has a rugged coastline and one is never more than half

an hour away from the coast by car. The people of Ireland have always been

known for the stories and myths. They say that giants used to live on the

Antrim coast, north of Belfast. One giant, Finn McCool, the commander of

the king of Ireland’s army, fell in love with the woman giant in Scotland.

He wanted her to come to Ulster so he started to build a bridge, the

Giant’s Causeway, so that she could walk across the sea.

Vocabulary

Area-пространство

Defeat - наносить поражение

Home Rule – Гом Руль

Back - поддержать

Troops - войска

Volunteers - «Добровольцы»

Drill - строевая подготовка

Insurrection – восстание

Uprising – восстание

Failure – неудача, провал

Independent - независимый

County – округ, графство

Giant – великан

Leisure time

Until 1800 the United States of America had five «capitals» or meeting

places of the Congress - Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, New York and

Philadelphia. For various reasons, none of these cities offered an ideal

seat of government for the new nation. Southern states protested that they

were all too far north. After the Constitution was adopted, the

establishment of a new city was considered. President Washington pinpointed

the exact location, and Congress passed a bill for a federal city and

capital on July 17, 1790. The city of Washington was called just «The

Federal City». It didn't gain its name until after the first president's

death. When Congress and the rest of the small government's agencies

arrived from Philadelphia in, the new capital looked very unpromising

indeed. Only a fragment of the Capitol was completed, and a part of the

White House. Other government departments were scattered about, and a few

houses had been built. Up until the time of the Civil War, Washington grew

quite slowly. It really was just another sleepy southern town, enlivened

only when the Congress was in session, and not much even then. After the

Civil War it became the real capital of the United States.

The best known building in Washington is the White House, home of

American Presidents since 1800. The site was selected by president

Washington, the architect was James Hoban. The first residents of the White

House were President and Mrs. John Adams. The cornerstone of the Executive

Mansion, as it was originally known, dates from October 13, 1792, 300 years

after the landing of Columbus. The president's home is the earliest of all

government buildings in the District of Columbia. The British troops which

arrived in Washington in 1814 were indirectly responsible for the name

«White House»: the building was fired by them. Later the fire marks on the

walls were concealed by painting the whole building white. The term «White

House» became official at the end of the 19th century. The President works

here in the «Oval Office», but the White House is also a family home.

President Truman had a piano next to his desk and President Kennedy's

children used to play under his office windows.

Washington is a cultural centre. It is proud of its art galleries, a

zoo, natural history collections, and the Museum of History and Technology.

Vocabulary

Nation - государство

Pinpoint - указать

Exact location – точное расположение

Pass a bill – одобрить законопроект

Cornerstone – краеугольный камень

Government buildings – правительственные здания

To be indirectly responsible for – быть косвенно ответственным за

Civil War – гражданская война

Enliven – оживлять

Be in session - заседать

Delay - задержать

Completion - завершение

Accessible – доступный (открытый)

Magnificent view – великолепный взгляд

International organizations and international co-

operation

Russian literature in the last half of the nineteenth century provided an

artistic medium for the discussion of political and social issues that

could not be addressed directly because of government restrictions. The

writers of this period shared important qualities: great attention to

realistic, detailed descriptions of everyday Russian life; the lifting of

the taboo on describing the unattractive side of life; and a satirical

attitude toward routines. Although varying widely in style, subject matter,

and viewpoint, these writers stimulated government bureaucrats, nobles, and

intellectuals to think about important social issues. This period of

literature, which became known as the Age of Realism, lasted from about mid-

century to 1905. The literature of the Age of Realism owed a great debt to

three authors and to a literary critic of the preceding half-century

Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, and Vissarion

Belinsky. These figures set a pattern for language, subject matter, and

narrative techniques, which before 1830 had been very poorly developed. The

critic Belinsky became the patron saint of the radical intelligentsia

throughout the century.

