Дополнительные тексты для чтения.(5-6 кл. Биболетова М.З.)

Inside Buckingham Palace.

THE PALACE.

There are two addresses in London that the whole world knows. One is 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister lives. The other is Buckingham Palace. This famous place, first built in 1703, is in the very center of London.

It is two places, not one. It is a family house, where children play and grow up. It is also the place where presidents, kings, and politicians go to meet the Queen.

Buckingham Palace is like a small town with a police station, two post offices, a hospital, a bar, two sport clubs, a disco, a cinema, and a swimming pool. There are 600 rooms and three miles of red carpet. Two men work full-time to look after the 300 clocks. About 700 people work in the Palace.

THE QUEEN”S DAY

When the Queen gets up in the morning, seven people look after her. One starts her bath, one prepares her clothes, and one feed the Royal dogs. She has eight or nine dogs, and they sleep in their own bedroom near the Queen’s bedroom .Two people bring her breakfast. She has coffee from Harrods, toast, and eggs. Every day for fifteen minutes, a piper plays Scottish music outside her room and the Queen reads The Times.

Every Tuesday evening, she meets the Prime Minister. They talk about world news and have a drink, perhaps a gin and tonic or a whisky.

AN INVITATION TO THE PALACE

When the Queen invites a lot of people for dinner, it takes three days to prepare the table and three days to the washing up. Everybody has five glasses: one for red wine, one for white wine, one for water, one for port, and one for liqueur. During the first and second courses, the Queen speaks to the person on her left and then she speaks to the person on her right for the rest of the meal. When the Queen finishes her food, everybody finishes, and it is time for the next course!

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.

1. Buckingham Palace is two places, not one. How?
2. Why it is like a small town?
3. Are there a lot of clocks?
4. How many dogs does the Queen have?
5. What newspaper does she read?
6. What sort of music does the piper play?
7. Why do people have five glasses on the table?
8. Who does the Queen speak to during a meal?
9. What happens when the Queen finishes her food?

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Charles Dickens is one  of the greatest novelists in the English language. He wrote about the real world of Victorian England and many of his characters were not rich, middle-class ladies and gentlemen, but poor and hungry people.

Dickens the child

His family lived in London. His father was a clerk in an office. It was a good job, but he always spent more money than he earned and he was often in debt. There were eight children in the family, so life was hard.

Charles went to school and his teachers thought he was very clever. But suddenly, when he was eleven, his father went to prison for his debts and the family went too.Only Charles didn’t go to prison. He went to work in a factory, where he washed bottles. He worked ten hours a day and earned six shillings (30 pence) a week. Every night, after work, he worked four miles back to his room. Charles hated it and never forgot the experience . He used it in many novels, especially David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.

Dickens the writer

When he was sixteen, he started work for a newspaper. He visited law courts and the House of Parliament. Soon he was one of the Morning Chronicle’s best journalists. He also wrote short stories for magazines. These were funny descriptions of the people that he met. Dickens characters were full of colour and life – good people were very good and bad people were horrible. His books became popular in many countries and he spent a lot of time abroad, in America, Italy, and Switzerland.

Dickens the man

Dickens had ten children, but he didn’t have a happy family life. He was successful in his work but not at home, and his wife left him. He never stopped writing and traveling, and he died very suddenly in 1870.

Answer the questions.

1. How old was Dickens when he died?
2. How many brothers and sisters did he have?
3. Was he good at school?
4. Why did he leave school when he was eleven?
5. Who was in prison?
6. What did Charles do in his first job?
7. What was his next job?
8. Was he happy at home?
9. When did he stop writing?

Music.

It is difficiat to live without music. We hear music everywhere: in the street,  at home, over there radio and on TV, in concert halls, in parks. Music reflects people’s mood and emotions. We can’t live without music. We like to listen to music, we enjoy dancing, to music and we play musical instruments. Some people are really interested in music. They can play musical instruments they know a lot about its history. They study it at music schools and conservatories. Music can be classical music. But sometimes it is difficult to listen it without good musical education. Without it such music is not so case to interpret. The tickets to music halls and concerts of classical music are expensive. It’s not available to everybody. Pop music becomes cutely extremely fashionable among young people. Madonna, Michael Jackson and “Spice girls” and. “Backstreet Boys” give an example of what teenagers prefer to listen to. It even determines there style and fashion. Teenagers to imitate there their favorite musicians in appearance, dress and lifestyles.

