I - For reading and rendering
1 - The British Universities
School training in England lasts 13 years. Young people who are going to enter universities have to stay at school up to 18. They choose only 3-4 disciplines. This program is called Foundation. According to results the school leavers are admitted to universities.
University programs usually last 3 years for a degree of the bachelor and from 1 till 4 years to get a degree of the master. The English use to say “to read at university”, for example «she reads in civil law».
Students spend in auditoriums not more than 20-25% of their training hours, they have 1 or 2 lessons a day, lectures or lessons with tutor. Tutors are people who help students to choose subjects and ways of training, also they analyze and criticize students’ work.
The major time the students write essays and prepare for their written exams. Written works (essays) are the central part of preparation. Students get original task, write the work, and then it is analyzed in a small group with the teacher. The process is called “reading under guiding». It is considered, that creating of written texts develops logic and analytical abilities best of all. Besides, such way of training prepares for the independent work. Exams in special subjects are passed in writing, so that the results can be rechecked by independent experts.
The universities take care of the high standard of their degrees, that’s why the demands for the undergraduates are very strict. Only 2-3 % of graduates get First (the maximum estimation) at final examinations. The higher is the level of the university, the lower are the marks. They students get a degree in the end of their education. The lower degrees are calledBS or BA, that mean "Bachelor of Science" and "Bachelor of Arts", specialist in science or humanities.
2 - The last candidate
The entrance examinations at one of the Moscow drama schools were almost over. Many entrants had already given their performances. The famous actors who were examining them were already so tired that it was not easy to impress them. Therefore when they saw the last candidate appear on the stage they only wanted him to finish his performance as quickly as possible.
Indeed the young man’s acting made a poor expression on the teachers. It was clear he wasn’t talented. His face couldn’t attract the audience. Only his smile was pleasant and remained in memory. The Rector of the school stopped the young man who was still performing something. The entrant understood everything at once. “I haven’t passed my exam, haven’t I?” he asked. “I’m sorry to say not,” answered the Rector. “Your see, it isn’t enough to know a few poems and entertaining songs. An actor must act. To act is to turn into another person on the stage, but I’m afraid you can’t do it.” On his way home that evening the Rector remembered how the boy was criticized for his performance and felt sorry for him. But he always told them the truth.
The next day when the Rector was about to finish work he saw a late visitor come into his office. The stranger was an elderly woman who was wearing an old hat and very thick glasses. Her face looked concerned. She said she wanted to talk to the Director about her son. The old lady went on telling how much her son was prepared for his exam and how she had helped him. The case was difficult but still the Rector wanted the woman to hear the truth about her son. As soon as she stopped he began: “You see, an actor must act. To be an actor is to turn into another person!” He hadn’t finished his sentence. The “old lady” took of her hat and the glasses and smiled. It took the Rector a minute to remember where he had seen the young man’s face.
3 - The Power of Imagination
Mr. Brown liked it in America, but he liked traveling very much. He made trips to Europe and Asia, and he visited India too. Once after a long trip from England to America he arrived at a small country place. There was a small hotel there. Mr. Brown got to the hotel late in the evening. At the hotel he asked the receptionist whether there were any vacant rooms there.
At that moment another traveler came to the hotel and asked for a room too. The receptionist checked if there were any vacant rooms. The only vacant room he could offer was a double room.
“Will it be convenient to you if you share the room?” the receptionist asked. “It’ll be less expensive for you, you’ll each pay half.”
At first they didn’t like the idea, but just then it began raining heavily, they were too tired to go to another hotel and agreed to spend the night in the same room. A porter showed them to their room, took in their things and wished them food night. Soon the two men went to sleep. Suddenly Mr. Brown heard some noise. He opened his eyes but didn’t see anything. It was quite dark.
“What’s the matter? ” Mr. Brown asked in surprise. The second traveler answered, “I am very sorry, I had to wake you up. I’m not well. Please, open the window quickly.”
Mr. Brown got out of bed and began looking for matches, but he couldn’t find them in the dark, so he tried to find the window. It had taken him some time until he found it. He pulled the window, but couldn’t open it. As the voice of the traveler became weaker and weaker, Mr. Brown took a chair and broke the pane. The man breathed in deeply and after a moment of silence he told, “Thank you, I am much better”. Then the two of them slept until morning.