Ivan Turgenev was successful at integrating social concerns with true

literary art. His «Hunter's Sketches» and «Fathers and Sons» portrayed

Russia's problems with great realism and with enough artistry that these

works have survived as classics. Many writers of the period did not aim for

social commentary, but the realism of their portrayals nevertheless drew

comment from radical critics. Such writers included the novelist Ivan

Goncharov, whose «Oblomov» is a very negative portrayal of the provincial

gentry, and the dramatist Aleksandr Ostrovsky, whose plays uniformly

condemned the bourgeoisie.

Above all the other writers stand two: Lev Tolstoy and Fedor

Dostoevsky, the greatest talents of the age. Their realistic style

transcended immediate social issues and explored universal issues such as

morality and the nature of life itself. Although Dostoevsky was sometimes

drawn into polemical satire, both writers kept the |main body of their work

above the dominant social and political I preoccupations of the 1860s

and 1870s. Tolstoy's «War and Peace» and «Anna Karenina» and Dostoevsky's

«Crime and Punishment» and «The Brothers Karamazov» have endured as genuine

classics because they drew the best from the Russian realistic heritage

while focusing on broad human questions. Although Tolstoy continued to

write into% the twentieth century, he rejected his earlier style and never

again reached the level of his greatest works.

The literary careers of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev had all

ended by 1881. Anton Chekhov, the major literary figure in the last decades

of the nineteenth century, contributed in two genres: short stories and

drama. Chekhov, a realist who examined not society as a whole but the

defects of individuals, produced a large volume of sometimes tragic,

sometimes comic, short stories and several outstanding plays, including

«The Cherry Orchard», a dramatic chronicling of the decay of a Russian

aristocratic family.

Vocabulary

Artistic medium – художественное средство

Government restrictions – правительственные ограничения

Subject matter - тема

Government bureaucrats – государственные чиновники

Owe – быть обязанным

Preceding – предшествующий

Patron saint – покровитель

Negative portrayal – отрицательное изображение

Provincial gentry – провинциальное дворянство

Human rights

In November 1960 the American people elected Senator John F. Kennedy to the

Presidency. Kennedy defeated by a narrow margin his Republican opponent,

Vice President Richard Nixon. The two youthful presidential candidates

highlighted their campaigns by appearing on television in a serious of

debates - Nixon emphasized the experience he had gained during his eight

years in the administration and reminding voters of the «peace and

prosperity» achieved under Republican leadership, and Kennedy calling for

new, forward-looking leadership and more effective use of the country's

human and economic resources.

Almost everything about the new President caught the imagination of

the people, and his Inauguration was no exception. In his. eloquent address

the President set the tone of youthful energy and dedication that was the

mark of his administration. Kennedy said: «Let the word go forth from this

time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to

a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war,

disciplined" by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and

unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to

which this nation has always been committed... Let every nation know that

we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any

friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.» But

the address was not merely a call to battle but an invitation to peace as

well. «Let us never negotiate out of fear,» said the President, «but let us

never fear to negotiate. Co-operation is better than conflict; let us then

substitute co-operation for conflict. Let both sides explore what problems

unite us... Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of

its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts,

eradicate disease.»

The first President to be born in the twentieth century, and the

youngest ever to be elected to the presidency, Kennedy was not only

spokesman for a new generation, but symbol as well. He brought to the

presidency an alert intelligence, immense personal charm, a warm and

generous humanitarianism, but also a lively awareness of the immense

potentialities of presidential leadership. Indeed, his Cabinet and his

White House advisers made up the youngest group of top-level officials in

the country's history -a group notable for its openness to new ideas and

its readiness to take vigour actions.