        But we know that deistical music and contemporary music can go side by side. The example of it is career of Vanessa Mae. Following her owe instincts about music and the viding she has proved that the viding is versant is her music have crossed all cultural, geographical and generational barriers.                                         In the 20th century everybody could choose the music that he would enjoy. It can be blues, jazz, rock, rap, rock’n’roll, hard rock, heavy metal, techno music. As for me I can listen         to almost king of music. My taste range from classical music to ………….. I believe that music should be ever        getic. That’s why I’m fond of    ………….. thera are many that I’m fond of. I think that band I like most of all is the …………. The members of the ……….. are …………. My fave song by the ………. is …………. It’s very lyrical and inspiring.

Secrets of fashion

Body decorations such as rings, necklaces (ожерелье) , bracelets, brooches (брошь), and others are called jewellery (драгоценности). Girls and women like to wear different accessories and make up. There many fashion secrets which help women to look great. If you want to learn these secrets there is possibility for you to read beautiful fashion magazines and to see prestigious collections of leading international fashion designers. Everybody in the world knows the names of famous designers Oliver Lapidius, Versace, Gucci. Their clothes are really fantastic. But not many girls and women can afford to buy them. Anyway there always the way to look great. One should have taste and remember that the choice of wearing this or that thing often depends of the situation. If you go to the theatre or to a party you can use make-up and wear expensive jewelry . For example gold charm bracelet, an elegant pearl necklace diamond (алмаз, бриллиант) earrings or a fashionable hair clip. Use a lipstick, mascara, shadows, powder blush. But don’t forget that accessories and cosmetics aren’t enough to look beautiful. Take care of your hair, of your body and skin every day.

Clothes are immediate, they tell us about people. Famous people usually set the trance. Clothes can be light drugs many teenagers easily become addicted (пристраститься).

Everyone in my class is really fashionable. They spend a lot of time talking about clothes that they are going to spend their money on. Many friends of mine think I’m untrendy. But frankly speaking fashion is not very important for me. Fashion comes and goes . To my mind looking clean and tidy is more important than looking stylish. I prefer clothes which are traditional in design that I feel comfortable in. My favourite clothes are…………  I think that following fashion doesn’t mean having good taste. If I had a lot of money I would buy clothes which are classical in design because they never go out of fashion. But I would  rather buy  video cassettes and some interesting books.

Mother Teresa.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in Skopje, in Yugoslavia, in 1910. Her family were all Albania, but she said, "The people of the world are my people," She first went to Ireland as a young nun when she was eighteen and learned English. After that she went to India, first to Ben gal and then to Calcutta. She called herself "Teresa" after Saint Therese. She lived in a convent and taught young Indian girls. One day in 1946 on a train to Darjeeling, a voice inside her said, "You must leave )tour convent and help the poorest people in India." She bought a cheap sari (an India rode) from a market. Her Archbishop blessed it and then she started her work in Calcutta. Soon many others joined her. They called themselves the Missionaries of Charity. Like Mother Teresa, they wore Indian saris. All her life she has been helping everyone who is ill, dirty, poor, or dying. She loved them all. In 1979 she won the Nobel Peace Prize. She says, "To feel no one wants you; to feel no one loves You... that's the worst sickness in life."

The Main Street of Moscow

Tverskaya Street is the main street of the Russian capital. It is one of the longest and the busiest streets of the city. There are many hotels, shops and supermarkets in it. Tverskaya Street is famous for its fine tall houses, beautiful monuments, wide squares, cinemas and theatres which are in or nearby.

Hundreds of years ago from Red Square there was a road to Tver. Tver is an old Russian city to the North of Moscow. Tverskaya Street is where this road used to be and that fact explains its name. Tverskaya is a wide street and in some places the street is sixty metres wide.

At the beginning of Tverskaya Street you can see the hotel "Natsional". If we walk up the street on the same side we'll see the building of the Central Telegraph and on the opposite side the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow. The monument is situated in a beautiful little square with some trees in it. Let's walk up Tverskaya Street. Soon we'll reach Pushkin Square.

In Pushkin Square we can see the famous monument to Alexander Pushkin, the greatest Russian poet. Pushkin was born in Moscow and spent the first years of his life in this city. When he became very famous and lived in St. Petersburg he often visited Moscow. Pushkin loved his native city and wrote about it in his poems. Pushkin Square is very beautiful. There is a fountain in it near the monument. The monument itself appeared in Moscow in 1880. It is the work of the famous Opekushin and one of the finest monuments in Moscow.

On the opposite side further up Tverskaya Street there is an old red building. It used to be the English Club but now it is the Museum of the Revolution.

You can see the monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky in Triumfalnaya Square. Moscow Concert Hall is situated in it.

The end is near Belorussian railway station. You can see the monument to Maxim Gorky in the square in front of the railway station.