When they woke up the next morning a large mirror in the room was broken to pieces.
4 - Who Invented the Internet?
The answer to the question of 'who invented the internet' is not a single man or company, but instead the involvement of many experts from various fields pooling their knowledge towards a common goal.
The conceptual foundation for creation of the Internet was largely created by three individuals, each of which changed the way we thought about technology by accurately predicting its future:
Vannevar Bush wrote the first visionary description of the potential uses for information technology with his description of the "memex" automated library system. Norbert Wiener invented the field of Cybernetics, inspiring future researchers to Marshall McLuhan made the idea of a global village interconnected by an electronic nervous system part of our popular culture.
The catalyst for the burst of innovation that would ultimately create the internet was the launch of the Soviet Union's first satellite in 1957. The thought of Sputnik I hovering over US airspace was enough to alarm President Eisenhower to plough funds into developing the US's technical capability.
The task was of creating a communication network that could survive a nuclear attack, and enable the US to launch their own counter strike. This meant a network which could rapidly exchange data between locations spread all other the country.
The communication network was designed to utilise the principle of 'packet switching' data technology, published in a paper by Leonard Kleinrock in 1961. Packet switching meant that millions of data messages could be routed along the same physical line from one place to another. Previously, data transfer systems had relied on a single connection between two points, such as those created by telephone exchanges, for rerouting every message in a 'circuit switching' system.
The advances in data transfer technology enabled the creation of a functioning long distance computer network. Larry Roberts could be labelled as one of the people who invented the internet because he built its first links: between the University of California and Stanford Research Institute in 1969. Known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Networks), the network was gradually expanded to link military, scientific and educational institutions all over the country.
In 1972, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to allow diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate. Scientists, the military and researchers could now collaborate and share information with colleagues from all over America on the rapidly growing internet network.
The internet started to spread globally in 1976 when the network became linked to Europe. The internet's capabilities as a communication tool were further enhanced three years later when IBM introduced a 'store and forward' network, now known as email.
It wasn't until 1990 that the internet became available for public usage and stopped being the preserve of the government and research institutions. The development of HTML during this year meant that graphical websites started appearing and the world-wide-web started taking form into how we know it today.
So, the person who invented the internet wasn't a single individual but a whole community of scientists, physicists and the brightest minds in the country. They were motivated not only to provide the military with a decentralised control system, but to create a communication network enabling people to collaborate and share information with others all over the world.
5 - The Modern Venus
After Mark Twain
It happened in Rome. George Arnold, a poor artist, who had come from the USA to Italy to study art, was in love with Mary Brown, the beautiful daughter of a rich American businessman. The girl loved the young sculptor too, but her father wouldn’t allow her to marry George.
One day Mr. Brown called the young man to his office and said to him, “My dear sir, I cannot allow my daughter to marry a poor man. If you want to be my daughter’s husband you should have fifty thousand dollas. When you show me the money you can marry my daughter”.
George was at a loss what to do. He didn’t know what to answer. He had no idea how to get such a big sum of money. “You must get the sum within six months,” Mr. Brown added. “If you don’t get the money she will marry another man.” George went home. He felt very unhappy. “What am I to do? He thought. He had nothing to sell except a beautiful stature of a girl – his last work. But he knew that nobody would buy it as he was not famous.
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of John Smith. They had come to Italy by the same steamer and they had been good friends since. George told John about his conversation with Mary’s father and asked him for advice.
“You say he gives you six months to get the money, doesn’t he” asked John. “It’s a lot of time and I’ll help you. But promise not to protest if I do something that you don’t like”. “I promise,” George answered.
John came up to the stature, broke of her nose, part of her right arm and her left leg. Then he put on his hat, took the stature, broke of her nose, part of her right arm and her left leg. Then he put on his hat, took the stature and left.
Two months later a story appeared in one of the Italian newspapers. It said that Mr. John Smith, an American gentleman, had bought for a small sum of money a piece of land not far from Rome. One day while digging the earth he found a wonderful stature of a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, the nose, the left leg and the right arm were gone. The experts said they were sure that the stature was a Venus and the work of some unknown artist. They also stated that it cost about ten million francs. Mr. Smith was to be paid five million francs and the stature was to be taken to one of the Italian museums. “Good luck!” said the Americans and immediately decided to form a company which would buy up lands in Italy.