Vocabulary

Narrow margin – небольшое преимущество

Highlight – освещать

Inauguration - инаугурация

Eloquent - красноречивый

Heritage - наследие

Burden - бремя

Hardship – неприятности

Substitute - заменить

Awareness – осведомленность, информированность

Immense – огромный

Vigour - решительные

Take actions – принимать действия

Culture of the youth

The foundation of the great schools which were named Universities was

everywhere throughout Europe a special mark of the new impulse that

Christendom had got from the Crusades. A new desire for study sprang up in

the West from its contact with the more cultured East. Oxford and Cambridge

are the oldest universities in England. Both of these universities are very

beautiful. They have some of the finest architecture in Britain. Some of

their colleges, chapels and libraries are three, four and even five hundred

years old, and are full of valuable books and precious paintings. Of the

early history of Cambridge little is known, but enough remains to enable us

to trace the early steps by which Oxford gained its intellectual glory. The

history of Cambridge is believed to begin in 1209 when several hundred

students and scholars arrived at the little town of Cambridge after having

walked 60 miles from Oxford According to the custom they joined themselves

into “Universities” or a society of people with common employment. Only

later they came to be associated with scholarship. '

Cambridge won independence from the Town rule in 1500. Students were

of different ages and came from everywhere. Gradually the idea of the

College developed and in 1284 Peter house, the oldest College was

established. In 1440 King Henry VI founded King’s College, and other

colleges followed. The first college of Oxford University was founded in

1249. At hat time with the revival of classic studies many teachers became

enemies of parliament, and the Church. The lectures of Vicarious on the

Civil Law at Oxford were prohibited by the English king. Now the university

of Oxford has thirty-five colleges and about thirteen thousand students.

There were no woman students at Oxford until 1878, when the first women’s

college, Lady Margaret Hall, was up. Now, most colleges are open to man and

women. Oxford is famous for its first-class education as well as its

beautiful buildings. Many students want to study there. It is not so easy

to get a place at Oxford University to study for a degree. But outside the

university there are many smaller private colleges, which offer less

difficult courses and where it is easy to enrol.

Vocabulary

Architecture - архитектура

Valuable - ценный

Precious - дорогой

Christendom – Христианский мир

Crusade – крестовый поход

Spring up - возникать

Revival of classic studies – возрождение классических наук

Prohibit - запрещать

Degree – ученая степень

Enrol – зачислять

Arts

American literature is dated from Mark Twain. Much of his writing was

autobiographical. «Life on the Mississippi» was a story of his experiences

as a pilot learning the great river and the country that it crossed, and

the society that lived on its boats or along its banks. In 1884 came the

greatest of his achievements«Huckleberry Finn». 'All modern literature

comes from «Huckleberry Finn»', said Ernest Hemingway, and the aphorism is

really true. Mark Twain was considered by his contemporaries the Lincoln of

American literature. The «valley of democracy» that created Mark Twain

produced his friend W.D. Howells. In his writing Howells gave the most

comprehensive picture of middle-class American society to be found in the

whole of American literature. Probably no other novelist except Balzac ever

made so elaborate a report on his society as did W.D. Howells. He drew

genre pictures of the New England countryside, the best of all portraits of

the «self-made» businessman, the extravagant life of the Ohio frontier, the

rough life and work in New York City, and the clash of cultures in European

resorts. Howells was not only one of the most representative American

novelists; but he was, too, at the same time, the leading American

Literature literary critic. He edited the great «Atlantic Monthly». He

introduced Ibsen, Zola, and Turgenev to American audiences, discovered and

sponsored younger writers like Stephen Crane and Frank Norris.

The third of the major novelists who emerged during the 1870s and

reached maturity in the transition years was Henry James. Henry James took

middle-class America for his theme. His best novels -«The Portrait of a

Lady», «The American», «The Ambassadors», «The Wings of the Dove» - explore

the themes of manners and morals. Very often they are cast into a pattern

of New World innocence and Old World corruption. Of all American novelists

between Hawthorne and Faulkner, James was most completely preoccupied with

moral problems. Because James wrote of characters and subjects alien to the

average American, and in a style intricate and sophisticated, he achieved

little popularity in his own lifetime.

Vocabulary

Pilot - лоцман

Comprehensive – исчерпывающий, полный

Frontier - граница

Contemporary - современник

Genre pictures – жанровые сцены

Transition years – переходный период

Preoccupy – занимать, поглощать внимание

Character - персонаж

Subject - тема

Alien - чужой

Intricate - замысловатый

Average - средний

Maturity - зрелость

Defiant - вызывающий

Literary currents – литературные направления

Novel - роман

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