Т.В. Артеменко, Е.В. Кривощекова, Е.В. Кравченко, Н.Е. Николаева - Reader in Language and Culture - Part II (1110506), страница 15
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The only exceptionis Yorkshire (north England), where not getting served for half-an-hourcould result in the ritual sacrifice of the barman.Unexpected Funerals: invitationsWhen it comes to invitations, Americans are very forward. They'll inviteyou to come to their house, and they'll expect you to turn up. If you don'tgo, they'll ask you why you didn't come, "What happened? Did you forget?"Americans have no problem telling someone to go away if that person turnsup unannounced.
You'll be told, quite literally, to go away. "Hey, I'msorry," Americans will say, "but I'm right in the middle of something. Couldyou come back later?" Or, "Hey, buddy, this isn't a good moment. I'll seeyou another time. RightT And lastly, if you ask an American out, and theydon't want to go, they'll simply say, "I'll take a raincheck on that", whichmeans that they don't want to go this time, but may go on another occasion.Of course, the British are very different. When the British invite you to theirhouse, they don't actually expect you to turn up. Of course, if you do go,they will be "delighted" to see you. "How wonderful to see you!" they'llsay. Or, "I can't believe you came." Or "What a nice surprise!" At the sametime, they'll be cursing you for ever believing that their invitation was83sincere.Having to say "no" to an invitation is perhaps one of the most agonisingthings for a British person.
They find it really painful to reject someone orpotentially hurt their feelings. When trying to say no, they'll make a wholeseries of apologies, excuses and pathetic lies such as, "Oh, I justremembered that I had to go to my uncle's funeral. I'm awfully sorry."Howard HughesI am by nature a perfectionist, and 1 seem to have trouble allowinganything to go through in a halfperfect condition.
So if 1 made any mistake,it was in working too hard and in doing too much of it with my own hands."Howard Hughes (1905 - 1976)American megastar Leonardo DiCaprio's latest film the Aviator is allabout the legendary American eccentric Howard Hughes. Hughes wasfamous for being an industrialist, director, Hollywood producer, andaviator; but towards the end of his life he became a secretive, destructiveman. What happened?The Lucky GuyHughes was born in Texas in 1905 and was the son of a wealthyindustrialist. On his father's death in 1924, Hughes inherited more than$900,000, including 75% of the family business, the Hughes ToolCompany. This company had patented an oil drill that could cut throughrock. The drill was leased for $30,000 per well, which proved to be veryprofitable.And for Hughes, this drill would help him for the rest of his life.
As OttoFriedrich writes in the book City of Nets, which is all about Hollywood inthe 1940s, "No matter what Hughes did, no matter how much money he84wasted, the drill would always pay his bills, and would always protect himfrom harm."The Movie MakerFor a while, Hughes ran the family tool-making business, but he soonbecame restless. In 1925 he moved to Los Angeles to become part of themotion picture industry. At the time Los Angeles was the world capital offilm production.
It was here that Hughes started production of the epicmovie Hell's Angels, which was all about Royal Air Force fighter pilots inWorld War I.In order to make the film, Hughes acquired the largest private air forcein the world: 87 vintage planes (Spads, Fokkers and Sopwith Camels) for$560,000; then spent another $400,000 tamaintain them. He even bought aballoon to be burned in the film. Hughes personally directed the aerialcombat scenes.The Blonde BombshellBut nothing seemed to go right. Three stunt pilots died in crashes;Hughes also crashed his plane and was pulled unconscious from thewreckage. Towards the end of production, Hughes was forced to re-shootlarge parts of the film with dialogue because of the invention of talkingpictures. The original female star, Greta Nissen, spoke with a thickNorwegian accent.
Hughes looked for a replacement and eventually decidedon a bit-part-actress with blonde hair called Harlean Carpenter, also knownas Jean Harlow, the first Hollywood "Blond Bombshell".The film cost Hughes $3.8 million, a record for the time. It was releasedin 1930 and was a great success; but it never recovered its costs. These daysit is considered a Hollywood classic, as are two more of Hughes' films, TheFront Page and Scarface.The Aviator85Later on, Hughes moved into the world of aviation. At the time, theaviation industry was booming in southern California. In 1934 Hughes wonhis first speed title, flying at 385 kilometres per hour.