As to George Arnold he married Mary Brown and they lived happily but George never mentioned to anybody what he knew about the famous Venus.
6 - Michael Faraday and the Start of the Electric Era
The modern life can’t be imagined without electricity. The era of electricity began in 1880-ies. The electricity has replaced the energy of steam. It became possible thanks to the discovery made in 1831 by Michael Faraday. He discovered the law of the electromagnetic induction. Just this law allows people elaborate electric power.
The electric power is the most convenient form of energy. Using electricity has changed a civilization. But people have used electricity only little more than one hundred years. The reason is that in nature we meet electricity very seldom. In order to use electricity people had to learn how to get it artificially.
Nowadays people receive electricity using the law of electromagnetic induction, which gives the way to get electricity with the help of magnets. Elaboration of electric power by generators is based on this law. Without it bulbs would not shine, phones would not call and we would live in the other kind of world. The person who learnt to receive electricity artificially was Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867).
He was born in the suburb of London in a family of a smith. The family was so poor, that children from used to receive a help from the religious community. It made 1 roll in a week. At 13 Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder. He read a lot of books being bound, especially in physics and chemistry. Thus he knew about electricity. Once, when Faraday was already 19 he heard four public lectures of the famous chemist Davy. Faraday made a synopsis, bound it as beautifully as he could and sent to Dewy together with the letter. He told, that he wished to go in for science, but did not know the way. Surprised by unusual message Davy invited Faraday to be his assistant. Davy said later, that of all his discoveries the most significant was Faraday. The work in Davy’s laboratory became for Faraday both school and university.
Faraday investigated electricity, magnets, light. He was convinced, that in nature everything is related.That’s why he thought out experiences, trying communications to find out the relations. In 1831 he found out the dependence further called the law of electromagnetic induction. It tells that closed wire moving in a field of magnet gets electricity. This rule made it possible getting electricity in an artificial way.
Faraday got many offers for commercial use of his ideas, for building first electro generators. He rejected this kind of suggestions because of his pure scientific interests. The mass production of electricity started in about 50 years after his discovery.
Faraday is also considered to be the inventor of balloons. In 1824 he made first balloons for experiments with hydrogen. He wrote about it in a scientific journal. The next year the rubberier Hanock produced spheres in the form of a toy.
7 - Ernest Rutherford
English researches caused three exegetical revolutions. In XVIII Watt started the age of steam, in XIX Faraday presented electricity, in XX nuclear power became possible thanks to Ernest Rutherford. It was he who created the planet model of atom. Before Rutherford atom was thought to be single and indivisible. Rutherford proved it to consist of smaller particles. He showed that dividing atom released energy. He doubted that it was possible to use it. Nevertheless nuclear power stations are based on the ideas of Rutherford. Besides, he was the first man who managed to transform an atom and get the atom of another substance. In 1919 he turned into nitrogen into oxygen.
8 - Caged
by Lovell Reeve
Purcell was a small, fussy (суетливый) man. Large glasses so magnified his eyes as to give him the appearance of a wise and kind owl. He owned a pet shop. He sold cats and dogs and monkeys; he dealt in fish food and bird seed, prescribed remedies (прописываллекарства) for ailing (больной) canaries. He considered himself something of a professional man. The place smelled of confined flesh. But the customers who came in said: «Aren’t they cute! Look at that little monkey! They’re sweet». And Mr. Purcell himself would smile and rub his hands and nod his head. Each morning, when the routine of opening his shop was completed, it was the proprietor’s custom (привычкавладельца) to perch on a high stool, behind the counter, unfold (раскладывать) his morning paper, and digest (переваривать) the day’s news. As he read he would smile, frown (хмурился), purse his lips, knowingly lift his eyebrows, nod in grave agreement. He read everything.
It was a raw, wintry day. Having completed his usual tasks, Mr. Purcell again mounted the high stool and unfolded his morning paper. He glanced at the day’s headlines. There was a bell over the door that rang whenever a customer entered. This morning, however, for the first time Mr. Purcell could recall (вспомнить), it failed to ring. Simply he glanced up, and there was the stranger, standing just inside the door, as if he had materialized out of thin air. The storekeeper slid off his stool. From the first instant (момент) he knew instinctively, unreasonably, that the man hated him; but out of habit he rubbed his hands, smiled and nodded.