And in 1935, hereached 563 kilometres an hour. He also set an around-the-world recordthree years later. At the same time, he got involved in aircraft manufacture,and started to produce planes including his XF-11.In 1939 Hughes bought a controlling stake in Trans World Airlines(TWA), which he would manage for nearly 30 years, transforming it into amajor international airline. In 1946 he was nearly killed when he crashed inBeverly Hills during a test flight of his plane the XF-11.The Spruce GooseOne of Hughes' more ambitious projects was the "Spruce Goose". Thiswas an enormous plane that Hughes built out of wood. It had eight enginesand the capacity to carry 700 troops or a load of 60,000 kilos.
It was 100metres wide, and it weighed 800,000 kilos. It is still the largest plane everbuilt. The war ended before the plane was completed, but it was flown oncein Long Beach Harbor on 2"' November 1947.During the plane's maiden flight, Hughes was at the controls. The SpruceGoose achieved a top speed of 128 kph, went 20 metres off the water, andflew 1.3 km in less than a minute before making a perfect landing. Theplane was then taken to a giant hangar, never to be seen again by the publicduring Hughes' lifetime. Hughes spent close to a million dollars a year tolook after the plane.
After Hughes' death, the Spruce Goose was put onexhibit in Long Beach Harbor. At the moment, it is in an aircraft museum inOregon. DownfallAround the early 1950s Hughes started acting strangely. Hughes spentalmost all his time sitting naked in his white leather chair in the centre ofthe living room, an area he called the "germ free zone", watching onemotion picture after another.This unusual habit continued in Las Vegas, where Hughes moved to in861966. But things there got even worse because of Hughes' drug habit, thatincluded both codeine and Valium.
The codeine had first been prescribed toalleviate pain from the injuries from the XF-11 plane crash years earlier; butnow it was an addiction.DeathA doctor who examined Hughes in 1973 compared his condition toprisoners he had seen in Japanese prison camps during World War II.Towards the end of his life, Hughes left Las Vegas for the Bahamas wherehe stayed until he moved to Mexico, reportedly to have greater access to codeine.
He finally died of heart failure on an airplane carrying him fromAcapulco to a hospital in Houston in April 1976. However, no one therewas sure if it really was Hughes as he hadn't been seen in public for 20years. The FBI were called and they took fingerprints from the corpse andsent them away for analysis.So, the great man had finally died, but his memory still lives on.
Thesedays, the Hughes Space and Communications Company (founded in 1961)is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial satellites, the designerand builder of the world's first synchronous communications satellite,Syncom, and the producer of nearly 40% of the satellites now incommercial service. And four hotels and six casinos in Las Vegas and Renostill form part of the Summa Corporation, another one of Hughes'companiesDiCaprioThe AviatorJust recently American actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been promoting hisfilm The Aviator, all about the life of the American industrialist HowardHughes.
We had a chance to talk to Leonardo about making the film, and87his 8-year obsession with getting it produced.Mr DiCaprio, what most attracted you to the character of HowardHughes?He was like a tiger. He just never, never, never let up on anything he did.The guy had everything in the world, was at the forefront of all these reallyexciting things in our country, and he was quite the swashbuckler too. Yetstill he was unable to be a happy person.
For somebody like myself who'sbeen very fortunate in life, to see that as an example is very interesting forme.When did you first get interested in Howard Hughes?Howard Hughes is certainly an extremely complex character to play, andvery multi-dimensional. I read his biography when I was 18 years old. Iinitially sent the project to Michael Mann and developed it with him. Therewas a three-year writing process. Michael had finished the script for thefilm Ali (starring Will Smith) and wanted to try something different.
It wasa subject matter that he was fascinated with and so he wanted to be a part ofit, which was pretty amazing.How did you go about preparing yourself for the role?Well, the film came about after eight years of hard work. I readthousands of pages of Hughes' biographies, and watched old newsreelfootage.
I also spent days with a psychiatric expert Dr. Jeffrey Schwarz tofind out more about Howard Hughes' mental problems and obsessivecompulsiJe disorder (OCD), which he suffered from.Do you think that you are similar in any way to Howard Hughes?I don't have any OCDs (obsessive-compulsive disorders), but when Iwas a kid I was obsessive about things, and I tried to bring that out in thecharacter as much as I could. Also, just like Hughes I became a bit of a88recluse myself for several years so I can relate to him on that level too.What was it like working on this film?We really worked hard on this film - it was eight years in the making.The best things about doing the film were the meetings we had just talkingabout ideas, and giving the movie time to breathe - that's like completeheaven for me."What can you tell us about your status in the world right now?I owe a lot to Titanic.
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